Disclaimer - Usual. I don't own anything in the Harry Potter 'verse.
Chapter 11
Though only a short time passed while James, Peter and Andromeda waited for word from Madam Pomfrey, it seemed like forever. But finally the curtain was pulled back and she walked up to them.
"He's resting," she said in a bothered tone. Madam Pomfrey always was protective of her patients.
"Can we see him, please?" James asked, nearly begging.
Madam Pomfrey surveyed the group before her and decided to cave. "Five minutes. And not a minute more."
They walked up to Sirius' bed. "And I thought you looked bad last month," James joked. Sirius looked pale and shaken, and his eyes were red and puffy, but there was no other sign of injury.
Sirius smiled, "I'm still better looking than you."
James snorted, but Andromeda rolled her eyes. "I see getting hit didn't affect your ego at all," Andromeda smiled, than looked at her cousin intently. "How are you doing, Sirius?" She asked, as she sat down in a chair next to his bed.
"Fine. Good, even. Madam Pomfrey really knows what she's doing. She's a little fussy, but…" Sirius trailed off.
James started fidgeting with the blanket on Sirius' bed. Having a good idea that he was about to upset his friend, James didn't look Sirius in the eye when he said, "So… Professor McGonagall said that if you tell her what happened, she can look into…"
"Nothing happened. I got too close to the Whomping Willow."
James stopped fidgeting and looked at Sirius angrily. "What do you mean nothing happened? Peter told me that Bella planned to attack you. I somehow don't believe that she just happened to be around when you decided to go blind and wander within reach of a deadly tree!"
It was Sirius' turn not to look his friend in the eye. "It is what it is, mate."
"You… What…" James stood aghast, unable to respond for a moment. "Do you want to die? Is that what it is?"
"What? No! It's just… The school can't do anything, so whatever I say will just be seen as me causing trouble."
"Not to mention weak," Andromeda threw in. She knew she'd hit the mark of what he was really thinking when Sirius winced at the word "weak."
He looked at her a moment and then continued, "Besides, I have to live with these people. Live. Like, when I go home. The school's not going to be there then. And next year, I won't have to worry about Bella anymore. This is her last year here."
"What about Narcissa?" Peter asked.
Andromeda spoke up again. "She's not like our sister. I mean, don't get me wrong. She's a Slytherin, through-and-through. But she, at least, has a heart. I think she follows Bella around because she's afraid of her."
"So… what? You're going to get the snot beat out of you every month until June? You've gotta say something, man," James urged.
"Hey, it gives me something to look forward to every month," Sirius smirked.
James just shook his head. "You're a right git, you know that?"
"You just think that because I'm so handsome," Sirius snarked, causing James to groan.
He threw up his hands in defeat. "I give up. You're supposed to be smart, Andromeda. Can't you talk some sense into him?"
Andromeda smiled. "Oh no. You have no idea how stubborn he can get."
"I'm getting that," James said.
"But… could I speak with Sirius alone?" she asked very politely.
James looked at Sirius, who nodded. "Right. We'll be over there." James grabbed Peter's arm and dragged him back to the waiting area.
"So are you okay?" Andromeda asked again. "And I'm not talking physically. I know Madam Pomfrey is very good."
Sirius looked at his cousin, contemplating his response. Really, he hadn't had much time to think about how he was feeling. He had been scared, then in incredible amounts of pain, then surrounded by people that actually cared about him. "Yeah," he smiled, "Yeah, I actually am."
Andromeda appraised him and seemed to be satisfied that he was telling the truth. "What are you going to do?"
Sirius shook his head. "I don't know. How do you do it?"
"Well, I don't antagonize Bella, for one. But our situations really aren't the same, and you know it."
"Do you ever get tired of being different?" Sirius asked his cousin. Bella had been right about one thing, the others would never totally understand him. He didn't understand himself; he couldn't expect them to.
Andromeda weighed this question in her mind before answering, "Sometimes. But then I remember that they're wrong, and I'm not really that different from other people - just my blood. And, despite what they say, blood isn't everything... But you know that, too."
"Yeah." Sirius' eyes started to water and he rubbed them. "I'm pretty tired," he said, covering for his moment of weakness.
Andromeda nodded and leaned forward to give Sirius a hug. Then she kissed the top of his head, "I love you, little cousin." Sirius just nodded because he wasn't sure he trusted his voice.
Much to his relief, Sirius was saved further confrontation with his friends when Madam Pomfrey came in and shooed Andromeda toward the door, telling all three of his visitors they could come back later to visit.
