Disclaimer: Usually I write out this very specific disclaimer explaining exactly what it is I don't own but I find myself not really interested in doing so as it is very tedious. Suffice it to say I own nothing that was created by anyone else and I am making no money whatsoever from the writing of this FanFiction.
Warnings: Mild to moderate violence, character death, foul language, alternate universe (i.e. kiss HP canon goodbye), angst, drama, starts pre-Hogwarts Era, and who knows what else.
AN: This story is self-beta'd; so there may be occasional grammatical or spelling errors that crop up every now and then and for those I apologize in advance.
Chapter Thirty-Eight: Clarification
Saturday, June 21, 2025 3:15 PM
"Heh, the little gaki always looks so cute when he falls asleep snuggling with you," Ryoutarou quipped with a smirk as he walked up to run his fingers through James's hair, fingering the snow white strands that stood out so vividly against the black before he gave the braid just behind his ear the same treatment. The amused smirk slipped off his face seconds later as regret and guilt replaced his amusement. "It damned near tore my heart in half to see and hear him so distraught and full of despair after he first heard Asuna speak up and again as he spoke about what he's been through these past four years."
"He bottled everything up inside for a long, long time and only started speaking about bits and pieces of what was bothering him over this past year," the tall man with shoulder length wavy black hair and a neatly trimmed mustache and goatee that had arrived with James declared in a cultured voice that screamed wealth and privilege laced with a weary roughness that bespoke of hardships faced and a fondness for potent alcohol.
"Who exactly are the two of you? Why in the world did you bring those animals with you? Is that a baby wyvern looking to take a bite out of Agil's foot? And does that horse actually have wings?" Kazuto demanded once he'd shaken off the shock of seeing James appear in a familiar flash of blue light looking completely unchanged (aside from the white hair and a couple new scars) and witnessing him have an emotional breakdown that was far more serious than the one the kid had had when Kazuto had first met him after he'd gotten caught up in a glitch at level thirty inside SAO.
"That lovely little lady is Hedwig; James's familiar. She's actually a fully grown occamy, not a wyvern, though James swears up and down that occamies are distant relatives of both wyverns and dragons. She's very intelligent and will take offense if you insult her so be careful of how you address her," the man corrected as he briefly glanced down at the creature in question. "The owl's name is Gaki; I bought him for James three years ago but Hedwig doesn't like to share so he's more my owl than he is James's. And yes, the horse has wings; he's a winged horse and the reason he tagged along was because he adopted James back in September and thinks James is his mother. James named him Mendoukusei because of all the trouble he caused at the time."
"And you are?" Asuna prompted when the man seemingly avoided introducing himself.
"Ah, right; please forgive me, my mind tends to be easily distracted and I am prone to bouts of forgetfulness. I am Sirius Black, James's godfather, and the gentleman standing behind me is Remus Lupin, James's honorary uncle. We were both close friends of James's parents before they were killed."
"Which one of you received custody of James after his parent's died," Gil demanded curtly as he cracked his knuckles in a show of intimidation while trying to avoid jostling the sleeping teen still draped over his shoulder and Kazuto was immediately reminded of Gil's threat to punctuate the words he wished to share with James's 'caregivers' with his fists.
"Neither," Sirius sighed as he ran a hand over his face. "I was framed for murdering thirteen people and accused of betraying James's parents before being thrown into prison for ten years without a trial. The one responsible was the man who'd tried to kill Harry on Christmas morning in his first year; Peter Pettigrew. The truth came out during his trial and I finally received a trial of my own and was released when found innocent. I've spent the last three and a half years since then healing and trying to get to know my godson."
"My circumstances were a little more complicated," Remus stated once Sirius had finished. "There are laws in my world against certain types of individuals from taking custody of a child regardless of age. My former condition meant that I was one of those not allowed to take guardianship of little James. I was also prohibited from visiting him by both the law and the people with whom he'd been placed. I didn't meet him again until a year and a half ago when I joined Sirius and James at the school for the winter holidays after Sirius pestered me for several months."
"Damn. I was hoping to vent some of my frustration," Gill muttered as he gently pushed Hedwig's head out of the way (the occamy had gotten right up in his face to study him) so he could stand up.
"Would you like me to show you to the guest room so you can tuck the poor young man into a bed where he'll be more comfortable?" Mrs. Granger inquired as the rest of the men slowly began putting the furniture back where it belonged under Mr. Granger's direction.
"No thank you, Granger-san. It took me four years to find James and I'm not quite ready to relinquish him yet least he vanish the moment I take my eyes off him. He's also prone to nightmares and waking up in yet another strange room all alone will only confuse and frighten him given everything he's experienced during the past few years on top of the rather emotional morning he's had."
