Sirius sat on the plush bed in his guest room at Potter Manor, idly tapping the tip of his wand to his lips. Harry had given it to him when he returned from Diagon Alley three days earlier. The wand buzzed with power in Sirius's hand, a much better fit for him than his old wand ever had been. Harry had simply smiled and shrugged his shoulders when asked where he had gotten it. 'The wand chooses the wizard' is the rule that Sirius had always been told, but Harry had bought this wand without Sirius's presence. He said that to pay him back Sirius could tell him more about Hogwarts. So Sirius had spent the majority of two days telling Harry about the school he would be attending. Then he spent another day answering many seemingly useless questions that Harry had compiled, such as 'What areas of the school have no portraits?'
Sirius jumped as the loud bang of his bedroom door being knocked off it's hinges broke him from his reverie. The door fell to the ground, revealing a large black trunk floating in the door way. It hovered forward a few yards and then abruptly fell to the floor with a reverberating bang. Sirius stared at it a moment, and then Harry walked in.
"Oh, sorry about that." the boy said, his eyes moving from the splintered door to the black trunk, and then to Sirius with an apologetic look. "I forgot that trunks can't open doors." Harry shrugged, slipping his wand from his sleeve and giving it a small wave to repair the door. He walked forward a few steps and looked down at the trunk, then back to Sirius. "Well? Get over here, I have to show you this!"
Sirius gave the boy a confused look, but rolled off the bed and walked to stand next to Harry. "What's this?"
"It's my trunk, of course." Harry rolled his eyes. "You aren't exactly welcome at Hogwarts, so you'll have to stay in here. Hopefully we'll catch Pettigrew fairly quick. It can get slightly boring staying in there twenty-four hours a day."
Sirius eyed Harry, then reached down and unlatched the trunk. The lid popped open slightly, and Sirius kicked it up the rest of the way. The trunk was full to the brim with books, stacks of clothes, blank parchment, loose quills, and a few other various items. "So where am I staying? Between Transfiguration Volume 6 and The Ancient Runes Encyclopedia?"
Harry snorted, pushing the lid down and latching it shut. He placed his right hand on top of the trunk, fingers spread. Nothing happened for a moment, and then Harry's hand ignited in crackling blue flames, the same that Sirius now connected with Zhar. The flames slipped off of Harry's hand like liquid, strands slithering their way along the trunk in all directions. Soon the entire trunk was coated lightly with the fire, leaving none of the black leather surface exposed. The flames then seemed to sink in to the trunk, as if it were absorbing them. A moment later all that remained of the fire was a dim blue light on the latch, glowing eerily. Harry looked to Sirius and took a step back, motioning him to open it.
Sirius stepped up and wearily reached down for the latch. It glowed warmly on contact, and then faded as it was pulled up. Sirius kicked the lid open again, and this time he was met with darkness. No, not all darkness. There was something attached to the closest inside wall of the trunk. Sirius stared at it a moment, and then raised his eyebrows in realization. "A ladder?"
"Well, of course a ladder!" Harry exclaimed, slightly exasperated. "I was thinking of doing stairs, but I would bump my head on the way down. Then I thought maybe a pole I could slide down, but there's no where to attach the top, and it would be a pain to climb back up. So I used a ladder."
"Right. So I'm supposed to climb down there?" Sirius looked down in to the darkness doubtfully.
Harry rolled his eyes, "No, you can use the elevator." he said sarcastically.
"What's an elevator?"
"Just go!" Harry gave Sirius a push towards the trunk.
Sirius scowled at Harry, but turned towards the trunk none the less. Harry hadn't led him wrong yet, and Sirius owed it to him for breaking him out of Azkaban, even if his original attention had been to kill him. Sirius cautiously turned and lowered a leg down into the trunk, firmly planting it on a ladder rail before swinging the other leg over as well to begin his descent. He caught one last look of Harry rolling his eyes at Sirius's reluctance before his head was below the brim. It was almost pitch black, he could barely make out his hands in the dim light. A few moments of cautious climbing later Sirius hit the bottom and stood on soft ground. He looked up to see Harry's head hanging over the side of the ladder and took a step out into the darkness to give him room. As Harry lowered himself onto the ladder, he reached up and closed the lid of the trunk above him, plunging Sirius in to complete darkness. Sirius heard a short grinding sound, and then a loud bang issued directly in front of him.
