-Chapter 10-

Welcome Back, Lord Black

"Hermione!" her mother's voice came from downstairs.

"What is it?" she asked turning her head reflexively from the book she was reading.

"Doesn't Harry live in little winging?"

Frowning and placing a bookmark on the page she ran downstairs. Emma pointed to the TV which was showing an aerial shot of a burning house. She snatched the remote from the coffee table and turned up the volume.

"…unfortunately all three of the Dursley family with their eleven year old son appeared to have been inside when the fire started…" a reporter was saying.

Hermione's heart almost stopped at the next bit. "…along with their nephew who had been staying from the beginning…"

"No-no-no it's not possible…" she muttered the remote leaving her hands.

"We don't know what happened Hermione…" her mother was saying.

"Harry!" she screamed at the TV dropping to her knees.

"Yes?" a familiar voice said and she snapped around. "You called?"

Hermione leapt at her best friend hugging him tightly wiping at her eyes furiously.

"I thought you were gone." She whispered shakily.

"Hey!" he murmured against her ear. "I'm fine."

"Don't do that to me again." She said firmly.

"I promise I won't." he replied. "At least not intentionally."

She chuckled and pulled back examining his face. The way his messy black hair fell over his forehead, the way his emerald eyes shone and the now almost invisible lightning scar. She frowned when she noticed a large bruise on his neck. She hovered her hand over the reddened area, not touching it.

"What happened?" she asked worried.

"That's what we would like to know too." Her father suddenly said from behind her.

Hermione's eyes widened when she realized that she still had Harry in her arms, his own wrapped gently around her waist. Blushing red she separated from him quickly but stayed close.

Harry shifted from one foot to another awkwardly. "I want to tell you. But um… can I speak to Hermione alone first? Please?"

Now curious she turned around silently gesturing her parents to agree. Her father looked like he wanted to protest but her mother took his hand. "Sure. We'll wait here."

Mumbling a quick thanks to them she dragged Harry up the stairs and into her room. She dropped him unceremoniously on her bed and sat as close to him as possible without practically sitting on his lap.

"Alright Potter, spill!" she said.

He stared down at his feet for a moment before taking her hand. She suppressed a smile.

"As you already know I had trouble fitting in at school when I first started." He began. "Dudley made sure of that. One day he and his gang surrounded me and I knew I was in for a pretty good treat. That was when a heard a voice inside my head. It started giving me suggestions how to survive the encounter."

"Wait, a voice?" Hermione asked putting two and two together. "Don't tell me, it was Voldemort wasn't it?"

"No actually." Harry said. "It was a completely different personality. I named him Andy."

"Oh." Hermione said trying not to look at him. So Harry had some kind of a split personality that he talked and took advice from. How was she supposed to respond to that?

He grinned. "I know how it sounds."

"Do you?" she asked now understanding why he wanted to have this conversation in private. "It sounds like you just confessed to me that you were crazy."

"And you would be right," he said. "If magic didn't exist in this world. Did you read any of the Occlumency books I gave you?"

"What do you think?"

"Right," he chuckled. "Stupid question. Have you gotten to the part about Subliminal Guardians?"

"Wait…" she narrowed her eyes going into full research mode. "Are you saying you developed a mind guardian before even learning the first thing about magic?"

"It's currently my best guess, yes." He said. "The thing was that I didn't know what it was at the time and since Andy got me out a of lot of sticky situations I got kind of attached to it."

He then continued to tell what happened at when he tried to interrogate the Dursley's about how he came to be with the family. She wasn't even surprised that she didn't feel anything when Harry finally said that his family was probably dead. In her opinion they got off easily and she was sure her parents would agree too.

"…so I ran out of the house and called an elf and came to see you." He finished.

"You came to see me first?" she asked smiling.

"I didn't want you to worry." He said not meeting her eyes.

"I bet." She said and they sat on the bed in comfortable silence for a minute.

Shaking herself she stood up. "Mom and dad might be wondering why we're taking so long. Come on."

