The Mutt who Lived
by Teddylonglong
All recognizable Harry Potter characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story. I am merely borrowing the characters to play with them.
I am not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes.
Warnings: Completely AU, partly OOC, Dumbledore/Weasley bashing.
A.N. Please allow me some comments on your kind reviews. a) Inu is a magical dog and should be able to live much longer than the usual life span of a muggle dog. b) On the day they moved to the manor, they forgot to ward it against Peter. They only crossed out Dumbledore from the list of allowed visitors but forgot Peter.
When they arrived at the Three Broomsticks, as Sirius had not wanted to floo right into the headmistress' office at Hogwarts, he transformed back into his canine form and ran all the way to Hogwarts, the thought 'I'm going to get back at Dumbledore' at the front of his mind. He was closely followed by Inu, who was much faster than himself in spite of having much shorter legs than the Animagus.
As soon as they reached the Hogwarts grounds, however, Inu began to attack and pull him into a mock fight – just like one of those, which they had so often conducted during the last few years.
Sirius could not deny that he had fun. They were rolling back and forth in the grass around the lake, then again playfully trying to bite each other with fervour.
Every few minutes, however, the thought 'I need to get back at Dumbledore' returned to the front of his mind and he told Inu as much.
However, Inu merely replied, =Leave him to me. Just tell him 'Ariana will be waiting for you to die and join her', and I'll do the rest.=
=What are you going to do to him and how?= Sirius enquired. =You can't just kill him, or the Aurors will kill you.=
Inu all but scoffed. =Me? But I am the dog who lived,= he replied, seemingly indignant. =Let's just go to see him.=
Playfully pushing each other towards the entrance doors, the two canines made their way to Dumbledore's office. Only in front of the door did Sirius transform back into his human form, before he gave the door a sharp knock.
"Come in," they heard Dumbledore say, and Sirius ripped the door open.
"Dumbledore, you old coot," he hissed at the older wizard. "What do you think you're doing?"
"Ah my boy, but I merely wanted to help young Harry see his destiny," Dumbledore replied in his grandfatherly voice that Sirius detested so much.
From the corners of his eyes, he saw Inu's face that showed extreme concentration, before the canine finally relaxed.
Having no idea what Dumbledore had said to him in the meanwhile, he uttered, "Oh well, Ariana will be waiting for you, when you pass on to your next great adventure." Not waiting for a response, he quickly left the room with Inu on his heels.
Only when they were back on the grounds, he transformed and asked, =What did you do to him?=
=That's for me to know and for you to find out over time,= Inu replied, playfully reaching out with his front paw to make Sirius stumble.
=Don't say such a thing but explain,= Sirius demanded, once he was back on his four paws. =What kind of magic was that, and how do you even know about it?=
=I'm afraid that was not good magic,= Inu replied, letting out a sigh of apparent reproachfulness. =Ever since I got that scar, I have memories that are not my own. I know much about people and I know many bad spells…=
=Wait, you got information from Voldemort's mind?= Sirius replied in a combination of excitement and horror.
=I don't know,= Inu replied, before he jumped up from where he was sitting next to the lake and dashed in the direction of Hogsmeade, leaving Sirius with no other option than to follow him.
HP
Lily let out a deep sigh. "Harry, there are facts, which are true, and other points, which are not true," she began to explain.
"There is a prophecy, but we believe that it applies neither to you nor to Neville but Inu. The scar on Inu's behind, however, is nothing but a curse scar, and he does not have to die, before anyone can defeat Voldemort. I wouldn't be surprised if Inu was able to defeat him, but if someone else managed to do it, it would merely mean that the prophecy didn't come to happen," Lily explained and continued, "No one can tell if things, which are prophesized, are really going to happen. As to Voldemort coming back, it is possible, and when you're older, we're going to explain all the details to you. Just know that the Unspeakables are already looking into the matter and have been for the better part of five years now. So, there's no need to worry about this now."
"Thanks Mum," Harry replied, seeming very much consoled by his mother's explanation.
"I just hope that Sirius won't do anything stupid," James spoke up, letting out a deep sigh. "As much as that old coot grades on my nerves, we need Padfoot here and not in Azkaban."
"Inu won't let him do anything bad," Harry replied, confidently.
