the_debt_of_time

would send to Hogwarts, the way she locked him in his room and starved him for days,
and the way that she had forced him to cut the words of the House of Black into his own
skin with a blood quill to prove a point.
Sirius swallowed hard and took a deep breath to control his emotions. He was a
grown man in his thirties and would not allow a fucking painting to make him feel weak.
"Promise you'll visit... often," he pleaded quietly.
Remus reassured Sirius with a small smile, directing him away from the portrait on
the wall. "I'll be staying here with you unless I'm out on missions. I promise, Pads."
The news settled Sirius's nerves a bit.
"Do you have my stuff?" He looked back as Remus removed a shrunken box from
the pocket of his robes, waving his wand to enlarge it once more. "I'd like to go put
everything away. See if my dear, dead mother didn't turn my old bedroom into an altar,
where she sacrificed Muggles and bathed in their blood to make herself beautiful."
"No offence, Pads, but I remember your mother.. ." Remus began, his face
contorted into a disgusted grimace.
Sirius snorted, glad for the humour to break the tension. "Well, I didn't say that
bathing in Muggle blood would work. You sure the place is clean?" He wiped a finger along
the bannister by the stairs, scowling at the feel of the grime.
"Depends on your definition of clean," Tonks said as she leant up against a nearby
wall. "I went through the place with Mad-Eye and Kingsley. They needed someone with
Black blood to open up the wards, of course. But then they made me sit on the front porch
after I broke a vase, while they scoured the place for Dark Magic." She rolled her brown
eyes and ran a hand through her long blue hair. "Said I might end up accidentally knocking
over a cursed item if I wasn't careful. Anyway, the place is infested with a number of
creatures, mainly doxies, and Kings thinks there might be a boggart in the upper floors
roaming around, but there weren't any curses set up."
"Good," Sirius muttered and made his way up the stairs. "I'll see you two in a bit.
Moony, go check out the basement and see if we can't set something up for the full moons."
Remus sighed heavily as Sirius began to ascend the stairs. "Will do. Get some rest,
Pads."