Chapter two

The next morning found Harry up and cooking breakfast for the family. He hoped his carefully edited revelations about his "murderer" godfather would keep him from getting beaten this summer, but didn't want to push anyone's luck this morning, especially Sirius' reserves. He instinctively knew that his godfather would do something rash if he found fresh bruises on Harry. He wasn't bothered about harm to his relations, but knew that the repercussions for himself and Sirius were not worth the risk. All the same, knowing that someone cared gave Harry a warm feeling all the way to his toes as he ate his portion next to the stove so as to keep cooking. As Mr. Dursley finished his breakfast, Harry decided to make his move.

"Uncle Vernon? I was wondering if I could have a quick word. I promise you it won't make you late for work, but it is important." As Vernon just grunted, Harry took that for assent. "I am meeting with several of 'my sort' today. They will appear into my room, and I will keep the blinds closed so the neighbors will not see anything. Then I have an appointment at my school later today. I will be leaving and,"

"No you ruddy well don't you bastard!" Vernon interrupted. "I will not have it in my house!"

As Vernon began to rise, Harry almost panicked. He knew he was about to get walloped and spoke as quickly as he could. "Please Uncle Vernon, I can't avoid these appointments, but I have made sure that no funny looking people will be seen coming onto your property and no one will ever know. If you make this a problem, it will only bring more of 'them' onto your property." As Vernon subsided with a grunt, Harry breathed a sigh of relief, and set to cleaning the kitchen without a fuss. He had just finished sweeping the floor when he heard a small pop from upstairs.

Harry grinned the entire way up the stairs, looking forward to a whole day spent in the magical world. He threw open the door to his room and walked towards Sirius intending to give his godfather a hug, but staggered backwards as he neared the locket the man held in his hand.

"I see you sense the same thing as I, but I didn't have half the reaction you just did."

"Its not the feeling that startled me, I was expecting that from Kreacher's story last night, so I paid special attention to the feeling I got. I've felt it before," at Sirius's shocked look, Harry explained about the enchanted diary and the Chamber of Secrets. He continued with, "I know we decided to try on our own, but I really think we need to see Dumbledore right away."

"I think you're right, but I will need to borrow your father's cloak. While the castle is not shielded from elf popping, the headmaster's office is. Dumbledore gave me the password, but it would be typical bad luck for one of the teaching staff, especially Snape, to see us as we appear in the hallway. Oh, that gives me an idea. You should talk about harvesting that basilisk with dear old Snivelous. It could be good to get on his good side, and basilisk carcasses are extremely valuable to potion masters, wand makers and armorers."

Harry dove into his trunk for the cloak, and asked, "Won't the damned thing have rotted by now? It's been over a year, and it was pretty dank in there."

Sirius smiled, "It's a funny thing about magical creatures, some decay almost instantly, like vampires into dust, but others seem to take years to deteriorate. I guess you will just have to see."

"Hey, if we finish with Dumbledore early, you want to go to Diagon alley? We do have the cloak."

"Let's see Harry, but if we do, I have something better than the cloak. One stiff breeze and my head might just appear next to one of my old auror colleagues." At Harry's curious look, he continued, "I had Kreacher get me twelve doses of pollyjuice, it's not likely that people will be tossing about the return to nature charm Remus and I used on Peter, and to detect pollyjuice with it you need to be pretty good at legilimancy too."

"I thought that stuff was hard to get, and I know it takes at least a month to brew, but what I wanted to know was what an auror is?"

"An auror is a dark wizard catcher, think of them as a cross between Scotland Yard and MI5. As for the pollyjuice, there are some very unsavory uses for that down Knockturn Alley you shouldn't even guess at till you are older. Your mother would come back from the grave to kill me if I introduced you to that stuff, so let's go. Kreacher, could you take both Harry and myself at once, or will you need to take two trips?"

