Sirius almost wondered if it was too soon; him and Harry still barely knew each other.
But it was all for the best, he decided. Harry could have a home with him.
Harry stared out the window, holding his bag in his lap. That reminded Sirius.
"We'll go to the eye doctor tomorrow, Dumbledore told me you can't see very well. And to get you something to where. I can't afford much, but..." Sirius shrugged slightly, glancing at Harry, who nodded.
"Thank you," the teenager added, almost as an afterthought. Truthfully, the sickness in Harry's stomach just got worse.
Sirius' house looked different from the Prewetts; that was the first thing Harry thought when the car pulled into the driveway. It was... shabby. And that was being nice. Shingles were missing, the paint was cracked and almost gone in places, the fence wasn't even close standing, and the grass, as in weeds, were over a foot high.
Definitely different...
"Umm, yeah." Sirius looked around, clearly embarrassed. "I forgot and I haven't been here very often since moving. Sorry."
"It's... fine." Harry had started to say 'nice', but decided not to lie. The 'house' look like it would fall over if a storm came past.
"Great. Let's find your room." Sirius reached for Harry's bag, but he showed no signs of handing it over. Slightly hurt, Sirius let his hand drop.
They stood in an uncomfortable silence for a moment before Sirius decided it was best to just move on and show Harry his room; Sirius was relieved when him did follow him into the house.
The inside wasn't any better and Harry had decided one thing, his god-father was a slob.
Harry's room had peeling wallpaper and nearly ruined wood floors, just like the rest of the house, but it was obvious that Sirius had tried to make it comfortable. Numerous lamps were around the room, sitting all over the room. Harry just had to look up to see why; the ceiling light was busted. Several blankets littered the bed; partly to make the lumpy mattress more comfortable, partly to keep Harry warm. The heat wasn't on.
Sirius just looked more depressed. How did he forget it looked this bad! He shouldn't have brought Harry here... But there was nowhere else.
"I'll fix the it up, Harry, I promise." He started to squeeze the boy's shoulder, but managed to stop when Harry started to move away.
Harry nodded, putting his bag on a chair sitting in the corner.
"Yeah, ahh... I'll get dinner ready." And with that, Sirius retreated, leaving Harry to do... whatever.
/I hope I did the right thing.../ both Harry and Sirius thought.
hr
Things had gone relatively well, afterwards. Not completely smooth, but ok. There were still plenty of uncomfortable silences and moments.
Sirius didn't turn on him the first night, so that was good. He did take Harry to get glasses and clothes, as promised, and after... nothing happened. But Harry couldn't help feel that he owed the man, something. Here Harry was, in his house, eating his food, and everything else. Yet, he hadn't asked Harry to do anything, nothing...
So things just continued.
For a while, at least.
Sirius suddenly jerked awake in the middle of the night, automatically in the sitting position. It didn't take him long to figure out what had woken him; someone was screaming. Harry!
The man instantly dashed across the hall, to the near empty room that housed the teen. After jerking the door open he saw Harry writhing on the bed. It sounded like someone was torturing the boy! Terrified, Sirius had no idea what to do. Without thinking, he lunged forward to wake Harry, shaking him by the shoulders, who woke the instant he was touched.
/It was a lie. It was a lie./ The thought repeated in Harry's head as he stared wide-eyed at Sirius, who was still hung over the boy. The man hated him.
/He's afraid of me!/ Sirius realized. "Harry..." He only continued to stare, with that look of pure fear.
Harry knew he couldn't say anything, it would only make things worse. Instead, he got up, much to Sirius' confusion, and held onto the bedpost. After a moment of standing there, Sirius figured Harry was waiting for something.
"Harry, what are you doing?" The man nearly felt sick with worry, at this point. This was not normal.
"Waiting." The teen-ager said, after what felt like an eternity. "Do you want me to get it?" Maybe that was why Mr. Black hadn't moved; he wanted Harry to get it.
"Get what?" Although, Sirius hated to ask.
"The belt." Harry said sadly, but as if it was expected.
/He thinks I'm going to.../ "No! Look, I... Can't deal with this right now." With that Sirius backed out the room, leaving Harry, who sank to his knees, shaking.
/I'm going back tomorrow.../ Harry knew he had just messed things up.
hr
The next day, Sirius was sure it was all a dream. However, he couldn't hold on that belief any longer that it took to knock on Harry's door.
After waiting a moment, there was still nothing. Sirius enter the room to see Harry nowhere on the bed. He was still on the floor. Harry had slept there all night.
Cautiously, he called out the boy's name before giving him a slight tap, after which, Sirius instantly backed away. Harry was waking; he only looked at him for a moment before asking "when am I going back."
"I wasn't planning on taking you back, but I do think we need to talk about this. I'm going to go make breakfast." Sirius didn't know what else to say and left Harry to get dressed.
Harry never did come to breakfast, until Sirius brought him a plate and ordered him to eat it.
Afterwards, the unfortunate 'talk' came.
"I want to know what happened last night." Sirius started out.
"I don't want to talk about it." At this point, Harry had stopped looking at him.
"We're going to talk, Harry." Sirius didn't feel nearly as in control as he sounded.
"No."
"Harry-"
"I said no." Harry made to walk out the room, when Sirius grabbed his arm. Harry immediately tried to jerk it away.
"Stop!" Sirius didn't know what else to say.
"What are you going to do if I don't, hit me!?" Harry yelled. Sirius dropped his arm, like it was on fire, giving Harry a chance to flee.
Sirius could only stand in place as he listened to the front door slam a few moments later. He dropped into the chair that still sat in Harry's room, running a shaking hand through his hair.
/I don't need it... I don't need it.../ Sirius repeated mentally, trying to convince himself.
What was he going to do?
