• Serena Black •

„The worst nightmares
are experienced
with eyes
wide awake."

Serena didn't dare look at her father or Remus for the first moment as she slowly opened her mouth and little more than a huff escaped from it. "I-I die?"

Madam Pomfrey nodded gloomily. "If it's not treated."

"But you can, can't you?" her father inquired in a strangely hollow voice, and had gripped the frame of the bed so tightly that his knuckles had turned all white. Serena stared at her blanket, hoping it was all just a dream. A goddamn nightmare that had given her the delirium of the poison.

The healer lowered her gaze. "I'm afraid that's not in my power, it's part of the higher art of potions and goes far beyond healing."

Well, this was getting better and better.

"Meaning?" he grudgingly echoed, but eventually they all knew what that meant.

"I will speak to Professor Snape immediately," she explained with a serious expression. "Until we find a solution, I will give Miss Black a potion that will slow the whole process down a little. However, it is very important that you do not fall asleep."

Serena nodded slowly, trying to ignore the rising tiredness that had taken hold of her earlier. "I-I'll c-can manage," Serena quavered, trying to sound optimistic, even if she didn't quite manage to do so authentically. "I-it w-will be fine."

Her father, meanwhile, took off his leather jacket and wrapped Serena in it as he muttered to himself in disbelief. "Y-yeah... It will be fine..."

Meanwhile, Remus pulled the blanket off the bed across from him, where Hall had made himself comfortable earlier, and placed it over Serena as well, who by now felt like a caterpillar in a cocoon. But despite the numerous layers, she was still shivering, as if the cold was coming directly from within her and the warmth was being shielded from her skin. The last blanket brought with it the scent of a tart male cologne with a slight hint of vanilla, which made Serena wrinkle her nose.

The smell of stalking Slytherins.

"Th-thank you," Serena murmured, noting that gradually, slowly but steadily, a comforting warmth was spreading through her body.

"I'm going to kill Snivellus," her father growled and made to storm out the door, but Remus stopped him.

"I know, Sirius..." he said slowly and matter-of-factly at the same time. "I'd love to help you with this, but if you go to him now, Snivellus won't help Serena anymore. Better we make nice with him until the matter is settled."

"Like he's going to help her anyway," he hissed back, waving his hands wildly. "He put her in this position in the first place! Besides, there's bound to be someone else who can brew that potion!"

"I hate to admit it, but he's a master in the field, Sirius," Remus tried to put it to him. "Not even the healers at St. Mungos are trained to make such a sophisticated potion. It would waste precious time to find someone who could master it."

"I'm just giving Snivellus a little motivation."

With those words, he pushed past Remus and was about to hurry out of the hall when Serena managed to catch him by the arm. "Dad?"

There it was. The word she had never said in her life. The little word that now had a special effect on more than just her, because her father stopped and slowly turned his head in her direction. His mouth was slightly open and the anger was gone from his face. "Please stay here," she whispered.

His features softened and slowly, with a sigh, he sat down on a chair beside her bed and gave her a weak smile. "I'm not going anywhere, I promise."

Serena felt tiredness threatening to overtake her again. With all her might she tried to fight it, but it was just too tempting to close her eyes and give in to the restful numbness. Only for a very short time. Just to rest her eyes.

She was shaken gently. "Don't fall asleep."

Serena grumbled discontentedly. At that moment Madam Pomfrey returned with a silver goblet. "This will slow the spread for now," she said, handing the cup to the Gryffindor while she was still tiredly rubbing her eyes. "However, there could be possible side effects such as memory loss or even hallucinations."

The liquid was deep blue and Serena could see her reflection in the metal rim of the cup. She looked ghastly. Her skin had taken on a rather unhealthy pallor, dark circles were decorating under her eyes and her lips had lost all colour. She forced herself to look away from her ghostly self and hesitantly took a sip of the potion.

She gasped in shock as the liquid reached her stomach. The blood burned like ice in her veins making her limbs tense. It felt as if her veins had contracted, like a straw through which one merely drew air. Perhaps they had indeed. Maybe this was how the spread was slowed.

The bystanders watched Serena with pained expressions. Apparently her expressions reflected the uncomfortable feeling inside her. But after taking a deep breath, she drank the rest in one go, trying to get it over with as quickly as possible.

"For how long will it stop the poison?" asked Remus hesitantly. Madam Pomfrey took the cup from her patient. "It's hard to say, it could be quite different. At her body size, without the antidote, she would have about 48 hours before the poison would affect vital organs."

Serena had clawed her fingers silently into the bedspread and tried to suppress the rising panic. It would all work out, it always did in the end. After all, how many times had she been in such hopeless situations that she still couldn't believe she'd come out of them in one piece? But her father was also running his hands through his hair, stressed, and now looked incredibly exhausted, as if he had aged at least five years in the last half hour.

"I'll speak to Severus," Madam Pomfrey repeated quietly, hurrying out of the hospital wing in a flowing petticoat.

Remus pulled up a stool and sat at Serena's other side, smiling. The confident look on his face reassured her a little. "Why don't you tell us about your school year so far and how this situation came about?"

