So I've heard that JK Rowling had written a draft for The Order of the Phoenix where Sirius didn't die but Arthur Weasly did. I still think that Sirius' death is one of the cruelest events in the books, since the man just appears in 3 of the 7 books, and in my humble opinion is one of the best and most likeable characters in the book. He and Harry had a fantastic thing going on, that never came to a satisfying conclusion.
There are many fanfics already about what would have happened if Sirius raised Harry, or what have happened if the whole thing at the Department of Mystery has never occurred. I've read some but none were really what I was looking for, so I decided to write my own take on the subject, where both Sirius and Arthur survive.
Note: this is my first ever fanfic of any kind and English is NOT my native language. Please bear with me
The overall setting is this: Harry & co went to the ministry to save Sirius, as is in the book, and did not find him there. The fighting occurred as was in the book with the SOLE difference that Bellatrix' curse missed and Sirius was nowhere near the veil. She did however cast the Avada Kadavra spell on Sirius, but missed. Sirius has then been K.O'd by another spell, and because Bella did use that curse on Sirius, Harry chases her to the Atrium for almost killing him. Voldemort appears, possesses Harry, Dumbledore comes to fight Voldy… we know the story. Now the whole ministry appears and sees Voldemort grab Bellatrix and apperate.
"He was just here! He grabbed a woman and apperated! I saw him!" Fudge yelled. "I can't… I can't believe it! Dumbledore, what is this all about?"
"Voldemort has returned, Fudge. As I have told you for over a year already. It is time you open your eyes to the truth. And now you have seen it for yourself." Dumbledore explained calmly.
From the far end of the hall there were footsteps hastily approaching. Hermione, Ron, Ginny who was supported by Luna and Neville, and Sirius.
A crowd had started forming around Dumbledore and Harry, but Sirius pushed them aside and ran towards his godson.
"Harry! What happened? Are you alright?" he cried. Harry, pale and shaking, nodded faintly. "I'm alive…" he muttered.
"Thank God you are! Voldemort… he was here... I saw him! Oh sweet boy, you are a walking miracle to still be alive!" Sirius pressed Harry to his chest, and Harry silently let him, although a little part of his still barely functioning conscious felt slightly awkward. Half the ministry is watching…
"Merlin's beard! That is Sirius Black!" Fudge suddenly exclaimed. "Aurors, cease him!"
"That won't be necessary." Dumbledore said. "Sirius' innocence is just as true as the fact that Voldemort had returned. Again, I tried to tell you. You didn't listen. And if you want proof of the fact that it was never Sirius' intention to harm, let alone kill Harry, I suggest you take a look at both of them. That doesn't seem like someone who would kill his best friend's son to you, does it?"
Sirius was still holding Harry in a firm grip, and his pale face looked at Fudge with a taunting look in his eyes. "I would die before I would do anything to Harry…" A tear escaped from his eye.
"Well… now… you seem to be… ehm... right." Fudge awkwardly stuttered. "Very sentimental all this. Well, I think the matter of Black has been solved…." He took a hesitating step towards Sirius, but changed his mind and made a nervous hand gesture. "Ehm… sorry. You're free." He decided.
The words of Fudge didn't really enter Sirius' conscious yet. He was still too relieved to still see Harry alive, and his freedom seemed like a nice thing on the side right now.
So the whole lot returns to the castle. Instead of smashing Dumbledore's office to smithereens, Harry silently and calmly hears the truth from Dumbledore, about that he has to stay with his aunt and uncle this summer, because of the blood protection and all that. Everything is told as in the book. Fast forward to the last day at Hogwarts.
Harry had not yet told Sirius about the fact that he had to return to Privet Drive again this summer. They both actually stayed pretty silent on the subject. Until the last day at school came, at Harry felt he had to talk to Sirius about it.
Sirius had stayed in the Gryffindor tower, and remained awfully quiet since they had returned from the ministry. Harry found him in the early evening, sitting in a chair by the fire, where he was staring in to the flames with his mind probably somewhere else. Harry sat down in the chair next to him.
"Well… summer vacation starts tomorrow.." Harry started. Sirius did not turn his gaze from the fire, only sighed and said: "Yep, so it seems."
