Glass Houses

Chapter twenty four

He was sitting on the roof and Regulus was standing on the edge. The clouds swirled black and heavy above them, and drops of rain began to fall, slowly, then faster and faster until Sirius could barely see the shape of his brother in front of him.

"Reggie-"

"Goodbye Sirius."

He fell backwards, and Sirius jerked awake to Marlene shaking his shoulder roughly, her mouth set in a rigid line.

"Sirius get up," she whispered, "It's Peter."

Those two words and the look on Marlene's face was enough to make the last thought of the dream fade away. She grabbed Sirius' hand and they ran, quickly and quietly from the dormitory to the Pit. With every passing second Sirius felt like he knew something terrible had happened, that when they stopped running, he was going to see something horrific. They sprinted across the floor of the Pit and through the corridor that led to the chasm.

The sound of rushing water was enough to make Sirius' stomach roil as they grew closer. A large crowd had gathered on the waterside, the ledge where Sirius had almost died above him. Two men stood on the ledge, hauling something out of the water. He couldn't, wouldn't believe it as a dark shape emerged, slowly raised until it was rested wetly on the ledge. A pale arm, swollen with water flopped to the side, and Marlene squeezed Sirius' arm tightly.

It was a body.

Loud footsteps made Sirius look to the left, seeing James above him, running towards the body, shoving the men aside and collapsing to his knees. The men hauled the body onto its back, and the head flopped to the side. A round, soft face, blond hair plastered to a forehead, getting in the way of pale blue eyes.

It was Peter.

James had his arms around the body, his head to Peter's unmoving chest, shaking with sobs that wracked his body. Sirius swallowed thickly, unable to tear his eyes away.

"One of the initiates looks like," came a voice from behind Sirius and Marlene.

"What do you reckon happened?" another voice asked.

"What do you think?"

"He could've tripped?" the second voice said, tentative.

A snort of laughter, "Tripped forty feet down? I don't think so. The same thing happens every year, some poor person decides to jump."

Sirius couldn't listen to any more, focusing on Lily, who had appeared at James' side. Lily, who was leaning down, rubbing James' back while he cried with one shaking hand, and closing Peter's unseeing eyes with the other.

Sirius had never understood why people did that. Closed the eyes of the dead. He supposed it was to make them look like they were sleeping, like they could wake up the next morning. It was stupid because Peter wasn't asleep. Peter was dead because he had jumped off the chasm. He'd jumped of the chasm and died the same death Sirius would've died if Peter and Snape and Zacharias had been successful.