Title: AU: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Author: Artemis Luna Diana

E-Mail: artemislunadiana@yahoo.com

Rating: PG-13 (cursing)

Pairing: none

Time: begins the night of James and Lily's deaths and continues through Harry's first year of school

Summary: Harry grows up under the watchful eyes of Remus Lupin, Sirius Black, and Arabella Figg.  When Harry was still little, he had a nightmare and woke up screaming.  When his guardians arrived in his bedroom, he told them that he would be coming back.  Knowing instinctively who Harry was referring too, the three resolved to train Harry to defend himself before he left for Hogwarts.  They figured that everyone would dismiss Harry's vision as a simple nightmare.  So they kept the whole matter a secret.  Now it's time for Harry's first year of Hogwarts.  He's been trained in secret to be cunning, strong, and quick-thinking.  So where does he end up: Slytherin.

Disclaimer: I own not a thing.  Due to the fact that this story covers one of the years already written, the majority of the events and some of the dialogue comes straight from the book. 

Thanks to: snapeysnapesnape for the excellent beta

Chapter Two: To sleep, perchance to dream…

In a room, obviously designed with a child in mind, sits a young man in a rocking chair.  The rocking chair has been there since the child was a baby.  While the young man rocks, the child lays in his bed watching the man.  The man is humming at first.  It is time for the child to sleep.  He opens his mouth and begins to sing.

When the evening falls

and the daylight is fading

From within me calls

Could it be I am sleeping?

For a moment I stray

then it holds me completely

Close to home, I cannot say

Close to home, feeling so far away

As I walk the room

there before me a shadow

From another world

where no other can follow

Carry me to my own

To where I can cross over...

Close to home, I cannot say

Close to home, feeling so far away

Forever searching, never right

I am lost in oceans of night

Forever hoping I can find memories

Those memories I left behind

Even though I leave

will I go on believing

that this time is real

- am I lost in this feeling?

Like a child passing through

Never knowing the reason

I am home, I know the way

I am home, feeling oh, so far away

His voice trails off as the song ends.  The child is asleep.  The rocking chair stills.  The man watches the child sleep for a moment before standing and leaving the room.  He shuts the door softly behind him.  Standing in the hallway is a woman the same age as the man. 

"Is he asleep?" she whispers.

"Yes," he softly replies.

The two walk down the stairs in silence.  They enter the kitchen where another man sits at the table with a tub of ice cream and a spoon.

"Is he asleep?" the man asks.

The woman nods as she sits.  The man who sang the child to sleep goes to a drawer and pulls out two spoons.  He returns to the table and hands the woman one of the spoons.  The three sit eating ice cream in silence for awhile.

"I can't ever seem to get him to go to sleep."

"That's because you tell stories that are too exciting for bedtime.  You keep him laughing, and he won't fall asleep," Arabella said around a mouthful of ice cream.

"He always goes to sleep for me," Remus smirked.

"That's because of your pretty voice, you pansy," Sirius replied.

Arabella snickered.  "He goes to sleep for me," she said, taking the empty spoon from her mouth.

"You're a chick," Sirius said, dismissing her achievement.

Remus smirked at her and took a bite out of his ice cream.  She shivered.  "How can you stand that?" she asked.  This was not the first time she asked this particular question.

Remus took another bite of his ice cream and scraped his teeth against the spoon.  Arabella shivered again.  Sirius laughed softly.  "He only does that because he knows it bugs you."

"My teeth are aching in sympathy," Arabella replied.

Remus snorted, trying not to laugh.  This set his companions off.  They were all trying not to laugh.  They did not want to wake Harry up.  They finally managed to control their silent laugher and resumed devouring the bucket of ice cream.  Harry had only been asleep about fifteen minutes when they heard the scream. 

All three jumped up, dropping their spoons.  They thundered up the stairs and into Harry's bedroom.  Harry was sitting up in bed, tears streaming down his cheeks.  He began sobbing in earnest when he saw them enter the room.  Sirius reached the bed first, and picked up Harry, placing him in his lap.  Harry clung to his Godfather while he cried, barely registering that Arabella had sat down beside them and was stroking his back, or that Remus was on his knees in front of them, whispering soothing words of comfort.

When Harry began to calm down, Sirius leaned back a bit so he could look down at Harry's face.  "What happened, Little Prongs?"

Harry hiccupped.

"Was it a nightmare?" Arabella prompted.

Harry nodded.

"Do you want to tell us what it's about?" Remus asked.

Harry shook his head.

They sat in silence, while Harry continued to calm down.  Finally as Harry's breathing began to level out and deepen, Sirius carefully placed him back in his bed and pulled the covers up, tucking him in.

"He's gonna come back," Harry said softly, his breath hitching in fear.

"What?" Arabella asked.

"He hurt Mama and Daddy."  Harry curled up in a ball under the covers.  "He's gonna come back."

The three adults had similar shocked looks on their faces.  They hadn't said anything to Harry about how his parents had died.  They hadn't felt that he was old enough.  Somehow, Harry knew that someone had hurt his parents, and he said that he was coming back.  This was not good.

***

"What do we do?" Arabella asked.

"What can we do?" Remus countered.  "Who is going to believe us?  They'll say that Harry must have overheard us talking and that it was a simple nightmare."

