GOOD DOG || Sirius Black

(Thirty Five: Orphic)

Orphic: Mysterious and entrancing, beyond ordinary understanding.

{===}

Sirius Black glared at the television screen.

"I've got it." He assured his friends, "I've got it. I'm so close."

"This is painful." Remus confided in James. The other three Marauders were currently more focused on the expression of their more canine friend than those of the characters currently pointing at body parts in a Morgue on the flat-screen in the Potter's garage.

James grinned, "You should play Cluedo with him. Honestly. He started inventing character storylines partway through just so he can have an answer to who the murderer was."

"It's true." Peter contributed in a small voice.

Remus looked horrified, "Why would you introduce him to the world of muggle boardgames? You know how bad it got with Pictionary."

"A dark day for us all." James shook his head grimly.

"Shhh!" Sirius threw a pillow at them. He was curled up in the corner of the sofa, eyes intent on the TV and notepad in hand, "I've almost solved it."

"If this is how he deals with Midsummer Murders," Remus muttered worriedly to James and Peter, "What's he going to do when he finds out about the existence of Sherlock Holmes?"

"We're working up to it." James admitted, "He just has to know the answers. It's a control thing."

"Really?" Remus raised his eyebrows and gestured to the mess of scrap paper that carpeted the floor, covered in Sirius' messy scrawl, "Because I thought this was the work of a completely sane mind."

Remus took another long swig of coffee. Last night had been a particularly horrible full moon. He felt beaten all over. He wondered idly if that was the sort of thing that werewolves shared, if Alex Fawley, all those miles away in London, had felt it too. He supposed he could ask now, that was the bonus of a werewolf buddy. 

"It was..." Sirius leapt upwards in his seat suddenly, pointing a new character on screen with his pen, "Her! It was her!"

James narrowed his eyes at the girl, rather small and docile looking, "Is she the one who was sleeping with her piano teacher?"

"What? No, that's the M.E." Sirius explained, "This is the one who hid in the back of all her school photographs and then got in trouble for pulling the fire alarm even though she wasn't even there."

"Why would she murder the... The old guy with the moustache?" Remus asked, feeling a little lost.

"Because," Sirius stressed, as if it should be obvious, "He turned out to be her Grandfather in disguise, and her friend had just tried to push her off a building, and her family had been ignoring her obvious mental health issues for months and forcing her to work extra hours so she snapped and stabbed him in the eye with a spoon."

Remus choked on his coffee, "A spoon?"

Sirius nodded enthusiastically, "It's the only thing the right size, and they found an entire cutlery set at the crime scene, except for a spoon."

"Right." Remus took another long sip, "Do you think maybe you're anxious about Alex and projecting your anxiety onto things that, in the long run, have no actual input in your life or your emotional state of wellbeing?"

The others all turned to stare at him.

"Just a thought." Remus added.

"Don't be ridiculous, Moony." Sirius told him, "Why would I be anxious about Fawley?"