Word count: 4,151
A/N Chapter 3 is finished. Took longer than chapter 2 even though it was shorter. Being back at work means I don't have as much time to write.
Back in his room Harry contemplated the morning's events. He was the Black heir as Sirius has said, there was a house on Grimmauld Place again as Sirius had said and Dumbledore had kept a number of important things from him. It seemed to Harry that Sirius was showing himself to be trustworthy whereas he was beginning to feel that Dumbledore was decidedly not.
Now he had to decide if he was actually going to go meet Sirius. He had gone through the morning's activities assuming he was, getting the portkey, extra money and buying food. But still, now he had to decide, it was a decision he couldn't take back.
Looking around the room as he thought his gaze fell on his backpack and he remembered the envelope from the Potter Heir vault. Perhaps he should check the contents of that first, just in case, was a slightly ominous address for an envelope. Emptying his backpack of all the paperwork he had collected he located the envelope in question. Opening it he pulled out the contents. There were two more smaller envelopes as well as a stack of papers. Flicking through the papers they seemed to be a listing of items in the vaults and information about the Potter properties. He put the papers to the side and looked at the envelopes.
The first simply had his name, Harry, written on it. He opened it eagerly, pulling out the parchment inside.
Harry,
I hope you never need to read this letter, that the war ends and you grow up happy and healthy with your Mother and I. But this is war and many good people have already died. I need therefore to plan for the worst.
We are in hiding. Voldemort is targeting us, you specifically. Dumbledore knows the reason but he won't tell us. He says the fewer people who know the better. I'm not sure about that but once Dumbledore has decided something it's difficult to change his mind.
We are going to use the Fidelius Charm to help us hide. I wanted to put in my will the truth of who the secret keeper is so if we die it will be known but Dumbledore says it's too dangerous. That someone could find and read the wills. But I can't risk dying and have this information lost. So I'm leaving it to you along with copies of our wills and property information.
We're telling people that Sirius is our secret keeper but in actuality he is a decoy. Peter is who we are actually using.
I hate to think of a friend betraying us but if we are betrayed you need to know the truth.
Live well Harry.
Your loving Father,
James Potter
Well, Harry thought, that rather settles things doesn't it. His Father's own words stating that Sirius was not the secret keeper. He was definitely going to Grimmauld Place.
Having decided he gathered up all the paperwork and put it back in his backpack, retrieving the portkeys as he did so. Both were leather bracelets with a silver charm on them. The portkey to Grimmauld Place was a raven whereas the one to the Potter's townhouse was a griffin. The Potter one he put into his pocket.
Looking at the raven on the other portkey Harry suddenly remembered the Black heir ring. Did he need to be wearing it on his hand to enter the house? Not wanting to risk it he removed the chain from his neck and slid the Black ring off and on to his right ring finger. The chain he then returned to his neck.
Harry contemplated the two trunks he'd brought back from Gringotts. While he was sure Sirius would want to have a look at his Dad's trunk he wanted to have a look at it on his own first. He decided to leave Arcturus' library trunk behind too, he couldn't see a need for taking it.
Satisfied he had everything important Harry swung the food satchel over his shoulder. Making sure the portkey was gripped tightly in his hand, he took hold of the two trunks and clearly stated "Grimmauld Place" as he had been instructed too.
Immediately there was a hook-like sensation around his navel and Harry was whisked away. When he landed Harry failed to keep his balance and just barely avoided falling down the steps that he was at the top of.
Looking around Harry saw he was in front of a large wooden door that was clearly attached to a townhouse. The door itself had a brass door knocker in the shape of a snake. Harry kind of liked it but it didn't seem the friendliest of things to have on a front door.
Reaching out for the door handle, Harry felt his heir ring warm as soon as he touched the handle. Pushing the door open Harry stepped through into an entrance hall. He put his bags down to the side of the front door and looked around. Across from the front door were stairs up to the other floor and a corridor leading to the rooms at the back of the house. The sides of the hall each contained a single door, both currently closed.
