For now this can be read as a one-shot, but I will continue it if people want me to.

Black Revenge

"What are you doing out here son?" Harry looked up from the swing to see who had disturbed him from his moment of calm serenity, moments that did not come to him often. There was a man who looked to be in his early thirties leaning against the swing set post looking down at him. His pale gaunt face, messy hair and unshaven face would have had the boy label him as a tramp if it had not been for his upmarket clothes. He was wearing a suit, blazer and shirt slightly wrinkled but well kept, it was a strange choice of clothes for the weather, and the time of day, but maybe he had just come from a party or something. "It's the middle of the night, you're only wearing flimsy flannels and its pucking freezing out here."

"Pucking?"

His voice went low and he whispered behind him hand in a joke conspiracy tone, "it's wrong to swear in front of children."

Harry smiled despite of himself. He had to wonder why this man was asking after him, people had seen him sitting here at this time of night before but had gone on pretending not to see him. Maybe this man was new to Surrey, it seemed like everyone else knew to stay away from Harry Potter, the incurably criminal orphan. "I like taking midnight strolls."

"Well what a coincidence, so do I. I always liked going on the swings but did not get much of a chance to do so. My brother was two years younger than me and always enjoyed using them but did not learn until he was almost your age how to do it himself, he did not have to, I was there to push him. Of course once he got to your age he believed himself far too grown up for such toys and that they were below him, but I caught him staring at them enviously, he was just agreeing with our parents mindlessly. Anyway, that's the past and my past at that, do your guardians know you are out here son?" Now that was interesting, why did he say guardians instead of parents?

"No, but they wouldn't care anyway," not once they realised the neighbours didn't talk anyway.

"Perhaps," he agreed with a slight tilt to his head, not paying much attention to the last statement, "but there are creeps out there, paedophiles and thieves and the like, there is a murderer on the loose and he's been sighted in Surrey now."

"I can look after myself."

"Oh I have no doubt, you look like you have tricks up your sleeve, but I could have killed you by now if I wanted to. I understand how some people are more trusting than others but if you saw me coming towards you with a knife in hand you'd shit yourself."

Harry had his wand in his front pocket but was not about to reveal it to prove a point. Instead he just adopted an expression of mock horror, "you just swore in front of me."

"Shit isn't a swear word, especially seeming as I didn't mean it figuratively. People don't take you seriously when you say 'pooped yourself', it makes you sound like a three year old who got startled by the toaster."

"Are you planning on killing me?"

"Honestly no."

"And I don't see any toasters around so I reckon I'm safe enough for now."

"My name's Stubby Borgman kid, what about you?"

"Harry Potter."

"That's a nice name."

"Wish I could say the same."

"Cheeky git, you deserve a swear word directed at you for that." The insult was mild and there was laughter in his eyes though. How old are you anyway, like seven? It's almost 1 in the morning but shouldn't your bedtime be at like 8?"

"I'm eleven, and I don't have a bedtime."

"You look about seven; do your guardians not feed you?" There it was again, 'guardians'.

They didn't feed him but that was another thing he was not about to reveal to this stranger, "of course they feed me, I'm just small for my age."

"And skinny as puck. Anyway, I could not carry on my merry way in good conscience, how about I take you home?"

"I suppose, I was going to go soon anyway."

Harry knew he should probably not trust this stranger, but he had been relatively good fun to talk to and even if there were murderers out here, there were child abusers in his own house. "So you must have a pretty dysfunctional family huh?"

"I suppose it's not too hard to guess. I live with aunt's family, but we don't get on." Once they reached number four Privet Drive, the stranger walked up to the door, intending to knock. "Wait, you'll wake them up," Harry intercepted; "I'll just go through the window."

"What an excellent suggestion." He reached into his pocket and drew out what was unmistakeably a wand and pointed it at the kitchen windows. Immediately the glass exploded with a shatter worthy of waking the whole street. He then cast a quick alohomora at the front door and strolled into the house ready to face his relatives. "Are you coming Harry?" Stubby called to him from the lounge, the noise easily sailing out of the broken window.

He was a wizard; perhaps he could have killed him. The suggestion was so casual that Harry found himself following without a second thought. A moment later his uncle came thundering down the stairs, his aunt close behind him, her dressing gown pulled tight around her. "Boy! You had better pray you have a good explanation for this!"

