hey guys since you've all been so nice and reviewed I decided that I should give you all another chapter. However since school is now out for me I guess these will be coming more often ;). I did have a question though, do you think that Snape should become a friend or stay foe with Harry and his new family.
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the passages from the books that I may use in this chapter of With the Dursleys.
The room had to be full of memories in little bottles from Harry's mind. It would look as if Dumbledore and Harry had totally taken apart his brain, that Harry had no past experiences left inside his head. The headmaster had mentioned earlier when he had first shown up that he was going to give the seeker complete privacy while he pulled out his memories. He had explained that there was no way that he was going to look at any of Harry's memories, that he would only be there to help Harry through the process and to help him file them.
Thinking he should started from the beginning Sirius went over to a shelf labeled "Early years at Hogwarts." he let his eyes skim over all of his choices trying to choose a simple memory to start with. Finally he picked out Harry's sorting, thinking that it would be nice to see his godson at such a young age and see him be put into Gryffindor.
Slowly and gingerly he picked his chosen memory and located the bowl was left in the room. Carefully he put the memory inside of the bowl (A/n I have no idea how to do that so will just write it like that) and lowered his head into it.
-a scene from the first book (Pg. 121)-
Sirius found himself back inside that Hogwarts castle that he hadn't seen in such a long time. All over were the small standing first years and the older students who were sitting at their respected house tables. All of a sudden the sound of old McGonagall yelling "Potter, Harry" filled his ears. He looked over and slowly moved to the stage by his godson's side so that he could hear what was going between Harry and the sorting hat.
" Hmmm, difficult. Very difficult plenty of courage, I see. Not a bad mind either. There's talent, oh my goodness yes- and a nice thirst to prove yourself, now that's interesting… so where shall I put you?" the sorting hat said to Harry, loud enough that Sirius caught it.
He felt his heart swell with pride at what the hat had said to his godson. The only thing he got when he had that dumb old hat on was a trouble maker I see, and a Black to, so how about Slytherin? After some begging and pleading on his part the hat settled on Gryffindor. And that seemed to be exactly what Harry was going through at the moment.
Sirius could hear Harry whispering under his voice, " Not Slytherin, Not Slytherin."
" Not Slytherin eh? Are you sure? You could be great, you know, it's all here in your head, and Slytherin will help you on your way to greatness, no doubt about that- no? Well, if you're sure- better be Gryffindor!"
The last thing he saw before everything started to spin and colors faded into each other was the young Harry walking over to the Gryffindor table and Fred and George yelling " We got Potter! We got Potter!"
Sirius had to take a minute to sort out his thoughts before he moved on to another memory. Harry was so tiny and looked so fragile at his young age of eleven. So much like the first time he saw James and so much more different from the sixteen year old he was today.
He sighed quite suddenly knowing that he had to get to the painful moments now. He scanned over the shelf again, trying to chose something that would help him piece together Harry's first year. And the suddenly his eyes caught on to a certain one that read " going after the sorcerers stone".
The ex-convict had remembered Moony telling him that he had learned about the sorcerers stone in some book he read during their early years at Hogwarts, but back then he couldn't care less about what his best friend found inside a book.
Repeating the process of putting the memory in the bowl and dropped his head back in he was put into the memory.
-since most of you reading this have read the first book I'm going to skip this describing it-
He must have been inside that bowl for an hour of so. In fact the memory was so long that it didn't stop until Sirius saw Harry passing out while holding the stone.
His heart was pounding hard against his ribs and he had begun to sweat. Yes he knew that Harry had lived, seeing as that he was asleep upstairs right now, but that didn't stop him from worrying about his only godson while he ran after Harry and watched his fight with Voldemort.
All of a sudden he was glad that he didn't know Harry back when he was younger. Because if he did then he was sure that he would have taken Harry out of school his first year out of worry. There was no way that he could sit at home and wait for the next holiday to come up while his godson got himself into all sorts of trouble.
- hours later-
Sirius had contented himself with going through Harry's first and second year moments. He actually had finished them all of. He had learned all about the sorcerers stone and the chamber of secrets. To be honest he almost had a heart attack when he learned that his godson was a parseltongue. He was defiantly going to ask Harry about that later.
And finally he had no other choice no where to run to. He had to look at Harry's time at the Durselys. He had already gone through most of the memories that he was there for and refused to look at the ones from fourth year and fifth because well, he was sort of there. Not all the time but at least he was around for Harry to run to those times.
In all truth he was very worried. Professor McGonagall had told him when he asked her about them that they were the worst sort of muggles that she had ever laid eyes on. He knew that his mother was horrible to him but he couldn't imagine what would happen if he had to live with a bunch of muggles that hated him. Especially if he couldn't use any of his magic on them!
So slowly as if to save some time he reached over the shelf called " The Durselys." it surprised him to find out that none of these memories were labeled like ones from the other shelves. Sirius could feel his eyebrows knit together as confusion and curiosity took him over. Now that was certainly odd, he couldn't figure out why Dumbledore or Harry wouldn't want them labeled. Maybe it was that they didn't think that they were as important as all of the other pasts experiences they had in the room? But there were a lot of them, so why wouldn't they be labeled as to what they were? Now a little panicked he sped up his pace and chose the first bottle to watch at random.
