Sirius read the diary with something akin to shock.
Harry's cousin...was a Magus. And one who lived in the territory of another Magus who was aware that Harry was a wizard. Harry had managed to get the girl off his back, but now she was watching him and by extension his cousin.
Magi and Wizards hadn't gotten along since the Dark Ages, when Magi moved with the times...and wizards stayed the same. The fights between the two groups got so bad that all out war was about to break out until someone came up with the idea of splitting the two completely.
Every since then, a tenuous peace had been kept, but only just.
And now his godson was living with a Magus who was unaware of the fact that the two groups hated each other with a passion. Of all the things that could have happened, that was one thing he never expected to.
He had few options at this point.
He could stay behind the wards of Grimmauld place and slowly die inside each day. He could tell Dumbledore where the boy was and allow him to bring Harry back to England away from the Magi. Or, and this was what he was leaning heavily on at this point, he could leave England and join Harry and his cousin to teach them both magic.
The Black family had a few Magi tomes from raids after they had killed the Magi in question. One of the Black family mottos was to never throw away anything magical. You never knew when it could come in handy. One of the books even said how to create magic circuits, like the Magi used.
With Hogwarts starting up again, Dumbledore would make fewer appearances. He couldn't leave the school with the teacher the Ministry was forcing on them. That was just asking for trouble.
And the only person who was liable to even notice what he was doing was Remus. With all the rows between Sirius and Dumbledore over being let out, everyone mostly avoided him.
He couldn't honestly claim to even contribute to the Order anymore.
After the third month Harry had left England, Sirius made up his mind after a particularly snide remark from Snape about how he was less than useless because of his status as a convict.
He was going to find Harry and teach the boys magic. With the books he had, he would be of more use there than he was in the Order. He would leave the diary to Remus in case the man wanted to join them.
Harry read the words on the page in disbelief.
"What's up?"
"Sirius, he wants to know if it's alright to stay here, since he's been stuck doing nothing in England. He said he has some books that might help us learn magic."
"Are you sure? I thought your wand wouldn't respond to me?"
"According to him, his family has a few books on Magus magic, since they had a few...disagreements with them in the past and raided the houses after. One of them mentions magical circuits."
Shiro's eyes widened. He had never really gotten the hang of magical circuits, and had resorted to using his nerves instead.
"Well we do have a lot of space here..."
"I don't know if he can cook or not."
"Better not chance it. Who knows, he might hit it off with Fuji-nee."
Sirius arrived at the Emiya estate in his canine form, which had Shiro looking at him with misgivings until he became human again.
"It was a real pain sneaking onto that aero plane thingy."
"They're called airplanes, not aero planes."
"So where's this cousin of yours?"
"He's right in front of you," said Harry with amusement.
Sirius held out his hand, and Shiro shook it without question.
"Sirius Black."
"Emiya Shiro."
Sirius pulled out a few books and finally found the one he wanted. After casting a minor translation charm on it, he handed it to Shiro.
Everything You Need to Know About Magic Circuits, and What NOT to Do.
Shiro soon started to read the book...before banging his head on the table in disbelief.
Apparently he had gone about it all wrong for years and didn't think to ask his father about it. Fortunately he was still young enough to access them properly...but they would be slightly diminished because he hadn't known how to use them correctly.
The only real issue with Sirius' arrival came when Tohsaka confronted him. Apparently she had noticed the new wizard in her area and wasn't pleased about it.
"I can tolerate you being here, you rarely do anything to annoy me. But I will not allow more of you walking around like you own the place!"
"Just out of curiosity, what does your family's magical crest look like?"
The question threw Rin for a loop, before she said hotly "What's it to you what it looks like?"
"My godfather mentioned that one of the families his ancestors raided was called Tohsaka. Or at least sounded like it anyway. They have a weird crest like shape on the back of the books and I was curious if it was your family."
Rin blinked. A hundred years ago her family was attacked by wizards, which was part of the reason she hated them so much. So she drew a rough outline of what her magical crest looked like. Harry nodded in satisfaction.
"I think we have some books that belong to you. I can bring them to school tomorrow if you want. We don't have any real use for them since they're too advanced for us. We couldn't make heads or tails of them."
"Bring them here two hours before school. If they are from my family I want them back," said Rin.
The next morning Harry showed up two hours early and he had the books with him. Rin took one look at the crests on the back and her jaw dropped in absolute shock. He had several missing magical tomes and notes from her ancestors which were thought destroyed.
"What do you want in exchange for these?"
She wasn't a fool. He had to want something if he was giving these back.
"You're pretty good at Magi-style magic right?"
"Yes. What of it?"
"My cousin Shiro is relearning how to use his magical circuits. Unfortunately we barely know anything about how to use them or cast your kind of spells. How about in exchange for returning your family books you help him out?"
"Am I allowed to boss him around?" she asked.
"So long as you don't go overboard. He really wasn't able to learn much from his dad before he passed away."
"What was his father's name?"
"Kiritsugu Emiya."
Rin's jaw dropped again. Shiro was the son of the Magus Killer?!
"You have a deal!"
Shiro was less than happy that Harry had made a deal involving him. However when he learned why Harry did it, he admitted the younger boy had a point. Without a decent teacher Shiro would get nowhere fast. He barely ranked apprentice level when it came to magic as it was.
Tohsaka had been horrified to learn he had used his nerves as magic circuits for years. At least he had found the problem and took steps to correct it. She was less than impressed with Sirius Black, but they had reached an agreement.
They would ignore each other in exchange for Sirius not doing anything that would anger her, since it was technically her territory.
He still had a good laugh at the way Tohsaka bossed Shiro around when it came to magic. Apparently returning the books had brought them into her good graces, which had tipped the scales in their favor.
