Carry You Over To A New Morning

The room was unnecessarily bright, Mrs Black felt. She pursed her lips together tightly and uncrossed her legs, pressing them softly against the floor. Next to her, all of Regulus's four-year-old body was pretending not to be in the room. He'd been doing rather a lot of that lately. She'd have a word with him as soon as they were done here.

Finally, the door opened and she stood up, righting her back. It made her look taller than she actually was. The Healer in the doorway didn't seem to notice her, however; he was looking down at the parchment that had appeared in front of him the moment he stepped into the room.

Mrs Black waited patiently until he was done. Healer Wilkes had been tending to their family for years; he'd been handpicked by Orion. She liked him well enough, as long as he did his job. The parchment moved away to reveal not Wilkes, but an entire different person.

'And who,' Mrs Black asked, her voice just on the edge of polite, 'might you be?'

The Healer smiled and entered the room, his robes swirling around him. The purple, squiggly writing on his chest revealed his name; and the fact that he had a much lower position in the hospital than Wilkes. He also looked extremely young. He couldn't possibly be more than eighteen.

'I'm Remus Lupin, Mrs Black,' the Healer said kindly, stepping forward and nodding to her politely. The parchment followed him as he made his way towards the bed.

Pureblood, Mrs Black thought. At least that.

'It says here you fell off the stairs?'

He addressed the question not to her, Mrs Black realised with a sickening jolt, but to her eldest son, Sirius, who had been the reason they were in this blasted hospital in the first place. This Healer had spoken directly to her son without being asked. How indecent. Sirius looked utterly bewildered.

Her nostrils flared. 'Pardon me,' she said icily, gliding over to the bed and glaring at the second assistant-Healer. She put her hand on Sirius's. 'We shall wait until Healer Wilkes has returned. You may leave.'

'That's such a cool scar,' Sirius blurted out in admiration, gesturing at the scar on Lupin's cheek, which featured a jagged line shaped a bit like glass.

Lupin grinned. Walburga tightened her grip on Sirius's hand, and he fell quiet.

'I think you'll find most of the staff indisposed at the moment, Mrs Black,' Lupin told her. 'There was a large explosion in the middle of Diagon Alley and all non-lethal cases have been re-assigned.'

'I wouldn't much care even if the whole hospital had been filled with people. We pay a first rate price to receive first rate care, here,' she said, her jaw clenched. 'My son needs looking at, and he needs looking at now.'

'I am looking at him now, Madam,' Lupin said calmly. 'From what I've heard, a Head Healer might not be available for another three hours. In this time you would, of course, risk permanent damage to your son's spine, often resulting in deformities.' Sirius's hand twitched underneath hers, and she tightened her grip. 'But if you would rather wait until Healer Wilkes is available, I will take my leave.'

He bowed once, as the Healers always did to private, out-care patients, and started to make his way out of the room.

Mrs Black heaved a great sigh of impatience and said, though it pained her to do so, 'All right, you may proceed.'

Lupin turned around and gave her a polite smile. She felt a tug at her robes and she looked down.

'I would like something to eat, please, Mother,' Regulus said, rushed and practised.

'Yes, me too,' Sirius said, looking relieved. Too relieved. Her eyes narrowed and she realised the tinkle she'd heard just now had been the sound of galleons being pushed into Regulus's hands. Sirius had paid his little brother to bully her into getting him some food. If she hadn't been annoyed at this Lupin boy, she might've been proud of his Slytherin manner of thinking.

'We shall wait until your brother is done,' she told Regulus.

'No, I'm hungry now,' Regulus insisted, and there was a stubborn note to his voice Walburga most certainly didn't like.

'Regulus, go sit back down,' she said, and her tone made it clear there wasn't any room for discussion.

'No,' Regulus said angrily. There was a crackle of magic in the air and before she could open her mouth, all the lamps in the room were shattering, including the one on the nightstand next to Sirius's bed. Sirius ducked out of the way, and the sound of glass bouncing off a magical barrier was heard. When the thick cloud of smoke cleared, Mrs Black realised it had been because second assistant-Healer Lupin had warded the room a split-second before Regulus's magic had exploded out of him.

Regulus was shaking, his little frame drawing in shuddering breaths, his cheeks a dark red. The lamps in the room, as if attached to an invisible cord, slowly started piecing themselves together again with a wave of Lupin's wand.

'You better take him to get something to eat in the Tearoom,' Lupin told her. 'That's an awful lot of focused magic for such a young child. It's likely your son will faint in the next few minutes from the strain.'

'Fine,' she said, tugging Regulus up and into her arms. He buried his nose into her neck. 'When I get back, I expect everything to be in perfect order.' And then she was out of the room, slamming the door behind her.

Remus Lupin let out a low whistle.

'She's a right piece of work,' he said under his breath, lifting the protection spell around Sirius's bed with a wave of his hand and moving to stand by him.

'Er,' was Sirius's response.

Lupin only smiled at him. 'You fell off the stairs?' he asked again, and Sirius nodded. 'Sirius, was it? Six, are you?'

Sirius nodded again, grinning toothily.

'All right, Sirius. Where does it hurt?'

'My back,' Sirius listed, quickly, as if he'd learned it by heart, 'my toes, my chest and my arm and – and my stomach.'

'Your stomach hurts?' Lupin repeated, looking very amused, as he leaned forward to examine Sirius's shoulder.

'Yes,' Sirius responded, as if this was perfectly logical. 'It's hungry.'

'I see,' Lupin smiled, pulling back. He dug into his robes and produced a bar of Honeyduke's Finest (chocolate that makes you wish for more!). Sirius's eyes widened and his mouth fell open a little.

'Tell you what. I'll let you have this,' Lupin went on to say, 'but only if you lie perfectly still while I heal you.'

