Disclaimer: We all know how these work, I acknowledge that J.K. Rowlings, Warner bros. and Scholastic own Harry Potter and all other characters and settings from canon, and I get to write whatever I please and even add in characters of my own as long as I don't get any money. The no money sucks but there you go, at least I don't get lawyers knocking on my door.
Sirius' Savior
Chapter 9 All About Harry
After slamming back two fire-whiskeys and getting some lunch, Amelia started to process again. "What about Harry? How is he? Where is he?"
Sirius pulled out his wallet and pulled out two photos one was a formal portrait of Harry in his school uniform. The other was him with his two best friends after their last football game. "This is Harry." He passed them to her.
Amelia looked at the photos, the boy in the picture clearly was James Potter's son. He had black short spiked hair that if it were longer would look like his father's tousled locks. He had bright green eyes and wire rimmed glasses. On his forehead was a scar that reminded her of a lighting bolt. He wore a happy grin in both photos but neither one moved. "Non-magical photo's? Muggle sports?"
"Yeah. That Halloween Harry got hit by three very powerful spells one of which was an AK. He's still affected by two of them; one of them was put on him by his mum to protect him, the third from the damned Dark wanker. The one from Voldemort feeds on magical energy around Harry. He was sick and getting sicker those first months after we left the UK. We were traveling by magic, staying hidden by use of spells, and staying in magical enclaves. When he kept getting sicker I took him to St. Michael's in Jakarta, I was afraid if it kept on I'd lose him. It took a little over six weeks for the healer to figure out what was wrong. So Harry and I live like muggles, I do magic at my job during the day but come home and live in a magic free environment at night. It has helped. As a baby Harry did accidental magic daily usually metamorphic in nature. After that night he didn't do any until he was five, he still doesn't do much, I can count the number of incidents on one hand. Most of his considerable magical core is used keeping the third spell from doing whatever it was designed to do. We live as muggles because it means Harry won't burn himself out, trying to fight it."
"Is there anything that can be done about the third spell?"
"We didn't even fully identify the spell until November 1985. It's rare and as black as magic gets. Sri, Harry healer, is still searching to see if there is another way to free him of it other than the one method we've come up with so far."
"Why wait?"
"Because to get rid of the third spell we have to stop Harry's heart allowing him to "die" and then do a brief ritual to get rid of the spell then restart his heart and we have to do all of it within four minutes.
"Merlin!"
"That doesn't even come close to what I said when Sri and I first discussed it. We are waiting until after his birthday this year to discuss it with him and we probably won't actually do it until after his ninth birthday. That should give him two years to adjust to having his magic active before starting school."
"How can you talk about stopping his heart and be so calm?"
"I don't have a choice Amelia. Harry will never be able to claim his heritage as long as he has the third spell on him, and this is the only way we've found to do it. I have to be positive that we'll be successful because anything else and I would give up. When I lost James I lost the only family I had that gave a damn about me, and if I hadn't had Harry that night I probably would have done something phenomenally stupid and wound up dead or worse. I have to save Harry because he saved me.
"He is such a fabulous kid Amelia. He looks like James but he's his mother's son. He's incredibly smart, an outstanding athlete, his heart is so brave and caring. He's also incredibly ambitious but he's willing to work hard for what he wants. When I asked him what he wanted me to bring back from here you know what his answer was, a new friend." Sirius chuckled. "I asked him if a pen pal would do, cause I couldn't come up with another way to grant his request. James and Lily would be so proud of him. I know I am.
"I miss him, this is the longest I've been away from him since that night. Would you like to hear his voice? I think Liana's grandson's birthday party is probably going on so Harry won't want to talk long but that way you'll be able to tell anyone who asks, you verified he was alive."
Amelia nodded not knowing how Sirius would achieve this miracle since Japan was far away from Indonesia. To her surprise he pulled a rectangular object out of his pocket it had a pad of buttons he pushed after a minute she recognized it as a telephone but she had never seen one not attached to a wall let alone one that would work in an area of high magic.
Sirius cast a quick mufliato around their table then he put a charm on the phone that would make the sound a little louder so Amelia would be able to hear whatever was said easily. The phone on the other end rang three times before Liana picked up.
"Bapak Black's"
"Hi Liana it's Sirius. Is Harry available?"
"I'll get him." It was a few minutes before they heard someone pick up again.
"Sirius, Bonjour apa kabar? Kamarin we memenangkan pertandingan sepak bola. Hadi is merayakan hari ulang tahunnya. Besok kami pergike sislaindari pulau, we play dans les series eliminatoires du tournoi." the words spilled out in a rapid fire and confusing jumble. "As-tu trouver mon penpal belum?"
"I'm working on it kiddo, good luck in the playoffs. I just wanted to hear your voice, go back and celebrate with Hadi."
"Selamat jalan."
"Saya akan kembali lima hari lagi."
"Saya cinta kamu."
"I love you too. Goodbye." Sirius grinned and hung up. He looked at Amelia's confused expression, and chuckled. "Harry is multi-lingual. Sometimes when he's excited or ramped up on sugar like I expect he is at the moment, he forgets to speak in just one. He said good day, how are you? Yesterday we won the football match. Hadi is celebrating his birthday. Tomorrow we go to the other side of the island to play in the playoff tournament. Have you found my penpal yet? I answered. He said goodbye. I told him I'd be home in five days and he said I love you. When he was little it was worse because he got fluent in Indonesian and the local language so fast and I was still struggling to learn it and then he always mixed it up. Sometimes I swear he did it just to drive me nuts.
"How many languages?"
"He's fluent in four. He's also learning Latin and Japanese at school. He tried to convince me to bring him with me so he could practice his Japanese, until he realized it would mean missing the football tournament and Hadi's birthday."
