Orion let out a deep sigh of relief as he lowered himself into the comfortable leather chair seated behind his desk.
He’d been in Paris on business for the past week, only arriving back at his London home Grimmauld Place a few moments prior. His wife and sons were out for the evening at her brother’s home and would return later that night, meaning that for the first time in years Orion had the house to himself.
It was quiet, peaceful in a way it hadn’t been in nearly five years. Not around the school holidays at least. His wife and eldest son were always arguing about something or other, both of them screaming and slamming doors in childlike fits of temper.
It was Orion’s personal opinion that his wife and son were almost identical in personality, which was the reason that they fought so often. Both strong willed and prideful and not likely to give up.
One day it would get the boy hurt.
Orion could only pray that when that day came he would be close by to rescue his son from whatever he’d gotten himself into, as much as the boy would despise that.
His eldest son was a conundrum he had yet to solve.
When he had been young, Sirius Orion had been an angel. Orion’s shining star, a beacon of hope for the future of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black. The boy that had given him his first taste of fatherhood.
Since Hogwarts, since the sorting, Sirius had become cold. Distant.
The boy would scream all day long with his mother of given the chance, he rejected his family, rejected their values and traditions without a second thought. He was the polar opposite to their younger boy Regulus, who always did as he was told without complaint and held the family above all else.
As it should be.
It was a question Orion found himself asking daily, where did they go wrong? Why would the boy reject the family in such a way, to be replaced with half-bloods and muggle-borns and Potters. How could he ever replace his family with those so beneath them. Those who did not even share their blood.
He sighed once more, reclining in his chair as he flicked his wand to pour a glass of whiskey from the crystal decanter.
He glanced apprehensively at the stack of letters and papers that had accumulated on his desk whilst he had been away. He would have to deal with them eventually but he found himself reluctant to do so at present, wanting to savour the moment of peace before he started to work again.
He leaned back, closing his eyes as he rested his head on the top of his chair.
He heard a creak upstairs.
He opened an eye before quickly closing it again, putting the noise down to the elf. He must be taking the opportunity to clean the boys’ rooms Orion decided with a soft hum.
A moment passed.
There was a thump upstairs.
Now the elf was just being intentionally loud Orion thought, angry at the disruption of his peaceful evening. He had half a mind to summon the elf down to berate him.
There was a crash.
Orion stood, wand in hand, frustrated. He was about to call the elf when a fourth noise interrupted the peace of the otherwise silent house.
There was a person upstairs.
The sound of someone being violently ill filled the quiet house. Orion paused, blinking.
The boys were supposed to be out with Walburga, although by the retching sounds echoing from upstairs he could see reason for one of them being left.
He opened the door of his study with a flick of his wand, climbing the stairs as quickly as was proper without running.
He was after all a Lord.
He arrived on the landing of his sons’ floor, turning towards Sirius’ room as he heard noise from within.
The room was empty, the bed covers twisted and rumpled and day robes which his son had clearly been wearing earlier lay in a crumpled heap on the floor.
Light shone from the half open door of his son’s bathroom, he pushed open the door and entered the ensuite room. He was greeted by the sight of his eldest son on his knees, bent over the toilet heaving into it.
The boy was dressed in red chequered pyjama trousers and a baggy black muggle style t-shirt with a large print unfamiliar to Orion. His hair was messily pulled back in a ponytail, half of it escaping the band and falling back into his pale sweating face.
Sirius didn’t notice the entrance of his father, too busy over the toilet regurgitating what was left in his stomach.
The crash Orion had heard had apparently been what was a rather expensive soap, it’s glass dispenser now lying smashed on the floor with its contents forming a growing puddle around it. Orion cleared the mess with a flick of his wand, making a mental note to have Kreacher acquire a new bottle.
Orion move forward, shrugging off his outer robe and placing it on the counter, leaving him in only his dress shirt and slacks. He rolled up the sleeves of his shirt and knelt beside his son on the floor. He gathered the escaped locks of inky black hair, pulling them back and holding them away from his still vomiting son’s face.
He rubbed what he hoped were soothing circles on his son’s back as he realised that he had never been in this situation before.
The boys had of course been ill when they were young, but that had always been dealt with by their Governess. The boys went to Hogwarts now, spending the majority of the year there so any illnesses would be dealt with by the school Mediwitch.
Orion couldn’t remember a time when he had ever been left to take care of his children alone.
That couldn’t be right he thought with a frown.
Then again, it wasn’t his place to be concerned with such matters, he had a family to run and a Lordship to handle.
Surely he must’ve looked after them at least once. He may be a Lord but he was their father for Merlin’s sake.
He blinked back to awareness as his son finally finished emptying the contents of his stomach, slumping to the floor half leant on the toilet. Orion released his grip on the boy’s hair, making sure to tuck it behind his ears so that it wouldn’t fall back into his face.
