A Grim Return

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters within the books. : ( This story is purely written for mine and your enjoyment and I am receiving to money for the writing of this story.

Summary: Sirius returns from behind the veil, the only problem is that he is stuck in his dog form. It’s not that he isn’t happy to be alive again; he just wants to know why he got thrown in the hands of one Lucius Malfoy and two Severus Snape.

Warnings: This will be slash later in the story. Right now it’s lying toward Lucius/Sirius but it could change to Severus/Sirius as the story progresses. Lucius and Severus may seem to be OOC at some points but the only reason for that is because I believe that there is more to them than meets the eye and I want to play with that possibility.

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He felt as though he was floating. His paws were not touching anything, and he was upright, so he must be. Slowly, he opened his eyes to find himself surrounded by darkness. Great. He had died again. Could he not catch a break with all the bad luck? Evidently not. With a sigh, he blinked a couple of times to see if it would help him see any better, and of course it didn’t. Just his fucking luck. He barked and the sound echoed back to him. Where the hell was he?

“You are in the Between, old friend. Not alive, but not dead either. Caught in space and time.”

Alive but not dead. How the hell did that work? Old friend? Between? He sighed. This was seriously messed up. He had finally lost his mind.

“Not exactly. You would think so though, wouldn’t you Padfoot?”

He growled at the chuckling voice. Where was he? He kicked his feet to move but his body went nowhere. He knew he was moving his legs but could not feel his body going anywhere.

“Calm down. This is just to reset the dog. It was the dogs pain you felt earlier, not your own. You will wake up soon so I need you to listen closely.”

He stopped moving and closed his eyes, not that the darkness changed any, but it helped him calm down.

“You will only have one more chance at this, Padfoot. This was all I could get for you. You are there for a reason, a mission if you will.”

A mission? What the hell could he do as a dog? What was he supposed to be doing?

“The dog is the only form you can take currently in your state. You don’t really have a human body right now, but you shifting back will be your sign that you have realized what you are there for.”

Wonderful. He could only return to human after completing something and he had no clue as to what this something was. He was screwed. Could he not be given any hints? If he couldn’t he would just have to give up.

“I can only give you one, Padfoot, but don’t give up. You are close now I believe and only need a few more months. I have been able to give you that. There is someone in the household you are in that needs some love of their own. You have been shown as compatible with them in some very surprising ways. That is all I can tell you, but I wish you luck. It is now time that you awake.”

He barked. Hold on. That didn’t help him at all. The shadows began to spin making his head hurt. Damn it. He felt his body drop and was glad that it was a softer landing than the last one he had. He went to snap his eyes open to find out where he was and winced. The lights hurt. Why did he always have to do this with bright lights? He opened them further as they dimmed. Voices started to become clear as his hearing slowly returned to him. He could breathe, though it was raspy and dry making his throat hurt. He could really use some water right now. A bowl appeared before him and he knew that he was home. He drank gratefully the thought of home not registering with his readjusting mind. A hand came to rest on his shoulder and the fingers tightened in his fur. He turned to look at the blond surprised to see the glistening trails of tears on his face. With a whine he moved enough to lick Lucius’ face clean.

“Pads, you okay?”

It was only a whisper but it seemed to echo in his ears. He whined and barked softly licking the man’s cheek again. He was okay now. Confused and sore, but that he could live with. His ears lowered when the caring eyes turned hard.

“Don’t you ever do that again, you hear me?”

Wait. It wasn’t as though he had planned that, damn it. He growled at Lucius and heard the others in the room chuckle. He growled at them too though it only served to make them laugh harder. He snorted and stretched. That was fine by him and he wasn’t planning on going through that again anyway. He endured the pets and scratches as the others came to check on him as well. He could tell that they would be watching him closely for the next couple of weeks but that was fine by him. A sigh escaped once every one left making Severus and Lucius chuckle at him.

“Your mind is back to normal, Black. No trace of the dog anywhere.”

He heard the question in the snake’s voice and answered him with his thoughts.

“I see.”

“What?”

“I’ll tell you later, Lucius. Now, I suggest we retire soon. It has been one hell of a day.”

He snorted and watched the dark haired man leave. What a git. He felt his tail wag as Lucius began to idly scratch behind his ears. He glared at the traitor for a second before deciding he didn’t care. Lucius sent him a small smirk of a smile as he scooted his way to half way lie in the man’s lap. He didn’t understand what he was supposed to be doing, but he was glad that he was home.

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The manor was slow to return to normal. All of the residents kept a very close eye in him; such a close eye that he would often feel claustrophobic. He was ecstatic now that they were letting him go about on his own without someone dogging his every step and yes the pun was intended. Lucius and Severus had gone back to their research but when he got bored he would find Harry, Draco, or most commonly both of them and beg them to play with him. They usually agreed but on the few occasions that they didn’t, he would go in search of Narcissa to see what she was doing for the day. When all of these bored him the garden was where he could be found. It was beginning to get cold, so there wasn’t much growing at the moment, but he still found it soothing. It also provided him with the silence that he needed to be able to think about what he had learned. Some one here needed love of their own? Who was it referring to? It wasn’t Harry or Draco as they had each other. At first he had also scratched out Lucius and Narcissa but as he paid closer attention to the two he noticed that Narcissa mostly slept in another room down the hall. Apparently, the two only shared a bed when Lucius was having one of his troublesome nights as the extra body heat gave him comfort. That had stopped; however, when Narcissa had mentioned letting him sleep on the bed when those nights came along. He had been reluctant at first but soon became accustomed to Lucius calling for him when the man couldn’t sleep. It had actually become a nightly occurrence recently, not that he was going to complain. It was nice being able to sleep on a bed instead of on a cushion in the floor. So now, he only marked out Narcissa as it would have been totally weird since she was his cousin. That left him with Lucius and Severus, but which one was it?

