Chapter 17 - Confessions
The siren of the ambulance resonated through out the street called Privet Drive. The entire neighboorhood was out and all of them hurried towards the house number four, eager to catch some of the action. Among them was an old woman but she had a different purpose. She forced her way through the crowd of people and found herself being stopped by a police man.
"I'm sorry ma'am, no one is allowed to enter the house," said the police officer in a deep voice.
"Could you please tell me what's going on inside officer. The Dursley's are close friends of mine," said Mrs. Figg.
"Husband got drunk, knocked out his sister and tried to kill his wife. Son was unharmed, just unconscious," answered the cop.
"Oh my!" gasped Mrs. Figg. "Any news on their nephew? He lives with them during the summer."
"Nephew? The boy didn't say anything about anyone else so I'm guessing, he wasn't around."
Mrs. Figg paled. "How did you find out what happened in there sir?"
"Didn't I tell you their son told us? He was too much in shock to lie about anything and the evidence inside confirms his story. Mr. Dursley first attacked his sister, then proceeded to try and stab his wife with broken glass and in the end stumbled onto the television set and passed out. I reckon their kid passed out of fear.
So now why don't you go back…" The cop looked around to find her gone. "Crazy old woman," he muttered.
Mrs. Figg hurried back to her house in panic. Harry was gone and the Dursley's have apparently had their memories modified!
She hurried to her fireplace and threw in some floo powder and yelled "Hogwarts headmaster's office!"
She felt her head spinning and it was something she hated doing but this was an emergency. "Dumbledore!" she yelled as soon as she felt her head stop spinning, "Dumbledore, where are you! This is urgent!"
She heard footsteps and a door appeared in the wall opposite her and Dumbledore stepped out wearing an orange night gown.
"Mrs. Figg! What a pleasant surprise! To what do I owe this visit?"
"Albus, the boy has gone! Black's gotten to him!" she said in a panicky voice.
"Calm down Arabella," he said sharply switching from kind to dangerous instantly, "Tell me what happened from the beginning."
Mrs. Figg took deep breaths and swallowed a large amount of soot in the process. Sighing Dumbledore waved his wand and stopped her from coughing uncontrollably.
"Thank you Albus."
"Now, about Harry."
"The boys gone Albus and I think someone has modified the Dursley's memories."
"What!"
"Yes, the muggle police are there and they say that Vernon got drunk and attacked his family and they said there was nobody in the house except for the Dursley's. It looks like Black got to Harry Albus!"
"Impossible, the wards will not allow anyone with the intention to harm Harry inside the house."
"He is Harry's godfather and he might have found a way in."
Dumbledore looked grim. "I'm going to have to take a look at the house myself. Arabella, I want you to alert Lupin and Moody about the situation, nobody else. Tell them what has happened here and who could be responsible. Ask them to look around and make sure none of the ministry members find out about this. We don't want Fudge to create a hue and cry for his own purpose."
"Err…Albus?"
"Yes"
"I don't know where Lupin lives."
Dumbledore sighed again, "Alright, I'll send him an owl and you alert Moody."
"Alright….. Will you be coming through the floo or will you apparate?"
"I'll apparate, I need to look like a muggle to gain entrance to the house," he said with a smile. "Now hurry up Arabella, if Black has indeed captured Harry we must move quickly before he does any harm to Harry."
-x-x-x-x-x-x-
Dumbledore apparated to a dark alley near Privet Drive and quickly made his way to the Dursley's residence. He found the house surrounded by a yellow tape and a man guarding the entrance. Apart from that there was complete silence in the neighborhood. Everybody had been sent home by the police and the Dursley's had been taken to the nearest hospital.
"I'm sorry sir, but this area is out of bound for all except authorized personals."
"Ah yes, I am with a special department of the government and I have been authorized to investigate the area," said Dumbledore smiling genially.
The man looked at Dumbledore incredulously. "Aren't you too old to be working sir?"
"Age is nothing in front of the power of the mind," replied Dumbledore.
"Riigghhttt, I'm going to have to some ID if you want to go in."
"ID?"
"Identification sir?"
