Hadrian Potter- The Snake like Lion

by Lord of mystics

3 year old Harry Potter is abducted from Privet Drive by Remus Lupin at the behest of Lord Black who is desperate for a heir. While Harry grows up away from Wizarding World, Arcturus is also hot in the pursuit of Horcruxes he knew from Kreacher. Complete AU. Completed story. New Part is up.

7. Chapter 7

Fourth Floor

Harry and Neville were waiting for Daphne where they had decided to meet in an abandoned room on the fourth floor. Daphne came in the room and Harry locked the door with a locking charm.

Daphne spoke first, "What's up with all this cloak and dagger stuff, Harry?".

"Daph, a few days ago, me, Neville and Ronald Weasley stumbled across the secret being kept on the third floor which the Headmaster had warned us about at the welcome feast".

He did not speak for a few moments, trying to get a rise out of her knowing she would snap at him. She did not disappoint him. Her eyes had turned slit like, her forehead scrunched in anger, her wand twirling. She said in a cold demanding voice, "Will you speak further or do you need to be persuaded?"

Harry chuckled, "Don't start Daphne". He turned to Neville, "Minion, would you do the honours?"

Neville mock-scowled at him, "Minion? Me? I thought it was your turn to be the minion today".

Harry chuckled, "Sorry mate. With her, you are always going to be the minion".

"Oh right", Neville drawled and suddenly noticed colour rising in Daphne's cheeks. Hastily he said, "Alright. As you know Malfoy challenged Harry to a wizarding duel and I was his second. We went to the trophy room and Ronald tagged along out of morbid curiosity I suppose. Just like you told us, Malfoy did not turn up. Filch and his infernal cat did. We had to run for it. We wound up cornered at the end of a corridor with no way out but a locked door. I unlocked the door and the three of us got through it before Filch and his cat could get around the corner to spot us. As it turned out, we were in the very place that Dumbledore told us to stay away from at the start of term feast. That was when we realized that we were in the same room as the biggest dog any of us have ever seen. And if that wasn't bad enough, the slavering beast had three heads!"

She gasped in shock, "What! A Cerberus in the school? What was Dumbledore thinking?"

Harry took the narrative from there, "To answer your question, we still haven't questioned Dumbledore about what he was thinking. While Neville and Ron made their escape, I took one more look around and noticed that the dog had its massive paws on a trap-door. I figured that whatever had been in that vault at Gringotts and Hagrid blurted out had been removed earlier that same day, is what that Cerberus is guarding".

She listened to everything and then asked, "What do you think it could be?"

"We don't know. We have brainstormed on this for a long time but we don't have enough clues to even make a good guess. I feel that it is not something we should concern ourselves with. I just wanted to keep you in the loop about what we have been up to".

She nodded, "What about Malfoy? Did you do something about him? He forfeited a wizarding duel to you".

Harry gave her his best lop-sided grin, "I made him sign a decree for me. I imagine Lord Black will have some use for it".

She grinned in response.

Black townhouse

Lord Black was sitting for dinner when an owl knocked on the window outside the kitchen in the Townhouse. With a flick of his wand the window opened and the owl flew straight to him and extended its leg to him. Recognising the Hogwarts crest, he opened the letter and started reading,

"Lord Black,

This is to inform you that your ward Hadrian Potter-Black was found to be involved in mischief making in the school in concert with students from other houses. Working with them he broke curfew, accessed Common Rooms of other Houses, and did a prank upon 3/4th of the school at once. This prank caused the students to have their skin colour changed and display animal parts instead of their natural human ones. The resulting disruption forced us to cancel classes for the day.

After an investigation in which the students involved were identified and proved guilty beyond doubt, the Headmaster has penalized the guilty parties by deducting 20 points each from their respective houses and sending all of them to detention with their heads of house for two evenings.

This letter is being written to you in the hope that you will discipline him for his behaviour.

Minerva M. McGonagall

Deputy Head Mistress, Head of Gryffindor House

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry"

Arcturus read the letter in full and handed it to Remus, "Your nephew has already started to sow terror in the hearts of the teachers".

Remus took the letter and read it through at once. When he was done, he was sporting an ear to ear grin. "He didn't take long to get started, did he?"

Arcturus snorted, "I am surprised it took him this long. I had thought that he would have done it in the first week. What do you think we should do to discipline him, as Minerva expected us to?"

Remus gave him a wary look, "Would you actually discipline him? You would rather send him gifts and tell him that he did well".

"Not so. He got caught didn't he? He must have left clues that lead back to him. We can't have that".

Remus mentally snorted. The older wizard was a true Slytherin. He was disappointed that Harry was caught but, not at all about his ward pulling pranks. Remus knew that the Headmaster had a lot of ways to gather information which others did not. If he put his mind to it, he could find out anything he wanted. Remus however was ready to tell Sirius about this prank and may be they could get some photos from Harry which he surely would have taken.

"Remus, how are the preparations coming for the meeting at Longbottom Manor tomorrow? Are we ready to go and do this?" asked Arcturus.

"Yes, Augusta has sent a letter to inform me that she has called a meeting of the allies of House of Potter & Longbottom tomorrow. We can topple Cornelius Fudge off his chair. Have you talked to Dumbledore?"

