[A/N: The Pixie Stix are back. This was going to be the last chapter until the Pixie Stix came back. Now I have no idea what's happening and neither does anyone else. Except maybe Hermione and Harry. I think they're up to something.]
From that day on, Pafoo walked with them on the path each day to and from school. Even Hermione grew accustomed to his presence and willingly walked with him on the rare days Harry had a doctor's appointment or some such.
Each passing day also seemed to bring a little more pain to the scar on Harry's forehead, though. Several of those doctor's appointments were to try to deal with the scar, but nothing worked. Harry took children's ibuprofen, though, and soldiered on.
A storm blew in on May Day that year, worse than anything they'd seen since the Great Storm of 1987. The pain in Harry's head seemed to increase with each stroke of lightning around them, and he skipped supper to lay on the chesterfield. Hermione could barely eat anything herself that night and spent most of it by his side in the living room.
At the stroke of midnight, Harry began to scream as black smoke poured from his scar.
"What's happening?" Hermione shouted, trying to be heard over Harry's screams and the thunder outside.
"I don't know!" her father replied. "We need to get away from him, though. That smoke could be poisonous!"
Hermione tightened her hands around her best friend's arm. "I won't leave him! He's in pain!"
"If that smoke is dangerous, he wouldn't want you near it!" Her father tried to pull her away, but she didn't release her death grip on Harry.
"I don't care! I'm not leaving him!"
"Isaac!" Her mother grabbed her father's shoulder and shook it hard. "Look at the smoke!"
The smoke was flowing in a thin stream to a spot about four feet above Harry's head, where it had begun to coalesce into a hideous smoke figure that looked like the top half of a horrible ghoul.
"Hermione, we have to run!" Her father pulled her hard enough to hurt and managed to pry one of her hands off of Harry's arm, but it wasn't enough.
"I won't leave him!" she screamed, and the ceiling lightbulb exploded as if her rage and fear had somehow made themselves manifest. Even the wraith reared back for a moment and shook itself, as if stunned.
In the sudden near-darkness (some light was still coming in from the dining room), a shape at the door to the deck caught her attention. Lightning flashed, revealing the sodden, massive shape of Padfoo staring at them through the door. Before her eyes could adjust to the darkness after that flash there came another, only now there was a bedraggled man standing there.
She screamed in terror and the locked door somehow blew open. Before her parents could react, the wraith screeched like a bird of prey and dove at her head.
"Protego anima!" the man roared as he pointed a stick at her
The wraith bounced off of a shield of golden light that appeared a few inches in front of Hermione's face. It screeched in frustration and rammed at the golden light, but the shield held.
"I won't let you have her, you bastard!" the man shouted.
The wraith apparently gave Hermione up as a bad job and flew at her father, instead, but the strange man shouted those words again and another shield sprung up in front of her parents. While the wraith fruitlessly threw itself at the shield, the man spoke the words twice more and two glowing gold hemispheres of light sprang up around it as if growing from the shield below.
"Got you now!" the man said, strain cracking his voice. "This is for Lily and James!"
The wraith ignored the screaming family around it and bashed itself against the golden light, clearly trying to escape.
"I can hold this together…longer than you can hold together…" the man said.
The wraith screeched again, in frustration this time, and ping-ponged around the golden walls to no avail.
"Just die, you bastard," the man said.
The wraith screeched again and its smoke began to disintegrate before their eyes.
"Just…die." The man fell to one knee, but kept his stick pointed at the cage of gold around the wraith.
The wraith screeched one last time and burst apart in an explosion of black smoke that dissipated quickly to nothingness.
"Finally!" the man said, and collapsed unconscious to the floor.
Heremione's father found his voice first. "Miranda…why did a mass murderer break into our house and protect us from a smoke monster that grew out of Harry's scar? Because that's what just happened, right?"
"I think that man is the dog," Hermione said.
"Um…are you alright, honey?" her mother asked her.
"I'm scared, but I saw what happened," Hermione said. "The big dog that walks us to and from school each day that we didn't tell you about so you wouldn't be scared appeared at the door a bit ago, then there was a flash of lightning and that man was there instead. It was too fast for the dog to move and be replaced by the man and that man clearly has some sort of supernatural power, so I think he was the dog, too."