"Oh right," said Dumbledore. He fished around in his pockets and produced a blank piece of paper. He showed the man the paper and discreetly pointed his wand at him with his other hand.
"Thank you sir, enjoy doing whatever is it you do," he said, looking slightly dazed.
"Thank you," said Dumbledore and walked in.
He found a man and a woman inside the house wearing gloves and whispering to each other.
Dumbledore cleared his throat.
Both of them jumped, their hands moving to their weapons.
"Who are you?" asked the woman.
"I'm Albus Dumbledore and I am here to investigate," he replied calmly, eying the weapon in the woman's hands curiously.
"That's our job," said the man, "Which department are you with?"
Dumbledore sighed again and waved his wand once more.
"Oh I'm sorry sir, we're just a bit on the edge," said the woman.
"It's quite understandable Miss…?"
"Davis, its Jenny Davis."
"Thank you Ms. Davis. Could you please tell me what you've found out so far?" asked Dumbledore.
"Well it look's like we have to ask a lot of questions to the Dursley's," said the man.
"Yeah, we found three bullet shells instead of two in the living room and a few drops of blood near the kitchen which belongs to none of the Dursley's. It clearly indicates someone else was there at the time of the incident and was shot by the one of the Dursley's or by someone else."
"We've sent the weapon and the blood to the forensic department and we should be getting the results in a week," said the man.
"That long?" asked Dumbledore playing along. He had no idea what these people were talking about.
"But we found out that Mr. Dursley had purchased a 9 mm about two years ago. His reason was safety against intruders," said Jenny.
"Load of crap if you ask me."
Dumbledore's mind was racing as he analysed the pieces of information that made sense to him. He looked around and could feel the magic which had been cast recently in the house. He could only think of two possibilities, one that Harry was attacked by the Dursley's and he fought and escaped or Sirius Black had somehow gained access to the house and there was a struggle in which Harry was captured.
It seemed that Black kidnapping Harry seemed more likely because if Harry had done magic, it would have been detected by the ministry. But the question was how did Black get through the wards?
"Are you alright sir?" asked Jenny.
Dumbledore looked up, startled "I'm sorry you were saying?"
"I said we also found something interesting in the cupboard under the stairs," she said.
"Might I have a look?" asked Dumbledore politely.
"That's why I told you," she replied, "Come on, have a look."
She held a blue light in her hand and asked him to look inside. "Look, there's a small bed and a light inside. Looking at that what would you say?"
"Err… someone lived here?"
She gave Dumbledore a scathing look. "You'd say it would be too small for someone to live in and if someone would have to live in here, he or she would have to be like less than ten years old!"
"Oh"
"And not only that…. You see those stains on the bed and the floor?"
"Yes?"
"Those are blood stains."
"Blood stain?"
"Yes, of course they are completely dried up and if I had to take a guess the blood seems to be about five to six years old."
"And how would you know that?" asked Dumbledore carefully.
This time both of them stared at Dumbledore and answered at the same time, "Experience."
"I see…. Is there any thing else."
Both of them exchanged a look. "Yes," answered Jenny slowly "There's a room on top which none of us were able to open. Every time someone touched the handle they would simply get a violent shock and it wouldn't budge when we tried to break it down. We called for a sledge hammer and a chain saw in the morning to get it open."
"May I see the room?"
"Of course, maybe you'll have better luck than us, but I sincerely doubt it," said the man leading Dumbledore to the next floor.
"So this is the room," asked Dumbledore.
"Yep and I wouldn't touch the handle if I were you," warned Jenny.
Dumbledore carefully examined the door. He drew his wand and tested the magic present. There was a simple intruder ward which was probably the reason the muggles were being shocked violently and there was quite a complex locking charm too.
"Please stand back," he said quietly to the two detectives.
"What are…?"
Dumbledore placed his wand on the handle and a low whistling sound began to emit from the door. It went higher and higher until it suddenly stopped and the door clicked open and Dumbledore pulled it open.
Both the detectives started at the headmaster in amazement.
"How did you do that!" exclaimed Jenny.
Dumbledore smiled and said, "Experience."
"Why couldn't we open the door?"
