When Sirius awoke on the freezing marble floor, every bone in his body ached. His head was pounding, his back ached, his legs ached, his arms ached… even his stomach ached. He wondered if he actually had enough willpower to get up.
He looked around blearily. They hadn't even bothered to move him; he was still lying in the exact same spot where his father had used an Unforgivable Curse on him the night before.
Everything thrown around in anger, the chairs that had been halfway across the room and the various dishes that were lying about had completely disappeared, and everything looked as if it had been polished recently. The shades were open on the windows, and it looked to be about dawn, meaning Sirius had been out for the whole night.
It seemed as though the Black family had moved about their every day lives without giving Sirius a thought. They obviously must have stepped over him… or, judging by the multiple bruises on his back, possibly stepped on him, as if he weren't there.
He wished he wasn't there. He wished he wasn't part of one of the most prestigious, wealthy, well-known, pure-blood families in the wizarding world.
He would give anything to swap places with that Potter boy; to belong to a loving, caring family, who supported him in whatever he did... That was something Sirius could only dream of now. His whole mindset, psyche, his obsession with pleasing his parents was gone.
But, there was nothing he could do about it. He was stuck in this revolving door, going round and round in circles, unable to escape the every day horrors that were his family, that were the bane of his existence.
A tear escaped down his cheek, and he dashed it away angrily, hating himself for showing weakness.
All he could think about was his existence, his past, his present his future. It was the future that scared him the most. He would grow up in fear, angry all the time, doing every little thing his parents wanted. Then he would become an adult, of course following a career in the Dark Arts, and then would be forced to marry some distant cousin and start the hideous cycle all over again.
Sirius sat up a little straighter. He decided. He had to get out of this place. Things had to change, and he had to change them. This was his life, not theirs. He had never been so sure about anything in his life.
He had to get out of the Black Manor and get back to Hogwarts, now before it was too late, and his parents awoke.
He only wished he could save Regulus… But it wasn't too late; he would be back in the Christmas holidays. Regulus was only little, they couldn't do anything too bad to him before then.
He slowly picked himself up off the cold, shiny floor, the only spot unclean being the spot in which he had just been lying. His entire body was screaming at him to stay in that very spot as he got up. Everything ached, cramped, hurt. He had a feeling that his left arm could have been broken from the fall onto the floor. It did not even surprise him as he had fallen directly onto it the night before.
After staggering around a little, he finally grabbed hold of something solid- the top of the fireplace. Perfect. Now all he had to do was move a little to the left, to grab the orange Floo powder. He sidled to the left a little, and every bone, every muscle in his body protested.
He bit his lip in order to keep himself from screaming or crying out. He had to do this; he couldn't let them catch him. As befuddled as his mind was at that moment, he knew he had to get back to Hogwarts.
He ignored his body's screaming protests and moved over to get the Floo powder. After leaning on the fireplace for a minute, breathing heavily, eyesight blurring, Floo in one hand, other hand resting himself on the fireplace, he stepped backwards to prepare himself.
Once again, he staggered a little but steadied himself quickly. Sirius took a deep breath, looked around the manor where he had grown up and threw the Floo in the fire, jumping after it painfully, yelling "Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!"
After a painful but quick journey, Sirius arrived in the fire in Professor Dumbledore's office. He stumbled out, and fell to the floor immediately, arms and legs everywhere.
He felt strong, yet frail hands pick him up and sit him in a chair, much to the relief of Sirius, who had felt before that the floor was spinning beneath him.
He then heard a loud voice saying, "Wait here my dear boy, I shall just send a message to Madame Pompfrey."
Sirius then realised that his eyes had been closed ever since he had jumped into the fireplace at the Black Manor. He slowly opened them, trying to focus, but not succeeding. After blinking what seemed a thousand times, his blurred vision began to focus on his surroundings.
He was sitting in an armchair in Professor Dumbledore's office next to the fire. He realised that it must have been Professor Dumbledore that had picked him up and carried him into the chair… and then Professor Dumbledore that had just left to send a message to Madame Pompfrey.
Sirius suddenly looked down at himself. He wanted to jump back into the fire the second he saw his own appearance. One of the many Black family rules was to never, ever, let anyone outside of the immediate family know what was happening to them behind closed doors.
And Sirius's appearance said it all. His robes were ripped and torn, legs and arms were so bruised that they were starting to turn blue as all the bruises merged together. He had cuts everywhere, and his face…
He brought an aching arm up to feel the damage to his face. Just as he suspected, there were cuts and bruises scattered randomly across his usually boyish features, and to his horror, his lip was still bleeding from where he had bit it. His hair felt disgusting, caked with blood and dust from the floor. He was a complete mess.
A door creaked open, and suddenly Professor Dumbledore strode into the room, a concerned look on the man's usually smiling face.
"Sorry Mr. Black, but I had to find somebody to send a message to Madame Pompfrey for me," commented Dumbledore, trailing off when he saw Sirius's worried expression.
Sirius realised that the headmaster was looking at him, and attempted a weak smile, although it came out as more of a grimace.
The headmaster sat down in an armchair he had just conjured, right next to Sirius.
"Now, as we wait for Madame Pompfrey to arrive, shall we discuss your… condition? Was I right in assuming that you were probably in no condition to make your way to the hospital wing?"
