Harry lay on his bed at the Dursley's staring at the ceiling, the events of the past years churning slowly through his mind. Voldemort was back, resurrected using Harrys own blood. Cedric had been killed, the words, 'kill the spare,' were still ringing in his mind. Wormtail was remained free, another murder to add to his growing list of crimes. And after all this he was still sent back to the Dursleys, his muggle relatives who hated the very air he breathed. All he could do was lie here. He felt so helpless and alone. His godfather Sirius had disappeared after the third task, off doing something important for Dumbledore; and his friends were no help either. Their letters were full of meaningless platitudes. He knew deep in his bones, that Voldemort would stop at nothing to see him dead and he had no chance at stopping him. Luck was what had brought him this far and the sacrifice of his mother not that that was even relevant anymore as Voldemort had his blood. So he lay there, not sleeping but not thinking either just listening to the sounds around him.
It was late. So late it was early. He could hear his Uncle snoring in the room across the hall and Dudley grunting in his sleep in the next room. Outside he heard the occasional car drive past. He might have eventually drifted off to sleep if not for a very unusual sound registering on his consciousness. Feet on the stairs! He leapt up off his bed grabbing his wand.
He could hear Vernon and Dudley still snoring so that ruled them out and Petunia was afraid of the dark, she never got up at night without turning on every light in the house. So an intruder of some kind, Voldemort perhaps? He was supposed to be safe here, guarded by some intangible wards brought on by his mothers love and powered by her blood but Voldemort had that now meaning the wards weren't relevant where he was concerned. Could it be a muggle? Was this just an ordinary home invasion, as if he didn't have enough to deal with. Did he dare use magic?
He heard the feet pause at Dudley's room and again at Vernon and Petunias before moving towards his door. He lifted his wand and aimed it at the door, a curse on his lips, when he heard a familiar voice mutter. "Damn Dursleys. Why are there so many locks on the bloody door? Alohamora."
"Sirius!" Harry exclaimed quietly as he jumped on the shadowy figure entering his room.
"What the…?" Sirius yelped and just about jumped out of his skin "Bloody hell Harry." He complained as he caught his godson. "You just about gave me a heart attack!"
Suddenly Harry flinched and looked fearfully at Vernon's door. "We need to be quiet, we really don't want my relatives to wake up." Sirius grinned at him.
"Don't worry, I hit them with a sleeping charm on my way. I'm afraid poor Vernon is going to be late for work in the morning." Harry sniggered at the thought. "But what are you doing still up? I was expecting to have Sleeping Beauty on my hands if you are anything like you were as a kid, which always meant to wake you up." Harry was not a morning person, as everyone in his dorm and Ron and Hermione in particular could attest to whenever they tried to rouse him for Monday morning Potions class.
Harry looked down. "I couldn't sleep." He muttered. "But what are you doing here?"
Sirius smirked. "I'm kidnapping you," he said simply. "Come on and get your things." Harry gaped at Sirius for a second before leaping for his trunk.
"What about Dumbledore?" he asked as he dug under the floor boards for his wand, album and cloak.
"Sod him." Sirius growled as he paced the floor of Harry's room. "I lived better while on the run then at that place and if I have to listen to one more of Molly's rants, I might be driven to homicide for real this time." Harry shot Sirius a worried glance. Sirius wasn't known for his excellent impulse control. He shook his head. "No don't worry about it now. Let's just go."
"I'm ready."
"Where's Hedwig?"
"Out hunting."
"Right." Sirius waved his wand at the trunk and shrunk it. Harry pocketed the now matchbox sized box and followed Sirius outside.
"Follow me; we have to get out of the anti-apparition wards." When Sirius decided they were far enough away he wrapped Harry in his arms. "You ever been apparated before?" he grinned.
"No I…" He didn't get a chance to finish before the world vanished around him. The only thing he could feel was Sirius' arms around him. Before he had a chance to panic though the world reappeared.
"Bloody hell Sirius give a guy a little warning next time!" he groused before looking around. They were standing on the gravel driveway of large castle. Gardens spread out around them illuminated by the light of the waning moon above and the coloured lights lining the drive. Harry took in his surroundings in wonder. "Where are we?" he asked.
