21. Only A Nightmare
"NO! No no no no no NOOOO!" Vienna moaned as Professor Slughorn drew up the seating chart for the class.
According to the chart she was supposed to sit in between Snape and James, while Lily Sirius and Matt Connelly, from Ravenclaw, were sitting at the opposite end of the room.
"Wait a sec, Professor," James piped. "You forgot about Remus!"
"Oh, sorry Mr. Lupin! You can sit next to Mr. Potter then."
"Why do we have assigned seats all the sudden?" Sirius asked glumly.
"It's to minimize, err, incidents like we had last year," he said evenly, referring no doubt to the time James and Sirius had blown up Snape's cauldron and drenched the class in poison, or the time that they had lit off Fillibuster's Fireworks and filled the room with Catherine Wheels or perhaps the time they filled the supply cupboard with a vat of horned toad guts that had been left from a detention the night before.
Funnily enough, he never gave them detention for skipping class.
The class took their seats, grumbling as they went. Vienna banged her head on the desk, punctuating each word with a bang. "This… is…so…unfair."
"Be careful, you might want to preserve the four or so brain cells you have left," Snape sneered.
James opened his mouth to retaliate but Vienna had already told him to shove his head somewhere anatomically improbable.
"I mean, that's the only explanation for it really, unless you're a total slag."
"Explanation for what?" she asked, ignoring the last comment.
Snape smiled. "So you really don't remember? Merlin, that's hysterical."
"What's hysterical?" Vienna said, sitting up.
"Nothing, he's just being stupid Vi," James said angrily. She looked between the pair of them, and then turned to Remus.
"Do you know what they're on about?" she asked, and he shook his head, looking angry.
"Honestly James, what is he babbling about?"
"Vienna, I told you it's nothing-"
"You didn't think it was nothing on the train," Snape said, clearly enjoying himself. "I heard you almost-" but his voice broke off suddenly, though his mouth continued to move.
"I almost what?" she asked angrily. "I almost what, Snape?"
But he just laughed silently and turned back to his cauldron. Then everyone turned to her and began laughing and the room began spinning.
"Honestly, how can she not remember?"
"Such a slag!"
"Stupid!"
The faces seemed to pop out at her, grotesque but still recognizable. They closed in, pushing at her and cackling.
"Stop it!" she cried. "Help me! Sirius!" She could see them through the crowd but he merely smiled and crossed his way to the broom closet, for now they were in the great hall and she was crying and she couldn't remember why.
"Sirius!" she called, but he just turned and smiled, his teeth fangs.
"Sorry love, but it's just better this way," he said before shutting the door and the floor was gone and she was falling. Falling.
Falling.
"Vienna! Vienna, wake up!" Sirius said and she jolted awake with a start. She was lying in the grass with Sirius's arms still wrapped around her, though the light had faded and the air had turned chilly.
"Vienna, it's ok," Sirius said soothingly and for the first time she realized that she was shaking and that there were tears pouring down her cheeks.
She buried her head into his shirt, not even quite knowing why she was falling to pieces.
"It was horrible," she said, her voice muffled against his chest.
"Shhh," he said, his arms tightening around her. "It's ok, it was only a nightmare."
She didn't know why she was acting like this. It wasn't as if she wasn't used to having nightmares. She'd had them for years after her family's deaths. But something just felt so real, so fresh, like she was digging at the surface of something still raw and bloody and painful.
"I'm sorry," she said quickly, her voice breaking. "I don't know what's happening. I just… I don't want to lose you and I feel as if I already have."
"It was only a nightmare," Sirius said soothingly. "Only a nightmare."