They bounded down the stairs their hands still entwined. Her mom and dad were sitting around the living room talking quietly and stopped when they saw her.

"I'll tell the story Harry." Hermione said squeezing his hand in reassurance.

"What happened was that Harry wanted to know how he ended up with the Dursley's and not an orphanage. So he decided to ask them, long story short everything got out of hand and Harry narrowly escaped with life."

All three of them gaped at her.

"What?"

Harry made to speak but Dan beat him to it. "You can't really expect us just accept that do you?"

"Why not?" she asked annoyed. "It's a perfectly adequate explanation."

"There's a dead child, Hermione," Emma said. "We're going to need details…"

"Details?" Hermione hissed. "Why does it matter? Would you rather Harry died with them?"

"Hermione Jean Granger!" Emma cried. "What a horrible thing to say!"

Hermione looked down suddenly ashamed of herself. "Sorry mom. I'm not trying to be insensitive. Harry has gone through a lot today. Can we at least talk about this tomorrow?"

Emma placed her hands on her daughter's shoulders. "Sure, honey."

"Alright," Harry said clapping his hands together. "I have to get going. There're few more people I need to explain to."

"What, today?" Hermione asked surprised. She had thought he was going to stay with them.

"Yes Hermione. Today." He said and called an elf. "I need to see my sister and then my solicitor and explain to them I'm not dead. Did I tell you about my summer plans in Norway? Do you want to come? My treat."

"Norway?" she asked puzzled. "Why would you go to Norway?"

"They say there's a hidden magical castle that's even larger and ancient than Hogwarts there." He said enthusiastically. "There's even an expedition for tourists to find it. Of course there's a chance of finding a library with lot of long forgotten texts…"

Hermione turned to her parents, her breath coming in hitches. She stared at them expectantly. They had to accept, they just had to. Her mom and dad exchanged glances.

"I'm sorry Hermione, but you know we have to go see you grandmother." Emma said.

She visibly deflated and plopped down on the nearby sofa. Then realizing something turned to Harry. "If we're not coming, who are you going with?"

His smiled brightly. "With my godfather of course! I think he could use nice vacation after spending eleven years of his life in that hellhole."

"See Hermione, we couldn't possibly impose on that!" Her father said a bit overenthusiastically. And suddenly why her mom had refused to give her permission and instead spend the summer at her grandma's, listening to her constant criticisms of her daughter-in-law made sense. Her dad didn't want to her to go with a boy looking for a magical castle. But there was no way she was going to call him on that now, not with Harry standing right in front of her.

"But it won't be." He insisted. "I don't think he'd mind the company."

"I'm sorry Harry," Emma said sadly. "Next time for sure okay?"

"Alright," he said. "So I'll see you all later."

With that he disapparated with the elf. Hermione sighed, blowing at stray strands of hair out of her face with her mouth.

"All those undiscovered books…" she murmured miserably.

"…then the whole house lit up in white, I was going to call the 999 when I heard a gunshot…"

"A gunshot?"

"Yes." Mrs. Hodges said. "At least I think it was, then the front door flew off and someone ran out."

"Wait-someone ran off?" Detective Inspector Freddie Watts asked pausing in his notes.

"Yes," Mrs. Hodges said very excited. "Whoever it was he was very short, child size."

"Right," Freddie said. "Thank you for your cooperation."

Sighing Freddie walked towards his partner who was inside the burned down house. Reuben Williams sat squatted in front the remains of the plasma television that had sparked the fire (according to the arson investigator).

"Hey Freddie," Williams greeted seeing him approach.

"Hey Will." He replied. "Did we find the fourth body yet?"

Will shook his head. "We only found the Dursley family. No sign of their nephew yet."

"I have a witness who saw a child ran out," Freddie informed him. "It's possible that the kid's alive."

"Let's hope, the preliminary reports from the corner say the father and the child were tortured-at least beaten." Will said standing up.

"God…"

"I know…" Will frowned. "You want to hear something weird? The arson investigator says that though the fire definitely started at the television it was something else that blew open the gas main."

"An explosive of some kind perhaps?"

