The first weekend of February Harry made his way down to the chamber and put on a specially charmed pair of glasses that basically left him blind to anything outside his Black Sight – which, fortunately worked despite the lenses. The reason he was currently wearing them was because he was about to venture to the basilisk's nest for the first time.
Tom had told him that, as a wizard who was able to speak parseltongue that he was immune to the Basilisk's stare, but Harry had no idea if that immunity would transfer over to him. He sure as hell wasn't about to take that risk now. So he hissed out the proper commands and the giant statue of Salazar Slytherin that took up the largest portion of the main Chamber began to shift and rumble until the mouth started to open up, revealing a narrow passage. Harry climbed up and made his way down the tunnel until he came out in a large, filthy room that reeked of dead things. He heard the telltale crunching of bones beneath his feet as he walked forward. He cautiously approached the large glowing mass of magical energy that his Sight picked up, knowing it was the hibernating basilisk.
It took the next twenty minutes of coaxing and hissing and casting a few spells that he remembered Tom mentioning to him to finally wake the giant serpent and get her speaking to him.
:You are not Tom,: the basilisk said at one point.
:No, I'm not,: Harry admitted hesitantly.
:What isss your name, childe?:
:My name is Herakles,: Harry replied.
:You are Tom'sss Heri?:
Harry smiled and a bit of relief filled him. :Yesss, I am.:
:You are not an heir of my massster,: she pointed out.
Harry fidgeted, :No... I'm not exactly a descendent of Sssalazar Ssslytherin...:
:But you still sspeak the tongue of the ssserpent.:
:Yesss, I do.:
:How odd...:
Harry paused, wondering how he should respond to that... or if he should respond at all.
:What bringsss you down here childe?: she asked, finally.
:I was hoping I could request a sssmall favor of you...: Harry admitted hesitantly.
:Do you wish me to eat sssomeone for you?:
:Uh, no... no, that won't be necessary at the moment.:
:Then what do you dessire?:
:Can I have a few of your sscales and a bit of your venom for potionss ingredientss?: Harry asked quickly as he crouched, ready to run if the beast decided she was offended by the request.
:What do you need them for?: she asked, seemingly calm, so Harry allowed himself to relax slightly.
:Oh, well, I wasss intending to trade them to a potions master in exchange for his asssistance in sssomething I needed. I don't know what exactly he might end up using them form.:
:That is acceptable.:
Harry blinked, not entirely sure how to take that, but shrugged it off.
:Ssso you'll let me take some of your venom?:
:Yes.:
– –
Harry got the basilisk bits to Snape and the man appeared legitimately shocked by them. Apparently Snape hadn't honestly believed that Harry could get any of it, and the revelation that Harry had done it, was gape-worthy. In exchange for the exceptionally rare ingredients, Snape grudgingly began brewing a potion for Harry.
Theoretically, Harry could have brewed it on his own because he did have the necessary skill level, but it was one of those potions that had an annoyingly long brew-time and required regular maintenance that would be difficult for Harry to do without drawing unwanted attention to himself, and inconvenient questions. Snape, in contrast, always had a bunch of potions brewing in his personal potions lab, and was accustomed to regularly stepping away from his daily tasks to attend to some potion or another.
Thusly, Harry felt confident that he was making good headway towards the necessary goal of ridding himself of that pesky Trace. He'd gotten Sirius freed with shocking ease, and the man was already working towards getting his rightful custody and Dumbledore did not appear to be fighting against any of his work. He hadn't protested anything related to Sirius' attempts to gain custody of Harry; in fact, it appeared to Harry that Dumbledore was now trying to make it appear that he was quite happy about all of it and was actually helping to speed things along. He had even offered to cast the wards on whatever house Sirius ended up buying, but his offer had so far been politely declined. Harry did not doubt that Dumbledore would push the issue again later when they actually had a house to ward.
Harry was fairly sure that Dumbledore was trying to gain Harry's trust with all of this. He wanted Harry to see him as the kind old grandfather that was on his side, and only wanted what was best for Harry.
