Heart shattering screams spread from a secluded cell in Azkaban as interrogation of one particular prisoner continued. The one and only, Bellatrix Lestrange.
Dumbledore watched with a deep frown on his face as self proclaimed interrogation expert - Severus Snape administered various vials as well as various spells, most of his own creation.
Unfortunately truth serums and mind reading did not work against fidelius charm - so one had to resort to more old fashioned ways of getting to know the truth.
And he couldn't say it wasn't working, Bella was in fact screaming, pleading for mercy, just that… that glint in her eyes. It was as if she was in fact enjoying this. Perhaps she was somewhat… masochistic?
A loud clang of the cell doors made the duo turn around - Bella was already facing the door, though based on the tears and bliss on her face she might have not even heard it.
"Told you Albus, you won't be getting anything of worth out of her. You think we never tried this after capturing her? She screams a lot, but just look at her face! That murderer is just enjoying this!"
Dumbledore let out a sigh as he addressed the cell's newcomer.
"And here I hoped… How is the search going?"
Alastor rubbed his forehead. Albus and his tasks were giving him headaches nine times out of ten - this one being a particularly severe one - and he even drank the headache cure before heading out!.
"We in fact found… a muggle who had seen them. It was a pizza delivery person, but weirdly enough he was not obliterated and remembers them, even the rough location - some back-water district even among muggles… Alas, we, of course failed to find where exactly it is - as it's under fidelius… "
"Yes, that charm is quite powerful. It appears they are ordering food, and perhaps sharing the location without a care in the world for those muggles. Perhaps some aurors could join the place they're ordering from and take care of orders for a while?"
Moody's magical eye could not actually express emotions, but even its stare felt like a deadpan glare.
"You expect those fools to waste time on doing muggle jobs? What if they order from somewhere else?"
"I must be behind the times of the muggle world… Last I checked, ordering was not that common… I suppose that makes sense - they always improved quicker than us… Still, it's our only lead for Harry and Sirius…"
A loud cackling interrupted the duo.
"So that's why you want Black family mansion's location? To capture my dearest cousin, Sirius?"
More laughter followed. And just before the trio of wizards raised their wands to silence her, she spoke up again.
"Fine I will tell you. You have entertained me so much today… Almost as good as my lord. No wonder he liked you" - she winked at Severus, then looked around the cell and sighed.
"Please bring my dear cousin back there, I miss hearing his screams… My childhood home which is at Grimmauld Place 12 is where you might find him"
As the secret was shared, Fidelius no longer clouded the memories of the trio present. They exchanged quick glances and quickly went out of the cell, leaving the giggling Bellatrix behind.
"It's that place… I remember visiting a few times, even before I became a headmaster… I suppose they recast the charm since then"
"Albus, they got away under a full team of aurors and anti-apparition wards - why do you think we stand a better chance now? It's not just random temporary wards at that location. It's a damn Black family house! - the wards of that place must be tough!"
Dumbledore pondered just for a moment.
"I doubt they are expecting us, I can take care of myself, as for running away… magical teleportation of that kind uses a lot of magical power - we just need to keep tracking and following, or do you think they know another place under fidelius? I doubt it. We will strike at midnight, the day after school ends. Severus I would appreciate some Felix Felicis if you could brew some? I noticed tonight is suitable for brewing it"
Both men nodded and then Albus touched Severus and flamed away back to the school.
Moody stared at the place they had been, before spatting on the floor.
"Sure, the most secure prison for wizards. I knew it, criminals are better dead than in this place. Still, better not to report Dumbledore's trick or a mountain of paperwork would kill me…"
Still lampooning he slowly walked towards the entrance of Azkaban - it will be a while before he will be able to apparate back to the ministry, as the prison did in fact have a lot of wards preventing that.
Near a tapestry of a weirdo among wizards, who teached trolls to dance there was an empty wall. An empty wall in an empty corridor. But wait, a door suddenly appeared, before closing - as if someone invisible entered inside.
"Hey Daph, took you long enough"
The blonde haired girl rolled her eyes, before remembering she had to dispel the disillusionment charm, muffling charm and other charms first. So she did just that, then rolled her eyes again - just to get the point across.
"You have a superior invisibility artefact… And let me remind you, the Slytherin common room is in the dungeons… While Gryffindor is on the same floor as this place…"
Hermione put down her book as she focused on her friend while sighing.