There was that familiar bitterness again that Harry heard so many times when Sirius noticed that Harry had to leave him. He never felt more sorry for him. He opened his mouth to say something, but Sirius cut him off.
"I know you have to go back to the Dursleys. Dumbledore told me." He finally turned away from the fire, and looked at Harry.
"Honestly, if that is what is best for you, so be it. I will not put you at risk by immediately claiming you for myself. I'm sure we'll meet again soon enough anyway."
"So, where will you go? Back to Grimmauld Place?" Harry asked.
"There? Oh hell no!" Sirius grimaced. "I'm a free man now! I'm not more at risk than anyone else, even when it comes to Voldemort. Besides, I don't think it's safe there anymore. Too many people know about the place. Snivelous, for one…"
Harry grinned. "Really, why do you keep calling him 'Snivelous'? You're both grown men now!"
"Can't help it, he remains a stinking bastard. The name kind of stuck, and truth to be told, I still kind of enjoy that stupid face of him whenever he hears that name…" For a moment a younger, teenage Sirius shined trough his aged face, as he smiled naughtily.
"But I will see if I can get a place elsewhere. Dumbledore promised to help me with that. I also think you won't have to stay with your aunt and uncle all summer. How about I come pick you up after… lets say… a week or two?"
"Sounds great!" Harry cheered. "But, what of your old house? Your mother's portrait and all... it's all still there…"
"And there it may rot..." Sirius said. "It's not my concern anymore. I never paid for the joint, and I don't care if it stays empty till the end of time. I have nothing to do there anymore. The dust can have it… along with that foul, dust-loving little freak, Kreacher."
"He would love that…" Harry snickered.
"Yeah he would. Just him and his 'mistress.." Sirius spat as he said that last word. He stood up from his chair, and threw his hands in the air. "Let it all rot! I'm free wherever I want to go!"
"Careful still, Voldemort is still to be dealt with." Harry said, knowing how reckless his godfather can be.
"Ah, don't worry." Sirius waved the problem away like it was some fly. He sighed relieved, stayed silent for a little moment and then said: 'Harry, do you remember, when we first met each other, that I looked at the castle, and said how I remembered that I walked through those doors for the first time. And it would be nice to do it again as a free man...?
"Like it was yesterday." Harry said, and smiled.
"Well I can tell you. It feels more than nice. It feels magnificent…."
Fast forward to two weeks later. Harry returned to the Dursleys, counting the days when Sirius will come to pick him up. Finally, that day was there.
At 1 PM Harry was pacing around his bedroom. In one hours time Sirius would arrive. The Dursleys had been nervous during the whole two weeks, and that had only increased. Today they were almost unbearable, and Harry had flash backs to two summers ago, when the house was filled with the same nervous atmosphere for the arrival of mr. Weasley, to pick Harry up for the World Cup.
This time was a tad bit worse. The Dursleys were still convinced that Sirius was some kind of murdering lunatic, and Harry didn't bother to try to chance their minds. It had no use anyway. Again uncle Vernon was torn between not letting Harry have his way, and being rid of him a few weeks prior. Plus, he was terrified of Sirius, and what the neighbors would say.
"I hope he looks a bit decent!" he had yelled during breakfast that morning. "I still remember his face from TV, three years ago! Unwashed, stinking, filthy scum!
"Oh he looks loads better now." Harry ensured him.
"And tell him to dress properly! Not in some stinking 'robe'…" he said that last word as if it was vomit "… and also not a weird hodgepodge of normal clothes! I won't have somebody like that on my doorstep!"
"I don't think you will have to worry about it…" Even despite his experience with Muggles from his job at the ministry, Harry had the feeling that Sirius would have a bit more style and feeling for Muggle attire than mr Weasley. Still he was nervous. Even for Muggle standards, when it came to fashion, Sirius stayed kind of the rock-concert alternative type.
Still, uncle Vernon wasn't convinced, and paced around the house menacingly, hand rubbing and agitated mumbling. Aunt Petunia spend the entire day peering trough the blinds, and Dudley stayed locked in his room. Harry could swear he heard him whimpering with every unexpected sound. He decided to direct some of his own nerves to his cousin, and deliberately made all kinds of noises as of someone was entering the house. The faint whimpering sounds from next door that followed kept Harry quite amused during his time waiting.
