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Room of Requirement

The atmosphere in the room was so tense it was palpable. The very air surrounding the two figures seemed to vibrate with intensity, and coupled with the darkness flooding in through the windows of the recreated Gryffindor common room, the space had a certain ominous ambience about it. The two figures currently occupying the space were of course none other than the wanted mass-murderer Sirius Black and his godson, the "Boy-Who-Lived" Harry Potter. They were engaged in what appeared to be a wicked staring contest of sorts, although it was obvious to anyone who took a closer look that this particular contest had no humorous thoughts or intentions behind it.

"Sit." Harry suddenly commanded, breaking the silence and gesturing towards a nearby couch. Sirius, somehow managing to look both conflicted and determined at the same time, cautiously did as he was told. Meanwhile, Harry found a chair of his own, before fixing his godfather with a questioning stare.

Harry… still wasn't too sure how he felt about Sirius. On one hand, the prospect of having his only living relative sitting right there in front of him was admittedly rather exhilarating. He was figuratively dying to bombard the man with questions about his parents, his past, his involvement in the war against the Dark Fuck (more famously known as Voldemort) and everything in between. But, despite this initial excitement, there was still a lot of unknown factors at play here. Harry didn't actually know WHY Sirius was here, or if he was guilty of the things the Ministry claimed he was. On top of that, the man sitting in front of him now did not seem… well… entirely mentally stable.

His godfather seemed to be somewhat jittery, in fact. His body would occasionally produce a shiver of some sort, causing him to twitch and move irrationally. Harry suspected it was simply the result of years of abuse from the Dementors in Azkaban, but he couldn't be too sure. He had never known or even met his godfather before today, so he couldn't tell if he had always been like this or not.

"Harry, I…" Sirius started, only to be cut off by Harry's stern voice a second later.

"What are you doing here at Hogwarts?"

Looking slightly taken aback by his godson's controlling voice, Sirius took a couple of shallow breaths before answering his question.

"I came to see you."

A moment of silence passed as Harry contemplated this answer.

"Is that it?"

"Yes."

"No hidden agenda? No secret plan?"

"No."

"Hm… Well, that's disappointing."

"… What?"

"All this commotion about the dangerous criminal Sirius Black, and you're not even here to cause any trouble. You're simply here because of some misguided notion or hope that you can reconnect with your godson… If that isn't disappointing, then I don't know what is," Harry stated matter-of-factly, letting out a sigh as he finished talking. In reality, Harry wasn't actually all that disappointed by his godfathers' efforts, but he wasn't about to let that show.

"Y-You'd… You'd call my love for you MISGUIDED?!" Sirius shouted in return, growingly increasingly agitated as he spoke. "Stupid boy, you have no clue how much you mean to me! You're the last living link to… to…"

"To Lily and James? To my parents?" Harry finished for him, already guessing what Sirius was getting at.

"… Yes… Yes, to Lily and James. To my best friends…" he muttered back, his hand twitching ever so slightly as he did. "They… they didn't deserve to die… that way. Slaughtered in front of their only child… That fucking bastard… I'll kill Voldemort myself…"

He was mostly rambling now, repeating the phrase "I'll kill him" over and over to himself, his eyes doing a poor job of concealing the wild and unhinged beast that rested within. Sirius Black was a broken man now, after spending years of his life in Azkaban, and Harry wasn't sure if he ever would or could fully recover.

"Sirius," Harry said, his voice firm and unshaking. His godfather immediately stopped rambling and looked at him, as if drawn to his adamant resolve.

"I want you to listen to me, and listen close. Lily and James Potter… are dead. Killing Voldemort won't change that, no matter how badly you might wish it will. You have to face reality: your friends and my parents died that night in Godric's Hollow, and they won't ever return. Because one thing is for certain: once you're dead, you're dead. Nothing more to it."