"That's true," Lily agreed, smiling. "Thank Merlin he went with him."
Nevertheless, she inwardly sighed in relief, when Sirius returned to the birthday party with Inu in tow.
"What did you do to him?" Remus asked, strictly, eyeing his old friend with apprehension.
"Nothing," Sirius replied, lightly. "I only talked to him."
"What?" James asked in apparent disbelief.
Sirius shrugged. "Inu did something to him though, but I don't know what it was."
"Inu?" Lily asked, questioningly.
The canine looked up to her, came over and gently licked her hand, before he made his way over to his siblings.
HP
Only later in the evening, when the children were already in bed, exhausted from the birthday party, Sirius informed Lily, James and Amelia what Inu had admitted to him.
"He's got memories from Voldemort?" Lily asked, horrified.
James nodded in apparent understanding. "That must be why he's able to speak Parseltongue."
"So he probably cast a dark spell at Dumbledore?" Amelia enquired.
"Probably yes," Sirius admitted. "But he was still very much alive when we left."
"Inu wouldn't kill anyone," Lily immediately spoke up for the dog. "I understand that he was upset on Harry's behalf though."
It should take months, before they would get to know just what kind of dark magic Inu had cast at the old wizard.
HP
When Harry was waiting for Devil to find him in their newest hide-and-seek practice at the Unspeakables' office the following morning, he pulled Dumbledore's letter out of his robe pocket and read it again. 'Neville's parents are the same as mine, aren't they?' he wondered upon reading 'Voldemort chose to attack you and your parents and not Neville and his parents'. 'That's strange. We have the same parents,' he thought but quickly pocketed the letter, as he heard Devil approach.
During the rest of the day, he pondered the matter, before he finally decided to ask someone about it. The question was whom to ask. Neville would be his first choice; however, it was very unlikely that his twin knew more than him and could give him an adequate answer. Inu would be his second choice, but did the canine know more than him?
By the time they returned home, he was still pondering if he should speak with his siblings first or with his mother.
The chance arose, however, to speak with his mother, when he assisted her and Uncle Severus in the lab later in the afternoon, while Neville was in the greenhouses with Professor Sprout and Inu was asleep in Harry's and Neville's room.
While diligently preparing the ingredients, he hesitantly asked, "You and Dad are Neville's and my parents, aren't you? Oh well, and Dorea's and Charlus' of course," he added as an afterthought.
Putting her potion under a stasis charm, his mother cast him a horrified look.
"I wondered when Harry would ask," Uncle Severus commented and, upon his mother's surprised look, informed her about the expression in Dumbledore's letter.
"Harry," his mother spoke up in a soft voice, "Dad and I are your parents and Dorea's and Charlus', but Neville has his own parents. Unfortunately, they're very sick and not able to care for him, so that we took him in when you were still babies. We intended to tell you, when you were eleven at the latest; however, Uncle Severus and I are working on a potion to hopefully cure the Longbottoms."
"That's why his name is different from ours," Harry said in understanding.
"Does it matter?" Uncle Severus asked in a soft voice. "He's still your twin, isn't he?"
Harry nodded. "Always," he promised, smiling, even if the smile did not reach his eyes. "No, it doesn't matter," he added as an afterthought.
"Please don't say anything to Neville," his mother instructed him. "Dad and I will tell him one day, hopefully on the day, when we'll be able to cure Aunt Alice and Uncle Frank."
HP
"He's so grown up already," Lily said to James, when she told him about the matter late at night in the master bedroom.
"I can't thank Inu enough," James replied. "The other day, Rowena showed me visions of hers, which she had about Harry's childhood. We had been killed by Voldemort and he grew up with the Dursleys because of Dumbledore's blood wards, completely unloved and treated like a house-elf. It was just horrible, and it's only thanks to Inu that it didn't come to that."
"That's true," Lily agreed, smiling, as she snuggled into his side and slowly drifted off to sleep. "Thank Merlin. The blood wards wouldn't have worked anyway, as Petunia isn't related to Harry at all."
HP
The Mini Unspeakables were almost disappointed, when school began again and the Hippogriff class commenced.
"Training with the Unspeakables is definitely more interesting," Draco informed the adults of the extended family, and the others immediately agreed.
"I don't like Gilderoy very much," Harry admitted, "and Inu doesn't either."
