Chapter 5
31st of May 1989
Harry was laying on the bed as had been told and waited while the goblins discussed the ritual. They were thinking would it be safe for him to do that yet since it would take a lot of energy out of him.
“We have decided that we are going to break the other block on your magic before we attempt the removal of the horcrux. Then you will have more magic at your disposal and you will be able to fight it better”, Galena said after fifteen minutes had passed.
“We will get you ready for that if you are ready. You will pass out and it will take the rest of the day and the next night for you to recover.”
“I’m ready”, Harry said after a while.
“Stand up and go change to these clothes behind that curtain”, Galena said pointing at the curtain on his left. “After you are done, come here and lay back on the bed.”
Harry did as was told and was back in a minute. He laid dutifully on the bed and closed his eyes and waited for directions.
“You will need to be as quiet as you can.”
“When you feel a pressure on your navel try to push the pressure out of your body.”
“That way it doesn’t hurt as much and it will be over faster.”
After Harry had nodded his understanding, the goblins took their places and started the ritual. They chanted and changed the rhythm between the lines making it go faster and faster.
Harry felt the pressure building on his navel and started to push it out as instructed. He was in pain but tried to not make any noises. He was able to do that since beatings from Vernon were usually more painful than this and if you made a noise it would only get worse.
The pain was getting worse. Harry was feeling like passing out while still trying to push the pressure out of his body. After twelve minutes he passed out. The ritual as a whole took only fifteen minutes.
When the ritual ended, the goblins changed Harry’s clothes for more comfortable ones to sleep in. They put water and some light food on the bedside table in case he woke up earlier than they expected. It wouldn’t have surprised the goblins since people normally last only 7 minutes maximum with that ritual and nobody so young had ever been able to last more than 2 minutes before.
-
Harry woke up and looked around.
The ward was dark and empty but on the bedside table were water and food waiting in a stasis charm for him. He took the water glass and drank it in one go. He placed it back and it filled again. This time he took only a few ships. He ate as much as he could without feeling nauseous.
Harry was still feeling really tired and feeling really sore. He couldn’t keep himself awake and fell back asleep.
When he woke up again there were voices to be heard and the lights were on. He heard the familiar voice of Mister Davis asking about him.
“He will be able to leave when he wakes up. We couldn’t remove the horcrux yet since he had too little energy but we removed the other block on his magic. He should be ready for the horcrux removal in two days”, Galena answered.
Harry decided that he should make himself known and groaned a little. And as expected Galena came straight to him.
“How are you feeling? I noticed that you had eaten some of the food and drank some water during the night. Do you know when you woke up?”
“I’m feeling fine. Maybe a little bit sore but fine. I don’t know when I woke up but everything was dark and nobody was here at the time.”
“Can you stand up?” Galena asked next.
“I think so”, Harry said. He pulled himself to a sitting position and tried to stand up. The first attempt didn’t work but he got himself up with the second attempt. He just stood there for a while getting used to his new magic levels.
Galena looked impressed and told as much. “Nobody has ever been able to stand so fast after a ritual like this”
“I’m used to being in pain and up so this is nothing for me.”
That was the time that they remembered again where the boy was coming from.
“You should take this potion. It will help you get used to having more magic available.”
Harry took the potion and felt most of the tension leaving his body.
“There is someone we would like you to meet, Harry”, said Davis. “Her name is Andromeda Tonks neé Black and is one of the cousins of Sirius. She has a husband Ted Tonks, who is muggleborn, and a daughter Nympphadora who is sixteen and will graduate in two years from Hogwarts.”
“You will have time to get to know her a little bit before you can leave Gringotts. If you aren’t comfortable with her we can find someone else for you to go live with. Her sister Narcissa Malfoy neé Black has volunteered to help Andromeda with your education.”
“There are also other members of the House of Black but they are a bit older than Andromeda and Narcissa. They have all sworn to you with their blood. They will do their best to educate and be a family to you. They will be with you all the way and as long as you need them.”
