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Halloween was coming up, and the marauders had decided it would be a good idea to watch some scary movies to celebrate the festivities of the holiday. Now, Sirius isn’t a coward,– no, definitely not– but he doesn’t like watching horror movies. It’s not that he’s scared – he’s not a child, after all– it’s just that they’re completely and utterly boring. That’s all. Definitely the reason.
James laughs at his pathetic excuse as Sirius argues that they should watch a different movie. “Oh, come off it, mate! The point of these movies is that they’re supposed to be scary! Being scared is the whole reason you watch them!”
Sirius huffs and crosses his arms. “Again, I’m not scared! I just think it would be a waste of our time.”
“You can hold my hand if you get scared, Pads,” Peter teases with a shit-eating grin.
“Sod off, Pete.”
“You could cuddle Moony too–” Peter gets cut off by a pillow being thrown at his face as James bursts into laughter and Remus chuckles softly at the scene.
“If you’re really that scared, Padfoot, then we don’t have to watch the movie. We can pick a different Halloween movie,” James relents, ever so caring and considerate.
Sirius sighs. He doesn’t want to ruin everyone’s fun. Besides, it can’t be that scary, can it?
“Fine. We can watch your boring movie,” Sirius agrees reluctantly and rolls his eyes.
James and Peter cheer as Remus claps Sirius approvingly on the shoulder. “You can still cuddle me even if you don’t get scared,” he teases with a grin.
Sirius laughs and shoves him in the shoulder.
The four boys were gathered together in their dorm, having made a pallet on the floor. Remus had brought a projector from home after the summer, surprising the other three with the muggle contraption on the train. The purebloods were instantly enamored by it. He had set it up for tonight’s movie, loading it up with a Nightmare on Elm Street VHS tape. Now they were all laying on their makeshift pallet, squished together and watching the movie.
The movie started off okay, and Sirius thought that maybe, ‘ Hey, horror movies aren’t that bad! ’ That was, until, the main character’s stomach was slashed to pieces as she was thrown around the room and pinned to the ceiling. Sirius gasped and flinched, his hands finding Remus’ arm and gripping it so tightly that Remus’ blood circulation was at risk of being cut off.
Remus just looked over with an amused smile, wrapping his other arm around Sirius’ shoulders, pulling him closer, and giving him a quick kiss on the forehead before turning his attention back to the movie. This calmed Sirius a bit and he was even able to relax as the characters in the movie began staying up and trying to find out what was going on.
When Freddy started appearing again, Sirius felt his heart rate rise. Remus kept a tight hold on him to keep him grounded. Sirius would never admit this, but he found himself having to squeeze his eyes shut at some parts when he got too scared. He was relieved when the movie ended and, with it, his torture.
“That wasn’t so bad, right, Sirius?” James asked with a grin.
Remus and Sirius shared a look and laughed. “It wasn’t as boring as I thought it’d be.”
“Oh please,” Peter sighed dramatically with a smile, “I saw you holding onto Moony for dear life! It’s almost like you thought Freddy was gonna hop through the screen and get you next!”
Sirius scoffed and rolled his eyes. “Oh, whatever, like you weren’t scared? You were as pale as a ghost!”
“I’m as pale as a ghost every day!” The boys all laugh at Peter’s joke and chat a bit more about the movie before heading to bed.
Sirius was running. He had no clue where he was– it was a maze of steaming pipes and concrete walls. He just knew he had to keep running. He ducked under a pipe to avoid hitting his head, nearly tripping over another at his ankles. He stumbled and kept running. He was panting heavily, not used to running for such a long time without stopping. Despite how far he had run, he could hear a shrill scraping sound close behind him. Chills ran down his spine.
“Sirius,” a gravelly voice whispered his name, seemingly in his ear.
Sirius whimpered and pumped his legs harder, desperate to get away from his perpetrator. He kept running until he spotted a concrete wall blocking the end of the hallway with no other paths or doors. It was a dead end. He was trapped.
“No!” he screamed as he turned around and backed up against the wall. The man who had been chasing him was right in front of him now. He’d recognize that striped shirt anywhere– the scarred, burnt skin, the brimmed hat, those long, sharp, metal claws. He was breathing heavily, barely able to hold himself upright from how lightheaded he felt.