Arcturus said off-handedly, "Why would I need to talk to him? He is the chief warlock and it is of no concern to him. I think that privately he would be elated to get rid of Fudge because he is more of a hindrance than a help. It only remains for us to put forward the most suitable candidate for the job".

"Do you have anyone in mind?" Remus asked, knowing that the older wizard would already have thought of it.

"Indeed I do, Remus but I will leave you guessing until I talk about it tomorrow", he said cryptically, "Now leave me in peace to write a letter to my heir to discipline him for his failure".

After dinner as he was about to retire for the night, Hedwig made an appearance. She landed at Remus's side of the table and extended her leg. Remus detached the letter and offered her owl treats and water. After she had her fill, he told her to rest in the Owlery and they would have a letter for her to take back in a few days.

Remus opened the letter and started reading, his eyes shining with anticipation. He inspected the other parchment which had come in the envelope.

He passed both to Lord Black, "Here, this will be sufficient to quell your anger at him".

Arcturus started reading the letter.

"Dear Grand-dad

A few days ago, Draco Malfoy challenged me to a wizard's duel to be held at midnight in the trophy room. I accepted the challenge and made an appearance at the appointed time and place. He failed to come or to send notice that he would not come. In addition to failing to honour his commitment, he also sent Filch so that he could catch me out after curfew. I was able to evade the caretaker and his cat.

The next day, I made the formal demand of him to forfeit his honour for failure to honour his commitment or to pay reparations in the form I chose. He immediately signed the decree to make reparations in the form I choose and I hereby commit the decree to you to execute as per your convenience on my behalf.

Neville and Daphne send their respect and loads of love to you and Moony.

Hadrian Potter-Black

Heir to House of Potter and House of Black"

After he was done reading the letter, he looked at the decree and after satisfying himself as to its contents, he started laughing. After a good 5 minutes, he was able to control his laughter, "Remus, I think we have enough to make sure that Fudge is toppled off his chair. Thanks to this", he said tapping the decree, "Lucius too will play his part".

Remus just grinned in response.

St. Mungo's

"Mr. Black, how are you today?" asked Healer Meredith as she entered his ward at St. Mungo's.

Sirius looked up warily, "I am sure I will be absolutely fine Meredith unless you are going to shove another of your disgusting potions down my throat and call it a nutrient potion".

She chuckled, "Hardly Sirius. The potion regime is over and there is nothing more that we can do here. Your sessions with your mind healer are also at an end. Tomorrow we will make the final decision about whether you are ready to leave. Ready to go or not, you are to come in for periodic assessments for the next three months. Fail to show, even once and I swear by Merlin that I will personally come and drag you back here".

Sirius shuddered, "You know I would do anything to be rid of this prison, Meredith. I have a godson to meet, friends to reconnect with, a grandfather to reconcile with and a future life to plan".

She chuckled, "Looks like you have a lot of plans to pursue when you are out of here. I will leave you now to your recuperation".

Sirius was content to be away from the Dementors even if it meant he was in a hospital. He was astounded to find his grandfather alive after so long but was also relieved when Remus had told him that Arcturus had rescued Harry from the muggles a decade ago. True that his grandfather had not looked after his interests when he was little but he had come through when it was needed. He had scorned him and his family and ran away from home when he was 16 but now that he thought about it, he wondered if things would have been different if Arcturus had not left Great Britain soon after Melania had died. He could have changed a lot of things with the power that was at his disposal. He figured that they will have a long talk when they are face to face again.

He also thought about his godson who had grown up to be a wonderful boy and as Moony told him, had the charms of his father and his mother's brains. He wanted to get out of the hospital wing as soon as he could because he could not wait to see his godson and spoil him rotten if Moony had not already done so. It was a good thing that they were going to discharge him the next day because it had already gone on as long as he could tolerate and not break under it.

Hogwarts

Harry and Neville had been given a hero's welcome in the tower by many of the students. News was hard to contain in the school with the rumour mill being what it was. Besides, the detention log which contained details about detention of a student was public knowledge and by evening everyone had known who was responsible for the prank.

The twins had snuck out of the castle to bring plenty of items for an impromptu party where Harry and Neville were treated as the guests of honour. The twins had been enthusiastic about the prank and wanted to know details but Harry told them it was proprietary magic of the marauders and part of his heritage as being the heir of their legacy. He told them that they could join in the next big one.

Not everyone was happy with them. a few of them were scowling or grumbling about the pranks and that they had to spend the day sporting parts of an animal. Most however were amused and encouraged them to do more tricks like that in the future.

Percy was one of those who was not amused or found the prank to be funny at all. Hermione was another one who huffed at them.

Ronald had asked Harry as to why he did not include him in the prank. When Harry asked him if he could do half the things they had learned in classes yet. Ronald's red ears were enough to tell him that he could not. He had told Ron that if he applied himself to his studies then Harry would think about including him in his pranks because he was not ready to face the ire of his parents if he turned to mischief making like Harry and did not pay attention to his studies letting his grades plummet.

Later Neville and Harry had conferred with each other about giving Ronald a chance if he showed improvement in his studies. He was a brilliant tactician and could be helpful to them in ways more than one.

The next day

Harry was sitting for breakfast at the Gryffindor table with Neville and the twins around him. With the looks that he had received, he was sure that some of the students were still angry with him and it was better to let them cool off before he made another move.

"Harry, is that Zeus flying towards you at break-neck speed?". Neville asked nervously pointing towards the ceiling from where the falcon was gliding towards him.

