All in the Family

Chapter 184: The Tale of the Three Brothers

Sirius didn't quite lose consciousness, but he was slammed against the wall with such force he saw everything happen in little starts and stops as spots flashed across his eyes, his head rung like a bell, and his side felt like it was being pulled from the rest of his body, a feeling he knew all too well.

James and Remus had vanished down the stairs... Alice had been there, then she'd fallen out of sight... there was screaming... Peter had been there, but his spell had only made the pain sharper, more localized from his whole being into just one arm. He knew those voices, but they weren't the ones he wanted to hear, so they became garbled and strange as someone held him down and his arm hurt and he just wanted James, Mum was raising her wand at him and he was thrashing over a hole in a strange home- she was going to drop him into a pit and there was a bed beneath him, Regulus was yelling, he was never around when they did this, something was wrong...it hurt and he just wanted it to stop...

He woke up shivering on a cold and dusty bed seeing double. Prongs was beside him, head tipped back as he rested upright on the pillow and something white wrapped over his ears, across his eyes, his flyaway hair more resembled his dad's as it had grey poofs in the strands. His hands were fidgeting with his repaired glasses, opening and closing the pieces. Right behind him was a mirror of sorts, before his eyes adjusted and he realized that wasn't James watching them, his eyes were green. It was a picture of Harry.

His side was liquid fire as he tried to sit up and he groaned in pain and immediately sunk back down, James reached out blindly at once and pressed him down farther on the bed dead center on his chest. "Stay still Pads, they wanted another go at you too."

"Wha happened," he croaked in confusion, James's other hand pinching his glasses in a few fingers, the rest tugging on the bandage and his concern was spiking by the second as he tried to force his pain riddled body back up again. James just pressed down harder on his chest.

"The short version? Everybody nearly died. Nobody actually managed it. Stay still."

He shamelessly pressed himself into James's hip as the fire in his shoulder stayed kindled at maximum heat, he couldn't have sat up without screaming in pain if he wanted to, and he was sort of worried he'd already been doing that for as hoarse as his voice was, but he was waking up now, looking properly around. Someone had magicked one of the couches from downstairs up here, Moony was asleep on it looking no worse for wear, Alice at the opposite end white as snow but breathing steadily. It was rather eerie to see Neville right above her, the same kind face bright and alive as he smiled at them all.

They weren't true portraits like he was used to, they didn't talk and move, but they were alive, Luna's friends, their next generation to look forward to circling them all and smiling in their little gold frames.

"The long version?" He slurred, his good arm trembling as he tried to reach for his wand.

"Stay still," James repeated with a huff, with weirdly perfect accuracy reaching down to snatch his wrist. Sirius hissed in pain as it jolted up his arm and was felt into the other shoulder, and James released him with a whispered apology. "I'll tell you if you stop moving," Prongs pleaded.

Sirius was gasping and didn't want to try again anyways as he agreed.

"The bloody horn exploded, of course. Reg got a broken leg from that copier landing on him, he's still downstairs. Pete mended it to a fracture but he's not trying again, I'm going to smack him when I can see again! He's on some tosh about making it worse," he rubbed in frustration at his own misfortune. "Think they fixed up Moony, said he wasn't too bad but he's still out, we both got knocked around in the head, said my swelling's gone down as much as his but, yeah, this." He was tugging on what Sirius now realized was a ripped-up towel and his stomach spun into a tighter knot. "Ceiling caved in and landed on Lils with Alice in the mess. Both girls hurt something in their back, they're pretty messed up and not moving much from what they tell me after I got dugout. Frank and Wormtail have been trying to clean us all up, but um, it's taking a lot out of Frank doing it alone, never having done these spells before."