Sirius the Service Dog

It was the morning of Halloween and Harry had Charms. In the two months since Harry had come to Hogwarts, he'd been doing a lot better. He still had problems talking to people outside of his circle of friends, but he didn't get nearly as many panic attacks and hadn't had a nightmare in over two weeks. While Sirius was happy with his progress he didn't think that Professor Flitwick's idea for this class had been a good one. The class was partnered up and were supposed to practice the levitation charm they'd been learning. The bad part of this plan was that Flitwick partnered Harry with Seamus Finnigan instead of Ron. Sirius figured this was some misguided attempt of his to "help" Harry socialize. Since Harry shared a dorm with him, it wasn't as bad as it would have been if he'd been partnered with one of the girls or someone from another house.

The two boys weren't having much luck getting the feather in the air. Sirius thought tat part of their problem was that Harry was mumbling the spell and Seamus was leaving off the last syllable in one of the words. Seamus did have a lot of luck in lighting the feather on fire. He had started poking the feather in frustration and it had burst into flames. Sirius had flinched back, startled, as the two boys tried to put it out.

Ron was sitting a table away with his partner, Hermione Granger. He didn't seem to be having much luck either.

"Wingardium Leviosa!" he shouted. Sirius snorted, no wonder he wasn't getting it. He kept flapping his arms around like a windmill. He couldn't remember being this bad when he'd first started, though he was pretty sure Peter had been.

"You're saying it wrong," Hermione snapped, "It's Wing-gar-dium Levi-o-sa, make the 'gar' nice and long." Once again, Sirius was reminded of Lily.

"You do it then, if you're so clever." Ron snarled. Sirius sighed, he knew Ron was frustrated, but she was only trying to help him.

Hermione rolled up the sleeves of her gown, flicked her wand, and said, "Wingardium Leviosa!"

The feather floated up and hovered about four feet over their heads. Flitwick saw and called everyone's attention to it, praising Hermione for being able to manage it.

Ron was in a horrible mood by the end of class, which irritated Sirius. Just because he'd been shown up in class did not give him the right to be angry with the person who'd been capable of it. After all, she had tried to correct him and he'd gotten snippy. The dog shook his head and reminded himself that they were only children. Merlin knew he and the other Marauders hadn't exactly been saints when they were in school.

"It's no wonder no one can stand her," he said to Harry, "she's a nightmare, honestly."

The girl in question pushed past the boys, Sirius saw the tears on her cheeks as she hurried away.

"I think she heard you." Harry said softly.

"So?" Ron looked a little uncomfortable. "She must've noticed she's got no friends."

Harry's feisty side came out then. "That doesn't mean you should point it out! Just because someone has issues expressing themselves properly, or connecting to people doesn't mean they're a bad person!"

Ron frowned, "Harry, I didn't mean it like that."

"She's helped me before, Ron, and I don't like it when you say stuff like that. Will you apologize to her next class?"

Ron looked down, "Yeah alright."

"Thank you."

Hermione didn't turn up for their next class. In fact they didn't see her all afternoon. After talking to Draco and the twins they decided that if she didn't show up by the end of dinner, they'd go find her. Harry had been worried about not having enough time to find her before curfew, but the twins assured him that it wouldn't take that long. It made Sirius wonder. The Marauder's Map had been confiscated before they'd left Hogwarts, not that the caretaker had known what it really was. Had the twins somehow gotten a hold of it? That brought up a whole new set of worries. He would show up on the map as Sirius Black. If the twins had it and saw him...

He was always with Harry, if they brought it up to him, he would know. Then he could have a little talk with them.

On their way to the Halloween feast, they heard a couple of the girls Hermione shared a dorm with say that Hermione was crying in the girls' bathroom and wanted to be left alone. Harry gave Ron a disapproving frown that Lily would have been proud of. Ron looked at his shoes guiltily.

Sirius looked around as they entered the Great Hall. The decorations were just as he remembered. He remembered enchanting a few of the bats to land in people's food and hair one year. Naturally their main target had been Snivellus, but they'd gotten a few other people so it wasn't obvious. Lily had been furious with them, even though she and Snape hadn't been friends anymore when they played that particular prank.

Harry had just given Sirius his food and started dishing some up for himself when Professor Quirrell ran in. Everyone stared as he reached Dumbledore's chair, slumped against the table, and gasped, "Troll- in the dungeons- thought you ought to know." Then he fainted.

Everyone started freaking out. Harry reached down and pulled Sirius closer to him as Dumbledore fired several firecrackers from the end of his wand to bring silence.

"Prefects lead your Houses back to your dormitories immediately!"

Harry frowned and looked at the twins, "Aren't the Slytherin dormitories in the dungeons?" They nodded. "Will Draco be okay? Can we bring him to our dorms instead?"

"I don't think so." Fred sighed (Sirius had realized that there was a slight difference in their scents, he'd been overjoyed to have a way to tell them apart).