Harry extended his arm for the bird and when it landed, it butted its head against his for a moment before extending its leg. Harry relieved it of the burden and offered a piece of bacon which the bird snatched up and flew out again. Harry noticed that the letter was sealed by the signet ring of House Black meaning the letter had been written by Lord Black himself. Warily, he opened the letter.

"Hadrian Potter-Black,

I am disappointed with you and I feel that all the lessons I imparted to you were for naught. Your Deputy Head Mistress sent me a letter telling me about your prank and urged me to admonish you for your rule-breaking.

While she has the right to make requests, it is up to me to honour them or outright ignore them and I have decided to ignore her for the time being. I extend my congratulations for your feat. I also express my disappointment that you were caught.

Next time, please pick up associates who know the value of stealth, who will not leave a trail to follow. If, however, you are doing it to get caught then it is another matter altogether.

On a different note, I am extremely pleased with you for the way you acted with dignity and honour in dealing with Heir Malfoy and showed your Slytherin side in obtaining that decree. I surely will use it to great effect.

How are Heir Longbottom and Heiress Greengrass? Give my love to both of them and take care of yourself, learn magic and do whatever little wizards are supposed to do. Make me proud.

Arcturus Orion Black

Order of Merlin, first class

Lord of Ancient and Most Noble House of Black.".

"Everything alright?" Neville asked him.

Harry showed him the letter which he read at once, "I would have never expected that he would actually congratulate you for pranks well done. He looks like the pureblood lord who can tolerate no rule-breaking and does not know humour".

Harry snorted, "You know him Neville. For the world he is Lord Black, the perfect pureblood lord but at home, he is just a grand-father who likes to enjoy life as much as we do while trying to think of ways to spoil his grandchildren".

Neville who was looking around asked him, "Why is Hermione glaring at us?"

Harry looked at Hermione and sighed, "She is a stickler for rules, mate and prides herself on obtaining points for the house with all the answers that she gives in the classes. I suppose she is peeved that we lost 40 points in a day".

Neville chuckled, "I had not thought about it that way". Things were quiet for a few moments before Neville asked him in a hushed whisper, "Are we ready for the next one?"

"Next one?" Gred (or Forge) asked him. "What exactly do you have planned Harrykins?"

Harry gave them his best lop-sided grin, "If I told you, you might try to steal my thunder". He turned to Neville, "Oi, we are ready but do not go out giving our plans like candy or I will find another minion".

Neville slapped his shoulder playfully, "As if anyone else can read you like a book the way I do".

"Neville mate is that the Longbottom owl flying towards you?" asked George pointing to a barn owl flying towards Neville.

The bird extended its leg to Neville when it landed. Neville relieved it of its burden. To his relief, it was not a howler but a simple plain letter from his Gran. Taking it to be a good sign that she was not angry with him, he opened the letter.

"Neville Frank Longbottom,

I received a letter from my friend Minerva last evening about your mischief making at the school. I should say that I am disappointed that you are not following in the foot-steps of your father but I realise that you are your own man.

I want to chastise you but when I think about what Frank would have done, I realise that he might have been okay with it. I will not interfere or admonish you about pranks so long as they do not hurt anyone however the moment I hear that you have crossed the line and become a bully, I swear that I will come and set you straight.

Give my love to Harry and Daphne.

Augusta Longbottom

Regent of House Longbottom"

Neville showed the letter to Harry who was pleased with the response. "At least I do not have to worry about you being left out of a prank because Gran did not want you to become a part of it".

"As if I would let you do anything without me being involved, you prat", said Neville.

After lunch, McGonagall stopped them, "Mr. Potter-Black and Mr. Longbottom, you both are to report to my office this evening at 8:00 for your detentions and you do not need to bring your wands".

After the admonishment, they went to their classes for the day. Harry made sure to include Ron in the group because he would be very useful to them in pranks. The red head was not as advanced as they were but there was strength in numbers and he had some brains which he could use to get them out of tough situations. His prowess in chess as Harry had seen was formidable. He was able to defeat some of the older years too. They only would need to push him to do his best in studies and at times help him here and there. Besides they needed more friends, plain and simple and the Weasleys were part of their extended family. Callidora, Dorea and Cedrella were sisters after all.

"Harry, come join us in the library today", said Ernie Macmillan who had just come to their table, "There are a few students who want to meet you".

As Ernie left, Harry said to Neville, "Come to think of it, I am related to him too. Grand-Aunt Melania was his great-aunt".

"I take it you are going to meet him?" Neville asked him.

"Of course I am and you are coming with me".

Longbottom Manor

Arcturus arrived with Remus at Longbottom Manor where Augusta welcomed them. "Arcturus welcome to Longbottom Manor and the same to you, Remus".

Arcturus asked her, "Are the others here?"

"No but they will start arriving soon. I am expecting about 10 of our allies here today. The rest of them follow Dumbledore now".

Arcturus waved her off, "it is of no concern Augusta. We will have a minister of our own choosing in the Wizengamot this term".

