Daughter of Death

Chapter 2

Light Cracked through the curtains of Harrys bedroom window, bathing the red room a rich maroon in the struggling light. Curled beside the boy on the bed was a large, black dog. After the events of the previous month, Harry was still reluctant to allow his Godfather to stay at nights…but he couldn't possible say no the Padfoot.

As was usual, Harr y was already awake. The huge dog beside him snored and snorted softly in it's sleep, as it always did. Harry had taken to calling his Godfather snuffles again for the noises, just because he knew how it infuriated the man.

Usually, there would have been time for sleeping as long as either of the two could have wanted it.

Not today.

Today, Weasleys arrived, and the house soon had to be prepared.

"Sirius," Harry muttered as he poked the dog in its ribs. "Sirius!"

The beast grunted and rolled over, but didn't stir.

Slowly, Harry slipped off of the bed and padded softly downstairs to where Remus was already making breakfast. Eggs whitened in one pan whist sausages sizzled softly in the other.

"Morning, Harry." Remus greeted.

"Morning," Harry replied. "Can I borrow one of those?" He asked, gesturing to the sausages.

"Sure," said Remus with a grin.

Picking up a fat sausage between his finger tips, Harry dashed back upstairs to his room. He entered softly to find his Godfather still asleep where he had been left. Harry tried once more to poke him to awareness, without success, before giving up and waving the still hot sausage under the dogs nose. The nose twitched involentaraly for a moment, before a lazy eye creaked open. Upon seeing the sight before it, Padfoot was awake, and up on his hind paws begging within seconds.

Harry laughed as he threw the dog the sausage. The animal caught it barely before it had left Harry's hand, swallowed it without even chewing, and then settled happily back down onto the bed to return to his sleep.

"Oh no you don't!" scolded Harry. "We have cleaning to do. Come on."

The dog awkwardly pulled the sheets up over it's head in protest, but Harry pulled them back down to reveal a scowling Sirius.

"Come on," urged Harry. "There's more sausage downstairs…"

Harry had never seen Sirius get out of bed so fast before in his life. Chuckling, he followed his Godfather down to breakfast.

"School starts again next week, Harry," said Remus conversationally now that they were all crowded around the table.

"Hmm," Harry responded, his mouth full of egg. "Romph gesh her tushesh 'O."

"What?"

"He said," Sirius answered, "Ron gets here today, though. Somehow, Mooney, I don't think his mind's on school today."

Remus smiled, but any further remarks were cut short as the doorbell rang…sending the portrait of Mrs. Black into her trademark cursing fits.

Wait…Mrs. Black? That shouldn't be there.

"Erm, Sirius?"

"Danmed Woman's followinf me!" Sirius cursed as he drew to a screetching halt outside of the hallway, in full view of his mothers ugly picture.

Harry rushed to the portrait with his Godfather while Mrs. Weasley, who had come to help the men prepare for the families arrival, came downstairs in her dressing gown and Lupin dashed to open the door. He was met with the grinning faces of the Weasley twins. Finally, Sirius gave a determined tug and the portrait was silenced behind the curtains.

Everyone turned to the newcomers, and upon seeing who it was, Lupin guided Mrs. Weasley into the next room, his hand over her mouth, to keep her from becoming a live howler at her two sons and waking the portraits again.

"Don't think she's very happy to see you," muttered Harry.

"She'll get over it," said Fred.

"Always does," Added George.

"Once she's yelled enough."

"yes, well," replied Sirius. "Make sure she doesn't get my mum yelling again, else you two will be the ones out here shutting her up."

The twins both laughed nervously before turning back to harry.

"Hello, Harry" said George.

"We've come to see how you are." Added Fred.

"and to wish you a very"

"very"

"Happy birthday."

"We know it's a few days late,"

"But we couldn't leave the shop earlier."

Harry grinned at them and they grinned back, both handing him an identical package.

"Business is booming,"

"And it's all down to you." Finished Fred quietly.

Right at that point, before Harry could say anything else, Remus popped his head round from the kitchen door. "Who wants feeding?" He called. Harry, still full from earlier that morning, shook his head, as did the Weasley twins. Everyone else chimed in with 'yes' and 'please'…everyone save Sirius. "Sirius?" said Lupin. "food?"

Sirius, however, had been staring off into space and didn't seem to hear him.

"Sirius…" Harry tried, waving his hand in front of his Godfathers face. After a second, Sirius blinked hard and shook his head, as if trying to clear it, before looking up at Harry, more than a little confused.

"What?" he managed.

Harry smiled slightly. "Do you want something to eat?"

Automatically, it would seem, he replied "Yeah, Moony, cheers."

With a nod, he disappeared upstairs to ask the others.

For a moment, the twins just stared at each other in disbelief.

