Disclaimer: This author is definitely not spending their time writing a screenplay based on an encyclopaedia of magical beasts, so don't get confused.
"You certainly have a knack for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, Mr Potter".
Harry was sitting in the chair in front of Dumbledore's desk, taking the time to admire his office, when the Headmaster finally entered. When Harry had been in before, he had been too busy to truly look around and see everything that the older man had collected through the years. Especially the sickly phoenix, that was especially interesting.
"Sir, your phoenix looks rather unwell. Does he need any medicine or anything?"
Dumbledore smiled. "Fawkes has always seemed to get through it on his own before", he said, and just at that moment the bird burst into flames.
Harry recoiled in shock, but then his thoughts caught up with him. "Ahh, of course. That makes sense".
The Headmaster chuckled. "That it does. He is truly a magnificent creature. There is still so much we do not know about them, and he is surely not inclined to tell me. Fawkes came to me at my moment of greatest need, and I surely would not have survived that day without him. I hope you would not find it strange if I told you that I consider Fawkes to be one of my closest friends".
"Of course not", Harry said with complete sincerity.
He was about to continue when Dumbledore interrupted him. "I am sure you would much prefer to continue talking about Fawkes, but we should start considering the reason you are sitting here in the first place".
Harry gulped. "Well, you know I didn't do it".
"That I do".
"Then why am I here?"
"That is because quite a few other people now disagree with me. Harry, I had been able to prevent the Daily Prophet from publishing this story up until now, but I am afraid that I will not be able to prevent them anymore. I didn't want them to start a panic, but now I fear they will find the chance to once again write about your family too compelling to resist. There will not be a shortage of people willing to tell them about the fact that you were missing the night Mrs Norris was petrified, the fact that you were not in your dorm the night Mr Creevey was petrified, the fact that you are a Parselmouth and demonstrated that fact last night, and the fact that you were found standing over the body of Mr Finch-Fletchley. You will be accused, you will be vilified and I am truly sorry to say that there is nothing I can do to stop it".
Harry listened to the Headmaster speak, and for every word that came out of his mouth, a little fight left him. His shoulders slumped, he simply replied "it's not fair".
"No, it isn't. But know this Harry, I believe you. Professor McGonagall believes you, Professor Flitwick believes you, Professor Snape believes you and your friends believe you. That is enough. I intended to give something to you this Christmas, but with what you are going through I think maybe now would be a good time for you to receive it instead".
The Headmaster got up and walked over to a cabinet, and retrieved a silvery piece of cloth from a drawer. "This belonged to your father Harry. Try it on".
He passed it to Harry, and then watched as Harry draped it around his shoulders and promptly vanished from the neck down. "It works as well as the day it was created".
Harry looked into a mirror that stood up in the Headmaster's office and saw what effect the cloak was having on him, and burst into a grin. "Amazing".
"That it is. Your father used to use it for sneaking to the kitchens, and the like. I felt like you should have it back, but I'd ask that you not take this as permission to start breaking school rules".
He took it off, and tried to arrange it in a way so it fell as a cloak and hood, but couldn't see how. "There's no neck clasp?", he asked.
"A good question. Would a clasp be visible when worn? I would be curious to find the answer, but I had ten years to study it and that is plenty enough time".
Questions kept popping into Harry's head, but the one he voiced was "How can this be the same cloak my dad used when he was my age? Don't they wear out after a year or two?"
"That is the question that occurred to me as soon as I saw it for the first time, and why I asked your father if I could study it. Lets just say, it is clearly a very old and very powerful artefact".
Harry was still smiling. "Thank you for this".
"Just promise me one thing Harry. I am doing everything in my power to discover who is behind these attacks, but clearly what I am doing is not enough. If you do happen to come across any information, please come and tell me immediately".
"Of course".
