Chapter 20
The whims of Lady Luck.
09:17 pm 05th November, Room of Requirements, Girl's Chamber.
It had been nearly a week since Halloween, things had not been good, whatever progress they had made vanished without a trace, Harry wouldn't even pay them any attention, he worked mechanically, taking care of the girl whenever he was here, but his behavior was so troublesome she too had taken note of it.
At first she had tried to cheer him up by offering him part of her food and her toys to play with, but that hadn't worked even a bit, then slowly she had started to go silent just like Harry, she wouldn't bother him until it became necessary, or unintentionally.
On the 2nd they had gone to the Wandmaker, and that visit hadn't gone well, and that was an understatement of epic proportions, he had been acting far more distant than usual, frigid even, and then there was the wandmaker, a pretty blonde woman by the name Alissa Kalashnikov, a Russian by origin who had travelled the whole world to learn her craft and then settled down in a simple place in the middle of the Bermuda Triangle, her clientele was well not the kind who would buy wands in public yet also cared for quality with money to spare, lots of money to spare.
It should be noted that while she was also a prideful woman as such she did not take well to Harry's attitude towards her as well as she could have, Harry for his part did not make things any easier at all, as such she did not chose to entertain his attitude despite probably being warned, though in her defence she was probably told of a diluted version of Harry's unique brand of …..Harryness - if at all- not this thing that walked the earth in his form.
At first when they had arrived she had been civil enough to be polite yet not welcoming at the same time, her shop was a 3 storied apartment, they were greeted by her on the ground floor which was a bare hall with only one seat for her and a settee for guests, not wanting any unnecessary complications Sirius immediately got to the point, "Madam Kalashnikov, I am sure you're well aware of my current situation, Ever since my escape I've been in the need for a wand, though I do have my original wand it doesn't respond to me like it used to".
She raised a single eyebrow when he stated that he had his wand with him she nonetheless she had a slight smile on her face, she cupped her chin using her right hand and posed in a thoughtful manner, then in a perfectly serious voice she said, "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't alert the authorities about the two of you?"
He knew she was simply testing them, people like her who operated in these professions weren't choosy about their client's moral compass, but they didn't want idiots who could - and most probably would - get them into trouble. He understood this and even respected it, as someone who was as auror during the war time, he had had his fair share of "informants" who were more trouble than worth.
Harry on the other hand did not understand this, evident by the fact that his wand slid into his hand, the situation was quite bad, the only reason it wasn't an absolute bloody disaster was because he hadn't casted any spell, so right now Sirius's new wand - and quite possibly his life - were dangling by a thin thread made up of Alissa's patience, which he could see was seconds away from snapping.
"Harry! Follow me will you?" It wasn't a question even though it was phrased like one, Sirius stepped out of her shop with his godson following him, once out of ear shot he crouched down placing his hands on the shoulder of the young man he looked Harry in the eye and said, "Buddy let me do this, you're out of your depth here, this isn't a duel or some kind of experiment, it's socialisation and diplomacy and both of them aren't your strong points".
He observed his godson with baited breath, he honestly didn't want to know just what could trigger the young man into violence, not only because he knew that if Harry decided to kill him it could mean quite a painful death, but also because he now had a reason to live, for the first time ever since James and Lily died he felt like a godfather again, the unstoppable force that were his feelings of protectiveness and responsibility towards the emerald eyed boy triumphed the immovable object created from his guilt and hatred, as such he had decided to help the boy however he could, as such dying at the hands of the said boy was not an acceptable option anymore.
He let out the baited breath when he received a nod from Harry, then went back inside, Alissa's face was all but carved in stone, and he could see it in her eyes he had just one chance to set things straight, but before he could say anything she spoke up repeating her question, "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't alert the authorities about the two of you?"
Taking a deep breath he began, "Madam first of all please allow me to apologise as the godfather of that boy, unfortunately as I was indisposed no one taught him social decorum, unfortunately, not to mention he's also a Potter, as far as your question is concerned, for one while we've not exactly endeared ourselves to you we have not done anything that would be deserving of your wrath at the same time, annoyance definitely, but not wrath, secondly you're an intelligent woman, you understand that not all is as it seems, both of us have enemies that would love to see us dead, and our only option of survival is arming ourselves in the best possible way, which includes procuring your services".
Her face hadn't changed one bit but she was listening which was as good as it could be under these circumstances he thought.
