The 7th Child

A/N: Guess who's actually updated! (although it is pretty late). As always, I own nothing, I'm just fiddling with JK Rowling's universe a little bit! Please follow, favourite and review (if you want to)!

-Eve x

Chapter 7: An Alliance

Sirius remained staring at the elderly man who loitered outside. His heart was pounding with trepidation as he weighed up his options. Somehow Dumbledore had tracked them to this area, but the fidelius charm had done its job and prevented the great wizard from discovering their true location. Sirius couldn't believe it, and he remained staring as Dumbledore went and sat on a bench, obviously waiting for the two fugitives to make their appearance.

"Sirius, what are we going to do?" Ginny's small voice penetrated the thick cloud of thoughts that swam through Sirius' head. He turned to look at the young girl, who appeared even smaller as the fear weighed down upon her.

"I think we're going to have to meet him." Sirius finally ground out, his frustration coming through in his voice. "Look, he'll stay out there until we meet him so we may as well get it over with. You stay in here, I'll go out now."

"No." The strength in Ginny's voice startled Sirius and he turned around to see her. "Dumbledore never publicly condemned me, and he said I was innocent before I got arrested. Can you say the same?" Sirius shook his head, gaping all the while at the 12 year old who stood in front of him. No wonder this girl was sorted into Gryffindor. She was as stupidly brave as the best of them (Sirius quite proudly included himself in this).

"Right then, I'll just grab my cloak and meet him." The only indication of Ginny's nervousness was the slight shaking of her hands as she reached for the cloak; her voice didn't waver once.

"Wait." Ginny stopped and looked at Sirius. "Let's make him a cup of tea. It must be cold out there." A slow smirk spread across Sirius' face as he spoke. Ginny looked confused, before it dawned on her.

"Yes, I think he'd really like that."

With that, Sirius bellowed for Kreacher and marched into the kitchen. Ginny followed after him, and watched as wizard and house-elf moved around each other rather awkwardly. Ginny was of the opinion that if either was to accidentally touch the other they would probably cut off the offending limb rather quickly.

Finally, Sirius held out a mug to her, his eyes twinkling. They then walked to the door, and Sirius opened it, due to Ginny's lack of free hands.

"I'm staying right by this door. If you need me, I'll be right here, okay kiddo?" Sirius looked at Ginny, worry creasing his brow. Ginny nodded, a grateful smile gracing her features, as she tightened her grip on her wand.

Then Ginny Weasley stepped onto the street.

-The 7th Child-

Dumbledore sat waiting in the cool London night, his eyes scanning the surrounding area for a flash of red hair, or for a large black dog. He knew he may be in for a long night, but he was prepared to wait. He needed to speak to the escapees, and find out everything that was happening in the wizarding world. This was one of the few areas that remained unknown to Dumbledore, and he was determined to discover how they had escaped Azkaban, and what their plans were. Albus Dumbledore liked to have the full picture. How else could he protect and help shape Harry into a boy his parents would be proud of? How else could he protect the wizarding world from the ever-present threat of Lord Voldemort? Yes, Dumbledore was aware that the dark wizard no longer possessed a body, but the elderly man knew that this would only be a temporary state for the creature once known as Tom Riddle.

Lost in his thoughts, Dumbledore was slower than he would have liked to notice the young girl heading towards him. Her red hair glinted in the light from the street lamps, and her right hand remained hidden in her cloak, whilst her left clutched a mug. Ginny Weasley looked like an average 12 year old girl from this distance, and Dumbledore thanked Merlin that Azkaban hadn't appeared to have destroyed this young girl. It wasn't until she drew closer that Dumbledore realised his initial assessment was off; her brown eyes looked far too old for a girl of her age.

"Hello Professor. You must be cold. I bought you some tea." A quietly strong voice emerged from Ginny, and Dumbledore smiled at her warmly.

"Hello Ginny. Thank you for the tea, it is rather cold." Dumbledore gratefully took the cup off the young girl and sipped it, noting the rather odd taste. "It is good to see you again."

"Is the ministry here? I'm not going back there Professor. And neither's Sirius. At least not quietly." Dumbledore's brow furrowed at the young girl. She spoke as though she was an adult; evidently Azkaban had robbed Ginny of her youth.

"No they're not. I believe the ministry currently tends to arrest people with their eyes shut. I know you are undoubtedly innocent Ginny, but is Sirius?" Dumbledore gently questioned the girl, praying his hunch was correct.

"Yes he is. It's a really long story though Professor, he's probably best to tell it." Ginny bit her lip, obviously thinking about something. "Give me a minute."

