Nyctophobia - Sirius Black

Chapter 42

(TW: nothing serious happens in this chapter, but there's a short (positive, it's a good mention, I promise) mention of Ruby gaining some weight. It's not serious, I think, but I figured I should warn everyone, especially anyone who has a history of eating disorders, is currently struggling with one, or recovering from one, or anything related to that.)

Ruby woke sitting on the couch, the same position she had fallen asleep in the night before. Sirius was still fast asleep on the couch next to her, head still in her lap.

She brushed his tangled hair out of his face, reaching for a pillow from the couch to put under his head. It was still early, far too early to wake him, especially since it was Sunday. She slipped out, showered, and dressed quickly. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail, falling straight down her back.

She sat back down next to Theus, and began working on an essay.

Ruby usually spent Sundays with Jana in the library, but it was still early. Jana wouldn't be asleep still, because Jana was almost never asleep, and didn't even seem to need it. But Ruby was in a relationship now, so magic could wait.

It didn't feel quite real. She knew, logically, that it was true, but it seemed both simultaneously mind-blowing and also like nothing had changed. Because nothing really had, except that they told each other, and decided to take their friendship in a different direction.

She could lean down and press their lips together, and if anyone saw, they would assume it was normal. It was one of the least normal things Ruby could imagine, but her definition of normal had always been skewed.

Theus woke an hour later, after Ruby had finished her essay and picked up a book on fairytales. The stories were childish, but entertaining, and the illustrations were beautiful. It was just another thing she had never had the chance to do before. But she could now.

"Good morning." She smiled, glancing up from the page where she'd been admiring a detailed drawing of a fountain from the tale of the Fountain of Fair Fortune.

"Good morning." Theus replied. "What are you reading?"

"Tales of Beedle the Bard." She read the cover again, holding her place in the book with a finger.

"I guess you didn't read those growing up." He mused, as he moved to sit beside her. "There's probably a copy in your library at home. Almost every wizarding household has one."

"They're pretty well-known then?" She asked, turning the page to see an illustration of a giant white worm. It's a rather eerie drawing, the blank eyes of the creature clearly soulless, enough details in the rolls of the pale skin and sharp teeth to make it appear almost monstrous. The fear on the faces of the four travelers is rather dramatic, following the common trends of human expressions in old paintings.

"Most non-muggleborn wizards know them. They're a classic."

"Like muggle fairytales, then." Ruby decided. Even she had heard of Little Red Riding Hood and Cinderella, mostly from other kids in the small schoolhouse.

"I guess. Except there's probably a bit more truth in ours, since wizards have a better idea of how magic works." That was true, Ruby supposed. It was unrealistic that the huntsman could pull Little Red Riding Hood from the wolf's stomach. Even werewolves, if the wolf was a werewolf at all, couldn't swallow a human whole.

"Are they true then?" She asked. They could be true, of course. With magic at their disposal, most things were possible.

"Some parts. Have you read the Tale of the Three Brothers?" She nodded, flipping back a few pages to an illustration of a Grim Reaper cloaked in shadows and a smiling man walking hand in hand. "The Invisibility Cloak is real. I haven't seen the Resurrection Stone or the Elder Wand, but they might be too."