Sirius was pissing not-actually-but-looked-like blood again in the morning. He freaked out a bit until the healers told him it was from muscle breakdown from his vicious cramps, not from actual internal bleeding or something. Not that either scenario was reassuring. He was terrified of being too physically weak to run from Walburga when she decided to drag him back home.

He could have cried when he saw Narcissa coming into his room instead of Walburga or Orion. He would have been almost as happy to see Uncle Alphard or even Uncle Cygnus. He lurched upright and flung a leg out of the bed. His heart galloped with the effort. "Narcissa! You've got to get me out of here!" He squirmed in the bed, trying to extract his other leg from the twist of sheets. It didn't help matters that his hand cramped up into an unusable claw when he tried to grab the edge of the blanket.

Narcissa frowned. "That's not happening."

Sirius shook his head vigorously, and his head got stuck looking to the left for a few seconds with another savage cramp. "I have to get out of here before Mum gets back."

"Sirius, you can barely sit up in that bed, and you're taking something like twelve potions per day. You have to stay here."

"No. No, I can't. I can't see her anymore. You don't understand. You've got to get me out of here! Take me back to the manor! Hell, take me back to Lestrange manor..."

"There is nothing you can say that will convince me that's a good idea. Merlin, look at yourself!"

"I will burn this hospital to the ground if I am forced to stay here another day."

Narcissa snorted. "I'll believe that when you can hold your wand again."

Sirius glared at her and held up his non-cramping hand. "Inkhera," he gritted out. As soon as the mystical flame burst from his palm, he planted his hand into his abandoned pillow, which caught fire immediately. With no flame-freezing charm, the fire burned hot and spread very quickly through the bedclothes. His thin robe burst into flame as well, searing his skin. It hurt, a lot, and his sickened, over-stimulated body seized up and curled in on itself. Luckily, he toppled sideways off the bed rather than back into the pyre when he lost his balance.

"Aguamenti!" Narcissa cried, dousing him with water, and then the bed. "Sirius, you moron..."

"Get... me out... of here," he gasped again, stubbornly.

"What's going on?" a new voice asked urgently, one Sirius didn't recognize immediately. Presumably a healer.

"My brilliant cousin here decided to throw a tantrum and set his own bed on fire," Narcissa said.

The healer hurried to his side and waved a cooling charm over his new burns. "Accidental magic?"

"Oh no, it was entirely intentional," Narcissa corrected drily.

"Excuse me?"

"He got upset when I said I wouldn't take him home with me."

"Fuck you, Cissy," Sirius muttered.

The healer swore softly. "Maybe you should reconsider, Lady Malfoy."

"So I can listen to that kind of language all day? Is my cousin causing so much trouble for you already, sir?"

"No, so your cousin goes home to your house rather than his parents'. Lord Orion Black is already working on arrangements, and the staff here will be hard-pressed to oppose him, especially once the discharge plan to Grimmauld Place is finalized..."

"No!" Sirius protested. "I am not going back! Not with that murderous hag! I'll curse all of you..."

"Don't worry, he doesn't know what he's saying," the healer said quickly.

"Like hell I don't..."

"Quite," Narcissa said wryly. "Sirius, calm down. If the healers think it would be better for your health to get you home with me today, we can make it happen. But if you keep threatening everybody, I'm leaving you here until you've regained your self-control." Sirius' mouth snapped shut. "That's better. What's your name, Healer...?"

"Jorkins."

"Healer Jorkins, I would be willing to take Sirius home to a more peaceful environment if we could be assured of a visiting healer to oversee his treatment on a daily basis. Expense is no issue, of course."

"I'll work on the arrangements right away. It will take a few hours, to modify the schedules."

Sirius gripped the man's robes, panicked. "Mum'll be here at ten. She always is, like a bloody clock. I have to get away before then! I'll go anywhere! Hide me in a broom closet or something... yow!" A sensation like lightning snapped through his raised arm, and his hand sprang open again. He hugged it into himself.

"You're due for your morning potions. I'll get them."

"You do that," Narcissa agreed. "And once he's taken them, I think the two of us should visit Lucius. What do you think, Sirius? He'd like to have visitors, and he's got guards on his door..." Sirius almost cried with relief at the thought of getting out of this room.

"He's hardly in any shape to go wandering the halls," Healer Jorkins protested.