His hands were shaking for reasons that he couldn't understand. It was almost as if his mind knew something very bad was going to happen when he looked in.
He mentally shook the thoughts from his mind, not wanting to just jump to conclusions. He suddenly found himself repeating over and over in his head that these people were Harry's family and the only blood relatives he had left. That there was no way that something suspicious could be going on at the Durselys house.
Tired of just hoping nothing was wrong with Harry's last guardians he popped the memory back into the bowl and went in yet again.
-Another memory-
Sirius was very confused when he saw the Durselys family sitting at the table and the fat man that he had saw before when he went to get Harry after he was free tapping his fingers on the table. However there was no young Harry to be found inside the room or at the table.
The animagus could only guess that when he saw Harry he would be pretty young due to the fact that his cousin looked younger then when he saw him and him and Harry were not that far apart.
But Harry's aunt and uncle looked pretty much the same. Still horse like and still bull like, Sirius would have laughed and made a joke about them if he wasn't looking for Harry.
Suddenly Petunia the lady he remembered as Lily flowers sister jumped out of her chair with a huff. Sirius followed her as she went out the door that connected the kitchen and dinning room to the hallway. He began to think she had lost her mind when he saw her start to bang her fist on the cupboard under the stairs.
" Boy! Get up, Get up NOW!" she shouted at the door before stomping her loud way back out of the door. Shutting it with a very loud bang.
What shocked him the most though was when he saw a small version of Harry crawl out of that same cupboard. The boy had to be about five years old by the looks of it, and he didn't look to good.
Not only was his face covered in dirt as if he hadn't washed in days but he also looked very sick. Causing Sirius to worry about his godson even more then he thought he would be through out these memories.
The frail looking boy slowly stood up once he was out of that small cupboard space. Once he was up you could tell very clearly that Harry became very dizzy and swayed on his feet for a moment looking almost as if he would fall over. After he gained his footing back he swallowed quickly and then began to cough loudly into his tiny elbow crock. Sirius wanted nothing more than to scoop Harry up into his arms and check if he was ok.
But he knew that he couldn't do that. This was just a memory and he had no way to help other than watching it out and learn. He could literally feel his blood boil when he looked back at the cupboard door and saw how small it was. How in the world could Harry be sleeping in there?
Never less he walked into the dinning room and kitchen again right after Harry. Forcing his rage to simmer down into the back of his mind.
Once he was back in the kitchen though he didn't know that his rage was going to be forced to come foreword again full force.
He was careful to stand back and watch what was going to play out in front of him. He silently hoped that some one would notice that Harry was sick and get him the medicine and help that he needed.
" well then finally decided to get your lazy ass up have we freak!" Sirius's eyes popped out of his head when he heard how this Vernon man address his godson like that.
Harry could only cough slightly before making his way into the kitchen and responding to his uncle.
" I'm sorry Uncle Vernon but I don't feel to well." even though pad foot was shocked that his godson could talk so well at that age he couldn't help be have his heart go out to the boy. Feeling sorry that he was feeling sickly.
What he wasn't ready for was the whole table to break out laughing (A/n yes Harry's aunt has sat back down).
" sick! HA, you think being sick will get you out of this days chores?" his uncle asked as if it was a threat.
As Vernon got up and advanced on Harry, the younger boy slowly back away into the stove.
"No Sir I'm sorry I just don't think I can stop shaking enough to make breakfast for you today." it was then that Sirius noted that Harry's hands were indeed shaking up a storm. But weather it was from fright of his uncle coming towards him or him being sick Sirius couldn't tell.
In a quick movement Harry's uncle reached down and grabbed Harry's forearms that the young boy had brought up to his face to protect himself.
He shook Harry roughly as Petunia and Dudley just watched and laughed. As he shook him harder he yelled at him this," You worthless freak! How dare you talk back to me, we have taken you in out of the goodness of our hearts when no one else wanted you and this is how you repay us?"
The five year old under Vernon began to whimper slightly as his uncle kept screaming how worthless he was at him.
But what happened after was what made Sirius wanted commit the crime that everyone had accused him for on that Vernon man..
It was then that Harry's uncle threw him on to the ground and began to pound his fists into him, his shoes were included when he got up and began to repeatedly kick Harry in the chest and stomach. Sirius started to shake with anger when he saw this and noticed how Harry kept trying conceal all of his gasps and shouts from the pain.
The beating went on for five whole minutes before Harry's uncle became out of breath and got up. Leaving Harry crumpled up on the floor. Now not only coughing but also coughing up blood from being hit.
Dudley then announced that it didn't matter to him then if the dork was suffering right now that he happened to be very hungry. Screamed and demanded was more like it, and Pad foot was surprised that Petunia and Vernon would ever let their son act like that. Thought right now Harry was his main concern.
Petunia then told everyone, everyone being her husband and son, that they would go out to eat because she simply wouldn't cook in a kitchen that was touched by the freak and it was clear that Harry was such a piece of trash that he couldn't even cook a proper breakfast for them.