"What else can you tell me about him?"
"He's horrible at art. He has the eye for composition but had no ability to produce it. That was right up until I gave him a camera a year ago. He loves music and plays cello and guitar but had to work very hard to learn to play, and stubborn doesn't begin to describe him. When he first started playing, he had trouble learning. Did he do what most kids do and give up, no he doubled his practice time. He's a blue belt in Judo, a three stripe yellow belt in silat we started those when he was three. He started learning eskrima two years ago and his teacher says he's a natural. Harry volunteers as an assistant to the teacher with the younger children in that now. He plays football, swims and surfs. He's a straight A, sorry O, student. Some of his classes that's easy, others he has to work for it. He is a boy scout and despite only having been one for a year he's already half done with his level's merit badges."
"You sound like you enjoy parenthood. Did you know I have custody of Edgar and Marie's daughter?"
"No. So how do you like parenthood?"
"I find it challenging, but rewarding."
"I hear you. I suspect if I didn't have Sri and Liana I wouldn't have survived that first two years."
"Who are they?"
"Sri is Harry's healer and my second, and much better, mother. Liana is her sister and a squib, but an absolute lifesaver for me. She taught me how to live as a muggle and she's our housekeeper /nanny all in one. She is like an old aunty who is good hearted and annoying at the same time. She has fourteen grandchildren about half of which are Harry's friends. She bosses all of us around, for our own good mind you. She and Sri are almost opposites, but I have been the happiest I have ever been in my life since they took Harry and I under their wings."
Amelia paused and reflected. The Sirius she met and worked with, had nothing in common with the man in front of her. He had been smart, sarcastic,and borderline cruel with little to no tolerance for other peoples foibles, the only people he had trusted had been his school friends, in summary he had been a boy. "You've changed."
"I'm not the opinionated monster I used to be. Six months as a fugitive, followed by having to learn to live like a muggle was a humbling experience. Learning that you are almost as helpless as a toddler in the muggle world tends to kick the stuffing out of your pride. And Sri is more than a specialist in healing dark magic; she's also a mind healer that has supplemented her magical training with muggle courses in medicine with a bit of a focus in psychology and psychiatry. She's respected throughout Indonesia. Anyway she forced me to realize that to be a good parent to Harry I needed to work through my own issues and then helped me to do it."
"You trust her."
"Completely. She is trustworthy. When I was younger I didn't really know that trust could be done in degrees. I trusted the Marauders completely,incorrectly it turns out. I distrusted everyone else, hold over from my parents and their methods. I've learned now that there are some people to trust completely, some not to trust at all but that most you can trust in varying degrees according to their interests."
"Why trust me?"
"You Amelia, are an exemplary Puff and you were Head girl in your year. You have always had a reputation of forthright honesty and despite having a seat on the Wizengamot and a job at the ministry you tend to dislike politics and politicians. I know from the goblins you refused to participate in that travesty of a trial I was given. And you didn't immediately kill me or even try to. How ever you should notice I'm not trusting you with everything. I don't trust you with Harry's location for example.
"Why talk to you? I need someone to know the truth to start searching out the proof. I'm tired of hiding and not being able to move about freely. I want to have leverage over Dumbledore before Harry leaves for Hogwarts, I have to protect him. I want to be able to be in Great Britain to see Harry during breaks and summer vacation. I want to be able to influence what happens at Hogwarts."
"If Great Britain is so dangerous for you and Harry, why Hogwarts? There are other schools."
"Hogwarts is his heritage. The school was founded by the founders, but what isn't commonly known is the Potter's own the land it was built on and provided the materials to build with. To this day the fund that maintains the castle, it's grounds, and the majority of the costs of the school is held by the Potter family. Technically Harry owns the school. Harry is also technically Godric's heir on his father's side because Godric's male lines died out and his granddaughter by his daughter married a Potter.
"Amelia think about who has been voting the Potter seat on the Wizengamot; who votes the Potter seat on the Hogwart's board? Grimjaw Trollslayer, the goblin who oversees the Black and Potter accounts has had to fight off bids to control the Potter wealth every single year since he took over from Ironclaw. There have been multiple bids from many people but I'll tell you who the top contender has been, Dumbledore. I know that Dumbledore is holding onto James' Invisibility cloak, when Harry gets to Hogwarts he'd better give it back. Dumbledore is the one that sent James and Lily into hiding because he got some prophecy about Moldyshorts and either Harry or Alice and Frank's boy, Neville. I don't know what it said but I would bet all the Black Fortune that Albus wants to control Harry because of it, and I'd bet he's even tried to get control of Neville too."
"Sirius you're talking about Albus Dumbledore defeater of Grindelwald. He has a phoenix familiar for crying out loud. He's been the leader of light for over forty years!"
"I know, and I'm not saying his intentions aren't in general good. But muggles have a saying power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Last I knew there were no checks or balances on Albus. And his actions towards Harry and I have been pretty damn questionable. I know I'm asking a lot, but I haven't got anyone else to ask."
"I'll think about it. I make no promises but I'll think about it."
"That's all I can ask. I'll be here through the end of the Congress after that if you need to contact me you can do it through the Indonesian Government."
"What do you do for them?"
"I'm one of four assistant secretaries of security. I've worked for them since 1982."
"Oh. Did you trick them?"
"No, I saved the magical and muggle presidents. Then later I was honest with my boss. He gave me a chance and it's worked out well for both of us."
"Sorry."
"Amelia, I don't have to tell you keep this under wraps do I? If you don't help me that's fine, but please don't spread it around. I don't exactly wish for Dumbledore to have a greater reason to hunt me."