Chapter 6
Harry was still running the halls of Hogwarts looking for his father when he remembered the map; he took it out, activated it and saw that his father was in the Transfiguration classroom, quickly deactivating the map Harry ran to the classroom. James was in his office writing lesson plans when ‘FATHER, FATHER!’ James jumped, grabbed his wand and ran out to the classroom ‘Harry, what’s the matter?’ Harry looked at his father ‘is it true?’ James looked at him confused ‘is what true?’ Harry sighed again ‘is it true that we are a dark family?’ James stared at Harry opened mouth ‘where did you hear that from?’ Harry looked down ‘everyone was saying the Black family was the darkest family in the Wizarding World, so is that what we are?’ James was shocked to hear what people were telling Harry about the Black family ‘come sit down son’ Harry followed his father and sat down ‘now listen to me’ Harry nodded ‘back when I was in school, yes it was true that the Black family was a dark family, they believed in what Voldemort proposed and my mum did warn me to keep away from them, but then I met a boy on the train, who looked lonely and finding out he was the heir to the Black family shocked me but I realised that he was different from the moment we spoke, so I stayed friends with him’ Harry looked to his dad ‘but why was dad lonely?’ James smiled gently at his son ‘I’m about to tell you, when Sirius joined Gryffindor, yes that was a big scandal and let me tell you son, Sirius had to deal with the consequences; howlers from his parents nearly every day, ambushes and attacks from Slytherins and he was ignored by a lot of people in Gryffindor, but me, Remus and the rat stayed friends with him’ Harry smiled gently at his father.
‘As time went on, everyone was already used to Sirius being in Gryffindor considering that we played pranks on the school and acted pretty arrogant at the time’ Harry laughed at what his dad said ‘but every time we went home for the holidays Sirius always came over to my house or if he didn’t he acted different when we met up again at Hogwarts, it wasn’t until after 5th year when Sirius showed up one night bloodied and bruised’ Harry gasped remembering his dad saying the same thing in his story from the other night ‘What happened to him?’ James smiled sadly at his son ‘his parents hated that he wasn’t acting like the proper Black Heir and decided to let him know, Sirius told me that; they called him all sorts of names, they beat him, made him torture himself using the Imperius Curse, shot dark spells at him, starved him and kept him locked down in the basement every time he went home for the holidays’ Harry stared at his father in horror ‘it was at that time that me and my parents found out that the night he ran away, Sirius’ parents tried to force him to take the dark mark from Voldemort himself’ Harry gasped not able to keep in the shock ‘but dad didn’t become a Death Eater’ James nodded ‘no he didn’t, he said no to Voldemort’s face, his parents had grabbed him and forced him towards Voldemort, but Sirius shot a spell at both Voldemort and his parents and ran for it’ Harry stared shocked at his father’s words ‘his parents and Voldemort threw the Cruciatus Curse at him’ Harry looked at his father in more horror knowing exactly what that curse did to someone ‘that’s why Sirius wanted to be different because he didn’t believe in what Voldemort or his family believed in, so when we married Sirius did everything he could to make sure that he was never like his family and that the family name of Black changed so that nobody could say that the Black family was dark ever again, and can you imagine the fact that when he was in Azkaban he had to relive everything that he went through at home over and over again’.
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Harry stared at his father for a while not believing what his dad had been through ‘father, when you say that dad’s parents made him torture himself, what did you mean?’ James stared at his son sadly ‘are you sure you want to hear this?’ Harry nodded ‘okay, when he came to us that night, my mum was a healer so she could heal him, when we took off his shirt, there were cuts from the dark spells that his parents shot at him, bruises, there were whip marks and slashes from knives on his back and chest (Harry once again gasped) burn marks all over his body, but on his arms were carvings of words such as Blood Traitor, Weak, Trash, Useless, Freak, Mistake and it was these that his parents forced him to do himself, we also found out that they kept him locked in their basement, sometimes going days without food’ Harry eyes were wide by the time his father told him what his dad went through ‘and these marks are they still there on his body even the words?’
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James nodded sadly at his son and could see tears gathering up in his son’s eyes ‘listen to me, you are Harry James Sirius Potter-Black the proud son of James and Sirius Potter-Black, never be ashamed of who you are’, Harry nodded to his father, James looked to the watch on his wrist, he looked to his son again ‘dinnertime’ Harry just nodded and followed his father to the Great Hall in a daze, as he sat down his friends looked at him in concern ‘Harry, you okay?’ Harry looked to his friends ‘I have only one thing to say to you all’ his friends and others in close range listened to what he had to say ‘nobody is to say anything bad against my dad ever again or you’ll regret it’ finally showing everyone the famous Black temper, and with that he stood up, he looked to the staff table, noticing that his dad wasn’t there and took off running out the hall with everyone looking in concern after him especially his father and Remus.
Harry ran through the halls the second time that day but this time looking for his dad, when he reached the tapestry to the Founders’ tower, Harry muttered ‘the Heirs have come home’ the tapestry split apart and Harry ran in to the common room ‘Hello Harry’ Harry looked up to see Salazar smiling at him ‘hello Grandpa, have you seen my dad?’ Salazar smiled ‘yes, he’s in his room’ Harry smiled ‘thanks’ and walked down the hall and stopped outside his parents’ room, he looked at the door before quietly opening it, their room was huge and when he looked around, he saw his dad looking in the mirror, shirtless and Harry could see the fainted scars of the whip marks, knife marks and the scars from the burns, Harry looked closely at his dad’s arms and saw the words still as clear as day, he felt tears gathered up in his eyes, he decided that he didn’t care what his dad thought, he ran in to the room straight to his dad and hugged him as tight as he could, never wanting to let him go.