The next two days passed exactly as Dumbledore predicted. The Daily Prophet finally printed the story and whilst not outright accusing him, asked enough questions about his innocence to make any reader believe he was completely guilty. Luckily for him, it being a weekend meant that he didn't have to leave his room except for meals and his new Invisibility cloak meant those could be taken in the kitchens without being noticed.
On the Monday morning, he was seen for the first time since the story broke at Breakfast, talking to the Headmaster.
"Sir, rather than get the train, would I be able to just go straight to Hogsmeade".
"I think that can be arranged".
So, while nearly every other student vacated the halls of Hogwarts for the train back to London, Harry was being escorted back to Hogsmeade by the only available adult, Professor Snape.
They were half way to the village when Harry asked a question. "Who do you think is behind it?"
"Pardon?"
"Professor Dumbledore told me that you don't think I'm the heir of Slytherin, so who do you think it is? You're the head of Slytherin, you must have some suspicions".
Snape snapped back rather curtly, "I wouldn't tell you my suspicions regarding the winner of the International Quodpot tournament, let alone for anything of importance".
Harry thought it wise not to say anything else for the rest of the walk.
They finally reached the restaurant, where Sirius was waiting by the door. He gave Harry a hug, then turned to the Potions Professor. "Snape".
Snape ignored Sirius, and turned to Harry. "Don't forget Potter, 12 inches on Swelling Solutions for our first lesson back, or I would be all too happy to give you detention for a week". He turned to leave then stopped. "In fact, I'll make it a month. I wouldn't want you thinking the punishment would be worth it just for the alibi".
As Snape apparated away, Sirius shook his head. "What a berk", he said before ushering Harry inside. "So, this is an interesting role reversal. Now the whole country thinks you're the murdering psychopath, not me".
"Well, I blame you. What kind of twisted father figure raises a child to go out into the world and start unleashing a centuries old monster onto the weak and the helpless".
"Damn it, and I thought I was going to get away with it too. Come on, down to the basement. You can show me what you learned this term. Just because you're going to end up in jail doesn't mean I'm going to let you skip out on your schoolwork".
"Sirius, I really don't think this is a good idea".
Harry and Sirius were currently walking towards the Holyhead Quidditch Stadium, in the early morning of Christmas Eve.
"Don't be silly. You'll have fun".
"But what if-"
"Everybody leaves you alone because they're scared you'll murder them? Take it from someone who knows how it feels, it isn't really that bad. Makes getting snacks easier. People queuing in front of you have a tendency to run away".
"Stop joking about it, I really don't think-"
"Harry". Sirius stopped walking and looked Harry in the eye. "You can't run away. You have to put your chin up and live your life. If someone believes these lies and confronts you, then confront them back. If you don't stand up for yourself people will walk all over you, and I don't believe you are the kind of person who will tolerate that. So cheer up, and lets go watch a great team play Quidditch".
They carried on walking, and Harry realised that Sirius was right. He hadn't done anything wrong, so why act as if he had?
As they walked along Sirius looked down at Harry, saw him walking with his chin raised up and felt as proud as he ever had.
"Where are we sitting then?"
Sirius smiled. "Director's box. I've been helping Bagman get some extra money freed up in the Wizengamot to spend on the World Cup preparations, and he gave me his tickets as he's away somewhere. The atmosphere probably won't be as good as in with the fans, but the snacks will be better".
They entered the stadium and climbed the stairs to the stand, where they were greeted by a friendly elderly woman. "Oh hello Mr Black, and is this Mr Potter? My my, aren't you tall? I'm sorry about that business in the paper, awful nonsense they print. Well sit, sit, the games about to start!".
Three hours later, the Harpies were victorious and Harry and Sirius were joined in the Director's box by a lot of the team staff. Harry was enjoying himself immensely.
"And that catch! Sloth rolling to avoid the bludger then catching the Snitch on the way back up! Amazing!". Ever since Blythe Parkin had entered the room, Harry hadn't stopped detailing his appreciation for her all round play. "If England don't pick you for the World Cup team then they're idiots!".