Harry suspected that Dumbledore's support of Sirius probably had a bit to do with Harry mentioning his familial connection to Narcissa Malfoy and Draco back during the winter holiday. It had been made apparent to Dumbledore that Harry was taking an active interest in locating any biological family he had in the wizarding world, and the Malfoys were obviously not Dumbledore's ideal choice for such a connection. Harry was just as related to Sirius Black as he was with Narcissa Malfoy, and if Dumbledore could shift Harry's familial connection to a Black that he believed he had the loyalty of, instead of the Malfoys, it would clearly be a win.
There was also the very obvious fact that if Dumbledore's goal was to maintain a position of power and trust in Harry's life, fighting to keep him in the home that he obviously hated and wanted to escape, would only be monumentally counterproductive. Dumbledore was not a fool. He was barmy, and Harry really didn't understand how the man's logic worked sometimes, but he knew the man knew enough to understand that fighting against Harry going to Sirius now that Sirius was free, would not help his goals.
Dumbledore had also sent a number of correspondences to Sirius. It was only through the tremendous efforts of Remus that Sirius had not yet done anything stupid. Remus was actually wondering if he should have held off telling Sirius about their suspicions regarding Dumbledore's questionable actions. Sirius Black was apparently more sane that anyone could have reasonable hoped for a man who'd spent a decade in Azkaban, but that didn't mean he'd come out unscathed.
Remus had come back from several of his visits to Sirius' flat in Hogsmeade with obvious concern creasing his forehead. Sirius, apparently, had good days and bad days, according to his old friend. Some days he seemed entirely in his right mind, but other days he didn't seem to completely understand that it was 1991, and James and Lily were dead.
Remus had ended up drafting responses to Dumbledore's early inquiries for Sirius so that they could avoid trouble. At the moment Dumbledore was cooperating – helping them, even – but it was most likely only because he believed that Sirius would still allow him to play an important role in Harry's life and have influence over the boy by way of his influence over Sirius. And of course, because Sirius Black was a far preferable option over his cousin Narcissa.
It didn't take an idiot to realize that if Harry was angry with Dumbledore for standing in the way of him getting his godfather back, that Harry wouldn't likely be very cooperative with the man. Of course, that was working under the assumption that Harry wasn't already 'angry' with him for other reasons.
In any case, all of these things were going as planned, if not easier than planned, leaving Harry only two things left to focus on. His schoolwork, and the Stone. The schoolwork was obscenely boring, but there was only a few little things he could do in regards to stealing the Philosopher's Stone, since he still wanted to wait until it was closer to the end of term, before he made an attempt at nicking it.
As a result, Harry simply sunk into the mind-numbing routine of classes, writing essays, interacting with his classmates, continuing to charm his classmates and professors, and his weekly chats with Remus. He had also begun to exchange a few letters with Sirius. The first letter was just a basic introduction from Sirius as well as asking Harry if he really wanted to move in with him – in response to which, Harry quickly replied 'Yes.' After that, the letters from Sirius mostly just went over bits about himself and gave him some information on the progress he was making with getting approved to take custody of Harry, and his search for the 'perfect house'.
Harry and Remus had spent the January full moon together as usual in the Shrieking Shack, but February's full moon was the first deviation from the norm, and also Harry's first time seeing his godfather since the night his parents died.
Harry flew to the Shrieking Shack in his animagus form simply because he had no desire to go traversing through a tunnel that required crawling underneath a homicidal tree, if he didn't have to. When he flew in through the window of the room that Remus always spent his full moons in, he found Remus sitting there, still human because it was still early, and in the company of another very familiar man.
Sirius Black was sitting there, smiling eagerly at the tired-looking Remus and laughing heartily about something one of the two of them had just said. The man's head suddenly turned as he caught sight of Harry in his peripheral vision and his eyes widened considerably. Remus, seeing Sirius' sudden shift in attention also turned his head and spotted Harry hovering in the air just in front of the open window.
"Is that him?" Sirius whispered.
Remus' expression shifted into a small, soft smile, and he nodded. "Yes, Padfoot. That's him. Come on in, Harry. He already knows."
Feeling a mixture of trepidation and the slightest bit of annoyance that Remus had gone and 'spilled the beans' on his animagus form, but also knowing he couldn't be too annoyed since he probably would have told Sirius anyway, Harry flew closer to the ground and smoothly transformed back into his human form.