Her father shook his head as he got up to close the door. "I don't think we need to leap to the supernatural just yet."
"We just got attacked by a smoke monster!" her mother said. "I think now is the perfect time to leap to the supernatural."
"That's…fair, I guess," her father said as he latched the door. "What do we do about him, then? I'm pretty sure that's Sirius Black." He paused. "Sirius. The Dog Star. Bloody Hell, he is the dog, isn't he?"
"Language, Daddy," Hermione said. "Or is this one of those times you told me about?"
"It's one of those times," her parents said simultaneously.
"Should we tie him up and take away his…um…stick?" her mother asked.
"Normally, I'd say we should, but what if another wraith shows up?" her father replied. "I'm scared of him, but he probably just saved our lives and I don't want to deprive him of the means to repeat that performance."
Hermione nodded. "And if he's the dog, he's really nice."
Harry moaned and stirred. "What happened?" he whispered.
"A giant smoke monster burst out of your scar," Hermione said, "but Pafoo turned into a man and broke into our house to fight it. I think it tired him out because he fainted."
"Oh." Harry looked around.
"Um…honey?" her mother said. "Maybe break things like that more gently in the future."
"He asked," Hermione said, possibly a touch petulantly if she was being honest with herself.
The possible mass-murderer on the floor groaned and rolled over onto his back. "Oh, Merlin, I am not in shape for that sort of thing anymore." He opened his eyes and saw four terrified people staring at him. "I don't suppose it's too much to ask for that you have no idea who I am?"
"Not a clue," Hermione's father said.
"Me neither," her mother added.
Hermione frowned. "I thought you said he was Sirius Black."
Her parents sighed while the man barked out a laugh. "Never change, Hermione," he said.
"I don't intend to," she said. "So are you really Pafoo?"
"Well, I'm technically 'Padfoot,'" he said, "but Harry hadn't really gotten the hang of all of his consonants the last time he saw me."
Harry blinked. "Uncle…Padfoot?"
"That's me, Prongslet," Black said.
"Wait," her father said, "you know him?"
Harry furrowed his brows, a motion barely visible in the dim light. "I think so. I have these vague memories…Mooey?"
"That would be Moony," Black said. "I have no idea where that git is or why he didn't take you in when I couldn't."
"Take me in?" Harry asked.
"After your parents were murdered, I or Alice Longbottom should have taken you in. I was framed for murder, though, and the Longbottoms were…hurt. Remus Lupin should have taken you next."
"Murdered? Aunt Petunia said they died in a drunken car wreck."
Black growled, causing all of them to involuntarily back away a few inches. "If they weren't already in prison, I would make them suffer for that slander. Your parents were the bravest people I've ever known."
Then, as the storm raged outside, the accused mass murderer lay on the floor and told them all a tale of heroism, betrayal, and, most amazingly of all, how Harry had helped save the whole country.
When Sirius's story was done, Harry was stunned. "So my parents died defeating Voldemort?"
"They were heroes," Sirius said. "Don't ever let anyone tell you otherwise."
"Then what was in my scar?" Harry asked.
"I'm not sure," Sirius replied. "It acted like the spirit involved in a possession, but if you'd been possessed you would have acted under the spirit's control and you'd have been dead in a few months. Then again, it's possible whatever protection your parents imbued you with also protected you from that spirit. But why would it only kick the spirit out now?"
"My scar had been hurting more and more ever since we moved here," Harry said. "Does that help?"
"Maybe." Sirius got to his feet, stretched, and began to pace. "There's something I'm forgetting from when I was a dog."
"How does that work, exactly?" Hermione asked.
"I learnt to transform into an animal along with Harry's father and the boy who later betrayed us," Sirius said. "It's called becoming an animagus. Harry's father was a stag and that boy was a rat."
"Rather on-point, that," Hermione's father said. Her mother elbowed him.
"Yeah, in retrospect, that probably should have been a red flag," Sirius said. "Anyway, it's harder to do any real thinking in your animagus form. I thought I noticed something around your old house, though, Prongslet. Some sort of ward…" he trailed off. "Bloody hell."
"Language!" Hermione and her mother said simultaneously.
"Sorry," Sirius said. "Anyway, I think what I felt were the remnants of Blood Wards. Someone tied Harry's magic into the wards around his aunt and uncle's house. When he moved away, whatever bound him to those wards broke, which gradually strengthened his magic until it forced the spirit out. Once it was free, it would have tried to possess you all. I don't think it would have succeeded, but I didn't want to risk it."
