A/N: Here's the third part of Altered Fates: Sirius Trouble (the pun was too good to resist!) and the part where it starts to truly become an AU. Beware, there will be a slash (i.e. boy/boy) relationship in this, specifically Harry/Cedric and there will also be light Ron bashing. There will also be a Hermione/OC relationship, but the OC is not mine (same with anything else you recognize, including the spells! The spells I use belong to Christopher Paolini and the BBC, while I reference the mad genius herself in Diagon Alley. By the way, if you want to watch Harry's memory of Aunt Marge's inflation, see the scene in the PoA film.) Also, to my fellow Harry Potter authors who mention/use Legillimency and Occlumency, PAY ATTENTION TO THIS! I have often read Harry Potter stories where the author mistakes Occlumency (mental shielding) for Legillimency (telepathy/mind reading.) Make sure which is which before you publish (check OotP: Occlumency!) Oh, and thanks to MariusDarkwolf and his story Harry Potter and the Eyes of the Serpent for the inspiration about the Basilisk's effect on Harry. One final note, I have recently learned that British students usually start secondary school (like Hogwarts) at age eleven. I have Hogwarts start at age twelve because in my reality, that is when the magical core stabilizes enough for children to officially start learning spells. Until then, the core is usually quite erratic, thus the 'accidental magic' that is so common among pre-Hogwarts students. After the core stabilizes, accidental magic is reduced to incidents of extreme emotion, such as what is going to be discussed in this chapter. As always: READ AND REVIEW!
Altered Fates
Part Three: Sirius Trouble
Chapter One: Escapes and the Leaky Cauldron
At 42 Feltrim Ave, Exeter in Devon, Sarah Malfoy-Grace was extremely upset. Part of the reason was because until last year, she had been able to focus on her job and let her friends and husband raise her son, and now she was forced to do so. The other reason was the fact that her son refused to obey or listen to her about anything. The blonde haired, grey-eyed woman held her wand out at the youth in front of her and shouted "Crucio!" intent on getting the boy to listen and obey her. However, the redheaded, golden-eyed boy was far more stubborn and refused to give in. To Nico Sirius Grace, giving in to his mother meant the loss of all his friends and joining his enemies. To give in to her demands meant accepting the pureblood philosophy that he hated and knew was false. Such a choice was unacceptable to him, and thanks to his mother's repeated use of Cruciatus and her Occlumency training from earlier that year (and the year before that,) he was able to focus on turning his wand on his mother and using a spell that he had learned over the summer. "Astrice!" he shouted, hoping that the Muggle-created spell would work, he had, after all only seen it in the new TV show Merlin. To his great surprise, it did work, and it worked perfectly, sending Mrs Sarah Malfoy-Grace flying into the far wall. With his mother incapacitated, Nico ran to his room, packed all of his things and ran. Ran before his mother woke up, and before his mother's subordinate in the Ministry of Magic, one Malfalda Hopkirk, could send out a letter reprimanding him for underage magic.
The Grace home had been hell for Nico ever since the death of his father a little more than one year before. Eric Julius 'Spike' Grace had died at the hands of Tom Marvolo Riddle, more commonly known as the Dark Lord Voldemort. In Nico's two years at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Nico and his best friends Harry Potter, Neville Longbottom, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley (although the last didn't exactly count as a friend, more like co-worker) had already faced Voldemort twice, once protecting the legendary Philosopher's Stone, and the other shutting down the legendary Chamber of Secrets. It was after the Philosopher's Stone incident that Nico started living with only his mother, and she started trying to train him up in the pureblood supremacy beliefs and the Dark Arts. Nico had to admit that some of the Dark Arts had their uses, especially a number of Dark spells, but he was no blood supremacist. And after being exposed to one of the Unforgivable Curses numerous times, Nico had had enough. He was running away, and he wasn't going to go back. The only question was, where would he go?
He could go to the Diggory's, but his mother knew that him and Cedric considered each other brothers, and would probably suspect that he would go there first, so that was out of the question. There was also Neville, but then he'd have to deal with his formidable grandmother, and there were problems there too. First, he had no idea where the Longbottom's lived, and even if he did, Nico would have to deal with the repercussions of having sent Augusta Longbottom a Howler last summer over her treatment of Nev. He had the same problem with the Weasley's, Hermione and Harry: he had absolutely no idea where they lived.