"I should have considered that, I guess I'm still reeling from the young man's rather extraordinary tale. Hermione, dear, why don't you go grab a couple of pillows from the guest room and a light blanket from the linen closet so we can make the young man a bed out here on the couch for now."
"It appears that we've all missed lunch during the commotion," Mr. Granger stated once the room had been restored and he glanced around at the number of individuals crowded into the room. "I hope all of you will stay and join us for an early tea to make up for our lack of planning. It won't take but a few minutes to order some take out."
"Please allow me to take care of the meal, Mr. Granger," Sirius insisted before he turned to speak to an empty patch of floor. "Dobby?"
Kazuto thought the man had lost his mind right up until a strange creature with large floppy ears, a long thin nose, and electric green eyes the size of tennis balls suddenly appeared in the spot where the man had been looking. Only the years spent navigating various virtual realities with all sorts of oddities and wonders prevented the nineteen year old from jumping and crying out like the older two Grangers did. Though that didn't mean Kazuto wasn't feeling out of his depth as the morning had basically been one shock after another and while not all of the shocks had been negative they were all rather overwhelming.
"Master James's mangy old flea bitten father dog called for Dobby?"
"I wish you'd stop calling me that you overinflated garden gnome with a grudge," Sirius groused petulantly as he pouted at the creature. "But yes, I called you, Dobby. Everyone missed lunch in the madness that followed James's duel with Dumbledore and I wanted to ask you if you'd be willing to make a hearty afternoon tea for the group. If you are busy, I can always have Kreacher do it instead; I just thought I'd ask you first since I know James promised to let you make all of his meals that weren't eaten in the Great Hall."
"Dobby will take care of everything," Dobby stated as he glared at the man with open suspicion.
"Brilliant, Dobby, I always knew you were the best house elf. Could you pop into Black Manor and grab a couple bottles of Rosmerta's mulled mead and a few butterbeers for the children while you're at it? If Kreacher gives you any hassles you have my permission to stick his nose in the corner."
The elf nodded eagerly before popping out of the room and Kazuto couldn't help but ask, "What in the world was that and why did it refer to James as his master?"
"That was a house elf," Remus answered as Sirius's mind seemed to have wandered off again as the man was watching Agil settle onto another couch before he transferred James from his shoulder to his lap and made the fourteen (nearly fifteen) year old comfortable with Hermione's help. "They are a domesticated species of brownie that developed a co-dependent symbiotic relationship with magicals some six or seven hundred years ago. Wild brownies love to cook, clean, and fix little things around the house in exchange for a place to sleep, a few crumbs of food, or a bit of brightly colored fabric (providing said fabric isn't actually a piece of clothes) but they rarely ever stay in one place for very long."
"House elves are the same way but unlike their wild cousins, house elves are not free to come and go because they've become dependent upon wizardkind for the magic they need to survive while brownies are able to live on the magic in the air. So, an elf will willingly bind itself to a wizarding family or to a magical building and will happily take care of the family and the house in exchange to the magic it gains through the bond. At first glance it looks like slavery but without the magic they gain from the bond an elf will slowly go insane and will eventually suffocate to death because magic is like air to an elf."
"Dobby is one of three elves that bonded with James; that is why Dobby calls James his master," Sirius added, proving that despite appearances he'd been following along with the conversation. "James actually saved the elf from a different kind of madness by tricking his former master into selling the elf to him as the payoff on a rigged bet."
"What did you mean when you said he saved him from a different type of madness?" Rika asked curiously as she spoke up for the first time since James and the others arrived.
Sirius grimaced at the question but dutifully answered, "In order to answer that I'm going to have to give you a little background information. First, you need to know that there are many different types and branches of magic that exist; a few examples are light magic (all magic that is associated with positive emotions), dark magic (all magic associated with negative emotions), neutral magics (any magic that is not associated with any emotions), and mind magics (magic that can influence one's mind)."
"Additionally, all types of magics have spells that fall into one of three categories; positive (healing or constructive spells), negative (harmful or destructive spells), or benign (spells that are neither constructive nor destructive). Around a quarter of all existing spells are listed as benign because they have no true impact on a person or the environment. The rest are fairly evenly divided between positive and negative. Furthermore, some types of magics have certain stigmas associated with them. An example of one such stigma would be the insanity that has been linked to the use of negative dark magic. The more you use those types of spells, the less sane you become."