Sirius let out a sound somewhere between a laugh and a stunned cough and just stared at Harry in disbelief.
"I never would have believed it, if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes. An animagus at age eleven!" Sirius exclaimed and then laughed, loudly.
Harry just blinked at the man, wondering exactly how this evening was going to pan out. Remus would be transforming in about a half hour, and after that point, they'd all be animals and unable to communicate verbally. Kind of a weird situation for getting reacquainted with his godfather.
Harry shrugged and tried to look a bit bashful and nervous. Sirius suddenly seemed to remember himself and stood up, looking down at Harry awkwardly. Harry just blinked up at the man with legitimate confusion for a moment before he was unexpectedly pulled into a fierce hug.
"Oh Harry... Merlin, it's good to finally see you! I'm so sorry! I never should have left! I was such a fool! Will you ever forgive me?"
Harry blinked and stood there stiffly as the man continued to hold him in a firm embrace for a moment before he pulled back and took in a shuddering breath as he seemed to pull himself back together. Harry noticed that his eyes shone slightly with unshed tears and Harry diverted his eyes, feeling a bit overwhelmed by the man's show of emotion and affection considering that they hadn't seen each other in ten years.
"Merlin, I'm getting ahead of myself, aren't I?" Sirius said with a weak chuckle as he stood up a bit straighter. "I'm Sirius Black."
Harry chuckled, but it was a bit forced.
"Of course, from what I've gathered from your letters and from Remus here, you actually remember me... is that really true?" Sirius continued on before Harry could come up with something to say.
"Er, yeah. That's right. I... I remember you turning into Padfoot and giving me rides around the house on your back, and I remember dad taking me out on his broom and you going out to fly with us... I remember that ball you got me for my birthday that cycled through all those colors and would change texture depending on your mood – getting all bumpy, or smooth, or getting little rounded spikes..."
"Modred's balls, you remember that?" Sirius exclaimed with a tinge of awe and disbelief.
"Sirius!" Remus reprimanded with a shocked laugh, no doubt in reference to Sirius' language.
Harry laughed and shrugged. "I've heard worse things from my dorm mates, Remus. No worries."
"You can really remember all that stuff from when you were a baby?" Sirius asked, ignoring Remus' admonishment completely.
Harry just smiled and nodded before going into a description of his 'theory' behind what he figured was some sort of magically enhanced type of photographic memory, how he remembered things from when he was a baby that hadn't made sense at the time since he'd not had the understanding or context, but how they made sense looking back now that he did. It was the same line he'd been feeding Remus and it seemed to suitably convince his godfather because the man just looked awed and impressed, and not the least bit disbelieving or suspicious.
They had to cut the discussion short because the moon was rising in the sky and Remus was nearing the time of his transformation. Harry and Sirius both transformed into their animagus forms just moments before Remus went through the painful transition into his lycan form.
Hours later, when the sun finally began to rise in the morning sky and Remus lay sore and exhausted on the floor of the shrieking shack, a tired Harry and Sirius transformed back to their human forms and began checking Remus over for injuries caused during the transformations.
"We're going to have to come up with a nickname for you," Sirius said, seemingly out of nowhere. Harry blinked at him with obvious confusion – not really understanding what the man could possibly be talking about. "Your bat form. We need to come up with a nickname! Remus here's Mooney, I'm Padfoot, and your dad was Prongs. We can't exactly stick with the name Prongslet, it just doesn't fit your form! We've gotta come up with a name!"
Harry laughed lightly as the man's enthusiasm and shrugged. "I'll let you come up with some ideas and pick the one I like, how's that?"
Sirius grinned widely. "Are you sure you're willing to trust me with coming up with your Marauder name?"
"I said you could come up with some ideas and I'd pick one," Harry reiterated, amused by the man's shockingly peppy mood for so early in the morning after staying up all night long.
"Well, I'll try my best to come up with some good options, then," Sirius said as he bent over to offer an arm to help the tired werewolf stand up.