"I'm sure we'll manage, if you believe he's good enough to go home. I'll just put him in a chair and levitate him."

Narcissa ended up enlarging the plain wooden chair in his room and sticking enough pillows to it to make it more comfortable than even his bed had been. She tucked Sirius into the plush monstrosity with a blanket over his lap. She gave him back his wand and watch, which he stuffed down his sleeve. They were away as soon as Sirius had gulped down five nasty potions, crossing all the way to the other end of the spell damage ward to the only other private room. It was barely nine o'clock, plenty of time for the house elves to clean out his abandoned room before his mother arrived. Hopefully, she didn't think to check Lucius' room. Hopefully, she didn't cause too much damage when she inevitably erupted at his unexpected disappearance. Sirius didn't see any of the Marauders lurking, fortunately. He hoped they stayed clear. He didn't want Walburga to hurt them.

"We're hiding from his mother," Narcissa told the pair of hit wizards guarding Lucius' door. They both grinned knowingly and opened the way to let them through; the pair must have been regulars here the last few days and witnessed the terrifying storm of enraged Walburga Black.

Inside, the room was a mirror-image of the one they had left. It was bright and spotless with cheery flowers on the bedside table. The main difference was the air smelled unpleasantly of peppermint from too many toilet-cleaning charms. Sirius glanced at the bathroom door, but it was closed, no reason for the room out here to be so odiferous.

Lucius Malfoy was sitting in a chair by the window, staring out of it with a blank face. He looked like he'd just gotten up, even though a house elf had clearly come by to make the bed already, the sheets crisp and perfectly tucked. A huge slice of chocolate cake sat untouched before him, with a full cup of tea that no longer steamed.

Narcissa settled Sirius' chair on the other side of the small table, then crossed over to kiss her husband's cheek. "Lucius, my love, it's me, Narcissa. And I've brought Sirius today, too."

"Narcissa," Lucius repeated. He blinked, and a ghost of a smile graced his lips. "Narcissa Black said she'd marry me."

"I did marry you."

"You did?"

"I did. I'm Narcissa Malfoy, now."

"Narcissa Malfoy... No, Narcissa Black. If she's a Malfoy, then I can't marry her. Father doesn't condone marrying cousins. The Malfoys aren't like the Blacks..." He rubbed a hand across his head, incidentally dragging a veil of blond hair into his face.

Narcissa glanced back at Sirius. She looked so sad, Sirius couldn't think of anything to say, his own restless energy paled for the moment with the help of the potions he'd taken. His cousin set to straightening Lucius' tangled hair and rumpled robe. "He's not good about taking care of himself yet," she explained matter-of-factly, as if she were describing nothing more sinister than the weather. "Usually, one of the healers feeds him breakfast, but I told them to wait for me this morning since I knew I would be coming by early. It's supposed to be good for him, for family and friends to be the ones giving him the chocolate. It's supposed to help rekindle his feelings of warmth and connection..." She picked up the knife and fork and started cutting the cake into bite-sized chunks. Lucius watched her hands expressionlessly.

"He really was cursed," Sirius said softly. He shivered and twitched. He remembered the meeting with the Dark Lord, but he couldn't recall if he'd told Narcissa the upshot of it before Bella up and fried his nervous system.

She stilled. "Do you know who? Or when?"

"No."

She speared a morsel of cake. "The healers think whoever did it must have now dropped the spell."

"They do? Why?" This Lucius didn't look particularly better than he had been a week ago.

"Mostly because according to the aurors, the curse is often dropped once the victim is in official custody, because as a general rule victims of the Imperious curse are more likely to remember their attacker if they broke through it themselves. Anyway, the healers are hopeful he will make a good recovery, in time."

"Imperious," Lucius said suddenly, sitting up straight in the chair.

Narcissa stiffened. "Yes! Yes, Lucius, that's what happened to you. Do you remember who did it?"

He shivered. "The dementors..."

"Yes, my love, you were in Azkaban, but that was a misunderstanding. You're in St. Mungo's now, and you're never going back to that horrible prison."

"I was in Azkaban."

"But not any more."

Lucius settled. "Not any more."

Narcissa sighed. "Unfortunately, all that Ministry man at the trial reported was that Lucius heard the incantation of the curse. He didn't say if he saw where it happened or who it was, and now he's vanished. You probably wouldn't have heard."

