Categories > Books > Harry Potter > Summertime
In the Still of the Night
0 reviews'Maybe that's what it was then ... cosmic fucking payback.'
0Unrated
Disclaimer: Me no own. You no sue. A'right?
Summertime
Chapter Two: In the Still of the Night
This room may drive me mad. It almost had. His childhood bedroom that he had spent most his young life hiding from his family in, who would have thought he'd spend so much time hiding here again, twenty-something years later. Of course, if a place could drive me mad I doubt I'd have survived those particular twelve years of my life with my sanity still intact ... though come to think about it maybe I shouldn't be so sure of my sanity. I appear to be talking to myself. In my head. Is that better or worse then out loud? Well asking oneself questions is definitely worse anyway. The clock on the wall informed him that it was approaching three A.M. now and that Sirius should really be getting to sleep. He told it to fuck off or he might just forget to wind it up it the future. It didn't say anything more but Sirius could've sworn it was glaring at him. Not that it could glare. As it didn't have a face. Apart from a clock-face that is. Oh for gods sake stop this idiotic rambling you twat.
That was it, lying in bed and staring at the ceiling would indeed guarantee him admittance to St. Mungos psychiatric ward. He got up and left his room, creping through the sleeping household down to the kitchen. Something to help me sleep, that's what I need. Something to help me sleep /dreamlessly. /No doubt there's many a potion one can concoct for that purpose, but I must say that the most effective involves neither phoenix tears nor eye of newt. Nope, the most effective one involves a glass- he grabbed one from the cupboard -and a bottle of firewhisky. He opened the liquor cabinet with a flick of his wand (it had been charmed to insure the Weasley twins couldn't get into it) and pulled out said bottle. He sat down at the kitchen table and poured some into the glass, considered it, and then poured slightly more into the glass.
He had gone to bed two hours earlier and fallen asleep quickly and easily after spending most of that day trying to take paintings off the walls, much to the disgust of the inhabitants of those paintings. They ran into each others frames to avoid being taken down and shouted abuse at him as he tried every charm he could this of to get the canvases down from the walls they had magically attached to with spells of various strength depending on how well liked - or how rich - the person in the portrait was. The one of Bellatrix was stuck on so tightly Sirius ended up having to set it on fire to get rid of it. Well maybe he didn't have to set it on fire, but it was the easiest way of getting rid of her sulky pout looking down on him. And the portraits comments on 'that half-breed brat masquerading as some kind of hero' had sealed her fate.
Ginny's complimentary comments that morning had led Sirius to be thinking about the Marauders a lot that day, so it was no surprise really, that when he collapsed into bed his sleeping mind wandered back twenty years. To when they were still fresh from Hogwarts and full of hope for the future, not even a war had managed to dampen their firm belief that their lives were going to be perfect, they were all going to get good jobs and be wealthy, and get married and be happy. There was no question of that, and James getting married and getting a job as an Auror cemented their belief that nothing could ever go wrong for them.
It wasn't an unusual dream for Sirius to have, in fact it was becoming almost as familiar as the tedious days stuck inside this god-forsaken black hole of a house, if one may excuse the pun. It began with a Christmas eve party at James's apartment. James and Lily were only dating then, not that it excused what Sirius did, they all knew it was more then just a few casual dates, however much Lily insisted she was only giving James a trial run, they all knew she was finally his.
Perhaps then it was a guilty conscience that kept these dreams returning to him. Starting with an innocent kiss under the mistletoe, and of course Sirius flirted with her, but Sirius flirted with everyone, and it was really only to watch James grow more and more annoyed at him. Mostly just for that, just a little bit because he enjoyed watching Lily try to give him her best ex-prefect-glare, and fail miserably at it by giggling, despite her best efforts to be not the least bit amused by Sirius's childish humor.
