That night things were quiet as usual. The students went to bed and so did the teachers. James asked Sirius if he could talk to him the next morning. Sirius agreed. Mari managed to put the boys to bed without much trouble or her husband, who was grading papers. Then she slipped up behind him. She leaned over.
"Hey, Siri."
"Hey Mari." She slipped her arms around his neck.
"How's the lesson plan coming?"
"It's okay. Man, I never knew just how much work teachers actually have to do."
She smiled. " Come to bed. It's late." He glanced down at his pile of papers and sighed.
"Okay." He crawled into bed and was asleep instantly.
A baby's cry pierced his for once nightmare less sleep. Groaning he rolled over and waited for Mari to get up. When she only muttered something into her pillow, he resigned to his fatherly duty and got up. Yawning he pulled on his robe and went into the room where his sons were staying.
Remy was sitting up in his crib, bawling. Oddly enough his brother Jamie was sleeping through his brothers wailing.
"You're just like your mother." Sirius told him. He himself had always been a light sleeper. Whether it was natural or came from finding out someone wanted you dead at the age of 10, Sirius didn't know. But he picked up the screaming Remy and slowly rocked him.
Soon Remy stopped. He lay in his father's arms grasping his wrinkled robes.
Sirius rocked him quietly. He turned to get a bottle for him and the hair on the back of his neck rose. The floor creaked and he turned.
"Hello? Mari?" He couldn't see anyone but he could tell someone was near.
Just then a bolt of light shot out of the darkness. He couldn't see where it hit but when nothing happened he sighed in relief. Or he tried to.
When he tried to take a breath, he couldn't. It almost seemed like his lungs wouldn't work. Panic rose as his free hand flew to his throat.
He heard laughter, familiar laughter, as he sank to his knees, his son still clutched in his arms.
Groping blindly behind him, his hand reached a vase. Grasping it he threw it in the direction of the taunting laughter. A grunt and a thump told him his aim was true.
Reaching again he found a glass cup. He threw that and it crashed against the wall, shattering.
"Sirius?" he heard Mari's sleepy voice coming from the other room. His terror mounted. He was trying to keep whoever, whatever, it was away from his sons. What if he went for Mari instead.
To his brief relief, he heard footsteps retreating from the room. The room seemed to dim. His lungs screamed for air. Sirius fought against the darkness that clouded his vision. But it didn't help. The darkness pulled him down.
Mari wasn't sure what woke her up, the strange dreams that always seemed to accompany pregnancy, or the nagging feeling that something was wrong. She heard the crash of glass shattering.
Oh dear, he broke another bottle. She thought. "Sirius?' She reached for her husband, but he was gone. She sat up. Sure enough the place where her husband should have been, was empty.
She got up and pulled her robe around her. Silently she lit a candle, wishing not for the first time that she was a witch. She entered the boy's room.
"Sirius?" Then she saw him.
He was lying on the ground, his face was slightly turning blue. Remy was still clutched in his arms. Jamie stared at her from the bed. She rushed over to him.
"Sirius! Oh god, get up. Please get up." She froze when she saw he wasn't breathing. Before she knew what she was doing she ran.
She ran down the hall, pounding on the first door she came on. A grumbling James pulled it open.
"Yeah?"
"Oh God, James. He's not breathing! He's not!" James frowned.
"Mari, slow down. What's going on?"
"We can't slow down. He'll die if we do." She pulled him down the hall and into their rooms.
James protested the whole way, but froze when he saw Sirius. Moving faster than she had thought possible he knelt by his friend's side and took his pulse.
"Mari, go to Madam Pomfrey. Tell her to get down here. Then go get Dumbledore and Remus." She nodded and was gone. James turned back to Sirius.
he pulled out his wand. "Hope this works" He preformed a spell. At first there seemed to be no change.
" Come on, man! Breathe!" James pounded on Sirius's chest. Then with a gasp, Sirius drew a huge breath.
Gasping he opened his eyes. "James?"
"Thank god, Padfoot." He helped Sirius sit up. He coughed hard.
"Man what happened?" Sirius opened his mouth and began to cough some more. Just then Madam Pomfrey, Dumbledore and Remus all burst into the room followed by Mari.
Madam Pomfrey pushed the others to the side and bent to examine Sirius.
"Oh dear. A suffigtis curse. Cuts off the air to the lungs. Makes the victim suffocate. It's lucky you found him when you did. Another minute or two. " She shook her head " I insist that he could down to the infirmary."
" I'm fine," Sirius spoke up in a croaky voice. He tried to get up but Madam Pomfrey pushed him back down.
"Young man, you will kill yourself before anything else does." She told him. Sirius didn't put up much of a fuss. James and Remus managed to get him down to the hospital wing where Mari and Sirius told them what had happened.
"It was Peter."
"Sirius, Peter is in Azkaban."
"It was him, I know it."
"How could it have been?" Mari asked.
"It just was."
"How do you know?" Addi asked.
"I could smell him. Look I know it seems weird but trust me it was him." No one said anything for a while.
"Alright, I will write to Fudge and ask him if Peter is still imprisoned." Dumbledore told him. "But now, you get some sleep." Sirius nodded and was asleep within seconds.
And Harry woke up, gasping.
Peter Pettigrew flew through the front doors and out into the night. True he hadn't expected Sirius to put up that much of a fight, but the job was done.
His master was sure to be proud of him now.
"Wormtail!" Or not.
Hey, sorry about the double thing. I guess I musta pressed copy/ paste twice and not noticed it. I was like half asleep when I uploaded it. Hehe, anyway I fixe d it now, and things ares trating to get strange for our heroes. Hehehe, I got many interesting things planned, but you'll just have to wait until I write it, which may not be for a while. Unfortunately. But I have spring break coming up soon, but we have to go to new york so I don't know if I'll get much done. Well, gtg. It's late. Nighty-night peeps. Sirius would say bye but he's snoring right now.