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Agrafo


Sirius went off down the hallway to the toilet, humming to himself, meandering along. He dragged his wand along the wall, bored as he trotted down the hallway. He waved his wand and charmed each one of the suits of armor along the way into different positions along the corridor and snickered as he looked back over his mischief. It wasn’t particularly terrible, but it would make Filch go wild. He grinned and ducked into the toilet.

It was a lesser used toilet, and therefore still clean from Filch’s administrations earlier that morning. It smelled of soap suds and mop water. He went about his business, flushing the loo and chuckling to himself about the memory of him and James flushing a whole load of Filibusters down a toilet upstairs as he went out to the sink basins to wash his hands. He drew his wand out of the knot in his hair as he stared at himself in the mirror - dropping it onto the sink counter - and grinned at the way his hair fell over his shoulders, tossing it playfully.

Sirius was playing at making faces in the mirror - trying to decide which of his pouty faces was the best one to hit Moony up with when he returned to the library - when the bathroom door opened behind him. He stopped at his pouting and turned the faucet on to actually wash his hands when he heard, “Accio wand,” from behind him and his wand went flying from the sink counter.

“Oi, what the fuck are you playing at - taking somebody’s wa--” he stopped mid-word as he turned about and found himself staring into the collar bone of Aliston Mulciber, who was taller than Sirius and broader, too. Sirius’s eyes travelled up Mulciber’s neck to his jawline. “Well. Hullo.” He took a step back, “A little close, aren’t you?” he grinned, “Might catch the Queer Cooties off me.” His eyes twinkled menacingly.

“Brash talk for someone who’s unarmed,” came Evan Rosier’s voice. Rosier stepped around Mulciber, holding Sirius’s wand, looking it over. It’d been Rosier that had accioed it. Sirius made to grab it out of his hand, but Evan withdrew it before he could and handed it off to Germaine Avery. “Here, hold this,” he said, and Avery grinned, clutching it in his fist.

Sirius looked around. Fanning about from behind Mulciber came the whole lot of the boys that often picked on Remus - Grant Crabbe, Dimitri Goyle, Amycus Carrow, Antonin Dolohov, Walden McNair, and even Severus Snape, though Snape hung back a bit from the others, a sour look on his face.

“Sod off, the lot of you,” Sirius said, trying to sound firm, “You’ll all be in great trouble when McGonagall hears about this.”

Rosier smiled, “It’s alright. The detention will be worth teaching you a lesson.” And he nodded to Mulciber, who stepped around behind Sirius, sort of cornering him and Rosier took a step forward, shoving Sirius back against the sink basin. “You’re an embarrassment to the name of Black,” he said.

Sirius laughed, “Alright. You sound like my dear old mum. Why do you give a damn about the name of Black? You’re not a Black, are ya, Evan?”

“It matters because Black is one of the Sacred Twenty-Eight. You’re a blight to the status of pureblood!” Evan said. “Filth like you - should be exterminated…”

Sirius grinned.

Evan raised his wand, “You think I’m funny?”

“Quite hilarious,” Sirius answered solemnly. He stared right into Evan’s face. “I think you and your entire little group here are a right good joke. You don’t have the guts to - what was the word? Exterminate me? You little cockroach. Fuck you.”

Several of the boys around him growled, unamused by Sirius’s words, but Evan held up his hands, his eyes glinting. He’d obviously been sort of hoping for a good segue like this, and he asked, “You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”

Sirius’s jaw tightened. “Me? Eh. I’ve had better. You would probably benefit quite nicely from a good buggering… maybe knock that stick you got shoved up there out....”

Evan laughed, but it was a cold laugh, not an amused laugh. “Oh Sirius, please. We all know it isn’t you that does the buggering. It’s your little half-blood puffer fish, isn’t it?” Sirius stiffened, angrier at the attack against Remus than anything else that had gone on so far. “Aren’t you his little bitch, Black?”

Sirius stared into Evan Rosier’s eyes as the other boys all laughed heartily.

“Pretty little Sirius Black,” cooed Amycus Carrow.

Sirius’s fingers tightened ‘round the edge of the sink basin.

“I would’ve thought that Lupin was the bitch,” Rosier continued on, “Always running off and crying to his ickle mates about how terrible we all are, getting you lot to fight his battles. Right? That’s how it is, isn’t it? Isn’t he always playing the coward?

