Glass Houses

Chapter ten

Sirius was running.

Faster than he'd ever run before. The city flew by him, then it was golden fields of corn, then it was a desolate beach, waves lapping hungrily at his feet. One thing remained the same though, Regulus running just in front of him, an arm's width away. Sirius reached out, his fingertips barely brushing the fabric of his shirt.

"Reg!" he cried out, the sand getting softer beneath his feet.

Regulus didn't turn, nor did he slow down.

"Reg please!" Sirius called again, tripping over the sand and yelling out when he started to sink into it rapidly.

Before he knew it, he was up to his neck and Regulus just kept running.

"Reggie!" Sirius called one more time before sand filled his mouth, blocking his airway and-

Sirius jerked awake, gasping for breath before turning over, immensely thankful that it had been a dream.

Just a dream, it was only a dream, he chanted in his head, keeping his eyes shut and tugging the blanket closer as any urge to sleep oozed out of him.

"-doing in Dauntless?"

Sirius cracked open a bleary eye, the winy tones of Snape making want to shove his fingers in his ears.

"Fuck off Snape."

Lily's voice this time. Sirius opened the other eye, blinking as he moved to get up.

"You really wanna be talking to him like that Stiff?"

Evan's voice.

Truly awake now, Sirius tossed aside the blanket.

"Why don't you go back to your Stiff family?" Snape sneered, "Or don't they want you? Is that why you left?"

Evan and Snape laughed, large guffaws that made Sirius want to punch both of them.

"Oi!" he called as he walked to stand by Lily. The laughter stopped, morphing into smug smiles.

"Keep walking Black," Evan spat, "This isn't your fight."

Sirius scowled, "Don't call me that, and by the looks of you Evan, you're not in any shape to fight anything."

Evan's hand lifted towards his face, a mottled canvas of black and purple, both eyes puffy and bruised from Fenrir.

"You shut your mouth Sirius," Snape sneered. "You don't deserve the Black name anyway. Just as bad as the Stiff you are."

Sirius took a step forwards, smirking when Snape stepped back almost immediately.

Coward.

"Do you want end up like your buddy Zacharias?" Sirius asked, "Cause I can get James over here right now."

Evan glared, "Three against one? Bit unfair."

Sirius laughed, "And two on one isn't? Get out of here."

Sirius wasn't sure what they saw on his face, but it must've made them scared enough to scamper out of the room, leaving Lily and Sirius alone.

She turned to him, long red hair up in a ponytail, her cheeks flushed with anger.

"I was handling it fine," she said.

Sirius held up his hands in surrender, "I can't defend my friend?"

She sighed, shaking her head, her green eyes softening, "Sorry, thanks for helping me. It's just that I don't want them to think I can't defend myself."