Harry Potter and the Wishing Well
AN: Well, I failed in finishing this for Halloween 2022 lmao. I was writing in bulk but I only got to the seventh chapter and obviously didn't finish in time but I already said that I'll finish it anyway. Not sure when but I'm going to continue writing over the next few weeks. In the meantime, I did write something for Halloween. It's called Dead Check. It's a one shot for Lily and James so I didn't completely fail the task lmao.
Anyway, enjoy this next chapter and sorry for any mistakes in advance.
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Harry Potter was currently laying down in his bedroom at Privet Drive. He was face down in his pillow. His pillow was uncomfortably wet at the moment. He'd been crying earlier and with a smushed face in his pillow, it was inevitable that the pillow would get wet but Harry didn't care.
He was considering it as punishment. Punishment for his stupidity. Punishment for his help in getting his godfather killed.
Why hadn't he just used the mirror?
If he had then he would've never listened to Kreacher and run off to the ministry, nearly getting all his friends killed in the process and Sirius and the order wouldn't have come rushing to their aide thus Sirius wouldn't have died.
He had an option right there and like an idiot, had forgotten to take it.
Harry didn't think he had any more tears left to shed but he found that every time he thought about that one question, a fresh wave of emotions would plague him and he'd silently bawl his eyes out until he was burnt out again.
That had been his routine for the past three weeks.
The guilt just kept on clawing at his insides, making it difficult to think about anything else but that fateful night.
The guilt had been so bad that back at Hogwarts he had almost asked Hermione to obliviate him.
It was too much pain to bear but he had held back from making the request. He felt he didn't deserve to be let off the hook.
Still the pain was agonising to go through and it was so bad that he couldn't even distract himself. Not even the letter from Dumbledore and waiting for him to arrive at Privet Drive on the 27th wasn't enough to distract him.
It was the worst feeling in the world.
Why did life, or fate or whatever the hell it was supposed to be, keep on taking people he cared about away from him?
Ok that was the slightest exaggeration because he never got the chance to care about his parents. They were taken away from him before he could truly know what loving a parent felt like.
Although he knew that feeling now. He had gotten to care for Sirius. He had loved Sirius even in the short amount of time they had together and then just like that he was snatched away in the blink of an eye.
He felt a knot in his chest tighten and felt a strange heat surge through his body.
He just wanted nothing more than to see Sirius alive again. He wanted to see him free and happy but that would never happen now.
Harry once again felt a fresh set of tears ready to roll as he felt the knot tighten even more and suddenly Harry felt like he couldn't breathe. He thought his last thought was actually trying to kill him as a horrid sensation began to take over his body.
His insides were twisting as his sadness welled up by tenfold. He saw wisps of a white light surrounding him before he felt his body lurch and knew something was wrong.
Before he could understand what was happening, the feeling was over and a new pain was taking over his body as Harry found himself hitting the ground face first.
Harry could do nothing but groan as several parts of his body ached for several moments.
"What the hell was that?" Groaned Harry still in pain as he finally took his two hands and pushed on the ground so he could lift his head up.
It took a moment for his senses to regain composure and when his eyes looked up, he realised he was in the one place he had no desire to be in whatsoever.
The eery looking hallway of number twelve Grimmauld place sat morbidly around him.
How the hell did he get here? It felt like he had travelled here by portkey but he didn't own one and he was sure no one could just walk into number Four Privet Drive and place one around him, maybe except Dumbledore but surely Dumbledore would never do that, not with all the protection he had placed around the house to keep himself safe from Voldemort.
So, did that mean he had apparated?
He had heard that portkeys were like apparition, but he wasn't allowed to learn that until he went back to Hogwarts. There had also been a light of some sort. He had seen apparition before but he had never seen a light that surrounded it.
What the hell was going on?
Harry slowly and quietly lifted himself from the floor.
He hadn't been here since Christmas and with no one here the place had already gone back to its former decrepit gloom and was probably on its way back to being uninhabitable, even though the place hadn't lost any those qualities during their cleaning saga last summer but it had improved somewhat when he had returned for Christmas but now it just sat recollecting dust without the supervision of Mrs Weasley's cleaning regime.
Kreacher probably hadn't done anything to help.
'Kreacher!'
Kreacher was somewhere in the house.
Kreacher who had helped Voldemort trick him into going to the Ministry, where Sirius and the order had come to rescue them, where Bellatrix had murdered Sirius.
He was probably still in the house.
