²𝐒𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧 ─ 𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗿𝘆 𝗽𝗼𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗲

𝟺 || 𝚒𝚗𝚜𝚎𝚌𝚞𝚛𝚒𝚝𝚒𝚎𝚜

Matilda nodded, "Yes, very."

She offered him a tight-lipped smile before turning back ahead, watching the front door.

His eyebrows furrowed, she was being distant, more so than usual, "Is something bother you, Matilda?"

His worry sounded genuine.

"Just tired," she told him.

Sirius sighed again. And Matilda felt his body shift beside her on the old furniture. He'd adjusted himself so that his body faced her, and not the front of the dusty room. He watched her, studying her face, and the way she sat, straight up and down, and with no eye contact. He also took note of the dark circles that had begun to take place under Matilda's familiar, bright blue eyes.

"Yes, well, this house is old, and with all the noise I'm sure anybody would find it hard to sleep in," he said, trying to reason, but Matilda shook her head.

"No," she whispered. "It isn't the house... it's the dreams," Matilda sighed, looking up at Sirius. "I have nightmares and sometimes they're so real and I can't wake up from them," she sucked in a shaky breath. "And they scare me, so much."

Matilda did not go into detail about the dreams that terrorize her in the night. She didn't want him to think of her any differently, or see her as weak or vulnerable, because she was not. She was just afraid and drained.

"I have dreams too," Sirius told Matilda, his face was grim, eyes shadowed. "They sometimes take me prisoner and refuse to release me."

"Do you dream of Rosaline?"

She sucked in a deep breath. Matilda had not meant to bring her up. But it was too late to take back her question, so, she waited to see if Sirius would answer.

It took him a long while, but eventually, he nodded.

"Yes," Sirius admitted. "But when I close my eyes and see Rose, it's not a nightmare or a prison sentence," he began to smile. "She's the better part of my dreams."

Matilda nodded, "I'm sorry that I asked," she told him, meaning it. Despite wanting to know everything about this girl from everyone's past. "It's just, this girl, her name seems to follow me everywhere, even in my own and... I don't even know who she is, or was."

"Your dad?" Sirius asked.

Sirius furrowed his eyebrows, "Your dad ─"

"Has told me very little," Matilda interrupted him.

Sirius was silent for another long moment before finally nodding his head. He sighed, and his eyes looked straight at Matilda.

"Her name was Rosaline Addington," said Sirius. "I'd known her since our first year at Hogwarts, she'd been sorted into Gryffindor. We weren't actually friends for a while, she was off usually with Marlene McKinnon and your dad," Matilda was on the edge of her seat, taking in every word of Sirius' recount. "It wasn't until my fifth year at Hogwarts that I really got to know Rosaline."

"What was she like?" asked Matilda.

Having been compared to the woman, she was curious to know what it was that made them so similar to one another.

"Rose was fire and she could not be extinguished," he laughed, but that answer only confused Matilda. "She was enraging, complicated, cynical, and a bit mean if I'm being honest," Sirius told her, and Matilda had to admit that even she recognized a few of those qualities within herself. "Rosaline managed to keep everyone around guessing. No one really knew all of her, and I think that's the way she preferred it."