"Lovely fellow your uncle, is he always this loud? You'd have thought he'd try to tone it down a bit now all the neighbours are gathered round. Also, there is no point in praying, everyone always does it but it never helped anybody. Like explaining, never explain, I never explain anything, your friends don't need it and your teachers, I mean your enemies won't believe you anyway, but hey, at your age, they're pretty much the same thing ne?"

Vernon stormed into the living room and his eyes zeroed in on the stranger. He started to sputter, obviously not sure whether to be polite to this stranger or throw him out. Stubby helped him out by revealing to him he was completely insane. "Good morning Mr Dursley, I caught this boy here trying to climb through the window, in trying to stop him I appear to have accidentally exploded them." In the short silence that followed while Vernon turned puce, Harry thought about how this Stubby knew the family name of his relatives, 'maybe he read it on the mail'.

Stubby turned his attention to his aunt, "ah Petunia dear, how lovely to see you again." Harry narrowed his eyes at the stranger at this admission; he didn't get her name from the mail, but did not interrupt. "Oh I can see that neither of you remember me which is a darn shame because I sure as hellfire remember you." As casually as anything, he drew his wand and repaired the window, obliterating the onlookers with the same wand movement and then drew the curtains. This was the last straw for Vernon.

"YOU! YOU ARE ONE OF THOSE FREAKS! BOY! THIS IS YOUR FAULT I KNOW IT. GET IN YOUR ROOM, AND YOU GET THE HELL OUT OF MY HOUSE!"

Stubby silencio-ed him while he was drawing in another huge breath. "My, my, quite a pair of lungs your husband has there. You looked like such a normal family at first glance too, are we entirely incapable of having a civilised conversation?" Harry had to smirk at that. He may not know how this man knew the Dursleys, but he sure knew how to hit them where it hurt. Stubby seemed to know this too as he cast a quick glance at Harry and gave him a wink as if they were sharing some secret joke. Harry was not sure how to respond, but the man seemed absolutely crazy and possibly quite dangerous so he replied in kind. The aurors should be here any minute now anyway having detected magic was being used in a muggle area.

"Now, as you may or may not recognise, I am Sirius Black, yes, the murderer from the television, how exciting! I go by the name Stubby Borgman to meet people, being accused of murdering 13 people looks bad on your record. Am I here to murder you? Not if you do what I say. Now I am going to have a shower, Petunia dear, how about you put the kettle on and fix some breakfast for us all, it may be very early but we are all up now aren't we? Oh, and don't try anything while I'm gone, you won't get away with it." He trotted up the stairs and they heard the bathroom door close. Vernon was still in his magic induced silence, still puce, Dudley was probably still snoring upstairs and Petunia had gone as white as a sheet.

"Aunt Petunia, who was that man?" Harry assumed that this was one of those rare times she would actually answer him instead of just sneer in disdain like he was the scum of the Earth. Sometimes it just seemed as if she forgot that she was meant to hate him.

"Sirius Black, he's a mass murderer, he was also a friend of your parents." She drifted into the kitchen to make something up, Harry was going to hazard a guess that this was so he did not kill her, not because he was an old friend.

"My parents would not have made friends like that."

"Well they must have fallen out at some point; he was the one who betrayed them."

Harry blinked; it was not so much that the man he had been talking to was so dangerous and so close to him, it was the fact that Petunia knew so much. He had always disregarded her for information because it seemed as if she knew nothing about the wizarding world. "What do you mean? Voldemort killed them."

"Yes, they went into hiding, he was the only one who knew their location."

"That's the man who betrayed my parents to Voldemort?" Harry reckoned he should have been feeling intense anger but instead was just feeling hollow, cheated. It had never occurred to him that people other than Voldemort were involved in the death of his parents. All death eaters were evil of course and he entertained the idea of killing them and avenging his parents when he was older. For such a backstabbing ex friend of his parents, it seemed a bit like an anti-climax. "He seems to be rather off his rocker."

"I'm not surprised he is insane, the dementors would have done that to him."

"What are dementors?"

"The prison guards." Harry knew he was not going to get any more information than that. "Can't you call your wizard police or something?"

"We don't use phones, I'd send Hedwig, it wouldn't take her long to get to London and the ministry of magic but even if she did manage to get a letter to someone, it would still take at least an hour to get a response from them and I really doubt we have that long. I'm not really sure how someone is meant to call the aurors, they seem to somehow know where to be. They can track magic you see so I thought they would arrive shortly after he exploded the window, but they're not."