Fortunately, Nico didn't have to worry long as the Knight Bus stopped in front of him and Neville stepped out of it. "Nico? What are you doing? Why are you out here, I thought you said that I'd pick you up at your home." At Nico's puzzled look, Neville said "Windlebeet's, remember? You said that you were going to help me pick out a new wand for my birthday today."
"Oh, right! Sorry, I forgot about that, Nev. My mother's been giving me a lot of trouble. Let me on and I'll explain." After greeting Dre Head (the talking shrunken head on the Knight Bus) and Stan Shunpike, Nico braced himself for the inevitable sudden increase of speed that always came when the Knight Bus started moving again.
The bus had barely started when it quickly lurched to a stop in a Muggle neighbourhood, and a youth with a very familiar mop of unruly black hair stepped aboard. The two friends stared in shock as their mutual friend and nation-wide celebrity Harry Potter, aka The-Boy-Who-Lived stepped aboard. Neville moved to greet their friend, but Nico stopped him. "Why did you do that?"
"Look at Harry, Nev. He's got everything he owns with him, meaning that he's running away. If you were a run-away celebrity, would you want people to recognize you? Let's wait for him to notice us before talking to him."
It was a good thing that they did because Harry clearly didn't want to be found as he gave his name as Neville Longbottom and said he was going to the Leaky Cauldron. Then Harry noticed something that would affect all of their lives that year. "Who is that? That man," he asked, pointing at the front page of the wizarding newspaper The Daily Prophet.
Stan turned the paper around to see who Harry was talking about. When he saw the photo, he asked in shock "Who is that? Who is . . .? That is Sirius Black, that is. Don't tell me you've never been hearing of Sirius Black." Nico and Harry both had to shake their heads 'no.' Nico had heard a few things about a guy named Sirius Black from his dad, but none of the stories were anymore recent than 1988 or 1989. "He's a murderer. Killed firteen people with one curse. Got himself locked up in Azkaban for it." Nico was in shock. That did not sound like the Sirius Black from his dad's stories.
"How did he escape?"
"Well that's the question, isn't it? E's the first one that done it! He was a big supporter of," here his voice turned to a whisper, "You-Know-Who. Reckon you've heard of him."
"Yeah, him I've heard of." Nico and Nev both knew that was an understatement. You-Know-Who aka Voldemort aka Tom Marvolo Riddle was the reason Harry was famous. Almost thirteen years ago, Voldemort had come to Harry's home and attempted to destroy Harry's family. Thanks to his mother's willing sacrifice though, when Voldemort cast the Killing Curse on Harry, it rebounded, nearly destroying Voldemort.
"Very close to You-Know-Who, they say… anyway, when little Harry Potter got the better of You-Know-Who, all You-Know-Who's supporters was tracked down. Most of 'em knew it was all over, with You-Know-Who gone, and they came quiet. But not Sirius Black. I 'eard he thought he'd be second-in-command once You-Know-Who had taken over. Anyway, they cornered Black in the middle of a street full of Muggles an' Black took out 'is wand and 'e blasted half the street apart, an' a wizard got it, an' so did a dozen Muggles what got in the way. Horrible, eh? An' you know what Black did then?" Stan continued in a dramatic whisper.
"What?" said Harry.
"Laughed," said Stan. "Jus' stood there an' laughed. An' when reinforcements from the Ministry of Magic got there, 'e went with 'em quiet as anything, still laughing 'is 'ead off. 'Cos he's mad, isn't he?"
That was when Harry finally spotted his two friends and walked over to them. "What are you two doing here?"
"Well, I'm going to get a new wand, and Nico's running away from his mother. Got any ideas for where he could go?" Harry immediately suggested that Nico stay at the Leaky Cauldron with him, but Harry insisted that Nico explain what Horcruxes were while he was there, like he had promised at the end of their last adventure. Nico immediately agreed and the three friends decided to meet at the Leaky Cauldron on August 9th, to discuss Horcruxes and work together on their summer homework, as well as their Animagus training. A few minutes later, Harry was dropped off at the Leaky Cauldron and the Knight Bus shot to York and Calypso's. Once at Calypso's, Nico led the way to Windlebeet's Better Wands & Cores Emporium. As before, Peter Windlebeet greeted them and eventually found Neville's new wand, a 33 cm (13 in) Holly wand with Demiguise and Unicorn hair core (one that was apparently exactly the same age as Neville.) Nico then took the Knight Bus back to the Leaky Cauldron and reunited with Harry.