"Thank you. I try and do my best, and I'm just happy we could win".
She picked up two sandwiches and devoured them quickly. "I hear that you're quite the talented Seeker too Harry".
"Oh, I'm nothing compared to you. I couldn't even dream of pulling off a Wronski feint like you did at the start of the game".
"Don't sell yourself short". Harry looked around to see that Gwenog Jones had come over. "I was at your last game, you fly very well. I was very impressed with the way you dodged that bludger, and the way you carried on with an injury to seal the win. Are you thinking of playing professionally after school?"
Harry blushed, but shook his head. "I lack the necessary parts to qualify for the only team I'd ever want to play for".
Jones and Parkin both laughed. "I'd say it's probably good for us that we'd never have to play against you then".
Suddenly Parkin gasped. "Look at Moran".
Harry turned his head and saw Sirius was deep in conversation with Alana Moran, top Holyhead Chaser, and both had smiles on their faces.
"Good for her", Jones said.
"Oh no", Harry said.
"Come on, what's so bad about it?"
Harry turned and looked at the two Quidditch players. "The last time I saw Sirius looking at a girl like that we had to flee a country", he said before marching over to his godfather.
"I think it might be time to make a move, head on home", Harry said whilst tugging at Sirius's jacket.
Sirius didn't turn around when he said, "I'm sure they won't mind us staying a little longer".
"If you say so. Hello Miss Moran, I thought you played really well today. Was Sirius telling you about the time we were in Cambodia, that's a great story".
Sirius straightened up in shock, before he span and knelt down so he was face to face with Harry and started whispering furiously. "What are you doing!".
"You're seriously doing this now? When I'm in the room? I don't want to see that".
"We're just talking!"
"That's what you said last time!".
"This isn't Cambodia Harry, and I learnt my lesson from that, which you know because I didn't get caught in Hong Kong! Anyway, we're not on the run anymore, and I'm allowed to talk to a pretty girl!"
"Excuse me", Moran then interrupted. "Are you two ok?"
Sirius turned his head to her and smiled. "Just peachy".
Moran watched as he turned back to Harry and the pair continued the whispered argument, not really being able to tell what they were arguing about, but could see a lot of pointing and gesticulating until she finally heard Sirius say "Fine!"
He turned to her and smiled. "Harry's not feeling great, so we're going to head off, but I'd really like to continue this conversation another time. Why don't you swing by the restaurant when you have some time off?"
She smiled and nodded. "I'd love to. See you around".
Watching as the two started to leave the room, and ignoring the friendly jab in the ribs by Parkin, she couldn't help overhearing Sirius say to Harry "I can't believe you just did that to me!".
Sirius was still mad about Harry interfering in his love life the next day, so Harry spent most of Christmas morning with green hair, purple skin and his tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth.
After opening their presents, which mainly consisted of books and sweets, and eating their dinner the pair went for a walk around Hogsmeade. Snow had fallen over the village, carpeting the roads and painting the buildings a glistening white. "We haven't really spoken about what's happening at school", Sirius said as they turned the corner onto the main road.
"What is there to say?", Harry replied a bit forlornly. "Someone's hurting people, and the teachers have no idea who it is".
"It's more than that though Harry. They aren't just blindly attacking anyone they feel like, they're targeting you too. I don't believe it's a coincidence that all these attacks happened in a time and place that made you the prime suspect".
Harry shook his head. "Maybe, but does that really matter? The kind of person who would do this anyway is going to be the kind of person that hates me out of principle for being the Boy Who Lived. I don't think that helps us narrow down any suspects".
"Well, what do we know?"
"That this has happened before. Dumbledore said he thinks Voldemort was behind it last time, when he was a student, but Hagrid got the blame. They couldn't prove it was him, but they expelled him for raising an Acromantula in the school. There's no way an Acromantula could petrify people like that though, but seen as the attacks stopped after he was expelled they took that as being good enough".
