Chapter Text
Chapter one
Harry Potter’s fifth year was the worst, he never thought anything could top the previous year. So much was happening, and none of it was good. It was luck and Dobby that allowed Harry to find out that the vision he had of Sirius being tortured was a fake. Dobby reminded Harry about the package Sirius had given him just before he returned to Hogwarts, so Harry hugged the little elf, then snuck away using his invisibility cloak. He spoke with his godfather and explained about the vision and described what he had seen. Sirius knew exactly why Voldemort had sent the vision to Harry. Sirius finally told Harry about the prophecy and Voldemort was trying to lure Harry to the hall of prophecy in the department of mysteries. Dumbledore had not bothered to tell Harry about the prophecy, or the fact that Voldemort would want to get hold of it. But after speaking with Sirius he decided it was time to confront Dumbledore about it. He just had to wait until he saw Dumbledore.
Harry told Hermione and Ron about his vision, but he never told them he knew something was wrong or that he had spoken to Sirius using the two way mirrors. Both Hermione and Ron said instantly they would help Harry rescue his godfather. But what got Harry suspicious was that Hermione didn’t suggest trying to get in contact with Sirius to find out if he had left headquarters. She didn’t even suggest speaking with a teacher, like Snape who was in the order of the phoenix to see if they could get in contact with Sirius. They knew trying to use the floo network was dangerous with Umbridge around, but they had snuck into the room of requirement before to find a fireplace that was connected to the floo network, this time neither suggested it. Harry stared at both of them before he glared then walked away with them asking if they were going to rescue Sirius. Harry said in a normal voice, Sirius isn’t in danger, the vision was a fake. He turned the corner, put his invisibility cloak on and stared down at Ron and Hermione who seemed frustrated and were trying to figure out how Harry knew the truth. Again hearing that made Harry suspicious.
Over the last few years Harry had stopped telling Hermione and Ron everything, even with Hermione pestering him constantly. He had finally yelled that everyone had the right to keep things to themselves and if she didn’t like it then she could find herself a new friend. Harry even went as far as saying that his friends were smothering him which was the reason he had began to spend more time alone. They did back off a bit, but they still tried to get Harry to talk, he never did.
One thing he never told anyone was that he secretly lived with Sirius. He went to Privet drive at the end of his third year, Sirius met him there, they explained to the Dursley’s that Sirius would be staying with his godson from now on, and that he would be using magic. The Dursley’s instantly told them both to leave, Sirius was able to get legal papers signed but he also used a legal but almost a dark spell to have the Dursley’s believe they wanted to sell the house and move away. Since they knew what they were going to do, Sirius organised to buy number four, then he just cast a confundus charm so none of the neighbours would be bothered with the house or who lived there. Once that was done Harry and Sirius headed to one of the Potter properties.
They spoke at length that first night and decided to always keep their living arrangements secret. If Albus Dumbledore ever sent a letter to Harry at the Dursley’s, it would be re-directed to him. Their only worry was if the old man decided to turn up at Privet drive to pick Harry up. Sirius gave Harry an idea that might work, tell Dumbledore that if any magical person turned up at the Dursley’s then they would kick Harry out. They would make sure he was never allowed in the house again even if someone brought him back, they would take him to the police station or a home for boys. They went over everything they could think of so they hoped no one would get suspicious.
They were worried at one time when Ron sent a letter saying they were going to pick him up before the quidditch world cup. Harry replied to the letter telling them the story of what the Dursley’s would do. He said he would meet them a few streets away, in the park on Magnolia crescent, they could leave from there. It worked, Sirius had side apparated Harry to the park then hid to make sure Harry was fine. Mr. Weasley and Ron arrived to pick him up and take him to the Burrow. It was after they left that Sirius returned to the home he shared with his godson.
It was during his time at the Burrow that he began to get suspicious of Hermione and Ron, who kept asking about the Dursley’s and why would they say they would kick Harry out if any of his friends turned up. Harry knew the question could be innocent, but something told him it wasn’t and listening to his instincts had kept him from being serious injured by the Dursley’s, so he listened to them again.
