THE GODFATHER
The half-moon looked like a happy smile pasted onto the canvas of the night, but Sirius Black paid it no heed. His mind was wandering, collecting random thoughts to toss into his dreams, but on this night, there was a very definite and disturbing theme...
Sirius heard the door to the room off the hallway click open and then quickly slam shut.
"We can't thank you enough, Padfoot," said Lupin as he grabbed Tonks' hand and practically carried her to the door. "They're lucky to have you as a godfather. We'll be back--"
"Sometime tonight, don't wait up," interjected Tonks right before she was pulled through the front door.
Sirius stood still as the couple left and cocked his head. What had he agreed to do? And who were "they?" His only godson was Harry.
The front door opened again as Lupin stuck his head through to say, "Make sure they wash behind their ears."
With a final click, the front door was closed and Sirius was left alone in the hallway. He turned to face the Door and realized his heart was beating erratically. Then he noticed he had transformed into Snuffles. He wagged his tail just to reassure himself, then approached the dreaded Door.
Surely the "they" were Harry and his friends, Ron and Hermione. A really loyal lot, those kids, just like the Marauders had been. Well, there was no point wasting time.
Snuffles approached the Door again, but now he could hear squeals and other high-pitched noises coming from the room on the other side. Up to mischief, were they? Well, no one was better qualified to manage mischief than a Marauder! He pushed at the Door with his nose and it magically opened.
"Uncle Snuffles!" yelled the chorus.
The huge black dog stopped in his tracks and his eyes opened wide in dismay. What were they trying to do? Compete with the Weasleys?
"Dogpile Uncle Sniffles!"
The fur was soon flying as he was attacked from three directions at once.
"No, no, now, see here--" began Snuffles, quite surprised that he could speak.
But his words fell on deaf ears.
Two black wolf cubs were trying to gnaw at his hindlegs. He kicked them off as gently as possible, but their little teeth were sharp! No matter, the two little black pups, obviously twins, merely rolled into a ball, then sprang up to chase each other through his legs.
But the worse attack came from the pretty little cub that was nipping at his nose. She would growl at him, with her tail wagging wildly behind her, then launch herself into an aerial assault. Given his size, she never quite caused any damage, but rather seemed content to keep leaping in the air. It was the shocking pink color of her fur that was wreaking havoc with his eyes.
Snuffles began running around the room in an effort to remain a moving target. Suddenly, he stumbled over the fourth, but oldest, cub in the wolf pack. This one had brown hair and had been content to sit in a corner while gnawing on a rather large book with the utmost devotion.
Luckily the brown, bookish cub did a better job of hampering the progress of his siblings than his godfather. He yelped in surprise as his sister landed on him after a jump and again when his brothers bowled him over.
But, after shaking himself off, the brown cub gave a rather ferocious sounding growl that brought everyone to a standstill.
"Mum and Dad told us to behave or we couldn't play with Uncle Snuffles, remember?" said the clear voice of reason. The brown cub swung his head to gaze at each sibling, but one could almost detect his eyes rolling.
The little sister sat on her haunches and cocked her head as if considering his remark while the twin brothers merely panted with their tongues hanging out.
The sister asked in a rather taunting voice, "So? He can't MAKE us transform into children." Then less confidently added, "Uh, can he?"
"No, but he can make Snuffles disappear..."
The siblings yelped in dismay at the thought, but their brother continued.
"...and that means we'd be left with Uncle Sirius to watch us."
Snuffles actually bent low to cover his ears with his paws as the sad howling filled the room."Padfoot? Sirius, wake up, man!" Lupin hissed at his roommate, a bit irritated to be aroused from a rather intriguing dream where he was lost in a pumpkin patch while searching for Tonks.
Rather than respond, Sirius howled again until Lupin threw a pillow at him.
"Oony?" came the muffled question from Sirius' bed.
"You were baying like the hound of the Baskervilles," replied Lupin.
"A what?" asked Sirius after he pulled the pillow off his face and sat up.
"Never mind, it's a muggle story. Now, toss me back that pillow, if you would."
Sirius clutched the pillow tightly and smiled wickedly at his friend. "Pillows are sacred possessions to the noble house of Black, I'll have you know."
"Fine, I can live with depravation." Lupin seemed to settle back on his mattress, but then he added. "So I guess you were dreaming about Emmeline?"
The pillow struck Lupin squarely across the face. "Thank you, Padfoot."
"Oh, shut up, Moony," said Sirius, but settled back with a smile. Dreaming about Emmeline was a good idea after his little nightmare. Imagine, Tonks and Lupin! Only in dreams, right?
The End
The last dream with Sirius was the motivation to even start this story, but the image of Snuffles being attacked by a pack of wolf cubs just wouldn't be shaken off. The dream by no means conveys a personal belief on whether Lupin could pass his lycanthropy to children or whether Tonks would produce metamorphs. It's just the device that worked for the dream sequence.
So, sweet dreams to you, too. Thanks for reading and for the faithful chapter reviews.