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Chapter 3 :)

Remus and James slept until late afternoon. Upon waking they were hasty in grabbing Peter and rushing to the hospital wing, filling him in on bits of the story as they walked.

"Tortured?"

"By that bitch of a mother," James said.

"But he's okay?"

"Course not."

"He will be though," Remus hastily chipped in before Peter had a chance to panic. He pushed open the door ahead of them, and the three of them fell silent as they entered the ward.

On the chair by Sirius' bed Dumbledore was sitting, clutching some knitting in his hands, but not making any effort to move the needles. When he noticed the three boys enter he stood up and headed towards them.

"I had a feeling you'd be here soon."

"How is he, Sir?"

"No change. But that's what we expected." Dumbledore hesitated. "I'll give you some time alone with him." He thrust the barely started knitting into James' hands. "You should give it a try; it's a very therapeutic way to ease the mind," he smiled, and strode away.

"He's insane," James said, happily and plonked the mass of wool on a spare bed, before selecting the seat next to Sirius.

He was still thin, cut and bruised, but the long eyelashes that lay on pale cheeks showed he was resting, and his body looked more at peace for it. The three boys chatted quietly among themselves, but kept their eyes on Sirius, watching carefully for a sign of movement or distress.

The next few days passed similarly, except for that – much to James' disgust and Remus' delight – they weren't allowed to miss any more lessons. They spent much of their spare time in the hospital wing, next to an uncommunicative Sirius. Peter sometimes visited as well, but after leaving the first visit rather shell shocked, he seemed to be frequently busy all of a sudden. They couldn't be sure whether Sirius was aware of their presence, but – as they muttered to each other in Potions – the chance that he could meant they must be there as often as possible.

As the boys struggled to brew their Sleeping Draught, at the other end of the castle Sirius was becoming dimly aware of his surroundings. His body ached, and in a moment of panic he remembered being locked in his bedroom and subject to his mother's abuse. With a deep breath he took in the familiar scent of cleaning products, the soft mattress beneath him and forced himself to open his eyes. He realised he was in the hospital wing, and like coming out of a nightmare, knew he was safe.

He opened his mouth to alert someone, but rather than calling he accidently emitted a small groan. It was enough for Madam Pomfrey to rush out of her office, followed by Dumbledore, looking unusually anxious. Sirius' gaze followed Dumbledore, but he allowed Madam Pomfrey to cast various spells over him, checking the extent of his health.

Dumbledore caught Sirius' gaze. "I'm delighted to see you're back with us. How are you feeling?"

"Sore," Sirius said, surprised by how hoarse he sounded. "Weird."

"Weird?"

"Achy and heavy and as if I've been asleep for a very long time."

"Is four days a long time by your standards?"

"Just a bit," Sirius said, thinking of how was usually too much of a fidget to sleep and tried to persuade the others to stay up with him.

"I assume you know why you're here."

Sirius averted his eyes. "Yes."

"How much do you remember?"

"Everything, I think. I wish I didn't."

Dumbledore smiled, sympathetically. "You'd be surprised at how much easier it is to deal with traumatic events in our life when we have some recollection of what happened."

"Maybe." Sirius closed his eyes, but couldn't block out the scenes replaying before his eyes; the pain of being tortured, and of the other curse, the one that ripped his skin open but refused to let him bleed and his mother forcing him time and time again to reveal the secrets he knew. He'd resisted at first, but his body had soon grown weak and he's become unable to fight the pull of the curse. "She knows about Remus."

"I know," Dumbledore replied, holding up a warning hand. "But it's all under control. Your mother is not in a place where she can pass the information on."

Sirius nodded, picturing his mother's face when she learnt her son had spent the last five years with a werewolf. Rather than rewarding him for divulging the secret, she'd been angry he hadn't told her before, and blasted him with another dose of the Cruciatus curse. He hoped Dumbledore was right, and what his mother knew couldn't hurt Remus. Remus had held him when they'd rescued him, he could remember that. James had been there too – had been hurt.

