Chapter 4

Scarlet and orange, green and brown, heliotrope, and other colors moved through hallways as the students wearing the robes of those colors went towards their destinations. Certain colors stayed with their like colors while others split up. The rainbow of students would have been only vaguely similar to something far more familiar to Harry if he hadn't seen this before.

Harry's dreams and memories were coming back at a more frequent pace. Almost every night he would find himself inside of memories of the planet with the orange sky. Twice, he had even been awake when a new memory appeared. Needless to say, it was becoming problematic.

Harry woke up from his dream to the smell of something burning. The new information that he had received that night would have to wait to be catalogued until later. Harry raced down stairs and hoped, on whatever order was left in the universe, that Sirius wasn't trying to cook again.

Harry and Sirius had only been living in the small two-story house that they had bought for two weeks, and they had already had to magically put out fires four times. Rather, Sirius had to magically put out fires. Harry hadn't used any non-wandless magic since break and had instead made himself a fire extinguisher to use in times like this.

"Sirius!" Harry called into the kitchen doorway, almost afraid of what he'd find when he entered. "Please tell me that you're just sending some sort of smoke signal to someone."

Sirius' barking laugh was the only answer that Harry needed to confirm his worst suspicion. Sirius was at it again.

"I'm going to get this recipe perfect, Pup," Sirius said with a gesture to the black thing on the top of the stove. "When Moony moves in we'll have to be able to give him something to eat."

"I didn't know that you wanted to kill him!" Harry said as he pulled the charred remains of what was once food off of the stove. "I'll cook and you can find invite Moony and him to move in with us."

Sirius had brought up the tentative idea to Harry about Remus moving in with them. Harry immediately agreed. The werewolf, however, had been elusive all summer and neither Sirius nor Harry could get in contact with him despite the multiple letters that they sent him.

"The quidditch world cup is this Monday," Sirius said, changing the subject.

"Really? You've only brought it up multiple times a day for the last week," Harry began making eggs and Sirius tried to help before Harry swatted his hand away with a fake glare. "I'll do the cooking, you get the drinks."

Sirius pouted as he poured Harry a glass of pumpkin juice before he got a fire whiskey out of the cabinet for himself.

"No alcohol this early!" Harry shouted. "I honestly don't know who's taking care of who."

"You're too much like your mother," Sirius said. "I just wanted to celebrate the good news."

"What good new?"

"I got us tickets," Sirius said taking the time clearly pronounce each word. "To the Quidditch world cup!"

"Really?" Harry asked.

"Box seats," Sirius said. "Old Lucius was trying to buy them but was too late. You should have seen the look on his face when he complained that his little Draco wouldn't get to be in the best seats. Well, he was complaining in the way that Lords of Ancient and Noble Houses are supposed to complain, which is with his nose in the air and a snobby voice."

"That's brilliant!" Harry said.

"We're going to side along apperate there for the tournament and then come back when it's over." Sirius said. "I've already had to deal with quidditch campgrounds once and I don't plan on doing it again."

Harry cut up some fruit and put it in a bowl before he finished cooking breakfast. He sat both things on the table. Sirius dug into the food with gusto, putting even Ron to shame. He had listened to Harry and put the fire whiskey away for a later time.

Harry waited for Sirius to eat a bit before he started eating his own food. It was an old habit from his time with the Dursleys that he still hadn't broken. He spooned some fruit out on the side of his plate and picked a piece of it up on his fork. The fruit had barely passed his lips before he gagged and spit it out into a napkin.

"Ugh!" Harry said as he wiped his mouth and gulped down pumpkin juice. "That was disgusting. What was that?"

"I believe that it was a piece of pear," Sirius picked up a piece of similar looking fruit and ate it. "It tastes fine to me. Maybe you just got a bad piece?"

Harry tried another piece and had similar results to the first one. He shook his head.

"You used to love pears as a baby," Sirius said.

"I used to love pears earlier this year," Harry said. "I guess it's just another change." He mumbled the last part under his breath.

"What?" Sirius hadn't been able to make out what Harry had said.

