Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any affiliated Works mentioned herein. J.K. Rowling, Bloomsbury Co., and or Scholastic Books own or are entitled to any and all rights and or responsibilities affiliated with the works of Harry Potter and all monies made as such. I do not make any monies and write along this plotline for pure enjoyment reasons.
A/N: This story is being written as a response to a challenge posted by The Last of the Pendragons. A reminder to all dedicated fan fiction readers, I am in need of a beta so if you would like to take on this arduous task then please private message me. Finally I'm sorry if this chapter seems choppy, but I had to get the history behind us.
Enjoy!
-Prie
Chapter I – A Whole New World
"Well no one ever told me Sirius," said Harry.
"Yes, but didn't you ever wonder about your father's family? You've told me that you knew he was pureblooded and that he was from an older family, but didn't you ever wonder why my cousins feel they are entitled to so much?" questioned Sirius.
And so for the second time in under a week, Harry stayed up the entire night talking about his family. As it turned out, Petunia hadn't been very far off when she told him that his father's family was extremely powerful both politically and magically. So, Sirius began his story.
"Two millennium ago the Celtic clans banded together to fight the Roman incursion. Led by the Black Clan, led by a brilliant mage named Atlantes, the Celtic tribes here in Britannia put up a strong fight, eventually Hadrian's Wall was built and the island became divided. Arturius Potter fought against the Black clan for years until he saved my ancestor Merlin. From that point on Arturius and Merlin became contemporaries. Each teaching the other their ways of magic, it was from this merger that modern magic was born. Incorporating the Latin styles from Rome with their forceful magics combined with the Celtic Clan's more fluid natural magics.
We have lived in peace, Romans and Celts, mundane and magical, since those days. It wasn't until the dark ages that you see the separation between the two communities. Again the Potter's, so named for their reputation for owning the most valuable pottery after Hadrian's Wall was built, fought to preserve the love and respect, but my family led a view of mundane eradication. A man named David Muggle sought out and attempted to kill the leaders of the Black Clan and from that day forward no Wizard has been named David and his surname was turned into a disgraceful name for the mundane.
Arturius married Guinevere to forge an alliance between the two rulers of Britannia. Merlin's youngest niece happily married and bore many noble children whose lines forever have changed this world. It was his oldest who sacrificed his magic though that gained Arthurius's favor. Duran gave his magic to save a child's suffering, instead of being outcast like he thought; he was given power over all. The King's line has been broken to many times to count since Duran ruled Britannia, but the last son's capable of ruling now sit between us two Harry. Last of the Potters, last of the Blacks in name and magic and once I die you will inherit my estate and thus reclaim the magical crown and rule this island alongside your mundane relatives."
Sirius moved away from the bed, handing the Barruffio Grimiore back to Harry and walked slowly to the door. His hand rested in the doorway. He turned and faced Harry again; his godson was looking down at his feet as they swung beneath the bed. A sigh escaped from Harry's lips and Sirius took that sign as an acknowledgement of his duties as the last Potter and the last heir from the main line from the union of Latin and Celtic magics.
Harry lifted his feet up onto the bed and let his head fall onto the pillow below. Sirius's free hand slid to the door knob and seemed to pass his hand over the antiquate silver as his fingers wrapped around it and pulled the door shut. As he heard the door click, Sirius leaned back against the door, sliding down until he was crouched against the door frame as his hands ran through his hair. A tear began to develop but was quickly cast away as Sirius wiped his face with one hand while the other steadied himself as he began his journey downstairs to join the Order as they finished their breakfast and left for work.
Back inside the room, Harry's eyes began to wonder. If someone described the house as green they would be grossly understating the fine hues that cover most of the room, but as Harry's eyes traveled further from the bed and really grasped what was around him he could see what Sirius must have grown up in. Granted, the room was still extremely dusty and looked as though its lack of upkeep finally caught up with the age of the house.
As Harry's eyes continued around the room they stopped when the returned to the door Sirius had exited through. Standing patiently was an old looking elf, older than Harry had ever seen during his years at Hogwarts.
"Hello?" said Harry in a questioning voice. He remembered the problems that Dobby had caused him and wasn't about to repeat them.
"Young Master be needing anything from poor old Kreacher? Failed his mistress he has. Filthy Blood Traitors and Half-Breeds befouling the Noblest House of Black, oh what would poor mistress think of Old Kreacher; Master mucking around after he broke my poor mistress's heart."