So long as she allowed them to live there, the Ministry and the Magus Association couldn't touch them. That meant they couldn't send any Aurors to try and arrest Sirius, and dementors would be met with extreme prejudice.
If he had known that before, Sirius would have bartered with a friendly Magus a hell of a lot sooner.
If anything, by joining forces with the Tohsaka heir, Harry gained a distinct advantage over Voldemort and the Ministry. Since Shiro wasn't about to suffer alone under the girl's exacting standards, he convinced the Magus to unlock Harry's circuits as well.
She honestly didn't see a problem with it, since it meant she could torture Harry under the guise of training him in magic. Sirius was too old for it, but he could still laugh at the boy's suffering.
However Harry ended up surprising both of the more experienced Magi. Once he was told how to use the circuits Rin awoke in him (which hurt like a bitch but he didn't cry out that much, barely a whimper according to a surprised Sirius) he ended up taking to it like a duck to water.
He was better than Shiro was, which somewhat annoyed his cousin.
Rin quickly figured out what Harry's element was, once she studied his prana. His Element was Wind. Since Sirius began Harry's animagus training, Harry was soon about to start the transformation process.
Apparently his Element influenced his animal form, because Harry was something with wings and feathers.
He would almost say it was a dragon, except he had never heard of a dragon that had feathers on it's wings.
As Shiro lay in his futon, he thought back to when his life changed again. And it all started when his cousin first found him. Harry had changed a lot of things in Shiro's life, and he could honestly say he preferred the chaos that it had become to the way it was before.
Harry had livened up his home, and made things more interesting. He had never dismissed Shiro's dream to help others, in fact he was more interested in helping Shiro accomplish that dream. When asked, Harry mentioned that a friend had once said he had a 'saving people' complex.
They were so alike that it was scary sometimes. The two of them just clicked. And Shiro couldn't help but think his adopted father would have liked Harry too.
Another thing was that Harry often went out of his way to help Sakura with her brother Shinji. Some days, Shiro wondered why he was even friends with the boy, since he was a bit of an ass.
But what Shiro loved the most was that Harry shared his ability and passion for magic. It wasn't until they both realized they were from two different schools that they hit a snag, but even that was overcome because they didn't hate each other or think the other way was wrong. Harry loved magic purely for it's own sake. He didn't think magic circuits were bad, just different. The only thing he didn't like were the Unforgivables from wizard's magic, and that because they were so easily abused.
Hell, thanks to Harry, Shiro finally found out what he had been doing wrong with his magic and he had finally gotten past reinforcement.
When Sirius showed up, things livened up even more. Fuji-nee kept shooting him speculative glances occasionally. Because of the two wizards in his home, he finally felt like something that had been missing since his dad died fall back into place.
It was like he was living with a family again. Harry and Sirius never asked for anything but a place to stay and someone to talk to. And after a while, they really grew on him. So much so that he was having trouble remembering how lonely it was after Kiritsugu died.
As Shiro lay there, thinking about how things had changed for the better, he couldn't help but fall asleep with a grin on his face.
Time Skip One year, Six Months, and Two weeks...
In the past year, few things had changed as much as life in Shiro's house. For starters Sirius was dating Taiga, who apparently had a thing for older men. The fact the man was slightly over thirty helped a bit with her grandfather and her family.
Another thing that had changed was that Remus, Harry's other uncle and known werewolf, came to visit and ended up staying. All he had to do to earn approval from Rin was debate magic with the girl. Because of the fact he was a werewolf, he sometimes came into contact with Magi and knew a bit more than Sirius had when he first arrived. Aside from those three, no other wizards dared come that deep into known Magus territory.
Thanks in part to Rin, Harry was now a registered animagus and he had come far into his attempts at using magical circuits instead of wands. As long as he passed the Ministry exams, they could care less what sort of magic he studied.
Rin had finally managed to figure out what his origin was, and to be blunt it had shocked her at the time.
Harry's origin was Magic, plain and simple. It certainly explained how he was able to handle the strain of learning both wand and circuit based magic without blowing his core out like Sirius initially had feared.
Because of her teachings, both Shiro and Harry could competently be called Magi, though they still ranked at apprentice level. Their debates, on the other hand, went up to actual Magi level.
Sirius had called his godson a misplaced Ravenclaw when he first heard him debating a particular style of magic with Rin.
Another change was that Sakura had accidentally revealed to be a fellow Magi one night when Harry caught her reading a book with an odd crest that Rin only barely recognized.
He later learned it belonged to the family she was adopted into. After that, she started to come around more often and stayed over nights debating with Rin and the others.
Harry could tell Rin appreciated the chance to see her sister. Even if it annoyed Shinji to no end when Harry unofficially banned the boy from ever returning.
When asked by Shiro, all Harry would say was that Shinji was the Magi equivalent of a Malfoy, and a particularly annoying one at that.
The Emiya household had become something of a school for magic for those who could use it. Having teachers like Rin and Remus really helped those who lived there progress farther than they would have on their own. Though Taiga was the only one kept out of the loop.
To Sakura, the Emiya household was a safe haven from her family. To Rin, it was a place to chat with her peers and to debate magic without having to worry about offending the others too much. To Sirius it was a place to get to know his godson, who's life he missed out of. To Remus, it was a home that accepted everything about him, good and bad. To Harry, it was the chance to actually live his life the way he wanted, not how others dictated it.
But to Shiro, the house had become more than just a house. It had become a real home, something that had been missing since Kiritsugu died. Everyone treated the others civilly and with respect, yet they acknowledge the others privacy.
No one had ever entered his workshop without asking. And that was something he took pleasure in.