Sirius nodded eagerly and scrambled up to the bed as best as he could. True to form, he was as still as a statue; he didn't even so much as flinch when Remus healed the fractured bone in his right foot after some careful prodding to locate the specific bone that had broken. Remus got the vaguely uncomfortable idea this boy had been told not to move far too many times.

When he was done, he handed Sirius the chocolate bar. Sirius was halfway through the second row of honey-and-caramel chocolate when Mrs Black and Regulus returned. Remus, meanwhile, had been noting down the injuries on the parchment, which was still hovering in mid-air. Mrs Black went to stand beside him, Regulus appearing next to her, absurdly quiet as he finished the scone in his hands. Remus couldn't even hear him chew.

'Sirius will need lots of bed rest in the next week,' Lupin told her. 'He's had a nasty fall.'

Mrs Black, however, ignored him completely and was looking at Sirius. 'Sirius, what is that you're eating? Hand it over,' she said shortly.

Sirius looked mighty disappointed and almost defiant as he finished chewing.

'I won't ask again, Sirius,' Mrs Black said, her voice carrying a nasty tone of warning that made Remus think unlikely thoughts, like she'd been the reason Sirius fell off the stairs in the first place. However, Sirius handed her the chocolate bar without protest, though his eyes were filled with resignation.

'A word, Mr Lupin,' she said, rounding on Remus. Remus gave a cheerful little wave to Sirius, who grinned back, and ruffled Regulus's hair. Regulus looked affronted and was still smoothing out his hair when the door fell shut behind Remus.

'What is this?' Mrs Black demanded, brandishing the chocolate at him. 'Since when is it your job to feed your patients, Mr Lupin?'

'It's not regular chocolate, Mrs Black,' Remus explained patiently. 'It's laced with a numbing potion. As your son's spine was fractured in three places and he had the misfortune of suffering a broken foot to boot, I would strongly suggest you give it back to him.'

Mrs Black's face was dangerously blank. For a moment, Remus thought she might hit him. She didn't, in the end, but she still looked sour as she thanked him for his attention. Giving the chocolate back to him, she informed him that she was going to arrange their journey home.

When she had rounded the corner, Remus went back into the room.

Regulus had fallen asleep on one of the chairs, but Sirius looked up, his eyes half-lidded with pain.

'Catch,' Remus said, and Sirius stretched out his hand with some effort. He caught the chocolate, however, and Remus smiled.

'Be sure to finish it all.'

'Wragsk,' Sirius responded, around a mouthful, the pain in his eyes fading again.

'And promise I won't see you here again,' Remus said.

Sirius nodded, smiling up at him.

Of course, it was hardly a promise the boy could keep, being only six. When Head Healer Wilkes retired, Remus was not only awarded higher rank, but was also given some of Wilkes' patients. Still, he was surprised when the first patient he was scheduled to see after his promotion turned out to be Sirius Black.

Sirius had grown since Remus had last seen him. He was about nine now, maybe ten. When Remus saw Sirius sitting on the bed, he got an unfortunate feeling in his stomach.

'Let's see here,' he said, glancing down at the parchment. Regulus wasn't here this time, but Mrs Black was, drumming her fingers impatiently on her lap. She looked too busy to be here, and interrupted what Remus was about to say next with a demand to use the nearest Floo connection.

'The next room over has a Floo connection, but I'm not sure –' Remus started, but before he could finish his sentence, Mrs Black had gone.

'Let's have a look, then,' Remus said, nearing the bed. Sirius looked up at him and Remus had to remind himself forcefully not to wince.

Sirius looked awful. He was cradling his left arm in his hand, his face was swollen. One of his eyes was black and his lip – Merlin, his lip was split. Actually split, not cut. Remus felt a surge of protective anger well in his stomach as he sat on the bed and asked his wand to scan Sirius's body for injuries.

'I'm sorry,' Sirius lisped, his lip bleeding profusely onto his robes, and Remus was startled out of his thoughts, looking down at him.

'What for?'

'I promised never to come back, didn't I?' Sirius said. He sounded sad and disappointed in himself. 'Father said it's vulgar to not live up to a promise when you're a Black.'

'Well,' said Remus, because he wasn't really sure what to say to that. He healed Sirius's injuries carefully, taking his time, his wand dragging softly over any patches of skin that the diagnostic spell had lit up a faint, comforting blue.

When Remus finished healing the boy's arm, Sirius flexed his fingers with a soft hiss. The damage to his hand had been older, nastier. It was almost like magic had seeped into his bones and had snapped them from the inside out. Someone had magically restored them, but oddly, wonkily, without too much care. It was almost deliberate.

'Do they work?' Remus asked, trying not to dwell too much on the implications of what that meant.

'Yes,' Sirius said, softly. 'Rotten luck, though. Means I'll have to start practising the piano again.'

Remus smiled. 'You might want to hold off on that for a little bit. It'll take a while for your hand to start working like it should again.'

Sirius grinned at him.

'Sirius,' Remus said softly, all of his Ravenclaw sensibility screaming at him not to, 'are you all right?'

Sirius looked startled, glancing up at him with innocent, round eyes. 'Yes,' he said eventually, carefully practised. 'Yes, I'm fine.'

'Have you quite finished?' Mrs Black asked, storming into the room with a distinct graceful air around her. 'We've got another appointment.'

'Yes, I'm sorry, Mrs Black,' Remus said, standing up and bowing politely. 'Please make sure that Sirius doesn't use his right hand –'

Mrs Black didn't appear to hear him at all, thanking him for his time and dragging Sirius out of the room by his injured hand. Sirius didn't even wince, but he did focus his unsettelingly bright grey eyes on Remus before the door fell shut behind them.

Remus closed his eyes. That was just the problem. As long as Sirius said he was fine, he couldn't do anything.