The Marauders - Order of the Phoenix - Part One

IV: August 8, 1993

The enormous, shaggy black dog crouched behind a large hedge, which grew against the fence between the yard of Number 4 and Mrs. Next-Door's house. His golden-yellow eyes stared out from behind the branches, watching and waiting.

Sirius had been there for two days already, and was getting a bit discouraged. So far, there had not been much activity at Number 4, or at least none involving the person whom the dog was waiting to see.

Sirius had seen a very large man, Vernon, who very much resembled a fat walrus,  go in and out in the mornings to go to work. Vernon Dursley waddled from the house, down the walk, lumbered into the car (which creaked beneath his weight and had a slight tilt to the driver's side once he'd got in), and drove away. A few hours later, he would come back, park the car (which creaked with relief when he got out), and waddled back up the walk and into the house. Minutes later, Sirius would hear the tinny echo of a television program - usually the evening news - coming out of the open living room window. It was the most boring existence Sirius had ever imagined.

He'd also seen a thin, long-necked woman, Petunia, peering out of a kitchen window whenever possible, craning her neck to see over the fence behind the dog, quite obviously being very nosy. In the mornings, after Vernon had left, Petunia would come outside to collect the milk and eggs from the stoop. The first day that Sirius had been there, she'd been hailed over by Mrs. Next-Door, and Petunia had reluctantly walked over to the hedge between the houses to chat with the neighbor. Sirius had stayed very still, pressed as far into the shadows as he could go, and listened as Petunia and Mrs. Next-Door had what sounded like a very competitive discussion about the growth of their gardens. Petunia had waved as Mrs. Next-Door left, going on a walk about the neighborhood, wearing spandex and sports shoes, her hair pulled back in a very high, very perfect ponytail. Petunia had snorted quietly, and muttered her dislike for Mrs. Next-Door before walking primly back into the house with her dairy delivery and slamming the door behind her in good riddance.

There was also the other boy, Dudley, who had resembled a rather ugly beach ball last time Sirius had seen him. Now, twelve years later, Dudley was even fatter than his father, which hardly seemed possible, and seemed rather as though he would make an excellent contender in a Sumo Wrestling match. Dudley had come and gone out of the house, meeting up with a pimply, bulky boy with militant hair and a nasty look to his face that reminded Sirius of a weasel. They always returned to the house just before Vernon returned home, Dudley always clutching a wrapper from some fast food restaurant, often licking salt or grease off his fat fingers as he and his mate laughed about whatever nasty hi-jinx they'd got up to during the day.

And then there had been what certainly had to be Vernon's sister, a woman whose shape and voice had been so much like her brother's that the first time Sirius had seen her, he had nearly mistaken her for Vernon with a wig on. She'd brought outside with her a terrible, yappy little dog with a squashed face whose barking at Sirius would have got him caught if his owner hadn't been too lazy to leave the stoop to come and investigate what he was barking at. Instead, there had only been a few sharp calls - "Ripper! Ripper, you stop that racket!" - and the dog had reluctantly gone back to her.

But in all of this, there'd been nary a glimpse of the boy that Sirius had come to see - Harry Potter.

If Sirius hadn't been able to hear the updates on the evening news through the Dursley's living room window - and therefore knew that the muggle news was reporting his escape - he might have considered simply turning back into a man and marching up to the front door and knocking on it to ask for Harry himself. He had seen Petunia's nose poking out the window each night when the news reported no update or capture "in the Sirius Black case", as though she expected to spot Sirius herself.

Sirius wondered if Petunia remembered him from twelve years ago, if she knew there really was a possibility of him being there on Privet Drive, or if it was just her being stupid that made her look for the escaped prisoner out her living room window. He reckoned it was most likely the latter, as Petunia had struggled to remember his name even when he'd spent the summer with her and her sister, Lily, on a seaside vacation when he was fifteen. Vernon, too, for that matter, ought to have recognized the name, having shared a room with him on that very same vacation. But Vernon had only been interested in Sirius in the most vague way - wanted to show off his car to the boy, whose interest in muggle vehicles had been at it's peak at the time and Vernon had owned a very nice motor car.  The only other thing Vernon had been interested in saying to Sirius, once he found out that Sirius was quite gay, was not to try any "funny business" - as though Sirius would be turned on by the whale-shaped boy in the next bed over.