'Cause We Love Trouble: Chapter 2
Disclaimer: I own none of this and I'm absolutely certain none of this was the owner's intention for their characters. But...oh well!
Warnings: Will contain mature relationships. Sirius/Remus/Tonks (together, not separately). Also language! Language, if anything at this point, is the reason for the M rating...that will not always be the case! Fun stuff to come!
Notes: I think this is going to be fun. It's definitely going to be a lighter, fluffier story than I usual feel compelled to write. So let's see how it goes! Also, thanks for the feedback thus far, I am also very excited about stories where Sirius lives. Why did he have to die? Just to make sure Harry stays completely orphaned, so he can achieve whatever, it's such a Disney plot twist. No one in Disney is allowed happy family lives, it seems. But anyway, on to the next chapter!
A huge dark suffocating mass pressed in around Sirius. He struggled, desperate not to touch the sides, but they ballooned and bulged till they were inches away from his skin. Sirius had no idea why he did not want to touch the thing, but he could feel the dread. It wasn't the arctic cold of the Dementors, that left you feeling like all the air in the world was so frozen and too solid to respond when you tried desperately to breathe in. No, Sirius knew that feeling well. This was different. With Dementors you had the sense of something being...missing...which in and of itself was cause for hope, if you thought about it long enough. If there was something you could be missing, wasn't that all the more reason to hold on? Instead, the suffocating mass pressing in on him felt like absolute nothingness. And it was the most terrifying thing Sirius had ever experienced.
He was trapped, hemmed in on all sides by the dark thing. Sirius felt it touch his elbow, although it would be more accurate to say that Sirius no longer felt his elbow. Looking down he saw the pale skin fused to the blackness and when he tried to tug his arm away the fused skin stretched like rubber instead of seperating. He had no time to problem solve. As soon as he realized his elbow was lost the darkness touched his left knee, then the top of his shoulder and his long hair. His feet had been lost before he even noticed that the darkness had swept along the floor and was rising up over his knees.
Nothingness.
Absolute nothing.
Dread filled Sirius like helium in a balloon and he screamed. He was trapped, unable to move anymore as the black stuff rose ever higher, taking parts of him with it. It covered his shoulders from behind and dripped down his chest, meeting the rising ooze eating up his stomach. Sirius was no longer sure how he kept screaming, as it rose up the column of his throat, but the loud animalistic cry continued, half-crazed and panicked.
"Sirius! Sirius!"
Two voices struggled through the thick, nearly impenetrable darkness. A small synapse fired, telling Sirius he was still alive, in some capacity. And people were calling his name.
"Sirius, mate!"
There were hands on both of his shoulders, shaking him. Wait...shoulders? Weren't his shoulders swallowed up by the encroaching darkness? They were definitely being shaken rather enthusiastically now...
Crack! Sirius' eyes shot open and his hand flew to his cheek which was now burning slightly. A grey-brown blob and a nervous grey-lavender blob were hovering in front of his hazy eyes.
"Sirius, please wake up," said Tonks' voice, sounding frightened.
"I think you definitely woke him up, Nymphadora," replied Remus' voice. "You didn't have to slap him."
"Nothing else was working!"
"You're a witch! An Auror! You can't tell me they haven't taught you to deal with hysterical people."
"Hey," Sirius finally found his voice. It startled Remus and Tonks out of their bickering.
"Padfoot!" Remus exclaimed and hugged him around the shoulders. Remus' frame was slight, almost unhealthily so, but his grip was strong as he hugged the living daylights out of Sirius.
"I don't think I necessarily qualify as 'hysterical'," Sirius grunted playfully. The relief of finding himself alive and not alone was doing wonders for his mood. Tonks reached out and put her arm around his shoulder too, smiling quietly. They all relaxed in together for a second before each withdrawing from Sirius' personal space. Sirius was a bit sorry to feel them go, he had always been a physically affectionate person and it excited him to find that his friends were just as alright with casual touching as him.
"So," he began, feeling a bit embarrassed, "I guess I woke you guys up, huh?"
"You were screaming like a banshee," said Tonks flatly.
"Like Severus when you dyed his hair red and gold in fourth year," interjected Remus good humoredly.
"That's really not funny," snapped Tonks. "Severus is one of the most valuable members of the Order and he doesn't deserve your torments, either of you." This didn't stop either Remus or Sirius sniggering inwardly at the memory, it had been truly an inspired prank!
"We're sorry, Tonks," said Sirius, attempting to offer an olive branch. Tonks, he had found, abhorred bullying, which was what she considered Sirius and his friends' treatment of Severus during school to have been. He was the only person she refused to help Sirius prank; in her words Severus had, "had more than enough grief in this lifetime." Sirius didn't know what in particular irked Tonks about the games he played on Snape, but he had given up trying to get her to participate. There were always plenty of other people to prank!
