Chapter Text
Sirius
Sirius’s mind was numb when Harry and Hermione saved him. At that point, he was just happy that Harry was safe. His little boy’s soul wasn’t sucked out. He could cry with relief. But he held it in. Now that he has arrived at the Black family’s safe house after dropping the hippogriff with another herd nearby, he let out all his repressed emotions of 12 years. He purposefully kept all his best memories behind his occlumency shields and radiated his negative emotions so that the dementors couldn’t feed them off. Once he opened his box of good memories, he couldn’t stop crying. He felt so lonely. His only best friends died. Just like that. His godson was forcefully taken from him. Granted he let Hagrid take him. But that was only because he was too insistent. If he kept it up Harry would have been crushed by the half-giant. With no other way to process his grief and rage, he made his biggest mistake.
He didn’t know how many hours had passed. His eyes felt hot and sore. His throat became hoarser and he had a pounding headache. He felt that he would cry again at the slightest inconvenience at that moment. He wandlessly cast a cooling charm on his face. Feeling better, he called for Milly, not really expecting the house elf to pop out. But contrary to his expectations, his nanny elf popped out and crashed him with a hug. She sobbed while saying things like, “Young master is safe!”. The young master is too thin. Oh! how worried I was.
Milly was the best elf of all the elves. No, he will not entertain any arguments. She wasn’t a family elf like Kreacher but was bought and gifted by his grandfather, Arcturus Black on his 2nd Birthday when he learned of his mother’s treatment. Therefore, she doesn’t answer anyone but him and his grandfather. Before he passed away, he gave Milly and Tilly (His brother’s nanny elf) the power to do “anything” to keep him and his brother physically safe. He also allowed them to talk properly. While Tilly was strictly professional with his brother, Milly became his family. Tilly mated with Kreacher later and had his son Dobby given away to the Malfoy family as Dowry. Milly married Mipsy, a Hogwarts elf when he joined the Order of the Phoenix. He gave the married couple a holiday for a year. Usually, elves were given 5 weeks but Milly deserved more for putting up with his hag of a mother and his drunk father.
He has never seen Milly punishing herself as his grandfather had forbidden it. He believed that if these house-elves were going to keep them safe, they should behave in a respectable manner. But today she came close to hitting herself. He stopped her while coaxing her as she wailed. Once she calmed down enough, she started gently berating him for not calling her when she could’ve helped. She prepared a hot bath for him and used an “Elven special brand for naughty children” shampoo to gently remove the matt. While he was soaking, she popped away, leaving him to his thoughts.
Sirius was stuck in his mind. He couldn’t get out of it. He panicked trying to come out of it. He heard “You proved your worthlessness” from his mother mixed with “Why did you abandon me” from Harry. That somehow overlapped with James’s and Lily’s dead body images. He suddenly woke up, in his bed. His hand had a shock burn on it. Milly apologized profusely. She explained that he was thrashing around and she couldn’t wake him up. She decided to shock him a little bit to wake him up. He was grateful for Milly’s intervention. Thank Magic for his Milly, he silently uttered while reassuring her.
He asked for a mirror. He had seen his reflection in the lake before. It looked like a poorly dressed-up zombie for Halloween. He was truly repulsed by it. He gathered courage and looked into the mirror again. His hair, while still rough-looking, was removed from any matting of hair. His shaggy beard was shaved and his skin moisturized..? He wore clothes befitting for a Black. While he still cringed at his gaunt face and ruined hair, he felt ten times better and narrowed his eyes as he remembered something. He has some recessive metamorphous ability that helps him grow/shorten his hair. He asked Milly for a protein potion which she provided suspiciously quickly. He shrugged and asked her to shave his head completely off. Sensing his plan, she did what she was told. He drank the potion and used his ability to grow out his hair. Now he felt a million times better. While his hair was not back to its former glory. It did not make him look like an ingrate. His gaunt face and long hair sharpened his face and made him look a little more terrifying.
Milly was apparently happy for him and made it clear by hugging him again. Sirius was not a hugger, but he would do it if it made his family (read: Milly, James, Lily, Harry) happy. Milly then pulled thousands of potions from her bag. Apparently, semi-bonded elves (she is fully bonded again now of course), are given elf-healer training? And they are kept busy enough to maintain their sanity? So, she was a healer now and she was going to “take care of him”. He shuddered slightly. That was terrifying, Milly was a mother-hen before she became a healer. He sighed; this is going to be a long year. She chanted in Greek to determine his health and made a face that screamed “I knew it was bad but certainly not this bad!?”. He was put on an extensive potion regime. He wondered how she was able to buy these potions and asked her. She stared at him as if trying to determine if she should tell him something or not. A soft look passed in her eyes. “Your grandfather left you a trust fund only I can access.” She slowly said. “You can access it when I deem that you are ready.” Sirius was confused. Why should he be ready for a trust fund? But decided to not question it. He dutifully drank his potions and slept. Blissfully this time, without nightmares. He had drunk that potion mixed with his tea before. Effie went on a tour to India. She collected rare ingredients and potion recipes that helped people sleep better without dreams and had no side effects. Somewhere behind his mind, he saw the image of Effie and Monty giving him a special blend of herbal tea with honey that made his nightmares go away while Milly sang a soothing song.