"Parseltongue"
"Normal talk"
'Thoughts/Soul channel'
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"Ugh, was I right to give him a chance after his hurtful words?" she wondered out loud in her mother tongue, tiredly plumping down on her queen-sized bed.
Her contemplation was put on hold as she blissfully enjoyed the comfort provided by the bed's mattress.
The girl was no other than Fleur Delacour, the Beuxbatton's tri-wizard champion.
"I don't get it… I didn't want to accept his apology. Not only that, but I also had a strong urge to curse him and leave. Then, why in Flamel's name didn't I do just that?" she mumbled confused while looking at the room's ceiling.
It was adorned with a simple, yet elegant, silver chandelier that she transfigured herself. Just like her other few possessions inside the room, all except her mattress and pillows of course…
Despite all of her considerable skill in the magical art of changing the form and appearance of both objects and people, she couldn't conjure or transfigure an object into comfortable versions of the aforementioned items.
'No, it's not my skill, I'm sure there's nothing wrong with it. But still… Both the pillows and mattresses are soft, albeit there's something missing and I don't understand what. Maybe I should take it to the professor, though I doubt she'll be of much help,' she mused before shaking her head.
'Why am I thinking about that now?' she wondered with exasperation.
Sighing, the young beauty got up from her bed.
"There's no point in thinking about Harry now. I told him that I would give him a second chance and I'll keep my word. If he continues to be an imbecile though, I can always curse him later," she muttered with a sadistic gleam in her eyes.
Fleur glanced at the clock on the bedroom's wall, noticing the time.
'I have a charm's lesson in ten minutes. Should I go?' she pondered, mentally noting the pros and cons of doing so.
At least she tried doing that.
'I can't think of any reason to go…' she thought, dismissing the idea.
As a champion, Fleur was allowed to skip classes as she wanted, something that pleased her immensely.
'I've long since finished the year's curriculum anyway.'
The only reason she still showed up at classes, few times as they were, and disturbed her self-study, was to combat the feeling of loneliness that seemed to have developed an ever-constant grip on her.
"Come to think of it. Back in the tent, while waiting for my turn to come up and talking with him, there was a short instance where that dreadful feeling stopped," she voiced out softly.
Whether that was because the famous boy wasn't fawning over her, or because he seemed to show many similarities with her, she couldn't say.
"Sure I'm no orphan, but my situation's not that much different… At least, I have Gabby! He also seems repulsed by the attention that's given to him and if I'm not wrong, he wears a mask in public, though I've not spent enough time with him to know for sure. That he also disappeared from the face of the earth doesn't help either," she listed while walking back and forth in her room.
She suddenly froze, her cheeks becoming slightly pink.
"I never apologised for calling him a little boy back in the antechamber," she realised sheepishly.
Back at the time, she was both incredibly anxious and angry for being chosen as her school's champion and she wasn't thinking very clearly. Hearing that the boy in front of her had probably tricked his way into the accursed tournament, made her lose the control that she somehow managed to hold on herself.
'Ah, that same boy is a dragon slayer now.'
[BREAK]
With a loud crack, Harry materialised in King's cross.
Many of the muggles near him turned around, trying to see what caused the sudden sound.
They all laid their eyes upon him.
Albeit, they didn't know it…
He was under his father's invisibility cloak.
'Where's Fawkes when I need him... I have to learn how to apparate silently,' Harry thought annoyed.
After a little while, the confused muggles in his near vicinity were unable to find the source of the sound, Harry, with almost reluctant steps, continued to their destinations.
The boy himself was moving to the nearest alley he found, careful not to stumble upon anyone in the busy streets.
After all, while someone could easily ignore and choose to forget about a strange sound, no one would be as ready to disregard their sense of touch screaming at them that they hit something.
Taking off his cloak and storing it inside his trusty pouch, Harry made his way back to the street.
'I suppose the tournament isn't all that bad after all,' he mused while watching the mundane humans go their ways.
Harry, a fourteen-year-old wizard, had just performed magic in the middle of London with none the wiser.
"Now how the hell do I find Grimauld Place?" he muttered.
Despite his words, he had an idea and he was hoping that it would work, otherwise, he may just have to cut his little adventure short.
'There's on there,' he thought, moving towards a black club.
Upon reaching it, Harry got the driver's attention by lightly knocking on the cab's front window.
There was a yellow sign that read "TAXI" on its top.
"Good morning, lad. How may I help you?" asked the aged man after rolling down the window.
