Regulus was still sleeping when I woke up; I didn't blame him. He'd literally screamed himself to sleep the night before. Literally. He'd screamed and sobbed and destroyed most of the living room until he finally became too tired and fell asleep on the only couch still standing. I'd carried him to his room, before going back to my own.

On the upside, I didn't have any nightmares.

"Morning, Dad," I said, walking into the kitchen. Dad smiled wearily at me; the living room was back intact, thankfully, and Mum was sitting across from Dad. "Hullo, Mum. How's Sirius?"

"He's doing a lot better," Mum beamed. Relief coursed through me, and I grinned widely. "Where's Regulus? I heard he was a bit upset last night."

"A bit?" I snorted. "He destroyed the living room."

"So I saw," Mum chuckled.

"He's still out," I said, jerking my head towards the stairs. "Obviously, since he probably tired himself out last night."

"Well, hopefully he'll be in a better mood today," Mum sighed. "Of course, you still can't visit Sirius-"

"Why not!?" I exclaimed. "We could sneak in!"

"He's still in bad shape, Jamie," Mum said softly. "He's unconscious, too, so it's useless going to see him."

I scowled. "You said he was doing better."

"He is," Mum assured me. "And he'll be fine, James. But he's not perfectly healed yet."

Suddenly, there were several loud thuds, and moments later a disgruntled Regulus walked into the room, trying to straighten his hair.

"You're right," he grumbled. "Those stairs are evil."

Mum and Dad exchanged looks; Regulus caught them.

"Well," he said expectantly. "How's Sirius?"

Mum and Dad didn't respond. Regulus's expression immediately turned nervous. "He's okay, right?"

"He's getting better," I put in, understanding why Mum and Dad didn't want to tell Regulus but wanting the exact same thing he did. "But Mum says we can't visit him.

Regulus scowled, then sat beside me.

"At least," he muttered under his breath so my parents couldn't hear. "We can sneak out later."

"Agreed," I nodded. "I miss Sirius; it seems like he's always in the hospital."

"I know, sweetie," Mum sighed. "That poor child; he's been through things no one should ever have to handle."

"He has," I said heavily. "It really isn't fair."

"He's strong, though," Regulus piped in. "A lot stronger than me, of course. He always protected me back... back at Grimmauld Place."

"He's too protective," I grimaced.

"Well, boys, we were going to go on a family outing today," Dad declared. Regulus and I opened our mouths to protest. "But seeing as Sirius is in the hospital, we'll put that off until he's better."

Both of us sagged in relief.

"In the meantime," continued Dad. "You both have homework you could do."

Regulus and I exchanged looks.

"Well," said Mum. "Go on- go do your homework."

I grinned deviously. "We'll do-"

"Just that," Regulus completed, and equally evil smirk on his face.


Confession time: we didn't touch our homework. We went straight to St. Mungo's after grabbing my invisibility cloak. Sirius's room was quiet as ever, the silence only broken by our footsteps and Sirius's ragged but continual breathing. We both pulled up a seat beside his bed.

"He looks dead," Regulus muttered, shifting uneasily. "James, are you sure-"

"I'm sure he isn't dead," I assured him. "Really, Reg, he's breathing."

"I know," Regulus mumbled. "But he's so pale and still and-"

"Alright, alright, quit making him sound dead," I interrupted. "He isn't. He's breathing, so he's not still. He was a lot paler than that when he- when he died, anyways. Not to mention, you can see his hands and feet twitching every so often; he's pretty much just asleep."

"Oh," Regulus sighed. "Alright, that's good. Do you think he'd wake up if I yelled in his ears?"

I chuckled bemusedly. "Worth a shot, I suppose."

Regulus beamed, and took a deep breath. "WAKE UP, SIRI, YOU'RE GONNA MISS BREAKFAST!"

I must have been right about him simply being asleep, because Sirius shot straight up, eyes wide. "BREAKFAST!"

Then he groaned, grabbed his chest, and leaned back into his pillow.