Sirius was in his room not wanting to go down to dinner, he stared around the room, thinking about everything that had happened, he thought back to when he was in school, he slowly stood up and took off his shirt and stared at himself in the mirror, staring back at him were the scars of his past, as Sirius thought about his past; bringing back unpleasant memories, he was startled out of his thoughts by a force, that grabbed him and held him tight, he stared at his reflection, seeing the reflection of his son hugging tightly and crying, Sirius quickly turned around and hugged his son ‘Harry, what’s happened? Are you hurt?’ Harry shook his head ‘I’m sorry about what you had to go through when you were younger and to think you’ve had those memories replaying in your head at Azkaban’ Sirius stared at his son in shock, then thought of James, knowing he told Harry about his childhood ‘Harry it’s okay, I’m okay now’ Harry let go of his dad and started stroking the carving on his arms ‘do they hurt?’ Sirius smiled gently at his son ‘only the memories’ Harry nodded again ‘I’m going to make sure you’re never hurt ever again’ Sirius laughed gently ‘are you now? well then I’m going to make sure that nothing ever happens to you or James either’ Harry smiled and watched as his dad put on his shirt ‘now let’s go down and get some food’ Harry nodded and together they walked out of the room, and headed towards the Great Hall, with Harry never letting go of Sirius once.
James was only half-paying attention to what Flitwick was saying, worried about his son ‘James, are you okay?’ Flitwick asked, James turned back to the small professor ‘yes, just worried about Harry, I told him something that really upset him’ Flitwick nodded, while out of the corner of his eyes he could see the concerned looks of Remus, Andi, Ted and Minevra ‘I’m sure he’s okay James’ Remus said gently, James nodded ‘yes, but now I’m wondering if what I told him was the wrong thing to tell him’ Andi looked at her cousin-in-law ‘what did you tell him?’ James looked to Andi and opened his mouth to reply, when he saw Sirius enter the Great Hall with Harry clutching his robes tightly he could see that Sirius had one arm around Harry’s shoulder, the other professors also looked and could see the red eyes of the young Potter-Black and how he was clutching his dad.
Hermione was looking constantly at the doors of the Great Hall ‘I hope Harry’s okay’ Neville smiled ‘I’m sure he is Hermione’ Angela Johnson was also looking at the doors ‘what do you think that was all about with Harry earlier?’ Hermione shrugged her shoulders ‘I don’t know’ Fred popped his head in to the conversation ‘well here’s Harry now’ Hermione, Neville and Angela looked to the doors to see Harry clutching tightly to Sirius Black while the elder had his arm around his shoulder ‘look Harry’s been crying’ Katie who had been listening said quietly, they all looked to see that Harry’s eyes were red ‘wonder why he was crying?’ Katie whispered again, Hermione watched as Sirius muttered something to Harry, who had at first looked to Sirius in fright and shook his head before Sirius said something else and Harry nodded and made his way back towards them but continued to look back at Sirius as the elder made his way towards the staff table and sat down next to James and smiled gently almost sadly to him in Hermione’s opinion.
Sirius walked towards the staff table and sat down beside James ‘everything okay Padfoot?’ Remus asked his best friend in concern after seeing Harry ‘yeah, just had to explain a few things to Harry’ Sirius turned to James and smiled gently at him ‘why did you tell Harry?’ James looked around staff table ‘tell you later’ Sirius nodded and starting eating his food, while he looked to the Gryffindor table to see his son eating with a sad smile to his face and Sirius vowed to never see another sad smile from Harry again. Harry didn’t have much of his appetite anymore still thinking about what his father told him about his dad and remembering the scars all, over his dad’s body, Harry slowly ate his meal and could feel the concerned looks coming from his housemates ‘guys, I’m fine’ Harry muttered ‘but Harry you’re not’ Hermione protested, Harry looked towards her in anger ‘just drop it Hermione, must you know everything’ and stood up, the Gryffindors looked shocked at the burst of temper from Harry and watched as he walked towards the staff table. Harry made is way towards his parents but mostly looking at his dad as he talked to his Uncle Ted about something, as he drew nearer he caught Sirius’ eyes and Sirius paused the conversation as Harry came nearer.
‘So I’ve thought about adding in the new materials for Muggle Studies that are up to date’ Sirius nodded at Ted ‘good idea, that way the Purebloods are taught the proper ways of Muggles’ as Sirius looked up from his conversation with Ted he saw Harry walking towards him, he waited until Harry was in front of him ‘Harry, everything okay?’ he asked gently, he watched as tears gathered in his son’s eyes before his arms were full of Harry who was hugging his neck tightly and burying his face in to his neck, Sirius knew that Harry still wasn’t over what he found out and sat Harry upon his lap and stroked the back of his hair, he turned his concerned eyes to James, Remus, Andi and Minevra who all looked at Harry in concern while James was also sporting a guilty look, Sirius shook his head in way to tell James that it wasn't his fault and could feel his shirt getting wet and just sat content in holding his son until he stopped crying.
The Gryffindors watched as Harry stopped in front of Sirius before he flung himself at him hugging his neck tightly, they watched as Sirius set Harry comfortably on his lap and stroke his hair in a loving manner before exchanging concerned looks with the other professors, Hermione and Neville were even more concerned about Harry now as he just kept hugging his dad ‘something terrible must of happened’ Fred spoke everyone’s thoughts ‘but what?’ Lee Jordan asked, Hermione shook her head ‘it’s none of our business unless Harry shares it with us’ others nodded in agreement, Hermione turned to see most of the hall had fallen silent and turned to see Sirius Black standing up with Harry clutching his robes tightly and tear stains running down his face as they walked down the aisles of tables and out the Great Hall with everyone thinking one thing ‘where are they going?’