The Son of Two Marauders.
By Byakugan789
SO! Ran across this really weird challenge and felt contrary enough to be inspired. I'm sure it's not what the challenger intended, but S/He asked for a story where Harry was really James and Sirius son. I'm thinking they meant slash and MPreg both of which are just mindblowingly dumb, so, in a fit of pique, my rabid plot bunnies created this.
Enjoy.
No, I don't intend to expand or continue the story, but if you like it and feel inspired feel free to take it from me. Just give me a link to where you post it.
xXx 1979; Penthouse, Ritz Hotel, Belgium xXx
Sirius Black woke up and checked the clock with bleary sleep deprived eyes, 4 p.m. He shrugged and stumbled his way towards the bathroom. Working alongside his best mate James, the pair were out of the country captaining their perspective squads in pursuit of their cousin Bellatrix Lestrange. James and his aurors along with some local oversight were in charge of tracking her down and providing evidence the Lestrange family was indeed doing business with the Unseelie Court Fae. Once that was accomplished Sirius and his hit wizards would be allowed to ride in and bring down the hurt. If Bella, Rodolphus and Rabastan survived the encounter James would arrest them, and the whole group would see them off to Azkaban.
The tricky part of this was doing everything without offending Queen Mabb.
As Sirius stepped into the shower he became peripherally aware of a bouncing sensation on his chest, but tired as he was he dismissed it easily. It was when the water running over his body highlighted the feature and a number of others that his brain really began to wake up. Nimble fingers quickly explored the changes to his body and Sirius tilted her head back and groaned. Not out of pleasure, though that was certainly there, but out of exasperation.
He was going to kill James.
This wasn't the first time Sirius Black had become a girl, the magics involved were actually fairly easy to come by, being a favorite curse of hedge witches and enchantresses across history. Not to be left out of the fun, the Greek pantheon was well in on the game and the Winter and Summer courts of Fae made it a literal art form. He even had a vague recollection reading about an enchanted pool in china that had been doing the job for nearly 800 years. Whoever made the pool was a little late to the game honestly, but it was a pretty novel method of transmission...not! Both the Faeries and Aphrodite had done the same thing to victims more than three thousand years prior, though those were always one off attacks rather than constant switching. Give six points out of ten for originality there.
Sirius relaxed in the steaming deluge and played with the familiar folds of skin as s/he pondered the problem. The first time s/he had become female was in fifth year, shortly after achieving full animagus transformation. That time Snivellus had dosed him with a gender changing potion in an attempt to freak him out. Instead he had turned it around on the greasy git by publicly flirting with him in the great hall till he was flushed, spluttering, had a tent in his robes,.. and then shutting him down hard. It had gotten him a flurry of curses from Lily before the redhead had helped him research and brew a reversal potion. The second time had been a rare prank in the summer between sixth and seventh year by Remus. Sirius had blamed James for it and flirted with him mercilessly while the pair of them brewed another reversal potion. They'd ended up in bed together rigorously before taking the potion to change back.
That had happened several more times intentionally since then, but ended when James finally achieved his dream and started dating Lily.
The problem s/he was left with was who precisely had done it, the method, and why. He was pretty sure he could count out his best friend, there was none of the after-potion taste in his mouth and he very much doubted the bugger would go for such silliness just to lighten the mood on a dangerous mission. It wasn't one of the waterborne curses, those usually ended when the victim either accepted and became comfortable with their femininity as a method of further cruelty or were exposed to hot water as with the Asian pool. S/he was already comfortable with the reality of being a girl for random periods of time and the shower was turning her skin red. It could be transfiguration, but while that was a viable and semi-permanent method it depended almost entirely on the caster having a deep and intrinsic knowledge of the female body, something most who cast such spells didn't have, and would leave obvious errors in such a case.
There was also the possibility that one of the Fae had indeed taken offense to their interference with the Lestrange's business arrangements and cursed him. Now that one would be a tricky proposition to reverse.