"Remember that no one except for the family must know that you're Unspeakables," Arcturus reminded the children, who nodded in agreement.
"If you want, we could still excuse the seven of you from the afternoon classes, pretending that we'd home school you for a few hours each day," Lily said, pensively.
"Oh yes please," Susan, Hermione and Christa pleaded, simultaneously.
"Ra, can we do that…"
"…and have training in the afternoons?" the twins asked Arcturus, who pretended to be thoroughly annoyed.
"Oh no, those Minis again," he groaned in apparent annoyance, before he gave them a reassuring nod. "Let me ask Devil, but I think it'll be all right."
Gilderoy Lockhardt was not pleased to say the least to lose his seven best students every afternoon; however, as it was Lily's decision as the headmistress of the primary school, so that there was nothing that he could do to prevent it, and the seven eight-year-olds were outright happy.
HP
It was in the morning after a loud and joyful Halloween party, which had taken place in the atrium, that Narcissa received a letter from Buckbean, asking her to come to see him at Gringotts at her earliest convenience.
"I wonder what the goblins want," she said to Andromeda, showing her the letter at breakfast.
"I have no clue," Andromeda replied in obvious surprise. "Do you want me to accompany you?"
"Would you do that?" Narcissa asked, feeling very grateful, when her older sister gave her a comforting nod.
HP
It was later the same day that Moody payed the MAMA a visit, however, immediately informed Minerva that it was not a social visit, when he stepped out of the fireplace in the headmistress' office.
"What brings you here, Alastor?" Minerva asked, kindly.
"I need to speak with Black," Moody all but growled. "Apparently, he did something to Dumbledore on the thirty-first of July."
"In July?" Minerva asked, incredulously, as she sent a Patronus to the Defence Against the Dark Arts professor. "Isn't that a bit late to come to speak with him?"
"Well, at first, Albus seemed to have believed that it was a passing thing, you see, but as he's still incapacitated, he recalled what he had been doing at the time, and that it was when Sirius visited him together with the Dog hero. He came to speak with me this morning."
"I remember that day," Minerva replied, grimly, just when Sirius entered the room. 'They talked about Inu casting dark magic at Albus, but I certainly won't give away the cutie,' she thought in determination. "Albus sent young Harry a horrible letter for his birthday," she explained, "telling him about a prophecy, that he had to fight Voldemort, that Inu had to die and whatever. Sirius and Inu then went to Hogwarts to tell Albus off. I don't think they cast any spells at him," she informed the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement in spite of knowing better.
"I didn't," Sirius confirmed, matter-of-factly.
HP
On Saturday morning, Minerva and Sirius headed to the staff room to ask the founders if they knew what had happened to Albus Dumbledore, while the rest of the Marauders took the Mini Unspeakables and their siblings on an excursion to the coast for the day.
At the same time, the two Black sisters travelled to Gringotts, knowing that Draco was in good hands.
'I wonder why Buckbean summoned me,' Narcissa thought, eyeing the white building of the bank with a feeling of foreboding. 'At least Buckbean is nice,' she thought, feeling very grateful towards Lily, who had introduced the goblin to her, after Arcturus had accepted her and Draco back into the Black family.
"Mrs. Black, Mrs. Black-Tonks," Buckbean greeted them and motioned them to take a seat. "Thank you so much for coming. Actually, I have something to discuss with you as the guardian of the heir to the Malfoy family."
"All right, Buckbean. What might be the problem?" Narcissa asked in confusion, feeling incredibly assured by Andromeda's presence.
"We received a letter from a certain Ambrosius Malfoy," Buckbean explained, looking at a few parchments that were spread out on his desk. "He insists that his grandfather Septimus was the younger brother of Nicholas Malfoy, who immigrated to Australia in the 1930s. He claims to be the rightful Malfoy heir."
"Is that even possible, considering that my former husband was the Lord Malfoy?" Narcissa asked, incredulously.
"Did this Septimus Malfoy even exist?" Andromeda enquired, giving the goblin a look of pure doubt.
Buckbean let out a deep sigh.
tbc...
Thank you so very much for the kind reviews for the previous chapter. Please let me know what you think of this chapter and what you expect from this story. Any ideas or opinions are welcome.
Next chapter: "Trial and error".