Written in the Stars | Sirius Black

VIII. Midnight Blue

Sirius parted his lips, probably preparing to say something else snarky to her, but when he brought a heavily bandaged hand up to brush his hair away from his forehead, Clara interrupted him.

"What happened?" she asked, grabbing his wrist before thinking.

His face fell as he quickly pulled away from her grasp, "It's nothing."

"Sirius." she said sternly, pulling his hand back towards her once more.

Realising he wouldn't be able to object, he watched as she carefully unwrapped the bandage around his hand to reveal a long cut over his palm – stretching from his thumb to his ring finger. The wound looked relatively new, so she knew it must have happened some time that evening. Her fingers delicately ran over the skin surrounding the cut, surveying it for any serious damage. Sirius winced slightly and let out a gasp when her touch reached a tender spot near his thumb.

"Sorry." she whispered quickly, glancing up to read his expression.

"It's okay."

Holding Sirius' injured hand in her left hand, she reached for her wand with the other. But he pulled away before she could even hope to try and heal him.

"Sirius, this cut is pretty deep. I know I can heal it and I'm assuming you didn't go to the hospital wing for a reason, so let me help you."

Clara had no idea how Sirius had injured himself, but she knew him well enough to realise there was no way it could have happened during his detention with Mr. Filch. Polishing tables didn't take four hours, even without magic. The fact that he had shown up well after curfew let her know that he had been up to something. Something he didn't want her, or anyone else, to know about.

It was probably better for her sanity to not know what sort of trouble he was involving himself in. But her nurturing instincts simply didn't want him walking around practically begging for an infection to happen, especially if he was refusing to go to the hospital wing.

Sirius reluctantly laid the back of his hand onto her open palm, allowing her to point her wand at the wound. But before she could utter the spell, he stopped her again.

"Have you done this before?"

She pulled her wand back and smirked at him, "You're not scared, are you?"

"Well, I'd like some peace of mind at the very least."

"You're going to have to trust me. There's no way you'll be able to take notes or do any assignments with your hand like this."

"Bold of you to assume I was going to do any of that to begin with."

Clara rolled her eyes, "You think James has never needed a healing spell before? Of course I've done it."

Sirius surveyed her expression, lingering on her hazel eyes as if he was looking for any single hint of a lie before letting out a sigh of defeat, "Fine."

Clara brought her eyes back down to his hand, pointing her wand at the deepest area of the cut before whispering episkey.

Warmth quickly grew over his palm, prickling at the damaged skin surrounding the wound. Doubt flickered in his eyes at the thought that Clara may have been messing with him. Merlin forbid she chose now to exact revenge on him for years or torment. As he raised his gaze up to her, she didn't give any indication that that was the case. Rather, her eyes were filled with concentration, lips pressing together into a thin line as she focused on his injury.