We're just going to brush past the fact that it's been a few months since the last chapter and move on. I'm back and ready to plot world domination with the profits from these fanfictions.
The current standings are four yes votes and two nay votes regarding if there should be a pairing. Add your opinion in the comment section!
"Pinky, how much money have we made so far?" Brain yelled from his laptop.
"None, you can't make money from fanfictions." Pinky yelled back from the front desk of the library from which they were bootlegging Wi-Fi. And with that sentence, Brain knew, he didn't need to refute a claim to owning a multi-million-dollar conglomerate.
6_6
Dumbledore was worried, no, scratch that, he was deeply terrified. He came back from a meeting with a prospective DADA teacher, only to see that his instrument that was supposed to be monitoring Harry Potter had stopped working. Either that, or Harry had gone under enchantments and wards sufficient to block out the Hogwarts Headmaster's magic. After running several complicated tests, Albus knew that the machine was working fine. That left only one conclusion: Harry was underneath wards. But why hadn't Harry hit the button on his watch? Maybe he was with a friend, the Greengrass's house might have had wards capable of keeping Dumbledore's power out. Albus was staring intently at the whir of metal components and contemplating summoning the Order when the machine started back up again. Dumbledore tapped it with his wand, and it projected a holographic image of what Harry was seeing (Dumbledore had enchanted Harry's glasses at a young age for this reason.) Harry was standing outside a rather posh, if not dusty London home. Harry grabbed someone's hand and then they apparated. All Albus could see was a fuzzy black square, akin to the modern muggle telly of the time when without 'kay-bill'.
When the vision came back into focus, it seemed that Harry was in Diagon Alley. Harry walked up to Gringotts and then looked to his left and saw not a person, but a shaggy black dog. The picture then went out of focus again, due to Gringotts's extensive enchantments and wards ensuring their clients' privacy. Albus grabbed the machine and apparated directly to the Minister's Office and demanded to see the list of registered animagi. The only registered animagus with a dog form was a 110-year-old woman. Regardless of her age, she could transform into a grey miniature schnauzer, not a big black behemoth of a dog. Albus apparated back to the school and then called an emergency meeting of the Order of the Phoenix; it had been confirmed in Albus's mind that Harry had been abducted by a dangerous and mysterious stranger who was unafraid to break laws.
"Alastor, it is of the utmost importance that you find and retrieve young Harry. I worry to think what might be happening to Harry, he seemed to willingly go with whomever it was into Gringotts and hasn't left yet.
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Said dangerous lawbreaker was found on the floor of the Potter vaults taking a nap. He was jerking and jolting in his sleep, not dissimilar to a dog. Harry woke up to a rather loud grunt from Sirius, eerily like a dog's bark. From what Harry had heard, Sirius had been more damaged by his time in prison than he had let on. Harry guessed that the main result was that the line between Sirius and Padfoot had become a cooked piece of spaghetti. Man had become part dog, and vice versa.
It was at this moment that Harry noticed that the grimoire was still on his head. He looked through the instruction manual and found that it stated that you will fall asleep after putting the hat on. While you sleep, it will transfer the spells and wand movements to you. When you wake up, take off the hat and return it to its resting place on the pedestal in the Potter Family artifact vault. Harry did just that, and then woke up Sirius.
"Sirius, wake up. We need to get going." Harry spoke as he shook his shaggy godfather.
"Wuh? Oh, it's you Harry. Yeah, I guess I fell asleep. Now I know we need to get something else from here. Why don't you look around and see if anything piques your interest while I try to remember?" Sirius then got up and started to pace around the room, looking through the various piles of books, artifacts, furniture, and paraphernalia that was strewn across the grand room.
While walking across the room, Harry found another invisibility cloak, except this one didn't work as well as his. Instead, the cloak would flicker into being every few seconds, giving up the guise of invisibility. A few minutes of rummaging later, Harry found a whole pile of similar cloaks. Harry assumed that the cloaks either all wore out eventually and this is where they were put, or, that the cloaks were failed attempts to recreate Harry's cloak. Either way, it added to the sense of home that emanated from this place. It was a warm feeling, as if love was enchanted into the very walls of the room. Kind of like the feeling he had at the burrow, just a content feeling that everything in the world was 'right.'
As Harry walked around, he found a necklace that protected the wearer from mental manipulation and invasion, a ring that could unlock most any door by simply touching the ring to the door, and a portrait that bore a striking resemblance to his father. If possible, the face looked more mature, if maturity was a facial expression. It was then that Harry noticed that the whole wall was covered in portraits. Unlike the pictures in the book given to him by Hagrid, these portraits didn't move, however.
"Hey, Sirius! What're all these paintings here for?" Harry yelled across to the still pacing Sirius.