The problem with that line of thinking was that the Fae would have no particular reason to target him. Well, at least not yet... there was that one school of thought that suggested Faeries didn't travel through time linearly... Perhaps the charge to take in Bella was going to end with him killing some Fae's sister? S/he licked her lips and grunted as s/he considered the possibility, exploring fingers causing her body to shudder. But was turning him into a girl supposed to stop the death, or simply be revenge for it? Either option would change the method of reversal, and as much as s/he enjoyed the occasions he'd been a she, the idea of becoming pregnant, or worse, experiencing the utter ridiculousness of late pregnancy and childbirth he'd witnessed on occasion before sent shudders up her body that had nothing to do with her fingers.
That was of course, assuming it was the Fae, which was hardly certain.
Sirius finished up, first with herself and then with the shower itself and stepped out into the steam filled bathroom. Grabbing her wand s/he tried the spell to reverse a transfiguration and when that failed cast several glamors on herself to make it appear as if she was still a he and got dressed.
Breasts swaying and jiggling uncomfortably Sirius absentmindedly conjured one of Lily's bras to bind the things and went in search of James.
! #$%&*()_
Sirius didn't get a chance to confront her friend for the rest of the mission which turned out to be short. James found the proof the Belgian Government needed that the Lestranges were bartering children for access to nonlinear time that afternoon and the raid went down promptly. Sirius, aware of his potential predicament made sure to cast conjured iron chains at everything rather than his usual array of deadly curses and transfigurations. James and his team gave him curious looks over that, but when they managed to capture the Fae dealer, a Tuatha, everyone shrugged and clapped her on the back for it.
Very strangely for her, Bella had avoided the battle entirely, taking a portkey out of the building immediately upon the battle's start. Rodolphus and Rabastan Lestrange had stuck around though, along with more than a dozen less important death-eaters. While the mission was officially a failure for the escape of three of the four primary targets; five of voldemort's faithful were dead and four more were now in ministry custody alongside the Fae girl and the deal had not been completed.
Sirius managed to get in on the creatures interrogation before they left and it was revealed that since she had not died in this time the curse could be lifted if Sirius had sex before her first moon's blood, otherwise the fae magics would trap her as a girl permanently.
Well, for a given measure of permanence anyways... More magic could be performed later, but Sirius' soul and mind would become female and the natural loophole in the curse would close.
! #$%&*()_
Sirius sat on the toilet and swore viciously. Researching the particulars of the Fae curse had been fairly easy given the species and details provided and a spell performed by a specialist had confirmed both it and the escape clause so Sirius had held no compunctions against coercing her friends to... render aid in her troublesome situation. Remus had nearly had a coronary and she had no intention of allowing Peter to so much as touch her, but convincing James had been... surprisingly difficult.
True enough, Sirius understood that she was just this side of being a slut in either gender, but James had been right there with him/her in sleeping with half of the castle over the course of their fourth, fifth and sixth years. So when s/he was forced to bring out the 'big guns' as Lily called them for what she considered a simple favor s/he had been surprised.
Now though s/he was cursing herself for not having pushed harder and sooner.
Sirius was pregnant.
She had originally been optimistic. The cure was simply that s/he had to have sex with a man before the first time s/he bled as a woman. Even if that meant it shouldn't have been a problem because she had always become a he again well before that would have been a consideration and had managed to screw James before any menses had occurred this time around as well. Apparently though it had been too close to said bleeding and the birth-control potion had been... ineffective.
What to do, what to do...
Tossing on and smoothing down the skirt of her usual plum robe Sirius stalked out of the bathroom and made her way to the Library. Books stolen from the libraries of Dark Wizards they had arrested or killed, looted from the Black Library and borrowed from the shelves of both Hogwarts and the Potter manor (He was going to have to return some of those soonish) arrayed themselves before her and her house elf appeared at a barked command to retrieve the requested tomes. She needed to see if this would complicate things... and more importantly how.
Tuatha Dé Danann... Sirius thought while thumbing through the titles; mortal, fae interactions... she drew her finger down the table of contents, curses... the Black Heir/ess turned to the chapter and began thumbing through the various curses and their details before finally finding the one he was looking for. Transgender vengeance; usually visited upon men, but known to be applied to women with noted regularity. Reasons generally limited to rude and sexist interaction with or in the presence of a Fae, but has been known to be applied as a joke or due to jealousy... Sirius paused to consider that. A fae, being jealous of a mortals beauty? It seemed ludicrous, but the minds of Faeries were strange at the best of times.