The three made their way through the tunnel that led back into Hogwarts, used a stunning spell to hit the knot on the Weeping Willow to make it freeze it's violent thrashing, and Sirius stuck with them until they got to the courtyard doors of the castle before turning back since Harry insisted he could get Remus on his own from there.
He got Remus up to the hospital wing and Madam Pomfrey took one look at the obviously tired eleven-year-old and gave him a pass for his day of classes, telling him to get some sleep. Harry knew the woman had realized a while ago that he was keeping Remus company during his full moons. She hadn't approved at first, and Harry had been worried that she was going to go to Dumbledore insisting that it wasn't safe since for all they knew, Harry was keeping Remus company in human form and that was just about never 'safe', but Remus had apparently managed to convince her that they were taking all possible precautions and he truly believed that Harry was safe... and also very stubborn. Harry had gotten the impression that Pomfrey believed Remus was locking himself inside a cage or something and Harry was sitting outside both the cage and a magical barrier, just for added security.
It was a viable idea, honestly... Harry wondered sometimes why they didn't just do that since he'd be able to speak with Remus then, but shrugged it off since he didn't really have any qualms with how they currently did things. Honestly it was kind of fun to play around as a bat for a whole night once a month.
Harry trudged up to the Ravenclaw first year dorms and quickly collapsed into bed, endlessly thankful that the beds at Hogwarts were so damned comfortable and that he could skip all of his classes for the day. He was way ahead anyway, so what did it matter if he missed his classes again.
– –
In an effort to fill time and convince himself he was making progress on his goal of stealing the Stone, Harry visited the third-floor corridor a few more times when Hagrid and Sprout went down there, so he could continue to look for additional protections that he was sure, had to be there. It was obvious that Dumbledore seemed to have some plan in motion where he wanted Harry to go down there. After all, the 'protections' guarding the stone were laughable and clearly designed to be beaten by a clever child. Since the protections were obviously not serious, Harry had begun to suspect that there were some real protections there as well, only that they had to be far better concealed. The alarm on the door in the room of flying keys was only the first hint at something more.
He never had a lot of time down there since he had to make sure he was done and back out before Sprout finished tending to the Devil's Snare. It was during his trip down to the key room the first week of March that Harry had a bit of an epiphany and tried using a very unusual, old, detection spell that he and Tom had learned from an Indian hermit during their decade of travel in order to teach themselves as much rare magic as they could manage to get their hands on.
He'd been turning up just the slightest indications of subtle magical charms, but it was like catching sight of something just outside of your peripheral vision, but once you looked at it, you saw nothing at all. It had been getting very frustrating and he'd wished he could just stay down there for longer periods of time to work it out. The spell he suddenly thought to use would really only pick up a certain kind of magic, and almost no one actually used any of that sort of magic these days, but he figured it was worth a shot since he'd tried just about everything else he could come up with.
And there it was.
Plain as day. He cursed himself for not thinking to try it sooner, but pushed that aside, grateful that he'd thought to use it at all, because this would definitely complicate things.
There was a magical field all around him. Like a cloud of webbing and netting, invisible to all except those who actually knew anything about this incredibly obscure branch of magic. No doubt the Stone had been charmed with the polarization counter-part spell. The Stone would be caught in this webbing the second you tried to bring it through it. He suspected that every room was probably filled with this stuff. It wasn't a hard thing to cast if you knew how so there was no harm in the extra caution.
Not only would it catch the Stone, it would snatch it away and put inside this little magical pocket of space that only the original caster could access without a lot of trouble.
If a person managed to get through all of the 'protections' and get the Stone, the moment they tried to take it back through these rooms, it would simply vanish from their hand or pocket, or where ever, and go into a nice little protected pocket. There were ways to get it back, technically, but it would take ages and it would be tiring process. And of course, next to no one would even know what had happened, let alone how to get it back.
It was rather ingenious. It was also annoying.
Whenever he managed to get down to the Stone, he was going to need some way to bypass this spell... and any others Dumbledore might have around to prevent the Stone from leaving these corridors, for that matter.
If only he could call Dobby to him and just hand the stone over and have the elf pop away with it. It would be so damned easy that way. But he couldn't. Anti-elf wards was one of the easiest to detect of the protections cast around the area. He'd discounted that before he'd even known for sure they were there, sure as he was that Dumbledore would have thought of that. It was just such a 'duh' mistake to make. Leaving a place open to house elf 'popping'. Then again, it was also a very common mistake for wizards to make.
