#guh!!!!

His frail body had lost so much weight, he held the pants of his uniform up with his hands to keep them from falling. He knew his face was probably sunken, his beard scraggly and unkempt, his eyes lacking that mischievous and lively shine.

He looked and felt more dead than alive. He had lost count of the days he had spent, all of them blurring together. A tally he had scratched into the wall with a stick he found was abandoned and faded, its scribe gave up counting long ago.

Sirius’ cell was bleak. With a hard mattress on the floor and dull gray bricks on the walls, as well as a steel toilet in the corner.

His eyes drilled a hole into the ceiling He couldn’t sleep, he was bored.

When suddenly, he heard a voice.

“Psst, Pads!” A boyish voice whispered into his ear.

“Moony?”

“Hey Padfoot!” Another voice whispered from down the corridor.

“Prongs?” He breathed. He couldn’t believe it. Hope lit up in his chest.

“Hey, hey listen! Wormtail agreed to keep watch, but we don’t have long. Help us scatter these dungbombs, quick!”

“I- okay! Coming!” He sputtered, scrambling to join his friends.

As he got up to chase after them, his loose-fitting pants dropped to his ankles. He tripped and fell against the cold metal bars.

“W- wait up! James!” He pleaded, he gripped the bars so tight his knuckles turned white, tugging at them. Willing them to bend. “Remus! Wait!”

Suddenly, a cruel laugh echoed through the halls. “Shut it, Black. You delusional fool. People are trying to sleep.”

Sirius flinched, before reality returned to him brutally.

It was a full moon, Remus couldn’t have been here. He was alone and in pain without him. And James… James was dead. There was no one to keep watch, either. Peter had betrayed his closest friends. His brothers, who would’ve done anything for him.

Sirius reluctantly slunk back into the shadows and into his bed, wrapping the thin, shabby blanket around him as tightly as he could. A feeble attempt to fight against the cold.