Hey everyone, chapter 5 already! :)
Thank you for the comments, I appreciate all of you!
WARNING: Short description of violence.
"Good morning, Thomas."
He blinked groggily, carefully sitting up on the small, uncomfortable bed, "what…you doing here?", he mumbled, yawning, "takin' more of my magic away?"
Gryffindor had to laugh, "that would be impossible since I already took it all", he sounded amused, "how are you feeling?"
Tom crunched his face in suspicion, "if I say I'm feeling good, you gonna torture me or something?"
"Are you feeling good?"
He turned his head, "my…knees hurt", he eventually said quietly, "but I'm sure your son already told you about his little visit."
"He did", Gryffindor confirmed calmly, entering his cell like it was nothing, "I thought he put Salarium on your wounds, though."
"Yeah- on the ones on my back", and his back felt fucking amazing, not that he was going to tell Gryffindor that.
"Take your pants off and let me take a look."
Whatthefuck?
For several seconds, all he could do was stare, "uhm…it's not that bad", he eventually tried, "it's gonna heal on its own."
"Sure it will- and how are you thinking of walking until then?"
"I can walk."
"Oh, really? Let's see you walk then, boy."
Tom flushed, carefully standing up. His knees did not like that, they did not like that at all, and he could not help but groaning, falling back down on his butt.
Shit.
"Aurelius was right- you are a stubborn one", Gryffindor sounded amused though, he seemed mostly amused by him for some reason, like he was some kind of entertaining toy or something.
"I didn't ask for him to torture me all night!", Tom hissed, pulling down his pants which were covered in dried blood, "I didn't attack him, I fucking didn't, but he won't believe me!"
And why the fuck did he even care?
"Easy there, boy- there's no reason for Aurelius to believe anything you are saying to him, surely you can understand that."
"Of course you would defend him!", Tom snarled, throwing his oversized pants on the floor, and Gryffindor raised an eyebrow, "he's my son, Thomas", he stated mildly, "and I am certainly not going to tell him who or what to believe anymore."
"But…you know it was Dumbledore, right? You know he attacked your precious son!"
"I know a lot of things, Thomas", Gryffindor replied conversationally, but the small, ironic smile on his lips told Tom all he needed to know.
Fucking great. He knows, but won't tell his bastard.
"You gonna get me some healing shit for my knees now or what?", he spat out, done with the conversation, "it hurts like hell!"
"Crawling on these stone floors will do that to you", Gryffindor agreed calmly, taking a small vial out of his robes.
It irritated Tom how fucking calm and put together the Founder always was around him, and it made him want to get him to lose control, even though he knew he was being childish.
"This is going to burn, Thomas."
"You could numb it!"
"I could."
Tom cursed under his breath, "but you don't want to, right?", he snarled, causing Gryffindor to chuckle, "what a smart boy you are", it sounded amused, always fucking amused, and Tom balled his hands into fists, "I'm gonna scream so loud they are going to think you are killing me", he warned the Founder, and Gryffindor shot him a quick smile, "scream as loud as you want, boy- no one will be able to hear you down here. My dungeons are well protected."
"Damn shame you didn't protect your son that well when Dumbledore attacked him!", it did not surprise him when Gryffindor calmly poured some of the healing potion right on the gigantic bloody wound that used to be his left knee for that comment, causing him to howl out in agony.
"Hurts! Fuck, fuck, this hurts!"
"You need to hold still, Thomas."
He stifled a sob, "yeah, I wanna see you holding still when someone pours acid onto a flesh wound!"
Gryffindor sighed, "I thought you had better self-control than this, Thomas."
"I am fucking child now, of course I don't have any self-control!"
"Could have fooled me", Gryffindor said drily, and then he grabbed his right leg tightly, and Tom started to squirm, kicking the other leg helplessly, "no more!"
"You are worse than a toddler, boy."
