Formal Bath Day

Author's note- Warning for some foul language and descriptions of abuse.

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Sirius was comfortable. He opened his eyes and no one was screaming. The air was warm and dry. He didn't need the Wolfhound's sensitive nose to notice that the air smelled clean. The afternoon light was seeping through the colored curtains as well as through the gaps between them. This was clearly not Azkaban. He was… It would come to him if he waited... He was at the Tonks. Yes, he was in their home and… Buckbeak was resting in the stand of trees behind the house.

He was lying in a soft bed. He had a pillow and more than one blanket. The Tonks had fed him, and if he wanted, he could eat again on the same day. His present situation was far from Azkaban or living in the wilds of Northern Scotland.

It took him a few minutes, but he woke up and slid out of bed. They had a bath and toilet down the hall rather than a hole in the floor. He walked to the door and waited. Sirius didn't know what to do. For the last decade he'd been hexed if he approached the door to his cell when a guard was outside. There wasn't a grate in the guestroom door so the Tonks couldn't see what he was doing. He couldn't see them and get out of the way if the Tonks approached his cell. No, it was their guest room rather than a cell.

If it were his cell then he'd know where he belonged and what to do.

He heard someone outside and stepped quietly back toward the bed.

"Sirius, are you up? The charms told me you're moving around the room. Do you need help with anything?" Healer Tonks asked.

"I'm fine."

Sirius caught himself and closed his mouth before he told them to go away.

"May I come in?"

Sirius sat on the bed and put his hands on his lap where they could be seen. "I'm ready," he said.

She simply turned the knob and entered. There wasn't a lock or a spell keeping him inside. He could have left at any time.

"You look a little better. Did you want to eat again? We also talked about bathing." She scanned him with her wand.

"Whatever you want," he said.

"How would it feel to have a soak?" His skin was in poor shape with several sores, scrapes and irritations. He showed all the cumulative signs of malnutrition and poor hygiene, plus the wear and tear of living in the field without adequate clothing for protection.

"I'd like you to clean up. I'm going to prepare a bath and then have Ted help you. Is that alright?"

"Yes," he answered. He wondered if he was supposed to say more, but he didn't know what else she wanted from him.

Sirius sat there until Mister Tonks walked in with several towels thrown over his shoulder.

Sirius blinked. They would let him wipe his skin dry rather than stripping the water off with a transfiguration spell! Prison guards would no more let a prisoner have a towel than they would give him a length of rope.

Sirius waited until Ted told him to follow him to the bathroom.

"Are you ready?" Ted asked.

"I need to pee and poop," he answered.

"I'll wait outside. Let me know when you're in the bath."

He did as he was told. He was out of practice at using a toilet. He also hesitated before stepping into the tub. He screwed up his courage and dropped his clothes onto the floor. It was a bath for goodness sake, not a moat full of monsters. The water was clear and Merlin it was warm! It took a few careful minutes for him to slip most of himself below the surface. He had forgotten the feeling of warm water on skin.

"Can I come in?"

Ted entered before Sirius answered. What was strange was that Ted didn't look at him. Ted entered the bathroom and then sat down on the floor with his back against the wall. He was facing the same direction as Sirius. It felt.. wrong.

"I bet that feels good," Ted said.

Prison guards looked at prisoners. Prisoners did not look at prison guards, or really at other prisoners if they could avoid it.

Tonks had asked him something. "Yes, sir" Sirius said.

Meeting someone's eyes was a signal that you were evaluating them and challenging them. A predatory stare. It didn't make sense to Sirius that Mister Tonks was acting like a prisoner in his own home.

"My wife is worried about you falling and getting hurt. She says your bones were brittle and the potions haven't healed them yet," Ted said.

Sirius soaked a while and then put his whole head under the water to scrub his scalp.

Ted spoke again after Sirius had come up for air. "I've never been in prison. I guess the two things you can't get when you want them are privacy or someone to talk to. Andy wants me to help you get out of the tub, but other than that I can stay or go as you like."

"Yes, sir."

