Black // Marauders

51. Shiver

It was midnight. The fire in the hearth of the Common Room barely lit the room as Persie spread herself and all her Potions textbooks and parchments out around her on the carpet as she scribbled away with her quill.

Occasionally, blood from her cheek would drip on to the page, causing her to groan in frustration before having to stop, put her hand on her cheek to stop the bleeding and siphon the blood from the parchment, before continuing on.

"Accio." She muttered, flicking her wand at the bookshelf behind her, before about five books fell from the shelf and one whizzed towards her open hand. She caught it and opened it at a random page, before ripping one page out and pressing it to her cheek to try and soak up some of the excess blood. She threw the book away again, pressing two fingers to her cheek harder and she closed her eyes and took a minute to compose herself. Her side was throbbing harder than before as she took the page away and admired the dots scattering the page of crimson red. She scrunched up the paper and threw it into the fire, watching it catch and burn away into ash as the blood rushed to her face again.

"Where have you been?" Sirius asked from behind her, making her grip her wand a little tighter as he folded his arms and she relaxed again at the realisation that it was him, "Why do you need to know?"

"Don't be sarcastic. I'm just taking an interest." He replied defensively, as he jumped over the back of the sofa and stretched himself out along it's length, "An uneeded one."

"Have you been out?" He pressed before she rolled her eyes, "Yeah. Grabbed some Death Eaters, went out to the Leaky Cauldron, got a few Butterbeers in-"

"That's not what I meant."

"Then what did you mean? Is it not really obvious where I've been? What do you expect me to say to that, Sirius?" She commented, as she gathered up all of her things and put them in a pile, smacking book on top of book.

"Don't snap at me. You're just doing it because you're mad." He asked as she scooped her books up and stood, turning back to face him, "Is it any wonder I'm mad? Really?"

"What happened to your cheek?" He asked suddenly as he stood from his seat on the sofa and she opened her mouth to reply before closing it again and going to leave. He grabbed her arm in response and pulled her back in front of him as she just looked at the floor and mumbled, "It wasn't a big deal. Just one Death Eater. Exploding window. Broken glass. It's fine."

"No it's not. It's still bleeding." He insisted as he reached up to touch her face and she slapped his hand away with a crack, "Stop. I know what's wrong with my own face, alright? Can you just leave me alone for five minutes?"

"I can't just leave you alone." Sirius replied in a slightly bored tone, before she rolled her eyes, "You seem to do a pretty good job when Eloise is around, so just follow those guidelines and you should be just fine."

"You don't mean that." He persisted, following after her as she made a break across the room to head towards her dorm.

"I do, Sirius. Just back off!" She told him exasperatedly as he groaned, "You can't do this on your own. Stop cutting me out."

"I have other people that aren't you." Persie replied as she put her foot on the bottom step of the staircase up to the dorms and promptly collapsed as her ribs delivered a particularly painful stab to her skin. The books tumbled to the ground as she clutched side and rolled so her back was against the wall as Sirius ran over and grabbed her hand, placing the other one to her forehead, "What happened?! Are you alright?!"

"Yep, fine. I'll be going to bed now." Persie winced as she attempted to crawl the remaining stairs and Sirius ceased her from behind and pulled her back to where he sat, "We're going to the hospital wing. Now."