I'd like to thank everyone who's been reviewing my story. I really enjoy reading what you have to tell me, even if you don't agree with my decisions. I think I've been realistic— or as realistic as a fantasy story can get— in how things have been progressing.

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

ooooooooooooooo
Lightning Dragon's Roar
A Harry Potter Fanfiction
By Zero Rewind
© 2014
ooooooooooooooo

Chapter 6: Emotional Interlude

"Harry James Potter!" Hermione's voice woke me up. Hadn't I told her to clear out, five minutes ago?

Groan. "What is it, woman? Can't you let a man sleep?"

"No! Not after you did what you did!"

"For God's sake." I flung a pillow at her face, before getting up— again. "What the fuck do you want?"

"Language! Why did you give the prefect badge to Ron?" She looked peeved at me.

"Wait, wait." I said with a mischievous grin. "You don't think Ron can handle the responsibility? You think he's untrustworthy?"

She grimaced, before backtracking— baited right into that one! "Well, of course he can handle it... But why would you not want the position, for yourself? It's an important role to have; you would ensure that the rules are followed, and you can set an example to the younger students!"

I had to shake my head at the feeble arguments. Around an hour ago, I received mail from Hogwarts informing me that I made prefect. Yeah, me. You know, the Boy-Who-Gets-In-Trouble-As-Frequently-As-He-Breathes. I came up with that one. Anyway, I got one of those badges, and just gave it to Ron. No hesitation whatsoever. McGonagall had actually delivered the letters personally, so I left immediately after seeing the disappointed and sour look on her face. As if I cared what she thought about me! All she ever did was call me a liar or not take me seriously when I needed her most. Some Gryffindor Head of House!

Ron, on the other hand, was all too glad to accept such a position. I heard Fred and George moaning about it as I was going to my room. It brought a grin to my face when I heard them call me a great hero, for following in their non-prefect footsteps.

"Yes, because I'm a total rule-follower, Hermione." I answered sarcastically, making references to the past years we've been at Hogwarts. "Also, you think I want to babysit some snot nosed brats in my free time? Hell no! Now can I have some peace and quiet?"

"Absolutely not! I can't believe you would—"

All right, this was getting old. I grabbed my wand off of the nightstand and waved it in Hermione's direction.

"Silencio."

That surely did the trick. Hermione was still ranting, but no sound was coming out. It was absolutely hilarious! Am I glad to have pressured the Ministry into lifting the underage magic restrictions on me through a declaration of my emancipation. I could do magic whenever I wanted now; no one could stop me! Unless, you know, I was committing crimes and such. I got off the bed, and walked right past Hermione like she wasn't even there; totally ghosted her. She, of course, stomped right behind me, probably angry beyond words— not that she could utter any at the moment.

Heh.

I ascended the stairs leading out of the basement— rather, my new room— greeting the house-elf who was currently cursing at me. Well, who could blame him, having spent over a decade in the presence of that painting of Sirius' mother? Half a minute with her made me want to obliterate the entire wall she was affixed on. Luckily, she's been nicer as of late, likely due to my frightening presence. After that joke I refer to as a trial, I had Mr. Weasley escort Dudley and I to Number Four, with the promise that I'd show him a computer. Luckily, he had a car— his good old enchanted Ford Anglia had miraculously made its way back to the Burrow, something which amused me immensely...

ooooooooooooooo
Scene shift - Flash back
ooooooooooooooo

Anyway, we got to Number Four, where Petunia excessively fussed over Dudley, trying to make sure those nasty, bad, evil, conniving, unnatural freaks didn't hurt him. Dudley grinned in response and told her of how I utterly humiliated them in court, using logical deduction and almost scientific arguments of all things. Petunia actually smiled at me, and gave me a quick hug, while Vernon gave me a pat on the back. If I wasn't already getting used to the idea of the Dursleys being nice to me, my mind would have shut down, there and then. Would've probably died from a brain aneurysm.

It was a bit later, when I was packing up my desktop computer in cardboard boxes, that Petunia came in the room, alone.

I gave her a nod, and went back to unhooking the various plugs attached to the computer case, and the screen.

"I'm sorry."

