Bloody children
Sirius was looking over the same meager file, hoping for a small distraction from the somber day that was today. Halloween. He, his husband, and Severus had already gone to their friends graves. For the first few months after Lily and James' deaths, Remus and Severus had mourned the loss of their dear friends together. Then, after the trials that Dumbledore had pushed so hard for were over- Sirius moved back in with his husband and mourned them.
He spent most work days he got pouring over the case files trying to catch the four Merlin damned assassins. The stupid ministry of arseholes had added him to case, because he was the top auror, hoping to find the assassins quicker. Mace, Dagger, Staff, and Storm. No clues to their identities except inconsistent or inconsequential information like their favorite color or how tall they are (which the answers to changed every time they were given).
Sirius banged his head on the desk, and got up. If he spent one more second looking at those files, he swore to Merlin that he would burn them. Which would not help the case. His husband was stuck teaching his muggle study classes for one more hour, and Severus was stuck in potions for at least another three hours so Sirius wouldn't be able to even see his friend or his husband anytime that was soon enough for him.
Sirius walked around the living quarters he shared with Remus. It was nice that Dumbledore allowed the spouses of teachers to live with said teachers during the school year (even if this school tended to hire absolutely shite quality DADA teachers). Some schools didn't even allow that courtesy. Stupid muggle customs.
Sirius picked up the "skin safe" markers he kept on the top of the dresser that was just a little bit shorter than him. It was a habit he had picked up a little bit after Azkaban when he was still struggling to cope with the loss of his friends. His mind healer and him went over quite a few coping mechanisms back then. None of them had really stuck except for the markers.
The whole point of the markers was to just draw on his non-dominant hand. It was a grounding activity and he could draw as many times as he wanted. He never lost the drawings, and he never had to waste any paper. It was an activity that kept him entertained and sane throughout the day without anyone to talk to unless he deliberately went out of his way to go outside and talk to someone. No thanks!
After about 30 minutes of doodling, he had covered his entire left arm top to bottom in various sizes of swirls and misshapen circles. He really didn't want to Doodle anymore than that, so he put the markers away, back on the top of the dresser. He sighed, looking around the room for something to do. Then his eyes landed on it. A small file, nothing in it but two small pieces of parchment. The only clue as to where the hell his godson had went.
No-one had seen or heard from Harry Potter in 11 years. He hadn't come to Hogwarts when he was supposed to. Which nobody was surprised by, because all of the letters they had sent were returned unopened.
Sirius picked up the file and opened it, like he had done countless times before, and was still met with the same two documents from some ministry hag about how Harry Potter was sent off by the ministry to live with his Aunt and Uncle. Of course, when this came out they had paid a visit to those horrid people.
All they had to show for it, was a ministry approved document that said they had sold the child to the ministry when he was barely two years old. They had gotten the money, and whoever was faking ministry documents got the child. A child who was supposed to be under his own and his husband's guardianship, as it said in the will.
Since the document from the Dursleys was brought to light there was now an entire team of aurors dedicated to keeping the fact that Harry Potter, the savior of The Wizarding World, was sold by some muggles- in the dark. That team was working on raiding a new location they had gotten from an anonymous tip that had checked out. Sadly, he was not on the list of lucky bastards who would be able to go.
He heard the door open and checked the time. Thank Merlin!! He was going to go bonkers if he didn't see his husband in the next 10 seconds. He ran to the living room, and greeted Remus with a big smile and an even bigger hug. "I missed you too Padfoot." His beautiful husband replied hugging him back.
"Oh thank Merlin Moony. I thought I was going to lose my mind. If I have to stare at one more God forsaken paper, I'm gonna drown it." His husband smirked at his antics. "Padfoot, you and I both know veryp well from experience that papers cannot drown." Remus said giving him a knowing look. "That was one time!" He said, ears turning red.
"Mmm... No. I seem to remember there being nine and a half different occasions where you learned that paper cannot drown." Remus said while sitting down on the sofa. "Whatever!" Sirius said with a huff. He plopped down on the sofa next to Remus, and promptly draped himself over his husband's lap. "Wow. Charming." Remus said with his eyebrows raised. Sirius swatted at his arm, although it lacked any real strength.
A heavy pounding on the door sounded throughout the room. Sirius jumped and looked at his husband who seemed the same amount of displeased at the sudden noise. Remus motioned to the door. Sirius rolled his eyes and muttered a quiet, 'I'll get it' and made to get up. Then the screaming started.