"Then what are we meant to do?" Harry had to note that for once his aunt did not sound angry with him, Harry had been prepared for this all to be his fault, and in a way it was. She sounded like a frightened child seeking protection from her parent. If this wizard did turn hostile, it was everyone for himself, he was not going to sacrifice himself for people who hated him.

"Well we can't call the police, running won't do any good and attacking him is out of the question so I suggest we do what he tell us for now and hope for the best. Apart from exploding the window he hasn't done anything bad," silencing Vernon was definitely a plus.

Petunia had to nod her agreement and was plating up the full English just as a newly shaven and showered Sirius Black came back down the stairs. He was still very pale but he looked a lot healthier and more human than before. He looked at the display with an impressive glance and sat at the head of the table, "well are you not going to join me, it is awfully lonely to eat alone." He did not let up until Harry, Vernon and Petunia were sitting, Harry ending up right next to him. He was none too happy about the arrangement but there was nowhere else to sit, but he supposed it was better here than in the splash zone opposite his uncle.

He was itching for his wand, it would only take him seconds to take it out his sleeve and cast a spell, but he was only eleven, he did not know a great many spells, hardly any of them were aggressive. He knew the spells to stun and to body bind, but doubted he had the power to pull them off. After all, Ron had knocked put a troll the past year using the levitation spell. To get out of this alive, he would play nice, that man was obviously a lot more intelligent and had found a way to prevent being tracked by the aurors too.

"Not yet!" Sirius hurled a fork across the table where it landed in between Vernon's fingers, effectively scaring him into dropping his own back to his plate. "We do not eat until everyone is at the table, where's that butterball of a son of yours?" Sirius had still not touched his and was waiting for a reply. "Still sleeping I suppose, shall I go wake him?"

"No!" Petunia quickly stood up, "I'll get him, you just wait."

Sirius passed the time by talking to Harry, he was ok with that, it did not require much participation on his part as he was more being talked at than talked to. "One slice of toast, if that is all you're having Harry then you're never going to look older than 7 years old." He reached over and swapped his plate for Vernon's which housed three sausages, three rashers of bacon, 3 hash browns, 2 fried eggs, fried potato, a large serving of baked beans and 2 slices of toast laden with butter. "There we go, now that is more like it, you're a growing lad and it won't do to have you fed scraps." He pinned Vernon with a glare, "you on the other hand could do with losing a pound or twenty."

"Mum, it's too early; I want to go back to bed." The demanding whine and thudding down the stairs signalled the arrival of Dudley. He entered the kitchen still in his pyjamas; the legs were dragging on the floor as they were the only size to comfortably sit around his waist. Petunia was trying to look threateningly at Sirius, daring him to do anything to her precious baby but it did not seem to be having any sort of effect. "Who are you?"

"Now that is hardly any way to talk to your elders boy," Sirius snarled at Dudley, looking and sounding so fierce after looking so harmless, it terrified his cousin into doing something he'd never done before and apologised. "That's more like it, now if you'll take a seat, we can begin."

Petunia fixed Dudley a bowl of porridge as he was meant to be on a diet and there was no other breakfast material left in the house. Sirius immediately dug in, savouring each bite and looking like he had gone to heaven while Vernon and Dudley looked at their respective breakfasts in disgust. Dudley was still entirely confused by the whole situation and Vernon was still purple as he was still trying to shout, but was unable to produce any noise. Petunia was desperately trying to pretend as if nothing was out of the ordinary though Harry was unsure why and was too busy trying to eat the colossal meal in front of him too much care. There was more here than he'd usually eat in three days and only managed half before his stomach was protesting it was full.

"Come on now Harry, you've only had half of what's there, take another bite."

"I don't think I could if I wanted to," Harry muttered. Vernon looked over greedily, very much wanting to grab the plate back and dig in having already demolished the singular slice of toast spread thinly with margarine that this stranger had allowed him.

Sirius pinned him with a glare capable of turning a man to stone before he could try. "You have been pucking starving him. You will sit there contented with the meal you were given, if you consider it suitable for a boy on the cusp on manhood it is suitable for you, so you will not say a word against it." Vernon did not even try to argue. The Dursleys did not usually protest their innocence when accused of a crime, they just try to persuade you they were in the right and that he deserves all that he gets. 'You see Ms Alison, we had to keep him off school to clean the mess he caused, he has to learn he can't get away with things like this. It was our right to torture a child; you just need to give us enough time to explain to you.'

