Rough Waters |Sirius Black

Chapter One Hundred Six

Sirius couldn't afford to enter a state of panic, not during a time where his wife had been left completely vulnerable due to an attack that caught her off guard. He had to be the strong one, much like how Nixie had always tried to remain strong for his sake. The way she shook in his arms, though, nearly reduced the man to tears several times as he couldn't get her to stop. It wasn't a physical pain that she was suffering from, it was a mental battle that had yet to wear off despite the fact that the curse had been lifted. His mind raced to Alice and Frank, the members of the First Order and he had to clench down as hard as he could to keep himself stable. The mere thought of Nixie suffering a similar fate and he had been too late to save her was eating him up internally. 

His mind naturally thought of the worse possible scenario that would be the outcome, Nixie never recognizing who he was, Nixie having to spend her days in the permanent ward of St. Mungo's. 

No.

He shook his head, he would never be able to do that to her, he would never be able to bring himself to leave her at St. Mungo's. He would spend the rest of his time alive attempting to care for her to the best of his abilities. But he had to hope that it wouldn't be the case. Frank and Alice Longbottom had endured the effects of the Cruciatus Curse for hours. Long torturous hours before they were relieved but by that time when help arrived, it was too late. 

Tabitha had only been able to keep Nixie under the curse back and forth for over twenty minutes before Sirius was finally able to intervene, but he didn't know what the repercussions would be. Anger surged through him and it took everything in the wizard not to attempt and fight every single Death Eater that had invaded the wedding party. He would have been easily outnumbered and he had already cheated death once. Someone had to be there for Nixie and he couldn't take the risk of getting himself killed in that moment, knowing he had to look over her while she was down. 

His heart weighed heavy in his chest as the Death Eaters continued to interrogate them, trying to find the whereabouts of Harry, Ron, and Hermione, it was only fortunate that none of them truly knew at the time. The three could have easily gone anywhere at the time of their departure and Sirius hope they made it far. His thumb ran back and forth over Nixie's hand that continued to tremble. 

To hear her calling out the names of Jupiter's moons, it nearly caused him to become choked up as he thought about it. So many times back during the days of their schooling, he had teased and pestered her to learn them. Yet, she had been so stubborn in her way, refusing his help at first and truly never really grasping all the names. But when he heard her reciting them as she tried to keep her sanity about her, he realized that she had kept him in mind to keep herself grounded and remain as calm as possible.

As the Death Eaters were beginning to disperse as they realized they were wasting their time when they could be very well searching for Harry and his friends, Nixie began mumbling things as her eyes remained closed. He couldn't understand a word she was saying but at the time, Sirius didn't want her to attract any unwanted attention. He drew her close, muffling her words against his shirt as he held onto her tightly. 

"Shh, Nini," he whispered in her ear. " Just give me a little more time. I'm going to get you home and everything will be okay. Just hold onto me."

She seemed to respond to his words as her hands clutched the front of his shirt and held onto him. 

Once the Death Eaters appeared to be gone, those gathered in the tent seemed to hesitate for a little while longer, hoping that they were really gone. Eventually, Arthur was the first one to get up and check to see if the close was clear. When he returned after several moments of silence, he gave the signal and motioned that they leave the tent. 

Molly immediately turned to Sirius as he carried Nixie and told him to bring her inside and set her down on the sofa. 

"Sleeping draught should help her settle down a bit," Molly reassured him. "I think she just needs to-....Sirius."

She frowned as she saw Sirius tearing up and looking away as he wiped at his eyes. He tried to choke back the sob but it was too late as Molly placed her hand on his shoulder.

"Sirius, she is going to be fine," she said. "I know this is a terrible situation-"

"If she is not fine then it's all my fault because I wasn't fast enough. I didn't act to the best of my abilities."

While there was nothing that Sirius could have done to prevent the situation, Molly was fully aware that the man carried a lot of guilt from over the years. He had not been able to prevent the death of his friends and if Nixie fell, he was going to carry that guilt as well. She was going to have to do her best to console the man, which would help her as well considering she needed a distraction, knowing that Death Eaters were after her son Ron with Harry and Hermione. Retrieving the Sleeping Draught, she only provided a few drops to Nixie while Sirius remained at her side.

It only took a few minutes before it kicked in and her body became still. Her troubled expression softened and she drifted off into a dreamless sleep. It seemed to settle Sirius' nerves a little bit but he didn't leave the woman's side at all. Arthur knew that Sirius did not want to leave his wife's side, so he volunteered to head to the waters and inform Meri what had taken place. He should have suspected that the mermaid was fully prepared to drag herself out of the water to get to her daughter's side. He was able to reassure her that she would fine and that Molly was making sure that she was fine. 

Sirius fell asleep sitting on the floor next to the sofa. It reminded him of the time when they were younger and had a fight in the flat which resulted in Nixie sleeping on the sofa. He didn't want to sleep in the bedroom alone and had grabbed a blanket to sleep on the floor. She had tried to protest and remain angry with him, but it seemed no matter what happened through their lives, they could never really stay angry with each other for long. 

Nixie was lying on her side, her arm hanging off only a few inches from where was. He grabbed her hand and pulled it down gently to rest on his chest after he ended up slumping over onto the floor. 

He could only hope that when she woke up that she would still be his Nixie.