To somehow encourage Sirius to stay put, they decided to give him responsibility.
"Give him a pet that you don't mind losing," said Snape, because the animal would definitely suffer alongside Black. "A rat, for example," Severus said smugly.
McGonagall then looked at him disapprovingly, and Severus turned away.
"The idea with the animal is good," said Dumbledore, nodding, stroking his beard thoughtfully. "Better to ask which one does he want, if none, then we'll choose at our discretion."
Sirius was stunned by this news. They were going to give him responsibility? As if he had nothing else to do. Well, yes, he didn't, but that wasn't the point. He was about to refuse when his gaze fell on Severus.
"I want a little rabbit. I could handle that."
Severus didn't think much of it at the time, thinking that Black was trying to provoke him, not for the first time.
But Sirius was brought a rabbit, black, as he had requested, and Black placed its cage in the living room and removed any furniture under which the animal could crawl and get stuck, so that he could let the rabbit run around the room.
"His name is Sevi," said Sirius when he brought the rabbit to Severus to show him, holding it in his hands, and the little animal snorted discontentedly. "He doesn't like being in the air."
Sirius added, without taking his eyes off Severus.
Severus didn't want to know what was going on between Sirius and his rabbit, but Black himself willingly recounted how he played with Sevi, how he became Padfoot and chased the frightened rabbit, which couldn't escape, how he pinned it to the ground and let it go to play again. Severus' tongue itched to utter all the curses he knew, but he held back.
It seemed that Black hated this animal, but later Severus caught sight of Sirius sitting on the floor, holding the rabbit in his hands, this time not so afraid of the height, raising it above his face, imitating the movements of the rabbit's nose, sniffing too. Sirius smiled then, and then laughed happily, immediately apologising when the rabbit seemed to get scared.
"Sorry, Sevi," Sirius said, putting the rabbit down.
Perhaps Black wasn't telling the whole truth about how he felt about his pet. It was cute, Severus thought.
Sirius often thought of killing Sevi, throwing him to Snape as a warning, as a threat, especially after each of their quarrels, but it was just a rabbit, it had nothing to do with Snape, even if Sirius himself had connected them.
"You know, 'Sevi' comes from 'Severus', so tiny, such easy prey," Sirius said once, pressing on the rabbit's ears, causing Sevi to jump away from him in displeasure. Sirius pulled the rabbit back towards him again, not letting it go far.
That day, they almost fought like two children. Sirius was already imagining how he would pull Snape's hair and knock him to the ground, but Remus stepped between them, which Severus took advantage of to leave.
"Your nanny is calling you, it's time for me to go," Snape said before walking out into the corridor.
Black wanted to follow him to knock some sense into the man. Instead, he stayed, seething with rage, the desire to sink his teeth into someone's neck was stronger than ever.
But the day at the Ministry was the final straw. Sirius immediately got up when he heard that Harry was in danger. He was already on his way out of the room when something caught on his robe, a slight tug that caught his attention. The rabbit held the fabric between its teeth, pulling Sirius as if trying to stop him. Sirius did not think twice, turning to Padfoot to bite the rabbit's neck, he left a visible wound on the animal's neck, stepped back, turned human again, and left, closing the door behind him, never to open it again.
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