CHAPTER SIXTEEN
↳ snuffles the dog

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So in a few days, a number of odd and bizarre things have occurred. Let me just iterate exactly what Elara saw:

Firstly, she saw Snuffles again and he was hanging out with Laurie and Crookshanks. Elara decided to give him a peanut butter sandwich and prayed that he wasn't allergic.

If he was allergic, at least he got to try peanut butter before his death.

Secondly, Harold and Ronald were still having a grudge against Hermione for telling Minnie about the Firebolt. It was still being stripped down, much to the horror of Oliver Wood who went white when he heard they were stripping the firebolt.

And now, finally, Remus had told his daughter about how he was going to start trying to teach Harry James Potter, the accidental prone dementor food personified, how to cast a Patronus Charm.

"I feel mildly insulted you haven't offered me," she had said to him, dramatically placing her hand on her heart. "Honestly papa, you've wounded me," to compensate, Remus decided he'd let her watch Harry practice.

"Harry!" Elara whisper-yelled, poking the messy haired boy. "Harry James Potter!"

"Elara Lily Lupin, what?" Harry rolled his eyes. Elara sighed exasperated at the level of sass he was giving her. Was he on his man-period?

"So let me just explain this to you," She began. She shook her head and placed each hand in the other hand. "You decide to go and basically get papa to teach you the Patronus charm?"

"Yeah and so what?" Harry furrowed his eyebrows, confused.

"And you didn't think of inviting me?"

Harry gave her a blank look. "Is that why you've been calling me for the past thirty minutes?"

"Precisely!" Elara grabbed onto him and started skipping away merrily. "Now you and I need to have a little talk about a certain girl you can actually hold a conversation with that isn't me!" Harry had a gut feeling this was about Hermione. He and Ron had been ignoring the Granger girl ever since Christmas and it's not the most helpful thing when she's unbelievably close to Elara.

"And what about Hermione?" Harry asked. He was still extremely annoyed with the whole firebolt incident.

"Why are you treating her like shit?"

"What?"

"Did I stutter?" Elara tilted her head. "No I did not!"

"Elara I don't have a broom and then I get one she snitches!" Harry placed his hands on his waist. "Whatever happened to 'snitches end up in ditches'?"

"Those ditches aren't where you make her cry for hours on end because you both hate her," Elara smacked him over the head with her hand. "Honestly, Harold she has good intentions she just went about it wrong,"

"So what would you have done?"

"I would've just let you go on the broom and if you fell then it would be on you," Elara shrugged.

"Wow you really love me," Harry drawled on, sarcastically.

"Come on Harold James Potter!" Elara pulled his arm. "I need you to influence Ronald Bilius Weasley into being friends with Hermione Jean Granger again!"

"Elara Lily Lupin, why are we saying everyone's full names?" Harry paused for a moment. "Harold isn't even my name- do you not realise?"

"I have no idea, Harold James Potter," Elara gave him a large grin. "And I do not care, your name is now Harold,"

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"Elara you seriously aren't expecting me to suddenly forgive Hermione?" Ron asked, flabbergasted that she expected that of him.

"Yea I seriously do expect that of you," Elara said, unfazed by the glare Ron offered her. "Now I expect, you get a choice in this: a; a nice kindhearted apology that addresses how idiotic you've been or b: a song about how much you and Harry rely on Hermione to sort out the majority of your shit," Ron stared at Elara with no emotion on his face. "The choice is yours,"

"How about c: she apologises to me and Harry and we all make peace,"

"Option c is the option where I smack you and owl Molly about everything," Ron's eyes went wide at the thought of yet another howler. Molly absolutely adored Elara, so If she asked for Molly to put Ron back in place, Molly would put him back in place. "So either you apologise and make up, or I gain some assistance,"

"At least make her apologise!" Ron argued at El who didn't seem to phased. "Ever since she got that demon, she's always been defending him and acting like he does nothing,"

"Ron, you realise Laurie also goes after Scabbers," Elara tried to reason. On numerous occasions, she's apologised for Laurie's behaviour and made Ron understand that she's doing her best to help.

"Yeah but at least you don't try and justify it, Hermione just thinks Scabbers is the one who starts it," Ron argued.

"Fine," Elara gave in. "I'll ask Hermione to at least apologise and then you also have to,"

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Elara wasn't exactly planning on going straight to Hermione for a plethora of reasons. Hermione had told her to not worry about her, which was quite stupid to even tell her considering the fact you always do the things people tell you not to. In fact, Hermione was too stressed. Elara was so close to just taking that time turner and throwing it into the Black Lake for the giant squid's dinner.