"It was a security system, a very well made and strong one too," he said and walked into the room and switched on the light.
"WOW!" gasped Jenny in shock and awe.
"Jesus!" whispered the man. "Are we still in the same house!"
Dumbledore didn't reply. He himself was astounded at the level of magic that had been used in room.
"Is it just me or does the room seem bigger than it's supposed to be?" asked the man in a daze.
"It's not just you Karl," said Jenny, "What do you think Mr. Dumbledore?"
Dumbledore didn't reply again. He was lost in his own thoughts. Without giving a thought to the other two in the room, he pointed his wand at the floor and muttered finite, but it had no effect. Frowning, he put a little more power into the spell and said 'finite incantatem'.
Slowly all the furniture in the room morphed back into their original forms and the room too shrank back to its original size.
"You have a lot of explaining to do Harry," murmured Dumbledore. He heard a clicking sound behind him and saw the two detectives pointing their guns at him, their hands shaking.
"W-who or w-what are you!" demanded Karl. "What the hell did you do!"
"Did I not explain?" said Dumbledore politely.
"And what's that stick in your hand?"
"Oh, this?" he said pointing the wand at them.
"Point it else where!"
"This is called a wand, it is a tool which helps a wizard or a witch to pull out their magical power and use it for various tasks."
Jenny and Karl stared at Dumbledore with disbelief written all over their faces.
"You don't believe me? Oh, well, I might as well demonstrate," he said with a sigh. He then moved his wand faster than their eyes could follow and said, "Obliviate."
Five minutes later, all traces of Harry vanished from the house he had grown up in and nearly an hour later nobody in Privet Drive remembered anything about a boy named Harry Potter.
-x-x-x-x-x-x-
"Tea Professor?" asked Mrs. Figg.
"Thank you Arabella. Did you contact Moody?"
"Of course," she said. "My head was turned into a tea kettle too."
Dumbledore laughed.
"Did you find Harry professor?"
"No."
"Did you find any clues in the house?"
"Many."
"What did you find out?"
"Enough to know that Sirius Black was not responsible for what happened tonight, it was all Harry."
"Harry did that to the Dursley's!" gasped Mrs. Figg. "Harry would never do that kind of a thing to anybody! And even if he did, he would have used magic and it would have been detected by the ministry!"
"It was Harry, Arabella. And magic done with Harry's wand cannot be detected by the ministry," he said with a heavy sigh.
"W-what, how is that possible?"
"He's a smart boy, he must have figured out something. And I doubt Moody and Lupin will have any luck finding him. From what I've observed at Hogwarts, that boy is very talented at hiding himself when he wants to."
"But he is going to come back to Hogwarts, is he not?"
"He will. I am sure of it. It is only his safety for which I'm worried about. I only hope that we find him before Black does."
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-
Harry felt pain. No it wasn't pain, it was agony. He couldn't move and he couldn't open his eyes. But he could hear and feel everything going on around him. He felt as if something was digging into his shoulder, trying to go deeper and deeper, moving around as if searching for something and then… and then it was out.
He felt the pain reducing and slowly started becoming aware of things other than the pain. He realized he was on a bed and there was someone standing next to him, slowly and gently bandaging his shoulder and pressing a wet cloth to his forehead.
He tried to open his eyes but he couldn't. Every time he tried, it felt like they were glued together and grew stronger every time he attempted to open them.
The man must have realized that he was somewhat awake and began whispering things he couldn't understand at all. He heard something sounding like a wand… need… heal, but they made no sense to him at all. The voice began to fade after a while and he lost consciousness again.
-x-x-x-x-x-x-
When Harry awoke the next day, he found himself in a dark room, unlike his beautiful room, back in Privet Drive.
Suddenly the memories of the previous night came crashing back to him and he turned sharply to look at his shoulder. But to his immense surprise he found it heavily bandaged and it didn't seem to hurt at all!
"Where the hell am I?" he said to himself.
"You're in number 12 Grimmauld Place," came a hoarse voice from the corner.
In an instant Harry's wand was in his uninjured hand and was pointed in the direction of the sound, only to reveal a tall, bearded, dirty man who was had raised his hands in surrender.
