Friend Since Birth

Sirius was never more ready to kill that damn rat than he was right now. As he rushed down the halls of the Goblin Nation, arms full of groaning godson, he fought the need to hand Harry off to one of the Weasleys following him and make sure he didn’t miss this time… He had no idea where the little shit was but he had a feeling if he asked the one of the goblins leading him, they’d be more than willing to sell him the information. At this point, he was almost willing to pay the most likely exorbitant price.

No one hurt his pup like this. No one.

And Peter fucking Pettigrew had cost him the chance to prevent it entirely.

It was nothing compared to the hatred he had for a blonde whale.

The only reason that waste of breath Dursley was still alive was that the Weasley twins had been there too. And they’d helpfully pointed out that Harry needed him and they needed to get him to a healer fast.

Stupid fucking logic. And from a pair of renown pranksters of all places.

A snarl rippled through the halls but the goblin leading him simply gave him a bland look before ushering the rushing group to the healing hall. Sirius took a deep breath to regain his composure at the subtle chastisement. Goblins were not known to put up with hysteric wizards and he knew if he pissed them off, they’d refuse to help, no matter the amount of Galleons he offered.

“May your gold be ever flowing,” he muttered to the healers gently in Gobbledegook.

He snickered at the exclamations of the twins behind him. But the goblins in front of him looked at him in curiosity.

“Rare that a wizard is gifted with the knowledge of the language of the Goblins,” his escort said in the same language. Sirius knew it was a test to see if he knew more than just the most basic of greetings. “Why did you not utilize it when entering these halls?”

“Respect is shown in private, where listening ears can’t discern alliances,” he said, smirking when the goblins grinned evilly. It was one of the only lessons from his family he intended to acknowledge.

“Ah!”

The shocked screech startled the gathered people and Sirius winced when he saw it was the lady goblin he knew to be the head healer. She’d sounded similar when he’d come in after he’d reached his majority, covered in scars and a fresh beating courtesy of his father.

“What have you done to the boy?” she demanded in English.

“Rescued him from some soon to be blood smeers,” he snarled, shifting Harry as gently as he could to relieve the pressure on his shoulders. The boy was far too underweight, but he was still heavy and Sirius himself was still recovering slightly from 12 years in a living nightmare.

She studied him intently for all of a few seconds before she was bustling them to a nearby private room, the twins following closely but still silent. From his understanding, that was unusual and he was starting to get concerned. Harry had always railed that the pair were breathing energy and noise so when they were quiet, that was when things tended to get interesting around the pair. But he would have to deal with that later. For now, he had some rather pressing issues to deal with, starting with a visit to his account manager, now that the healer was practically stealing his burden from him.

“Set him down, Lord Black, so we may begin!” the head healer demanded, glaring up at him.

He startled out of his thoughts and did as he was told, easing Harry as gently as he could to the soft bed.

A growl escaped when the boy whimpered as the movement caused his broken arm to twist slightly.

“Not now,” one of the twins said gently, overcoming their shock enough to put a hesitant hand on Sirius’ arm.

He’d give it to the pair, they were brave touching him. Most wouldn’t. Especially if they knew of his Animagus. Grims weren’t exactly known to be a real species, but low and behold, he was one. And they’d discovered pretty quickly that it was larger than most common species of dog. And stronger. But it was still to be determined if he was poisonous. All of that aside, he was a Black. A Black that was still known by the wider wizarding world as a mass murderer and insane Azkaban escapee. So that this redhead was willingly trying to restrain him from going on a killing spree said a lot of his courage.

“Bloody Gryffindor…” he muttered but allowed the twin to guide him a bit back from the bed to give the goblins space to work.

“You were one too, mate,” the other twin pointed out, taking up position on his other side and grabbing his other arm just in case.

“To spite my parents, not because I actually felt I should be there,” he admitted for the first time to someone other than the Marauders. He actually had no idea why he’d just said that.

“Doesn’t matter,” the first twin said. “You were there, you’re a lion.”

“Still makes no fucking sense,” he muttered. “Gryffindor, griffin, no clue where the fuck the lion came in,” he muttered.

The twins laughed but allowed him to keep sulking after that. He would really have to figure out which twin went with which scent. They were grudgingly growing on him and the fact that they hadn’t hexed him on sight meant Harry had probably told them he was innocent. Since the rat had gotten away, he was still in hiding and it was sheer dumb luck he’d decided to chance a meeting with his godson. Hedwig had only delivered his intentions to Harry yesterday.

His thoughts were interrupted when the healer growled in outrage. He could see she’d cast a diagnostic spell, as was typical when starting treatment, but the parchment it had produced was long. Far longer than it should be for a typical kid. Even discounting the trials his pup had faced in the last four years of school. His own growl reverberated in the room and it was only the pair of hands at his elbows suddenly becoming vices that kept him from leaping to the bed, shifting, and curling around his pup to protect him from anything and everything.

“You said you had plans for these abominations, Lord Black?” the healer demanded as they got to work.

“Yes,” he snarled, mind already whirling with possibilities for retribution.

He couldn’t just charge after them, like he had with the rat. He was impulsive, but he’d learned his lesson on that front. That didn’t mean they wouldn’t suffer, though. And from the frankly terrifying grins on the faces on either side of him, he knew he wouldn’t be alone in his efforts. And then he’d bury them in the justice system. It wouldn’t be as satisfying as sinking his fangs into their throats, but it would keep him at Harry’s side. And that was the most important thing right now.