He swallowed the whisky down in one go and smacked the glass down on the table, a little harder then intended, the resulting bang ricocheted off the kitchen walls. Damn Lily, still manages to drive me mad even after death. He poured another whisky. Lily could drive anyone mad though, not just him. James wasn't her only admirer at Hogwarts, that was why she had fended him off for so long, she didn't take him any more seriously then any off the others. She was pretty, more then pretty, she was beautiful. And pretty much every boy in the school thought so, so it wasn't surprising it took her a while to realise James thought so a little bit more then all the rest. And that's why it wasn't surprising that Sirius never really noticed his attraction to her was anything more then any other crush. Sirius liked a lot of women, Lily was liked by a lot of men. He always just thought that was all there was to it, and therefore ignored it. Perhaps I should have noticed something about how hard it was to ignore her. Then maybe I wouldn't have been so careless as to kiss her beneath the mistletoe. That kiss had started the affair. The affair had lasted until she married James. During those months Sirius had often asked himself what the fuck he thought he was doing. And the answer was always the same; he wasn't thinking. He couldn't when she was there. That was always the excuse. Doesn't make you any less of a bastard. It was outright betrayal of your closest friend and there's nothing more to it. You could've stopped it if you wanted to, you just didn't want to. He swigged down the second glass, and poured a third. Maybe that's what it was then, cosmic fucking payback. I never got found out for the one betrayal, so I got accused of another one instead. Twelve years in Azkaban and then the rest of my life in this prison as penance for fucking my best mate's fiancé. Sounds fair enough. He swallowed the third glass and poured a fourth, carrying on this way until he fell asleep at the kitchen table.
Remus found him there when he came in from guard duty, Sirius passed out cold on the table with a near-empty bottle of firewhisky and he didn't really have to ask why. Sirius had been doing this a lot lately. Remus replaced the cap on the firewhisky and locked it back up in the liquor cabinet. He considered charming the cabinet so Sirius couldn't get into it either, but that probably wasn't the best way to deal with the situation, and anyway, if Sirius felt the need to drink himself into oblivion day after day, who was he to judge. He'd probably do the same thing if he was stuck in this place all the time. He knew from experience that it was useless trying to wake Sirius up from a drunken blackout, so instead grabbed his friend's arm an apparated him up to his bedroom, catching him upon arrival before he fell to the polished wood floor. Remus tipped the drunken lump that was Sirius onto his bed, and looked at him for a moment, wondering if he should feel angry at his friend for letting himself fall into this depression, or pity him for it.
"Why am I always keeping you out of trouble, Padfoot?"
The sleeping man gave him no answer. He didn't when he was awake anyway so it made no difference. Remus left the room, shutting the door quietly behind him.
---------------------------------------
Hedwig arrived as they were watching Lupin try and take the protective charms off the door at the end of the hall, no one knew what was behind the door and they didn't want to open it until Moody could tell them whether it housed anything that was likely to remove their limbs or the suchlike, but since he was coming for dinner that evening, Lupin had decided to get the charms off in advance. It proved to be quite entertaining for those watching, as every so often a spell he cast would cause the door to shoot sparks, growl at him, or somehow turn him purple. They didn't hear the tapping on the window at first, as the door was hissing like a feral cat, but a particularly violent -tappity tap tap!- Caused Hermione to look up and see the white owl knocking at the window like a woodpecker. She opened the window and Hedwig perched on the sill, allowing her to untie the three letters, one with her name, one with Ron's and the last addressed to Sirius. She passed Ron his and put Sirius's aside to give to him when he finally appeared today. One of Lupin's spells caused the door to set alight with pink flames as Hermione and Ron opened their letters. Both said the same thing; 'I've just been attacked by Dementors and I might be expelled from Hogwarts. I want to know what's going on and when I'm going to get out of here.' Ron grabbed Sirius's letter to see if it bore the same message, Hermione just stared in shock.
"What? What is it?" asked Ginny, seeing their horrified faces. Hermione looked at her mutely and Ron passed her one of the letters. She took a moment to read it, and understand it "Oh my god" was all she said. Lupin looked up from trying to control the pink blaze "What's wrong?" he asked.
"Harry's been attacked" Ginny told him
"What!?"
Tonks and Moody burst through the front door, causing Mrs Black's portrait at the other end of the hall to start up fuss "MUDBLOODS BEFOULING MY PROUD HOUSE..."
"Remus, grab your broom, we've gotta go" Tonks yelled over the racket
"What happened?"
