Chapter 16 Do You Want Me?
Sirius followed Harry to the meadow where he mounted the broom with Harry in front of him. "Let's just hover up here for a while", Sirius said, when Harry had taken them above the treetops.
The morning was filled with golden promise and both couldn't remember seeing anything more beautiful than the sun turning the treetops to golden bronze and pale blue sky that you couldn't see the end of.
Sirius looked down at Harry who was mesmerized by the sun turning the landscape into spun gold. For a moment Sirius remembered how not long ago the brief touch of sunlight in his prison cell would bring such pain and loss.
He had a sudden deep appreciation for the warmth on his skin. Harry's presence brought more healing to the man than any potion or magic spell could. He felt the last of Azkaban's shackles fall from his soul. For the first time, he truly felt free.
He pulled Harry into a light hug, and Harry leaned against him with a contented sigh. Love washed over him and he reveled in it before allowing his thoughts to meander back to what he really needed to talk to Harry about.
Sirius cleared his throat unsure of himself but knew it was time. He'd dreamed of talking to Harry for years. What he would say, how he would say it. All the stories he would tell him. But all that had slipped away beneath the reality of Harry right in front of him.
"I promised your dad and your mum that I'd take care of you if anything were to happen. I swore it on my life and magic Harry. But that isn't enough really. It has to be your choice now because I messed up so badly and went after the rat instead of staying with you as I should have." He looked down at the boy. He couldn't see his expression but could feel his body tense against him. He wished he knew what he was thinking.
"If you'll have me, Harry, I'd like a second chance at being the kind of godfather your dad and mum wanted me to be. And… I never stopped loving you Pup. I was there when you were born and was the first person to hold you. I took one look into those green eyes of yours and I was lost."
He took hold of his emotions, willing himself to get through this. He didn't know what he would do if Harry didn't want him. "So what do you say pup? Will you have me?"
Harry looked down at his hands curled around the silky wood of the broomstick, noting how tightly he was gripping the handle, and slowly relaxed his fingers. He had held his breath throughout Sirius's speech. He dared himself to believe him.
He wasn't sure how it happened but he was suddenly crying and asked, "Really? Do you really want me?" His voice barely more than a whisper and Sirius wrapped his arms around him pulling him close.
"There is nothing I want more, Harry than to have you in my life." Tears were blurring his vision as well.
Harry nodded and finally was able to speak past the tears, "I want that too Padfoot. More than anything."
The pair hovered for a long time simply holding each other high above the earth.
Free.
Amelia Bones head of the DMLE was seething. Sirius Black sat across from her looking calm, reserved, and non-repentant.
"You have no idea what kind of position you are placing me in Lord Black." She growled almost derisively.
"And you do have an idea what kind of position I have been in for the last ten years." Sirius retorted with some bite. "Too many others have born the cost of the Ministries mistakes! This isn't just about me."
He visibly calmed himself and studied the woman across from him. She was not a boat rocker or a rebel. She was a traditionalist, neutral except when it came to the law. She had boundaries and he debated crossing any of them for Harry's sake. His next statement left no doubt about how that internal debate had come down.
"I have a compensation hearing approaching Ms. Bones. It is your choice, and by extension the Ministries, if I am in a forgiving mood during it, or not. Have the Goblins execute the Potter's Will. Act as an executor yourself if you are worried about the law being followed." He offered gallantly. She rolled her eyes.
He crossed his legs with a casual grace that irked her. "The solution became clear Ms. Bones, the moment The Last Will and Testament of James and Lily Potter hit your desk."
He huffed and sighed. "Having the will read, and its provisions adhered to before the compensation hearing, will go a long way towards informing what mood I will be in during said hearing. I could be in a very forgiving mood or a very vengeful one."
He could see he was pushing the witch's buttons but he just had to push a little harder. Enjoying the cracks he detected in her armor. "You know, I was sorted into Gryffindor, but everyone seems to forget, I was raised Slytherin."
Amelia growled, tossing her quill in frustration onto her desktop. "I could arrest you for attempted blackmail of a Government official!"
Sirius just cocked an infuriating brow. He was right about the law. She knew he was right. But that didn't mean that the powers that be would see it the same way, or that she appreciated the insinuation that she could be blackmailed to ignore the law or to overlook official policy. Although truly all Lord Black was asking for was expediency.
She knew that Sirius would lose whatever petition he could launch with the Ministry to gain guardianship of the boy who lived. That grated against her fine-tuned sense of justice and equity. It was only the law that stood as the blind arbiter between the forces at play. The Light and Neutral factions would argue that Sirius planned on helping the rise of a new Dark Lord, and the Conservatives would scream the same claiming Sirius was Dumbledore's lackey.
