The rest of the summer passed quickly, Sirius spending the entirety of it at Cedrics, with the others also ending up there when they could, but it was time to return to Hogwarts.

Non of the others had noticed that Sirius ended up in Cedric's room every night, the nightmares too much to bear without him. Cedric had quickly become efficient at calming him down from even the most torturous dreams and Sirius didn't know what he would do without him.

The five of them, were already in a compartment, when Leah and Edward finally arrived, they had gotten together over the summer and were quite the cute couple, neither minded that the two friendship groups had basically merged.

When the train set off, Sirius and Cedric had engaged in a game of wizard chess, which along with Quiditch had been one of the ways they had spent the remainder of their summer together. Sirius had drastically improved in wizard chess and Ernie no longer complained about having to team up with him, which was a complement. Ernie was the best chess player among them.

"Check." Sirius announced. Cedric looked shock.

"What- how did you- you tricksy little buggar!" Cedric shook his head with a laugh. "I remember when I could beat you easily." He reminisced as he moved the game out of check.

"Well, you wanted to play it all the time." Sirius shrugged as he critically examined the board and considered his next move.

"It is your fault." Ernie agreed, looking up from where he was reading hogwarts: a history.

"Oh shut up!"

^^^
Managing to squish seven of them into one carriage, they made their way to school, as they did so, Sirius was hit with a piece of information. He clutched his head, wincing.

"Sirius?" Cedric frowned, turning to the boy who sat next to him with a frown. "What's wrong?"

"What do you see?" Hannah asked, she had crouched in front of her friend, helping to guide him through understanding the information he had been thrown. "Breathe with me." She took a deep breath, encouraging him to follow her lead, he did so. "Okay, tell me what you see."

"A death eater, I've seen him before." Sirius began, "he's in the school, or he's on his way." He finished, closing his eyes, burying his face in his hands as though that would stop his headache.

"What was that?" Cedric asked, glancing from Sirius to his friends in concern.

"Sirius collects information." Hannah explained. "Subconsciusly, as you can see, it really hurts him. Sometimes, other times he doesn't know its happening and he'll say random things like 'she died here' or something and won't remember saying it and other times it comes out in his nightmares."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Cedric asked as he brought the boy into his arms.

"He doesn't want everyone knowing, and its quite hard to keep track of who knows what." Justin explained.

"Sorry." Sirius whispered.

Cedric shook his head. "Its okay, it must be difficult." He sighed. "Your nightmares, they're of what happened at the world cup, aren't they?"

Sirius nodded.

"What did my dad see? Because he made me run and hide." Cedric asked.

"They... They tortured the muggles who ran the campsite, it was..." Sirius didn't bother finishing the sentence, Cedric hid his face in Sirius' hair.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked you to tell me." He muttered.

"How does it work?" Leah asked with a frown.

"Memory is collected in a person's energy or a buildings energy, I subconsciously read it somehow, I don't know." Sirius sighed. "Magic."

"You're full of surprises you are." Leah told him with a smile. "It must get annoying sometimes."

"Yeah."  Sirius nodded, glancing at Cedric, who had stopped leaning on him. "But what can you do."

^^^
The feast went as it usually did, the sorting, the song and a cryptic message from Dumbledore, followed by the announcement of a new defence against the dark arts teacher, although this time it was famed Auror Mad-eye Moody.

"He looks scary." Sirius muttered to Justin, who nodded his agreement.

"He's one of the best, they say he filled half the cells in azkaban." Cedric told them.

"He must have so many enemies." Ernie commented, all of the students were staring at the man as though he was about to do something spectacular.

"He does." Leah agreed. "Dumbledore must really be stepping things up if he's asked Moody to come and teach us."

"At least we'll learn something." Hannah nodded. "Hey Sirius have you heard from Lupin?"

"No, I didn't reply to his last letter."

"Why not? He's your godfather, he'll want to know you're okay." Justin shook his head in disbelief.

"Remus Lupin is your godfather?" Edward asked with wide eyes.

"Yeah, him, my dad and Sirius Black were best friends." Sirius explained. "I don't know him that well, I feel awkward telling him everything."

"When did you find out?" Cedric asked.

"Last year, he was checking up on me a few lessons after the boggart lesson and told me then."

"You're full of surprises Sirius, you know that." Leah laughed. "What revelations are we going to get about you this year?"

"Merlin only knows." Sirius replied cheerily. "Everyone else knows more about me than I do."

"Thsts because you don't research anything about your parents." Hannah interjected.

"You make a good point Hannah." Sirius nodded, before turning his attention to the feast that had appeared in front of them.

^^^
"Can't sleep either?" Sirius looked up from where he was staring intently at the fire to see Cedric standing in the doorway to the stairs leading up to the dormitories. He shook his head.

"Its the first time in weeks you haven't been by my side." Cedric commented, taking the soft yellow blanket from the back of the sofa and wrapping it around the two of them, sitting down beside Sirius. "Its weird."

"What? Me not being there or the fact that I was?" Sirius had gone back to staring at the flames, he had given up trying to sleep an hour ago and from then on had been enveloped in his thoughts.

"Both." Cedric considered. "What would have happened if we had never met?"

"I would have been stuck in a house with Ollie and Jane and ended up a mass murderer." Sirius replied, Cedric laughed, shaking his head.

"I don't get how people are always comfortable talking with you." Cedric mused. "Its like you're a comforting presence."

"People don't perceive me as threatening, that's why." Sirius offers up his own thoughts. Cedric let out a yawn.

"Have you had any nightmares since we've been back?"

"I haven't slept." Sirius replied, he could sit by the glowing embers of the fire, wrapped in the blanket with Cedric forever, it felt so calm and so safe. And he loved that.

"You should." Cedric told him gently.

"I don't want to have nightmares again." Sirius said softly, his eyes meeting Cedrics.

"Come to my dorm then."

"Cedric, I can't." Sirius shook his head.

"I only share with Ed and he's got Leah up there with him anyway." Cedric coaxed. "They won't ask questions and no one will tell Sprout."

"No, I took this summer for granted, you need your own space." Sirius shook his head, he didn't want Ceseic to give so much up for him.

"Sirius." Cedric paused so Sirius would look at him. "I slept better with you by my side."

"You did?" Sirius hadn't realised that Cedric needed him for a second.

"Yes, so will you please come upstairs with me?" Cedric stood up, the blanket falling gracefully from his shoulders, he offered Sirius his hand, Siruys took it and allowed Cedric to pull him up. Not letting go of him for a second, Cedric led the boy up to his dormitory.

It was exactly the same and Sirius' but as there was two in the room and five beds, Ed and Cedric had allocated themselves two beds each and pushed them together,  creating them selves giant beds that were comfortable and warm. Sirius lay down beside Cedric, who pulled the duvet over them both.

"Good night Sirius." He muttered, his arms wrapping around the younger boy who was already half asleep in the warmth and safety of the dormitory.

"Night Ced."