"What?" said Harry eventually.

Both twins turned to look at him, then Sirius. "What did you call Professor Lupin?" they asked together.

Sirius blinked a moment, before remembering that the twins had been in possetion of the Marauders map for a number of years, and well knew Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs.

"Moony," he repeated, watching the looks on their faces with amusement. "As in Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs."

"Lupin is moony!?" the both exclaimed. "What about the others?"

"I'm Padfoot," said Sirius. "Wormtail was a man named Peter Pettigrew, you've met him…"

The twins looked at each other for a moment then shook their heads.

"You have," said Sirius. "He transformed into a rat and was found by your brother Ron."

"Scabbers!?" the both yelled.

Harry slapped a hand over each of their mouths, gesturing to the still silent portrait of Mrs. Black.

"Scabbers is wormtail?"

"Mmmhmm," said Harry. "and my dad was Prongs."

The twins took in the information, before turning whiter than sheets, giving the impression they were about to simultaneously faint. Sirius and Harry watched them, trying desperately to keep a straight face.

Eventually, the twins fell to there knees, bowing in worship before Sirius.

Harry just laughed befor disappearing into the kitchen to finish his meal.

Within ten minutes, everyone was seated around the large table, whether they were eating or not. The ordeal was nothing short of terrifying as Mrs. Weasley berated her sons existence, their appearance, their choices, their behaviour, their shop, and just about everything else, coming up with some very creative insults. After about an hour, everyone had finished eating and tidied up. Finally, Sirius took pity on the boys, who were trying desperately to get their say in, and put a silencing charm on Mrs. Weasley, who looked positively ready to explode.

"Mum," began Fred.

"I know you don't like the choices we made," said George.

"But we've been going for just a few months and we've made loads of money."

"All the products we sell are safe,"

"As long as you read the bit about how to reverse the effects,"

"And we know it's not something you approved of us doing,"

"But it's the only thing we can do,"

"And we do it well,"

"So please don't stay mad at us for too long, mum."

Eventually, Mrs. Weasley looked as though she had calmed down a little. Well, at least her face wasn't the colour of a plumb anymore. Sirius cautiously took off the silencing charm, and everyone waited.

"I suppose," said Mrs. Weasley after a long moment, "that if you're sure…"

The twins looked at each other, grinning, then turned to their mother. "thanks mum," they chorused, before they disappeared from the room, leaving an exhausted looking MRs. Weasley behind them.

"What I want to know," she said, addressing no one inparticular, "is how they got the money to start that bloody business."

Harry turned a give-away shade of pink before hastily disappearing from the room.

Most of the remainder of the day, Harry spent in his room with Ron and Hermione as they unpacked. Since they were going to be there for just over two weeks yet before school started, and would be returning for holidays from then on, he figured they couldn't simply leave everything in thier school trunk.

Hermione chatted about the party her parents had wanted to throw when they saw the results of her OWLs, (all 'Outstanding', not that anyone was surprised), but she had told them she'd rather they didn't. Ron had gotten two 'O's, two 'E's a the rest were 'A's, and Harry had gotton three 'O's (one was for potions, he was very glad to see) and the rest were 'E's. Hermione looked ready to burst with pride when they told her this.

Ron told Harry about how he'd finally found a way to calm down Pigwidgeon…he sent a letter to a friend he'd made whilst in Egypt three years previous. It hadn't calmed Pig down as much as nearly killed him, but it was close enough.

Hermione launched into another full blown S.P.E.W. speech when she found out Kreacher had achieved his lifes ambition once Lupin found out what he did, although she did side with everyone else that the house-elf had gotten what he deserved.

Besides the results of his OWLs, Harry didn't have any other stories to share, unless you included when Dudley had heard him reliving the night Sirius died every night for two weeks and finally cottoned onto the fact that the big bad murderer harry had protecting him was gone for good. However, when he tired to use this as a way to get to Harry, he had found himself with a broken nose, which had resulted in Vernon beating Harry almost to death.

He decided, however, not to share this story with Ron and Hermione.

"so," said Ron gingerly. "Sirius is back."

"Yeah, I noticed, " replied Harry. "What of it?"

"Don't you think it's a little strange, Harry?" asked Hermione. "I mean, we know he died, he fell through the veil."

"People come back from the dead all the time, Hermione. You know, CPR…"

"Harry, mate, this is a bit different." Said Ron.

Harry stood up and faced his two friends. "So what if it is different?" he replied loudly. "I don't care. You guys, he's the only family I have, I don't care how he came back, I just care that he did!" His voice had started to rise both in volume and in pitch, and by the time he was finished, Ron felt sure that soon, only dogs would be able to hear him.

