Growing Up Black

Disclaimer - Harry Potter belongs to J. K. Rowling, not to myself. I have written this story for sheer pleasure, not out of any pecuniary interest.

Summary: What if Harry had been taken from the Dursleys to live with a different aunt and uncle? AU.

A/N: Many thanks to all my readers and reviewers. Thanks to Teufel1987 for talking through a couple of ideas with me, which affected where I went with the first scene. This chapter is admittedly a bit weird, but I'm rather fond of it. We shall return to less philosophical chapters with the next installment on Friday, May 13. (Though Harry may find himself running into a bit of bad luck if he's not careful.) Enjoy!


Chapter 25

Harry sat in his study, Ravenclaw's diadem perched atop his head, as he considered carefully all that had taken place. It was clear by now that each dream showed him a different way things might have turned out. The pool seemed to contain a myriad of diverse possibilities. The Diadem spoke to him of legends that described such things, and Harry could easily see how a pool like that could be of great use to an ambitious wizard such as Salazar Slytherin, though he supposed that Slytherin must have learnt how to control the pool, since floating through an infinite number of possible realities would do little to advance one's understanding of the particular problems one faced in any given situation.

Harry had just begun to think of ways in which he could manipulate the dreams in order to focus on more specific possibilities when he heard a sudden explosion in the streets. He got out of his armchair and peered out the window, knowing that he was perfectly safe in his study.

The gates of Buckingham Palace had burst open, and hordes of filthy Muggles – literally so, in this instance – came flooding through. They carried a variety of crude weapons and were shouting an assortment of vulgar insults about Harry's parentage. Harry's first thought was surprise at how very many of them there were. He had never seen so many people – Muggles or wizards – gathered in one place before. And this group were quite...annoyed. For a moment, Harry thought he understood how his Wizarding forebears must have felt when Muggle mobs had come after them. The difference in power between a Muggle and wizard might well be immeasurable, but even an elephant can be overcome by an army of ants.

Harry reached for his wand, which the Diadem promptly identified for him as the infamous Deathstick, the Wand of Destiny. If he really was the King, it was his duty to deal with the rebels. Perhaps if he heard their demands he might find a way to placate them. If not, then he had to calm them before they hurt someone. Harry wondered briefly how many Muggles one could Stun with a single hex.

He opened the door to his study and began to leave, only to be physically stopped by Sirius.

'Oh, no, you don't,' he said firmly as he shoved Harry back into the study and closed the door. 'The safest place in the world for you is in here.' He held up an amulet that he wore around his neck. 'If Draco doesn't manage to quell the rebellion, we can Portkey to one of your secure estates on the Continent. Don't worry, Harry. I won't let anything happen to you.'

'I need to...,' Harry began, but Sirius cut him off.

'We're going to wait to leave until Draco gets here,' he said adamantly. 'Sentimental Gryffindor that I am, I may never have understood this strange love/hate relationship that you two have, but I'm not going to let you just run off and abandon him.' He snorted, and glanced over to the table behind the desk, where the Philosopher's Stone still sat together with the invisibility cloak. 'Besides, I'd have thought that a Slytherin like you would have made sure to secure all your treasures before running away.'

Harry was dumbfounded. Sirius thought he wanted to run away? But Harry had never run away from anything. And why did Sirius think he was a Slytherin, anyway?

'You don't understand, Dad,' Harry protested, struggling against his godfather's powerful grip. 'I can't let Draco face that crowd alone. I've got to help him.'

Sirius looked into Harry's eyes in bewilderment. After a bit, Harry thought he saw a single tear running down his godfather's cheek.

'You are a Potter after all, aren't you?' he said in a quiet voice. 'Ever since I got out of Azkaban to find that you'd been raised by Granddad and Aunt Cassie in Transylvania, I've been looking for some hint of James in you. It's been nearly one hundred and thirty years, and I've never really seen it until now. Merlin, you're practically Pollux Black reborn! I see a good bit of Aunt Cassie in you too, and of my mum, and even of myself, but I've never seen even a spark of James in all this time.' He sniffed, and rubbed his eyes. 'Don't get me wrong. I love you to death, Harry, and I'll stick with you to the end, no matter what.' He paused. 'But honestly, I think this is the first time I've ever really been proud of you.' He chuckled. 'Well, since you learned to talk anyway.'