"He's dead," Sirius informed her dully.

"Ah... That's unfortunate. No one else who's tried to find the memory has managed it yet. Legilimency is tricky with an injured mind, and the healers don't want to push it too hard. They said it's more comfortable to minimize intrusions until the patient is recovered enough naturally to participate with the mind magics voluntarily."

"Tell me about it," Sirius said darkly, remembering his own nightmarish experience with the mind healer. He was under no illusions that he could resist a Legilimency probe with anything but the memory of excruciating pain at the moment, which was not conducive to healing. It probably wouldn't be all that effective against the Dark Lord either, to be honest. He didn't want to think about it. "Were you in Azkaban when you heard the Imperio, Lucius?" he asked.

"Yes."

Narcissa almost dropped the plate of cake. "You were?"

Lucius looked at her expectantly. After a moment, he asked, "I was what?"

Narcissa inhaled, gathering her patience. "You were in Azkaban when someone cast the Imperious curse on you?"

Lucius' expression softened into one of such extreme tenderness, Sirius almost couldn't bear to look at it, knowing he had gotten Lucius arrested in the first place. "My love, he said it was the only way I would see you again, and our baby..."

Narcissa's eyes filled with tears. "Who was it?"

Lucius smiled, shook his head, and tweaked her nose. "You silly thing, an 'it' can never be a 'who.' You mean 'he.' Or 'she.'"

"Abraxas," Sirius breathed. The answer just came to him, maybe because he'd spent so much time with his own awful parents again the last few days the idea was no longer unthinkable.

"What about Abraxas?" Narcissa grumbled. She offered Lucius another bite of cake, which he obediently took.

"He's the one who Imperioused Lucius, when he visited him in Azkaban." It was horrible, but it made sense, and it fit with the Dark Lord's behavior at the end of the meeting. Voldemort had gotten answers from Entwhistle, then killed him without sharing what he had found, but didn't seem all that angry really. Then he summoned Abraxas Malfoy, to talk privately. He met Narcissa's skeptical eyes. "Anything to get his son out of there and preserve the family reputation," Sirius explained bitterly. "He's been upset about the Azkaban policy all summer, and I bet there's already people demanding to repeal it after the scandal at the trial." He finally figured out Abraxas' role as an un-Marked man; he wasn't Voldemort's political tool, he was the political mastermind, perhaps the closest thing the Dark Lord had to a colleague. No wonder Abraxas was peeved when Sirius moved in without any forewarning, if he took it as an affront to his position as Voldemort's right hand. He might even have sacrificed his son's sanity as a kind of offering to Voldemort to prove his loyalty... His arm twitched again.

Doubt crept across Narcissa's face. "There are, yes... Shit. You're right. It fits. And he knew I was pregnant by then. Damn that monster." She glowered at her husband's gentle, concerned confusion. "Right. We'll get you back to the manor for now, Sirius, but as soon as you're well enough, we are both getting out of there. There's no reason for me to try to stay, not with Lucius as he is, not with that monster there."

"And go where, Narcissa? I am not going to Grimmauld, and you understand I'd rather not go back to Bella now, either."

"I'll go to Grimmauld. You can stay with my father or Uncle Alphard. Or go impose on the Averys if you'd rather. I'm sure your little friend couldn't say no to you."

Sirius considered. "That's probably true." It was a comforting thought. "Have you figured out a way yet to disappear that doesn't involve living under siege for the rest of your life while the Blacks and Malfoys battle it out?"

Narcissa scowled at him. "Not quite. I was hoping I wouldn't have to, that I could have just had some 'complications' after going into labor whilst visiting my aunt and come home a few days later all sad and forlorn having lost the baby afterall. Bella was even going to find me a dead baby to bury. That plan's out the window now."

Sirius swallowed. It was easy to forget sometimes how calculating Narcissa could really be, that she would have allowed an innocent baby procured by her murderous sister to die, no questions asked, to further her own ends. He forced a smile. "If you'd like to fake your own death, let me know. I have a lot of ideas for how to do something like that. Used to spend hours in Grimmauld coming up with them as part of my grand escape plan, until I decided to just hang it all and run away to a Light family."

Narcissa smirked. "And how did that work out for you?"

