Finite | Sirius Black

01 | 09 - 71

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01.

09 - 71

s e p t e m b e r  1 9 7 1

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VICTORIA BELIEVED IT were the nightmares that lead her to him. The ones that left her rather cold with a silent scream stuck in her throat as she's sweat clung to her skin. On those nights she found herself sitting awake, sobbing with her knees pulled up to her chest, fingers fisted around the thick fabric of her covers as she dreaded to fall asleep again.

Until one night, the day's activities and lack of sleep had tired her so much that she constantly felt herself dozing off. And to stay awake, she deemed it best to step out of bed, wander around the common room a bit in the hopes of staying awake.

So with a big pillow in her arms, she carefully navigated her way down the steep stairs. Bottom lip between her teeth, eyes on the ground, focusing on landing each foot on each step to keep herself from tumbling down with a bang or worse - awaken everyone in the East Wing. She couldn't imagine drawing that much attention to herself, so far she's done a great job at flying under the radar and she's looking forward to keeping it that way.

Albeit when she reached the Gryffindor common room and found a frazzled Sirius Black on a sofa by the fireplace staring back at her, she almost bolted back up. Almost, until ...

"Victoria?"

She froze.

Frazzled at how he knew her name, no, frazzled at how he remembered her name. Professors rarely called her up (some even forgetting her name) as a result of how quiet she really was and Sirius's name on the other hand was constantly called upon, along with three of his friends with who he shared his mischievous ways.

Victoria watched him as he sat up from his slouch, a hint of recognition in his eyes she would have never expected to see from him.

She lifted a hesitant hand. "Hi."

"Everything all right?" when the girl remained quiet, he continued. "I can leave if you —"

"No," she said, almost instantly. Taken aback by her own answer Victoria remained quiet again, trying to rethink her actions since the last thing she truly wanted was to speak to anyone.

"Okay, I'll stay then." he pushed back a lock of stray hair behind his ear. His eyebrows knitted into a frown, though the tucked-up corner of one side of his lips gave way that he was on to something, and then he said it. "Are you sure you're all Wright?"

Victoria blinked.

He stared at her.

Her arms loosened around the pillow. An air of disbelief or maybe even relief left her lips. And when a small smile slipped, his only seemed to grow wider.

I hope you're not Sirius. She almost found herself saying, but instead, she shook her head. Making way to the sofa opposite him.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Sirius began again, the moment she sat down. "You seem rather pale there, Wright."

Victoria waved her hand about. "It's just nightmares, no big deal, really."

"Is it really no big deal when you're down here, in the common room, at almost midnight, speaking to the person who causes your house to drastically lose points almost every day?" It's true, by the end of the week Gryffindor would barely have any points to lose points from. "I think it's a very big deal."

"Well, I don't," she hugs her pillow to her chest again. Not because she felt uneasy, but simply because for the first time since she's arrived at Hogwarts she felt a bit at ease. "and I'm okay."

I'm okay for now.

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NEXT: 02.