Harry didn't know how to respond to that. He certainly hoped that he had made his own Sirius proud more often than once in a hundred and fifty years. He gulped hard and bit his lower lip.

'Come on, Dad,' he said, gesturing for Sirius to follow. 'Let's go help Draco.'

Sirius beamed at him, and the two wizards ran off together. They found Draco standing in the courtyard of the palace, hexing irate Muggles left and right and barely blocking their stones and bullets with his Shield Charms. He grinned when he saw his adoptive family come and stand beside him.

'A century and a half, and you still surprise me, Aries,' Draco said. 'The gesture is certainly appreciated, though there really is no help a wizard as pathetic as you could offer Lord Draco the Malevolent.'

Harry snorted, brandishing the Deathstick and discovering in the process that one can actually Stun a great many Muggles at a single time.

'Your feeble parlour tricks are no match for the awesome power of Lord Aries the Black,' he taunted.

The three of them had nearly subdued the Muggle mob when new reinforcements came to support the rebel cause. Harry and Draco exchanged anxious looks when they saw their armaments: these rebels were carrying wands.

There was a cackle high above, and an old hag with bushy white hair and a single bucktooth protruding from her lip dived towards them.

'Sic semper tyrannis!' she shouted, and a green bolt erupted from her wand and flew towards Draco. Harry leapt in front of him, and the world went black yet again.


At two in the morning, Sirius and Remus were still busily searching for ways into the Tower, though now with some assistance. Sirius and Abraxas were working on the door, whilst Remus and Cassiopeia were completing their translation of the inscriptions on the walls.

'Great Merlin,' Cassiopeia mumbled. 'I trained that boy better than this. He ought to know better than to go barging into a powerful magical location without knowing precisely what he's getting himself into.' She sighed. 'He's his father's son, I suppose. Idiotic Gryffindors.'

'Have you had any luck figuring out why exactly the three secrets were so special to Slytherin?' Remus asked, adroitly changing the subject. He had many years experience at dealing with Black moods, after all.

Cassiopeia sniffed. 'The basilisk should be obvious,' she replied. 'As for the other two objects, I have yet to ascertain their intended function.'

'I first heard about the Tower years ago, when I was researching centaur legends for my History of Magic N.E.W.T.,' Remus mused. 'They believe that the tower causes nightmares for those who enter it.'

'It is possible,' Cassiopeia conceded, 'though I fail to see what use such a place would be for Salazar Slytherin. According to the inscriptions, he viewed the Tower as the source of ultimate power.'

Remus nodded. 'In particular, he references the Pool of Possibilities.'

Cassiopeia closed her eyes in concentration.

'Do you know any of the epic songs of the Grey Sorcerers of Montenegro?' she asked snappishly.

'No,' Remus replied, confused by the sudden change in topic. 'If I may ask...'

But he never got to finish his question. Cassiopeia rose to her feet and strolled over to where Abraxas and Sirius were trying to break in to the Tower. Remus shook his head and followed after her.

'Just the one,' Sirius was saying. 'Mum used to sing it to us as a lullaby.'

Remus suppressed a chuckle. Somehow he couldn't manage to picture Walburga Black singing her sons to sleep. For his part, Sirius began to sing softly.

'Strashnomu Iziaslavu kniaz' pokaza,' he began, 'chudes istochnik smertnago strakha...' His voice trailed off. 'Sorry,' he said sheepishly. 'I don't really remember the rest.'

Remus was about to ask what the song meant, and what any of it had to do with Harry, when Abraxas jumped in.

'I remember that song,' he said. 'Though I'm not much of a singer. It goes on, "V nemzhe iavishasia vsia byvshaia i vsia sushchaia .'

'Vsia iazhe byti mogli bysha i iazhe byti eshche mogut,' Sirius finished. 'I can't believe I forgot that. It used to be my favourite part.' He frowned. 'But what does it mean?'

'And what does any of it have to do with helping Aries?' Remus put in.

'The centaurs aren't the only ones with legends, Mr Lupin,' Cassiopeia said haughtily. 'The inscription speaks of a "Pool of Possibilities" and a "Tower of Terror". The Montenegrin song speaks of a "font of mortal fear" that reveals "all that was and all that is, all that might have been and all that might yet be." Does it seem like a coincidence to you?'