"You should try sliding down next time, it's much more fun." Harry said happily. Sirius could heard the smile in his voice. "So, how do you like it?"
"Like what?" Sirius said confusedly, "There's no light in here at all, I can't see a thing."
"Oh! Sorry about that, I forgot." Harry replied apologetically. Sirius faintly heard Harry draw his wand, and then light flooded the room.
Sirius blinked his eyes as they adjusted, and then let out a startled gasp. He didn't know what he had been expecting, but it certainly wasn't this. Sirius stood on plush red carpet in a rather large room. To his right there was a stone fire place built in to the wall. A polished red oak table was positioned in front of the fire, with a black leather couch and two large chairs centered around it to form a sitting area. Beyond the sitting area in the far right corner of the room was a small kitchenette with black tile floor, complete with stove and oven. Across from the kitchenette was an elegant polished dining table with four chairs around it. The room had a number of warm landscape paintings on the walls to finish off the decor.
"So, do you like it?" Harry grinned. "That door over there by the kitchen is the pantry. There's enough food in there to last you quite a while, just don't remove the preservation spells on anything you don't plan on eating. The door across from us is the bedroom, complete with connecting bath. There's a few sets of clothes in there for you."
"It's...wow, Harry, how did you do this? I've never seen space magic on this large a scale before." Sirius stared around numbly.
"That's nothing, check this out." Harry grabbed Sirius's arm and dragged him towards a door to the left. He pulled it opened and pushed Sirius through first, following closely behind him.
Sirius felt another surprised gasp escape his lips. He was in the front of what appeared to be a gigantic library. Large, tall rows of books were lined up before him. The aisles were so long that Sirius couldn't judge how far the room even went. Another shock ran through Sirius's system as he looked up and noticed a large square gap in the ceiling, making out railings around it and the top of a book shelf above them. It seemed that the library had a second level, almost as large as the first one. It was amazing that one person had a collection this big, it had to be at least as large as the library at Hogwarts, including the restricted section. Sirius turned around and noticed a long book shelf full of identical black tombs running down the wall behind him. He took a step closer and saw small labels on each of the bindings. They were reference books, apparently for the entire library.
"Harry," Sirius breathed, "Where did you get all these?"
"Ah, well about half of it are copies from the library in Potter manor. The other half are all that I managed to convince Reginald to let me copy from his personal collection, plus a few that I stole and copied anyways." Harry said, leaning against the wall behind him and admiring the library. "It took me years to do it all, and then another year researching and casting every protection charm known to man in each of the rooms around here. Even got Reginald to do a few. I don't even want to know what will happen to someone who tries to cause trouble down here."
Sirius nodded vaguely, scanning the rather large collection of reference books. "You must have spent over half your life down here..."
"Not as much as you may think. Remember that charm I used to send the trunk to your room earlier? It came in quite handy. Now, come along." Harry grabbed Sirius's arm and pulled him out a near by door.
They entered a dark, cold room with hard stone floor. The room wasn't very big, but the walls were lined with what must have been hundreds of wooden cabinets. In the center of the room was a heavy stone table with several different sizes of cauldrons placed on it. Along with the cauldrons was a large black tomb that resembled a reference book from the library, plus a number of metallic tools that Sirius recognized from his many years of potions classes at Hogwarts.
"I don't know if you're any good at brewing, but you can use this place to make some potions if you get bored. The black book on the desk there has every potions ingredient and ready-made potion that I have. Just find whatever you need in the book, give it a tap with your wand, and the cabinet that contains that particular ingredient will light up and stay lit until it's opened. The potions section of the library is just outside the door if you need to look anything up." Harry was saying as he casually walked around the room, opening random cabinets.
"Okay..." Sirius nodded numbly. "Where does that door lead?" he pointed to a heavy metallic door on the opposite wall of the potions laboratory.