"The guy says that he can't find any explosive residue which is confusing because there are burn marks all around the pipe."

"That is weird." Freddie said. Catching something bright in his eyes he turned around. His eyes wend wide when an old man who could give Gandalf a run for his money pushed through the yellow tape. Outrageous figures covered his purple robe and a pointy hat on his head.

"What do you think you're doing? This is a crime scene." Freddie said to the man surprised that the pc's let him in.

"What happened here?" the old man asked ignoring Freddie.

"Sir if you do not leave this crime scene I will be forced to remove you!" Freddie snapped. The man turned to him and put his hand inside his robe pockets and Freddie acted on instinct. In an instant he had the old man in a choke hold. His partner patted the man down and found a wooden stick.

Freddie made to speak but Will cut him off. "Just cuff him and hand him over to a uniform. We can sort the thing out back at the station."

Amelia Bones walked through the crowd to the group who were clearly the ministry Obliviation team. Shit. What the hell is Fudge doing here?

"Minister," she spoke in a clipped tone. "Just what are you doing here?"

"Amelia!" Fudge exclaimed. "Don't you know? Improper Use of Magic office recorded that Harry Potter just performed some extremely powerful magic here."

Of course she knew that. She also knew that this is where the boy lived. And her sense of dread had multiplied seeing the remains of the house. She hoped that the boy was alright because that was all she could do right now. She had eavesdropped a few of the muggle Aurors and according to them three bodies had been found. She just hoped that the boy had gotten away somehow.

"Alright," Fudge said to the Obliviation squad. "Let's get this all squared away and do a proper investigation."

"And how exactly are you going to do that?" Amelia asked.

Fudge didn't understand what the problem was. "Why, Obliviations of course! We need to find out why Potter was here."

Amelia sighed. "Minister, you can't just go Obliviating Muggles like that. You see those small boxes some of them are holding? They are called video cameras. Think of our photographs but that can record hours of pictures with sound. I'm pretty sure that half the country is watching this right now."

"That's impossible." Fudge said chuckling. "This is the first I'm hearing about something like that."

"That's because there wasn't any big magical event that needed our intervention until now. Look I know that it's a bit impossible to believe but if the Obliviation squad went around pointing wands at people and memories suddenly start to disappear the country will be watching it happen. And you'll expose our world. Just calm down and let this happen and…" she trailed off when she spotted the unmistakable form of Albus Dumbledore walking towards the house.

"Son of a bitch!" she cursed.

But it was too late. Amelia didn't get a chance to stop Dumbledore. By the time she placed a mild compulsion on the Muggles guarding the house and entered it the old man already in handcuffs his wand already confiscated. She was weighing the use of another compulsion charm when Dumbledore noticed her.

"Amelia! It's good you're here." Albus said as he was being escorted out. "You must find Harry. This was where he lived. He must've run off when the fire started. The poor boy will be devastated about his family but you must find him!"

"And who are you?" a bald muggle asked her. Thinking fast she said: "I'm with social services. I was working on Mr. Potter's case."

"What case? Wait hold up for a second." The bald muggle said to the one who was holding Albus. "You know the boy who ran off? Harry Potter?"

"Yes!" Albus said. "I was a family friend. I just heard about the incident so I had to know if he was alright."

The muggle nodded at the uniformed man and he unlocked the handcuffs on Albus.

"Thank you." Albus said graciously.

"I'm Freddy Watts and this is my partner Reuben Williams." He said pointing at another muggle. "Now, do you know anyplace Mr. Potter might've gone?"

"He spend the last Christmas holiday with his friend- Hermione Granger." Albus said. "I have the address."

"That'll be very helpful thanks."

"Dan will you get that?" Emma said when the bell rang.

"Alright." He replied placing the dishes on the sink. He walked to the front door and opened it.

"Mr. Granger?" two men stood in front of the door.

"Yes. Can I help you?"

"Yes thank you." The bald man said. "I'm Detective Inspector Freddie Watts and this is my partner Rueben Williams. I assume you've seen the news about the burning house in Surrey? We understand your daughter is friends with a child that lived there- a Harry Potter?"

