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James was shaken awake by a hand on his shoulder and a familiar voice whispering his name.
Opening his eyes reluctantly, he grumbled, “Padfoot, it’s the middle of the night!”
“I know, James. I’m sorry; I need your help,” came Sirius’s hushed reply.
His tone made it sound serious. James frowned, still not fully awake. “What’s wrong?” he slurred.
For several seconds, he could hear nothing but Sirius’s rapid breathing. “I wet the bed,” Sirius finally choked out.
Wet the bed? “What? Are you sick or something?” James asked in surprise. He had only the vaguest of memories of accidents in his early childhood, and one embarrassing incident a few years ago when he’d had a nasty fever and had been halfway to delirium.
“No,” Sirius whined. “It was an accident. Could you help me, please? I don’t want your parents to see.”
James was about to ask why not, but once he’d taken half a second to think about it, he decided that would be unhelpful. Sirius knew that James’s parents, as adults who were competent when it came to magic, would be able to deal with a wet bed in seconds. But James knew that Sirius was afraid of parents, even James’s who had always been kind to him. James didn’t know what exactly had happened in Sirius’s old house before he’d run away, but it had been bad enough to make him quite distrustful.
Besides, James’s head still felt like it was full of cotton wool, and he wouldn’t be able to focus well enough to have a serious conversation right now.
“Okay,” James sighed, patting blindly around his bedside table until he managed to turn on his bedside lamp and retrieve his glasses.
Able to see now, he noted that Sirius did not look good. He looked anxious to the point he might break down any second. And…
“You go shower; I’ll get fresh sheets,” James said, snapping his gaze away from Sirius’s trousers.
Sirius shook his head. “Your parents are asleep. I don’t want to wake them.”
What was his plan, then? To just lie in his soiled pants until morning? “Use the bathroom downstairs,” James suggested. “They won’t be able to hear anything from there.”
Sirius nodded gratefully at the idea and left James’s bedroom on light feet. James followed, taking less care to be quiet. His parents weren’t especially light sleepers, and he knew they wouldn’t be upset even if he did wake them. He’d just explain what had happened and they’d be understanding. In fact, he was sure they would help, and he’d purposely wake them like a shot if Sirius weren’t so bothered by the idea.
He was soon standing in front of the open linen cupboard, trying to puzzle out which sheets fit on which mattresses. His mum would be a great help right now. He grabbed a dark blue one that he knew had been on his bed before, so it would probably work on Sirius’s, too. He also found a charmed under sheet he hadn’t used in years, which would stop anything from soaking into the mattress if Sirius had an accident like this again. He hoped the magic hadn’t worn off in the time it had been sitting unused in the cupboard.
He wasn’t much good at changing sheets, but he did manage to get the bed into a usable state by the time Sirius returned.
“Thanks, Prongs.” He was still whispering, despite his bedroom being several rooms down from mum and dad’s and there being no chance of them hearing Sirius even if he spoke normally.
“No problem, mate. D’you want me to stay in your room?” he offered.
Sirius looked alarmed. “What, in the same bed?”
James was bemused. “Yeah. Why not?” They often ended up in each other’s beds when they were at school, whether because Sirius snuck over in the middle of the night or because they spent so long talking that they ended up falling asleep wherever they happened to have gotten chatting.
“What if your parents see us?” Sirius hissed, as if James had to be stupid for not considering that. “What if they think we’re…”
James scoffed. “They won’t care,” he stated confidently.
Sirius just stared in clear disbelief, so James shrugged and prepared to return to his own room.
“You can come to me if you have trouble getting to sleep, okay?” he said before he left. He didn’t want to ask, but he suspected Sirius may have had a nightmare and that that had caused his accident. Also, he might just feel uncomfortable going straight back to sleep in that same bed. He made the offer, but he didn’t really expect Sirius to take him up on it.
He got back into bed, glasses off, lights out, and was just drifting back to sleep when he heard his door being opened.
“D’you mind if I get in?” he heard Sirius whisper. “Just for a bit.”
“Course,” James mumbled, pulling his duvet aside so Sirius could slip in beside him.
Sirius cuddled up next to him. He tucked his head under James’s chin, the way he usually did when he sought James out in the middle of the night.
“I’m sorry,” Sirius breathed.
“No.” James shook his head gently. “You didn’t do anything bad.”
“Sorry I woke you.”
“Doesn’t matter. It’s holidays; we can sleep as long as we like.”
Sirius lay quietly for a while, then said, “I didn’t mean to do it.”
James sighed. “I know that. It’s okay; I don’t mind.”
He got the feeling Sirius wanted to say more, but the words never materialised. Eventually, he just said, “Night, Prongsie.”
James grinned at the variation on his nickname. “Night, Padsie,” he returned.
The first few years of school, Sirius had been so clingy when they’d slept next to each other. James had found it quite difficult to sleep at all, the way Sirius had practically prevented him from moving and had squeezed him tightly enough that breathing had become uncomfortable. But he’d matured in the years they had known each other; he let James have a bit of space when he pressed against his body now, and James found it quite easy to get back to sleep.
When he woke early the following morning, he found he was alone again. He hoped that meant Sirius had found he could sleep better in his own bed after all.