scars- r.lupin

Chapter Five

When Sirius and Regulus entered the house after the last day of school, the house was suspiciously quiet. Regulus took no time walking into the hallway, most likely returning to his room, but Sirius senses were heightened as he questioned what was going on. The kitchen was empty, other than the silent appearance of his father, sitting at the table with cold dinner in front of him. 

"Sirius," his fathers soft, yet stern voice rang out. Carefully, Sirius' eyes dragged to his father, trying to maintain a hard face, trying to put up a strong front in from of his dad. "Now, don't be too loud or cause anyone trouble, your mother's got a terrible headache." 

Sirius swallowed a breath he had been holding in, relieved at his dads rather gentle words, if that's what you could call it. His feet took him into the hallway and right to Thea's bedroom, the door shut. Just as his fingers wrapped into a fist, ready to knock on the door, Regulus hand grabbed his wrist gently, stoping him. 

"Don't," Regulus warned softly. Sirius quickly turned his head, studying his brothers eyes for an answer to the quiet house and his missing sister, but instead he found genuine concern in his brother's eyes.

"Oh god," Sirius muttered, his heart beat increasing. What had she done? Stomping through the house, he finally found Walburga sitting comfortably in her chair, while Sirius fumed. 

"What do you want?" she asked, holding almost an malevolent smile in her cheeks.

"I know- I fucking know you did something to her. What did you do?" he screamed, his teeth clenched with fury. 

"How dare you?" She yelled back, standing up with her wand pointed at him. "That is no way to speak to your mother." 

There was no fear in Sirius shaking body, just pure rage. He stepped further as his mother pressed her wand against his neck, urging her to even try. 

"I don't care what you do to me," Sirius gritted, "but you ever lay a single hand on her again, I'll- I'll-."

And then the room went silent. It went dark too. He didn't even remember his mother shouting the words Crucio, but he knew she had. No matter how many times she did it, it still hurt the same. He was surrounded by the total consumption of white searing pain. He didn't know how long it would be, if him twitching on the ground like an animal that had been hit by a car. It could have been minutes, but it felt like hours. 

When he woke up, his body ached and his breath was shallow. He was alone, on the floor of the living room. Fuck.

Rage still blinded him, even after that. He ran to Thea's room, screaming her name. "Thea! Dorothea!"

He gave her name one more shout as he banged on her door, before giving up and leaving the house. 

The entire time, Thea sat in her room, ankle chained to her bedside table that was weighted down with a spell. Tears blurred her vision as she attempted to scream for help at the sound of Sirius voice, but there was no sound. Nothing, not with the silencing charm Walburga had placed on her. Defeated, she cried, open mouth with no sound as she laid against the piece of furniture as much as she can.

The next morning, Regulus took it into his own hands to get Thea. 

"Mother, could you unlock Thea's door," Regulus asked timidly.

"Why?" Walburga immediately questioned.

"How else can we start our practice?" 

She looked at her youngest son before waving her wand and nodding at him. 

As he opened the door, his head filled with nausea at the horrendous smells that filled his nose. He quickly found Thea chained and bathed in her own piss and vomit. 

"Oh my god," Regulus voice shook, him kneeling on the ground next to his sister as tears began to form in eyes. "Oh god. Oh god."

He could barely breathe from the smell and the heartbreak he was enduring. Regulus carefully unchained her, holding the back of her head as he gained control of his emotions again. 

"This is so much worse than I thought," he mumbled. "Thank Merlin it was me who found you and not Sirius. He would kill her."

Barely conscious, her eyes were rolling into the back of her head and she couldn't hold herself up, but she managed to mutter "Good."

"Thea," he whispered, "I need to put you in the bath." Regulus took Thea by the arms and stood her up, taking her whole body weight into his arms as he walked into the bathroom, gently sitting her down on the closed toilet seat. 

He began to run a bath, letting the water get hot and fill the tub. 

"Thea I don't want to hav to do this, but you're barely conscious. I've got to help you change and get in there," Regulus gritted, hating this and seeing his sister like this. Thea barely nodded her head in response and Regulus hoped that was a sign she was okay with this.

Quickly, he locked the doors with a charm and gently peeled off her clothes, maintaining eye contact with her face or her wounds. Once she was undressed, he carefully placed her in the bath and began work on scrubbing dried blood and vomit off her, avoiding her open wounds and being gentle around her closed ones.  

Thea began to rustle around, gaining consciousness as she tried to get out of Regulus arms in fear, but instead her body slumped more into the water as Regulus held her up.

"Sh, it's okay Thea. It's me, it's Regulus, I'm almost done." She looked up, her big blue eyes

filled with tears and fear as she nodded her head. 

"I'm sorry," she finally whispered as Regulus helped her stand up and handed her a towel. "I'm sorry you had to see me like this."

"No Thea. I'm sorry this happened. I didn't look at anything more than I had to, just got you clean," Regulus responded releasing the drain clogger in the bath. "Sirius isn't here if you're wondering. Mum and him got in a fight last night."

Thea nodded her head in response as he wobbly legs kept her up, trying to venture back to her room, but when she for there she nearly got whiplash from the rotting smell of her bodily fluids. Instead, she knocked on Sirius door, just in case, and then went in, putting on some muggle t-shirt of his and a pair of shorts. She knew she should go back to Regulus, thank him and ask him why he had gotten her, but she was weak and needed to sit down for a minute. The next thing she knew, Sirius bed felt so comfortable that she drifted off. 

Several days later, Sirius ventured back to his house in the dead of night. Knocking rapidly on her door, there was no answer again. This time, he opened the door and saw an empty room, beyond Kreacher who mopping the floors with a sour face. He looked on the walls to see the words "Traitor" written on them nearly a hundred times. 

"Kreacher. Where is Thea?" Sirius asked. In response, the house elf pointed a long dangly finger towards his room. Immediately, Sirius left to his room, where he found his sister sleeping in his bed. 

She looked peaceful and tired, wearing his own clothes. He wasn't sure exactly what happened, but he knew it was bad, and he knew she needed this bed to sleep in. Sirius grabbed a pillow from the other side of her head, and placed it on the floor, sleeping on the cold floor of his own room for his sister. 

(Gentle reminder this book is a slow burn.)