Sirius heard someone murmuring. He turned over and opened his eyes slightly. His vision was fuzzy. He could see a beautiful girl with long, golden, flowing hair sitting beside him. She must have been and angel.
"Am I dead?" he asked softly.
The beautiful angel didn't reply.
"No mate! But Peter thought you might have been", said a familiar voice from his other side, "See I told you he'd pull through, his legs aren't even broken anymore".
Sirius moved his head to turn slowly to his other side. Another person was there. He could make out their face; thin and tanned, with black, square glasses. It looked a lot like James Potter. It was James Potter.
"What happened?" Sirius asked his best friend groggily.
"You took a Bludger to the head. McCormack's fault, stupid git", Explained James.
"I- did we lose?" Sirius groaned, sitting up on a soft white pillow which had been conveniently placed behind his head.
It appeared that he was in the Hospital Wing. He was lying in a bed, surrounded by the Gryffindor team, his friends, and some other supporters from the match. How long it had been since the match in question had finished, Sirius had no clue. All he knew was that his legs felt slightly numb, and that he had a bandage around his head. He looked down and realised that he was wearing his Quidditch robes, which were spattered with dirt and blood.
"No, it's okay, Andrea caught the Snitch just before you were hit", said Remus, who was also there. Andrea nodded to him from the back of the group surrounding his bed.
"Hit?" Sirius asked, he was unsure of what had happened to him.
"By a Bludger, what else do you think?" said James.
"Blimey, I don't feel like it" Sirius felt the bandage around his head. His skull felt a little tender, but other than that, he felt no effect of supposedly being hit by a Bludger.
"That's because Madam Pomfrey healed you straight away", explained Peter, who was sitting in a chair beside Remus, "She said something about bone damage being easy to fix".
"I think she told us that you would be okay", started Remus, "because you only had broken bones in your legs, which weren't shattered too badly, miraculously, and that your skull was only minorly fractured. Basically, soft tissue damage was not a big issue, and she healed you as soon as you came in, you should be fine now. How's your head, by the way?"
"It's- it's fine" as Sirius took in Remus's explanation, his recollections of previous events started to trickle back into his un-fogging mind.
He remembered stopping the last goal. He also remembered a flash of grey speeding towards him, followed by an explosion of pain in the left side of his head. He even thought that he could vaguely recall hanging onto the goal hoop for dear life, and then slipping into unconsciousness.
"So I fell from the goal hoop? And then broke my legs?" he asked his friends.
"Yeah" said Frank, "It looked really painful".
"But you were passed out, weren't you?" asked Peter, looking anxious at the thought of being awake while suffering such an injury.
"Well, you're okay now, at least", said James, and Sirius recognised a look of suppressed anger on his friend's face, "No thanks to that sod, McCormack".
"It was his fault!" Sirius remembered the Beater's poor performance, "Billson had to hit them all away! He had his eyes on the other Bludger when the other hit me in the side of my bloody head! When I get out of here, I swear on Merlin's beard, I'm going to kill that prat!"
"No need, I kicked him off the team, right in front of everyone", said James, "His ego's quite damaged. Although his face can't be spoken for yet..."
"So, you were saying about my legs?" Sirius asked them urgently.
"Well you were unconscious, so you shouldn't have felt it..." James said slowly.
"When you let go of the goal post, you, um, kind of fell down to the ground snapping your legs in the process", Remus followed, "James swore he heard the crunch".
Peter said nothing. He just looked green at the thought of it.
"Oh.." Sirius ripped back the covers to reveal a pair of perfectly fine legs.
He moved them and bent them back and forth. They worked great too. He felt his head again, and it remained in it's previous state of only slight tenderness.
"Madam Pomfrey pulled out all the stocks, you're good as new", said James happily.
Sirius turned back around to see that the angel was actually a pretty girl with long blonde hair sitting in a chair, surrounded by the Quidditch team and people who he assumed were her friends. He wondered if Madam Pomfrey would let him out now that he was all mended, but decided that it really didn't matter if she would or not, because he felt fine, and the others had assured him that he had been healed properly.
"Well now that everything isn't broken anymore, let's go celebrate", Sirius said happily.
"Of course", agreed James.
The whole group surrounding the bed erupted into excited talking. Gideon and Fabian started making plans then and there to retrieve large stocks of butterbeer from the kitchens.
"Out! Out!" shouted and annoyed looking Madam Pomfrey, who had just emerged from her office at the sound of voices.
"Even me?" asked Sirius incredulously.
"Yes, just get out, you're too noisy!" she said.
Sirius jumped out of bed and strode out of hospital wing. He walked along with James, Remus and Peter, while the others hurried past the four of them, wanting to get to the post-match party that had possibly already half started.
"Hey, Gideon! Wait up", called James to the red haired boy, "Alright if I come with you and Fabian to the kitchens? I know a few snacks the House Elves are great at making, I need to ask for some".
Gideon nodded his consent.
"See you in a bit, mate", said James to Sirius, flashing him a smile and hurrying after the twins.
"Wait for me!" called Peter, dashing after the three others.
Remus sighed, "Mind if I go with them?"
"No, I think I'll take it slow to the tower", said Sirius, whose legs were feeling strange and slightly wobbly.
"Are you sure?" Remus asked again, "It's just that I have a few requests for the kitchen too".
"I'm fine, go ahead", Sirius said, and Remus started to walk away quickly, "Just be sure to get me some of those eclairs!"
"Okay!" Remus called back, as he descended a flight of stairs.