So many of them instantly disregarded the little creatures. Tom had been guilty of that several times as well, for that matter.
But back to the Stone... perhaps he could make a small box that could isolate it from all magics outside it? Put the Stone in the box as soon as he gets it out of where ever it was, and... no. No, it wouldn't work unless Harry knew exactly what other protections were in place so he could prepare isolation charms strong enough and specific enough to counter them.
He decided he was wasting his time debating this while stuck down in the key-room, so he quickly finished up his scans and left, only just making it in time since Sprout was preparing to leave just as he got back to the Devil's Snare room.
The following day in History of Magic Harry charmed his parchment so that it would look like meaningless scribbles to anyone who looked his way, and then proceeded to make a list of potential ideas for getting the Stone out past all the potential protections. Anything he could think up that might work, and then all the reasons why it most likely wouldn't.
He was just about to scratch through his latest seemingly ridiculous idea in a list of spells that transported an object from one place to another instantly, when his quill froze mid-air and he paused.
There was next to nothing that could instantly transport a person or object through wards as extensive as Hogwarts, but there was actually one thing he could think of that could. It was a magical device that had just recently been invented about ten years before he had died. They were quite handy, and totally bypassed every ward that existed at the time of its invention. Of course, it was entirely likely that some sort of counter had been invented since then and implemented on the castle's wards.
The device had been called a Vanishing Cabinet and it came in a set. You go into one, and you come out the other. Harry had been about to scratch it off the list because they were usually very large and used for transporting a person. He couldn't exactly carry one with him and then use it to transport himself out of the final chamber. If he did, he'd be leaving one of the cabinets behind in the final chamber as the obvious escape route and leaving evidence behind was just stupid.
But what if he didn't use it to transport all of him, but only the Stone? He could make a small Vanishing Cabinet – like, the size of a jewelery box – and take it with him. He would get down to the stone, put it into the vanishing 'box', activate it, and suddenly the Stone would be back in his dorm room. Or better yet... back at Godric's Hollow. It would never even have to enter Ravenclaw Tower, reducing the chances of him ever getting caught with it.
Slowly a smile curled his lips. This one had potential. This one was definitely worth looking into further.
– –
Sirius had been sending Harry updates with increasing frequency, but Harry imagined the man was probably rather eager for human contact after having been deprived of it for so many years, and he admitted that the letters did at least provide a mild distraction. He had slowly taken to telling his 'godfather' about his school life and his friends. He never mentioned to the man which houses said 'friends' were in, since he hoped to spring that on the man later, after he'd come to understand that Harry knew these people and appeared to trust them.
Harry spoke about his study group mostly, since they were probably the only people that directly interacted with Harry outside of classes, and that he spent any significant amount of time with other than his seating rotation during meals. He knew that the Ravenclaws in his group, Su Li, Terry Boot, and Padma Patil. probably honestly considered him their friend. He'd grown quite fond of the girls, and Boot was probably the only one of his roommates that didn't drive him insane most of the time, so he considered himself lucky to have been assigned to the same group as him. The Slytherins in Harry's study group probably wouldn't jump straight to using the word 'friend' simply because they had been raised to know better than that.
Slytherins didn't usually have 'friends', they had alliances. Theo, Daphne, Blaise, and Draco had all been raised knowing the importance of strong, beneficial, alliances, and they clearly realized that being seen as 'friends' with Harry was beneficial, even if some people in their house still didn't seem to understand the value in it. But Harry had continued to insist they spin it among their housemates however worked best, because he knew it would be necessary for them.
He'd been a Slytherin for seven years. He knew how the inter-house politics worked. A childish version of the devious political battles their parents played to gain power and influence. Subtle barbs, insults, and absolutely no hesitancy to use anything they knew against you at the most inopportune time. They were only first years, but the older students wouldn't let that hold them back. If they thought that Draco Malfoy was allying himself with the defeater of the Dark Lord for any reason other than trying to use, manipulate, and trick said boy-who-lived, they wouldn't hesitate for a moment to try and tear him apart.