"Harry, mate," said Ron calmly, standing up. "We didn't mean anything by it. It's just a little odd is all we're saying." Harry visibly calmed down and Ron and Hermione relaxed a little.

"We're glad he's back, Harry, " said Hermione from the floor. "And we're glad you got him back, because you two deserve a proper family."

Harry looked from Ron to Hermione, then back to Ron, then at the ground, before he sat down on his bed once more. "I know, guys." He mumbled. "It's just…" he stopped, searching for the right words, giving up with a moan of frustration. "you get it, right?"

Both his friends nodded. "we get it, Harry." Said Hermione.

In silence, all three resumed unpacking.

The rest of the day passed, as did the rest of the month. Fred and George and their creativity, granted Harry a massive, if somewhat late party, which lasted several days. Ron got tired of his hyperactive little owl and sent him on another trip to Egypt, much to Hermiones disgust, and much to the disgust of everyone else, Mrs. Blacks portrait resisted a whole new set of attempts to remove it, some of which, again, courtesy of the twins, took out chunks of wall, but left the old woman intact, and in place, and enraged.

After much begging with Dumbledore, Hermione was allowed to have her parents round for a time. They didn't know, however, about the portrait of Mrs. Black, and so were given a very...creative welcome. Besides that, they loved the house, even if they did nearly have a fit once they found out who it belonged to, and that he was there at that particular moment in time, at which point Hermione remembered that her parents didn't know Sirius was innocent.

Everyone of the Weasleys visited at one point or another, with the exception of Percy, whom still wasn't speaking to the family, and whom none of the family was speaking to. They were also graced with visits from Dumbledore, Tonks and her family, and Professor McGonagall, and cursed with several visits by Snape, whom still seemed determined to attack Harry and Sirius as often as possible. Harry was trying to remember that Snape had a reason to hate Sirius and Harry, and probably a good reason to begrudge them their happiness as well, however, he was finding it difficult not to simply resort to sitting beside his Godfather during all meetings with the man and simply glaring at him whilst Dumbledore conducted the actual meeting.

The Order had a lot of work to do. They were still working on an alliance with the giants, although everyone knew it was a lost cause, and were now moving on to just about everyone else who hadn't yet sworn alligence to the Dark Lord. They even got desperate enough to try the centaurs…that didn't go very well.

The end of August rolled around a lot quicker than Harry would have liked, but eventually, it was the 31st, and time for Ron, Ginny, Hermione and himself to head for Diagon alley. They saw, with a smile, that there wasn't a great amount of new stuff they'd need, and the Weasley twins offered to pay for everything…something no one had ever expected.

Harry, of course, had declined, as had Hermione at first, although they came to an agreement…Hermiones parents wanted to buy her something new, for getting such good results, so the twins bought her books and neccesties, leaving her parents with a little more spare money.

Harry had bought her a little something too…just a ring he'd found in a little shop tucked in the end of Diagon Alley, a copper band with tiny coloured stones, all different. The woman he had bought it from told him they were Bloodstone, for courage, red Coral for wisdom, Tigers-eye and Amber for protection, and quartz stones for powering the others. It was pretty enough, and at only two Galleons and four Sickles, it was worth it.

Harry, Ron, Ginny and Hermione had all split up to shop around, and agreed to meet in Flourish and Blotts an hour later. Seeing he still had half the time left, he decided to carry on searching for gifts for the others. His escaped from the Dursleys, and the return of Sirius had put him in a good mood which hadn't yet worn off. That, and the fact that because he was reluctant to take the dreamless sleep potions more than was necessary, Sirius had taken to staying in harrys room most nights for the last month, and harry had never slept better.

So, Harry found himself, twenty-five minutes later, browsing Flourish and Blotts and waiting for his friends. Hanging from his hand was a bad containing Hermiones ring, a small jelly-bean looking object for Ginny that could copy any sound it heard, a new watch for Ron, which, like the one at the burrow, didn't tell the time, but where everyone was, only with this one, you could ask it where someone was and it would actually answer, and was a lot more accurate, several balls of magical wool for Mrs. Weasley which could go for miles before running out, as she was making Weasley sweaters for more and more people by the year, a book on how to create and cure magical illnesses and ailments for the twins, just so that they could at least cure the people they made sick, another book on communicating with and understanding the animal within for Remus, and a small bag of goop that closely resembled the appearance and consistency of chewing gum for his Godfather, the idea behind it being that you could attach it to a door or window and no sound from inside the room could be heard outside and visa-versa.

"well, well," said a cool droning voice from behind him. "If it isn't Golden Harry Potter."

Harry sighed and rolled his eyes, but did not turn around. "What do you want, Malfoy?"

Harry didn't get an answer, at least not a verbal one, but he felt a quick tug on the bag in his hand as Malfoy made a snatch for it. Harry was caught off guard, however, and by the time his hand closed around the handles, there was no handle there.