Sirius was left to continue his somewhat slow journey to the Gryffindor tower by himself. He looked down at his legs as he walked. Nothing about them looked off, he assumed that the strange feeling in them was simply from the stress of healing completely in the space of a few hours. As he looked, he noticed that his robes were quite disgusting. There was blood down the front, starting at his left shoulder, from where his head had been hit. His hair was a bit matted on the left side too. He pulled off his keeper gloves and held them in one hand, while he attempted to comb some of his blood from his hair with the other. He was picking a stray leaf from behind his ear when he was knocked off his feet by someone.
He sat up, momentarily disorientated. The person who had run into him had sent his Keeper gloves flying. A brown shoulder bag lay on the floor next to the person who had made him fall over. It was Ariella Hartley, a girl with whom Sirius shared many of his classes. She was wearing a Gryffindor scarf and a red cardigan, evidently dressed for the match, and her dark brown hair was up in a pony-tail.
"Sorry!" she exclaimed, getting up from the floor and gathering her bag onto her shoulder.
"It's alright", said Sirius, standing up himself, "I'm used to falling today".
"Ha, yeah", smiled Ariella. Sirius had never really noticed her before, but now that he looked at her smiling face, he saw that she was actually quite good-looking, "You haven't seen my friend, have you? I was looking for her. Kass Jarven?"
"Hm?" Sirius broke away from looking into her warm blue eyes, "I- no sorry. She's the short blonde one, right?"
"Yes, I suppose you could call her that", Ariella laughed a little, "Well, if you haven't seen her then-"
"No, wait- sorry" Sirius remembered the pretty blond girl from the hospital wing, and recognised her as Ariella's friend, "She headed back to the common room with the others who were in the hospital wing with me. I'm heading there now, if you want to come with me".
"Sure" said Ariella, hoisting her bag up a little higher on her shoulder and starting to walk along-side Sirius.
"Aren't you usually hanging around with James Potter and his friends?" asked Ariella, as they neared the common room.
"Yeah, but they've gone to the kitchens" explained Sirius, walking up some stairs.
"I thought you would have gone too", said Ariella.
"My legs weren't up too it yet" he smiled.
"I see", said Ariella, as they stopped outside the Fat Lady's portrait, "Nissius".
She gave the password, and the Fat Lady swung open to reveal a rather fine post-match party, with laughter and loud music.
"See you, then" Ariella smiled again, before disappearing into the growing mass of dancing bodies that had filled the common room.
##
Half an hour later, after James, Gideon, Fabian, Remus, and Peter had raided the kitchens (bringing back Sirius's eclairs, much to his happiness), the post-match party was in full swing. A large gramophone sat in the corner playing loud music, a song from the popular wizarding punk band, the Six Jinxes. Little coloured musical notes floated out of the brass funnel and over the crowd of dancing Gryffindors.
Sirius was sitting in a squashy armchair by the fire with James, Remus, and Peter, finishing his butterbeer so that he could go and join the dancing. Other people had gathered around him, eager to learn of his battle with the Bludger.
"Sirius, tell us about that goal you stopped", said Miranda Grollings, who had been following him around for the last twenty minutes.
Sirius was not quite sure which goal she meant, and was growing tired of her constant admiring looks, so he downed that last of his butterbeer and got up. He left the chairs for the middle of the room, which substituted for the dance floor, with James, Remus, and Peter on his heels.
"Hey", Sirius said over the loud guitar playing from the gramophone, "Do you know that girl over there?"
"Which girl do you mean?" said James, smirking, "In case you haven't noticed, there are quite a few following you around..."
"No, I mean Ariella Hartley", explained Sirius, "She's in Potions with us".
"Oh. Nope, sorry mate, can't say I've spoken to her more than once", James said.
"I think she has Astrology with me", said Remus slowly.
"Right, well I'm going to talk to her", said Sirius.
Sirius made his way through the party, receiving pats on the back form his fellow Gryffindors as he went. He came to a corner where Ariella was sitting by herself.
"Hey", he said to her, "You enjoying the party?"
"Hello again", she said, "And yes, the party is pretty top notch".
"Where is your friend, Kass?" Sirius asked, wondering why Ariella was alone.
Ariella smiled wryly and nodded to where Kass was, sitting in an armchair, kissing a boy named Nicholas Faring.
"Oh", he said, raising his eyebrows and sitting himself down next to Ariella.
"So, what did you want?" she asked, looking at him inquiringly.
"I- nothing. I just thought I'd say hello", when Sirius thought about it, he didn't really know why he'd come over to talk to her. It wasn't like he was her friend, and now he felt slightly awkward, at a loss for something to say.
"Well that's very nice of you" she smiled.
"Do- do you want to dance?" Sirius asked, before knowing he would say it.
"With you? Or- or just in general?" asked Ariella, a strange look of unsureness crossing her face.
"It doesn't matter actually. I- I mean-" Sirius exhaled, he did not usually speak this awkwardly with people, "I just hope you're enjoying the party".
"Oh, yeah, I am, thanks" Ariella smiled at him again.
He just sort of backed away into the mass of dancing students, trying to find his way back to his friends. When he found Peter and Remus, they both looked slightly exasperated- Remus the most. Peter looked a little amused. Sirius gave them a bewildered look, at which Remus motioned towards the foot of the girls' dormitory stairs. James stood there, looking down-hearted, and when Sirius's eyes flashed towards the entrance of the dormitories, he caught a glimpse of dark red hair before the door slammed.