By Steve2
Author's Note: This is a work of fiction. I do not own anything related to DC Comics or its characters. I do not own anything related to Harry Potter or its characters. This is just a bit of silliness that came to me and wouldn't leave until I put it to paper. Or something like that.
Introduction: The author Rorschach's Blot has a file that he adds one-shots or story drabbles to as the muse hits. It is called Odd Ideas. In chapter 165 he introduced a cross-over of Harry Potter and the DC Universe. That story began with the DC Comics character Mercy Graves, age 13, in a very bad situation. She is about to be viciously attacked when a voice begins talking in her head and floods her being with power. In exchange for helping her, the voice wants her to become Harry Potter's, age 8, protector. She agrees, eventually meets Harry, does some fiendishly wicked things to some fiendishly wicked people, and the two of them are off. At a later time, the two, now older (ages 14 and 19), encounter a few DC heroes. Odd Ideas, chapters 165, 166, 168, 169 and 171 are the current chapters of the Mercy/Harry storyline at the time I started this story. If you have not read them, you may want to. The story is good, but extremely violent. Bad things happen to bad people in that story. Overall, you do not need to read that story to understand this one, but it does help with understanding the Harry and Mercy characterizations and settings.
Knowing my writing ability, like some regular readers do, I will admit that I don't write violence for violence's sake. I do include violent things, but I try to tamper that with massive doses of humor.
Which brings us to this tale. I could have written a humorous version of Harry and Mercy (who are called Power and Perfection in the aforementioned chapters of Rorschach's Blot story). But that would have hampered Rorschach's Blot overall story more than helped it. So I took another path. This story is about a concerned godfather and his search for his missing godson in a DC universe filled with bad guys.
-o0o-
Chapter 1: An Omen – Siriusly!
The name's Black. Sirius Black. And I am one stupid S-O-B.
I guess I should back up and tell the world why I'm so stupid. James and I met the first day of school and became best friends. Through thick and thin, through accusations from other students as well as teachers (which, truthfully, they were all justified in making), he and I weathered everything the world could throw at us. We graduated from Hogwarts and became Aurors. Becoming an Auror wasn't stupid, not at the time.
We trained and fought against Death Eaters and Voldemort multiple times. Fighting them wasn't so much stupid, as desperate to survive.
James and his wife Lily went into hiding, made me their secret keeper verbally so others could overhear, but then switched to Peter with me as bait. I could live as bait. I didn't mind. It would give them, as well as my godson, a chance to survive. But it was not a good plan. Peter was a bad guy in hiding who later sold my friends out and managed to get them killed in the meantime. Still, that did not make me proclaim myself el stupid gringo #1.
Peter ran after he got James and Lily killed, and I ran after him, attempting to right a wrong, even though I left my godson in the hands of Hagrid. I felt at the time an immense loss of my friends. And that was stupid mistake #1. They were gone and Harry was left alone. I should have concentrated on him then, but in my grief I sought to kill the rat.
It didn't work out that way, unfortunately, and I went to wizard prison, a true destination to avoid at all costs, if one wants to hold onto their sanity.
Now while I'm in prison reading the good works of Saul Tigh, the previous tenant of my cell who managed to write his biography in blood on the cell wall before bleeding out with of all things, an 'Aaaaa' (also written in blood), my godson was sent to live with his aunt Petunia, a royal bitch even if she wasn't a blueblood. I didn't know that, of course, since the locals all thought me a closet Death Eater that they would rather see dead than anywhere near the magical society savior known as Harry Potter.
Harry was there for 7 years and when he was 8 years of age, something good and bad happened to his uncle and aunt. The good was that they died. The bad was how they died. It was pretty horrific. I saw the memories later. Suspicion at the time was Harry had either been used in the dark ritual that took his aunt and uncle or was going to be the main course for the next one. I wish I could have said I was part of it, but I wasn't.
Some things happened around magical Britain due to Harry's release from the Dursley house-prison, and next thing you know I'm a free bloke.
A free bloke without any knowledge of what happened to my godson, where to find him, or anything other than I was now head of the Black household. The only good thing that happened was the Lucius got the Kiss and was then cremated. Good riddance.
Andi and her family took me in and helped me heal. Cissy and young Draco sought to help me out as well. They kept me sane, but could not make me whole. My brother, James, was gone. His wife, gone. Their son, my godson, was missing. Having him back in my life would make me whole. So I moped around Britain for 6-years, give or take, and that was stupid mistake #2. I was not proactive in finding Harry. I was reactive.
Not all was doom and gloom, however. Harry did resurface not too long ago when he was about 14. Apparently, he was with a young woman, or as Kreacher stated: the Great Mistress. I certainly hoped she was the one to rescue Harry from his Aunt and Uncle. And if she'd been the one to use that dark ritual then, so much the better.
He and that young woman managed to do some interestingly destructive things to some interestingly bad artifacts, as well as to some interestingly bad people, and then they were gone again. I had missed him by minutes. But what had he been doing all this time? Sitting around going to school and looking at pretty girls? No! He had been out in the world fighting the good fight. Like his father.
Harry and the young woman had managed to find and destroy Voldemort's soul anchors. Then dispatched him. And on top of that, they managed to dispatch Peter in a very painful way. Sigh. I wish I had been there to see it; the bloody rat deserved it and more.