"Nothing," Was Harry's too fast reply. "Can we go flying after breakfast?"

"I don't see why not,"

That was one of the things that Harry loved most about his and Sirius' new house. The house may have been relatively small, but it was on a huge plot of land. Sirius had been making plans to put in a quidditch pitch, but for the time being, it was fun to just fly around.

Thirty minutes after breakfast, one could find Sirius and Harry high in the air if one cared to look for them.

Sirius zoomed through the air on the fire bolt he bought for himself. Harry practiced feints and tricks near his godfather. They both kept an eye out for the snitch that they had released but it was neither of their main concerns.

Harry began circling the clearing in laps, pushing his broom to the limit. He closed his eyes and felt the wind in his hair. When he reopened them, however, he was no longer where he had been before.

He saw the now familiar orange sky surrounding him. He was sailing through the sky on a device whose name was just out of the reach of his memory. Before he could think any more about the vehicle that he was on, however, he pitched to the side in an uncontrolled tumble. He scrunched his eyes shut for a moment as he began to free fall, but quickly reopened them to find a way to stop.

When his eyes reopened, the first thing he saw was the blue sky of Earth. The second thing that he saw was Sirius' hand reaching down to catch him.

Harry grabbed ahold of Sirius with one hand and drew his wand out of his back pocket with the other.

"Accio fire bolt!" Harry had only read about the summoning spell once in one of the books that he had absorbed before he left the school. He wasn't even sure if it would work or if he had even pronounced the spell right.

Somehow, whether it was from correct spell pronunciation, increased magical talent, or pure desperation, the spell worked and Harry's fire bolt arched through the air straight towards Harry. Harry let go of Sirius' arm and grabbed the broom, hoisting himself back on.

The two wizards wasted no time in getting back to the ground. Harry collapsed into a sitting position. Sirius just stood tense with his eyes wide.

"Sirius," Harry looked up at his godfather through his messy hair. "I need to tell you something. Now might be a good time to get out the fire whiskey."

"Why didn't you tell me this sooner?" Sirius was too shocked to even touch the fire whiskey.

"I," Harry struggled to find an explanation. "I just didn't," Harry paused again and bit his lip in thought.

"Didn't what?" Sirius tried to force an explanation out of his godson. "Didn't think it was a big deal? Didn't think at all? Didn't trust me?"

"I didn't want to admit that it actually happened!" Harry yelled. "If I could just find a reasonable answer to it through magic or science or anything I could explain I might have been able to try to change it back. But I can't! I can't find anything. Hogwarts doesn't have anything but the basics on time turners and Hermione used one all year but knows almost nothing about them. Anything I tried to find online about it was classified and I even had some sort of captain from a government organization or something find me and, and. I'm sorry. I, I can leave if you don't want me here."

Harry made to stand up and run up to his room to grab his things and get out but was stopped by Sirius before he could even make it a foot from the couch.

"Sit back down," Sirius barked. "Don't even think about leaving. I didn't rot in a prison for twelve years under false accusations without a trial just to let you run off when I finally got out."

"But Sirius," Harry said. "There's something wrong with me."

"Don't you dare," Sirius said. "Don't you dare even start thinking that. If you think that I'm going to make you leave just because you're different, then you really don't get what it means to be a godfather. My family practically kicked me out because my magic is too light for a Black. There's no way that I'd do the same to you. And damn it, pup, we're going to do everything we can to get to the bottom of what happened, but even if we can't, you're not going anywhere."

"Thanks Sirius," Harry sniffed

"Of course, pup,"

"Sirius?"

"Yes, pup?"

"Shouldn't I have gotten a letter from the ministry about using my wand?"

"I," Sirius paused, not expecting the change in topic. "Yes, actually. Looks like we have another thing to research. I wish Moony were here. He reads a lot faster than I do."

"Well," Harry shrugged. "I can read a book by pretty much just looking at it."

Sirius looked at Harry for a few seconds before pouring himself a glass of fire whiskey. He tipped back the glass and downed it in one gulp.