"Easy Harry, I'm not going to hurt you," he said.
"Who are you?" demanded Harry.
The man just rose from the chair in the corner and looked at Harry.
"I asked you a question!"
But the man kept staring at Harry, an unreadable expression on his face.
"Who are you!" shouted Harry.
And then came the reply, "You look just like your father. If it weren't for Lily's eyes, I'd think you were a reincarnation of James, though you are in a way."
Harry was dumbfounded, "What?"
"Your hair is exactly like James, same color, stands at almost the same places, but you got Lily's nose. Thank god for that, cause James nose was like a was a major turn off for any girl when she got up close to him. Lily always complained that she'd hit his nose first rather than his lip and he'd always complain she'd pull him down too fast, so he'd use a switching spell and replace his nose with hers and hers with his and she'd go mad and curse his hair off and then James would go crying to Lupin for help…"
"SHUT UP!" screamed Harry effectively stopping the man from talking. I bloody asked you who are you! Not talk about my dead parents like they were your best friends! Now tell me WHO ARE YOU!"
The man looked slightly confused and then he realized where he was. "I'm sorry. I was just lost in the past."
"This is the last time I'm going to ask you, who are you?"
"I don't think you might have heard of me," he began hesitantly, "My names Sirius Black, and I'm you're godfather."
Harry's eyes widened in shock and horror. For a moment he was unable to think, unable to move. He was just frozen in his spot.
"Harry?"
Harry looked up, "What did you say?" he said, his voice trembling.
"I said my names Sirius Black, Harry," he said, sounding a bit worried.
"That's impossible," whispered Harry.
"Harry, are you alright?"
"Stop playing games with me and tell me who you are or I'm going to blast you through that wall!"
Suddenly it dawned on Sirius that Harry might actually know about his alleged crime. "Harry, what do you know about Sirius Black?" he asked urgently.
A bang emitted from Harry's wand and Sirius dove to his right as the wall behind him was blown to bits.
"Harry, please wait! Let me explain! If I wanted to kill you would I try to heal your shoulder!" he shouted.
Harry lowered his wand by a fraction.
"I swear I'm not going to hurt you Harry."
"Who are you?" Harry asked again.
"I'm Sirius Black, but I swear I'm not going to hurt you!" he shouted, seeing Harry raise his wand again. "Just hear me out please!"
"Sirius Black murdered my parents," hissed Harry, "Why on earth would he try to save my life and help me?"
"Because what you've heard about Sirius Black is not true!"
"What?"
"Look, you must have heard that I sold out your parents to Voldemort and then murdered a dozen muggles but it's not true!"
Harry stared at Sirius who was crouching behind a chair.
"Please hear me out and then you can do whatever you wish," he pleaded.
Harry looked like he was considering hearing the man out but then his eyes clouded with anger again he sent another blasting curse towards the man.
"Harry stop!" screamed Sirius. But Harry just snarled and launched curse after curse.
"I'll take an oath, I'll do anything but just let me talk for five minutes Harry! You need to know the truth!"
Harry paused breathing heavily. He just wanted to blast Black to pieces just like he had done to Pettigrew but he calmed himself and took a deep breath.
"Talk," said Harry shortly.
Sirius slowly came out of his hiding place, eyeing Harry's wand warily. "Maybe you should sit down or you'll end up hurting your shoulder."
"I said talk."
"Maybe I could borrow your wand and do a spell that will ensure that I speak the truth?"
There was no response.
"Erm… I really don't know where to begin…"
"Were you my parent's secret keeper?" asked Harry suddenly without any trace of emotion on his face.
"No," said Sirius venomously.
"That's not what everyone else says."
"That's because nobody knew who the real secret keeper was except for me, James and Lily."
"Then who was."
"Peter Pettigrew."
.
.
.
.
"You killed him…. along with 13 muggles….. There were a dozen witnesses."
"They didn't see what they thought they saw Harry! Yes I went there with the intention of killing Peter because he betrayed your parents not me!"
"Are you saying he's still alive!"
