A/N: Sorry this took so long to post :) We've been working like mad on our other story, Nothing to Lose :) You guys should go check it out.

But until then, without further ado, I give you chapter 5 of Escape to New York. Enjoy :)

Chapter Five: Voodoo and a Kiss

September 1st, 1993
The Wells Chambers, The World Below

Where was he?

It had taken weeks of reading brochures, consultations with helpers and school officials and ensuring Harry's paperwork was now in order, but finally the first day of school for Harry Jacob Wells at Village Community School had come and gone and Diana was worried.

Where was he?

Most times, in regards to his family and especially with the new miracle of love sleeping in her cradle in one corner of the chamber, Vincent did not complain about the empathic bonds that linked him with his unusual and growing family. However, watching Diana pace the chamber back and forth waiting for Harry's return, he almost wanted to be somewhere else.

Perhaps a new section of the tunnels needed to be reinforced… Still, he needed to say something.

"Diana, my love, I swear that you will wake Catherine and you know how sound a sleeper she is," he gently chided.

"He should be back by now. He's never gone that far on his own before," she shot back.

"The route to the school is a safe one and two other members of our community teach there," he replied in his maddeningly calm tone, failing to rise to the bait of her nervousness.

"He's always been comfortable with what we taught him here. Why could he not have stayed one more year and then gone to high school. It's such a natural break and change."

"Diana, Diana, you worry too much, much too much. You know as well as I that Harry is a gifted young man with great intelligence and a strong desire to learn. You know that as he has shared with us, he now feels free to excel and while our friends and helpers are gifted teachers in their own right that Harry's intelligence calls for more."

Diana sighed and sat down in the large overstuffed chair that every member of her family knew belonged to her. "I know, I know. Maybe I just miss a coffee. Maybe I'm just reacting to all this tea down here. Maybe I worry a little. But heaven knows, babe, that we are going to have to go through this again with Jacob."

Got ya, she thought to herself as Vincent flinched. His relationship with the son of his and Catherine's love was special and deep and Diana knew that he would be as worried as much about Jacob's studies up top as she was now worried about Harry. But it was just that Harry didn't know New York City as she did.

She loved her city: its vibrancy, its buildings, its culture. But it could also be an ugly place where pain, crime, fear and hate also existed. Harry was blossoming in their small community and there were few if any traces of the abused child who had joined them four years before: he had taken to exploring the depths of the tunnels with Kipper and others and she wasn't worried about those activities. Up top was a different story.

He had even formed a strong bond with their community's resident insane genius: Mouse. Mouse and Harry were working on a plan to bring electricity to their chambers so that she could finally indulge in one of her favorite, if not so secret sins: drinking coffee.

Her thoughts were interrupted by Vincent's strong hands, which had begun massaging her shoulders and upper back. How did he know what to do, she wondered and then smiled: the feelings of love were flowing back and forth between them and time faded.

Until a happy and excited thirteen year old Harry threw his books on their chamber's table with a bang.

"Mom, Dad, Village Community is brilliant!"

It was with difficulty that his two parents separated and turned to give their oldest child their undivided attention.

A few hours later, both were again settling down on the sofa they had grown to enjoy together. It was one of those rare moments in the tunnel world where all was quiet: even the pipes had only the occasional staccato burst of sound.

"He really did enjoy it and I heard from Andrea, the Grade 7 teacher there, that he impressed his teachers," Diana murmured, leaning back into the shelter of his arms. "They've done some preliminary testing and Harry's up in the top percentile."

"Look at how he began devouring books three and half years ago," Vincent chuckled, his laughter sounding like a purr from deep in his chest. "I could have told you then."

"Father thinks he might have the mind of a healer or a doctor," she continued.

"Father thinks everyone should have the mind of a doctor. Harry is more of a practical student: give him a problem and he will try to solve it. He says books of theory and philosophy put him to sleep."

"We just need to encourage him to strike out on his own path," she concluded, her last words slurred as her head drooped and soon the gentle sound of her snoring could be heard.

Vincent tightened his hold on his beloved Diana. My tiger, my lioness out to protect and promote your own cubs, he thought to himself. Our children: Jacob, Harry and now Catherine had no idea how fortunate they were.

October 31st, 1993
Gryffindor Tower, Hogwarts

"I tell you Headmaster that Black is not here for Potter," Amelia Bones, Director of the DMLE said. "He was overheard in Azkaban muttering that he's at Hogwarts: a little impossible for a threat to Potter as no one knows where Mr. Potter is or if he is even still alive."

