Sirius Black had escaped from Grimmauld Place a week ago, wounded and weak. He had collapsed at the Potters' door, bleeding out, with his body and soul shattered. Fleamont and Euphemia Potter had immediately taken him to one of the bedrooms in the house, and there he had remained unconscious in bed for a full week.
Finally, one morning, he opened his eyes. The light filtering through the curtains was soft, but even so, it made Sirius wince and turn his head to the side, feeling the weight of reality crashing down on him. As he regained full consciousness, the pain in his chest became unbearable. Not the physical pain, but something much deeper, something that had been buried while his body healed. Silent tears began to stream down his cheeks, soon turning into muffled sobs, and then into desperate crying that shook his frail body.
James, who had been sitting beside him, was alarmed to see him break down like that. He leaned in closer, not knowing how to comfort his best friend.
"Sirius, please, tell me what's wrong... How can I help you?" James's voice was full of concern, but Sirius didn’t respond; he just kept crying.
Fleamont, hearing the sobs from outside the room, quickly entered, but even his presence, always so reassuring, couldn’t calm Sirius down. Sirius simply sank deeper into despair, feeling his chest shatter into a thousand pieces.
Euphemia Potter, a woman with a strength and gentleness that Sirius had always admired, was the next to enter. She approached slowly, with that calm that only a mother knows how to show in moments of crisis.
"Sirius," she said softly, sitting at the edge of the bed, "do you want to talk to me? I'm here for you."
Sirius shook his head, pressing his lips together tightly to hold back more tears. "No, I don’t, Euphemia... I don’t want to... I don’t want to worry you. That would only hurt me more... It would only make everything worse..."
Euphemia sighed, not letting go of his hand, wrapping Sirius’s cold fingers with her warm ones. "Mom is strong, Sirius. I can bear whatever you’re carrying inside. You don’t have to keep it to yourself."
Sirius looked up at her, his eyes shining with a pain that seemed endless. The words came out of his mouth before he could stop them, as if his soul had finally decided to release the poison that was consuming him. "I want to die, Euphemia. The guilt is burning me alive... It’s burning me inside, and I don’t know how to keep going... I abandoned my brother, I left him there, alone. But, you know? I’m so lucky... I’m here, living with you, but I can’t help but think about how I was just surviving before... And even so... Even so, I can’t stop feeling this pain, this pain for having left him behind... For not saving him..."
Euphemia looked at him with deep sadness but also with determination. She moved closer, wrapping Sirius in a soft yet firm embrace, one that spoke of comfort and protection, one that only a mother could give.
"You’re here, Sirius," she whispered against his disheveled hair. "You’re here, and that means you can still fight. I know it hurts, I know the guilt is a burden that shouldn’t be yours alone, but... You’re not alone. You don’t have to carry this weight by yourself. We’ll help you heal, Sirius. Not just your body, but your soul too."
Sirius clung to her, letting his tears soak Euphemia’s shoulder. Perhaps, for the first time, he felt a small spark of hope in the midst of the darkness. He couldn’t change the past, he couldn’t go back and save Regulus, but maybe, just maybe, with time, he could learn to live with it. With them.