"Families that specialize in negative dark magics over multiple generations are especially susceptible to the taint of insanity as magical affinities and stigmas are passed down through the blood. My family is a prime example. Out of the most recent six generations of Blacks, of which there are over thirty individuals, there have only been around five of them that were considered moderately sane and I am sorry to say that I can no longer be counted as one of them but in my defense, my insanity came from influences out of my control as I was born with an affinity for positive light and dark magics and tended to avoid the darker spells in my effort to distance myself from my family and my family's heritage."
"My mother, on the other hand, was always more than a bit off her rocker but during her later years she went, if you ladies will pardon my language, bat shit insane. Mother loved the dark magics and particularly loved using negative dark magics; she was most fond of what we call the Unforgivables. The Unforgivables are made up of three spells that require pure malice and ill-intent in order to cast them. You have to want them to work in order to cast them properly and you have to mean them for them to actually work as they are intended."
"The first is called the Imperius Curse and it is a spell that takes complete control of a person's mind and will; you must want to completely and utterly crush the person's will in order for it to work properly, otherwise they can break free of the spell. The only way to break a true Imperius Curse is for the caster to remove it or to kill the caster. The weaker the victim's will, the easier it is to keep them under the spell even if you can't cast the spell properly. The second spell is called the Cruciatus Curse and it is a spell that causes pain; you have to want to make your victim feel pain and you have to enjoy seeing them writhe with in pain to cast it properly. The spell attacks every single nerve in your body at the same exact instant and begins eating away at your nerves."
"The longer you are under the spell the greater the pain and each successive application of the spell magnifies the pain caused by the spell threefold. The pain itself is indescribable and the closest I can come would be to say that it feels like you are being repeatedly stabbed by millions of white hot needles as your flesh peeled from your body while the resulting wounds are salted as you are roasted over a bed of hot coals. It is enough to make you wish for death and more than one person has been driven out of their minds with that spell. If not treated right away, the damage done to the victim's nerves by the spell will become permanent and will continue to cause pain for the rest of the victim's life."
"The third and final curse is simply called the Killing Curse and it does exactly what it says; it kills. There is no defense against this curse; if it touches you anywhere on your body, it will rip your soul from your body in an instant. It is by far the worst of the Unforgivables because in addition to killing the victim instantly, it will rip and tear at the caster's soul. It is murder most foul and it doesn't matter if you are using it on another human or on an animal or insect; the result is the same because the spell requires absolute hate for everything your victim stands for and a desire to kill your target simply for the sake of killing."
"You are getting off track, Padfoot; you're supposed to be discussing the effects of magic on the house elf bond," Remus interjected while everyone else in the room was trying not to get sick over Sirius's descriptions of the Unforgivables Curses.
"Actually, that information is relevant and I was getting to the point," Sirius countered with a frown. "Now, where was I? Oh, yes, I remember now. Mother loved her Unforgivables and she was not stingy in applying the first and second one if you displeased her. She tended to save the last spell for the various pests that are found in all magical households and gardens because Mother couldn't stand vermin and barely tolerated the family house elf or her children. The more Mother used those spells, the crazier she got and the deeper the taint of insanity ran through her blood and magic. House elves live off the magic of the person to whom they are bound and if that person's magic is tainted, then the elf will grow tainted over time."
"Our family's house elf lived with Mother for years after my father and brother died and at the end of her life she was nuttier than a fruitcake. The elf grew worse as after Mother died when he bound himself to her magical portrait which carried the taint of her magic in it and continued to drive the elf even further round the twist both through her portrait's insane mutterings and the tainted magic that clung to it. The best thing to do would be to put the old elf out of his and my misery but I just can't bring myself to kill him in cold blood; I'm not my mother. I also can't just find him a new family either because he knows too many family secrets."
"James saved Dobby from a similar fate because the family to which Dobby had previously been bound is ten times worse than Mother ever was and they married into my family. The Malfoys are a different kind of insane though and the stigma affects them differently; though I'm not certain if that will remain true for the youngest Malfoy, because he's half Black and that branch of the family produced the only witch that was worse than Mother."
It was at that point that Dobby the elf popped back into the room and snapped his fingers; causing the coffee table to triple in size. A second snap had a large assortment of sandwiches, salads, rolls, fruit, scones, and biscuits appearing on the table alongside a pot of tea, a pitcher of water, several bottles labeled as butterbeer and mead, a tea service, and enough plates, saucers, tea cups, water glasses, wine glasses, silverware, and napkins for everyone. A final platter of sliced smoked ham and roasted turkey breast was placed on the floor for Hedwig. More than one of the seven muggles in the room gaped at the veritable feast and struggled to wrap their minds around how quickly it had been made.
"Thank you, Dobby; you have outdone yourself as usual. I will call you if we need anything further," Sirius informed the house elf before he popped away with a short bow.