"Well, let's get started,"

The morning of the Quidditch World Cup dawned clear and bright. Harry was, at that particular moment, very glad that he no longer required as much sleep as he once did as he had stayed up a good portion of the night reading through books acquired from the Black Library.

Sirius was not as lucky.

Harry watched in mild amusement as his godfather tripped over the kitchen table leg for the fourth time that morning. The coffee was still percolating in the coffee maker which meant that Sirius was still about as coherent as a zombie.

The coffee pot shut off with one last gurgle. Sirius jumped forward to get to the life giving black liquid but didn't even make it half way to the pot before he once again tripped over the table leg. Before he could get back up, Harry had already poured him a mug and put it in front of the chair that Sirius always sat in.

"Cream or sugar?" Harry asked, already knowing the answer.

"Nooooo," Sirius groaned as he hoisted himself into his chair. "I want it as black and bitter as my family."

Harry made himself a cup of tea while he waited for the caffeine to work its magic on his dogfather. Sirius grey eyes began to clear of the traces of sleep before he spoke again.

"You know, Harry," He said. "This was the best thing that I ever did to spite my mother. She always hated coffee. Said it was common and below the Ancient and Noble Black Family. She was wrong. It's amazing and wonderful."

Harry had already heard Sirius' speech praising coffee every morning Sirius had to wake up early, but he nodded along anyway. One of Sirius' main goals as a teenager seemed to have been rebelling against his family in every way possible. He had gotten tattoos, a motorbike, and muggle clothes. He made friends, and had even done a blood brother ritual, with the heir of a light house. He even consorted with muggle borns. In the end, Harry thought, Sirius might have been a better person because of his teenage rebellion.

"What time are we leaving?" Harry already knew the answer and was asking more of a way to prompt Sirius to get moving than to actually learn anything.

"In about," Sirius looked at the clock on the wall. "Oh, crap! We need to get ready now!"

Harry nodded as he watched Sirius down the rest of his coffee and run around the kitchen.

"Harry, why aren't you getting ready?" Sirius then looked at Harry who was still sitting at the table, already dressed for the day. "Oh, never mind, you brat."

Sirius and Harry made it to the quidditch stadium with plenty of time to spare. People from all over were already flooding into the stadium wearing memorabilia from both teams despite the fact that the doors hadn't been open for more than five minutes.

"Stay close, Harry," Sirius laid a hand on Harry's shoulder. He had become even more protective of Harry since the flying accident.

"Is the campground this bad?" Harry asked, having to yell to be heard over the crowd.

"It's worse," Sirius shuttered. "While people are walking in it's harder to get alcohol, make bets, and get into fights. They're doing that all the time in the campground. Me and your father actually tried fire whisky for the first time at a quidditch camp ground."

"Sirius," Harry said with a laugh. "I don't mean to offend you, but I think you have a drinking problem!"

"Not yet I don't," Sirius said. "But I might after a few years of having to be the head of house."

The two wizards continued their banter as they made their way to their seats. The Weasley family, along with Hermione and a small dirty blonde-haired girl that Harry didn't know, also had box seats. Ron had invited Harry to come with his family, but when he learned that Harry was going with Sirius, Ginny took the opportunity to invite one of her friends.

"Hello," the blonde girl came up to Harry before Ron even noticed that he was there. "The nargles don't like the way that time flows around you."

"Is that a good thing?" Harry asked.

"It is for you," The blonde said with a nod.

"Luna!" Ginny noticed her friend's absence from the rest of the group and ran up to her when she spotted her. "Oh, hi Harry. I didn't see you there."

"Hello, Ginny," Harry noticed that the youngest Weasley was far less timid than she was last year.

"I see you've met Luna," Ginny gestured to the girl Harry had been talking to. "Luna Lovegood, this is Harry Potter. Harry Potter, Luna Lovegood. Now that that's out of the way, how's your summer been?"

Harry, Ginny, and Luna talked for a bit before they were joined by Ron and Hermione. The friends conversed together for a while longer before the game started, all of them ignoring the minister when he entered the booth. Harry noticed that Sirius was glaring daggers at Minister Fudge as if he was planning on shoving him over the side of the railing. Harry left him to it. The marauder had enough sense to know how to make it look like an accident.