"I don't fucking care! I am done being in pain, I…", he screamed, loudly, when Gryffindor gently poured the rest of the potion on his right knee, desperately trying to get away from the burning, all-consuming pain.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh!"
"All done, Thomas", Gryffindor stood back up, "your pain tolerance is quite pitiful- is that a side effect from the deaging potion?"
"Maybe it's a side effect from you taking my magic away!", Tom hissed back, secretly enjoying the fact that his knees did not hurt anymore when he carefully stood up again, not even bothered by the fact that he was still not wearing any pants.
"I doubt it", Gryffindor pointed his wand at the torn, bloodied pants on the ground, transforming them into a pair of jeans that were of a size for a boy his age, and Tom immediately grabbed them, enjoying the soft fabric of the jeans- not that he'd ever admit that, either.
"I found a foster family for you."
He blinked, slowly turning around to look at the Founder, "uhm…you did? Did you pay them to take me in?"
He got another amused smile for that, "no, Thomas- they've been looking to adopt for a while now. They are nice people, with a younger girl they adopted a few years ago, so you will have a sister."
Woo fucking hoo.
"Do they know about…me?"
Gryffindor shook his head, "they don't. They are Muggles, Thomas."
"Muggles?", he said it like it was an insult, "I am not going to live with Muggles."
"It was rather impossible to find a wizard or witch to take you in, as you can imagine."
"I don't care! I don't want to live with some Mudbloods!"
"It's either that or staying down here until you are an adult, Thomas."
"That's…that's in like four years!"
"Precisely."
"You could…just let me go!"
"That's against the law, boy, and you very well know that."
"No one needs to know, though."
"I would know, Thomas", Gryffindor replied, his voice flat, "and I have no interest in getting bothered by Fudge even more because I let you run off somewhere."
"Fudge wouldn't give a shit."
Gryffindor turned towards the door, "this discussion is over, Thomas- your new foster family is going to pick you up in two days, and you better use that as a second chance since you won't get a third one", his voice had gotten cold, "I have to go back to Scotland, I really don't have time to listen to your demands any longer."
"What are you even doing in Scotland?"
"That's hardly any of your business, Thomas", he opened the door to his cell, "now, as I said, use the second chance you have been given- most of your Death Eaters will get to spend the rest of their lives in Azkaban, and we both know that's where you belong as well", he locked the door behind him, "Kirill will bring you breakfast in a minute. Have a good day, Thomas", it sounded like the farewell it was, and he suddenly had to swallow hard, not knowing why this even bothered him- Gryffindor had never hid his disdain for him, and really, what did he expect? That Gryffindor would congratulate him for wrecking his marriage and staining his families' reputation?
He knew he should be grateful- Gryffindor could have tortured him like Aurelius had, he could have starved him or humiliate him, but he had not done any of those things, in fact, he had been more than civil with him, regarding the circumstances.
He watched silently how the Founder walked down the small hallway leading to the staircase, and when Gryffindor was gone, he curled himself into a small ball on the bed, now allowing the tears to roll down his face.
Seconds later, he was quietly crying, and if anyone were to ask him what exactly he was crying about, he would not even know what to answer.
"Do you want to talk about it?"
No response.
Remus sighed, slowly walking closer to the couch where his best friend was currently hiding with his face pressed into the pillows, "Sirius, please…"
"I've got nothing to say", came the muffled reply a few seconds later, "it's…it's pointless anyways."
"I don't want you to keep your emotions bottled up like this", Remus told him softly, sitting down next to him, "you need to talk to someone about what's Snape's been doing to you- and if you don't want to talk to Harry, I think…"
"I don't want to talk to you, either!", Sirius spat out, turning around all of a sudden, "if…if you had not stolen from Snape, he…he wouldn't even be so angry now!"