As he spoke, Harry felt a strange sensation grasping at his heart, a feeling he couldn't quite place rising up inside of him. It felt oddly solemn, as if his words was reaffirming a truth he had known for a long time, but refused to accept before now. Every word he spoke came out crystal clear, like a cool waft of air on a hot summers day, cutting through the heat and washing over the both of them. Yes, his parents were dead, and nothing could ever change that. Life would go on without them, regardless of whether or not anybody wanted it to. Luckily enough though, time would heal almost any wound, and Harry was sure that even a man as deranged as Sirius would eventually come to accept that fact, given enough time to heal.

His words had an immediate effect on his godfather. It was as if a bucket of ice cold water had been thrown over his head, allowing him to think somewhat clearly again. The madness retreated from his eyes, still present but now lingering in the back rather than roaring at the front.

But, just as Harry was about to continue speaking, something… very unexpected happened. A tiny fly flew out from amongst his black bangs, stopping dead clear in front of his face. The little creature then turned to look at him, before seemingly starting to fold in on itself. Twisting and contorting violently, the critter morphed right in front of their stunned eyes, slowly taking on the form of a human. Before long, the fly had completely disappeared, and been replaced by what appeared to be a young, pink-haired female in her early twenties.

"Ahhhh, that feels gooood…" she sighed, her body shuddering ever so slightly. "You have NO idea how awful it is to be stuck as a fly for hours on end. It's like… you're not even human anymore, right?" the girl said, fixing Harry with a shrewd look.

"What in the… A-And who might you be?" he asked, trying to remain composed despite what he had just witnessed.

"Auror Nymphadora Tonks, at your service! But my friends call me Tonks, and so should you, because I'll literally kill you if you don't! I'm not joking about that by the way," she responded, doing a snappy salute before turning her attention over to Sirius instead.

"And you are Sirius Black. It's been a long time, cousin."

The long-haired man simply stared at her in response, his eyes filled to the brim with confusion and suspicion. But then, something happened. His eyes widened. His nostrils flared. And then he remembered.

"N-Nymphadora…? You've grown… so much…"

"Hey, what did I say about the name?! But yeah, I know. Been a good couple of years since we saw each other last. I wish I could say you're looking healthy, but I don't want to lie. Truth be told, you look like shit."

Her casual tone immediately deescalated any sort of tension left in the room, turning the entire situation into something resembling a bad sitcom. Her out-of-place humor really didn't fit the atmosphere, and Harry couldn't help but snort in amusement at her behavior.

"And why, pray tell, are you here today, Nym…"

Just as Harry was about to say her name, Tonks shot him a look so cold he immediately stopped talking, before remembering her earlier statement.

"… Tonks. Why are you here?"

"Oh well, that's kind of a hard question to answer. On paper, I'm not even supposed to be here. So let's just say that some very powerful people have taken an interest in you, Harry," she winked, stretching her oddly flexible back with an audible pop.

"Well, that's hardly surprising. I am The-Boy-Who-Lived after all, I suppose people leaving me alone would be a deviation from the norm at this point," he sighed in return, looking slightly annoyed for just a moment before his face regained its usual shade of indifference.

"That would be an accurate assessment! I am sorry I can't tell you more, but such are the rules… Well, now then, onto an entirely different matter! Namely what to do with you, Sirius," Tonks nodded, her eyes honing in on Harry's godfather yet again. "I'm not gonna lie, proper procedure dictates I bring your ass in. Now, whether or not I choose to do that comes down to what happens in the next couple of minutes."

Sirius, having recovered from the initial shock of seeing his cousin again for the first time in years, suddenly regained his earlier fire.

"What is it you people find so hard to understand?! I am not the enemy here! All this talk of bringing me in when, in reality, we should already be hard at work looking for that fucking traitor Pettigrew!"

"Pettigrew… traitor?" Harry asked, his eyes furrowing ever so slightly in confusion. "How so?"

