It was almost totally pitch black, the clouds had blocked the stars and the moon from view, but the big black dog could still see.

He padded silently down the eerily silent street, the icy cold so deep that it penetrated his thick fur and sent shivers down his back. He could tell dementors had been here.

The dog reached a shabby block of apartments. There were a few smashed windows and pieces of rubbish were littered over the small lawn, which was over-grown with weeds almost obscuring the path that lead to the door.

Gazing around at the once familiar place, Padfoot squeezed himself through the slightly ajar door and started climbing up the concrete stairs.

Once he had reached a certain door, he paused.

He couldn't go in. Surely the man who lived here would be angry. Not just angry, he would hate the dog.

But the black dog needed to explain.

After what seemed like an eternity, however he scratched the door and whined.

There was no answer.

He repeated his attack on the door, but the inside of the apartment was still and silent. Casting a quick glance around the deserted hallway the dog transformed into a tall, dark haired man.

The man quickly ran his hands along the top of the door frame, searching for the spare key the other man kept there. He found it and unlocked the door. He paused for a second before pushing it open slowly.

The door creaked as the dark haired man entered, he looked around at the apartment he used to live in.

It was tidy; it had never been tidy when he lived here. It wasn't just tidy though, it was almost empty.

The small book case the other man had insisted on getting was nearly empty, except for a few muggle novels and some pieces of parchment. The black haired man went through to the tiny kitchen. The cupboards were almost bare, except for a few out of date tins and exotic spices that had never been touched.

He moved to the bedroom. The bed had been stripped, the sheets and duvet folded on the foot of it. All the drawers were empty.

Even the bathroom had been cleared of its' contents. No shampoo and no towels.

Something was very odd. What had happened to the other man? Where is he?

Sirius walked back into the living room and stopped in front of the bookcase. He shifted a few of the bits of parchment. Only one caught his eye, however.

It was a copy of the newspaper; The Daily Prophet. He picked it up and saw his own face staring back at him, the headline reading "Black still at large."

Sirius read the article, but threw the paper on the floor when he saw the final line "The magical community lives in fear of a massacre like that of twelve years ago, when Black murdered thirteen people with a single curse."

The black haired man just managed to refrain from shouting. Instead he fell to his knees, running his hands through his long, matted hair. He didn't want to sit here; he wanted to run screaming through the streets. He wanted to tell the world how it hadn't been him. He wanted to tell Harry how he didn't betray his parents. He wanted to tell the brown haired man how he still loved him.

Sirius left the apartment, locked the door, but pocketed the key. He transformed into Padfoot and ran back down the stairs.

The days it took seemed to all roll into one, but soon he was in Hogsmeade, a town right beside Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

The black dog curled up on an old, mouldy bed in The Shrieking Shack. A house built for the brown haired man, many years ago.

After several hours of trying to sleep however, the dog gave up and transformed back into the man, Sirius. He sat pulled out of his tattered, old robes a newspaper clipping.

It was a picture of a family, he couldn't remember the name of them now, but they were all smiling at the camera enthusiastically having won some gold and going on holiday to Egypt. There was one tall boy, with his arm around a younger looking girl; he had a rat perched on his shoulder. That rat was who he was after. He needed that rat. He needed to kill that rat.

He was so close. So close, yet so far.

I'm just going to apologise for this awful fic. I'm going to continue it, I think it's going to get better though, so review!