"This, Harry is the Potter family Castle. Located somewhere in the centre of Wales. Only those of Potter blood and those invited can find the place, to everyone else this area is just forest land." Harry gasped. Potter Castle? "In the past, the Potters have been targeted by dark wizards so they put a lot of effort and magic into making a safe place for their families," Sirius explained as they made their way up the drive. "The Potter Manor, near Brighton, is the public seat and Godric's Hollow was the dower house."
"Why didn't they hide here?" Harry asked. "My parents? If it's so safe why didn't they hide here?"
Sirius sighed. "Same reason I wasn't the Secret Keeper. It was obvious. No place is impenetrable and we couldn't put the castle under the Fidelis. The wards would have interfered and the bigger the area the more power the spell needs. We just decided to use the Fidelis and go some place smaller. Maybe we made the wrong decision. Maybe you would be dead if we hadn't. We'll never know."
The house was constructed of grey stone with sweeping arches and curving pathways and fairly hummed with magic. The whole place was lit up, light streaming from the window, lighting up the courtyard. The magic was stronger, all around him, welcoming him home. Sirius put his arm around him as tears streamed down his face. "Welcome home Harry."
Harry had only the vaguest recollection of Sirius leading him up a flight of stairs and putting him to bed. Harry slept that night with the knowledge that he was safe, and no longer alone.
After what had to be the single best night's sleep Harry had ever had, he was rudely awakened by a very large thing landing on him at what seemed to him to be an obscene hour the next morning, but was in fact almost 10.
The room he found himself in was huge. He lay on a large four poster bed with a green coverlet and hangings, there were reading chairs in one corner in front of a fireplace, a bookshelf taking up the whole of another wall and huge bay windows that opened onto a balcony which overlooked some magnificent gardens. The colour scheme ran to forest greens and gold's and the bedposts had engraved leaves winding up to the canopy.
"What… Sirius? Where…" Harry foundered for a bit before the memories of the night before came back to him. Sirius, the lump that had landed on him, chuckled.
"Don't you remember Harry? I kidnapped you. Well, you helped."
"Why? Aren't you going to get into trouble over this?"
Sirius flopped down to lay beside Harry. "Probably but I don't care. Lily and James appointed me your godfather and I'm not going to screw it up like I did the night of the third task."
Harry blinked wondering what Sirius was talking about. His godfather turned his head to look at Harry. "Dumbledore sent me away that night and like an idiot I left. It wasn't until later that I realised how badly I had let you down. You needed me and I left you. I'm not going to make that mistake again. This way we have the whole summer together and I can begin to make up for the life I missed."
Harry smiled at the man. "I'm glad."
"Me too. Now, up and at 'em Harry. Come on we have a very big day today. We have to get to Diagon Alley this morning before the Order realises you're missing." Harry watched as Sirius leaped up from the bed and bounded around the room, grabbing clothes from his trunk and tossing them at Harry.
"Order? What Order? And why are we going to Diagon Alley anyway? Aren't we hiding?" Harry took his clothes and moved to the bathroom. Sirius followed and started rummaging through the medicine cabinet while Harry took a shower.
"The Order is that 'Old Crowd' I was supposed to gather. They're a group of people who are trying to stop Voldemort and don't trust the Ministry to do it. I let Dumbledore use my old house as Headquarters but I hate the place and refuse to stay there any longer. As for Diagon Alley, you and I both need new clothes among other things so we are going in disguise. Wash your hair with this." He thrust a bottle at Harry over the curtain.
"What is this?" he asked as he lathered his hair.
"The twins aren't the only pranksters that can invent things. We came up with that in sixth year. We were trying to get a product that would start to smell after a while, so we would have alibis…"
"I'm going to STINK?!" Harry yelled, and tossed the empty bottle at the back of Sirius' head.
"Ow! Harry! Don't you trust me? We'll be back here before that happens and you can wash it out. But one of the side effects is that is lets you change your hair style easily and it'll last longer than a glamour spell." Harry wrapped a towel around his waist and glared at Sirius as he exited the shower. Sirius grinned at him. "So how do you feel about being a blond?"
After a few false starts, Harry objected strenuously about anything that looked like Malfoy, Harry ended up with shoulder length dark auburn hair with red highlights. Sirius changed his own hair to match and they changed Harrys eyes to blue and covered his scar with a cosmetic charm. Looking in the mirror it was very easy to mistake them for father and son. The same thought must have occurred to Sirius because he grinned.