"It was him all along! I never gave up your parents to the Dark Lord! Pettigrew did! I'm not the traitor here, he is!"

"Wait, hold on… How could Pettigrew tell Voldemort my parents' location if he didn't know where they… were…" Harry's voice trailed off as he finally realized what his godfather was getting at. The pieces all started falling into place, and soon enough, he let out a small gasp as the truth dawned on him.

"You weren't the Secret Keeper of the Fidelius Charm at all, were you Sirius? It was Pettigrew all along! I knew there was something wrong with Dumbledore's story!"

"Exactly! That's exactly right! I would never betray your parents to the Dark Lord, not on my life! They were my best friends! I could never do that to them!"

"But wait a second here… If this is true… Then why didn't you say so when the Ministry caught you in that street? Why didn't you try to defend yourself when they hauled you off to Azkaban for a crime you supposedly didn't commit?" Tonks chimed in, looking mightily confused.

"I tried as hard as I could, believe me, I did. But nobody would listen to a word I said. It was as if… as if they had already determined ahead of time that they wanted to send me to Azkaban… But there was one who knew the truth… Albus. He knew I was innocent. HE KNEW! And yet… he didn't say anything. Didn't come to my defense at all… He let those Ministry bastards drag me off to Azkaban without saying a fucking word…"

A hint of madness returned to Sirius's eyes as he spoke about the Headmaster, madness mixed with an undying, unquenchable hatred for the man. Harry couldn't really blame him though. He suspected he would've been just as angry himself if someone he believed to be his friend backstabbed him so thoroughly. Not that it came as much of a surprise though. Harry had always known Dumbledore was a slippery little bastard, who always micromanaged things to best suit him and him alone. He was probably hooked on some "Grand Plan" that involved him letting Sirius go to Azkaban for a crime he didn't commit.

I gotta admit, I'm a little impressed. The old man's ruthlessness goes way deeper than I initially expected. I'll have to be more wary of him in the future. Who knows what that meddlesome old fool could have in store for me…

"Well then… This changes things," Harry muttered, lightly stroking his chin with one hand, not letting the astonishment of the revelation show on his face at all. "First of all, Dumbledore is no longer to be trusted. He might be the most powerful wizard in all of Britain, but he's also a delusional has-been who is hooked on prophecies and "The Greater Good". I believe it's in our best interest to minimize contact with him as much as possible going forward."

Both Sirius and Tonks remained silent as he spoke, their focus fully on him and him alone.

"Secondly, Sirius: now that we know you're innocent, you need to get out of here. Hogwarts isn't safe for you, not with old DumDum running the place. He probably already knows you're here, in fact, and I don't think he's going to just let you walk out the front door. Luckily enough for you though, I might have a solution for that."

"What kind of… solution?" Sirius asked, absentmindedly dragging his tongue over his dry lips.

"Oh, you'll see. Chances are, you might even recognize it. But before we get to that… we need to know if we can trust YOU, Tonks," Harry smirked, turning to address the Auror.

"Me?" the now red-headed girl asked. "Well… I… Uhh… Hmm…"

"I'm afraid I'm going to need a slightly better answer than that."

"Yeah yeah, I know, I know… Well, I'm gonna have to report back to my boss on what happened here today, but… outside of telling her, I can keep it a secret, for now."

"Can your boss be trusted?" Harry inquired, his eyes narrowing ever so slightly.

"Oh yeah, totally. She's, like, THE best at keeping secrets. I'm pretty sure she could've killed someone and nobody would've ever found out… Not that she'd do anything like that!" Tonks stammered, waving her arms in denial.

"Well, you just gave away your boss's gender, so hopefully she's better at keeping secrets than you are," Harry retorted drily, causing Tonks to blush heavily.

"… Drat, I did, didn't I…"

"But anyway, I guess I'll accept that for now. We'll have to meet up again in the future to determine what our next course of action will be, so until then, stay low and try to avoid getting into trouble. That means no more spelunking around Hogwarts, Sirius," Harry continued, sending his godfather a rather stern look.

