Author's Note: Hi everyone. I hope everyone likes this chapter.
Kingsley Shacklebolt was sitting in the drawing room of his house. He had just come back from an order meeting where the disappearance of the youngest Weasley was discussed. She had reportedly gone missing yesterday and the Weasleys were frantic with worry.
Molly Weasley had gone hysterical when she heard that her daughter was missing. The others were shocked too. Nobody ever expected that she could be abducted right under Albus's nose. When the students of the Gryffindor tower were questioned, the last that anyone had seen her was during the post-match celebrations in the Gryffindor common room. A few students had seen her going out with Harry Potter. But when Harry Potter was questioned, he denied any knowledge about Ginny Weasley's whereabouts.
Suddenly, he sensed the wards of his house informing him about a few arrivals.
He picked up his wand, went to the door and cautiously opened it. One had to be very paranoid these days if one valued one's safety.
On opening the door, he was surprised to see none other than Harry Potter.
"When did we first meet Potter?" asked Kingsley, pointing his wand at Harry.
"When you came along with the order Guard to my relatives house a year back to drop me at my Godfather's house" Harry answered the security question promptly.
"Good, come in" said Kingsley satisfied with the answer.
Kingsley invited Harry inside and served him a bottle of lemonade, which Harry enjoyed.
"So Potter, I am surprised to see you here. I thought you were supposed to be at school" said Kingsley.
"Mr Shacklebolt, there is something very important that I have to tell you. But I must first get some assurance or oath from you that you will hear me out patiently before taking any action or jumping into conclusions and never reveal to anyone, not even to Dumbledore, what you are going to hear from me now, until you get my express permission. Because what I am about to reveal to you is extremely confidential and of a sensitive nature" said Harry seriously.
Shacklebolt's curiosity peaked. What was it that Harry deemed so important that it required an oath from him? He was quite reluctant to give an oath as Harry suggested, because Magical oaths were very dangerous and tricky things which could cost your magic if you deviated even slightly from the oath.
"I am sorry Potter, but I cannot give a magical oath just like that. I can give you my word that I will keep your confidence and hear you out patiently before taking any decision" said Kingsley calmly in a deep voice.
Harry sighed. He had expected Kingsley to refuse giving a magical oath , but it was still worth a try. For now, he urgently required Kingsley's help and so he had to take some risks.
"Sirius, Daphne you can come out now" said Harry tiredly.
Two figures materialized out of thin air as their disillusionment charms faded. The first one was an unknown woman with blonde hair and blue eyes. But it was the second person who surprised him.
"Sirius?" whispered Kingsley, thoroughly shocked.
"Hello Kingsley, it's been a while since we have seen each other. The last time I remember, we were dueling together at the Department of Mysteries" said Sirius grinning widely at the stupefied expression on Kingsley's face.
Kingsley's misgivings that this might be imposter completely vanished when Sirius transformed himself into a dog and back to human form. One's animagus form couldn't be easily faked.
"But Sirius, I saw you die that day when you fell through the veil. I clearly saw Bellatrix Lestrange casting a stunning spell at you that made you fall through the veil" said Kingsley frowning.
"Kingsley, the person whom you saw was not me but an imperiused deatheater whose body features I had transfigured precisely to make a replica of me. Human to human transfiguration is a very difficult field of transfiguration in which James was an expert. He taught me the basics of it. Both of us could master it perfectly because it wasn't as difficult as becoming an animagus.
You see Kingsley, I had been planning to fake my death for so many days. I got the opportunity when we arrived at the department of mysteries that day to rescue Harry and his friends. I immediately disillusioned myself and cast the imperius curse at the nearby deatheater. I then proceeded to do human-to-human transfiguration on him making him look like an exact replica of me. Then, I mentally commanded him to duel the deatheaters exactly as I preferred. I positioned my replica close to the veil of death while he was dueling bellatrix and just made him carelessly taunt her for my satisfaction. Naturally, her next spell made him fall through the veil.
