Harry stepped out of the fire, and into the living room of Grimmauld Place. It looked nicer than Harry had ever seen it. Even after all Mrs. Weasley's cleaning during the summer after Harry's fourth year, the place never looked this... homey. It was much more than just clean, Sirius had bought all new furniture and had applied a fresh coat of paint to the walls. The large window overlooking the street was completely clean, letting rays of sunlight streak into the room. In the middle of the room hung a beautiful chandelier. Clouds caused the light, that reflected off the chandelier, to dance. Sirius appeared behind him, and loudly said, "Ta-da! Welcome to my home!"
"IS THAT MY BLOOD TRAITORING, GOOD FOR NOTHING, SON? YOU PIECE OF FILTH, GET OUT!"
Sirius sighed, "And that is my dearest mother's portrait. I'll be right back."
Sirius ran out of the room, but came back within a minute. He took Harry on a small tour of the house, showing him each room, including multiple spare bedrooms. Harry noticed one spare bedroom in particular that was different from the rest. It was the bedroom across the hall from Sirius' master bedroom. Even though it was a spare room, Harry noticed the Quidditch posters on the wall featured players that were rookies this year. Also, while all the other guest rooms contained queen beds with matching cream comforters, this room held a king-sized bed with a vibrant emerald-green comforter.
"So Harry… do you like this room?" Sirius questioned uncertainly.
"Yeah, it's brilliant! It's the nicest room I've ever seen! It's even nicer than the one Dudley slept in," Harry replied excitedly. This excitement wasn't feigned, as his seven-year-old self was very excited at the prospect of having his own room. His room at the Dursley's was nothing more than a cupboard, and while the room at Hogwarts was brilliant, it wasn't truly his.
"Well… it's yours if you want it… What I'm trying to say is… you can live here with me if you want… Now that my name has been cleared, I would love to be your guardian if let me," Sirius said, biting his lip after he finished.
Harry smiled at his godfather, trying to refrain from laughing at the look of insecurity on the normally-cheeky man's face. But his smile faded, as he thought about how Sirius had no idea what he was signing up for.
Sirius watched Harry's excitement turn to what could only be described as dread, and his heart sank. He had expected Harry to be excited at the prospect, but something was obviously bothering him. Realizing that he had put Harry on the spot, Sirius said, "I don't need an answer this second, you can think about it for as long as you need…"
"It's not that…" Harry began, "Do we have a little while? I need to talk to you…"
"Of course, we have all the time in the world," Sirius replied.
"We might need it," Harry said, giving Sirius a small smirk, "Can we go sit somewhere?"
"Let's go to the kitchen, I'll have my house-elf bring us some snacks in a little while," Sirius replied.
"Sounds good," Harry said, and turned to walk out the door. Before he left the room, he turned back around and wrapped his small arms around Sirius' midsection. Sirius looked down at the vulnerable boy, and patted Harry's back consolingly. As Harry let go, he grabbed Sirius' wand from its holster on his waist. He then stepped behind Sirius, put the wand in the waist of his pants, and covered the rest of it with his shirt.
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"Well, sit down and tell me what's on your mind," Sirius said, taking a seat at the kitchen table and pointing to the seat across from his own. Harry slowly took his seat, and placed Sirius' wand on the seat next to him, which was hidden by the table.
"Sirius… I really appreciate what you're trying to do… but before you make that kind of commitment, there's something I need to tell you," Harry said, glancing down at his shaking hands.
"Harry, there's nothing you can say that will change my mind," Sirius replied immediately, trying to ease the young man's concerns.
"We'll see about that…" Harry muttered under his breath.
Harry sat there for a few moments, staring at his folded hands on the table. Finally, he looked up at Sirius, "Before I say anything, I need you to understand that you cannot repeat this to anyone else… not even Dumbledore…"
Sirius looked at him warily for a fraction of a second, surprised at the seriousness laced in Harry's voice. Quickly recovering, he winked at Harry, "Your secrets are safe with me."