"Besides, Slytherins are sneaky, I'm sure they have some secret way to get in safely." George added.

Harry was still frowning as they climbed the stairs, "How could a troll even get in?"

"Someone's idea of a prank, no doubt." Ron eyed his brothers.

"Don't look at us!" they said.

Harry grabbed Ron's arm suddenly, "Wait- Hermione. She doesn't know. We have to go help her."

Ron bit his lip. "Alright, but Percy'd better not see us."

"We'll come with you." The twins said.

Harry smiled gratefully at them. They followed a group of Hufflepuffs in the other direction for a bit before ducking into a side corridor. They hid behind a large stone griffin when they heard footsteps behind then. Sirius was confused, the scent belonged to Snape, but what was he doing here? Shouldn't he be with the other teachers?

He was only vaguely aware of Harry asking the same thing when he realized something. Snape was headed for the third floor. Whatever Dumbledore had hiding there Snape was either protecting it from someone else, or going to steal it for himself.

A foul stench brought him back to what they were supposed to be doing. He could hear a low grunting and giant, shuffling footfalls. He turned to look and barked in warning while the boys were stilling looking after Snape.

"That's the troll, but I thought Professor Quirrell said it was in the dungeons." George frowned.

"Maybe it moves faster than we thought it would?" Fred suggested.

Sirius blinked. Trolls didn't really move fast, and this one was on the wrong floor. Who had said that it would be in the dungeon? Quirrell. He'd known there was something off about him! The troll was a distraction. And now Snape was running off to try and be a hero. Sirius didn't realize he was growling until Harry shushed him.

"There's a key in the lock." Harry whispered as the troll walked into a room. "We could lock it in."

"Just one problem with your brilliant plan, Harry." Fred answered.

"That's the girls' bathroom." George finished.

A high, petrified scream rang out.

"Come on!" Harry ran towards the door with Sirius on his heels. The Weasleys followed a second later.

Hermione Granger was shrinking against the opposite wall, looking like she was going to faint. The troll was advancing on her.

Harry dropped Sirius's leash, grabbed a piece of broken sink and threw it at the troll. It stopped and seemed to be trying to decide if it should turn and attack or keep going after Hermione. Sirius shot forward and sank his teeth into the troll's leg. It tasted awful. He let go and ran around it as the boys threw things at it to keep it distracted. Harry was trying to get Hermione to move, but it wasn't working very well.

The troll started towards Ron, raising its club. Fred and George tried to cast a stunning spell and body bind hex on it. Neither affected it much. Sirius rushed forward again and bit its other leg, tearing a chunk out when he pulled away. The troll's club slammed him into the wall.

"Shadow!" Harry's voice sounded very faint and far away. He tried to shake the hit off and protect the kids, but everything was spinning and even breathing too deeply hurt. Sirius cursed himself and tried to get up again. If he could just stand, then he could change into his human form and take care of this thing in a couple minutes. Sure, his secret would be out, but the kids would be safe. Sirius fell back down and passed out.

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When he woke up, he was in the hospital wing. Harry was sitting next to him looking very worried.

"Shadow? Are you awake boy?"

Sirius lifted his head a little and licked Harry's hand. Harry sobbed and threw his arms around him.

"Shadow, I was so worried! I thought I was gonna lose you!"

Sirius nosed his hair and huffed, like he usually did when Harry was being silly. Like Sirius was ever going to leave him alone again. Not as long as he had a choice in the matter.

Harry let out a small laugh. "You've been asleep for a whole day." He sat up a little straighter, "I got through a whole class on my own. Well, Ron and Hermione helped, but still! After that, I was just so worried about you, and Snape called on me to answer a question and I just- I couldn't! They probably hate me now. I can't even get through a day of classes without my dog."

Sirius licked his cheek.

"Now, I'm making this all about me when you're the one who got hurt. I'm so sorry, Shadow."

Sirius whined and licked him again.

"McGonagall awarded us all points for what happened with the troll. Well, except Hermione, she got some taken away, but we got enough that it doesn't really matter. Hermione's nice. I think she's my friend now. I mean, if she still wants to be, after today. Draco's fine too. A little mad that we were put in danger without him there, but he's happy that we're okay. They all came up to see you during lunch. They said they'd come by during dinner too. That's less than an hour away. Madame Pomfrey said that some of your ribs were broken and you had a concussion. She fixed you up though. You'll probably be able to leave soon."

Harry pet him all through his little speech, which made Sirius feel much better. He was worried though. Had Madame Pomfrey noticed that he was an Animagus? What if she told someone? He couldn't go back to Azkaban. He couldn't leave Harry alone. He had to know if she knew about him!

Sirius was released the next morning, and since no one had come to take him away, he figured his secret was safe enough and relaxed. Now, things could go back to normal and he could start trying to figure out what Dumbledore was hiding in the castle and why Quirrell wanted it so badly.