"Yes." Dan replied inviting the men in.

"We know that he ran out of the house before it the fire started." Will said. "Is he here?"

"He was." Dan said. "But he left about an hour ago."

"He did?" Freddie said in relief. "Do you know where he is right now?"

Understanding that Dan couldn't possibly tell them that Harry is probably back at the Potter Manor he took some time to answer.

"He dropped by to tell us that he was okay." Dan said finally. "He said he needed to drop by his sister's house and then he'd go home."

"Sister?" Will frowned. "We have no records of Harry Potter having any sisters. Or any other family for that matter."

"It's -a long story." Dan said.

"And what do you mean home? Back to Surrey?"

"I don't really know where it is." Dan said regretting saying that Harry was back at home. "Don't worry I'm sure he's safe. He also said he needed to drop by his solicitor. I have his card if you need to contact him."

"Solicitor? Why would a kid need a solicitor?" Freddie asked confused.

"It's his family solicitor. He inherited quite the estate from his parents when they passed away." Dan said standing up to retrieve his wallet. He gave the card to the policemen.

"Thank you."

"Can I ask why you're looking for him?" Dan asked. "I mean apart from the obvious."

"We need to ask him a few questions." Freddie replied. "It's an ongoing investigation so we can't discuss it."

"So if someone does come looking for me what are you going to say?" Harry asked anxious. "You can't say that you're solicitor because you aren't a one in the Muggle world."

The young Muggleborn solicitor waved him off. "Don't worry I've got all of that covered. You should get going though."

"You have to tell me just in case. What are you going to say if they asked you where I am?" Harry asked leaned forward in his chair.

"Wouldn't it be easier if you'd waited for the police to find you and get this over with?" Tom asked. "I mean you're leaving the country in a week."

"You do have a point." Harry thought about it. "But I can't risk Dumbledore finding out that I'm already emancipated and living in my parent's home. Because I'm pretty sure he'd follow the police directly to me."

"Wait…" Tom said suddenly. "Is that why you decided to have your godfather's trial right after you've run away? To keep Dumbledore unbalanced?"

"Bravo!" Harry praised grinning. "Yes. And by the time we go through all the channels to get Sirius a trial he'll be too late to do anything about it."

"Then I better get started then." Tom said standing up and heading to where the fireplace was. He stopped halfway and turned.

"There's another problem though," he said with a hand to his chin. "You're now officially without a muggle guardian."

"So?"

"So? You need one."

Harry shifted in his seat uncomfortable with the topic. "I know. But who's going to take me in? I don't know anyone in the normal world."

"I already know at least two families that would love to be your legal guardian."

"I couldn't possibly ask any of them." Harry said sighing. "They barely know me. Maybe I should just let the system pick one for me."

"Are you sure?" Tom asked. "Because if you do- there's a chance that Dumbledore will get involved. Or you could just choose the wizarding world by revealing you're Lord Potter."

"And turn my back on the normal world?" Harry said his voice rising a bit. "Never going to happen."

Tom shrugged and turned around throwing some floo powder into the fireplace.

"I can't believe you found a service that installed fireplaces." Harry said.

"Me either."

After about ten minutes Tom sat back down. "I've called the necessary departments. Now I just have to owl the required files and hopefully by tomorrow morning your godfather will finally have the trial he deserves."

"…this emergency Wizengamot has been called by the Most Ancient and Noble House of…" the spokesman trailed off staring at the piece of parchment that held his speech. Like in every session he didn't get the itinerary right until the start. And he was thinking someone must've screwed up because what he was looking at wasn't possible. "…B-Black." He cleared his throat. Ancient and Noble House of Black and the Ancient and Noble House of Potter."

"I'm sorry Mr. Whitfield. But surely you must be mistaken," Dumbledore said. "-House of Black has no authority to call a emergency Wizengamot meeting due to the last member of the family being in Azkaban."

The other members that were already scoffing and saying things like. "You drag us out of spending time with our families for this?"