"I'm not… a child, Harry. I can… take care of myself," he breathed in return, looking slightly insulted at being reprimanded by someone so much younger than himself.

"Alright, if you say so. We'll arrange a meeting later. You can contact me via owl, and I'll send Hedwig with a reply. Don't come looking for me though, as that can raise suspicion. And remember to burn all letters you receive after you've read them. Wouldn't want anyone finding those, after all."

"… How is he so good at this…?" Tonks muttered to herself as she listened to Harry speak.

"Now, Tonks. Can you change back into a fly?" Harry asked.

"Huh? Oh… yeah, I mean I could, but… to be perfectly honest, I'd rather not. Being a fly kind of sucks. Can't I be something else?"

"Anything small that doesn't make too much noise works. We'll need to fit all three of us underneath my Invisibility Cloak, which isn't going to be easy."

A small gasp went up from Sirius as Harry said those words.

"… Invisibility Cloak…?"

"Yeah, Invisibility Cloak. Long story, not relevant right now. Can you do it?"

"… Yes. Give me a second…"

Turning around to offer her some privacy as she morphed into an animal, Harry locked eyes with Sirius, who was looking more than a little shocked.

"You… got your hands on James' old Invisibility Cloak? … How?"

"It showed up as a Christmas present one day. I was originally tempted to throw it out simply because I knew the sender was most likely Dumbledore, but I'm glad I didn't. The darn thing has saved my hide more than a few times, and it's really useful for stealing stuff from the library," Harry smirked, his appearance reminding Sirius of James for just a moment.

"Wow, I… never would've thought…" Sirius breathed, shaking his head in disbelief. "You've… gotten so strong since that day, Harry. I'm sorry… I couldn't be there for you… earlier."

"Hey, don't think about it too much. My life hasn't exactly been easy, no, but I'm guessing yours have been a hell of a lot worse," Harry replied, putting on a half-hearted smile. "And hey, it's not like I've been totally alone. I've had Hermione, and she's more than enough, trust me on that one."

"Ahah, a witch. It looks like you might have inherited some of your fathers' traits after all, Harry," Sirius smiled in return, a lone tear streaking down the side of his face. "I hope… you'll introduce me to her one day."

"… Who knows. Maybe I will."

Turning around again, Harry saw that Tonks had now taken on the form of a small squirrel, her brown, fuzzy body bobbing anxiously up and down on the cold wooden floor.

"Perfect. That'll work," he nodded, before bending over to allow her to climb up his arm and settle on his shoulder. "Now you just stay right there, and… Sirius," he asked, shooting his godfather a quick look. "I'll need you to change back into your dog-form."

"Yeah, yeah… I can do that," Sirius answered, taking a deep breath before allowing the transformation to begin. Shortly afterwards, a large, black dog stood where his godfather had been standing just moments earlier.

"Alright, now we'll need… this," Harry muttered, pulling out his Invisibility Cloak again, carefully draping it over his shoulders and head. "And we're good to go. Sirius, come underneath the Cloak, and we'll move. This will allow us to leave the Room unnoticed. Dumbledore will never know where we went…"

Outside the Room of Requirement

Albus Dumbledore was feeling thoroughly confused. Just moments earlier, he had been in the Hogwarts Dungeon, safely observing both Harry Potter, Nymphadora Tonks and Sirius Black through the power of the Keystone. But then, something… completely unexpected had happened. They had begun disappearing off the map, one by one. First it was Harry Potter, randomly disappearing from outside Ravenclaw Tower. Then Nymphadora Tonks disappeared just moments later, but then the two of them had become visible again for a short period of time, right as they came into contact with Sirius, before disappearing once again. And then finally, Sirius had also disappeared, right outside where he suspected the Room of Requirement to be.

