This is a little dark, a little scary. Let me know what you think.

Sixteen year old Sirius Black opened the door to his family home only to be hit with a full body-bind curse. Wide eyed and slightly afraid, though sure his family wouldn't kill him, he was levitated into the living room which was completely bare, except for his mother. Walburga Black was a scary woman on the best of days, today however she was holding a picture in her hands. One Sirius was so sure he had left at the Potter household for safe keeping. In his anti-muggle mother's hand was a picture of Sirius kissing his previous date goodnight. His muggle date. His mother was not happy.

Walburga unceremoniously dropped Sirius onto the ground, releasing the body-bind curse. Sirius rubbed a hand on the bump that was starting to form on his head. He wasn't given any time to recover.

"Stand up." His mother's voice was low but no less dangerous. He complied only because he hated to be at a disadvantage.

"You know how to duel?"

Sirius nodded his head. He knew, sure but duelling wasn't allowed during school. Not conventional duelling anyway. Sirius had been taught how to duel early on but never had he participated in one. He had a feeling he was about to partake in his first true duel.

"You stand there, I stand here." His mother explained anyway, apparently not paying any attention to her son. "We walk to each other, raise our wands, bow to each other and then walk away. Once your brother" She waved to a corner where Sirius realised Regulus was leaning, coming into the room at some point "makes the call, we turn and duel. Let a curse that draws blood hit you five times, you lose. Do you understand?"

Sirius just stared at his mother in amazement. She was going to duel him, because of a kiss. He couldn't even remember the girl's name.

Lily had agreed to meet up with James a few weeks ago on the condition that one of the other Maunders came as well. James agreed. He was, at first, worried about inviting Sirius because they were both purebloods but the weekend ended up landing on a full moon weekend so Moony couldn't accompany him and Wormtail was... well Wormtail.

So James asked Sirius. Lily, it turned out, had also brought a friend. It was a double date according to James, a friendly outing according to Lily. Whichever it was Sirius had hit it off with the other girl. By the end of the night Sirius had received a kiss and James a red hand print on his cheek. A pleasant night in all.

Sirius snapped back to reality when his head snapped to the side from what felt like a punch. His mother's wand was raised and she was glaring.

"Pay attention!" She shrieked, busting Sirius eardrums, he was sure. Sirius saw his brother from the corner of his eye also wince at the volume.

Sirius nodded and the duel began. Three paces forward, as that was all the room would allow. Sirius raised his wand and tilted his head in a mockery of a bow, mimicked by his mother. There was a malicious pleasure in her eyes and for the first time Sirius truly questioned if he would live until tomorrow.

"En garde" Regulus called and the duel started.

Stupefy

Bombarda

Calvario

Crucio

Expelliarmus

The spells were flying and Sirius was really starting to fear. The only ones he had managed to land were the foot-sticking hex and the hair-removal hex. His mother did look very strange without hair but the foot-sticking hex didn't last past a finite. Sirius, on the other hand was in pain. A bombarda to the chest is never pleasant but straight after a prolonged crucio makes it ten times worse. His hands were still shaking, making it even harder to aim.

He could see his brother watching with an impassive mask and it made him angry. The flashes of light were starting to hurt his eyes and his head was pounding. His mother continued to be creative with her spells and she still had yet to draw any blood from him. She wanted him to suffer.

"Putridam Carnem" she screamed.

Another spell I don't know he thought, before the pain started. His skin was burning, yet not. He couldn't describe the feeling of absolute agony that was taking over his left arm. Thankfully not his wand arm but he couldn't cast a spell even if he tried. He made the stupid decision to look away from his opponent and towards his arm. Oh how he wished he hadn't. His skin was rotting. Actually rotting. He was seeing his arm decay.

"Do you like it?" His mother asked, having paused in the duel to watch his reaction to the curse.

"You're arm will be rotten by morning. You can't fix a rotten arm." She smiled.

Sirius could do nothing but stare in horrified disbelief at her, then his arm. She approached him slowly, like a tiger stalking her prey. Soon she was standing above him and how the hell was he on the ground? She bent down, her hot breath on his cheek and said one final taunt. Her final taunt.

"You cannot beat me. Very little can be done under the spirit of fear, and darling you have become its definition."

Sirius snapped. He pushed his mother away and very quickly his wand was moving almost faster than he could think. Almost. Curse after curse was fired and his mother, who continued to back up, was barely able to throw up shields to deflect them all. He cut her quickly on her right leg and then two consecutive curses hit her right arm. It only took a few more spells to draw the last two spots of blood. A cut to her left shoulder blade and a deep gash above her eye. One, Sirius was sure, would scar. Sirius let a smile slip, disarming his mother and throwing her wand to his brother.

