6 P.M.

*Tick* *Tock* *Tick* *Tock*

Sirius couldn't help but sigh as the clock above his bed continued to keep the same annoying pace as it had for the last twenty minutes.

He couldn't believe that he, the most popular boy of their year, was stuck at home during summer hols because of one stupid, little fight with Moony. Not even a big, important fight, like the one that they had had over who got to keep the marauders' map over the break. One tiny, misplaced remark about house elves, and what did you know? Moony goes and has a conniption about creature rights.

Sirius sighed as he rolled over, taking in the full moon floating outside his bedroom window and sighed, wishing that he, Prongs, and Wormtail were out with their overly sentimental friend right now, but NOOO. Moony just had to give a damn about ever creature known to wizarding kind, didn't he?

And what was worse, James had decided to take Moony's side just to impress little miss goody-two-shoes!

Sirius grunted in frustration as he looked at the muggle women on his walls and grinned, satisfied that they had succeeded in making his parents as mad as James had that thought they would. Sirius rubbed his back, where a series of whelps were healing with the help of some foul smelling potion he had Kreatcher make for him, and couldn't help but think that they were worth it; at least now no one bothered to come into his room.

Wincing as his back found a loose spring on his bed, he got up, crossing to the window and peering out at the night sky, for once clear of the smoke that the muggles pumped into it. Looking back at the blackness, Sirius let his mind drift, landing eventually on the place that he missed the most; Hogwarts. Smiling slightly, he ran a hand through his unruly hair, thinking about how much he loved the last five years that he had spent there.

Suddenly, one thing stood out prominently in his thoughts, a thing that had no business crossing his mind at all, really. But in the darkness of his spacious room, with his back burning and his irritation mounting, Sirius wondered what slimy, Slytherin, Snivellus did for the hols?

Staring at the brightness of the moon, Sirius let his mind focus on the slim boy that he and his friends tormented whenever they could. His tense back, crooked teeth, and his trademarked greasy hair; every little detail that he could recall about the boy. "I wonder what he's doing." Sirius caught himself saying aloud, before snorting at the absurdity of the situation; he was spending the time that he could be devoting to luscious members of the opposite sex thinking about Snape.

Rolling out his shoulders, he lay face down on the bed, blinking at the scattered papers littering his floor, reading some of them before growing bored.

"Maybe I should go out?" He said to his bed post. "But where to? Moony is out being a wolf somewhere, James is in France with his parents, and Wormy isn't any fun without the others." Rolling over to his side, his gaze fell back on the moon, where it glowed brightly against the velvet sky.

With a jolt of electricity, Sirius got up from his bed, deciding that if all of his friends were out of the equation, he would just have to find an enemy to be entertained with.

Glancing around his room, he picked up his traveling cloak and broomstick, certain that no one would be of mind to check on him for at least a couple of hours.

Hopping onto the window sill, he took a deep breath before jumping, mounting his broom in midair.

Smiling as his house faded into the distance, Sirius let out a happy whoop, relieved that he could leave, even if it was for only a limited amount of time.

10 P.M.

Sirius didn't know what was harder to believe; that he was sitting outside of someone else's house in the bum hours of the night, or that he was waiting for his worst enemy to come out of the aforementioned house, which, of course, had taken him nearly four hours to find.

Grumbling, he looked up at the moon, now covered by a thick cloud of smog. Sighing, Sirius settled himself into the bushes, regretting that he had only brought a traveling cloak with him. Even though it was summer, the night wind was chilly and battered him where the brambles didn't protect.

Glancing at the house, Sirius couldn't help but shiver; the place gave off the same air as a graveyard and looked as old. The tiles on the roof were peeling and the paint that had probably started out as a dark blue had faded to a forlorn grey. Add in the iron bars on the windows and the cracked pavement, Sirius couldn't help but understand how someone wouldn't want to come back to this on the hols.

Shaking his head briskly, Sirius sighed, resigned to waiting for the little sod to emerge.

12:37 A.M.

For the thousandth time that night, Sirius cursed Severus Snape, promising himself that he would make the obnoxious little sod pay for this aggravation come the start of term.