It was all incredibly peculiar, and Albus had been unable to do anything but stare in shock as it all transpired in front of his very eyes. What manner of evil sorcery allowed the three of them to just drop off the wards whenever they pleased? Something was very, very wrong here, and Albus didn't like it one bit.

"It's that godforsaken Cloak isn't it? I knew giving it back to him was a horrible decision, but I couldn't have a piece of the Deathly Hallows just lying around my office… I figured it would be safer and more concealed in his care. Oh, the irony of it all…" he muttered to himself as he paced down the hallways and up the staircase leading to the Seventh Floor of the castle.

If Harry and Nymphadora had made contact with Sirius, then all of his plans were in danger of being jeopardized. He couldn't allow Harry to figure out the real truth behind his parents' murder, that would destroy the entire purpose of him trying to mentor the damn boy. Harry needed to view him as a trustworthy ally… no, he needed to view him as his ONLY trustworthy ally, in order for the plan to work. If Harry figured out he had been lying to him… well, the chances of him ever trusting Albus again would grow infinitesimally slim.

The boy also couldn't be allowed to grow close to his godfather, because that could possibly provide him with a reason to live, and not give up his life in the fight against Voldemort.

"For neither can live while the other survives…"

After walking for what felt like an eternity, he finally arrived at the suspected location of the Room of Requirement. If his estimations were correct, Harry, along with Nymphadora and Sirius, would be inside of it at this very moment, no doubt discussing Harry's past and future. Such a talk could not be allowed to continue, so Albus absolutely had to find the entrance this time, and quickly at that.

He began running through the mental list of everything he knew about the Room, attempting every strategy in order to get the door to materialize. What he didn't understand, however, was that the Room had a will of its own, and that it had no intention of revealing itself to him. As a matter of fact, the Room actually disliked Dumbledore, because it could sense his intentions and realized that allowing him to find Harry would be bad for everyone. Therefore, it refused to materialize, leaving an anxious Dumbledore rambling on to himself in the empty hallway.

Meanwhile, in a completely different hallway on the Seventh Floor, a large iron door materialized from thin air, opening slowly to reveal… absolutely nobody. The door swung open seemingly on its own, before closing just as rapidly and disappearing back underneath the veil of magic. To anyone else, the whole thing would've looked astonishingly weird, but in actuality, what had really happened was that Harry and his crew had snuck out of the Room under the protection of the Invisibility Cloak. And speaking of Harry and his unlikely band of misfits, they were currently making their way back down to the lower Floors, towards the nearest exit. They made sure to make as little sound as possible as they walked, taking wide berths around any patrolling staff they encountered. Inside his head, Harry was counting the seconds as they travelled, desperately hoping that Dumbledore would be too stupid to catch on to their plan, and thus allowing Sirius and Nymphadora to escape unscathed and unnoticed.

Needless to say, with Dumbledore preoccupied with mumbling to himself and poking the stone walls at the Seventh Floor, the trio made it to the exit without trouble, allowing them to escape towards the Forbidden Forest with relative ease.

A couple of minutes later, they finally stopped just shy of entering the forest, with Harry pulling off the Invisibility Cloak.

"I… can't believe we made it!" Nymphadora whispered enthusiastically after she had changed back into her normal form.

"Tell me about it," Harry whispered back. "This thing is totally overpowered…"

"Well done, Harry," Sirius chimed in, also making sure to keep his voice as low as possible. "I don't know how I would've gotten out of there without your help. It seems like you're quite the Marauder yourself."

"… Marauder?" Harry asked, furrowing his eyebrows in confusion.

"Oh… They never told you about that, huh… Well, I guess I'll have to fill you in later then," Sirius sighed, his long, black hair swaying lightly in the breeze.

"Right… Well then, I believe this is where we part… for now," Harry nodded, shooting the both of them a quick look. "Tonks, you make sure to keep what happened here a secret, alright? And Sirius… just don't get yourself thrown back in jail. That would seriously complicate things."