Harry would say that for eleven-year-olds, his Slytherin 'friends' were doing remarkably well in playing the Slytherin Game and avoiding the wrath of their housemates for associating with him.
In his letters to Sirius, he often mentioned Su, Terry, Padma, Daphne, Blaise, and Theo with casual ease and in equal quantities. He'd never mentioned a last name to any of them, since Sirius would instantly recognize the names Greengrass, Zabini, and Nott. He was hesitant however, to mention Draco at all, since it was a rather unique name and Sirius would no doubt instantly realize who he was talking about. Draco was, after all, related to Sirius. They were sort of like uncle and nephew. Only... once removed, or something. Harry had never really sorted out how that all worked, since he'd never really had a family before that needed sorting out in that way.
Sirius' cousin was Narcissa Malfoy, Draco's mother, so maybe that made them second cousin's once-removed? Or first-cousins, once-removed?
The Blacks always named their children after stars and constellations, and Narcissa had clearly chosen to stick with that tradition with her son, even though the Malfoy's usually used old Roman names like Lucius, Abraxas, Octavius, and Maximus. The name 'Draco' was very obviously a reference to the Draco constellation, and a clear nod to Narcissa's Black family lineage.
Harry was just about positive that Sirius would be aware of his cousin's son's name, and being the son of a Black and a Malfoy, it was almost a given that he'd be in Slytherin. Finally, Harry started to slip mentions of Draco into his letters along with the stories about the rest of his friends and their classes, and had not yet been called on it. He didn't know if that was because Sirius hadn't caught it, or if the man wasn't sure if he should mention that he had any concerns regarding Harry's friend.
Harry knew that Sirius would eventually find out exactly who all of Harry's friends were, but he wanted the man to get used to the idea that Harry liked these people, and spoke of them often, and 'trusted' them, before that happened.
Harry was sending a letter to Sirius just about every other day by the end of March. Hedwig was happy to be getting so much work, since she had clearly been getting bored spending all her time in the Owlery with nothing to do.
Harry had taken the extra precaution of placing a charm over Hedwig that would guarantee that she would never be diverted towards any post redirection charms, just to make sure Dumbledore wouldn't be intercepting any of his post. Hedwig had seemed a bit indignant over the whole thing, as if she was insulted that he thought she was stupid enough to fall for something like that. It had made him smile. The longer he had her, the more and more intelligent he realized she was. She was truly a remarkable owl.
In addition to his efforts to 'get to know' his godfather, and gradually introduce himself to the man in return, he had also spent the last month working on the 'Vanishing Box'. It was a very complicated magical object to try and craft and required some very delicate and precise arithmancy work, not to mention the tiny runework that needed to be carved into the surface. Usually a Vanishing Cabinet would be quite large, so you had lots of room to work, but he was trying to keep the boxes as small as he could manage since he wouldn't be able to shrink the one he carried with him down. An artifact as delicate as that did not like to be re-sized. He could place it inside a space expanded bag, but that was the best he could hope for.
And so it had been tedious work. He'd slip away into the Room of Hidden Things to do his carving, but he could only stay in there for so long without someone asking him where he'd been. He wanted to try and get it done as soon as possible though, since he still needed to test out it's limitations. He'd done some research and as best as he could tell, a counter ward to stop use of Vanishing Cabinets had never really been developed or put into use, and they'd fallen out of style in the 80s because they were so touchy and easy to break. If one of the cabinets was damaged at all when you stepped into the other, you could end up lost in some sort of in-between limbo and not be able to get out unless someone on the outside realized you were stuck and got you out.
Still, he didn't know for sure if he'd be able to completely bypass the Hogwarts wards with it. He figured that he had three possibilities. One; it would work perfectly and he'd have the second box taken to Godric's Hollow by Dobby and send the Stone directly there. Two; he couldn't send things from inside the school to outside the school, so he'd have the second box in his dorm, or maybe down in the Chamber. Or three; it wouldn't work at all inside the school.
If it ended up being the third one, he would need all the time he could find to scramble for an alternative. But he was fairly sure this would work.
