Sirius tenderly taking care of Harry after he (of course) survives the battle at the DOM
"I know, it stings, but it needs to be cleaned before it can be healed," Sirius said, voice soothing as he cradled the back of Harry's head in one hand and dabbed at his forehead.
Harry felt his head loll to the side a bit, consciousness still a slippery thing. He tried to look around to see what was going on, but everything was blurry.
"Broken in the fight, and you need a new prescription anyways."
Harry hummed as Sirius gently lay his head down, something supportive under his neck. There was some muttering, and Harry felt the tingle of a diagnostic spell float over him. Sirius swore briefly and made some complicated motion with his wand, punctuating it with a slash and a deep violet flash hit Harry. There was a sound like breaking glass that echoed inside his head and the strange fog lifted, bringing the memories of that day rushing back andâ
"Sirius!" Harry shouted, sitting bolt upright and reaching for his godfather almost desperately.
Harry leaned over and hurled.
Harry's head swam, feeling like he was on a rapidly spinning boat in the middle of a storm. Sirius muttered a few spells and Harry slowly felt the nausea ease. There was a ringing sensation in his ears that suddenly disappeared with a pop that somehow also cleared his sinuses, and Harry's stomache settled almost immediately after that.
Sirius pressed a potion in to Harry's hand.
"Drink that, quickly. If it starts to taste like ranch dressing it means you're drinking too slowly."
Harry chugged the potion as quickly as he could and handed the empty vial back to Sirius, who turned back to what looked like some kind of medical kit. Harry was on a double bed of some kind, in a room he didn't recognise from Grimmauld or Hogwarts. If anything, the air in the place smelled fresher, and Harry could hear birds outside in what looked like early morning light.
He... had no idea where he was. All he knew was that he'd found Sirius.
"I thought Bellatrix killed you," Harry rasped, voice hoarse.
"She thought she did," Sirius said quietly. When Harry squinted up at him, he shrugged. "A fringe benefit of being stuck in Grimmauld is that I finally finished reading all the horrible, creepy books I'd only been halfway through when I ran away twenty years ago. Books on tactics, dark arts and their counters. Books on illusions."
"I know that I'm not... recovered. I still have a long way to go to recoup my strength. So fighting smarter seemed the way to go, rather than harder. I cast an illusion on the room itself, to cloak my real location and make her think she was duelling me. I was trying to edge around the room to get the drop on her and a few others when she sent my illusion through the Veil and youâ damn it, Harry! You almost ran through there after me!"
Harry looked up at Sirius, feeling a horrible panic curl through him when he saw his godfather. Sirius was bracing his hands on the bed next to Harry, head bowed and frame lined with tension. The blurry view of his profile told Harry that Sirius was... quite upset.
"Are you... Are you mad at me?" Harry found himself asking, tears immediately prickling his eyes.
"Yes," Sirius answered quietly.
Gently, so gently it felt alarming to Harry, Sirius laid one hand on Harry's knee. Harry felt his face heat and tears start falling, felt like he couldn't breathe.
"That does not mean I don't love you, Harry. It just means that you did something that hurt. Several somethings, point of fact. And we are going to have to have several long talks this summer about your choices last night."
"But Iâ Voldemort had you!" Harry protested. "He was torturing you!"
"No, Snape fucked up your occlumency lessons enough that it gave Voldemort an in and he sent you a constructed vision of something designed to make you panic and act rashly. Kingsley's already sent word that Snape is being brought in for questioning about his role in all of this. Along with what's left of the Death Eaters and Voldemort."
"What's left of them?" Harry asked, feeling confused and off kilter.
"You, er... you missed some of the fight. After Voldemort showed up and I was duelling him, you jumped in front of a Killing Curse andâ" Sirius voice broke and, to Harry's horror, he sounded like he was trying not to cry.
"I thought you were dead, Harry. I am so mad because you should be dead, and it's a bullshit miracle that you're not! And I lostâ I thought I lost you! The last of my family! My kid, my godson, the boy I delivered because St. Mungo's was under attack and Lily went in to labour two weeks early! You took your first breath in my arms and I thought I saw you breathe your last and for a few terrible, awful moments I thought the last reason I had for living was gone. Because of me. So I stoppedâ"
Sirius broke off, stepping back, and pressing the heels of his palms to his eyes. Harry could hear him sniffling and quietly gasping for breath, and felt himself start crying again. It took a long moment for Sirius to compose himself enough to continue.
"I thought you died, so I stopped holding back. Voldemort might be clinging to what's left of his torso, but most of his Death Eaters are dead, in pieces, or both."
Harry stared at Sirius in shock.
"And you are so fucking grounded, young man."
Harry, feeling every bit of his exhausted, stressed, 15 year old self, burst in to tears.
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