The Wizengamot was the governing body of the Wizarding World and elected the Minister who ran the government. There were 60 active seats in the Wizengamot of the Ancient and Most Noble, Ancient and Noble and Ancient Houses with each seat having 2 votes while 20 were vacant due to the reasons of them being wiped out of existence or stripped of their places upon the Wizengamot. 10 seats of the rest were held by Order of Merlin awardees while 10 were temporary seats which were filled by other houses who were elected by voting of the permanent seats and Order of Merlin holders. If a house did not have anyone to represent its interests in the capacity of Lord or Regent, then the minister could appoint a regent for that seat till the heir came of age. It was using this power that Fudge had appointed Lucius Malfoy as Regent of House Black claiming that in the absence of other heirs, his son Draco Malfoy was the heir apparent. Dumbledore had been able to appoint Elphias Doge when Milicent Bagnold was still minister and she had approved his decision. So, out of a total of 100, there were only 80 active seats in the Wizengamot. For a majority, one needed 41 votes in their favour. The neutrals were the biggest block with 40 members. Dark had 25 and light had 15 members in their respective factions. The light was led by Dumbledore while Nicholas Greengrass was the leader of the neutral and Lucius Malfoy was the leader of a group of the dark faction while the other was led by Thaddeus Nott.

The first one to come was Lady Bones who had brought Lord Abbott with her. The next was Lord Macmillan who had a frown on his face and Arcturus thought that he might be a difficult ally unless he was reminded of his place in the hierarchy of the houses and his relation to the House of Black. Stevens was next which was an Ancient House and had been in the alliance for the last 3 generations. There was Lord Fawley who came next followed by Lord Corner who was followed by Lord Boot.

After they had all taken their seats, Augusta Longbottom stood to address them since she was the host. "Firstly welcome everyone to this first meeting of our alliance after all these years. This meeting has been called to renew the alliance between us.".

Lord Macmillan pointed to Arcturus and Remus, "What are they doing here? As I remember, House of Black was not a part of the grand alliance neither is Mr. Lupin a member of any of the Houses of our alliance".

Arcturus stood and faced him calmly, "My apologies Lord Macmillan if I sound too presumptuous but Hadrian Potter-Black is a ward of my house apart from being my heir. My grandson is his godfather and my sister, I might add, is his grandmother. So, I am here as representative of House Potter's interests in the first place. Secondly, I am willing to join this alliance and declare that House Black will sit in the light faction starting with the next session. Remus Lupin is here because he was one of the intended guardians for little Harry as has been said forth in James Charlus Potter and Lily Potter's will. In the next session, he will be appointed as the Regent to the house of Potter in accordance with their wishes and will be discharging those obligations until Harry is ready to assume his duties upon reaching the age of majority".

When he sat down, Leonard Macmillan had averted his eyes, "I apologise for any slights which I might have committed towards you, Lord Black".

Lady Bones stood to dispel the frostiness of the situation, "So, the agenda of this meeting is to oust Cornelius Fudge from his office because he violated the rights of an Ancient and Most Noble House by appointing a Regent of his choosing without conferring with the Lord of the House".

Lord Boot said, "Amelia, do we even have the numbers? As I see it, we hardly have 10 houses represented in this meeting and we need 41 to make majority".

Lord Black answered for him, "I will answer this one, Lord Boot. As far as anyone knows, House of Black is currently a member of the Dark faction and I still have allies in that faction who are under obligation to The House of Black for favours offered to them throughout the years. Since we have time on hand before the next Wizengamot session, I will call a meeting with them and ask them to repay those debts that they owe to me. In addition to that, I will twist Lucius's arm till he agrees to my proposition and then I will break it for good measure. In the neutral faction, I have several allies who will help me".

Augusta who had done some quick math, replied, "As per my calculations, we will have at least 40 voting on our side, so we just need a couple more to ensure that Fudge's days are numbered".

Lord Abbott spoke for the first time, "If we present a worthy candidate, we may be able to break the rest of them and obtain an easy majority".

Augusta spoke, "I think I speak for all of us when I say I am open to suggestions".

Stevens spoke up, "Dumbledore would not accept the post even if we came crawling to him on our hands and knees to take it. Besides he better suits our needs as the chief Warlock".

Lord Corner said, "What about Bartemius Crouch Senior? He is an able wizard and would be far better than Cornelius Fudge as the minister".

Arcturus snarled, "Not him. He is one of those responsible for sending Sirius to prison without a trial. I want his head on a platter for this infraction".

Remus spoke up, "Then let's consider Lady Bones as the next minister".

Amelia took her time to reply, "My initial thought was to refuse but I think I will do it if you all consider me worthy of the role. There are a lot of things that Cornelius could have done differently. He would have been touted as a hero but he failed to do it".

Arcturus turned to her, "I would implore you to start collecting evidence against him of financial misappropriation, of taking bribes from former death eaters and other offences so that we can arrest him and make him squeal on those who had done under-handed deals with him in the past. I am not in a mood to let him escape".

It was agreed that Amelia would be proposed as the next minister by Lord Macmillan and the nomination would be seconded by Lord Boot. But first, Lord Black would bring a non-confidence motion against Cornelius Fudge.

Ministry of Magic

At the same time, Cornelius Fudge was sweating in his office. He had heard whispers of the grindstone moving again and of Lord Black on a warpath against him. When he had become the minister, he used to rush to Dumbledore for advice and generally do as he suggested. The big exception was when he appointed a Regent for House Black. Lucius who had already been cleared by then, due to his heavy donation to a charity run by Fudge's wife had approached him with a smile and a large bag of Galleons and convinced him to appoint Lucius as Regent for House Black. Fudge was obviously happy to do so when nothing had been heard of the former Lord Black for a long time. Lord Black was all but presumed dead. He had panicked at the time when Arcturus had appeared again and started to pester him to get a trial for Sirius Black but Cornelius had persevered and did not bow to him. Arcturus had disappeared again shortly afterwards and he had thought that the crisis was averted but it was not. Now Arcturus was back and asking for his head on a platter.

