"Wake up! Master Harry must wake up!"
Harry groaned and rolled over, glinting at the light.
"I'm up Eliza, I'm up."
"Breakfast will be five minutes"
The elf popped out and Harry headed for the shower. He found that Grimmauld Place had changed overnight. Or at least his hallway had, Sirius' door was gone and so was the staircase. In their place stood one set of ornate oak doors with impressive knockers. He moved to touch one but the door swung open before he could grab it. Inside he saw Hermione in an intense conversation with Fred as she waved the daily prophet. Ron was fussing over the hem of his slightly too small t-shirt and Ginny was squinting at the slit in the wall that served for a window.
"Hey Harry! Good Morning" Ron called out, far too cheerfully.
Harry narrowed his eyes. Ron was not a morning person. If he was trying for cheer at this hour, something must have gone really wrong.
"What's happened?" Harry asked.
"Breakout at Azkaban" Ron was worrying at his shirt again, seemingly at a loss for what to do with his hands.
Harry sucked in his breath. He had expected this. For everything else that Voldemort was, the man didn't lie very often.
Just then he noticed that the only occupants of the room were the under 17's. His breath caught. Had the Order gone into open warfare already?
"Where's everyone? Where's Sirius?" He asked.
Ron's face turned ashen. "Mate – "
"What? What aren't you telling me?" Harry snapped.
"Voldemort used Sirius." Ginny said quietly from the window.
"Or rather, he used wormtail – who took something from your dad's place before he died."
Harry shook his head. "He took what from my dad's place? Ginny you're talking nonsense"
"I'm afraid not." Hermione brandished the Prophet at him like a weapon.
The first thing he noticed was the Headline blaring bold. "Mass Breakout at Azkaban: Black Responsible."
The next thing he noticed was the lioness in the photo. She was larger than anything he had ever seen in nature. Next to her was a crimson wheel holding a man with his limbs stretched taunt over the spokes. He was dressed in red and gold motley. Or what was left of him. The lioness was batting the wheel around like a kitten with a toy. Harry turned away as she tore his head off.
"That was Brenden Gandley, Deputy Head of the Control of Magical Creatures Division, two hours ago" Hermione whispered.
"When the Aurors got there, all the guards were dead, mauled. And then the wheel took one person from that group. Until they were all dead. It's taking one person at random from each group that tries to approach the island." She continued, shaking. She paused.
"Sirius said that your dad created that thing. He says it was a prank"
"To be fair, the lion they created wasn't as malicious" Fred interjected.
"But why create that monstrosity at all! Do you honestly believe that is funny" She exploded.
"Because we can. Because we're wizards" Fred said levelly.
"Hey –" Ron said hotly.
"No she needs to get it. Magic is not something you just pick up and regurgitate for a test. Magic is meant to do incredible things, impossible things." Fred trailed off, a light shining in his eyes.
Harry had an epiphany in that moment. That the twins, who everyone – chiefly Ms. Weasley – maligned as irresponsible – thought that Harry's cohort were the ones who were simply wasting their time at Hogwarts. He looked at the lion again – confident, proud, and secure in her existence on her first day on earth. Maybe they were.
Hermione was still sputtering, "But, but it's wrong"
Harry shrugged. "Why? We turn objects into animals all the time."
Hermione growled. "And then we vanish them. Or turn them back. They've tried to vanish that thing. They've tried to transfigure it into something else – nothing happens. They even tried Avada Kedavra but you can't kill something that was never alive." She slammed the prophet on the dining room table, narrowly missing a trencher of scrambled eggs that had just appeared. Other breakfast dishes followed suit.
Harry sipped at a cup of tea, his mind on Hermione's comments. Admittedly, he did "just enough" in transfiguration and his "just enough" was enough to earn him "Exceeds Expectations" regularly. Just enough was nowhere near enough to unpack how to create a live animal without using anything connected to earth. According to McGonagall, all transfiguration had to be connected to life. Apparently her brilliant students had found a loophole.
"Hello, earth to Harry!" Ron was next to him, looking concerned. "Mate we look like we lost you for a moment." Harry looked up at Ron Weasley's freckles. His best friend was so worried that he was ignoring Eliza' s excellent spread.
He chuckled dryly, "I'm fine. Hermione just threw me for a spin" He inclined his head towards the brown haired witch.
She nodded. "Hmm, it's just – I understand that we're magical. I understand better than you can imagine" she said, fixing Fred with a glare. "It's just that for me that power comes with responsibility. To leave things as they are – Not to disturb the natural order."
Fred grinned at her. "But Hermione, we are the natural order"
For a moment, no one spoke. Then Hermione snorted. "Heaven help us all if you're the natural order." But her eyes were shining.
After breakfast the group decided by unanimous decision to see which rooms on the floor they could access and which they couldn't.
Meanwhile, a floor below them Albus Dumbledore, Minerva McGonagall, and Sirius Black were hunched over a stack of parchments as a various kittens scampered around the room, only to blink out of existence after a few moments.
The wrinkles in Albus' forehead seemed determined to carve it in two as he sounded out the pronunciations of ancient norse runes. Meanwhile Minerva McGonagall was studying the various kittens in the room, trying to not to get discouraged as one after another of her creations flickered out of existence. Sirius Black was scratching random, loosely connected idea's on a piece of parchment, trying to recreate that moment of brilliance that seemed determined to elude him after the light of his best friend dimmed.
"Are you sure you can think of nothing else Sirius?" Dumbledore implored.