"Got bored, obviously."

"You would, you moron."

"Name calling isn't polite, my flower," Lucius said primly. It was so incongruous, both with the conversation and with, well, Lucius' typical personality, that Sirius laughed out loud. He regretted it when his diaphragm started spasming, with great gasps and hiccoughs.

Narcissa smiled at her husband and kissed his hand. "I'm sorry, my darling."

Sirius returned to Malfoy Manor, but he wasn't really good for much besides recuperating. He spent much of the first night filling in Portrait Moody on the details of his ordeal, but after he was done, there was nothing more to say for the rest of the week. He was confined to the upstairs because it was too much bother to go down to the main floor, so he hardly spoke to anybody. He had little to do besides read and practice Occlumency exercises, trying to get his shields back in order by the time the Dark Lord inevitably decided to call him and snoop around his head again. Narcissa and Lucretia both visited Lucius for hours every day. Abraxas often went with them, and when he didn't he was stalking the halls of the Ministry, bullying officials into parroting his reasonable proposals. Moody knew how that went long before Sirius did; like everyone else, it was through the Daily Prophet that Sirius discovered the policy of holding Death Eaters in the dementor levels of Azkaban pending trial was repealed on November 12th.

For the first time since he had moved in, Sirius was alone in the manor for much of the day, except for the elf. In the morning, Dobby helped him get out of bed and get dressed and walk down the hall to the family parlor where he now took his breakfast and five potions. The elf caught and quietly destroyed Walburga's daily howler, then popped in and out the rest of the morning, intermittently waiting on Sirius whilst also maintaining the house. Sirius ignored him for the most part, but the peculiar creature still somehow took a liking to him. He could tell because his breakfast was slowly aligning more and more closely to his subconscious personal ideal. His only other reliable company was the healer who came by at noon to check on him and adjust his potion prescriptions.

Avery visited once. It was flattering in a way, how worried about Sirius the younger wizard was. He was also very annoying, though. He kept hinting that Sirius needed to get up and exercise more in order to "get over it" faster. He warned Sirius not to rely so much on pain potions because they could be addictive, and encouraged him to "be strong, Sirius, I know you'll be back to normal in no time! You're too good of a wizard..." The words and advice were well-intentioned, but they really weren't helpful. The healers' consensus was that while Sirius would make a full recovery, there was little they could do to hurry up the process. The Cruciatus had no counter-curse, no quick fix. He was doomed to stay weak, twitchy, sore, and distractible for another three weeks at minimum. He told Avery muggle-baiting operations were on hold so long as other Death Eaters kept unofficially doing it for them, unless the Dark Lord called for another big mission. Then he sent him away.

Bella visited at the end of the week. More specifically, she sent a letter asking his permission to visit as soon as he left the hospital, a letter which Sirius burned. She sent letters to all the Malfoys next, begging them to intercede with him. Sirius finally relented when Abraxas stopped by his room one evening to say he was setting up an appointment for him to meet Bella in the formal parlor the next day, no excuses. Apparently, Rodolphus had come to Abraxas in a panic because Bella was threatening to go to Voldemort himself to have him talk to Sirius on her behalf. That was shear and utter lunacy, of course, which everyone but Bella realized. Since it was well within the realm of possibility for Voldemort to take Sirius to task for permitting him to be roped into the melodrama, Sirius agreed to the meeting to avert disaster.

Narcissa stayed home that morning and helped him get down the stairs. He didn't point out the irony of leaning so much of his weight on a pregnant woman, now that she was definitely showing. He sat in a winged armchair. Narcissa took the loveseat. Dobby served them tea. Sirius added extra sugar to his to wash out the taste of his six, nasty morning prescriptions. It was a good thing they came downstairs half an hour early; they were only waiting for Bella for five minutes before she stepped out of the floo with a roar of green fire. She threw herself sobbing at Sirius' feet.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Forgive me, Siri!"

Abraxas had warned him, but it was still a bit of a shock to see her shaved head. The loss of her thick, glossy Black hair was part of Bella's punishment, along with the words "I shall never disobey my lord" carved several times in ugly, uneven loops around her scalp. The cuts were scabbed over, but after this many days, that meant they must have been deep, and that she had been forbidden healing charms. Possibly, they were even carved with Dark magic. Eyeing some of the backwards letters, he suspected she had been forced to cut them herself in a mirror. Eventually, her hair would grow out again to cover the scars, and hoods and magic could hide them until then.