Ginny dashed off, seemingly disappearing into thin air. Dumbledore blinked, and quickly came to the conclusion that they were under a fidelius charm. That would be why he couldn't locate them exactly. Finally the picture was starting to clear.

Silently Sirius emerged from the shadows and sat next to Dumbledore. "How did you find us? And how haven't the ministry?"

"I have developed a charm that tracks magical signatures. I did not think it wise to give the ministry such power. The fidelius charm is obviously weakening if I can track you this close to it."

"Yeah… it hasn't been recast for years. I've been meaning to do it, I just don't have the strength yet."

"I can help you. If I cast it and become the secret keeper you two will remain safe."

"How do I know we can trust you?"

Dumbledore looked into the broken man's eyes. "Because I am having serious doubts about whether you are actually guilty of the crime you were accused of."

Sirius looked relieved. "Good. Then you need to know everything." Sirius then leaned in and hissed in Dumbledore's ear. "Sirius Black lives at number 12 Grimmauld Place."

Dumbledore watched as a house gradually emerged on the street. "It looks much better than I thought it would, given the fact that the majority of your family are dead or in Azkaban."

"That kind of comes under what we've got to tell you."

Dumbledore nodded sagely and followed Sirius up the porch steps. "I see."

The front door to the noble house of Black banged open as Sirius entered. Dumbledore closed it behind him, his eyes surveying the house before he was ushered into the front room, where Ginny sat upright in a chair. Dumbledore lowered himself into the second armchair, whilst Sirius sprawled across the couch. Dumbledore cleared his throat, capturing the attention of the two individuals who were currently trying to communicate (rather ineffectively) without words.

"I must say, I'm surprised that you two trusted me so easily. I can't imagine trust is a commodity that either of you are bountiful in."

Sirius sheepishly smiled. "We did sort of drug you with veritaserum. I bought a stash when we went to Diagon Alley. I wanted to use it on Kreacher to see what he would admit to."

A indignant noise floated from the kitchen into the front room; undoubtedly Kreacher had heard Sirius. Sirius cracked a smile at that, whilst Ginny shook her head. She was evidently used to the antagonistic relationship between the two now.

Dumbledore sighed. "I can't say I'm surprised. I thought that tea tasted rather funny. I'm just rather annoyed that I failed to notice it. At least you are aware that I have no intention of harming either of you – I only wish to help."

Ginny then spoke up, for the first time since they had entered the house. "Thank you professor. Do my family… do they actually hate me?"

Dumbledore looked kindly at the young girl. "I do not think they hate you Ginny. I do not think them capable of that. To be completely honest, I am not too sure of your family's position, I have not spoken to them much since the end of the last school year."

Ginny sniffled and buried her face in her hands, as Sirius looked over at her; concern lined his features. Dumbledore took note of the almost fatherly expression on Sirius' face, his thoughts beginning to race. It wasn't until Ginny opened her mouth did Dumbledore return his focus to her. "That's much better than I thought it was going to be. I thought they hated me… that they'd never forgive me. C-can we talk about something else please?"

Dumbledore nodded understandingly and swiftly began to talk about what he originally entered the house to discover. "Well Sirius, I do believe you owe me an explanation of what happened on the 31st October 1981."

Sirius nodded slowly and launched into his tale.