The most difficult part of this whole scheme was seeing Harry's desperate cries for me to come back. Thank God Moony held him back from jumping into the veil. I was almost tempted to abandon my plan then. When Harry went chasing after Bellatrix to avenge my supposed death, I was completely prepared to screw my plans and stop Harry, but before I could do so, I was hit by a stray stunning spell that knocked me out. But thanks to the disillusionment charm, nobody saw me. When I woke up, the battle had ceased. I was really worried about what had happened to Harry
So, I went to Number 12 Grimmauld place. Kreacher was surprised that I was still alive. That little shit had been consorting with the Malfoys and plotting my death. I wanted to kill him at that spot, but that elf wasn't even worth the effort. So, I forbade him from contacting any deatheaters and revealing the secret of my continued existence to anyone. Meanwhile, the portrait of Phineas Nigellus who was searching for me throughout the house found me. I fordade him from revealing my existence to anyone. Since, he is a black family portrait, he is bound to obey me since his loyalty is naturally more towards the black family than to the headmaster. Phineas had told me about how Dumbledore took Harry to his office and finally revealed the contents of the prophecy to him.
I was further told by Phineas that in the wake of my supposed death, Harry had torn Dumbledore's office apart and raged at him. It was heartbreaking to hear that my death had affected him so much. So, I decided to reveal the secret of my continued existence to him a few days later" explained Sirius.
"You know Mr Shackebolt, through an owl, this git just sent me a surprise portkey at 1:30 in the morning while I was sleeping in the Gryffindor tower. It so happens that while there are anti-apparition wards in Hogwarts as my dear friend Hermione constantly reminds me, Hogwarts has got no anti-portkey wards. So, I was so rudely dropped into the shrieking shack ruining my sleep. There, this git just casually greeted me as if it was all a big prank and just transformed himself into a dog and started licking my face" said Harry.
"I remember you fainting Prongslet. That expression of surprise on your face was just priceless" said Sirius chuckling.
"Shut it Padfoot. Did you forget that I punched your face after I woke up?" asked Harry smirking.
Sirius immediately shut up. That was quite a strong punch from his godson.
"Well, he deserved it for putting me through so much emotional pain for pulling off your crazy stunt. I had been morose for 3 continuous days before this git decided to surprise me" said Harry.
Kingsley who had been sitting spell bound by this whole tale suddenly spoke up.
"But Sirius, why did you go through all this drama? Do you have any idea how much pain we all felt when you died Sirius? Not only Harry, but Lupin was quite morose too for so many days after you died. Did you do this just because Dumbledore had forbidden you from getting out of the house? It was only for your own good Sirius. Quite frankly, I never expected such a cowardly move from you. You always complain about Wormtail's treachery. But both of you are similar regarding the fact that both of you managed to fool all of us and fake your own deaths" said Kingsley frowning.
Sirius growled furiously on being compared to that traitor and was about to hit Shacklebolt, when Harry suddenly stopped him.
At that moment, Daphne suddenly spoke up.
"First, let me introduce myself. I am Daphne Greengrass, 6th year student at Hogwarts. Mr Shacklebolt, Sirius is neither cowardly nor is he even slightly similar to Wormtail. He and Harry here risked their own lives and gallantly rescued me from the perverted deatheaters 3 months ago. Those deatheaters were pursuing me against my wishes, but with the full support of my dear mom and dad who support Voldemort. Since then, I stayed at Sirius's house for the remainder of the Christmas vacation. I have seen the work that is doing behind the shadows along with Harry in undermining Voldemort's work. He even gave me an emergency portkey with an added notice-me-not charm to protect me from the deatheater spawns inside my house" said Daphne.
Sirius who had by now cooled down started explaining his reasoning to Shacklebolt.
"Kingsley, I faked my death not just to escape the confinement inside Grimmauld place. Last year April, two months before the Department of mysteries battle, I had visited Gringotts without anyone's knowledge. I wanted to update my will and leave everything to Harry. Since Gringotts is an independent territory and doesn't fall under the ministry's jurisdiction, I was welcome there. There, I decided to declare Harry as the heir to the black fortune. Since, James had given me access to the Potter vaults, I was allowed to access the Potter Family vault. When I went there, I discovered a copy of the Potter's will which was sealed by the ministry. The will clearly stated that Pettigrew was the secret keeper, and that in case the Potters died, the guardianship should under no circumstances be given to the Dursleys. And this will was witnessed by the esteemed Albus Dumbledore himself. Here is the copy of the will" said Sirius, giving it to Kingsley who read it with a shocked look on his face.
"It is obvious that Dumbledore never respected the Potters decisions given in the will .Moreover, the bastard knew that I was the secret keeper and he didn't even attempt to give me a trial, while scum like Snape and Karkaroff easily got away" said Sirius with distaste.