Sirius watched her cry and beg for awhile. He didn't have a planned response for her, really. He didn't want to see her. It wasn't worth it just to keep her happy. There wasn't really even much advantage any more; he had earned his own status in the Death Eaters. He didn't need Bella.

He hated to see her so upset.

She continued to cry on his shoes, and he and Narcissa continued not to say anything. Bella eventually got her tears under control. She looked up at him warily. "Can you forgive me, Siri?" she asked.

Sirius' arm jerked. Bella's lip quivered at the sight. He forced himself to focus and speak before she started sobbing again. "Not right now. I trusted you, and you betrayed my trust."

"I didn't mean to hurt you..."

"But you did. Don't tell yourself it was an accident and you were trying to teach me. I was there. The only lesson to be learned is that you cannot control yourself, not when you're enraged, not when you're grieving..."

He trailed off, his mind moving beyond his mouth. Bella had always been the easiest of his cousins to provoke, the most similar to his own mother. He used to dote on her, when he was very young, because she was so similar to Walburga yet never turned that anger on him. No, hers had been a protective wrath, at least at first. When Walburga punished him too harshly, he would run to Bella, who would quicken to his defense, fighting screams and curses with equal vehemence and viciousness. There were times, usually holiday parties, when Cygnus and Orion Black would simply pull the children out and ward the dining room door while the two angry witches battled it out. He never knew if it was Walburga's unshakeable belief in the value of the Black family or grudging respect for each other's power and sadism that kept them relatively cordial for so many years. He wondered idly when Walburga would be forgiving Bella for almost murdering him this time. She had been very upset at the hospital to the point of calling Bella foul names, but she was now very, very angry with Sirius again, even more than usual. He speculated Bella might even be invited over for tea before his mother got tired of sending him the daily howlers.

Narcissa cleared her throat, and Sirius blinked. He pulled himself back to the conversation, both cousins watching him expectantly, Bella biting her lip. "Right. I already knew that was your weakness ever since we were children, but now I see that it will destroy you someday. Either because you will make a mistake and die for it, or you will make a mistake and kill someone you weren't ready to lose." Walburga never made that mistake, never would. She held on too long instead.

Bellatrix reared her head back in arrogant offense, but Narcissa cut across her incipient objection. "He's right, Bella."

"Stay out of it, Cissy," Bella spat, directing all her anger at her sister since fighting with Sirius was out of the question.

"You almost killed our cousin," Narcissa said evenly. "I heard all about what happened. He would have died, or as good as, if the Dark Lord had not retrieved his consciousness in time and then sent him to the hospital. How would you have felt then? How would you have felt if he had fallen into enemy hands? You risked yourself too, and us, when you threatened to bring the Dark Lord into what is a family matter."

"Sirius wouldn't talk to me!"

"And that is my concern, not the Dark Lord's," Sirius said. Inside, he was less interested in Bella's whining than with what Narcissa had said about the Dark Lord coming to his aid. He had not heard about that and would never have expected that his fate mattered sufficiently to be worth the Dark Lord's time. But if that was true... he really didn't need Bella any more. She could die in a raid, and he would be fine.

"Of course it's his concern! You can't avoid me if we are to work together!"

"I do not have to forgive you in order to do my duty," Sirius said unsympathetically. But what had Voldemort seen whilst rummaging around Sirius' injured mind? Surely his broken thoughts could not have been that incriminating, or Sirius would be dead by now? Perhaps there had been nothing coherent to see, not then... He pondered the thought until Bella reached forwards and clutched his ankles. He kicked her away instinctively. He feet still felt like they were burning half the time, and the pressure of her fingers hurt.

He scowled down at her with his most imperious Heir to a Noble House face. "I am under no obligation to you, Lestrange. I do not have to see you or spend time with you except as our Lord wishes. Our squabbles are beneath him. If you ever hope for my good will in future, you will not think of troubling him again. That I will never forgive." Funny how his pureblood mannerism and elocution training was still so easy to draw on when he was sick when he'd been deliberately ignoring it for so long. Then again, his problem had never been assuming the façade but rather maintaining it to his parents' unreasonable expectations.