"Yes, but a different tower - still a few staircases away… Someones not in a good mood. Spill it, what happened to Astoria this time"
Daphne plopped down on an armchair near the brunette.
"I failed again. It worked for an hour or so, but then… The curse just 'ate up' the cure so to speak… And it got stronger."
"So your sister is now…?"
"She's fine, Madam Pomfrey already looked at her. You could say she's as usual, just with less life left in her… Still at the hospital for tonight, but good to go home tomorrow…"
"Poor girl…"
Feeling as if Daphne needed it, Hermione came closer and gave her a hug.
"Thanks Mione… But what if I never find the cure? I don't even know how exactly that curse works, it must be a strong one that has survived for generations… Have you read anything about something similar?, I did not find much books on curses in there"
Hermione did a quick round of search in her mind's library… To no satisfying results…
"I am afraid not… Let's ask Harry tomorrow, he did read more than us combined…. And based on the newspaper this morning - perhaps there would be something in Sirius's library too? Black family was famous for their dark arts after all."
"I hope so…"
Shortly after the girls separated and returned to reading - after all, today was the final day at school. Tomorrow they will be back on the train heading home… And will be free of school to visit Harry.
Harry was walking around the seemingly endless shelves of books, all dusty, with cobwebs. Yet magical books. He never really explored just how huge this place was when he first visited. He somehow thought it would share a lot with Hogwarts library… Yet having all of it, he double checked and while he found most older Hogwarts books, he realised it only made up like one tenth of the books in there.
'Of course! Hogwarts is bound to have a ton of duplicates for all the students…'
It looked like he had more reading to do… The boy started walking and quickly reading the titles of the books. He would then organise it all in his mind's library, sorting out the book titles based on how useful it seemed, then get to reading.
This simple method worked, the main flaw being it was hard to tell if the book was some sort of fiction or real book on magic based on title alone - so some books needed to be resorted as he read.
Vernon Dursley was impatient now. Never mind he had to waste the whole day due to that freak of a kid. No, a trip to London was not too bad. He just hated… waiting. And he had been waiting for a while now.
He already saw some of the 'weirdos' going out of the station. Which started… like an hour ago?
The man grumbled as he massaged his moustache, before finally making a decision.
No, he will not waste his time here anymore. What if that freak decides to stay with his friends or something? It's not like he had a lot of fun with his relatives…
He slowly started the car and started driving out of the station while murmuring under his nose.
"Could have sent at least a letter to inform us… But those damned freaks use owls for letters! No, it was right of him to NOT send an owl…"
"Yes, we thought so as well"
His eyes widened as he nearly rode in the nearby car. He quickly steered the wheel to regain control before taking a deep breath to calm down…
It did not work, just as the traffic light turned red he turned back to the source of the voice and bellowed at the old woman who WAS NOT SUPPOSED TO BE HERE.
"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU AND WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY CAR?"
Professor McGonagal adjusted her muffling spell, having anticipated such outburst from her observations of the man. Then she calmly replied.
"Calm down Mr. Dursley, I am simply here to inform you that your nephew Harry… has run away from school just a few days ago. I am not sure where he is, you wouldn't happen to have seen him recently?"
Vernon took a few more deep breaths, processing the information… On one hand he was glad to be rid of the boy - one less mouth to feed… On the other - what if he ended up dead in some alley… and someone somehow connected that the boy was in fact his nephew? Oh the shame!
His facial expression twisted, while he finally decided - that he simply did not care, he could always deny any relations to the boy, he was about to smile with satisfaction and call Petunia to inform her of the 'good' news, before he realised he had that woman here with him to dampen the mood.
"Haven't seen him since I left him on the train and I don't care if he's missing or never coming back to us. NOW GET THE HELL OUT OF MY CAR!"
The transfiguration professor sighed as some spit got on her glasses, she casually rubbed them clean on the seat nearby, before replying.
"Very well, thanks for honesty Mr Dursley. But if we do find him… He will be returning to you for the summer. Have a nice day"
Vernon just grunted and turned around one last time - perhaps planning to shout some more - but the witch was nowhere to be seen, he grunted with satisfaction before starting to hum and drive back home, his family would certainly be happy with the news - perhaps they can go on vacation somewhere? After all, there will be less expenses this summer…
Nymphadora Tonks put down the teacup she was drinking from - it was empty.