Although she didn't have the time turner, Elara was still sat by the Black Lake, humming to herself. She didn't really know what the song was, just a mix of some Queen, ABBA and AC/DC. Nevertheless, it was iconic. She seemed lost in her own pocket sized world, only to be abruptly taken out of there when she heard some shuffling in the leaves. Curiously, she tilted her head, squinting. When she saw nothing, she shrugged her shoulders and reached into her pocket and grabbed a chocolate eclair out. She twisted the wrapped out the sweet and went back to eating it, placing the rubbish in her pocket. Then, once again, she heard ruffling and then a bark. If it was possible, her eyes went incedulously wide when she saw not only Laurie, not only Crookshanks, but Snuffles the bloody dog as well.

So maybe Elara was a bit of a softie for dogs. She couldn't help but adore them. They were like the best, of course they were second in her long chart of amazing muggle creatures. But Elara doubted that Snuffles was just a regular, muggle, mundane dog. She couldn't place her finger on it, but there was no way that he could travel all the way from England to Scotland. It was simply impossible. "I haven't got any food today, dogs can't really eat chocolate," the black dog whined softly. Elara leaned towards the black dog whose head was hung low. She patted the spot besides her. "Come on, I won't hurt you," she gave the dog a reassuring smile. The dog seemed quite happy, considering how he perked up and barked at her. It wasn't an angry bark, it was more of a playful bark.

"How did you manage to get from England all the way here?" She stroked his fur. "I doubt you caught the bus," she laughed quietly to herself. "It's been quite strange, I've seen you so many times yet you've barely came to visit me,"

Although Elara had no clue who Snuffles actually was, he knew very well who she was. He knew everything about her, like how she loves the colour yellow and blue, how her first words were 'Pwongs', how she took her first steps on August 18th 1980, how she said her first words on October 22nd 1980, how they finalised her adoption with both her dads names on them on May 13th 1980. He knew just about everything. Snuffles - no - Sirius whined sadly, she didn't know him as dad, she just knew him as 'Snuffles'. He refrained himself from averting to his usual form. She probably thought he was--

"I don't think Sirius Black is guilty," --innocent? Elara Lily Lupin-Black, the girl who he raised for three years, believed he was innocent? Why? "The ministry is full of a lot of shit, they probably fucked the whole thing up," Snuffles nudged his nose against her hand. Sirius needed to know more. He needed to hear his innocence from someone who he wanted to hear it from the most. His daughter. He wanted to hear his little poppet - who wasn't so little anymore - say what he's known for twelve years. "I did some reading from some papers from the time he - well- ehm- my dad was convicted and well-" Elara paused for a moment. Why was she telling this random dog everything she has bottled up for months? She shrugged it off. Snuffles seemed very therapeutic. "Why didn't they use veritaserum or see what his last spell was?" Snuffles perked up.

Yeah, why the fuck didn't they? Sirius thought to himself. A fourteen year old girl managed to work out what adult witches and wizards couldn't even work out. Who the hell allowed them to make the grand decisions when they didn't even decide to use veritaserum?

"Me and Ced - Cedric Diggory, once of my best friends, were having a lot of three in the morning discussions about the whole thing and no one has questioned how the ministry handled my dad's case," Elara pushed a strand of hair out of her face. "Hang on, Professor Dumbledore was and still is the Supreme Mugwump," Elara's eyes widened. "That means he has control over any decisions and can overrule any. Why didn't he get my dad a fair trial?" Elara asked rhetorically. She was going off topic right now. Sirius barked and licked her hand. She needed to continue. "Right- sorry Snuffles," She added, apologetically. "My papa always tells me about how his friends became animagi to help during his 'monthly times'," she muttered quietly. "I don't remember exactly what dad was, but Peter Pettigrew-" Snuffles growled lowly, causing Elara to rub his head softly. "And James Potter, Harry's dad," the dark furred dog whined at the mention of the man he thought of as a brother. "Were both a rat - that's Pettigrew's - and I'm 99% certain that James' was a stag? I think so?" She shrugged.

Sirius had no clue where she was getting at. She worked out he was innocent, which was wonderful. But what else could she possibly know. The truth only was held by a dirty rat and a man whose words were twisted due to a false conviction. "I have this theory, which is only a theory," she added the last part as though it was more of an afterthought. "What if Peter Pettigrew and Sirius Black swapped places and made Pettigrew the secret keeper?"

