Early morning sunlight streamed through the window, casting a long ray over the sleeping girl on the battered old mattress in the middle of the front room. Her body twitched and shuddered, face contorted with fear, trapped in the clutches of a nightmare.

"Jay? Are you there?"
Elena climbed the stairs, calling out in a concerned voice. Behind her, the front door was ajar, creaking eerily in the wind. On the mantelpiece downstairs the clock was chiming three in the afternoon, but it sounded like an alarm, a warning.
"Jay? Hello?"
Trembling fingers clasped around her wand, Elena peered into the bathroom, and then pushed up their bedroom door, where her boyfriend was standing, apparently looking out of the window, in the centre of the room. She relaxed.
"Jay?"
He turned around slowly, and she'd never seen him look so scared, face pale and pinched with fear as he mouthed two words at her, the last two words he'd ever say.
"Elena. Run."
Elena backed up, horrified and confused, eyes darting around for a sign of movement, of a threat.
There was the sound of footsteps in the room, and Jay shouted in pain as he fell forward onto the carpet, bleeding from his head. Elena shrieked and dropped to her knees in front of him, and her foot caught the hem of what felt like fabric. The Invisibility Cloak slipped off of the man's face, just for a second, but Elena just caught the sight of his face.
He Disapparated with a crack, and Elena screamed.

"Elena!" Sirius was shaking her, eyes worried. "Are you alright?"
She blinked rapidly, eyes misting over with tears, and pushed her sweaty hair out her eyes and stared at him, face dangerous, struggling to keep control. "Have you ever killed anyone, Sirius?"
"I…what?"
"Have you ever killed someone?"
"I definitely didn't kill those Muggles, if that's what you mean-"
"No it's not what I mean."
"…what do you mean, then?"
"You said you worked for this Order, working against Voldemort, didn't you?"
"Yeah…"
"Did they ever ask you to kill anyone?"
Her voice was heaving with emotion now, swerving up and down in pitch like a boat on the ocean.
"Elena-"
"Did they ever ask you to kill someone named Jayson Nott?"
She forced it out, choking on the words, and Sirius' face went ashen.
"If you're talking about the Death Eater's son-"
"I'm not talking about the Death Eater's son, I'm talking about my boyfriend! The boyfriend I was framed for murdering. The boyfriend you killed."
Sirius' eyes widened, incredulous, panicked. "That was you-"
"You killed him!" Elena screamed, whole body shaking. "You killed him!"
"Elena I'm sorry, I didn't know-"
"You killed him!" Elena snatched the wand up from the floor. "I'll kill you!"
"Elena, calm down-"
"Don't you dare tell me to calm down, you bastard-"
"He was a Death Eater, Elena! He was going to kill you!"
"I don't care!"
"Elena, stop!" Sirius lunged up, grabbed the wand and threw it onto the sofa, holding her arms tightly. Furious, she tried to wrestle out of his grip, but his hands were like iron around her wrists. "Listen to me!"
"I don't want to listen to you!"
"Well you're going to! I didn't know who he was, I was told that we had strong evidence that he was planning a terror attack on London. I killed him to save hundreds of lives!"
"I didn't want to save hundreds of lives. I wanted to save him!"
"I know Elena, I know. I'm sorry. I'm sorry."
He loosened his grip on her wrists, and Elena wriggled out of his hold, snatched up the wand and pointed it straight at his heart. "Avada Kedrava."

Elena Munroe jumped awake for real this time, shouting, and Sirius caught her arm from where he was sat, cross-legged on the carpet. "You alright?"
"I…umm…I…nightmare. I'm…I'm fine." Elena gasped, sitting up, drenched in sweat, heart pounding.
"Sure?" Sirius was watching her with concerned eyes.
"I…yeah…bathroom-"
She staggered up the stairs, ignoring his alarmed stare, and burst into the bathroom, slamming the door behind her and collapsing on the tiled floor, shuddering.
"Oh my God…" She cried a little bit, then pulled herself together, sniffling, but still hugged her knees and rocked herself back and forth like a child.
She'd known it was Sirius. Known since the day they'd broken out.
She also knew that her boyfriend had been a Death Eater.
She'd wanted to kill Sirius.
She was worried that she might.

"Elena?"
"Yeah?"
"Can I have one of these tins?"
"Sure." She called down, trying to steady her voice, and stood up. She needed to be sure before she confronted him. If she did.
She had to.
She needed to.
Didn't she?

The bedroom looked just the same as the day it had happened- Same red curtains, same cream coloured walls, same hand carved fireplace. The bed frame and the ruby red rug were gone though, probably sold off to hungry buyers who didn't care that it could be cursed. Elena took another step forward, resisting the urge to screw her eyes up so she didn't have to look, and then almost vomited.

A large brown stain stained the carpet, a permanent reminder of Jayson's dead body falling to the floor. His dying breath, rattling and desperate, and his final shout, injected with regret and sorrow.

The sight of his eyes, deep blue and swimming with tears haunted her. The memory of their laughter and their smiles, their kisses and their embraces floated in the air like a ghost. Elena knew that dust was mostly made up of dead skin, and therefore a lot of the dust in the room would be him and his skin and his hair and his breath, dancing in the sunlight shining in through the window.

Sirius shouted something from downstairs, and Elena shook her head, trying to shake off the memories as a dog shakes off water.

"What?"

"You coming down or what?"

"Yeah, yeah I'm coming!"

Elena took one last look at the room and backed out, jogging down the stairs.

"What were you doing, retiling the bathroom?"

"It's none of your business."

"Alright, easy Munroe. There's a hole in the landing, it looks pretty unstable, I was going to see if I could find that red rug to cover it."

"Red rug? How did you know I had a rug like that?"

Elena knew exactly how he knew.

Sirius paled. "I, um, most houses have some sort of rug, and your colour scheme is red, so..."

"Okay...well I haven't seen my old one...someone probably nicked it...cheeky bugger..."

Sirius looked relieved at the change of subject. "Yeah...bloody cheek...people these days..."

Elena stared at him quizzically, but he looked away, busying himself with the rest of the clothes.

He'd changed into a pair of Jay's old jeans, and that made Elena's blood boil.

"Those jeans were my boyfriend's, you know."

Sirius gulped, looking ill.

Sorry for the weird format at the end, idk what happened there!?
Hope you liked it!
Fly xx