"Yes, that little bastard is still alive but not…"
"The biggest piece of Peter that was found was a finger after you blew him to bits. How can you say he's still alive after that?"
"That's because Peter got better of me at that time. You see when your father and I were at school, we the best of friends, we were like brothers. We were a band of four best friends that included James, Remus, Peter and me," he began but stopped at the look on Harry's face.
"Harry please, you have to believe me! You'd understand if you knew the past!"
"All you have told me is that you didn't betray my parents, a dead man did. You didn't kill that dead man and a number of muggles. In short you're innocent but you haven't offered me any hard proof. To me it sounds like a desperate lie made a desperate murderer."
"If… if only you knew the truth!" he groaned.
"I haven't stopped you from telling me anything."
Sirius moved towards Harry.
"Stay where you are or else you'll be holding your head in your hands. Now I'm going to give you fifteen minutes to convince me. After that you'll find yourself back in Azkaban before you'd know it."
"It's not going to Azkaban for me, it'll be the dementors kiss," Sirius said quietly.
"I couldn't care less."
Sirius closed his eyes and missed the silent spell which washed over him. "We met on the train, your father and I, and we were best of friends instantly. He was a complete Gryffindor to the core and his whole family was all Gryffindors too. But me, I came from a background of Slytherins, but to my delight and relief I was placed in Gryffindor along with your father. There we met Remus and Peter. Remus was a bookworm and Peter… well Peter was a coward and a tag along. Being roommates we soon became friends unlike anyone else. We hung out together, played pranks together, had detention together and what not.
But then, in our third year, we realized that Remus kept vanishing on full moon nights and came back the next day making excuses about being ill or visiting his grandmother and all sorts of nonsense. Of course we didn't believe him and we realized he was a werewolf."
Sirius looked like he was no longer aware of where he was but was simply remembering the happier times of his life. The memories he could not recall in Azkaban.
"When we confronted him about it, he began panicking and actually tried to run for it, really stupid of him. So we decided to keep him company when he transformed. Of course you can't keep a werewolf company when you're human so James came up with the brilliant idea of becoming animagi, the ability to change into an animal at will. At first the idea sounded insane and Remus objected furiously but James was a genius at transfiguration and by the end of our fifth year we had successfully managed to change into an animal at our will.
James was a stag, I was a dog and Peter… Peter was a rat."
He glanced at Harry hoping to see some reaction but had no luck. Harry was stone faced and was listening to Sirius quietly.
"Then James started dating Lily in our seventh year and they got married right after graduation. They didn't want to wait because Voldemort was taking over everywhere and they wanted to spend every second of the day together. You were born soon after and about ten months later Dumbledore comes to Lily and James and tells them you might be in danger."
"Me!" said Harry, startled.
"Yes you, he told us that for some reason Voldemort was after you and urged them to go into hiding. Of course James refused at first saying he wanted to fight but your safety came first and they decided to cast the fidelius charm over their house. It is a charm which…"
"I know what it does," said Harry shortly.
"Well Dumbledore wanted to be secret keeper but James refused and insisted that I be the secret keeper. It was decided that they would cast the charm a few weeks before your birthday and lily would be the one to do the spell. Three days prior to the day the spell was cast I approached James and told him to change the secret keeper to Peter because it would be to obvious if it were me since I was their closet friend and if there had to be a secret keeper, it would be me.
We didn't tell anyone because there was a spy on our side and we suspected Remus since he was a werewolf and all the werewolf's were joining Voldemort. We didn't even tell Dumbledore thinking it was a perfect plan. Nobody would even suspect that Peter, the boy who used to worship James in school would be his secret keeper.
We thought there were no miscalculations…. That was our biggest miscalculation. And then on Halloween Voldemort came to your house and killed your parents and then tried to kill you but met his end. When I heard the news I rushed to Peter's hide out thinking he had been tortured and was forced to give up the location but when I reached his house, there was no sign of a struggle. And that moment I knew, I knew that Peter was the spy not Remus. After all it was just like him to run to the more powerful men and ask for their protection.