As dangerous as this man was, he seemed to genuinely care about him; he was not going to take any of that shit from the Dursleys. "Petunia," Sirius addressed as his finished his breakfast and nicked a little of Harry's plate when it became clear he was not going to eat anymore, "be a dear and get me some money. I don't know if Gringotts will be able to serve me or not so just in case I cannot get in I will need some muggle money to die me over, I do hate stealing you know, horrid business. Not that much, £1000 will do."

"I don't have that sort of money spare."

"You will make ends meet. There is an Atm just down the road, you don't need to take the care, and you are can go by yourself just fine. But don't take longer than twenty minutes dear, I will start to get… anxious of your whereabouts."

Petunia gulped before deciding it was safest to do as she was asked.

"Now Harry, I suppose we'd better get packed and we can be off."

"We?"

"Well yes, obviously you have to come with me."

"Actually no, I do not."

"You can't want to stay here?" He actually sounded hurt.

"I would like to go to the burrow or Hogwarts or stay with Hermione, I would love to get out of this place, but I don't want to go anywhere with you."

"Well sorry to burst your bubble cub," he said with a hard edge to his voice, "but you don't have much of a choice," his eyes flash and Harry had to fight not to leap out of his seat or scoot backwards, or draw his wand. He had faced his uncle, but he knew what he was getting with his uncle but this was a new threat, and a wizard who somehow could evade the authorities, even using quite impressive spells.

"No," Harry argued right back, "I'm not going anywhere with you! You killed 13 muggles, it was in the daily prophet, and with one spell! You killed a friend of my parents and you betrayed them to Voldemort, leaving me to grow up with these people!"

Sirius froze, "who told you that," his voice had dropped several octaves and he sounded sane.

"My aunt told me, and I read the prophet, my friends send it to me, and I watch the news, you are a wanted man – Stubby."

"I see. James was like a brother to me and Lily a sister, you look like him Harry, except for your eyes, you have your mother's eyes. Nothing at all from your grandparents and nothing from your aunt but that can only be a good thing. I would never hurt them Harry, and I would never hurt you, you are my godson, did you know that? Your parents wanted me to look after you should anything happen to them, we loved each other Harry."

"Why should I believe you?"

"It doesn't matter. Remember what I told you before about explaining," and yet he was taking the time to answer him, that had to count for something. "I'll make you believe me, I don't care what it takes, you will believe me eventually."

It probably wasn't meant to sound all that threatening, but Harry had to gulp down the bubbling fear. "You're dangerous."

That seemed to be the wrong thing to say as his eyes sparkled with mirth and his pale lips stretched into an inhuman grin, "yes Harry, yes I am." He looked like he was going to continue that train of thought but he looked at the clock and he was distracted. "Ah, ten minutes have passed; I'm starting to feel a little edgy, I do hope I don't have to go out looking." He pointed at Dudley, "you boy, go and do the washing up, lighten the load for your mother."

Dudley looked shocked and affronted at being asked to do such a thing. He opened his mouth to argue before thinking better of it and instead just cast a rather helpless look at his cousin. Harry was not feeling merciful, "better do as he says Dud." The boy looked stupidly between the two of them for a little longer, the stoic face of his cousin and the unrelenting glaring one of the stranger. Vernon was staying out of the conflict, he couldn't talk anyway. He seemed to be realising that throwing his weight around was not going to do anything. After about a minute, Dudley got up and started to collect the dishes.

At that moment Petunia walked through the door with the money in her hand, she thrust it into Sirius' waiting palm with venom in her actions, but she said nothing. "Thank you Petunia, you are a dear. Now Harry, let's get you packed up." He pushed the chair back from the table, grabbed Harry's arm and started for the stairs. He soon learnt that protesting or letting his feet drag did nothing but bruise his ankles as he was dragged up the stairs, it was like Sirius did not register his weight at all. Harry had to admit he was surprised he still had his wand, but he was not going to draw it, he couldn't unless he was certain he could get away with it and if at all possible, he was going to prevent angering this man.

"Hmm, strange tastes you have Harry," Sirius mentioned lightly as he took in the lavender curtains and pot pourri, but each to his own I suppose."

"That's because you just walked into the guest bedroom, this is reserved for Marge, Vernon's sister, my room is across the hall."

