Chapter 3: A Sirius Chat
The light was amazing.
That's how he was aware he was no longer in Azkaban.
Also, the fact that he was comfortably warm not ridiculously hot, and that he was laying on an actual mattress.
What the hell was going on?
He didn't really remember much about the previous night. A lot of things felt blurry to be honest. It was expected when you spent almost eleven years in a prison.
But he wasn't in Azkaban now.
He needed to figure out how.
However, he found he couldn't move when he tried to get up. Off of what appeared to be some fancy bed in what appeared to be a very posh hotel room. What the hell….
"That would be the potions I gave you." A familiar voice said in the corner of the room.
Sirius blinked.
No.
He remembered that man. He remembered a past that shouldn't be his, but was. He was utterly confused about all of this. And he honestly, regardless, did not want to be at the mercy of this man…his father.
"Bae." Rumpelstiltskin said.
"I…" What didn't go by that now. Sirius didn't really every like his name as Sirius. It never felt right. But Baelfire? It had been so many years? Maybe he should call himself a random name like Neil like he did with Emma. Okay, he hated that name (too many memoires filled with regret) and that so wasn't going to happen. So, in the end, he didn't correct Rumpelstiltskin. Let the man call him whatever he wanted, he did save his life it appeared.
That hardly meant he forgave him.
Honestly, Sirius did not know what to feel at all. He was still trying to wrap it around his head that all these visions he had all these years in jail were true.
And that Rumpelstiltskin was his father.
"You're not glittery."
Out of all the ways to start the first conversation they had in three hundred years.
"No, I'm not." His father said. "This is a different realm."
"With magic," Sirius heard himself saying. "The Blue Fairywas wrong. It really was all for nothing. You're still cursed and you…"
"Bae," His father said. "I'm sorry."
Sirius shook his head. Two words. Honestly, he had hoped to hear them for so many years, but no he no longer cared. A century or two of pining would do that to you. It would make any sort of apology, let alone the lame one he was hearing now, meaningless. Add the fact that you thought you were someone else for so many years, and had like two sets of memories the entire thing was even more complex.
"I tried every day, son." Rumpelstiltskin said. "To get back to you. I did a lot of things."
"It was the things you did that brought me here," Sirius said. "Do you know what happened to me? Because I can't even…I don't…"
He wasn't even sure. At this point everything in the past twenty or some odd years seemed like a big fat lie.
His father frowned at him. "The damage is more severe than I thought."
"Seriously," Sirius said not even making a lame pun about his name—because hey, it wasn't technically his name. "You used magic on me."
"Well, did you want to die, son? Besides, you turning into a mutt seems to tell me you got over your magic aversion."
He had oddly enough. Well, at least that explained why he hated using magic his first few years at Hogwarts. Like he was going to grow two heads or something, and to think he always thought it was because all his relatives were like-well, his father come to think of it.
Though, he'd give Rumpelstiltskin the benefit of the doubt that he wouldn't join a megalomaniac dark lord because of blood purity.
No, knowing his father he'd probably kill Voldemort and then take his place as evil dark lord overlord.
Scary thought.
However, his father didn't look so much like a dark lord. Not there and then. He reminded him of the man that Sirius had grown up and depended on for fourteen years of his life. The simple spinner. Though the ridiculously expensive suit that his papa was wearing and the fact he was strutting not limping sort of ruined that image in his head.
Really, was that Armani?
"It's actually Versace." His father said as if reading his mind—he probably was, sneaky bastard.
"You were starring at my suit for a long, long, time." Rumpelstiltskin clarified "I just thought I'd clarify the issue for you. Do you want one?"
"Do you I think I care?"
"No, but it's better to talk about something than continue having this rather awkward conversation we're having."
"I'd rather not have a conversation with you at all. Though, thanks for the mattress. I hope you didn't magic it."
He said that out of spite. Really, he could care less about the whole magic thing. At least now that he was used to wielding a wand.
His father shook his head. "Eventually, we'll have to talk about this, son."
"We've managed not to for three hundred years."
It was a stupid argument, but he'd throw it out there. If he was feeling better, he would know that logically he was under the thumb of Rumpelstiltskin and thus was sort of dependent on him until he got better. He couldn't move, after all. But at this point in his treatment, Sirius wasn't really logical. He was just barely, barely, lucid.
His father raised his eyebrows. "I know. And I don't blame you for being mad. I would be mad too. I am mad, that that doxie took you away from me."
"You made a choice." Sirius argued wishing he could curse his father. Maybe he'd turn him into a snail, see how he'd like it. Of course, turning someone into a gastropod wasn't exactly taught at Hogwarts.
"A bad choice, a choice I regret…but to be fair…" His father stopped. "There's really no excuse for what I did. I know I screwed things up, and I'm sorry."
Sirius rolled his eyes. Really, that was it?
"Well, what do you want me to do? Turn back the sands of time for you to relive your childhood. Because that's sort of creepy, if you ask me."
"It is creepy." Sirius said. "And I…it seems a little too familiar."
His father raised his eyebrows. "I thought as much. It does explain a lot, I just wanted to wait for the tox potion to…"
"Papa," He was surprised he called the man that. But what else was he to call him? Rumpelstiltskin? That was a little ridiculous. "I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Of course not," His father said. "While you were unconscious, I did some tests. It was obvious that someone gave you a series of potions to try to alter your identity enough where they could claim you as their own. I'm trying to find out the severity so I can brew the proper antidote."
It was as he said this that Sirius had a breath flash of memory of someone shoving a potion down his throat. Forcing him to drink it.