"Ah," Harry said, smiling slightly. "That room houses materials of...sensitive temperament. It's locked. For your own sake, don't try to break in there. I've no idea what Reginald cast on the door, but I'm sure it isn't pretty."
Sirius was slightly hurt that Harry didn't trust him, but he ignored it. Harry had known him for less than a week, and half the time Sirius had spent telling the boy about the numerous rules he had broken in his Hogwarts days. And after all, before his time spent in Azkaban, Sirius had been a different person. He probably would have attempted to break in to that room.
"Well, that's about it.." Harry spoke up, leading Sirius out of the room and back towards the ladder. "We leave tomorrow morning, so get a good night's sleep!"
"Sirius!"
Sirius jumped, violently woken from his sleep by harsh push on his shoulder. He sat up sharply and wiped the sleep out of his eyes. It was still dark out, the room lit only by stray beams of moonlight through the window. Harry was standing beside the bed, his cold hand still resting on Sirius's shoulder. He was wearing the same black cloak that he had worn the night Sirius first met him, in Azkaban. "Harry?" Sirius questioned cautiously.
"Finally!" Harry said, removing his hand and walking towards the closet. "You sleep like the dead, and we're late. Here...put this on." Harry tossed him a black robe from his temporary wardrobe.
"What's going on?" Sirius slowly stood and began pulling on the robe.
"I'll tell you when we get there. Just hurry, I'll be right back." Harry said distractedly and left the room.
Sirius's sleep addled brain was now processing that this probably wasn't anything good. What choice did he have, though? He finished dressing, remembering to grab the polished wand from the table beside his bed. He checked himself over and looked around the room to see if anything was forgotten.
"You're ready! Good." Harry walked back in to the room, his pace slightly faster than usual. Harry held a hand out to Sirius, which he reluctantly grasped. Sirius felt the now familiar warmth of the blue fire rising around him mixed with the cold emanating from Harry's hand, and then he was standing on a cobbled street. No, not a street, Sirius realized, but a small dirty alley. Sirius recognized it as the same one that Zhar had taken him from days earlier. Harry tugged on his arm as he led him towards the main street of Diagon Alley.
"Harry?" Sirius asked wearily, "Why are we here?"
"Isn't it obvious? The lady that owns this animal store is horrid, so we're busting that snake out." Harry replied, tugging him around the corner and in front of said store. Sirius looked around nervously, but Diagon Alley seemed completely abandoned.
"We're here to steal a snake?"
"I like to think of it as vigilante justice..." Harry trailed off, staring at the shop thoughtfully. Sirius stayed back as Harry moved forward to inspect the entrance. He slipped his wand from his sleeve and lightly tapped the door. A faint silver wave that Sirius recognized as a silencing charm spread from the spot, covering the entire building and sinking in to the bricks. Harry backed away and stood beside Sirius, eyeing the building thoughtfully.
"How are we going to get in? Every door in Diagon Alley is linked on the same ward, there's no way it can be broken with all the doors closed." Sirius hissed in Harry's ear. This was madness. Ministry wizards would be here any moment to arrest them both.
"I'm trying to remember...when you enter the door here, what's on the inside right wall?" Harry asked, looking up at Sirius.
"Urgh, I don't know...hamsters and mice I think. We can't get in, lets just leave." Sirius nervously eyed the broad street. They could be seen at any time, and Sirius wasn't even glamoured.
"Yeah, sure, in a minute." Harry murmured, staring at the store thoughtfully. He seemed to come to a decision, because he drew his wand again and raised his arm. He brought it down with a quick slashing motion, pointing the wand at the building. A dim silver spell forcefully shot out of the tip and hit brick wall a few yards right of the door. The impact of the spell caused a large amount of dust to rise up and block Sirius's vision, but he heard nothing.
The two of them stood there a moment, and then the dust cleared. The spell had obliterated part of the wall, creating a large gaping hole in the brick. Harry gave a smile and motioned for Sirius to follow him in to the store. Sirius cautiously stepped through the hole, eyeing the bricks, broken glass and rubble that now littered the floor. Harry headed straight for the far corner in the snake section. Sirius wearily stood behind him, glancing nervously towards the street every few seconds. Someone must have seen that.
