The Marauders - Order of the Phoenix Part Three

The Walls Are Caving In

Sirius Black was pressed into the far corner of his cell, his back against one wall, his side against the other, pushed as tightly into the corner as he could get, his head pressed against the cold stone. His eyes were screwed up as tightly as they could be and he hugged his knees.

"Sirius, I brought you dinner... c'mon, you've got to talk to me again sometime..." Frank Longbottom begged from outside of the cell bars. He was standing there, holding a sack of food - inside was a roast sandwich and a bag of crisps. "Sirius c'mon, pay me attention will you, for just a second?"

But Sirius shook his head and pulled his knees even closer to his chest.

"C'mon Sirius... please. You've got to be hungry. You didn't touch your lunch..." The bland plate of prison food sat untouched outside the bars on the floor where the auror on duty at lunch time had left it when, similar to this, Sirius didn't move. Frank sighed and leaned against the bars, putting the bag he held inside by several feet. "There, I've left it so you can eat it later if you want." Frank stayed standing by the bars. "Sirius, are you alright? Is it just me you're ignoring or is it something else? Do I need to go get a mediwitch?"

Sirius held up one arm, his middle finger extended.

Frank sighed. "I'm sorry Sirius. I'm sorry. I didn't want to be the one that went to get you, alright, it wasn't a choice. And anyway you should be glad it was me and not some other bloke. Someone else might've been a lot more rough with you, the way you resisted, you could've got in a lot more trouble..."

Sirius buried his face in his knees.

"You'll be out tomorrow, it's nearly done," Frank said.

No response at all from Sirius. His hair pooled around his face.

Frank sighed. He stood there against the bars a couple more minutes before he finally stood up right and turned away, walking back over to the auror desk across the room. He sat heavily down and leaned back in the chair. He'd volunteered to be on duty down in the holding block that night, not that it was hard to be assigned the position - nobody else wanted to do it, after all the commotion and singing of the night before, there weren't any aurors willing to take on the task, all afraid it would be a repeat performance.

Frank rather wished that Sirius would do a repeat performance. Incessant singing was better than this heavy silence.

All Frank could think about was how Sirius had reacted in the vault at Gringott's the year before, and how panicked he'd become.

That's why Frank wasn't surprised when a couple hours later, he heard Sirius suddenly gasp. "The walls --"

Frank got up, dropping the book he'd been studying down onto the desk and went over to the bars. "Sirius?"

"The walls - the walls are caving in, the walls are caving --" Sirius was panicked, he was pacing furiously in the back of the cell.

"They're not, Sirius, I promise they're not," Frank said, but Sirius didn't react, like he couldn't hear him. "Sirius, it's alright!" Frank called over.

Sirius shook his head, and continued on pacing, pacing, pacing, murmuring to himself, seeming to hold a half a conversation with a voice that Frank could not hear. Sirius's hands shook and he was ringing them anxiously.

"Hey, you want to talk about it, mate, I'll listen?" Frank suggested, "C'mere, we'll talk it out --"

"Go away!" Sirius shouted.

"Sirius --"

"Go away, go away, go away!"

Frank sighed.