"Ah, of course it is," Sirius agreed without letting go of his arm, dragged him across the corridor and practically threw him into the room once he kicked the door open, taking it off one of the hinges. He looked around and seemed to be unsatisfied with hat he saw. "Kind of cramped in here wouldn't you say cub? Well, nothing to do about that I suppose and it doesn't matter now." He picked up a toy from the shelf, "Lily used to have one of these," he mentioned offhandedly, his eyes going distant. "She kept trying to make it go faster. I remember James, always a master at transfiguration, turned it into a unicorn so it pranced around, the one prank she seemed to enjoy the effects of."

Harry remembered that toy well, when he was 7 years old, Dudley had bashed it against his head, breaking it, he had been locked in his cupboard for 2 days with no meals for that one. With no warning, Sirius strode over to the window and chucked the car out as if it had bitten him. Then he grabbed Harry's head with his hands and demanded he look him in the eyes. "This is going to be uncomfortable Harry and for that I apologise but this has to be done, I need to know what they have done to you to enact justice, legilimens!"

It came to him like the floodgates had just been opened; he very nearly fell to his knees at the abruptness of the attack. All the worst memories and nightmares came rushing to the surface and there was nothing he could do to stop it. He was three years old and he was being hit with the frying pan for playing with Dudley's toys. He was five years old and he was being punished for burning the toast when cooking breakfast for the family. He was 6 and he was lying exhausted in the garden with blisters on his hands from weeding for hours on end and painting the garden fence. He was seven years old and he was washing up, trying to ignore Dudley who kept trying to make him break a plate so he would be punished for it.

Harry could feel a presence in his mind, he kept trying to grab a hold of it and throw it out but each time he tried, he was unsuccessful. The presence would block him quite like the inhuman strength Sirius had in his physique, or it would slyly move out of his reach. He was seven and a half and he was being chases around the playground by Dudley and his gang while they were 'hunting' him. He was eight and he was desperately trying to explain that he didn't know how he got up on the roof but the teachers didn't believe him and he was beaten for it later. He was nine and he was being praised for a good piece of work. He was nine and he was being punished for a good piece of work. He remembered the belt coming down on him again and again.

These were his private thoughts, Sirius had no right being here, but he did not think he could even move his body, the iron hold was too strong and he was so deep within his own mind he could barely sense it. If he could not throw him out, then he would attempt to drown him so try he did, he threw nonsense poems at him, random homework assignments from primary school and images, he did not know if they were real or ones his mind had conjured up and didn't care. He felt the slightest hint of irritation but he could still brush them aside easily. He grabbed the memories he wanted and sift through them, simply glancing at some, picking apart others in meticulous detail. In the end, seeming as he knew the worst parts anyway, Harry just gave up.

Sirius sifted through his mind as if it was his own, and Harry was as cooperative as he could be, trying did nothing but give him a bad headache anyway, and now he was compliant it was already fading. Sirius moved from his childhood years to Hogwarts. He remembered the letter tha arrived but how I was snatched out of his hands before he could read it. Harry smirked at the memory of the hundreds of owls arriving at Privet Drive with the letters and grimaced at the memory of every single one of them being burnt. Harry saw again Vernon deciding to run away and Hagrid finding them and taking him to Diagon Alley. He remembered seeing his fault at Gringotts, receiving Hedwig getting his wand and Ollivander's strange reaction to one that chose him.

He remembered reading his books, studying, meeting the Weasley's on the platform, his immediate friendship with Ron and buying everything on the sweet trolley. He remembered being sorted into Griffindor, Draco, meeting Hermione, saving her from the troll and being the youngest seeker in a century, along with getting a Nimbus 2000 from McGonagall. He remembered getting a detention that had him go into the forbidden forest (he always wondered about that punishment), meeting Voldemort again and being saved by Firenze. He remembered finding out about the stone from Hagrid as the friendly giant couldn't keep a secret to save his life and getting Norbert to Romania before it burned down his hut. He remembered being almost thrown off his broom until Hermione being the brilliant student she was, set fire to Snape's robes, stopping him from muttering and knocking Quirell back into the third row, breaking his eye contact.

He remembered Christmas, for the first time in his life he actually got presents, a jumper from Molly, some chocolate from Ron, a book from Hermione and the invisibility cloak he worked out must have been from Dumbledore. They stayed with him too, he had company for Christmas, he really couldn't ask for better friends. He remembered wandering the halls at night to go to the forbidden section of the library, coming across the mirror of Erised and seeing his parents. all the torment he got from Snape, not just in his first class but the sabotaging of his potions and unfair house point deductions after that. By Christmas he had wised up and studied very hard as he was not going to learn anything there, keeping an extra sample of his potion in case Snape 'accidentally' vanished it and demanding the important assignments get remarked.