Sirius watched Harry bend in front of the glass cage that contained the small ivory snake. The two had a hissed conversation, and then Harry drew his wand and tapped it lightly on the front of the cage. The front pane of glass mutely fell to the floor and silently shattered in to pieces, allowing Harry to reach in and pick the snake up. He dropped it in his robe pocket and turned back to Sirius. "Okay, lets get out of here..."
Sirius let out a breath. He hurriedly led the way out of the building, Harry walking quickly to catch up. They stepped through the hole in the wall and turned towards the small alley they had arrived at. Maybe we can get away with this after all, Sirius thought as they rounded the corner into the alley. Harry's arm shot out in front of Sirius and stopped him from advancing further. Sirius sighed and turned to Harry questioningly, but the boy wasn't looking at him. He was standing stock still, his brows slightly furrowed in concentration. His eyes widened minutely, and blue walls of fire abruptly erupted around the two of them. Sirius heard a loud bang that seemed to come from all directions, and then the walls fell.
They were standing out in the open in the middle of Diagon Alley. Their previous position was fifty yards ahead of them, and now housed a small, smoking crater. Sirius's eyes widened in realization. That crater had almost been them. Harry pushed Sirius back further towards the other side of the street.
"Stay back there..." Harry hissed, not turning his gaze from the crater. His face was blank, his right hand gripping his wand tightly. A dull silver shimmering erupted in the open air about twenty yards in front of Harry. The shimmering lit up brightly for a moment, and then a cloaked figure was standing there. Harry's wand hand shifted slightly, but he did nothing.
"Harry! I've been waiting for you." a young male voice issued from the folds of the cloak. The figure raised pale long fingered hands to the hood and pulled it down, revealing a boy of about seventeen. The boy had long brown hair and abnormally red lips, the deep color of blood.
"Kieran. Got off your leash again, did you?" Harry replied smoothly. The boy, Kieran, let out a short laugh.
"Oh, Harry. Always out of the loop, aren't you?" the boy smirked and licked his lips. Then there was a wand in his hand, and he made a quick slashing motion. A purple spell burst from the tip, heading directly towards Harry.
Harry flicked his wand lightly towards the ground, and a shield-like transparent silver wall rose up in front of him. The purple spell hit the wall and the two seemed to cancel each other out, evaporating in to nothing. Harry fired a shadow-like black spell at Kieran in return. The boy laughed and jumped aside to dodge the spell.
"Is that the best you can do, Harry?" Kieran taunted. He flicked his wand and Sirius heard a loud snap. Black ropes appeared around Harry, twisting tightly around his arms and chest like snakes. Harry's arms bound, he could do nothing as Kieran licked his lips and fired a blazing red spell at him.
Harry's entire body abruptly burst in to searing blue flames. The ropes immediately shriveled and disintegrated in the inferno. His hands free, Harry erected another silver shield in front of him. Like before, Kieran's spell hit the wall, crackling and dying out. The blue flames then seemed to rise up above Harry, as if they had a life of their own. The flames twisted in to the head of a snake, followed by a fierce body of scalding blue flames. The snake shot directly at Kieran, who's eyes widened slightly.
Kieran snarled and made a sweeping motion with his wand. A crack formed on the cobbled street in front of him, and the bricks began to rise. The segment of the street stayed whole, but the bricks that formed it's surface peeled up and off the ground, forming a ramp like structure that completely blocked Kieran from sight. The snake of blue fire hit the ramp harshly, but had no effect on it. The flames flowed harmlessly off the brick and dissipated. The stretch of bricks fell back to the ground with a crash, but the brown haired boy was no where to be seen.
Kieran appeared behind Harry and fired off a green spell at his back. Before Sirius could shout a warning, Harry disappeared, leaving the spell to glance harmlessly off the street. Harry did not reappear. Kieran stood still for a minute, eyeing the street.