"So if he is not here to complete the job he started 12 years ago, then why did he attempt to break into Gryffindor Tower," Albus said, a bit testily. It had been still another fruitless summer of searching for young Harry and now he had to put up with Dementors surrounding his fortress and the dangerous criminal Sirius Black on the prowl around the castle.

"I don't know, Albus, I don't know. As for your request to remove the Dementors, while I agree with you that they do not belong near a school, I have been overruled by Cornelius. He wants to be seen to be doing something."

"Two of my students were almost killed during the last Hufflepuff quidditch practice when a group of them broke into the skies above the pitch. Their seeker, Cedric Diggory, was nearly kissed," he spat.

Bones nodded her head in agreement. "You could have heard the Howler Amos Diggory sent Cornelius all the way to the Atrium. He was absolutely livid, but Fudge is not budging. Says he wants Black found and Kissed on sight."

"I just hope you can find him quickly," he replied.

January 21st, 1994
The Cavern of Winds, The World Below,

It was during one of his periodic forays down past the cavern of the winds that Harry first made an in depth acquaintance with Narcissa, an encounter that would open up long lost memories.

He had been racing with Steven, one of his close friends from the tunnels and his friend had just begged off playing any further.

"Harry, mom wants me home to finish my school work. I might have stayed too long already," he said.

Harry's green eyes took on that pleading look that Steven could almost never resist. "Look, I'll give you a hand with your work. That stuff's easy anyway. Just one more turn around the cavern. The winds call to me and I'd love the company."

Steven was tempted, oh so tempted for a moment. But his mother had been firm in her instructions to him earlier that day. "Another time, Harry. Mom's going to kill me if I don't get going."

The sound of his friend's footsteps had faded when an especially strong gust of wind knocked Harry against a wall as he was circling around the cavern. While he was used to the currents and cross currents of the cavern of the winds, this particular gust had knocked him off his feet and his arm painfully connected with the rough rock wall.

Growing up for the past four years among these caverns had inured Harry to the occasional bump and bruise from rock walls and so at first he did not notice that the rock had scored a long cut along his arm. Instead, he got up and began racing around the cavern trying to catch the winds again: it was almost as if he was flying.

The effort of fighting the winds and a slow blood loss finally caught up with Harry and he suddenly felt vertigo that forced him to sit down along one wall of the cavern. Here the winds were less forceful and he closed his eyes to clear his head. And it was here that voices he had long forgotten came to his memory.

A stag, a big black dog.

Voices: a man's voice. "Take Harry and go." A woman's voice, "Not Harry, not Harry, please not Harry!" A high cold voice, "Stand aside you silly girl…stand aside now." A green light and pain.

As he was sinking into a morass of memories and into despair and fear, he heard another voice with an accent he did not remember from his memories or his nightmares. But he had heard this voice before and this accent as well.

"You walk along the thin line between the living and the dead, young Harry. But it is not yet time to join them.

"Come back, come back young Harry," and with that he felt a firm but gentle hand lay hold of his right arm.

"Aieee…your blood. It burns. It sings, young Harry. Your blood sings of power and pain."

His eyes slowly opened and he took in the large form and many scarves of the blind witch, Narcissa, the black mamba who lived below the cavern of the winds and rarely ventured above into the Hub of the community. He had never spent much time with her before, as his father was not comfortable with her voodoo beliefs.

"Narcissa, why are you here?" he said in a slurred voice. His head still felt light and he now noticed the blood oozing down his shirtsleeve.

"Your pain called to me, child, and your memories of the dead and the living. But when I touch you, I feel power and pain, love and hate, good and evil. You have been touched by the lougan, the spirits, young Harry, for both good and ill."

Harry was rapidly coming to full awareness, but still felt light headed. Still he could see why his father would be uncomfortable with this woman. Looking into her blind eyes, he still felt as if she was looking directly at him.

"I don't understand," he said, trying to back away from her and rise up at the same time.

"You have dreams, child. Dreams of a life before, do you not? Dreams of sacrifice, of love, of hate, of pain? Perhaps the time you got this," she said in a singsong voice and then her hand lightly touched his scar.

With a cry, her hand jerked back as if it had been burned.

"Evil, evil most foul. Evil terrible to behold. How came you by it? How can you stand it? Yet you are too good for this evil, too powerful."

At the alarm in Harry's face, somehow blind Narcissa touched him and spoke slowly. "I will conjure some spells and candles to protect you Harry. You have much power within you: one day you will awaken and discover your true power and when you do, you must deal with this evil most foul.

"But you are safe for now," and with that she left him.

