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An Old and New World
by Lens of Sanity
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Chapter One: Freedom and Other Boring Things
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"Sirius we need to get her out of there!"
The two of them were searching through the wreckage of the once imposing #12 Grimmauld Place for as many spare wands as they could find.
"I've told you before Harry, she's evil, pure evil. Why won't you listen to me?"
Sirius Black still looked like death warmed over, barely warmed over at that, he'd been in Azkaban prison for about a third of his life, circumstances like that don't do good things to a person.
Harry rolled his eyes, "And I've told you a million times, that's what everyone said about you!" He paused to think a moment, "And me come to think of it. You should not be so quick to judge people Sirius."
Following a second attack from a swarm of pissed off Doxies they decided that they had found all the wands they were going to.
"It is not the same. You and I were actually innocent. She isn't innocent. Not at all, she even admitted guilt at her trial for Merlin's sake."
"So did you when they arrested you," Harry reminded him as he placed the eight wands on a table in the front room.
Placing the dozen he'd found Sirius let out a frustrated growl of irritation and looked down at what they had managed to scrounge together. Twenty was not so bad at all, way more than he was expecting at any rate.
"It's not the same, I was feeling guilty for your parents-, bah, I've explained this fifty times already, it's just not the same at all."
Rolling his eyes Harry started going through the collection one by one, stacking the friendly wands in one pile and the hostile ones in another. "I wish I could just go to Ollivander's."
Seizing hold of a change in topic the dog animagus jumped in, "Yeah, I know, but it was one of the things Albus had to give up in order to get you out of Azkaban, I'll be heading there soon to get a new wand, but you can't until you become of age, sorry. I suppose we could try one of the stores down Knockturn Alley but I'd bet anything that Lucius has already made sure you can't get one from there either, he sure worked hard enough to keep you wandless and out of Hogwarts."
"Are you sure my wand was really gone, couldn't someone have taken it when I was unconscious or something?" The friendly pile held only four, not much to choose from, and none of them came close to his old phoenix wand.
Sirius thought about it even though the question had been asked a thousand times. "I don't see how, it just wasn't anywhere when they looked for it. You'll just have to make do with one of those, at least for now." Sirius watched as Harry decided on a fairly standard pale stick about a foot long.
"This one is the best. Do you know anything about it?"
"That was my grandfather Pollux's wand, elm and dragon heartstring. From a Horntail if I remember, he used to boast about it when he was deep into his wine, and about how he used it to earn his Order of Merlin."
Harry nodded at this and, knowing he couldn't be tracked by the Ministry under the wards of House Black, did a simple measuring charm learned from Professor Flitwick in second year. "Twelve and a quarter inches, elm you said?" he nodded. "Yeah, it's not as good as my old one but it's not too bad either." Harry lost himself in thought for a moment, before he snapped back to awareness. "So how are we going to get her out of there?"
Sirius just groaned.
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Finishing off some kind of boiled sausage which Harry had decided never to eat again in his life, Azkaban food being tastier and probably more nutritious, he reluctantly changed the subject away from Bellatrix. The discussion of getting his friend out of prison could be shelved... at least for now.
"Are you going to teach me this totally impressive piece of magic you've been blathering on about for months or what?"
"The Patronus? Yeah we'll do it now, it won't take long seeing as you know the hard part anyway." Sirius had been amazed when Harry first produced a Patronus Mist, as he'd done it without a wand, no wand for Merlin's sake, and if Sirius had not felt the effects with his own senses he'd have said doing so at all was impossible. "Follow these wand motions, but don't do anything until I say you've got it exactly right."
For the next fifteen minutes Harry obliged, refraining from making any sarcastic comments, until he was up to his instructor's needlessly high standards.
"So, now what?" Harry asked irritably.
"Describe how you produce the mist." Describe it for the hundredth time he meant.
"You just come up with the happiest feeling you can, and then kind of force it out into the universe. Simply make it happen, I don't know, I don't really think about it, I just do it."
Sirius got the same look he always did at this explanation but eventually conceded. "On the last brandishing motion, force that feeling through the base of your wand and out of the tip, easy." Harry locked eyes with him for the longest time, eventually he just sighed and got on with it.
"Expecto Patronum!"