"Um, if you could get me some breakfast that would be amazing Kreacher," replied Harry.
"It will be done Young Master."
Before Harry could ask if Kreacher needed any coins to buy anything he was gone.
It was nearing mid-afternoon when Harry awoke, he reasoned that he must have fallen asleep while the elf was making him breakfast. Finding his glasses sitting beside him on the bedside table, Harry slipped them onto the bridge of his nose and rolled his feet out of bed and onto the soft carpet below. Looking around he saw that his roomed seemed different. The shades covering the two windows were open letting sunshine fill the room with homey warmth. His dresser, which yesterday was still covered in dust, shone like new while the smell of furniture polish vaguely hung in the air. Harry's trunk, which he remembered placing at the end of the bed, was missing.
Harry made his way across the room and opened the first door that he saw. It opened to a large ornate bathroom. Jet black granite that was riddled with quartz speckled in the low light that entered from a small window above the large tub off to the right side, Harry turned and exited. He wasn't in need of that particular room yet and set off to the other side of the room where another door that he hadn't opened stood. Opening the door Harry found a simple closet of modest size. His robes were hung neat and orderly from darkest to lightest. His only pair of dress shoes from the year before sat in a cubicle at the far end and like the furniture in his room shone like new, but he never remembered polishing them much less owning a can of shoe polish. Across from his robes were Dudley's old shirts and pants that had been given to him when Dudley outgrew them. The tattered holes that had riddled most of his clothing seemed to be gone, but the enormous size remained.
As if to remind him of his hunger, Harry's stomach began to growl in protest to the length of time without being fed a proper amount. So Harry sat down at the desk where the food was situated and slowly ate the cooling food. It wasn't overly good and reminded himself of his own cooking when he hadn't cooked in a while. The food was good, nearly perfect actually, but Harry caught areas that had been burnt or were a little undercook as he ate through the hearty English Breakfast.
Finished and full now, Harry made his way downstairs with his food tray in hand. He walked down the hallway towards a back staircase that he had seen the previous day.
The stairs exited at the far end of the Kitchen. He had to walk down three stories with landings between, but had made it relatively unscathed.
"Young Master awake and fed? He ate his food. Very good Kreacher take tray, hand it here Young Master." said the older elf that Harry had seen before he went to sleep.
"Who are you?" questioned Harry.
"I is lowly Kreacher Young Master. Last elf of Proud Black line." responded Kreacher.
"Oh, well…erm…the food was delicious, thank you." Harry left his conversation with the old elf at that. His few words of encouragement seemed to fill the Kreacher with happiness and who was Harry to take away that from someone else. Resolute on finding Sirius Harry exited through the other door, the one he hadn't entered through, and set off to see who was around.
If Harry hadn't been so steadfast in his thoughts he would have heard Kreacher begin to talk about having a Master the Black line could be proud of again.
The task of finding Sirius couldn't have gone less smoothly. After exiting the kitchen Harry found himself in a large dining room, its use or lack of use still apparent through years of dust and cobwebs that had built up in all the corners. A brilliant crystal chandelier hung over an ornate table. Around the room various pieces of silver were sitting out, though their last use was extremely recent. Harry assumed that this was the room most meetings were held in since the kitchen didn't seem large enough to hold the entire order.
After about fifteen minutes of searching, Harry ran into the first other human of the day. Tonks sat in chair with the paper fold across her face. Soft snoozes could be heard escaping from her lips as the tired Auror tried to catch up on some sleep. Across from her Sirius sat before a roaring fire trying to keep warm on the unseasonably cool weather.
"Siri…" started Harry.
Sirius turned around from the chair he was sitting in to face Harry.
"Sleep well pup?"
Harry just stood there staring at Sirius. He had seen his godfather for nearly twelve hours straight, but that was after a long flight from Surrey on his broom. No, Harry was going to get a good look at the man chosen by his parents to care for him. The resentment that was held against Dumbldore for trying to do what was right for Harry while failing miserably was still fresh on his mind, but Harry knew that he tried his best and that he would talk to him in depth about the these issues once Hogwarts was back in session.
While Harry dealt with his thoughts of Sirius, the godfather was doing the same. Memories of the Marauders came to the forefront of his thought. Pranks and excursions with his godson's father brought a tear to his eye. James's son was every bit like his father and yet so different. James was extremely smart, but like Sirius didn't turn his homework in because he would rather plan pranks late into the night. Harry well, he had asked Dumbledore for his grades and they were good enough. Mainly solid E's with the occasional O and the even rarer A.
