GOOD DOG || Sirius Black

(Nine: Sincerely, Me *Reprise)

Alex had a headache.

If someone could just switch off the sun, she would be fine.

Light punched holes in the comfort blanket of dark, bringing with it one of those annoying little gnomes that hammer on the inside of your skull until you would gladly bash your own brains out with a sledgehammer just to know you had caught the little shit. Her entire body was lit up with a heat she didn't think she had ever felt before, culminating in her left cheek, which felt like it was burning up in the fiery pits of Fawkes's heaven. The one thing she knew, with a certainty that she couldn't have said the origin of, was that opening her eyes would only make things a billion times worse. She should not open her eyes. Under any circumstances.

Alex opened her eyes.

She instantly regretted it. The world was a white wash of pain. Nausea hit at her stomach with tiny furry claws that made her clench her gut. She rolled onto her side, right off the side of the bed. She barely registered the sharp sting as her knees hit the tough tiles, too preoccupied with the roaring dizziness in her head. There was one of those brief 'oh no' moments, where everything in her body seemed to finally go still, right before she projectile vomited the contents of her stomach on the ground that, to be perfectly honest, was already vaguely puke-coloured anyway, so maybe all Alex was doing was redecorating.

"What a mess." A familiar voice clucked from over her shoulder.

Alex spun around, and stared up at the blurry shape above her that she was mostly sure was Madame Pomfrey, "I'm sorry. I'll... Er, I'll clear it up, just let me..." Alex scrabbled for the end of the bed, attempting to haul herself to her feet, but only succeeding in flopping unceremoniously back onto the mattress.

"Nonsense, Young Lady." Madame Pomfrey tutted, "Get yourself to bed. This is what I'm paid for."

It was fair to say that Alex had never felt more uncomfortable than when she was being fussed around. She wasn't exactly sure what she should do. Her fingers spasmed uncontrollably, so she focused her efforts on clenching them tight enough to make little white marks trace over her skin. Her knuckles were cut and scarred. They were the only things in focus.

"I... I'm sorry, Professor. I, um," Alex swallowed, knowing that she shouldn't feel nerves, "I don't think I can see."

"A common symptom of a werewolf bite." Madame Pomfrey's unsurprised tone as she waved her wand in the vague direction of the puke on the left of Alex gave the girl a sort of foolish feeling, "Your vision will return within a day or two."

"Werewolf... I don't..." Memories of the night before came to Alex foggily, shards of fear that wasn't as poignant as Alex suspected it should have been, "Oh."

Madame Pomfrey rested a hand on her forehead, retracting it quickly at the temperature, "You're burning up, Girl! Why didn't you say anything?"

Guessing the question was rhetorical, Alex turned her attention to the more pressing matter, "Am I a werewolf?"

Madame Pomfrey sighed, as if she had been waiting for Alex to ask that, "I haven't the foggiest. We'll just have to wait until the next full moon to find out, wont we? Now, I can go and dispatch an owl to tell your parents what happened-"

"No!" Alex shot out a hand, entire body jerking forward involuntarily. Another wave of nausea threatened to overturn her, "No, please. Just wait until the full moon. Don't tell them until I know."

Madame Pomfrey looked at her for a long moment. Alex couldn't see the teacher's face, so she had no idea what was going on in her mind. The tension stretched out for so long that Alex felt her heart rate unconsciously increase. Eventually, the woman threw two blurry dots that Alex guessed were her hands in the air, "Whatever keeps the patient happy."