"If Harry's right and You-Know-Who is coming back, Harry is going to be on the top of his hit list," Sirius broke in.  "We need to do something that will help protect Harry."

They sat in silence, thinking.  "We have to teach Harry how to defend himself," Arabella said finally.  "If we teach him now, then by the time he gets to Hogwarts he'll be able to hold his own until help arrives or he can escape.  We keep him here otherwise.  We can't let him out in the open."

"If we are going to isolate him, we should move," Remus said.  "Somewhere out in the middle of nowhere."

"That would be better for us anyway," Sirius said nodding.  "We wouldn't have to apparate to some forest for the full-moons; we could stay near the house."

"How much do we teach him though?" Remus asked.

"How much do the Slytherins usually know before they begin?" Sirius asked turning to Arabella.

"It depends on who it is.  What their parents' professions were was usually what they knew.  I knew fourth-level charms and hexes."

"Yeah, we knew that," Remus said dryly.

"Trust us; we knew," Sirius added.

"As your favorite victims," Remus continued.

"We knew," Sirius finished.

Arabella glared at them.  "Considering there are three of us and we all have different strengths, we should be able to teach Harry a large number of things."

Sirius nodded.  "I can teach him charms, hexes, and transfiguration."

"Right, and I can cover potions and herbology," Arabella continued.

"I can do magical creatures," Remus said shrugging.  "Shouldn't be too difficult.  I could cover history and whatnot, too, if you wanted."

"That might not be a bad idea," Arabella said, tapping her fingers against her chin.

"When should we begin?" Remus asked.

"We can start training when he's six.  Any younger is too young.  We'll start with knowledge and when he's eight we can move into practical lessons," Arabella replied.

"What about a wand though?  What did you use?" Remus asked.

"I used my parents' wands."

"Okay, basically we know what we're doing," Sirius said.  "Anybody got any land the others don't know about?"

"My brother and his family are in my old home," Arabella sighed.

"Sold mine when we bought this place," Remus replied.

"Well, I suppose there's always Black Manor," Sirius said glumly.

Remus and Arabella had similar expressions of distaste on their faces.  Sirius frowned.  "What if we tore down the old house and rebuilt it?"

"You want to tear down your ancestral home?" Arabella asked shocked.  "I know that we all hate it, but it's been in your family for generations!"

"Why not?"  Sirius said shrugging.  "No one is going to live in it anyway.  It's just going to sit there empty."  Sirius leaned forward slightly.  "We could design our own house."

Remus and Arabella leaned forward as well.  "That's true," Remus said softly, his eyes glinting with glee.

"We could have a lot of fun with this," Arabella added, a grin spreading across her face.

***

Remus, Sirius, Arabella, and Harry moved into the new Black Manor three months later.  The manor had three floors above ground, two below, four wings, and four towers.  The sub-basement was the only unfinished part of the house.  It would be where the majority of Harry's training would occur, so they would build it themselves.  They didn't want anyone to know what it looked like. 

The basement was where Arabella's workroom was along with the house elves' living quarters and some storage rooms.  The main floor had the kitchen, the formal living room, the informal living room, two formal dining rooms, five bathrooms, the drawing room, the billiard room, the ball room, and the foyer.  The second floor contained the library and only the library.  The Black family had been collecting books for centuries, and Arabella's extensive collection was added as well.  The rest of the house was divided into the four wings: one for each member of the house.  The four towers contained the bedroom suite of whomever the wing belonged to.  The rest of each wing held four spare bedroom suites for guests, a workroom or playroom, a study, a formal living room, an informal living room, and two empty rooms for later usage.  Remus used one to create a music room for himself.

The six ghosts that had been a part of the original manor were now haunting the new one.  While most of the furniture and paintings had been disposed of and replaced, the family did keep the hall of family portraits, which would complain to anyone who bothered to listen that the old manor was better.

Black Manor was situated in the center of a fairly large forest.  There were charms all over the forest and the manor itself to keep Muggles away.  The nearest wizard's home was an hour away by broomstick.  They were completely isolated.

The first night, while Harry slept, Arabella, Remus, and Sirius cast wards all over the property.  Anti-apparation wards prevented anyone from apparating or disapparating within a kilometer of the house.  The floo was closed off from the main part of the network.  While it was possible to go anywhere from the manor, to reach the manor you had to be in certain fireplaces: any at Hogwarts and the fireplace in the main part of the aurors' building.  Even if you were at these fireplaces, only certain people would be admitted into the house: Albus Dumbledore, Minerva McGonagall and Mundungus Fletcher.  The rest would be sent to the Leaky Cauldron.

With two highly-paid aurors and a family heritance to go through, the family was not wanting for anything.  Remus stayed at home and took care of Harry while Arabella and Sirius worked.  When it came time for the full moon, Arabella and Sirius switched who stayed with Harry during the day so Remus could rest.  Arabella, since she wasn't an animagus, stayed in the house with Harry during the night while Remus and Sirius went into the woods.  It took awhile before Arabella was able to successfully brew the Wolfsbane Potion.  Once she did, the full moons became easier for everyone.

It seemed as though one night they fell asleep and the next morning Harry was six.  It was time to begin teaching their dependent to protect himself. 

***

TBC…

A/N: The song that Remus sings to Harry is 'Evening Falls' by Enya.