Sirius Black finally runs away, only to find he already has a family that cares about him.
The cold wind was howling through the narrow alleys in the capital of the British kingdom. The rain ticking on the small window that looked out over Grimmauld place where a black haired boy looked out over the empty street below. Sirius Black had dreaded going back to this place during christmas. Much preferably had he stayed with his best friend James Potter, which parents had given him an open invitation to come spent the christmas with them, but Sirius had refused. Not because he wanted it so badly, not because he loved to see his parents, but they were still his parents and they had asked him to come home, even though every holiday he spent back at the place he grew up in seemed more and more darker.
Fights occurred often during these family reunions. Sirius did not agree with the way his parents saw things and Sirius being Sirius - and a Gryffindor -, he fought back when there were nasty comments made, mostly including "scum" such as werewolves and mudbloods. Sirius hated those terms and could not see them linked to the people he know to be either of them, especially not to Remus. He hated it when his parents were talking about the monsters that werewolves were and it made him even angrier when Regulus joined in. Sirius had learned to keep his mouth shut unless something was asked him, but the older he got, the less he obliged those demands. More often he said something back and it mostly ended up in a fight with one - or both - of his parents, in which nasty spells were exchanged or sometimes even muggle style punches. Father loved to beat Sirius, it might be the only muggle thing he accepted and that didn't make him any less horrible. He enjoyed inflicting his son pain, by his own hand and Sirius wouldn't hesitate to hit back. Though Sirius' pride and need to fight back had cost him more than it had gained him, at least in this house.
His friends had never really know what happened during the times Sirius would come back at home, he never really talked about it and the knowledge of this friends mostly came from badly covered bruises, abusive howlers and a visit of his best friend James that had ended in a complete disaster in which Sirius had gotten into a fight with his dad, James standing just an inch away and seeing it all happen. He had never cared to fill them in however, but the pitiful glances he got sent before getting off the train to find his family, informed Sirius they knew enough. Enough to be horrified and worried, far too worried for Sirius' concern. That mostly was why he didn't spill the bean, besides that he had a certain amount of pride and he didn't like to replay those memories of darkness. He didn't want his friends to be worried about him. They could be worried about Remus before a full moon, or about James when he had gotten himself to another Quidditch accident or about Peter when he was about to fail class, but no, the could not worry about Sirius. He wouldn't let them.
Sirius' stream of thoughts was rudely disturbed by an old house elf knocking on the door and calling him downstairs. His family would be waiting - cousins included - and he would have to survive another long, boring christmas dinner. He had gotten some presents, but not from his parents. Remus had sent him a muggle book and even though Sirius liked to keep up that he hated reading, he rather enjoyed the muggle tales Remus lent him and sometimes read him when they were curled up in a big chair together. Another thing he kept secret, but not for his friend, for his family. If they would ever find out Sirius didn't like woman but men and had a boyfriend who was a Gryffindor, a halfblood and a werewolf, they would go mental, but they wouldn't find out, well at least not on Sirius' account and he prayed Regulus would keep his mouth shut, since Sirius was unable to keep down the rumors that were spreading about Remus and him and Regulus knew. He didn't normally keep secrets for his parents, since he pretended not to care what they thought about him and he wanted to prove everyone he was not like them, but he didn't knew how his parents would react on this and he guessed it would not be good, it felt lame and weak, but he decided it would be better if for once - he would keep his mouth shut.
Sirius got up from the chair he had been sitting in. His legs felt stiff from the time he had been sitting here, reading in Remus' book and thinking, longing. Longing to be back at Hogwarts with his friends, longing to be back in Remus' arms, longing to laugh with James and even longing to help Peter with his Potions at which he was so terrible and Sirius wasn't. Sirius was bright, exceptionally bright, just like James. He spent most of his time in detention with him because he preferred to prank instead of paying attention in class, but still Sirius had gotten all his twelve O.W.L.'s with ease and never did much to get full grades in his classes, something a lot of people were extremely jealous of, but Sirius jus didn't really care about school and homework, he never did, he just wanted to make the most of his time at Hogwarts and so he did. His parents receiving owl after owl from professor McGonagall until Sirius begged her she wouldn't sent the letters anymore because it would end up him being hit as soon as he got home and the holidays would be even worse to endure. McGonagall had looked worried when the black haired boy begged her not to tell his parents after a badly gone prank on Severus Snape and could almost see the fear in his eyes. She had known what Sirius was so afraid of and she was worried as well, though Sirius never realized. He only tried to pull less pranks including the house of their head Minerva McGonagall, though he refused to tell James why.
