In New York
Sirius Black, Marauder and Animagus, was convinced that this world had no Witches and Wizards.
Upon ending up in a Muggle city, he had immediately began looking around to figure out where he was. By sheer chance, he had found out that he was in New York City. And, unfortunately for him, he had no way of figuring out where he could go.
One thing he had immediately noticed, however, was that the Muggles were more advanced than he had imagined.
He had been under a Muggle repelling charm, which made everyone ignore him. By chance, he overheard two men talking about buying and selling Muggle drugs out of sight of the cameras. One of the people, the one trying to buy, wanted to do it there. The one selling started talking about how stupid it was and then started pointing out cameras that were around them.
While it was amusing to watch the interaction, it was also quite sobering as he had no desire to be seen doing magic. In a world with no Wizarding world, he knew that he was in grave danger if he attracted the wrong attention.
However, that didn't change the fact that he needed to survive. And immediately of concern was eating and sleeping.
He had noticed that there were homeless people. By judicious use of minor transfiguration and charms, he had made it so he could fit in. However, he did not want to become a constant presence anywhere, so he moved on.
He was also careful to be in areas that were not too rich or too poor. The too rich areas were not conducive to people living on the edge of society. The two poor, he noticed, tended toward segregation between people of different colors and types.
He did notice that there seemed to be few stray dogs. However, there were sufficient numbers that no one reacted too poorly if he used his animagus form to find a comfortable place to sleep.
The moment people appeared, especially official looking people, he made certain to disappear or to change back to his "homeless" persona.
He did use magic to make himself more presentable at times and then ee had used his accent to chat up various women. Apparently, his accent was "sexy". The only problem he had was that the ones that were susceptible to being used were too young and dumb.
Sirius Black did have some standards.
The really ironic thing is that he had a small bag of Magical currency. It was only a few Galleons, Sickles, and Knuts, but the Galleons and Sickles were gold and silver. Unfortunately, they were charmed to be almost indestructible. This precluded the normal tests Muggles used to verify content. It also made it impossible to melt them or deface them.
Gold was apparently really valuable in this society and he had Gold which he couldn't convert. It was annoying. However, he saw the irony of it.
Sirius was, by choice, a man with a sense of humor who could laugh at himself. So, while his current existence was less than optimum, he was actually pretty cheerful. In this world, he was a complete unknown. There was no Sirius Black (he assumed) and he wasn't wanted for murder. So, even if he somehow got picked up, he assumed there would no way this would cause him to be threatened with death.
And even if he got locked up, the Muggles were much better about feeding prisoners.
His time was currently being spent trying to come up with a story which would explain his presence. Once he had that, he would attempt to figure out a way to obtain a recognizable identity. He was morally flexible enough to be comfortable doing what was necessary, and ethical enough that he wouldn't do anything that would harm a true innocent. He, however, had no real Muggle skills.
His current temptation was to use his magic to rip off one of these Muggle criminals selling drugs. The only reason he hadn't done it was that he didn't want to cause a crazy one to start killing someone who they thought was guilty. The only thing holding him back was that he didn't want to be responsible for someone dying and these Muggle criminals seemed … less than rational at times.
Sirius was in his Padfoot form. It was very late at night and he just wanted to find a comfortable place to lay down and catch some sleep. It was safer as a dog because animal instincts allowed him to react more quickly to surprises.
In a back alley, he found some cardboard and discarded cloth material from something. After scourgifying it several times, it was clean enough to make a comfortable bed for a small alcove below a platform which appeared to be for Muggle vehicles – trucks – to load and unload. It would have been impossible as a man to be comfortable, but as a dog it was quite nice. He even set up a few minor charms that would make it less likely that anyone would disturb him.
Sirius awoke suddenly.
Listening carefully, he heard the sound of running feet and shouting: Someone was yelling for someone else to stop. Even as he listened a man ran up near a garbage holder and crouched behind it. He was surprised to see the man had a Muggle weapon. As a man who has some training, he knew exactly how dangerous Muggle weapons were.
Sirius was in no position to retreat. And then the man then did something even more dangerous: He fired the weapon down the alleyway. Sirius wanted to curse his luck: By sheer chance, a Muggle criminal was in a shooting standoff just a few feet away from him. And with his luck, he could end up getting hurt or killed; Muggle guns had no respect for minor wards.
The man with the gun was looking around the metal bin. Sirius could two Muggle law officers from his position: A man and a woman, wearing regular street clothes instead of uniforms. The man was yelling at the criminal to give himself up.