"Nymphadora, do you want some more tea? Other drinks? Something to eat?"
She sighed as she leaned into her armchair. The dust was long since cleaned and while ancient, it was still very comfy.
"No Sirius, I am full, thank you for your hospitality. So Harry came back from the future… Huh that's quite the story. And he apparently can't even share any memories of it… How convenient… Are you teaming up with him to pull a prank on me?"
Sirius rolled his eyes - but had to admit, he initially thought Harry was pulling one on him too…
"No one would use that crazy of a story for this… prophesying Voldemort's return, even knowing where some of his 'soul pieces' are… All his magical skills while being so young? Most importantly, the Quidditch cup is this summer, we will know if he tells the truth by then. But I personally believe him - think, how else could he have apparated us here of all places? Only I and that mad woman are supposed to be keyed into the wards - and I hardly believe she could do that while in Azkaban…"
"Yeah… I suppose you're right. So what now? You said you want to invite my mom here for a visit?"
"Yes, Nymphadora. You, her and Harry are all the family I have left…"
Tonks plummeted deeper into the soft armchair. Of course he noticed her expression. He just enjoyed watching her suffer due to not liking her own name…. Even her mom would happily join in with him on this… But she couldn't just ruin a 'family reunion' just due to her childish whims…
"Fiiiiiine."
She fished in her auror uniform pocket and found her phone… a muggle phone.
Sirius was instantly fascinated - "Is this one of those bricks muggles use to chat with each other? Don't you have a magic mirror?"
Tonks rolled her eyes, before remembering.
'Of course. He was in Azkaban when mobile phones were first released…'
"Yes… With this I can contact both of my parents"
She glanced at the signal - it was barely showing one bar, but she still smiled at that.
"Well not call, but I can send a message. You know Sirius, it's weird that this is working at all here! I thought it would be like Hogwarts or the ministry where it's out of power or there's no signal all the time!"
Sirius just laughed in response
"My father Orion always did not like muggles much, but once he found out he's missing on oh so much intel due to not having a simple 'radio' working at home, he tweaked the wards somehow to get it working. I have no idea how he did it - I never liked runes and such - but it's likely working due to that, typical Slytherin shenanigans."
Tonks gaped for a moment, before typing a quick invitation for her mother, to come visit them tonight… And of course a lengthy explanation that she was safe and sound… That Sirius Black was not a madman nor a serial killer - regardless of what both the magical and muggle press wrote. And of course - an all caps to NOT mention this to anyone other than her dad.
Cyrus Greengrass frowned as he checked and double checked Gringotts statements. For his daughter to suddenly barely have a few knuts in her account… And to spend it all on magical ingredients?
He put the letter down and pondered… A scam, a fraud in pricing? No, his Daphne could never fall for that!
Ah but she was still so young… What if she fell for someone and that someone is using that to exploit her wealth? That…. IS a possibility, however small.
He penned a note to himself - to recheck if anyone sold those ingredients somewhere in the black market. Those things were quite rare - if it's a resale, it's bound to be noticed…
Suddenly he remembered why the purchase date seemed so familiar - was that just before the date Astoria had an accident at school? He slapped his forehead.
'Of course, silly me, she was head over heels trying to cure her sister… With only 3 years of schooling at school… Well I heard Madame Pomfrey already gave her an earful for that… '
He stood up from his desk and started walking. Yes he knew he could just apparate wherever he wanted within his mansions wards - but walking simply let his mind to think better. Besides, he didn't want to become like that joke of a wizard whose muscles atrophied so much he could never walk, only apparate around…
'Hmm, but that mixture my older daughter mixed up, did do something… Astoria's curse disappeared for a moment… only to flare up stronger later before returning to normal… At least that's how it was last night…. I wonder how she is now, I should check on her condition again.'
A few minutes later he was already beside her bedroom door.
knock* *knock*
"Astoria, it's me, can I come in?"
"Go ahead dad"
The doors opened without a creak as Cyrus stepped inside. Astoria was looking better than she was when he picked her up from the station.
"How are you feeling now?"
The girl put down the sketchpad she was sketching on and smiled in response.
"Much better, in fact better than usual"
Cyrus waved his wand to inspect her condition - then frowned, the curse seemed… weaker?
"What exactly did your sister give you to drink?"
The blonde haired girl shrugged.