"I win."

With those words Sirius spun on the spot and collected his school trunk. Within moments he was calling the night bus and heading to James. He hoped they would let him stay for a while.

Sirius had almost forgotten about his arm. With the adrenalin and the righteous anger at his mother the pain had faded enough to be ignored. In hind sight he was glad that he pulled a jacket on before entering the night bus as he was sure a few of the other passengers would have freaked.

Halfway to his destination though, his arm started to hurt again, until he was doing everything possible to keep from screaming. He was receiving a few looks but he barely noticed. The driving was not helping at all.

Finally the bus arrived at his stop and he stepped out. It only took a few steps to the front door but they felt impossible. He still took them and knocked on the front door. Sirius was glad that there was a spell to inform the occupants of visitors because no one could have hoped to hear his feeble knock.

Quickly and without warning the door was thrown open and Mrs. Potter was standing in front of him. Her face was instantly transformed into horror when she took in his appearance.

"Sirius, what happened? I thought you were going straight home."

"I did" his voice was so weak and he could see darkness starting to creep into his vision.

If possible Mrs. Potter looked even more horrified. She understood what he meant.

"Come inside, quickly now. Lets get you all fixed up."

Sirius smiled gratefully at the woman but couldn't bring himself to move. Mrs. Potter seemed to understand. She softly placed a hand on his left shoulder, intending to help him along. That was bad. Sirius couldn't hold in a scream at the contact to his arm causing Mrs. Potter to jump back and the other two occupants of the house to come running.

Sirius was on the ground, unable to hold his weight up, when the male Potters arrived. He heard a gasp and Mrs. Potter was softly telling the other two what she knew. James was next to him, kneeling by his side and carefully removing his jacket. The pain was excruciating and eventually he couldn't handle it any longer. He passed out.

When Sirius came to he was in a completely white room. The walls, the roof, the sheets, even his clothes were white. There was a yellow picture on the far wall depicting a talking sun but that started to freak him out. Actually the whole situation was starting to freak him out. Where was he? The hospital wing? No, school was out for summer. St Mungo's then, but why? As soon as the Potters wandered in, he remembered.

His mother, the duel, the smell of flesh rotting, the fussy night bus ride, Mrs. Potter's horrified face. His mother had tried to kill him. He felt dizzy, he felt sick, he lost conscious again.

The next time he woke he remembered almost straight away what happened to him. He still felt awful about it, he could feel himself shaking, but at least this time he managed to keep a hold of his composure. Looking around the room he saw his best friend asleep in a chair. He felt the ice his mother had created in his heart to begin to melt at the sight.

"Sirius" Sirius whipped his head around to look in the direction of the softly spoken words. Mrs. Potter was standing in the doorway. Her eyes were red and her hands were shaking. Mr Potter was standing behind her, a hand on her shoulder. He looks older Sirius thought.

"How are you darling?"

Sirius flinched at the word 'darling' which had both the elder Potters frowning but they didn't say anything for which he was grateful.

"What happened?" she asked

Sirius couldn't answer. It was too soon, too painful. He shook his head instead but then froze. He couldn't believe he was only now noticing that his arm wasn't in pain. He looked down and found it wrapped heavily in white bandages. Noticing his look the elder Mrs. Potter explained.

"It's a relative new curse, no one's sure where it came from but the rotting-flesh curse is vicious. The targeted area rots, usually lasting a day and by that time the curse has become a part of your blood stream. In a week your whole body is rotten. It's a slow and very painful death, I'm so glad we managed to get you here in time."

Mrs. Potter dissolved into tears and Mr. Potter's arm came around her shoulders. Sirius watched until she had calmed. His mind had started to wander.

"When will I have to leave?"

The Potters looked at him surprised that he seemed reluctant.

"Tomorrow, thankfully. The counter-curse will have been complete by then."

Sirius nodded but he was frowning. Where was he going to go? He had pretty much been kicked out and even if he hadn't there was no way he was going back to that place. Sirius was sure his face had already been burned off the tapestry.

"You're staying with us."

Sirius whipped his head around and looked back at the man, mouth open wide.

"You're not going back home, you're going to stay with us. You're part of our family and you have always been welcome."

Sirius was so gobsmacked he wasn't sure what to say. Eventually the words sunk in and Sirius couldn't contain a genuine smile.

After all, you don't mess with the Potters.

WolfWinks -xx-