A Soulless Angel

-8-

The tour of the American Potter's manor had come to an end by the time Jasper Potter returned. The floo notification gently let out a chime throughout the house, as Miranda explained. The moment the older Potter was out of the fireplace, waving his wand to banish the dust away, he smiled at Miranda, before he turned seriously towards Harry. Seeing his expression, Harry knew this wasn't going to be good; he might not know this family well enough, but because Jasper and Isaac and many of the male portraits in this manor resembled each other to a degree, Harry knew when they were serious.

"Harry, did you tell anyone you were coming to America?" Jasper asked.

"Only my mind healer, and my goblin account manager. Beyond that, no," Harry replied. He might have told Sally-Anne and her family, but they didn't count. As muggles, the Perks wouldn't know how to reach the MACUSA despite Sally-Anne's connections to the magical world. And besides, he hadn't told her when he would reach America.

But he was more worried about the question.

It made him worried Fudge had gotten stupid despite the ICW investigation, or someone else had, and they'd simply come after them. But he had not gone out of his way to tell people where he was. The only one who knew precisely where he was, was Bloodbringer. But he doubted the goblin would betray him….the goblin knew if he did, he would wish for goblin justice by the time Harry was finished with him.

"Well, Sirius Black certainly does. He's here, he arrived at MACUSA HQ half an hour ago," Jasper said.

"What?" Harry couldn't believe it, and he also couldn't help but feel the way his insides tightened. He couldn't believe this; first the revelation from the goblins, then the unexpected meeting with Granger, and now this. "What does he want?" The moment the words came out of his mouth, he wished he could suck them back inside; of course, there would only be one good reason his useless, reprobate former godfather was here now.

Black wanted him to forgive.

"He wants to see you."

Harry bit his lip, restraining the urge to snap back in return with effort. "Thanks for not bringing him here," he said sincerely. "The way I feel about him, I wouldn't want him to be near here. Did he say how he found me?"

One of the first things he had done the moment he was free, and out of Diagon Alley after his trial, was to remove all tracking charms. He hadn't wanted to be followed, stalked, and bothered.

Harry didn't know what Dumbledore might have in mind now Voldemort was dead, but Albus Dumbledore was the type of man who could not live without a conflict, without a chance to make himself the smartest person there was. But no longer; Harry didn't care for any of Dumbledore's plans, and he was not going to play a part in them. He didn't care who might find themselves a victim; he lost all interest ages ago, and now he was apathetic.

It was a game to Dumbledore, and Harry wanted no part of it any longer.

"No, and it was one of the first things he was asked; he's already caused some trouble for us," Jasper said grimly, and now Harry knew he was not going to like where this was going. "He turned up in MACUSA HQ, shouting he wanted to know where you are; he was so out of it, that he had to be stunned."

Harry flinched in disbelief, wondering how Black could be so stupid. Didn't he know anything about MACUSA, of how seriously they took attacks, especially in the No Maj world? Right now, all of his plans to use the essence transfer ritual and become a child again and living here with Jasper, Isaac, Miranda, and everyone else was becoming increasingly attractive.

Anything to get him away from people like Fudge and Black.

"Can't you just send him back to Britain?" Harry asked hopefully. The less he had to do with people like Black, the better. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Miranda's hopeful glance towards Jasper.

But Jasper shook his head. "We can, and we've thought about it, but he'd probably just come back unless we take his magical signature and log him out of our sensor nets, but if we do that, he could ensure someone like Dumbledore comes instead. If we do that, it could cause problems further down the line. You might want him out of your life, but Harry, Dumbledore is a very important figure internationally; if we stop him coming, it could cause problems in the ICW, and the president isn't going to take that for one wizard."

Harry was annoyed, but he could understand Jasper's point of view. "Could you sit in with me?" He asked with a frustrated sigh.

Jasper nodded. "I can do that."

-8-

Now that he'd been stewing in this cold interview room for the last hour, Sirius Black had only just begun to calm down. Only then did he realise he had made a tremendous mistake in not only coming by himself, but he had rushed to MACUSA the moment he had gotten the guardianship papers. He was only relieved that Dumbledore had helped use his influence to get these to him; the Ministry had been digging its heels in, and more red tape had made it harder for such a seemingly simple process possible, but he'd had to come out here because he had been impatiently waiting for weeks and weeks to finally gain custody over Harry.

But he suspected it was likely down to the fact Fudge and his administration were being investigated the guardianship papers had taken so long to be approved.

Sirius hoped and prayed that Fudge would be kicked out of office. The little bastard deserved it; not only had Fudge driven magical Britain down with his stupidity, but he had gone on a rampage the moment Sirius escaped Azkaban, bringing in the Dementors, authorising the kiss, and blaming all manner of things he couldn't handle with on Sirius's shoulders. After a while, Sirius had just ignored Fudge's stupidity even if it cropped up once in a while.