His mother gave him an approving look when Sirius entered the room after his brother Regulus, dressed in neat robes with his hair brushed and combed. Sirius had almost put his long hair into a bun, but he know that wouldn't earn him any points so he swallowed his pride and let his long black hair hang down where it would fall in front of his face every time he moved his head. It was too long, but he liked it this way and it made his parents angry, so he liked it even more. In silence Sirius sat down at the table, beside his father who was extremely grumpy today since Sirius and he had gotten in a fight over the muggle book Sirius had gotten from Remus. His father wanted to throw it into the fire and Sirius had stopped him, by hitting him and grabbing the book, running as fast as he could to his room. He didn't want to run away, but he knew that he wasn't able to fight the man as soon as he was angry, Sirius was scared of him and Sirius Black was never scared. It still seemed his father wanted to hit him, but will all the restrain he had in himself he held himself back because there was family and they tried to avoid to show the world they psychically abused their oldest son.
Politely Sirius greeted every single member of his family and not once he meant the smile he had given before giving a hand or pressing three kisses on the cheeks. Andromeda wasn't there, which made the dinner more dreadful than ever, she wasn't welcome anymore, blasted off the bloody carpet that his mother treasured with the family three on it. Toujour Pur. Sirius groaned by the thought of the words. He hated that obsession with blood, it was bullshit if you asked him, it didn't matter to him, never had, but he didn't dare say that out loud, even though his parents knew.
Dinner went well, at least it was boring as usual, but nothing odd occurred and his father just ignored his presence, like he mostly did, his mother avoiding his glares and giving all her attention to Regulus who was only two years younger than Sirius. After dinner they moved to the living room, but before Sirius could get out to get back to his room, his father stopped him.
'Where do you think you are going?' he asked. The chit chat in the room died away and they all looked at Sirius who was about to disappear out of the room. Sirius pushed back his shoulders and looked at his dad, daring. He wouldn't show he was afraid of him, he wouldn't give him that pleasure.
'Upstairs,' he said, slowly.
'To do what exactly?' his dad responded, but before Sirius could answer him that it wasn't any of his bloody business, Regulus has opened his mouth.
'Probably to read that stupid muggle book he got from his boyfriend,' Regulus snapped and unwillingly Sirius turned a light shade of pink, cursing Regulus under his breath. He looked up at his father and saw the anger flicker in his eyes.
'He is not my-.' 'I saw you two kissing,' Regulus stated in disgust and Sirius felt his stomach drop. He had assumed Regulus had heard the rumors, he hadn't assumed he would actually have prove.
'What?' his father growled, loathing in his voice. Sirius could feel all the glares from his other family members, each and everyone hating him for being... well him. Sirius didn't flinch and still looked straight into his father's eyes.
'You,' he growled, realizing that what Regulus had said was true, 'filthy little blood traitor.' Sirius had almost turned around to run, but before he could he felt a terrible pain going through his entire body and he dropped on the ground as his father had used the unforgivable curse on him. Sirius cried out and try to get himself together and fight the pain, but the pain had taken him as a surprise. His parents had often threatened with unforgivable curses, but they had never actually used one of them. Sirius knew no one here was going to help him and as soon as his father lifted the spell and came walking towards him, he got up and ran. He needed to get away from here. His father ran too, screaming curses at him that mostly missed, but the ones that hit made Sirius fall down the stairs. He heard his bones crack as it happened, but ignored the stinging pain in his chest and tried to avoid the blows from his father. He was smacked against the wall under a stream of curse words and fists. Sirius attempted to fight back, but he didn't have the energy to fight and he knew that he wouldn't be able to get away from here when he wasn't even able to apparate.