He got to the business with the stone and here Sirius latched onto the memory and took it apart. He remembered each task they went through, the plant and how Hermione saved them, chasing the keys, the chess set, the potions, and Quirell. He was still haunted by the memory of Voldemort's face growing out the back of Quirell's head, hidden under his turban. He remembered recovering the stone, defying Voldemort and managing to kill the man by touching him, it was frightening but fascinating to watch him crumble to ash. He remembered turning away, believing the task completed and Voldemort's wraith passing through him, knocking him out. He remembered waking up in the hospital one days later, how Ron had helped himself to the Bertie box every flavour beans and Dumbledore getting an earwax flavoured one.

Finally, Sirius withdrew, and knocked out, Harry collapsed to his knees and Sirius took a step back before sitting next to him. "I'm sorry cub, it wasn't meant to hurt that much and it wasn't meant to take that long, although it only took about seven minutes even if it felt like longer. I had no idea you'd been through so much, in this place you're forced to call home and at school. Now I know though, I can make things right."

"What was that?" Harry demanded, his voice was low and shook from the experience. "What the hell did you just do to me?"

"It's called legilimency Harry, it allows a person to read another's mind as long as they are keeping eye contact with you, though a skilled legilimens can do so without eye contact. Snape and Dumbledore can do it, the slimy bastard knew when it was the Slytherin's who sabotaged your potions and Dumbledore must have known what you went through here. I won't let them continue to abuse you this way Harry, I'm going to teach you Occlumency, it will allow you to block out the attacks, the more skilled you are the easier it will be."

Suddenly Sirius went very still and very quiet, then he swore and grabbed Harry's head pulling them down so they were lying on the floor behind the bed. At the same time Harry heard the loud bang of Vernon firing his rifle and a bullet came flying through the door. Sirius drew his wand and muttered 'protego' before pointing it at the door and blowing the thing fully off its hinges. He followed straight after it, roaring in anger and jumping through the air with immense speed like something out of hell. He barrelled into Vernon and knocked him to the ground, batting the rifle out of his hands before he could use it again so hard that it shattered when it hit the wall. Within seconds he had the man on his knees, one hand gripping his collar, the other fisting in his hair.

"You crazy fool," he said, his whole body shaking with anger, "you could have hit Harry, you could've killed him, your own nephew!" He yanked Vernon's head back by his hair, eliciting a silent cry of pain and a couple of tears from the corner of his eye. The sane man that Harry had been talking too (and mind raped by) was gone; this was the madman that had entered their house just under two hours ago. "I want to hear you scream, I want to hear the pain I cause you for hurting my Godson, and you should not have dared to lay a finger on him. Did you really think I would not find out? Did you really think I would not come after you? Finite!"

Immediately the corridor was filled with the grunts of pain and whimpers from Vernon Dursley. Unsatisfied, Sirius stamped on his leg, causing the bone to splinter and the house echoed with his screams. "Don't worry," Sirius directed at Petunia, who was watching with wide eyes and a deathly pale face, "there is a shield around the house, the neighbours won't hear a thing." His eyes were sparkling with mirth, Harry was appalled at the fact he was enjoying himself, even if he had wanted to do the same thing to Vernon himself in the past. She looked like she wanted to jump in, but held back, knowing it wouldn't do any good. She was holding onto Dudley's shoulder so tight that her knuckles were white it was as much to keep herself grounded as her son.

"Hush Vernon," he whispered in his ear, and the man did his best to obey him. Sirius started to pet his pale hair in a faux loving manner. "You remember Harry's christening don't you? We didn't invite you, only Petunia because Lily or some reason wanted her there, but you came anyway. You remember the Godfather oath I took don't you?" He let go of his collar to place one hand over his heart, "I, Sirius Orion Black, heir to the most Noble and Ancient House of Black, do swear to be Godfather to Harry James Potter, son of the House Potter. I swear to look after him in the case of the demise or incapacitation of Lily and James Potter and to bring him up as I would a child of my own blood. Go on Vernon, you know the next bit. Speak!"

Vernon flinched but did as he was told as best as he could. "I… swear to teach him… to guide him… and to love him… guarding him until my… my dying breath."