"Kreacher will take you both at once master. It would be Kreacher's honor to do so. Would Master Sirius and Master Harry please each take an arm?" With that, Sirius threw the cloak over himself and took Kreacher's hand, and as Harry took the other he noticed the elf seemed much friendlier with his master than he had the night before. Harry smiled at the thought that the two lonely beings might find some friendship in each other. With a pop, they were gone.


"Thank you again Alastor, I know this is an imposition, but I do worry about the security with the upcoming tournament." Albus Dumbledore leaned back in his plush chair behind his desk. The trademark twinkle in his eye was back as he now had one of his oldest and most trusted friends to help with the upcoming year. He had taken quite some time persuading the paranoid old auror, but his revelation of Trelawny's second 'true' prophesy has sealed the deal. He perked up slightly as he heard the gargoyle below open the passageway. It was a bit early but Minerva had always been wonderfully punctual. "Ah! Here comes Minerva to show you your quarters and,"

He was interrupted as Harry and the Black family house elf entered the room rather than the transfiguration professor. Without a moment's warning Alastor threw himself out of the chair and started casting disarming and capturing spells at both the young boy and the elf, but he didn't just aim at them. Alastor shot his spells at a third target, and that was when the old headmaster realized the gravity of the situation. He knew that Alastor would try to kill Sirius in another moment. There was nothing the man hated more than an auror who betrayed his calling. In a flash, Dumbledore had his old friend tied up the same way as the other three, and he began thinking up his new course of action.

"Traitor!" Moody shouted, not sure whether he addressed his old friend or his ex-protégé. Dumbledore was just beginning to speak when the empty space that must have been Sirius under the boy's invisibility cloak shouted "Veritaserum! Get me Veritaserum!"

Dumbledore beamed, and with a flick of his wand, summoned all the wands from the floor and untied Moody and Harry. "I expect the two of you to behave until this is sorted out. Alastor, I assure you this man was framed, and I am partially to blame. With the help of our potions master, who has no reason to shelter this man, we can clear this up."

"What of the dark object in that boy's pocket, I can feel it from here. Are you sure the boy is really Potter?"

Harry was quickly questioned to prove his identity, and then the old wizard leaned back with his telltale twinkling eyes. "We know he is not pollyjuiced, Alastor, and we actually had an appointment for later today to discuss the dark object that young Harry and his godfather discovered recently. Harry, this is Alastor Moody, your DADA teacher this coming year. He is an old friend and a former auror. I'm sure he will not betray Sirius once his suspicions have been allayed. Dobby?" With a pop, the young elf appeared in the office, and his eyes became even wider when he saw his favorite wizard. Before he could begin, Dumbledore forestalled him, "Dobby, now that you are employed here, I am sure that you and Harry can catch up when he returns in the fall, but I would really like you to go and get Professor Snape. Please ask him to bring a vial of veritaserum with him." Dobby saluted and popped away.

"You bound Dobby to Hogwarts?" Harry blurted out.

"No, he did not want to be a bound elf, so we came to an agreement on a salary for the young elf. I am sure he will enlighten you himself when you return in September. In the meantime, I must ask Sirius' patience and ask you to relate the essentials of the events of last year. Alastor should know the gist before he begins questioning your godfather." Harry began the story with the escape of Sirius, and the problems with the dementors had plagued him over the last year. He left out that Sirius was an animagus, but suspected that the auror had guessed that. He was just finishing up the tale, when the door behind him opened, and in walked his least favorite professor. He gulped quickly, but began thinking of ways to work the harvest of the basilisk into the conversation.

"I brought the veritaserum as you requested headmaster," the potions teacher sneered, "but I thought you were not the type to question potential teachers under magical duress."

The old headmaster beamed at his subordinate, and asked him to please be seated as well. He flicked his wand and the invisibility cloak flew to Harry and neatly folded itself up in his lap. Before Snape could level his wand at the bound form of his school nemesis, Dumbledore intervened. "Please calm down Severus, the veritaserum is for your old schoolmate. I ask you to refrain from bringing up his crimes at school, and focus on more recent events. I understand your hatred, and its rightness, but as you were forgiven your past crimes when you joined our side during the war, please at least refrain from retribution against Sirius's."