"Dementors" said Moody "Kingsley, Emmeline and Hestia are waiting outside already, and Sturgis, Elphias and Dedalus are meeting us in the air. Nymphadora will brief you as we fly."
Lupin had summoned his broom to him as Moody had been talking and it zipped down the stairs to him now and into his waiting hand, with that he followed Tonks and Moody out the door, leaving Hermione, Ginny and Ron behind to battle with the portrait curtains and wonder what the hell had just happened.
--------------------------------------
Remus flew just behind Tonks, watching as she grew her spiky violet hair long, so that it rippled in the wind. Funny how she could always find a way to enjoy herself. He sped up so that he was flying alongside her "So you're going to brief me?" Tonks giggled "Only if you want me to, Remus" she said with a wicked grin. Remus just stared at her "How do you manage to give that sentence sexual innuendo?" he asked incredulously. She shrugged "Pretty much anything anyone says can be given innuendo if you say it with the right tone of voice" however anxious Remus was about Harry, he couldn't not crack a grin at that. But he quickly regained a more business like composure "Are you going to tell me what's going on?" he said, and Tonks clicked back into a more serious manner "We're going to Harry's Aunt and Uncle's house to pick him up and bring him back to headquarters"
"He's okay then?"
"Fine. He managed to conjure a patronus and get rid of the dementors." Remus had smiled when she told him that, but Tonks didn't notice and continued on "He's fine but it's too dangerous for him to stay there, we need him where we can keep an eye on him"
"We already were keeping an eye on him! How can he have ended up in so much danger!?"
"Mundungus was on watch."
"Bloody Mundungus. What did he do this time? Get too busy selling mind-altering potions to children in the park?"
"Something about a batch of cauldrons that fell off a back of broom... Dumbledore is not happy with him I can tell you that."
"Fell off, I'm sure ... And Dumbledore's not the only one out to get him. Wait until Sirius hears about this, then he's really in trouble. I've got half a mind to curse him into next week myself, more then half in fact... What's so funny?" Tonks was smiling at him.
"Nothings funny" she said "It's just sweet, how protective you all are of that boy."
"Oh"
"We're here"
Summertime
Chapter Two: In the Still of the Night
This room may drive me mad. It almost had. His childhood bedroom that he had spent most his young life hiding from his family in, who would have thought he'd spend so much time hiding here again, twenty-something years later. Of course, if a place could drive me mad I doubt I'd have survived those particular twelve years of my life with my sanity still intact ... though come to think about it maybe I shouldn't be so sure of my sanity. I appear to be talking to myself. In my head. Is that better or worse then out loud? Well asking oneself questions is definitely worse anyway. The clock on the wall informed him that it was approaching three A.M. now and that Sirius should really be getting to sleep. He told it to fuck off or he might just forget to wind it up it the future. It didn't say anything more but Sirius could've sworn it was glaring at him. Not that it could glare. As it didn't have a face. Apart from a clock-face that is. Oh for gods sake stop this idiotic rambling you twat.
That was it, lying in bed and staring at the ceiling would indeed guarantee him admittance to St. Mungos psychiatric ward. He got up and left his room, creping through the sleeping household down to the kitchen. Something to help me sleep, that's what I need. Something to help me sleep /dreamlessly. /No doubt there's many a potion one can concoct for that purpose, but I must say that the most effective involves neither phoenix tears nor eye of newt. Nope, the most effective one involves a glass- he grabbed one from the cupboard -and a bottle of firewhisky. He opened the liquor cabinet with a flick of his wand (it had been charmed to insure the Weasley twins couldn't get into it) and pulled out said bottle. He sat down at the kitchen table and poured some into the glass, considered it, and then poured slightly more into the glass.
He had gone to bed two hours earlier and fallen asleep quickly and easily after spending most of that day trying to take paintings off the walls, much to the disgust of the inhabitants of those paintings. They ran into each others frames to avoid being taken down and shouted abuse at him as he tried every charm he could this of to get the canvases down from the walls they had magically attached to with spells of various strength depending on how well liked - or how rich - the person in the portrait was. The one of Bellatrix was stuck on so tightly Sirius ended up having to set it on fire to get rid of it. Well maybe he didn't have to set it on fire, but it was the easiest way of getting rid of her sulky pout looking down on him. And the portraits comments on 'that half-breed brat masquerading as some kind of hero' had sealed her fate.