Bella flushed at his formal rebuke and the implication of his using her married name. "I swear I won't. It was wrong of me to try to control you... and- and him... that way. Tell me how I can make this better!"

Sirius looked at her blankly but with his full attention once again. That she thought she could apologize for literally torturing him to the brink of madness was, well, insane. Narcissa cleared her throat. "I don't think you can, Bella, not right now. You need to give him time, and space."

"You can torture me!" Bella interjected. She brightened up, as if this was a brilliant solution to the problem. "Tit for tat. Use the Cruciatus. I deserve it."

Sirius snorted derisively, unable to maintain his dignified demeanor. "Tit for tat, eh? You want me to hold the Cruciatus for... how long was it?"

"Two hours? You can go longer. I wouldn't blame you."

"Bella, don't be ridiculous," Narcissa said. "Best case scenario, you tire Sirius out and he still doesn't forgive you. Worst case scenario, he does to you what you did to him. I don't need either another invalid or another funeral right now."

"Fine, not the Cruciatus. There's plenty of other options, though! If Siri's too tired, we can just get the box of cursed rings I helped him make back in the spring. Would you like that, Siri?"

Sirius sighed. He couldn't deal with Bella's insanity any more today. "You want to be tortured? Would it make you feel better?"

Bella nodded eagerly. "I want to help you, Siri."

He slowly drew his wand. "Sirius, what are you doing?" Narcissa asked, jumping up from her chair.

He shrugged. "She's asking for it, and I'm already tired."

"Don't interfere, Cissy," Bella snarled. She sat back on her heels and looked up at Sirius with wide, excited eyes. "Do it, Siri. Make me proud."

Sirius carefully adjusted his grip on his wand. He had been practicing with it and could usually eke one or two spells out before he dropped it again. He pointed it right between her eyes. Merlin, he really wanted to use Ragnuk's Blindness or some other permanently impairing, irreversible curse to show her how utterly stupid and ridiculous she was being, but then Voldemort would probably murder him or something. So instead he cast, "Transmogrify."

Bella fell back and clenched her jaw, holding in her screams of agony through shear force of will. For now. It was what she had wanted him to do the other night, he observed coldly. He pushed himself up out of the chair and grabbed the antique gentleman's walking cane he'd used to get down here. "Narcissa, walk me back upstairs, will you? Bye, Bella."

"No!" Bella wailed. She reached towards him with one hand, which curled and shrunk away as its bones and sinews reshaped themselves. "No! You have to stay!"

"No, I really don't." He turned towards the door.

She screamed then, in pain but mostly anger. He pointed his wand at her again and said, "Silencio." He fumbled the flourish though, when his wrist jerked, and the spell died in his mouth. "Narcissa, could you take care of that?"

"Silencio." The screams stopped. Bella continued to writhe on the floor, alternately rolling her eyes and glaring at both of them.

"And take her wand, would you?"

"Are you planning to just leave her in here? Lucretia does have guests this afternoon, you know." She followed his instructions, though.

"It will wear off after an hour, and then she can leave."

"Alright. I'll tell Dobby to block off the room until then. I'll be back later, sister." She offered him her arm to lean on, and they set off back upstairs. When they were out of earshot she asked, "Why did you agree to torture her? I know she thinks you enjoy it, but I know better."

"Because she thought it would make her happy, same as she did the night she hurt me. But the pain isn't what she really wanted, not then and not now."

"She wanted your attention today, if she couldn't earn your forgiveness," Narcissa said, nodding. "And you showed her that couldn't be bought so easily. Merlin, you're going to force her to be genuinely nice to you, aren't you? She'll hate that."

"She can be nice," Sirius pointed out.

"Only when you're doing exactly what she wants."

"True. She doesn't have to be nice to me. She could leave me alone instead and accept that she's gone too far."

"She won't."

"Probably not. I can't see her for awhile though."

"I'll keep her away. For you. For awhile. But not forever. I have my own plans and priorities, you know."

"I know. Thanks, Cissy."

Author's note: did anyone have Abraxas on their suspect list? If you were wondering, yes muscle breakdown can turn urine red when it's bad enough, apparently, and I'm going for that and nerve pain as the main physical consequences of prolonged Cruciatus exposure. Thanks again for the reviews, and updates will continue to come on Saturdays.