Chapter 30

"Today we are going to be brewing a sleeping draught," Professor Muffin stated as she walked around. "This takes careful, precise measurements or else you're endangering the person taking it. Potions that go wrong may result in serious illness and even possibly death."

James and Sirius exchanged a glance. The potion did not sound overly pleasant in their opinion. "Alright, partner up with someone who won't cause you to fail utterly," she said, glancing over at James and Sirius, a sneer on her face. "And begin."

They all began preparing their potions. James carefully measured everything while Sirius began setting up the cauldron and other items. As they worked, they talked about things.

"So, what should we do at Hogsmead?" James asked under his breath as Professor Muffin walked by.

Sirius shrugged slightly and poured the ingredients in to the bubbling mixture. James watched it somewhat apprehensively. No where in her instructions did it say 'mixture should be bubbling'. "Sirius," James asked his boyfriend, touching him gently on the shoulder. "Are you sure you've done everything correctly?"

Sirius looked at him, then the potion, and then the instructions and then nodded. "Assuming everything was measured out correctly, this should be fine," he answered.

James nodded, not quite convinced, but still not going to argue. So he watched as Sirius poured the ingredients in, stirring every now and then like the instructions said. Then, randomly, it exploded. James and Sirius ducked down, but it was too late. It splattered all over Sirius and James, and Remus and Lily (who were working right next to them), and a few other unidentified students.

Professor Muffin stormed over to the people who had been hit with the most of the potion. "What did you two idiots do?" she raged, her face red with her anger.

Sirius looked dazed and confused. James was on the floor, not moving, but breathing shallowly. "I don't know. We followed your directions word for word, order by order, and then it blew up."

"Mr. Potter, would you kindly sit up?" she snapped at James. He continued lying there without responding.

"James," Sirius urged, gently shaking his shoulder. James didn't stir, just stayed unconscious. Professor Muffin immediately sprang into action. She lifted the teenager with a levitating charm and navigated him out of the room, yelling, "Clean up the mess you made, Black."

Sirius watched her leave, feeling his heart sink in his chest. What had he done? He glanced at Remus and Lily who were cleaning the potion off of themselves, looking a bit shocked and afraid for James. "What did I do?" he asked numbly.

Remus looked at Sirius carefully and reached over to give him a quick brotherly hug. Lily began to clean up around them and Remus and Sirius broke apart. "Everything's going to be alright," Remus whispered, patting Sirius on the back. "Now, come on. If we don't have this cleaned by the time the Muffin gets back here, there will be hell to pay."

Sirius smiled slightly and also began clearing things up with his wand.

After the class was officially let out, Sirius rushed to the hospital wing after mumbling a hurried good bye to Remus and Lily. Of course he knew that he wouldn't be allowed to see James, but he had to at least try.

When he arrived at the hospital wing, short of breath from running the entire way, he was halted by Dumbledore, who was just coming out of the hospital wing. "Is he alright? Is he alive? Is he going to be fine? Oh, this is all my fault. I should have been more careful when he told me to check. I can't believe I was so careless," Sirius rambled on. Dumbledore tried to cut into his tirade of angry words against himself, but failed. So he let him continue on and when he was finished, Dumbledore raised his hand to stop any further self berating.

"Before you go any farther, let me set you straight," Dumbledore said smoothly. "It was not your fault, first off. Something like that could have happened to anybody. I have no doubt that you were being as careful as you saw fit. Secondly, James will be fine. Apparently James as some sort of allergic reaction to one of the ingredients in that potion. He's not going to die and he should be in perfect health once again soon."

Sirius nodded and was about to race into the room but Dumbledore restrained him and shook his head slightly. "Mr. Potter really needs some rest, and I highly doubt that Madame Pomfrey will appreciate you barging in while she's trying to treat her patient."

Sirius nodded sadly spun on his heel to go to the great hall to meet up with Remus and Lily. Professor Dumbledore watched him walk away feeling a bit sorry for the lad. He was such an impressive student, so intelligent, strong and brave. After all that he had gone through…he was glad that Mr. Black had finally been caught and thrown into Azkaban. It was no more than he deserved. "But then again," Dumbledore thought as he turned to go back to his office, "who are we to condemn?"

"How is he?" asked Lily as Sirius sat down across from her and next to Peter, who seemed to be off in his own little world.

"I don't know for certain, but Dumbledore said that he was simply allergic to something in the potion and that he would be okay in a few days."

Remus nodded and continued to eat but Sirius continued staring at his empty plate. It was all his fault, no matter what Dumbledore said. If only he had done everything…what, perfect? But he had. He had done everything exactly how the instructions had told him too. The only thing that could have been wrong was the measurements, but that wouldn't cause it to blow up, would it?

Sirius sighed in frustration at his own thoughts. It was just tearing him apart that he didn't know what he'd done wrong, when he knew that he hadn't done anything wrong. "I'm gonna go pick up Ana," he told Remus and Lily as he slung his bag over his shoulder and began to walk away. They all knew that he was just using his daughter as an excuse to go see James. "I'll see you guys later."

A.N. I'm sorry that the chapter was shorter than usual. I just couldn't think of anything more exciting to say. Ah well, please review, even though this chapter is not worthy of it. Y'all should check out my new story as well, if you like this one. Thank you! Adios.