All the telling kept Serena from falling asleep, which had probably been her godfather's intention. It must have been hours by now that neither Madam Pomfrey nor anyone else had entered the hospital wing.

The atmosphere in the hall was tense and none of the three seemed to have fully realised the situation yet. The previous day, Serena's biggest worry had been to keep Harry away from gawping students and now she had to be careful not to accidentally fall asleep because she might die. It was truly amazing what a turnaround life could take.

After all, it could not be completely ruled out that she would not even have two full days to live if the potion was not ready in time. This was probably not even an absurd assumption; after all, Snape hated her.

Serena heard someone approach the door in high heels and finally open it. The woman's blonde hair blew out of her face almost as dramatically as Sirius had earlier as she looked around the room with a deeply concerned expression. When she spotted Serena, she seemed oblivious to the two men at her side and came towards them with hasty steps. Meanwhile, Serena wondered if she was already hallucinating.

But the other two seemed to have noticed the woman too, for her father had lifted his head and was staring at her as if he too was not fully sure if he was not just imagining it. "Katherine?"

"Oh Sirius, what is it with your world all the time?" she complained in reply, sitting down on the edge of her daughter's bed. "Mum, what are you doing here?"

"Shhh, sweetheart," she made and, like everyone else before her, placed a hand on her forehead. Serena wondered how her mother had come to Hogwarts, because she was sure Hermione had once mentioned something about Muggle-defence spells. As if she had asked her question aloud, a long pointed hat suddenly slid through the door followed by Dumbledore's elongated white beard. Behind his half-moon spectacles, he winked in Serena's direction, but his expression betrayed how sorry he was for the incident. "I thought, given the circumstances, it would be appropriate to make a small exception."

Serena smiled back, very grateful for that small exception. After all, this might be the last time she saw her mother and she saw her daughter. But she wanted to try not to say those pessimistic thoughts out loud and not think about them too much. Meanwhile, what her father thought of this little exception was beyond her. He stared at his former partner as if thunderstruck, but she had tuned him out completely.

"How did that happen?" she whispered in an occupied voice, anxiously brushing Serena's hair out of her face. She sighed heavily and began to narrate again. Fortunately, when she needed a brief respite in between as she ran out of breath and exhaustion overtook her, Remus would step in for her. Her father was still out of action.

The sun was already setting when her godfather cleared his throat once more to end his report. "I'll go get some food and coffee. It's going to be a long night after all."

None of the visitors seemed to want to sleep that night, partly so as not to leave Serena alone and partly to keep her from falling asleep. Remus finally disappeared outside into the corridor, leaving the newly reunited family alone, which had probably been the intuition behind his suggestion.

It was a strange, but also beautiful feeling at the same time. Serena stared at her hands playing around with the hem of the blanket. It was the first time she had seen her two parents together. However, they had not spoken a word directly to each other until now and seemed to avoid any eye contact. There was now an awed silence in the room and Serena's tiredness was blown away, she found this juxtaposition too interesting. She wanted to soak up this moment, for she had never felt so complete in her life. At last she had the family she had always wanted.

"Kathy?" her father suddenly whispered, seeming to have finally found his voice again. The addressed slowly raised her head and looked at him questioningly. "I think you've done a great job," he whispered.

"Hmm?"

"Serena's a great girl," he replied softly. "You raised her well."

They both looked lovingly at Serena now and her heart warmed.

How she had wanted this all her life and now, thanks to Snape of all people, it had come true. However, she couldn't help but blush bright red when they started talking about her as if she wasn't even there. But she certainly didn't want to interrupt their first conversation in fifteen years.

"She looks like you, Kathy," her father added quietly, to which the blonde shook her head. "She looks much more like you."

"I don't look like a boy," Serena blurted out, even though she had been loath to ruin the moment. At the same moment her father had protested indignantly, "I don't look like a girl."

Katherine started to laugh and leaned over Serena to grab a strand of his hair that almost fell to his shoulders. "Maybe you should change something about your hair."

Serena looked from one to the other, a little disturbed, but neither seemed to notice her anymore. It was almost as if they had landed in another time when she hadn't even existed.

Her father ran his hand through his shoulder-length curls and leaned against the back of his chair with a charming smile. "You used to find that very attractive."

Holy shit, were they flirting with each other right now!

Serena grinned and pressed a pillow to her face. This was too much of a good thing now. "Please stop!"

For the first time in a long while, Serena heard her father's loud barking laughter and for a moment, albeit a brief one, her worries for now seemed forgotten. The laughter of the three even continued until Remus pushed his way back into the hospital wing, tray and all, and looked at her as puzzled as if he thought he had mistaken the door.

"Moony, your opinion is required," his marauder friend declared solemnly, shaking his mane expertly. "What do you think of my hair?"

"You can wear it," Remus replied with a shrug and a deadpan face as he poured each of them a cup of coffee.

"There you go!" he exclaimed, clapping his hands in delight. "Finally, someone with style!"

Remus continued to look at him with his poker face, but the corners of his mouth twitched. "That doesn't mean it looks good."

They all burst into peals of laughter again, all except Sirius who just scowled at his friend, "Okay, his opinion doesn't count." he explained sulkily, "I mean, just look at that moustache! One furry problem is enough, Remus!"