Sirius reacted without even thinking about it. He swung his arm - hard - into Rosier’s gut and Rosier doubled over and Sirius punched him in the mouth and leaped toward Avery, intent on getting his wand, ready to hex the whole fucking lot of them! But Mulciber was too fast and he caught Sirius by the hair, wrenching him backwards across the sink basin so that Sirius was lifted off his feet and the edge of the basin sunk into his side, knocking the wind out of him. Sirius scrambled, kicking against the wall, but Mulciber’s grip on his hair was so tight, and the sink basin’s squared stone edge dug harshly into his ribs so that Sirius couldn’t really get traction without it hurting bloody murder. Now that he was neutralized, Amycus Carrow got the guts up to step in and he roughly caught Sirius’s elbows, wrenching them back so he was facing Rosier as Evan stood upright again, wiping blood from his torn lip.

“Fucking fight me like a man if you wanna fight!” Sirius shouted, “Give me back my wand and FIGHT! You’re the fucking coward, attacking me unarmed!” He spat at Rosier.

Rosier stared at Sirius. All the other Slytherins had wands drawn. Rosier drew his wand from the pocket of his robes and stared Sirius in the face. “I would love to fight you like a man, SIrius Black, but I see no man before me. I see a pretty little girl - Remus Lupin the Coward’s Pretty Little Bitch! That’s what you are. Look at you… You even look like a pretty little girl… long, beautiful hair… so shiny and pretty…” Roiser reached out and ran a finger over the side of Sirius’s face, brushing a bit of fallen hair out of his eyes. “You want me to fight you like a man? I will. But first, let’s make you look like one.” He raised his wand and rapped it to Sirius’s head harshly. “Agrafo!” he said simply.

There was a funny slashing sound, a blaze of white light that came from Rosier’s wand and Sirius suddenly stumbled forward, the grip that Mulciber had on his head released - his hair still clutched tight in Mulciber’s fist… but no longer attached to Sirius’s head. His jaw dropped and he felt sick to his stomach as the Slytherins laughed - even Severus Snape. Sirius couldn’t breathe.

“Turn him about, let him have a look at it!” laughed Rosier and Carrow and Mulciber quickly wrenched Sirius around - forcing him to face the mirror. His head looked like it’d been hacked by a blindman, the short spindles that were left were uneven and it was slashed right to the scalp in a few places where the spell had shorn too closely. Sirius let out a cry that burst from his very toes.

His hair was gone. His precious hair. All of it, hacked right off!

Mulciber waved the clump of it in his fist into Sirius’s face. “Here it is,” he laughed, “Here’s your hair, pretty ickle girl!” And he threw it into the sink basin, the tendrils of it hanging over the edge.

Sirius nearly threw up.

“No wonder you wear your hair long,” Evan laughed, “Look at that head of yours… all misshapen. You’re quite ugly this way, aren’t you?” He motioned for Carrow and Mulciber to throw him down and they did - Sirius hit the floor of the boys’ toilet with weak knees. He felt horribly exposed as he never had before in all of his life. His wand clattered to the floor beside him as Rosier motioned for Avery to give it back. “Now get up, you little bitch, and I’ll fight you like you wanted. Now that I can tell you’re a man.”

Sirius shook his head and he grabbed his wand but he tried to crawl away, to one of the stalls, wanting to get out of their sights, wanting to cover his head…

Pugnus,” Rosier cast and Sirius suddenly felt a kick to his gut that flipped him onto his back, and he hit his newly shaven head on the tile. “Pugnus!” the second punch went to his mouth and nose and blood burst from his face.

Sirius started to cry.

“No… you aren’t crying? He is!” Evan Rosier hooted with laughter, then he sneered, “And you expect me to think of you as a man?”

Suddenly the door of the toilet burst open. “Sirius??”

“Moony no!” gasped Sirius. “Don’t c - come in here!” He didn’t want Remus getting hurt - didn’t want them turning on him… Sirius didn’t have the fight left in him to get up to protect his Moony and he couldn’t stand the thought of them hurting Remus, or of Remus seeing him looking like this, without his hair, all ugly and exposed… He crawled across the floor, his face dripping blood.

Pugnus!” cried Rosier again, and he blow flipped Sirius over onto his back once again, and Sirius lay there.

But Remus had rounded the corner, his wand raised, eyes filled with panic. “Sirius what’s --” he ducked as a spell was cast his way from Mulciber - and only just in time, the red sparks hitting the far wall and exploding a bit of stone. Remus waved his wand in return and managed to stupefy Avery as a result as his eyes took in the scene before him. He didn’t even recognize Sirius at first laying on the floor, his hair butchered off. But then he realized it was his Padfoot there, and he ran forward, shoving Carrow and Snape aside to clear his path to Sirius, and he dropped to his knees, grabbing him up from the floor, clutching him to his chest, “What the hell’ve you done!” he shouted, glaring up at the Slytherins, even as he lifted Sirius up from the floor.

