Chapter One
It was raining heavily outside, splashing unforgivingly on the windows of St Mungo's.
Nikka sat next to Sirius's bed, smoothing her thumb over his fingers. There were no more tears. It had been a little over a month since the Battle of the Ministry. A little over a month of sitting by his bed waiting for a change, any change, and every tear had been cried already.
The staff at St Mungo's had allowed her to stay as a patient for a little over a week after Hogwarts had broken up for the summer holidays. It had meant she could have a fold-away bed in the corner of his room but since then she'd slept, when she could, propped up in the chair next to his bed or cuddled next to him, taking comfort in the slow, steady heartbeat from Sirius's chest.
She knew that they wanted her to leave, or rather they would need her to leave at some point soon. The chances of Sirius waking up were now at a little over five percent, the chances of him dying were five percent exactly and she just couldn't bare to leave.
How would they be able to contact her in time if he deteriorated? She had yelled at them more times than she wanted to admit. Nikka had always known she was quick to temper but the lack of sleep or any sort of routine had only made it worse.
She'd never spent a whole day alone though; for which she would be forever grateful. Tonks came as often as she could, even if it was just for an hour or two after her shifts.
Lily brought Harry and Danica as often as she could as well. Sirius's muddy yellow wall's were now covered in drawings from the two of them.
Harry had made detailed drawings of everything he thought Sirius would want to see again, his family, Nikka included of course, as well as woods, seas and mountains. Danica had taken to drawing Sirius, or rather Padfoot, out on adventures to encourage Sirius to wake up and want to go and do things she said.
Severus had tried every potion he could think of, his hand had ended up badly burnt when he had been experimenting. Nikka had been grateful of course, but she also knew deep down that the medi-wizards were right, that it was just a waiting game now.
Her family also came at least twice a week. Growing up the only girl and youngest of five brothers hadn't been easy but Dimitri, Conan, Ryker, Cole, Stefan had been a huge comfort to her over this time and she was so very pleased to have them there.
Remus had been a few times, but he was very busy at the moment. Dumbledore had him working in the packs of werewolves to try and gather support. It wasn't working though, the werewolves hated the Ministry nearly unanimously. As more and more restrictions came in they wanted a change, to be viewed as whole people rather than something to be feared and avoided. Nikka couldn't blame or disagree with them there. The latest announcement, that the unforgivable curses could be used on werewolves if there was any risk of them attacking had only made things that much worse.
"Lady DeGere?" a young witch asked, coming in to check over Sirius, "You're still here?"
"Yes, Mary. I'm still here." Nikka said with a forced smile.
"You need to go home, Lady DeGere. You can't keep this up." Mary said, making a mark on her clipboard.
"I can't leave him." Nikka said.
"We'll let you know…" Mary said.
"You'll write to me? It could take an hour or more for the fastest of owls to reach me and that could be too late!" Nikka said, more loudly than she'd meant to, "I can't take that risk. The mediwizard said that if he starts to go down hill he could have as little as half an hour."
Mary put the clipboard down and looked pleadingly at Nikka, "Would it be so bad? It's a worse case scenario anyway and if it did happen, he wouldn't know you weren't here."
"But I would." Nikka said, the tears falling again, she wiped them away angrily, "I'll see you at next checks."
Mary sighed, "I'll be off home by then, you'll see Jessica."
Nikka nodded and looked back to Sirius, "I wouldn't leave you. I couldn't do that. Shall I start reading again?"
Sirius didn't answer, he never did. They didn't even know if he knew she was there let alone could hear her.
After an hour or two there was a knock on the door.
"Come in." Nikka said automatically, they hadn't had any nasty visitors and now that the war had been announced they didn't expect to.
"Just us." Lily said, letting Harry and Danica walk in before her, "How are you both?"
"Same as before." Nikka said, pulling Danica onto her lap.
"I did more pictures." Danica said, "This one is Padfoot stealing a diamond from a dragon and this one is Padfoot using the diamond to shine the light into Voldymort's eyes, Harry told me what he looked like, sort of, he wouldn't tell me much."
Nikka looked over the pictures and laughed. Harry's description of Voldemort had clearly been 'scary with red eyes and white skin'. Danica had drawn a man that had pure white skin, glowing red eyes which was where the similarities stopped. Danica's drawing was short and looked a little like Fudge with a huge, pointed nose (which Harry found ironic) and fangs.
"And this is Padfoot using the diamond distraction to rip Voldymort's throat out." Danica said triumphantly.
Nikka had to swallow quickly, causing her to cough to stop herself from spitting out her lukewarm hospital tea with laughter.
"They're brilliant, he'd love them." Nikka said, giving her a kiss and a lump of blue-tack to try and find a spare space on the walls to pin them up.
Harry grinned and pinned up his own pictures, neither were as brutal as Danica's had been.
Lily said down on the other side of Sirius's bed and took his free hand, "Has there really been no change?"
Nikka shook her head, "Nothing. Breathing and heart rate are the same and I take hope from the fact that he is still breathing on his own. I'm told that it's better than they hoped."
Lily nodded, "Is there any news on what the veil is? How it was created?"
Nikka ground her teeth in frustration, "No. St Mungo's has all but begged to be told, I have begged and threatened and everything else I could think of but the Ministry have refused every time. They say it is a security issue and now more than ever they must be careful."
Lily shook her head and glanced to Harry and Danica who where still pinning up the pictures, "It makes me so angry. I know they have announced there is a war but that's it, barely anything has changed. I thought there might be someone in the Ministry still, you know, for Voldemort but Severus and Narcissa say no."