Harry placed the food satchel and his backpack down to the side of the hallway. He was just about to close the front door when an enormous black blur sped past him and stopped at the base of the stairs.
The blur was in fact a dog, the same dog Harry had encountered the previous night. Harry watched as the dog transformed into a man, his godfather Sirius Black. Sirius stood with his arms crossed leaning on the bannister observing Harry, a pleased expression on his face. In the daylight Harry was able to get a better look at Sirius than he had the previous night. What he hadn't noticed the night before was just how emaciated the man was, Harry was suddenly very glad he'd purchased some food.
"Come on, shut the door." Sirius stated after a moment. Harry closed the door and walked over to Sirius. As soon as Harry reached him, Sirius pulled him into a hug. Harry stiffened.
"Sorry." Sirius said letting Harry go. "I'm just really happy you came. I thought you might decide it was too risky."
"I wasn't sure initially." Harry said honestly. "But there was a letter in the Potter heir vault from my Dad. He said you weren't the secret keeper."
"He did! That's great." Sirius grinned at Harry but then his expression became more serious. "You can tell me all about it later, there's something important we have to do first." Sirius gestured to the stairs and then began to walk up them.
Harry followed, staying fairly close to Sirius. The house seemed quite big and he didn't want to get lost. They only went up a single flight of stairs, though Harry could see there were at least two more. Once off the stairs Sirius led them to a closed door midway down the corridor. Harry followed Sirius into the room.
"This was my Grandfather's study, mine now I suppose." Sirius told Harry as he looked around. Most of the wall space was taken up by bookshelves and one side of the room held a settee and a small coffee table. On the other side there was an ornate desk that Sirius was now rummaging through the draws of. From one he pulled out a dagger and looked it over.
Before Harry could ask Sirius why he needed the dagger he had walked across the room and was now inspecting the books on one of the shelves. Pulling them out one by one.
"I know it's here somewhere." Sirius said as he pulled on a red leather bound book. Harry was just about to ask what was supposed to be here when the next bookcase over swung open. Sirius looked back at Harry with a bit of a smirk.
"Found it." He said, gesturing for Harry to come over. "Come on, what we need is in here."
Harry followed Sirius into the previously hidden room. Initially it was completely dark but when Harry crossed the threshold several lanterns around the room lit up.
"Why?" Harry asked. Confused over why the room lit for him and not Sirius. Sirius smiled at him and took hold of Harry's right hand lifting it up so the rings could be clearly seen.
"You've claimed Heirship of the House and the room recognises that. Until I claim the Lordship it won't react to me. That's part of what I need to do here."
Harry looked around the now lit room. The walls were bare and there was no furniture. For the most part the room was quite empty. The only thing of significance in the room was a wooden plinth right in the center. Embedded into the top was a large piece of a shiny black stone. The stone was concave in the middle creating a bowl like space.
"Harry." Sirius called to him. Harry walked closer to where Sirius was standing next to the plinth and stone. He could now see that the stone was covered in tiny engravings, runes Harry supposed.
"This is the wardstone." Sirius continued now Harry was closer. "It's the center point for all the magical protections on the house and a powerful connection to the Black family. It's the best place to claim Lordship and then I'll use it to set up the protections how I want them."
"Do I need to do anything?" Harry asked slightly nervously. He didn't know anything about wardstones, runes or magical protections.
"No, just watch." Sirius responded, smiling at him.
So Harry watched. He watched as Sirius took the dagger he'd retrieved from the desk and cut his finger letting several drops fall into the center of the stone. Sirius then put both hands on the outside of the stone and began to speak.
"I, Sirius Orion Black, claim Lordship of House Black and acknowledge Harry James Potter as Heir to the House." With the last word the stone began to light up and pulse erratically and the air took on a hazy quality. After a few minutes the pulsing calmed and the haze lessoned. Harry could see a ring was now present where Sirius' blood had been.
