Pragma // s.b.

23

****

Soft sheets wrapped around me and I could hear shuffling from around me. My temples were pounding, and my cheek throbbed. My eyes fluttered open slowly and I looked around. Stark white walls and curtains surrounded me. Where was I? The last thing I remembered was waiting at the Halloween feast.

The sound of a wheeling cart passed by the light blue curtains obscuring my view. Suddenly, they were flung open and the rest of the room came into view. I was in the hospital wing. Why was I in the hospital wing? I looked over towards the side table. Leaned up against a large bottle of healing potion was a pair of black cat ears. Memories of the night before flooded back into my head and I sat up, sharp pain seeping into my head.

"Carter, lay back down!", Madame Juliana, the pretty young healer who helped out at the hospital wing, gasped from across the room. She rushed over, her short hair blowing against her face. "You had a pretty bad concussion", she reached over, pouring some of the potion into a small glass and handing it to me, "Drink". The bitter liquid burned my throat, but almost immediately, the pain in my head subsided.

"It's a good thing that young man got you here before you passed out", she said, fluffing the pillows I was leaning up against. My eyes widened. I had passed out? I strained, trying to remember as far back as I could. I remembered waiting for Sirius and the rest of the boys, getting hit in the face, and a pair of shocking blue eyes and strong hands carrying me to the hospital wing. Madame Juliana began fussing around my bed, straightening the flowers on the bedside table and setting the bottle of healing potion back down, beginning to move away after her work was done.

"Wait, Madame Juliana!", I called suddenly. She turned, a petite hand on her hip, "Yes?". I swallowed and shifted. "Um, do you happen to know the name of the guy who brought me here?". A coy smile appeared on her plump lips. "I believe that was Calum Archer", she said with a teasing edge to her voice. "Thanks", I mumbled. Why did I ask that? And why did I desperately want to see this mystery guy again?

Madame Juliana turned and began to make her way to fold laundry that was sitting on an unused bed next to me. I lay back and rubbed my head. Of course I end up here. I had set my mind on getting answers from the boys last night, I needed to get the truth. Instead of getting the truth, I got a stupid concussion. I let out a heavy sigh of frustration and allowed myself to fall back into the fluffy cushions and a deep sleep.

****

"She should be waking soon, dear", I heard Madame Juliana's voice float from somewhere far away. I let out a soft groan and turned over, my eyelids heavy. I reached up to brush the hair out of my face and inhaled through my nose, a familiar scent filling my nose. My eyes slowly opened and a blurry figure sitting with their legs propped up on my bedside table appeared in front of me. I bolted upright, nearly knocking over the vase of daisies on my bedside table.

"She's alive!", Sirius smirked from the small chair he was positioned in. What I had smelled was strong peppermint and a hint of smoke in the air around us. Seeing him sitting there in front of me, twirling his wand between his fingers, my worst fears were confirmed. "What are you doing here?", I stuttered, my heart beating out of my chest. How long had he been sitting there? Was he watching me sleep? Why was he there in the first place? Where had he been all yesterday? I forced the questions to stop flying around my head.

"I brought you a muffin", he said casually, moving his feet down to the ground. I looked, and sure enough, there sat a plump lemon poppyseed muffin. My mouth watered and I suddenly became aware of how hungry I was, I guess I had never made it to the Halloween Feast. I started to reach out to grab it, but I remembered why I was waiting outside the Great Hall in the first place. My hand dropped and I turned back to Sirius.

"Where were you yesterday?", I said cooly. He looked taken aback, the collected way he usually carried himself melting away ever so slightly. "I'm a busy man, sunshine", he laughed, but there was an edge to his voice. "Cut the bullshit", I said a little louder than I meant. Madame Juliana eyed us from afar, but continued bandaging up the 2nd year Gryffindor laying on the small bed in front of her.

Sirius scooted closer to my bed, the chair scraping across the white tile under it. "Remus was in...a bit of trouble and we had to help him out, okay?", he said under his breath. My heart was hammering against my ribcage. I bit my lip and tried to control the thoughts whirring around my head. Remus was in trouble? That didn't seem right, he never got in trouble. "Sirius I need to ask you something", I said before I could stop myself. My adrenaline was pumping, and I was scared, but here Sirius was, and I needed answers.

"Anything", he fiddled with the end of his wand, causing red sparks to fizzle to the ground. "Okay", I tried to sit up further, but my head and cheek were beginning to throb again, and not to mention my nerves were turning my arms and legs to jelly. Sirius looked concerned. His sharp jaw was tight and his eyebrows drawn together. "I need you to be honest with me", I said with as much strength as I could muster while laying in a hospital bed with a bruised face and robes from the night before.

He looked at me and then did something I never saw coming in a million years. He took my hand. His warm fingers wrapped around mine. All the air seemed to be sucked out of the room. I couldn't think, I couldn't breathe. Sirius' mouth parted slightly and he quietly let out, "Always". I hated the way I felt when his skin touched mine. I hated that I wanted pull him in so he was closer to me. I hated that this simple gesture made me want to forget what I was about to say, and just stare into his eyes forever.

I slid my hand out of his and fixed my gaze on his annoyingly perfect face. I knew if I didn't say anything right now, I never would. I would try to make things go back to normal. I would try to ignore the nagging questions in the back of my head. I would try, and I would fail. I gulped, why did my mouth have to be so dry? I took in Sirius' tense face, and not breaking eye contact, said, "Did you try to kill Severus Snape?".