"There's no mistake Chief Warlock." The court spokesman Ben Whitfield snapped. "That's what is says on the itinerary."

Whitfield looked down at the itinerary again and Harry readied himself.

He had wanted to dress as a complete muggle but couldn't risk angering the chamber before the trial began. So he had reluctantly gone shopping with Hermione for robes appropriate for the event. He had even combed his messy hair, which had taken the better part of the morning. Harry now stood at the back of the public viewing area with his back against the wall wearing expensive red and black robes looking every bit of the powerful young Lord he was supposed to be. And Harry hated every bit of it. He did not covet being the center of attention; unless the crowd consisted only of a cute girl- preferably with bushy brown hair. And in a few seconds he was expected to make a grand entrance and dance the arrogant dance of the quintessential pureblood prince. To stand for what the Most Ancient and Noble House of Potter stood for- wealth, power and heritage. Harry smiled. But they were forgetting why the House Potter still had the wealthiest and most powerful title. And Harry had every intention of reminding them.

"But first," the spokesman began. "House of Potter has an announcement to make."

The attention of the chamber was suddenly directed to Gordon Nash.

Steward of House Potter stood. "Thank you Mr. Whitfield. House of Potter is pleased to announce that last heir has finally decided to take his place in our society and the government. Ladies and gentlemen of the Wizengamot I present you Lord Harry James Potter."

Harry stepped onto the floor to total silence. "Pleasure to meet you all."

The silence was never going to last as the Lord Austin stood up and spoke. "Lord Potter I'm very glad that you finally decided to join our society."

Harry smiled and nodded at the man. And the chamber started to fall over themselves to welcome him. Offering smiles and nods Harry climbed up to where his seat. He shook hands with the steward. "Mr. Nash, you've done admirably as the Steward of House Potter. And I hope you'd continue to do so."

"Of course Lord Potter." He smiled genuinely and took the seat beside Harry.

The spokesman started talking. "With that over with -we go to the official reason for this session…"

"Just a minute Mr. Whitfield." Dumbledore cut in. "Harry, what are you doing here?"

"That's Lord Potter to you now Chief Warlock." Harry said casually. "The reason why I'm here instead of when I'm seventeen will be answered as soon as we get to that part in the session."

Albus tried to speak and Harry grinned. Go on Dumbledore make my day…

The headmaster finally closed his eyes and gestured to the spokesman to carry on.

"Thank you Chief Warlock," Whitfield said through gritted teeth. "Now bring in the prisoner."

'Prisoner?' some members were murmuring.

When the bright and energetic figure of Sirius Black in tattered cloths entered the chamber flanked by two Aurors chaos broke out between the members. It looked like his godfather had made good use of the food and water from the supplies that Harry had snuck into Azkaban. He understood why he hadn't come in wearing new robes as that would arouse suspicions.

"What is the meaning of this Chief Warlock?" Lucius Malfoy (who was probably still pissed that he no longer had any in the Black fortune) stood up and more than a few members supported his question.

Dumbledore looked pale. "That's what I would like to know too."

"I believe I can answer that." Amelia said. "Lord Potter's and Lord Black's attorneys contacted me this morning that new evidence has come to light regarding Lord Black's trial."

"Excuse me Madam Bones," Harry interrupted politely. "But what trial?"

"I apologize, Lord Potter my mistake." she continued. "It seems that due to the emergency laws of the last war Lord Black was imprisoned without a trial. It is why Gringrotts answered Lord Black's request for a trial and forwarded it to the Wizengamot. We're gathered here today to rectify this injustice of spending more than decade inside Azkaban without a proper trial once and for all."

Predictably that silenced the room. The spokesman introduced the House Black's attorney who turned out be Thomas Kirkland the same young Muggleborn that Harry was employing.

"Criminal hearing of 20th of June into the offences committed by Sirius Orion Black. Interrogators: Cornelius Oswald Fudge, Minister of Magic; Amelia Susan Bones, Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement; Dolores Jane Umbridge, Senior Undersecretary to the Minister. Court Scribe, Vernon Jacob Bartlett."

