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The pain was numbing, his vision was blurred, he couldn't distinguish any sound around him and everything was hurting, something touched his arm, it burned, he kicked, he screamed, however he couldn't even hear his own voice, and the burning disappeared but the voices were still there. He concentrated in them, he thought that that's what the voices wanted. When he concentrated in the voices it seemed as if the pain was less, as if he was healing, maybe he was.
He could only hear "baby", "dream" and "hurt" it was being repeated in as sentence over and over.
"Hey, baby, wake up, it's a bad dream," said a female voice in a soothing tone "they can't hurt you here."
Then everything stopped and he could see, he saw Effie sitting on the floor near his bed and Monty behind her, looking at him with some potion on his hand. The pain was over but the feeling, he couldn't shake it off and he started crying on Effie's arms. And now the touch that previously burned him was calming him down, he was crying with both Effie and Monty hugging him, tight, as if he was going to disappear from their hands.
"Sirius, do you want to talk about it?" Monty said
"It's okay if you don't, we will understand" Effie added
Sirius just shook his head and continued sobbing for a while in his new parents arms.
****
"I'm worried about him, he doesn't open up about his night terrors, he's barely getting any sleep and he doesn't want to take any sleeping potion" said Monty to Effie at one point.
"We can't rush him, he will get better, I'm sure of it, we just have to be there and help him as much as we can every time".
And they helped him all they could, they arranged for sleepovers with Peter and Remus as he wasn't as bad when he was with him, they usually played some Quidditch, even if Remus protested (he never said No to Sirius). They also invited Marlene, Mary and Lily some days, these days were different, Lily and Remus raided the Potter's library while Marlene, Mary, James, Peter and Sirius singed, some Bowie or Queen new hit.
Remus even stayed some more nights, and those were better, however he still has the terrors. So one night, while they were having the sleepover at Remus' home in Wales, Effie and Monty did a big clean-up to all the house and they started to find black hair everywhere, mostly in Sirius and James room.
"Do you think he is pulling his hair? I read in some muggle parenting book that traumatised kids can hurt themselves by pulling their hair in stress, or even eat it, should we do something?"
"I think we should ask him when he comes back"
****
Sirius and James came back and went directly to sleep, they were exhausted, as if they hadn't sleep at all. They slept together, in the couch, cuddling.
When the woke up the Potter's asked them about the black hair incident and James just started laughing while saying "I told you so, you're losing hair".
"James!" scolded Effie "this is a serious matter"
"No, I'm Sirius and I matter" and then he started cackling, then he saw how Monty and Effie were worrying and added "I'm sorry, couldn't help it, don't worry about the hair, it's just that I was trying new haircuts but at the and decided to keep it long as always, as we can't use magic outside of the school premises I couldn't Scourgify it. Won't happen again, promise"
"It's okay Sirius, we were just worried"
****
James was the one who had the idea, he told Sirius that maybe if he slept as Padfoot he would have as many terrors as he usually have, he would just close his door and his parents wouldn't enter as they were respectful of their privacy.
And so for three weeks Sirius slept as Padfoot and he woke up as fresh as he went to sleep, he knew he was not healed but he was happy and rested and he could sense that Effie and Monty were less worried about him as at first. It was after another sleepover at Remus home that when they came back he just changed to Padfoot and went to sleep. There was no one awake as they came home really early so he could change freely at home to go to his room. He was really sleepy so he just jumped over the bed and fell asleep.
He woke up with a sudden shout "James Fleamont Potter, what did I said about bringing animals at home?"
James entered his parents room running after hearing his full name being called. "Padfoot, what are you doing here!"
"James, you can't name it, you know we can't have animals, you are going to leave for Hogwarts in a few weeks and you can't take him with you, it will break you"
Padfoot and James shared a look and then Padfoot nodded and changed back into Sirius.
"I guess he can take me to Hogwarts"
Effie just sighted and facepalmed.
"I guess this explains the black hair everywhere"