A blind rage of hatred filled Harry and suddenly he wanted nothing more than to see Kreacher's head mounted on the wall next to all the ones that were currently on the staircase of Grimmauld place.
Luckily for Harry his landing in his Godfather's childhood home hadn't awoken the screaming portrait of Walburga Black. Harry slowly crept past the portrait and headed directly for the kitchen.
Sirius had told him where Kreacher's hideout was.
Harry reached the kitchen and went down to the end where a door led down to the basement. He opened the door and walked down the stone steps.
Only the burning anger in finding Kreacher was keeping him from not feeling any fear from the house that had a number of dark objects meaning he should've had caution walking into a dark basement but he only had his mind on finding Kreacher.
That thought could even bypass the rotting aroma coming from the basement as he descended into its depths.
Harry who had his wand on him pulled it out.
He knew Madeye would've disapproved but he had been sleeping with his wand since last summer, ever since Voldemort had returned and he couldn't even go to bathroom without having wand firmly in his pocket now that he knew about the Prophecy.
He knew that was being paranoid, but he had seen the prophet printing the stories of him being "The Chosen One.' which for one they were actually right.
So, he had kept his wand with him at all times.
While he wasn't actually allowed to do underage magic, the Fidelius charm and the many other charms that surrounded Grimmauld, kept the place off the Ministry's radar meaning he could use magic without setting off the trace but Mrs Weasley of course still hadn't allowed any of them to use magic out of courtesy of the law as well to avoid anything dangerous in Grimmauld.
Even Fred and Geroge who had come of age weren't allowed to do magic well, other than them apparating all about the place because she couldn't stop them from doing that.
No one could stop the twins from causing mischief and mayhem and apparating was a handy little tool that had been added to their Weasley box of anarchy and chaos.
Harry whispered the incantation "Lumos."
A grimy but large looking pantry surrounded him. He could see rotten food shrivelled amongst of the shelves and a shelf of untouched wine bottles. Over in the right corner was a moulding door and Harry with a purpose walked over to it and pulled it open.
Inside was a dark cupboard that held a large and old boiler in the top corner of it. Below the boiler was the little lair of Kreacher's.
There was a make shift bed of what looked like straw that was stuffed into a dirty ridden pillow case and a tiny stain filled sized sheet fit for a house elf lay askew next it. A small candle was lit at the side and the rest of the den contained a number of shiny trinkets, old pictures and ragged looking pieces of cloth.
Harry would've grimaced at the sight but he was still set on finding Kreacher who was not in his little den currently.
Harry gritted his teeth.
He closed the door and hurried back up the stone's stairs reaching the kitchen.
He was going to find that treacherous little house elf and ring its neck.
Harry kept as quiet as possible though. He didn't want Walburga waking up and alerting Kreacher that he was here.
He had learnt from Dobby that a house elf could get away with a snap of its fingers.
Harry left the kitchen and ascended up the stairs.
He distinguished his Lumos as the gas lamps were lit. He crept quietly avoiding any creaks and strained his ears for any living sound.
His eyes scanning everything carefully.
He reached the first floor and looked around. He checked every door but was now extra cautious to look around.
He had seen some dangerous stuff in Grimmauld as it was. Some of it living.
He opened all the doors on the first floor a second time just be thorough but found no one. In the drawing room he had seen movement near the curtains on his second round and had gone to inspect it but to his chagrin it had simply just been a Doxy that of course had tried to bite him.
He managed to stun the creature without making too much noise but there was no sign of Kreacher anywhere in the drawing room. He had checked behind the sofas and even the cabinets but had stayed away from the writing desk. He doubted Kreacher would be in there and he was not willing to potentially face another Boggart.
He was ready to cast a protego if need be, with the cabinets but he didn't want anything dangerous that would make too much noise popping out and thus decided to cast a silencing charm before opening them.
Luckily some of the more dangerous dark items that had been in the cabinets in the previous summer were no longer there or dormant. Although bottles of blood were still there. Harry eyes caught a glimpse of something shiny and silver and his eyes snapped towards a locket. Harry's head twinged for a moment before he picked up the locket and examined it.
It was an oval sized locket with a golden glass casing over it and a serpentine style S in the middle with emerald green jewels inlaid in the S.
Harry couldn't take his eyes off of it. The locket was beautiful and strangely enough it felt familiar like he had seen it before. He probably had. He had been cleaning this drawing room for two weeks straight last summer.