She had little hope of convincing Ministry Beurocrats that Sirius was a fit guardian, especially since he escaped from his hospital bed. To be honest she doubted she had much hope before he escaped the hospital of convincing the board tasked with the protection of young wizards to release the hero of the wizarding world into the hands of a questionably 'sane' wizard.
Dolores Umbrage had been a particular thorn in her side and was certainly no friend of Sirius Blacks. The woman had stomped into her office just an hour past demanding she arrest Sirius for leaving the hospital against medical advice. She had to remind the woman that it wasn't against the law to do so. She had no doubt that the woman intended to change that particular loophole as soon as she could find a quill.
She sighed looking down at the irrefutable proof that Sirius Black was Harry Potter's legal guardian. The Potter Will had been sealed by the Goblins the second James and Lily had died behind their vault's walls. Dumbledore had assured the Wizengamot that all copies of the will were inaccessible.
And at the time, it was true. The Potter Vault held the original, and only Harry could open that vault, and only when he turned 17. The other copy, complete with seals of authenticity including she noted angrily Albus Dumbledore's own signature as a witness, had been resting in the Black Family Vault, accessible only by the head of the Black family. Sirius Black.
She swallowed nervously when she considered the actual harm that the Ministry, her own Department actually, had done to one of its most prominent citizens. It made her sick that Sirius's rights had been so blatantly trampled. But now it looked like Harry Potter's rights had been trampled as well.
The corruption behind Sirius Black's lack of trial still festered within the walls of the Ministry. Cornelius was much mistaken if he thought he could 'handle' the Head of the House of Black.
She worried that Sirius Black was only the tip of the iceberg regarding Ministry irregularities and that Lord Black was about to expose it all unless they gave into his rather modest demands. How deep did it go? Was Sirius's lack of trial really just a case of 'sloppy' record keeping?
She looked down at the pile of documents that had been growing on her desk since she had first discovered Sirius's lack of trial. It had only grown exponentially since he informed her of his intention to take the boy into his custody.
Her eyes skirted over the questionably legal appointment of Albus Dumbledore as Harry's Magical guardian and the order to turn Harry over to the custody of his muggle relatives. She could find no record of WCPS having even once checked up on the boy as they were supposed to. She found a notice of exception placed in the boy's file by Dumbledore however and annual 'wellness' reports by a woman named Arabella Figg. The whole situation was beginning to stink.
The ridiculousness of what she was trying to sell, that Sirius would not get custody of his godson because he refused medical treatment, was impressed upon her by the amused expression on said man's face. He had the audacity to smirk at her. But the mounting evidence of corruption upon her desk indicted her more thoroughly than his amused expression.
The Ministry didn't have a leg to stand on. If they failed to negotiate in good faith with Sirius, he had grounds to take his case all the way to the Crown for redress. There were only a handful of times in history when that had been done. But incarcerating one of the Queen's subjects without due process of law, especially when said subject was gentry, provided more than enough grounds to invite interference. Amelia felt a headache growing.
"So, we have the reading and you immediately are granted guardianship of Harry essentially taking the Ministries role for the boy out of the equation?" Amelia had to hand it to him, he was a smart son of a bitch.
She grimaced, "I would feel better if I brought Cornelius into this." Then shook her head, "What about Harry's relatives? He lives with his Aunt and Uncle correct? How do they feel about having their nephew taken from their custody?"
She was not prepared for the reaction she got. Sirius reached across her desk and plucked a brown file from the pile and tossed it to her almost violently. "Read that then ask me again." He looked almost feral and Amelia thought better about pressing the issue.
Sirius shrugged, "You don't need the Minister's authorization to execute the will. And I don't give a bloody shite about policy. I want Harry safe!"
Amelia frowned but what she saw in the eyes of the man across from her stopped further argument. Sirius Black was a man who had the look of a father who would do anything to protect his son.
She sighed and nodded but couldn't let him have the final word and growled. "I'm going to hex you to hell if I lose my job over this Sirius."
Sirius paled a bit as he looked at her no-nonsense expression. It didn't take a genius to recognize a dangerous woman. He nodded, "You can contact me through my solicitor as soon as you have a date for the reading."
He stood to take his leave from the fuming witch and excused himself before she could change her mind. "And don't worry Lady Bones, I'm going directly from here to the Mind Healers. I find after this, I rather need it."
After he left she glanced down at the pile of paperwork Sirius had left for her. Her eyes went to the mysterious file on top and she tentatively opened it and started to read the report within.
"Dear Merlin!" She gasped. It was a preliminary report of a private investigation being conducted into Harry Potter's current home situation. The report alleged child abuse. She sank back into her chair with a heavy sigh. "I'm going to kill them." She muttered and bent to pick through the report with a fine-toothed comb.
"Sirius Black you idiot!" She grumbled. If Sirius had shown her this before he'd shown her the will, their conversation would have gone much differently! Sighing, she called in her assistant and they quickly got to work. The Ministry owls would be kept busy all through the night.