The potions master scowled, and muttered "Very well, shall I administer the potion now?"

Moody though, stopped him and examined the liquid first himself. His eye focused on the light through the bottle, and then he cast a few charms. Seeming satisfied, the ex-auror administered enough of the serum for an hour, and began questioning his former protégé. At the end of an hour, he was scowling at the potions master, and his electric blue magical eye was not wavering from the former Death Eater. The story of Sirius' innocence had him nodding, but the actions of Snape in the Shrieking Shack had his blood boiling.

"I see I am needed here Albus, someone has to see the snakes learn either honor or at least the imitation brought about by the fear of a greater predator. I will be watching your crop of new Death Eaters with pleasure."

Dumbledore sighed at his old friend's unforgiving ways. He would have to have time with the boy to destroy this artifact, and his potions master was on the brink of finding ministry officials to cart away his old nemesis. "Well, that at least solves my staffing problem. Now alas, I have a dark object to destroy so that Sirius can be able to enjoy his freedom far from prying auror eyes. Severus, would you be so kind as to show Alastor the teachers areas of the castle and his office." The twinkle in his eye clearly conveyed to Moody that his role would to be stalling the greasy teacher from sending anonymous tips to the ministry. As the door closed Harry took the locket out of his pocket and laid it before his aged professor.

"I don't know, sir, but I feel like I should know this. It feels similar to the diary I destroyed in second year, you know, Riddle's."

There seemed to be a strange look in Dumbledore's eyes as he looked at the object and his shoulders slumped. "I was afraid he had made more than one. What you see before you is Salazar Slytherin's locket, and if I am not mistaken Voldemort has made more than one Horcrux. I had hoped that you would never have to know about these vile things, or at least until you were older."

Dumbledore then went on to discuss horcruxes and what they were, including the horrid price for their creation. He explained how they were destroyed, but when he stabbed the locket with Gryfindor's sword nothing happened. It took them half an hour before Harry realized that he could open the locket with parseltounge, and then it was over. He felt drained by the experience, as if destroying the horcrux was somehow straining himself but he dismissed the vague feeling as a reaction to dark magic.

Sirius stood, and shook his old mentor's hand. "Thank you Albus, my brother paid a horrid price for that locket, and now it is finally gone. I need to go. If I have any chance of exonerating myself I need to be able to search for Pettigrew without the ministry dogging my trail." Both the others groaned at the bad pun as Sirius put an emphasis on the word dogging. "I need to lay some false trails, and take care of some other business. I will return around Yule, but today is for me and Harry. I have asked Kreacher to continue looking after my London property, but I would like him to have access to Hogwarts to help Harry out during the year, he needs company."

The old headmaster smiled benevolently at Sirus and granted permission along with a lemon drop. "And now I presume you two have a nice day planned before you must part ways. I do say though that it is lucky that Alastor was here. He will be invaluable in convincing young Kingsley that you are innocent and to look for you in the Himalayas. I would like to speak to your house elf about arrangements for the year. You are of course welcome to use my floo to get to the Leaky Cauldron."

Harry groaned and started muttering about the damned soot, but walked over to the fireplace. Sirius reached into his pocket for a flask and grimaced as he swigged the horrid potion. "Remember I'm Bill Sullivan, friend of the family and looking out for you today. OK?" Harry glanced back at the man behind him, just to be sure what he looked like. He wouldn't have put it past Sirius to have swiped the hairs of a celebrity for the potion, but smiled at the unremarkable figure behind him. Harry muttered something that sounded suspiciously like, "fuck floo travel," and stepped into the fireplace.

Sirius nearly doubled over with laughter as he stepped into the Leaky Cauldron from the fireplace and tripped over the sprawled figure of Harry. The two men ambled into Diagon Alley and down to Gringotts. It was a quick but odd stop with them speaking to Sirius' account manager in a private room. It seemed that because Sirius was never actually tried, and had submitted to a prearranged series of questions under truth serum, the goblins were completely on his side. Goblin law, it seemed, completely supported him, and he was handed a small packet of documents and a wallet with some cards. Harry was thrilled though at his new unpickable wallet that had a credit card, ID and debit card. The goblins explained that they owned a number of muggle banks and that the cards were magically attuned to him so he could put any pin so long as it was he doing the typing. He had to explain ATM's to Sirius, and they were both excited to try the machines out later, but first they had shopping in Diagon Alley.

