A/N: Thanks for reviews. Here's the third chapter of Sky.
Hope you enjoy.
Note Aug/17: Part of the chapter has been rewritten
Disclaimer: Everything you recognize from Harry Potter belongs to J.K Rowling
Sky was watching a scene that seemed to be from Halloween. He knew that he was watching a memory from his past, since he had received many during the time he had spent with Marcus and could now separate a dream from a memory. In the memory he saw a giant man making his way into the ruins of a house. 'This must be from the time I was rescued.' He thought faintly. Sky had watched months ago the memory where Voldemort had killed his parents and tried to kill him, but it had ended when Voldemort had vanished.
Sky could hear the huge man weeping when he saw the bodies of his parents and his exclaims of surprise when he saw that he was alive. The giant – Hagrid was his name – scooped him into his arms and left the house. Outside they met a pale man with a shoulder-length, black hair – his godfather Sirius Black, the traitor who gave his parents away to Voldemort. It was hard for Sky to believe that the man could betray them after watching so many happy memories with him. Black was the best actor Sky had ever seen, faking all that love and fondness he showed in his actions, speech and features.
Black asked Hagrid to give baby Sky – or Harry, as he was called at the time – to him so that he could take care of him, but Hagrid insisted that he would take Harry to Dumbledore. Eventually Black gave up and told Hagrid to take his flying motorbike and take Harry somewhere safe. He gave baby Harry a kiss and told him that he loved him and in a faint whisper that Sky could barely hear, he said that he would come back for him after killing the traitor.
Sky woke up from the memory with a start. What had Black meant by killing the traitor? Wasn't he the traitor himself? Sky dug up from behind his Occlumency shields a memory where his parents asked Black to be their Secret-Keeper. For once Black had really been serious and agreed promising to die before betraying them. Sky could see the love and trust in his eyes as he said the words and once again wondered how the man could act so well.
Sky spent a long time pondering what the memory had meant, but couldn't come to any logical conclusion, until suddenly he was pulled into another memory. The memory contained him, his parents, Black and their other friend Peter Pettigrew, whom Black had killed among dozen muggles before he had gotten caught.
"—have been watching all my properties." Black was saying. Sky could see that it was few days before Halloween from the calendar on the wall. "I think they know that I'm your Secret-Keeper, though I guess I am pretty obvious choice."
"What do you think we should do?" His mother asked.
"I was thinking of a sham." Black said. "We switch the Secret-Keeper from me to Peter. We will both go hiding. The Death Eaters think it's me, because I'm the obvious choice so they will come after me and leave Peter alone. It would be a perfect sham."
"I think it might work." His father said. "Are you willing to do this Peter?"
"Y-Yes, of course." Peter said.
The memory faded as they completed the switching of the Secret-Keeper. Sky jumped from the bed not caring what the time was, running to the second floor of the house where Marcus had set his room. They were residing in their summer home in Spain for a few days before they planned to visit Japan.
Sky opened the door to Marcus' room without bothering to knock and started shaking Marcus awake.
"Marcus, wake up."
"Mmm… Sky? What time is it? Is something wrong?" Marcus mumbled sleepily while casting tempus charm. It showed 3.30 am. "What are you doing up this early?"
"I had more memories."
"Memories? As in plural?" Marcus asked more awake.
"Yes, the first one was about the time when Hagrid took me out of the house and we met Black in the yard, and the second was few days before Halloween when my parents decided to switch the Secret-Keeper."
"Wait, what? Switch the Secret-Keeper? What are you talking about?"
"They switched it from Sirius to Peter Pettigrew! In the first memory Sirius whispered to me that he would come back for me after killing the traitor. That's when he went after Peter. They've got an innocent man in Azkaban!"
"Wow, calm down kiddo. Let's think about it. If what you say is true, Sirius didn't betray your parents, but that doesn't change the fact that he killed Pettigrew and twelve muggles."
"But how do we know if he really killed them? It could've been another ploy from Pettigrew, framing Sirius as a mass murderer. "
"There were witnesses there, Sky. You know that."
"And all the witnesses were muggles. A simple compulsion charm and they say whatever you want them to."
"Fine you're right, but how do you explain Pettigrew's death and Black laughing like a maniac?"
"Pettigrew could've faked his own death. He created that explosion – which killed the muggles – cut off his finger and transformed into his Animagus, disappearing to the sink among other rats. And what comes to Sirius' maniac behavior, a powerful cheering charm or something similar could do it." Sky listed.
"Fine, you've got a point there, but do you think that Pettigrew had the brains to pull all that off?" Marcus said thoughtfully. "He wasn't exactly the brightest wand in the holster."
"He fooled my parents for Merlin knows how long, didn't he?" Sky countered.
"Okay, we'll look into this more in the morning. Now go get some sleep. It's still a few hours to our morning workout." Marcus said yawning.
Sky nodded and turned around to head for the door. Before he reached it he could hear Marcus' soft snoring. Chuckling he left the room. No matter where Marcus was he could always fall asleep in seconds.
Sky had learned to trust Marcus over the years he had spent with him travelling and training. He appreciated Marcus' attempts to let him be a child every once in a while and enjoyed the moments when they were just having fun together. Nevertheless, it wasn't enough for Sky to give up his training. He liked the duels between them, both magical and martial arts and their study sessions. Marcus was a good teacher and Sky really loved to learn. Marcus often joked that he would be a Ravenclaw, if he ever went to Hogwarts and sometimes called him a prodigy, when he did something overly advanced.