"Good morning," I said pleasantly. Sirius smiled at me, before giving Regulus an irritated look.

"I'm not missing breakfast," he said irately. "You didn't have to startle me."

"It woke you up," Regulus grinned cheekily. "And Aunt Carol told us it'd be no use going to see you. You look perfectly fine to me."

"Tell that to the bloody cut I probably just reopened," Sirius grumbled, but his eyes were twinkling mischievously. "How long have I been out?"

"A few days, more or less," I shrugged. "School is out; we went home yesterday and Regulus threw a fit."

"I did not throw a fit," Regulus muttered, crossing his arms.

I raised an eyebrow. "You screamed and sobbed and destroyed the entire living room."

Regulus blushed bright red as Sirius let out a barking laugh. "Brilliant! Did he really wreck the entire living room?"

"He did," I confirmed.

"Oh, shut it, you two," Regulus said, still red.

"So how was the train ride?" Sirius prompted, leaning forward and wincing slightly, an expression imperceptible to anyone but me (seeing as I was super overprotective).

"You should have heard Severus trying to crack a joke," I laughed loudly. "Some of them were so simply morbid and pathetic that we ended up laughing anyways."

"Yeah, being in the dark was killing James slowly and painfully," Regulus added, and both of us dissolved into giggles. Er... chuckles. Sirius stared at us, completely confused.

"I don't get it."

"One of Sev's jokes," Regulus said, controlling his laughter. "Eventually Lily just told him to stop while he was ahead."

"If I recall correctly, Remus told him to lie down before he hurt himself," I smirked. Sirius let out another bark-like laugh. "And I ended up saying they weren't that bad-"

"And I said they were horrible," Regulus completed, eyes sparkling. "Poor Sev."

"Oh, that's great!" Sirius beamed. "Wish I had seen it; I daresay I was unconscious or something at the time, though."

"Weren't you?" I said, turning to Regulus.

Regulus donned a wicked smirk. "I woke up shortly before that, but your shoulder was so comfortable."

I hit him on the arm. "Shut it, you."

"I can't believe I missed that," Sirius sighed dramatically. "Well, here's the plan-"

"The plan?" I repeated dubiously.

"Am I missing something?" Regulus asked.

Sirius beamed. "Nope; we're going to break me out of here! Then, of course, I'd have to lock myself in my room so your parent's can't take me back. But at least I'll be out!"

I saw several flaws in this idea. "What if you aren't out of the woods? If you're here and you get worse, at least you can quickly get help. The few minutes it could take to get from my house to here could cost you your life."

"Sure, sure, whatever," It was all too obvious Sirius wasn't listening. "So, okay, you two have got to dress up like Healers, and then you can smuggle me out of here!"

"There's a lot of ways that can go wrong," Regulus pointed out. "Can you even get out of bed?"

Sirius scoffed. "Of course I can!"

To prove his point, he climbed out of bed, walked two steps, tripped over his robes, and fell flat on his face. "Ow."

In a moment, three Healers- including Mum- were in the room. I quickly whipped the cloak over Regulus and I as they surrounded Sirius.

"You're awake!" Mum noted. "And, honestly, you tried to escape, did you? It's a hospital, not Azkaban. Merlin, child."

"I'm fine," Sirius insisted, pulling himself to his feet and limping reluctantly to his bed. "Really, you can all go, I'm fine. Don't worry, no injuries-"

The Healers were muttering amongst themselves, casting diagnostic spells.

"-another broken rib, really-"

"-if he keeps hurting himself, he'll never get out-"

"-he's opened that cut again-"

Regulus and I exchanged looks. So much for busting him out.

Sirius scowled, and crossed his arms. "I'm fine, really. Look, I'm not bleeding."

He pulled his arms away, and glanced at them as if to make sure he wasn't bleeding again, and ended up cursing under his breath. I joined him, noting the red substance soaking through his hospital robes; Regulus whimpered.