In the weeks that followed, Harry shared his experience with Narcissa as well as his dreams or perhaps memories with both of his parents. Neither could make sense of the dreams, but as time passed, it appeared the dreams did not return. Perhaps Narcissa's spells were working.

In The Temple of Bondyè, below the cavern of the winds, Narcissa continually kept a candle lit for the child of power as she now called young Harry. "You will be kept safe for now, but you will have to face the evil one day," she could be heard muttering again and again.

June 26th,1994
The Dark Tower, Hogwarts

Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts and now acting in his role of Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot of Magical Britain, looked down on the struggling body of one of Britain's most infamous criminals. Despite the several incarcerous charms binding his body and the silencio keeping his words unheard, the grey eyes of his former student looked at Dumbledore accusingly and he found himself responding to that clear regard with a hint of guilt.

He had thought he had known Sirius Black when, as a Marauder and then an auror with the DMLE, he had stood with James Potter against the depredations of the Death Eaters and Voldemort. But then, in the heady and dangerous days of September and October 1981, when it appeared the Dark Lord was tearing Britain apart looking for the child of prophecy and when the Potters and the Longbottoms were in hiding from him, Sirius seemed to suddenly take a larger public role, almost daring Tom to attack. And then the events of Halloween unfolded and in place of taking responsibility for the young Potter heir, Black had claimed he was going after the real killer: Peter Pettigrew.

Of course the subsequent charges against Black by Pettigrew and the deaths of Pettigrew and those innocent Muggles had sealed things for Dumbledore: Black was guilty. He had agreed with Barty Crouch that the best way to move swiftly against Black was tossing him into Azkaban: best not to give any chance for other Death Eaters to set their associate free. That it was done without a trial did not disturb Dumbledore too much: these were times of war and things had to get done.

The disposal of Black in Azkaban had removed the major legal impediment to his assuming the burden of taking care of the young Potter heir and Black's continued incarceration gave him free reign to mold and shape him: until his disappearance.

The escape almost a year ago of Black from Azkaban had generated fear in the hearts of the wizarding community, but Dumbledore was still trying to understand the comments that had been overheard by Aurors just prior to Black's escape. "He's at Hogwarts" made no sense: if Black had come to Hogwarts to finish the job he had started so long before, he should have realized that Harry Potter was not at Hogwarts. Yet Black had been seen several times in the area around Hogsmeade and Hogwarts and he had finally been captured fighting with Remus Lupin at the Shrieking Shack by none other than his own potions master, Severus Snape, only a stone's throw from the castle.

Why had Black come? He wanted to question the former Auror and current Death Eater, but Minister Fudge had decreed that he would not waste any more resources on Black and thus the Dementor's visit was set for five minutes from now.

The air suddenly grew chill and the familiar sense of despair that accompanied one of those robed and hooded demons from Azkaban increased. Black's moment of reckoning had come.

It was over so quickly that Dumbledore could literally see the light of reason and life leave Black's eyes as the kiss took place. He personally had nothing but loathing for the hooded guards of Azkaban, but admitted that their form of justice was swift and merciful, if you called living for a few days as a soulless husk a mercy.

"Throw the body through the veil," Dumbledore heard Fudge command the Ministry executioner McNair. "I do not want to waste another knut on feeding and housing a soulless body.
"Save burial fees as well."

McNair chuckled at Fudge's comment even as Albus inwardly flinched. A crass attitude towards a task that should never be taken lightly, he decided. Fudge would have a very different attitude if he would have been on the receiving end of that kiss.

So the questions he had wanted to get answers for would have to remain unanswered forever. And another one of the Marauders gone.

At least justice was done for James and Lily. Yet as he moved to agree with Fudge and McNair, something inside moved him to speak.

"Allow me to care for the body of Sirius Black here," he found himself saying. "He should be allowed to die in familiar surroundings and be buried with dignity, even if he betrayed the Potters. After all, he was the last of the Blacks."

Fudge looked at him as if he had grown another head, but he nodded his agreement. "As long as the Ministry doesn't pay for another day of his care, I don't care."

House elves moments later had removed the soulless husk of one Sirius Orion Black to a special room off the hospital wing where he would stay for several months, only passing away on November 15, 1994 and surprising everyone with his tenacity in staying alive.

But of course, by this time, other events had replaced the simple death of an innocent man as important. Events such as the last attempt to locate one Harry Potter.

A/N: Oooooooohh! A cliffie! Yeah, we went there :P

So while you're waiting so see what's at the bottom of said aformentioned cliffie, why don't you go check out this amazing story I found called Nothing To Lose,written by a supermegafoxyawesomehot writers group? ;) You'll find the link on our profile :)

Till next time guys :)

.Potter