I jerked up, my head smashing against the the wooden desk. I bit back a wince, before turning to Aunt Petunia with astonished eyes. I stood, and intensely gazed at her fidgeting form for a very long moment. Feelings of resentment, ferocious anger, and hate welled up in my being, threatening to overtake me. But as soon as they came, they washed away with the tears streaming down Petunia's face. I realized I'd been harshly glaring at her the whole time. I sighed tiredly, sat next to her, and put an arm around her, not really knowing how to deal with this. She buried her face in my shoulder, sobbing.

I wasn't expecting this.

"I'm sorry! I didn't want to lose you, too... I already lost Lily to that horrible world of racist hypocrites! I thought that if you didn't have any of that magic, you wouldn't be in danger from that world! I'm sorry!" She kept apologizing over and over.

My heart beat faster, and there was a sudden lump in my throat.

"You- I- I-" I tried to speak, but found that I couldn't form any coherent words. She looked into my eyes searchingly.

"Those eyes— they are all I have to remember of Lily, and my father." Her father? My grandfather? I'd always wondered why we didn't have grandparents on Petunia's side of the family. What happened to them?

"They died in a fire caused by an accident in their house. At least, that's what the local police force said. Lily told me they were locked in their house by bad wizards and burned to death when they set the house on fire." Petunia said, as if reading my mind. "The police didn't investigate the occurrence, believing it to be a freak accident. The wizard police didn't care that a Muggle couple died. Why should they? We're nothing but trash to them. Just trash..." She continued in an almost robotic tone of voice, spitting the words 'wizard' and 'muggle' out like it's venom.

It reminded me of how Mr. Filch was always bitter and resentful towards the students. It seemed that if you weren't a wizard, you were essentially dirt; and, even if you were a wizard, 'blood status' was a very big thing. The so called 'mudbloods' and 'halfbloods' ranked the same as non magical folk. The way the 'purebloods' acted reminded me of Nazism. Instead of white supremacists, they were pureblood supremacists.

So my grandparents from both sides were killed by Death Eaters, huh? Tears threatened to spill, but I scrunched my eyes closed. Sadness quickly gave way to righteous anger.

"Then Lily and James died, and you were dumped on our doorstep without any explanation, except a letter which raised more questions than answers." Petunia continued, gazing at me regretfully. "I knew you were going to be like her. I didn't want you to die like my sister, like my parents."

And I understood. I was angry, but I understood. If that shit happened to me, I would probably act like she did. Petunia was completely powerless to stop the deaths of her family. She was trying to save me this entire time...

So I gave her a long hug, and stood over her shaking form, looking like a beacon of strength.

"Don't worry, Aunt Petunia." I gave her a forced smile. "They won't get me. I promise."

That just made her cry even harder.

ooooooooooooooo
Scene Shift - Flash back end
ooooooooooooooo

After that little emotional scene, I bid goodbye to the Dursleys, before going back to Grimmauld Place with Mr. Weasley. I hauled the boxes to my new room, which was rendered magic-free; it was a trick that Arthur had figured out a few years back, when enchanting his car to fly and become invisible. Most of his explanation went over my head, honestly. Essentially, it's some kind of rune meant to disallow any interference caused by the ambient magic of the house. The shape and size of the field around it depended on the shape and size of the rune itself. For my room, we used a rune the size of a cubic meter, placing it in the center. It was a slight annoyance to skirt around it, but if it let me run my computer, then I'm all for it.

Figuring out how to feed electricity and internet connection to my room was a bit daunting, but less annoying than you might think. You see, I chose the basement as my room. After ridding it of its various implements of torture— 'what the hell was the Black family doing in here?'— I had the wall colors modified to a calming dark blue, with black carpet covering every inch of the room. Then, to the displeasure of the Order, I hired an electrician and an internet service provider company feed electricity an internet connection to the basement only— confounding the two so they wouldn't ask questions like "why isn't this house on the grid?"

I felt bad about using the Confundus charm on them, but I wanted to conserve our anonymity as much as possible. Maybe I'd worry about such problems after I got rid of Voldemort.

Like I said earlier, the Order— with exceptions like Arthur, Tonks, Remus, and Sirius— wouldn't stop crying about how I was endangering everyone by bringing in these dubious Muggles in. However, I only said two things to the idiots:

1) This isn't your house. So shut the fuck up before I get Sirius to kick you out.

2) I'm paying for this with my own money, so keep your fucking fat nose out of my business.