Once they had left after Dudley got his last few kicks in on Harry's sins Sirius could only watch in misery as His godson curled up into a ball on the ground and Sirius saw a few stray tears make there way down his face.
Finally when Harry began to get up Sirius could feel this memory began to end. And then colors began to fade and he once again found himself leaving his godson at such a young age, when he needed him.
- end memory-
Quickly Sirius found himself back in the present in the room with all of Harry's memories on shelves' surrounding him. He couldn't even comprehend what he had just witnessed until minutes after coming out of it.
It was then that he felt his old temper coming back to him as fiercely as it did when he had came face to face with peter Pettigrew. He was as ready to kill as he was when he found out that Lily and James were dead because of one of his friends betrayal.
How in the world could they have gotten away with treating Harry like that, sweet, nice, and kind Harry at that too. Hadn't anyone noticed anything while his ass was stuck in Azkaban? Sirius forced himself to take a deep breath and settle down at least a little while all new questions swamped themselves through out his mind. Didn't anyone find bruises on his godson? And others like why didn't Harry's friends notice anything came into his mind to. But the one that bothered him the most was, if I wasn't so stupid and had not gone after peter would Harry had lived with me instead and had a good life?
He found himself crumpling onto the ground overtaken be grief and anger on this newly found discovery. Sirius ran a hand through his hair when he began comparing his own childhood to Harry's. Yes, he had been verbally and even mentally abused but he had to admit that he had never been treated like Harry had. His horrible mother had taken to screaming at him and kicking him out but she had never taken a hand to him. While besides spanking when he was little. But that was nothing compared to what he just saw Harry go through.
What really disturbed him was that he knew that there had to be more abuse moments coming if he dared to look. That by the way that that shelf was filled he knew that Harry had to have go through that horrible treatment for years on end now. He also knew that there was no way that that could be a one time thing.
The Durselys wouldn't just change out of the blue and that that probably wasn't the first time Harry had been beaten either. Harry seemed to know very well to bring his arms up to cover himself and when to. And those facts alone made Sirius's stomach turn. He knew that there was no way he could go through another memory like that tonight. The first one was enough and he didn't think he could stomach himself another one just as worse or more. He couldn't bear to see the boy that he thought of as his own son suffer like that again.
He found himself slowly and wobbly getting off the floor and exiting the room with small steps. There was nothing like finding out your godson you hadn't spent a full day with in years was being abused by people who were supposed to keep him safe.
As he was walking up the stairs trying to piece together a plan that didn't involved him getting hauled back to Azkaban by a bunch of aururs he began to wish James and Lily were still alive. He knew that they would be shocked at what he had just seen and would have definitely done something about it. And here he was having no idea how to tackle this new situation that he suddenly found himself in. it seemed to be one that didn't have an answer. There was no way that he could just forget about it. And he couldn't just walk up to Harry and say that he had just complete ruined Harry's privacy and found out that he was abused.
He wasn't even sure that Harry would talk to him about it. After all he had to face the fact that even though he loved him and wanted to help he didn't know Harry that well yet and wasn't even very good at sentimental talks. Harry would need a parent to talk to about this, not just some man his parents left him with when they died. He would need Lily and James to be there for him but sadly they could never be.
Then he realized that if James and Lily were alive this probably wouldn't have ever happened in the first place. Just that thought alone did something to his heart that he couldn't explain. It was almost as if it had burst with grief.
Though thinking about all of his fallen friends it was then that he was reminded of some help that he did have. Sure he didn't have Lily or James and he was sure as hell glad that he didn't have Peter. But one person he did still have that cared for his godson as much as he did was faithful Remus. Who was much better with all of that touchy feely stuff than he was. Hopefully he could help not only Harry but Sirius as well.
He then began to walk more determinedly when he knew he just wasn't going to run up to his room and pace back and forth. He transformed into his animagus form Padfoot and ran all the way up the stairs and to Remus's door, where he began to whine and scratch at it. He knew that if he was in human form right now he couldn't trust himself not to make a ton of noise and wake Harry up in the process to get Remus to come out of his slumber.
When he heard the rustling of feet on the other side he then knew he could sit silently on the other side and wait to be let in.
Soon he was met by the face of a tired distraught werewolf who looked like he had just been rudely woken up from a peaceful sleep.
while he actually had been. Sirius thought sheepishly. But that was the last of his problems right now.
Remus was looking over his head clearly expecting a human to be on the other side of his door not a dog. However out of instinct he looked down and saw the sad looking Padfoot staring back at him. While looking thoroughly confused he stepped aside and let Sirius in his room.
Once safely inside his friends room and with knowing that Harry wasn't awoke he transformed back into his normal human form.
" Sirius! What is the meaning of this, I happened to be sleeping." Remus whispered urgently. Waiting for an explanation on why he had been awoke at such a late time in the night.
But the only thing Sirius could reply was, " close the door Moony you're definitely not going to like this at all."
Sirius had a look of sadness, anger, and defeat all on his face causing the former dada teacher to worry about what he was about to hear. As he shut the door as quietly as he could he motioned for Sirius to sit down on the bed as Sirius launched into what he had just seen.