Harry's ears pricked up at the mention of Voldemort but his mother knew better than to say anything out in the open like this.
"I think it's just the way people think." Nikka hissed, "There are too many that agree with him, if only in part."
Lily shook her head angrily, "They should be ashamed."
"I agree, totally." Nikka said, "Tonks did manage to get out a little information about the veil, but it's not her area and her request to train as an Unmentionable was denied."
"What did she find out?" Lily asked.
"That it is what the kids thought it was; a physical veil between this world and the next." Nikka told her quietly, so quietly Harry could barely listen in, "If Severus hadn't caught him, we'd have no chance, he'd be lost to the next world forever. I can never repay that."
"You don't have to." Lily insisted, "Severus was just sorry he didn't get there a few seconds earlier."
"There is a rumour that they have records of a Medium going through and coming back, but she'd been trained for months and it took so much out of her… and it's only a rumour, nothing we could track her down with." Nikka sighed and brushed a stray hair from Sirius's face, she felt so useless.
"I heard you got your job back. Tonks told me that the letter had come." Lily said after a few minutes.
Nikka nodded, "Yep. I've got to have a physical before they'll let me back into active service but I should pass that with no trouble. They've also given me all the wages I should of gotten from the day I was fired, I've got nearly six thousand galleons in my account right now."
"You should go back to work." Lily said gently, "It would do you some good and gods know we could use the people on our side out there. There are more and more attacks every day now."
Nikka shook her head and dried her eyes, "I can't leave him. Every time I even fall asleep I wake in a panic that he's gone and I missed it. That he went alone… that…"
"I have something that might help with that." Lily said reaching into her bag.
She pulled out two necklaces on golden chains. One was a bell jar, about the size of Nikka's top thumb joint. Inside was a single, two headed rose. One head was in full bloom the other just a small bud, floating bolt up right on their stem. The other necklace was a black dogs face.
"I got the idea from a muggle video that Danica was watching and it's taken me a few weeks to get the magic to work, I didn't want to get your hopes up before I knew for sure they would work." Lily explained, "You wear this one," She said holding up the bell jar, "and Sirius will wear the other. If he gets any worse, even a little, the petals will start to fall. Once the last has fallen he's… well, let's hope we don't get there."
"And the other rose? The closed one?" Nikka asked, holding the necklace in her palm.
"If he begins to wake, it will begin to bloom. When it's fully open, he's awake." Lily told her.
"How do you know if they work?" Nikka asked, it sounded too good to be true and she couldn't risk it failing.
"She cursed Dad." Danica said straight faced.
Nikka looked shocked, "What?!"
"Just a stunning spell, but while he was wearing Sirius's one and the petals started to fall and the other opened as he woke." Lily said, "I'd made two copies at exactly the same time, so you'll know for sure."
Nikka got stiffly to her feet and gave Lily a big hug, "Thank you. Thank you so much."
"Now will you come home?" Lily asked, "To your family and bed and hot food and proper baths and showers?"
Nikka let out a laugh, "It does sound nice, I… I couldn't go back to our room though, not without him."
"I've already moved your cactuses to the guest room Hermione normally uses, she says she's used to a smaller room anyway. Peasant." Danica smirked.
"Danica, I have told you to stop saying that at people!" Lily sighed, "I will kill Draco if he teaches her one more thing like that."
Harry buried his grin behind a glass of water; it was hard not to laugh when she was being so funny, it's not like Danica meant it anyway and she only ever said it to, or about, people she knew would also find it funny.
"You'd never think my mother had been a shop girl." Lily said, rolling her eyes.
Nikka forced a smile, the thought of leaving was hitting her now and the panic was creeping in.
"How did you do it?" Nikka whispered, "Move on, pretend everything was OK?"
Lily clutched at her hand and shook her head, "I didn't. I had Harry so had to pretend after a while but I was so injured I had time to just lie in bed and cry. And the biggest difference I suppose was… well… James was dead. I didn't have the hope that he'd ever come back to me and I don't know whether or not that was a good thing or a bad thing."
Nikka nodded, "I'm sorry. You're right, it's not the same."
Lily shook her head, "No, no but not that you are going through anything less. I… I don't know what I'd do if James just woke up now and I know my life would be very different if I'd had that hope. I wouldn't have…" she looked quickly to Danica and stopped herself from saying any more, "I don't envy your position. Not a bit."
Nikka wiped her eyes and chucked the tissue towards the already over flowing bin. She carefully slipped the necklace over Sirius's head and then put her own on.
"They wont come off?" Nikka asked worriedly.
"Give me your finger." Lily instructed.
Lily pulled out a pin and pricked Nikka's finger, lowering a drop of blood onto each necklace. They both glowed for a moment before returning to normal.
Lily reached down and gave Sirius's necklace a good tug, it didn't break or come off when she tried to undo the clasp, or even slip if over his head.
"You are the only one who could remove them, until you're dead." Lily promised her.
Nikka thanked her again and bent down, kissing Sirius gently on the lips, "Goodbye my love, I'll see you soon I promise."
Lily took her hand firmly, Danica taking Nikka's free one and Harry his mother's.
"Oh Mary!" Nikka called out, "I'm… I'm leaving so I'll see you soon."
Mary smiled, looking very relieved, "Well done Lady DeGere! Good for you."
Nikka nodded, "I've left a necklace on Mr Black, it is to be kept on him."
"Of course." Mary nodded, "I expect we'll see you soon."
"I hope so." Nikka said, walking to the lifts.
Within a few minutes they were standing in the hallway of Grimmauld place; the first time she'd been outside the hospital in nearly five weeks.