DOG DAYS → [SIRIUS BLACK X READER]

Chapter Four

There's a stretch of tense silence that follows your words. You hold your breath, watching Scruffy- Sirius, with a careful gaze, waiting for him to react and bracing yourself for any sudden movements. You have a feeling that he won't try and attack you, if only based on the fact that he hasn't before- though whether it was because you were offering food to him and he was desperate is still a possibility, but the reckless part of you is choosing to believe differently. You're not about to advocate for his innocence, but you do want to give him the chance to explain himself. And hey, if he doesn't kill you tonight, you can always tell the Headmaster later.

But instead of attacking, or anything you'd even remotely expect from an escaped criminal who has been described with an array of colorful language ranging from, "Homicidal psychopath," to "Deranged beyond repair," he hangs his head low, slouching on his front paws and not looking you in the eyes. And of all the things you expected him to do; you certainly didn't expect him to whimper. Actually whimper! Like he's nothing more than a dog that just got caught destroying your favorite pair of shoes! He looks pitiful, but you force yourself to not fall for it. It could just be a tactic to get you to lower your guard, but then again, that's an awful lot of effort for a supposed murderer.

When this scenario played out in your head just hours before sneaking out, it never crossed your mind that the response to your confrontation would be a guilt-ridden Sirius still in his dog form. If you weren't sure of him being Sirius Black before, you're positive of it now. Part of you knew it during your search in the library, and the rest of you caught up when Sirius Black's name appeared in the same place where you spotted Scruffy on the map, but any remaining doubt was thrown out the window when he decided to react by continuing to play the innocent dog route as a last ditch effort to get you to think you're mistaken.

"Don't start with the innocent puppy dog act." You do your best to ignore it when he looks back up at you with a very shamed face. "Now more than ever will that get you nowhere."

You don't want to keep this charade up for any longer, but you're scared that if you push it he'll end up proving the way the papers have been describing him to be accurate, though so far you haven't seen any indication that he was mad, or even going to hurt you. Maybe the intuition that led you to confronting him instead of going to the Headmaster wasn't as off as you thought. Is there something more to this than you've been led to believe?

The only way you'll know is if you see him, the real him. Your next words come out softly, and you try not to sound shocked to hear yourself saying them. "I'm not going to tell on you." Not yet, anyway.

His ears perk up, and you think he might be as surprised by what you said as you are. "I need to at least talk to you face to face. If the situation was different, I wouldn't even be asking; you probably smell better than a dog as you do a human. I have to know that I didn't just risk detention, or possibly expulsion, all so I could come outside and interrogate a dog. I need the truth. I need to see it." As you talk, you move to kneel down in front of him, forcing him to look you in the eyes. He doesn't move away, so you can only assume he's not objecting to the idea.

You feel a bit stupid as you look at him. All this time you thought him a regular, albeit very special, dog, but now as you observe him, interact with him beyond the ways you would a dog, it seems so obvious that he's really a person. You should just leave it at this and turn back around before this can go any further- you've already proven to yourself that Scruffy is actually Sirius Black. Sirius Black, the murderer who has spent over a decade locked away in Azkaban; Sirius Black, the one who the ministry has described as a danger to everyone who crosses his path! Do you really need to see him with your own eyes?

And yet, you're still here. There's something that's telling you that you don't have the full picture, something that says he's not being so cooperative for nothing. Not only that, but you've been this close to him more than once, in a lot more compromising scenarios. Yet he's done nothing to endorse the image of him that the ministry has been hell-bent on portraying him as.