'BLOODTRAITOR! FAGGOT! YOU ARE NO SON OF MINE! AVADA KE-' he bellowed on the top of his voice as Sirius finally managed to reach his room and lock himself up, avoiding the curse of death, collapsing on the floor dizzy, bloody and completely broken. He couldn't even cry. He heard his father try to force the door open and Sirius knew he didn't have a lot of time. He packed a few things - most of his stuff being at Hogwarts - and stuffed them in his bag, Remus' book included. He could barely stand, but he knew he would have to get over the pain for now. Sirius had realized apparition wouldn't get him very far and probably splinched but he had totally forgotten about the fireplace in his room. He took some floo powder, threw his backpack over his shoulder ander stumbled into the fireplace, throwing down the powder and whispering the name of James' house. There was a green flash, a lot of twirling, warmth and a hard scream. Sirius stumbled into the Potter's living room and four pairs of eyes were staring at him.
'Sirius.' James was the first to respond. He ran over to Sirius, catching his friend as Sirius' knees were about to give in to the pain. Sirius wasn't completely conscious, the pain swallowed him and he felt how he was lifted by three strong men, one of them was Remus Lupin. Sirius knew he was staying with the Potters over the holidays since his parents were off to France to celebrate christmas with some relatives and Remus hadn't felt like coming with them so he had accept James' invitation to stay there during christmas. Sirius already felt better being in the company of the two people he cared most about, but the pain wouldn't let him think, which might have been a good thing seeing the state he was in. Mrs. Potter had rushed over - being an ex healer - and started healing the deepest wounds. Remus and James trying to hold Sirius in place as he screamed. They didn't talk - except for the commands Mrs. Potter gave the others - until Sirius was able to breath normally again and most of the worst wounds and broken bones were healed.
'What happened?' James asked, sitting next to him, Remus on his other side. Sirius looked pale and the pain hadn't stopped, though it was far better than earlier. Only then he realized what had happened and his shoulders began to shake as tears streamed down his face. James stared at his friend. He had never seen his best friend so vulnerable, Sirius knew that, but at this moment he didn't care. Remus wrapped his arms around him and tried to get him to calm down, but Sirius wouldn't calm down. He only wanted to cry and be hugged by Remus. After quite a while of Remus trying to calm him together with James and Mrs. Potter getting Sirius tea and one of James' warm sweaters Sirius finally found his voice back.
'I-I ran away,' he whispered, 't-they found out a-about me, a-about...,' he looked at Mrs. and Mr. Potter, 'me being gay,' he softly said, but James' parents didn't look at him in disgust as his parents had done and Mrs. Potter placed a comforting hand on his leg as she told him there was nothing wrong about that.
'He t-tried to kill me.' He could hear everyone gasping, they knew it was bad, but that someone would be capable of killing his own son, no, that was unthinkable. Even someone like Sirius' father wouldn't do that. Though he had tried it and of all the wounds, that had hurt the most. They didn't love him, they would rather have him dead than alive.
'You can stay here,' Mr. Potter said, 'I don't want you to go back there.'
'He can sleep with Remus in the spare room,' James said, looking at his two friends. Mrs. Potter realized what was going on between Remus and Sirius at that moment and nodded.
'Remus, James, can you bring him upstairs? He needs to rest.' Both boys stood up immediately, helping Sirius up the stairs, neither of them said a word. They carefully putted Sirius in bed. Remus got off his shoes and they sat next to Sirius who stared into the distant lost in his own thoughts. Remus softly stroke Sirius' face and Sirius closed his eyes, not wanting to think of what had happened.
'You think you'll be alright?' James asked and Remus must have nodded because Sirius heard James leave the room and shut the door behind me. Remus lay down next to Sirius and pressed a soft kiss on his nose.
'You scared the hell out of me,' Remus whispered, still stroking Sirius' face. Sirius opened his grey eyes and looked at the skinny boy next to him.
'Sorry,' he whispered hoarse, but Remus shook his head and wrapped his arms around the black haired boy who normally looked so strong. Sirius thought he was done crying, but he wasn't. He spent another hour sobbing into Remus' chest as the other boy rocked him and tried to calm him down, until eventually Sirius was completely drained and couldn't cry anymore. He felt empty and hurt, he wasn't sure what he should do now. He had lost his family, his family didn't want him, but as he felt Remus' lips on his, he realized he had a family. His friends were his family, that's why he had always felt at home when he was with them and didn't when he was with his parents and it made him feel so much better to know that there were people out there who loved him, a lot and as the boys felt asleep in each other's arms Sirius' was blasted of the family three by his mother, but Sirius didn't care when he got the news, he had a family, one he picked himself and one who loved him for who he was.