DISCLAIMER: THE BOOK BELONGS TO J. I HAVE ONLY BORROWED BOTH CHARACTERS AND PLOTLINE.
THIS CHAPTER IS DEDICATED TO MR. SIRIUS BLACK WHOM NONE OF US WANTED TO SEE DIE.
CHAPTER 51
It was the day after Christmas and Harry was lying down in his room with his head on Draco's stomach staring idly outside the window above him, at the falling snow against the evening sky. They had been given a two day break as holiday time and were making the most of it by lazing around and not touching their books.
Harry was absentmindedly fingering a tiny silver key in his hands, while Draco was quietly reading the latest Quidditch weekly magazine almost dozing off.
The key was a perfect replica of Mr Malfoy's key to the underground chamber at the Obscurus Book House. They had been given it by Dobby only last night, along with two strands of hair belonging to Draco's parents.
The elf had been quite clingy just as Draco had predicted and Harry had had a tough time maintaining his polite façade, especially when the elf had clung to his leg without letting go for nearly ten minutes. Draco had stood behind the creature and had sent heart shaped smoky figures from his wand above their heads laughing at Harry's scandalized expression.
They were abruptly woken up from their peaceful states when they heard a knock at the door, getting up from the bed Harry went over to open it and looked down to find a tiny house elf peering up at him with big ball y eyes, "Headmaster Janus Mendez Sir, wishes to see both Mr Harry Potter and Mr Draco Malfoy in his office right now, kindly please follow me" she said and waited for them to do just that.
Looking at each other, they exchanged confused looks and followed the elf down to the office. Standing in front of the blank wall, they heard a loud, wheezy, high pitched voice behind it saying "I thank you Headmaster once again, I owe you a great debt Sir and whenever you may need to call on a favor I will be glad to comply with your wishes as best I can" suddenly the wall slid open and out walked a tiny little goblin, who walked past them without even noticing their presence.
"Come in" said the Professor's voice.
"Sir, you called for us?" Draco said when they had gone into the room and were standing before the man himself. Both he and Harry wanting to finish whatever it was quickly and head back to their room, free time here was difficult to get so they wanted to make the most of theirs.
"There is someone who wishes to meet you Mister Potter" the Headmaster said and pointed to the seat behind them. Turning around surprised, Harry did a double take and almost fell over. Sitting quietly hidden in partial darkness was his godfather Sirius Black!
"Si…Sirius?" Harry stammered "What are you doing here?"
His godfather moved towards the light and Harry saw he had an almost angry expression on his face "The real question Harry is, what on earth, are you two doing here? This place isn't even supposed to be existing, it's supposed to be the stuff of legends! I'm not sure that is actually real even as we speak!"
His eyes flicking towards Draco for support, Harry turned back to the disgruntled looking man and said "We received letters from this Academy last year inviting us to join its exchange program, so we decided that it sounded interesting and took up the offer that was extended towards us."
"Why lie about Beauxbaton's then?" Sirius said not even trying to approach the still shocked boy.
"Because it was one of the conditions for joining the school" Harry said not daring to bring up Voldemort, "and also because of mum."
"Lily?"
"Yeah, you know very well Sirius, mum would have never let me come here" Harry said, looking pleadingly at him "She hates fighting and is always so afraid for me. I didn't want to hurt her by overriding her opinions to come for my own selfish purposes, so I chose to keep it a secret I…I'm sorry" he said looking guiltily at the floor.
Finally Sirius face softened a bit and he grabbed a long package beside him that Harry had not even noticed till then. Standing in front of Harry, Sirius gave the boy the parcel and hugged him gently "Merry Christmas" he said and released him.
"I had gone to Beauxbaton's to give you your Christmas present as a surprise since I'd had some business in France to attend to anyways. You have no idea how frightened I became when I went there and found that nobody had even heard of you. I went stir crazy in that place and almost tore down Madame Maxime's office when they wouldn't help me."
