Hot and Cold
Sirius was always warm. He gave off heat like a fireplace, radiating warmth in all directions. Normally Hermione found this pleasant, but inevitably the two ended up sleeping with a blanket in between them, Hermione only partially covered and Sirius wrapped up entirely.
Snuggling sessions usually never lasted as long as Hermione would have liked because if covers were involved at all, within a matter of minutes Hermione was overheated.
But now he was so cold.
Hermione was the cold one. Rational, logical. Normal body temperature of around 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit at any given time. So the way he was now, skin slightly chilled to the touch and so, so still, was wrong and frightening and awful. As she sobbed and screamed and shook, hands grabbing at his shoulders, the now-distant rational part of herself whispered, No use. Dead. Cold. No use.
"SIRIUS!"
Hermione woke in her bed, left gasping by the clarity of her nightmare and shaking from the cold. She pressed a few fingers to her lips and knew she had cried out, probably waking Sirius-
She was cold.
Hermione flipped hurriedly around to face Sirius' side of the bed, tangling the sparse bit of blanket she claimed for herself in her legs. Her blood froze in her veins to find the blankets pushed back, the bed empty. For a heart-stopping second all was silent and chilled; then Hermione heard Sirius' familiar gait hurrying to their bedroom door.
The door creaked open quickly, Sirius stepping in with his wand at his side. Hermione's blood thawed. "Hermione?"
She sat up. "Sirius? You're- oh. I'm sorry, I had a bad dream." She swallowed, her throat dry. "Why aren't you asleep?" she croaked.
Sirius slowly put his wand away, still watching her carefully. "Couldn't sleep. Had a bad dream myself, actually."
"Oh," she sighed. She patted the mattress beside her. "James?"
"Yeah," Sirius answered a little hoarsely, looking haunted.
He closed the bedroom door and eased into bed, pulling the covers back over himself. Hermione lifted the blanket and pressed herself against him, sighing with relief as the remnants of her nightmare's unnatural cold were cuddled away. This time she lasted several minutes longer than she normally did before she was finally forced to inch away into the cooler night air.
Fin -Marlicat