“We sheared your bitch,” answered Rosier.

Sirius stared weakly up at Remus… He had never seen Remus’s eyes go so dark as they did at that moment. Never seen an expression like that on anybody’s face in all the world. Remus shook with fury, and he righted Sirius up, then stood up himself and he waved his wand and as easily as if he were popping balloons with the force, his magic shattered the mirrors over the sink basins - without him even saying a word. He turned his wand onto Rosier and he waved it and his palm at the same time and the motion sent a draft of hot air that pushed Rosier clear across the bathroom - slammed him into the far wall and he fell to the floor, the air crushed out of him. He scrambled to his feet then, with a glance at Sirius - Remus standing, blocking him off - and Rosier hurried out of the toilet, followed by all his slithering slimey friends, including Severus, who had never once said a word, either in favor nor against the entire attack.

Remus turned and his eyes fell on the clump of Sirius’s hair in the sink, his heart rattled about in the pit of his stomach, having sunk there like a busted lift car, and he braced himself as he turned back to look at Sirius.

Sirius had crawled into the corner of the room and balled himself up there, his wand laying on the floor a couple inches from his foot. He was crying.

Remus went over, kneeling beside him, his arms open wide, “Sirius --”

That was all it took. Sirius poured himself into Remus’s arms, clutching to his shoulders and neck desperately, hanging from him, his face buried into Rey’s chest. Remus stared down at Sirius’s shorn head, at the too-close spots and the black fuzz that covered the rest of his scalp. James’s bloody facial hair was longer than most of the hair that was left upon Sirius’s head and Remus felt sick for the loss of all that beautiful hair that he’d loved so dearly to run his hands through…

“Don’t look at me Moony,” Sirius sobbed.

“It’ll grow back,” Remus murmured.

Sirius choked on his air.

“With a charm. I’m sure there’s one in some book,” Remus suggested, “I’ll check the library and we’ll get it fixed and you’ll be good as new… good as new, my love.”

Sirius couldn’t stop crying, though, whatever Remus said, and when Remus brought his palm up to cup the back of Sirius’s head, Sirius gave a jolt of and a whimper and trembled at the touch so that Remus lowered his palm away and just put his hand on Sirius’s back instead.

“I’m sorry, Sirius… I’m so sorry,” Remus whispered. For all he could think of was that if he’d just bloody gone with him to the stupid magizoology section when he’d asked none of this would’ve happened. IF he’d just bloody patted the idiot dog when he’d tried to divert Remus’s attention from his book, then Sirius’s hair would not be in the sink basin, it would be there, on his head, where it belonged…

The bathroom door opened and someone came in - some Hufflepuff first year that looked over at the two Gryffindor boys kneeling on in the corner, at Sirius for crying and then, recognizing him and seeing the horrid mess that was Sirius’s hair, the boy’s eyes widened in shock and he scrambled back out of the toilet hurriedly.

Remus clutched Sirius’s elbows, “C’mon, let’s go back to the common room.”

Sirius clung to Remus, and Remus paused at the sink basin to collect the hair that lay within it with a flick of his wand and he shoved it deep into his pocket, unsure what exactly he would do with it, but perhaps there was some charm to simply reattach it or something - he’d try bloody anything to make Sirius whole again.

They got a lot of stares going up the steps and Remus tried to bring Sirius the most discreet way up to Gryffindor tower, but there was really only so many ways to get there… and the common room itself was the worst anyway. Sirius had steeled himself up by the time they reached the portrait hole - wiped his eyes clenched his teeth… But there was no amount of preparation for the response they got when people, one by one, looked up and saw Sirius Black with his hair cut short and shorn right to his head as it was. He was bruised and bleeding still, too, his nose covered with dried blood...

“What in hell --?” Frank Longbottom uttered the words before he could censor himself and Ali Prewitt slapped his hand with disapproval.

Lily’s eyes nearly bugged out of her head. Annalee gasped, McKenna let out a despairing wail. All the first years stared and Wally asked, “But it looked so good long, why would he cut it?” as he looked about cluelessly.

“He didn’t cut it, dumbass, that’s a hex, that is,” muttered Liam.

Lily ran over, “Sirius -- who did this?”

Sirius shook his head.

Remus tugged him toward the stairs and Remus looked back at Lily with sad eyes that promised to tell her more when he could, but right now he needed to get Sirius away from all the shocked eyes that stared and judged, and so he brought him up to the dormitory, and slammed the door.

Peter let out a squeak when he saw Sirius… and James looked up, his jaw dropping at the sight of it.

Sirius stood there before them, Remus with his arm around his shoulders, holding him up, his head hung.

James scrambled for something - anything to say - but there was nothing.