"Minister, what has worried you?". asked Dolores Umbridge, his undersecretary. The witch was a despicable creature but crafty in her ways therefore Cornelius had allowed her to rise so high in the ministry. She had come in handy for him all these years.

"It is Lord Black, Dolores. Arcturus Black has sworn revenge on me.".

She simpered, "But he is just an old fool like Dumbledore. He surely cannot expect to be able to cause harm to you, the minister of magic.".

Cornelius snapped, "He is a Black, Dolores. They are one of the biggest and most influential families. Most of their influence has waned but they still have enough. They are known Slytherins and if they decide to achieve something, it is not out of their hands. He still has lots of influence and gold to get what he really wants. If he decides to oust me from the office, it is only a matter of time".

"Surely you don't really mean that?" she asked him nervously and Fudge could sense that she was scared for her own future. Well, Fudge thought, he could not give her any assurance when his own future was not secure.

"If I were you Dolores, I would start to consider other career options. It is out of my hands now", he said wearily.

Hogwarts

In detention, Professor McGonagall had them clean one of her book-cases full of old books on the first day without magic. It was a hard job and they had not enjoyed a bit of it. In the next, she had them clean a cabinet full of pictures and some awards which had been awarded to Gryffindor in the previous years. One of those showed the Gryffindor students of the class of 1968-75 where the Marauders were standing close to McGonagall and grinning stupidly at the camera making Harry smile. There was another one where Frank and Alice stood with Minerva and surprisingly Augusta.

Classes were going well enough and the Quidditch practices were sufficient to tire him out every day that he had no energy left to do anything else. Oliver was a maniac when it came to Quidditch.

Meanwhile, they had secretly met Lilith Moon and Blaise Zabini. They had been very positive towards him and said that they were looking forward to his friendship with them. As days passed, Harry had met heirs of many houses who otherwise belonged to the dark spectrum on the Wizengamot and were former allies during the war. Harry met all of them and marked some to keep his friendships with, the most notable being Adrian Pucey who was from the Ancient House of Pucey. His family had not participated in combat in the last war for either side but worked as information gatherers for both sides. Harry resolved to get that one on his side as soon as it was possible. There were other heirs too who otherwise belonged to the gray spectrum i.e. the neutrals like the Du Vant Family, the Abercrombie family, the Fawley heiress and a few others. The most interesting thing was that none of them knew of his friendship with Daphne except his year mates and he intended to keep it that way.

The duel master and his apprentices

Harry wanted to learn duelling. Arcturus had engaged a duelling master to teach him the basic rules of duelling and that was all however Harry wanted to learn duelling professionally so that he could compete in the World under-14 championship. He had been to many of those tournaments when he was little with Remus and sometimes Neville. They both had decided that they would seek Flitwick out for he was the best to teach them about it.

To that end, they both decided to pay him a visit one evening. The charms professor was in the middle of grading the assignments they had turned in and was surprised to see them, "Mr. Potter-Black, Mr. Longbottom, is everything alright?"

Neville took the initiative, "Yes Professor, everything is alright. We wanted to ask you something".

He motioned for them to continue, "Go on, I am listening".

"Professor, it is widely known that you are a nine times duelling champion. The thing is that we want to participate in the upcoming duelling tournament next year and we thought maybe you could coach us".

Flitwick contemplated what they were asking of him for some time before he started speaking, "Yes, it is true that many years ago, I was a duelling champion. I have not stepped into a ring since then, nor have I ever attempted to coach before. The two of you are certainly doing well in class. You may very well have what it takes. I warn you, however, that duelling in competition is very different from practicing spells in a classroom. I will agree to coach you if you will abide by the rules. I will teach you the same way that my coach taught me".

Harry asked, "Who was your coach?"

"My father at first, but when I arrived at Hogwarts, the transfiguration professor, who is now our Headmaster trained me.", Flitwick grinned. After Harry and Neville had a moment to let that sink in, Flitwick continued, "Now, the rules: First you will not use your duelling abilities to bully others, second you will never ever break the rules of duelling under any condition and thirdly, you will do everything that I ask of you".

They readily agreed to this, "We will do as you ask of us Professor".

He started walking around them noticing their posture and everything that he thought necessary. After a careful observation which lasted 5 minutes, he started, "I want you both to run at least one lap around the Black lake every morning and use magic for any chores which you might do. It will ease you into using magic more swiftly and your cores will become accustomed to the daily exercise so you will not faint in the middle of a duel".

He rooted through a drawer and pulled out two battered copies of a book titled "A guidebook for Beginner Duellists", "These books contain all the spells which we can often expect in a duel and I want you two to learn one spell at a time. You will not start to learn another spell until you have finished one and by finishing I mean that you can cast those spells in your sleep if the need be. There is a room by the charms classroom on the second floor which was used in the past for the duelling classes which were abolished sometime after the Grindelwald war. You can use it for your purposes. I expect you will not tell anyone else about these lessons. If a third student were to so much as show their face when I am coaching you, I will immediately cease teaching these classes. The first class will be at 7:00 on the coming Monday".