"That'll do it! Brilliant, Harry, just bloody brilliant! I'll wake Charlus up and he can tell us where the will would be." With that said, Sirius waved his wand in an intricate pattern and finished with saying "Sucsitatio Figulus" and thereby waking up Charlus. Charlus yawned and then opened his eyes, and to his surprise, he saw his surroundings.
"Sirius?" At Sirius's nod, Charlus turned his head to face his grandson. "Harry?" Once again being confirmed, he continued to speak. "Look at how old you both are! You're positively ancient, Sirius! What, must you be nearing 50! And Harry, I must say you look like you've gotten the best of both of your parents from your looks. How come I'm only now being awakened?"
Sirius was crying. "I've missed you, Charlus. Long story short, everybody thinks that I was the secret keeper for James and Lily. I need to find some legal document written by James or Lily stating that I wasn't their secret keeper so that I can be cleared of that charge. Do you know of any that could work?"
"Legal documents, hmm. We gave a check for Peter to buy a home to live in while being their secret keeper, but the check wouldn't say that. Couldn't they just testify in court?" Charlus asked hopefully.
"I'm afraid that wouldn't work. The legitimacy of their claims can't be proved. Besides, I can't find James or Lily's portraits anywhere here. We need some piece of tangible evidence proving my innocence." Sirius was going to continue, only to be interrupted by Charlus.
"Wait, you said that you were already in Azkaban? Then that means that you must've been on trial before now, surely." At Sirius's shake of his head, Charlus's face lit up. "Well then, son, I have a solution even if it isn't the one you were looking for. I quote from section five of article 37 of the pureblood bill of rights, 'If a pureblood is found to be put to jail for a crime without due process and a trial being upheld, they shall be freed and reimbursed with 1000 galleons for each month spent in jail. Their legal record shall be wiped free of the accident and the people responsible for their imprisonment shall be fully investigated by the DMLE. Any persons found guilty of attempting to impede the fulfillment of this law shall be imprisoned in the Manchester High Security Prison for up to 5 years.' I believe the Pureblood Bill of Rights in its entirety can be found in the library of Diagon Alley. The purebloods and aristocrats of the time were worried that the French Reign of Terror would spread into Magical Britain, and so they made a long and lengthy document protecting the rights of Purebloods. By the laws in said document, you, my friend, are freed. The laws are sure to be upheld. If the laws were ignored, they would set a precedent which none of the purebloods in the Wizengamot would stand for. The question you need now answer is: who else wasn't given due process, and do you want to see them freed?"
6_6
A few minutes later Harry and Padfoot were seen walking out of Gringotts by a certain one-eyed auror. Alastor kept his eye on Harry as the boy merged into the crowd. Surprisingly, passersby didn't seem to take notice that the Boy-Who-Lived was walking amongst them. Alastor's magical eye picked up on a powerful conspicuity charm that was cast on Harry and had Harry's magical signature on it. That didn't make sense, though, as Harry shouldn't know the spell, let alone be able to cast it. It was a complicated charm that was taught in 6th year, not easily doable for a 3rd year wizard. Not to mention the trace and all that the lack of ministerial letter implied.
Regardless, Harry was walking at a breakneck pace towards the leaky cauldron, and if Alastor didn't catch up, he'd lose track of Harry. When he got to the pub, he saw Harry sprinting out of the front door, Alastor had no choice but to chase after him. And run, Moody did. With the pegleg hampering his speed, Alastor only caught the tail end of Harry as he ran down alley ways and roads of muggle London. This way, and that, they twisted and turned deeper into the inner part of the city. It seemed like Harry would wait for Moody to catch up before taking the next turn.
Finally, after hours of running, Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody had caught up with his prey. Here Harry was, dancing a jig in front of Big Ben. Alastor walked up to Harry, and it dawned on him: Moody had been fooled. All along, this was a complex and ingenious illusion cast by Harry in his own likeness to lead Alastor astray into muggle London and let Harry make a clean getaway. Harry somehow knew that Moody had seen him, and then cast this spell that even Alastor himself didn't know. Something strange was afoot indeed. He needed to go back to the Leaky Cauldron and trace Harry's steps from there. It had been a while since Moody had a hunt like this, and his blood was now pumping. Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody had been fooled for the first time in a long while, and he was not intending to sleep until the hunt ended. Harry Potter was turning out to be a worthy adversary.
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Harry was rapidly adapting to his new spell repertoire. While he was panting with exhaustion from casting the Illusion, he was grinning ear to ear. Whomever that was that was following Harry now had a few hours of time guaranteed to be wasted chasing through the inner city of London. Harry got up from underneath the table he was hiding under and made his way out of the Leaky Cauldron. As he made his way to an unused ally, Padfoot transformed back to Sirius. They apparated back to Grimmauld Place. Tomorrow, they'd march on to the ministry and demand Sirius's freedom.