The familiar silvery mist coalesced into the well-defined shape of a powerful and majestic animal. Harry got up from where he was lounging and peered closely at it, ignoring his companion's startled expression. It wasn't like the magic was any harder with a wand, so he don't get why Sirius seemed so amazed.
"You know Padfoot, I think you're right, this is kind of cool. Flashy magic, like what you'd use when you want to be all impressive at people." The green eyed boy said this watching the construct pad powerfully about the room with intelligence as it sought out threats. Eventually he let the silvery image dissolve. "What do you want to do now? … Well?"
"I guess I shouldn't be surprised you got it first time..." Though for some reason he clearly was surprised, "...do today? Whatever you want, you're going back to Hogwarts in a few days, do you think you're ready?"
"No idea, should I not be in my third year though? I don't see why they'd advance me when I didn't do a single third year class."
"That was Albus again. I think he wants you in the same class as your old friends." Harry's face twisted at that addition.
Who the hell cared? It's not like they mattered anymore, where were they when he was in Azkaban? Safe and sound that's where, good luck to them, and good riddance. Hermione was alive, fine, that's all Harry wanted to know. With today's paper once again proclaiming him released on a technicality, and that he's a dangerous threat to society, it was just so obvious how much fun his school chums were going to be.
'I'm the intimidating, blood splattered Heir of Slytherin remember; fear me bwahahahaha. Maybe I should get robes with Dark Lord stencilled on the back, really play up my evil side.'
Harry shook himself from his internal monologue and commented, "Whatever Padfoot, how about you teach me some wandwork so I'm not as rusty when I get there, there's no doubt I'll have to defend myself from pretty much everyone at one point or another this year."
Picking up one of the spare wands Sirius started on Precision Casting, showing the recently turned fourteen year old a simple shield to start. "Remember focus on accurate motions, and make them as tiny as possible so your opponent can't easily tell what you're casting."
They spent most of the day this way.
It was not all that different from prison really.
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A smile broke across Harry's face as a fondly remembered snowy owl swooped into the kitchen, the grumbling house‑elf having been kicked out quite tersely earlier, and attached to her talons was a parchment etched in a precise hand.
"Hey Hedwig, did you miss me as much as I missed you?" he asked, throwing the letter into a Victorian style oven unopened.
She nibbled his ear affectionately for a long while as he stroked her feathers gently, with all the love in the world. The animagus walked in on this scene and stood there looking at them strangely for a few seconds before blurting, "We should get your school supplies today Harry."
"I honestly can't be bothered, get the elf to do it." Sirius just looked at the kid like he was crazy. "Yeah, now I say it out loud that's probably a bad idea." Envisioning how everything would come back covered in dirt or something... no, Muggle blood. Absolutely everything would be soaked in the life's blood of a thousand dead Muggles if that mental elf had his way.
"Get ready right now. I might even buy you a broom once we're done."
"Don't bother, I got most of my stuff back so I still have my Nimbus 2000, y'know I'm pretty sure Professor McGonagall had a lot more to do with my getting that broom than she let on," Harry said, returning with a cloak.
"Probably, she was always nuts about Griffindor winning the Quidditch Cup when I went to Hogwarts." They flooed to the Leaky Cauldron and Harry fell flat on his arse, much to the amusement of the older man.
"Laugh it up, I'm the only one with a wand remember." He tried for an intimidating glare but it failed utterly. "Screw it, go to Ollivander's on your own I'll sort myself out, I could use a break from all of your annoying cheerfulness."
Other than the occasionally fearful looks thrown his way, Harry got his shopping done with very little drama. That was until he'd just finished paying for all the books on this year's list, and as he was about ready to exit Flourish & Blotts. He heard the easily recognisable twang of the junior Malfoy interrupt his musings. "Well if it isn't-,"
Fist slamming into the side of the blonde's neck and a hand roughly taking hold of his collar, Draco Malfoy's doubtlessly callous comment was cut short. With what was sure to be a surprised look gracing his face, Draco found himself unceremoniously tossed through the plate glass window, and out into the middle of Diagon Alley.
Spying his godfather Harry carelessly pushed past the boy's two stupefied bodyguards and simply stated, "All done here, ready to head home?" as he stepped over the groaning teenager.