Harry looked back down at his hands for another moment, deciding where best to start. Still looking at his hands, he said in a voice that betrayed his age, "That night… when my parents died and Voldemort was killed… is it fair to say that you nearly lost everything?"
Sirius leaned back in his chair, deep in thought. Harry wasn't sure if he was considering Harry's question, or if he was trying to determine why Harry asked it.
"I think that's fair to say… Your dad was the best friend I could have ever hoped for, and your mother was the most caring person I've ever met. I was betrayed by a man that I nearly considered a brother, and lost contact with Remus since he thought I was guilty. Other than you, it's fair to say that I pretty much lost everything I cared about. Up until I was released from Azkaban at least."
"I really want you to think about this next question… think about your last night in Azkaban, when you had no idea the truth would ever be discovered. Imagine someone came up to you and told you that you could do the night of my parent's death all over again… that you could try to save them. But, if you save them, then you know that Voldemort won't be defeated that night. What would you do?"
"Harry… I don't see what this has to do with anything," Sirius said, his voice cracking the slightest bit.
"Answer the question, Sirius," Harry replied.
"It's not even a question. I would save them, and I would figure out why Peter did what he did," Sirius replied immediately, tears filling his eyes, "We would find another way to defeat Voldemort."
Harry watched Sirius for a moment, with a sad smile creeping onto his face. His voice began to shake as he said, "I thought you would say that… and I agree with you… Sirius… I'm… I'm not who you think I am…"
Sirius shook his head, "Harry, I know I've only known you a week, but I have a pretty good idea of who you are."
His voice still shaking, Harry replied, "Sirius… I made that choice…"
Harry watched Sirius closely as he progressed through various emotions. At first, his face wore a confused expression, as he tried to understand what Harry meant, before his jaw dropped and he stuttered out, "You… you mean… you mean something else by the whole 'I'm not who I think I am'…"
Harry nodded, "I'm not seven…"
"If this is some kind of game…" Sirius started.
Harry cut him off, "It's not."
"So, how old are you?" Sirius said, with skepticism in his voice.
"Twenty-two."
"So what, you're telling me you came back from 2004?" Sirius questioned, purposefully doing the math wrong.
"Actually 2002," Harry answered as he watched Sirius' face get slightly more serious.
"So, 'Harry of the Future', tell me something that proves you're telling the truth," Sirius said in a bit of a harsh voice, challenging Harry to convince him.
Harry thought for a second, thinking of things that he shouldn't know as a seven-year-old, "Remus is a werewolf,"
"I'm surprised he told you that already," Sirius replied unfazed.
"Your cousin is Bellatrix Lestrange,"
"So you did some research on my family tree; that isn't hard to find… there are so few purebloods left."
"She tortured Alice and Frank Longbottom into insanity,"
"So you saw some old clippings from the Prophet in the Hogwarts library…" Sirius said, with a bit more uncertainty in his voice.
Harry took a breath and turned his attention to his folded hands once more. Harry looked back up at Sirius, knowing how he could convince him.
"Summon Kreacher," Harry finally said.
Sirius looked at him uncertainly, confused as to how Harry would even know the name of his house-elf. Looking at nothing in particular, Sirius called out, "Kreacher!"
With a small crack, Kreacher appeared. Harry looked at his once close friend, saddened to see the state of him. Kreacher looked as though he had not bathed in months, and his rags were covered in dirt and filled with holes.
"Master Sirius has summoned Kreacher," Kreacher started, offering a reluctant bow, "Kreacher wonders what brat his blood-traitor master has brought into his mother's home."
"Shut-up Kreacher," Sirius ordered, before turning his attention towards Harry.
"In your drawing room, there is a desk. In that desk, there is a locket with an S engraved on the back. Kreacher knows what it looks like, have him go get it," Harry said. Sirius had to relay the message to Kreacher, since he refused to take the order from Harry. Harry could see the concern on Sirius' face deepen when he saw the wide eyes of Kreacher while giving the order.
