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Necessary flaunting
The hunt for Harry was on, had been from the moment they found him missing, despite how horrible the muggles had been to him, Sirius Black could hardly be called a good guardian, to date, the only people he had never hurt were one James Charlus Potter and Remus John Lupin, in fact not even Remus counted anymore after he beat him up. Even Peter Pettigrew and his own brother were known to be hurt by him from time to time although Sirius himself would obviously vehemently deny it, and for the record, were he able to do so, so would Regulus Black. He said himself that he never had a good handle on his anger, sometimes it would just bubble up inside him until it overtook all he was and when the madness induced blackness wore off he was somewhere miles away with blood on his hands.
All on the search party for this man knew this, all they did not know was that it was not true, but Sirius needed to be caught and needed to be caught now. Seeming as Harry James Potter would have died had he been left with the Dursleys they could safely say that Sirius did not want him dead. That is unless he particularly wanted to kill him himself or hand him over to the Dark Lord once he found a way to get his body back. As his most loyal servant, that must definitely be on his agenda, or so it was assumed. To a select few on the team it was questioned, because if he took Harry from an environment where if left for a couple more hours he would have died and he was not about to be rescued by another, why remove him.
To a select few the nobility of their own actions were questioned. To a select few, what Sirius had done was a rescue attempt, and if he sold out his own friends and the Dark Lord's target had been their son, why save him? To a select few, everything they thought they knew to be true was in jeopardy, and while they did not like this, it was also one of the few reasons why they were now on this team. Part of them, a dark part wished for Sirius Back to be guilty, for them to find him torturing the boy when they followed their trail to an end so that all they knew to be true was still that. A small part of them also knew this was unlikely, the puzzle that was this case did not add up. A select few of this group were lucky.
Sirius Black was not a man without mercy but prison had changed him and he was not the mellow man he was before, that role still belonged to his friend, Remus Lupin. The only danger that used to pertain to him was a cunning mind that should have by all rights landed him in the house that his family stood by when the lines between pranks and torture became blurred to his adolescent mind. Now true danger belonged to a man who could reduce Moody was nothing and bring Dumbledore to his knees ruled the wizarding world's streets and held their saviour in his black clad arms. It was a most unsettling thought and for those who cared to notice, they would be startled at the revelation that despite having the power to bring the world to its knees he had not.
It was a very well-known fact that power corrupts and for an already corrupted soul to wield such power, surely some damage should belong to world that had locked him away for being the right hand of Voldemort and betraying his friends by now? Yet so far, his only actions had been to take his Godson from an abusive household, one where he had been hours from death and he had not even killed those muggles but simply got them arrested. It is said Sirius Black was laughing in madness when he was arrested, but he could not have been crazy to have the skill to escape such a place with such seeming ease after only one year. He had been starved, injured and weak and yet he had risen from ashes to become a formidable foe of nightmares.
Sirius was also high on enacting justice and more than once he had publicly declared that he was going to bring the real death eaters their just desserts, a strange thing indeed for a death eater to say. A few of the aurors in the hunt thought that if the wizarding world owed him one huge apology for imprisoning him wrongly then they did not think it a good idea to be on this hit team. One thing everybody knew was that it was an extremely bad idea to cross a man who could slice you open with a thought. They were sure that if the tales of what he had reduced the gate master's ever so successful reign over prison to were true, not only could he do that, but he would be more than willing to do so.
It had to also be noted that all the factors did not add up. He had been as close as brothers to James, adored Lily and worshipped Harry. He had not broken anyone else out of Azkaban when he did escape and if he managed to break out so easily himself, surely it would not have been hard to release a few murderers with him? Why was he so inactive, surely the right hand of Voldemort would have some sort of plan for his resurrection? To a select few life would remain for being smart and knowing that Sirius Black could never sell out James or Lily and that he truly loved his godson. To the rest, they had better pray they wise up quickly or they would face the same fate as Gate Master. The hunt team for Sirius Black just did not know any of this yet.
They did not know a lot of things, they did not know the trail they were following was set up for Sirius Black's amusement, they did not realise it in their euphoria of how easy the trail was to follow and how quick their assignment was to be over. They did not know they were being watched, they did not know Sirius was laughing, they did not know the new amazing powers Sirius had come into recently. They did not know what he was capable of now, so they did not know they were about to fail their assignment, and Sirius was content things remaining that way. They did not know that while Sirius was content with things remaining a certain way, things were going to stay that way and there was nothing they could do to change that.