“Leave me alone!” Sirius yelled.
Freddy only laughed in response, reaching out his clawed hand. “Night night.”
He grabbed hold of Sirius’ hair, his claws digging into his scalp as Sirius screamed in pain, tears leaking out of his eyes. The claws started to shift, to change into something else. They stayed rooted in his hair, but they belonged to someone else. Someone worse. Sirius’ eyes drifted up to meet the face of his mother.
“Sirius,” she hissed, her face contorted in disgust as she tugged his hair backwards.
Sirius could only cry out in pain, helpless against her unyielding grip. His whole body shook, trembling with fear.
“Sirius!” she yelled at him now, basically screaming his name at him.
He began mumbling apologies, pleading with her to release him. His pleas fell on deaf ears as she only repeated his name and began to shake him by the shoulders with her free hand.
Sirius sat up in bed with a sharp gasp, taking short, heaving breaths of air as he wildly looked around him. It was dark and he couldn’t see a single thing, but maybe that was because the tears in his eyes made everything blurry– he felt someone move in front of him and he jumped back, pushing himself against his headboard.
“Hey, shh, Sirius, it’s just me, it’s Remus. You’re safe, you’re okay.”
A sob of relief escaped Sirius’ throat as he threw himself forward into Remus’ arms. One hand wrapped itself around Sirius’ back while the other cradled his head against Remus’ chest, holding him securely yet not restricting him. Remus murmured soothing words and shushed Sirius’ sobs, rubbing his back as he released all of the fear from his nightmare.
“It’s okay, Pads, you’re okay. It was just a nightmare. She can’t hurt you here. I’m here, love. I’ve got you,” Remus whispered into his hair.
Sirius’ cries subsided and he took a shuddering breath in, pulling back just a bit to look up at Remus. He was given a small smile for his efforts as Remus brought his hand up to cradle Sirius’ cheek.
“There you are, love. Feeling a bit better?”
Sirius nodded meekly, wiping a few stray tears away.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Remus always gave Sirius the choice to talk about his nightmares after they happened– this was a pretty common occurrence, after all. He was never forced to, though.
Sirius nodded, taking a few more deep breaths with Remus talking him through it before speaking. “It started out with me running– I was being chased by… uh–”
Sirius turned a bit red, looking down at his lap in embarrassment. Remus hooked his finger under his chin and lifted it gently to get Sirius to look at him. “Hey, don’t be embarrassed, baby. You know I would never judge you,” he said softly.
Sirius took a deep breath and nodded. “I was being chased by Freddy, the guy from that stupid movie. He had cornered me in a dead end and backed me against the wall. Once I was trapped, he grabbed my scalp with his claws. That’s– that’s when it changed.”
He had subconsciously tensed up while talking, so Remus just rubbed his back gently and brought his other hand up to play with Sirius’ hair, the two most surefire ways to soothe him. It worked, and the tension eventually left Sirius’ shoulders.
“All of a sudden, the claws didn’t belong to Freddy, but my mother. It stayed like that until you woke me up.” Sirius finally made eye contact with Remus as he finished recalling his nightmare. He found concern and sympathy in his eyes, but also an overwhelming amount of love. It warmed him.
“I know, love. I heard you saying her name in your sleep. It’s what alerted me to you having a nightmare, actually.” Remus smiled sadly as he cupped Sirius’ cheek. “But you’re okay now. I’m sorry you had a nightmare. We can pick a different kind of movie next time, I think this one triggered you a bit.”
Sirius just nodded in agreement, suppressing a yawn as he leaned into Remus’ palm. Remus chuckled and rubbed his thumb along Sirius’ cheek.
“How about we go back to sleep, love, hm? You seem tired.”
Sirius pulled a pouty face, albeit a sleepy one. “I don’t want to sleep. What if I have another nightmare?”
Remus kissed his temple as he laid down and pulled Sirius down as well to rest his head on top of his chest. “I’ll be here to fight off Kruegar, your mom, or anything else that tries to give you bad dreams, okay? Get some rest, love.”
Sirius grumbled something against Remus’ shirt but settled down anyway. Remus smiled to himself and stroked Sirius’ hair.
“‘Night Moons, love you,” Sirius whispered as he was on the cusp of sleep.
“I love you too, Padfoot. Sweet dreams.”