After Kreacher disappeared, Harry started, "You had a brother named Regulus. He joined Voldemort's forces at the age of sixteen..."
"And he died after getting cold feet… he was an evil coward," Sirius replied.
"You may want to reconsider that… While in Voldemort's army, he learned Voldemort's largest secret. I'll explain it properly later, but he found out that Voldemort had split his soul and had hidden parts of it in different objects, making him immortal. Each of these objects are known as a Horcrux."
"But Voldemort died…"
"I'll explain that too, but he didn't die… just stick with me for a second," Harry replied, a bit overwhelmed by the thought of the amount of information he had to tell Sirius. "Voldemort created several Horcruxes, and your brother sought to destroy them. One of those Horcruxes is a locket that once belonged to Salazar Slytherin."
Kreacher walked slowly back into the room, his tear-filled eyes staring at the locket in his small hands. He marched up to Sirius, handing him the locket with a look of shame on his face, while muttering, "Couldn't do it… tried everything… put my hands in the oven…"
"What the bloody hell are you muttering?" Sirius shot at Kreacher, taking his stress out on the house-elf. Harry remembered the animosity between his two friends in the last timeline, and they had never gotten over it by the time Sirius died. Hopefully, he could make things better this time around.
"He was there. Voldemort used him to test the protections surrounding one of Horcruxes. He put Kreacher through hell. When Kreacher returned, Regulus ordered him to take him to that same place. Regulus stole the Horcrux and, knowing his death was imminent, ordered Kreacher to destroy it," Harry said, looking at Kreacher with sympathy, "But Horcruxes can't be destroyed with normal magic, or even elf magic. There are very few ways to destroy them, and Kreacher was unable to do it."
"Kreacher… Kreacher spent months learning to read… After Kreacher tried all the magic he knew, Kreacher hoped the answer was in a book… Kreacher wouldn't sleep for days… but punished himself every night at midnight for failing…" Kreacher stammered.
Sirius looked between Kreacher and Harry, his face covered in awe. This was it; there was no way to explain how Harry knew that the locket would be in that drawer. Plus, his story was too intricate to be a lie, and Kreacher's stammering supported it.
"So… twenty-two?" Sirius said a bit awkwardly, admitting defeat.
"Yup," Harry nodded.
Sirius stared at his hands, a million questions racing through his mind. Harry let him be, unable to imagine how much shock Sirius was experiencing. He took it as well as Harry could have hoped though. Sirius hadn't reached for his wand yet. After several minutes, Sirius looked back up at the seven-year-old boy before him. Shaking his head, he said the one question that he cared about the most, "Why?"
"Because you died… because nearly all the Weasleys died… because Lupin died… the Order of the Phoenix was destroyed… Everyone I had ever cared about died… Voldemort was reborn during my fourth year, and by my sixth year Britain was in a full out war against him. He overthrew the Ministry, killed nearly all the Muggle-borns in the country, and tracked down anyone that opposed him. It took me years to finally defeat him… and by the time I did, it was too late. Everyone I fought for was dead. I didn't know what to do… so I just sat there and drank... I drank and thought about how I wanted to die. I was just about to end it when Kreacher found me and told me that he had found someone I should talk to… that there was a way that I could save all of you… I met with him, and with Percy Weasley's help, I came back," Harry said, tears flowing down his young face.
Sirius stared at him, trying to digest everything Harry said. Finally, he understood why Harry had begun by asking him if he would have saved James and Lily. Harry had to make that same choice, and was still wondering if he made the right one.
"How?" Sirius said, his face solemn.
"I'm not going to tell you that," Harry replied.
"And why is that?" Sirius asked, with a bit of an indignant tone.
"Because you're too much like me… You even said that you would trade it all away if that meant you could change the events from the night my parents died… I can't let you do that. I thought about it, but that night needs to happen. We need Voldemort to be temporarily defeated, so we can plan on how to finally destroy him with minimal casualties. Believe me, I wanted to go back to save my parents… but it just wouldn't make any sense. I'm the only one that can defeat him, and I can't do that as an infant. Plus, he wouldn't rest he killed me… even in hiding, my parent's days were numbered."
