Disclaimer:
Anything contained within belongs to the rightful owners of the intellectual property. The prompt comes from an image I found on instagram and I have credited it the best I can from the little information that was included in the post.
This work contains references to the signs and symptoms of child abuse. If this isn't your thing, please stop reading now.
Prompt:
Dorkstar-brat
Whatever you do, don't think about 12 year old Sirius Black becoming very suspicious as to why his new friend disappears from school periodically and returns looking exhausted, sometimes with bruises and cuts riddling his body.
Don't think about him getting worried whenever Remus lies, "Oh it was a family thing."
Don't think about him trying to do research on abusive households out of concern that perhaps his classmate is living in dire circumstances.
And then please don't imagine him coming to the realisation that Remus isn't the one in an abusive home… He is.
Not the Answer He was Looking For
It was beginning to get a little bit weird, but James and Peter would hear nothing of it. They'd been back from Christmas break for a couple of weeks now, and Remus' bruises were only just beginning to fade.
Sirius had clicked that Remus' disappearances were fishy at best. He disappeared for four maybe five days every month. Coming back to Gryffindor tower with multiple cuts and bruises, occasionally broken bones. The pattern had appeared to Sirius early on, it wasn't as if it was difficult to notice. Whenever Sirius asked questions, Remus always responded with the lie: "Don't worry, it's just a family thing."
Like a good friend, Sirius was only worried about his best mate's wellbeing. He had hoped that it was just something that could be explained away. But after Remus came back from the Christmas break looking so exhausted, pretty much broken, Sirius wasn't just going to accept the family thing as an excuse.
He'd hit the library the first opportunity he had. It had taken a couple of evenings to find the right section of the library. It seemed that the Wizarding World and the School wasn't really keen on the issues that students might have at home. With the help of James' invisibility cloak, Sirius had clocked massive amounts of extra study time.
There were masses of books, but none of them had really been helpful. There had been books explaining the standard muggle family set up, which were downright patronising. There were books explaining social structures, and the muggle schooling system, but nothing in them that would help him.
Sirius read about governmental structures, and something called Social Services. In theory, one of the roles of Social Services was to find children in abusive homes and who were being neglected, and protect them. There were plenty of examples within the text of the failings of the system, but nothing that helped him explain what was going on with Remus.
On his fifth night of sneaking into the library, Sirius found the book he needed. He found it tucked away on a bottom shelf, almost hidden from view.
The book detailed the signs and symptoms to look for in regards to child abuse and neglect. Besides the obvious signs of abuse, such as physical injuries, the book said the victim may suffer from slower than normal development; that the child might struggle with abilities and skills that normal children would never have a problem with, and that they might struggle to socialise or act in an abnormal manner.
Remus was terribly shy.
The next chapter detailed that the child in question might fail to thrive. That they might struggle with gaining weight, or they might be short for their age. Suggesting that the child isn't properly cared for at home.
Remus was definitely god damn skinny, but he wasn't short at all.
But then, he was really skinny. His mother did refuse to let either him or Regulas at the dinner table if they didn't behave the way she wanted them to. And he was rather short, compared to the rest of the Gryffindor boys.
It mentioned lower grades in school. Well Remus studied really hard, but they'd not really been tested, so it wasn't conclusive.
The book mentioned that the child might suffer from mental health problems such as low self-esteem, anxiety, depression, and may have thoughts of suicide.
He couldn't speak for Remus, but he could speak for himself. He wasn't anxious, he didn't think he had low self-esteem. Couldn't pin point a time when he felt depressed. But there were plenty of times, especially when he was in that god forsaken House of Black, that Sirius had contemplated offing himself. He'd lost count of the number of times he'd curled up on his bed, wondering if it would be peaceful on the other side, if it would be safe on the other side.
The final chapter of the book mentioned abnormal behaviours. Both with the parent and child. It mentioned that there might be unusual interactions with the parents; the child might be constantly trying to upset their parents, or might be scared of their parent.
He'd not seen Remus interact with his parents long enough to say what was normal and what wasn't.
But Sirius knew that he did everything in the world to upset his mother, especially when they were in public.
It also mentioned that the child's behaviours might be inappropriate and cause problems. Such as being unusually fussy or afraid. They might not be interested in the same things as other children, or might act out in ways similar to those they have experienced, such as violence.
Sirius finished reading the book, and collapsed against the bookcase he'd been leaning against.
The book didn't describe Remus, it described him.
Sirius wasn't sure how he should be feeling about what he'd just discovered; there wasn't exactly anything that he could do about it. With the position that his parents held in society, it wasn't like anyone would believe him if he told anyone.
It was a slow walk back to the dormitory for him that morning. He didn't have any answers about his friend, perhaps he'd come up with another theory in a couple of months. Or maybe Remus would just trust them enough to tell them.