Prompt - "How much did you drink?" - Orion and Sirius

The loud yelp and crash, followed several seconds later by a heavy thump, coming from outside the house jolted Orion rudely from his sleep. Immediately alert, he grabbed his wand and swept over to the window to investigate.

At the sight that met his eyes as they stared down at the pavement below, he sighed in frustration.

Orion turned away from the window and began to make his way downstairs, grabbing his cloak on his way through the hallway to the front door and throwing it over his pyjamas before stepping out into the night.

Outside Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place, the late-night summer air hung heavy, hot and humid. The residents of the square were silent, the night undisturbed.

Almost.

Orion followed the sound of the muffled moaning noise around the outer walls of his house, along the narrow gap between Number Twelve and Number Eleven, towards the crumpled heap laying at the foot of the drainpipe which, three floors above, passed directly beside the bedroom window of his eldest son.

"Sirius" Orion addressed the moaning tangle of limbs at his feet sharply. "I would hardly say this is the most appropriate time for a stroll about the neighbourhood"

Sirius did not respond. He remained in his curled-up position on the damp, filthy pavement. His unkempt, too-long hair fell forward in a tangled, black mess, hiding his face from his father's stern gaze.

Orion could see, in the faint glimmer of the lamppost on the outer pavement, that his sixteen-year-old son was dressed in yet another set of the disgraceful Muggle rags that his wife had determinedly confiscated and destroyed on countless occasions over the last year or so, but replacements of which stubbornly kept reappearing just as quickly as their predecessors were disposed of.

Orion nudged his son's leg with the toe of his shoe.

"Get up" he ordered.

Sirius merely moaned in response, his pathetic state reminding Orion of he occasional wounded fox that could be seen and heard as it lay by the side of the road after being knocked down by a passing Muggle vehicle.

Orion glanced up at the drainpipe scaling the side of Number Twelve, by-passing the open window of Sirius's bedroom.

"Three storeys is quite a way for one to climb up a drainpipe" he remarked, tilting his head down at his son. "And yet, I don't doubt you could easily manage it-"

The wizard took a sniff of the warm, summer air, ruined by the faint smell of alcohol emitting from the teenage boy on the pavement.

"-if you were sober"

Orion pointed his wand down at his son and gave it a flick.

Sirius let out another moan of protest as his body forcibly uncurled itself and an invisible force pushed him to sit up and begin to dizzily scramble to his feet.

Orion swiftly grabbed hold of the boy as he began to sway dangerously on his feet, gripping him by the scruff of his distasteful Muggle shirt.

"How much did you drink?" Orion demanded, pointing a ray of light from his wand-tip at his son's face so as to examine him properly.

Sirius's eyes screwed tightly shut against the light, his head jerking to the side in discomfort. His face was pale, too pale for mid-summer, and his right cheek was marred by an ugly red graze that he no doubt obtained during his ungraceful fall from halfway up the side of the house.

"S'none of your business" he murmured, ever the sullen one, even from within his father's grip whilst incapacitated with drink and with muscles throbbing with pain from his fall.

"You are my son" Orion hissed at the sixteen-year-old, driving his wand closer to Sirius's face. The boy's head jerked away at the bright light offending his sensitive vision. "All that you do is my business. Now, answer me"

He gave his son a sharp shake for good measure.

"Couple've beers" Sirius slurred with a shrug, leaning back against the wall to steady himself against the wall of Number Eleven against the sudden, fresh wave of dizziness threatening to overtake him.

Orion snorted.

"Well then" he scoffed, raising a critical eyebrow. "If 'a couple of beers' is all it takes to reduce you to this pathetic state, I should think you have sufficiently proven yourself to be far too much of a child yet to be indulging in drink"

Sirius scowled and attempted to stubbornly wriggle free from his father's grip, but Orion's hold on him remained firm.

"Enough" Orion hissed, dangerously. Sirius stilled in his grip. "I've had quite enough of your ridiculous carry-ons this summer. It's bad enough that you've seen fit to spent the entire season in a fit of childish disobedience within this house, but making an absolute mockery of yourself - sneaking out in the middle of the night dressed as some filthy Muggle urchin and drinking yourself into such a state - this is the final straw"

Sirius's glazed eyes slowly lifted from the spot they had been determinedly staring at in the gutter to look up at his father. Orion felt a shiver run through the boy in spite of the warm, August air, as Sirius met his cold, furious gaze.

"You are not to set foot outside of this house again for the remainder of the summer, without the direct supervision of either myself or your mother" said Orion, observing how Sirius's mouth slackened in preparation to protest at his words.

"Not one foot" he repeated, firmly, before the boy could release a word of protest against him. "Is that clear?"

Sirius's gaze dropped to the floor again as he mumbled something that vaguely sounded like a "yeah".

"I said-" Orion repeated, releasing his grip on Sirius's shirt to grab his son by the chin and jerk his gaze up to meet his own. "-is that clear?"

"Yes, Father" said Sirius, his words slow in an attempt to avoid a slur that would surely only provoke the wizard further.

Orion searched the gaze of his son for a moment, the grey eyes, a mirror of his own, that should have been bright with the sparkle of youth were instead clouded with a tired, intoxicated fog. And something else, beneath it all. A glimmer of defeat.

"Good"

Orion jerked his head towards the end of the narrow alley, towards the front of the house. "Now, get inside" he said, his former calmness and composure returned once more. "Off to bed with you"

With a surprising lack of protest, Sirius took a hesitant step forward, only to stumble and have to reach out quickly to steady himself on the nearest object to prevent himself keeling over - the nearest object happening to be his father.

Orion started slightly as his son clutched at his cloak for support but instinctively reached out to help steady him nonetheless. He glanced downward and noticed that Sirius was balancing, rather unsuccessfully in his current, intoxicated state, on one leg, the other being held up and shaking.

He sighed. Was there no end to the damage this foolish boy would do to himself in a fit of his own recklessness?

"I suppose you landed on that leg when you fell, did you?" he asked, somewhat wryly.

Sirius nodded miserably through gritted teeth.

Orion shook his head and sighed again.

"Come on-" he said, wearily, pulling his son to lean against his side as he led him slowly back towards the main street of Grimmauld Place. "-let's get that fixed"