freckles || {Sirius Black} #Wattys2018

Seventeen | The Scars on a Heart

As Sirius pushed open the door to the Hospital Wing, the noise of it splitting across the silent corridor, he stopped breathing.

Only one bed was occupied, and within that bed, covered by white sheets, lay a girl with wildfire hair that Sirius knew far too well.

The small part of him that was still young and naïve had been hoping that when he opened the door, she wouldn't be in the Hospital Wing.

Sirius shouldn't have allowed himself to hope.

Rosemary was curled into a ball, facing away from the door, acting as if she were attempting to shrink into herself. She was so still - too still - and looked more fragile than the petal of a flower.

Slowly, Sirius approached the bed, never once taking his eyes off of the unresponsive Rosemary. Even as he sat in the chair beside her, taking in her sallow face, she did not stir. Rosemary's eyes, the liveliness in them flown to a faraway place, were dull and almost hollow. She did not meet the silver eyes of Sirius, but instead gazed away at a far off point, numb to her surroundings.

There was almost nothing of Rosemary left in her body; there was only the blankness that came with immeasurable suffering. Only the brokenness that robbed everything from the human soul until it withered and fell apart. Only the memory of what the person once was, and could never be again.

"Rosemary..." The word broke as it fell out of Sirius's lips, his heart shattering for the girl before him. "Rosie..."

Rosemary didn't even blink.

As light as a breath, Sirius lifted and placed his hand on Rosemary's left arm.

Immediately, she shrunk away from his touch, her entire body beginning to tremble as she squeezed her eyes shut and bit her lip. A grimace spread across Rosemary's face as she held back her tears with the last sliver of strength she had left.

"It's okay to cry, Rosemary." Sirius whispers, his words impossibly soft. In response, the girl shook her head and pressed her lips tightly together, a haunted expression on her face. Almost inaudibly, the boy continued, "I want to help you. I can help you." His voice was tender, laying exposed before him like the soft underbelly of an animal.

Rosemary opened her eyes, tears laying unshed within them as she met Sirius's gaze. With slow, fluid movements, the girl unveiled her left hand from where she had curled protectively around it. Bandages were wrapped around the pale skin of it, partially covering startlingly indigo-shaded bruises around the wrist bone and on the palm.

"I was walking back from the Owlery," Rosemary's voice was small from her throat, but it was deafening between the two. "where... where we..."

Faint heat rose to Sirius's cheeks, but Rosemary did not blush. Instead, her voice softened, lightening for a flicker of a second.

"And Ivy was sketching, in the courtyard." Rosemary glanced downwards, blinking rapidly, before glancing up once more. "I tried - I tried to talk to her, and I tried to touch her, and I tried to tell her, to tell her how much I loved her, but she... she did this."

Sirius took in Rosemary's injured hand once more, shocked that Ivy, who had always been temperamental but never violent, had done this.

In a broken voice, Rosemary continued, "Sirius, she's all I have. And now I'm losing her."

An image flashed into the silver-eyed boy's mind. A face, all similar angles and locks of black and piercing, blue-grey eyes -

Sirius forced the phantom out of his thoughts, focusing on the girl before him once more.

"And if I lose her, I lose myself, and I -" Rosemary paused, swallowing once, before whimpering, "I don't see how I continue this much longer, Sirius. This agony."

Alarm slapped Sirius across the face. Rosemary had been through what could kill people, had killed people, but she had survived. She had been strong, stronger than anyone. She couldn't give up now.

"Rosemary, Evans is here for you, I'm here for you -" Sirius began, his words quick as he reached his hands out to her, feeling as if he had to hold on to the girl before him to prevent her from drifting away.

"You don't understand what it's like." Rosemary's voice was soft, too soft. As soft as if she was already gone. "I couldn't do anything to save them. You didn't watch those you loved more than anyone else in the world be murdered, one by one, as they tried to protect you. I was so afraid, Sirius, so afraid that I couldn't do the same for them. I was a coward."

The girl looked downwards, at her wand hand, almost ruefully. "But those people, those evil murderers, chose not to kill me, nor Ivy. They killed a child, a girl who knew nothing of the Order, a girl so innocent, a girl who would never grow up. They killed her because I couldn't protect her." A shuddering breath escaped Rosemary's lips. "You don't understand what it's like. No one does but her. And I'm losing her..."

"Rosemary, this is a moment in which you think that you won't survive. Can't survive. But you will." Sirius paused, lowering his voice. With extreme caution, the silver-eyed boy placed his fingers on Rosemary's frigid cheek as a tear escaped from her closed eyes. "I won't let this break you."

Finally, Rosemary's golden gaze met Sirius's silver one. The pain she held in her eyes was immeasurable, but there was a glimmer of hope within them.

Almost inaudibly, Rosemary whimpered, "Could you... could you stay with me?"

Sirius drew his chair closer to the girl, intertwining his fingers with hers. Rosemary rested her head on his shoulder, closing her eyes once more.