"The charges against the accused are as follows: That he did knowingly, deliberately, and in full awareness of the illegality of his actions murdered Peter Pettigrew and thirteen Muggles in the same day." Madam Bones took over. "How do you plead?"

"Not guilty." Sirius said with a grin.

It took a while to calm the chamber down after that.

"Lord Black- while not directly connected to this case were you not the secret keeper of the late Lord and Lady Potter? An in the events following the death of Lord and Lady Potter did you not kill Peter Pettigrew and the thirteen Muggles that were in the street at the time?"

"No." Sirius replied firmly. "Who in the bloody hell told you that?"

Harry stood and the shouts once again quieted. "I think I can shed some light on these events."

He held up a copy of his parents will while his solicitor gave distributed more between the judges. "This is a copy of my parent's last will and testament which was sealed by the order of Albus Dumbledore after the events of that day. I do not know if the Chief Warlock knew it at the time when he sealed it but the will clearly states that it was Peter Pettigrew that was the secret keeper of the Potters. Not Sirius Black. It seems to me your whole pretense to the story of Lord Black murdering thirteen people is completely untrue. Let me reiterate his question- who told you that he was the secret keeper and that he killed Peter Pettigrew?"

"Lord Potter it was common knowledge at the time that Sirius Black held that position." Fudge started.

"No it wasn't," Harry said. "You assumed that he was. You assumed that since Lord Black was my father's best friend he must surely hold that position. You assumed and an innocent man was sentenced to Azkaban without a trial."

"Hold on a minute there Lord Potter," the fat woman sitting beside Fudge wearing a hideous pink cardigan cut in. "This so called will only states that Peter Pettigrew was the secret keeper, it doesn't say anything Black's innocence."

Harry stared at the woman disdainfully. "Who are you?"

"Dolores Jane Umbridge, Senior Undersecretary to the Minister." She said sneering back at him.

"Okay," Harry said narrowing his eyes. "Were you not listening? I just said that your whole justification for flinging Lord Black in prison was based on a lie. He's innocent because you didn't convict him then."

Harry swallowed a grin as the woman blustered in anger.

"Now, Lord Black," Harry said now smiling and addressing his godfather. "Would you object if I call for question by Veritaserum?"

"Nope." He replied smiling back. In a moment an Auror had administered the potion to Sirius.

"Let's begin." Their solicitor said. "Please describe the events of Halloween of 2004…"

Harry like the chamber was enthralled as his godfather carried them all through what happened that night. How he was feeling uneasy that day and how he couldn't find Peter. How he went to Godric's hollow and found his brother in all but blood dead and his wife murdered. When he said he met Hagrid and he refused to give Harry to Sirius because Dumbledore had ordered otherwise he was having a hard time refraining from jumping over to the judge's table choking the headmaster to death.

"…he cast the Tickling Charm at me and turned into his Animagus form- a rat- and disappeared." He finished to silence.

The voices started and escalated leaving Madam Bones to restore the order. "In the light of that confession along with the last will and testament of James and Lily Potter I declare Sirius Orion Black cleared of all charges. And hope that the ministry can somehow compensate the eleven years you lost. Court adjourned!"

Harry pushed through the crowd as Sirius stood up rubbing his wrists. Completely disregarding that he had an image to maintain he flung himself at his godfather, embracing him.

After about a minute he pulled away.

"You have no idea how long I've been waiting for this." Sirius said.

"Me too," Harry replied. "How do you fancy a trip to Norway in search for a lost castle after we get you checked out at St. Mungos?"

"Absolutely!" Sirius exclaimed. "I have about ten years catching up to do."

Harry grinned. "Welcome back, Lord Black."

A/N: I apologize for the poor writing on chapter nine and ten. I wrote them in a sort of haze while staring at the Fallout 4 download bar. And about Andy; I had to kill him off lest he become a Deus Ex Machina, a crutch to hold up the weirder part of the plot. I hope you understand. Thanks for reading!