Black Town House

Sirius Black was discharged from the hospital and brought to his childhood home where he had many bitter memories. Memories of his parents, his brother and all the abuse he had suffered under this roof till he had run away to the Potters in fifth year.

The door to the townhouse was still the same with the door-knocker in the shape of a snake. Moony tapped it with his wand and it opened a minute later. When he stepped inside, he found that the house had been transformed. The narrow entry hall was twice as wide as it used to be. The old-fashioned lights had been replaced with lights which had ever-burning fire in them. The carpet had been changed recently. There was a large chandelier hung in the entrance hall, the stairs were all broader with ever-burning fire lights and illuminating the paths, most of the portraits looked like they sported new frames and had been recently cleaned, the drapes and curtains on the windows looked new, the walls were of neutral colour. The walls of the meeting room were done in cream with hints of brown thrown in. The Black and Potter crests were hanging on one of the walls; the table was the same as ever but looked like it had been polished recently. There were windows on the walls which brought in sufficient sunlight so the house did not have a dark and gloomy look. There were comfortable looking sofas spread throughout the living-room. The kitchen had a huge chandelier which was illuminated by fires which were burning in sconces in it. The fireplace had been enlarged so a full grown man could easily walk out of it and was made of sandstone and done with wood work with the Potter and Black crest on the mantle.

Remus made him sit in the Meeting Room and Kreacher brought them refreshments. While he was not overtly respectful to Sirius, he bobbed his head in courtesy towards him.

Arcturus walked into the meeting room after about 10 minutes and sat on one of the chairs and turned to Sirius, "I trust you have a lot of questions for me".

Sirius took a deep breath before he started, "Yes, I do. My first question is why did you not interfere when my hag of a mother made me run away from the family? Second, where were you when I was taken to Azkaban? You could have got me out of there years ago. Why did you not try? Why did you take Harry in? Why are the Potter and Black crests everywhere in the house?"

"I was in the Black Castle when the hag made you leave the Townhouse. I returned six months later and Dorea told me everything. I had been away for so long because I was grieving over Melania however I never cast you out of the family. Walburga had no authority to do this and you remained my heir. I tried to send you many letters but you had put mail redirection wards around you which prevented any communications from getting to you. When Charlus died, I left for France because I could not live here with all the grief and sorrow. My own family was tearing itself apart and I could not stand around to bury one member after another. By the time, Voldemort was vanquished, I was already presumed dead by most. News was slow to come out of Wizarding Britain in those days and by the time I learned about it, you were already incarcerated. I kept pestering Cornelius Fudge to let me see your trial files but he had them sealed under the Official Secrets Act. I also found that most of my family was gone. Pollux, Castor, Alpharad, Druella and everyone is dead. My heir was in Azkaban on charges of murder of those he considered family. I kept trying but could not find a way to get you out. I was also apprehensive that Narcissa's boy would become the Black Heir in the absence of another one so I looked for anyone else who could become one and the goblins helped me to find out that Harry Potter had an equal claim to the heirship. Dumbledore had left him to be raised by muggles who hated and abused him. I devised a plan where Moony agreed to act as my steward and rescued little Harry from the muggles. We lived in hiding all these years and returned to London when it was time for Harry to return to the wizarding world. He has friends to depend on, he knows of his heritage and his family history and he is already turning heads with pranks. As to why the Potter and Black crests, Harry is the heir of both the families. Do you have any more questions?"

Sirius asked innocently, "Just one. What prank did he do?"

Arcturus stood, "I will let Remus fill you in on all the details. I am off to do some work".

The duelling lessons

Harry and Neville dutifully presented themselves before Flitwick on Monday at the appointed hour for the first duelling lesson. Since their meeting in his office, they had read the book which Flitwick had given them as he had asked them to. They were learning just one spell a week and even then it was tough work. This presented a real challenge but also made them acquainted with more spells that they were sure would only be taught in defense or charms in the later years.

The books listed 10 spells which were all non-lethal spells, used extensively in the duelling circuits by amateur duellists. Remus had already taught them some of the spells. That sped the training along.

Flitwick was sitting behind a desk and started speaking, "For a duellist it is necessary that he must be nimble on his feet, a quick thinker and can cast at greater speed than others. I had some born talent that I am faster than anyone else but you can acquire speed with time. Also remember that in a duel, it is not necessary for you to raise a shield every time. You can also dodge which is better for two reasons: First, dodging does not drain your magical core, second, if a spell cannot connect, it cannot harm you".

He took a brief pause so the boys could contemplate all that he was telling them. After everything sunk in, he asked them a question, "Do you both know how to dance?"

Harry and Neville answered together, "Yes".

Then Harry asked, "How does that help with dodging? I mean dancing is regular, rhythmic and predictable. I thought that dodging should be erratic and unpredictable".

Flitwick smiled, "Let me show you then".

He jumped down from the table and took the traditional duellist stance and said to them, "Now you both shoot any spells at me that you can while I show you how dodging is nothing more than dancing".

