So, I've been wanting to write one of these Percy and Harry are related stories for a while, and have finally decided to try one. I hope to add some new twists to this type of story, but still keep it as canon as possible. By the way, I'm American, and while I'll try to make the HP characters sound British, they'll probably sound a little different. Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or Percy Jackson.
Chapter 1
The trio approached the old house under the cover of darkness. It was a sweltering summer evening, and the weeds sticking out of the sidewalk were fried brown. Music, like it always had, blared from the neighbor's and a wail of sirens was heard in the distance. Approaching the porch to the foreboding building, Sirius tried one last time to convince the other two wizards that he should stay somewhere else.
He cleared his throat and prepared another argument, "Do you really think Buckbeak, who has nowhere else to go, would be satisfied living cooped up here? Because I can think-"
Dumbledore, if there was such a way, gently cut him off. "We better be headed inside before anyone notices something off. And," he added, answering Sirius's question. "I'm sure Buckbeak would much rather be cooped up over being killed on the run." At that, Dumbledore swept up the stairs and into the house.
Sirius shook his head, scoffing. The headmaster hadn't even tried to disguise the double meaning behind that statement. Of course, Sirius knew the dangers of running, never settling down, trying to survive as a fugitive, with both sides wanting him dead. But eating rats would be better than staying in his old home, memories he'd tried to forget long ago invading his mind. Memories of his parents (better off dead), his brother, of James. James sneaking into the house whenever Sirius got grounded, James "accidently" kicking Kreacher down the stairs after the elf had insulted Sirius, James pranking his mother- No, Sirius reminded himself. Don't let your thoughts go to that place again. Don't remember. It hurts too much. Next to him, his old friend smiled sadly at him, as if he knew exactly what Sirius was thinking.
"Come on, let's head in," Remus said, looking pensive. Together, the two friends entered Number 12, Grimmauld Place.
The place had gotten worse. Sirius hadn't known that to be possible. It looked like something out of one of those Muggle horror movies he had once seen. It would have been unnervingly quiet as well, except for Dumbledore's humming coming from the kitchen. As the door swung shut behind them, Sirius felt reality crash back onto him. He really was back. Trapped.
"Home sweet home," he muttered.
Remus sighed, it seemed to Sirius that sighing was their only similarity now. "It's really not that bad."
Sirius knew that statement was not meant to start a fight, especially coming from Remus, but it still got his blood boiling. Perhaps slightly more sharply than he had intended, he snapped, "Like you would know what bad is."
Sirius recognized the look on Remus's face. It was his you shouldn't have done that look, used when preparing for a fight. Sadly, he had been on the receiving end of one of those looks much too often lately. "Bad?" he hissed. "You try not even being able to see your best friends' son, who has suffered from far too much even before he went to Hogwarts, because you're a werewolf."
If Remus had went for any other angle, Sirius might have conceded. But Remus, so great at reading his enemies, had hit Sirius at his weak point. Not even that hard, but it was hitting the point that counted. Sirius, regardless of how he sometimes acted, was quite intelligent, and grasped the hidden message, it saying you failed. Squaring his shoulders, he responded with, "Are you really blaming me for how Harry was raised?"
Sirius could tell that Remus recognized that he could have gone after the werewolf point but didn't. Sirius remembered Remus's nightmares and scars from the first couple months at Hogwarts, and would never have preyed on his biggest insecurity. "You know that letters were still sent to this old place? When Dumbledore came to check this out, I think he put all the letters in your room."
Sirius knew that this translated to a silent thank you and apology. He did feel a twinge of regret for starting yet another spat, however short it was, with his friend. So, sending his own silent apology, he said," I'll have to check that out. May show something interesting."
Their somewhat peace treaty seemed to hold. Remus, forcing a smile, said," I think I'm going to see if I can put the kettle on for tea. Want some?"
"No Moony, gonna go check out the letters. Might have gotten some fan mail or something." What Sirius really wanted was for things to be less awkward between him and Remus. It felt like they were getting into more arguments every day, tension rising with each one, and one day, the pressure would get to be too much and they would explode. Blow up the barely fixed friendship of theirs that had once been so close. It was hard to reconnect with him being on the run for the past two years. He wouldn't be having that problem anymore, though, Sirius thought wryly. At least he could still appreciate the humor in the shittiest of situations. Or at least irony.
Opening the creaky (shocker, that one) door to his room, Sirius saw that it had barely changed at all. Same old Gryffindor posters, bedsheets, Muggle posters. He was proud to see that no one had the ability to remove what he stuck up. The only differences were that the room was dustier and the small, tidy stack of letters sitting on the bed.
