Disclaimer- I do not own Harry Potter

Chapter 8:

Sirius Black released from hospital

We here in France, are pleased to report that Sirius Black has been released from hospital in France after his recovery from Azkaban.

The ICW is still in discussion as to the restrictions they plan to enforce upon Britain due to their oversights which resulted in an innocent imprisoned and tortured. So far our own representatives at the ICW have advocated for trade restrictions until the British Ministry choose to ensure that their have been no other oversights as well as the trial of ex-Minister for Magic, Bagnold and Bartimus Crouch on charges of failure to provide a trial and unfair imprisonment. The American Ministry has been most open in their anger towards Britain and have warned their own citizens about travelling to Britain due to what seems to be corruption coursing through their government. Questions have also been raised about whether Britain, which only six weeks ago had their bid for hosting the Quidditch World Cup in eight years accepted, should have this privilege revoked.

Whatever happens you can be sure that the ICW and our own Ministry are united in their desire to see the British Ministry freed from corruption which seems to have originated after the fall of the Dark Lord Voldemort (referred to in Britain as 'He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named' or 'You-Know-Who'). It is expected that Sirius Black will continue to stay in France with Lady Cassiopeia Black in their family chateau, his recovery is likely to be arduous but we look forward to a time when the French wizarding community can properly welcome Black back into the fold.

The next morning found Sirius lying in bed, propped up on pillows with Harry by his side. If possible, Sirius found himself adoring the little boy more than he thought possible. Harry had obviously decided that he was the doctor (or at least carer) and so had had to be taken to bed after more than a little effort by Marius the previous evening to stop him staying in Sirius' bedroom overnight, that however, did not stop him appearing early the following morning with the potions and several books. And so the first morning that Sirius had outside of hospital began with him lying in bed with his godson carefully curled into his side reading The Tales of Beedle the Bard. Just as Sirius was helping Harry read the 'The Wizard and the Hopping Pot', Cassiopeia's house-elf appeared in the room.

"Good morning Mipsy." Harry asked, looking up from the book.

"Young master Harry, Master Sirius. Mipsy was wondering whether you would like some breakfast?"

Seeing Harry's hopeful expression, Sirius smiled, "That would be lovely Mipsy. Bring it here please."

"Certainly master Sirius," the old elf answered before disappearing with a crack.

Six minutes later and the elf appeared with two large trays floating over her head which she promptly directed to Sirius and Harry who still sat in the large canopied bed.

"Thank you Mispy" Harry chirped, not looking up from the large tray.

Half way through his light breakfast that comprised mainly of fruits and light breads as anything else was too much for his shrunken stomach, Sirius looked over at Harry's tray and was slightly surprised to see that he seemed to have the same type of foods and not only that had two potion vials on his tray that clearly had his godson's name on them.

"Harry?"

"Yes Siri?"

"What are the potions for?"

"Uncle Marius said the green one was to make sure I got all the nutrients I need and the pink one is to stop my back hurting."

Sirius was more than a little concerned by this answer, "Why would your back hurt?"

Harry looked down at his plate sadly, "Aunt Cassi said that Uncle Vernon hurt it when he hit me one time."

Sirius could feel the ire growing in him but he had to be certain, "And who is Uncle Vernon?"

"Uncle Vernon was married to Aunt Petunia...I lived with them until two weeks ago."

Sirius could feel the shaking in his hands getting worse as he contemplated what he knew of the shrew that was Petunia Evans. He had met her only once and from that meeting concluded that Lily's sister would get on marvelously with his mother, after all both were bigoted, self-absorbed women who cared more about their status and appearance in society than anything else.

Sitting together in the writing room, Cassiopeia and Marius had enjoyed a quiet, early breakfast before adjourning to the next room in order to prepare for the day ahead, a day that was likely to be mainly taken up with ensuring that Sirius did not fly off the handlebars nor feel the need to run away. For the squib, the task seemed almost impossible. After all, he was explaining that the very man who Sirius looked up to as a mentor and teacher had effectively ensured that the Boy-Who-Lived was cared for by abusive muggles who he never checked on.

"Perhaps he may not find out for a couple of days." Marius said hopefully, wishing he had had the good sense, like Phineas had, to ensure he was out of the house for this potential confrontation.

"CASSIOPEIA... MARIUS...PHINEAS. WHERE THE DAMN HELL ARE YOU?"

Cassiopeia raised an eyebrow. "Well there goes that idea Marius." The old woman starting massaging her temples, well knowing that this conversation was unlikely to go well.