I took great pleasure in relaying these thoughts to the hapless victims that dared to attempt to overrule my decisions. The only person who had power to tell me what to do was Sirius, and that man didn't judge me, or force me to do something I didn't want to. Honestly, he was like the cool uncle I never got to grow up with. Rather, he was the cool uncle I never got to grow up with.

All in all, the results were greatly satisfying. In the week that followed, I got to catch up on all the Manga I'd been closely following, and managed to torrent a number of movies I've been wanting to watch for a while now. Watched some good old porn. Played some games. Listened to music. More porn...

The loud stomps behind me brought me back to reality. I realized I'd been quietly thinking for a while now, judging by Hermione's angry and confused face. What did I want to do again? Oh, right. Of course. I waved my wand in front of Hermione's face.

"Finite. Will you calm down, now?" I asked my friend calmly. She nodded, still looking angry. I almost felt bad. Almost.

"HEY SIRIUS!" I yelled in the large hallway of Grimmauld Place.

"YEAH?" I heard Sirius' shout from the kitchen, and walked over there, Hermione in tow. I walked in to see the man cooking something. Or at least attempting to. The entire kitchen looked like a war zone. Hermione gasped. I grinned.

"What the hell have you been doing, Sirius?"

"I was trying to make pasta." The older man gave me a sheepish look.

"It looks a tsunami made entirely out of tomato sauce came through here." I retorted incredulously, trying to figure out Sirius could screw up making pasta, easily one of the easiest dishes to concoct. Hermione snorted in amusement, eyes twinkling à la Dumbledore.

"Well, I was trying to make the sauce for the pasta, and then everything caught on fire, so I conjured water, but that made everything even worse..." Sirius motioned to the disaster area in front of him, looking quite flustered. "Molly's definitely going to kill me."

"Oh, Sirius." Hermione giggled at his totally lost look, before grabbing a mop and beginning to clean up, with me following suit. With a lot of hard work, and generous use of drying charms, we had the kitchen in working order once more. Wiping the sweat off my brow, I stood next to Sirius and Hermione, feeling slightly parched. I filled a cup with some water, and took a long gulp, enjoying the refreshing feeling it gave.

"So, no cooking from you." I quipped lightly. Sirius tensed, as if wanting to protest, but gave up, slouching.

"Sorry, I just wanted to be slightly useful to you guys. All I could do was let Dumbledore use this place as Headquarters. Other than that, I'm totally useless." Sirius said sullenly. I suddenly felt bad for teasing him. Was I really being that inconsiderate?

"Don't say that, Sirius!" Hermione protested, biting her lip. "You most certainly are not useless!"

I set the mop against the wall, before turning to my Godfather. I placed a hand on his shoulders, making him look at me.

"Come on. Let's get out of this dreary house for a while." I said with a smile, and led him out of the room. Hermione looked like she wanted to protest, but one look from me shut her up. We made our way out of the kitchen, and through the hallway, taking a detour to my basement. I began sifting through random clothes that I bought this summer.

"What are we doing here, Harry?" Sirius asked curiously, glancing curiously at the computer to the side. I found the items I needed. I threw a short sleeve hoodie, some jeans and a sports cap to Sirius.

"Wear these, and you'll be unrecognizable to anyone." I said, as I began to wear mine. He did the same. Glancing at himself in the mirror, he stared in confusion, not understanding how such a simple disguise would work.

"I know what you're thinking: 'how could this disguise possibly work?' The answer is pretty simple, yet complex at the same time." I gained Sirius' attention. He nodded to me, silently prompting me to continue. "I'll start with examples. What would you expect someone like Lucius Malfoy to wear?"

"Luxurious robes made of fine silk, probably carrying a cane tipped with some manner of jewelry."

"And what would you expect, uh, Ollivander to wear?"

"Old robes."

"Dumbledore?" I pressed on.

"Some weird colorful robes."

"What would Professor McGonagall be wearing?"

"...Robes." Sirius seemed to be catching on, I think.

"I see you're finally understanding what it is I'm trying to tell you." I smiled widely. "The beauty of this disguise is that it works on people's misconceptions. So, what would people from the wizarding world expect the pureblood Death Eater, Sirius Black to wear?"

Sirius winced at the description of him, but answered my question nonetheless. "They'd expect me to be wearing robes, because no Death Eater would ever stoop to the level of wearing Muggle clothing."