For this demonstration, Flitwick didn't bother to get his wand out. Without warning, they both started to cast at him and Flitwick looked like he was dancing in front of the spells. His feet were moving so fast and so gracefully that it was hard to predict where he was going to be next. The boys understood what he had meant by dodging being a dance. Being raised as heirs of pureblood families, dancing was a must for them to know. Cassiopeia had it drilled into Harry until he could dance perfectly. Augusta had been able to teach Neville to dance gracefully to at least save his reputation.

After five minutes of casting, they were not able to hit the tiny professor even once. When they stopped casting, the tiny Professor again returned to his chair, "Now you see how dancing is related to dodging. It is all about foot work. The faster the footwork you have is the better chance you have at avoiding a defeat in a duel. I want you both to practice dodging at least 10 minutes a day where Mr. Potter-Black would dodge while Mr. Longbottom will cast and vice-versa. Now the next thing is to conserve your energy. You both are powerful for your age but that does not mean you would last forever if you have to fight back to back duels so it is important that you conserve energy in a duel. Do not use a spell when you know it will be wasted by a shield or would be dodged. Cast indiscriminately only when you think it is necessary or you do not want to give your opponent a chance to be alert against you. Also do not use the same trick twice in a duel or in front of the same audience".

They both listened carefully as if he was delivering some religious sermon and wrote down everything. They were really serious about the championship and wanted to win it at least once in their life-time. Augusta had even encouraged Neville to try it at the next championship while Arcturus had told him that he should do what he wished to rather than following Arcturus's words.

Forfeiture of honour

Lucius Malfoy looked up when he saw an eagle owl tapping on the window of his study. With a flick of his wand, the window opened inwards and the eagle-owl flew inside and landed before him. As he relieved the beast of its burden, it took flight again.

Lucius casually glanced at the letter and almost threw it on his table in fright as if his hand was burned by the Black Crest which was on the envelope. Cautiously, he cast a detection spell to see if the letter was not laced with any obscure spell (The Black Family had been notorious once for killing three of their enemies that way). When nothing special was revealed, he gingerly opened the envelope. The letter was written in the scathing tone which Arcturus had used with him at the ministry.

"Lucius Malfoy

This letter is written to summon you to a meeting to discuss the reparations which your heir has promised to make to the Heir of Black under his hand for forfeiting a wizarding duel and consequently your family honour.

You are here by summoned to 'the Olive King' in Diagon Alley this Friday at 06:00 in the evening. Failure to turn up on your part will be construed as forfeiting your family honour to the House of Black and eternal shame to be yours as it is for your family on the continent.

Arcturus Orion Black

Order of Merlin, First Class

Lord of House of Black"

Lucius finished reading the letter once and read it again frowning. How the pretentious old fool thought to command him, a Malfoy to do his bidding. He would show him.

However, the next moment Lucius stopped his train of thought. Arcturus had staked the Malfoy Family honour on this meeting and by the way he wrote it seemed he had a decree signed by Draco for reparations. What had the foolish boy done now? How could he sign away the family honour to someone? Was he really so dense as to have challenged the Black heir to a wizarding duel and not turn up? He would have to set him right soon. It was a pity he could not procreate more. He would have definitely disowned Draco if there was another issue of his running around. Lucius also wondered in that brief moment if the enchantments on the sorting hat were wearing off to have put his son into Slytherin. He would set his heir straight when he returned from school for Yule. In the meanwhile, he had no option but to go to this meeting and do as the old fool wanted or the Malfoy name would be mud. All of his gold would not be enough to salvage it because the old fool had more.

A whisper in the night

It had been a few days since the first lesson with Flitwick when Harry took it upon himself to explore the castle with Neville. They talked with other students but weren't including others in their activities as of yet because half of their dealings involved Daphne and half of their activities were fairly mundane. Harry had been able to persuade his prank associates to not talk about Daphne being his friend to anyone else. When they asked, he told them to think of it as 'a long term prank' where they would have the last laugh whenever it came into the open.

This night Harry was taking a walk in the castle to find the secret entrances out of the school. He wanted to know each of them so that they could go to the village without anyone being the wiser.

When they were passing the statue of the humped witch on the fifth floor, they heard whispers coming from the class room nearest the statue. They carefully stepped over to the room and put their ears to the door.

Someone was in the room and by the sound of it was weeping, "My... My lord... Forgive me, my lord. I promise I will be successful. I will never fail you again, Lord Voldemort... "

Neville gasped loudly but Harry had closed his mouth with his hand and dragged him away without making a sound. They returned to the common room as soon as they could manage. It was only after they were within the safety of the common room that Harry let go of Neville's mouth and Neville slumped into a chair while Harry himself sat in a chair with his heart thudding hard against his rib cage. His mortal enemy was alive still and someone in the castle was working for him. Lord Black would need to know of it. That was all Harry could do and hope that Voldemort had not returned to a body again.

He also decided to try and find out who could be working for Voldemort. It was a sure thing that none of the students were working for him because he had never used a student to do his dirty work. It was a pity that he did not have the Marauder's Map on him at that moment because the twins had borrowed it. He was a bit reluctant to part with the map but he had decided to let things cool down before striking again so he had given it to them.

A few days later

They had also started to include Ron in things that they did. Occasionally Hermione Granger joined them. If Harry wanted some information that he was sure was in their books, he subtly would let her know by discussing the thing vaguely. It was easy to get a rise out of her because she was always looking for a chance to read some new book or to find some new information and she was sure to rub it in their faces when she had the required information. While others thought she was a know-it-all, Harry tried to be a friend to her because she was otherwise very secluded except for an occasional word from Parvati or from Lavender. She tried to talk to others but even the Ravenclaws tried to keep their distance from her because she seemed to love to spout information whether it was relevant or not.

