And at last, we arrive at the first book that I was looking forward ever so much to for this rewrite. Yes, the inclusion of the LotR elements will start far stronger than before, and swell until the story diverges in the somewhat-near future. So, please enjoy! ~F

New Player Year 3

Mists of Lies

Prologue

House Elf Service

The North Sea howled; its waves and the wind crashing against the small outcropping of rock that lay outside the bounds of what Muggle eyes could see, containing the one place on earth closest to their concept of hell.

Within the fortress of dark stone which dominated the little island, one figure that held on dearly to what sanity was afforded him in this place gazed forlornly out the heavily barred window.

Harry would be close to thirteen now, the man thought, even as he shivered from the cold within the prison more than that outside, even as the death rattle of his guards filled the lapses of sound between the crashing waves.

Sirius Black, former Auror and godfather of the young baby boy that he had known for only a scant year, had barely managed to keep himself alive and relatively sane by thinking of Harry, even if the memories of the little baby he had played with, and that of his parents, held no more joy for him.

The Dementors saw to it that no joy or mirth could be reached by the prisoners of their home, only despair and pain. Nevertheless, one thought gave Sirius the strength that he needed to persevere. The fact, unhappy as it was, that he was an innocent man suffering a murderer's fate.

Through sheer will alone, he refused to let go of that thought, but clung to it like a lifeline, knowing that he had to survive, until the Ministry finally decided it was time to actually try him for the crimes that they sorely wanted to believe he had committed.

In the gloom of his cell, Sirius paused mid thought, feeling a small amount of warmth return to him, and turning, he noticed immediately that his ever present guard of two dementors were gone, allow him the barest moments of sane thinking that he had had in nearly twelve years.

But that was not all, there would human voices, real ones and not the maddening screams of his fellow doomed inmates, coming nearer to his cell. Straining his weakened mind to understand, slowly Sirius came to the conclusion that the Ministry was conducting its routine inspection of the prisoners and their 'well-being.'

It was a joke, of course, Sirius thought repulsively, slipping from the high sill that looked out the narrow window and sitting nearer to the bars of his cell, a place he usually stayed as far away from as possible, because of the dementors and their proximity.

Sure enough, there was a light bobbing its way closer down the darkened corridor of the prison, and Sirius could hear a male voice babbling along with a regiment of others.

That alone was strange, as last he knew the Minister of Magic was still Millicent Bagnold, the woman who was more in favor of celebrating the Dark Lord's death than confirming that a proper trial had been held for those who had been apprehended.

But soon enough a little portly man, his grey hair rumpled from the bowler had currently in his hands appeared, and Sirius strained to try and place the name that went with the man's face.

"…Junior Minister Fudge?" he croaked, his voice heavy and worn from disuse, but still enough to attract the attention of the man as he started across the door to Sirius' cell.

"Prisoner ᛈᛉ-390, Sirius Black…" one of the aurors next to the man said, reading the label on the cell.

"I know who he is," Fudge said grimly, staring at Sirius with some mixture of resentment and pity, "I was the first one on the scene when he was captured. Blew up a street full of muggles just to kill one wizard, a former friend I believe it was…"

But Sirius' attention had wandered from the man's face and voice to the paper tucked under the man's arm. Scooting closer to the bars, Sirius pressed his face as flush as he could, looting at the small print in the gloom of wand light, squinting to read the headline, but the angle was too poor.

The man took note of Sirius' action, and after a moment's pause, the paper was pulled from beneath his arm. Sirius made a small noise of protest, before he watched the man toss the paper into the cell alongside him.

"Minister, are you sure that is wise?" one of the guards said, clearly surprised by the actions of the other man.

"This man will rot here for the rest of his life," Fudge replied, moving on slowly, "Just because he's guilty of murder doesn't mean we cannot show some small amounts of mercy here and there…"

The group moved on, but Sirius had clawed at the paper, unfolding it and dissecting every word he could read in the poor lighting from the sky outside. Anything to take his mind off the cold and his memories was welcome. But what he found gave him far more strength and willpower than he had even presumed.

"He's at Hogwarts…" Sirius muttered, looking at the front page picture, even as a white hot rage burst open inside him.

~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~

Harry Potter stared in utter bewilderment at all the changes, even as he was led around his room by the most unusual creature he had ever met. Dobby the house elf, his house elf Harry reminded himself, insisted upon showing him all the cleaning and changes he had made to Harry's room and asking if it was alright for him to do so.

Gone were the rags he had worn while he served his previous masters, the Malfoy family. Now Dobby proudly wore a black and gold tunic and trousers that had the symbol of the Potter family on the shoulder and back.

"Yeah sure, it's fine, really Dobby, it's all just fine," Harry said in response to Dobby's look of utter desperation to please him. "And please, just call me Harry."

"Of course, Master Harry, Sir," Dobby replied, bowing low to Harry for the sixteenth time since Harry had entered his room.

Harry sighed exasperatedly, and looked around his room. Dobby had actually done a really good job with it. The thick layer of dust that had covered the room when Harry left it last year was completely gone, leaving the room almost shining. The wooden writing desk was polished and even repaired, ready for Harry to set his books down and work on his summer homework. The bed sheets were all mended and turned back, and Hedwig's cage was cleaned out with the door open for his owl to reinhabit.

"No Dobby, just Harry…" Harry tried again, but it seemed that Dobby couldn't grasp the concept of Harry just being called Harry; it was always 'Master Harry' or 'Harry, Sir'. Finally Harry just gave up completely, and set his trunk down beside the bed, hoping against hope that this month would pass quickly so he could rejoin his best friends in the wizarding world.

Harry had no idea why he was always left at the Dursleys for at least three weeks every summer; it would be so much easier if his friends Ron or Faykan just took him to their homes for the entire holiday.

Frankly, in combination with his best friend's promise at the end of the previous school year, Harry was quite curious of where Faykan actually lived, since he had made no mentioned that he had stopped living with Arabella Figg, Harry's neighbor and Faykan's closest relative.

His best friend was just like that sometimes however: simply amazing and yet a complete puzzle for him at the same time. Sometimes he would behave just like a normal boy, just like Harry, Ron or Draco, their other friend from Hogwarts, but sometimes he would just change and act as if he was far older than any of them. Harry was also concerned about some stranger events that transpired during the last year.

During the Christmas holiday, they had used Polyjuice potion to sneak into the Slytherin common room and question Theodore Nott about the Chamber of Secrets, but they had gathered very little information regarding it from him.

Instead, the arrogant boy had mentioned that he and several others had noticed how close Faykan was to Harry, and speculated that it might have been romantic in nature. Harry didn't know what to think of this, as he certainly didn't feel that way for his best friend, but he had noticed that Faykan never seemed to be out of his presence, even for the shortest amount of time.

Faykan never tried to engage anything with him, but it was slightly odd to Harry for two people to be that close at almost all times. Harry had wanted to ask Faykan about this several times, but never had a good opportunity with the problems that had plagued the students of Hogwarts last year. 'Hopefully,' thought Harry as he lay down for the night, 'Faykan will come get me in about three weeks, and I can ask him then…'

Potential Spoilers Ahead, You Have Been Warned!

Oh happy day and the intro is brand sparkly new. Sirius lacked a significant presence in the story, spanning only third year to fifth, so I included a favorite perspective of the canonically undetailed scene regarding how he got the paper form Fudge. Additionally, I expanded a bit on Harry's segment, in order to better elabortate how Dobby was fitting in... or not, with he Dursley household.

Happy fun times in LotR related things starts off next chapter, YAY!

have fun till then, don't do things I would do... ~F