Sirius was surprised when he saw Harry's grades. Notes were written by his professors saying that Harry was an extremely gifted student and he showed inconsistencies within his work. Some days his practical portions were excellent while his homework suffered while other times it was the exact opposite. His professors couldn't explain what exactly went on in the boy's head. It was as though Harry manipulated his grades to perfection. Other than potions where Harry got an A and Defense against the Attacking Teacher where he got an O, Harry's grades had become extremely predictable for an above average student. And while Harry's obvious show of understanding either in the homework portion or the practical portion of the class, he always failed to apply both together.
"Harry, come here pup, sit down and why don't we talk," started Sirius, "I've been talking to your professors, you know the ones in the Order, and they have asked me to talk about your grades with you."
"Am I doing too well Sirius? I can make them worse if I need to…" Harry stopped himself after he said that sentence. He hadn't been meaning to tell anyone about his manipulating his grades.
"Yes pup that is exactly what I need to talk about. Why would you be holding back?"
"Well…you know…I didn't have many friend before I came to Hogwarts and well…erm…you've met Ron and Hermione. Hermione works really hard for those grades, you know stuff that comes naturally to me she has to work for, and Ron isn't exactly the hardest worker. If I do to well both Hermione and Ron won't like me. I know that they originally stuck around me because of my fame and all, but they're all I have Siri."
"Harry, Harry, Harry," said Sirius as he shook his head, "if either Hermione or Ron didn't want to be friends with you because you do better than them; well they aren't your friends then are they." Sirius had come up with that bit of "adult wisdom" on the fly, something Remus would have said. How could the kid even think about manipulating his grades, much less doing it so magnificently? Sirius made a mental note to ask Remus about his, how could the smartest of the Marauders not notice one of their own holding back?
Harry thinking of a way to get off the hook immediately began to formulate an idea of how to move the topic away from his grades.
"Hey Siri, you told me last night that the Blacks have a huge library. Could you please show me to it, I need to do some research for my hearing?"
"Well yea," Sirius's attention had been completely shifted from the current conversation to the sour topic of his godson's trial and he was going to do everything in his limited power to ensure that he was back at Hogwarts on September first. "Follow me pup, I have to add you to the family wards. Luckily since your grandmother is also my great-aunt it shouldn't take too long."
So the two headed upstairs, passing Fred and George on the way to a closed door across from their room; when they heard the noise they came out to investigate and watched as Sirius had Harry place his hands upon the wall next to the closed door. For a second nothing happened, but soon some runes within wall began to glow brightly for a second before they suddenly disappeared and the door clicked open revealing an old library.
Fred and George just stood still as they looked through the open door. Rows of books lined the walls, books that looked excellent for new material for their joke shop. Quickly they crept out of their room and tip-toed across the hallway to catch the door before it swung shut. Fred's foot stopped the door from shutting, but allowed for it to make enough noise to make the rooms current occupants think they were alone. With a silent fist pump for their small victory, Fred pushed the door open to see more of the room. George and he stood still for a moment to regard the enormity of the room they had stumbled upon.
The room was nearly as big as the grand ballroom they had cleaned the previous day. Over a hundred people could fit comfortably while dancing in that room, but this one was lined with shelves that held the far to numerous books to easily estimate in their head.
They watched as Sirius took Harry over to a pedestal that held a single book in the middle of the room. A wave of his wand and the fire at the far end of the room was lit and two others like it lit upon the two remaining walls with the door that the twins were standing in would have housed the fourth mantel. Sirius had Harry place his hand once more onto some glowing runes below where the book was located.
"George, hurry go in, this could be our only chance to check out some of the rare Black tomes. Think of the great jinxes that have been lost for centuries!" exclaimed Fred softly. George merely nodded in agreement and went to take a step forward, but instead of moving forward he was by Kreacher.
The elf had a smirk on his face, obvious knowledge of what was about to happen. Still George went to move past the elf, but the second his foot was placed on the old wooden floors he noticed that it was no longer a library, but the kitchen. He continued to walk thinking this was just a mirage, but after the door shut and Fred had followed through he noticed it wasn't a joke. They had entered the locked door at the far end of the kitchen, the one only Sirius and occasionally Remus used.
"Fred?"