Harry had the sudden urge to put the locket on.
He didn't want to steal from Sirius but he just needed to put it on.
Harry had just started to lift the locket over his head when a sudden thump from upstairs pulled him out of his daze.
"Kreacher!" Growled Harry lowly.
Harry barely aware of his actions closed the cabinet door and thinking he had put the locket back inside it, when he had actually put the locket in his back pocket but Harry had not time to worry about that as he was casting another silencing charm, this time on himself and was breezing out the door, heading for the stairs.
Harry got to the second floor and checked the rooms all except the room he and Ron had slept in. He doubted that he would be there of course but the portrait of Phineas Nigellus Black had access the Grimmauld place and Harry had no desire to see him.
Luckily for him another thump alerted Harry to further noise coming from upstairs.
He once again ascended the stairs to the third floor and checked the rooms. Nothing out of the ordinary happened in any of them and Harry realised that Buckbeak was no longer in the house.
Harry finally ascended to the fourth floor which only had two rooms in total. Harry flexed his fingers over his wand and then approached the first room and slowly opened the door with his wand ready and aimed.
Inside was a neat but dust covered bedroom, draped in silver and emerald colours.
Above the bed was the Black family crest and the phrase that read Toujours Pur which Harry had no idea what it meant.
On the far wall was a ragged collection of newspaper clipping now tinted yellow of the first wizarding war, most of them to do with Voldemort. There were a few other items in the room including a picture of a clearly former Slytherin quidditch team but no Kreacher.
Harry walked back out of the room and noticed the sign on the door that read 'Do Not Enter Without the Express Permission of Regulus Arcturus Black'
Understanding dawned on Harry that this was Sirius's brother. He had mentioned him once before but Harry had not asked any further questions as Sirius clearly felt uncomfortable talking about his family.
Harry left the room and faced the room that was in the opposite direction.
Harry crept towards the other room.
Kreacher had to be in there.
Just as Harry was about to reach for the door he froze. On the plaque of the door, it simply read 'Sirius'
This was Sirius's room. The room he was sleeping in a few months ago.
Harry's throat all of sudden became tight.
He didn't want to go in Sirius's room. He felt like he was somehow disrespecting the room if he walked inside it. He had helped get him killed, he had no business walking in the man's room.
However, Kreacher was in there and that wretched little house elf had no business being Sirius's room even more so than him.
With that remaining thought, Harry walked towards the door, opened it and went inside, again his wand ready and aimed.
Only to Harry's surprise there was no house elf to be seen.
The room unlike Regulus was not neat but not covered in dust either and it certainly wasn't covered in Slytherin colours but Gryffindor ones instead. The bed sheets were askew and there were a few clothes all over the place but to Harry's main surprise there was a bunch of pictures of motor bikes and girls in bikini's which made Harry's cheeks go slightly red.
There was some stuff on the desk but no Kreacher at tall.
Harry didn't understand. He had heard the thumps. He wasn't crazy.
Where was Kreacher?
Maybe calling him would be an option but Sirius was dead now, meaning Kreacher had no allegiance to anyone in the order but surely Kreacher wouldn't leave the house. Kreacher had apparently served the House of Black for over fifty years and had stayed in the house by himself for ten years without leaving, so he had to be somewhere but where?
The only room he hadn't checked was the one he had slept in but he had heard the thumps come from upstairs and all the others rooms had been empty.
Did Kreacher know he was here? Was he toying with him? Waiting to stab him from behind?
Harry's anger bubbled inside him furiously. Maybe he had used magic to go somewhere else.
Harry decided that he would check the house again. He was not leaving until he found that damn house elf.
Harry was just about to turn and leave the room until something on the desk caught his eye. Harry walked over and found a framed picture on the desk of four young boys who Harry instantly recognised.
How could he not, he was the spitting image of one of them.
The picture was of course a picture of the four Marauders perhaps in their sixth or seventh year of Hogwarts. The four of them were smiling and waving and Harry's heart panged painfully in his chest.
The sight of Sirius, his dad and Remus all smiling was painful to look at and of course the traitor standing next to them unaware that in a few years he would sell his father out and help get him killed, send Sirius to Azkaban with false imprisonment and leave Remus alone and struggling for twelve years made him angry knowing he was just smiling away with them.
Harry took a hard long look at Sirius's face before having an internal debate with himself. He didn't want to steal from Sirius but it was unlikely that anyone else would make use of the photo and so he carefully removed the photo from the frame. He carefully folded up the picture and slid it in his right pocket then opened a draw and put the frame in one the draws.