"Meet Jim and Orion Grey, well-to-do Purebloods from Essex. Now get dressed Harry we have a lot to do and only three hours to do it in."
"Three hours?!" Harry yelped, before diving for his clothes.
"Well," Sirius said as he left Harry to get ready. "Technically it's four hours, but you really don't want this stuff on you when it goes off."
Once again, Sirius wrapped Harry in his arms and apparated them from the front lawn of the castle to London. He took him to a mall that was teaming with people, mostly kids around Harry's age. The first store they entered was a men's clothing store. Sirius walked up to the counter. "Now Orion what I am about to do is very dangerous and is not to be tried with out at least one other male present. The chance of failure in this is high but desperate times call for desperate measures." He turned to the sales girl, a young girl maybe a few years older than Harry, who was looking at them in amusement and curiosity. Sirius steeled himself. "Orion here needs a whole new wardrobe. Money is no object." The girl, whose name tag said Anne, blinked at them before her grin turned unholy.
"Of course sir, I'd be happy to help."
What followed was a campaign that could only be described as devastating. Anne made him try on what seemed like every piece of clothing in the shop. Sirius then dragged a shell shocked Harry through three other stores before he was satisfied with their purchases. Harry, on the other hand, had no idea what he had gotten and after trying on so many outfits could be forgiven for being surprised at being dragged out of the mall in black jeans, boots, a blue shirt and a black leather biker jacket that matched the one Sirius had gotten. Once out of sight, Sirius shrunk their purchases and apparated to Diagon Alley where he once again left Harry to the tender mercy of Madam Malkin and her assistants.
Harry was exhausted by the time they stopped for lunch at a place called Crystals' Ball, an upscale diner on the other end of the Alley to the Leaky Cauldron.
"Sirius where's Remus?" Harry asked as they waited for their food.
"Moony is currently furious with me over some prank we pulled, my seeming immaturity and kidnapping you with out permission. He is quite certain that I have taken you out of the country, as I have been dropping hints about the Caribbean for a while now." He grinned at Harry's worried expression. "At least that's what he's telling the Order. We've been planning this for a while; the only reason we waited is because Mad Eye is currently out of the country and can't bust us. Moony couldn't come with us right away because he doesn't have a standing invitation to the Castle the way I do." At Harry's look he elaborated. "After fifth year I decided I was never going back to my family's house and James's parents, your grandparents invited me to stay. Moony's been invited as well but his wasn't permanent. He's going to meet up with us tomorrow."
"What do you have planned?"
"Well if you were to ask Moony, he'd say it's never to early to start studying for your OWL's." He laughed as Harrys expression turned into one of horror. "Don't worry Harry I'll protect you. We'll get the old boy up on a broom."
"Remus can fly?" Some how he couldn't quite picture his old professor playing quidditch.
"Oh yeah Harry, me and Moony were the crack beaters for the quidditch team. Your uncle is a mean flyer."
"Uncle?" A disturbing image of Vernon on a broom went through his mind and he shuddered.
Sirius laughed. "Well, that's what he is isn't he? Sometimes I think it's only because the Ministry doesn't like werewolves that I'm your godfather at all." He pouted at the thought.
After lunch Sirius took Harry down Knockturn Alley. "What are we going here?" Harry asked looking around in apprehension.
"We need to get you a confundo wand." Sirius told him.
"A what?"
"It's a wand that disguises your magical signature so that the ministry can't track it. They're no where near as good as your own wand, but they're good for pranking over the summer. The Ministry has, for obvious reasons, made them illegal but I happen to know where we can get one."
They made their way down the Alley, Harry watching his surroundings in apprehension. Sirius noticed he was pretty jumpy and slung his arm around his shoulders. "Don't worry Harry this place isn't as bad as Molly Weasley made it out to be. It's called Knockturn Alley because a lot of places are only open at night. When you get of age I'll bring you to some of the night clubs here. James and I used to come here all the time 'til he got hitched. Just promise not to tell Moony."
Sirius led him to a small junk shop that looked similar to Burgin and Borg's that Harry had accidentally landed in second year, but much better kept. The shelves were lined with an array of books, idols, potions and crystals of all colours and sizes.
Sirius went up to talk to the owner, a shifty looking man whose eyes kept darting to Harry as if he expected his to make off with half his merchandise while he had his back turned. Harry ignored him, used to stares and continued to browse the shelves. He mostly ignored the crystal balls, smiled at some of the idols, and looked at the titles of the books.
