parents after all

chapter 22

Chapter 21 - The Hospital Wing

The last thing Sirius remembered was James's body, no longer stone but flesh, slowly floating towards the water surface, away from danger, and away from him. He was very sorry to have put James in the depth of the lake when he needed a bed and remedy potions most; he watched James choke and struggle for air but he knew that, in the end, James would be safe. Peter and Lily were waiting for him. The world was waiting for him. Sirius only prayed that James would reach the surface before his breath ran out so that he would be safe from the water and in turn, come back to look for him and Remus.

It was a very hard decision to make – he had to choose which one or two out of the three of them to save. He could've dropped James and Remus and come back after a second ingestion of Gillyweed, but he knew that the longer they were in water, the more danger they would face, not to mention the petrification spell that Pinky cast could lose its effect any moment. He could've moved just one of them first, but that would mean leaving either one in the dark of the lake, which was the last thing he wanted.

But there was no time for him to decide. As his gills disappeared, he was even more vulnerable than James and Remus in stone form, but there was still a significant distance between his current location and the water surface. It was clear to him that there was no way he could make it in time...

But maybe they could, the last functioning cells in Sirius before he drowned whispered. There's a way...

His eyeballs slid listlessly to the side. In between blurred and clear visions as his lens managed to focus, the two Galleons that guided him and dispelled evil glowed against the dark, one shining through Remus's stone robes, one in his hand.

'The Galleons will lead them to us,' he murmured. 'They will.'

A swish of his wand lifted the petrification spell on James, and with another flick, he cast it upon himself and slipped the Galleon into James's pocket. As the stone-turning spell crept up his feet, to his trunk, and to his arms, freezing him gradually, the gagging sensation and pain eased. It was almost a relief, like dying.

'Good luck, Jamesie-boy.'

Then blackness enveloped him.

White ceilings, later afternoon sunlight, drawn-up curtains, soft speaking voices.

'He woke!'

There was loud cheering and then someone shook him gently.

'Master Sirius! Master Sirius!' A little hand squeezed his. Sirius blinked wearily as Pinky's small face came into focus. 'Oh Master Sirius, thank Merlin you've come back unharmed... ' Large tears rolled out of glassy big eyes, and Sirius just wanted to comment that there was some leaf-like thingy attached to her eyelashes. 'Pinky is so sorry, Pinky should've had let Master Sirius go down alone...'

'Oh,' Sirius remembered. The Lake, the mermaid, the Galleon; he sat up abruptly and snapped his head left and right, only let out a cry of joy when he saw James and Remus each lying on a bed on either side of him. And then he widened his eyes when he saw Lily on the bed across from his, who smiled tiredly, her face slightly too ghastly and hair dripping with water. Peter was originally sat between James and Sirius; he spun around and immediately conjured a glass of water for him.

Just as he wanted to ask what had happened, the door to the wing was spun open by no other than Albus Dumbledore.

'Headmaster,' Pinky bowed at the old man, who returned a polite smile at the elf, thought it did not reach his eyes. 'I asked Pinky to let me know as soon as you woke up,' he explained. 'Sorry if it came as a surprise, but there is some serious business that I need to discuss with you. Pinky, if you please.'