"There are a few things I'd like to discuss with you further," Agil stated as everyone else slowly ventured forward to fill a plate or pour out a drink once they got over their shock. "First, I'd like to know more about the dark wizard that killed James's parents and attacked him several times over the past four years. Secondly, I want to know everything you know about the people he lived with prior to ending up at the school and what they did to him while he lived with him. I know a few things that James told me years ago but I know he left out a considerable amount of information. And thirdly, I want to know why it doesn't look like he's aged a day in the five and a half years that have passed since I first saw the real James."
"I can do that but there are a few things I want to know first."
"Such as?" Kazuto asked when Agil just frowned at the man.
"Well, introductions would be nice for one; I have no idea who any of you are," Sirius drawled with a small smirk as he poured himself a glass of mead, crossed his ankles, and leaned back in the armchair he was sitting in.
Kazuto blinked before he laughed over the oversight on their part, "My apologies, Black-san, I had not realized that we didn't not introduce ourselves sooner. I am Kazuto Kirigaya. To my left is my fiancée, Asuna Yuuki. The young lady to your right is Rika Shinozaki. The gentleman beside her is Ryoutarou Tsuboi. And the gentleman currently being used as a pillow by our mutual friend is Andrew Mills, who prefers to be called Gil."
"A pleasure to meet you each of you; James spoke very highly of all of you," Sirius replied with a polite nod before his gray eyes zeroed in on Gil once more and sharpened. "You, on the other hand, if you are who I think you are based upon that name I heard James address you by earlier and my godson's current position; he spoke of you with a great deal of respect and affection. Now, I've not been the best of godfathers to the young man curled up on your lap but that doesn't mean I don't take my duties to him seriously or that I've allowed myself to shirk my duties since I was discharged from the hospital after I was released from prison."
"Is there a point you're trying to make?" Ryoutarou interrupted impatiently.
"I thought I told you to behave yourself," Rika admonished as she lightly smacked him on the arm.
The wizard was unperturbed by the interruption and continued without even acknowledging Ryoutarou's rudeness, "I know my godson sees you as something of a father figure; something I heard an untold number of times straight from his lips, no less. What I want to know is; what do you intend to do about that? As much as I loved that boy's father, who was my brother in all but blood, I realize that James never got the chance to know his father as his father and I can't begrudge him his choice in finding a suitable replacement. All boys need a man to look up to. However, if you hurt him or worse if you break his heart by rejecting him and his affections; there is no where on earth that you can hide where I won't find you and show you just what happens when you piss a wizard off."
Gil steadily met Sirius's gaze as he replied, "When I first met James, he wore the face of a twenty year old man and carried himself like an adult; with complete and utter confidence despite being rather shy. We bonded instantly over a satisfactory trade and a promise of Japanese lessons. Five weeks later, a job went wrong and I spent close to four days tracking down James with the help of Kazuto and at the end of the trail we found an emotional, blood covered nine year old in the middle of a mental breakdown after he'd just had his innocence crudely and cruelly stripped from him by a game. A game he never should have been able to get his hands on and a game he had considered his home because the people he lived with made it perfectly clear to him that he was unwanted and unloved."
"I took him home with me and I spent the next four or five months helping him put himself back together piece by piece. I helped him up each time he fell down, I comforted him through his many nightmares, I supported him in his endeavors, I pushed him to do his best, and I did my best to provide him direction whenever he needed it. Once he found himself again, I continued to stand by him and watched him flourish. Each time he came home injured after his latest battle, I cleaned and bandaged his wounds while listening to a blow by blow recount of the battle. I fought at his side many times and trusted him with my life as much as he trusted me with his."
"When the game ended, I spent three years searching from one end of Japan to the other for James armed with nothing more than a hand drawn picture and his player name. I did not think to look beyond Japan's borders at the time because the Sword Art Online software was not supposed to have been distributed outside of Japan. Just over three weeks ago, I willingly left my café in the hands of my wife to fly halfway around the world to follow up on a flimsy lead without knowing whether or not it was a legitimate lead just because there was a slight chance it was a real deal."
Gil trailed off for a moment as he glanced down at the small teen still sleeping peacefully on his lap before he returned his gaze to the wizard sitting across the room as he continued, "He started out as just another player trapped in the game, quickly became an important friend with whom I enjoyed trading stories, and somewhere along the way he became the son I never had but always wanted. The only reason I never told him that I saw him as a son was because at the time I was unsure how he saw me and feared that he would push me away the moment I made my feelings known due to his unpleasant childhood."