He was wandered up and down the shelves, not looking for anything in particular when he felt something. A touch of magic different from the rest, out of place. He closed his eyes and reached inside himself to a place he had only recently been able to find, his centre, the core of his magic. Drawing it up, he opened his eyes. The book store was no longer the shadowy place it had been. There was a glow about everything in the store as well as the floor, door and shelves themselves. The glow had a different texture on some things as apposed to others and some of the books had a very forbidding look to them. He looked at a crystal ball in front of him and was surprised to find shapes moving inside.
This wasn't what was calling him though and he looked around the store to try and locate where the feeling was coming from. Following the magic, he moved deeper into the shop which had to have been expanded because there was no way this would have all fit in if it was the size it had looked.
The call, the strange touch of magic, got stronger and stronger until he felt like he was upon it. Letting go of his magic he looked around. This part of the store was obviously not frequented, as seen by the thick layers of dust coating everything. It was mostly just books covering the shelves with the occasional stone idol used carelessly as a book end. None of the titles were anything that might attract him and he couldn't see anything that might have caused the strange magic until he stood on his toes to get a better look at the shelf above.
There! That one. A spot of colour amongst the age faded tombs. He reached up and as his hand touched the cover he felt the book react. Startled, he almost dropped it.
The book was covered in red leather with gold edging, a winged lion on the front and a gold lock. Engraved in gold across the top were the words,
'The Clow'
He fiddled with the lock for a bit but couldn't get it open. The book felt important some how. As if it belonged to him and he was just now picking it up. He traced his fingers over the name. 'Clow.' The name meant something to him but for the life of him he couldn't figure out what.
He brought the book up to the counter where Sirius was looking over a group of wands. "Can I get this as well?" he asked.
Sirius looked up and saw what he was carrying. "A book?!"
"Yes Dad, a book. I'm so pleased you are able to recognise one."
"That's enough out of you my son. I think you have been hanging out with your uncle too long."
"Well Harry, we have 20 minutes left in the three hour dead line and one last thing we need to do."
"What's that?" Harry asked as Sirius led him out of Knockturn Alley.
"We are going to get your ear pierced." Sirius said happily indicating the jewellers in front of them.
Harry stopped dead. "I am not getting my ear pierced!"
Sirius grabbed his arm and tried to tug him into the store. "Come on, it'll look great."
"NO!" The tug of war continued until they were interrupted by a voice asking.
"Is this gentleman bothering you?" Harry and Sirius both turned to look at the newcomer. He was a tall boy about 16 with long dark hair and wire rimmed glasses that covered intelligent blue eyes. Eye's that were at this moment watching Harry very closely. Harry blushed. Sirius used the distraction to tug Harry closer to him and shot the boy a glare.
"My son and I were just debating the merits of accessories." The boy nodded wisely, a small smile playing on his lips.
"I apologise, but I could not help but offer assistance to such a beauty in distress."
"Really?" Sirius's eyebrows shot up, looking from the boy in front of him to his furiously blushing godson. "Those are good instincts you have. Well perhaps you could help us settle this then. I have been trying to talk Orion into getting his ear pierced and he is resisting."
Errol ran a finger along the shell of Harry's ear tucking a lock of hair behind it. "An emerald, I think, the stone of purity. No other will do."
"Excuse me?" Harry asked, thoroughly weirded out by this boy.
"Ah forgive me; I have not introduced my self. My name is Eriol Moon, a sixth year currently attending Hogwarts and a member of Slytherin house." He gave Harry a short bow. "Might I be permitted to know your name?"
"Oh! My name is H… Orion. Orion Grey. I don't go to Hogwarts."
"No or I would surely have noticed." Harry heard Sirius snort behind him. "Well I won't keep you any longer. It was a pleasure meeting you, Orion."
Harry continued to watch Eriol walk up the street and was only brought out of his daze by Sirius sniggering. "It looks like someone has an admirer." He grinned at Harry.
Harry snorted. "He wouldn't if he knew who I really was."
Sirius rolled his eyes. "Right because being Harry Potter is so terrible. Come on, how about that emerald?"
My apologies to anyone who was hoping for a new chapter of the Acceptance. This is a story my friend and I were working on for fun and it kind of grew from there.
This will be the first thing she was ever posted on fanfiction so I hope people show their love.