He was about to close the draw when something else caught his eye and Harry couldn't stop himself as he picked up a letter with some familiar names on it.
Dear Padfoot,
Thank You, Thank you for Harry's Birthday Present...
Harry read the rest of the letter, eagerly before rereading it again for a second and third time. He hadn't even noticed when he'd sat down on Sirius's bed, because he'd been so engrossed in the letter from his mother and the picture of his parents whilst a one-year-old version of him flew on a toy broom that Sirius had apparently bought for him.
Harry wanted to cry.
This was the first thing he had ever seen that was a belonging of his mother's. He owned the Marauders Map and his father's cloak but had nothing of his mothers, well other than her eyes and blood protection but still he couldn't believe he was holding a letter that she had written and there was a picture of the three of them. Hagrid had of course given him a few pictures but the picture had come from her and somehow just meant that much more.
Harry sighed to himself.
Kreacher could wait.
Harry pocketed both the letter and picture and stood back up.
"Please forgive me Sirius." Whispered Harry as he began looking through the draws.
There wasn't much in the draws. There were a few things that personally belonged to Sirius. None of them drew his interest much except for a Red and Gold Diary with Sirius's name on it.
Harry after some contemplation Harry put the diary back in the draw. While he wanted to be nosy and snoop, he also wanted to at least respect some of Sirius's privacy and didn't want to read through his personal diary.
He was however going to snoop through the rest of Sirius's things as he noticed a large brown chest in the corner of the room. Similar looking to the one that Madey owned which Barty Crouch Jr had stored him in.
Harry walked over to it. The chest seemed to be unsealed and had Sirius's initials on it. Harry wondered if there were any more pictures of Sirius, his dad and Lupin and hopefully his mother too. He would cut Wormtail out of them later.
Harry opened the lid and was surprised to see a number of memorabilia. It felt like Sirius's entire life was in this trunk as he saw, photo albums, Galleons, a broomstick, Hogwarts Robes, old letters, books, trinkets that he had no clue about and more.
Harry realised that some of the items were in plastic seals.
It then occurred to Harry that this trunk had Sirius's possessions in them probably because the aurors had been hunting down Sirius whilst Sirius was hunting down Wormtail. They had probably seized all his things from the place he had used to live and had given them back to Walburga Black.
Sirius when he had returned to Grimmauld, had clearly been going through some of his stuff but hadn't gotten to all of it.
Harry assumed the letter was a part of it all as Sirius had run away from sixteen.
Harry browsed through a majority of the stuff not sure where to start until something caught his eye.
There was another diary in the trunk only this one did not belong to Sirius.
It was his mothers.
It was a pink diary with the words that read 'Property of Lily Evans' There were pretty drawn Lillies in the four corners of the cover and an assortment of plastic jewels that were glued in lovely and intricate designs around a rectangle picture of three young children.
He recognised his mother instantaneously.
There was a second girl there with light brown skin and bright pink hair who Harry had never seen before. The last child in the photo was an absolute shock for him.
Without a doubt he recognised who this child was.
It was none other than his greasy haired git of a potion's teachers Snape.
Harry had of course gotten an inkling last year that Snape had a friendship of somewhat with his mother that he had even regretted calling her mudblood but it had never occurred to him that they were close friends as young children and knew each other before Hogwarts.
Yet here he was smiling which actually looked rather unnatural with his mother and this other girl.
They had to be anywhere from nine or ten in this picture and Harry was quite shaken at the thought.
Harry decided for a moment to let go of his Snape related questions as a Sirius one popped into his head.
Why did Sirius have his mother's diary?
It was actually similar to one over in his desk but it was not decorated at tall.
Curiosity got the better of him and he picked up the diary and sat back down on the bed.
His hands trembled a little. He had just said he didn't want to invade Sirius's privacy but now he was willing to invade his mother's?
He didn't want to do that. He just wanted to know why Sirius had the diary. His mother was close enough with Sirius to call him Padfoot, write letters with him and send pictures.
So, he assumed she had given it to him. He doubted that Sirius would steal his mother's diary. He didn't put it past Sirius to steal anyone else's diary but his parents he felt were off limits.
Harry had another internal debate with himself before he opened the diary.
Harry found his question immediately answered when a note fell out from the first page.
