It Has To Get Worse Before It Gets Better

wizard photos

Apollo woke the next morning, with foggy memories of what had happened the previous night. He thought back to waking up from the nightmare, and Padfoot and Moony were there. They hugged him as he called down, and listened as he explained the terrors he had to sleep with. He shuddered. 'What must they think of me now? I just made a fool of myself the first night here. And I woke them up in like, the middle of the night! Oh shit what did I doooo ??!?' He thought frantically. But then he realised: 'it was really quite nice.'
Apollo, or Harry, had never had anyone to comfort him after a nightmare. When he woke up from a night terrors back at privet drive he would just have to suffer alone, in his cupboard, desperately trying to stifle his cries for if he didn't, Vernon would go down there and beat him black and blue for making a noise. But when he woke up in a cold sweat last night, he called down reasonably quicker than usual, and fell back asleep easier too. He thought back to being in his dad's arms, calming down as a gentle hand rubbed his back, and another carded through his hair. Apollo felt all warm and fuzzy inside when he recalled the exact words they had said to him. He smiled to himself warmly at the memory. But that smile soon dropped when he realised the time. "Shit." He hissed quietly. 'I haven't made breakfast! Oh fuck what if they're awake and waiting for me? Maybe they don't expect me to make breakfast? They probably do...' he quickly got out of bed and opened the door, treading lightly so he didn't make a sound.
He wandered for a while, trying to find the kitchen and walked into a room with red walls and filled with boxes. He was just about to leave and continue his search for the kitchen when something caught his eye. He carefully padded into the room, hoping he wouldn't knock any of the boxes over. When he got close enough to what he was looking at, he reached out his hand and retrieved it from the top of the stack of boxes. A photo album, with the letters 'A.C.A.B.L' in gold peeling writing on the front. He turned it over in his hands carefully, due to the fragile binding (the binding is fRaGiLe! Anyone?). He opened the first page and there was a tiny handprint, in purple ink. Underneath was... hold on. Was this... "oh my god." Apollo whispered under his breath. Under the small handprint, was his full name: Apollo Corvus Ace Black-Lupin. His breath hitched in his lungs, this was a baby book, his baby book. He turned the page over with shaky hands and was greeted with faded wizard photos of a tiny new born baby, with a little hat, holding onto someone's finger with its tiny hand. Under the photo read: baby Apollo holding onto Sirius' finger. Apollo looked at the other one which read: Remus holding Apollo for the first time. It was a photo in which Remus was holding a baby- him, looking down at him lovingly with tears in his eyes.
As Apollo turned the pages, he saw himself grow from a tiny baby, up until his first birthday. He saw photos of himself with his dad's, both of whom looked absolutely overjoyed, over the moon. There was photos of him on Sirius' shoulders, and Remus feeding him some sort of fruit. Various drawings he had drawn of the three of them, sometimes Sirius was in dog form and sometimes not. There were photos of him playing in the garden with his dad's and photos of them all cuddled up asleep on the sofa. But the one that Apollo was most fascinated by was a photo of himself, smiling and laughing, waving at the camera, in the arms of his dad's, both were smiling and waving too. They all looked so happy and carefree. Underneath the photo said: posing for the camera, Apollo will remember this when he grows up. <3
Apollo sniffed and held the book in one hand, wiping his eyes with the other. He turned the page and there was no photo, only a small message written in small shaky handwriting, vaguely resembling the ones under all the photos. It said:
'Dearest Apollo,
We miss you. So so much. We are so so sorry, more than you will ever know. We are so sorry we couldn't protect you, we were imperiused so we couldn't protect you, and we are so so sorry. We hope we can see you again one day, our lives simply aren't worth living without you in it. We hope you are safe, if that is possible, and we hope that you haven't suffered. Please please come back to us, we miss you Apollo. We miss you.
See you on the other side baby, we love you. xxxx
Dada Padfoot and Papa Moony <3