"After hearing him call me father earlier, I will have no trouble telling him what he means to me now. However, Mr. Black, as his godfather I'm certain that James will have a special place in his heart for you; if he doesn't already since he trusted you enough to drag you along today. And to avoid any future misunderstandings between the two of us; if you ever hurt the young man on my lap, there won't be enough of you left to bury when I'm finished with you and not even your magic will save you from my ire."
"Ah, I see we understand each other perfectly, Mr. Mills," Sirius replied casually as he saluted Gil with his glass before taking a sip. "One more question and then I'll see if I can't give you some of the answers you requested. Do you intend to seek custody of my godson?"
"I don't know. If that is what he wants, then I will fight tooth and nail to gain guardianship. If he is happy with the status quo, then I will be content to leave things as is. Why do you ask?"
"Right now, Albus Dumbledore is James's legal guardian in the magical world and even though we've spent the past nine months trying to have his magical guardianship returned to Sirius, as his godfather, there is no guarantee that the man will relinquish guardianship," Remus promptly explained when Sirius glanced at him. "So long as Dumbledore retains guardianship of James, the man is well within his rights to lock him up inside of Hogwarts until the day he turns seventeen or for the rest of his life if the man gets a licensed healer to declare James mentally unstable. The latter of which is something that we suspect Dumbledore has at least considered on a handful of occasions based upon things the man has said over the past three and a half years."
"Is there any way to prevent that from happening?" Asuna demanded as she brought Gil a plate of food after noticing the older man hadn't yet eaten.
"There are several ways but only one that would work simply because of who Dumbledore is and how much political weight his name carries. From what I understand, Petunia never filed for custody of James in the muggle world and Dumbledore didn't think it necessary to bother with the muggle government and so never applied for guardianship of him on the muggle side. That means that James is currently floating in a gray zone within the muggle world as he does have some records there but he essentially disappeared the night his parents were killed. All it would take to gain custody of James would be to fill out and file the paperwork with the Crown and fudge on the facts a bit. And because his aunt never claimed him, there would be no one to contest the guardianship."
"Taking guardianship of James would allow you to fight Dumbledore on equal footing and because James was muggle raised, despite being a borderline pureblood, you'd have more say in his life because that is the way it has always been in our world. With James being who he is and his current age, he'd also have a larger say in where he lived if it came down to a custody battle between you and Dumbledore," Sirius added before Remus could finish.
"Why haven't either of you filed for custody?" Rika inquired as she glanced between the two wizards.
"I'm a known drifter in the muggle world and they'd never grant me custody because I have consistently moved from place to place taking odd jobs here and there for the last sixteen or seventeen years," Remus explained. "Sirius, on the other hand, was a pureblood that was raised entirely in the magical world and therefore doesn't exist at all according to the muggle records because he had no contact with the muggle world prior to graduating Hogwarts."
"You do realize that I live in Japan, correct?"
"Doesn't matter where you live; wizards can travel to any destination worldwide in an hour or less depending on the method of travel and the direction you are moving in," Sirius countered with a negligently wave of his hand.
"Would James still be able to attend Hogwarts?" Hermione asked as she inserted herself into the conversation for the first time since James had arrived.
"So long as Dumbledore doesn't stuff things up any worse than he already has, then James fully intends to return to the castle come the first of September," Sirius replied with a shrug. "If push comes to shove and Dumbledore refuses to give James the space that he demanded after their duel, then there won't be a Hogwarts to attend because James swore what amounts to a wizard's oath to tear the castle to the ground."
"What!?" the others demanded in shock; none of them had guessed that the diminutive teen had been that serious about destroying the castle.
"You have to understand," Sirius pointed out wearily as he leaned forward to rest his elbows on his knees and stared into the amber liquid filling the bottom of his glass. "James hates that castle. He's been held there against his will for four years now and the only escape he had was the Forbidden Forest and they were trying to take even that from him. The only reason he stayed as long as he did was because he didn't have anywhere to go or anyone to turn to and it wasn't until this past year that he actually started to truly trust me. You heard him earlier; he thought he was trapped alone in a game surrounded by fake people. Hermione changed that for him at the start of this last year when she brought him the one thing he'd been yearning for all this time; a mere possibility that he could find the five of you."
Several minutes of silence passed as the others digested that revelation before Gil spoke up once more, "As troubling as it is that James has developed a vindictive streak; you promised to answer my questions. And right now, I'm more concerned about his lack of physical growth and the presence of scars that should not have transferred from his virtual avatar to his physical body."
The nine adults and one teen would spend the rest of the night discussing the various theories and facts surrounding James's condition; the adults leaving the discussion of James's home life for another time when certain young ears weren't present.
10-11-15: Minor edits made to chapter to fix spelling/grammar mistakes and removed unnecessary author's notes.