"When they found out that I wasn't about to leave without answers, they finally agreed and sent me here" looking into his eyes, Harry saw that there were dark circles underneath them and that he looked disheveled. Feeling bad for him Harry apologized and hugged him again.
They heard someone clearing their throat behind them, and turning around to face him, they heard the Headmaster say "I have made your godfather take an oath to never reveal the location of this school or your whereabouts to anyone Mr Potter" looking expressionlessly at them he continued to speak "Also you may stay the night here, Mr Black or leave anytime tomorrow. I will leave that choice entirely up to you."
"I think I'd better get back home," Sirius said "I have not spoken to your parents since two days. They must be frantic by now."
Harry nodded and smiled, yes his mother was a huge worrywart, and she probably had been waiting for news all this while not daring to contact him in case she spoiled the surprise.
"I will accompany you till you leave" he said and waited patiently while Sirius thanked the Headmaster and apologized to him for the ruckus they had caused. Turning around he smiled at Harry and left the office.
"Harry" said the Headmaster calling back the boy before he could leave too "You will need him in your fight, he will become a big part of your struggle. It is the sole reason I let him into the school today as he has to know who you are."
Harry tilted his head and walked away followed by a silent Draco, "Maybe Lady Cassandra saw something" he said, whispering in Harry's ear once they were outside.
Standing in a group outside the office, Sirius asked "Want to open that present Harry?" He was grinning happily at him, all anger forgotten. That was the kind of man that he was, volatile and quick to take offense, but was also very forgiving and lax when all was explained.
Tearing open the wrapping Harry and Draco gasped when they saw the latest broom in the market 'The Firebolt' gleaming from within the paper folds, beaming, Harry thought this more than made up for the smashed Nimbus that he had been mourning for till now.
"This is for me?" Harry asked in a hushed voice, his eyes shining.
"Yup, Darren got one too, Merry Christmas kiddo!" Sirius said again and ruffled his hair.
They started heading towards the grounds when Sirius said "So, when I was passing by the halls I saw only older and bigger kids here, no one your age, is there?"
"Not really" Harry said evasively, becoming apprehensive again.
"Ah!" Sirius said and smiled at him "Then you guys must be the special ones" he said with a hint of pride in his voice, turning to Draco he said "By the way you must Malfoy's kid right? Lily told me you two were friends."
"Yeah, I'm Draco Malfoy, Mr Black, pleased to have made your acquaintance" Draco said rather formally and extended his hand.
"It's Sirius, kid" Harry's godfather said taking the offered hand and shaking it firmly "So how has…"
Sirius was about to say something when they suddenly heard loud voices coming from further ahead in the corridor "I'm going to kill that kid. Who does he think he's playing with? I should have just beaten the crap out of him the first time. Stupid, cocky, Harry Potter!" The last three words were shouted out and could be very clearly heard by the three of them.
Harry gulped and stood stock still only to see both Sirius and Draco had turned to stare at him with their mouths open.
"What are they talking about Harry?" Sirius asked looking worriedly at him.
"Um…nothing, they must be angry because I might have glued their brooms to the floor and attached a 'polite' note to them two days ago."
"Glu..glued their brooms! Why did you do that?" Sirius asked looking aghast.
"They were the ones right? They were the ones that beat you up and poured water over you, right Harry?" Draco asked grimly, not missing a beat. His fists were clenched tightly at his side and there was fury in his face.
"What!" Sirius exclaimed "They beat you up?" his voice had become scary and he looked ready to explode, pulling out his wand he was about to walk towards Toby and his gang ready to pulverize them, when Harry stopped him and said "Please don't do anything Sirius, I…I know that being picked on sucks and that I should have gotten help, but they've been saying stuff about Darren and that really pissed me off. I plan on fighting back but only when I'm stronger. They've not been that bad off late, so don't do anything Sirius, please, this is something I want to handle by myself."
"Ugh! You're a moron aren't you Harry?" Draco said grabbing hold of his shoulders and shaking him, "Pride, courage, honor leave it to the bloody Gryffindor's for god sakes!" He said "why can't you do the intelligent thing and just get help."