The two men took a delight in shopping, no boring stuff. They started in Addleman's Travel Accessories, the shop where Harry had gotten his school trunk, but Sirius was interested in the more extensive models. He picked up a magical tent that was a studio flat with bathroom and kitchenette, He already had a trunk similarly outfitted, but the tent was important to his summer plans. While Sirius was searching out the perfect nondescript "one man flat tent," Harry seemed enthralled in a corner. He was going over the cut and look of some leather backpacks that seemed a bit too feminine.

"Something I should know Harry? Please don't start sashaying, I don't think my eyes could take it."

"Ha Ha, it's a gift for Hermione, her birthday is in September, and she would love this."

Sirius just couldn't resist embarrassing his godson, "So she's the one eh. The smart ones are always the kinky ones. You might have potential yet, pup. It looks like a thoughtful gift for your little bookworm, but lightening her load should improve her posture. She starts walking around back straight, and those tits start straining the fabric of her school robes." Harry started out flustered, and Sirius winked at the salesman who had been helping them, "If you get just the right cut, the straps should kind of scrunch her cleavage together. Well though, you might want to get her one with extra straps, like I said, she's probably kinky and into straps."

The salesman was almost crying with laughter as the young boy turned beet red and started stammering, but he noticed the boy hadn't put down the bag he had finally selected before his friend had started heckling him. As the boy began humming loudly with his fingers in his ears, he decided to step in and seal the deal. "OK, so you're getting your young lady a nice bag. Were you thinking about one a little more masculine for yourself? This one might work quite well. They both are bespelled to weigh only what the bag itself weighs. Everything in the expanded interior is weightless. Also you might notice, this smaller pouch on the front is not expanded so you can keep things like your quills without having to rummage for them."

Sirius decided to relent, the boy wasn't ready for too much teasing from an adult, and he had had his fun. He looked at the bag appreciatively though, "You know what, I'd like one too. Put both the man's backpacks on my bill, the pup has to buy the girly one himself."

"Hey!"

"It's a nice gift though, I'm sure she'll like it. Didn't you want a trunk too."

Harry Grinned, "I liked the five room flat trunk with the built in shrinking charm, isolated potions compartment, and two separate storage compartments. That way I can shrink it without triggering the trace and getting myself screwed by the ministry."

The salesman, knowing he would be getting a good commission either way, decided to help the boy out with his choice a bit. "I would also suggest the additional security features, the fireproof spell resistant exterior and the lightening charm. An eternally light trunk is great for carrying around, but if you can change its weight, it won't slide around so much while you're in it. There is also the new optional confundus for muggle security. To them it looks like a normal suitcase. It's a good one, but it won't shrink down to pocket size though. Shrinking the trunk any smaller than the size of a shoebox messes up the expansion charms on the interior. If you want to be able to pocket the trunk you should get the two room or studio trunk."

"Ah, but I will have my handy backpack that can easily handle a shoebox. I'll take all the bells and whistles though. You know, you might want to sell them as a set."

Harry left the store with his new trunk and Hermione's bag stuffed in his backpack. Sirius tried to suggest a tent as well, but Harry just said, a muggle tent would be more convenient and cheep if he already had a trunk flat. Sirius would have kicked himself for not seeing that but he still needed a magical tent anyway.


In Hogwarts, the headmaster was having tea with his disgruntled potions master. The twinkle in his eye was back as he listened to the vitriol the man was spewing about their most frequently discussed student and his wayward godfather.

"I know the man is innocent of betraying the Potters and murdering those muggles, but he should be removed from contact with the boy. He is incapable of reasoned action and will certainly make the boy even more disrespectful than before. He and Potter always egged each other on to greater feats of criminality."