"As a business woman I'm sure you're aware that it would not be good for your reputation if you rejected someone from the most Ancient and Noble house of Black, sure you are an established and talented crafter but you know very well just how much your haters would love to jump at an opportunity to harm you," he stated with a slight smile on his face, he knew it wasn't much of a threat, one that would have held even less water if the receiver was someone british given there was not much of a House of Black left these days, but any business worth their magic wouldn't want to make such a headache for themselves, since how rooted the house system was in the whole of europe, and just how unnecessarily difficult it would be to maneuver in this stupidity.
"Pray tell Black how exactly do you intend to achieve that?" she asked with narrowed eyes.
"Plans are in motion, and by next year July I should be declared innocent of all charges - which I actually am, just the issue being I never received a trial to state my case - should you reject helping me today it would as they say come back to haunt you in future, but should you help me I will use all my contacts, especially those in ICW to get you a non interventional Permit, and that as you know would mean no governmental authority would be able to touch you unless they had solid proof," he lied with as much confidence he could.
The whole story was hinging on the unnecessary yet truthful and more importantly bold detail about his lack of a trial, he didn't had anything against the wand crafter but right now she just was a means to an end, and as far as procuring the permit was concerned it was just a carrot being dangled in front of her, one he knew she wouldn't be able to resist despite being aware she would most probably never get to eat it, had he began with the promise to get a permit rather than the trial he had little doubt that she would have tried to kill them there and then.
Which was why when she adopted a thoughtful expression on her face he used the ace up his sleeve, "Not to mention it would be a pity if you died today, being so young, talented, and not to mention ambitious".
Her expression turned thunderous and she was about to start cursing, except at the last moment the part of her brain which had helped her survive thus far told her to stop, then calming down she noted the Black scion had not threatened her like the other brutes who were stupid enough to try so, but had instead stated something with all the sincerity he could muster, not to mention he actually sounded distaseful about it and then there were the points he had made till now, which didn't make sense if he was going to simply threaten her, so either he was bluffing and hoping she wouldn't call on it or this could actually be her last mistake, so she simply said, "What on earth makes you believe you can take me on? Maybe in your prime you could have, but right now I can squash you like a bug under a giant's foot".
He startled her by giving a bark like laughter, and then said, "Me? Oh no no no, you have it wrong, I know for a matter of fact that I can't defeat you let alone kill you as I am right now, but my godson is a whole nother matter, he won't hesitate, in fact the only reason you aren't dead right now is because I convinced him that it was not a good idea to kill the good lady who wouldn't harm us".
The look on her face spoke volumes of how ridiculous she thought the whole notions of Harry being able to kill her was.
Giving her a cocky smile he said, "let's test that out shall we? Three rounds between the two of you, disarming spells only, and if you manage to knock him out in the first round you win the other two automatically, but when we win you make my wand".
She stared him in the eyes for a few seconds then bit out, "And if you lose then you die".
His smile simply got wider and giving her a nod he went out and retrieved his godson who had already sheathed his wand, he told the boy what was expected of him to do, and the boy only nodded in turn, after which he went and stood in a corner of the room.
As the two stood against each other for the duel, Alissa tried to give the unfortunate boy a fair chance, "go away boy, don't follow your godfather to an early grave".
When she received no reply she simply shot the wand from her holster into her hand, and by the time she pointed it towards her opponent the red bolt of disarming charm hit her wand and sent it flying in the caster's direction. She stared at the young boy opposite to her, she had tried to use her full speed and intended to take this seriously and end this farce by knocking out the boy in the first round, but somehow the child had not only managed to cast faster than her but was also accurate, if he were simply faster she could somehow believe it, but the entire notion of a child being able to out duel her was ridiculous.
She took back her wand, sheathing it into the holster, while observing him like a hawk to see if there was some trick he was using aside from the only way to eject a wand from the holster in high speed which was to overcharge it with magic, not enough to be a problem for a trained adult, but impossible for a child, seeing none she mentally prepared herself to fight as if her life was on the line, unfortunately for her the same thing happened again except this time, the wand had just started to get out of the holster when he disarmed her, violently throwing her into the wall of the room.
As the footsteps approaching her registered in her mind she got up groggily, feeling nauseous and her vision a blur - concussion, part of her mind noted - Black crouched in front of her and cast something, she gathered all the courage she could and stood up trying to defend herself from whatever it was the escaped man was going to do, she miscalculated and stood with more force than needed only to end up losing balance and falling on her butt.
