Coming Home

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of its characters. However, since Rowling discarded my favourite characters I picked them up and took them into my care to give them the love and attention they deserve...and occasionally give them reason to need that love and attention no matter how much they deserve it without needing a reason.

Warnings: Described torture, child abuse, use of language. Mostly for chapter 2.

Strong bromance, can't stomach boys being extremely close without it being sexual, then this is not the story for you and you should hit the return button.

This story is part of a series called A Bond of Family. If you are interested in reading the entire series, then the chronological order can be found on my profile.

Note: Although it has now been revealed by Rowling that James' parents were named Fleamont and Euphemia; I refuse to use those ridiculous names ( I wonder what she was on when she decided on those names) and will hold onto Charlus and Dorea, despite the fact that it is no longer canon. my apologies if that upsets you, but just...no.

Special thanks to Kitty for beta-ing this story for me and giving me endless support and inspiration for this series. Thank you for your endless patience with my grammar and for all the lessons you've taught me and are still trying to stamp into my brain.

Summary:

Christmas Eve of 1975, James could finally welcome his little brother home for good. It was however unfortunate that Sirius was such a bloody mess upon arrival.

Otherwise known as the story of how Sirius ran away from home and became the Potter's second son.

Rewrite: February 2020

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Looking up from his book when all of a sudden his father rose to his feet, James frowned.

"Dad?"

Absent-mindedly waving him off, his father moved to the window. "I thought I saw something."

"Should we be worried?" His mother exchanged her book for her wand and rose to her feet as well so James did the same.

"No, the wards didn't give any warning so I assume it is just an animal."

"You wouldn't have gotten up if it was just an animal," James pointed out.

"Normally not, but it was a pretty large one and I'm curious to what it is," gazing through the lace curtain, he didn't react as his wife joined him.

"Is that a... dog?" His mother's words made James' heart skip a beat, rushing from the couch to see for himself and through the netted curtain, he was quickly able to spot a dark shape moving towards them in a strange, almost drunken pattern.

The waning moon appeared through a gap in the clouds, shining directly on the animal and James was out the door before his parents could protest.

"James! It could be wild!" But he ignored his mother's warning and threw open the door, hesitating as the dog moved slowly, almost like he was dragging himself forward before stumbling.

"Padfoot!" Slipping on an icy patch of snow as he rushed out, he tumbled, only managing to slide underneath the dog to break his fall and the breath was knocked out of him as Padfoot collapsed on top of him.

"Siri?" Scrambling to get upright, he ran a hand over the dark, wet fur when the dog tried to get up on clearly damaged paws. "You need to change back, I can't see if you are seriously injured or just exhausted when you're like this."

It was easy to see how unsteady the animal was as the trembling form stood on shaky paws and he briefly wondered in what kind of shape his brother was as the animal pushed himself into his arms as if desperate for contact.

"Would you be able to carry him?" Hearing his father approach, he half turned; seeing the man had cleared a path for them as he had come out.

Gazing at the dog, his father nodded. "I think so, he doesn't look heavy and else I could always use magic."

Feeing Padfoot tense underneath his fingers, James shook his head. "No magic. He doesn't take kindly to being restricted on the best of days, I have no idea how he'll react to that when unwell."

Brushing his hands over Padfoot's nose, he turned back to the dog. "Can you try to change? I don't want to force you to do so when I don't know the extent of your injuries."

A truly pathetic sounding whine was his only answer and his fear of what lay hidden underneath the animal form increased; something his father seemed to agree with as he knelt down beside his son, freezing in place as Padfoot growled nervously and fell against James as he lost his battle to stay on his legs.

"It's just Dad, he's going to carry you inside so that we'll be out of the cold and then Mum can take care of you, all right?" Trying to reassure his friend, James clenched his teeth to try and keep himself composed as Padfoot gave a terrified whine; pressing himself even closer to James as if to try and disappear into him. "You're scaring me."

That seemed to do the trick as Padfoot pushed his nose into his neck before suddenly shifting back into his best friend with a strangled cry.

"Shhhh, that's it, I've got you," wrapping his arms around his little brother's shaking form, James pulled him close.

"Dorea! It's Sirius and he's hurt," his father's alarmed tone made James glance down, his heart stopping at the sight of the unconscious form in his arms.

Sirius' face was a mess of blood and bruises and James was fairly certain there were more injuries hidden underneath the bloody torn clothing than he could even see.

But before he could react, his father had pulled Sirius' body out of his arms and hurried back to the house and blinking, he immediately hurried after his father.