– –
The Friday of the second week of April, Harry was a bit surprised as breakfast came and went without an owl from Sirius. He'd been expecting one, especially since the Easter Holiday was the following week, and he knew Sirius had been hoping that he could arrange to visit Harry, or maybe Harry visit him.
Harry shrugged it off, figuring that he'd hear from Sirius the following day, when Professor Flitwick walked over and waved to get Harry's attention.
"Yes, Professor?" Harry asked, looking down at the very short man.
"The headmaster would like to see you in his office, Mr. Potter. What class do you have first block so I can notify your teacher you'll be late?"
Harry maintained a blank, perhaps slightly surprised, expression but inside he was wondering frantically what this might be about.
"I have Defense with Professor Lupin first," Harry replied smoothly.
"Ah, yes! Well, I'm sure that Professor Lupin won't mind if you're a bit late. He'll certainly understand," Flitwick chuckled a bit and smiled. "I'll let him know. Do you know the way to the headmaster's office?"
"I do, sir."
"Good, good. Ah, and you should know that today, Professor Dumbledore is feeling a bit partial to Liquorish Wands." Flitwick chuckled and looked rather pleased with himself. Harry just blinked down at him blankly, successfully hiding the sneer that wanted to curl his lips.
Dumbledore and his ridiculous sweets. It was no doubt the password, but it was still stupid. And it was slack security. Anyone could have guessed that, given enough tries.
"Thank you, sir," Harry said, instead.
As Harry began to leave, Terry Boot asked him what was up, and he simply shrugged and kept going. It only took a couple minutes before he was standing in front of the gargoyle that guarded the headmaster's office.
He looked down at it disdainfully before sighing and speaking the password. It instantly jumped aside revealing a revolving spiral staircase. Harry climbed and rode it to the top before reaching up to knock on the door. Before his hand reached the surface, he heard Dumbledore's voice call out from within for him to enter.
He pulled the door open, entered and came up short as he saw someone he did not expect to see there. Sirius Black was sitting in a chair opposite Dumbledore's desk, smiling at him. Harry's mind blanked for a second as a bit of a defense mechanism to keep him from showing his shock and discomfort with this situation. He did not, even for a moment, trust in Sirius' ability to lie to Albus Dumbledore. Sirius seemed every bit a Gryffindor, despite being a Black, and prior to his incarceration in Azkaban, he had been entirely loyal to this man, and then utterly betrayed by him. Sirius had a lot of pent up anger at the possibility that Dumbledore had intentionally left him in that hellhole to rot just so he could leave Harry to suffer with muggles. Granted the muggles had probably suffered more than Harry had in the end, but Sirius didn't know that. And generally speaking, Gryffindors were utter rubbish at containing their tempers and holding their tongues even when speaking was against their benefit.
Remus had continued to re-read any and all letters between Dumbledore and Sirius just to make sure Sirius didn't loose his cool and suddenly start making accusations or asking questions that would make Harry's dealings with the headmaster far more difficult.
Coming into Dumbledore's office to find Sirius sitting with him when it really hadn't been all that much time since he was freed from Azkaban, did not sit well with Harry and his mind was already whirling away at contingency plans if this ended up blowing up in his face and Dumbledore suddenly turned his full suspicious attention on Harry's extra curricular activities.
"Ah, Harry," Dumbledore greeted him warmly and with a familiarity that caused Harry to bristle slightly. Dumbledore had only ever called him 'Mr. Potter' before and he wondered what the motive was behind the sudden use of his first name.
"Hello, Headmaster," Harry replied evenly, forcing his face to shift to innocent curiosity and not the turbulent storm he truly felt. Harry's eyes turned back to Sirius who was now grinning even wider and Harry rose a single questioning eyebrow to the man.
"I suspect you already know who this is," Dumbledore said with a twinkle in his eye as he gestured towards Sirius.
Harry nodded his head mutely for a moment before he finally chose his words. "Yes, sir. I've seen his picture in the paper, of course. And we've been corresponding for the last few months via letters." Harry ducked his head slightly, looking a bit shy and gave Sirius a small, hesitant smile. "Hello Sirius."
Sirius' smile somehow managed to grow even wider and he stood up and walked over to stand in front of Harry.