"SIRIUS ORION BLACK, IF YOU DON'T OPEN THIS FUCKING DOOR I'M GOING TO FUCKING KILL YOU!!" He didn't recognize the voice, and from the look on Remus' face, he didn't either. It was at times like these when Sirius was glad the halls were soundproof. He jumped up Remus hot on his heels, and raced to the door swinging it open both with their wands out and in their hands. He was met with a person he didn't recognize, drenched in blood, and carrying another person.
"They're dead... *huff* all of them... *huff*. Couldn't leave him... *Heavy breathing* didn't deserve... *More huffing* please help him!" The person said very much out of breath. "Who are you?" He said while his husband let the complete and literally bloody stranger into their living quarters. "I'm Neo, he/him, you can arrest me later or whatever. *Huff* I don't care. Please don't let anything *cough* anything bad happen to him."
Sirius' face scrunched up. "Why would I arrest you?" He asked clearing off the table so they could lay the unconscious and bloody person down. Neo took a deep breath. "Neo is my real name. Don't know his, you know me. I'm one of the people *coughing* one of the ones you're looking for. Dagger." Sirius nearly dropped the plate he was moving to the counter.
"Please, I won't evade arrest if you just help him. I'll turn myself in. I promise." Neo said while draping the person in his arms on the table. "I don't really know how they did it to him this time. Fucking sick-minded bastards." Since Sirius was still near the counter trying to process why the hell an assassin was in his house, Remus sprung into action. "Can you tell me what happened so I can see if I can help, or if we'll need professional help?" Neo froze.
"If you bring in any doctors or medical personnel this castle will go up in flames, and it won't be my doing." Neo glanced at the person on the table before motioning to them as well. "That's Storm. He doesn't know his real name, I don't know his real name, the others didn't either. He's been an assassin longer than any of us have. Around 11 years I think. It isn't his fault though. He was raised there. They didn't give him or us any other choice!" Neo said gradually getting louder and climbing in pitch as if trying to bargain with the two adults in the room.
"Who didn't?" Sirius asked after coming out of his stupor. "The... the ministry people. Or at least I know they used to work there. The one who ran it used to be pretty high up on the ladder. She was arrested by one of the ministry blokes who raided the building. Dolores Umbridge." He paused before turning to look back at Remus. "Are you going to take a look at him or not?!" Remus raised his eyebrows, but made his way to the table nonetheless.
Sirius finally got a good look at the assassin on the table. Storm on the table was covered head to toe in some sort of black, tight armor that was broken in some places. But the thing that caught his eye, was the arch in Storm's back. It was like they were laying on a small rock that was in the middle of his back. Neo rolled the person onto their stomach, and that's when he saw them. Adolescent Hungarian Horntail wings stuck on to this person's back with a lot of blood surrounding the area where the wings and the person's skin met.
"Those arseholes have done experiments before, but never something like this. They've done so many at this point that we don't really know what part of which animal he is anymore. That's what made him such a good assassin. But he's a kid. He didn't deserve this." He spoke the last two sentences as if they physically pained him to do so. Wait... Kid?... The person on their kitchen table was a child assassin. Sirius' eyes widened as he put the pieces of the puzzle together.
"How old are you and where's the other two?" Sirius asked. Neo nodded solemnly before answering. "I was taken when I was 14. So I think I'm around 16 now." That made sense, Dagger only started showing up in the assassin group this past year. But Merlin that's a young age to be killing people. "Leto was 43 and Leah was 35. They're both dead. Leto was Mace and they cut off zir head as punishment for failing an important mission two weeks ago. I think it was supposed to be some sort of warning or example for the rest of us though. Leah was Staff. She hung herself 3 days ago. Storm was the one who found her in her cell. He just kind of held her body and stared at a wall for a few hours."
Oh how Sirius' heart was breaking for these kids. Although he was a little bit confused on why or how this kid was telling him so much. "I didn't really think he was going to die, but I don't know how to heal him, and he's the only one I have left. Plus, there was a lot of blood. So I'm not going to take any chances with this shite." Sirius looked at the child in front of him. Because that's who this was. A child. Life would have been so much easier if this group of assassins was the stone-hearted group of death eaters that they had all thought they were. This was a lot more complicated, if the apparent 16-year-old in front of him was to be trusted.
Remus sighed in relief, and both Sirius and Neo looked over at the kitchen table. "There's no internal bleeding or excessive damage. There were quite a few lacerations, contusions, and a trace of infection. But nothing too serious. I fixed what I could, but from what I can tell, his magical core has somehow latched onto the magic in the wings. There's no way they will be able to be detached without some sort of extreme surgery from someone who has been practicing a long time. Even then it could still do some serious harm to his magical core." Neo's shoulders sagged and he let out a heavy exhale.
