Sirius Black III
She was a hag. An old, wrinkly and utterly mad hag. He wondered when she would die, it would hopefully be soon. Else he might bury her himself in the spot behind the house that he’d picked out.
It was a very ugly spot.
It suited her perfectly.
“Stop it”
Sirius looked at the man who had spoken.
Remus Lupin sat on the other side of the dining table, reading the Daily Prophet. A paper that should have been more accurately named the Daily Nonsense.
“Stop what?” Sirius asked with a scowl. Remus Lupin didn’t even lift his eyes from the paper.
“Stop planning a murder, it’s disturbing”
Sirius harrumphed.
“I wasn’t” he denied with a roll of his eyes.
Remus Lupin snorted at the blatant lie. “Oh please, a blind person could see your thoughts”
The grey eyed man looked at his lover incredulously. “That doesn’t even make sense” He exclaimed while blinking.
Remus shrugged and changed page.
“I’m going to Diagon” Sirius grumbled before standing up to leave, he could hear Remus chuckle as he made his way to the fireplace. He couldn’t understand how the other man could be so accepting of the old witch. She had taken over their house all while corrupting their charge.
Cassiopeia Black had wandered into their house back in November like she owned the place and had for the last five months wrought so much pain upon Sirius, that the animagus felt him missing the company of the dementors. His great-aunt was the epitome of evil. He had always despised her, and it seemed that her foulness had only worsened with age. Her three days at the house was three days that Sirius had learned to spend elsewhere, he let Remus - the poor bastard – face her instead.
The leaky cauldron was the same as always, it was practically empty this early in the morning.
“Well met Tom” Sirius said with a smile, the old barkeeper answered with a smile of his own.
“Well met Mr. Black, the usual?”
“You know it” Sirius answered and sat down by one of the smaller tables. It didn’t take long before Tom brought him one of those heavenly toasts and a cup of earl grey. Sirius watched his surroundings as he ate, some people entered the establishment to get to Diagon alley while others stayed for some breakfast as well.
“Good morning, Sirius”
Sirius stilled at the familiar voice, it belonged to a person he had managed to stay away from ever since his release from Azkaban.
It seemed that his lucky streak was over.
He looked up and was meet by the twinkling eyes of his old headmaster. The defeater of Grindelwald looked much the same as he did when Sirius first saw him in the great hall at the age of eleven.
“Dumbledore”
They man didn’t seem perturbed by the other man’s hostile tone. He instead took a seat by the young wizard’s table. Sirius could feel privacy wards flare up as the old man flicked his wand. He opted to not say anything as he took a sip from his tea and fortified his occlumency walls. He and Remus had started practicing the old art ever since discussing the headmaster’s intentions. He was happy to say that his otherwise atrocious shields had improved massively with the help of Remus. His friend had one of the most impressive minds that Sirius knew off, he had tried to convince the werewolf to try for at least one mastery, but the werewolf had refused for reasons unknown by Sirius.
“I’ve tried to get in contact with you” The bearded man said with a friendly smile.
No kidding, Sirius thought.
He had personally warded the property to disintegrate any missive from the old man.
The animagus kept quiet, having no interest to converse with the manipulating old coot.
“There are things of great importance that we must speak about, would you mind coming to Hogwarts with me. Where we can speak without risking interference”
Sirius snorted and laughed out loud.
“I’m not going anywhere with you, old man” Sirius sneered.
Albus Dumbledore sighed in what could be described as disappointment.
“It is about the wellbeing of young Harry. Putting aside old grievances would be in his best interest, don’t you think so my boy?”
Sirius practically growled at the man. “Harry’s wellbeing is none of your concern”
It was a second later that he could detect a light probing at his walls. “Try using legilimency one more time, I dare you” Sirius said haughtily while drawing his wand. Making his intentions clear.
“Please Sirius, I implore you to listen” Dumbledore said with a sad look on his face. Ignoring the fact that he was caught red-handed doing so something very illegal.
The animagus raised an eyebrow. “State your piece and begone, I have other things to attend to”
The old man looked hesitant for a second before nodding slowly.
“What do you know about the night when Voldemort attacked?”
Sirius blinked in confusion and frowned. “As I said, state your piece”
There was a long pause between the two men.
“Lily sacrificed her own life out of love to protect the boy, this ensured that the curse rebounded and thus enabling Harry’s survival. But I do not believe that Voldemort is truly gone, and I am afraid that he will return one day and seek vengeance upon the boy”
The grey-eyed man gaped at the old man’s words. His blood went cold as he considered the implications the man’s suspicions wrought. He felt doubt at the fact that the lunatic wasn’t dead, but he knew that immortality wasn’t an impossible feat to achieve. There were many books in the Black library on how one could manipulate your own mortality with the help of the dark arts, assuming that the latest Dark lord had used one of those wasn’t that far-fetched.
“Lily’s love granted Harry a protection, a protection of love that he can’t afford to lose”
Sirius frowned at this, what was the man playing at? Saying that Lily somehow loved Harry enough to protect him from the killing curse sounded very likely, the woman had loved her son tremendously. But so did many other parents, dying for your child didn’t grant said child any protections.
He did however suspect that the red-headed woman had prepared some kind of sacrificial ritual in a desperate attempt to protect her son if needed.
Sirius was actually pretty sure that the brilliant witch had created her own ritual, the Black’s had all books there was on rituals and he hadn’t been able to find anyone that could have stood in the way of the otherwise infallible killing curse.
“You do agree with me on that my boy? That the protection is important?”
Sirius narrowed his eyes at him. “If what you say is true, then a protection like that would indeed be valuable”. He had to hold his tongue from snapping at the old man for calling him his boy.
Dumbledore nodded and he looked almost hopeful.
“I’m happy that you think that. I came to the same conclusion” The man paused before continuing. “Which was why I placed Harry with his aunt. The protection is based on Lily’s blood. Petunia’s blood would have kept the protection strong, and Harry would have been safe”
The younger man looked at Dumbledore incredulously. What was the man talking about?
“What are you trying to say Dumbledore?”
Albus dumbledore sighed and gave his former student a sad smile.
“I hope you understand now why he must return to his aunt’s care; it is for his own safety that he needs to remain under her roof. It is in the boy’s best interests”
Sirius felt impossibly cold. He couldn’t properly describe the feeling of disbelief and anger that erupted at the bearded fool’s words. This man had the guts to proclaim that Harry needed to return to people who abused him. And he said this all while claiming it to be in his godson’s best interests and safety.
“I’ve heard enough” Sirius said coldly, he wouldn’t hear more of it. He was afraid that he would curse the old man if he had to endure more of this nonsense.
“Please my boy, I implore you to think this through. You cannot act rashly! His safety is what’s most important, I insist that you consider the matter. It’s not yet too late to let the wards be built. You must do what’s best for Harry”
Sirius sneered at the delusional man.
“You are a presumptuous bastard Albus Dumbledore to come here and insist anything regarding my godson. He’s never going anywhere near those filthy creatures. You preach about keeping him safe, but where was that safety when he laid beaten and starved in a fucking, cupboard under the stairs”
The grey-eyed man stood up and aggressively broke through the privacy wards in an impressive showcase of wandless magic.
“My boy, you cannot ignore what I’ve told you”
Sirius eyes flashed in rage. The fool didn’t know when to stop.
The former Black heir spit the old man in the face. The headmaster’s blue eyes stopped twinkling at the action and the old man had to use his sleeve to dry the spit that ran down his cheek.
Harry’s godfather looked haughtily down at the man before he uttered some last words.
“Fuck you”