Sirius looked at the scene and obviously came to the conclusion that it was funny as hell because he said nothing, instead taking the broken glass and lacerated boy in stride. "Sounds good to me, I was going to stop for lunch at the Cauldron but now I've kind of lost my appetite."
"I'll cook this time, you're terrible at it, and I'm sure the elf is trying to accidentally poison us. Hmm," he paused to think for a moment, "...can you eat house‑elf Sirius? That would kill two birds with one stone."
They chatted on about nothing really and slowly made their way back to the floo.
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The day of September the first dawned as it did every year, bright eyed children eager to get on with a new year's learning, or not learning depending on the student, at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Harry rolled over and abruptly fell back to sleep. Eventually he was awoken again at five minutes to ten and commanded to shower and be ready for a side‑along apparition to the Express.
"Why don't we just crack to Hogsmeade? That way I won't have to spend seven friggin' hours on a train full of schoolsheep."
"Stop your bitching Harry and get ready, I'll see you this weekend if you can find that secret entrance I told you about. Oh, and remember to get a Prophet today, you'll like the headline." Harry Potter was a very typical teenage schoolchild in that he really didn't want to go to school following his summer holidays, though the reasons he didn't want to go back to school were slightly more peculiar.
Harry was famous, world renowned even, known the world over for the deeds of his youth. The next Dark Lord, people cower in fear at the mere mention of his name, did you know he once defeated the most powerful dark wizard in history, when he was a baby? A baby for goodness sake, he must have the power to turn continents to dust, and scatter the armies of all those opposing him with nothing but the wave of his hand.
Bah.
Two years ago, he was a hero, a vaunted world saviour type. The kind of child who you hope will grow up to marry your daughter. Then it's bam; who murdered and then ate a fellow student, and oh look, who offed poor stuttering Quirrelmort. Prison and then hatred.
Finishing the shower and brushing his teeth Harry decided that there had to be a better way of cleaning ones teeth than a fool Muggle toothbrush, and once downstairs he asked as much to his godfather. "Yeah, the incantation is 'Integrum Restituere' but I don't know the wand motions so just overpower it until it works."
"Did you not say that the wandmotion was important for efficiency and power spell casting?" He asked catching the older man out on his ridiculous and contradictory advice.
"You're not going to be brushing your teeth in a duel, just do it and stop whinging." Sticking the Horntail wand in his mouth he tried it and found it to be pleasantly effective. Hmm. "Shrink your gear and let's get you out of here, the Hogwarts Express leaves in less than ten minutes."
He grumpily obeyed, and a quarter of an hour later Harry was unable to find an empty compartment. Spying one with a single third year and three second years, one of whom was likely the brother of the older, he crashed open the door glaring with as much malevolence as his fourteen year old frame could manage. "What are you all doing in my compartment," he growled in a tone he hoped was menacing. "Get the hell out of here, and is that a Prophet? I'll take that too," commanded the onetime saviour in a voice that demand obedience, an extended finger pointing at the door.
They predictably scuttled out and he placed the locking spell 'Colloportus' he'd learned a while back, and a privacy charm Sirius had said was invented by Snape of all people 'Muffliato,' then set about ignoring anything that was happening out in the hall with studious diligence.
Dark Lord Potter Senselessly Attacks Innocent Schoolboy
by Rita Skeeter
Oh this was going to be a winner, he'd have to thank Padfoot for finding such a good way to cheer him up at the start of term. More than anything it made him wish Bella was there, she was always on Harry's side.
Once he got through the article, which was about how a brave Draco Malfoy had nobly stood up to a deranged lunatic and somehow chased him off with only minor injuries, he caught a bushy-haired brunette in his peripheral vision. She was hammering on the door, but the privacy ward was keeping it silent and he could pretend not to notice as he turned to gaze out of the window.
She didn't go away for over an hour.
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It was considerably more difficult to ignore his onetime friend at the feast seeing as she sat disturbingly close, but in a brilliant flash of foresight Harry had hit her with a 'Muffliato' before she got close, so all he could hear when she made any noise was a kind of unidentified buzzing.
Other than the occasional shake, and the oh‑so‑familiar looks of fear pointed in his direction, Harry found the feast surprisingly good. The food for one was the best he'd had since, well... being at Hogwarts near the end of his second year.