Standing to leave, Sirius paused, the faintest creak of a yard door opening giving him the warning to crouch down. Peering though the brambles, Sirius saw a shadow separate itself from the side of the building.

As the figure looked up and down the street, Sirius unconsciously backed away, sending the branches swaying.

The figure held up a wand and pointed it at Sirius' hiding spot. Thinking fast, Sirius made low keening noises, mimicking his other form.

The figure held steady for several seconds before lowering his wand and walking further into the street.

Sirius had to clamp a hand over his mouth to keep from making any noise; buried half in shadow, Severus Snape glared at the world. Keeping his mouth shut tightly, Sirius took in his query, noting several key differences between the Snape that he saw at school and the one standing not ten feet from him.

Blinking, Sirius crept through the branches until he could get a clearer look at the boy in front of him, and, sure enough, it was the same boy. But Snape was different than he was at school; the thick black robes that made him look like a bat were gone, and in their place were muggle clothes. Sirius took in the other boy's revealed figure, noting with an odd sense of satisfaction that without the cloaks Severus Snape was actually very slender, slight, even.

Snape looked at the window nearest him before sighing and walking down the street. And it was then that Sirius saw what was really different about the boy. Unlike all the other times that Sirius had seen him, Snape had his hair up in a loose ponytail, tendrils spilling out to frame a pale, smooth face. As Snape's eye flicked to the bushes, Sirius bit his lip to keep from making any sounds, recoiling at the intensity of the obsidian gaze.

Seconds passed with only the whisper of the wind to distract from those damned eyes, and Sirius couldn't stand it.

Snape crept forward, looking at the bush intently, and Sirius panicked, crossing into his dog form. Letting loose a low growl at Snape, Sirius retreated further into the brambles, ignoring the way that they tugged at his fur.

Snape froze, eyes narrowing before he nodded, making calm shushing noises as he started walking down the street, not turning his back on Sirius until he was almost ten feet away.

Creeping out of the brambles, Sirius watched the other boy walk away, intrigued in spite of himself as to where he was going. Padding out into the street, Sirius looked at the house, where, briefly, he had though that he had seen a flash of paleness marring the dark windows. Before Sirius could check what it was, he spotted Snape turning a corner and ran after him, instinctively wanting to follow him.

BANDON-MAKES-A-BREAK

They carried on in this manner for what seemed like forever; Snape would round a corner and Sirius would run after him, always behind him lest he get caught.

After several blocks, Sirius got the feeling that Snape knew that he was being followed; the other boy never looked back, but he moved through shadows, never allowing himself to be seen for more that the time it took for him to skirt the flickering street lamps.

Suddenly, Sirius heard something, a low humming, almost like a swarm of bees, and then he was frozen, held in place by some invisible force. Footsteps approached him, but he couldn't even move his eyes off of the ground.

Sirius wanted to growl, to whimper, to do anything other than wait helplessly to be discovered by the one person in the world who would kick him even in his adorable dog form.

"Hey, there." He heard from behind him, "Are you the one that was near my house, boy?"

And then Severus Snape rounded him, coming to rest in front of him, kneeling down so that he didn't tower. "It's okay, pup, don't be scared," the boy cooed, "I won't hurt you."

Sirius internally flinched as Snape's hand touched his muzzle, caressing it reassuringly. 'Fucking git,' Sirius though uncharitably, 'treating me like some stray.' Of course, he was in the body of a dog. And he was following behind a teenage boy in the middle of the night. And he didn't have a collar on, so it wasn't that much of a stretch, but still.

Snape just continued to make shushing noises as he pet him, and Sirius couldn't help but be calmed by it, relaxing the muscles the hadn't known that he could, realizing that the more he relaxed to more he could move.

"There," Snape said softly, "Isn't that better?"

Sirius snorted and nipped at the other boy's fingers, doing his best to look terrifying, but Snape just smiled kindly. "Don't be afraid, pup, I won't hurt you." Humming a tune, Snape continued to stroke the fur on Sirius' neck gently, putting him at ease against his will. Sirius sank down, rolling on his back unconsciously, though he yelped as he did, remembering the whelps there that his dog form still bore.