Sirius didn't say anything, so Ted continued to sit. "What should I call you?" Ted asked.

"Sir?"

"I suppose you're a lord. Should I call you Lord Black?"

"Oh," Sirius said. He had known the answer at one time. He could find the answer if he sorted his way through the fog of words.

"If we're being formal, I should be addressed as 'Lord Black' the first time we meet each day. After that, 'Sir' would do. Lord Sirius Orion Black the Third doesn't fit when the girl writes your name on the paper coffee cups. Siri, or Sirius, works there, but no one knows how to spell Sirius." Sirius reserved the names Padfoot and Pads for close friends.

It took him a minute to collect his thoughts again. "My Mother loved being Lady Black. Maybe that's why I dislike being called Lord. That, and there were too many arseholes with titles in Azkaban, not that they didn't belong there."

"I'm sorry," Ted said.

After a moment Sirius turned his head to look at Ted Tonks. Sirius had been in the man's home for several hours but this was the first time he'd studied the man. "Thank you for taking me in. The last time I saw the Minister for Magic, he said I could rot in Azkaban. Here you are letting me get clean. We're frustrating the Minister's wishes that I rot in my robes. I won't tell him, so your secret is safe with me."

That was the most he's said in ten years. It was a struggle to find each word and then make it fit in his mouth. That, and his throat hurt.

Ted Tonks turned his shoulders toward Sirius but Ted continued to sit on the bathroom floor as he leaned sideways against the wall.

Tonks said, "Well then, let me fix that since we're sometimes formal in this house."

Now, Ted pushed himself away from the wall and stood up. "Lord Sirius Orion Black the Third, if the Minister for Magic denies you a bath, then we must say Fuck the Minister, for this, Sir, is bath day, and on bath day all may bathe." Tonks inclined his head as if he were making a small bow.

Sirius answered, "And I should call the two of you Solicitor and Healer Tonks, that is if we're being formal on bath day."

"Yes, Sir. On bath day, we're very formal," Ted said.

Tonks looked down at his bare feet, faded pants and polo shirt. He shrugged. Casual was the uniform of the day on the weekends. Ted laughed at their pretense.

Sirius chuckled as well, or as best he could. My gods, Tonks was ridiculous. Oh, excuse me. That would be Edward Tonks Esquire.. since this was bath day.

Sirius said, "I need a drink of water so I'd like to get out. Could you give me a minute to myself and then help me?" Sirius asked.

"I'll be on the other side of the door. Please call me when you're ready to stand so that we stay in Andy's good graces."

After the door closed, it took a minute for Sirius to stop crying. He composed himself, washed his face, and then pulled the plug. Sirius Orion Black the Third idly wondered how often they had formal bath day.
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Sirius was afraid. He was in his human form. He was tied down. He struggled, and eventually he threw the weights from his arms and legs. He clung and cried out as he fell.

There was a voice, a woman's voice. "Sirius, are you hurt. How can I help?"

He didn't know what to say, and a moment later there was light. There was never much light, and certainly not much at night. So why was he able to see his hands? He saw walls around him and recognized that he was indoors.

"I'm a Healer. You're in my home. Do you hurt anywhere?" she asked.

Sirius was lying on the floor. A witch was kneeling next to him and she was trying to get him to talk. She touched his shoulder, and it didn't hurt.

"You're safe here. You fell out of bed. Please talk to me."

It took him another minute to climb up from sleep and blink his eyes open. He said, "Everything feels strange.. the clothes.. the blankets.. my stomach."

"Does your stomach hurt? Are you feeling sick?" she asked.

Now Sirius noticed a wizard with a wand in his hand standing in the doorway. A house elf was peeking around the door frame. "You're Misses Tonks. I'm hungry. It's nighttime and the hound needs to hunt. The blankets were in the way and he couldn't run." Sirius was confused. His sleep addled brain felt lost.

"You're indoors now so it's harder for the hound to find food. Would it be alright with the hound if you had something to eat?" Andromeda Tonks asked.

Sirius nodded his head. "The hound won't mind," Sirius said.