"Now, now Severus, the man must be given a second chance to redeem himself now that he is proven innocent of the greater betrayal." Dumbledore smiled at his pacing friend. He still could not believe that he had been deceived by Pettigrew, but it was also Lilly's fault. She had not been as trusting as her husband, and must have convinced James to keep the secret keeper change from anyone. Still, it kept the boy out of Sirius' charge, and that was all to the good. Severus is quite right about the man's contagious independence. "Still, you are quite right that the two must be kept apart for now. I believe his planned trip to America will both give him a chance to recuperate, as well as keep him from influencing young Harry at this critical time."


Sirius led them out of Diagon Alley, and into London. They walked through the streets with their new backpacks slung over their shoulders until they came upon an ATM, where Harry, despite never having used one before, helped Sirius take out some money. He got some for himself too, the exchange rate between galleons and pounds being fantastic. It was time to tackle the hated topic of clothes shopping, but secretly Harry was kind of excited. He had never really had clothes that fit him before, except for his school robes. He had a rope belt, and duct taped shoes, that constantly pinched him as he only got discount trainers once a year. The only reason he wasn't wearing Dudley's old shoes was because his feet were larger. When he told Sirius this, he surprised Harry by snickering and then embarrassed him with innuendos.

Sirius decided that both he and Harry needed new clothes, but convinced Harry that a trip to a vintage store would both get him clothes that fit and avoid drawing too much ire by not being expensively new. They found their way into a vintage store, and Harry looked around in growing anger as he saw the price tags. "You know, Padfoot, they could have easily gotten me clothes that fit for almost nothing! Instead they force me to wear rags ten sizes too big for me!"

"Doesn't surprise me, Pup. Think about what they were really trying to do." At Harry's strange look, Sirius said, "They have a freakishly obese son, and they knew he would be seen as less than you. They kept you scrawny by under nourishing you, and forced you to wear rags. It forced others to see you as the freak they see. Here, try this hat."

Harry tried on the battered silk hat, and smiled at himself in the mirror. "Classy."

"Well, very Rat Pack at least. Let's see what we can find to go with it."

Harry grinned, thinking this shopping stuff wasn't half bad with his godfather around. They ended up with a whole wardrobe, and some battered motorcycle leathers and a strange outfit for Sirius. Harry found a nice winter wool coat and a black trench coat that allowed him to conceal what he had on underneath, and wouldn't look to out of place in the wizarding world either.

"Woah, not the shoes, Pup. Vintage clothes, but you want nice new shoes to break in properly."

"Sure, let's get that done then stop for a coffee. Since you were locked up, they've gotten awesome coffee places."

They dragged out their bags of clothes into the nearest alleyway, and Sirius stopped Harry from just dumping the bags into his backpack.

"Hey, get out your trunk and put those clothes into your closet properly. I'll keep watch, and for Merlin's sake put on some clothes I wouldn't be embarrassed to be seen standing next to." Sirius grinned at his godson, and stood to block the alley. He was proud of the boy, and couldn't wait to see what he looked like dressed as a proper human being. A few minutes later, a completely transformed Harry stepped out of the trunk. He was still too scrawny for Sirius' liking, but he looked happier with the hat tipped jauntily to cover most of his scar. "All that's left is to get you a pair of nice pointy wizard shoes."

They didn't just get Harry a pair of quality leather shoes, they also stopped at a sporting good store across from the coffee shop for trainers and some exercise clothes, as well as a complement of free weights. The pair were hard pressed to lug all the equipment across the street and into the bathroom of the coffee shop. There Harry again stashed his new stuff in the trunk, and then returned the trunk to his backpack.

The two men stood in line for their coffee with Sirius muttering about how if the damned coffee shops were so great they didn't have waiters like a normal diner. He was even more annoyed as the man in front of them ordered a grande caramel Guatemalan fair-trade espresso mocha with whipped cream and cinnamon.