Sirius slammed his quill down. "I've told you everything I can remember. Which admittedly, might be considerably less after a dozen years in Azkaban but then again, as I've said she wasn't my idea." He jabbed his finger at the lioness. She yawned as he tickled her under the chin.
McGonagall's eyes lit up. "Wait a moment Sirius you said, she"
Sirius looked at her as if she'd grown an extra head. "Well, it's rather obvious she doesn't have bits"
McGonagall shook her head. "No you fool, that means that she was likely summoned. Not transfigured. Somehow it failed to capture your attention that nothing you created in my class could actually contribute to creation. Now Mr. Black, you all were fond of giving nicknames – what was hers?"
Sirius paled. "Sekhet"
McGonagall drew back. "You did not! Of all the foolish –"
A frown was added to Dumbledore's collection of wrinkles "I was under the impression that the ritual for summoning her was lost to history?" He questioned.
"Mr. Potter made it his business to find lost things." Sirius shrugged.
Dumbledore's lips thinned in a manner eerily similar to Walburga Black if she saw something unpleasant.
"Mr. Black, do you know what I often answer if someone poses a question for which of our Hogwarts houses we could conceivably do without?" He queried.
"Slytherin?" Sirius asked, knowing he was wrong.
"Ravenclaw. Because passing into NEWT level at all in our program suggests enhanced intellect without resorting to the search for forms of knowledge best left to those of us with adult judgement."
With that biting comment he turned to leave. "I will pass on your information to the Department of Mysteries." Sirius and McGonagall watched as he exited the dim corridor.
"He will never truly forgive me will he?" Sirius said into the silence.
McGonagall patted his arm. "Do not mind that man. He has blind spot's denser than Sybill Trelawney's sight and Severus Snape is one of them"
Sirius shrugged. "I have bigger worries." He said, casting his eyes to the floor above.
"Well, brooding won't help him. He's prone to that himself and he tends to withdraw when stressful situations occur." McGonagall said.
Sirius bristled. "I have not been brooding. This house wasn't the only thing in shambles when I got here. My father's goblin paranoia seems to have reached endemic levels while I was away. I keep finding small caches of gold everywhere."
McGonagall rolled her eyes. "How terrible for you." She said dryly. Then she softened. "You're more like him every day you know?"
Sirius looked shocked. "More like my father? Azkaban doesn't drive you that far starkers"
"More like Alphard, cheeky brat" A rare smile ghosted across her features.
Sirius looked uncomfortable. "Say, what do you think of Harry?" He asked, eager to turn the conversation.
McGonagall paused and drummed her fingers on the tabletop. "Overall, I think he's shrewd, intelligent, and bold. Also, I have to warn you – the boy does not forgive easily. He gives trust to very few and once it's lost you may never regain it." She stopped.
"You sound like you're speaking from experience?" Sirius queried.
McGonagall shrugged. "I didn't believe him about Querinus seeking the Philosopher's Stone and he's written me off ever since."
Sirius raised an eyebrow. McGonagall answered. "Oh he's polite. But he hasn't sought me out since. I have no idea how he ended up picking his electives, or what he's planning on after Hogwarts. Nothing."
"I'll talk to him." Sirius said.
"No, don't. At least not about me but if you could give him a bit of a nudge with his schoolwork I wouldn't object." She sighed, shaking her head.
"If I had known just how badly things would go I would've snatched him off that doorstep before those wards had a chance to seal. I know the death eaters were still free, but death eaters can be killed. I was just sure that someone who had a legitimate claim to the boy would step up. Instead, the WPO was flooded with applications from every aspiring housewife who wanted to raise a "celebrity".
She sneered, scots coming through clearly. "The only applicants with a whiff of legitimacy were Andromeda and Narcissa. After you were given the public blame for the Potter murders and Lucius is under investigation for being a Death Eater those go nowhere. And so Harry is left with Petunia Dursley and the Weasley's as his only examples for how to behave in the world. I'm fond of Arthur and Molly, truly, but they would be far better off if Arthur put the stability of his family first and Molly gave up the thought that she is in any position to be a kept woman."
Sirius chuckled and summoned two shot glasses and a bottle of scotch. He released the decanter and poured two generous helpings for himself and Minerva. After taking a polite sip, scotch was never his favorite, he answered Minerva.
"There were no right or wrong answers to be had in that pile of doxy shit. If I hadn't gone after Wormtail, he would've found the Lestrange's and Voldemort would've been resurrected scarcely a month after his defeat. Sure I would've had Harry but let's be honest Harry's the best at keeping himself alive now that he has a wand. So I take a gamble and let Harry leave with Hagrid. I figured it would only take me a few days to find Peter and end him. Then a couple of weeks to find Bella and put an end to this nonsense for good. Then I'd go collect Harry and go very far, far away from glorious old England."
Minerva looked aghast. "So you would have him leave everything? His home, his family, his legacy and never return!"
"His home is uninhabitable to all but the most skilled witches and wizards; it's certainly wasn't fit for a baby. Godric's Hollow was a nursery of sorts and now it's burned to the ground. His family is dead barring me and a few of my former cellmates he should hope never to meet once much less twice, as for legacy it's up to him to build that. He has to take the gift of magic and make it his own, as we all have to."
"Now that's something I can drink to" Minerva raised her glass and drained it in one gulp.
Sirius saluted her with his glass. "I'm glad we agree"
Below them, a lioness roared.