His son looked so young and vulnerable. It was a look Orion had never seen on his stubborn Gryffindor son before and one he realised that he did not wish to see repeated.
Sirius blinked deliriously up at his father as Orion moved behind his son, slotting his arms underneath his son’s armpits and pulling the boy up to stand, swaying slightly and leaning heavily on his father.
“Father?” he asked, sounding confused at the unprecedented situation the two had found themselves in.
Orion felt something similar, although he found himself consumed with regret that he had distanced himself so much from his children.
He didn’t respond, instead opting to move Sirius and himself into the bedroom after vanishing the mess from the toilet and masking the lingering smell.
He half guided and half dragged his son back into the bedroom and onto the bed.
Looking closer Orion could see that the bedsheets were sweat soaked and hardly looked comfortable for anyone, especially not one as sick as his firstborn appeared.
He realised as Sirius sagged onto the soiled bed, he had no idea what he was doing.
Think, what would Orion’s own mother do?
The boy had thrown up, Orion should get him water to wash his mouth out. He should’ve done that whilst they were still in the bathroom, he cursed himself internally.
He really had no idea what he was doing he groaned.
Okay, water. He could do that. He summoned a glass and filled it with water, propping up his son and placing the glass to the boy’s lips.
If Sirius hadn’t looked confused before he most certainly did now Orion thought with mirth until he remembered why the boy was so baffled by such a simple thing.
Once the glass was emptied Orion placed it to the side, considering what to do about the bedsheets.
His son was still pale and sweating. Was he supposed to do something about that or would it go away on its own? What would he do about it, a cold cloth perhaps? He remembered his mother using cold wet cloths sometimes to cool a patient.
Maybe he should change his son, the boy’s clothing was equally soiled as his bedsheets.
Maybe he should just call his mother for help.
No. No, this was the only time in Orion’s memory that he’d been here to take care of his son. He could figure this out, he wasn’t going to back out at the first hurdle.
He took a deep breath and turned to his son, still collapsed in a heap against the pillows, with a new determination.
He needed to change the bedsheets, change his son into fresh – and more appropriate, his mind supplied – pyjamas. What else? Wet cloth, of course.
He could do this.
First things first, figure out what’s wrong.
He tapped his wand to his son’s head, a piece of parchment appearing with a full diagnostic reading. It appeared to be Basilisk Flu. Whilst the disease wasn’t pleasant to experience it wasn’t too dangerous Orion noted with a sigh of relief. Sirius must’ve picked it up before he left Hogwarts for the holidays a few days prior.
The immediate issue drawing Orion’s attention was Sirius’ temperature. It was almost forty-two degrees, a temperature that at least wasn’t as bad as it would be for muggles due to the magic in their bodies protecting them. Still, it needed to be rectified.
He conjured several strips of cloth, leaving them on the bedside table ready for when he had sorted his son and the bed.
He looked around the room, eyes stopping on the plush armchair by the window. He brought it to the side of the bed, close enough that he could easily manoeuvre Sirius from his position on the bed onto the armchair.
He slid his arm underneath his son’s, pulling him up and half carrying him over towards the chair. Once they reached it Orion gently lowered his son to sit on it, his head resting on the arm.
His son peered up at him through heavy lidded eyes, watching as Orion summoned fresh sheets, stripping the bed of the old ones with a twist of his wrist and replacing them with the new clean ones. The soiled sheets lay in a heap beside Sirius’ abandoned day robes, waiting to be collected by the elf for cleaning.
Orion swiftly crossed the length of the room, reaching his son’s drawers and checking each one until he found pyjamas.
The boy really needed to find a better hiding place for all those magazines than his drawers Orion considered with a fond smile.
A part of him ached, seeing physical tangible proof that his son was nearer the title of man than boy when Orion had barely begun to know him. He still had a year yet. Even after that, the boy would still be here, just because he will be a man then it doesn’t mean that Orion would lose him.
He pulled out a fresh pair of pyjamas, blue. Sirius had always favoured blue robes, Orion believed that the boy would’ve had his room done in blue if he hadn’t thought that red would aggravate his mother.
Orion brought the pyjamas over to Sirius who was still curled up on the armchair watching his father curiously, head cocked like a puppy. Fitting, the boy did bear the name of the dog star after all. Orion had always thought that the young Sirius had resembled a puppy although it was never a sentiment he’d shared with said child.
“Can you change, or do you require assistance?” Orion questioned, feeling slightly uncomfortable at the thought.
Sirius flushed, eyes widening in horror as he reached out to snatch the clothes, murmuring some unintelligible thing about being fine.
He rose from the seat, stumbling and dizzy at the sudden movement. Orion reached out instinctively, catching his son.