Dear Padfoot,
I know things are difficult for you right now and I want to help. I know it hurts but maybe this will help. As you can see this is my diary. I've had it since I was eleven years old. No, this isn't permission for you to go snooping through it either. My diary is special. You can't write in it but there is something I can do for you. I'm not going to tell you what yet but I've been busy. You'll find along with my own diary; I've made a replica of it for you. I gave you Gryffindor colours because I know you'd like that. I also had to pinch some of your blood to do this but I think I've been successful. I know I'm not being straight forward here but we are in the middle of a war and I can't afford to tell you everything over a note. If these ended up in the wrong hands, I don't know what could happen. When we next see each other, I'll explain in person. Still to simplify things. My diary was given to me by her. Your diary is replica of the magical process that made it. I'm not certain if it will work because I'm not a Black so you'll have to test it yourself. If it doesn't work, then I give you one option. Send for me to come over and I can call for her. Understand this Pad, you use this option and it can only happen once. You have to be absolutely certain. I'm giving you my diary so I'm not tempted to use it for myself. Test the diary, let me know if it works or not. I can keep tinkering if need be. Until then, keep a clear head Pad. I know what you're like sometimes. Write me back asap and I'll see you soon.
Lots of Love
Lily.
Harry read over the note twice.
Harry tried to make sense of the note. His mother had made a magical diary for Sirius based off a magical diary that some mysterious 'her' had given to her when she was eleven.
He wondered too himself if it was the girl in the picture or if it was someone else.
The diary had a specific way to call the mysterious her and if it got in the wrong hands then it could be dangerous.
Harry scanned through the rest of the diary to find nothing but blank pages.
Dread all of a sudden filled Harry's heart and alarms bells ran frantically in his head.
'No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!'
No way! It couldn't be. Absolutely not!
Just no way! There was absolutely no way that it could be the same.
Could it?
Harry shut his eyes for a moment. He needed to think for a second. He needed to think rationally.
Harry knew his thinking couldn't remotely be on the right track but he couldn't help but think about Tom Riddle's Diary and how similar the situation was.
His mother would surely never do something like that. Would she?
No! She wouldn't.
He didn't know how the process worked in terms of making Tom Riddle's diary but it had definitely been made with dark magic. He knew that for sure. It had almost sucked the life out of Ginny and had possessed her to act as the heir of Slytherin.
What if his mother's Diary could do something similar?
But she had said she had given it to Sirius to help him, so it couldn't be dark. Could it?
But she had also pinched some of his blood instead of just asking so did that mean the process was dark?
That she thought he wouldn't approve but wanted to help him somehow, anyway and took it without his permission?
Harry raced over to Sirius's Diary and this time had no hesitation in flipping through it.
Sirius's diary was also blank.
Panic rippled through Harry's entire body.
Maybe it was just some misunderstanding that he wasn't seeing.
Was it possible that neither his mother or Sirius wrote in their diaries?
No, his mother said that Sirius didn't have permission to go snooping through it. So, she must've written in it and she had said that he couldn't write in it either.
Harry didn't know what to think or feel.
His mother had been given an enchanted diary and had then years later made one herself to replicate her own one but why?
What did Sirius need help for?
Why were the diaries blank?
Why were they dangerous in the wrong hands?
Harry decided he needed to know what these diaries could do.
He closed the lid of the chest, grabbed both diaries and set off downstairs towards the kitchen.
Kreacher would have to wait some more.
He needed someone's opinion on this.
His first thought was Hermione but he wouldn't be able to contact her, not without Hedwig and that would take a day or two.
He would probably need Dumbledore for this one.
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An: Hope you enjoyed that. Just in case anyone was wondering, I want to make it clear that Grimmauld place has a boiler. I know that's electric but I specifically checked on Wiki and that's what it said that Kreacher's lair was near the boiler room. I'm going to assume that obviously the Blacks didn't use electricity but seeming as Grimmauld Place was a muggle house that it just came with a boiler and they used magic to make it heat up the house.
I'm only mentioning it because it bugged me for hours thinking about why they would have a boiler especially when I believe the Burrow did not but then of course I remembered that the Burrow was literally made by magic.
So just in case that bugged anyone else the boiler room is legit and most likely mentioned in the book but no electricity is there.
Not sure when the next chapter will be uploaded. I might continue to write in bulk or just post the finished one I have one at a time whilst I'm still writing but I like an ambitious fool I'm writing like four other stories all at the same time as well so we'll see.