And was this all there was to my stupidity? No again!
I now knew my godson was out in the world fighting for the good, or at least against evil-doers. I knew he wasn't in Britain. I put out a feeler with the bank for him. And that was it. That is what made me the biggest and stupidest S-O-B in the world.
I was again reactive instead of proactive.
A few more months had passed since Harry had been in Merry Ol' England. I avoided much of magical society and had for years. I liked London and went on walks all the time. One day I stopped at a cinema, paid my admission, and watched an Aussie fight a croc to save a damsel in distress, and get taken to NY by her when the camping trip was over. Some things happened in there and near the end, he said he was going to go on a walkabout.
The credits were rolling as I sat in that old seat with tears on the back and gum on the arm rests, thinking, what the hell did I have waiting in Britain these days? That Mick Dundee knew what he was saying. Walkabout. I needed to get out of London, get out of England.
Maybe it would help me find Harry. Maybe not. But it would help me find myself again.
One thing was for sure: with Voldemort dead for good, there was really no reason for Harry to return to Britain. But maybe, just maybe, I could find him in the outside world.
-o0o-
I returned to the manor, now with a much nicer feel since Kreacher was working to clean it up and not just snap at Dobby. The last time I took off on a whim, it cost me my freedom for 7 years. I was not going to make that mistake again. I needed a plan. Or at least an idea of where to go where extradition was hard to enforce.
Oh, yeah. And they needed to speak English since the majority of my foreign language skills tended to reside with hand gestures, and not the complementary ones. No indeed. I needed to do a bit of studying.
I went out to my favorite book shoppe and gathered the latest periodicals, returned home and began reading up on other cultures. So engrossed in the writing I missed it when Draco entered the study.
"Can I borrow that issue when you're done, Uncle Sirius?" Draco said while I was engrossed in the inner-workings of a city in the United States.
"Huh?"
"You know, that comic you're reading. Superman. I want to finish reading that story arc."
"Uh, yeah. Sure. Here you go. I was just reading the articles. Not looking at the pictures."
"What do you mean? Comics are pictures and text. There aren't any articles."
"What are you two talking about in here anyway?" Andi requested, walking into the study.
"Uncle Sirius was reading this comic but saying all he was reading was the articles."
"Hmmm. That's what your Uncle Sirius used to say when his mother caught him reading a copy of Bouncing Boobs."
"They had good articles," Sirius didn't bother to deny it.
"How would you know?" Andi replied. "Your head was going up and down to match the action of the boobs as I recall."
"How did you know?! You weren't there."
"Sirius, your grin gave everything away."
"Yeah, yeah. Draco, feel free to read any of them. Andi, I need to talk to you for a few minutes. Alone."
-o0o-
It took a few more weeks before I had everything I needed. I had a rucksack with a lot more in it than a muggle would carry. I made Andi acting head of House Black. Draco was back at school, pranking everyone he could while maintaining his façade as a harmless Hufflepuff, and was still trying to find a way to get that Hermione girl to date him. At breakfast I let the rest of the family know I was going on walkabout. I didn't mention that my walkabout might including stints with heroes as a way to possibly entice a meeting with Harry.
"How long will you be gone?" Cissy asked with an arched eyebrow. The family, minus Draco, was seated around the kitchen table.
"As long as it takes to find myself, Cissy."
"Well, try to avoid the low-life bars or you will be finding yourself in a world of hurt."
"Or married to a prostitute," Andi supplied.
"It could be worse," I returned.
"Fred Garvin, the male prostitute you found yourself with two years ago at that wharf tavern we found you in might beg to differ," Cissy replied with a grin.
"Thanks, Cissy. Take care too."
"Where do you think you're heading?"
"I think the United States. Maybe Metropolis would be a good place to start. I hear they have some interesting places to see, concerts to hear, and museums to visit. I think I'll go muggle for a bit and see how the bigger half lives."
"Have fun storming the castle," Tonks said, wrapping me a strong hug.
"It'd take a miracle," I grinned back at my hair-color changing cousin.
-o0o-
That Dundee fella was set to leave NY on foot, walking everywhere. Unfortunately, Britain was surrounded by water and as such, I used my Gringotts credit card to book passage on British Air to head for Metropolis. I'd try out my walking shoes there, provided I couldn't hail a cab.
-o0o-
Turns out no one walks in NY if they can help it. That's what the cabbie said. He dropped me off at the Four Seasons. I'd try that walkabout thing again tomorrow, after a good night's sleep. Well, a good night's sleep aided by someone I'd met on the flight.
-o0o-
Author's Note:
Thus ends Sirius' stay in England. More chapters to follow. Reviews make me work harder. Did anyone catch the Easter eggs in the story? Point them out and win a cameo in a future chapter. Hint: Easter eggs will be an ongoing thing for all chapters.
This is not a particularly fast-moving story. I am currently writing multiple stories and when I get blocked on one, I jump to another to keep the creativity going. This is one of those stories I jump to in order to energize myself to continue other projects. I have a lot of humor in the chapters I've already created but am not sure if it hits the crack-fic zaniness yet. I'll leave that to the reviewers to decide.