Chapter Text
James had always been a light sleeper, since he started at Hogwarts. He had to be able to wake up if Sirius needed him in the night. If the nightmares became too much, but wouldn’t release their hold on him. He had become far too used to waking up hearing a soft whimper, a begging please as his best friend’s tears fell freely onto his pillow. He would be up in a second, him or Remus after a few years they started taking turns, ready to wake him if he could.
What he didn’t expect was to wake up in his own bed at home, to the feeling of the wards shifting. When he was 16 his father had keyed him into the wards surrounding the Potter estate, he was a man now and with everything that was going on with the war it would be safer for him to be aware if they were to be attacked.
James got up and walked to the window, looking in the direction he felt the intrusion from, but saw nothing. He walked out of his bedroom, down the stairs and grabbed his wand. Just as he had touched the door handle he felt his father’s presence. “It’s someone we know dad, they wouldn’t be able to get in otherwise.” Fleamont said nothing of the slight tremble to his son’s voice; he knew as well as James that if it were an unwelcome visit they would have felt a much different pull at the intrusion. However they were in the middle of a war, and any unexpected visitors at 2am were something to be concerned about. He simply nodded as James continued out the door.
Walking along the path to the boundary edge between the estate and the woods he looked up at the sky to find it clear, no sign of a dark mark. Yet. James swallowed down his fear as he carried on, walking through the garden until he noticed a heap in the grass just in front of him. He ran towards it, dropping to his knees as he took in the sight of his best friend. His usually long, black hair had been cut short, singed and smouldering in some parts. His face was bruised from his temple to his jawline, lip busted and bleeding. In one hand he clutched his wand, and the other a letter. Though the hand holding his letter had been bruised almost as badly as his face, his wrist was surely broken, but he held onto that letter, the corners wrinkled from how tightly he was holding it. The second James saw it he knew who it was from, he would recognise Remus’s scrawl from a mile away.
James quickly called out to his father and shortly after, both parents came running across the grass. He couldn’t lift Sirius on his own and somehow had the sense not to use magic to do it, despite every inch of his body screaming to get his best friend to safety. His mother gasped as she looked down at the boy laying at her son’s feet, together his parents levitated him into the house. James could do nothing but follow along silently. They got him into the spare room and onto the bed. “James darling, what happened to him?” Euphemia looked at her son with such sadness in her eyes. James just shook his head, unable to speak for shock.
His parents got to work as best they could healing the wounds, having had a very boisterous son meant they both had seen their fair share of accidents and broken bones. Though it became quite evident that this was not the same as the time James had jumped down the staircase convinced he could fly without a broom. With Sirius on the bed they could easily see the blood staining the covers at his back and the twitching of his left foot. Euphemia healed the young boy’s cuts while James knelt at the head of the bed next to him, brushing the short strands of hair out of his face and mumbling quietly to him. After a few minutes she stood back, walking out the room to fetch a glass of water. Just as got to the door Fleamont stepped out, ‘That’s spell damage, Effy. Theres only one thing I can think that would cause his nerves to flair like that. But, but he’s just a boy…” The two adults looked at each other in shock for a moment before walking back into the bedroom.
“Jamie?” Sirius croaked from the bed, his voice was so hoarse he could barely get the word out. As he opened his eyes his best friend’s face started to come into focus, though his vision was slightly blurry from one eye. He sighed at the familiar sight, “hm, made it then”.
He sat up gingerly, wincing as he straightened up, using James’s hand to help himself up.
“I’m here Padfoot, are you still in pain? Mum did her best, but without you awake to say where it hurt she couldn’t be sure she got it all.” James sat next to his best friend on the bed.
“Am okay, just hurts a bit. M’throat feels like shit though. Oh um, sorry Mrs P.” As Sirius’s vision settled he noticed a very worried Euphemia on the other side of the bed.
“It’s alright dear, and how many times do I have to tell you. Effy is fine, thank you.” Sirius nodded slowly, feeling himself go a bit dizzy as he did so. “Do you want a pain potion Sirius?” She asked, raising her hand to feel his forehead. He flinched slightly before looking down at the bed sheets he was tucked up in.
“Um, yes please Effy.” He whispered, before grabbing at James’ hand again.
“Pads, what happened mate. Not that I’m not chuffed to shit to see you but you broke through the wards at 2 in the morning and then passed out?” James’ brow was creased and Sirius couldn’t help but think how much he looked like Fleamont when he scowled like that.