The game went on without much of a fuss and without the minister meeting an untimely demise. Harry and Sirius returned home. They only read about the possible death eater disturbance in the paper the next day. Both hoped that it was just some cruel prank.

All too soon, it was time for Harry to return to school. Harry and Sirius' research had yielded little fruit as of yet as a good amount of their research time was spent trying to avoid different curses set by members of the Black family to protect their favorite books. Harry had some books packed in his trunk to take to Hogwarts and Sirius promised to continue his research and send books to Harry while he was at school.

Sirius sent Harry off on the Hogwarts express making him promise not to do anything stupider than pranks and to not sign up for trouble.

Harry of course said that he'd try his best but wondered what Sirius could be talking about.

The meaning behind Sirius' words was revealed at the opening feast when Dumbledore gave his annual speech.

"This year," Dumbledore tried to salvage the situation after announcing that he had cancelled quidditch. "Hogwarts will be hosting the tri-wizard tournament!"

"Why do I have an awful feeling about this?" Harry said, wishing that Dumbledore could have waited until after he had finished eating to make the announcement. Harry's appetite was killed and his piece of cake would now go to waste.

Halloween was, in Harry's humble opinion, the absolute worst day of the entire year. Something bad always happened and he was somehow always involved in it. He didn't expect that Halloween to be any different.

The other two schools had shown up earlier in the year. Students from all three schools had been putting their names into the goblet responsible for choosing champions.

Harry had been too focused on study and research to pay much attention to the goblet. He had decided to take up arithmancy and ancient ruins on top of his other electives. Professor McGonagall was leery about him taking extra classes at first because of Harry's less than stellar performance in his other classes in the past. It wasn't that he was a horrible student. He just didn't apply himself in any class except Defense Against the Dark Arts. It took much begging and promises that he would prove himself to McGonagall before she gave in and allowed Harry to take the classes. Harry was hoping that he would receive a time turner for the classes so that he could study it, but while he was on a trial basis he had to prove that he could handle the classes by himself.

Despite the full time table, Harry excelled in almost all of his classes including divination. Professor Trelawny was thrilled to find a gifted student with the "inner eye". Harry just wanted to pass the class. The only class that he struggled in was astronomy. Arguing with the teacher about the proper names of stars and the placement of planets was, apparently, frowned upon.

The only time that Harry took notice of the people entering their names in the goblet was when Fred and George tried to enter theirs with disastrous consequences. Beards didn't suit either of them.

Because of Harry's lack of interest in the tournament, he wasn't paying much attention when the names were being selected from the goblet. In hindsight, he wished that he had been.

He absent mindedly noted the names of the three champions as he finished his piece of cake. Victor Krum, Fleur Delacour, and Cedric Diggory. Those three, he thought, would be interesting to watch.

"Now we have our three champions," Harry heard Dumbledore say. "I hope that you'll all give your champions every bit of support that you can! Even if you weren't chosen to participate directly in the tournament you have no idea how much your support and encouragement really helps the-,"

Whatever Dumbledore was going to say was interrupted by the goblet spitting out a piece of parchment for the fourth time that night.

"Harry Potter," Dumbledore after a long pause.

"Of course," Harry said as the hall seemed to all become angry at him at once. At least he had finished eating before this announcement was made so that his cake wouldn't go to waste this time. Harry stood up. Every eye in the great hall was on him, anticipating what he said next. "I didn't put my name in." He said, loud enough for everyone to hear. "I have to contact my legal guardian before anything else regarding myself and the tournament occurs." All of the reading and researching in the Black Library had led to him learning more about wizarding laws and no one in the ministry would willingly cross a Black heir. Sirius might hate his title, but it did have perks.

People scrambled to act. McGonagall had the sanity to attempt to contact Sirius. Dumbledore had to calm down the heads of the other schools. Snape had the audacity to attempt to force Harry into the room with the other champions but was stopped by Sprout. The students erupted into shouts and chattering.