Ginny's complimentary comments that morning had led Sirius to be thinking about the Marauders a lot that day, so it was no surprise really, that when he collapsed into bed his sleeping mind wandered back twenty years. To when they were still fresh from Hogwarts and full of hope for the future, not even a war had managed to dampen their firm belief that their lives were going to be perfect, they were all going to get good jobs and be wealthy, and get married and be happy. There was no question of that, and James getting married and getting a job as an Auror cemented their belief that nothing could ever go wrong for them.
It wasn't an unusual dream for Sirius to have, in fact it was becoming almost as familiar as the tedious days stuck inside this god-forsaken black hole of a house, if one may excuse the pun. It began with a Christmas eve party at James's apartment. James and Lily were only dating then, not that it excused what Sirius did, they all knew it was more then just a few casual dates, however much Lily insisted she was only giving James a trial run, they all knew she was finally his.
Perhaps then it was a guilty conscience that kept these dreams returning to him. Starting with an innocent kiss under the mistletoe, and of course Sirius flirted with her, but Sirius flirted with everyone, and it was really only to watch James grow more and more annoyed at him. Mostly just for that, just a little bit because he enjoyed watching Lily try to give him her best ex-prefect-glare, and fail miserably at it by giggling, despite her best efforts to be not the least bit amused by Sirius's childish humor.
He swallowed the whisky down in one go and smacked the glass down on the table, a little harder then intended, the resulting bang ricocheted off the kitchen walls. Damn Lily, still manages to drive me mad even after death. He poured another whisky. Lily could drive anyone mad though, not just him. James wasn't her only admirer at Hogwarts, that was why she had fended him off for so long, she didn't take him any more seriously then any off the others. She was pretty, more then pretty, she was beautiful. And pretty much every boy in the school thought so, so it wasn't surprising it took her a while to realise James thought so a little bit more then all the rest. And that's why it wasn't surprising that Sirius never really noticed his attraction to her was anything more then any other crush. Sirius liked a lot of women, Lily was liked by a lot of men. He always just thought that was all there was to it, and therefore ignored it. Perhaps I should have noticed something about how hard it was to ignore her. Then maybe I wouldn't have been so careless as to kiss her beneath the mistletoe. That kiss had started the affair. The affair had lasted until she married James. During those months Sirius had often asked himself what the fuck he thought he was doing. And the answer was always the same; he wasn't thinking. He couldn't when she was there. That was always the excuse. Doesn't make you any less of a bastard. It was outright betrayal of your closest friend and there's nothing more to it. You could've stopped it if you wanted to, you just didn't want to. He swigged down the second glass, and poured a third. Maybe that's what it was then, cosmic fucking payback. I never got found out for the one betrayal, so I got accused of another one instead. Twelve years in Azkaban and then the rest of my life in this prison as penance for fucking my best mate's fiancé. Sounds fair enough. He swallowed the third glass and poured a fourth, carrying on this way until he fell asleep at the kitchen table.
Remus found him there when he came in from guard duty, Sirius passed out cold on the table with a near-empty bottle of firewhisky and he didn't really have to ask why. Sirius had been doing this a lot lately. Remus replaced the cap on the firewhisky and locked it back up in the liquor cabinet. He considered charming the cabinet so Sirius couldn't get into it either, but that probably wasn't the best way to deal with the situation, and anyway, if Sirius felt the need to drink himself into oblivion day after day, who was he to judge. He'd probably do the same thing if he was stuck in this place all the time. He knew from experience that it was useless trying to wake Sirius up from a drunken blackout, so instead grabbed his friend's arm an apparated him up to his bedroom, catching him upon arrival before he fell to the polished wood floor. Remus tipped the drunken lump that was Sirius onto his bed, and looked at him for a moment, wondering if he should feel angry at his friend for letting himself fall into this depression, or pity him for it.