I then rushed to your house and found it in half blown apart. I found James and Lily lying together, dead and Hagrid crying over their bodies holding you. I insisted that he give you to me since I was your godfather but he refused. He said that Dumbledore was going to put you in a safe place temporarily and he was not to give you to anyone else. So I agreed and gave him my motorcycle for a safe journey.
I was devastated at the death of my best friends and driven by grief I decided to go after Peter and make him pay for what he had done."
At this point Sirius looked fairly ferocious.
"I found him in a muggle street and before I could say a word he shouted to every one that I betrayed James and Lily and he blew apart the street with his wand hidden behind his back. Before I could react he cut of his finger and transformed into a rat and made his escape.
I was in shock, I didn't know what to do and I began to laugh. I couldn't believe what was going on. My friends were dead, Remus had been missing for months and Peter had betrayed us all and I was all alone. Even when the aurors arrived I continued to laugh and they arrested me and threw me in Azkaban. They threw me in Azkaban without giving me a trail and without even listening to a word I had to say.
For days I screamed I was innocent but the prison guards just laughed. I hoped someone would come and visit me but no one did, I prayed Dumbledore would come and at least demand an explanation from me but he never came. Soon I gave up hope, hope that I would somehow get out of this hell, hope that I would met you and raise you like you were my son but it wasn't to be.
The dementors would come and go but I never lost my mind like the other prisoners. The dementors suck away a person's happiness and make him reveal his worst memories but I didn't have a happy memory. I didn't have a single happy thought; all I knew was that I was innocent. The knowledge that I was innocent was like a life line to me and I held on to it desperately, it helped me remain sane. A few times I would transform into a dog and that would reduce the effects of the dementors and I began spending more of my time as a dog. I didn't know how long it was since I was thrown in prison but I never lost my mind. One day the minister was inspecting the prison and as he was passing my cell I called out to him and asked him for the newspaper. I told him I missed doing the crossword and the look on his face was enough to brighten up my day. He simply nodded and handed me the paper and literally ran away. And then, I saw Peter. I saw Peter right on the front page."
He dug his hand into his pocket and removed a dirty crumpled paper and handed it to Harry.
"Look at the picture," he croaked, "Look at the rat."
Harry looked at the picture and recognized the Weasley family. His eyes moved to Ron and he saw the rat sitting on his shoulder.
"Look carefully, it has one paw missing," said Sirius. "And after the number of times I have seen Peter transform into a rat, I'd never fail to recognize his animagus form anywhere. After seeing his picture in the paper, the feeling of revenge came back to me, I transformed into a dog and when the dementors came to give me my dinner, I slipped out of the bars and made my escape. I swam to the mainland and broke into a muggles barn. I then made my way to Knockturn alley and broke into a local library and began searching for the Weasley's address but instead I found yours. I then made my way to Privet drive and found you terribly wounded. I tired to look for your wand but I couldn't find it so I covered us both with your invisibility cloak and apparated us to this house.
Lily had once forced us all to read a muggle medical book saying that it might come in handy during the war if we lost our wands. I somehow managed to remove that bullet from your shoulder and bandaged it up. You might want to visit a healer though."
"It's been thirty minutes," said Harry.
"What?"
"And I said I'd give you only fifteen."
Sirius stared at Harry, mouth opened.
"Though I must say, it certainly is a very convincing story."
"You don't believe me!" whispered Sirius.
"I don't want to."
"Harry, I'd say the same things under veritaserum too or just lend me your wand and I'll swear on my magic that whatever I've told you is the truth!"
Harry didn't know what to do. He wanted to believe the man in front of him and it definitely sounded like he was telling the truth and there was one way to confirm it.
Sighing he raised his wand and pointed it at Sirius. "Trumus," he muttered.
Sirus began to glow green for a few seconds and then the light disappeared.
"What was that?"
"Whatever you have said to me in the past half hour… is it or is it not true?" he asked Sirius, his voice trembling.
"Every word I have said is the truth," said Sirius.
Sirius began to glow pink.
"What is this?" he asked looking at himself.
"It was a truth spell," said Harry tiredly.
"So…. You believe me?" he asked hopefully.