Ah! There it was, the escape clause. If the victim of the curse engages in copulation with a member of their original gender within the first moon of their original transformation the effect will reverse itself. However, in the case of male victims if they become pregnant as women the effect will end instead upon the conclusion or termination of the pregnancy. If the initiator of the curse is feeling particularly vindictive the child will often be taken in payme...
Sirius' blood ran cold and she looked down to see her hand had unconsciously moved to her belly. This could not be allowed. Better to terminate early with a moon syrup tea than allow the child to be carted off in 'miscarriage' or taken just after birth as payment to appease the damned faeries. She was going to start brewing the syrup.
After taking a moment to think Sirius also made a note to start researching other methods of protecting the child in case she changed her mind before the tea was ready. She supposed she could just buy it, but that would mean admitting to needing it in Diagon or one of the connected alleys and considering how nosy and gossiping girls were normally in his experience s/he doubted it would remain private regardless of what protections s/he took to hide her identity.
! #$%&*()_
Nearly seven weeks into her pregnancy Sirius sat before an altar upon which lay Lily Potter, his best friends wife. Explaining things to Lily had been... tricky to say the least. She had managed to avoid telling the woman how the child had been James'; but the woman had still been absolutely appalled at Sirius' request that she take over the Pregnancy. Lily had eventually agreed because the thought of the Fae taking the child was abhorrent to her, but she had made Sirius agree to memory charm her and keep the knowledge of the entire affair from James at all costs. It actually made him feel rather guilty at the entire situation.
Taking out a dagger Sirius eased the point into the center of her palm and began using the pooling blood to paint symbols on both her and Lily's stomach and breasts. The ritual had several similarities to blood adoption in that the host mother donated some of her genetic information to the surrogate child, so it would be Lily's kid in truth in addition to hers and James but damn if this wasn't going to make birthdays interesting.
As the spell built and what looked like a stream of energy flowed out of her and into Lily, Sirius couldn't help but wonder exactly what the child was going to get from each of them. Going by the book she had taken this spell from the blood tests would say the child was equally hers, the fathers and the surrogate mothers, but that still left a lot of things to interpretation. Would it be a daughter? A son? Daughters were more likely because of having two mothers, but it was hardly guaranteed. Would it have Her eyes or hair? Personality? Or perhaps one of the old Black Family powers? Andy's daughter was a Metamorph, perhaps her child would be too? Or would they wield the Blackfire? She grinned devilishly as she stepped out of the circle and felt the Fae magic flowing through her muscles and bones, reversing the transformation. The next several years would be interesting indeed...
! #$%&*()_
Sirius watched quietly as Lily bounded around James chattering about her new pregnancy; munching on pickles and laughing openly as his best friend shook himself out of his stupor to sweep the redhead off her feet bridal style. The pair of them danced around laughing as Lily hit James over the head repeatedly with one of the uneaten pickles. Sirius felt a pang of regret even as he teased the pair of them mercilessly.
! #$%TY&*()_
Sirius stood by Lily's side as she howled at the latest contraction. James had been called away on a mission to investigate rumors of Voldemort using dragons to take down the wards around the McCloud arboretum where nearly a full third of the countries wand-wood was grown. James had been furious and Lily distraught, but Sirius couldn't help but feel a strange sort of justice in his presence here this night. It was his son after all... after a fashion. The first one at least that he knew about anyways.
Hours later as the midwife witch placed the child in its crib and healed the broken bones in his hand, Sirius took special care to place Cold Iron symbols strategically around the sleeping babe. He had made a point to test each person who came into the room with the Iron as well, which would burn in close proximity to Fae creatures. One could never be too cautious. As senior instructor Mad-eye always said, "CONSTANT VIGILANCE!"
! #$%&*()_
If James or Lily thought it was odd that Sirius came over often to play with young Harry neither made issue about it. He was the perfect picture of the doting godfather. The child's Black blood did shine through though, as at the age of 1 Harry was changing his hair different colors and lengths. It wasn't the spectacular randomness of Nymphadora, nor had it begun quite so early, but it was there. Sirius publicly blamed it on the child's grandmother, Dorea Potter née Black, but inwardly felt proud. The child's base form looked like James with Lily's nose and eyes, but the Metamorph abilities were his blood, of that he was certain.
