InsaneJournal

Who: Sirius and Lily
What: Collecting Lily from the clinic.
When: Just after midnight, after this and this, but before this.
Where: The clinic, then the walk back to building D.
Rating/Warnings: Some swearing, mentions of violence
Status: Complete, closed

Sirius was waiting in the reception of the clinic, leaning his forearms against the front desk with his hair a little dishevelled and a slightly sleepy expression on his face, dressed in jeans and yesterday’s jumper. He’d just been dozing off when Lily had left her message, and was pretty sure he wouldn’t be getting back to sleep tonight. He smothered a yawn, hiding his face in his hands against the florescent lights. This was too familiar, being woken in the middle of the night to go and see someone at the hospital. It brought back memories of Death Eaters and misplaced curses and war, and it made his stomach churn unpleasantly as he waited. This kind of stuff wasn’t supposed to happen here, and what was worse was that he didn’t have his magic, so even if something did go wrong...

But Lily was okay, he reminded himself. She was fine. She probably just fell or something, and he’d take her home and try not to laugh as James fussed and then crawl back into bed. It was just because it reminded him too much of home that he was feeling like this. With a sigh, Sirius straightened up and sloped over to collapse into one of the uncomfortable chairs to wait.

When she finally made the doctor’s believe that she was fine and she had someone to come and get her, they began to prepare her to leave. Pain killers and future appointments to make sure that it didn’t become infected or nothing else bad happened to her were at the forefront of her mind. She knew it was there job, but she just wanted to get home and lie down. It was better than being stuck here for much longer. But when word came from reception that Sirius had arrived, she took her bag and put the pain killers inside before walking out of the room she had been in.

Walking into reception, it didn’t take long to spot Sirius. She felt a little guilty for waking him by the looks of things, but she didn’t want to stay here longer than she had to. Walking over, she placed a hand on his back, the guilt clear on her face.

“Sorry. Come on, let’s go,” she said quietly to him, before thanking the woman at the reception. She didn’t want to seem ungrateful.

He started a little as a hand touched his back, startling him from where he’d been starting to doze. Sirius didn’t sleep much on good days, and his body didn’t seem to be too happy having those few precious hours snatched from him. But he didn’t really mind. He’d rather be here than at home. Lily was one of his best friends, almost as close as James, Pete and Remus had been to him back home, and she was Harry’s Mother. He cared about her, about what happened to her.

Turning, Sirius smiled and hoisted himself to his feet as Lily turned to the receptionist. She was paler than normal, not that she was anything but that usually but tonight she seemed unhealthily so. And it didn’t take long for the older boy to notice the bright white bandage wrapped tight around her wrist. Immediately something in his chest contracted with worry. Sirius gave a yawn and a stretch, before striding over to Lily to take her bag for her, slinging it over his shoulder and shoving a hand in his pocket as he waited for her to be done. Then, together, they turned for the door.

“So...?” Sirius prompted, giving the young redhead a ‘look’. His dark gaze, laced with concern, flickered down to the bandage. Sirius, despite the impression he often gave, could be quite the worrier when the situation was right. “What happened? Are you sure you’re okay? Y’know, I’m sure they’d let you stay overnight if you asked...”

She wanted to argue with Sirius, take her bag back from him, but she knew he would win. She knew him well enough to know what a stubborn prat he could be a lot of the time and if he wanted to do it, he would. Even if he looked slightly stupid with it. Walking out with him, she could feel it coming. He wanted to know the truth and she wasn’t quite so willing to tell him. How could she say his friend attacked her? He had a temper and she really didn’t want to encourage that.

“I don’t want to stay overnight, I’d rather just get home.”

Staying at the clinic really wouldn’t help. She’d get restless and bored, she just wanted home where she was comfortable. But as much as she didn’t want to answer his question, she had to. Eventually he would just keep getting at her and it would annoy her, at least when she wasn’t annoyed she was able to keep certain things from him.

“I got bitten, that’s all.”

Sirius shrugged. If Lily wanted to go home, Sirius would of course walk her there. If she wanted to stay, he’d have stayed with her - probably with James and Remus lurking around. That was just how it worked. Sirius would do anything for any one of them, even if they casually suggested him jumping under a bus. They stepped out into the night, moving through a pair of automatic doors that slid smoothly shut behind them as Sirius made a strained joke. “I didn’t bring the bike. I didn’t know if you were up to my death-defying antics.”

It was her next sentence that made him look round, eyebrows raising in surprise before falling into a confused frown. “Bitten?” he repeated. There was a long pause, before he swept his hair back and pressed on as they reached the pavement, turning to walk side by side down the street. “Bitten by what?”

“I don’t mind walking. I’d rather not be put back in that clinic, if it’s all the same.”

She knew he wasn’t going to let it leave at that, just being told she had been bitten. But she really didn’t want to go into detail, not when it was Sirius. She needed him calm at least, especially when he didn’t have his magic to keep him safe. And if he found out who had attacked her, no matter his lack of magic or who it was, she had little doubt that he would then go and find him.

“Does it matter? I just got bitten.”

Sirius pretended he was stupider than he was. In reality, he was actually very bright. He and his friends had managed to become animagi at fifteen, after all. And they’d created the map and fought Death Eaters - you didn’t do all that if you didn’t have a scrap of intelligence to your name. Sirius pressed his lips together thoughtfully, examining Lily. He doubted she’d been hurt by an animal - from the look of it she’d been bitten on the wrist, right over her pulse point. Sirius knew a lot about werewolves and animals in general to know that they were normally a lot more.. chaotic than that. Which meant it was something that could plan and consider what they were doing to his friend. Anger stirred uncomfortably in his chest.

