Words: 733

Description: Sirius has nightmares and Remus helps him calm down afterwards.

Story:

Sirius was tossing and turning in his sleep. In his dream, he looked down at his hand on the doorknob of Number 12 Grimmauld Place. He was shaking as he opened the door.

The hallway was dark as always and the hair on the back of his neck stood on end as he felt the portraits staring at him as he walked, the intense feeling of danger in the air.

He crept along to the library and his mother was sitting there, back straight, lips pressed into a firm line. Her expression twisted into one of disgust when she saw him.

"You are a disappointment, Sirius Black." She said.

He bit his tongue. He'd been about to say, "I know, Mother," like he was told to do when he was young.

But instead, Sirius steeled himself and he broadened his shoulders and he stood tall. "I'm not. I'm not a disappointment."

Anger flashed in Walburga's eyes and she stood, towering over her son and her skin turned an ashy gray and her eyes beady red. Her fingers elongated into talons and she raised her arm and swiped at him, leaving great gashes in his chest that bled and bled and bled as she screamed, "SIRIUS ORION BLACK HOW DARE DISRESPECT YOUR MOTHER!"

And then he was in a great big black cave and it was cold and he was scared. He was stuck on an island made of rock lit by a single floating lumos charm.

Sirius stumbled over to the dark water, so smooth it looked like glass. He stared at his reflection, the long dark hair, the gray, sleepless eyes, the tired expression. He stared long and hard.

And he screamed when a hand shot out of the water, a cold, dead hand that latched itself around his neck and dragged him under.

He lashed out, hitting and kicking at what he could only assume to be an inferi. He couldn't breath, and he couldn't tell if it was from behind under the water, the inferi's hand around his neck, or the terror. He figured it was a combination of all three.

But the worst part by far was that he could see Regulus there too. Regulus was being dragged down by the legs and Sirius could see the panic in his brother's eyes as he fought to get to the surface, fought for air, fought to get away.

Sirius screamed Regulus's name but his brother didn't acknowledge him. And Sirius watched as his hand, reaching desperately for the faint reflection of the light, slowly went limp and Regulus was lost.

Sirius woke up screaming. Remus had been trying to shake him awake, and jumped when Sirius finally awoke.

Sirius's breath went in and out in unsteady panicked bursts and he brought his knees up to his chest and held his head in his hands, pulling at his hair just to know it was real.

Remus whispered soothing things, running his hand up and down Sirius's back but all Sirius could feel was the inferi's cold dead hand and he stood from the bed, pacing the carpet, pulling at his hair.

Remus let him at it for awhile, knowing Sirius needed his space to calm down and figure things out.

After a few minutes of Sirius's gasping breaths and the soft sound of his feet pacing, Remus patted the bed beside him. 

Softly, he said, "Come back to bed." 

Sirius looked up at him for the first time, pausing in his pacing. He sighed and slumped his shoulders, crawling into bed beside Remus.

"Roll over," Remus whispered and Sirius did so, eyes watering dangerously.

Remus wrapped himself around Sirius, taking up his roll as the big spoon and pressed his face into Sirius's shoulder and held him tight.

Sirius held Remus's arms around him and cried silently, feeling comfort and security in a way he never had before when he was living at Number 12.

"I love you so much, love," Remus whispered into the night, pressing a kiss to Sirius's shoulder.

Sirius listened to it, made a mental note of the way it sounded and the way it felt, and stored it away deep in his heart where it warmed him from the inside out.

"I love you, too," he said, but Remus was already asleep.

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