Title: The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black

Summary: When Sirius Black is saved from Azkaban shortly after his incarceration by the most unlikely of people, Harry Potter's life is changed forever. Dark!Harry

Warnings: Violence, Sexual Situations, Mental Instability, Possible Slash, Character Deaths…

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any other settings, characters, or storylines presented in the books written by J.K. Rowling. Any original ideas presented in this story not attached to the copyright of Harry Potter are mine. 

Notes: Man, it has been such a long time since I've written fan fiction. This one sort of came to me in the shower a few nights ago. Good times, good times.

The prologue makes it out to be a story about Sirius, but in truth, Sirius will be a minor after this chapter. This was just written to set the scene, and show how Harry's life was changed so drastically. Next chapter will be the real beginning of the story.

Prologue: It Makes All the Difference

The floors of the Ministry holding cell were filthy. The cold concrete was hidden under layers of blood and excrement. No one bothered to clean the cells because if you were in there, you deserved it. However, the Ministry has been known to make many "mistakes" before.

Sirius Black was one of those mistakes.

No longer was he the vibrant, charismatic man of a few weeks ago. Sirius was a broken man.

Sirius was possibly the most hated man in the nation right now. He was accused of being Voldemort's right-hand-man and leading to the death of the Potters. The people didn't care whether he was innocent or not, they just needed a scapegoat, and he was the perfect candidate.

Still, deep within himself, Sirius hoped that someone would believe in him. That is how he mustered the strength to walk into the court room.

A mass of the most influential wizards and witches of England were at his "trial". It was more like a mob scene. The moment he entered the room yelling and screaming erupted. His former friends, his fellows from the Order, everyone was spitting and screaming at him. There had not been one person who actually believed in him. Perhaps the worst of all of them was Dumbledore.

Sirius had never seen such disappointment and hatred in the man's eyes before. Sirius knew that if Dumbledore didn't believe in him, then no one would. That is when his world started to crumble.

Sirius didn't hear the sentencing. He didn't need to. Sirius Black knew that his life was over, and there was nothing he could do about it.

The aurors took their time taking revenge on him when they got back to the holding room. Sirius really didn't care anymore. His lack of reaction just infuriated the men even more. A shattered knee cap, a broken jaw... he was just a blood mass by the time they left.

---

Sirius came to find out that rotting in Azkaban gives you a lot of time to think. Granted, most of those thoughts are dreadful and dark, but you do have a lot of time to think about them.

With the lack of happy memories, all Sirius had left to think about was the betrayal of his friends and colleagues. Dementors can't touch those thoughts.

As the months went on Sirius dwelled on how quickly everyone he knew turned on him. How, after everything he had done in the name of the Light, everyone instantly believed that he was a Death Eater.

With each passing day, Sirius Black fell deeper and deeper into an abyss of despair and hatred until he became a twisted form of what he once was. He knew that no one was coming to help him, so all that there was left to do was to wallow in hatred.

One day in early summer (not that you can tell things like that from within Azkaban) a decrepit old woman came to visit Sirius.

It was his mother.

"Sirius Orion Black! You stupid fool! Only mudbloods are more imbecilic that you! Blacks do not get caught!"

Sirius stared at her. Somehow in her delirium, she had come to believe the stories of the newspapers.

"I must admit that even I believed that you had become a blood-traitor. When I heard that you were caught after the betrayal of those muggle-loving fools, then I knew why you had left for so long. I always knew that it was impossible for a Black to change his heritage! At least, none of my sons were capable of it, of that I made damn sure!"

Sirius continued to gape. He knew that she had become slightly crazed after an accident with an ancient blood potion, but she was downright insane right now.

Mrs. Black leaned forward with a twisted grin on her face. "That's why I have come to get you out of this hell hole. No Black deserves to waste his precious life away in a prison!" She turned around and made a motion with her hand. An old man whom Sirius had never seen before stepped forward into the light. She took out a vial of Polyjuice potion from her pocket.

The switch was surprisingly easy, the man who had been posing as Mrs. Blacks medical assistant (with the help of the imperius curse) turned into Sirius and Sirius turned into him. The two Blacks were safely at home by the time Mrs. Black made the order for the man to strangle himself.

And just like that, Sirius Black was free.

---

Sirius had been changed by the betrayal of his friends and the time he spent in Azkaban. He had become a little closer to the thin line between sanity and insanity. It was only to be expected after months of being surrounded by Dementors. However, this didn't mean that he had turned into a cruel man, just a different one.

His over-protectiveness of Harry had never ceased. After weeks of looking through some older newspaper articles he had finally found what he was looking for, the identification of Harry's current guardians. Sirius was disgusted with what he saw.

The Dursleys. Sirius had been there once with James and Lily shortly after graduation. They were some of the most frighteningly awful people Sirius had ever met, and Dumbledore had placed his Godson there?

That day Sirius decided that he would rescue his Godson from those evil people.

It hadn't been as hard as he thought it would be. The wards around Harry's house were tuned to keep out anyone who meant Harry harm or who were on a "watch list" created by the Ministry. That meant that Sirius couldn't get any further than number eight Privet Drive. So he waited until Petunia left with the kids to go to the grocery store.

While at the store it was easy to see how much Petunia hated Harry. If he found anything that made him happy, she would glare at him until he cowered. By the end of the trip, Sirius was furious. As soon as Petunia had her back turned, Sirius grabbed Harry and disapparated.

It was the happiest day of Petunia Dursley's life.