“They know of you being the next king and have sworn their obedience for the house of Reynes. Since they are your blood family, they will be the closest to you and the throne. When you take your title, you can appoint them to the positions you want.”
“Oh, they are also planning what would be the best way to get Sirius out of Azkaban so you don’t need to use your Reynes title yet.”
“But enough of that. Are you ready to go with me? We are going to eat before meeting with her.”
“I’m ready to go”, Harry said while thinking about all that had been told. He was happy that Sirius wouldn’t need to stay in the prison and he didn’t need to use his title yet while risking somebody finding him because of it. And Dumbledore wasn’t aware of him so they could act when they were ready and make sure that Dumbledore wouldn’t have time to intervene with the trial of Sirius.
-
Harry and Noah were sitting in a smaller room instead of the office of Ragnok. The Blacks had another meeting there right now about how to get Sirius out so that it was a waterproof case and wouldn’t get any of them killed by Dumbledore or his lackeys.
They were chatting quietly while waiting for Andromeda to show up. She was in the meeting but promised to leave early, trusting the others to get things done.
The door opened and a woman stepped in. She was tall and had dark brown slightly curly hair with light blue eyes that were the typical Black eyes with grey ones. Also the dark hair was usual. Narcissa was the first with blond hair in centuries.
She had normal looking ropes and a friendly smile on her face. Her eyes twinkled with mirth and a little bit of mischievousness.
“Hello! You must be Harry. It's nice to meet you. I just hope the reason would be happier”, she said.
“Yeah I'm. It's nice to meet you too.”
“I'm going to sit on the other side of the room so you can get to know each other in peace”, Davis said and got two nods, showing their understanding. He moved and took a pile of parchment from his satchel.
“I can start and tell you a little bit about myself and my family.”
“My name is Andromeda Tonks. I was born in 1954 and I'm 35 years old. I was in my seventh year of school when your parents were on their first. I have a husband called Ted Tonks and we have a daughter called Nymphadora. She is starting his sixth year of school in September.
I'm bad at cooking but I love baking. Ted is the one who cooks in our household. I work as a healer in St. Mungo's and Ted is a lawyer and works both in the muggle and magical world.
Nymphadora has an ability called metamorphmagus and she can change her appearance. She likes to keep her hair pink or purple. Sometimes it changes when she is having strong emotions. She is really clumsy but I think it's because she likes to change her height all the time.
I have two sisters and I am the middle one. My older sister's name is Bellatrix Lestrange and she went crazy. The craziness is something to do with our blood. Nobody has found a cure for it yet and she is in Azkaban sitting for life. Her husband is there too. She and her husband were followers of Voldemort. Her husband’s name is Rodolphus.
The other sister is Narcissa Malfoy. She is the only blond in our family. She has a son called Draco who is the same age as you. Her husband's name is Lucius. Lucius was also a follower of Voldemort but his father made him do it. When he died, Lucius was already in too deep to back off.
Ted and I met at school. I was in Slytherin and he was in Hufflepuff. Our Nymphadora is in Hufflepuff too and it suits her the best. She is caring and too honest at moments. She wants to be an auror when she grows up. Auror is a magical police.”
Harry listened the entire time intently, wanting to know as much as possible.
“Well, I'm currently Harry James Potter and soon nine years old. I had to do almost everything at the Dursleys' but I really liked baking and cooking. Gardening was good too if it wasn't too hot. Cleaning was the worst thing.
I like to read and I used to go to the library to escape Dudley and his gang since they never set foot there.”
Harry noticed the frown at the gang and Harry explained: “Dudley and his friends tried to beat me as often as possible. I'm really fast and I have quick reflexes so they couldn't beat me that often. Only when I was really tired or didn't pay enough attention to my surroundings.
Art classes were my favourite ones and the teacher there was strict. Nobody could bully me there. Everyone was scared of Dudley and I didn't have any friends at school. The library there was my favourite place.”
Andromeda listened to the information calmly while she was seething inside for the cruel things done to the young boy. She didn't know how he could talk about the things so calmly and openly since many people in the same situation would tell as little as possible.
