19 February, 1981 - Nightmares (II)

1.4K 78 6
                                    

It was three thirty in the morning and Lavinia was exhausted. But wide awake. Not that that was as uncommon these days as it probably should have been, but this had been a particularly rough night. And day. And week.

Elias had been out sick for the past three days, which had left the Mungo Bonham ward short staffed. This meant that shifts had been extended to accommodate the absence and Lavinia's weekend had completely disappeared.

She hadn't complained, partly because spending her off days in the silence of the empty house was driving her insane, but also because she remembered perfectly well that for two weeks, Mr. Hayes, Bertie and Elias had all worked extra shifts to accommodate her and her grief. This was the absolute least she could do in return. Even if she was about ready to fall asleep on her feet.

The only good thing, really, was that because the Ministry was in such disarray with the resurgence of muggle attacks and cursed artefacts, the hit wizards didn't seem to be seeing much action and they came into the ward less frequently than they had for the past year or so. This meant that being on call no longer meant a guaranteed shift and Lavinia had actually managed to sleep the night through when it had been her turn to take the admittedly unpleasant duty.

Today, she was not so lucky. She'd offered to cover Elias's shift since she got the sense that both Mr. Hayes and Bertie routinely went to bed far earlier than she did and though the late shift wasn't ideal, she thought it was probably easier for her to handle than it was for them. As she was now a full healer, this was perfectly fine with everyone else so Lavinia had been working until late for the past several days.

Tonight, she hadn't bothered to do more than brush her teeth and change into pajamas before she fell into bed, praying for the good, long rest she knew she needed. But two hours laters she'd been jerked from sleep by the now familiar nightmares and when she'd reached for the warmth that was usually next to her at night, the cold sheets had reminded her that Sirius was away. Again. Which, of course, made it so much harder to shake away the fears of his capture, his pain.

For maybe fifteen minutes she'd tried to get back to sleep until she'd decided it was completely useless and her time would be better spent doing something productive instead of staring at the ceiling and worrying. So now she was sitting on the couch, darning old pairs of socks by hand simply to have something to do.

She was very bad at it. No one had ever bothered to teach Lavinia how to sew because it was, in her mother's opinion, an utterly useless skill. Who needed to sew when you could alter a gown with a wave of your wand? And if something developed a hole, it was obviously too old anyway and she would just buy a new one. All this to say, Lavinia was struggling, to put it nicely.

She didn't mind, really. It required enough focus that between that and the soft music she'd put on, her head was thoroughly occupied, even if her focus was sometimes broken when she accidentally stabbed herself with the needle.

This had just happened on the third stitch in a row and Lavinia was in the process of swearing at the various inanimate objects involved when the door opened. Her head snapped up, the sewing needle gripped in her hand like a weapon. But it was just Remus, looking thoroughly worn out, but at least in one piece.

Lavinia released a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding and put down the sock and stuck the needle back in the little muggle sewing kit Miriam had given her for her birthday. Lavinia was honestly not sure why Miriam had thought it was a good present and the only explanation she'd gotten was "you need hobbies". Which Lavinia hadn't really been able to argue with. And even if it annoyed her more often than not, it was still something to do when the nights started stretching too long.

"Welcome home," Lavinia greeted her friend, who jumped slightly. She supposed Rems hadn't really expected her to be awake at this hour. She couldn't blame him. She herself hadn't expected to be awake at this hour. But there was nothing for it now so... "Everything go well?" she asked after giving him a moment to adjust to the apparent shock of her presence.

Thicker than Water (Marauders Era)Where stories live. Discover now