Dumbledore pondered their situation very carefully. Sirius was currently napping on his sofa, half his body falling off and his mouth wide open. It almost made him smile, until he remembered that Sirius should not be eight but in his thirties.
Now, the problem of where to place the boy that would be safe. He couldn't keep him at Grimmauld Place, seeing as no one actually stayed there consistently except Sirius. Also, Order meetings were held there, and Sirius was nothing if not curious. They were at the height of the war, right now. He couldn't ask someone in the Order to take the boy in. They had enough to worry about as it was. He supposed he could ask a teacher to look after him until more permanent lodgings could be found for him. As he mentally went through the list of teachers that he could both trust and that could cope with an energetic little boy, the list seemed to shrink exponentially. Until he was left with one name. And he would not be happy at all.
Severus was working on the wolf's monthly potion when he got Albus's patronus burst through the wall. Meet in my office, whenever you have time, blah, blah, blah. Severus rolled his eyes, already seeing where this was going, but resigning himself to it. He had no real choice, anyway.
Stirring one final time, he lowered the heat on the cauldron and set it to stasis before leaving his lab. The castle was practically empty this Christmas and he reveled in the quiet as he stomped up to the Headmaster's office once more. Just because he had resigned himself to his fate didn't mean he wasn't going to show his displeasure about it.
The gargoyle let him pass and he went up to the office slowly, dreading yet another responsibility. Albus was sitting behind his desk when Severus quickly knocked and then immediately entered, knowing no one else would be in there but Black. As he passed the sofa, the boy looked up at him with big, wide eyes. Curiosity shone through brightly, and Severus nodded at him shortly before turning back to the Headmaster.
"Albus, I assume I know what this meeting is about." He sounded bored, but they both knew he was silently fuming beneath the surface.
"Yes, well. I have been wracking my brains about where to place young Mr. Black here, and you were the best solution I could think of on such short notice. He cannot continue to sleep on my sofa," the old wizard laughed, looking overtop his spectacles at Severus, raising a warning eyebrow when he saw the dark man open his mouth to retort.
Snapping his mouth shut with an angry twitch, Severus sighed heavily and nodded. "I assumed as much. What have you told him, about his situation?" The boy behind them pouted; they kept talking about him as if he wasn't even there.
"Nothing. He just woke up a bit ago and I gave him a book to read in the meantime, while we waited for you." Albus looked exhausted all of a sudden, and Severus rolled his eyes.
"Oh, please. The boy has been silent this whole time. He could not have made you that tired." Sirius gave an indignant huff from his spot on the sofa and rolled his eyes, running his fingers over the spine of the book he had been perusing before the Snape man arrived.
Albus smiled, eyes twinkling madly, and Severus sighed. He stood in one fluid movement and turned, beckoning the little boy to his side. "Come along, Black." He turned back to Albus and growled, "You owe me for this." Then he clamped a heavy hand down on Sirius's shoulder and guided him down the stairs and back out into the halls without a further word to the Headmaster.
Sirius kept trying to steal looks up at the strange man who had originally brought him to Hogwarts in the first place. He didn't understand why he was here. He wasn't old enough to go to school! He was only eight. Now that he thought about it, the house had seemed really dirty, too dirty for his mother's high standards. And Kreacher had looked older, and far worse for wear than he remembered. Just what was going on?
The confounded look on Black's face almost made Severus laugh, but he decided to wait and explain the situation to the boy once they were behind the safety of Severus's wards.
He guided the silent boy down to the Dungeons, but the boy didn't even seem to realize where they were. He tapped his wand on the wall where the entrance to his quarters was hidden, and suddenly a wall shimmered into existence. Sirius hummed in appreciation and followed Severus into the quarters.
Severus released Sirius's shoulder as if he had been burned and headed toward the kitchen, leaving Sirius hovering in the doorway feeling like a spare end. When he couldn't see Severus any longer, he cautiously moved further into the room, taking everything in. The rooms look comfortable and welcoming. There was a large fireplace, two well-worn sofas, a black leather armchair and a dark wood table. He peeked into the kitchen and saw the man near the kettle, making tea or coffe, he wasn't sure. He decided to settle carefully one of the sofas, waiting for the man to join him.
He returned moments later with a tray of biscuits and cups. "Here, this is hot chocolate. There are biscuits as well, help yourself." The man's tone had changed, going from terribly biting and sarcastic earlier to almost kind and cautious.
Sirius nodded his thanks and took his cup, breathing it in, hoping it would calm him down. After he had taken a few sips, he turned his attention back to the man and held his gaze, asking his questions with his eyes.
Severus sighed, rubbing at his eyes tiredly, before leaning back in his chair, getting comfortable. He set the mug of coffee on his chest, studying Sirius over the steam from the drink.
