Books » Harry Potter » Enough

Author: galimeril

Rated: T - English - Angst/Hurt/Comfort - Reviews: 15 - Published: 02-24-12 - Updated: 06-13-13

id:7868927

A/N: *Creeps out of dark cave and blinks at the moonlight* Well...it's been an adventure. Third year of university is out of the way and on to the final! I've been hibernating for the last few days but now everything has been packed, moved back north, unpacked and repacked into one suitcase for my trip to Greece which begins tomorrow! I'll be posting the final chapter of this story in the week between coming home and flying out to work for the summer in California, busy busy!

You know the drill, yet another unbeta'd chapter. Please excuse the comma abuse as primary school never managed to grind proper grammar into my skull. I hope you enjoy the next chapter of Enough!

Disclaimer: Harry Potter and its associated characters are the sole intellectual, and probably legal, property of one J.K. Rowling. Her awesome website has confirmed once and for all that I am indeed a Slytherin, but I digress. I don't own this stuff and I certainly ain't makin' any dough from it. Please don't sue!

Sirius was confused. He still felt like he had been run over by a lorry, but now there was something softer than the ground under his back and his vision now swam with reddish sparks.

As his vision slowly focused, the sparks coalesced into bright streamers of red hair caught in the sunlight filtering in through a window to an unfamiliar vista in an unknown room. After a moment, his eyes stopped lolling around the room and he realized the red hair and the green eyes were Lily and she was speaking to him.

"Sirius…Sirius! Can you hear me? Sirius!"

"Lily…? Wha-?" He was cut off abruptly by a quiet click as the door closed behind a retreating shadow.

"How are you feeling Sirius?" Sirius' blurry gaze flitted about the room as he ignored the question in favor of one which was far more currently pressing.

"Where am I?" His voice broke on the last syllable he grated out, as he tried to lever himself into a sitting position but found his arm bound to his chest. Lily's hand rested gently on his sternum, forcing him to relax back onto the bed. It worried Lily that he didn't even have the strength to fight off that feather light touch.

"Well…" she hemmed a bit, realizing that Sirius was not likely going to be happy with his current housing arrangement, knowing his history with Sev. She decided to bite the bullet and get it over with quickly, no sense in hiding the truth from him at this point. "You're in Mill Town, Sirius. I found you down by the river and the Snapes, Sev and his mother, brought you here. She's a trained mediwitch and she's been taking care of you. Severus has been helping too."

She had been right, Sirius did not take this well. "Snape?" he hissed as he tried once more to get up. Lily's short fuse ignited at his tone and she jumped to her feet, towering over the bedridden Black. "Sirius Black, what is wrong with you? They took you in and they're helping you! You will be grateful for their help, or so help me, I will tell McGonagall who it was that sent her that gift basket of catnip and yarn!"

Sirius' eyes narrowed briefly before he lowered them to the faded bedspread, ashamed of his outburst. "So-sorry, Lily." His whisper barely cut through the silence. Lily dropped her intimidating stance and plopped back down on the chair next to the bed, seeming to lose all of her confidence as she turned back towards him.

"Siri, who did this to you?"

At the sound of his hated nickname, Sirius' eyes had snapped back up to hers but dropped to stare at his scarred hands as her question registered. He refused to meet her eyes as saltwater dripped onto the lines and ridges that were carved into the backs of his hands, souvenirs of a Christmas with Bellatrix when he was five. He started when he felt Lily's hand begin to rub soothing circles in his back, his tender ribs creaking with the sudden movement.

"Sirius, if you don't tell me what happened, I can't protect you from it. We're going to take care of you, you're safe here. Please, talk to me!" But Sirius' tears had dried up rapidly and he stared woodenly ahead as red sparks began to dace once more as his eyes began to cross and the darkness came to claim his depleted mind and body once more.

It was bright. Too bright to see anything more than shadows moving around him and they were moving too fast to see properly anyway. He stood still and closed his eyes, trying to hear where the threatening shades were hiding from him.

He turned to the right and felt a fist connect with the side of his face like a battering ram. He stumbled to the side, catching his feet on the trailing robes far too large to be his own. He soothed his cheek with right hand while he fumbled about in the robe's pockets with his left for his wand. He came up empty as yet another insubstantial shadow landed a substantial hit to his sternum. He staggered backwards as the sound of cruel laughter began to fill his ears – the wild cackle of Bellatrix, the slow deep chuckle of his father overlaid by the lilting laughter of his mother all wrapped up in the just settling voice of his younger brother pleading with him, asking why he had left him all alone again and hadn't he been a good little brother?

Sirius crashed to his knees, sobbing uncontrollably as his mother and father's voice joined in the laughing chorus.

"Worthless child! Ungrateful wretch!"

"We gave you the world and this is how you repay us? How dare you!"

"You weren't worth the time it took to raise you."

"This is my house boy, and I want it quiet! Stop your damned sniveling!"

"Just beat the uselessness out of hm. If you make him bleed, maybe the bad attitude will wash away with the blood."

"Sit up straight and mind your manners! Imperio!"

"Crucio!"

"Imperio!"

"Please don't leave me with them Sirius!"

Sirius bolted upright with the sound of his guilt ringing in his ears paired with the shattering of glass. He was momentarily disoriented, the pastel yellows and blues did not match with the Gryffindor décor of his own room, though the sounds of screaming and shattering furniture in the next room certainly sounded like home. He dragged himself, one-armed, out of bed, tumbling to the floor with a strangled gasp and scrambled into the corner.

Memory returned as he took in the unfamiliar window and the lack of floating fire that had denoted where Lily had been drifting through his fuzzy perception. He started and pressed himself harder into the corner as a particularly loud thud rattled the wall next to his door. The handle rattled and Severus Snape tumbled into his faded little room.

He slammed the door shut behind himself and leaned his thin, shaking frame against it. His eyes darted warily around the room when he noticed the empty bed, finally settling on the corner that was darker than the lighting in the room warranted. Sirius' instinctive magic had taken over as the looming threat of Toby in the next room had invaded his senses and had pulled the threads of shadow in the room around him in an attempt to make his bid to be unfound successful. Perhaps it would have fooled Tobias Snape, but his son was far more perceptive.

Severus pinched the bridge of his nose in an attempt to stave off the headache that was forming behind his eyes. He gave it up as a lost cause after a moment and turned on his heel and sharply tapped the door's handle with a slender finger. Though the bolt did not shoot home, no amount of drunken raging and rattling at the door could grant Tobias entry now.

Severus took a deep breath and sent a muttered prayer up to whatever deity had sent Lily into his life for strength and patience and dropped to his knees at the edge of the unnatural shadow.

"Black. What are you doing?"

A/N: Short, I know and yes, I do perhaps abuse dream sequences in my stories *shifty eyes.* I'll try to make up some ground in the last chapter. Look for it in about a month. Special thanks go to my Australian reviewer (You know who you are) who gave me a hearty laugh because the seasons are switched with respect to the northern hemisphere and she was very worried that a promise to update this summer meant a very long wait indeed! Plus, it didn't hurt my vanity any to realize that I had a reader on another continent, either! Thanks for making studying for finals that much more bearable!

Please, review! Reviews make the promised update appear on time ;D

galimeril ;D