Sirius Black | Ad Meliora (Sequel) ✓

Chapter 27: Nightmares

~ Mathilda POV ~

A loud shriek hollowed through Grimmauld Place and I immediately sat up straight in bed. Sirius blinked his eyes a few times, running his hand over his face.

"What is it?" he mumbled, sleep written all over his face and wanting to wrap his arm around me again. "Don't...I think...Someone, I think....Harry just screamed very loudly. I will check quickly," I told him, carefully pushing his arm of me and sliding out of the bed.

"Maybe you just dreamed it?" he mumbled, yawning and already falling back asleep. I said nothing. It had not been a dream.

I slowly approached the door, tying the thick dressing gown tightly around me and waddling outside into the corridor. Dark. Cold. Black. Only a bit of light from the lampposts outside shone through the blinds. I walked downstairs, to where Harry's room was and for a minute I hesitated. Apperently no one else was woken up by it. Was it maybe really just a dream? He shared a room with Ron, but I did not mind. I slowly and calmly knocked, waiting for an answer. "Yes?" It was really calm and sounded so broken. I pushed down the cool handle and tiptoed inside. Ron was peacefully sleeping, but Harry....Harry sat in his bed, crossed-legged, sweating and panting heavily and as pale as I had never seen him before. I quickly approached him, sitting down next to him on the bed, placing my hands on his shoulders.

"Everything is fine. Sssch, calm down. It was just a nightmare," I breathed out, stroking Harry's head. He leaned his head on my shoulder, panting heavily and sweating. "Just a dream. No one is going to hurt you! Do you want to talk about it?" I asked him, grabbing his hand tightly. He shook his head. It was okay, he did not have to talk about it if he did not want to.

"I will make you some warm milk, huh?" I told him and he nodded, slowly.

When I returned he was still sitting in bed, shaking slightly and also shivering. I handed him the warm milk, and pulled the blanket over him, sitting down on the bed with him. He took a few sips before placing the cup down.

"I am so weak," he said and I shook my head, vigorously.

"Absolutely not. I still...even now...have nightmares from back then. Still now I dream about the night everything fell apart. You are not weak, Harry."

"But you endured the war, you fought in it, it makes sense that you have nightmares. I did not and-"

"Yes, you did. Please, don't ever say that you are weak again, because you are not," I told him, pulling him to my chest again, stroking his head.

"Try to go back to sleep. Tomorrow will be exhausting and quite demanding," I then said, slowly getting up while he lay back down on the bed, nodding weakly. I pulled the sheets over him, brushing my hand over his face. He was already nearly asleep, eyes falling shut when I placed a kiss on his forehead.

"Thanks...Ma..." he mumbled, eyes falling shut and I flashed him a sympathetic smile which he probably did not see anymore.

I turned off the light and slowly walked back to mine and Sirius room. Sirius was awake and I let myself fall on him, finally letting the sob escape my lips.

"What? What is it? What happened?!" he whisper-shouted, immediately being on high alert. I panted, looking up at him. "It breaks him, he has to endure so much. I want to help him, but I don't know how and it breaks my heart," I stated and Sirius pulled me to him.

I fell asleep on his chest, but my slumber was everything but peaceful.

◇ ◇ ◇

"Shall we?" I asked, extending my hand towards Harry. Arthur and I were going to walk him to the ministry as we were anyways heading there for work.

We obviously took the visitors entrance and it was quite funny to see Arthur adapt to the muggle world. Thanks to my muggleborn friends I knew quite some things, Arthur apparently did not. And he struggled, quite a lot but still kept a confident face, smiling brightly.