Sirius put the ring on and then returned his hands to the stone. His face took on a look of intense concentration and Harry could feel the magic rising around him. Eventually Sirius relaxed and let go of the stone.
"That was exhausting." Sirius said as he turned towards Harry.
"What did you do?" Harry asked curious about what protections Sirius clearly thought were important.
"Raised the anti-apparition wards, locked down the floo and confined the portraits to the House. All necessary if we're to be safe here but really draining."
"Oh, I'm glad we're safe now. Why did the portraits need confining?" Harry asked curiously.
"Some members of the black family have portraits in more than one place. One I know for sure to be a concern is my great great grandfather Phineas Nigellus. He was a headmaster of Hogwarts and so has a portrait in the headmaster's office. We don't want him telling anyone we're here."
"Oh, that would be bad." Harry said and then continued after a moment. "I brought food."
"You did. Marvellous. Come on then, let's go back downstairs."
They walked slowly back to the entrance hall. There were a couple of moments when Sirius moved his hand like he was going to touch Harry but then thought better of it. When they got back downstairs Harry grabbed his bags before Sirius showed him into a room just off the entrance hall.
They settled on a settee and Harry rummaged through the food satchel to find one of the sausage rolls. Tearing it in half he passed one part to his godfather.
He was just starting on eating his own half when he realised that Sirius seemed to be trying to inhale his.
"Stop," Harry practically shouted. Sirius did so and turned his head to look at Harry with an expression of utter confusion. "You shouldn't eat so quickly." Harry continued. "When you haven't eaten properly for a long time, eating too quickly will make you sick."
By the time Harry had finished explaining Sirius' expression had morphed from confusion to profound concern.
"Why do you know that Harry?"
Harry ducked his head, staring at his hands twisting in his lap as he tried to think of what to say.
"Harry," Sirius said softly. Harry forced himself to look up at him. "Did they starve you Harry, your aunt and uncle?"
"Sort of. It was rarely no food, but it was never enough either."
"What else did they do?" Sirius asked, his anger evident in the tone of his voice.
"I" he paused struggling to get the words out. "I slept in the cupboard under the stairs until my Hogwarts letter came. They locked me in a lot." He stopped wondering if he should say more. Picking at his clothes he decided to continue. "All my clothes are Dudley's cast offs. I have to do far too many chores and Dudley doesn't have to do any."
"Do they hit you?
"Sometimes."
"I'm sorry Harry. This is all my fault. If I hadn't suggested swapping the secret keeper or if I hadn't run off after Peter then you wouldn't have had to live with those horrible people."
"No." Harry said quite fimly. "You made some decisions that had bad consequences but you didn't intend for this to happen so it's not your fault."
Sirius didn't seem to have any response to that so for a little while they just sat not talking. Eventually Harry decided he'd had enough of the depressing silence so he gazed around for something to talk about."
"You've put crumbs all over the place." Harry said, pointing at the little pieces of pastry that seemed to surround Sirius.
Sirius looked around himself and flicked his fingers slightly at a few of the crumbs.
"Oh, don't worry about that. You can just scourgify them."
"I can't. Not allowed to do magic away from school remember."
"Sure you can." Sirius countered with a smile. Losing the solemn expression that had been there since their discussion about Harry's relatives. "The wards on this place are ridiculous, nobody will detect any magic being done here underage or otherwise."
"Huh.'
"Good thing too." Sirius continued. "There's a bunch of spells I need to teach you so you can capture the rat."
"Capture the rat." Harry said confusedly. "I don't get it."
Sirius pulled out a newspaper clipping from his robes and handed it to Harry. He pointed at a picture. In particular at a rat that was sitting on a boy's shoulder.
"The rat, Peter."
Harry blinked. His brain whirling as he tried to make sense of what Sirius was saying.
"Ron's pet rat is Peter. He's like you, he can turn into an animal." Harry confirmed.
"Yeah, it's called being an animagus. Your dad was one too. He was a stag."
"Really, cool."
Sirius smiled at him but then turned his gaze back to the newspaper clipping.