"You snarky little… You think I want to go back there?! Of course I will be careful!" his godfather whispered back, his eyes glaring daggers at Harry.

"That's all I ask. Alright then… until next time."

"Be seeing you!"

"… Goodbye."

And then the three of them split up, running different ways into the night.

The next morning, Harry received notice that the Headmaster wanted to meet with him in his office. Hardly surprising, considering last nights' adventures, but he had to admit, he wasn't expecting Dumbledore to call him in this early. He had thought it would take the old fool at least a couple of days to make up his mind on how to approach the situation, but apparently that wasn't the case.

Harry went to his office right after finishing his breakfast, deliberately avoiding Hermione on the way as he had yet to explain to her the events of the prior evening. The meeting itself went... about as well as expected. Dumbledore delicately tried asking him about his whereabouts last night, to which Harry only responded with lies about going to the library to burn the midnight oil. Needless to say, the old man saw right through his lies, but couldn't really call him out on it seeing as he had no real tangible evidence to use against him. He then tried asking him about his godfather, and if he had in some way been in contact with him recently. Harry kept up his façade and answered that unless seeing him in the newspapers counted, he couldn't really say he had. This seemed to set Dumbledore off, and the meeting continued with some more prodding questions, some accusations and some minor verbal sparring, before finally concluding with a decisive victory to Harry and a crushing defeat to Dumbledore. His Legilimency also didn't help him, as Harry's increased proficiency with Occlumency countered any surface-level thought-reading Dumbledore might attempt, thus leaving him with no other option than allowing the boy to retreat back to his daily routine and end the meeting.

As he walked out of the Headmasters' office, Harry felt… well, incredibly satisfied with himself. He had successfully met, talked with and helped his godfather escape Hogwarts, and possibly made a new ally in the DMLE in the process. Then he had went on to win the confrontation with Dumbledore in his office, and would also be spending the summer at Hermione's place instead of with the Dursleys, allowing him the possibility of actually having a good summer vacation for the first time in his admittedly short life. Things were definitely looking up for the Boy-Who-Lived, which was a nice change of pace as far as Harry was concerned.

What he didn't know, however, was that things were about to get a whole lot worse. Unbeknownst to him, summer vacation would bring its own challenges. A certain book hidden underneath his bed would come back into the limelight. And looming on the horizon together with his Fourth Year at Hogwarts, a certain Tournament was waiting to take place. A Tournament that would ultimately change both his life and destiny forever.

A/N: Hoo boy. Finally. It's done. Harry's Third Year at Hogwarts is coming to a close. The next chapter will close off this Year, and move on to the summer vacation. Then, the chapter after that will detail the end of the summer vacation, and start us off on Harry's Fourth Year at Hogwarts. With this, Act 1 of the story will be complete, and we will be moving on to Act 2, where shit really begins to hit the fan.

We've come a long way since the beginning of this story, and I cannot thank each and every one of you enough for coming along with me on this crazy adventure. Over 50,000 unique visitors have dropped by my story since its humble beginning back in 2018, and now that we're finally entering 2020, a brand new part of Harry's long and perilous adventure is about to begin. I cannot wait to share more of his story with you, and I hope you'll all join me as we enter the New Year and move on towards Act 2.

I cannot thank you enough for your continued support, despite my horrible schedule and undeniable shortcomings. I especially want to thank Jostanos for his seemingly neverending dedication to reviewing every single chapter I post without fail. You've been around for a long time now, my friend, and don't think your kind words have passed by without me noticing! Thank you for being so understanding, and for never failing to motivate me whenever I'm feeling particularly uninspired. That also goes to the rest of you who has left a review, whether it was a positive or a negative one. All types of feedback help me grow as a writer, so I welcome all criticism thrown my way.

You're all absolutely wonderful.

And so, just like always, if you enjoyed the read, please leave a review, and I will see you guys in the next chapter!

-Twisted