"Which doesn't make any sense because Hagrid stayed at Hogwarts as the groundkeeper".
Harry nodded. "And I can't think of anything that petrifies people in such a way. The culprit, just like last time, is attacking muggleborns under the guise of the heir of Slytherin. Did Voldemort, you know, have any kids?"
"I doubt it. The only woman mad enough to let him do that to her would have been Bella, and she's locked up, with no secret children".
"What about if the heir is just a metaphor? Maybe whoever's doing this is the child of a Death Eater?", Harry said, airing an opinion he'd been harboring for a while.
However, Sirius shook his head. "Dumbledore isn't a fool. While there were some Death Eaters who slipped through the cracks, like Wormtail, most gave themselves up as being held under the Imperius. Anyone big enough to consider themselves Voldemort's heir, we know about. Number one suspects will be children with Death Eater parents, and Dumbledore will be watching them".
"Well, that leaves us with no-one!", Harry said, with more than a hint of frustration in his voice.
"That's the problem. There's no-one you can think of that Dumbledore won't already have considered. He'll be thinking about this all the time. So stop beating yourself up for not having figured this out".
Harry turned to look at Sirius, bemused.
"Don't give me that look. Apart from when we were in Holyhead, it's all you've been thinking about. I'm not blind and I've noticed. This isn't your fault, and this isn't your responsibility, so stop feeling guilty. Yes, you're involved in this somehow, but that doesn't mean it's all you need to think about. Let yourself have fun Harry, and unless you stumble onto something, let Dumbledore find the culprit".
"Well that's well and good for you to say, but you're not the one who has to go back to Hogwarts, the one who has people running from them in the corridors. So I won't stop thinking about it, because nobodies going to let me forget about it".
Sirius frowned. "When we were watching the Quidditch, you were happy. I just want that to happen more often. Everyone will realise their mistake soon, and you don't want to lose your friends, the people who do believe you, because you're too busy avoiding the one's who don't or thinking about something you can't do anything about".
Harry tried to listen to Sirius's advice, but he couldn't stop thinking about the Heir of Slytherin. There had to be a clue as to who it was, nobody could hide themselves this well. He continued thinking about it throughout all of the holidays, and was still thinking about it on the Hogwarts Express back to school when he was found by his friends.
"I just heard the Head Girl say that only twenty people stayed over Christmas, and that's the smallest number for twenty years. I hope nobody got hurt over Christmas", he heard Hermione saying as she walked towards the door to his compartment.
Harry got up and opened the door. "I could see a bright side. I have a pretty solid alibi for the whole Christmas period".
"It'd certainly make finding the heir a lot easier if there are only twenty people to choose from and five of them are Weasleys", Neville joked from behind Hermione.
Hermione smacked both of them, before giving Harry a hug. "How was your Christmas?"
"Good. I went to see some Quidditch, and we saw Sirius's cousin Andromeda again. She said she was going to help Sirius when he goes to burn down his old house".
"You're going to burn your house down! That's ridiculous".
"Well we don't want it, and it isn't in a wizarding area of London so we'd get more money to just sell the plot to a muggle developer. The only problem with that though is all the nasty spells and curses in the house, it'd take months to strip them all out. So instead they'll just put up some protection for the neighbouring houses and burn it down. Safest thing to do really. You can't get cursed by a door if the door isn't there anymore".
Harry could see the cogs in Hermione's brain turn as she tried to think of a reason not to do it, but she eventually said "I suppose that makes sense. As long as they're careful not to hurt anyone".
The conversation moved away from extreme redecoration and towards the coming school year and more specifically their schoolwork, with Harry and Neville still trying to convince Hermione of how awful Lockhart was. They talked about how hard the Potions homework was, and how Astronomy was not going to be fun in the January cold.