Madam Pomfrey, Hogwarts school nurse and Headmaster Dumbledore's private physician, had been giving nutrient and stabilising potions to both Sirius and Harry since they got out of Azkaban, and he found himself enjoying one with his meal. The nutrient potions were actually quite tasty, an oddity as most potions seemed to taste like they'd been brewed in a running sock. Harry had made sure to learn a glamour which would make what he was drinking appear the same colour and consistency as human blood, but that in no way contributed to the looks of fear on the students faces.
Listening to the old man's announcement Harry found himself interested in this upcoming tournament, even if he was disappointed that there would be no Quidditch this year. It had been far too long since he had last flown.
Then a horrible thought occurred to him. "Bloody fucking hell, I'm going to be forced into this damn thing aren't I!" It was not a question. This world did not exist so that Harry Potter could simply sit back and watch a horrendously dangerous tournament such as was described without somehow having to be in it.
Later that night, through the charmed mirrors, Sirius Black reluctantly agreed with this assessment.
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Sirius had yelled at the Headmaster many times in the weeks between the welcoming feast and Halloween, each time met with assurances that there was no danger, cementing in both their minds that this whole thing was simply going to be inevitable.
Harry was forced to step up from simply ignoring the silent brunette, to ignoring her and also hitting her regularly with 'Aculeus' the mild Stinging Hex. She was for some reason very persistent. The redhead Harry once thought of as a friend was much more peaceable, seeing as how he had given up after his first attempt.
Over the past two months Harry had become much more accomplished at sneaking about, he had spent time with his godfather regularly, and knew his way around the Restricted Section probably as well as any save the Librarian herself. The two newly released prisoners were taking no chances, people were trying to kill them and the sensible thing to do is to be vigilant.
In the words of Harry's new, and most hated Professor 'Constant Vigilance.' Honestly the axe crazy sociopath seemed to take these Dark Lord rumours ten times more seriously than even the most paranoid of the sheep. Harry throwing off his Imperius Curse like it was nothing probably did him more harm than good in that respect.
"Still, being immune to the Imperius for life is worth being turned into a ferret for twenty seconds, fucking Malfoy he started it, how is it my fault if I was forced to be the one who ended it?" he muttered aloud, if a little under his breath.
"Did you say something Harry?" The bushy haired fifteen year old asked in a tone which was approaching zealous levels.
Harry ignored her with a practiced ease, instead focusing on the hopefuls in the hall. He dismissed the Hogwarts students for the obvious reason, it was clear to him now that none of them could possibly be chosen. There were only three slots in the Triwizard Tournament, and as he was in Hogwarts robes, this meant it was only down to the Durmstrang and Beauxbatons students who could conceivably be picked by this Goblet of Fire.
There were a few in Durmstrang uniforms who might get a crack at it, there was a student named Athena Manos who Sirius mentioned was probably the granddaughter to some big nuts Greek gangster-politician, and on further investigation turned out to be a shoe in for next season's Duelling Circuit.
Victor Krum was a big name too, the World Cup had apparently been held in England this year and he'd been the guy who caught the Snitch, winning the final for Bulgaria. From the sounds of things he was the only player on their team too, so that meant even though Bulgaria won by a mere twenty points, he seemed to have done the whole thing alone.
It was hard to say much about the French contingent, not because they were incompetent or anything, just that they had this Veela girl sitting in the middle of their group, and it seemed pathetic how everyone was fawning over her meagre little aura. Harry really hoped that someone other than her got chosen, even though he couldn't come up with anything about the other classmates, he just didn't want to find himself dealing with a conceited bitch.
"Representing Durmstrang; Victor Krum."
There were cheers, and Harry clapped along uncharacteristically, he wanted to see how Krum did off a broom as much as everyone else.
"Representing Hogwarts;" Here it comes 'Harry Potter,' yes, yes, we all know by now I'm in this, just get on with it. "Angelina Johnson."
"WHAT?" Oh thank the fucking gods for that one. He was just being paranoid. He'd take just being paranoid over having to get killed in this fool contest.
"Representing Beauxbatons; Fleur Delacour." Harry clapped exactly as enthusiastically as the other aura-addled morons, it was so worth it. An annoying champion was a solid win in the face of such good news.
Yeah, Harry wasn't happy about what happened next.