"So you don't trust me?" Sirius questioned, his voice daring Harry to say no.
"I do… but as I said, you're instinctive… I am too, so don't take that as an insult… but I never want anyone else to be able to travel as far back in time as I did… Maybe I'll tell you some of the details eventually, but not until you have a chance to really think over the repercussions."
Sirius let out an unwilling smirk, "It's weird hearing such knowledge coming from a seven-year-old's mouth,"
"It's weird trying to dumb down every conversation so that I seem like a seven-year-old," Harry smirked back.
"Well, I'm going to send a message to Dumbledore telling him that you're going to stay here tonight… In the meantime, Kreacher, can you make us some coffee? I expect that it's going to be a pretty long night," Sirius said. Harry noticed that he didn't command Kreacher to make the coffee, but instead asked politely.
"Yes… I expect it will be," Harry replied.
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Harry sat back in his chair and ran his fingers through his hair. They'd spent hours in the kitchen while Harry had walked Sirius through every aspect of his life that he remembered. He breezed through first year, as it lacked many important moments. Sirius' jaw dropped when Harry told him that he made the Quidditch team first year, and Harry had to promise that they would play soon before he could continue his story.
Harry described each year in as much detail he could remember. He told Sirius all about Riddle's diary, Sirius' longer imprisonment, Pettigrew's escape, the Quidditch World Cup, the Triwizard Tournament, Voldemort's revival, Umbridge becoming headmistress, the Prophecy, and the battle in the Department of Mysteries (Sirius cursed when he told him that Bellatrix killed him). He talked about everything he learned sixth year about Voldemort, and how he skipped seventh year in order to hunt Horcruxes.
He also talked about all the friends he made in the process. It was an unusual sensation describing the friends Harry once had, as he would have to build each relationship all over again. What concerned Harry the most was the idea that the people his friends become may very well be different than the people he once knew if his actions were drastic enough.
When it was all said and done, Harry had told him everything he could remember, including Voldemort's final defeat. It had taken years, but when Voldemort killed the last person that he could think of that had any relation to Harry, he decided to finally duel a demoralized Harry. However, his wand failed him, as Harry had won it years ago when he disarmed Draco Malfoy, who had disarmed Dumbledore on the Astronomy Tower. Harry told Sirius how he watched Tom Riddle fall to his own Killing Curse.
Finally, Harry sat in silence. Sirius had been questioning him throughout his story, trying to fill in the blanks that Harry forgot, but he had saved one question for the very end.
"Harry… I understand why this has to be a secret, especially from your friends… they are still much too young to hear this… but I don't understand why you want to keep this from Dumbledore… he's the brightest wizard alive… he could help."
"I've given it a lot of thought, Sirius, but I can't tell him yet. I went along with his route last time, and while it ended up in me defeating Voldemort, it was way too long of a path. But in Dumbledore's mind, it may very well have been worth it. If I didn't stop him, Voldemort could have killed thousands more than he did. We had casualties, but there could have been many, many, more. I couldn't live with the fact that we lost as many as we did, so that's why I came back. However, Dumbledore may be able to cope with the result, and choose to Obliviate me, and now you too, in order to try to have that same result happen. When you think about the rest of the wizarding world… all the people who did survive… your death, along with all the others, was simply for the 'greater good'."
"But when we eventually stray far enough from the last timeline… so that he cannot count on the timeline repeating itself… then you will tell him?"
"I think so, but not until I'm sure. He's a great wizard, and an even greater person, but I don't want to do what's best for mankind. I want to do what's best for the people I love, and I'm hoping that overlaps with what is best for the wizarding world." Harry said solemnly.
"And what about Remus?" Sirius questioned, obvious that he wanted to tell his best friend.
