Chapter 8: Reunion

"Sirius… Sirius… SIRIUS!"

Sirius was reluctantly brought to wakefulness, annoyed at whoever was interrupting the first restful sleep he'd had in almost two weeks. "What?" He muttered rather crossly, slowly opening his eyes. Remus was staring at him expectantly.

"What?" Sirius repeated in a softer voice.

His friend gestured to the small boy sleeping peacefully by his side, head still on Sirius' shoulder. Smiling contentedly, Sirius took a while to realise that Remus was still standing motionless, waiting for an answer.

"Well?" Remus pressed.

"Well what, Remus?"

"You know very well 'what'! Did Harry wake up?"

Sirius' joyous smile was answer enough. Settling himself in the vacant chair beside the bed, Remus looked at Harry's peaceful expression, unmarred by the pain and distress that had become typical since the Ministry fiasco. "I take it your reunion went well."

If possible, the grin on Sirius' face grew bigger. "Better than I imagined. You should have seen his face when he realised I was alive."

Remus smiled knowingly. "I told you he cared for you greatly."

"That sounded remarkably close to an 'I told you so', Professor Moony."

"Call it what you will." Remus answered in an indifferent tone, although the effect was somewhat ruined by the light-hearted grin on his face. "Have you told him the news?"

"No, I didn't think of it before and I don't want to wake him up; he seemed pretty wiped. Voldemort really did a number on him." He scowled at the notion of the evil wizard harming his godson. He was pulled from his dark thoughts when he felt Harry stiffen against him.

"No! … No! Not Sirius!" He muttered, his face screwing up in agitation. "NO! SIRIUS!

Sirius shook him gently. "Harry, wake up. It's just a dream." Sirius reminded as he began rubbing his back again.

Harry started, glancing around frantically with panic visible in his bright green eyes. He calmed down when he noticed Sirius beside him, staring at him in concern.

"Are you okay now?"

Leaning back again, Harry nodded wearily; his most recent dream was still painfully fresh in his mind. "I'm sorry." He muttered in embarrassment, annoyed at himself for showing weakness on top of that demonstrated by his lack of energy.

"Don't be, I'm here for you. I understand what you're going through, having spent the last couple of weeks thinking you were going to die any minute. I haven't exactly been at my best lately either. I'm sure Madam Pomfrey will be glad to see the back of me."

Remus chuckled, causing Harry to notice him for the first time. "Sirius never endeared himself to the matron during our school days." He explained. "She still hasn't forgiven him for charming the potions to tap-dance back in third year. He was supposed to drink them, but decided that was a more enjoyable alternative."

Sirius tilted his head. "I don't suppose my record for escaping from the Hospital Wing helped either."

"And your penchant for helping me and James escape when we were in there." Remus reminded jovially.

"Well, you two did spend far too much time in there due to injuries from Quidditch and the Full Moon. It got boring playing pranks alone."

Sirius suddenly realised Harry was frowning. "What's up?"

"Did you say a couple weeks?"

"Er… yes. You've been seriously ill. You almost died. It's now the beginning of July." A proud smile appeared on his face. "But you fought him and won!"

"Oh." Harry was rather overwhelmed with this information. Panic once again filled his eyes. "How are the others – Ron, Hermione, Gin–"

Sirius held up a hand to stop his torrent of words. "All fine, although quite worried about you. Neville and Luna are with their families and Hermione's staying with the Weasleys. Molly forced her lot to return to the Burrow once they had been released from the Hospital Wing themselves. She didn't want them moping around by your bedside. Personally I can't see the difference it would make, they're going to mope regardless of their location."

Remus grinned again; he couldn't seem to help himself now Harry was recovering. "They didn't go quietly either. Ron and Ginny have quite the vocabulary. I daresay they taught Sirius a few new words."

Harry laughed along with the two men, finally at ease now he was certain that Sirius and his friends were okay. "What about the Order? Did any of them get hurt?"

