A Not So Sirius Accident

It had all been his own fault. Well, some of it was Harry's. But, really, the kid couldn't help the fact that he was thought about constantly.

When Sirius Apparated to the front door of Grimmauld Place, he briefly wondered how he had ever expected to re-enter without anyone noticing him, but his thoughts were redirected when a spike of pain shot through his leg.

Remus answered the knock on the door with a confused expression on his face that quickly turned to a disapproving, almost fatherly look. "What happened this time?"

"You don't even want to know."

The fact was, Sirius didn't want him to know. His attempt to hide the truth was pathetic, really, considering that Remus would figure it out eventually; that was just how he was. But for now, let him wonder.

The minute the thing was done, Sirius had wanted to kick himself, and would have tried if his leg hadn't felt like it had been hammered with enough nails with which to build a house. He had been somewhere he hadn't been for quite awhile: lost in his thoughts (not much of this had gone on in Azkaban, or one really could get lost.) And thinking about, what else? His godson. The trouble was, he had been on the bike while doing so. And nearly every cyclist knows what can happen when you think and drive...

Well, it happened. One minute, Sirius was wondering what he would have been doing at that moment if he had successfully exterminated Peter, if Harry would be there on the back of the bike...and the next, he'd uncharacteristically stopped paying attention and entered the opposite lane, where a pickup truck was honking its horn at him ten meters away. He swerved to miss it and ended up in a ditch with the bike on top of his leg at a dismaying angle.

It had been at that dusky time of day in the summer that always got Sirius thinking uncommonly deep thoughts (and wanting out of the house so badly that he snuck out for some fresh air.) Of course, there was the mild self-hatred for having failed Harry so completely, but that had dimmed over time. What would he have been doing at that moment? Well, flying the bike, for one thing, instead of keeping out of sight on the ground on a narrow country highway. But it wasn't so much the desire not to be a convict that got to him, it was the wish for something more for Harry. And this thought led to that thought and then there were headlights...

He'd checked that nothing was broken and hidden the bike (his beloved, abandoned bike!) as best he could in the bushes far back from the road and placed a double Concealment Charm on it, just in case. Now, he was at Grimmauld Place, being helped up the stairs by Remus, supported by his shoulder.

Harry and Ron appeared at the landing, staring before they could summon the self-control to lower their eyes. Great, Sirius thought, seeing the slightly disturbed expressions in the boys' eyes. So much for the invincible godfather.

Remus cleaned all Sirius's cuts and healed them with a wave of his wand before conjuring an ice pack to put on his friend's bruised and possibly sprained knee while it was kept raised above a hot bath Remus drew. Sirius found his thoughts straying back to days long ago, when he had been the one helping a friend...

"Quite a role reversal, isn't it?" Remus mentioned sardonically. Sirius glanced at him sharply as he was helped into the tub, a bit startled at the apparent mind-reading that had been going on.

"Thanks, Moony," was all he could think to say.

"It's the least I can do." Remus started to leave Sirius to his bath, when he stopped in the doorway and glanced back. "You were thinking, weren't you?" Without waiting for Sirius to reply, he turned back to go, smiling and shaking his head slightly, calling back, "You know what happens when you do that, Pads." All Sirius could think was, how does he do that?