-The 7th Child-

"It's easier to start with what happened after you told James and Lily about the prophecy. Don't look at me like that Dumbledore, you really think Prongs would keep something like that from me? Ginny, I'll tell you about it later and for fuck's sake Dumbledore she should know! Anyway, basically as you know, the Potters decided to go into hiding and needed a secret keeper. I've already told you this Ginny! Merlin's beard… Originally it was going to be me, but being the idiot that I am, I suggested that it would be better being someone else because I was too obvious. At this time, we knew the order had a spy in, so it was really important that the right person was chosen. That's why it had to be a marauder. Moony was ruled out because Prongs and me thought he might be the spy. He's a werewolf, that's why he's called Moony. It's also why we thought he was the spy. So we settled on Wormtail. Better known as Peter Pettigrew. Wormtail was the secret keeper and when I heard that Voldemort had found them I thought the worst. I thought they had got Wormtail and tortured it out of him; he was never the bravest guy. I raced over to the Potters, gave Hagrid my motorbike and then went to find Wormtail. I would have died for Lily and James and thought he would do the same. So I apparate to Wormtail's home and I see him, scurrying down the street. Unharmed and seemingly in full control of his own actions. I'm not going to lie, I saw red. I should have reacted better than I did but I was so angry. He killed them because he was a coward! So I confronted him on the street but then he started spouting all this bullshit about me being the traitor. Then he blew up the street, killed the muggles, and then chopped off his finger before becoming that fucking rat. I was so shocked I couldn't do anything but laugh. Peter Pettigrew, our so-called charity case of a marauder, had outwitted all of us. I couldn't believe I hadn't seen it coming. He could never conjure a patronus, although that might be because he's a pretty useless wizard, and his animagus was a bloody rat! That's when the aurors found me. They took one look at the chaos around me and pretty much through me straight in Azkaban. Good old Barty Crouch didn't think it necessary to give me a trial. Not like it would have been fair though so I probably didn't miss out on much. So I was stuck in Azkaban for 12 years all alone until this delightful redhead decided to drop in. Oh stop glaring Ginny. Merlin knows I'm just trying to lighten the situation a little! Anyhow, we would just sit and talk and then one day Fudge throws the paper in my cell after Ginny scared the shit out of him. I saw the rat then. He lives with the Weasley family, Ginny says they call him Scabbers? That's not important right now. So we break out, cos like we're innocent and Pettigrew needs to pay for what he did. We manage to get to this shithole, get wands, grab some school-books for Ginny, and try and make peace with the elf. He's not actually a demon sent from the depths of hell where my mother resides, you'll be interested to know. I quite like him now. Oh shit, didn't mean to go off on one. Anyway, we're here, living our lives, and then Ginny discovers a locket in Kreacher's cupboard. She reacts really badly to it, saying it's like the diary, and is really freaking out. So Kreacher hears this commotion, comes running over and spills this story about Voldemort having horcruxes and Regulus finding out and attempting to stop him. Turns out the favourite son of the House of Black was a hero, if you can believe it! So we've been researching these things, and I've been teaching Ginny magic and that pretty much brings us up to now."

-The 7th Child-

Dumbledore was white as he sat back in the armchair after Sirius filled him in on everything. Horcruxes… that was far worse than he could imagine, and given Voldemort's obsession with proving his magical heritage, Dumbledore would venture any guess that there are more. Perhaps 7? It was the most powerful magical number after all…

Dumbledore shook his head, he could focus on that later. A death eater was currently residing in the same dormitory as Harry Potter and had been for the last two years. That was a problem that needed to be remedied immediately. But if Sirius was free, Harry would no longer have to live with his blood relatives, which would leave the boy unprotected. That would never do. Dumbledore knew he would have to sleep on this problem, and come up with a solution that satisfied everyone, no matter how unlikely that was. Forcing this problem to the back of his mind, Dumbledore turned to Ginny, who sat in her chair quietly observing the two men. "Ginny, you said that Sirius has been teaching you magic?"

The young girl nodded in the affirmative, her eyes now fixed on Dumbledore. Dumbledore smiled at her gently; he honestly had a soft spot for the young girl after all she had gone through. And as a Gryffindor himself, he felt duty-bound to help someone from his own house. "Well, how about I come by once or twice a week and help Sirius with your magical instruction? It will help to have two points of view on these subjects, and it may allow as all some more time to research these horcruxes more thoroughly."

Both Ginny and Sirius looked at him in shock, their mouths hanging open. Sirius recovered first. "That would be great Dumbledore. It would really help me out, especially since I've got a rat to kill."

Dumbledore sighed. "I don't know if that's a good idea Sirius, Hogwarts is guarded by Dementors at the moment."

"I don't care what you think. I will kill him. And dementors can't sense my animagus. It's why I've not completely lost it."

Dumbledore looked at Sirius; if this man, who spoke so openly of murder, did not consider himself insane then Dumbledore didn't even want to know what insanity would look like on Sirius Black. He was about to retort when someone else jumped into the conversation.

"That would be amazing Professor, if you're not too busy. I just really want to learn magic so I can help stop Voldemort. He ruined my life. He could have made me kill someone. I don't want anyone else to go through that. Is that okay?"

Dumbledore nodded at the young girl and stood. "I will be by in a couple of days to teach you some magical theory Ginny. I think that's something that is incredibly important to know, especially given how much stronger it can make your spells once you understand it. And Sirius, I will contact you with regards to the horcruxes once I have consulted my personal library. I think there is likely to be information that I have overlooked."

Sirius nodded and watched with Ginny as Albus Dumbledore exited Grimmauld Place and apparated away.

"Alright kiddo, I reckon we should both go to bed after that."

"Yeah, Sirius. That was bloody scary."

Sirius' responding laughter echoed around the house.