"Y-yes sir, thank you," croaked Sirius, trying to find his voice. He felt that even if he had wanted to, his body would not let him take another step.
"Sirius," started the headmaster, "how exactly did these injuries," he gestured towards the various bruises and cuts on Sirius, "come about?"
The million dollar question that Sirius had been dreading. And so, Sirius Black said the first thing that popped into his head. An excuse used worldwide.
"I- I fell, sir," he said weakly, not looking the headmaster in the eye.
The headmaster looked at Sirius sadly, almost as if expecting an answer like this.
"I see. Did anybody… help you fall?" said the headmaster, trying not to scare the terrified boy anymore.
Sirius involuntarily started to cry noiselessly, and replied in a whisper, "No sir."
"Hmm," said the headmaster, thinking, and watching the boy hastily try to brush away the tears on his face with his right hand. He seemed to be holding his left arm against him.
"And if they had contributed in anyway to your injuries, would you be permitted to tell me?" said the headmaster.
Sirius, realising what the headmaster was doing, smiled weakly, and said "No, definitely not, sir."
The headmaster smiled concernedly back, and asked one final question.
"And, Sirius Black, do you trust me?"
Sirius didn't even have to think about that one. Although he barely knew the professor, he trusted the man with everything he had.
"Most definitely, sir."
Dumbledore smiled and looked as if he were about to say something, but changed his mind, as a flustered Madame Pompfrey bustled into the room, with what looked like a first aid kit full of various potions.
Without looking up, she said "What is so important that you must call me here from my patients, Albus? What could possibly be so dreadfully important?"
Dumbledore looked at Madame Pompfrey's flustered appearance and then replied.
"Sirius Black has returned from the Black Manor, Poppy."
"Sirius Black has-" started Madame Pompfrey but trailed off as she finally looked up, taking in Sirius's appearance.
"Oh you poor dear!" she said to Sirius, and rushed over to him, opening her kit and taking out seven or eight different potions.
Sirius looked at her worriedly, wondering when she would start to question him about the origin of his injuries.
Dumbledore seemed to interpret Sirius's gaze, and quickly said something, before Pompfrey could get out every potion she owned.
"Poppy, would you please come and have a word with me? In private?"
"Yes of course headmaster, just let me tend to Mr. Black's injuries…" started Madame Pompfrey, but was cut off.
"No Poppy, I'd like you to come now," said Dumbledore, a note of finality in his tone.
After looking at Sirius and then at Dumbledore, Madame Pompfrey seemed to decide that it was probably best not to argue with the headmaster, and giving Sirius an apologetic look, she followed Dumbledore through a door into his private quarters.
"Really headmaster, I don't see why this couldn't wait until after I had tended to Mr. Black's injuries, he really is in a bad way," started Madame Pompfrey, but once again, the headmaster cut her off.
"Poppy," he said, holding a hand up as if trying to stop her talking. "This will only take a minute. I just wanted to warn you, that I would prefer it if you did not ask Mr. Black of where his injuries came from."
Madame Pompfrey started to protest indignantly, but was cut off yet again.
"Yes Poppy, I do realise that his injuries are serious, but I have already figured out where they come from. It is rather a personal matter, to give you a hint, dearest Poppy."
Madame Pompfrey, as if finally realising, looked at him in horror.
"You- you mean, his family…"
"Yes, that is what I suspect Poppy. So I would prefer that you kept quiet about it?"
"Of course headmaster, of course," said Poppy, an extremely worried look on her face.
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Meanwhile, Sirius was sitting in the headmasters office, tapping the fingers on his right hand in an absent-minded rhythm on his knee, worried about what Dumbledore was, or was not telling Madame Pompfrey.
He trusted Dumbledore, but he did not want the whole world to know his secret. He did not want anybody to know, in fact, that he was being abused behind closed doors, but he realised, that with the particular situation he was in, it was a necessity.
He sat for a few minutes, getting more anxious by the second, waiting worriedly for the headmaster and Madame Pompfrey to return.
After what felt like hours, but was probably only a couple of minutes, Madame Pompfrey emerged, looking considerably more worried, followed by the headmaster, who gave Sirius a faint smile.
Sirius's heart sank. The headmaster had told Madame Pompfrey. He supposed she would have to know, but couldn't the headmaster just say he had fallen?
Sirius sighed, realising that that was a weak excuse, even in his mind. Madame Pompfrey came and knelt back in the place she had been minutes before, and started retrieving more potions and colourful bottles.
Sirius looked down at her and gave her a weak smile, which she returned rather concernedly.
"Now dear," she said kindly, "I'm just going to start putting some of this potion over those nasty bruises of yours," she started, but suddenly stopped mid-sentence, and looked over at the fire.
The flames had grown overly large, and it looked as if somebody was about to come through the fire. Dumbledore went and stood directly in front of the fire, with a confused look on his face, blocking Madame Pompfrey and Sirius's view. Who could it possibly be now?
The person emerged from the flames, and greeted Professor Dumbledore.
"Albus, how nice to see you once again," said the voice coldly.
Every muscle in Sirius's body clenched up, and he thought he was going to faint. He knew that voice.
"Ah, Mrs. Black, how interesting to see you," said Dumbledore.