Remus shrank back like he had been slapped, "are you…saying it's my fault? I was trying to help you, I…"
"Yeah, I know- you already told me that", he knew he was being disrespectful, but he was too irritated to even care anymore. Potion's had been hell again today, with Snape ridiculing him in front of the whole class for his essay, and he was just so over all the bullshit. He was sick of Snape's contempt, his classmates' taunts, Remus' annoying therapist ramblings and the constant anger, the constant need to hide and fake and…
"You are being unfair, Sirius."
"I don't care."
"I am your friend, Sirius, and…", he tuned out as Remus started another ramble about how much he meant to him, and how difficult it had been to be worried about him nonstop with the Ministry going after him and blah blah blah.
Sirius knew he was being an asshole right now, and he wished Remus would do something about that, that he'd discipline him, punish him for being such a brat, but Remus would never do that- he was his best friend after all. His friend- not his parent.
He was still upset when he went to class the next day, dreading another boring lecture by Professor Binns. The wizard had not been a good teacher when he was alive, and now that he was dead, his teaching style was ready for the graveyard as well- not that anyone would ever dare to tell him that.
Sirius sat down in his seat, the other students mostly ignoring him or looking over to him snickering, and he pretended he was not even here.
"I hope you did your homework for this class- we are almost out of House Points", that was Romilda of course, glancing at him smugly, "Snape really got you good yesterday", she let out a little laugh, "I don't think he even hates Harry Potter as much as he hates you."
"Mind your own damn business!", he hissed at her, and Romilda giggled, "are you getting angry, Scipius?"
"Are you betting on me again?", he snarled, enjoying his small triumph when he could see Romilda wince, "I hope I lost you a lot of money- and now leave me alone."
Romilda did leave, but it was only since Binns floated into the classroom at that very moment, his usual dazed expression on his face, "good morning, class", he greeted them hoarsely, "today, we are…"
Sirius stopped listening immediately, already bored to death. He was still angry as well- and Romilda kept shooting him smug little glances from her seat, so he forced himself to look in the other direction.
Halfway into the lesson, he suddenly felt a quick tap on his left arm, and when he turned, there was a small, folded piece of paper on his desk. Frowning, he unfolded the paper- just to find a hastily scribbled picture of himself getting lectured by a very mad and mean looking Snape. And if that wasn't bad enough, he was crying in the picture- and when he looked closer, it was also obvious that he had pissed his pants.
Fucking assholes.
Sirius crumpled the paper to a tiny ball, ready to throw it at whoever drew that awful picture, and then he heard a spiteful little giggle from Romilda- and that was the last straw.
Choke on it, you little bitch.
He did not realize what he was doing until he heard the other students starting to scream, and then Romilda collapsed to the ground, falling down like she was nothing but a puppet, and there were more screams, now sounding more and more terrified.
"What are you doing?"
"Scipius, stop! Stop!"
"You are hurting her!"
"Make him stop! Someone make him stop!"
And Sirius just stood there, not moving an inch away from his seat, his face blank and focused.
Binns came over, not understanding what all the noise was about, but he did seem to understand what Sirius was doing- and it seemed to frighten him.
They are scared. They are all scared of me.
Sirius had to smile.
He passed out seconds later, still smiling.
"It is so good to finally meet you!", the woman in front of him gushed, "I am your new Mommy!"
Fuck. Me.
Tom forced himself to smile, "it's nice to meet you, too", he lied, and the woman, who was middle aged and slightly overweight, wearing a hideous pink dress with flowers on them, pulled him into a hug, "my boy! We are going to spoil you rotten!"
His smile became forced, and then her husband stepped forward. He did not seem to be much of a talker, and it was obvious within seconds that he was not the brightest candle on the cake, either.
The girl on the other hand, seemed bright enough- but she did not smile when she was pushed forward by her mother to meet her new brother.
"I'm Tom. Hi", he had no clue how to interact with children, and the girl frowned, her lips curling up in contempt.
"My name is Felicity. It's so awesome to meet you!", she said, her voice sickly sweet, which was a stark contrast to the ugly sneer on her face.