"what have we here?" asked Malfoy, picking up the ring Harry had bought for Hermione. "Planning on proposing to the Mudblood, Potter?"

"Accio ring! Accio bag!" Cried Harry. Both came zooming towards him, the handles of the bag landing squarely in one hand, the ring in the palm of the other. That was when Harry realized his wand was still tucked into the waistband of his jeans.

Bugger.

He looked up to see Malfoys reaction, but he was already gone. That meant he was either scared, or snitching, or both. Either of those last two would not have been good.

"Harry?" Hermione had apparently just entered the shop and Harry hadn't seen her until she had said his name. He quickly tried to stuff the ring into his pocket, but he dropped it onto the ground. Hermione picked it up before he could, twisting it in her fingers, admiring the stones as they glinted in the sunlight seeping in from outside. Reluctantly, she made to hand it back to Harry, but he didn't bother to take it.

"It was for you anyway," he said.

Hermione beamed at him as she slipped the ring onto her finger, before reaching out and hugging him, landing a soft kiss on his cheek.

"thank you, Harry," She said, still smiling. "It's lovely."

"The woman at the shop said it was for courage, power, wisdom and protection." He told her. "I wouldn't know, but, I figured it looked nice enough anyway."

She smiled again before gesturing at the bag. "what's that lot?" she asked.

"Gifts for everyone else," he replied, "I was in a good mood." And with that, he turned back to the bookshelves he had been admiring while Hermione turned back to her ring. Not moments latter, Ron and Ginny turned up, arguing noisily over Quidditch teams.

Rolling his eyes, Harry made his way over to the till, where he asked for and was given three sets of Sixth year books and one fifth year, paid for them all, and then turned back to his friends, who were as he'd left them.

"Come on you three," he said, dumping them with their books and making his way towards the door. Everyone followed without stopping their conversations.

So they all made their way back to Grimmauld place via the floo network that took them to an abandoned house two streets down for number twelve. Upon their return, books were sorted, all last minute packing was completed, and Harrys gifts were distributed, earning him a giggle, hug and kiss on the cheek from Ginny, much the same as Hermiones, a 'way cool' from Ron, another hug from Mrs. Weasley, a mischeifious (and somewhat terrifying) smile form Fred and George, a grin from Remus and a puzzled expression from Sirius. Harry had explained to his Godfather what the 'Goop' did, and that if it worked on doorways, maybe it would work around objects…such as noisy, insulting portraits.

Harry and Sirius spent the next few minutes attatching the Goop to the wall all around Mrs. Blacks portrait, and checking there were no breaks.

"Moment of truth," whispered Harry when they'd done. "On three. One…two…"

Then, on three, both let out a gigantic shout, as loud as they could.

The portrait didn't stir.

They both turned to look at the other, massive grins spreading out across their faces, as Sirius looked about ready to do backflips, settling for running around like a lunatic, whooping and yelling at the top of his lungs, transforming into a dog, then back, then into a dog again, running up and down the stairs, barking. Harry didn't do much more than laugh at his Godfather and wait for all the other members of the household to come and see what all the noise was about.

"We shut the old woman up," explained harry to everyone in turn. "the goop stops her from hearing us and waking up, and if she does wake up, it should stop us from hearing her.

"Padfoot seems to be happy," commented Remus upon entering the corridor.

Harry smiled as his Godfather finally calmed down, changed back into human form and approached the others, completely out of breath, face red, and he collapsed into a chair directly opposite from the portrait.

"Cheers, Harry." Said Sirius. "You haven't a clue how irritating that old bat was."

Harry smiled. "well, now we're even. You got me away from the Dursleys, I shut up your mother."

Almost as if waiting for her cue, the curtains over the portrait flew open and an enraged Mrs. Black began yelling. Most of the crowd had dissipated by that time, leaving just Remus, Harry and his Godfather. Harry was stood beside Sirius chair, so he was directly in front of the portrait, however, Remus was studying the Goop, from outside the barrier, and was apparently unaware of what was happening. Simply shrugging, Harry and Sirius walked outside the barrier, and sure enough, the portrait continued to scream, but the two couldn't hear a thing.

"you'd better go finish packing, Harry." Said Sirius, affectionately ruffling his Godsons hair. "Thanks for the Goop."

Smiling, Harry ducked away under the portraits barrier and vanished up the stairs to his room.

And so as Harry lay awake on his bed later that evening, knowing that tomorrow, he would be on the Hogwarts express, and on his way back to school, he sent a silent prayer to whomever was watching over him after all, closed his eyes, and fell into peaceful oblivion, blissfully unaware of the fat, balding rat that was scurrying into a hidey hole under the floorboards with some news for it's master…