"Thanks. I knew it wasn't really bad. I think I just panicked? Maybe, I don't know. You guys were the only people I could think of at the moment so I came here." Tears rolled down the 16-year-old's face. "Do you think you could take off his mask or would that be a little bit too dangerous?" Remus asked. Instead of replying, Neo walked over and dragged his thumb from the middle of Storm's forehead down to the tip of his nose with a flicking motion.
The armor melted into Storm's skin to reveal a child who looked around 10 years old with tattoos that looked scarily similar to the weapons that he used to kill, and dressed in blood soaked clothing that looked way too much like an old muggle hospital gown to be comfortable or suitable clothing. That's when he realized what Neo was wearing. He had on shirt that was clearly too big and ripped beyond repair, pants that were rolled up a few times with way too many holes to be stylish, and a piece of cloth tied in and around the belt loops- making some sort of a makeshift belt. All of it was stained red and covered in dirt.
Remus seemed to notice this as well because he walked out of the room, only to come back with two bundles of clothing in his arms. He said one bundle on one of the chairs surrounding the kitchen table, and gave the other to Neo- showing him where the bathroom was so he could change into clothing that was actual clothing and not whatever rags he had on currently.
While Neo was in the bathroom, Remus made his way over to his husband. His eyes were watering. "I don't think he's lying. If he is, he's a damn good one. If he isn't, what do we do?" Sirius pulled his husband into a hug and kissed his cheek. His husband had always been a few inches taller than him, and at perfect kissing height. "I don't know, but we'll figure it out together." He murmured into his husband's hair.
Soon the child came out, the clothing was very much too big, but it wasn't bloody, dirty, or ripped. Whatever, he'll take it. "When is he going to wake up?" Neo asked looking at Remus for some sort of reassurance. "Probably within the next day or two, because I had to put him in a short magic-induced healing coma. He will be okay, I promise." Remus was beginning to thank every deity he could think of for his medical degree in practical healing. Best magical degree choice ever.
"So, are you going to arrest me or something?" Ah yes, the million-galleon question. "Eventually I'm going to have to. But it's also my job as an auror to make sure that people are safe. You are included in that. And so is he." He pointed at storm. "You said they took you both right?" Neo's eyes filled with tears again. "Yeah. They took him when he was around two, he's 13 now." 13?! The boy looked 10.
"Would you be willing to say that under the influence of veritaserum?" Neo looked him dead in the eye. "Absolutely. I'll do anything. Just please don't let my brother go to Azkaban!" The kid was pleading with him now. "I'll do my best." He didn't know why he was promising this to a child. But he found he didn't care why. Something in his gut told him to do it, so he did it. Remus was nodding along to the promise, giving it reinforcement. The child looked relieved.
Then, an owl came in through the kitchen window and landed on the chair closest to Sirius. It held a ministry sealed envelope in its beak. He took the envelope and gave the owl a few pats before it raced back out the window. The letter was addressed to him, from the team who was running the raid. He opened it up.
The letter was about how the raid went and new facts they had found out from the people they had captured and their surrounding area. Apparently they had gathered enough information to withdraw the warrant they had for the four assassins arrests, pronounced the oldest two dead, and were now treating it as a missing personnel/kidnapping case for the other two. All of the people they had interrogated told similar stories of how they were somehow blackmailed or bribed to be in on the project. The stories that were told all aligned with what Neo had said so far. Sirius let out a breath of relief.
"Kid you're not going to Azkaban, and neither is your brother. Just got word from the ministry that the raid was successful. The people they captured just confirmed your story. They're treating it like a kidnapped case now. I'm going to send word to them that you are here and currently getting medical treatment. Is that okay with you?" Neo's knees buckled as he sobbed while nodding, he ended up thanking both him and his husband about 6 or 7 hundred times.
________AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH________
After putting an alerting spell on Storm, to wake up either himself and Remus when the kid woke up, they contacted the house elves to prepare a room for Neo and Storm. Once both kids were safe and sound on their respective beds of the bunk bed, Sirius went to his desk to finally write to the ministry of the events that occurred. The letter ended up being three sheets of parchment long. Merlin's saggy balls tonight was weird.
Once the letter was written and the owl was sent, he went over to where Remus was sitting on the couch and draped himself over his husband like he had done previously. They both had a silent agreement that neither of them would be able to go to sleep that night, so Remus kept on reading his book and played with his husband's hair. Sirius couldn't think of a moment where he was more grateful for his husband than then.