On August 9th, Neville arrived at the Leaky Cauldron and the three friends gathered in a secluded corner of the room and they looked to Nico to explain what a Horcrux was. Nico cast Muffiliato and started. "Alright, a Horcrux is a blackobject, created by only the darkest of wizards. In order to create it, you need to split your soul, something that can only be done by murdering someone in cold blood. Once that has happened, the wizard then uses a black ritual to encase the soul piece inside an object, usually something inanimate that means a great deal to the person. Rarely though, a living creature or even another person can serve as a Horcrux. Once the soul piece is inside the object/creature/person, the Horcrux is nigh on indestructible. Only Basilisk venom and Fiendfyre can destroy the Horcrux. As long as the Horcrux exists, the wizard cannot truly die. He or she can lose their body, but there exists a potion/ritual that can create a new body for that person. If a wizard has created Horcruxes, then the only way to truly kill him is to destroy his Horcruxes. It's rare that a wizard would make more than three, as each time you split your soul, it's split in half, and making three Horcruxes would leave you with only 1/8th of a soul." Seeing their confusion, Nico continued. "You guys have both read or seen Lord of the Rings, right? The One Ring is their version of a Horcrux."
Understanding filled their eyes, but then Harry asked "How do you know about these things if they're so dark?"
Nico paled at that. He had been hoping to keep the revelation of his family a secret. And here, Harry had asked the worst possible question. "I know because I have a very dark family. Last month, my mother was invited to her brother's mansion . . . in Wiltshire."
"Wiltshire? But that's the location of . . . Malfoy Manor," Neville said. Then realization hit him. "Are you saying that you're related to . . ."
Nico was shaking. He knew how much Harry and Nev hated the Malfoys and was terrified that they might turn on him when they found out. But there was a reason he was in Gryffindor, he didn't back down because he was scared. "The Malfoys? Yeah, unfortunately I am. My mother is Lucius' sister, making me Draco's first cousin. I hope that doesn't change anything." The two friends assured him that nothing could possibly change their relationship. Once Nico had calmed down, he asked Harry "Why were you running away? Surely your home life can't be that bad, can it?"
"Normally it's bearable, especially after all I've been through, but earlier that day my Uncle Vernon's sister Marge came to visit." Seeing their confused looks, Harry explained. "She is the worst sort of Muggle out there. She thinks that my spoiled, overweight cousin is the pinnacle of humanity while I should have been drowned because of how small I am and she thinks I'm a criminal. But that I could handle. No, what pushed me over the edge is when she started insulting my parents. She called my mom a bad egg and a bitch, and she called my dad, and I quote, 'an unemployed wastrel, a drunk, no-account, good for nothing scrounger.' And well, I just lost control and blew her up." Unnoticed by any of the boys, their drinks, the portrait and mirror all began to shake as Harry explained what Marge had said.
Nico and Neville turned to each other, then turned back to Harry, asking in unison "Blew her up?"
"Well, more like I inflated her, like a balloon."
Nico's eyes gleamed with the same mischievous spark that Fred and George Weasley, the twin master pranksters of Hogwarts, often had. "Would you mind if we watched your memory of that, Harry?"
"Watch my memory? What are you talking about, Nico?"
Nico reached into his trunk and pulled out a thin metal bowl that he had bought earlier that summer on a visit to Knockturn Alley and placed it on the table. "This device is known as a Pensieve. If you focus on the memory and touch your wand to your forehead, you can pull a duplicate of your memory out and review it inside the Pensieve. So, what do you say?" Harry agreed, and pulled out his memory and showed it to his friends. Once they pulled out, they both started laughing, having fully enjoyed the memory, although Nico did notice something odd. It looked to Nico like Harry's eyes changed into snake eyes when he blew Marge up, and then it almost looked like he had petrified his uncle when he left. Oh well, that was a mystery for another time. After the boys recovered, Nico turned to Harry and asked "So, where did she eventually end up?"
