Black Blood

020 - Lakeside Biscuits

She sighed in relief and tossed a biscuit into the Black Lake for the giant squid to consume, only to follow up the gesture by taking a bite of her own half-eaten treat.

'It's finally over,' she pleasantly thought to herself, loosing another relieved sigh.

The exams had been awful, but they were utterly through now, which meant it was time to relax and prepare for summertime and the wonderful events that would take place during the season, which included two extravagant birthday parties, an exciting quidditch World Cup, and an awe-inspiring vacation visit to Tiree.

She laid her head into the English oak she sat against, imagining all the warm adventures to come, only for her wonderful visions to abruptly end as a rustling came from a bush to her left, which caused her eyes to snap open in alarm.

'It's not a dementor,' she told herself, feeling no chill within the warm air. 'But it could be anything else normally housed within the Forbidden Forest.'

Pulling her wand from its holster, she pointed its tip at the flora in apprehension, and not a moment later, a mangy mongrel hopped through the foliage with a loud yelp, which caused her to recoil in surprise.

"Oh...hello there," she greeted, adopting a small smile, allowing her surprise at its rather sudden appearance to fade.

Cassiopeia had a keen interest and a rather unrelenting love for most animals, and a stray mutt was no exception, but the girl was no fool, and she knew that any dog that lived in the wild was most likely feral in nature, thus her wand did not lower despite her warm greeting.

The dog, if that was what it truly was and not some magical creature she wasn't aware of, watched her with such intent that Cassiopeia felt certain what was before her was, in fact, more wild animal than domesticated pet, and she would openly admit, if asked, that the beast before her set her nerves on end.

"Are you...hungry? Would you enjoy partaking in a tasty biscuit?" she asked, her smile never fading, and her wand-tip never wavering, as she reached into the basket she'd brought along for her lakeside picnic, pulling from it a butter-covered treat.

The dog answered in no way, so Cassiopeia tossed the biscuit at him, wondering, rather alarmingly, what she would do if it was, in fact, hungry, but not for a mere biscuit. To her relief, however, the mongrel opened its jaws and snatched the treat from the air, seemingly swallowing the thing whole, and to begin wagging its bushy tail and whine for another.

"Very well," she mirthfully said, holstering her wand, certain that the beast intended her no harm.

Tossing another biscuit to it resulted in much the same, and two more were scarfed down shortly thereafter to her utter delight.

There were few times in her life where she could recall laughter, and even fewer where she felt so excited that she giggled like a newborn babe, but tossing morsel after morsel to the dog, and watching it happily snatch her treats from the air, the light, silly sound left her without protest or thought, and it did nothing if not make her day that much more pleasant.

Eventually, however, she ran out of biscuits to feed the mutt, although it didn't seem to mind, deciding to lay next to her as she relaxed and thought about the good day she'd had and about the good ones to come.

"I don't want any of his cake," a voice said, pulling Cassiopeia from her pleasant trance.

"Honestly, Ron, neither do we, but it would be very impolite not to have some if he offers it," a different voice, one she recognized intimately, said in reply.

Peeking one eye open, she glanced to her right, watching as Potter, Weasley, and Granger waltzed up to the groundskeeper's hut.

'Whatever,' she thought to herself, supremely unconcerned with the trio's intent, closing her open eye to continue her peaceful mediation.

Rustling from her left, however, caused her sight to resume, and she watched in curious fascination as her canine companion loped towards the hut, likely looking for more food to fill its hungry belly.

'Happy hunting, my furry, nameless friend,' she thought to herself, once more closing her eyes to think on pleasant, warm thoughts and summer days to come.