Midnight & Destiny | Harry Potter FanFiction

Capitulum Unum

Sirius Black and Remus Lupin helped bring in the school trunks and other luggage for the new arrivals. Both were trying to be as quiet as possible but it was difficult with so many. Sirius and Remus were partially dreading this change. Although the company would do some good, they were hesitant of the stress this would put on their charge.

Harry Potter, also known as the-boy-who-lived, was still recovering from his duel with Lord Voldemort that had taken place a little over a month ago. No one other than Sirius, Remus, Professor Albus Dumbledore (the Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry), and Madam Pomfrey (the school's mediwitch) knew how slow Harry's recovery actually was. No one outside of the four of them was aware of how difficult every single night was for the soon-to-be fifteen-year-old.

It had taken a lot of time for Sirius and Remus to help Harry deal with the death of Cedric Diggory, the first victim of the second war. Harry had felt incredibly guilty for his part in Cedric's death although Harry had nearly sacrificed his own life to protect Cedric. The teenager had finally accepted that he had done everything possible to save Cedric's life but that didn't stop the nightmares from coming and with the nightmares came the episodes.

It had nearly given both Sirius and Remus a stroke when in the middle of a violent nightmare Harry stopped breathing. They had heard him screaming and hurried into his room to see him thrashing in bed. Sirius had jumped on the bed and held the boy's shoulders in place while Remus grabbed the boy's legs. They both tried to wake Harry but nothing worked until Harry suddenly stopped moving...and stopped breathing.

Remus ran out of the room to call for help while Sirius had tried to revive Harry. For nearly five minutes Sirius received no response. His pleads became more and more desperate with each attempt. Professor Dumbledore had arrived with Madam Pomfrey, who worked on the unmoving teenager once Dumbledore and Remus pried Sirius away. For a quarter of an hour the three wizards waited outside of the room praying and hoping until Madam Pomfrey came out looking completely exhausted.

The diagnosis wasn't good.

Ever since Harry's third year at Hogwarts, his magic started to mature faster than normal. Last year it had gotten out of control forcing Harry to wear a necklace that would suppress the outbursts that would come without warning. While Harry was being held captive by the Dark Lord the necklace had been removed leaving Harry to deal with the outbursts on his own, something he had never learned how to do. One outburst was a force to be reckoned with but Harry had suffered through three in a manner of minutes. As a result, Harry's body experienced physical and magical exhaustion that no body should ever have to endure. His lungs had collapsed; his heart had nearly shut down and was still healing.

Evidently not as quickly as the four individuals believed.

To help Harry's healing, he now had to take a simple potion once a day to help his heart along. He was also monitored during the night to ensure something like this didn't happen again. Spells were cast in the room and attuned to alert everyone in the house the moment Harry was in any sort of duress. His heart was monitored magically much like it had been in the hospital wing at Hogwarts before he had left for the summer holidays.

This had all taken a bit to get used to but Harry's heart hadn't stopped since the measures were put in place so Sirius and Remus felt it was worth it. There had been a few nightmares that had put some stress on Harry's heart but with the precautions in place, Sirius and Remus were able to wake Harry before he was in any real danger.

The sound of the trunk hitting the floor pulled both Marauders out of their thoughts. Quickly turning to the commotion, Sirius and Remus saw the smiling faces of the Weasley twins, Fred and George. A glare from Sirius wiped the smiles off of their faces. Sirius could be a kid with the best of them but when it came to Harry, the former Azkaban inmate could be quite stern. The rebirth of Voldemort had sent the protective nature of both Marauders into overdrive. From letters Harry had learned that the recently turned seventeen-year-olds had just received their Apparation license which allowed them to disappear from one place and appear in another. Sirius and Remus had been warned that the twins were currently extremely eager to use their magic now that they were of age, something that the adults in the Black House were really dreading.