"I have no idea. It was at least not as foul as the medicine I usually take, it had a mild strawberry flavor… You know I like strawberries don't you? Why does my usual medicine not taste like this?"
Cyrus turned towards the door.
"I must know what it was… I know she had good intentions, but can you not drink experimental potions? She's only finished third year at school! How much could she know! What if she worsens your condition?"
Astoria averted his gaze.
"It's better to try than to live like this. I trust Daph, and so should you - besides, I made her drink it herself first so I knew it was not a prank or something"
"I see… I will ask her myself then. Your sister is in her room, isn't she?"
Astoria just shrugged her shoulders - "Probably, check it for yourself"
Cyrus went silent and left the room, closing the door behind.
Then he walked towards the room nearby, wanting to have a conversation with that troublemaker.
knock* *knock*
"Daphne, it's me, can I come in?"
Yet there was no response. The man frowned and called louder.
"Daph? Are you here?"
Continuing silence unnerved him, he frowned and pushed open the door - the room was empty.
Looking around he saw her luggage was almost untouched - as if she did not care for school books or supplies. He saw a mess of some notes which were related to Astorias curse… Frankly, he could hardly understand what was written inside… Did they really teach this at Hogwarts? Third years even? And here he thought Severus Snape was a horrible teacher…
Then his gaze found a letter on the writing desk. He picked it up.
I am going out to visit my friend. Might sleep over there so don't expect me home today! - Daphne
He frowned before deciding to owl Tracey Davis to ask what this was all about, yet a sudden commotion near the floo attracted his attention. He hurried downstairs towards the living room where the floo was placed.
The guest in his home was in fact… Tracey Davis.
"Ms Davis? What are you doing there? Wasn't Daphne with you?"
"Good evening Mr Greengrass. I noticed Daphne seemed kind of down lately, so I decided to cheer her up by visiting. Why would you assume Daph was at my place?"
Cyrus slowly unfolded the letter and handed it to her.
Tracey's eyes quickly run over the piece of parchment.
"Daphne? Sleeping over at a friend? But she was not at my place!"
Her eyes widened as she connected the dots
"No way! Did she find another friend besides me?"
Cyrus had a deadpan look in his gaze… He knew Tracey was Daphne's only friend…. But to say that so blatantly… Wait…. But where was Daphne then? Who was this new friend of hers?
The two girls have just arrived at the Black family house - and Sirius Black was giving them a tour around.
"Wow, just look at this place! So many books!"
"Yes, it's quite a nice library… Way larger than the modest one my family has at home…" - Daphne quickly inspected various random books as they passed by and her brows furrowed - "All though most of the books in here… look dark and illegal… Hmm, I wonder how many of them are about curses…"
Sirius chuckled, at the remark, but he was still grinning. To think Harry invited a girl home already at that age… And oh boy, not one but two! It reminded him of his own school days. Then he turned towards the blonde girl to reply.
"Yes, Ms Greengrass, the Black family was quite dark back in my days. The few good people either married off, rarely coming back like Harry's grandmother or were even exiled like Andromeda… Still they were all Slytherins - not wanting to go against family traditions…" - his eyes seemed to twinkle as he puffed up his chest - " I myself was an odd one out… A Gryffindor!"
Daphne pretended that was news for her and gave Sirius the surprised look he was expecting, meanwhile Hermione was already browsing through books and collecting a stack to read.
As SIrius started rambling about his school days, Daphne still entertained him as a good listener - while Harry shared some of those stories, one of the legendary marauders of the school still had a ton of them left...
Well up until she saw a black haired boy coming at them, having no doubt heard the commotion in the library.
The couple exchanged no words, just smiled, hastened their footsteps and finally hugged each other as they met between the shelves, even sharing a long kiss.
Sirius was mouth agape, before switching his expression to a proud grin and giving Harry two thumbs up behind Daphne's back, then deciding to give them some privacy and quietly leaving them alone.
"Why do I always miss you so much, even though we haven't seen each other for just a couple of days?"
Harry chuckled in response - "Those were long days, were they not, Daph… Although…" - one of his eyebrows rose as a smirk emerged on his face - "Perhaps you fell too hard for me?"
Daphne playfully punched the black haired boy in the shoulder, then they laughed together and went deeper into the library where they both plummeted down onto a sofa, their arms wrapping around each other's necks in a hug.
