Sirius

The weather was foul. Rain fell both vertically and horizontally, sweeping in from the side so that not even those with umbrellas were safe from its sharp coolness. Wind howled menacingly as it danced among the trees. They creaked and swayed following its haunting tune.

People huddled in bus shelters waiting for a ride to carry them home to the warmth. Others hid in cafés, watching tarpaulins outside being thrown about in the wind while held to café brick-work by a feeble wire. They waited, sipping various hot beverages, for the storm to calm so they could continue on their way.

Shop owners opened their doors to chilled old people and to mothers with small children in prams and buggies. Children old enough to walk, stamped in puddles and kicked the mucky contents at their peers. Mothers yelled to them to "Stop it at once!", their voices drowned out amid the wind, rain and laughter.

Busses, cars and Lorries sailed along the river that had, at one time, been a road. Windscreen wipers scraped rain soaked glass. Traffic paused briefly for the change of lights. Vehicle drivers' faces blank, bored by the tediously repetitive sound of water on metal. A wake opened behind them as the change of the lights signalled to the traffic to continue, once again, on their journeys. A bus stopped to allow the people in the shelter to pour in, then continued its journey melting away into the storm.

He walked silently by: his coat soaked through, his head bowed and water trickling down his nose. No one offered him a spot in the shelter; no shop owner opened their doors to him. He knew he would not be welcomed in, to any café. And so he continued through the storm. The wind chilled his rain soaked body. The only comfort he could find was in his destination.

The water swirled around his ankles as he arrived at the road-side. His vision blurred by the spray from the wheels of the cars. Blindly he lumbered out in front of a van. There was a screech of tyres on wet tarmac and the van skidded out of her way, the driver leaning angrily on his horn and yelling "Stupid bastard!" through the rain.

Shaking with fear he raced away from the busy road and entered an empty park. The swings swung by themselves in the wind, with eerie creak, creak, creak. He hurried on past them, jumpy since his encounter with the van. The sandpits, normally full of happy young children, were today filled with rain and leaves. He walked on past them, his coat dripping large droplets of icy water onto the pathway. Looking up, she noticed the rain had lessened, so allowed his pace to slow accordingly.

Walking amongst the trees the wind was less harsh. He shook herself in an attempt to warm his weary bones. Moving past a puddle he looked down and saw the bedraggled shadow of himself gazing intently back. He wondered what had possessed him to go out today. A gust of wind caught him and he shivered before continuing on his way.

At the far end of the park was a large, wrought iron fence. In its centre was an equally large, wrought iron, gate. The gate was open and he was thus able to slip quietly through the small gap that it created between itself and the fence. Once through, he came face to face with a larger, and far busier, road. Once again the spray from the wheels of passing cars rendered his vision impaired. He ran, this time out of sheer panic, across, and, as if by some miracle, he was safe and on the other side.

Across, and to his relief safe, he headed along a quiet suburb and down an equally peaceful street towards home. The rain had, once again, picked up so he quickened his pace with it. Then, at last, through his own gate, and into the warmth of his house.

"Sirius!" the exclamation met him as he raced through the back door of his house and across the kitchen to the fire. The exclaimer laughed and watched him warming himself by the licking flames of the fire. She stopped what she was doing and walked across to stand leaning on the frame of the lounge door watching Sirius shaking by the hearth.

"What ever possessed you to run off on a day like today?" she asked Sirius.

Sirius smiled up at her. He straightened back into his human form and laughed.

"Nice to see you too Tonks!"