"Bring him to the kitchen so I have room to work," his mother directed and his father wasted no time to carefully lower Sirius on the wooden table while she collected various potions and ran her wand over his body to determine the extent of his injuries.

James' breathing wasn't the one one to stock as more of the damage was revealed, though shock didn't stop his mother as she hand fed him several potions with an ease he envied as he let his eyes travel over his friend's body.

His left leg rested in a strange position and it took James a moment to realise the limb was broken in more than one place even as his mother healed the fractures without any trouble before carefully removing both Sirius' ruined shirt and the dirty bandages he had clearly applied himself and James' stomach turned as the fabric clung to several wounds, blood beginning to well up as she inched the fabric aside.

"Can you get warm water and clean cloths? He's done a great job stemming the bleeding himself with both Healing magic and bandages and I'd prefer to avoid him losing blood he managed to prevent losing in the first place."

"Do you need blood replenishing potions anyway?" Hurrying to retrieve what she'd requested, James handed the items over at the confirmation and watched as she worked to soak the material away from the wounds.

Bile rose as the torn sweater finally fell away to reveal numerous deep cuts and slashes littering his brother's too thin body and his eyes fell onto a word carved into his chest, right over his heart. "Is that..."

"Dark magic, I won't be able to prevent it from scarring," his mother's voice was curt as she applied Dittany to the angry letters.

"He's got matching, slightly older looking ones on both of his upper arms," his father revealed, applying Dittany to the harsh looking marks.

"They must be from his holiday as he didn't have them before," he wasn't sure how he managed to sound so steady when all he wanted to do was scream in rage as he watched the carved words disappear under gauze.

Abomination, freak and disgrace.

He had no doubt that to the deranged Blacks, that was exactly what Sirius was and those sick people had made sure he'd always be reminded of what he was to them.

"Charlus, can you turn him onto his side, or would that interfere your work on his feet?"

His mother's words pulled away his attention from what he wanted to do to the people who'd given birth to his best friend as he remembered the sight of bloodied paws and swallowing, he let his gaze travel to the mangled limbs.

The skin on his feet was torn away so badly that he could actually see the bone sticking out through the dirt clinging to the bloody mess and he tried not to gag as his father was pulling pieces of hardened dirt and broken bone out with a pair of tweezers.

"Why aren't you healing them magically?" He asked as his father did what was requested, handing the man a new bowl of warm water so there was something he could do.

"The initial injury was made by dark magic," running warm water over the limbs to wash away the last of the filth, clean red blood began to flow freely instead of the darkened clots.

"There is more than one injury there?" Swallowing thickly as his father applied Dittany to them, he handed over gauze and bandages so they could be bandaged up.

"There is the initial injury, which tore open the skin and sliced his bone open and there is damage that I suspect he's done to himself while running."

"You think he ran all the way here?" The hesitation in his father's posture told him that was indeed what he thought had happened. "But then why aren't his hands in the same state?"

"Because his hands weren't damaged already and it looks like he mostly kept his weight on his legs," a terrible pop told him his mother had just fixed a dislocated shoulder. "I've managed to heal the internal bleeding he didn't take care of himself and healed the wounds not caused by dark magic."

"His back?"

His mother hesitated. "There will be new scars..."

"Just a few more," he spat out bitterly and looking down at the battered form of the boy he called brother, he nodded. "All right, patch him up and we'll leave as soon as he's regained some strength."

"Leave?" Turning to his father, his resolve only strengthened.

"I'm not ever letting those monster lay a hand on him again. If leaving the magical world is what it takes to keep him safe, then that is what I'll do."

"Neither of you is going anywhere," rubbing a hand over his face, his father took a deep breath while his mother bandaged the last of Sirius' injuries. "Dorea, I need you to catalogue all of his injuries to the finest detail. Son, I need you to extract every memory you posses of his injuries from the moment you've met."

"What are you going to do," James blinked at the determined expression on the man's face.

"I'm going to pay a visit to Arcturus Black."

"Why? Do you really think he'll help?"

"It's a chance I need to take to ensure his safety, if I can take the official way, then I need to take it."

"And what if he doesn't help?"

"Then we will take different measures to ensure his safety, but I promise you right here and now, he will not return there."

"Don't make promises you can't keep," he bit out, shaking his father's shoulder off. "That man is a Black, they don't care."

"Arcturus will listen to him, honey," his mother spoke of softly and he bristled at the reassuring tones as he knew neither of them would be able to promise something like that.

"How can you possible know that? He's never done anything, this has been going on for years!"

"Arcturus Black might be a lot of things, but he would never consent to the torture of his heir."