Belatedly she noted that she was feeling better than before, she wasn't feeling nauseous nor was her vision blurry anymore, Black had stood up from his crouched position and giving her a slight smile, it wasn't smug even in the slightest, instead it was sympathetic, then he spoke, "I know it feels weird to lose to him, trust me as the yanks say been there done that,
We aren't your enemies, we just want to procure your services, and if you wish so we won't ever darken your door step."
She closed her eyes and gave a sigh, then she looked him in the eye and ordered him to follow her, she took him to the first floor which was her workshop, there she had him tested for compatible wood and core - Yew and Thunderbird tail feather - unlike Ollivander she didn't prattle about the nature of the wand, though that may be because of the events that transpired today.
In an even voice she informed him that the wand will be ready in a week's time, taking that as his cue Sirius collected his Godson and left.
=0=0=0=0=0=
05:03 am 17th November, Archive Room, St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican.
Father Antonio raised both of his eyebrows as he saw the young man who had been coming to the archives for the past few days, he had heard from the archiver about the boy who would come in at 05:00 am dot to go through the archives, reading quite an impressive amount of books every day, had been doing from the past 10 days.
He decided to follow through his curiosity today, he reached the entrance to the archives by 04:55 and stood outside waiting for the boy or being granted entrance, he kept an eye on the pocket watch he had always carried around, the moment the clock ticked to 05:00 the boy was there, almost as if he materialized out of thin air, a preposterous notion, but still it was shocking to have someone sneak up to him like that.
He greeted the boy with a smile "Hello there! My Name is Father Antonio Castille, how do you do?"
The boy simply turned towards him and gave him a nod, as soon as the archiver opened the doors the boy storde in and went towards the end of the room where some of the more ancient hebrew scripts were kept, few people - if any - ever ventured there, the father simply expressed his astonishment by raising his eyebrows.
Turning towards the archiver he saw a small smile of the young man's face, seeing the old pastor watching him the archiver gave him a small smile, and said, "He's not one to talk, at most you'll get a nod from him, and yes it seems like he's good with languages, so far I've seen him read 7 different ones - dialects included - and he's never had to consult a language dictionary."
The father was more than just impressed and his face showed that, he collected the books he needed and went to the table Harry was studying on and started reading his books while observing the young boy from his periphery, he was no expert but from what he could figure out the boy was reading the manuscripts about heaven, all the lore regarding it.
An hour into their reading session, the boy started to make some kind of flowchart, in ancient hebrew, from what little he could see, and even less that he could understand, he couldn't understand the words in the first two boxed of the chart but the third was Birth, then again a few boxes he couldn't make out and then Adulthood, he followed the chart to the end where it said Heaven, it confused and intrigued him at the same time.
Without even realizing it he had abandoned his own material and was simply staring at the young boy's work unabashedly, suddenly he sneezed and this abrupt change in the line of sight caused him to realize what he had done and he developed a chagrined look on his face, and when he looked at the boy he looked far from offended, he looked more contemplative - that was if the he hadn't read the boy wrong - his head was cocked to right side and he kept a constant eye contact, the old priest for some reason felt this was something important to the boy and didn't break the eye contact, not even to blink, soon the boy raised his head and turned his flow chart sideways, taking the invitation for what it was the father studied the chart in a bit more detail, he still couldn't make heads or tails out of it but it was fascinating to look at, quite like abstract art.
With great reluctance he turned away from the flowchart to look at it's creator, and he couldn't resist the urge any more and asked, "What is it exactly you are doing? This certainly cannot be a school project, at least last time I heard the school curriculum is still what I'd expect it to be so what is it that you're trying to accomplish?"
Harry simply looked at the priest, contemplating how to answer the question he asked without breaking the statue of secrecy, then using the social tactics Wolf and Shadow taught him he replied, "my parents died protecting me after someone broke into our house when I was a toddler, and I want to know how they are and what their current situation in the after life would be?"
The ancient priest looked at the boy with not a little sadness etched on his face, and so he replied, "In Heaven, their souls be blessed, they are in peace, Heaven is a place of absolute pleasure, they watch over you with the grace of god and pray for you to have a good life."