The point me charm came to a stop outside a normal looking house and the majority of the hit team grinned. The leader of the group was a blood thirsty savage of a man who went by the name of Runcorn. He had very little mercy to those he was assigned to have no mercy for and seldom cared what people thought of him or how he completed a task. He found amusement in his work and his one quality that was befitting of an auror was that he was absolutely fearless. He was often looked down upon by how shamelessly he sucked up to power but it could not be denied that he got the job done. While his capability as a leader could be questioned and oftentimes was by the people unlucky enough to be on his team, he sure was effective.
He was always eager to go higher up in the ministry and run when the power was held. He went right up to the door and signalled to the rest that he was going to break down the door, going in hard and the rest were to back him up, he always wanted to do all the exciting work himself. In this instance they were not going to complain because Sirius Black was dangerous. Runcorn going for shock factor and fear over stealth and slyness, and the rest had to admit that amongst the bad choices he usually made this was an approach that yielded mainly successful results. Nobody liked Runcorn, he was a good man to have on missions that needed bravery and brute force but nobody would be heartbroken if he perished, which made him perfect for the job.
They hung back and waited for Runcorn to raise his foot, a few rolled their eyes, he was also one for dramatics. With one sharp kick the door flew off its hinges with an almighty crash certainly letting anyone inside the house that they had arrived and he landed a few paces in the room. He went in as he intended, surfing the door as a board over the current of his sheer power. The rest of the group were following just as hard behind him following his lead, mouths open ready to scream a battle cry hopefully to confuse and disorientate the convict within. They only made it a pace or so before they were frozen and silent, some in awkward poses with their faces in curious expressions, some were frozen in mid-air as they were jumping.
Sirius Black was standing in plain view just in front of him, in one arm he cradled a sleeping baby boy, and the other arm was extended to them, obviously casting the curse to cause them to be petrified the way they were. Except they were not completely petrified because they could see and hear him, they could just not do anything about it. "Hush," he whispered, a smile curling round his lips, he gestured to the baby he was holding, "you will wake the baby." He dropped a kiss to his forehead and then continued to look to them. "It is amazing he did not wake from the almighty noise of the door flying off its hinges, but you know how small children can be," he twirled his wrist in an almost dismissive gesture.
"I remember my dear brother could sleep through thunderstorms but would wake if his bedroom door opened but a hairbreadth, but that is just part of the human survival system I suppose." He dropped his arm but the curse remained, it would seem that the rumours of his power were not only that, it took something immense to freeze them all so expertly and quickly, wordlessly, wandlessly and without seeming to break a sweat. The hit team were in no doubt that he was capable of so much more and were but waiting for him to demonstrate to them precisely what. He was bound to be less than pleased with the people trying to put them behind bars, but contrast to how efficient he was known to be, he had not killed them yet.
"I can't say I am impressed," he purred quietly, walking towards them with that smile on his face, "you must really have a low opinion of me or maybe just plain disregard for your life. You did not even have a shield around yourselves or you would have been protected from this spell of mine. I am dangerous, did you not hear the news, surely a simple 'protego' would not have taken you so long. You barely made it a pace in the door before I had you subdued, I have been waiting for you for a while; I was not going anywhere until you came although I was expecting you yesterday. I got so bored I almost came to meet you halfway but then again I had some more quality time with my Godson, something that, as you know, I've been forced to miss out on until recently."
"If you were chasing a real criminal then I would be long gone by now because you made your coming here far too detectable. Is it Moody who is slacking in his assessment or is the department of aurors so lacking that they let anyone pass?" A few wanted to speak in outrage but of course they could not. "I bet you are supposed to be an elite team as well, such a pity. They really sent you to die, or at least, they would if I held this against you, but you are just doing your job and I understand that. Lucky for you I have no intention of killing you, no, you being here is just part of my plan to give you a message to take back to your superiors and a demonstration to you numbskulls of my power which is not to be trifled with."