! #$%&*()_
Sirius scowled darkly at the spell diagram Albus was insisting the Potters add to their wards. The Fidelius charm was an ultimate protection that could permanently erase a secret from the minds of everyone anywhere in the world and better yet prevent discovery from any vector save one, the secret keeper. There were two glaring problems with it however. First, since the spell depended on the absolute trust between those protected by the secret and the secret keeper it couldn't possibly be cast or maintained by those hidden under its influence. Second, the spell was derived from Faery magic and was indeed a variation on the spell that separated the shadow lands from the muggle world meaning that were the Fae indeed knowledgeable of Sirius' son and feeling vindictive the Fae could leverage his 'debt' to them to bypass the secret keeper and enter the warded house as if he'd given them permission personally.
He would have to convince his friends to use someone else as the Secret keeper instead. The very idea of it caused him near physical pain, but it was necessary. He couldn't use Remus either because the man was a werewolf and thus subject to the Fae's laws as well, making him another loophole they could exploit. He could convince Lily to use Alice perhaps, being the woman's best friend, or they could use Peter. Pettigrew had drifted apart from them since Hogwarts, but he and James still made a point to try and include him in things and he was part of the order so James still trusted the little man implicitly.
But how to make the pitch? How to explain why he couldn't be the one to do it? James barely remembered their liaison and was certain that Harry was just his and Lily's, Lily didn't remember because she had quite helpfully insisted on a memory charm and boy would that be fun to explain... Then it was a question of who to use.
Harry and Neville were both targets of Voldemort so it was probable they could close the circle, protect each other easy enough, but if he didn't interfere quickly enough the Dowager Longbottom was likely to insist on being the one to protect her son's home. Bullheaded woman was probably already casting the spell for all he knew. Although that would hardly mean that Alice couldn't hold the reins of the spell it would make the woman harder to find in order to set things up and he couldn't exactly blame either woman for doing it that way. There was also the possibility Lily wouldn't want to put Alice in that sort of danger. which if they were holding each-others spells could be silly, but logic rarely interfered with panic which was the only real reason to bring this particular spell up to begin with.
The other possibility, as mentioned was Peter. Their old friend worked in the ministry's maintenance department. James still trusted the kid with his life and both Peter's job and personality made him practically invisible. A fact which had been leveraged by Dumbledore on multiple occasions during the war. His animagus form of a rat helped as well, giving him a quick, literally unblockable escape route from any danger he might get into. Most people would assume he'd apparated, used a portkey or turned invisible and simply not think to look down to see the fleeing rodent on the floor. That invisibility also meant that literally nobody would ever even think the little guy would be entrusted with something like this.
A grin spread across Sirius face. If they couldn't find and convince Alice in time, he had a pretty good idea on what to say to make this work.
His son would be safe, Sirius Black would make sure of it.
! #$%&*()_
Sirius Black, Mother, Godfather, favorite uncle and family pet fell to his knees in the burnt and torn Potter Nursery. Lily was dead. James was dead. Harry was... well, odd to say the least. Hagrid lay on his back, stunned where Sirius had left him but none of that mattered as Sirius stared ahead, tears streaming down his cheeks as he held a small golden glow carefully in his hands.
He knew this magic.
It was evil.
It had destroyed his family and threatened them further pain. It also explained so much. Oh, so so much..! It explained the prophecy. It explained how Sirius had killed Voldemort twice and he was still around terrorizing people. It explained how Lily, dear wonderful Lily Potter was floating before him while her body lay sprawled out on the floor. It explained the curse scar on his son's forehead and how he had survived an unstoppable curse.
Voldemort was using Horcruxes and Lily had just made a light magic variant as well.
Whispering in careful Greek Sirius collected Lily Potter's soul and stored it within his body so it wouldn't be lost before he could bring her back and picked up Harry. Implanting a memory of an argument in Hagrid's brain Sirius stored Lily's body in a pouch and got on his motorcycle before flying off. He was going to take little Harry to Andromeda's and check on Peter. Guy deserved some sort of funeral, though precisely which sort would be determined on the condition he found the man.