"I am so excited to have a brother!", she added for good measure, earning her a word of praise by her Mommy, who Tom already found extremely annoying.
He had not seen Gryffindor or Aurelius or even Slytherin again in the last two days, only the house elves had come to serve him food and bring him clothes and toiletries. It had been a house elf as well who had eventually taken him out of his cell, and he had been led upstairs, and then the house elf had given him some port key that had taken him to this weird little café where a woman from the adoption agency had been waiting for him, and seconds later, his new family had shown up, and the adoption lady had immediately left.
"Let's go home and show you everything!", the mother finally announced, her voice shrill with excitement, "you are going to love your new room!"
I bet I won't.
He followed them silently, the mother talking nonstop- about the house, the garden, the animals, the plants, the neighbors…it was exhausting.
Felicity, a blond, blue-eyed girl about ten who looked like a little angel with her blonde curls, added some comments here and there, while the father did not say anything at all. His face was bloated, with a crooked nose and yellowish teeth, and since the mother was not very attractive as well, it was damn obvious they had adopted Felicity- and now him.
The house was a decent sized two story building in the suburbs of London, and Tom could hear a dog barking as soon as they entered the front yard.
"That's Princess!", the mother explained, "he's such a barker!"
Princess? They named their male dog Princess?
The question seemed to have been written all over his face because Felicity scowled, "they promised me a girl dog but they made a mistake, but I did not want to change the name I had picked!", she explained, "Princess is a bad dog, barking all the time!"
Isn't that what dogs do? Bark?
"Shush now, Felicity, you know you will get a new dog once the babies are old enough to be taken from their momma", the mother told her in a comforting tone, "and that will be the real Princess!"
"Why can't I have the puppy now, Mommy?", Felicity whined, and Tom could see the father frowning.
You gonna get some now, spoiled brat.
"Yeah, why can't have she has the dog now, Patty?", the father demanded, his voice rough, "damn dog goin' on my nerves with all the damn barkin'. We shouldn't have to waited that long for Princess, eh?"
Nice family, really- thanks a lot, Gryffindor.
The mother, Patty, smiled apologetically, "they told me the puppies have to be eight weeks old before they can be taken", she explained, "just another week, Angel!"
Felicity slipped right back into her good girl persona, "I can wait another week of course", she said primly, causing her mother to praise her loudly.
They had entered the house, which was nothing special- it was neat and orderly, with rugs on the floor and pictures on the wall, and lots of Muggle stuff, like the fridge that the father instantly went to, helping himself to a bottle of beer.
"The game's on in five minutes", he announced to no one in particular, already walking over to the couch.
Patty's smile became strained, "I thought we decided to show Tom the house first, Mike", she said carefully, and the way Mike snorted, glaring at her with annoyance caused Tom to tense.
Stay away from that one.
"Boy's old enough to find his way around- not gonna miss the playoffs to be a tour guide in my own damn house", he chugged down half his beer, "you like soccer, Tom?"
"Yes, I do", he lied, knowing it was better to be on the good side of this brute, "care if I watch the game with you?"
Mike grinned, exposing his yellowish teeth, "now you're talkin'- I was afraid we picked ourselves some little faggot who…"
"Mike!"
The man just laughed, burping, "what? Just saying I'm glad he's not. Go see your room and come down after, game's on in two."
"Yes, Sir."
Mike laughed again, "nah, no Sir in my house- call me Mike, or Dad, whatever you want."
Hell is gonna freeze over before I call you Dad.
"Sounds good", he forced himself to grin again, and then Patty and Felicity led him up the stairs to his room. The room was nice, with a big bed, plenty of toys, books, and new clothes for him, and he was able to see the backyard from his window.
The backyard was gorgeous- it was clear that Patty loved to garden, there were plants everywhere, and he could spot a little pond, and a chicken coop.
Might not be too bad to stay here, actually- at least til I found something better.