"Morning, sir. Do you happen to know where Grimmauld Place is?" Harry inquired, waiting for the negative response that would no doubt follow.
"Of course, I do… How do you reckon I got this job?" the man asked perplexed.
'Huh?'
"Well, are you going to sit in or do you perhaps want the directions, it's not far away after all," the cab driver said, breaking Harry from his reverie.
"I'll just get in if it's no bother, then" Harry muttered and opened the car's back door, getting in.
'Did my plan just meet reality without miserably crashing?' he wondered incredulously.
The world usually didn't allow any chance to pass by without putting some more obstacles in his path…
'And they say that I'm heading into life-threatening scenarios myself. They don't get that, usually, it's the other way around…'
"We'll be there in seven minutes tops," the man informed him as Harry put on his seat belt.
By the time they had reached the address, Harry was barely able to contain his calm.
'What if Sirius regretted offering me home last summer and he simply mentioned it in the letter out of some sense of obligation? What if he found out about me slaying the abyssal reaver and now thinks that I'm some cruel madman? What if-'
"Cough. Young man, we've reached the place," said the cab driver, mercifully putting a stop to his thoughts.
Harry quickly paid the man, he had paid Gringotts a quick visit and got out of the cab.
'Gotta look for the twelfth building,' he thought, glancing at the nearest house and noticing a tiny bronze symbol of the number one on it.
Moving down the street, Harry passed by number ten, eleven and finally, he was standing in front of the Grimmauld's place number twelfth.
'Sirius is here,' he thought and anxiously moved towards the house's door.
The door's knocker consisted of an elegant silver snake head that had a matching ring in its fangs.
There was also an ornate plaquette, above the knocker, that read "House of Black", and bellow that, "Toujours Pour".
"What's that mean," he wondered absentmindedly and used the knocker to announce his presence.
While waiting, Harry was pondering deeply whether to use the mind arts to magically calm himself down or not.
Salazar had advised him against depending too much on his occlumency to keep himself composed, as that would cause his ability to do so by himself to deteriorate…
"See, occlumency was made with the goal to defend the mind from outside forces, not the ones within. That's why, despite how convenient it may be at times, you shouldn't become overly reliant on magic to keep yourself collected," echoed the man's words in his mind.
Thankfully, Sirius had come to the door by then, albeit with his wand at Harry's face.
Noticing who his uninvited guest was, he immediately lowered his wand.
"Merlin's balls, kid. Aren't you supposed to be at school right now?" the man asked, clearly trying and failing to sound stern.
It probably had to do something with the radiant smile that he was looking at Harry with.
"Hey, Sirius," Harry voiced with a steady voice, surprising himself.
"Hey, pup," the man replied and then, hugged his godson.
The hug felt warm and comfortable.
Harry for the first time in his life, felt truly wanted…
Not wanting to catch his neighbours' eyes, the older man quickly broke the hug and shoved Harry inside the house.
"I'm still a wanted fugitive, remember?" he replied at Harry's questioning look.
"Oh, yes. There's that as well…" he muttered darkly and Sirius' expression briefly became dejected.
"We can talk about that later… Now why don't you tell me why and how you escaped Hogwarts to visit little ol' me? I'll have you know that not even your father and me pulled that one, albeit we tried," revealed the man, once again, cheerful.
Sirius started walking deeper into the house and Harry wordlessly followed him.
"Well, let's just say that being in Hogwarts hasn't been very nice lately," he blurted and despite all, smiled, infected by his godfather's joviality.
"Hmm, what do you mean?" asked the man with a frown, which Harry, of course, couldn't see.
Harry's reply was cut off as they reached the end of the entrance hall.
'Why are there shrunken house-eld heads mounted on the wall?' he wondered, a slight shiver running down his spine.
'I just hope that Sirius isn't too much like his family.'
Not knowing about Harry's internal monologue, the older man assumed the worst when his godson didn't answer.
Sirius slowly turned around and put a hand on Harry's shoulder.
"Hey what's up," he asked softly, noticing that his godson was a little pale.
"It's nothing. Your decoration senses just caught me a bit off guard," the boy said, pointing at the plaques on the wall.
Sirius let out a bark of laughter as his eyes landed on the little heads…
For a moment, Harry thought that his previous fears were confirmed.
"A barmy bunch, my family. Wouldn't you say? Of course, most of them are now dead," he muttered, his cheerfulness dissipating.
They continued their way, though this time in an uncomfortable silence.