It was when they were pulling into the Hogsmeade station that Harry realised they hadn't once mentioned the Heir of Slytherin, that he'd been laughing for most of the previous 3 hours, and that Sirius had been right. Brooding was no fun.
The weeks passed and Harry gradually became less of a social pariah. There were still some people who considered the lapse in activity from the Heir to be because Harry wanted the spotlight away from him before he struck again, but the majority of people had stopped recoiling in the corridors. Life was beginning to get back to as normal as Hogwarts ever got. He even got sent a Valentine's card, in the form of a singing gnome, that while not romantic in the slightest gave him a laugh and went a little way to making him forget about what happened before Christmas.
For unexplainable reasons, Sirius had chosen the day Harry was to receive a musical note of affection to finally divorce himself from Grimmauld Place.
Apparating in ten minutes before he had arranged to meet Andromeda, he sat on the street curb and just looked at the state the house he had been brought up in had fallen into. It was almost therapeutic to see the source of so much pain and anger in such a rotten state. The windows were dirty, the ledges overflowing with weeds and the paint peeling. He knew that his old home had charms placed on the facade to make it seem to passing muggles that the place was abandoned and boarded up, but he couldn't help but feel that they weren't needed. It was a nice feeling, only compounded by the knowledge of what he would be doing later that afternoon.
"Oh, am I late?"
Sirius turned and saw his cousin striding towards him, wearing her usual of a long dress with a cardigan over the top. "Didn't want to wear something more practical?".
"It's not like I'm actually going to be getting my hands dirty", she responded with a smirk. "Have you told anyone you're doing this today?".
"Well, I told you. Couldn't give a toss about Cissy's feelings on the matter, so I haven't told her. Everyone else is either dead or in prison, and even if they weren't I wouldn't care about their opinions".
Andi shook her head. "I mean have you told anyone from the Ministry?".
Sirius looked slightly bemused, then realised what she was getting at. "No. They'd probably only tell me that I wasn't allowed".
A laugh escaped from Andromeda, then she said. "You'll never change. Always the prankster. Do you want to clear the ornaments out first?".
Sirius stood up, brushed himself down, then replied. "I don't want any of it. I didn't have time to pack all my things when I left for James's parents house as a kid, so I'll look and see if there's anything I want to keep, and we should probably check for Kreacher. He may have been a nasty little bugger, but I'm not going to burn him alive".
"Are you going to take him in at the restaurant?"
"HA! Are you joking? We'd be out of business in a week", Sirius said. He pulled a sock from his pocket. "I came prepared".
Andromeda frowned. "That'd probably kill him too you know".
"For some reason I'm fine with that".
They entered the dark hallway of the house, and promptly fell over a poorly placed Troll's leg.
"BLOOD TRAITORS! HOW DARE YOU RETURN HERE! YOU BEFOUL THE HOUSE OF YOUR FOREFATH-"
"Reducto!"
The painting of Walburga Black, Sirius's late mother, did not get to finish her rant as Sirius's curse blew the wall on which she was hung into pieces that flew into the kitchen behind it.
"I'd been waiting to do that for 12 years".
"It's really not healthy to keep it all bottled up Sirius".
They didn't have a chance to catch their breath before Sirius's old house-elf appeared and saw what Sirius had done. "NOOO! Mistress!". The decrepit elf span in place and saw the two of them still lying on the floor. "Traitor! What has the traitor done! The traitor and the whore, ruined everythi-"
"SHUT UP!".
As Sirius shouted, Kreacher too stopped mid rant. The elf was clearly trying to disobey the order though, and when it couldn't started beating it's head against the wall.
"Do not move Kreacher".
Sirius and Andromeda got up, dusted themselves off, and walked past the House-elf as it stood still, with it's lower back twitching occasionally, fighting against the order with the intense desire to headbutt the wall.
They climbed the stairs with aid from light from their wands, and Sirius kept his eyes focused directly forward until they reached the door that led to his old room.