Tonks snorted, not at all deceived by the handsome man's concession. So, smiling sweetly she pushed Sirius rather hard back onto his bed saying, "And now, it's time for us all to go back to bed, I think!"
Remus nodded and the two started to head out of Sirius' bedroom. At each step they took Sirius felt more and more disconcerted. He laid his head back onto his pillow and tried to relax. It had been a dream, hardly the worst thing he had ever faced. He was used to nightmares, after years of living in Azkaban he had little else to fill his mind with at night, but this one chilled him. The ceiling over his head was sagging slightly, a few spidery cracks stretched off in several directions creating a myriad of images for his frightened mind to see. This was not going to work.
Sirius pushed aside the light blue checked sheets and obnoxiously flowered comforter. There was absolutely no way he was going to get back to sleep tonight. Not with that thing still waiting in the back of his mind. He padded silently across the aging floorboards till he found the kitchen. Fortunately it was a fair ways from the bedrooms, so the lights he created were not going to disturb Remus and Tonks. Conspicuously alone in the first cupboard was a tin of coffee which Sirius pulled immediately. Coffee was definitely going to be key in surviving the rest of tonight and, probably, tomorrow too, since he was going to be running on about four hour's sleep.
The clock said 4:30am when Tonks came into the kitchen. Sirius wouldn't have heard her coming except she banged her toe against the kitchen door frame. Seriously, how had she passed the stealth portion of the Auror physical exams? Must have had incredible scores in the rest of it, the woman couldn't so much as draw breath without knocking something over. Sirius knew that Tonks would be covered in bruises if she did not choose to cover them up. She had showed him one lazy afternoon when they were hanging around Grimmauld Place. But being a Metamorphmagus had it's definite perks, she could cover up her blotchy shins and skinned elbows with ease. As she walked in he noticed her hair was back to it's normal pink, although it was a bit faded, owing, he surmised, to exhaustion.
"Coffee?" He proffered his brightly colored mug. Tonks nodded gratefully and sat opposite of him at the small, rickety kitchen table.
She grabbed up his mug and took a long swig out of it before saying, "Oh, I suppose I should make my own..." Tonks made to stand again but Sirius, fearing she would knock something over and wake up Remus, held up a hand to stop her. A flick of his wrist brought the coffee pot over and filled up the cup.
"We can share," he said.
Dawn slowly leaked in through the kitchen's windows as Sirius and Tonks passed the mug between themselves over and over again. They spoke quietly, not touching on difficult subjects, keeping everything light. But this attention was not awkward, as it could easily have been, the two just naturally strayed away from anything that might disturb the other. They chatted amicably through the remainder of the night. The pot had been refilled and the coffee re-brewed at least twice before they heard Remus start stirring in his bedroom.
When the werewolf finally shuffled tired into the kitchen he looked at Sirius and Tonks and the one mug of coffee between them.
"Did neither of you think to just grab an extra mug?" he asked, puzzled.
A light slowly dawned in the pair's eyes. Remus rolled his and grabbed two mugs. He sat one in front of Tonks, who was currently mug-less, the last sip having gone to Sirius, and one in front of the only empty chair. "Honestly, you two are supposed to be intelligent," he yawned before pouring out a new round of coffee for all.
Sirius reflected later that day, as he wandered around the property alone in the sun, that he was really glad Remus had seemed unperturbed by what he found when he woke up that morning. Not that Sirius had ever known Remus to be particularly jealous but there were some people who could have blown the whole situation out of proportion. James had been that type. Once, he had found Sirius chatting with Lily alone in the library, and it was just friendly, Sirius swore, but James had been in a snit for days. It was the only reason James had, as the unspoken leader of their group, chosen Snape as their prey. Lily had been oddly close to the Slytherin bookworm and James had been absolutely certain Snape had designs on her. And so began their feud.
But Remus wasn't like that. He could tell was competition and what wasn't and, moreover, he knew both Sirius and Tonks very well. He knew Sirius was a flirt and could differentiate between flirtacious Sirius and friendly Sirius. And he obviously loved and trusted Tonks whole-heartedly, otherwise he would not have let her around him with all of the risks involved. Sirius remembered trying desperately to get Remus to be jealous during their time a Hogwarts. He was positive the werewolf had had feelings for him but, try as he might, Sirius had never managed to get his friend to show it. I wonder if he remembers all the shit I used to pull, Sirius thought idly. Wonder if he knows why I did it? He laughed a little to himself. Well, he thought, if I ever get Remus to myself like I had Tonks this morning, I just might tell him! His face should be priceless!
Sirius had a crush on Remus? Juicy gossip! They are all such good friends, let's make them more, shall we?