"The bathroom is down the hall, and Feli's room is right next door!", Patty told him in her chipper voice, "now, go enjoy your soccer game with your Dad- I am going to make a nice meatloaf for dinner. You like meatloaf, Tom?"
He had no clue what that even was, but he nodded, "yes, that's delicious. Cannot wait to eat it", damn, it would be difficult to keep faking- but he had nowhere else to go right now, and truth was, he was hungry- and he wanted to take a shower and sleep in a real bed for once.
Patty send him an approving smile, leaving the room- and leaving him alone with Felicity, who was scowling again.
Little bitch.
"My parents might think it was a good idea to adopt you- but I don't!", she hissed at him, her voice menacing, "I don't want a sibling to share everything with, you think I did not see how you are stealing Daddy's attention from me already?"
Whoa, what now?
Felicity stepped closer, her angelic face an expression of hatred now, "I'll make you go back to wherever you came from, and I know how to do that. You are not the first brother my parents brought home", there was an evil glint in her eyes now, and Tom could not help to be a little bit fascinated- who would have thought that this pretty little girl was such a lunatic?
"You better watch out, Tom", Felicity now said smugly, and before he could respond, she was already out the door.
He had to snort. Really, after being tortured by Aurelius and attacked by Dumbledore's thugs, this little spoiled princess thought she could threaten him? Him, the Dark Lord?
Bring it on then, sister- we'll see who will cry first.
"What…what did he say?", for the first time, Sirius did not sound disrespectful, he sounded scared, "am I…am I getting expelled?"
Remus sighed, a tired, worn-out expression on his face. He had just spent two hours in a conference with Dumbledore- who had joined from Scotland as a hologram- to discuss Sirius' latest stunt, which had Romilda Vane in the Hospital Wing now.
"You are not expelled, no", he went over to sit in the armchair across from Sirius, "but…you also cannot go back to your class. They…your classmates went to see McGonagall after lunch to tell her they would protest if you came back. They are terrified of you, Sirius."
"They bullied me."
Remus' expression hardened, "and that justifies almost choking a girl to death?"
"I didn't touch her", Sirius whispered, "I just…I was so angry."
Remus bit his lips, "that's the…part we need to talk about, Sirius", his voice has gotten quiet, "how in the world did you choke Romilda without even moving from your seat?"
Sirius closed his eyes, he had known the time would come when he had to tell Remus the truth, "I can…when I imagine things when I am super angry, they…sometimes come true", he admitted, his voice hoarse, "I was so mad at her that I thought…I wanted her to choke on the damn drawing she did of me and then…she suddenly started to gasp for air, touching her throat, and she fell down…"
"And it did not occur to you to stop?"
"I…I couldn't."
Remus stared at him for what felt like an eternity, "how long…have you known about this…ability of yours?"
"It started after you deaged me", Sirius told him, "I can…see thoughts and I can sense emotions now, and the anger is part of it, too I think. I am trying to control it, I really am, but it's hard."
"Why didn't you tell me about any of this?"
"I didn't want you to think that…I am a freak", Sirius mumbled, looking down, "or that you would drag me to Dumbledore to find out what's wrong with me."
Remus let out a short, disbelieving laugh, "because this is so much better, right? You know how difficult it was to convince Dumbledore not to expel you? Binns was on the verge of a nervous breakdown- and that man is dead."
"I'm sorry."
"A simple apology won't be enough this time", Remus replied, and for a second, Sirius hoped he'd punish him now, make him stop feel so damn guilty, but then Remus went on, "you need to go and see Romilda and make things right with her, you need to talk to your classmates and Professor Binns and assure them that this will never happen again."
"But…I can't control it!"
Remus gave him a strange look, "you will be able to control it soon, Sirius", he eventually said, a strange firmness in his voice, "as I told you, you won't get expelled- but that comes with two conditions."
He already hated where this was going, "conditions? Like what?"
"Well, I already told you the second graders don't want you in their class anymore, but Dumbledore is willing to give you another chance- in first grade. You will get sent back to first grade, that's one of the conditions."