"Yes George?"
"I believe we've been had."
"I concur good brother, but still a most excellent idea. Imagine putting a small coin on the bottom of a doorway and instead of going into your intended room you end up elsewhere." George looked towards his brother who was beginning to catch up on the idea. Oh the endless amounts of fun a small coin in the doorway to the loo. "Snape will never know what hit him."
With that both boys ran past their mother to begin experimenting on how to attach the charm to a coin and make it work.
Despite their lack of OWL's, Fred and George knew that individually they could have taken their NEWTS, but where was the fun in being a prankster when one was known to be a teacher's pet? If only they knew that the Marauders were some of the smartest students to walk the halls of their hallowed school in the last quarter century and thus the reason for leaving behind such excellent materials to remain out of trouble. They, the Marauders, may have gotten in their fair share of trouble, but they never slacked when it came to their tests.
"Hey Sirius, I think someone is behind us."
"Don't worry about it Harry unless you bring them in here and key them into both sets of wards, they will never be able to open that door much less remove a book from its shelf because this central index here is required for that. Just like the one at Potter Castle."
"Potter Castle Sirius?"
"Yeah, it's where your da grew up and where I went during the summers after had a falling out with dear ol' mum." stated Sirius. "Are you okay by yourself? I've got to check on Molly and see how she is coming with lunch. I'll bring you up some okay?"
Harry just nodded his head in response and began searching for different law texts dealing with his current situation. He knew that underage wizards were allowed to perform magic in life threatening situations, but since he was the last scion of his house didn't that mean he was emancipated? Too many questions ran through his head and thus led to his studious adventure into Wizarding Law.
It was late in the evening when Harry left the library. He had been staring at books for the past eight hours and he needed a break, but even more he needed to see his friends. They most likely knew that he was here by now so he might as well be off to find them. So with a final bite of the sandwich that Kreacher had made him for lunch, Harry called the old elf and asked if he would take the tray away.
Harry descended down the main staircase to see both Hermione and Ron patiently talking about different things; a newspaper was spread between the two as they searched for some mysterious bit of news that alluded Harry.
"Hey guys," started Harry, but he never got to finish before being engulfed by Hermione and Ginny whom he hadn't seen because of the tall wingback chair.
"HARRY!" the girls screeched.
"Ginny, Hermione, let a bloke breathe. Hey Harry, thought you'd gone to bed. Sirius came down a little after lunch to tell us that you were finishing up some work but would be down shortly."
"Yeah," responded Harry, "I've been busy reading thru some of my essays that Professor Snape assigned us. I'm trying to improve my grades in his class this term, I want to be an Auror and Potions is a required course and all."
"Oh, EXCELLENT Harry," Hermione said. She looked like Father Christmas had come early. "Did you find out anything more than the basic properties of coniferous versus water plants in their reactivity to moonstone based potions? All I found is that the water based ones tend to produce a more potent potion…" Hermione continued along those lines till the group went to bed. Ron just shook his head most the time, but began taking notes the entire time. Any help Hermione gave willingly, even if it wasn't meant for him would help. Ron had caught onto Harry's reference of being an Auror, as such that meant he would need to improve his grades so that he and Harry would be in the same classes together. After all Harry was his best mate and he needed someone who would watch his back.
The next two weeks continued along the same path as the current day for Harry and the gang. He would wake up late in the morning and proceed down the back staircase and into the library. Once in the library he would pick up his parchment from the day before and continue where he left off. Currently he had twenty-eight examples of students getting off and that was if he played his 'B' defense.
Harry had begun finding odd occurrences from day one of his law studies surrounding himself. A, he had never received any noticed from the Wizengamot at twelve when he was supposed to assume his seat. B, he had become emancipated at eleven because of the end-line clause of the Wizengamot Articles for Last Line Scions of 1258.
His hearing the next day would be extremely interesting, but he was really looking forward to his annual shopping trip. Even though he had been told it would be done for him, he had refused to give his key to anyone and demanded that he be allowed to visit Gringotts. This in itself had caused quite a stir, but after many concessions on both sides, the current Hogwarts bound students of Number 12 Grimmauld Place would visit Diagon Alley immediately after Harry's hearing. He would then make his way to the Wizarding Bank and determine why he had yet to receive any statements regarding his accounts, in the very least his trust account and not the two family vaults he had deep below London.
August fifteenth would be a very interesting day for Wizarding England indeed.