Hello guys, long time no see. I may take a while to update at times, but I definitely will finish this story because a few of my friends in real-life are reading this and if I don't they will kill me.

Hope you enjoy this chapter, things are starting up again!


Sirius groaned, rubbing his eyes and then slowly opening them. He felt well-rested for the first time in what seemed like years. However, he had not deigned to change his clothes after his shower, which he could see now was a bad decision; they now clung to him uncomfortably.

Slowly he sat up, wishing as he did so for a new set of clothes. They appeared on the floor around a foot from his bed, causing Sirius to groan again at the unnecessary effort of getting out of the bed. It was extremely comfortable.

After a while of deliberating whether getting out of bed was worth the effort, the clinging shirt eventually made his mind up for him. He swivelled his legs over the side of the bed and stood, pulling off his shirt and discarding it in a messy heap.

Something caused him to still, however. As his hand had brushed over his neck, Sirius could have sworn he had felt something there. He lowered his hand and touched his neck inquisitively, furrowing his eyebrows in confusion when he felt a small line of raised skin where his neck met his shoulders.

Now completely awake, Sirius pulled his hair completely over the other shoulder, wishing for a mirror and standing in front of it when it appeared. He rotated slightly on the heels of his feet, sucking his breath in sharply when his gaze hit the mirror.

A deep red scratch – a short scratch, mind you, but still a scratch – was extremely noticeable against his oddly pale skin. Touching it once again, Sirius noticed that he felt no pain from it, and only got an odd tingling sensation.

He pushed his hair back to conceal it from sight, a slow panic rising in his chest. He fought to swallow it; nothing had happened to him until now, so surely it was just a normal scratch? He must have caught his neck on something. Did they even have evidence that a scratch could spread the disease? In fact, the more he thought about it, the reasons to be worrying slowly dropped.

Eventually his breath returned to an even pace, and Sirius decided (with difficulty) not to panic. Slowly, he pushed open the wooden door that led back into the main area.

…And nearly walked into the path of an extremely violent sneeze.

Sirius stepped back at lightning pace. "Keep your germs to yourself, Evans!"

Lily, strangely, looked quite sheepish. "Sorry. I've been sneezing all morning, I must have a cold. To tell you the truth, I'm not sure how I did, and for some reason the room won't let me require to not have a cold." She frowned. "Just letting you know, Black, since we seem to be in the same living quarters. Not that it's any of your business." Her small speech was ended by an equally violent sneeze as the one before, causing Sirius to retreat hurriedly.

"Should I start wearing a surgeon's mask?" he asked Remus in an undertone, who just so happened to be walking along with a cup of tea in his hand.

Remus shrugged.

Sirius raised an eyebrow. "How come you always have cups of tea? How did you even manage to get tea? Do you, like, piss tea or something?"

Remus gave him an odd look. "That would be painful if it was scalding hot. A lovely mental image."

About to reply, Sirius was abruptly distracted by a sudden pain where the scratch was. Hissing, he slapped his hand there and held it tightly for a moment, releasing it when the pain receded almost as quickly as it had come.

Remus was regarding him with concern. "Are you all right?"

Sirius shook himself. "Yeah – I'm fine."

"Do you want me to have a look – " Raising an arm, Remus stepped forwards worriedly.

Sirius batted his hand away swiftly, trying to ignore the slightly hurt look in his friend's eyes. "I'm fine." He turned to talk to James, who had conveniently just walked out his own bedroom. Unfortunately he seemed to be going to talk to Lily, and Sirius was not talking to her; it was a well-known fact that Sirius Black did not like colds. Instead he simply just ambled over to the sofa and sat there awkwardly.

Remus watched him amusedly.

Sirius coughed and scratched his ear, trying not to notice Remus's slowly growing grin.


"Cold getting better?" James asked Lily concernedly, placing himself a safe distance away.

Lily sneezed, then gave a dry smile. "I wouldn't say so. I would stand a bit further away, Potter, I don't think it would do us much good if you got a cold too."

James shrugged. "Thought you might want a bit of company. I think the other two are terrified of colds, they'll never go near someone who has one. It's a bit weird."

"Black is a bit weird, Remus just has common sense," Lily reminded him. "And since you don't seem to have any, I'm just going to ask how you got here, and why when I woke up there was a large Labrador on top of me."

"I'd say he likes you. Me and Pads – "

"Pads and I," Lily corrected him absentmindedly.

"Yes, that. We found Bobsleigh – that's what he's called – while we were wandering around the halls. We lost him for a bit."

Lily nodded. "He came here, but then he left and we sealed off the room so nothing else could come in, except for you two."

"That must be how he knew you were here!" James told her. "He led us here. He deserves a treat, he's been groovy."

Lily raised her eyebrows. "Groovy?"

James held his hands out defensively. "Hey, I'm trying to expand my vocabulary!"

Lily gave a sceptical sneeze. James didn't even know how that was possible, but it was Lily and she could do everything. Even put emotion into her sneezes.

"That was impressive," he told her at last.

She smiled. "Thanks."


I like everyone being together. I don't have to write two stories at once.

Sneak Peek: I'm going to have to do that again soon, sort of. But I don't think I'll make these guys be separated again. Or maybe I will. Never tell!

Sneak Peek 2: You wonder how this apocalypse started? You may find out sooner. Or maybe later. Depending on how well I can integrate it into the story.

Please review! The more the reviews, the faster the update!