The duo passed a door at the far end of the hall and walked down a set of narrow stairs, finding themselves in…
'The kitchen,' Harry realised.
It was barely any less gloomy than the hall they just walked through.
It was a vast room, surrounded by rough, stone walls.
"Lovely, isn't it?" Sirius asked rhetorically, moving towards the only light source, a large fireplace at the other side of the room.
Harry silently walked behind him, noting the long mahogany table that must have been where the late Blacks, once, ate their breakfasts.
"How did you get those butterbeers?" he asked curiously after noticing a few empty bottles of the aforementioned lying around.
"With the help of a useful family heirloom. It's a funny little thing that I didn't even know existed. I found it inside my grandfather's belongings, buried deep down by some other interesting things. The object I mentioned is a ring that can alter the appearance of its wearer. I'll show you how it works later," he answered with a mischievous look.
Sirius then took out his wand and with two precise swishes, a couple of the Victorian chairs from the table flew across the room and in front of the fireplace.
"After you," said the man with mock chivalry, even going as far as to offer Harry a slight bow.
Rolling his eyes at his godfather's antics, Harry sat down on the left chair.
"So, how's life outside Azkaban been treating you?" Harry asked, curious about the infamous prison.
It was said to be the worst and most inhumane prison in the world after all.
Harry immediately realised his mistake as he saw Sirius' eyes lose their spark and his body slightly trembling.
"You know what, now that I've thought about it again, I don't really wanna know about it. I mean, who would want to learn about-"
"Stop," he cut him off.
"Sigh. As you can see, even though I escaped Azkaban, I'm not entirely out of its sinister clutches just yet," Sirius commented darkly.
He leaned in his chair, his two arms on his legs.
He watched in fascination as the mundane fire in front of them burned the oak wood inside the fireplace.
"After leaving that dreadful place, sitting in front of a fire is probably my favourite pastime. Not because I've suddenly become a pyromaniac, mind you, but for the reason that it briefly makes me forget about the prison. The warmth it offers is something that I've never felt once in that horrid cell, not once in twelve bloody years!"
The tired man sighed again and stopped talking, pondering whether he should continue talking or not.
Splat, splat.
'It started raining,' Harry observed absentmindedly.
Sadly, there weren't any windows in the kitchen and he could neither smell the Petrichor, the earthy scent produced when rain fell on dry soil, nor enjoy the the sight of the rainfall.
"How come there are no windows in the kitchen? Isn't that, I dunno, a little bit gloomy?… I mean, how can someone possibly eat breakfast in a dark room every day?" he asked perplexed, also trying to shift Sirius's mind elsewhere.
If the damned prison had such an effect on him, he'd rather not know anything about it.
The man himself let out a chortle of laughter at Harry's innocent question, his eyes sparkling again.
"Well, if you've not noticed it by the decorations already, my mother wasn't exactly following the normal standards, nor was she in any way or form a cheery person. Gloom and death, were here to go to!" the dog animagus revealed, chuckling at Harry's forming horrified expression.
"Don't worry. Despite all of her questionable sanity, even she seemed to dislike the idea of eating in such a place," he said while taking out his wand again, and pointing its edge at the ceiling.
"Tectucauecus," he mumbled, thrusting his wand and piercing the air two times.
Harry watched in fascination as the grey spell connected with the ceiling, revealing the clouded sky.
He unconsciously closed his eyes, waiting to feel the cool drops of rain hit his face.
'Weird, I don't feel anything, yet I can still hear the rain falling,' he thought and opened his eyes, going against his instincts that screamed at him to keep them closed.
He belatedly realised that the drops seemed to hit something two meters above him.
He was broken out of his reverie by another bark of mirth from Sirius.
The action made Harry want to smile…
The fact that he was being laughed at, however, did not.
"Don't tell me they've stopped the whole starry night sky at Hogwarts?" asked the man, amused at Harry's confused expression.
Oh.
'It looks like the same spell. How come it didn't click sooner?' the youth mused.
"I see they kept up the tradition… Anyway, Mum liked the idea from her school days and had my uncle, Alphard, the one who designed most of the house's wards, create something similar. The spell I used is a pretty simple activation charm for the wards. I'm pretty sure there's an obscure spell that has the same effect, but good ol' mum didn't bother learning it," the Black revealed.
After that, the two men, godfather and godson, fell into a comfortable silence.
Sirius went back to enjoying the fire sparking and watching as it slowly devoured the oak logs, while Harry sat back in his chair, thinking what it must have been like for Sirius growing up and absentmindedly observing the raindrops hitting the invisible barrier somewhere above him.