Remus and Sirius exchanged nervous glances. It certainly sounded as though there might be a connexion.

'A pool that showed every possible oytcome of events would be an incredibly useful weapon,' Abraxas pointed out. 'If Salazar Slytherin controlled such a thing, it would certainly merit his strongest protections.'

Remus thought about that for a moment. Something still didn't feel quite right about this explanation. Evidently Sirius felt the same way.

'That doesn't make sense,' he said. 'Why would something that showed you other possible realities cause nightmares? Harry could see what might have happened if he'd grown up with his parents, if James had lived.'

Cassiopeia gave Sirius a funny look, and Remus thought he could detect a subtle hint of pity beneath her stern features.

'Think about it, Sirius,' she said, and her voice was gentler than Remus had ever known it. 'The pool shows every possibility, not just the ones we might prefer. There are an infinite number of ways in which something can go wrong, and only a very few sets of possibilities in which everything can go right.'

'And even if one could manage to see the more pleasant possibilities,' Abraxas added, 'one would be forever haunted by the thought of what might have been.'

Sirius nodded, his brow furrowed in concern.

'We've got to get him out of there,' he said.

'There is a way,' Cassiopeia said, 'but one of us will have to go after him.'


After more dreams than he could count, Harry found himself standing in the Headmistress's office at Hogwarts. No one else was there, so Harry allowed himself to collapse to the ground and sob violently. He had just seen Sirius murdered by Bellatrix Lestrange, and all because Harry had been too stupid not to recognise a bloody trap when he saw it. Time after time since he had entered the dream-world, Harry had found himself in dire circumstances, but he had nonetheless managed to save the ones he loved more often than not. This time, however, he had been able to do nothing but watch as his godfather fell through the Veil.

Harry told himself that he was being stupid, that it had only been a dream, the fevered imaginings of whatever sick person had created the pool, but it did nothing to reduce his grief. He had watched Sirius die in an attempt to save him from a trap into which he had freely walked. He had killed Bellatrix afterwards, of course, in the most painful way possible, and then confronted Riddle for the umpteenth time since these nightmares had begun. This time, powered by anger and sorrow, he had defeated Riddle, which did not occur all that often, but he knew that Riddle had not truly been destroyed. He could feel the Dark Lord's ongoing presence as Voldemort fled the Ministry to take refuge in his shadowy existence. It all came back to those effing Horcruxes.

Harry struggled to his feet and looked around him. The office was quite empty – even the portraits had all abandoned their frames. In fact, the only item of any interest to him at all was a stone Pensieve that sat on the Headmistress's desk. Curious as to what he might find there, Harry gently touched the silver fluid.


'I've got it!' Abraxas exclaimed in triumph as the door to the Tower finally flew open. Remus and Cassiopeia hardly had a moment to react as Sirius jumped on his broomstick and flew up into the stairwell. It took him only a few minutes to reach the top, where he found a strange pool, shimmering with golden light, but no Harry. Acting on pure reckless instinct, as he tended to do under stressful circumstances, he plunged eagerly into the Pool of Possibilities, focussing all his will and energy on the desire to find his missing godson.

He found himself in the Forbidden Forest. Harry was in front of him, looking a bit older than he ought to do – and painfully like James. Beside them, looking oddly translucent, were James, Lily and Remus. Sirius looked instinctively down at his own hands. He could almost see through them.

'What the bloody hell is going on?' he demanded, and four pairs of eyes – well, six, really, if one counted James and Harry's glasses – turned to stare at him. 'Why can I see through my hands?'

'Because you're dead,' Harry said glumly. 'I saw it happen. Bellatrix Lestrange did it.' He snarled. 'Don't worry, though. She got what was coming to her.' His face wore a deadly expression that Sirius was unaccustomed to seeing on James's face. It was purely Black, and Sirius knew at once that this was his Aries, no matter what he looked like.

Remus looked at Harry strangely. 'What did you do to her?'

Harry's face went blank. 'Oh, nothing,' he said unconvincingly. 'I must have got confused.'

'Anyway,' Lily broke in, 'we want you to know that we're very proud of what you're doing.'

Sirius was confused. 'Why? What's he doing?'

There was no response. Sirius stepped forward and looked directly into Harry's eyes.

'Aries Sirius Black,' he snapped, 'you tell me what you're up to this instant, or, I swear to Merlin...'