Once the boy was stable, no longer swaying where he stood Orion released his arm and allowed him to stand on his own.
The pyjamas balanced on the arm of the seat Sirius moved as if to begin undressing.
“Don’t look.” He weakly protested as Orion remained in the room, with a roll of his eyes but some small feeling of relief at the removal of the awkward situation Orion turned his back to his teenage son to allow the boy space to undress.
He heard shuffling behind him and the slight thump of the sweat soaked clothes hitting the floor. There was a bang and a loud hiss from his son causing Orion to turn around.
Sirius had changed into the new pyjama bottoms and had been in the midst of changing into the fresh shirt when it appeared as though he had experienced another dizzy spell, leaving the boy clinging onto the side of the armchair once again knelt on the floor.
Orion rushed to his son’s side, helping the boy back up and guiding him back into bed. The boy was only in pyjama bottoms but Orion figured with the temperature he was at it was unlikely that the boy would want a shirt on anyway.
He grunted softly as he held the boy’s weight, far heavier than it used to be, hauling him towards the refreshed bed. He helped his son to lie down on the plumped pillows, covering the boy with the thick duvet and tucking him securely in.
Sirius seemed to have finally regained the ability to speak, watching his father curiously as he weakly murmured “What are you doing?”
Orion turned with a raised eyebrow from where he had been gathering the strips of cloth, “You have a fever,” he responded shortly, turning back to what he was doing “it needs to be cooled, the best way to do that is with these.”
He summoned a basin of water, wetting the cloth and wringing it out. He folded the strips carefully and placed the cool fabric onto his young son’s head.
“I……I meant what are you doing, shouldn’t you just send an elf or something,” if Orion hadn’t been stood so close to his son he may have missed the muttered statement that followed, “that’s what you always do when you have to deal with me.”
Orion did a double take, looking at the defeated face of the young man before him.
Had he truly been so negligent of a father that his own son thought he would leave him to the care of an elf as opposed to the care of his parent? Did his own child not understand that Orion would never abandon him in such an hour of need?
Sure Orion had never been there in the past when the boy was sick but he knew that they were alright. He’d received hourly updates every time one of his children fell ill.
Yes he may not have ventured upstairs personally, he’d had important business to do, but he’d always known how they were doing.
More important than checking on his own children?
How was it that in one sentence, a sentence that Orion had never been meant to hear, his son had challenged everything Orion had ever held as common sense. Every principle he’d ever known.
When Orion or his sister had been young and had gotten sick his mother had always taken care of them. She had been a Healer before she retired when Orion was about the age his own son was now.
He doubted that Walburga would’ve ever trapsed up to the top floor to nurse their children. After all that is what they paid the governess for.
Had the lack of contact from his parents affected Sirius Orion more than he showed?
Perhaps that was where the trouble lay.
It wouldn’t make sense though. Regulus had been raised the same way and had become a perfectly agreeable young man. Still, it was possible that Orion was finally reaching the root of the problem where his eldest child was concerned.
He pursed his lips silently as he dabbed his son’s sweat-soaked forehead with the cool cloths.
This was a matter to be dealt with later when the boy had recovered.
He watched as his son slowly drifted off to sleep, finally able to rest as his fever lessened under his father’s ministrations.
Orion stood, glancing at the time as he did and noticing that near to three hours had passed.
Walburga and Regulus would be home soon.
Sirius was stable, recovering. He would be fine until morning. Despite that, Orion couldn’t shake the lingering feeling – the lingering fear that his son would worsen without his father by his side.
It was irrational. Perhaps it was because it had been a long day, perhaps it was due to the fact that Orion had never seen his son ill – vulnerable. He could hardly bear to leave the boy.
It would do no good to sit around fretting. He had stacks of work to complete before tomorrow. What was best was to leave the boy to rest and recover. That would be logical.
So why did it feel so wrong?
Against his better judgment, Orion turned his back to his sleeping son and walked towards the door. With one last look to see his son, peaceful and almost angelic in appearance asleep safely in bed, he stepped out of the room and closed the door firmly behind him.
Sleep well my star.
He summoned the elf, ordering him to watch over Orion’s son during the night and inform him immediately of any changes.
With that he made his way back downstairs towards his study, heart growing heavier with each step he took away from his firstborn.
His head was still reeling from all that had been discovered that night, the echoes of his mistakes wrung in his mind.
Perhaps it was time for Sirius to begin his duties as heir and learn how to manage the accounts.
Yes.
Yes, that seemed like a plan.
Spending more time with his son would allow Orion to figure out the true crux of the problem and to tame his brash, wilful child.
It would have to wait though, until the boy had recovered.
Until then, there was work to do he thought as he lowered himself down behind his desk.