"Thank you for protecting us, then," Hermione's father said.
"It was the least I could do. You've all been wonderful for Harry. When I first came here, I'd intended to take him with me, but you're a far better family than I would be, so I decided to just watch over him, instead."
"I'm really happy here," Harry said, "but that doesn't mean I wouldn't like you in my life, too."
"I think that would be valuable for Harry, too," Hermione's mother said. "We can't teach him how to be a wizard like you can."
"So I'm really a wizard?" Harry asked.
"Almost certainly," Sirius said. "It's rare for the child of one magical parent to be born without magic and almost unheard of for the child of two magical parents to be born without. Do strange things ever happen around you?"
"You mean like my teacher's hair turning blue when she yelled at me, my hair growing back overnight after my aunt cut it off, or my hair glowing when I did something I really, really enjoyed?"
"Exactly," Sirius said.
"That's great news," Harry said, "because that last one was Hermione."
The girl blushed. "You said you wouldn't tell!"
"I didn't tell them what you were doing!" Harry shot back.
"Just what, exactly, have you two been doing?" Hermione's father asked, his voice almost a growl.
"Eating Pixie Stix," Hermione said. "I'm sorry, but they were really good!"
Her father sighed and put his head in his hands. Her mother patted his arm and glared at Sirius. "You can stop laughing any time you want, you know."
"No…I can't…" Sirius wheezed.
"What's so funny?" Hermione asked.
"I'll tell you when you're older…no, when you're married," her mother said.
"Fine." Hermione turned to Harry. "Would you like to get married?"
"Sure," he said. "You're awesome and then we could spend even more time together."
They shook hands and, to the astonishment of the adults, ribbons of gold light wrapped around their arms.
"Um…what just happened?" Harry asked.
"Oh, Merlin," Sirius said. "I forgot something important. While I was at the goblin bank, I made Harry my Heir. Then, just now, I saved Hermione's life and her parents' lives. That created a life debt on her part to me."
"A life debt?" Hermione asked.
"Your magic recognizes when someone selflessly saves your life from a situation they didn't cause," Sirius said, "and it will nudge you to repay that debt until you do. I didn't think anything of it and never would have asked anything of you, but one of the old ways of buying off a life debt was a betrothal."
"And because Harry's your heir now," Hermione's father said, "a betrothal to him would inure to your benefit." He blinked. "Did my daughter just get engaged at age nine?"
"I think she did," Sirius said. "I am so, so sorry. I had no idea that would happen."
Hermione shrugged. "I can't really imagine getting married to anyone besides Harry, anyway. All of the other boys are stupid."
Harry nodded. "And the other girls are weird. Wait, when we get married, can I get out of doing my revisions if I get you Pixie Stix?"
"No!" Hermione said. "Revisions are important."
"Are they Pixie Stix-Important?" Harry asked seriously.
The girl blushed. "You're a bad influence, Harry Potter!"
"But I'm a bad influence who will buy you Pixie Stix."
Hermione shrank into the chesterfield as her blush deepened.
"Huh," Sirius said. "Your father was never that smooth, Prongslet. Good on you."
"That's my daughter, you know," Hermione's father said.
"Sorry," Sirius said.
"Personally," Hermione's mother said, "I'm more opposed to the medium of the bribery than its existence. Those are bad for your teeth, honey."
"I know, but they're soooo good." She sighed.
Harry shrugged. "I feel like I need to get on her good side if we're going to be married. I mean, Mr. Granger is always being nice to you and buying you dark chocolate every few weeks. Isn't this the same?"
Sirius snorted and turned away, and Hermione's father sank his head deeper into his hands.
"Um…not exactly," Hermione's mother said, "but your point is well-taken. Anyway, I think this conversation has gone horribly wrong and I'm putting a stop to it. Right now, the most pressing matters are whether Harry is in any danger from what was in his scar and how to undo this engagement."
"Harry's scar is now empty and should fade away like a normal scar," Sirius said. "In fact, may I cast a spell on you, Harry?"
"That would be cool!" Harry jumped off the chesterfield and ran up to him.
"I think," Hermione's mother said, "we should know what the spell does before you cast it, Mr. Black."