! #$%&*()_
Sirius landed at Andromeda Tonks place with a roar and a thump, before swinging his leg over the back and leaning down to retrieve his son from the sidecar. He turned around to greet his cousin who had come out of the house to meet him after hearing the roar of the motorbike... and found a wand poking into the tip of his nose.
"Uh, Andy, I'm not quite sure what you think I've done to earn such a welcome, but whatever it is I assure you I'm not responsible!"
The frizzy haired witch glared at him and didn't lower the wand. "I don't know who the hell you are, harlot, or how you got my cousin's horrible bicycle but that he let you through my wards without telling me is simply unconscionable!"
Sirius looked down at himself to find that he had changed again, becoming the female version of himself he'd become familiar with on several occasions over the year. "Right... Andy I'm not quite sure how this happened, but I really am Sirius Black. Remember at your wedding when I was about to make a toast? You grabbed my ear as I stood and told me that if I made a fool of myself like you're familiar with you would take my wand and bugger me so hard with it I'd go poofter. Then I gave the most glowing and inspirational Marriage Toast you'd ever heard and you started crying."
Over the course of the story Sirius features had melted back into their usual configuration and his cousin stepped back mouth slightly open. Before either of them could say anything seven year old Nymphadora 'just call me dora' Tonks came bouncing out of the house and babbled excitedly, asking how 'unca siri' had turned himself into a girl and back and if he could teach her how to be a boy so she could play stick-ball and football with the local children. Andromeda shooed her away after Sirius gave her Little Harry to coo over.
"I assume there's a really good story behind this?" Andromeda asked. Sirius nodded and his cousin sighed "there always is with you, isn't there?"
"Yeah," Sirius sighed, feeling the magic flowing off Lily's soul push fitfully against his body, trying to change it again. "Look, I want you to take care of Harry for me for a little while. I'll send off an owl to gringotts before I go for extra funds to be delivered to you so long as you've got him, but there's something I need to do and I'm not sure how long it's going to take."
"Wait, Harry? This is Lily and James kid? Why are you giving him to me? What happened to his parents?"
Sirius smiled sadly. "Until further notice?" he asked "I'm the only family the kid's got left. There'll probably be some sort of custody battle between me and Alice Longbottom once I get back, but Lily and James are gone. Voldemort got them."
Andromeda's hands went to her mouth. "Oh Merlin and Morgana, Sirius! How did that happen? Weren't you their secret keeper?"
Sirius shook his head. "Ran into some trouble with the Fae, couldn't do it. James and I let everyone think so so that I would be targeted while we used Peter to keep them safe with his anonymity. Which leads into what I've got to do, why I've got to leave Harry with you. I've gotta collect Peter." He said, handing the expanded pouch with Lily and James bodies to Andromeda. "There's a high chance he's being held and tortured by the death eaters, a pretty good chance he's dead, and a tiny one I hate myself for thinking of that he might have given them up willingly in return for protection. Either way, I've got to know. And I've got to bring him back, one way or another."
Andromeda nodded, but looked deeply disturbed as well. "But Siri, what if you don't come back? You know how dangerous these people are, and Harry's going to need you. Is closure really worth the pain you'll cause everyone if you die trying?"
Sirius looked solemn for a moment, staring at where Dora was holding baby Harry. "It'll hurt, but he'll hardly remember me. If I die, you get my stuff and my money to take care of him. Or he might go to Alice. She's the saint that kept Lily from killing me and James throughout Hogwarts and you know how good she is with Dora and her own son Neville. Harry'll be fine." He laughed harshly "Not that I intend to die in the first place! You always said I'd be immortal out of sheer spite, remember?"
She slapped him. "I said a head that swollen and arrogant couldn't be anything less than immortal you dolt!" Sirius gave her a pained look before she relented. "Fine, I'll take the brat. It'll only be a few weeks after all, and Dora's already smitten with him." nodding over to where the pair were matching hair colors and types. "But you better be back!" She gave him a death-glare and Sirius nodded seriously.
! #$%&*()_
Sirius huddled in his cage in a deep state of shock. How in the frozen Hel had this happened? He had known that there was a possibility Peter had betrayed the Potters, but he'd expected it had been under... at least some sort of threat! That he'd apparently just... given them up without any sort of issues was like receiving a bludger to the stomach and then being immediately hit with a blood freezing curse for a follow up.