Ronald had seen them going out at times but was still not allowed to come with them because he was not applying himself to his studies. Harry had plainly told him that if he finished his assignments in time, put his mind to his work then they would include him in their adventures. The red-head was working hard to get their approval.

Classes were otherwise normal except for Quirrell who it seemed had started to suffer from nerves. He was always edgy and often times, his eyes twitched as if he were getting some sort of seizures. From what Harry had been able to learn through his stuttering, he knew what he was teaching but his classes were more of a joke than actual defense classes. Even Moony had taught him more than this in anticipation to ready him for what he may face in his studies. He had told him about the curse of the bogies (popularly known as the Bat-Bogey hex but did not show them the practical application), told them about imps and ghosts, and about curing werewolf bites (by a mixture of silver and dittany) so far. Harry had no doubts that he was a grossly incompetent teacher who knew nothing practical about the subject he was supposed to be teaching.

Flitwick was very happy to teach them basic charms and he took his time with all the charms that he wanted them to know in their first year. So far, he had taught them 'lumos' and 'nox', 'incendio' and 'alohomora' and was going to teach them some locking charms in the next few sessions. He had also hinted at a test in the coming days and Harry was not really worried. He had learned the theory part enough to know how he would fare in the test.

Transfiguration was good but Professor McGonagall was nothing if not thorough in her work. She was still having them work on mouse to snuff-box transfiguration. Harry had done the practical part and had asked Moony how he could appear productive in classes when he had finished his work already. Moony told him to think creatively about the work like if they were supposed to be changing mice to snuffboxes then maybe he should try to get more detail into his work like it can be of a different shape, design, can have more compartments and so on. Harry had taken his advice and tried to do as Moony suggested.

Snape had them brew two potions so far. He had given 2 classes to ensure that they all could brew a decent cure for boils when he decided to move on to another potion. He had tried to get a rise out of Harry a couple more times but most times Harry did not reply to his insults. He had decided that Snape was not worth his time and would have stopped paying attention to him altogether if he had not gone after Neville too.

He had them brew the herbicide potion in class that day when he decided to ask questions of Neville. Harry was working on his own potion and forgot to watch Neville. Neville had forgot to add the flobberworm mucus and was proceeding to stirring it in 4 clockwise motions when Snape asked him, "Longbottom, what would I get if I forgot to add 2 blobs of flobberworm mucus to the potion as is required?"

Neville realised what he had done and said to him in a small voice, "It would be wasted, Sir".

Snape drawled, "5 points from Gryffindor, Longbottom for your inattention. Perhaps if you did not sit with Potter-Black, you could concentrate better on your task".

Harry spoke up and said to Snape, "Professor, I trust you will also be taking points off Crabbe and Goyle? Their potions are sticking to the bottoms of their cauldrons and will have to be scraped off".

Snape turned to him with rage on his face, "Do I have to remind you that I am the teacher? I know what I am doing here. 5 points from Gryffindor for talking back to a teacher".

Harry seethed but decided to let it go for now. There will be chances later. For now going to McGonagall would be more productive because she would know how to rein Snape in.

Astronomy classes were pretty normal. They weren't much fun but a perfect place to talk if Harry wanted. Those classes ran late into the night. He could have prolonged conversations with his fellow students without anyone noticing.

History of Magic was dreadful. There was no other way to describe the experience. Binns was horrible. Harry did not even realise what he was talking about half the time. Some of the students even dared to sleep in his classes. Harry wondered if he and the other students played exploding snap, would Binns even notice. Perhaps not.

Living in the tower was good. Some of the housemates that he had come to know were truly great while some were stuck up ponces that he despised. There was a second year McLaggen who was a braggart. He seemed to brag as if he could do everything better than anyone else. The boy had some skills and could be useful if it were not for his constant bragging and bullying. He even had the audacity to try and tell OloWood how to keep the goals better. The twins had pranked the hell out of him for that one.

The quidditch team was pretty cool. The Chasers, who were all girls, fawned over him since he was the youngest member of the team. They were also impressed with his abilities as a seeker and the moves that he knew. All those matches that he had seen were finally paying off.

Ernie Macmillan, Susan Bones, Hannah Abbott were some good friends that he had made. There was also Justin who was a muggle-born and laid back guy. Harry had also met Cedric Diggory, a third year who was a seeker on the Hufflepuff team and word was that he was the best seeker at the school at the moment. Harry was ready to test that theory and see for himself.

In Ravenclaw, most of them were his friends. Some of them asked him about how he had done the prank. Harry was not telling. He himself did not know about it in detail and wanted to let it remain that way.

He had another thing on his mind to do- a day-out in the village. It was on his to-do list for now and he was not going to do it by himself but was going to take others with him. he had heard that the village of Hogsmeade was the only all-wizard village in England. He wanted to see for himself what it was like. Remus had told him so much that it was hard to contain his enthusiasm anymore. Sure they would officially be allowed to go the village starting in their third year but that was two years away and there was no reason to wait until then. He just had to ensure that no one found out about them.

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A/N- I loved the reviews guys. I absolutely love how you are showering so much love upon this fic.