"Sirius, please," he said. "Mr. Black was my father and we hated each other. I never really wanted to be Mr. Black or Lord Black or whatever."
"You're a Lord?" Hermione asked.
"Yes, but only because my family was wealthy and awful for centuries," he said. "I'm not proud of it."
"I thought most lords had wealthy and awful families," Hermione said.
"Raising a little republican*?" Sirius grinned. "I respect that."
Her parents nodded slightly to each other.
"Anyway," Sirius said, "I'm just going to do a little healing spell on Harry here." He raised his wand and said, "Episkey."
A jet of light hit Harry's forehead and the skin there knitted itself back together. After a moment, the boy put his hands up to where his scar had been. "Cool! It's not bleeding anymore. Is there still a scar there?"
"No," Hermione said. "It's gone."
Harry pumped a fist in the air. "Magic is awesome."
"That it is, Prongslet," Sirius said. "It's just…if there was a spirit still in you, I'm worried that might mean other parts are elsewhere. A lot of the people I was incarcerated with used to follow Voldemort and they insisted he wasn't dead. What if they were right?"
"That would be awful," Harry said.
Sirius sighed. "I need to warn people, but all of the people I need to warn think I'm a monster. I don't know what to do."
"It's gone on this long, so we can worry about that in the morning," Hermione's father said. "Is there anything we can do about the engagement?"
"I don't know enough about magical binding rituals or law," Sirius said. "We'd need to find someone who could help, but Harry is so famous, rich, and powerful that I'm worried anyone who finds out about her will try to…um…remove her so they can use Harry themselves."
Harry blinked. "I'm…what?"
"Oh. Of course nobody told you. You're the heir to the Noble House of Potter and probably even wealthier than I am. Also, you're famous in the Wizarding World as The-Boy-Who-Lived for stopping Voldemort."
The boy's jaw dropped. "The Dursleys beat and starved me and the whole time people in the Wizarding World were going on about how great I was for having dead parents? Those absolute gits! I wish my parents had let the whole place burn down!"
Hermione's parents stared at him in shock, but Hermione just put an arm around his shoulders. "You don't mean that, Harry. There were lots of little children then who didn't know any better."
"You're right," he said tearily. "Just the grown-ups, then."
She nodded. "Just the grown-ups."
"Hermione, honey," her mother said, "I don't think we want anything to burn, do we?"
"It's not a matter of wanting, Mother," Hermione said. "Honestly, if they were so far gone that they needed a baby to save them, then I can't imagine they'd have lasted much longer, regardless."
"That," Sirius said, "is horrifyingly accurate."
"You're not inspiring confidence in the Wizarding World," Hermione's father said.
"They locked me in a prison guarded by soul-sucking demons without a trial," Sirius said. "I don't have any confidence in them, either, but he and Hermione are inextricably part of that world. They can't hide their magic. The ones who tried in the last war were some of the first to die."
"Then we won't hide," Harry said. "We'll win."
"Revisions are still important," Hermione said, "but I get the impression we're not learning things right now that will help us in the Wizarding World. Harry, we're going to need books. Lots of books."
Harry smirked. "Good thing I'm rich, then, innit?"
Sirius stared at his godson. "Your parents would be so proud of you right now, Prongslet, both of them. Maybe just a little terrified, but so very proud."
"So it's not just me being a little terrified?" Hermione's father asked.
"Merlin, no!" Sirius said. "You have no idea how glad I am that they're on my side."
"We can discuss taking over the Wizarding World later," Hermione's mother said gently. "I think our first priority should be helping Sirius."
"I agree," her father said. "Are there any magical solicitors you could contact?"
"Yes, but they would all turn me in on sight," he said. "I'm the most wanted man in the country."
"What if we went?"
"The Statute of Secrecy wouldn't even allow them to talk to muggles, or non-magical people."
"Well, then," Harry said. "It looks like I'll have to go, instead."
"We, Harry," Hermione said.
"It'll need to be both of you," Sirius said. "I have an idea. Harry, I'm really sorry, but we'll need to cut your hair to disguise you."
"Is it an awesome idea?" Harry asked.
"I think it is."
"OK, then," Harry said. "Let's do it."
*[N.B.: "Republican" means something very different in the UK than it does in the USA.]