“Shit, m’sorry prongs.” Sirius let go of his grip on his best friend’s hand, causing James to grip it even tighter.
“Don’t be fucking stupid, we’re just worried about you that’s all. No offense, but you look like shit.” With that Sirius barked out a short laugh, grabbing at his rib after it twinged in pain.
Euphemia came back in with a small bottle and helped Sirius to drink the purple liquid before setting the bottle on the bedside table. “Now Sirius darling, what happened?” Sirius sighed, he knew he would have to talk about it, but he really didn’t want to see the look on either of their faces when he told them what happened, what he remembered of it.
“We were having dinner, first time I had come down for meals for days, Reg had been sneaking bits upstairs for me. But Bella and Cissy had come over so I had to go really. About half way through, an owl came, Moony’s. Soon as she saw it was for me she went off on one , as she does, screaming about what a filthy blood traitor I am and all of my disgusting half blood friends and how dare they interrupt dinner time.” Sirius started to tremble as he spoke, having to pause to steady himself. “She opened it and read it out. I got up to try and get it back, it wasn’t too bad, nothing too incriminating. Not until the end anyway.” Sirius flattened out the letter to show them.
‘I love you,
Moony x’
“She threw it on the table, um, then she hexed me. Started with minor stuff but she just worked herself up and I was shouting back at her and I couldn’t use my wand. Then she called me a fag and said I was a disappointment and that I looked like a girl and probably took a cock just as well as one.”
Sirius had started crying by this point, silent tears that rolled down his cheeks as he spoke, not making an effort to stop them.
“She cut it short, burnt it I think. She was so angry it was non verbal and I don’t think I would have recognised it anyway. She just slashed at it while I was laying on the ground. Bella, she was laughing, egging her on. Then, she um, she crucio’ed me a bit.”
Sirius stopped when James swore, standing up and shouting his frustrations.
“How much is a bit dear?” Euphemia asked, trying to mask the tears welling up in her eyes.
“I dunno, but it was tea time when she started off, so must have been a few hours or so. I passed out I think, then she must have got bored because Reg passed me the note and my wand and told me to go. I knew I couldn’t go to Remus’s, didn’t want them to follow me there. So I thought of you Prongs, then I was here. Could see the gate, and then I passed out. Must have apparated or something. Didn’t know I could do that, Minnie’ll be proud of me at least”
Sirius tried a dry chuckle, but he stopped when he saw the look on James’s face. He had never seen his best friend look so angry.
“I’m gonna murder her. I am going to murder her”
“James, calm down. Your father and I will sort this.” Effy turned to Sirius, trying not to let the pity show on her face, and wrapped her arms around him. She felt him stiffen under her touch but she continued to hold him, even as he sobbed and dampened her shoulder she held him, stroking little circles into his shoulder blade. James stopped pacing the room and looked at his mother and his best friend and swiftly left the room.
“Dad? Dad are you down here?” James walked into the living room to see his father with his head over the fireplace whispering angrily. As he heard James step into the room he stopped, “Down here son. How is he?”
“He’s awake, mums talking to him. Thought I’d leave them alone a bit.” James sat on the sofa behind him, sighing. “I asked him after last time to stay here. He, he said he wouldn’t let it get this bad.” James thought back to the last time Sirius had turned up at their house, through the floo that time. Said he had fallen down the stairs and broken his nose, said nobody was home to fix it, but James could see through the stammer and the tear tracks on his face. He had let his friend go back, but not this time. That was years ago and James had learnt a lot more in that time about what really went on behind closed doors in the Ancient and Noble House of Black.
“Who were you talking to?” James asked his father.
“Minerva, I informed her that Sirius would be staying here from now on, and that he may receive a letter from the ministry but that she was to disregard it. I will be speaking to them in the morning. I won’t have him punished for escaping that place.”
James leaned forwards and hugged his father “Thanks Dad.” They had spoken about Sirius many times since they met 5 years ago. The Potters had immediately offered for him to stay if things got to be too much for him, knowing what that family was like. “I’m gonna go see if they’re done.”
When James walked back into the bedroom down the hall from his own, Sirius was asleep again, with Effy sat over him crying silently to herself. She turned and wiped her tears as James came in, they spoke quietly to the side of the room so as not to wake Sirius.
“He said he would stay, I think he knew this time. He knew you’d never let him go back. Not after this..” Effy trailed off, looking at the small young boy in her spare bedroom with a faint look of pity on her face. She couldn’t help it, she’d never be able to imagine treating a child this way, especially not your own baby.