Double Dog Dare! -- Episode 19
Hecate, 16 March 2002

"Rrriiiifffff!" Fidelis said, smartly, or as smartly as he could while vigorously rubbing his tongue against his teeth and the roof of his mouth. Janet Tewksberry's bondage equipment had been permeated with some sort of scented massage oil that disagreed with the small dog's tender palate.

Taste aside, Fidelis was highly satisfied with his afternoon's labor. He clambered up on the fallen woman's hip as though scaling a spaniel-sized mountain, popping a few threads in her black robes in the process, and proudly surveyed the room from that height. Master and the Other One were both sitting up. Fidelis was relieved; for a moment, the pup had worried that their proximity on the floor to Dumbledore's luxurious Oriental rug would lead them to that sort of strange, noisy activity he normally wasn't permitted to watch, leaving him to guard the nasty woman all by himself. And puppy piddle or no, Fidelis had no idea how long it would take her to wake up.

"Yippp!" cried the dog.

Suddenly, Tewksberry's body jerked and stiffened underneath his paws, causing Fidelis to topple from his perch, bouncing unceremoniously on the slate floor. He growled and poked his head above a fold of black robe where he saw the Other One stick her wand back into her sword belt.

She pause a moment, and than removed her wand again, pointing it at the pile of distressed leather straps on the floor. "Mustn't let all this go to waste, now, must we?" A wand wave later, Janet Tewksberry was handsomely trussed in leather from knee to ankle and from elbow to wrist. Fidelis nodded approvingly, although the memory of the leather's taste made him sneeze.

While Master appeared to be searching the mantel for Floo powder, Fidelis heard a very odd noise from outside Dumbledore's round window. It sounded to the pup as though a gaggle of small creatures were being eaten alive, or at least threatened with a large mallet. Climbing up a length of drapery, two chairs, three bolster cushions and an armchair, Fidelis made it onto the windowsill, where he was greeted by a sight that almost made him fall off. An enormous bird - much bigger than the Other One's Evil One - was passing by the tower. Inside the bird, where the yummy innards ought to be, were two Weasleys and, more surprisingly still, the Headmaster. Or, at least, Fidelis thought it was the Headmaster, due to the long length of beard flapping and waving behind the white head like a leash that had slipped its owner's hand.

The little dog exploded in a chorus of yips, summoning Snape from his search by the fireplace. The Potions master lifted the dog from his precarious perch on the windowsill as he looked out in time to see this odd mechanical contrivance coming to what looked like a very bumpy landing on the lawn beyond the terrace.

"Merlin's beard," muttered Snape. "Who now?"

Fidelis began to gnaw at Snape's thumb. "Rumbledore!" he cried, slobbering excitedly.

"Dumbledore?" asked Snape, staring out the window. "In that? Oh, wait a minute. . . there are redheads emerging from the front. That's an odd way to travel from the Burrow."

The Other One, hand on sword, bounded to the window. "Oh shit," she said, peering over Master's shoulder. "If they came in that, something's gone seriously wrong. You'd better go and meet them, Severus. I'll stay here with this," she said, kicking Janet Tewksberry's unconscious body in the shins, "until we can get Hagrid or someone to look after her properly."

"No permanent damage, Viviane," Snape growled. "We'll need to talk to her later."

Fidelis noticed the Other One's hand drop from her sword hilt in a rather dispirited manner.

"Rifff!" barked Fidelis, sympathetically.