She solved it. Sirius thought to himself. He was absolutely elated. She knew the truth. His heart didn't feel so heavy anymore, like a burden was suddenly lifted off his chest. Sure, it wasn't freedom, but his little poppet knowing this was way better than clearing his name. "I know it's unlikely but why would the Potters make the closest person the secret keeper? That's suspicious. It's like me making Hermione - my best friend - the secret keeper instead of some else that wouldn't be suspicious," she should've been in fucking Ravenclaw. Sirius thought to himself. "Papa told me how he was trying to gain solitary from some werewolves and was out on Order missions like every week or so, maybe dad found it suspicious," Elara shook her head. "If I find him, I'm going to smack him for that," she growled to herself. Sirius couldn't help but silently wince because from what he's seen, she has a good hand at slapping people .

Snuffles the dog seemed quite hyper right now. He was barking at Elara, pushing her to continue. "Alright, alright," she shushed the dog. The dog sat down, placing his head on her lap. "Since Pettigrew is an animagus, he could've easily transformed into an animal after causing the explosion, perfectly framing my dad," Okay, so maybe my daughter is a genius. Sirius was beyond shocked by so many things. Not only was Elara able to actually work it out, but she knew what went down. That took some skill.

"I always did find it weird, the whole 'father-dearest being a wingman for you-know-who' thing," Elara commented. "I remember my dad was always with me at home and only left for missions," Despite how young Elara was, she could still remember that Sirius Black was rarely gone from her side. After they had taken her into their care, Sirius stopped doing any lengthy individual missions and only did ones where he went with other people. He didn't want to leave his daughter fatherless. "Even papa would mention that. If that was the case, how would he find time to fit you-know-who into the schedule?"

Sirius was now very certain that Elara should've been a Ravenclaw. The way she thought this all out was just too intellectually advanced for some fourteen year old girl. It didn't fit right at all. "This all sounds so ridiculous," she mumbled. Snuffles whined. Little poppet, this wasn't ridiculous at all, you're spot on. Sirius wanted to show her who he was. He needed to. "There's no evidence, where would Pettigrew even be?" She combed her hands through her tangled hair. "Come on Laurie, let's go in," Right before she could even grab Laurie, the small feline made eye contact with Snuffles and scurried away. Elara, shocked, stood up and started calling his name.

Sirius got the hint. Laurie was buying him some time to explain everything. That fucking cat gains more love from me every single day. He knew he needed to do this. Elara needed to know the truth. That what she said wasn't some bullshit.

As fast as he could, he bit the sleeve of her jumper, making sure not to accidentally bite her wrist. He began pulling her to the whomping willow, much to her protests. "Hey- Snuffles let me go!" Laurie had already paralysed the tree and in a few moments when the group, consisting of a human witch, an illegal dog animagus and two cats, was away from potentially being murdered by the aggressive tree would the tree return to the regular state it was typically in. Snuffles was still dragging her up the shrieking shack, he wasn't going too fast just so he didn't make her trip up.

When they had arrived at the small, damp room, Elara immediately yanked Snuffles' jaw off her and rushed up to Laurie. She cradled him close to her chest.

"Snuffles why the hell did you bring-"

Elara turned abruptly, eyes widening and her blood rushing cold at the sight of who was in front of her. She couldn't believe it. Snuffles was- he couldn't be. It all made sense now- it wasn't a coincidence. It was all planned out. This was exactly what he planned for. Her eyes remained wide, she really couldn't believe who she was seeing.

It was Sirius Black.

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OOH SO CLIFFHANGER- SORRY ABOUT THAT- I have a bigger will to write than do my school work- oops-

Also like I loved the whole padfoot and Elara interaction. It's so wholesome and lemme just say:

ELARA IS A HUFFLECLAW BY HEART- SHE'S ICONIC-

Fun fact: I originally planned for Elara to be a Gryffindor but then I was writing her and I was like 'she gives wholesome hufflepuff vibes' so I made her a hufflepuff. The first draft of this book was a different plot for a Luna Lovegood fic where the oc can see death but I thought it sounded so cliche.

This chapter was meant to be just Elara going to watch Harry do the Patronus, but then I was like 'what if she learns what happens and talks to Sirius?' And then did this and it's low-key actually a good plot to be honest-