At exactly one minute passed two, the doorbell rang. Not a mere second after that, the door swung open, which indicated that uncle Vernon was waiting in the hallway.
"Hello! I'm here to pick up Harry!" A cheerful voice from the doorway said, just as Harry ran down from the stairs.
"Sirius!" he cheered, and ran straight into his godfathers open arms.
"Harry! Good to see you again my boy!" Sirius smiled, and uncle Vernon was making puking noises.
From over Sirius' shoulder he saw a motorbike standing on the driveway. He could have sworn he saw that vehicle before, but couldn't recall when.
"All packed then, Harry? " Sirius said, as the two let go of each other.
"Yeah! My trunk's upstairs." Harry said.
"Let's get it then. Excuse me…" Sirius gently pushed uncle Vernon aside.
As they walked to Harry's room Sirius whispered: "Do I look alright? Your uncle didn't seem to appreciate my appearance that much I think…" and he gestured to his leather biker jacket and blue jeans.
"You look fine!" Harry said. "He looks that way to everyone he does not know. Don't worry, you can pass for any regular Muggle."
"Merlin's trousers, is this hutch your room?" he said, as they entered Harry's room, where his trunk was laying on the floor, and so covering up all his floor space.
"You should have seen where I slept before! THAT was a hutch!" Harry said, as he struggled to lift his heavy trunk."
"Oh let me…" Sirius said. "Reducio" and waved his wand at the trunk, that shrunk to the size of a small briefcase.
"There, now it count's as carry-on." He winked, and returned back downstairs.
"Well, bye!" they both said to the uncle Vernon, who hasn't left the hallway. Dudley never left his room, and aunt Petunia was still sitting in the living room. Uncle Vernon muttered something under his breath, and then closed the door behind them.
"Recognize it, harry?" Sirius said, pointing at the bike. He proceeded to get a helmet from underneath the seat and give it to Harry.
"Faintly… Hagrid once told me he brought me here on a flying motorbike."
"The very same one!" Sirius said, while mounting the bike. "I didn't come flying though. I'll leave jokes like that to nighttime hours. It's not that a long drive away anyway."
"To where?" Harry curiously asked, as he sat down behind Sirius.
"Oh, you'll see." Sirius said, and started the engine.
A little over an hour later they drove trough a wide, rural landscape, with sloping hills all around them, and a small forest in the distance. A lonely house was sitting in between the green hills, several yards away from the forest edge. Made of stone, not too big but certainly not too small. It looked almost idyllic.
"Home sweet home." Sirius said, as the he parked the bike on a graveled spot next to the front door.
"Wow! How did you get by this place?" Harry asked.
"Dumbledore. He knew a family who had fled from Britain to mainland Europe from Voldemorts terror. All of them were so called 'blood traitors' you see… Pure wizard blood that married to a Muggle. They gave birth to one Squibb. Reason enough to be afraid these days… Anyway, they left the house behind, told Dumbledore to do whatever the hell he wanted with it. And so it's mine now!"
Harry couldn't be happier for Sirius. He got himself a house in the country, somewhere where he could see the sky. Just as Harry always wanted for him.
They went inside, right into a cozy living room, with a slightly tattered couch that was covered with several drapes, a wooden chair with a cushion, all around a small, pebbled fireplace. A small Gryffindor flag decorated the wall, and a narrow, winding staircase led to the second floor.
"It's not very fancy, but I hope you like it." Sirius said.
"It's perfect! Kind of reminds me of the Burrow… but less messy."
"Well, in that case you should feel right at home then."
Sirius let himself fall on the couch, and put his feet on the table.
"Butterbeer?" he asked, as he flicked his wand in the general direction of the kitchen, where two bottles flew over to the living room.
Harry caught his out of mid-air and sat down beside Sirius.
"Here's to the two of us!" Sirius said, and clanked his bottle against Harry's.
Harry could not help to have a huge smile on his face. Finally, he had a home. A real home. With real family – as real as it gets at least.
This summer was going to be the best ever.