"I swear to protect him from physical, emotional, spiritual and magical harm for as long as I live. So I have sworn, so mote it be," Sirius finished. "I swear to protect him," he said again, "and I told you, because I knew you were an aggressive, angry man the moment I laid eyes on you, I told you that if you ever hurt a member of my family that I would kill you. I should kill you, I should kill you gain and again for what you did to my cub but I have recently been informed it is not possible. I should torture you, I want to make you suffer an eternity of punishment for every mark you laid upon this child of mine but I don't have the time."

His hands gripped his hair again and twisted sharply left then right, they all heard the snap; he let his lifeless body fall to the floor. Sirius stepped over him and back into Harry's room as if he had not done anything more scandalous than spill a coffee. He continued to speak to Harry naturally as he bustled about, "you don't need any of the clothes, they're too big for you and don't look very nice anyway. We'll get you some more ones and see if we can get them charmed with protection spells or something and a new school uniform too. You'll need more books and robes for next year so I suppose all we need to collect is the cloak, the photo album and the bird." He removed the loose floorboard and collected the items, shrinking them and putting them in his pocket."

"Ah Hedwig, you have looked after my cub well and provided him with much needed support and companionship over the years and for this I thank you." He picked up some owl treats from the open packet next to her cage and fed her from his fingers. "Do you know that magical animals tend to live longer than muggle ones, and this is a magical owl and your familiar at that, she'll live as long as you do now. James got an owl when he was sixteen to commemorate my joining his family, I ran away to live with him you see. Hedwig was just a chick then, the youngest of the litter of the snowy in the next cage over but I remember – this is definitely her."

Harry wasn't listening, he couldn't believe it, he was dead, Vernon was dead. Sirius didn't seem to bother as he exited to room, Hedwig on his shoulder as if she belonged there until she saw his master and flew over to join him. Sirius pointed his wand at Petunia and suddenly Harry found his voice, "no! Not her too. Sirius please, no more killing, if you promised to protect me then protect me now and don't harm me emotionally or spiritually from killing her."

It seemed he said the right thing as Sirius lowered his wand. "You're lucky Petunia, very lucky, though you do not deserve your nephew's loyalty or my mercy." He pulled back his arm and punched her in the face, "you don't get away completely unscathed. Teach your son to be a better person, he's young enough and I don't hurt children, no matter how vile they can be. Hopefully we will never see each other again. Obliviate. Everything that happened here today was done by a man with pale skin and long blond hair; he said his name was Malfoy, Lucius Malfoy except he did not wish to save Harry, but kill him, luckily he escaped."

While they were still dazed, Sirius struck his wand, creating the dark mark to appear above the sky having learnt how to replicate it without needing the tattoo when he was in jail surrounded by death eaters. He grasped Harry's forearm and with a crack they disappeared.

Sirius was laughing a cross between a normal chuckle and maniacal guffaw when they reappeared in one of the side streets of London. "What did you just do, the person you accused, that was Draco's father wasn't it?"

"Yes. He's a death eater. He'll be given a trial, he'll be cleared of this but everyone will know he's a death eater and he should be in jail within the end of the month, a perfect birthday present I would say. I owe you 12 of them, we should get started."

"Where are we going to go?" "My old place, once I've grab some hairs from someone to give myself a suitable disguise, then Gringotts to see if I can access my assets, then I can buy you all the things you need. You're mine now Harry, I'll teach you everything you need to know, you'll never want for anything and in time you'll be the greatest wizard to ever walk this Earth. What do you say Harry, will you allow me to lead you towards your destiny?"

Harry furrowed his brow. This man was dangerous and crazy but he had only killed Vernon for what he'd done to him, to protect and avenge him and harry couldn't say he felt any sorrow for him. What was more, he had spared Petunia when he asked and was going to spare Dudley anyway. Harry believed that he really did want to look after him, and even if he was mad, was trying to care for him in his own way. All Harry had to do was open his mind to the possibility he was innocent of the crime he was charged with, at least give him a chance to explain. Wasn't this what he wanted, ever since he was a child? Someone to take him away. And while it was a minor piece of information, the dreams he had of the flying motorbike – this was man who drove it.

Hoping he wasn't making the biggest mistake of his life, Harry reached forward his hand and grasped that of his godfather. The smile he was granted with would have charmed the birds off the trees and he was pulled into the first familial hug he had ever received. "Thank you Harry, thank you."