firecracker ???

3-24

"She didn't hex you."

"She thought about it."

They were quiet again.

Then Sirius looked over, smirking. "You like her."

Harry turned crimson. "I—what?"

"I said you like her."

"I didn't say—"

"You didn't have to," Sirius said, with maddening calm. "The way you look at her is how James used to look at Lily when she said something clever. Sort of like he was falling down a staircase in slow motion."

Harry groaned and pulled the blanket over his face.

Sirius laughed, a hoarse bark. "It's alright. I approve."

"Great," Harry muttered into the sheets. "That makes it so much worse. Please stop talking."

"She likes you, you know."

"No, she doesn't."

"She likes you more than she likes me."

Harry was too tired to remark at Sirius's stupidity and unseriousness.

"You're good for her. She pretends she's invincible. She's not."

Harry swallowed. "She deserves someone better than me."

"She deserves someone who'll see her. I think you do."

They stayed like that for a while, Sirius occasionally tossing in a teasing jab, Harry trying not to respond, the occasional groan of the castle shifting around them.

Then footsteps.

Many.

The hospital wing doors opened with a gust of air and a chorus of polished heels on stone.

Harry sat up.

Regulus rose from Elestara side in a single, fluid motion, wand in hand.

Dumbledore entered first.

Behind him: Minister Fudge, face tight with tension. Two Aurors in official robes flanked him. One held a chained case. The other guided a floating magical prison—the same cage Regulus had conjured. Inside it, Peter Pettigrew, now human, pressed his face to the barrier, muttering through cracked lips.

A Dementor drifted behind them, trailing frost like a dying storm.

Lastly, Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy swept into the wing.

Harry had never seen them move so quickly.

Narcissa went straight to her daughter. She reached out, touched Lyra's hair with careful fingers, checked her temperature with the back of her hand, adjusted the edge of the blanket that had slipped off her shoulder.

Lucius stood beside Regulus. "You look like hell."

"I feel worse."

"You saved her."

"I hope so."

Lucius exhaled, then looked to the center of the room.

Sirius stood slowly, every movement deliberate. "If you're here to throw me back in prison, you're too late."

"No," Regulus said, stepping forward. "They're here for justice."

Dumbledore gestured toward the enchanted glass cage hovering behind them. Pettigrew cowered inside, the cage glowing faintly.

"Clever magic." Fudge observed. 

"Mine," Regulus said. "It prevents escape. Transfiguration-reversal warding."