“Hmm,” he muttered, a suspicious noise that indicated he wasn’t about to let this go that easily. “What were you doing? Wandering through the park with a bag full of steak?” He cocked an eyebrow, before shaking his head. “I’m just... I don’t like seeing you get hurt. And James’ll go mental.”

She nearly groaned at the noise that came from him. He wouldn’t let it go but she wasn’t willingly going to hand over the name. Maybe what it was that attacked her would be enough to calm him. To make him stop. His almost teasing question made her roll her eyes and she just wanted to walk on ahead of him. She just wanted out of the hospital and she was landed with him. She really should have considered who she asked better.

“No, blood actually.”

That should be enough to tell him what it was that attacked her. Vampires and blood were commonly linked straight away and even Sirius wasn’t that thick to not notice. Sighing softly when he mentioned James, she reached up to run her fingers through her hair.

“I know he will. Reason why I’m glad he didn’t come, actually.”

Sirius frowned, then his jaw suddenly tightened and his eyes darkened dangerously as he put two and two together. Vampire. The word spun though his head in much the same way ‘werewolf’ had once done, wiping any other logical thought from his mind. There were a few of them running around here, he knew that much. Not the same as the vampires you got back at home, but still pale and weird and with a craving for blood. But then, he reminded himself, everyone’s powers had been switched so people who were vampires now were still getting used to it and probably didn’t have as much control... Hell, he didn’t even know who half of them were. Well, apart from Eames, obviously.

Oh, fuck.

No. No, that couldn’t be it. It’d be one of the others. There were enough of them. What were the chances of that happening. Plus Eames was his friend, and he knew how much Lily meant to the young wizard and his friends. He wouldn’t do that. Eames wasn’t like Sirius. He was a good bloke.

Sirius realised Lily was talking and forced himself to listen, even managing a shadow of a smile, although it was empty and forced. “James? Nah. Him and Remus both sleep like the dead. They’d sleep through a hippogriff stampede. If you’re lucky you might not have to face him until morning.”

She watched his face after she spoke and took a breath. There were so many things he could be thinking and she kind of wished he would just say them. But if he did then she knew they would involve many questions that she really was not going to answer. She didn’t want him to know the truth, that his friend had terrified her so much that she had moments of thinking that some of the worse things that she could imagine were about to happen.

His smile, when he finally snapped out of his thoughts, was clearly force. She knew his smile when he was genuinely happy and it was certainly not that. But she was happy enough that he wasn’t going to say any more on the subject of what had happened.

“Maybe I’ll be lucky even then. Find a way to hide the bandage.”

Sirius might have been smart enough not to push the topic with Lily. He could only imagine how terrified she must have been. He had an image of her, alone in the dark, fighting off something faceless and soulless without even a wand, and it made bile and anger surge up his throat in a bitter cocktail. Who would do that to her? She was only a kid for fucks sake, no matter what she said. She wasn’t even of age yet. Sirius itched for his wand, his hands curling into fists, hidden deep in his pockets as he squashed his temper down. He’d find out who did this. Magic or no magic.

“Yeah... Well, good luck with that,” he replied smoothly, nails still digging painfully into his palm. “Although you left that message on the network, so you should let Harry know you’re okay.” He fell into silence, caught up in his own thoughts, which were growing angrier and more irrational the more he thought this whole thing over. He couldn’t get that picture of Lily being cornered out of his head, of how frightened she would have felt... He didn’t speak again until they were stood in front of their building and Sirius was pulling the door open for the redhead to pass through.

She didn’t want to look up at him once she noticed his jaw tightening. She knew he was angry, and getting angrier by the moment. His temper wasn’t hidden from anyone who knew of him, and this helped her make her mind up. She really was not going to tell him who it was. She didn’t want him in trouble and that would no doubt happen if he was given a name.

“I’ll let him know in the morning. I don’t want to phone and wake him up, if he was awake I’m sure Harry would have responded.”

Her son, as strange as that still was, had seemed rather protective of her and she had no doubt had he seen her request he would have been there. But he had his own life, so she didn’t mind that he hadn’t responded. Soon they were at the building and she smiled a little when Sirius opened the door for her, heading towards her room.

“I’m sure you can leave me here.”

Harry would have come in a second. Sirius didn’t doubt that. His godson was honestly one of the best people he knew, and he couldn’t help but feel a little smug and proud at the way he turned out, although he knew he had very little to do with that. Still, it was reassuring to know that the chubby little bundle that he knew from back home grew up so well. Even if everything else went to shit.

Sirius stepped in after Lily, nodding and passing her bag over. He didn’t feel good about leaving her, but nothing was likely to go wrong between here and her rooms, and he really did need a cigarette. He could have a quick smoke now, then follow Lily upstairs once the nicotine had calmed his nerves a bit. “Okay,” he offered her the first genuine smile since he’d made his revelation.

“You sure you’ll be okay?” he checked. “You know you can walk straight into our place whenever. We never lock the door.” Then, before she could protest, Sirius pulled the young redhead into a tight hug, unsure whether he was reassuring her or himself with the action, but feeling a little better for it anyway. Then, before she could see how concerned he was, he pulled back. “I’ll pop round in the morning.”

“I’ll be fine,” Lily said with a put on sigh. “And I’ll keep in mind that you don’t lock the door, so I can knock at all times.”

Before she could step away from him she found herself in his arms. Smiling a little, she held him back tightly, careful not to brush her wrist against him. Once he let her go, she found his hand and squeezed it. They may act like they didn’t get on a lot, but she did care for him. Even more so since she read what was going to happen in her future.

“I’ll see you in the morning then. And really, Sirius. Thank you.”

Without giving herself a chance to change her mind, she swung her bag onto her shoulder and went on tiptoes to kiss his cheek. Before he could tease her, she turned away and left.