"Didn't you lock the room?", Andromeda asked. "I remember hearing that they could never get in after you left".
"They clearly weren't willing to just blow the walls down". Sirius put his palm to the door and said the pass-phrase. "Stephanie Rahn".
The door creaked open, and Sirius turned to Andromeda, who had a curious look on her face. "I'm definitely not telling you who she is, so don't even ask". Sirius went to enter, then stopped in his tracks. "Actually, you should wait out here for a second".
He slid in through the door, and closed it behind him before Andromeda could get a look inside. She heard some shuffling of papers and quick movement of Sirius's feet before he opened the door again. "Ok, you can come in now".
She looked down to the roll of posters in Sirius's hand and rolled her eyes. "I am aware of what kind of posters teenage boys put on their walls Sirius", she said with a laugh.
"I'd still rather not give you the blackmail material".
She walked in and looked around. Apart from the marks of where the posters had hung, it looked as if Sirius had been sleeping here the day before. The bed wasn't made, a pair of underpants was hanging out of a chest of drawers, a pile of clutter on the desk. "What did you take when you ran away?".
"My school trunk and the clothes on my back", Sirius said quite calmly as he looked through his desk. "I didn't really have time to pack, with Mother cursing my back as I ran out the door".
Andromeda didn't say anything. Being back in this house was bringing back some bad memories for her, but she knew that it was nothing compared to what Sirius had to be going through. She'd always been the attentive daughter until she met Ted, and when she didn't return after her seventh year of Hogwarts it was a clean break. Sirius had been rebelling and being punished for five years before he left.
Finally, Sirius spoke up. "There's nothing here I'd want back. Let's go".
They were about to leave the room when Andromeda spotted the handle of a mirror poking out from beneath a book. She picked it up and admired it. "I knew you spent a lot of time on your appearance Sirius, but a travel mirror. Come on".
Sirius turned and smiled. "No. We made that when we were in seventh year. You talk into it and you appear on the paired mirror, James had the other one. We used it when we were put in seperate detentions".
Sirius took it from her. "We finished school before we could get Remus and, well, before we got the others working with them too". He turned it over in his hands, with a curious look on his face, which broke into a grin.
"Did you know that in Seoul they've been trying to develop a portable floo, to contact people with when you aren't at home. It's bulky and unwieldy though, and you need to fill it with kindling every morning. I think they're inspired by these tiny devices the muggles have for starting fires. Just flick a switch and you have a small flame, but floo powder doesn't work with gas fires. But if I could get this working, I could accomplish what they're trying to achieve, only better. Imagine a smaller one you could carry in a pocket, and when you want to talk to a friend you just say their name into the mirror and you can talk to them. Everyone would want one".
Andromeda nodded, but was slightly confused. "If you can get it to work. Since when have you been an inventor, or good at this type of stuff at all?"
The grin on Sirius's face didn't fade, but you could tell he was now considering the problems. "It was Lily and Remus who did most of the work. I was always more of the idea's man".
"You could always talk to Remus?"
Sirius's face darkened. "No"
"You need to-"
"No".
Sirius turned and left the room. "Let's get on with this then".
Watching as Sirius stormed from the house, Andromeda sighed. She wanted to help, but she didn't want to have a massive argument either. Following behind she grabbed the stationary elf and came out onto the street as Sirius was waving his wand.
"There, standard muggle repelling charms. Now we can get on with this", he said, turning back towards the house and starting to cast some of the fire-repelling charms on the neighbouring houses.
If any of the passersby weren't suddenly thinking about how fascinating the ground was, and how utterly entrancing the path that they had just walked was, they would have seen the pair of adults waving their wands for what seemed like hours, while a small ugly creature stood next to them, twitching. By the time they were done ensuring that all of the houses on Grimmauld Place would be safe, Andromeda was exhausted.
"I need a lie down. How can you still be standing there like that was nothing?".