"Someone drugged me?"
"I'll know more once I get the tox potion ready." His father said looking at him. "God…you are way too thin and tall."
"I was in jail and I'm a grown up." Sirius explained before he asked, "You didn't realize I was going to be in that cell, did you?"
He was pretty sure he remembered his father acting completely shocked with his appearance.
His father sighed. "It's a long complex story, Bae. Once that I don't even know how to explain."
"You looked like you were going to turn me into a snail." Sirius said eying his father. Trying to see if he could still sort of read him like all those years ago.
There was something bothering him. What, Sirius couldn't pinpoint. And why would his father want to turn him in a snail? He had been holed up in Azkaban for the past eleven years and as far as he knew, no one in this realm knew that the Dark One existed. Yet, there was that look of utter hatred and revenge on his father's face that day…
He sighed, "Do we really need to discuss this now? You only just woke up and you're due for more potions."
Sirius shook his head. However, he knew his father was right. He did need more potions. But he wanted answers. And he knew the longer his father didn't answer him, well, it was les likely he was going to get anything out of them.
"Please, Bae." His father said. "I nearly lost you, son. You don't know how touch and go it was."
Sirius sighed. "I think the potions can wait five minutes."
Rumpelstiltskin frowned. "You have to know that every day you were gone, I looked for you."
"Papa." Sirius warned wandering just what did his father do. "Just tell me. You have me incapacitated right now, so whatever it is, I really can't react much."
His father shook his head. "You'll…"
"I'll what? Think less of you? My opinion of you is at an all time low, after three hundred years of abandonment/years of you getting giddy tormenting people. I really don't think it can get any lower."
His father bit his lip as if he was about to say something smug, but in the end he didn't. Except, "I can't change the past."
No, he couldn't. It was something Sirius had become eerily aware of in three hundred years. Instead, he looked at his father and added. "You're going to have to tell me eventually."
"I know." Rumple said with a sigh, "I spent three hundred years looking for you, and, well, part of that search involved a woman."
Now Sirius really raised an eyebrow. Well, as much eyebrow raising as he could muster. From all his recollections his papa had never been with anyone since his mother. Sirius often wondered if this was why in turn he tried to be with as many women as possible in his Hogwarts days and post-Hogwarts days till he met Emma, to say that he was nothing like Rumple. Apparently, his father did get around after all.
Well, so it appears.
"So, you're with someone now?"
"Yes, but not the same woman." Rumple said. "Trust me, things with Cora would've never last."
Now, he was really shocked? Two women.
"It was over three hundred years." His father said. "And I wasn't raising you, so I did get lonely a little bit. And to be fair with Belle, it is true love."
Okay, way too much information. Admittedly, it would've been amusing to see his father panic as he digressed about his love life if he wasn't worried about what he was hiding from him. It wasn't like he expected Rumpelstiltskin to be a saint for all the years he was missing, though it was still weird to think of his papa with a girlfriend.
"So, is that your big dark secret, you had girlfriends?"
" Cora wasn't a girlfriend. And Belle is my fiancée." His father was quick to correct, "And it's a little more complicated than that. My relationship with Cora didn't end well."
Surprise, surprise, Sirius thought.
"Don't give me that look, Bae."
"I didn't say anything." Sirius said. His head really was starting to hurt. He wanted answers, but he knew soon his father was going to find out his head was pounding and stop giving him answers.
He was probably betting on that.
Damn Rumpelstiltskin.
His father sighed, "I'm in a very stable relationship now."
He really didn't want to hear about the romantic life of his father. That was enough to make him want to barf. As far as stable relationships went, he highly doubted that the Dark One could be in a long term relationship without blackmail or Stockholm Syndrome somehow being involved.
"Really," His father said, "I'm engaged."
"Papa…"
His father sighed and said something rather unexpected. "I have a son."
"Well, yeah, you have me." Sirius said sarcastically. "Though, don't expect a card on Father's Day. You might've broken me out of jail but three hundred years…"
His father sighed. "I know, and I can never expect your forgiveness, but that's not what I'm talking about. I have another son, your brother. Harry."
"Wait, what?" Sirius was utterly confused. "You have another child and his name's the same as my godson?"
At that moment, his thoughts went to James's little boy. He needed to find him and check on him. He owed that much duty to his best friend. Surely, Remus was raising the boy. Probably doing a better job than he could ever do.
It still amazed him that out of all people, his best friend wanted him to be Baby Harry's godfather.
He was the more irresponsible person. Well, save for the Lost Boys. And if you were going to put them in the mix, he might be the most responsible person, now that was a scary thought.
His thoughts quickly turned back on the fact that his father was claiming he had another son.
A son.
He had a brother.
What amazed him next was what came out of his father's mouth. "Oh, yes, that. Well, Harry is technically your godson and your brother."
Now this really made no sense to Sirius.
"No, Harry is James and Lily's I…"
"Were you there when he was born?" His father asked.
Sirius shook his head. No he had been with Emma then. When Harry was born, that's when he left her. It wasn't like he wanted to, but at the same time he felt responsibility towards his new godson. And his brother, "He looks just like James though."
"Oh, Bae, did you ever think that might be magic."
Sirius sighed heavily. He really couldn't believe it, but he did remember how odd it was that James never mentioned that Lily was pregnant once in their letters. And it would be something to mention, James had confided in him that Lily had fertility issues. But Harry being his father's….he couldn't see the Dark One having his children taken away from him.
That is if he believed his father's claims.
Because really, his godson was his brother? That did not make sense.