Frowning, Snape moved his hands over Sirius' back, feeling beneath the fur for damage.

When Snape's fingers found the broken, swollen skin, Sirius whimpered, having forgotten that wounds of a human's body were more severe than those of the same type on an animal's body.

Snape made shushing noises at him as he pulled out his wand.

Sirius backed away, snarling at the boy in front of him, who simply waved his wand in a benign figure-of-eight motion.

Seconds passed and Sirius didn't notice any differences, but Snape seemed content to sit and wait, so he sat down in front on the boy.

When Sirius finally convinced himself that it was completely ridiculous to sit in the middle of a muggle street with Severus Snape, several jars zoomed into sight, falling into the pallid boy's lap.

Smiling, Snape motioned Sirius over as he opened the jars. "This will heal you, pup," He said, scooping out a healthy amount of a green paste, "And this will prevent scarring," he added a finger of a purple police to his hand with a small spoon, "And this one," the boy said, indicating a small blue jar holding, as far as Sirius could tell, only air, "Will prevent any infections." Using a little eyedropper, Snape sucked up what Sirius now realized was a clear liquid, and added it to the top of the small mountain of potions in his hand.

Sirius flinched when Snape began to rub the goo into his back, but, within seconds, he felt his back reknit, the tender skin healing as good as new.

Snape smiled at him, and Sirius stared in shock. 'Well, I'll be damned.' He thought, 'The slimy bastard is good for something.'

Snape was sealing the jars when he heard it, heavy footsteps approaching from the direction they had come from. 'You fuckin' little bastard!' an angry male voice called, 'Where'd you slip off ta?'

Snape paled and with a wave of his wand the jars vanished. "Run, pup," He told Sirius in an urgent whisper before he stood and began to walk towards the voice.

"Father," Snape called into the darkness, "I'm here."

"Fuckin' little bas'terd," the man snarled as he came into sight, "Fuckin' thinkin' 'bout runnin' 'way, were ya?"

"No, Sir," Snape said calmly, his back tense as the man stumbled closer to him, clearly drunk. "I was just out for a walk when I found an injured dog."

"Shut th' fuck up," the man said, backhanding Snape in the mouth before spitting on him, "Lil' lyin' bas'terd. Just like your mo'ter, lyin' bitch."

Snape's eyes flared, "Don't speak about her like that!"

The man hit him again, knocking him to the ground, "Don' you fuckin' speak ta me like that, ya little fuck."

Sirius stared in shock at what he was seeing; Snape, the boy who could hold his own against all four of the Marauders at once, was being beaten by a drunken muggle man in the middle of the street.

"I'm sorry, father," Snape said, gritting his teeth as a foot connected with his stomach.

"I ain't yer fuckin' father, ya freak. Shit like you don't have a father!" the man shouted down at the boy, causing several nearby lights to flicker on.

"My apologies, Tobias," Snape said coolly, rising from the ground to point back down the street, "if you don't want the other muggles involved, Sir, you might want to continue abusing me in the safety of your home?"

Sirius felt his face contort at the bitter resentment in the words, but, more than anything, the well-rehearsed quality of it, which spoke of other late night beatings.

Tobias hit Snape again before pulling the teen roughly down the street, promising punishments once behind closed doors.

Snape just closed his eyes and walked along, the softness that his face had held when he had doctored Sirius gone beneath the sour expression that so often prompted the attention of the Marauders.

Following them to Snape's house, he saw that same pale glimmer at the window before it disappeared. Moments later a woman who was the mirror of Snape was opening the front door, ushering them in.

The door slammed with finality that chilled Sirius to the bone. For an hour Sirius stood outside, hidden in the brambles, waiting for some sign of life from the house, but receiving none.

With a last look up at the door, Sirius called on Kreatcher, who took his arm and apparated him into his room before leaving the boy to sulk with only his new found knowledge for company.

Shaking his body, Sirius lay down on his bed, feeling the stabbing pain of fresh wounds more now than he had before Snape had healed them, knowing that the price of his health was the other boys'.

Rolling over onto his stomach, Sirius let his eyes fall closed, though sleep would not visit him that night.

BANDON-MAKES-AN-END