"Oh, somewhere in Suffolk, I think. I wasn't exactly paying attention when Fudge mentioned that."
With that taken care of, Nico said, "Speaking of my thrice-damned family and Horcruxes, what are we going to do about that Basilisk?"
"What do you mean?"
"Simply put, the Basilisk is worth it's weight in gold, Harry. Everything about the King of Snakes is useful for something, usually potions. But the venom, skin and bones can be used as wand cores, and the skin can be made into the toughest clothes out there, comfortable, yet also extremely resistant to spells."
"I assume you have a plan?"
"Well, I was thinking that we find someone who can take care of it, we use some of the skin for clothes for ourselves, send the core materials to Windlebeet, let Snape have some of it for potions, and sell the rest."
Harry and Neville stared at him in shock. "You want to give some of our snake to Snape of all people?"
"Well, why not? It might buy some good will. As for the rest of the money, well, I get some so I don't have to worry about my mother cutting me off from the family fortune, give some to everyone who suffered from the Basilisk, and well, you guys decide what to do with the rest. Although, we're going to have to go back down there and get it out of the water so it doesn't decompose too much." As much as Harry and Neville hated the idea of giving some to Snape, they had to agree it could possibly help, and they decided to go along with the plan.
Over the next month, the three boys quickly took care of their homework (although Nico did add some things to his History of Magic report. Binns had asked for a report on why Muggle witch burnings were pointless, and Nico had added information on how it had lead to the death of many innocents, magical and Muggle alike.) They then spent the rest of their time just enjoying themselves and getting closer to each other and their schoolmates as they came to get their supplies for the upcoming year (including a biting book for Care of Magical Creatures. Fortunately Nico managed to figure out how to calm it down by stroking it's spine.) Among them was one of the victims of the Basilisk the previous year and one of Harry's newest friends: Justin Finch-Fletchley, a wizard in their year that had no clue about his blood status as he had been left in an orphanage when he was young, only to be adopted by a rich gay couple. A few days after Justin's visit, the two friends put an ad in the Daily Prophet for someone to come and take care of the Basilisk, paying to keep the ad in until someone answered.
Finally, on August 27th, Hermione and the Weasley's showed up at Diagon Alley with Hermione immediately getting after Harry for blowing up his aunt. But with the help of the Pensieve, Hermione quickly laid off and even sided with Harry. Ron was quite proud of his new wand, also from Windlebeet's: 34 cm (14 in) yew with Chimera Scale and (ironically enough, considering his phobia and one of their adventures last year) Acromantula Web. Hermione and Ron then decided to go to Magical Menagerie, Hermione wanted her own pet while Ron went to get a tonic for his rat Scabbers, who had recently started to look ill. Inside, Madame Rowling mentioned that a rat like Scabbers usually didn't live past three years, yet Scabbers was quite a bit older. She had just provided a tonic when a large orange cat came out of nowhere and attacked Scabbers. Harry, Nico and Neville all laughed when Hermione decided to buy the cat, much to Ron's dismay.
Then the night of August 30th, Harry was heading down to find the rat tonic when he overheard an argument between the two oldest Weasleys. "It makes no sense not to tell him," Mr. Weasley was saying heatedly. "Harry's got a right to know. I've tried to tell Fudge, but he insists on treating Harry like a child. He's thirteen years old and —"
"Arthur, the truth would terrify him!" said Mrs. Weasley shrilly. "Do you really want to send Harry back to school with that hanging over him? For heaven's sake, he's happy not knowing!"
"I don't want to make him miserable, I want to put him on his guard!" retorted Mr. Weasley. "You know what Harry and his friends are like, wandering off by themselves. For Merlin's sake, they've ended up in the Forbidden Forest twice! But Harry mustn't do that this year! When I think what could have happened to him that night he ran away from home! If the Knight Bus hadn't picked him up, I'm prepared to bet he would have been dead before the Ministry found him."
"But he's not dead, he's fine, so what's the point —"
"Molly, they say Sirius Black's mad, and maybe he is, but he was clever enough to escape from Azkaban, and that's supposed to be impossible. It's been three weeks, and no one's seen hide nor hair of him, and I don't care what Fudge keeps telling the Daily Prophet, we're no nearer to catching Black than inventing self-spelling wands. The only thing we know for sure is what Black's after —"
"But Harry will be perfectly safe at Hogwarts."