Harry nodded. "I have to," he said and yet he was filled with a sense of relief and joy and sadness. He was really confused.
"I… wow… that's just great…" began Sirius, his face breaking into a huge smile.
"So what now?" asked Harry, his stony expression changing to a somewhat uncomfortable one.
"Why don't we go to the kitchen and talk Harry," said Sirius, his face glowing with happiness. "My stomach's killing me and I'm sure you're hungry too."
Harry nodded awkwardly and followed Sirius. His was feeling like a train collided with it headlong.
As the headed down Harry's eyes grew wider and wider at the decor of the house.
"Whose house is this? It looks like a house of horror and it reeks!" said Harry wrinkling his nose.
"Its mine, you are in the most ancient and noble house of the Blacks, in other words a haven for dark wizards and criminals," said Sirius cheerfully.
"Like you?"
"Like me," he agreed.
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-
Two days had passed since Harry arrived at Grimmauld place and Harry and Sirius had begun to bond somewhat. For Harry it was like finding a person he could somewhat talk to and for Sirius it was like getting a second chance at life.
"This house is seriously depressing Sirius," complained Harry, as Sirius showed him around the house.
"I lived in this house for sixteen years, don't tell me about depressing! It was a relief when I started Hogwarts. The Gryffindor common room was like heaven compared to this dump."
"I'm sure the Gryffindor common room is nothing compared to Slytherin common room."
Sirius muttered something under his breath.
"You say something Sirius?" said Harry, sounding a bit amused.
"I said I still can't believe you're a slimy Slytherin!"
"I still can't believe you're still going on about that. Stop being a baby and grow up!"
"Oh, what has the world come to… I leave the world for thirteen years and a Potter ends up getting sorted to Slytherin!?"
"Better than being a Gryffindork," said Harry.
"Gryffindor is a hundred times better than Slytherin!"
"No it's not."
"Yes it is!"
"No it's not!"
"Yes it is and there's no doubt about it!"
"Slytherin is the best and the record proves it too!"
"Well….. The people in it suck!"
Harry sighed, "I have to agree with you on that."
"HA!"
"But they're not all bad, there a just a few bad eggs who ruin the name of the house."
"They're all bad," muttered Sirius.
"How mature of you…," said Harry sarcastically.
Harry and Sirius glared at each other and then sat down in a huff.
"Kreacher!" shouted Sirius.
There was a crack and an ugly house elf bowed to Sirius.
"Master called?" it croaked.
"Get some cake and tea. Don't poison it and make it perfectly and don't talk to my mother and bring it within twenty minutes."
It gave Sirius a pure look of loathing and vanished with a crack.
"Why don't you get rid of that elf?"
"I don't know myself," he said, sounding bewildered.
"Why doesn't he clean the house?" asked Harry.
"Cause he's mad. He's lost his mind after taking orders from my insane mother for more than fifteen years."
"Where is her portrait anyway?"
"By the entrance hall, behind the moth eaten velvet curtains," he said "If you want your ears intact, I suggest you tread carefully when you walk past her."
"Right," muttered Harry and stood up.
"Where you going?" asked Sirius.
"To get rid of your mother," replied Harry.
"I wish you luck!"
Sirius waited with baited breath and then the screaming began…. But to his utter surprise, it stopped within seconds and a minute later Harry came strolling inside looking pleased.
"What happened?"
"Mrs. Black is no more," said Harry.
"Huh?"
"You heard me."
"I'm sorry, I thought you said you destroyed my mother's portrait."
"That's exactly what I said."
"Huh?"
"Stop acting like a Gryffindork Sirius… oh sorry I forgot, you are one," said Harry with a smirk.
"Wha…. Hey!"
"I just told you I destroyed your mother's portrait and all you say is huh!" demanded Harry.
"I said huh, because she put a permanent sticking charm on that portrait and you'd have to magic to remove it and it still wouldn't come out because it's a permanent sticking charm!"
Harry raised an eyebrow, "What makes you think I didn't use magic?"
"If you did you'd be expelled from Hogwarts."
"There's no letter," remarked Harry.
Sirius stared at Harry in disbelief. He then stood up went out of the room and came back looking amazed 10 seconds later.