He crossed the room and picked up the letters, settling on the bed. He'd forgotten how comfortable it was. Most of the letters, he discovered as he idly flicked through them, were junk. An old advertisement about Madame Pudifoot's made him cringe, but that was the most emotional response given for any of the mail. That is, until Sirius reached for one of the last ones.
He had picked it up, expecting it to be nothing of interest, until he saw the handwriting on the envelope. Starting, he leaped off the bed and dropped the letter, as if it was on fire. It could have been too, and Sirius would not have noticed it, so focused on the front of the envelope.
Because he knew that handwriting. He had seen it a million times, on at first papers the good old Marauders had "borrowed," then on notes he had passed in class that received scathing replies, and lastly on letters they had owled to each other over the years. That was Lily Potter's handwriting, and it was most likely one of the last letters she had ever sent. For a moment, he toyed with the idea of not reading it, as it would most likely just remind him of good memories that hurt to recollect. But he was Sirius Black, and oftentimes his curiosity, which resurfaced for the first time in ages, caused him to need to know.
Sirius opened the letter. More like teared through it, cursing envelopes, like how they were so bloody hard to work… Groaning to himself, he grabbed the wand and cleanly opened it. Sirius reminded himself to take it slow, this was the closest thing he'd ever get to hearing Lily's voice again. While James always had been closer to Sirius than a brother could be, Lily had gradually become like a sister to him, and he missed her just as much as James. He decided to skim over the words first, just to take in the handwriting again.
As Sirius skimmed over the letter, he realized just how much this house really was going to affect him. It was more than just being stuck in a place that he had sworn to never return to, it was that every second there reminded him of his past. And being reminded of the past reminded him of the people, ones that became the family he always wanted, who he lost. James, Lily, Alice, Frank, Benjy, Marlene, even Peter. Sirius didn't mourn the Peter Pettigrew who had betrayed the Potters. He mourned the Peter who had been a Marauder, a brother, a guy who, when drunk, would give the most scarily accurate impressions of teachers. Sirius got another reminder of a lost loved one, when he spotted the name that made him backtrack and study that part of the letter.
I have news. It's about Sam, the letter read. Sirius sat there, mind racing to come up with reasons why Lily would write about him.
Because unknown to most everyone, the Potters had experienced tragedy much sooner than the typical tale told about them. And also blowing away another common held belief about them, Harry was never an only child.
After Hogwarts, a newly graduated Lily and James discovered that they would be having a baby. Drawing away from most of the wizarding society, they had originally bought a small cottage in the country, elated over the news. And nine months later, known only to the Marauders and the muggles working at the hospital, a baby boy named Sam was born. Everyone else, after the birth, had apparated back to the house, but Lily and James, stubborn as they were, insisted on walking back.
Later, James had told him the whole story of what happened on their way back, instead of their haunted explanation of, "We lost him." When Lily and James had headed to the cottage, carrying Sam with them, Voldemort had come to recruit them. Apparently, he didn't like being told no, and in retaliation, attacked them. In the chaos of fighting, Death Eaters had taken Sam from Lily's arms and had killed him. It was that night that drew them into the fight against Voldemort. All of them had been devastated after the attack, each feeling like they could have done something to save Sam, but they put themselves together again and became closer than ever. James and Lily chose to leave all of the bad memories behind, moving to Godrics Hollow and becoming two of the Order's best fighters. Sirius continued to read the letter.
James and I, out of sheer boredom, decided to try a spell we discovered in the Charms book Remus got us. It was a locater spell to find any people with both James and my blood, meaning our children. We assumed only Harry would be located, which he was as expected. But we also saw that there would be another child of ours in America. New York City, to be exact. We were shocked. But Sirius, if this is true, it means that Sam must be alive! We'll try the spell again, to make sure we didn't perform it wrong or some other fluke. I'm telling you this news hoping that you can help find Sam if we're right in our thinking, since both James and I can't leave the house. Please be safe as you know…
Sirius stopped reading and exhaled, completely shocked. Heart racing, he checked the date the letter was sent. It was the day before they died. Sirius recognized what that meant. James and Lily hadn't had the time to find out if the spell was correct or not. But if it was, it meant Harry had a brother. It meant that Sam was alive. They had to find out.
Sirius yelled. "Uh, Remus, Dumbledore? You might want to come up here. I found something you'll want to see!"
This was my first time writing something semi-angsty, so please tell me what you guys think! Next chapter you'll be finding out a more detailed version of the night the Potters lost Sam, and see the search for him begin. And if it wasn't clear, for the sake of this story, Harry Potter and Percy Jackson will be taking place at the same time. Thanks for reading! (:
