Chapter 4 – Homecoming
Sirius had been on pins and needles the whole afternoon. Harry was finally coming home! Despite all the planning and plotting he had done, he was still nervous. He was finally getting a chance to explain everything to Harry, but what if his godson refused to believe him?
"Don't be stupid." the more rational part of his mind (the part that had rarely visited before his imprisonment) had woken up. "Harry is no idiot. He'll be upset and disbelieving at first, but once he sees the evidence, he'll understand that it's the truth."
The rational part seemed to have won over the insecure part, so Sirius allowed himself to stop pacing and sink into a chair. Now was not the time for self-doubts. He mentally went through the list of all the things he had planned for Harry. It was a long list, and Sirius would be happy if they managed to finish even half of them this summer.
"Priority is the key" he muttered to himself. Just then, he felt the wards shift slightly. That indicated that the team had left to pick up Harry. A surprisingly large number of people had volunteered to "escort" his the Boy-who-lived.
Sirius had about two hours to kill, so he decided to do a bit of research for Harry's upcoming trial. As he headed upstairs, he double-checked the wards to make sure that it would inform him when Harry arrived. He paused at the entrance of the library looking around. He had done a fine job, even he said so himself.
The library was nothing like the dusty one in Hogwarts. The Black family library already had thousands of ancient tomes on magic. Sirius had made sure to add to that collection, the most recent advances in every field – Spell crafting, Warding, Healing, TechnoMagic, … every subject had at least a shelf of books dedicated to it. At the centre of the library, on a small table, was placed Sirius' most recent addition – a computer. This was no ordinary Muggle computer, but an innovation from the field of TechnoMagic. Sirius had installed it weeks ago and a simple uploading spell had made it easy to find any book in his library.
Sirius quickly typed in his query "British Laws on underage magic". In less than two seconds he had an answer:
"The information you requested can be found in the following books:
A comprehensive guide to Juvenile Justice – By Martha P. Holmes
A guide to the Special Educational Needs Act (1960) – By David Marshall
British Criminal Justice and Public Safety – By Jacob Wright …"
Marveling at the speed of the device, he proceeded to click on one of the links and was provided with a summary of the book he wanted.
Clicking on the "Retrieve" button, he watched as a small box next to the computer flashed and then pinged. He opened it and found the book he wanted – "A Handbook of British Laws on Underage Magic". Sirius glanced at the edition – 1963. But there was a small stamp on the back with the words "Self-updating".
"Thank Merlin" he muttered. For once, he was glad that his family had been snooty enough to buy only self-updating books, even though they cost three times as much as ordinary versions.
An hour later, Sirius was having a pounding headache. All that legalese was driving him mad. He carefully marked the page he was reading, and placed the book aside for later. He spent the rest of the hour surfing the Magi-web.
Invented in the early-1990s, the Magi-web was the Magical world's answer to the Internet. It was invented in India, and had been hugely successful in connecting small wizarding settlements located in remote corners of the country. Since then it had spread to other parts of the wizarding world.
No electricity was needed. A techno-magic computer, a small magic-to-energy converter, and a magic satellite were all that were needed to log on. Once connected, there were hundreds of sites on countless subjects. A new modification even made it possible to access Muggle websites using the same computer.
Sirius had expected to be behind the times when he had escaped Azkaban, but the sheer number of life-changing inventions that had taken place during his incarceration still amazed him. Unfortunately, while Muggle Britain had kept pace with the rest of the world, British wizards were still stuck in the past and refused to accept anything that didn't fit in with their sense of "tradition".
Sirius felt the tingling sensation from his wards that always signaled someone was entering his house. Harry was finally here!
He raced down the stairs as quickly as he could, and just as he reached the first floor landing, he heard voices.
"Harry dear, you look so thin! What have those Muggles been feeding you? Never mind. Now that you're here, I'll make sure I fatten you up nicely before you head back to Hogwarts." Molly had already intercepted Harry.
"Really Mrs. Weasley, I'm fine." Harry replied quietly.
"If you say so." Sirius could hear her disbelieving tone. "The rest of you can join the meeting in the kitchen."
"What meeting?" Harry was curious.
"Nothing to concern yourself about, dear." Molly replied, a bit sharply. "You must be really eager to meet your friends. They've missed you so much! Just go to the second floor, and enter the last room on the right. Ron's staying there and I'll have your things sent up later."
"Yes Mrs. Weasley." He heard Harry sigh, and start to trudge up the stairs. Sirius crept quietly back up the stairs to the second floor. Molly was still within hearing, and if she heard Sirius greeting Harry, she was bound to interfere.
Luckily the second floor landing was empty. The kids were all in their rooms. He could welcome Harry as exuberantly as he liked. Just in case, he cast a silencing charm in the hallway that would dissipate in five minutes.
And then…he was face to face with his godson.
"Harry!" he cried out.
Harry's face had an identical expression of joy.
"Sirius!" he all but jumped into his arms.
Sirius clutched him tightly. "Missed you." He whispered softly into his hair.
"Missed you too." Harry whispered back before looking up at him. "Sirius, what's going on? What is this place?"
"Not here. Come with me." Sirius led him to a room on the third floor. At the door he raised his wand and conjured a sign "Harry's room".
"This…this is my room?" Harry seemed surprised.
Sirius grinned back at him. "Let's look inside, shall we?"
In the center of the room was the bed covered with a dark blue quilt. A small bedside table with a lamp stood right next to it. Thick curtains covered the window on the left wall. A simple study table and wardrobe were placed on the other end of the room. A door leading to the bathroom was on the opposite side. The entire room was done up in blue shades.
Sirius watched carefully as Harry eyes swept from one end of the room to the other, taking in everything. He had deliberately made Harry's bedroom look like an ordinary teenager's room, in case any anyone "happened" to walk in when the wards were down, but even then Harry was looking at the room as though it were the height of luxury. Damn those Dursleys, he thought for the zillionth time.
"Like it?" Sirius asked
"Love it!" Harry beamed back at him, happily.
"Good. Now before I answer your questions…" Sirius raised his wand again, and raised the privacy wards connected to the room.
Harry opened his mouth to ask him something, but Sirius cut him off.
"There are a lot of things I need to tell you, but we have only an hour till dinner. I'll explain everything in a lot more detail after that, but until then let me get the most important things out of the way. Okay?"
Harry nodded.
"Come here." Sirius sat on the bed and gestured towards the chair for Harry to sit. He did so, looking expectantly at Sirius.
"First of all, let me fill you in on everything that's been happening since I left you." Began Sirius. "You saw for yourself that Fudge is refusing to accept that Voldemort is back. He wants to believe that if he pretends hard enough, then his problems will go away. So he's been keeping the public in the dark. Have you seen even a hint of Voldemort's return in the Daily Prophet?"
"No. Just the usual rubbish." Harry answered sourly.
"Not just the usual rubbish." Sirius corrected. "The Prophet has been subtly mounting a campaign to discredit you and Dumbledore"
"What! I didn't read anything like that!" Harry looked stunned.
"It's not very obvious. You and Dumbledore are among the most influential people in Wizarding Britain. Fudge knows that he can't keep the public quiet if the two of you keep declaring that Voldemort is back. So he's trying to make you out to be an attention seeking liar, and Dumbledore as a senile old man."
"Why didn't I see anything like that?" Harry questioned.
"You have to read the articles pretty closely to spot it. Hold on, I'll show you a few of them." Sirius replied, and then called out "Kreacher!"
Kreacher appeared with a crack, and bowed respectfully to Sirius. ""Master calls?"
"Kreacher, kindly bring Harry's belongings to this room, along with a few newspapers from last week."
"Yes Master." Kreacher disappeared.
"That was my family elf" Sirius told Harry. "Don't be surprised when I treat him badly in front of everyone else."
"Why would you do that?" Harry asked.
"I need everyone to think that he and I don't get along. I'll explain why later." Answered Sirius.
"Here, Master" Kreacher had appeared with Harry's things. He handed over a bunch of papers to Sirius.
"Thank you, Kreacher. That will be all." The elf bowed low and left.
Sirius sat next to Harry on the bed, and scanned through one of the papers. "Look at this" he handed one of them to Harry.
CANON'S CAPTAIN CONFIDENT OF VICTORY
-By Timothy Reid
The Chuddley Cannon's quidditch team is perhaps most well known for holding the record for the longest streak of straight losses. But in an interview with this reporter, Richard Blackstone, Captain of the Chuddley Cannons declared that he is almost certain that his team will be this season's Champions League Trophy winners.
"We've all trained really hard for this season. I'm pretty sure everyone will remember this year as the year of the Canons." Said Richard.