The criminal was preparing to once again shoot off his gun toward the police people. Sirius realized he could do three things, each of them dangerous: Stay still, run away, or attack. Staying still was likely safest – unless the three started firing their guns. Running away could get him killed by startling the criminal who was flinching. In this case, he decided it was actually safest to intervene – as much as he didn't want to.
After deciding, he waited for his chance. Just as the man stood up to fire again, Sirius let his instincts take over and leaped mightily out from his concealed place and he actually caught the arm holding the weapon. The criminal had no warning and dropped the gun. Even as the man started trying to fight back, Sirius used his large size as a dog to force the man down to the ground.
The man started screaming. Now that the man was disarmed, Sirius let go and backed off, watching alertly. The man tried to reach out toward the fallen gun, but Sirius jumped over and clamped his jaw on the man's arm. Just to show he was Sirius (he even made that joke in his head) he growled. The man froze. Sirius stood there with his muzzle around the man's arm. As long as he stayed still, Sirius did nothing. As soon as he tried to move, he growled. It was very effective.
The man was yelling about getting him off, but as long as he stayed still, Sirius did nothing. The man and woman carefully walked up. "You've got yourself in a pickle. If you had just come quietly, you would have been fine."
The man on the ground said, "Get this mutt off of me!" As the man started attempting to retreat, Sirius growled again.
The woman said, "What should we do, Reagan? Should we shoot the dog?"
The man (Reagan apparently) said, "I don't know, Baez. He seems trained – he's just holding the arm." After a pause the man called out, "Release!"
Seeing that the man and woman were standing there with their own weapons, Sirius decided to let go and step back. Trying to be as unthreatening as possible, he backed up and sat down. Giving his biggest doggie grin, he sat there panting and looking friendly.
Reagan said, "I did not expect that to work." After another pause, Reagan called out, "Heel!"
As calm as he could, Sirius got up and moved over next to the man and sat down again.
The woman, Baez, commented, "That shouldn't have worked."
Sirius noticed that the man on the ground was carefully trying to reach for the weapon on the ground. Sirius barked at him and the man backed off.
The woman, seeing why he had barked, menaced the downed man and, as soon as he moved back, she retrieved the weapon. Seeing that it was now safe, Sirius dropped down on his belly to seem less threatening. Reagan moved to place restraints on the man even as Baez still had her gun out. Seeing that he was unmoving, the woman let her gun arm relax.
Two cars with lights pulled up and people in uniform came out. All of them, however, stayed back. "What's with the dog?" one called.
"It saved our asses. The perp was shooting from behind a dumpster and the dog stopped him. As soon as it was safe, the dog backed off," Reagan answered.
"So it's safe?" one of the uniformed men asked.
"I think so. But call animal control. We can put this guy in one of the cars while we wait."
Baez said, "I'll go get the car."
Sirius decided to be trouble. As the woman started walking, he jumped up to walk beside her. She stopped, a bit nervous. "Um. What now?"
"Tell him to stay?"
Baez said, "Stay." After a moment she added, "Lay down."
Sirius dropped down. He whined but put his head between his paws.
Baez actually chuckled. "Seems well-trained." She said again, "Stay," and walked down the street.
Reagan had finished putting the retrained man in one of the cars. Standing there he called out, "Come." Sirius jumped up and walked over. He stood there looking at the man, head slightly cocked. "Sit." Sirius sat down. "Lay down." He did that.
One of the uniforms said, "He listens to you and Baez."
Reagan said, "Tell him to come."
The uniform called out, "Come!" Sirius ignored him. The other uniforms also tried it. Sirius did nothing.
Reagan looked down and said, "Up."
Sirius stood up and looked at him.
To be truthful, Sirius was mostly fucking with the man, Reagan. With everyone calmed down, no one was waving a gun and he figured it was safer to play along. He figured at some point, he'd be put into a cage alone and he could apparate out. But, for the moment, this whole thing was amusing him.
The woman pulled up and got out. "What's happening?"
"He'll only answer to me." Reagan said, "Sit."
Sirius sat down.
Baez replied, "He answered to me too, remember."
"True."
"So we're going to wait for animal control? Maybe we should just tell him to get in the car."
Baez had said it to be funny. Sirius, in the interest of fucking with them, got up and trotted over, sitting next to the closed back door. He looked up soulfully at the woman. Baez reached over and opened he back door. Sirius stood and jumped in, and then sat on his haunches in the back seat. Baez said, "Did I just see that?"
Reagan said, "Yeah. I saw it too. Now we'll have to get him out." Sirius then jumped out and looked up at Reagan. Reagan said, "Get in the car." Sirius did that.
The uniforms were speaking with surprise even as Reagan and Baez looked at each other. Reagan said, "This is really fucking weird."
Sirius just gave him a doggy grin from the back seat of the car.