"Sirius later took me to Gringotts and showed me all the financial transactions done in my name by Dumbledore, as my self-appointed magical guardian. The old man had abandoned me to the mercy of the cruel Dursleys for 10 years. Those horrible muggles made me sleep in the cupboard under the stairs for 10 years, emotionally and verbally abused me, even physically abused me by allowing Dudley and his hooligan friends to beat and punch me, and engage in Harry Hunting. Dumbledore professes the value of love so much, but he never hesitated to place me with those abusive muggles who never loved me" said Harry emotionally.
Daphne sub-consciously held Harry's hand to give him moral support while Harry was venting out his frustrations.
"And, do you know what the worst part of it is. Dumbledore gave the Dursleys a monthly stipend from my account to take care of me, but inspite of that, the Dursleys considered me as a burden for them. It is now obvious where Uncle Vernon got so much money to buy those expensive birthday presents for Dudley, when all I got from them was a pair of old socks or else, a 50 pence coin. After all, why would a hopeless and dangerous freak like me deserve any worthwhile presents?" said Harry who immediately felt tears stinging his eyes.
Sirius went to comfort Harry but he was overtaken by Daphne who immediately hugged him tightly.
"Harry, please listen to me. You are not a freak and no decent and honourable person would ever call you a freak. I have known you for 3 months Harry and I can say with certainty that you are the most bravest, kind, sincere and honest person that I have ever seen. Those Dursleys are the real freaks. They never realized that they had got such a wonderful nephew like you. You suffered for 10 years under them, yet you turned out to be an amazing person. And, don't ever say that no one loves you. You have got very good friends like Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Neville and Luna who risked their lives for you last year, you have got your dear godfather who broke out of Azkaban and faked his own death to ensure your wellbeing and you will always have me. I will never ever leave you" said Daphne patting him on the back to soothe his feelings.
Sirius smiled at the sight and felt really happy for his godson. Harry was quite lucky to have Daphne as a friend, may be not just a friend, but much more than a friend. May be, the time had come for him to give his Godson, the Talk.
Kingsley was too shocked to respond. The revelations given by Sirius and Harry had really shattered the positive impression that he had about Dumbledore. Kingsley was never fond of Dumbledore's passive tactics but never did he imagine in his wildest dreams that Dumbledore would do such things to Sirius and Harry.
"It is apparently obvious that Dumbledore wanted me out of the way so that he could send Harry to the Dursleys. He was quite conveniently delivered the Hogwarts letter by Hagrid who always sings praises about Dumbledore. So naturally, Harry would develop that blind devotion for the old man who had supposedly rescued him from the Dursleys. Then, it would be quite easy to manipulate Harry. That is why, I wanted to get out of Dumbledore's thumb as soon as possible. I will certainly fight against the deatheaters along with my godson who is more than capable, and Daphne, who is literally the dangerous Ice Queen for her enemies. But we will do it independent of Dumbledore's machinations. All that we want to ask you Kingsley is that, are you willing to join our Group? If you are, you will have to swear some magical oaths as we desire" stated Sirius, giving him the list.
"And, you will be coming along with us to rescue Ginny Weasley. We know that you have an advanced knowledge of curse-breaking too, but not as good as Bill Weasley. You had studied an extra course on Curse breaking and warding during your 3 year auror training and you have learnt some things from Bill as well last year. We didn't enlist the help of Bill because we don't know whether he would report it to Dumbledore. The Weasley family is too loyal to Dumbledore because it is only thanks to Dumbledore that they are able to send their kids to Hogwarts. The same goes for Lupin who would be forever indebted to Dumbledore because Dumbledore gave him admission to Hogwarts inspite of him being a werewolf. But you have no such obligation to the old man and you also completely disapprove of his tactics, as Sirius told me. Sirius here also mentioned to me that you are a man of integrity and ethics and we require such people. So, are you willing to join us?" asked Harry peering intently at Kingsley.
Kingsley thought about everything that Harry, Daphne and Sirius had told him. Their points made sense logically. After analyzing everything he had heard just now, he felt some sort of repulsion against Dumbledore. Without hesitation, he spoke out loudly.
"Yes, I am willing to join your team" and gave all the necessary oaths to Sirius.
"Good, now we have an important mission for tonight. We need to rescue so many people from Carnal Delights, which is a prostitution house near the forbidden forest at Hogwarts. It is one of the main sources of funding for the deatheaters. We have information that Ginny Weasley is being held there against her will. So, let's prepare ourselves for the rescue mission" said Daphne emphatically.
Author's Note: That's all for now folks. Hope everyone liked this chapter.