A light flashed in Harry's eyes, and he looked up to Sirius with a sudden grin.

'Or you'll Cruciate me to within an inch of my life?' he finished. 'Dad, is it really you?'

Sirius nodded. 'Are you all right?' he asked.

Harry laughed madly. 'All right? I just found out that I am one of Riddle's bloody Horcruxes! That's why I can talk to snakes, and that's why I have a special connexion with his mind. Until I die, Riddle can't. So I'm going to let him kill me.'

'WHAT?' Sirius shouted, then twirled around and glared at his three friends. 'And you lot approve of this? Are you all out of your effing minds?'

'It's all right, Sirius,' Harry said. 'I've died in most of these dreams. This is the way it has to be. It's my destiny.'

Sirius grabbed his godson, and was momentarily surprised that he was even able to make contact.

'No,' he said firmly. 'I'm your dad and I utterly forbid it.'

There were sputtering noises from the other three ghosts, but Sirius ignored them.

'I don't know who this lot think they are,' he continued, 'but your real mum and dad gave their lives so that you could live yours, not so you could throw it away on some damn fool suicide mission.'

'But Dumbledore...,' Harry began.

'Now I know you've gone barmy from spending all this time in here, if you give a flying flip what Dumbledore has to say,' Sirius retorted. 'Look, this is a nightmare. It's only a possible reality. We don't know that anything you see here is even remotely true. Frankly, I find the idea that I could get killed by my...er...sister-in-law to be absolutely ludicrous, not even worthy of consideration.'

'But I saw...,' Harry began again.

'It's only a nightmare, Harry,' Sirius repeated. 'Dreams pass. The real world's something else. We're going to wake up, and we'll check to see whether you might actually be a Horcrux. God knows that would explain a lot of really strange shit. But if you are, we'll find a way to get it out of you, a way that doesn't involve surrendering to Tom effing Riddle.' He grabbed Harry by the hand. 'We don't have to accept this, Harry. We didn't choose any of this. And we don't have to play along to the tune of some stupid prophecy.'

'My parents died to save me,' Harry said. 'Do you think they were stupid?'

'Not once,' Sirius replied instantly. 'And I would die in a heartbeat to save you. And I know that you would die in a heartbeat to save me and Draco.'

'Have done,' Harry muttered. 'Loads of times since I came here.'

'And I can't begin to tell you how proud I am that you're willing to do it,' Sirius said. 'There's nothing greater or more beautiful than dying to save one's friends. But there's a hell of a difference between dying to save someone and just dying. Just dying is a defeat, but dying to give life to someone else – that's a victory.' He ruffled Harry's hair and pulled him closer. 'And you've always been a winner.'

Harry smiled up at his godfather. 'I love you, Dad,' he said. 'And...er...I'm sorry about the thing with the Horcruxes. After some of the things I've seen, I'm beginning to think you might have been right.'

Sirius laughed aloud. 'You'll find that I often am,' he said. 'Are you ready to leave?'

'How do you figure we do that?' Harry asked.

'It cannot be done,' Lily's ghost intoned, but her voice was not her own. 'You must continue to play out the illusion. Only once you have fulfilled the plan perfectly will you be able to return to your own reality.'

James's ghost smirked. 'Of course,' he said in a similarly unearthly voice, 'that hardly ever happens.'

Sirius grasped Harry's hand firmly and turned around to face his friends' doppelgangers.

'And if we refuse?' he asked.

'Then you will continue to play out scenario after scenario, until you accept the ultimate truth and walk along your determined path,' Remus's ghost said.

'We won't,' Sirius replied.

Beside him, Harry took a deep breath. 'And you can't make us.'

'No one has ever successfully defied us,' not-Lily stated.

'How did Slytherin manage, then?' Harry demanded.

Not-Remus raised an eyebrow. 'What makes you think he did? He is still trapped here, futilely searching throughout all eternity for a way to manipulate destiny to his own purposes.'

'And if you defy us,' Not-James added, 'the same will be true for you.'

'Perhaps,' Sirius said with a cocky grin, sitting down on a stone. Harry joined him. 'But we're not playing anymore.'

Not-Lily hissed angrily, and the world went black. When Sirius and Harry regained consciousness, they were both lying on the rocky banks of the silvery pond.