"I'm not sure… I trust him, but I've mainly been focusing on how to tell you so far," Harry answered. Harry's gut told him that he should tell Remus, but he would have to give it more thought.
"Fair enough, but I don't want to lie to one of my only friends," Sirius responded.
"I know," Harry said, thinking of how he was going to have to lie to all of his friends, "But until then, I have your word that you won't tell anyone about this?"
"You have my word, Harry," Sirius replied, hoping that the truthfulness of what he was saying was evident in his voice.
"Now, I need you to also command Kreacher that he cannot repeat a word of this to anyone,"
Sirius had overlooked Kreacher, but he had listened to every word by the doorway for the past few hours. Harry knew that he was there, but didn't quite trust him yet. Eventually he would, but Kreacher's mind was in an unpredictable state at the moment.
Kreacher did not resist, but did not look happy when Sirius gave him the order. Harry remembered his promise to Kreacher in the previous timeline, and saw an opportunity to start building a relationship with his old friend. Harry grabbed the locket off of the table, and felt the metallic heartbeat in his hands. He looked at it for a moment before handing it to Kreacher.
"Kreacher, I know you want to destroy this, but it's not possible… yet. I know how to destroy it, but it will be a few years before we are able to. In the meantime, it is essential that this stays safe. I'll make you a deal though… if you promise to keep it safe, I promise you that when we obtain the means to destroy it, that you will be the one to do it. You will finally be able to fulfill Regulus' last request."
Kreacher stared at Harry for a brief moment, before offering him a small bow, "Kreacher will keep it safe,"
"You can't wear it though Kreacher, it needs to be hidden," Harry said, giving the elf a small smirk while imagining an even grumpier than usual Kreacher.
"Kreacher will hide it in his quarters, and place every spell he knows around it," Kreacher offered.
Harry nodded, "And Sirius will add a few more protections around it as well. Between elf magic and Sirius' spells, it should be safe,"
Sirius watched Kreacher closely, and recalled that Harry explained that he led other house-elves in the Battle of Hogwarts. Maybe… deep down… behind all the prejudices that his mother's portrait had Kreacher believing over these past few years… he was still salvageable.
Kreacher left the room with the locket with a determined look on his face.
Sirius turned his attention back towards Harry, "I do have one last question though… why now? Why did you come back this far? Nobody died in your first three years of school; couldn't you have just appeared then? You would have already built a lot of these friendships that I know you're worrying about rebuilding."
"I wasn't going to leave you in Azkaban for a minute more than necessary," Harry said, giving his godfather a small smile.
"Well, I'll be sure to give you the childhood you never experienced… that is, if you'll let me be your guardian…" Sirius said, returning the smile with a tear in his eye.
"As long as my bedtime is after eight o' clock,"
"Deal," Sirius laughed, before looking at his watch, "But four o'clock in the morning is a pushing it… are you good to call it a night?"
"One last thing," Harry said in a small voice, grabbing Sirius' wand off of the seat beside him and handing it back to its rightful owner.
The smile faded off of Sirius' face, as he stared at the wand in his hand before looking back up at Harry.
"What… what were you going to do if I didn't agree to keep your secret?" Sirius questioned, unsettled by the turn of events.
"To be honest... I'm not completely sure… Probably try to Obliviate you…" Harry said truthfully.
"This can't happen again," Sirius said, disappointment evident in his voice, "I'm on your side… but I can't live with the thought that if I disagree with you, I'll end up Obliviated."
"I know… I just had to make sure that you weren't going to run to Dumbledore without hearing the full story. We may not always agree, but I won't ever threaten you again. I'm trying to save you… I'm trying to save everyone."
Sirius nodded before turning around to head up the stairs. When he was a few steps up, he turned back towards Harry, "Just remember that in order to save someone, you have to let them live."
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Please review! A whole lot going on in this chapter, and I'm really curious about your thoughts on the conversation! I read every review, and really appreciate each one!
Shout-out to my betas Arnel and RS223 for making this chapter much more readable!