When asked what he thought of his rival's confident proclamations, Daniel Patterson, Captain of the Falmouth Falcons, last year's winning team, only laughed heartily and said "Dream on."
Other sports commentators expressed similar doubts, some even going so far as to say that pronouncing a Cannon victory is like declaring You-Know-Who back from the dead.
Will Richards' delusional predictions come true? We'll just have to wait and watch.
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Harry stared at the page in front of him. Sirius handed him another paper. He read that article too. And another. And another. Finally he couldn't take it anymore and burst out,
"Let's hope he hasn't got a scar on his forehead or we'll be asked to worship him next?" Harry looked at Sirius incredulously. "I don't want anyone to worship me!"
"Anyone who knows you will know that", said Sirius. "But how many people do you know well enough to consider your friends?"
"What do you mean?" Harry asked, still frowning.
"Harry, in the four years you've been at Hogwarts, how many people have you bothered to get to know? Ron and Hermione. Maybe your quidditch team. That's it. You've not interacted with students from any other House or year. Why do you think they turned against you so easily last year? Nobody knew the real you. All they know about you is what they've heard from other people – rumors. That's why most of them are going to believe these articles."
"So it's my fault?" snarled Harry, angrily.
"Partly", Sirius said, not bothering to sugar-coat his words.
Harry looked up stunned before lowering his gaze once again.
Sirius decided to deal with that issue later, and ploughed on. "So Fudge is busy running a smear campaign. Voldemort is more than happy to stay quiet, recover, and strengthen his position, while his opposition fights among themselves."
"So what are you doing about it?" Harry asked.
"Dumbledore's not doing anything about Fudge. But as far as Voldemort is concerned, Dumbledore's activated the Order of Phoenix again. It's a secret organization he formed in the First war. This place – my childhood home, is being used as headquarters", answered Sirius.
"Were you a member the last time?"
"Yes. Your parents, Remus and Peter were members as well."
"So what do you do? Do you fight Death Eaters? Are you telling everybody the truth?" Harry questioned.
"Harry, I just told you, This is a secret organization. And this time around, we've got to deal with both the Ministry and Voldemort. If we go around trying to convince people of Voldemort's return, they will be identified as members and persecuted. Everyone knows about the existence of the Order but no one knows exactly who its members are", explained Sirius.
"What do you do then?" Harry asked again.
"Honestly? I don't know. It's supposed to be a platform to exchange information on Voldemort and his activities. It's supposed to fight Voldemort and his minions when they choose to go on rampages. But as of now, Voldemort is lying low, so everyone is basically sitting idle, twiddling their thumbs, waiting for his next move." Sirius sighed.
"That's insane! How can you do nothing? We should be taking advantage of the fact that he's not doing anything. Dumbledore should be training anyone who is willing to believe him. Someone should be spying on the Death Eaters. We should be preparing safe houses for the Muggleborns. We need to prepare for this war!" Harry was nearly hysterical.
Sirius was very impressed. Clearly, his godson had given the matter a lot of thought during his stay at the Dursley's. "I agree. But Dumbledore doesn't see it that way. I know that we're short of resources, but we should be doing something. There's only one thing he's had us doing all summer."
"What's that?"
"Guard duty."
Harry stood up, suddenly furious. "First, I was sent to the Dursley's, with no information from my friends" he spat. "Then I have guards watching over me, and no one tells me. Where were my guards when I was attacked by the Dementors? When they nearly kissed my cousin? When I got expelled?", his volume rising with every question.
"Are you done?" Sirius questioned and Harry glared at him.
"I didn't support the decision to send Order members to Privet Drive. As for the lack of information, Dumbledore made sure that your friends promised not to inform you of anything related to the war." He made a face. "For your safety of course," he said sarcastically.
Harry didn't miss his tone. "It sounds like you don't like Dumbledore."
"Smart boy." Sirius grinned at him. Harry looked surprised for a moment, before snorting.
"He's not my most favourite person now, either."
"My dear godson, you don't know half of it. I've been waiting for ages for you to come here, so that I could explain everything to you in person." His mood suddenly grew somber, as he thought of the magnitude of the revelations he would be making tonight.
Harry expression instantly grew worried." Sirius", he said uncertainly. "What's going on?"
Sirius glanced at the clock. "After dinner, I'm going to tell you everything. And believe me when I say - you're not going to believe half the things I tell you."