"Exactly. People see what they want to see." I grinned. We made our way to the hallway, again. Hermione was there, looking a little worried.

"Hermione, if someone asks where we are, tell them we're taking a stroll outside, will you? Thanks." I said, and left the house, Sirius following suit, after telling her not to worry.

I could tell Sirius was beyond nervous, as we crossed out of the Fidelius threshold, and onto the public sidewalk. We stood there for a few seconds. Sirius' relief became palpable.

"See? No Aurors, no Death Eaters." I laughed, considerably easing the man's worries. He took a deep breath, smelling the free air, and smiled. I hadn't seen him smile so widely since he rode off into the night on Buckbeak. I walked alongside my Godfather for a while, letting him savor the moment.

A jingling sound caught my attention. I turned my head to the side, noticing a small pizza place.

"Come on." I nudged the dog animagus, moving to cross the road. "Let's get some pizza."

"Pizza!" Sirius looked excited.

We entered the shop, and ordered a large pepperoni with extra cheese. No one seemed to recognize either of us. Why would they? Muggles have never heard of Harry Potter, and the only picture they have of Sirius Black was one in which he wore his prison rags; a picture which already faded into distant memory. The general public would not remember the picture of some random killer— London was full of them. Wizards wouldn't look twice at what appeared to be a Muggle. Hell, most wouldn't even look once.

The meal was pretty damn good. Sirius looked like he was in heaven, as he happily devoured most of the pizza, burning the roof of his mouth in the process. We chatted about random, inane things. Everyday stuff. It was very pleasant. Sirius told me some amusing stories about his time in Hogwarts.

"And that's how Remus' date went."

"I can't believe you did that to him. You guys are beyond hilarious." I chortled, and took a sip of pepsi.

"What about you, Mr. Potter? Find yourself a nice girl, yet?" Sirius winked suggestively as he took a bite out of a slice of pepperoni pizza.

"Nah." I answered easily. "There was this girl that I fancied last year, but I've seen some things to make me want to stay away from her."

"Oh?" Sirius leaned in, slightly interested. "What's wrong with her?"

"Nothing's wrong with her." I answered. "She's just not my type, you know?"

"I don't know." Sirius teased, with a smile.

"Not curvy enough, I guess." I thought about my answer as I spoke. "Plus, she seemed kind of bitchy, now that I think about it. Very needy." I did remember Cedric often looking quite annoyed with Cho...

Sirius grimaced, before nodding solemnly. "People like that exist, unfortunately."

"So what do you want in a girl, then?" Sirius continued.

"Well..." I started. "You've seen Fleur?"

Sirius gave a mischievous smile.

"Fleur's pretty hot, and smart to boot. She was a Triwizard Champion, remember?" I explained quickly. "I wouldn't mind someone like Tonks, either. I guess, my idea of a perfect woman is someone that is smart, pretty, and independent. I don't want someone who's high maintenance. I also don't want someone who just wants the Boy-Who-Lived. That's not me."

"Any girl you know that fits that criteria?"

A few came to mind.

"Eh.. Ginny, I guess?" Sirius gave me an amused smirk. "I haven't... really socialized outside of my house much. Cho is a cute face, but that's about it. I guess Susan Bones from Hufflepuff is pretty cute, but she believed I was the Heir of Slytherin during my Second Year, so she's out..." I mused. "In Gryffindor... Well, Parvati and Lavender are too giggly for me. Hermione, well... she'd basically nag me to death, then bring me back as a ghost and nag me some more. You should've seen her earlier, when I gave my prefect badge to Ron.. Had to silence her with a spell."

Sirius barked out a laugh.

"Anything else? What about Slytherin?"

"Slytherin?" I looked at my Godfather incredulously. "Why should I even consider them?"

"Come now, Harry. Not all Slytherin is made of gits like Snivellus and Malfoy." Sirius admonished, before grinning. "There were many Slytherin girls I've had the opportunity to.. get intimate with. They're just what you're looking for, as well! Smart, cunning, independent, and pretty!"

A flash of a Slytherin girl with honey golden hair and blue eyes appeared to the forefront of my mind. I shook my head. No way in hell that was going to happen.

ooooooooooooooo

A bit of a relaxing chapter. I'll start working on the next one, soon.

It goes without saying that Harry has been training his powers, of course.

Any thoughts?