"Please tell me we have some calming draught somewhere?" Marius asked.

"In the corner cabinet, second shelf down, somewhere behind the whiskeys I think." Cassiopeia answered gesturing to the tall mahogany cabinet which Marius quickly approached.

"Is it too early for some whiskey?" Marius pondered as he inspected a bottle of Firewhiskey that was older than he was and was most likely worth more than his car back home.

Seeing the bottle he was looking at Cassiopeia snorted. "Give me twenty minutes and I will join you. But I feel sober is the best way to have this conversation. It is going to be hard enough to tell Sirius that his godson was abused without being drunk... After though we can inspect the bottom of a whiskey tumbler together."

Retrieving the calming draught and sadly placing the amber bottle back, Marius returned to his seat in time to hear the door open behind him open.

"You better have some pretty good explanations for what is going on. I have to hear from my godson that he was abused!"

"Sirius. Sit down. You are supposed to be in bed not prancing in your pajamas like a child at Yule." Cassiopeia answered

Sirius sulked at the obvious order but threw himself onto a chair, earning him a raised eyebrow from Cassiopeia, "Sirius, there is no need to throw yourself onto the chair. Now, we have a long conversation ahead of us and I would prefer it if you did not interrupt. Once we have finished then you can ask whatever you have failed to understand. Understand?" Receiving a reluctant nod from Sirius, she continued, "Good. Sirius, the House Black was in a dire state and so I approached Marius and Phineas asking for help. As you know there was no Lord or Heir to speak of after you were imprisoned so we had to find one. The next in line after you should have been your brother but he was dead. After him it would have been any child of Andromeda but she was disowned, then any children of Bellatrix but she was imprisoned, then any children of Narcissa. We had a...strong desire to avoid a Malfoy becoming Heir and Lord so we looked a bit further. As a Auror you had to update your will relatively frequently which played into our hands as you named Harry Potter, as your godson, heir to all your property, the ambiguity meant that technically we could say that Harry was therefore heir to House Black." Seeing Sirius about to interrupt she held up a finger and continued, "I know that you think that you were disowned, that bit is true but through an oversight your own personal heir was not exempt from the line of succession so long as they were a descendant of the Black family. Once we found this out, we decided Harry would make a good heir who could bring House Black back to her former glory with a bit of guidance."

Here Sirius was not able to contain himself, "You are using him..." He never got to finish his sentence as he was interrupted by Cassiopeia.

"Yes. And we are using you. What does it matter? We are giving him a good education and life, we are not throwing him to the sharks of our society by allowing him to not be ready. He was living with muggles. Muggles. What could they teach him of family magics? Of life? Of politics? Of law? Of the press? Imagine if he had come in not understanding how our society works, he would be torn to shreds, not least because of his status as the 'Boy-Who-Lived'. We are protecting him, from those who would use him and those who would try to kill him. It is not as though we are going to be subjecting him to any torture other than etiquette lessons."

Sirius found it hard to find an argument against what she was telling him very firmly and so, remembering his original reason for pulling himself from his bed he looked once more at Cassiopeia. "He was abused. What happened to him?"

Here Marius took up the tale, leaning forward and pushing the calming draught across the low table to Sirius, "Sirius. It wasn't good. He was living with his muggle aunt, Petunia, her husband, Vernon and their son, Dudley in Surrey. They treated him like a slave, he lived in a cupboard, wore hand-me-downs from his cousin who is already obese, he did chores in the garden, cooked breakfast, did the washing... Punishments were harsh. We didn't know until I visited, then we immediately made a decision to retrieve him and bring him here, we were a little late though and Dursley had already damaged Harry's back such that he was basically only surviving on his magic. I know you do not want to hear this but Dumbledore placed him there, left him in a basket on their doorstep at the start of winter, we found the letter he left Petunia, asking that they look after Harry."

Sirius' expression had grown more and more devastated as Marius spoke and half way through he had downed the potion vial and was rubbing his face in his hands, "Why would he do that? Lily was clear in her will that Harry was never to go to Petunia. It was me, then the Longbottoms, then Andromeda, then the Bones."

Marius replied gently trying to break their suspicions to Sirius, "I am sorry Sirius, likely he thought he was going it for the good of the wizarding world. If he grew up outside of the wizarding world then he would not be a self-absorbed, spoiled boy. Voldemort isn't dead. He will return and who do you think he will come after, being Lord Black or at least Heir Black gives Harry another layer of protection... Sirius, we have to think of the future, of Harry's future and if teaching him how to manage his situation is the best way then we must accept it. Do you think I would have come back to the family that once left me because I never received a letter, or stayed once I heard the plans? I came because Harry is our future but he deserves to be that future surrounded by people he can trust completely, not just sycophantic morons nor people who will turn on him the minute something goes wrong."