Even with that he had expected a chance to present evidence to get Peter hunted, but he'd been immediately arrested instead. That was bad, but not unheard of, Peter had set things up well. Still, he had known that he would be getting a trial, even Voldemort was scheduled to be given a public trial even if it would be a farce at the end of which he would be stuffed through the veil of death without ceremony regardless of anything the Dark Lord said or brought in his defense. But he hadn't even received that!
Now he was setting in the maximum security wing of the infamous prison desperately defending not just his own soul, but Lily Potter's as well from being eaten by the dementors.
On a side note, it was amazing how quickly you could learn to conjure a wandless patronus mist when your soul and anothers quite literally depended on it!
Between that and his Animagus form he was managing to avoid the worst of the prisons tortures, but he wondered bleakly and often what had become of Harry and of Lily's body. No doubt she'd been buried by now, so there went the easy method of resurrecting her. He could even feel her in his head now, growing in strength as she fed off his magic and slowly became steadily more coherent. He spend as much time female these days as he did male or canine.
That change as well was getting easier which caused him no small amusement. He wondered if Lily's soul might eventually gain enough power that it'd become difficult for him to return to his male body? Perhaps he could even use that to escape? Tell the jailors Sirius had captured her during the last patrol? They'd take her out of the cell and hunt 'him' down allowing 'her' to escape in the confusion?
! #$%&*()_
Sirius scowled as she cast a multiplication transfiguration on her meager rations. Her wandless magic was coming along quite well, and Morgana bless because it was probably the only thing keeping her healthy in these conditions. She had been moved to the medium security wing of Azkaban when she'd tried the switching story, but not the visitors chamber or minimum security as she had hoped. While they checked out her story and searched for him another Auror had questioned her about her role in his escape. They had explicitly not believed she was one of their own aurors, captured by the madman and accused her of setting up a jailbreak.
Fortunately for her they hadn't been able to find even the slightest shred of evidence to convict so they couldn't put her back in her old cell with the hourly dementor visits. The new one was just daily.
Food was better too. A small cup of weak stew rather than thin gruel. Engorgement charms took care of the portion sizes and scoured matter from her cell to fuel the transformation, keeping things clean, so she was in good health at least. But how to get out? As a patrol of guards walked up Sirius hid the food and swept up to the bars. "What news, of the outside world?" she asked casually.
One of the guards sneered at her. "You should be happy," he said tossing her the paper "your helping Black escape's borne fruit. Potter brat's disappeared from the Tonk's place. They tried to keep it quiet, but Skeeter's a right bulldog she is. Read all about it, traitor."
Sirius picked up the paper from where it had fallen just beyond the bars and felt her heart leap into her throat. Sirius Lily's voice in her head asked may I look? He's my son too... Sirius nodded slowly and allowed the muggleborn witch to take control of one eye, which turned green as the pair of them settled back into the far wall of their cell.
The last year had been a long series of legal battles over who exactly held custody of the 'boy-who-lived'. Andromeda Tonks maintained that as blood relatives, twice removed admittedly, and the ones entrusted with Harry's care by his godfather that they were the most qualified to take care of him. The Longbottoms had protested for a short time and as Alice was godmother it almost looked as if they were going to win, but then the Lestranges had attacked, putting both Alice (who held the claim as godmother) and Frank in Saint Mungo's. But for most of the last year it had been a battle between the varying sides of the Black clan to see who would hold the boy. With the Potters all dead save Harry they couldn't take him in. The Longbottoms only claim was hospitalized. Sirius mother maintained that she should be the one to raise Harry because she was sister to the boys' grandmother making her grand aunt. Lucius Malfoy was making a bid for the boy on the grounds that his wife was the boys' aunt, he had a fortune, a good pureblood background and a son Harry's age. The ministry wanted to claim him as well as a national treasure and thus ward of the state and finally Dumbledore was making a claim stating that the Potters had entrusted Harry to his guardianship in their will.
His case wasn't particularly strong however because he refused to produce said will.
Sirius, we've got to escape. Lily's voice came again. Our son is missing in the middle of a custody battle and of the five sides, there's only one I trust.
Sirius nodded. 'I know' he thought back. 'There's also the possibility he's been taken by the Fae, in payment for my transgression' he reminded her gravely.