But when he had gotten the guardianship papers, Sirius was left with a massive problem. Harry Potter was nowhere to be found, and aside from a few visits to Diagon Alley and to a Mind Healer, he hadn't been seen. And so, without a plan, Sirius had gone looking in the muggle world on the off chance of spotting him, but because he didn't know the muggle world that well, he had gone abroad to America before he made a scene in the MACUSA HQ and gotten himself arrested.

To his relief, he had met Jasper Potter, one of Harry's distant relatives. Sirius had spent ten minutes telling the older man about why he was here, and asking if Harry was here, but he didn't reply.

Sirius looked up when the door opened. "Finally, I was getting bored-," he started to say when Jasper Potter walked in, but he stopped when Harry stepped into the room as well. The sight of his godson knocked the breath out of Sirius's lungs. Harry looked well, and he hadn't changed that much since they'd last laid eyes on each other weeks ago. Harry's hair was still long, and white, but he was more tanned now, muscular. His eyes were ice cold as he stared expressionlessly at Sirius, but they blazed with a quiet power which stopped Sirius from speaking.

The spell was broken when Harry took a seat, followed by Jasper Potter; movement nearby made Sirius look up and he noticed the Auror standing in the background.

"I wasn't expecting this," Harry commented.

"Harry, I-It's good to see you," Sirius stuttered.

Harry quirked a brow. "You made a real fool of yourself, I hear," he went on like Sirius hadn't even spoken, "but why are you here?"

Sirius blinked at him in surprise, he had fully expected Harry to list the things he had done in his desperation to find his godson, but he hadn't expected the boy to just quickly dive in like that.

Quietly, Sirius passed him the folder containing the guardianship papers. The Aurors here had scanned the folder before discovering it was essentially harmless.

"I came here to bring you these, Harry," Sirius said, trying to sound hopeful. "I…I knew you wanted to meet your American relatives. I thought it was a good place to look."

"Why not? Don't I have the right to meet the family that was kept from me?"

Sirius backpedalled, but fortunately, Harry was not interested in continuing the questioning. Instead, Harry took out his wand and to Sirius's shock, he scanned them.

"They're not dangerous, Harry," Sirius was aghast at how paranoid his godson had become, but later when he began drinking himself to death, he would see things from Harry's perspective.

Harry's expression was as cold as ice. "What are they?"

"They're guardianship papers. I applied after your trial, and I've been waiting ever since, and now the legal proceedings have been finalised, now all you need to do is to sign them and I'll be your legal guardian. The Dursleys will receive notice they'll never see you again," Sirius said while he tried to smile hopefully, but the glacial expression he received in return stopped him. "Harry," he went on, sounding truly pathetic now, "I can't go on. I want to adopt you. I want you to be happy, I want to see you smile again."

Sirius did his best to make it sound great and amazing, but it took a few moments before he noticed Harry's jaw begin to twist and his body tense.

"I don't want you to become my guardian," Harry replied.

-8-

Harry was stunned by the audacity. Did Black truly think for a moment that he'd agree to this? But what annoyed him the most was how heavy-handed this was.

"Harry, please-."

"No. I don't want you to be my guardian," Harry snapped. "I am perfectly happy with the way things are." He didn't dare add he had hopes that the American Potters could become his guardians, in some manner…

Black took a deep breath and tried to control himself. "Harry, I've waited to become your guardian for years-."

"You had years to become my guardian," Harry pointed out before he shook his head. "You had years. You spent a decade in Azkaban, wallowing in the filth, exposed to the Dementors when you could have used your Animagus to escape your cell at any time. But you didn't. The only reason you came out was because you saw Pettigrew's animagus form, recognised him, and then escaped. Anything could have happened to me while you were in that cell."

"Harry-."

"I could have died because of the Dursleys, Dumbledore's little schemes be damned. The Dursleys wouldn't have cared one little bit, and then what would have done?" Harry shook his head, gazing coldly at Sirius. "I never trusted you, and I was always sceptical about you. I couldn't believe it when I found out about you, but I decided to give you a chance. Do you want to know why? It was because I'd hoped you could take me in, let me forget my past, and help me move forward. Do you think I like living this way, my mind stuffed full of the Dursley's poison? I hate it. I hate the life that I've led, and how its turned out. Believe me, I do. But when I came to you, I'd hoped I would have someone in my corner…and you blew it." A hard glare on Harry's appeared. "What makes you think I want you to have another chance?"

"Harry, please," Sirius begged.

Harry took the guardianship papers, and without a thought or a word, he tore them up slowly, sadistically enjoying the look of anguish on his former godfather's face. "My parents were stupid; they should never have made you a godfather," he concluded over the howls of pain from Black.

Coldly, Harry stood up and walked out, followed by Jasper Potter.

"That was very cold, Harry," Jasper commented.

"I know," Harry replied, "but he isn't godfather material, and he just left me to be abused. He only came out of prison because of Peter Pettigrew; beyond that, he couldn't have cared less."

Jasper heard the genuine sadness in Harry's voice, and it did hurt him a lot to hear it.