Sirius shrugged. "When you use your magic, you get used to using it. How often do you actually use your wand for things, substantial things. Not just summoning the ladle when you're cooking dinner. Not that often I guess. I've spent ten years doing these kinds of things daily. I got used to it".
He stooped down to the House-elf that was still stood beside him, quivering with anger. "Now Kreacher. I repeat, be quiet. Do not move".
Walking closer to the house, until he was almost across the threshold, he savoured the moment when he spoke the word "Incendio".
Fire immediately burst from the tip of Sirius's wand, and quickly the walls of the corridor were licked by the flames as they took hold. Sirius didn't stop the spell though, and the flames kept rolling from the wand, hitting the floor and then the ceiling as Sirius spread it around, making sure it took root. Once the hallway was completely lit, he paused momentarily only to blow out the ground floor windows and start again on another room. Once that was done, smoke had begun to pour out of the upstairs windows. He walked back to Andromeda and Kreacher who had fallen to the floor and despite being completely still was visibly sobbing.
"Kreacher. Stand up and look at me".
As the elf got up, still sobbing, the look he gave it's master was one of pure hatred.
"The House of Black is dead Kreacher, and I have no use for you". He went to grab the sock from his pocket, but was interrupted by a series of small explosions coming from inside the house.
"That'll be the gas from the lamps", Andromeda said. "The muggle fire department will be here soon, we need to take down the repelling charms".
Looking back into the fire, which was now raging fiercely, flames pouring out the windows and holes forming in the roof, a smile erupted on Sirius's face. "Kreacher", he said, pulling the sock from his pocket. "Take this".
Surprising Sirius, Kreachers arms both shot as he swung for the sock in Sirius's hand. As the fabric brushed the palm of the elf, he threw Sirius backwards with a blast of magic and Sirius skidded along the road towards the door of Number 12.
"Traitor destroys Mistress. Traitor burns the home of the Blacks", Kreacher screamed jumping at Sirius. "Traitor doesn't deserve it's name!".
Shaken from the attack he didn't expect, Sirius couldn't stop Kreacher from jumping on top of him and struggled with the elf as the crazed creature tried to scratch his face. Finally, with blood dripping down his forehead into his eyes, he managed to get hold of the elf and throw him off him, before blasting him into the fires of the building it was fighting to avenge.
"Fuck!"
"Sirius, we need to take down these wards and go get you cleaned up. I told you that you shouldn't treat Kreacher like that".
"No, you really didn't".
"Well, I should have said it. Come on".
A few hours later, when the fire at Grimmauld Place had died down, the firefighters who attended the scene were pleased with how the situation had turned out. Despite the first call coming in after the building was completely ablaze, the fire had gone out largely on it's own without any damage to the neighbouring properties. People would be able to go back to their homes by the evening.
As they surveyed the damage, it was plain to see that the house was gone. The roof had collapsed, along with all the interior walls and floors. Ash was all that was left inside, and it looked as if the external walls would fall any second.
As the chief firefighter on the scene went in to expect the damage, and to see whether it was worth trying to prop up those walls, he spotted a necklace in amongst the ash. All the other metalwork looked at place in it's surrounding, twisted and morphed by the heat, but this seemed as if someone had dropped it after the fires had gone out. It was clean, and quite beautiful. A serpent design of emeralds embossed onto the gold face of the locket.
For some reason, the firefighter felt compelled to take it.
A/N: Hope you enjoy this. Some reviewers have said that Harry has been dumbed down in the last few chapters, which I suppose is true in that Harry hasn't immediately figured out the mystery. But then again, what evidence to help him figure it out has he seen? I do take your criticism seriously though, and I was thinking about it whilst I wrote this.
Please don't tell me that Sirius's reasoning behind burning down Grimmauld Place was stupid. I know that. He was just rationalising his desire to see it burn. I've said it before. Characters are going to lie in this story, and be lied to. This isn't a story where every conversation is just the vocalisation of the characters internal monologue.