"How in Merlin's name did you get rid of the bitch!" he all but shouted in joy.
"Magic," was Harry's simple reply.
"You're underage."
"That doesn't stop me."
"You used magic outside Hogwarts?"
"How do you think I survived at the Dursley's?"
"Your shoulder looks good doesn't it?"
"Shut it! I didn't expect that bitch to shoot me! I'd expected that only from the senior fat arse!"
"But seriously Harry, the ministry has ways to detect underage magic. There's no way you could do magic outside Hogwarts without them detecting it."
Harry sighed.
"Close your eyes," he said.
Sirius frowned, "What are you going to do?"
"Make this room clean with one spell," was Harry's reply.
Sirius laughed, "There's no way you can clean this room with one spell!" he said with a scoff.
"We'll see."
Sirius closed his eyes, "If you pull this off, I'll shave my head and kick Kreacher out."
Harry stopped, "How about you do anything I say for the rest of the year instead of shaving your head and kicking Kreacher out?"
"You have deal Prongs junior."
Harry smiled. He closed his eyes and recalled the spell he'd found in the advanced charms book he had found in his vault.
He placed the tip of his wand on the floor and muttered 'abstergo' under his breath. Slowly a breeze began to form around him and began spreading in all directions. A minute later the breeze died down and Harry stood up.
"You can open your eyes now Sirius."
"H-H-HOLY CRAP!"
"That's a good reaction," said Harry, sniggering.
"What the hell did you do?"
"Magic"
"But you're underage!"
"Yep"
"And there's no letter from the ministry!"
"That's right"
"There's not a speck of dirt left!"
"I told you."
"Even my clothes have become clean!"
"Including you."
"Everything looks brand new!"
"But the curtains are still torn, we'll probably need new ones."
"I've never heard of such a spell."
"I don't doubt it."
Sirius looked at Harry in amazement and sank into the chair. At the same time Kreacher came in with the cake and tea.
"Put it down on the table and stay in the kitchen and don't touch anything unless I tell you," said Sirius.
He looked at Sirius with hate and Harry with fear and retreated back into the kitchen.
"You're a scary kid you know that."
"Don't call me kid."
"Whatever you say kiddo," said Sirius with a grin.
"Do you want to know what else I can do with my wand?"
"No, no, I don't!" said Sirius hastily.
"Then don't call me kid."
"Whatever you say Harry," he said quickly.
"So what do say we go to Diagon alley tomorrow?" asked Harry suddenly.
"You sure you want to go there? I'm sure Dumbledore will be looking for you and if he finds you I don't know where he'll make you stay."
"He can try," said Harry mutinously.
"Oh he will alright," said Sirius.
"I don't care, I modified they Dursley's memories when I left and I'm pretty sure their brains are a little damaged now. If he tries to put me in any household other than this and he'll find the line at St. Mungo's grow by the second."
"And I was wondering why you were placed in Slytherin," muttered Sirius.
"I still don't get it, why you don't want to meet Dumbledore and clear your name," said Harry ignoring his godfathers comment.
"I already told you… Dumbledore never even doubted that I was capable of betraying your parents and never even came to ask me why I did it. This is my fight and I'm not going to let anyone else fight it for me. Peter destroyed me and I'm going to find and kill him myself."
"That's why we call Gryffindor's Gryffindork's," said Harry.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"What makes you think that Peter's going to let him get caught so easily. You think you can break into Hogwarts, sneak into the Gryffindor common room, get into the boys dorm and get Peter without anyone spotting you?"
"Yes," said Sirius confidently.
Harry sighed, "That's why you're an idiot and that's why you got thrown into Azkaban."
Sirius was ready to interrupt but Harry stopped him.
"I'm going to be at Hogwarts, it will be easier for me to get to him than you. I can get the help of one of the Gryffindor's and get them to get Peter to me. Once I have him, I can take him to the Dumbledore and you will be free…. Now how does that sound compared to your plan of breaking into Hogwarts, finding Peter and killing him on the spot?"
"Much better," grumbled Sirius.
"Now about that trip to Diagon alley."