"Why am I always keeping you out of trouble, Padfoot?"
The sleeping man gave him no answer. He didn't when he was awake anyway so it made no difference. Remus left the room, shutting the door quietly behind him.
---------------------------------------
Hedwig arrived as they were watching Lupin try and take the protective charms off the door at the end of the hall, no one knew what was behind the door and they didn't want to open it until Moody could tell them whether it housed anything that was likely to remove their limbs or the suchlike, but since he was coming for dinner that evening, Lupin had decided to get the charms off in advance. It proved to be quite entertaining for those watching, as every so often a spell he cast would cause the door to shoot sparks, growl at him, or somehow turn him purple. They didn't hear the tapping on the window at first, as the door was hissing like a feral cat, but a particularly violent -tappity tap tap!- Caused Hermione to look up and see the white owl knocking at the window like a woodpecker. She opened the window and Hedwig perched on the sill, allowing her to untie the three letters, one with her name, one with Ron's and the last addressed to Sirius. She passed Ron his and put Sirius's aside to give to him when he finally appeared today. One of Lupin's spells caused the door to set alight with pink flames as Hermione and Ron opened their letters. Both said the same thing; 'I've just been attacked by Dementors and I might be expelled from Hogwarts. I want to know what's going on and when I'm going to get out of here.' Ron grabbed Sirius's letter to see if it bore the same message, Hermione just stared in shock.
"What? What is it?" asked Ginny, seeing their horrified faces. Hermione looked at her mutely and Ron passed her one of the letters. She took a moment to read it, and understand it "Oh my god" was all she said. Lupin looked up from trying to control the pink blaze "What's wrong?" he asked.
"Harry's been attacked" Ginny told him
"What!?"
Tonks and Moody burst through the front door, causing Mrs Black's portrait at the other end of the hall to start up fuss "MUDBLOODS BEFOULING MY PROUD HOUSE..."
"Remus, grab your broom, we've gotta go" Tonks yelled over the racket
"What happened?"
"Dementors" said Moody "Kingsley, Emmeline and Hestia are waiting outside already, and Sturgis, Elphias and Dedalus are meeting us in the air. Nymphadora will brief you as we fly."
Lupin had summoned his broom to him as Moody had been talking and it zipped down the stairs to him now and into his waiting hand, with that he followed Tonks and Moody out the door, leaving Hermione, Ginny and Ron behind to battle with the portrait curtains and wonder what the hell had just happened.
--------------------------------------
Remus flew just behind Tonks, watching as she grew her spiky violet hair long, so that it rippled in the wind. Funny how she could always find a way to enjoy herself. He sped up so that he was flying alongside her "So you're going to brief me?" Tonks giggled "Only if you want me to, Remus" she said with a wicked grin. Remus just stared at her "How do you manage to give that sentence sexual innuendo?" he asked incredulously. She shrugged "Pretty much anything anyone says can be given innuendo if you say it with the right tone of voice" however anxious Remus was about Harry, he couldn't not crack a grin at that. But he quickly regained a more business like composure "Are you going to tell me what's going on?" he said, and Tonks clicked back into a more serious manner "We're going to Harry's Aunt and Uncle's house to pick him up and bring him back to headquarters"
"He's okay then?"
"Fine. He managed to conjure a patronus and get rid of the dementors." Remus had smiled when she told him that, but Tonks didn't notice and continued on "He's fine but it's too dangerous for him to stay there, we need him where we can keep an eye on him"
"We already were keeping an eye on him! How can he have ended up in so much danger!?"
"Mundungus was on watch."
"Bloody Mundungus. What did he do this time? Get too busy selling mind-altering potions to children in the park?"
"Something about a batch of cauldrons that fell off a back of broom... Dumbledore is not happy with him I can tell you that."
"Fell off, I'm sure ... And Dumbledore's not the only one out to get him. Wait until Sirius hears about this, then he's really in trouble. I've got half a mind to curse him into next week myself, more then half in fact... What's so funny?" Tonks was smiling at him.
"Nothings funny" she said "It's just sweet, how protective you all are of that boy."
"Oh"
"We're here"
Sign up to rate and review this story