"How's..?" he began

"Mr Potter is fine," Dumbledore smiled, as if he had read Sirius' mind. "They both are. They've been here with you a lot."

"Can I see them?"

Dumbledore raised his eyebrows at Madam Pomfrey.

"He's only just woken up, Professor," she said.

"And I'm not suggesting he starts Quidditch practise."

She sighed. "Fine. But not for long. And they're not to over exert him."

"Of course not," Dumbledore said with a smile. He turned to Sirius. "I'll fetch them for you."

"Thanks, Sir."

Usually they were only called out of their lessons to be punished for a prank, but this time when Dumbledore popped his head around the classroom door and asked for them to be excused, they knew it was news about Sirius, and raced outside.

They nervously entered the hospital wing, with only Dumbledore's reassurance that Sirius' was okay as a comfort. Sirius was sitting up in bed wrapped in a fluffy lilac dressing gown. He weakly smiled as they awkwardly came to a halt at the foot of his bed.

"Shouldn't I get a hug or something?"

James leapt on him, throwing his arms round Sirius' shoulders. Sirius winced, but embraced him with one arm, reserving the other for Remus. The latter stepped into the hug more carefully than James and gently gripped the back of Sirius' neck. They remained comfortably folded into each other for over a minute, silent until Sirius spoke.

"You know I love you both, right?"

"Likewise," Remus replied.

James grinned. "I'd love you more if you had better taste in dressing gowns."

Sirius released them. "It's Pomfrey's." He waited until Remus had sunk into the armchair and James had found a spot on the bed. "Haven't got any clothes, have I? Was going to ask if one of you could lend me some pyjamas."

"I don't wear any," James reminded him.

Remus rolled his eyes. "I'll bring some down later."

"Thanks, Moony."

"How long are you stuck in here for, then?" James asked

"Dunno." Sirius pushed some of his hair out of his weary eyes. It was still matted, but looked as if someone had tried and failed to neaten it. "So, what have I missed?"

"I'm guessing you don't mean schoolwork?" Remus replied, sensing the deliberate change of topic.

"Course he doesn't. He wants to hear about how concerned Lily looked when she found out I was knocked unconscious for a few hours."

"What did you tell her?"

"I didn't say anything about you, Pads," James said earnestly, desperate for Sirius to believe him. "Said I was working with Dumbledore. Thought it made me sound mature."

"Made you sound as if you were lying more like."

James considered. "She did look a little surprised."

"She's surprised every time you speak to her – at how much of an idiot you sound."

"No," James said, folding his arms. "No, she's definitely warming to me."

Sirius and Remus exchanged a look of disbelief.

"If you get together with Lily before I get out of here I'll give you ten galleons."

"That's not fair, it's an ambiguous deadline," James said. "But if you insist, I shall rise to the challenge. Prepare to lose."

"No chance." Sirius grinned, looking more like his old self momentarily, before he looked down at his lap and concentrated on kneading his knuckles together. "Have you seen Regulus?" He looked up at Remus through his eyelashes.

"Not to speak to."

"Oh."

"Did he know what was going on?" Remus asked, his voice unusually gruff.

Sirius shrugged.

"I'll curse the little bastard for you if he did," James said.

"Don't. He might have had no idea." Sirius stared grimly at his hands.

Remus noticed that Sirius had started to roughly force his fists together. "What are you doing?"

"Nothing," Sirius looked surprised he'd been caught out. "Fingers feel funny, that's all."

"Well grinding them together isn't going to help." Remus took one of Sirius' hands in his own, knotted their fingers together and moved it to his side of the bed despite Sirius' frown.

"Hey, don't leave me out of the man love," James said, grabbing Sirius' other hand, bringing it to his mouth and placing a sloppy kiss on it.

"Don't be soft," Sirius said, smiling despite himself.