"Nothing that couldn't be put right almost immediately." Remus assured him. He suddenly stood up. "Speaking of which, I'd better owl Molly. She made me swear to let her know the minute you awoke."

Sirius smirked. "Better hurry, Moony. I'd hate to be in your shoes when she finds out he had been awake for three hours before she was informed. Nasty temper, that woman."

"She doesn't need to know that piece of information." Remus replied firmly, struggling to hide a smile at his friend's teasing.

A couple of hours later, Harry was propped up in bed against a mound of pillows; he was still too weak to sit up unaided. Sirius had conjured up a huge assortment of different shapes, sizes and colours, many of which Harry hadn't been aware even existed. Sirius seemed to be quite enjoying himself; however, after he produced a perfectly circular pillow in a sickly peach colour that reminded Harry horribly of Aunt Petunia, he put his foot down.

"No Sirius, I've got enough! Will you please stop fussing?"

"Are you sure you're okay? No fever? Dizziness? Nausea? Pain?"

"Sirius! I'm fine! There's still some pain but Madam Pomfrey said it will fade."

"Didn't she give you potions for that?"

"Yes, but they didn't work – don't look at me like that. I. Am. Fine. Just stop acting like someone's grandmother!"

Sirius' mouth gaped open. "Grandmother?" he repeated indignantly when he regained his voice. Before he could finish his protest, the doors of the hospital wing crashed open.

"Harry!"

He barely had time to steel himself before Hermione had thrown herself at him, her bushy hair obscuring his vision. Awkwardly patting her on the back he struggled to disentangle himself from her death-grip. He glared at Sirius as the man sniggered at his predicament.

"Oh, we were so worried when we heard – everyone said you kept getting worse, that there was nothing anyone could do. Sirius told us about the vision, oh I bet it was awful! It was, wasn't it? But I'm sure you are so glad he's really alive – I tried to get Ron to help me find a cure in the library but Professor Dumbledore said there were no other recorded instances and Mrs. Weasley made us go home once term ended. I couldn't believe it when we finally got Remus' owl saying you'd woken up. Oh Harry!" She said this so fast that his head began to spin.

Seeing that she looked about to cry, he hastily turned to Ron. "Hey, Ron. How are you? Last time I saw you – those brains, I couldn't get them off you –" Harry stopped himself short, realising he was starting to sound like Hermione with her cascade of random phrases.

"I'm fine. " Ron answered nonchalantly. "Madam Pomfrey fixed me up all right in the end. It was you we were worried about. Hermione was in a right state."

"Oh Ron! As if you were much better!" Hermione huffed. "Who was it that had the idiocy to enlist Fred and George to help you escape the Burrow and get to Harry? Needless to say, they were caught by Mrs. Weasley. Given the circumstances they weren't grounded, but it was a near thing."

Harry looked between his two friends in astonishment, taking note of Ron's ears reddening. "You were really that desperate?" He asked incredulously, knowing firsthand the chaos the twins could cause.

"Well, yeah! What if you'd died and we weren't there? We're best mates!" Ron said vehemently.

At loss for words, Harry just sat staring at them with a large grin on his face. "Thanks, guys." He finally managed to say.

"Anytime, mate." Ron answered. He looked nervously at the door. "Um… Mum's waiting to see you, but we managed to convince her to let us go first. Are you up to getting smothered?"

Sirius laughed at the horrified expression on Harry's face.

"Let's get it over with… she can't be much worse than Sirius." Harry replied with a straight face.

Sirius stopped laughing to raise an eyebrow at his godson. Ron and Hermione smirked.

"Shall I let her in before Sirius grounds you for life?" Ron asked.

"Perhaps you'd better." Harry said, wondering about the odd choice of words. How could Sirius ground him when he, Harry, would spend the entire summer at the Dursley's?

Unnoticed by Harry, his friends and Sirius exchanged knowing looks at the confused expression on the boy's face. Ron stood up to let his mother in.