"Phoenix fire, Harry?" the boy called out loudly, turning his head in all directions. "Dangerous stuff, that. I'm surprised you can wield it."
Harry appeared behind Kieran, a silver spell bursting from his wand. Kieran whirled around and erected a shadowed black shield to defend himself. The liquid-like silver spell hit the shield and met resistance. The two spells began to push against each other slowly, both rapidly shrinking, their power dissipating. The blackened shield suddenly buckled under the pressure, but the silver spell quickly ran out of strength and evaporated before it could reach it's target.
Zhar appeared above Harry and stooped low towards the ground. The tip of his left wing lightly rubbed against the street surface, leaving blue fire sprouting up where ever he touched. Kieran angrily fired a green spell at the bird, but Zhar dodged easily and continued on. The entire area around the two boys was quickly coated with patches of the blue phoenix fire. This didn't effect Harry, but Kieran seemed reluctant to get near the flames. The immediate area around Kieran seemed to repel the flames, blowing them away if they should try to approach. Zhar continued his dives, spreading the blue flames more and more over the area.
A few stray, broken red bricks on the street rose up around Kieran, who licked his lips again and laughed harshly. The bricks hovered there for a moment, and then shot at Harry with lightning speed. Harry disappeared and reappeared in a patch of blue flames on the opposite side of Kieran. Then a low hissing noise distracted Sirius, causing him to look towards the heavily damaged animal shop. The ground under the gaping hole in the wall seemed to be moving.
No, it wasn't moving, Sirius realized. Hundreds of snakes were flowing out of the building and on to the street. The snakes all seemed to be headed in the direction of Kieran, who stood in the same spot fiercely battling Harry. Kieran must have heard the hissing sound as the snakes approached, because he turned his head slightly, but couldn't disengage himself from Harry's steady barrage of spells.
A hissing noise issued from Kieran's mouth, and Sirius realized that it was parseltongue. As the snakes approached, weaving between the patches of phoenix fire, the hissing noise grew louder. Kieran seemed to be saying something to them, but the snakes were not wavering in their approach. The snakes inched closer, and Harry's spells grew larger and more intense, harder for Kieran to reflect. The blue phoenix fire surrounding Kieran reared up, growing over 10 feet tall and pressuring the invisible barrier that kept them away.
Kieran laughed, "Oh very good, Harry. Until next time." the boy gave Harry a small wave, and then abruptly disappeared. Harry watched the spot for a moment, and then all the blue flames on the street began to fade and die out. The great mass of snakes dispersed, slithering away in all different directions. Harry sighed and turned his eyes towards Sirius, giving him that strange half-smile. Then loud pops could be heard all over the street as aurors appeared around him.
"Zhar!" Harry called out, and abruptly disappeared in a flash of blue flames. The aurors stood there a moment, and then one spotted Sirius. They turned towards him in unison, it seemed, and fired off stunning spells in his direction. Sirius stood, glued to the spot, and then he felt talons grasp his shoulder and familiar blue walls rising around him.
Sirius appeared in the guest room at Potter Manor, Zhar on his shoulder. Harry was sitting on the bed, and he looked up and smiled at them. Zhar flew over to Harry and affectionately nipped at him, nuzzling his cheek.
"Glad you made it," Harry said, stroking Zhar and reaching a hand in his robes to pull out the small white snake. Sirius didn't know how to respond. He would have liked to ask what, exactly, he had just witnessed. Or more particularly, who he had just witnessed fighting Harry. Something told him that Harry wouldn't give a straight answer to these questions, though.
"Good job," Sirius smiled awkwardly, referring to the duel.
Harry looked up from the small ivory snake with a tired smile, "He didn't expect I had the ability to wield phoenix fire. He'll be prepared next time." Harry stood and made his way towards the door, hissing softly at the snake in his hands. "You better get some sleep, we have to head over to the train station in a few hours."
As Harry left the room, Sirius absently thought that Harry needed sleep more than he did. He had never seen the boy look so tired.
A/N: I'll be gone this weekend, so this will be the last update until next week. Thanks for reading, and don't forget to review!