Sirius smirked, "If I ever needed proof you were a damn lawyer, that speech would have provided it." The man's worn face turned solemn once more as he looked between the siblings, "You really do mean this don't you?"

Cassiopeia nodded gently, "I have put my future in Harry and wish to aid him."

Marius snorted, "What she means to say is that Harry calls her 'Aunt Cassi' and Phineas, 'Uncle Phinni'." He received a glare in return that would have cowed Dumbledore, not that this deterred Sirius from chuckling slightly.

"Can I call you that? Marius, you could be 'Uncle Mari' and have a complete set of names."

"Call me that and you will be wishing you were back in Azkaban quicker than you can finish the name. Now please can we return to the matter at hand?"

"Of course." Marius said as he wondered over to the drinks cabinet and retrieved two tumblers and a bottle.

"Ooo" Sirius exclaimed as he plucked the bottle out of Marius hand and inspected it.

"No." Cassiopeia replied shortly, "You are on mediation, have been in hospital for two weeks and had little enough brain matter before you became housemates with dementors."

"...Please?"

"No."

"Fine" Sirius said sulkily as he handed over the bottle to Marius who poured a generous measure into two glasses and handed one over to his sister. "Now, what are your plans for me? You have great plans for Harry, so am I allowed to know what those are too?"

Cassiopeia sipped a little of the whiskey, "We have no plans for you, we weren't sure what state you would be in so we expected the worst, it was a pleasant surprise that you are capable of rational speak. Basically we need you there for Harry, to bring Harry up in the best way possible. There is no need for you to play politics or anything of that ilk."

Sirius was surprised, he had sort of been expecting that he would have been required to enter the Wizengamot or play nice to a lot of stuck up pure bloods. "Right, so all I have to do is do what I intended to do?"

"Yes."

"Nice to know you expect so much from me." Sirius muttered

"Well for all we knew you would have been a drooling mess who was incapable of walking in a straight line let along thinking." Cassiopeia answered looking with a challenging glint in her grey eyes. "Now, speaking of the boy, where is Harry?"

Sirius dismissively waved a hand, "Oh, Mipsy is playing with him. I should probably go find him." With that Sirius tried to stand but promptly fell back into his chair, limbs shaking, as his previous energy vanished. Cassiopeia and Marius looked at the man.

"Mipsy!" Cassiopeia called out as Sirius groaned slightly, when the elf appeared she spoke to her, "Can you take my moron of a cousin back to bed, if necessary tether him to it? Whatever he was thinking getting out of bed, I shall not know."

Soon Mipsy vanished with the weakened form of Sirius in tow and Cassiopeia and Marius were once more left to their peace and solitude.

"That went well I think" Marius commented, swigging some more of the firewhiskey.

He received a sideways look from Cassiopeia, "I suppose, but there is still much to explain and much to do. I need to go and find some blackmail concerning the new Minister for Magic. Care to join me?"

Marius smirked, "What, care to see you intimidate, bribe and spy on people to gain information about notable and important people of the world? Wouldn't miss it for anything, dear Dark Lady."

Dear Aunt Cassiopeia,

It is not common for you to appear in Britain in recent years, yet in the past month you have appeared three times, all of which have been for House Black. Whether or not you believe me or trust me I felt it was important that I show my affiliations. Whilst I may have married into, had a child with and love a member of House Malfoy, my primary concern is for House Black.

Whilst I cannot speak for the intentions of my husband, I wish to assure you that any overtures of friendship and familial affection I make in public are true. As I have mentioned, Lucius's beliefs are his own but I am sure that you will, as ever, cope with anything that he may throw at you, whether that be slander or lawsuits, or indeed overtures of friendship. I know not what your plans are for, for as I recall, Sirius cannot become Lord of our House but I assume that you do have plans and whilst I do not ask to be privy to them I would ask that you at least consider me to be an ally in the future.

Ever yours,

Narcissa Malfoy

Toujours le Coeur Pur

Hope you enjoyed this, please say if you see any mistakes, my Beta is unable to check over my work for the next few weeks so sorry if you see any mistakes, I shall edit again in a couple of days just to check. Thank you, F200x