Godsend

Harry was slammed into the stone floor. The man forced his pants down and was just about to enter him when Harry cried out.

"Stop that!"

He started choking Harry, suffocating him, closing his air passages.

Far away, he heard someone calling his name.

"Harry!"

He couldn't answer. The man clapped a hand over Harry's mouth.

"Harry!"

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Harry woke up with a startled cry. He sat up hurriedly, making himself dizzy beyond measure and promptly fainted again.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Harry opened his eyes slowly. His head ached terribly. He groaned and closed his eyes again.

He felt someone put a cold cloth on his forehead.

"Harry? Are you awake?"

He recognized that voice. It was Sirius. Harry opened his eyes and found himself face to face with the man who had rescued him.

"What do you want? Are you going to..."

Harry's eyes filled with tears as he tried to back away from Sirius.

Sirius grasped his shoulders and made Harry look him in the face. Why was Harry so scared of him?

He sighed and stood up. He went over to a table and picked up a sealed envelope. He walked back over to where Harry was lying (in Sirius' bed) and handed him the paper.

"This is from Dumbledore. He said the letter will explain everything and that you can trust me," he said calmly as he sat on the foot of the bed.

Harry took the letter in trembling hands. He opened it, and there was no mistaking the elegant script.

Harry,

I am terribly sorry for this, but I am having you watched by various wizards set out to protect you. When you ran away from your aunt's house, I had this man, Sirius Black, track you down. He was your father's best friend in school and is completely trustworthy. I told him to take you to his house as soon as he found you, but I hadn't accounted on something like this happening. Sirius owled me as soon as you were safe. I would come and visit you myself, but I am terribly busy at the Ministry. Nothing you need to know about, of course. There is a problem, though. When I read of your injuries, I realized that Sirius legally cannot magically mend them. The house you are in now is under watch by the ministry because it had been deserted for years, and any sign of magic would alert the Ministry, and I'm sure you don't want to deal with that. However, Sirius knows of muggle healing techniques, and they will work, but not to the extent of wizard power.

I shall write again, Harry. Keep an eye out.

Yours,

Albus Dumbledore

Harry now felt guilty for accusing Sirius like that. If Dumbledore said he was helping Harry, there was no argument.

He looked up at Sirius and mumbled something.

"Pardon?"

"I said I'm sorry for not believing you. It's just that," Harry paused and looked into the man's face again, "I - thought that you were going to - to -"

Harry's beautiful green eyes filled with tears again. He turned his gaze away from the handsome man looking at him.

"Harry, I would never do that to you," Sirius whispered honestly. He wiped Harry's tears away with gentle hands. He suddenly said, "You're burning up."

Harry took a shuddering breath and tired to sit up again. A stab of pain passed from the base of his neck all the way to the bottom of his spine and all across his ribs.

"Oh god," Harry cried out.

"I'm going to have to check you over, Harry," Sirius whispered. "I need to mend what I can."

Sirius took a cold washcloth and ran it over Harry's face. Harry winced when it came into contact with his nose.

"They broke your nose, didn't they?" Sirius asked worriedly. "I'm going to push it back into place, but it's going to hurt."

Harry took a deep breath and nodded. Sirius placed either hand on the sides of Harry's nose and set the bone back into place.

Harry groaned and bit his lip.

"Shh, shh. It's done," Sirius said gently as he continued washing Harry's face. After he was finished, the washcloth was no longer white; it was a grimy red color. He noticed with horror that Harry's chin, both temples, and left eye were bruised.

Sirius matted hair away from Harry's face, wanting to see Lily's eyes staring back at him. They weren't vivid green anymore. They seemed dull, hurt, terrified...

Harry concentrated on Sirius as he continued to clean his face. He looked young; with long brown hair and warm brown eyes. He was handsome, in Harry's opinion.

"What happened to you?" Sirius whispered softly as he touched Harry's cheek. He moved his finger up to rest on the bruise on Harry's temple. Harry flinched.

"My head hurts so much," Harry said wearily. In fact, his stomach was abnormally queasy, his ribs felt like they were crushed into millions of pieces, and worst of all, his backside felt as if it was on fire.

Sirius nodded sympathetically and said, "I know. You probably feel like hell. I have to examine you, though. Do you think you can get your shirt off?"

"I'll try," Harry said doubtfully. He shifted to the side and immediately gasped in pain.

"No, no, I can't do it."

"Lay back down, Harry. I'll do it," Sirius said.

Harry did as he was told, though a feeling other than pain suddenly emerged at the thought of having Sirius' hands roaming over his chest.