Harry felt himself stiffen a bit, suddenly worried the man was going to bloody hug him again, but, thankfully, he didn't. He reached out and took Harry's hand in two-handed shake.
"I've got some great news, Harry," Sirius said with an excited tinge to his voice.
"News?" Harry echoed blankly.
"The approval came in today from the Ministry's Department of Magical Children's Services. They've deemed me an appropriate guardian! I got custody!"
Harry gaped. He hadn't expected this that soon. They still hadn't purchased a house yet, and he had assumed that they would insist that Sirius could prove he had a suitable house purchased and prepared first. Or at least, Dumbledore would pitch a bit of a fit about casting the wards, first.
Harry closed his mouth shut with a snap and managed focus. "So... so it's done, then? You're my guardian?" Harry asked, putting as much childish awe and relief into his voice as he could manage.
"Yes, Harry, it is done," Dumbledore said with a beaming smile. "I've been pushing to speed things along in hopes that you would be able to visit Sirius during the Easter break."
Harry gaped at Dumbledore now, and suddenly it all made sense. The 'Harry' thing, and the meeting in the Headmaster's office. The old man wanted to earn Harry's gratitude and respect from this. He wanted Harry to know that he was getting his godfather back because of Dumbledore's help.
Finally feeling settled by having understood what was going on, Harry managed to put on a mask of excited gratitude and spent a few minutes giving bashful, but gracious thanks to the Headmaster and making plans with Sirius for his godfather to come collect him at the gates of the school the following morning so they could spend the next week together until classes resumed.
Apparently Sirius had appointments scheduled for a few houses he'd been looking at and telling Harry about through their letters, and the two of them would be going house-hunting during the one-week break.
The little 'meeting' was concluded an it was suggested that Harry could walk Sirius to the main doors before going to his Defense class, and the pair left the headmaster's office. They had gotten to the Grand Staircases and down several flights of stairs before Sirius spoke again.
"You're a bloody good little actor, Harry," Sirius said with a surprising amount of pride and approval in his voice. Harry looked up at the man and blinked blankly.
"What do you mean?" he asked with innocent confusion.
Sirius just snorted.
"I was raised a Black, Harry. Doesn't matter if I ended up a Gryffindor, I know a good facade when I see one. Even I had a hard time keeping myself under control around that guy, but you... well, you played your part, perfectly." Sirius chuckled slightly, shook his head and sighed.
Harry suddenly felt his respect for Sirius go up a considerable amount and he grinned up at the man.
"Well, I do try," he said, letting a slight drawl tinge his voice. "But we shouldn't say such things around so many portraits. It's not safe. Some of them may report to Dumbledore."
Sirius looked down at Harry with a slightly surprised expression on his face before his eyes trailed to the walls filled with sleeping and chattering witches and wizards in the many, many portraits.
"You're a paranoid little bugger, aren't you?"
"It's not paranoia if people are actually out to get you," Harry pointed out with a smirk and Sirius just rolled his eyes and chuckled.
"Besides, always watching my back, questioning people's motives, and refusing to take things at face value is what led me to the conclusion that you were innocent, and to go after getting you freed," Harry pointed out, and Sirius gave him a meek, grateful, crooked grin.
"Well, in that case, I certainly can't bad-mouth it any. I owe it and you my life." Sirius came to a stop at one of the landings and Harry stopped beside him. "Thank you, Harry." Sirius said suddenly with heavy sincerity.
Harry felt a bit uncomfortable with the intensity of the man's gaze and shifted a bit, mentally insisting to himself that he was not fidgeting, because Harry only fidgeted when it was an intentional act.
Harry shrugged, and found himself annoyed that he was having difficulty meeting the man's eyes. Merlin, this was ridiculous.
"It's not a big deal, Sirius," Harry said and finally made himself look up at the man and smile blandly.
Sirius narrowed his eyes but smirked. Shit. I'm going to have to try harder around this guy than I'd expected.
The two finally turned and continued down another set of stairs, finally exiting into the main hall on the ground level and heading towards the Entrance Hall where Harry bid Sirius goodbye and said he'd have his things packed and be ready to leave by 9am.
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