"I'm not bleeding all that bad," Sirius corrected. Mum gave him a sceptical look. "Look, really. I've had worse."

Mum sighed. "Well, let's get you fixed up. Hopefully you won't try to escape again."

She gave him a stern look, as if daring him to try.

"Look, why do I have to stay here?" Sirius asked. "Why can't I stay at home?"

It was the first time I'd heard Sirius refer to my house as home. I smiled despite myself.

"Didn't you just explain that to him?" Regulus whispered. Mum's head whipped around fast as lightning, and she raised her wand. I groaned audibly.

"Accio Cloak," Mum said, and the cloak flew off Regulus and I. We stood there awkwardly. "You two! I thought you were doing homework!"

"Er..." said Regulus. "We just wanted to see Sirius! He woke up, didn't he?"

"Only cause you yelled in my ears," Sirius grumbled; nonetheless, he was grinning. "Anyways, I'm glad they came. For the record, James was against my escape attempt."

"Darn right I was," I muttered. Mum gave me a sharp glare. "Okay, so we broke the rules. Big deal; we do that all the time. Sirius would have still tried to leave if we weren't here."'

"He'd probably still be asleep," Mum pointed out, eyes flashing angrily.

One of the Healers shifted awkwardly. "Er... are we going to bandage him up or just let him bleed...?"

"You git, of course we're going to bandage him up," hissed the Healer beside him.

Mum sighed. "Alright. You can stay, but do exactly as I say. Don't get in the way."

"Get in the way," Sirius said. "Break me out."

Mum groaned.


I for one thought Regulus and I were a big help. We handed the Healers everything they needed (including, to Sirius's chagrin, potions). Nevertheless, Mum was still angry when we got back home.

I probably should have expected that.

Our result for trying to see our friend? We were both grounded, and Sirius was still stuck at St. Mungo's.

"Well, this is just great," Regulus sighed. "At least it isn't my parents. They'd have probably cursed us."

"Yeah, Mum and Dad don't do that," I said. "Did you see the cuts on Sirius? How many curses did Voldemort get him with?"

"I'm just worried they aren't all over," Regulus shuddered. "That's why they're keeping him in St. Mungo's, I'll bet."

"Probably," I agreed uneasily. "But he'll be okay, I'm sure."

Regulus's eyes were troubled. "What if V-voldemort put a delayed Killing Curse on him?"

I flinched. "I'm sure he didn't. Maybe he can't. Why would he? I mean, if he wanted to kill Sirius, he'd of done so that night, right?"

"I dunno," said Regulus. "It worries me."

"Me too," I gave Regulus a reassuring smile. "Tell you what? Do you want to ask Mum for peace of mind? She ought to know."

"Yeah," Regulus replied. "Later; I think she's still angry."

I snorted. "Probably."

There was an awkward silence.

"Why is it always Sirius?" Regulus asked sadly.

I shook my head sadly. "I don't know; he's already had a pretty bad life. Sometimes I feel like the universe is trying to get back at me for messing with time. Bad things happen to people who mess with time."

"Nothing bad will happen," Regulus said, giving me a hug. "You've helped a lot. Sirius will be just fine."

"Shouldn't I, as the older brother, be the one comforting you?" I asked bemusedly. Regulus laughed. "At any rate, it's past your bedtime."

Regulus looked horrified. "I have a bedtime?"

I smiled deviously, and nodded. Regulus's eyes widened, and he scampered out of the room, muttering something about not even being in pyjamas yet.

A/N: I feel like this ended abruptly. Oh well... at least it isn't a cliffhanger, right? Big thanks to Theta-McBride, sk8boards4ever, jeremiah123, Lady Loophole, N. E. Person, and Accalia Silvermoon for reviewing! I got a suggestion to give you wands but I'm not quite sure how that would turn out for me so... fake, light-up wands! :D Close enough, right? Hope you enjoyed!

I don't own Harry Potter! Siriusly! (You see what I did there? XD)