Marcus also often told him stories about his parents and their time at Hogwarts. It turned out that Sky's grandfather Charlus Potter had been Marcus' mentor in his own Unspeakable training and that he had been a very close friend to the Potter family. "I was ten years older than your father, so he pretty much looked up to me, along with his father. I was like an older brother to him." Marcus had once told him.
Marcus had also told him the reasons behind Voldemort coming after them, the prophecy and all. After a lot of thinking Sky decided that he would never go back to being Harry Potter again even if Voldemort came back or was defeated, and that it would be better if he was officially proclaimed dead. Sky would fight Voldemort with his own reasons and not because of some stupid prophecy.
Marcus had accepted his decision, but had said that it would be better to wait at least until the time when Harry had to go to Hogwarts to proclaim him dead. He wanted Dumbledore to find out his mistakes on his own and not just by reading from the paper. Marcus had also told Sky about the Potter fortune which made the Potters the third richest family in Magical Britain just after the Blacks and Malfoys. Together they had gone to Gringotts and transferred all the money, heirlooms and properties under Sky's name. They had also created multiple accounts under different identities for Sky for when he started as an active agent in the Department of Mysteries.
While in Gringotts they found out that Dumbledore had pulled some strings to get himself named Harry's magical guardian and had then totally ignored the will that his parents had left behind. After some persuasion the goblins agreed to remove Sky from under Dumbledore's power and allowed them to read the will. The will uncovered even more scheming on Dumbledore's part; Sky's parents clearly stated that Harry should under no circumstances be sent to live with the Dursleys and that his godfather Sirius Black was to be his guardian. The second choice for a guardian, if Sirius couldn't do it, was his godmother Alice Longbottom and then Marcus and after that multiple other names. Sky agreed with the goblins that they should honor his parents' will and name Marcus as his new magical guardian.
On top of acquiring Marcus as a guardian, one of the phoenixes, the only Shadow Phoenix that resided in the house, expressed her will to bond with Sky. It was the same phoenix who had comforted Sky during his months of mourning, singing to him and keeping him company. Sky had accepted her as his familiar and had given her the name Shadow. Shadow could not communicate with him in the same manner as the White Phoenix had, through a mental link, but somehow through the bond he shared with her they understood each other.
Now as Sky entered his room Shadow flew on to his shoulder singing him a lullaby that helped him sleep for a few hours before he had to get up for his morning training session.
Marcus woke up at six for his and Sky's training session. He wondered if Sky had slept at all after his memories. It would be a great injustice if Sirius had spent all those years in Azkaban while being innocent and it would be a huge blow for Fudge's reputation.
Marcus had left the Unspeakables right after reporting the events of Voldemort's downfall, so he didn't know the progress of Sirius' trial in detail. Fudge had ordered the Aurors to hunt Sirius down, so all Marcus knew was what he had heard from his contacts in the Auror corps.
As he walked to the training area of the house he resolved to find out the details of the case and get Sirius out of Azkaban, if he turned out to be innocent. He had always liked Sirius and many times gave him and James pranking ideas. Marcus had always felt sorry for Sirius trying to struggle with his family after getting sorted into Gryffindor and in the end helped him run away when he was sixteen.
Marcus could still remember the distress in the voice of the Patronus that Sirius had sent him only a week after the beginning of the summer holidays before his sixth-year. The message said that his parents were trying to force him to take the Dark Mark and join Voldemort and that he needed help. He asked Marcus to wait outside the Grimmauld Place at sunset prepared to apparate him away. Marcus had complied and waited for him at sunset. The sight that met him, when Sirius came running from the house was one that he could never forget. He was limping and bleeding, covered in numerous cuts and bruises and he looked like he had been under Cruciatus Curse multiple times. He asked Marcus to take him to the Potter Mansion before he lost consciousness. It had taken Doria Potter, James' mother, a week before she had been able to heal Sirius completely from his wounds.
"What are you thinking so hard?" A voice asked from behind him, pulling him back to reality.
"I was just speculating the possibilities of Sirius being innocent."
"And? Do you think it's possible?" Sky asked eagerly.
"I don't know. I was thinking about the time when I helped him run away from home… Do you remember the story?" Marcus asked. Sky had wanted to know more about the person who betrayed his parents, at one time and Marcus had told him about Sirius' past.
At Sky's nod he continued:
"Your grandmother healed his physical wounds, but from what your grandfather told me he was having some kind of inner battle the whole year. He wasn't as cheery as he once was, but got over it by the time of their seventh year and was normal again. I think that his mental wounds weren't as healed as the physical, which showed in his growing dislike towards Slytherins. The incident with Snape and Remus probably was the wake-up call for him and after that he gathered himself up again and moved on." Marcus said thoughtfully. "It is possible that the grief and anger towards Pettigrew was too much for him and it made him snap, and it was him that killed the muggles…I'll make a few Floo calls after breakfast and find out about his trial."
"I guess our trip to Japan have to be delayed." Sky said as he started to stretch.
"Yes, Yuki must be disappointed." Marcus smirked as he started to run.
"Aww… Shut up."
A/N: Thanks for reading. Please review and give me some constructive feedback. Next chapter we have Sirius' trial.
- Dalnim