"So you know this boy then." Sirius pointed back at the picture.
"Yes. That's Ron Weasley. He's my best friend, we're in the same dorm."
"Well that should make it easier then." Sirius said laughing. "So I'm going to teach you some spells, you capture the rat and then hopefully we'll be able to convince everyone else I didn't kill him and didn't do the rest of it either."
"Ok." Harry agreed, a little uncertainly. It sounded simple when Sirius said it like that but Harry suspected it would be more complicated.
"But first I want to hear all about your trip to the bank."
"Sure." Harry reached for his backpack and pulled out all the paperwork he'd gotten. "Did you know my name's actually Henry? I didn't." Harry said as he pulled out the inheritance test results from the pile..
"Yeah. Your Mum really liked Harry but Henry is an old Potter family name so they went with Henry on paper but actually calling you Harry."
"Oh, that's nice. I like Henry and Harry." Harry said, pleased to learn something new about his family.
Sitting back on the settee next to Sirius Harry considered the inheritance test and which part to start talking about. Deciding to just start at the top and work his way down, Harry continued speaking.
"This says." He paused, gripping the parchment more tightly. "It says you adopted me." Harry looked up at Sirius. "Why."
Sirius contemplated him for a long moment.
"The war got really bad after you were born and we were all worried. Your parents wanted to make sure my claim on you was as strong as it could be in case anything happened to them. In addition to that I was Heir Black, I didn't much like my family but I didn't want the family's money and resources to end up supporting the other side so I needed an heir." Sirius paused, taking in Harry's reaction. "Does it bother you?" He continued looking a little concerned.
"No." Harry said slowly. "I just wanted to know why and I think it's good. It'll be nice to have a decent living family member." Harry smiled.
"Good." Sirius gave Harry an assessing look. "I'm going to hug you now. If we're family I should be able to hug you, alright."
"Alright, just slowly." Harry agreed. Sirius had been really good and helpful to Harry so far and he seemed to like hugging. Harry felt if they were going to be family then he would need to get used to hugging Sirius.
Smiling at Harry, Sirius slowly reached his right arm around Harry and pulled him into a hug. Harry did stiffen initially but gradually began to relax.
"We are family and I will never hurt you." Sirius whispered in Harry's ear before letting him go. "See, hugs aren't too bad."
"Yeah" Harry said softly with a smile reassuring Sirius that he was ok. "You know, your Grandfather was worried about what would happen too. He left me a letter." Harry moved off the settee to retrieve the letter from Arcturus and handed it to Sirius.
Sirius read through the letter, his eyes flicking to Harry at one point but otherwise not showing much reaction. When he finished he handed the letter back to Harry and leaned back onto the settee.
"That was interesting. I'm glad he didn't simply assume I'd done it, he always seemed marginally more decent than most of the rest of the family. I'm glad he was looking out for you too. Where's the trunk then?"
"I left it in my room at the Leaky Cauldron, I didn't think I needed it." Harry responded.
Sirius contemplated him briefly.
"I won't take any of the books from you but do you mind if I check through them. The Black's have always leaned to the darker side of magic and I wouldn't want you to take something to school that might get you in trouble." He paused and then smirked. "At least not without knowing about it."
"Sure." Harry agreed. He definitely didn't want to get in trouble over something he didn't know he had.
"So, learn anything else at the bank."
Harry thought about everything he'd discussed with his account manager and figured Sirius should know most of it. He'd get back to the inheritance test afterwards.
"Several things. Firstly I didn't know that there was more than one Potter vault and Dumbledore, who is apparently my guardian, another thing I didn't know, was supposed to take me to the bank to learn about them. For reasons unknown Dumbledore has withheld this knowledge. Oh, there's apparently a stipend that's supposed to be paid to whoever is looking after me. Dumbledore has been receiving that even though it should've gone to the Dursleys. My account manager is looking into whether Dumbledore paid them the money himself or not. Then of course there is the fact that according to Dad's letter Dumbledore knew you weren't the secret keeper." Harry ranted. He hadn't intended to but once he started it all seemed to just pour out.