Harry looked at the old man and took in his words, they were a summarised version of what he'd read thus far into his readings, he came to the conclusion that Heaven had some kind of compulsive and/or psychologically manipulative properties which changed the personality of the souls from when they were on earth bound to their vessels.
There were three ways to disrupt any kind of mental manipulation, One, Disruption of the spell by another counter spell, which was not possible in this case, too many unknown variables, the second was pain, something he wouldn't inflict on his parents, and the third extraction from the range of area of effect.
He had to adjust his equations even further, this was something he hadn't taken into consideration thus far, he needed help, a perspective of someone who knew his mother and father, and that was an asset within his possession.
=0=0=0=0=0=
11:49 am 17th November, Astronomy Tower, Hogwarts.
Remus let out a chilly breath as he let the cold of the night seep into him, holding a cup of hot chocolate he stared at the moon, it was both his curse and blessing at the same time, he remembered every moment he spent with the Marauders under it's light as if it were just yesterday, the bitter sweet mornings after a rough full moon, the times he and Wormy would find Padfoot cuddled up to Prongs, and then after Lily found out about them after she started dating James she would join them in the mornings, brining a huge breakfast along with different potions for them.
That led him to think about Harry, and well everything about that boy, at least till the time before he had dropped the ball, epically so, he took another sip of his beverage and winced as he wondered how Lily and James would tear him to pieces once he meets them in the afterlife - if a part of his mind supplied, the part that considered himself a monster as such always reminded him that he might not have an afterlife or at least not a fate similar to that of his friends- and that led him down another path, Sirius, he wasn't as apolectic as he used to be with the traitorous Black, as he was back then, at least he wasn't till the man was in Azkaban being buggered by dementors day in and day out, when he was younger he would have torn the man apart limb by limb after getting his answers of course, why did he betray them? When did he betray them? Was it worth it? But now? Now he was older, more mature, now he would've broken the man for certain but not killed him as being alive and broken would be a far better punishment than being dead.
As he took the last sip from his cup, he happened to take a glance at the Shrieking Shack, it was just a coincidence, and he choked on the sip that he had just taken as he saw a familiar silhouette, a dog, a huge dog, just big enough to be mistaken for a wolf, at least by those who saw it for the first time, but not him, never him, by the time he recovered from his choking the figure had disappeared and for a moment he thought it to be a trick of his mind, seeing what wasn't there and almost believed it, but then something at the back of his mind said no, it was his vulpine instincts, they screamed no, there was something, something familiar, but there was something.
With this in his mind he trotted down the tower, his cup forgotten at the ledge, instead of going back to his room to lie down with his thoughts he marched right to the shack, and intending to look around for something, anything, that would explain what he felt earlier. When he reached his destination he found it abandoned though he still investigated it, he found there was someone here not long ago, a child and his or her dog, but their presence seemingly disappeared into thin air, something that like that wouldn have been odd on its own, made stranger yet by the fact that they disappeared from inside the hogwarts wards and that did not bode well for anyone, a way to breach wards meant an unpredictable attack.
After setting up every last alarm ward he knew, he rushed out of there giving the infamous building one last fleeting look before heading towards the headmaster's office.
=0=0=0=0=0=
07:29 am 18th November, Room of Requirements, Girl's Chamber.
Sirius took a jaw hinging yawn as he brushed his teeth, by the time Harry had made it back last night both he and the girl had fallen asleep, and right now the girl was being fed breakfast, it seemed like things had settled for now, Harry had, in his own way, paid attention to the young girl's babbling, going as far as to give her a bath himself, something he had been neglecting for the past month, even before the Halloween upset.
If only things would stay like this, but he knew from experience that was a pipe dream.
Lady luck had started smiling upon him again, and now he was anxiously waiting for the other shoe to drop. This peace felt like the calm before the storm especially after last nights close call with Remus, that almost stopped his heart, he knew intellectually that the probability of running into his old friend had been high especially since the man loved to wander around at night, but for it to actually happen was another thing on it's own and it squeezed his heart in ways he couldn't explain.
After the breakfast Harry left them to themselves to do whatever it was he did aside from his classes, it was early evening by the time Harry returned for the day, and the following dinner was a peaceful affair.
The other shoe dropped after dinner.
After the girl had been sent to the bed Harry approached Sirius and wrote a simple single query, "Would you inform me about my parents?"
A/N : once again my deepest apologies for being so late in my updates, I'll try to be as regular as I can now.