"We thought Azkaban was perfectly safe. If Black can break out of Azkaban, he can break into Hogwarts. Besides, you remember what Percy and the twins have said about the last two years. Hogwarts is not perfectly safe for Harry!"
"But no one's really sure that Black's after Harry —" There was a thud on wood, and Harry was sure Mr. Weasley had banged his fist on the table.
"Molly, how many times do I have to tell you? They didn't report it in the press because Fudge wanted it kept quiet, but Fudge went out to Azkaban the night Black escaped. The guards told Fudge that Blacks been talking in his sleep for a while now. Always the same words: 'He's at Hogwarts… he's at Hogwarts.' Black is deranged, Molly, and he wants Harry dead. If you ask me, he thinks murdering Harry will bring You-Know-Who back to power. Black lost everything the night Harry stopped You-Know-Who, and he's had twelve years alone in Azkaban to brood on that…"
There was a silence. Harry leaned still closer to the door, desperate to hear more. "Well, Arthur, you must do what you think is right. But you're forgetting Albus Dumbledore. I don't think anything could hurt Harry at Hogwarts while Dumbledore's Headmaster. I suppose he knows about all this?"
"Of course he knows. We had to ask him if he minds the Azkaban guards stationing themselves around the entrances to the school grounds. He wasn't happy about it, but he agreed, eventually."
"Not happy? Why shouldn't he be happy, if they're there to catch Black?"
"Dumbledore isn't fond of the Azkaban guards," said Mr. Weasley heavily. "Nor am I, if it comes to that… but when you're dealing with a wizard like Black, you sometimes have to join forces with those you'd rather avoid. Still, Dementors . . ."
"If they save Harry —"
"– then I will never say another word against them," said Mr. Weasley wearily. "It's late, Molly, we'd better go up…"
Harry heard chairs move. As quietly as he could, he hurried down the passage to the bar and out of sight. The parlour door opened, and a few seconds later footsteps told him that Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were climbing the stairs. He quickly found the rat tonic and delivered it to Ron before retreating to the room he and his two friends had been sharing for a month. Nico looked up at his friend and asked "Is something wrong?"
"Apparently, Sirius Black is hunting me. That's why I wasn't punished for blowing up Marge and why he insisted that I stay in Diagon Alley. He's why the Ministry is sending cars for us tomorrow and they're posting some of the Azkaban guards at Hogwarts."
Nico and Neville both paled at that. "They're doing what? What the HELL are they THINKING?" Neville demanded.
"Isn't it obvious, Nev. The Ministry isn't thinking AT ALL! Why else would they put DEMENTORS AROUND A SCHOOL! My God, I thought Fudge had at least a little sense but this! Damn, the Firsties are going to be terrified!"
"Um, what are Dementors?"
Neville stepped up to explain. "They are the foulest creature known to wizardkind. They freeze the very air around you and suck every happy memory from you, and make you relive your worst memory. That's why there's never been an escape from Azkaban before, and that's not the worst they can do! If given the chance, they suck the very soul from your body, making so that you can never move on after death. That is what that IDIOT of a Minister is putting around Hogwarts. And to make it even worse, there's only one defence against them, and they don't even teach it at Hogwarts, or if they do, it's only in Advanced Defence. The only people who really know it is Aurors!"
"Ookay, getting back on topic, what about Sirius Black? Do you think I should worry? I mean, he did kill thirteen people with one curse."
Neville shrugged, but Nico scoffed. "Not if it's the Sirius Black I've heard of. He would never kill anyone unless that person was a Death Eater, and only then if it was absolutely necessary. Killing a wizard and twelve Muggles is beyond him. If it were his cousin, Bellatrix, I'd definitely believe it, but not him. Especially considering he was our dad's best friend!"
Harry stared at him in shock. "What do you mean, our dad's best friend?"
"I haven't told you about the Marauders? Damn, I've been negligent in my duties as best friend." Nico then reached into his bag and duplicated a book inside. "This is my dad's journal from his first three years at Hogwarts. It talks a lot about his best friends James Potter, Remus Lupin and Sirius Black. Call it my late birthday present to you."