"To be truthful with you, I am not just disappointed but insulted by you being here. If I had been on this team I would have followed such a simple spell much easily but not ended up here without more backup and a shield. A point me spell does not lie but it is also simple, and it was easy to follow too seeming as I was not intending to move. I am dangerous, powerful; the only one to escape Azkaban, if I wanted to hide from you then you would not have found me. Honestly people, what part of this does not smell like a setup to you, you idiots?" While he was scolding them he was laughing at how easily he had fooled them, his voice grew higher and louder as he continued his rebuke. The world was lucky to have him if this was the best the ministry could offer.
"I sent you this location, even though it was a simple point me spell you needed help to find this place. A point me spell, we learn this in fourth year, why would I have left myself and Harry to be susceptible to it? I was an auror once, might still be one again once all this is over, but I can't be bothered to explain how mistaken everybody is right now because I'm hungry and there is no food here. I was one of the best you know, me, James, Kingsley Shacklebolt and Moody, we were one of the best teams out there. As Moody is getting on a bit now and usually sticks to assessing new recruits who are hopeless bints like you. I was his protégé, the best of the best." He was bragging, and he felt well within his rights to do so.
Not only had he surpassed Moody without unlocking his core, but gotten the old man to admit it. "Kingsley would have blown you apart for the audacity of thinking you were ready for this. James would have scared you so much you'd have wet yourselves. Moody would have sent you all back to school in humiliation until you were ready to cast a shield before being sent on a mission like this. But you were not caught by any of my once comrades, you were caught by me. When I was an auror, on one team there were much less of us than the number of you before me, fifteen, quite impressive, but one of us, any one of us could have taken all of you out. I could have defeated you all even without my newfound abilities of wordless and wandless magic, such a pity for you."
"I am going to release your mouths now as some of you are pulling quite awkward expressions which must be uncomfortable. I am doing this for you in mind, test my kindness as I will not be so patient. All scream at once, God help you if you wake Harry, it took me a while to get the little fellow off to sleep poor mite, because of bad dreams of experiences with the Dursleys you know. I will melt your tongues and watch as they dissolve," he let it sink in; it was one of his favourite threats. It was one he would never act out, like his favourite threat, he'd never act that one out either, but it felt good to say it anyway. While he was still a known convict to most of the population he was believed in his idle threats and that gave him more than enough power.
"It won't kill you but it will be bloody painful and the best part is that you will not be able to make much sound as it happens. You could probably get healed if you go to St Mungo's straight after too, but looking at your leader," he raised an eyebrow at Runcorn, "I doubt that will happen." He laughed again, but it was not crazy, not like they were expecting, "he looks like the type of guy who will sacrifice as many of you as it takes to take me down. Would you engage in any real danger yourself though my good man? You did not even have the sense to tell your team to cast a shield around themselves, it is only taught on the first day or auror training, do not take chances. Surely Moody told you about the importance of constant vigilance?"
"You need to take more than a simple chance with me, I am the most dangerous thing on this Earth that you will ever face. I am more dangerous than the one is supposed to be my master; I could beat him in a fight any day. It is all his masked little people who lend him his power anyway and I plan to have them all cowering before me soon enough. You lot bore me and disappoint me, I thought I was dangerous enough for Fudge to send more than a bunch of stupid bints to chase after me." He cast another disparaging glance at Runcorn, "led by an idiotic leader who dies not give a damn about his team, the leader is meant to protect and look out for his people, even Mundungus did that much. I should just dispose of you here and now."
"Do not insult me!" Runcorn almost roared which made Sirius immediately silence him again and look worriedly at Harry who stirred but remained asleep. It was unclear whether he was reacting to his 'stupid' comment or the Mundungus one, but Sirius did not much care. He paid no attention to the threat Sirius made on his life, he was fearless, Sirius noted, he got that much right at least, even if the fear was warranted.
"You are lucky that young children are such deep sleepers," he warned, but it did not sound sincere, a few of the team doubted he ever had any real intention of carrying out such a threat. "I will insult you however I please because I can. I hold all the power here you idiot so do not push your luck, and what I said is true, so do not deny it, you have no right to speak to me."
"Please," it was one of the select few speaking, sensing they had lost this battle and had no hope of turning it around it would be in their best interests to start grovelling now. "Do not kill us, sir, I think… we have got you all wrong, for a supporter of Vol…Voldemort," she said hurriedly, it would play in her favour to appear brave enough to say his name unprompted. "You seem to care for the one who saved us all and vanquished him an awful lot."