"Hey pup, I've meant to say… Thank you for getting me out of the cell that night," the escapee whispered.
His voice was just loud enough for Harry to catch his words.
"Don't think about it. Isn't that what family's for?" Harry asked him with a bright and easy smile.
"Harry, I-" the almost teary man managed to voice before the whole building shook.
Harry felt something wash over him…
It was a familiar, yet, unpleasant feeling
He didn't know what it meant but it strangely gave him the feeling that he was being put in shackles.
'Wait, that's right. I feel it at Hog-'
"SIRIUS ORION BLACK. YOU ARE SURROUNDED AND UNDER ANTI-APPARITION WARDS. IF YOU DON'T GET OUT IMMEDIATELY WITH BOTH HANDS ON YOUR HEAD, MY AUROR SQUAD WILL RETORT TO FORCE," a feminine voice boomed through the whole building.
"I've fucked up," Harry said immediately and both men stood up.
He had somehow brought aurors to his godfather's home.
'Allowed to do underage magic my ass. I've slipped somewhere, I should have been more careful,' he inwardly screamed.
Despite the bleak situation in which the reunited pair found themselves and the real possibility of being carted back to Azkaban, Sirius used every last bit of the occlumency his mother managed to beat in him as a kid and calmed down.
"Harry, I need you to calm down," the older man commanded his godson, putting both of his hands on the boy's shoulders and looking him in the eyes.
"But—" Harry tried protesting and only managed to make Sirius strengthen his grip on him.
Pure grey met sparkling green.
'That was fucking bad,' Harry observed with a frown, getting back a semblance of control.
He then used his formidable skill in the mind arts to detach himself from his emotions, and instantly, a cold mask settled on his face.
The sudden change in his godson's demeanour surprised Sirius, to say the least, but he chose to say nothing for the moment.
"Did you notice how the auror woman mentioned only my name? That means they don't know about you and thus, you aren't the reason they somehow found me. So, don't worry," the older man quickly deduced.
Had Harry not muted down his emotions, he'd have let out a huge sigh of relief.
Instead, he calmly looked at his godfather as he went on.
"As they don't know that you are here, we need to keep it that way. Any chance you got the cloak?" he asked, getting a nod from Harry.
"Excellent. Now, if I tell you to go under the cloak, you'll do so, and under no circumstances will you take it off. I don't want to see you pulling any stupid martyr moves today," Sirius stated in a serious tone.
Getting a reluctant nod, he smirked and continued.
"If you want to help me, wear this ring," the last Black said, taking the aforementioned item off his middle finger and throwing it to Harry; the ring wasn't visible before.
The youngest Quidditch seeker of Hogwarts in over a century easily caught the magical jewellery piece.
Like most things in the house, it was both simple and elegant.
It was made from sterling silver that was polished to a brilliant shine.
As Harry was about to put the ring on his finger, he noticed that its band exuded a nebulous sparkle in the light.
'How peculiar,' he mused and moved his face closer to the item.
His attention immediately shifted to something else.
Nested atop the band, instead of the grey gemstone, Harry thought there was, sat a captivating grey eye…
'Damnation,' he thought as its iris swirled with subtle shades of silver and charcoal.
Unnerved, Harry stopped peering at the dreadful ring that seemed to gaze back at him and threw a questioning look at his godfather.
"What kind of monstrosities do you have on your person?" he asked with an even voice, trying to ignore the sinister aura the jewellery gave off now that he wore it.
"That's the family heirloom I told you about. Push a tiny bit of your magic in it and it will change your appearance," Sirius revealed, surprising Harry as he didn't feel even the smallest amount of magic swirling around the item.
'Does it also conceal its magical signature?' he wondered and did as instructed.
As his magic met the ring, the grey eye glanced at Harry and then disappeared from view.
He felt another wave of magic wash over him and was slightly surprised by the sensation it left him with.
'I feel like someone just threw a whole bucket of old paint at me,' he mused, deeply uncomfortable by the sticky feeling that had encompassed him.
"Look at yourself in the mirror," Sirius chirped and pointed somewhere behind Harry.
The boy, following the man's gesture turned around.
He immediately found the reflective object in question, but couldn't see his reflection as it was located not only on the other side of the cavernous room but also on the wall on his left.
He promptly located the reflective item in question, yet his reflection eluded him, as the mirror was not only far away in the cavernous room, but also on the wall to his left.