In the confusion, Harry slipped on his invisibility cloak and sprinted out to the owlery.

He scribbled out a quick note to Sirius telling him in as few words as possible what had happened.

"Get this to Sirius as fast as you can," Harry told Hedwig as he handed her the letter. Hedwig took off.

Harry spent the rest of the night in the owlery under his invisibility cloak. He slept a few hours before he was woken up by Hedwig who was carrying a letter from Sirius.

Get what you need and meet me outside the shrieking shack as soon as you can. Don't expect to be back for a while.

-Padfoot

The sun had yet to rise and illuminate the grounds, but it was the ideal time for Harry to sneak back into his dorms. He took care to avoid professors and prefects making rounds as he expertly navigated the castle corridors. He was afraid that the portrait of The Fat Lady would give him trouble getting in, but when he arrived at her frame, still hidden under his invisibility cloak, he did the same thing that he had done with Pettigrew and willed her to quietly open. To his surprise, it worked.

Harry creeped up the stairs to the boys' dorms and grabbed his fire bolt and a couple changes of muggle clothing and threw them into the bag Sirius had bought him for his birthday that had expansion charms in the interior of it. He then retraced his steps back out of the castle and to the path by the womping willow.

Harry threw a rock and hit the knot on the tree that immobilized it before zipping down the passage. He emerged on the other side and made his way out of the shrieking shack to find Sirius waiting on him.

"We need to go," Sirius said. "I'll explain when we're someplace safer."

Harry nodded and grabbed onto Sirius. They side along apperated to a place a short distance away.

"They're going to make you compete and I'm not having it," Sirius said. "People have died in this competition and you didn't enter and I know you didn't because since you're my heir and I'm the head of house, I get made aware of any magical contracts that you make and I didn't know about this until ministry people floo called to say that if you didn't show up you can lose you're magic and be expelled." Sirius said all of that in one breath.

"What are we going to do then?" Harry asked. Although he was scared, he was far calmer than Sirius.

"We are going to get to a place where we can lay low until all of this passes," Sirius said. "But first, we need to get anyone who might be looking for us off of our trail. Especially Dumbledore. He's worse than useless when it comes to situations of innocence."

Sirius then once again grabbed Harry and apperated to many different locations before he let out a cry of pain. Sirius' shirt began to turn red as blood soaked into it. Sirius lifted up his shirt to reveal a large portion of skin on his side was missing. He had splinched himself.

"Sirius!" Harry yelled. "You need to get to a healer."

"No!" Sirius managed to say through the pain. "No one from our world. Not when you're life's at risk."

Harry groaned and looked around his surroundings before he let out a cry of relief.

"A hospital," Harry thanked whatever luck had let the accident happen that close to a place of help occur. "Sirius, can you make it across the road?"

Harry ended up having to have help getting Sirius into the hospital, but within thirty minutes, Sirius was checked in and Harry was left to wander around the hospital with only his thoughts of the previous night's events as company.

Not much was happening that early in the morning. There were a few patients coming in to be treated, but the hospital was, overall, quiet. Harry felt that something was off in the air but dismissed it as worry for Sirius and stress from the results of the goblet.

He passed a man with sticky uppy hair in a pin striped suit in the hallway who asked him directions on where to check in. Harry pointed the man in the correct direction before continuing his wandering. Outside of the man he talked to, the most interesting thing that Harry found was a little hospital shop. It was still closed but he decided to check it out when it opened.

Harry, though still worried, was content just waiting for Sirius to be allowed visitors. He should have known that things wouldn't stay quiet for long.

Author's Note: Good morning everybody! Or good evening, good night, or good mid afternoon depending on when you're reading this. Final Exams have been over for four days and I've already gotten you all a new chapter (my longest yet) and I'm a third of the way through writing the next one! It's been a good weekend for this author!

I hope that you all like this chapter! It's the start of what you've all been waiting for! It had a lot happen in it. I had to get through the entire summer and a few months of the school year in it.

Please review! It keeps me motivated for writing!

Thank you all!

-Aniala (catz4444)