"You would do the same Dray."
"No, Harry I wouldn't, don't forget, whatever I am, I am still a Slytherin. I would never try to be unnecessarily brave and would have ratted out on those boys long ago. I don't need to take bullying so I wouldn't have, they'd have been thrown out long ago if it was up to me."
Harry couldn't help but smile at him, watching his grey eyes flash like lightening. He gently pulled Draco's hands from him his shoulders but did not let them go, holding on to him Harry said "I know you're worried, but I promised you I'd tell you if I ever truly needed your help and I really meant it Dray, have some faith."
Draco squeezed Harry's hand once and let go turning away from him.
"But, I can't let it go" Sirius said "No one hurts my godson and gets away with it. You're just a kid and those sound like grown men, the stupid cowards! I'm going to mess them up just a tiny bit, so Harry stay out of this okay! Draco? Will you come with me for a minute?"
"Sure" Draco said not looking at Harry and followed Sirius a little ways down the corridor. When Sirius pulled him aside and whispered something in his ears, Draco started to smirk slyly. 'Yikes!' He thought 'Harry's godfather is crazy!'
They walked towards the thugs and hid behind a corner in the passageway using the shadows as a cover; Sirius pointed his wand at the lights burning in the corridor and whispered a spell and all the lights went out simultaneously with a small whoosh and they were suddenly plunged into infinite darkness.
"Shit! What the hell happened?" Toby's voice came out, sounding surprised, its echoes sounding frightening in the corridor.
'Lumos' he said and Draco saw the tiny beam of light beyond the corner, taking it as his cue, he also softly whispered a spell and thick, white fog rolled out from the tip of his wand, filling up the entire space between them and the boys, making it look all mysterious and haunted.
Suddenly a low threatening growl could be heard through the curtain of fog, and a loud howl of fear pierced the empty corridor. It had definitely come from one of the horrified boys.
Draco grinned when he tried to imagine how scared they would be when they saw the huge animagus form of Sirius emerge from the darkness.
"To…toby that's the Grim!" One boy said and there were came the sound of people tripping and falling over while trying to scramble away.
Sirius growled even more ferociously and barred his long sharp canines, purposely letting drool fall from his mouth, his eyes glowing with other worldly power within his black dog's face.
"Run! Run!" shrieked Toby, screaming like a little girl. He disappeared headlong into the corridor scampering away from the supposed 'beast of death'.
Draco unable to control himself any longer slid to the floor laughing, while holding his sides desperately.
"Having fun?" a voice whispered in his ear in the still dark corridor and Draco's laugh petered off to a halt, startled, he felt an odd shiver run down his spine at the feeling of Harry's warm breath tickling his ear. Turning around with his wand lit, he saw the culprit smiling happily at him.
For some reason Draco turned red and was feeling extremely grateful for the blackness, still unable to say anything.
The lights came back on and Sirius who had changed back into a man came smiling serenely at them from behind the corner saying "So shall we go?"
Nodding the two boys followed him out to the grounds and watched him mount his rather conspicuous motorcycle, "Take care you two, and listen up Harry, I'm proud that you want to handle this on your own, but if you can't, then don't be afraid to tell others. The more the merrier I always say. And Draco, seems like you take good care of Harry so thank you."
Draco smiled and ducked his head from embarrassment "Yeah looking after your godson is a full time job" he muttered, avoiding Harry's gaze.
"Harry?" Sirius asked looking genuinely surprised, "But Harry is the most trouble free person I know" he said.
Trying not to choke Draco said "Yeah he's one hundred percent trouble free!" looking at Harry out of the corner of his eye, he hid his grin from Sirius.
After Sirius left Draco turned to Harry and said "I don't care about your stupid pride or whatever. The fight is unfair as it is, so if they try to hurt you again, I will join you in beating the crap out of them, what say you?"
"Thanks" Harry said, his heart feeling much lighter. A part of him was feeling avenged for all the humiliation he had silently put up for so long, maybe Sirius and Draco finding out was actually a good thing!