Marauders Oneshots

It Costs an Arm and a Leg (part 1 of 2)

Summary: Sirius Black deals with the aftereffects of the Cruciatus Curse.
Trigger Warnings: Child abuse, amputation, panic attack, heart attack, internalized ableism (it gets corrected),
AU: Everybody lives (because Sirius gets hurt)
Ships: WolfStar (Sirius Black/Remus Lupin)
Genre: Angst with a happy ending

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As he sits on the bench to his sixth year at Hogwarts, leaning against the window, eyes screwed shut and lips pursed, pain is still wracking through his body. Sirius isn't quite sure when, exactly, the horrible pain started— he knows it was at some point over the summer, but pinpointing it is difficult, as the days of the summer have blurred together into a mass of hurt and panic.

Sirius is no stranger to the Cruciatus Curse; the first time he was put under it, he'd been five years old and had asked Walburga so, so many questions. Too many questions about the wrong things. He'd wanted to know why he should hate muggleborns, black people, queer people, everyone. He'd asked about why they deserved so much and others so little. He didn't understand so many things, and he refused to take anything less than a detailed, logical explanation for an answer. Walburga hadn't enjoyed his merciless pestering and denial of her ideologies.

He'd been getting himself a cup of water as he drilled her, and had slipped and shattered the glass. That's what had sent her over the edge.

She'd spun on her heel and whipped her wand out, aiming at his chest. His only warning was a hissed instruction to be quiet, then Earth-shattering pain, and he was on the floor, screaming and writhing. No one had been home to hear his cries the first time— nobody save Regulus, who was in his room, too young to understand.

That day marked the day that Walburga Black finally rid herself of whatever mental barrier was preventing her from brutally abusing her oldest son, and boy, oh, boy, did she take advantage of it. Needless to say, over the years, he's become well acquainted the Torture Curse.

Nothing, though, has ever been as bad as this summer.

For hours and hours every day, he would be placed under the Cruciatus Curse, he would be beaten, he would be tortured. Orion and Walburga would take turns, but she would stick around for far longer and come back more often. Orion only really came to hurt him when he was particularly angry or annoyed, but Walburga needed nothing more than a vague inkling of boredom to torture him into unconsciousness.

He can count on one hand how many times he was fed, as well. From what he'd pieced together from what Orion and Walburga's minimal conversations (they don't get along much at all, they try to talk as little as possible), he only got to eat any leftovers they may have had. He's quite sure that they must have ordered the house elves to make less than usual, because he's really not had much to eat— or drink, for that matter.

Sirius thinks that the starvation combined with the heavy torture is why he's so physically affected.

He's been in horrible pain, radiating out from all the hundreds of spots he's been hit with the Cruciatus Curse. After months of it, he feels like there's sandpaper under every square centimetre of his skin, scraping away at his flesh with every motion, every breath. It feels like there's daggers embedded in his joints, stabbing at him whenever he tries to move.

It's especially concentrated in his right leg and hand, which are both red, hot to the touch, and feel like they're on fire whenever anything brushes up against them. Unfortunately for him, he has to keep them both covered (with his shoe and sleeve, respectively), lest his friends see the marks covering them. He had, for some reason, instinctively brought his right hand in front of his left to cover his face whenever he had to block anything, and curled his right leg in front of his body when he had to protect himself while on the floor. Due to this, they were covered in bruises, blood, and the pale marks surrounded by bright inflammation, caused by that damned Unforgivable. The limbs have been going numb pretty often, as well.