Sirius looked around the hospital wing and noticed there was only one other occupant. The curtains were drawn around a bed at the other end of the large room. He wondered, vaguely, who the other person was and how sick he was to be so secluded. But soon his fatigue overtook him and he fell asleep.
- - - - -
Remus was awake, doing his class work, when there was a commotion at the other end of the hospital room. He got down quietly and peaked out from behind his curtained cubicle. His heart started to race when he recognized the form of the boy Hagrid was carrying. His first instinct was to go find out what had happened, but he quickly remembered that his friends thought he was at home. He ducked behind the curtain just as he heard James yell at someone from the waiting area. He listened as hard as he could and snippets of conversation floated to him, but they were too far away to get a clear understanding of what occurred.
He could, however, deduce what had happened. He saw Bellatrix, Rodolphus, Lucius, and Narcissa were all present, along with another pretty girl he'd only seen in the halls. She was a Ravenclaw and appeared to be in some distress. Remus thought that had to be Sirius' other cousin, the only one he spoke well of - Andromeda. He heard James call someone a liar, and he caught the words "Whomping Willow." Remus wasn't sure if the tree had actually hit Sirius, or if that was just what the quartet was using as an excuse for Sirius' injuries, but he knew Sirius had been attacked... again. Remus felt a pang of empathy, knowing what it was like to be faced with circumstances beyond your control – circumstances that seemed intent on causing pain.
The next thing he heard was James yelling at Sirius to report what had happened. By James' aggravation, he guessed Sirius wasn't going to comply. Some struggles weren't meant to be public.
Remus settled himself in his bed and went back to doing his class work. There was nothing he could do. He also needed to make sure that Sirius had no reason to get curious about who was behind the curtain, so he stayed as quiet as he could. He wasn't quite sure what he would do if Sirius was going to spend the night. They would both be due to return to the general population at the same time, but he couldn't be seen leaving the hospital wing with no real explanation of how he got there.
At supper time, Remus whispered to Madam Pomfrey, "How is Sirius?"
"He'll be just fine, dear."
"Madam Pomfrey…" Remus hesitated, "When will he be leaving the hospital wing?" Madam Pomfrey gave Remus a curious look. "It's… He thinks I'm at home. With my parents. That's what I told my friends."
"I see," she replied. She looked at Remus thoughtfully. "We can have him out of here before you're ready to go. He should be fine by morning."
"Thank you," Remus said with a guilty smile.
Madam Pomfrey turned to go, but hesitated. She turned back to Remus and said, "My dear, some burdens are meant to be shared."
Remus watched her go, and thought about what she said. She was probably right, he thought, starting the old debate in his head of who to tell and when. If nothing else, his friends deserved to know the truth about him. In the end, he decided he was just a coward, and wondered why he had been put into Gryffindor in the first place.
- - - - -
Sirius awoke with a start in the middle of the night. He heard grunting and groaning coming from the bed at the other end of the hospital room. The occupant must be having a nightmare. He debated what to do for a moment – call Madam Pomfrey, or try to wake the boy (as it obviously was by the sound of the voice) himself.
Sirius had just decided to try to wake the boy himself, and was getting out of bed, when Madam Pomfrey entered the room in her night clothes, holding a candle.
"Back in bed!" she commanded, and bustled down to the other end of the room.
In the stillness and quietness of the night, sound traveled a little clearer than it did during the day. Sirius heard Madam Pomfrey try to calm the boy. "Shh, child. You're all right. You're safe." When this did not work as well as she hoped, Madam Pomfrey said, "You need to wake up now, child. Come on. Wake up, Remus." There was a final jostling as the boy woke up, but Sirius' mind had suddenly stalled and he didn't hear anything else.
Did she just say "Remus"? Couldn't be. What are the odds that another student at Hogwarts shares that name? His mind began to race with musings as to whether that was "their" Remus or a different one. And if it was "their" Remus, what was he doing at school? Had he gotten ill? Had he lied to begin with? Was it really him who was sick? After all, he did often look a bit peaked.
Long after Madam Pomfrey had gone back to bed, Sirius' mind was still racing. At last, he couldn't restrain his curiosity any more, so he got quietly out of bed and stole down to the other end of the room. He paused outside the curtain. Part of him did not want the person on the other side to be Remus. If it was, that meant he'd lied to them – to him.
Sirius reached out and pulled back the curtain and found himself staring into very familiar yellow-hazel eyes.
- - - - -
A/N - Thanks to all my awesome reviewers. You bring joy to this little fan-writer's heart. Thank you, thank you. Keep up the good work. ;) Thanks also to my editors - Mom and mei mei, and my beta - J.A.Carlton (if you like the tv show Supernatural, check out her stuff. She rocks!) Thanks to all.