The hard and unforgiving expression on Sirius Blacks face softened just a little, "it would seem there is hope for you yet, one of your team seems to have brains at least. It does not forgive that you are now strung up in my front room like pigs that have recently left the slaughterhouse but it makes up for it slightly I suppose. Now, you have a role to play for me," he snapped his fingers and the woman who had spoken up dropped unceremoniously to the floor as her muscles relaxed and as she was in the air she fell. One arm wrapped around her upper arm and yanked her to her feet while Sirius Blacks other arm rid her other hand of her wand and he pocketed it. Somehow he managed to do all this without dropping Harry.
"Sorry," he cast a half smile, "rule number one," he offered as explanation and she had to return the smile because something told her that was a joke. She could sense a shield around him and something told her he did not need to rid her of her wand to get rid of the threat of her. He did not need to unfreeze her and she had to admit she was slightly nervous about why he had done it. 'You have a role to play for me', he was still holding onto her, although it was not hard. "Do you… want to hold him?" He held the sleeping infant out to her and she leapt at the chance to wrap her arms around him, he remained asleep. She could not apparate here, and if she tried she doubted she would live very long, and neither would the remaining members of the team.
She was not so sure that she wanted to rid the man of this child, he had not had a fit of maddening anger yet and the child seemed to be well taken care of. The boy was safe and happy here with this man which was more than could be said to where he was with his relatives where Dumbledore, a wizard they all respected and looked up to had said was the best place for him to be. His man could freeze fifteen people with a word or a wand in an instant and then manoeuvre them around to his wrist; surely Harry could not get a better protector. And he was such a sweet little thing sleeping in her arms the way he was, such a trusting little mite. She could not help but answer Sirius' loving, paternal smile, which sent Runcorn into a rage.
"YOU STUPID IDIOT, YOU ARE FRATERNISING-" Sirius instantly silenced him again but it was too late, Harry had woken up at the noise and he was not happy. Seeing as he was in the arms of someone unfamiliar he started to cry and Sirius took him back where he quietened a bit but continued to whimper. He clutched his Godfather's top in little clenched fists and resisted the temptation to howl in confusion. The girl who had spoken out, Mina her name was, did nothing but look on in astonishment as Sirius was practised calm and certainty rubbed his thumb over the boy's forehead soothingly and his whimpers also stopped. She could certainly picture him waking in the night to his little boy's nightmarish screams and doing this until he quietened and drifted back off to sleep.
"Sorry," he said to her with the same smile back on his face now that Harry was quiet, looking at her and the frozen people with wide eyed curiosity and his thumb firmly stuck in his mouth, "your time will have to be cut short, sometimes only daddy will do." Given the circumstances she was not going to argue, she for one wanted to live past this day.
"Daddy?" She asked, she had never thought he would take the mantle of that title in respect to James, even if he did betray them, something she was beginning to doubt. Then again, many had mentioned, when all the Potters had been alive that it was hard to know who was the father to the boy, Sirius or James, with how Harry's Godfather doted on him with delight. It was clear he just adored him, and the feeling was mutual if Harry was so comfortable with him and he now had the title of daddy. It did not help that he and Harry looked so alike, with how interbred the pureblood families due to their stupid traditions were, they were probably distant blood relations of sorts distant cousins maybe, she mused.
"Don't worry Harry," he said, stroking the messy black hair that was so much like James'. "These people will not hurt us, this woman is nice," he gestured to her with his head which made Mina blush, flattered and grateful.
Harry looked at the frozen Runcorn, his mouth frozen in a funny expression, he giggled, "that man looks funny," he said, removing his thumb from his mouth to say so before inserting it back.
"He does, doesn't he?" Sirius agreed, stroking the black hair again. He turned back to Mina as he once again dropped off, "he is a very sleepy baby, and now we come back to the role I want you to fill out for me. I want you to go back to Moody and tell him that his little minions are all useless as I had to lead them to me only to play a prank on them and they are lucky to even be alive. You will tell him that he is wrong about me and that it is not polite to spread rumours about mad blackouts, especially when he has no real witnesses to my anger outbursts, I have not even gotten angry at any of you, you do not want to see me truly angry, trust me."
