Sirius sat dumbly in the chair, staring straight ahead in complete and utter shock at what he had just done. What had he done?! It all seemed to be a blur now. A blur of uncertainty, and foolishness. He should have transferred to Slytherin- what the hell had he been thinking?

Madame Pomfrey still sat at the boy's feet, dabbing a bit of potion here, muttering a spell there. Fussing in general. Dumbledore sat across from Sirius in one of the cushy armchairs, and seemed to be studying him intently.

"You did the right thing Mr. Black," commented Dumbledore calmly, smiling at the young boy warmly, obviously trying to brighten his spirits.

Sirius snapped out of his reverie and looked up at the smiling headmaster. He couldn't bear to disagree with the old man, who only seemed to want the best for him.

"Yes sir," he said, smiling wanly.

Dumbledore returned the smile, a hint of worry in his lined face. Sirius could see that the headmaster knew he was lying, but was choosing to remain aloof about it.

"Good, Gryffindor is a fine house, and I think you will find it is where you belong. Although I probably shouldn't be saying this, it may be wise to not listen to your family on this particular occasion. We choose our own paths in life, our families cannot choose them for us."

They were wise words of wisdom, but Sirius didn't see much truth in them. Many parents chose what their children did, by pushing them, or "encouraging" them into it. It was especially a tradition among pure bloods, and Slytherin families.

Why should he break the trend? Why should Sirius be the one to rebel? Be the one to be different, and stand out like a sore thumb?

Sirius rested his head in his hands again, making sure that the headmaster could see no emotion coming from him. He didn't want to make a big deal, make a scene.

After a few moments, he felt a shadow appear over him, and he quickly took his hands from his face. He breathed a sigh of relief, seeing that it was only Madame Pomfrey standing up. She had finally finished fussing over him.

Sirius stood up as well, feeling a little intimidated by her standing over him. But, he stood a little too quickly, and there was a loud, sick, crack as a bone re- popped out of place. Sirius sat back down again, groaning in pain.

Madame Pomfrey glared at him disapprovingly.

"Did I say you could get up yet, you silly boy? Now you're going to have to spend the night in the hospital wing, so that that bone can heal properly," she fussed, tutting at him as she packed up her different potions.

Sirius sighed and squirmed uncomfortably. The hospital wing was not the most riveting place to stay. It was boring, there was nothing to do but be constantly fussed over – and to top it all off, it smelt really bad. Sirius had a hunch that there was a constant self- cleaning spell on the whole place, making it always have the strong stench of lemon disinfectant.

"Sorry Madame Pompfrey," he mumbled, not looking forward to her fussing over him for the next twenty four hours, no matter how good her intentions were.

The young med-witch huffed in reply, and finished packing up her things, straightening back upright again.

Sirius glanced over at Dumbledore, whom immediately assumed a stern expression – although Sirius could have sworn that it was a smirk only seconds earlier.

The headmaster's eyes twinkled, and he once again smiled at Sirius warmly, as he got up out of the squashy armchair, saying "Now Mr. Black, make sure you bide by Madame Pompfrey, and I trust you will be feeling better soon. I also hope to not see you here in the near future – unless of course, it is a social call – in which case my door is always open."

Sirius blushed a little at this little speech, and hung his head abashedly, not wanting to look the headmaster in the eye. It wasn't just from embarrassment, but also because Sirius had never had such kindness shown towards him before. He didn't know how to react, as nobody in his family had ever come close to being, well, nice to him, ever.

Dumbledore could see that Sirius was troubled, and without waiting for a reply, he bustled onwards, helping Madame Pompfrey to retrieve her various cases and bags, before levitating them into the air for her.

"There you go m'dear, now off you go, the both of you, and Mr. Black, do try to get some sleep!" Dumbledore said, helping the still blushing Sirius out of his chair, and then bustling them both out of the room.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o00o0o0o0o0o0o0o00o0o0o0o0o

Sirius sat up in the white hospital bed, trying to disentangle himself from the crisp white sheets that restrained him to the bed.

He gasped for air, grabbing a pillow and hugging it to his chest. He took deep breaths, trying to calm himself down.

He put his hands to his face and felt that it was nearly on fire, and sweaty to the touch.

"Ugh," he said, disgusted with how worked up he had let himself get.

"Are you alright?" came a weak voice from only metres away.

"Agh!" Sirius yelled, jumping.

He looked over at the bed on the left, only to find one Remus Lupin, staring at him with worry in his eyes.

"Merlin, Lupin you scared me! I thought I was the only one in here!" he said, clutching his chest and trying to get into a normal breathing pattern once again.

Remus chuckled slightly.

"Sorry. But are you okay? You were yelling things in your sleep," he said, sitting up in his bed.

Sirius groaned inwardly. What had he been yelling? It had been a pretty bad dream. Hopefully it wasn't anything too… revealing.

"I'm fine. Really, I'm fine. It was just a dream. But uh, just out of curiosity, what was I yelling?" he asked casually, his stomach twisting itself into intricate knots.

Remus stared at the boy.

"Oh, nothing much, I couldn't really tell."

Sirius looked at the boy, and from the guilty look in his eyes, he could tell that the wretched Lupin boy was lying.

"Just tell me Lupin," he hissed.

"There's nothing to tell, Sirius," replied Remus nonchalantly.

Sirius was a little taken back with this. How odd, for that boy to use his first name. Usually people only used his last name, as if he didn't matter. The only person at the school who had called him by his first name was Dumbledore. He calmed down a little.

"Fine. Why are you in here anyway, R-Remus?" he said, testing out this new, friendly way of saying things.

A guarded look suddenly came into the other boy's eyes.

"Oh, just a fall," he said airily. "You?"

Sirius regarded him with the same guarded look.

"Oh, just a fall."