"Show me." Sirius said, the anger he was now feeling evident in his tone and facial expressions. Harry sorted through his paperwork and pulled out the letter handing it to Sirius.
Sirius read it through. Then before Harry could react Sirius dropped the letter onto Harry's lap and walked out the room.
Harry was just deciding whether to follow him when he heard a loud crack. Jumping up he ran into the hallway to discover Sirius had punched the wall hard enough to crack the plastering.
"He knew. Dumbledore knew it wasn't me and he left me in Azkaban anyway." Sirius spoke, presumably having heard Harry come in.
"It seems so." Harry said softly.
"And he stole from you."
"Possibly. Either that or the Dursley's have been getting the money and yet still…" He trailed off, not particularly wanting to get into another discussion over the Dursleys. "I'm not sure which is worse."
Sirius had looked up at Harry when he mentioned the Dursleys and was now regarding Harry steadily.
"Any other revelations." Sirius said eventually, apparently deciding not to comment on the Dursleys.
"Well," Harry paused. He wanted to talk about the other Houses and Tom Riddle with Sirius but he didn't know how Sirius would react and was nervous of increasing his anger.
Sirius stepped closer to Harry and Harry unable to stop himself stepped backwards. Sirius stopped and closed his eyes for a moment.
"Harry." Sirius said as he opened his eyes again. "Can you come here please?"
Harry looked at him, uncertainty raging in his mind. He didn't really think Sirius would hurt him but years of the Dursleys had resulted in an instinctual wariness. Eventually he reminded himself that he had already decided to trust Sirius and that he had done nothing to harm him. Slowly he walked towards Sirius, stopping when he was close enough to touch him.
"Thank you, Harry." Sirius smiled at him. "Now, I want you to listen to me. I am angry but at Dumbledore and the situation, not at you. And even if I was angry at you I would not hurt you. Do you understand?"
"Yes." Harry nodded.
"Good. Do you believe me?"
Harry hesitated. Did he. He certainly wanted to, but he just couldn't bring himself to offer an absolute. "Mostly." He said in the end.
"Mmm, well we'll work on that. Can you tell me what revelation has you so nervous?"
"Sure." Harry said hesitantly. "But you should read the inheritance test results."
"Ok, go get it then."
Harry went and retrieved the results. He handed the parchment over and watched as Sirius read it.
"Wow, That's unexpected. Who is Tom Riddle?"
"Voldemort," Harry answered. Sirius looked up sharply at that.
"Really, odd name for a blood purist. How did you find that out?"
"Um, well, there was a bit of an incident last year involving a memory of him in a diary." Harry replied a bit sheepishly.
"Right, well we'll come back to that. Did you claim all of the houses?"
"Yeah" Harry said as he pulled out the chain containing the Peverell, Slytherin and Gaunt rings. "I've got an appointment on Wednesday to talk to the Gaunt account manager and the Peverell and Slytherin vaults are being audited. I need to find out if he still has access to any of it."
"How could he have access? He's dead." Sirius exclaimed, the confusion evident in his tone.
"He's not."
"He's not." Sirius repeated in shock. Harry just shook his head. "Dare I ask how you know that?
"He was, kind of, possessing the defence professor in first year."
For a moment Sirius just stared at him, but then Harry found himself being dragged by the arm back into the parlour and pushed down onto the settee. Sirius remained standing directly in front of him. His arms crossed and a determined look on his face.
"You are going to give me a detailed description of the events of the last two years."
Harry stared at him, slightly disoriented by the sudden change of location and demand for information.
Sirius softened his expression and knelt in front of Harry.
"Sorry, that was a bit dictatorial wasn't it. And I shouldn't have dragged you like that. Would you mind telling me everything that has happened?"
"Sure." Harry said, giving him a small smile and Harry told him everything. Starting with the ridiculousness that was his first Hogwarts letter and ending with freeing Dobby from Lucius Malfoy.