Wow...The reviews just keep coming...Thank you...
And this is not the last chapter, there is at least two more, maybe three. I'm allowing the story to extend itself if it wants.
Any way, hopefully the next installment won't take so long... Chapter 14 might be out as early as tomorrow evening, since I had a class cancel and so more time to write.
I will do a sequel, since people have asked me to, but that will mean that this story will have a slight cliffhanger to lead me into the next story. Nothing major, I promise, just enough to keep attention and give me something to work with. This story will have a definite ending.
Also, how do you guys think my portrayals of the characters are? Hopefully, they aren't too out of character.
And Ja'kai: I loved your review! Critical reviews do wonders for me and my writing, even creative criticism critiques. Though I do become rather angry when criticism is not creative and is simply spiteful. Thank you.
Hyper Princess: Bruise me and... ::evil smile that scares Harry from the room::
Emma: Sorry, but AOL says it doesn't recognize your name. Did try to email you though...
Enjoy everyone!
The hospital wing was strangely silent, as though in reverence for the ultimate silence itself, Death. Each of the men and women were starkly pale to their usual appearance and seemed lost in their own grief for a moment.
Snape stood, bloody and weak by Harry's bedside, as though he were a dark angel capable of fending off Death. He seemed to be struggling with his emotions, though no one but Dumbledore would know him well-enough to tell.
Sirius now lay on Harry's feet, as though his body could stop Harry's soul from leaving his. He couldn't even whine his grief was so great, great enough to even blind him from the glare of Madame Pomfrey. Madame Pomfrey, for her part, did not care to have a dog on her patient's feet, whether they were dying or not.
Lupin simply looked stricken, his pale face even paler and his eyes never leaving either Harry or Sirius. He did not want to lose Harry like this, he was too young, but as much as he feared that, he feared another possibility more. What would happen to Sirius when Harry was gone? Harry was one of the main things that kept his friend alive, without him...
Dumbledore stood sad and solemn in the doorway, his blue eyes no longer twinkling.
"What poison is it, Poppy," Dumbledore asked quietly. It still sounded as though a bomb had gone off in the room and all its occupants flinched, save one, Harry himself.
"It's Sycnocid, a very little known, very ancient poison," Madame Pomfrey said, still glaring at Sirius. "It hasn't been used in over a century, it's so uncommon."
Lupin suddenly chuckled, earning himself even more deadly glares from Snape and Sirius. "The poor, always making history without meaning."
"This is one entry into the books he could have done without," Madame Pomfrey agreed stiffly. "And get that dog off that bed!"
Snape smiled grimly at that and sat back down on the bed behind him. Sirius looked torn between growling at him for his amusement and glaring at Madame Pomfrey. He finally choose to growl at Madame Pomfrey as she began to try shoving his black mass of Harry's bed.
"Madame Pomfrey, I would like you to please remain calm," Dumbledore told her, startling everyone in the room. "If you would, Sirius."
Sirius obviously knew an order when he received one and so hopped on the floor. He walked a short distance away and transformed. Madame Pomfrey's reaction was immediate.
"Sirius Black," she screamed, stepping quickly back.
One hand flailed back and hit a something on the table behind.
"You stay away from this boy, you...you -" Sirius never found out what he was as she was too busy throwing the bottle to finish.
Sirius ducked and began racing for cover as things flew across the room to strike him. First was the bottle of ink, then the antiseptic. Soon after came a roll of gauze and a pair of scissors.
"STOP," Dumbledore yelled, walking briskly over to Madame Pomfrey and pinning her arms to her side. "Sirius was innocent of everything he was charged with, Poppy. He is not here to harm Harry."
"But-But," Madame Pomfrey stuttered.
Snape meanwhile was not even bothering to hide his delighted smirk and, much to Lupin's chagrin, Lupin found he was unable to hide a grin as well.
Sirius had stood up to reveal what damage Madame Pomfrey had done. Ink dripped down his hair and face, trailing little blue trails along his cheeks and jaw while dripping off his hair to puddle on the floor. Gauze was wrapped around his head and shoulder where it continued to wrap around an arm and fall to the floor in a grotesque parody of bloody wrappings of an alien with blue blood. The antiseptic had covered the area over his heart and turned his worn black robes to a sickly shade of dry blood brown. In his hand he held the scissors and on his face he wore an expression of indignant anger.
All in all, Sirius Black looked like a bad artist's version of a war hero's coming home... And then waging war on his nurse.
Even Dumbledore was unable to contain a chuckle at the mess that was Sirius.
"Madame Pomfrey," he said with laughter once again in his voice, "I find it sincerely doubtful that Sirius would ever try anything with you and this memory there to haunt him."
Madame Pomfrey giggled a little nervously and Sirius began grumbling words that Dumbledore decided were better left unheard.
"I guess he can stay then," Madame Pomfrey said reluctantly. Then, as though she had just remembered, she bustled over to Snape.
"As for you, Professor Snape," she said nearly shoving the surprised man down on the bed, "Lay down while I see to those wounds. They've gone untreated far too long."
Sirius choked down a laugh, some more ink pouring from his head in the movement, and Lupin laughed heartily at his old enemy and colleague's predicament. Dumledore's eyes gave a bright twinkle before subsiding back to somberness.
"Poppy, why can't you cure Harry," he asked, his question instantly sobering Sirius and Lupin.
Snape stopped struggling and stared intently at Madame Pomfrey, his face inscrutable.
"So far as I know, no one has survived the poison within the past 500 years," Madame Pomfrey said, mopping Sanpe's forehead before wiping some potion on it to heal it quickly. "The cure was lost sometime before that. No one knows it now and no one knows where to begin to look for it."
Snape closed his eyes as Dumbledore nodded. Sirius stumbled over to Harry's bed where he sat down and lovingly brushed his sweat-soaked hair back from his fevered forehead. Lupin leaned against a chair by the doorway and sighed gravely.
"I will go look through a few of my older books," Dumbledore said. Turning he told Lupin, "Remus, you look through a few of the Dark Arts books in the library."
Lupin nodded and they both left for their respective chores silently, as though afraid that any loud sound might remind Death of its grave duty.
Sirius continued to sit vigil over Harry as Snape allowed himself to be healed by Madame Pomfrey. Snape, for his part, was silently watching them both, an alien emotion in his eyes.
"I'm sorry, you know," Sirius said suddenly.
"For what, dear," Madame Pomfrey asked him.
"For trusting the wrong people and for not being there to help him, to protect him from-from this," Sirius said, his face grey and suddenly old.
"So it's my fault then," Snape said in a quiet, dangerous voice.
Sirius shook his head sadly, he had no more energy to keep up the old fight, "You're not his godfather. You didn't trust the wrong man to switch the role of secret-keeper to."
Snape growled as Madame Pomfrey finished patching him up.
"Now, I'm going to give you a potion to help you sleep-"
"No," Snape said, sitting up and shoving Madame Pomfrey away, "I have work to do. Unlike some, I won't just sit around and do nothing."
Sirius's tired eyes narrowed in anger, but Snape had left before he could say anything.
Madame Pomfrey hurumphed like an angry dragon before turning to Sirius. "I'm going to see Dumbledore about him. I'll have him in a bed before too long."
Sirius snickered as he wiped Harry's forehead. He was immensely glad she was angry with him.
"That boy had better be in the same condition I left him in when I get back..." she warned before storming out.
Sirius sighed sadly to himself. "Will the past ever stop haunting me," he asked Harry wearily, not expecting an answer and not receiving one.
Next Chapter: The Reflections