He was amazed that he wasn’t as adverse to the idea of it being one of those two as he had first thought. Them being guys wasn’t the issue for he had always been gay even while in Hogwarts. He was actually more concerned with the fact that they were Slytherins, but the more he thought about it, the less that detail seemed to matter. His issue now was trying to decide which one he was here for. It was a dilemma he never thought he would face.

“There you are. Come on, dinner is ready.”

He barked in greeting before jumping around Lucius making the other laugh. He ran ahead and was surprised to see the man running after him when he looked back. He felt his heart fill with joy at the smile on the blonds face and barked back at him. His mind was suddenly filled with images of Lucius recently smiling more often and found he was hoping that it was the blond that he was here for. The others look up surprised as he skidded to a stop at his little area and barked as Lucius ran in behind him catching his breath before he went to his own place at the table. Not a word was spoken as the house elves brought in the food. It was a quiet dinner but he didn’t mind. He knew it was the shock of seeing Lucius acting like a young boy chasing after his dog. It was a new development; one that he couldn’t get out of his mind. He shook as he finished his meal and automatically went to sit beside Lucius as the family finished with theirs. He no longer thought about it. It had become normal to him. When that had happened, he would never be able to tell.

“Somebody has become attached to Father recently.”

“Yes, he sure has.”

He looked over at the two boys to find them smiling at him and Lucius. A blush would have formed on his cheeks if he had been human. Thankfully, he was not at the moment.

“Speaking of attachments, where is Severus?”

Now that Lucius mentioned it, where was the git?

“He went out this evening. I don’t think he will be back tonight either.”

Now, he would have really been blushing had he been human. Narcissa had a note in her voice that told of what the man would probably be doing tonight. He shook his head and lay down at Lucius’ feet as the men laughed. Snape? Having a sex life? He shuddered. He did not want to think about that. It wasn’t long before everyone moved to the sitting room to relax and talk. Harry sat in the floor with him and rolled a ball for him to keep him busy. It had become known that if there wasn’t something to preoccupy his mind during this time that he would get restless and as a result noisy wanting attention. So, it was Harry that decided that each night a ball would be rolled around for him to play with. He zoned them out as usual as he chewed, pawed, chased, and tossed his toy around. It was amazing how quiet he could be while doing this. It had become its own challenge for him to see how quiet he could be. He was so caught up in his game that he almost missed Lucius bidding everyone good night. At first he thought it was strange since it was still so early, but he remembered that the man had a bad night the night before. He stretched and went outside to do his business before following the blond to his room. The door was left ajar just for him as it was most nights so he just walked in nosing it shut behind him. He was not prepared to see Lucius walking out of the connected bathroom in only a towel.

“Sorry, Pads, forgot the hair tie.”

He only nodded feeling his heart jump when Lucius looked curiously at him.

“You know, you could use a bath as well.”

Oh hell no. Not going to happen whether he was a dog or not. He backed up and his tail tucked itself between his legs. No.

“Okay, but Narcissa was planning on giving you one tomorrow anyway.”

He sighed. Truthfully, he did prefer Lucius over Narcissa. Lucius had the grace to let certain places go while Narcissa insisted that they be washed. He did not; however, want to share a bath with Lucius.

“I can see you are troubled by that fact. It won’t be so bad. Even if you are Sirius, we are both male.”

He watched as the blond shrugged. It was the first time the man had referred to him as being anything but Pads. It struck him as weird but it somehow got him to move into the bathroom with the blond. The water had already been run but he waited to see how Lucius wanted to do this. Surely he wasn’t planning on sharing the water, was he? Did the man not know he would shed? He felt a spell wash over him and looked at the blond in question.

“I don’t feel like running water twice so it was a charm to stop shedding for a short time.”

He sighed. There was no luck for him it seemed. He turned his head feeling heat creep up his body as Lucius climbed in the water and motion for him to get in as well. This was not going to go well but he did so anyway. He was to be washed first it seemed since Lucius lathered shampoo into his fur. It felt good and he closed his eyes to savor the feelings of the aristocrats’ fingers scrubbing at his skin. Once he was washed off he jumped out of the water and Lucius chuckled before moving to wash himself. He had meant to leave, he really had, but there was something that captivated him as he watched Lucius bathe himself. He actually found himself wanting to lick the water away from the pale skin and taste it under his tongue. He wanted it to be his hand that was running the soap along the muscled chest and abs. A heat began to spread through him that he knew was arousal but also held the feeling of the transformation. That couldn’t be though, could it? Evidently it was as Lucius was staring at him with shock on his paler than normal face. He noticed that the view was lower than it was before and looked to find himself as a human and felt his own shock run through him, all previous thoughts forgotten.

“Sirius?”

It was a soft whisper. He almost didn’t catch it but he did and did the only thing he could think of. He ran.

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Sorry for such a long wait but college is really kicking my ass right now. It’s almost over though so there should be more updates soon. Hope you guys liked this chapter. :)
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