"Whatthefuck?"
"You should be nothing but grateful about that, Sirius", Remus still sounded angry, "the first graders are a nice, hard working bunch- and you will get a second chance there to start afresh and maybe even make some friends."
"They are babies! Eleven years old fucking babies!", Sirius had to blink back the tears, the humiliation of being put into a lower grade too much to bear, and he punched the pillow on the couch in obvious distress, "I don't want to go back to first grade!"
Before Remus could respond, there was a knock on the door to his office, and he sighed, walking over to open it. He had an idea who this was, and he'd wished he had a least prepared Sirius about what was going to happen to him- about Dumbledore's other condition.
He will just have to find out the hard way now.
"Good afternoon, Professor", his visitor said, a small, polite smile on his lips, "it is a pleasure to see you again. I am looking forward meeting my eager little student", his smile had turned ironic, telling Remus that he was well aware how difficult this was going to be.
"He's…on the couch", Remus replied, stepping to the side to let him in, "it's…thank you so much for doing this for him, please, come on in", he closed the door behind them, leading him over to the couch.
"Sirius, we have a guest", he told the boy carefully, and the boy, who was hiding his face in a pile of pillows, snorted, "that better not be a fucking first grader! I won't go back to first grade, they are a bunch of whiny little idiots!"
"And you are not?"
Sirius flinched, turning his head so hastily he felt dizzy, and then he stared at the older boy in shock, "how the hell did you get in here?"
"Through the door, actually", Aurelius replied drily, "you must be Scipius."
"I go by Sirius if you don't mind", he sat up on the couch, still staring at the older boy, "and you are the Ice Prince- I get why they are calling you that now."
"I go by Aurelius if you don't mind."
Sirius had to grin, "and what do you want from me, Aurelius?"
"How did you do it?"
His grin vanished, and he bit his lips, "I didn't fucking mean to!"
"That's not what I asked you, boy", Aurelius replied mildly, sitting down next to him. He grabbed his chin, forcing him to look him straight in the eyes, never taking his gaze away from him. It was intense, and after a few seconds, Sirius had to blink, whimpering, "what…you doing…"
"I am unblocking your mental shields, Sirius", Aurelius told him, still staring intently into his eyes, "so much anger…you are an angry little boy, aren't you, Sirius?"
"Just…angry when someone tries to enter my mind without fucking permission!", Sirius spat out, trying his best to kick Aurelius out of his mind, "get out!"
Aurelius simply chuckled, still holding his gaze, "kick me out then- or are you not strong enough for that?"
Sirius tried, he really tried, but he was no match for Aurelius. The older boy took his time inside his brain, spending an aggravating amount of time on the memory of his attack on Romilda, and when he finally left his mind, Sirius yawned, suddenly feeling exhausted.
"You have a lot of potential, boy", Aurelius eventually said, getting back up, "Dumbledore is a fool for not seeing that- not that that's surprising. You do need to learn to control your anger, though- and I have just the method to help you with that."
Sirius blinked at him, his eyes getting heavy, "are you…gonna teach me, Ice Prince?", he mumbled sleepily, and Aurelius smiled, "I will, angry boy- I am quite busy, but your uncle seems desperate for you not to get expelled", he sounded amused, "and your…ability is an intriguing one. When did that start?"
"After…the deaging potion", Sirius yawned again, snuggling into the couch pillows, "'m tired."
"Close your eyes and sleep, boy. I'll see you in a few days for your first training session."
If Sirius had known then what training with Aurelius really would entail, he would not have smiled- but he had no clue, so he did smile, and seconds later, he was asleep, not hearing what Remus and Aurelius were discussing next to him, he just slept blissfully, unaware to anything and anyone around him.
yep...Sirius is in for quite some uncomfortable lessons with Aurelius. There will be more of Tom's new family in the next chap- and spanking.
I'd love some feedback, as always!
Thank you so much! :)
Antonie.