! #$%&*()_
It had been a month since they had decided to escape and finally they were paddling their way to land. It had taken a bit of doing, but three weeks flirting with the same guard as he passed had finally brought the boy to their cell one afternoon between shifts. They had grabbed the collar of his robe and dragged him forward so his head slammed into the bars. Relieving him of the keys, which they had found months before could not be summoned, they opened the door. Placing a glamor on the guard so that he would look like them they locked the door, transformed into the grim and trotted out of the jail unchallenged.
Along, cold swim later they were shaking themselves off on the beach of northern Scotland. 'what do you think?' Sirius asked Lily as he salivated around the cod in his jaws. 'Stop to transfigure some cloths and cook the fish? Or eat on the run and get straight to looking for the little hairball?'
You're so crude, Siri Lily replied in his head. It's probably a good thing you didn't become Harry's mother. Imagine what an utter brat he might have been? Or what a consummate tomboy!
Sirius yipped in laughter and immediately started trotting up the beach, tossing the fish into the air and catching it short ways in his jaws. 'On the run it is then!' He thought back. 'We've got a child to kidnap!'
Rescue, Sirius! Rescue!
! #$%&*()_
Their first stop was Andromeda's place nearly a month later. The ministry was monitoring apparition and portkeys and had nearly caught them several times over the course of the trip down so it had taken significantly longer than one might have hoped.
Normally this wouldn't have worked, given the ministry could only track the nature of the magic that happened and in a general area in which it occurred, needing the trace spell or witness memories to be any more specific, but someone using travel magic so close to Azkaban outside of times when their guards were changing shifts?
Red flags.
Everywhere.
After that it was directions, travel time, sleep, hunting, stealing newspapers, learning how to use magic while in animal form, plotting who to approach and how to find them without using a floo and ward access... It all took time.
Eventually though Sirius managed to make it to Devon and from there to Andromeda's house.
They were met in the yard by a distraught looking Nymphadora and the both of them were embarrassed to admit that they willfully delayed becoming human again as the nine year old metamorph dug her nails deep into their fur, relieving itches that had remained despite repeated clawing.
It had also been fun to see Andy's face when Dora dragged them inside and asked her mother in a bright voice. "Mommy! I found a doggy outside! Can we keep him? Please? He's big enough to put a saddle on!"
Andromeda had screamed upon seeing the bearlike grim and Sirius had been unable to contain himself, reversing the transformation right there on the floor in order to properly laugh himself hoarse.
"The bloody bugger! SIRI!" Andromeda screeched, kicking her cousin in the ribs as she overcame her shock. "Do you have any idea what you look like? Morgana's tits, how do you even look like that?! Metamorphs don't become animagi!"
Sirius pouted up at her, massaging his ribs. "They don't change gender either," he pointed out.
Deeply confused, Nymphadora looked between her new dog and her mother. "Mommy?"
"I know dear, you've been changing since Sirius visited last time." She turned to them and growled. "Explain. Your. Self."
And so Sirius did. He told the pair of them everything, from him, James and Peter discovering Remus was a werewolf and vowing to become animagi to keep him company on the full moons, to his adventures in gender switching, the faeries curse and the events that lead to Azkaban and his escape. When Andromeda expressed her skepticism about the survival of Lily Potter Sirius used an Orb or Thesula as a temporary vessel to allow her to appear outside his body and be examined by the professional healer.
"Bloody hell." Andromeda breathed, slouching back in her seat. "Horcruxes Siri... That's... that's dark magic..!" She looked at Lily and shook her head. "Or perhaps not... Merlin...How?"
"I can't tell you exactly," Lily replied from her shining state above the orb, "mostly because I don't understand it myself. If the house isn't entirely destroyed I can show you the book I got the protection for Harry out of, but how exactly it's keeping me like this? I don't know."
"I know how," Sirius replied darkly, causing everyone to turn to listen to him. "Through willing death comes life eternal. That's the central concept behind most immortality spells. Goes back to the Egyptian sun gods and the Jade Kingdom in Asia. Voldemort has been making his soul jars by preparing a vessel, drinking a poison and then committing cold blooded murder. A piece of his soul breaks off and attaches itself to the container. You did the same, but in reverse. Instead of trying to preserve yourself you designated Harry as the vessel to be protected by your death and then committed suicide by Voldemort in order to protect him. Willing death near the designated vessel? Harry's protected from the unstoppable and you're hanging around your soul bound to his eternal protection."