"One rule Padfoot, the larger the coffee order the greater the douche-bag. But the Guatamalan fair-trade is supposed to kick ass." They got their short orders and brought them to their table. Secure in their separation from the magical world, the two felt free as they chatted about their day. Here, away from false accusations facing Sirius and neglect and abuse facing Harry, away from the horrors of that morning's battle with the horcrux, the two relaxed. I can already see him healing. They each thought it.

"So what do you generally do during the summers?" Sirius asked, knowing he was touching on a difficult subject. "I hope you get out a little."

"Well, I do get out to work on gardening chores, but I think I will have more freedom this summer. I told them my godfather escaped from prison and will be angry if I'm mistreated, somehow I forgot to mention that you're innocent." He grinned at the bark like laugh his godfather gave. This was what he had always wanted, an adult who genuinely cared for him, one who took him out and talked to him like he mattered. This was what he had thought was growing between him and Dumbledore. But Dumbledore never just took me shopping. He never just sat and chatted over coffee.

"Get out and run this summer, feel the sunshine. Don't just exercise with those weights you bought. Have fun. Maybe take a karate class or something, you know to learn and to meet people."

"I can't wait though to get at those books you loaned me. I just wish I could practice magic during the summer; it would make all the homework assignments so much more worthwhile."

"Well, the mental arts aren't quite the flash bang of charms or transfiguration, but they are dead useful, so are the starting stages of the animagus transformation. I put the book we marauders used in your case along with your dad's notes. He was a great teacher, and those notes were the only reason Peter ever got his power. Sometimes I wonder if releasing his inner rat was what made him change. After you find the basic shape of your inner animal, you can stop before the animal starts influencing your personality. I didn't notice too many changes to myself or your dad, but for someone weaker willed. I just don't know."

"You mean he became like a rat?"

"You come to a balance with the beast, if you are strong willed you find just a little change, more increasing the traits already there. I guess there are problems with someone weak willed making the change. James and I could never agree whether the animal mimicked the existing personality and then sharpened those traits or if the form you find is more random and then begins to affect you."

Harry seemed lost in thought at that, "So how do you know if you're strong enough? I guess you don't have to worry if you have something loyal or good like a dog or horse, but if you have a rodent or some kind of predator it could become an important question."

Sirius looked at his godson, this boy who had risen above his abuses and surpassed so many dangers. He can't be thinking about himself. It must be one of his two friends. But then Sirius saw the honest doubt, an emotion that seemed so strange on a face so like his friend James'. "You don't have to worry, all you need is more confidence in yourself. Trust your instincts. Someone who can stand firm with their convictions should be OK, but you should also look into the book on the mind arts. My great, great grandmother, Elisabeth Black, wrote Beyond Occlumency and Ligilimency. It takes you through, both the introductions to those arts, but explains them and advancing beyond normal levels of their use. She was probably the greatest Legilimens of her age, but back in those days she couldn't publish because her husband wouldn't let her. I found that book when I was sixteen and digging thought the attic of the Black summer estate in Whales."

"It's amazing. It seems like pureblood society is still like that, I just don't get why they can't just take their money and estates and ignore the muggleborns, and I've seen how the girls in Slytherin act like their arranged betrothals are the most important thing in their world."

"Pup, don't ask me. My family was all into that shit. I was the only Gryfindor in generations and probably because I just wanted to escape those restrictions. Don't make my mistakes though. Your father wasn't betrayed by a Slytherin, and I wasn't framed by one. I'm sure that a lot of those kids are just keeping their heads down until school is over and then they'll just fade out of view."

They idled the day away, and Sirius ended up using seven hours worth of pollyjuice. It was a relieved and happy Boy-Who-Lived who hugged his godfather goodbye, promising to mirror call Remus and wait for Sirius to call when he got to the US. Kreacher popped Harry back to his room while Sirius continued about tying up loose ends before his flight away from his pursuers in England.

A/N Yeah, I know. A shopping Scene, I will also be going with the whole Harry lerns stuff over the summer schtick, but I don't want to dwell too much on it. Hopefully on to the good stuff soon!