He smiled, "tell him that Harry is happy where he is and I am happy with Harry. Tell him that if he tries to pull a prank like this then I will dispose of his minions and not leave it at that, I will come after him." He turned to Runcorn, "as for you, I really do not like you, you seem like a turncoat to me, someone who will run to the power, like Malfoy, and I really don't like him. You are a pathetic leader who does not care for his team, I do not know how you got assigned to this mission, did Moody never tell you to have constant vigilance? And you have no shields?" He could not get past that. He shook his head disappointedly again, "perhaps I really should dispose of you right now," he extended his hand to him.
"NO!" Mina jumped startled and grabbed his arm with both of hers and while it did little to move him she managed to get his attention and noticed that his eyes were sparkling with what she recognised from her training days to be pride. "Please, Mr Black, he may have made some bad decisions but he does not deserve to die, I ask you to let him be."
"I was very much hoping you would have that reaction," he admitted, "those are the qualities of a true leader, you watching Runcorn? This is what you are meant to be like." He gave Mina her wand back with a warning glare that just dared her to try and use it, she kept her hand by her side, not fancying her chances, another wise decision if she did say so herself. "The spell preventing you all from moving will wear off with my departure." With that being said he gathered Harry closer to him and apparated from the house, displaying his ability to apparate past certain wards, though, they were wards he created himself, there were bound to be exceptions. Sure enough a minute or so later the rest of the team collapsed to the ground.
The team immediately started looking round the house and came to a few conclusions, Sirius was telling the truth when he said there was no food there, the cupboards were bare and that was not all. There were no cooking utensils and no cutlery, and when one moved to the lounge they could see the furniture was old and worn and Sirius it was known was a rich man. Even if he was unable to get to his fortune he could have stolen some stuff, or transfigured it, Merlin knows he was capable of such. He was telling the truth about leading them here too and practically handing them the trail, this was all a setup to threaten them and show his power. It was, she was reminded of what she had been told he was like in his school days, a prank.
"Damn it, he was toying with us the whole time," a woman with a nasally voice she did not like very much, though Mina was unaware why spat out. Runcorn was infatuated with her and chosen her to be the second in command for this mission. "There is nothing here that points to habitation, he was never staying here, this was all nothing but a ploy." Mina had to agree, he had never been here, well no more than a day or so anyway which was when their trail had started to really make some progress and they had gotten excited. In retrospect she realised it really did smell like a setup, and they should have at least had shields up when they entered the domain of a man believed to be dangerous as the right hand of Voldemort.
He was still dangerous even though his status as the right hand of Voldemort was thrown into question, as he had so clearly demonstrated. "What do we do now?" Someone asked, it was one of the young ones on this mission, he was clearly just passed training at 20 or 21 years, she did not even know his name.
"All we can do," Mina answered and she noticed everybody looked to her to take the lead even though Runcorn was appointed head and though he was sputtering, he too was looking at her through the corner of his eye. She had to smirk at that, fancy it being the one who they were hunting to help her out in her career, and put Runcorn, the insufferable prat he was, in his place. "We go back to headquarters and we report to Moody. We are out of our depth here, Black literally told us we could not catch him and he was right, he gave us this lead and we walked into a setup, if this was a trap and Black was evil we'd be dead by now. And I don't know about you but then I am leaving the hunt, I do not track down innocent men for a corrupt ministry."
A couple of other wizards followed her lead. "I do not know where Black's loyalties lie, but that Harry he was holding was no doppelganger," a man with grey-streaked black hair stated. "Besides he was far too powerful for us and we obviously need to be trained again, I do not want to go through that again; he made us look like fools. I may not be a young man but I do not want to die any time soon, so I too am out." More and more wizards and witches in the team of Sirius Black hit wizards dropped out until Runcorn was the only one left standing there vowing to hunt the man down. Even his girlfriend decided that she had better chances following other orders and joining assignments without Black in the title for a while.
"What do you mean you all quit?" Moody could be entirely hot-headed and not easy to answer to, what did he think they met by 'we quit'? They had tried explaining what happened even using penseive and he had not really shown much of a reaction bar 'be more careful then'. If he wanted Sirius Black caught he was going to have to go on missions himself. "He pranked you, he's always been a pranker, he will try again. The only way you can find him is too foil his pranks, I trained him, I know he is sloppy." Though it was common knowledge that neither he nor Dumbledore before him when Black and his friends were at Hogwarts had ever managed to foil one of his pranks. "If you take him down will be very rich!" It was the only incentive he had left.