"Yesterday, you were not an eight year old child; you were, in fact, the same age as myself." Well, that was blunt enough, wasn't it. It was a good think Sirius hadn't been drinking anything in preparation for something like this. Instead, his eyes just widened as he raised a skeptical eyebrow.
"And how did that happen, exactly? I don't remember doing anything, and I definitely don't remember being an adult yesterday."
Severus heard the skeptical tone and accio'ed the potion bottle he had placed on his desk from last night. "When I went to check on you last night at the Headmaster's request, I found this in your hand. It is a very old, very Dark potion. The label says it's the Last Resort potion. I'm assuming you say the title and thought it was a way to commit suicide. However, this potion does not kill; it de-ages the body and removes memories."
Sirius frowned. His adult life had been bad enough that he had wanted to kill himself?! "Why would I want to k-kill myself?"
The boy was starting to sound distressed, and Severus quickly accio'ed a Calming Draught for the young boy. "Here, take this." The boy nodded, nearly inhaling the potion and taking deep breaths to calm down. Was his life really that bad? Was it?!
Severus watched him, to make sure that the potion had done its job before he continued with his explanation. Though he did not like Black, he did feel bad that the boy was so confused and frightened.
"We actually went to school together. After graduation, your best friends were murdered and you were unlawfully imprisoned in Azkaban for twelve years until you escaped. You have been hiding out at Grimmauld Place ever since. However, your time in Azkaban had greatly affected you, and I assume you had had enough and decided to kill yourself. And, hence, your situation."
Severus had found that being blunt was usually the best approach when explaining things, especially with children. Sirius was bunching his hands up in his oversized T-shirt, staring blankly at the table between them, biting his lip with a concerned look on his face. After a few minutes, he finally looked up and met Severus's eyes.
"So, were we friends?" When Severus let out a harsh bark of laughter, Sirius blushed and went back to staring at his hands. "Yeah, I kind of assumed." He furrowed his brows together for moment, thinking hard before he looked up again. "So, if it's been, what, twenty-five years, that means my Mum and Dad are real old now, right? Are they okay? Or, not? Probably not, that's why I'm here, right? They're dead now," he sighed out, refusing to look back up at Severus. "And I bet Reggie hates me, right. That's why he wasn't called when you brought me here."
"Yes, your parents have both passed on. Your mother has a portrait at Grimmauld Place, but she is not very pleasant. Your brother has passed on, as well. I'm sorry." Sirius felt tears pricking at eyes but bit his lip to keep them at bay. His eyes fluttered closed and he let out a shaky breath before looking back up at Severus.
"Thank you for telling me. So, what now?" Severus nodded, setting his cup back down on the table and tugging the boy up to follow him to the hallway.
"This will be your room. This has been very short notice, so I don't have anything for you. This room is usually my godson's room when he visits, but he won't mind you using it, I'm sure. It gets a bit cold down here in the winters, so there are extra blankets in the cupboard, there." He reached a hand in one of the drawers and pulled out some sleepwear, deftly tugging his wand out to shrink them down to Black's size. "These will do for tonight. I will owl order some clothes for you tomorrow."
Sirius looked confused as he fingered the borrowed clothing. "Why do we have to owl order? Isn't Diagon Alley still going?" He looked up at Severus innocently, and Severus sighed, running a hand down his face as he thought how best to explain it to the young boy.
"We are at war, right now. A Dark Lord is terrorizing people, and tension is high in Diagon Alley. There is threat of the Alley being under attack soon, and I don't want us to get caught in the middle of it. So, we will order anything you need tomorrow. Now, it's time for bed."
Severus patted the boy on the back, slightly shocked at himself at the action, and then slowly backed out of the room. He waited a few minutes before returning to the room, noticing the boy hovering in front of the bed uncertainly.
"Come now, time for bed." Severus softened his voice and tugged the blankets back for Black. If anyone had told Severus that he would be tucking Sirius Bloody Black into bed even last night, he would have hexed them into next week. Yet, here he was, leaning over the boy as he crawled into bed, tugging the blankets up to his chin. Sirius looked up at him with sad, dark eyes, looking for something. What, Severus wasn't sure, but he decided to put aside their past rivalry for now in order to properly care for the child. For that's what he was now, just another child in his care.
Severus looked down at him for a long moment, then brushed a heavy hand down his fringe and his face, eliciting a tired, surprised giggle from the boy before he turned and snuggled down into the bedding. "Good night," Severus stated, straightening and heading to the door.
"'Night, sir," Sirius answered back, already halfway asleep. Severus paused in the doorway, watching the boy breathing regularly, before sighing and closing the door calmly behind him, leaving the boy to his rest.