"Give me a moment to untangle you. Let's put the pillow behind your back," Andromeda said.

Sirius sat up and then leaned against the pillow and the bed. Healer Tonks gathered up the bed coverings and threw them back on top of the mattress.

"I'll be back with a snack. Is that alright?"

Sirius nodded again.

Andy touched her husband's arm as she left the room. "Stay with him. He's confused."

She came back with a bath sheet and a tea tray. "We're going to have a picnic right here. How about a slice of fruit and a few biscuits?"

Sirius took the slice of apple with two hands and fed himself. The texture felt distantly familiar as he chewed. He liked the feeling as he crushed the fruit and created apple juice in his mouth. He had to coordinate his teeth, tongue, and lips so he didn't bite himself or let the juice leak out. He lingered over the brittle sweetness of a biscuit. He ground the honey flavored treat in his mouth as long as he could until he finally had to swallow. Healer Tonks had brought a few slices of meat and cheese for him to try. The cheese was slightly salty, and he noticed the cup of warm bone-broth on the tray.

Andy had stepped out of the room and Sirius looked up at Mister Tonks. "Is that for me?" Sirius asked.

Ted crouched so he was more at Sirius's height. "That is all for you," he said.

Sirius took the cup and sipped slowly. He knew they would take the cup away if he drank too fast. When he finished, he set the cup on the tray. He grabbed the pillow and crawled back into bed. He blinked a few times and then closed his eyes. Ted picked up the tray and turned off the light.

Ted met his wife in the kitchen. She had pulled out a parchment and was studying the food log and meal schedule she'd filled out during the day. Ted put the tray on the counter and sat down across from her. Not wanting to interrupt her, he waited until she looked up.

"What just happened?" he asked. He had heard of people who walked in their sleep. He had never seen someone eat in their sleep before.

"I'm not sure. Did you hear what he said?" she asked.

"Some of it." Ted Tonks was willing to bend patient privacy regulations when he had a fugitive sleeping in his guest bedroom. At least he had locked their bedroom door when they went to bed. Andy had warded the guest room so she could tell if Sirius needed help.

Ted reached down the table and served them both a biscuit from the open bag.

Healer Tonks said, "We fed him an hour before bed. That should have held him until morning, or a few more hours at least." She was worried about an adverse reaction to the combination of potions she had given Sirius. She would have expected a slightly upset stomach at most. She did not want to give him a sleep aid. She wanted him to wake easily if he were in pain and needed help.

"Strange house? Strange bed?" Ted offered.

They sat and chewed. The sounds of the night were barely discernable through the open kitchen window. Andy broke Ted's remaining biscuit and took half for herself.

Andromeda Tonks thought it was a strange world. Her own daughter could shift her body. More than merely changing her appearance, Nymphadora actually changed her physical shape. She would change size, proportion, and color on a whim. Somehow, that hadn't prepared Andromeda for a patient who was as comfortable walking on four paws as on two feet.

Andy nibbled thoughtlessly. "When was the last time that Sirius Black ate?" she asked. She was facing her husband but not really seeing him. "Sirius said, 'The hound got hungry.' He and the hound have been living in the wild. Sirius was probably sleeping in his dog-form to conserve energy, both food energy and magical energy. The hound hunted at night and slept by day. Now, we're asking Sirius to sleep at night and eat during the day.

"I'll bet you that Sirius Black hasn't fed himself since he escaped from Azkaban. When was that?" she asked.

Ted looked thoughtful. "Sometime in 93, I think." What Andy said made sense. Sirius was acting like a traveler who had flown half-way around the world and was jetlagged by the time change.

Ted said, "You're a smart cookie. Here. Have a treat for being so sharp." Ted reached into the bag and gave her another biscuit.

Andromeda Tonks scowled at her husband, but she did take the treat. Lord Black had a lot to mend.

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Authors Notes- Feedback is appreciated. Feedback is essential if you want more stories like this. I had fun trying to think like an uncivilized man who lived as a dog. What did you think of chapter three and formal bath day?