"So, how does it feel to finally escape the school? This place is secure, right?"
Harry smiled, yet it felt bittersweet - "Dumbledore was there when I flamed away… I think he will connect the dots and find us here… Sirius being there with me would likely hint to him where exactly I am… I should have travelled abroad before flaming away so that he would not look here…"
Daphne patted him on the head - "There, there, you can always just do that the next loop around, no? An actual summer vacation not being stuck in the room would be kind of nice, don't you think?"
"Yes, that sounds nice… By the way, how did it go to cure your sister this time?"
Daphne's face took a complicated expression - "Weirdly it got cured for a few hours, then relapsed stronger, but then dropped to better than normal shortly after arriving back home and does not seem to be changing. I really panicked initially thinking I made it worse. I learned potions well, but the damned curse is not documented anywhere! I have no idea why it's acting so!"
Harry warmly squeezed her hand - "I know Daph, curses are tough, but don't give up. A small step forwards now and you're one step closer. Besides, we have all the time in the world, don't we?"
"Yeah, you're right. I guess it's back to studying… There really are quite a lot of books here." - she chuckled - "you should have seen Hermione, she dropped her luggage and dove right into the bookshelves"
Harry smiled - "that sounds just like her. Speaking of books, most of the books here are on dark magic or other illegal magic, as I am sure you have already noticed." - Daphne rolled her eyes - "And I already compiled the list of titles in my mind. There's quite a lot of tomes on curses, even a dozen or so for so-called bloodline curses - perhaps that would help you on your quest?"
The blonde girl's eyes lit up as she pulled her boyfriend up from the sofa - "What are we waiting for when? Let's go!"
And so the trio of students were all lost in the myriad of books in the Black library.
Cyrus Greengrass was frowning as he wandered the muggle street known as Grimmauld place. He was certain it was here that his daughter apparated to - he didn't even know she knew how to do that!
You see, rather than those old fashioned tracking wards which only listed current location, his family's tracking wards showed the location and wrote it down on a parchment every time it changed, with timestamps of course. He would never admit it among his pureblood acquaintances, but the idea was borrowed from muggles…
Such wards were set up for each member of his family - and it helped prevent some accidents. Mainly the curse on Astoria acting up at an unfortunate time… but it was the family's curse - one could never be sure, all those with Greengrass blood could have the curse flare up at any moment.
Sure, they had some medicine to prevent the pain when it happened - but the body still weakened with each flare up, eventually leading to early death over the years.
The parchment had one entry for Daphne's room… the next entry being Grimmauld Place street… And then… It was empty. As if she was in some place warded against such monitoring. Or… some special place that could not be written. After all he had triple checked the ward - and it was still functional.
Imagine the surprise of Cyrus, when he checked his mansion wards and saw that it was no portkey, no floo travel, Daphne simply - apparated away.
And damn this muggle street - it took him a while to find it. There were hardly any attractions here, what would a witch be doing in this place among muggles?
Cyrus closed his eyes to focus, as he once learned, trying to sense any magic nearby. Anything at all.
Then his eyes snapped open and he saw… Actually a familiar person - Andromeda Tonks! Yet before he could call out for her - she took a step further and vanished before his eyes.
Cyrus frowned as he went into the same spot. Took a step forward… And nothing happened. His spells returned nothing - as if no magic was used here - the last spell used in this place was… apparition from Andromeda Tonks.
He kept casting spells to analyze what the hell happened - but there was nothing he could find. So he inferred it was some sort of magical place… A well warded magical place as he had no idea it was there nor how to get in.
And logically thinking - his daughter was inside as well - where else could she be?
So he wrote a letter to Andromeda and sent one of the family owls into the sky - as expected it just circled around and returned to him - the same as it happened when he tried this for Daphne.
He set up a small ward to watch the entrance and retreated to a nearby cafe, where he browsed the menu and picked one of the newer dishes - a cheesecake. It was his hobby of sorts to try new food and then if it was something nice - he could make house elves learn the recipe and cook it for him once in a while. It also worked great for entertaining business partners.
He let the owls peck on some snacks near the window - with the order to fly when either of the witches was 'reachable'.
As soon as either of them were out of that place, he would know. Then he started eating the cake while keeping his focus partially on the monitoring ward.
And a blissful smile spread on his face as he forgot his worries for a moment, concentrating on the food - "Hmm!. Delicious"