The best revenge would be when he showed them how happy Harry could be.

“Should you be in need of assistance, the goblin clan of Ragnok is at your disposal,” she snarled, grinning viciously. He grinned back, giving the healer the traditional sign of thanks by fisting his hand over his heart and bowing slightly.

“Isn’t that the head of Gringotts?” one of the twins whispered behind him.

“That would be my mate. He will support me in this,” the healer muttered when she returned her attention to Harry.

Magic swirled around him, the golden glow of goblin magic emanating from her short wand.

“Thought goblins were forbidden from owning wands,” one of the twins said. But Sirius could tell he wasn’t angry or about to run to Aurors to report the problem. He simply sounded curious, and that was all that was needed. No prejudice or fear. He was really starting to like these two.

It was, after all, why the goblins had taken a liking to himself. Shocked the hell out of them when he’d presented himself to them the first time. A Black with respect and unprejudiced curiosity? He’d horrified his parents, which made it that much better.

“In the wizarding world, yes,” Sirius explained before the goblins could, allowing them to keep their focus on beginning to repair the extensive damage. “This is the Goblin Nation, separate enough. Also, the law only stipulates they can’t own individual wands. Healer Eir is utilizing an emergency ward wand. They’re linked to an area instead of a goblin like wizarding wands are.”

“And because they’re usually in charge of the finances of wandmakers, there must be at least a few quite willing to work with them to create the needed wands,” one of the twins said excitedly, obviously catching on quickly to the loophole those asshats in the Ministry had left. Sirius wasn’t going to protest the failure of the wizarding government to limit an entire species that predated theirs, but that didn’t mean he approved of the incompetence.

“Idiots,” the other twin chirped.

“Names, Dee and Dumb,” he demanded, eyes still locked on his godson.

“Fred,” the one to his left chirped. He could smell the lie and waited for the other to answer so he could assign the kids’ scents to the correct twin.

“George,” the other answered.

“Well, then, Fred, George,” he muttered, addressing the correct twin and ignoring the indignant squawks, “what exactly were you doing visiting the pup?”

Everything at Privet Drive had happened too fast for him to be able to ask before. And he needed something to distract him so he didn’t go off in a typical Black temper.

“We had decided to-“

“Visit our darling Harrikins-“

“Since no one had heard from him-“

“Since school let out.”

“We didn’t exactly-“

“Expect a legendary Marauder-“

“To have the same idea.”

“Not to mention-“

“That we had suspicions about-“

“Harry’s home life-“

“But had no idea it-“

“Was this bad.”

“We figured the bars on his windows-“

“His second year had been-“

“An anomaly.”

If Sirius hadn’t known Fabian and Gideon Prewett, he would never have been able to keep track of that amount of Twinspeak…

But then what they’d said clicked.

“How do you know the Marauders?!” he demanded, finally breaking away to look at the pair closer. Harry had told him about the window incident already, so that wasn’t the most pressing issue.

“We found a most interesting map,” Fred said.

“When we were in Filch’s office,” George continued.

“And it has assisted in many a prank.”

“However, it wasn’t until our darling”

“Harrikins explained about your little situation,”

“That we figured out at least one of the real names,”

“Of the men that had become legends at Hogwarts.”

“Mr. Padfoot!” they said in unison.

He glared at them, trying not to react to how much it hurt to be called Padfoot again. Moony said it sometimes, but never with much frequency, since he’d been on the run. However, it also loosened something inside to acknowledge how much he’d actually missed it. At least the pair were following their legacy well. He could still remember ‘horror’ stories Molly had given for the pair’s actions during Order meetings. Though he had to wonder why. Her brothers had been similar and he knew if the Prewett pair had been in the Maruader’s year, the six of them would have been fiendish terrors, even worse than they had been separately.

As it was, he was fairly sure between the Marauders and the two pairs of Twins, McGonagall was greyer than she needed to be.

“Mr. Black?” Fred asked hesitantly.

Sirius jerked back to the room, angry that his mind had wandered off again. Damn dementors! Fuck Pettigrew!

“Well, I’ll not be exposing the others, other than to let you know that Wormtail is dead if I ever see him again… Also, I’ll see if I can’t find the update we created for that map. When Filch filched our prototype, we had to make another and added a few things, like a self-updating function and a Listen-In charm. We each had one of those,” he muttered.

He very much missed the terrifyingly gleeful grins that were exchanged behind his back. It was probably a good thing too.

*****
In a ancient forest on the other side of the country, nestled against a very famous castle the housed many a wondering mind, a creature stirred. Long had her body slept, it seemed. Long had she been kept prisoner. Long had she learned from the wonderful, sleepy presence not far away. Yet now, now she felt a familiar presence in deep pain. Pain so great, it leaked through their connection and stirred the once almost asleep mind.

Oh, she’d been awake for years, really, but never truly present. The lessons were always gentle, subtle inserts into her brain so she could wake more prepared to take on the manipulator who had secreted her away, but close enough to true sleep from the potions to be unsure of how long it was since she last walked the world.

Yet he could not overcome the bond she had with the other. The one crying with his very soul for the pain to just stop. For peace to finally come to his over exhausted mind and just let him rest. Even if it was in death.

And she could not stand it. The presence that had been her protector woke slightly, then understood and didn’t mind her leaving. As if it knew she’d be back. But that didn’t matter. What mattered was getting to that long thought lost mind.

So she gathered her magic in preparation.

Then, after what seemed hours, she felt her magic almost purr in happiness. She was ready. She apparated.