Sirius started unbuttoning Harry's shirt slowly so as not to cause him any more pain. As Harry's collarbone came into view, Sirius' breath hitched slightly. He had the sudden urge to cover that piece of lightly tanned flesh with kisses. He cleared his throat and silently willed himself not to touch Harry. Soon, Sirius had unbuttoned Harry's shirt all the way, and it was all he could do to keep himself from kissing all the cuts and bruises away.

Five of Harry's ribs were broken, he decided. Three on the right and two on the left. There were painful looking green and purple bruises all over Harry's sides, and a big cut ran from his last rib on the right to his hip.

"The bruises will take some time to disappear without the help of a potion, as will your ribs, but there's still the fact that you're burning up," Sirius stated.

He ran his hand over Harry's stomach, all inappropriate thoughts forgotten in fear of Harry's health.

"Ouch... no, don't do that," Harry moaned.

Sirius' eyes widened. There was a chance that Harry had internal bleeding, and how was he going to fix that?

"What's the matter?" Harry asked worriedly.

"Oh, nothing," Sirius replied with a weak smile. Should he tell Harry? How would he tell Harry?

"I'll be right back, Harry. I'm going to get some medicine to treat those cuts," Sirius said gently.

Harry nodded and watched Sirius go out the door.

As he lay in bed, he thought how his day would be different if he didn't leave 4 Privet Drive that morning. He'd probably be quarreling with Dudley over the television remote, or perhaps be pacing his room, waiting for a letter from Ron. Instead, he'd lost his wand, got drugged, beaten up, and raped.

"Here we go," Sirius said, shaking Harry from his thoughts.

As Sirius started tending to Harry's bloody cuts once more, Harry remembered what Dumbledore wrote in his letter: Sirius couldn't use magic in this house.

"You might need stitches for this one," Sirius said reprovingly, touching the cut that ran from rib to hip.

"Stitches?" Harry choked out. He'd be awake during the procedure, able to see the needle and thread pierce his skin. He shuddered at the thought.

"Does your stomach hurt?" Sirius asked.

"Yes. It still feels like I'm going to throw up," Harry said desperately.

"That's what I thought. When that man entered you without preparation, your muscles tensed up, and that's what's making that awful feeling in there. It's horrible, and he broke some cartilage and skin," Sirius said knowingly.

Harry's eyebrows shot up.

"How do you know?"

Sirius' eyes darkened.

"I - I was raped as well. It happened when I was younger," Sirius said hurriedly. "No matter."

"What? That's horrible! Who did it? How old were you?"

Sirius sighed. It wasn't good for Harry's health right now to be so worked up.

"Calm down first, Harry," he said. "A professor at Hogwarts did it. I suppose he was drunk. I was 12 then."

Harry nearly fainted again. 12 years old? He was that young when it happened?

"I'm - Merlin's beard, 12? That's... what happened after?" Harry asked quietly.

"Oh... I can't remember much, but I can still remember how much it hurt. I was in a dark hallway in the middle of the night. I didn't want to go back to the dormitory, but James came looking for me. He spotted me staggering down a hallway and ran to me. He asked me why I was crying, but I didn't want to answer. It was so humiliating. I didn't want to be around anyone. Then he saw all the blood on my robes. He guessed it himself and then he - he hugged me. A long, comforting hug. I remember now that I cried hard into his shoulder. Without any questions, he knew not to tell anyone. He helped me clean up and snuck into the dungeons to get a healing potion. He was the greatest friend anyone could ever have," Sirius finished sadly.

His eyes were filled with tears.

An awkward silence followed Sirius' tale. After a few minutes, he got up, cleared his throat, and looked out the window.

"It's getting late. Harry, you should try and get some sleep," he said.

Harry nodded before he realized something.

"This is your bed, isn't it? Where are you going to sleep?"

Sirius waved a hand nonchalantly.

"I plan to stay here for tonight, to see if your condition worsens. I'll be in that chair," he said, gesturing to a rickety, wooden chair standing next to the table he had earlier taken the envelope off of.

Harry felt guilty about pushing Sirius out of his own bed, so he said, "Er - you can sleep here, if you want -"

"No, Harry. You need a soft bed to rest in. That's final," Sirius said firmly.

Harry was too tired to argue, so he just pulled the covers over his bare chest and said "Alright, if you're sure. Good night, Sirius."

"Good night," the man said gently, wishing he could share the bed with him.

Yawning, he took a blanket out of an old armoire and made his way over to the chair. Sirius covered himself with the blanket and got as comfortable as he could, not taking his eyes off Harry.