“By the way, you look so much alike with Bellatrix.” Harry said, making Andromeda look at the boy weirdly. How could he know since he had never even seen a picture of Bellatrix.
“Have you seen my Inheritance test results as a whole?” Harry asked, knowing Andromeda was wondering how he knew.
“I haven't. Goblins are really strict with those and won't show them to anyone without your written consent which is approved by your magic making it impossible to copy.”
“Davis, do you have my copy of the Inheritance test?” Harry asked the man.
“Yes I have it in my satchel. Do you need it?”
“Yes please.”
It took a while to find it but finally he gave it to Harry. Harry handed it to Andromeda who took it.
She read it fast and her eyes widened and she looked up at the boy sitting calmly in front of her, on the opposite side of the table.
“What do you know about this Master of Death thing?” She asked. “Can you do something that others don't?”
“I can sometimes hear him in my head. He sometimes shows me pictures. At first it was only dreams but after I came here and the goblins removed my magical blocks, the connection has gotten stronger. I can sometimes even smell things from the pictures and the pictures are clearer.”
“When you talked, I got pictures of all the people who you talked to me about. I even got a small video of how the metamorphmagus ability works.”
“Not all of the pictures and information come from Lord Death. Some of it comes from Lady Life. Sometimes I just get a feeling and nothing more. It's a bit hard to explain. Sometimes even I don’t know what they mean.”
Andromeda only stared at Harry. This explained so much of the boy and the way he knew what Bellatrix looked like. Also how he didn't ask more questions since he got information from Death and Life themselves. That could also explain the indifference of his memories. If you have Death and Life in your head, they could probably help you get over things and help with them.
He got his maturity from having needed to grow up fast because of the abuse. His enormous vocabulary probably came from reading a lot and good manners helped to avoid getting shouted at. But the boy was so much more than any of them had anticipated. But taking that into account, he would be able to learn all the things needed, in time.
“Do you want to know more about me and my family?” Andromeda asked.
“Yes, if you want to tell me.”
“Of course I want to. You are hopefully going to be part of our family and live with us”, Andromeda said and continued telling Harry about their family and what they did during their free time and their favourite things.
-
In the other meeting things were going a bit differently. They were in a heated argument, how to break Sirius free. Cedrella wanted him out as soon as possible but Arcturus wanted to make anything as sure as they possibly could before doing anything.
“How can we make sure that Dumbledore doesn’t stick his nose in this?” Lucretia asked.
“I think we should ask the boy what he thinks. He has really good ideas and a different outlook of things”, Silverclaw suggested.
“I think that’s actually a good idea”, Ragnok said and told Griphook to go fetch Harry, Andromeda and Noah.
Soon Griphook came into the room. Behind him were Andromeda, Noah and a young boy nobody of the other Blacks had ever seen. He looked much younger and smaller than Draco did even though they were the same age.
The young boy bowed and said: “Well met ladies and gentleman.”
Everyone looked slightly confused at how good manners the boy had.
“Why were we told to come here? Do you have problems coming up with a solution?” Davis asked after introductions were made.
“We aren’t sure what to use as a distraction for Dumbledore to make him stay out of our business”, Narcissa said.
“Why don’t we use me?” Harry asked. He found himself looking at stunned faces. “We could make the golem as planned, change my blood so they can’t track me, drop the golem somewhere and make the Dursleys tell Dumbledore that I had disappeared during the night.”
“He will be too busy looking for you that he won’t have time to look too closely for what we are doing. That kid is a genius!” Arcturus exclaimed.
That was an unexpected compliment and everyone was surprised. Nobody had ever heard Arcturus compliment anyone before.
Everyone thought the plan was really good and they decided to go with it.
The Blacks started to dig up laws and ways to get the information to Amelia Bones since she was known to be objective with her cases.
“We should get Ted on this since he is a valued lawyer. He could be a lawyer for Sirius”, Andromeda said. She got everyone’s approval and went to send him a message.
Since everything was now on track, Silverclaw left with Harry to take his samples for the golem.