"So," Nymphadora spoke up, surprising everybody, all of whom had forgotten she was still there, "that means that Harry isn't the boy-who-lived like everybody keeps saying, Momma; Lily's the girl-who-died. She's the one everybody should be celebrating!" The little girl looked proud of herself for having kept up with the adults conversation and putting it all together. Everyone else wore expressions like someone had kicked them in the gut.
Lily faded and slipped back into Sirius body and Sirius and his cousin looked at each other grimly. "I'll go collect Lily's Library and start researching that spell. See if there's a way to bring her back that isn't too horrible. If I remember the Black Library's book on the subject the dark version has a number of ways to bring its users back. Pointless to devise a method of immortality if it can be countered by simply destroying the body after all."
Sirius nodded, slowly turning back into his female self. "And I'll start looking for Harry. Any ideas on where he might have disappeared to?"
Andromeda shook her head. "Only thing I'm fairly sure of is that it wasn't the Fae. I make Dora wears cold iron because the summer court likes stealing Metamorph children. Harry's room was well protected too."
Sirius nodded. That at least was a relief. Retrieving Harry from the shadow lands would be next to impossible, necessitating years of work which may well end up being centuries either too late or too early on the other side. Nonlinear time sucked like that.
! #$%&*()_
1987, four years later.
Sirius and Lily stood outside of Petunia's house, staring into the back yard. Four years they had searched for him through death-eater strongholds and those set up by Dumbledore, and finally...finally they had found him.
At Petunia's!
Merlin, what had Dumbledore been thinking?
Over the last four years Lily had regained her life and body and, between planning for and conducting raids on those they suspected may have stolen her son, learned how to transform into an animagus herself. Contrary to the beliefs of James and Severus she did not become a Doe as her Patronus had become upon getting engaged to James just before finals Seventh year. Perhaps it was her time in Sirius body, or maybe it was what she had been meant to become all along, but the Evans daughter became a Red Fox. Lily had personally believed she was meant to be a tiger or perhaps mother bear, protective, sleek, noble and vicious, but it was not to be.
He looks so sad... Lily sent to Sirius from her perch atop the massive grim's head. We should go to him.
It's taken us a week to ease our way past Dumbledore's wards, Sirius reminded her, We can afford to wait a day or two more to make sure there aren't any other less pleasant surprises.
Lily sent him the impression of a frown through her legilimency and launched herself off of his head, trotting towards her son.
Sirius whined in the bushes, but did nothing overt. Merlin he loved that woman, but during her time in his head they had traded some of the worst possible personality traits. Among other things, their senses of caution and patience.
'Ah well,' he thought, 'perhaps it's for the best. A fox is a lot friendlier and more approachable than a shaggy black dog that could stand shoulder to shoulder with a Clydesdale.'
Sirius, come out! Slowly! Sirius looked up to see Lily leading Harry towards the bushes looking disgustingly hopeful. He worried for a moment what his co-mother was planning and stepped forward enough for his muzzle and eyes to stick out of the foliage. No need to scare the kid with his sheer presence quite yet.
Talk to him, Sirius. Lily sent again. I've told him you're his father and that he was stolen from us six years ago. Frankly it's frightening how ready he was to believe that. I'm not sure what worries me more, his eagerness to leave the Dursleys, or his easy acceptance of a situation that should make any rational kid run screaming!
Sirius shook his head and focused his gaze on the newly seven year old Harry. His birthday was yesterday if he remembered right. ...or was it tonight? Hello Harry he sent, adding his affection for the pup to his mental probe. Harry, who had been staring at him, mouth slightly agape collapsed to his knees, silent tears streaming from his eyes.
Sirius! What did you tell him?!
He sent her the same response and after a short pause she returned with her own love, adding You big dope. to the message.
"H-how... how d-do I turn into a dog?" Harry asked suddenly and almost desperately.
"Don't worry about that," Sirius replied, becoming himself again, and hugging his son. "You'll learn in time, Harry. Believe me, I'll make sure you'll have plenty of time to learn."