Harry Potter and the Defeat of Voldemort
Summary: During the battle at the ministry, Sirius is not thrown through the veil, and survives his fight with Bellatrix. Due to the sighting of Peter Pettigrew at the ministry Sirius Black is cleared of all charges and is given custody of Harry Potter much to the relief of Harry and his relatives. This story starts the summer after fifth year.
Chapter one
"You can't be serious" Harry was in a state of shock. As Sirius was now his guardian, the two of them were in Barchoke's office. Barchoke was the Potter's account manager and apparently had been trying to get in touch with Harry since he reentered the wizarding world, but all of his owls went unanswered. Harry was sure that his aunt and uncle had chucked his mail without even looking at it. If they had known he was rich, they definitely would have tried to find a way to take his money.
"I am very serious Mr. Potter.. When you turn 17, you will officially become Lord Potter and take your seat on the Wizengamot. The seat has been empty for a number of years, but now that you have a proper wizard guardian, he can either proxy for you or appoint a proxy until you reach the age of seventeen" Harry wasn't really sure what the wizengamot did, but he wasn't sure he wanted a stranger making decisions for him. He looked at Sirius.
"I think I would like you to be my proxy" he said. Sirius nodded. He had figured that would be Harry's choice but he wanted to make sure that Harry made the choice for himself. After the kind of life his godson had had, the least he could do was let the boy make his own decisions.
"Alright, now that that's settled..." Barchoke paused as he shuffled through some papers on his desk. "I think all that is left is the matter of your parents' will." Barchoke pulled a couple sheets of parchment from the middle of the stack and set them on top, before looking directly at Harry.
"Their will?" Harry asked, completely confused. "Wasn't their will read when they died?" Barchoke shook his head.
"When they made out their will, they also left explicit instructions with me that everyone named in the will be present before it could be read." The goblin looked at Sirius before looking back at Harry. "As it is against the law to allow a prisoner to attend a will reading, it was never read. So we will be sending out a formal notice to notify everyone of when the reading is." Harry and Sirius both nodded before saying their goodbyes and leaving the bank.
After leaving the bank, Sirius and Harry went to the alley where a gleaming black motorcycle sat. after getting his name cleared, Hagrid had cleaned up the bike and given it back to Sirius.
"Are we headed home?" Harry asked, putting on his helmet.
"Not quite" Sirius replied. "I have something I want to show you" Harry held on tightly to Sirius as the bike soared into the sky. half an hour later the bike touched down. Harry swung off the bike and looked around at an empty field. he frowned at Sirius.
"Where are we?" he asked.
"You'll see" Sirius replied. He walked forward a few paces and knelt down. Harry walked closer and saw Sirius place his hand on to a stone. The stone glowed red. Suddenly a voice that sounded remarkably like Lily spoke, startling Harry.
"Sirius Orion Black, Access Granted" Harry stared in shock as a massive manor appeared seemingly out of thin air.
"Welcome Harry, to Potter Manor" Sirius said gesturing to the house. Harry was astonished at the size of the house and the fact that no one had ever told him about it. He questioned Sirius about this. Sirius sighed heavily.
"Well Harry, it was really dark times when this manor was last used. A friend of your grandfather was a death eater and he led a raid on the home murdering your grandparents. the death eaters lay in waiting hoping to kill Lily and James who were also living here, but they were not expecting your parents to return to the manor with friends. A massive fight broke out and two of Lily's friends, Marlene Mckinnon and Mary Campbell were killed. What was supposed to be an engagement party quickly turned out to be the worst day of our lives. After that battle, James locked the manor down, removing every name of anyone who ever had access" Sirius sighed. "The ward stone I touched was a blood ward, it contains the blood of every Potter, including you. a Potter can add friends to the wards, but if you are removed from the wards, the knowledge is immediately stripped from your mind" Harry nodded slowly, trying to process all this information.
"If dad removed all the names, how come you were able to bring me here?" He asked.
"Because, your father added me back to the wards before he went into hiding. If anything happened to him and your mum, I was supposed to take you and bring you here and keep you hidden so that no one could find you. But one glitch in our plan was not telling anyone about the switch of secret keepers"
"Why didn't Mom and Dad just hide here?" Harry asked.
"That is one question I can't answer" Sirius replied. "They never told us why they chose to stay in that cottage and use the fidelus charm when they could have been safe here" by now they had reached the manor. "Well, Shall we go inside?" Harry nodded and Sirius rapped on the door twice. It slowly swung open. Harry entered the manor cautiously, knowing it had been abandoned for years, he was unsure of what state it would be in. to his surprise, the whole place was lit up and clean, as if someone was still living there. As he was pondering the implications, he heard several pops indicating the arrival of house elves. these house elves seemed different from Dobby, Winky and Kreacher. There were five elves total and instead of dirty pillow cases, they were wearing miniature black robes, bearing a crest which Harry would later discover was the Potter crest.
"Master Harry has returned" the elves were overjoyed to see him. Harry frowned.
"Hermione is not going to be pleased that I own elves" he told Sirius. Sirius shook his head.
"Actually, these are free elves" he told his godson. "your mother was a lot like Hermione and couldn't stand the thought of enslaving elves. James allowed her to free his family elves after his parents died but the elves refused to leave. they told Lily that they liked working for the Potter family and that the Potters weren't abusive like many other wizarding families." Harry turned to look at the elves.
"you kept this place up even after my parents died?" he asked incredously. "Thank you.. Um, did my parents pay you?" One elf stepped forward.
"I is Toby, Master Harry" he replied. "Your parents paid each elf ten sickles a week with one day vacation a month"
"Very well Toby, I will pay that as well as back pay for the years you have stayed here and watched over the place"
"Master is to kind, he not be needing to do that" Toby said, but Harry shook his head.
"It is what is right" he responded. the other elves finally introduced themselves as Twinkle, Nel, Stew and Wendy. the elves showed Harry around the manor, insisting that he take the master bedroom. there was a large library, and the basement was a Potions Lab, for Lily had been working on her potions mastery. There was a training room, a ball room, and even a game room that was shielded from magic so it could have a TV, a microwave and a mini fridge. there was also a pool table and a dart board. Out back was a private lake and a beautiful courtyard with gorgeous plants and fruit trees. There was also a greenhouse that Harry was sure Neville would love when he came to visit and ten guest bedroom suites, each with their own bathroom.
"I am definitely having my friends over" Harry declared. Sirius nodded.
"I was thinking we could invite them over for your birthday party and have them stay for a few days after that" He replied. Harry froze as his eyes widened and his mouth fell open. Sirius was concerned. "Harry, is something wrong?"
"I've..uh..never had a birthday party" Harry stammered. it wasn't the first time Sirius cursed those damn Dursleys and himself.
"Well, I am going to make sure you have the biggest, best birthday party ever" Sirius declared. Harry couldn't help but grin. he could already tell that this was going to also be the best summer he ever had.