Quickly moving there, Harry was surprised to see the man looking back at him.
The reflection was not different in proportions from him, though everything else was a fair game.
His hair was now a light brown and cut in a short style, not unlike a mundane soldier. His facial features were now bland and had lost the little aristocratic flair that they usually held. His sparkling green eyes had also changed to a deep brown.
However, these were not the changes that caught his attention, no.
It was a little change on his forehead, the absence of his word famous scar!
By the time Harry managed to confirm the unbelievable change and looked back at his godfather, the man was holding two fiery orange potion vials.
"These two bottles, contain strong invigoration draughts. They may come in handy," Sirius answered the unasked question and gestured for Harry to come closer.
After a quick mental calculation, the teen concluded that it'd be safe for him to drink it.
'Damn felix felicis and its terrible potion poisoning,' he thought and grabbed the offered drink.
Working quickly, he uncorked the potion and downed it in one go, feeling as his mind became even sharper and his energy levels went through the roof.
"Any chance that the majestic phoenix practically everyone in Hogsmeade was talking about can flash in and pop us out?" Sirius tried, just before the auror force started bombarding the wards with spells.
"Would you believe that he's currently on the other side of the globe? He went to Australia, something about having to talk with the mutual acquaintances he had with Ozeth, the dragon I killed," Harry informed him.
'I can't even reach his with the soul bond…'
"That's what I assumed," Sirius said with a sigh.
Phoenixes were known to immediately move to their masters when they felt that they were in danger.
"I can probably move us out myself. I've not tried flashing over anti-apparition wards though, so I don't know how will that go," the youth stated thoughtfully, getting a grimace from Sirius.
"Let's keep that as a last resort. I'm rather fond of my limbs you see."
Boom.
"Well, here's the plan then. If you didn't know, back in the last war, I was a senior auror officer, along with your old man of course, so I can deduce their way of thinking. First of all, they don't know you are here and I'm very confident that they didn't follow me, they are unlikely to be sure of any presence here. And that brings the question, why are they even here? They either, finally started going through every single recorded Black property, hoping to find me, or someone else informed them of my possible hideout," he muttered, holding back the sudden surge of wrath that threatened to come out.
Taking a deep breath, which was overshadowed by the spell barrage, Sirius composed himself.
"As soon as the wards fall, one of the aurors will cast a spell that detects magical presences and when he receives the confirmation, he'll inform his squad leader, probably the woman we heard shouting, that will then send someone to call for backup. Considering that I'm currently the most wanted serial killer in magical Britain, I assume that the backup will be plentiful… That's why, we'll attack right before that," he declared, just before a particularly strong spell hit the house's wards, prompting the building to tremble.
"Shit, they've brought a damn curse-breaker with them," Sirius shouted annoyed.
"We've got a minute at best before the wards fall," he informed Harry and swiftly made his way back to the entrance hall.
"Kreacher," the Black called.
Harry was briefly surprised to see a house-elf appear after his godfather's call.
Kreacher, as Sirius called him, had a bulbous, snout-like nose and bloodshot eyes. He also had white hair growing out of his bat-like ears and was suspiciously out of breath.
"Kreacher, take everything of importance from the house, starting with the library, and move them to our house the house in Skye," Sirius commanded the elf.
"It is already being done, nasty Master. Kreacher knows the importance of the Black's legacy after all," the elf muttered, huffing lightly.
"Well done. Keep doing that then," the older man said, dismissing the house elf and for the first time, pleased with his actions.
"Can't we just have Kreacher apparate us away," Harry asked curiously after the elf left with a silent crack.
"No. The anti-apparition wards that the aurors put down won't let him apparate if he's holding onto humans…"
With half a minute still on the clock, the duo stood in front of the house's door, their wands in hand.
Sirius wordlessly pierced the air twice with his wand, casting the familiar grey spell that hit the door.
Needless to say, the two men could see what was happening outside the house.
Unluckily for the auror squad that kept firing spells at the wards, they didn't hold the same advantage.
"Listen. The only reason I'm even letting you here with me is because you've slayed a bloody dragon and that has to mean something. Despite my feelings, I know you'll be able to take care of yourself, so please, if anything happens, I want you to have your safety as a priority. If I fall down, leave," Sirius said softly while joining his pup in observing the men attacking his home.
Harry frowned at his godfather's words but nevertheless nodded.
'He won't be able to fight at his best if he has to constantly worry about me as well,' he mused.
Nodding at his godson, Sirius pushed the door open and then…
All hell broke loose...
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