"What do you mean with torture?" His father spoke before he could.

"They repeatedly used the Cruciatus Curse on him and from the looks of the lingering damage to his nerves, I doubt it was the first time," she hesitated. "Charlus...I think I need to perform the test."

Not quite sure what she meant, James watched his father to see all colour drain from his face. "They wouldn't have…."

He watched in silence as his father returned to the table and reached out to carefully peel away Sirius' torn waistband. "There are bruises on his hips...perform the test."

Leaning in to peel away more of the ruined fabric, his father gasped as Sirius suddenly lashed out; hitting him straight in the face before promptly falling off the table in his attempt to get away.

"Siri!" Trying to move to his side before he hurt himself more, he was stopped by his mother.

"Let your father try first, he's the one who scared him."

"Dorea?" Kneeling down, his father carefully inched closer to Sirius as he'd backed himself into a corner.

"The test was negative," his wife informed him.

"Hello Sirius, it's Charlus. You are at James' house right now, do you remember coming here?"

"Don't touch me!" A spark of pure magic, unlike anything James had ever seen, lashed out as his father reached out and he pulled back quickly.

"All right, I won't come near," he promised softly. "But you are hurt and you are worrying us. Would you let Dorea come closer to have a look at you?"

The whimper that escaped as Sirius pushed himself further into the corner as his mother took a step forward broke James' heart and more magic crackled dangerously in the air as it was clear his friend didn't recognise them.

"Siri…." stepping around his parents, he knelt down right in front of his little brother, shrugging his father off as he tried to pull him into safety as he knew that even if the whole world was unrecognisable, Sirius would always recognise him.

"Hey Siri..." swallowing at the blankness in those eyes, exposing to him more than anything just how out of it his brother was, he sat back on his heels. "I know you're afraid, but think I could come closer?"

At his voice, terrified grey eyes immediately snapped to him as the blankness disappeared and pure relief filled them. "James."

Moments later he found himself connecting with his little brother as Sirius all but threw himself into his arms despite the pain it must have caused him, but he gave no sign of it as he pressed himself as close as he could.

"James…." he whispered, quiet sobs escaping him as he trembled and mindful of the bandages, James pulled his terrified little brother into his lap; aware how much his mere presence always comforted him.

"I've got you, I'm here."

"I didn't want to endanger you, but I didn't know where else to go."

"You should always come here," he tried to reassure him, carefully rubbing his thumb over his mostly uninjured shoulder.

"They can't hurt you...they can't...I won't….they threatened...and you….he...I..." his incoherent rambling trailed off into a coughing fit, blood trickling from his split lip and James softly wiped away the blood.

"Who is they?" James' mother asked and Sirius flinched so badly he almost dislodged himself from James' arms so he pulled him close again.

"Who did they threaten besides me?"

"Remus...they knew James," he broke off into a new coughing fit while a sharp breath escaped James.

"How?" Taking the moment Sirius was fighting for breath to heal the damage to his lungs, he was relieved to hear his brother's breathing ease.

"Regulus, I think," Sirius' expression tightened as his injuries no doubt made themselves known, but the ability to breath properly seemed to help him steady. "I think he found out and told them. I erased their memories but I don't know if I succeeded. They threatened to harm Auntie Hope….and I...you have to warn them."

"I will, we will ensure his dad can increase their security," he promised softly, caressing the sweaty hair out of his face. "Is that how you got so hurt?"

"Partly, they didn't like it when I tried to defend you," a wobbly smile formed on Sirius' lips before tears welled up and suddenly he was sobbing in his arms. "They were planning to kill me, wanted to since the beginning and then he….he…."

Trying to comfort his distressed friend, James carefully rocked him and although he didn't know the full story, or what Sirius meant with the beginning, he did know Sirius was in too much pain and more terrified than he'd ever seen him to be clear in what had happened.

"You're safe now, I won't let anyone hurt you."

"Ask him for the memory of what happened," it seemed his father shared his mindset and he accepted the phial being rolled to him with a nod.

"How about you show me what happened?" He caressed Sirius' cheek, brushing the tears away with his thumb as he looked into bright grey eyes for a long moment before Sirius opened his mind to him and knowing his parents wouldn't agree, he dove right in.

From a far distance he heard his father's shocked exclamation, but ignored him as the last of Sirius' shields lifted, allowing him access to his memories.

Ignoring the random flow of meaningless memories that he knew made up the first layer of protection for Sirius' mind, he followed his friend's fear to where the most recent, not yet sorted memories resided and upon finding them, he braced himself and reached for them.