Harry was thinking about his part in the plan Sirius came up with to deal with Umbridge. She had been lured into the chamber of secrets where her memory had been removed then she was delivered her back to her rooms. She was found days later looking confused. She was sent to St Mungo’s who informed the minister that she had gone through something very traumatic for her to lose all her memories. A normal obliviate would not do that. Harry and Sirius had combined their magic to remove her memories, completely, so she would never cause trouble again. Harry and Sirius were getting sick of people like Umbridge, Fudge and Rita, they weren’t against silencing them permanently if there was no other way. For now they will use methods like obliviate. They wanted to deal with Rita, they just had to wait for the opportunity to make sure her bug is splattered.
Albus Dumbledore was finally returned to Hogwarts and that’s when Harry confronted him about the prophecy. He did explain about the vision, but he had a way to speak with Sirius which confirmed Sirius was safe and the vision was fake. Sirius then told him about the prophecy and that Harry should have been told long ago.
Harry Potter did a lot of thinking after Albus Dumbledore explained the prophecy and how he would be having lessons during Harry’s sixth year. At first the headmaster had been vague about these lessons, but Harry said he will refuse to attend unless he was told what they consisted of. It was the first time that Harry stood up to Dumbledore, who had been surprised and tried to reason with Harry. He refused to back down until he got the answer to his question. He ended up getting up and walking out the door before the old man realised Harry wasn’t bluffing. Harry was getting sick and tired of not being told anything until it was too late, he had finally had enough.
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Now Harry had started his sixth year and he had been thinking about all those times while he sat under his cloak in the south tower. It was one place that Hermione and Ron never looked when they were trying to find him. He remembered how he had fooled everyone into believing he still lived with the muggles, and that he only saw Sirius when he was taken to headquarters. Sirius had explained about his old family home, but how he created a port key that could take him there whenever Albus called a meeting. He had also put a charm on his old families home that would alert him if anyone suddenly turned up which meant Sirius had to instantly port key to Grimmauld place.
Harry had begun his so called lessons with Dumbledore, but only so he could find the information that could help destroy Voldemort. Dumbledore had told Harry that he should only share that information with his two friends, that he believed they could help him. Harry never told Hermione or Ron, but he did tell Sirius using the mirror. When he explained about the locket, Sirius said he would call Harry back later, that he believed he knew where the locket was. He disappeared from the mirror, so Harry had to just sit on his bed and wait. Sirius called him a half an hour later and that he had the locket horcruxes. Sirius explained that he spoke to Kreacher about the locket and he planned to destroy it, the old elf instantly changed and began to serve his two masters, Sirius and Harry, because they had done what his old master wanted. Regulus had died trying to destroy the locket and Kreacher had never been able to fulfil his promise to his master. Kreacher had told the story about how regulus died to Sirius and how he wanted to stop the dark lord.
During the last meeting with Dumbledore he explained to Harry that he found another horcrux and wished Harry to go with him. When Harry asked which item, and was told it was the locket, he said he would go. When he left the office he contacted Sirius who told him to play along, that Albus didn’t have long to live, so let him think Harry believed him.
Harry went with the headmaster, found the fake locket, which left Dumbledore weak so Harry had to get the old man back to Hogwarts only to find the dark mark hanging above the castle. Even though Harry was able to dodge the spell Dumbledore tried to put on him, he never bothered to help save Dumbledore. But now he had more reasons to go after Snape, he was working on plans with Sirius to deal with Snape. Both wanted him dead, both did not trust him and both did not believe he was loyal to the light. So even though Harry and Sirius were not fully light, they were not dark. But they weren’t against using deadly or harmful ways to deal with people like death eaters. After both had survived many near death experiences at the hands of Voldemort and his death eaters they decided it was worth going that extra mile if it was needed, which they knew it would be.
They never told anyone that they would use spells that could kill even if they were legal. Albus Dumbledore always went on about stunning and giving second chances. Neither Harry nor Sirius believed the death eaters deserved a second chance.
Harry informed McGonagall and everyone else that Snape had killed Dumbledore before the greasy bastard ran off with the other death eaters. Most had trusted Albus when he said Snape was trustworthy, some were always suspicious, now he was one of the most hated wizards in Britain.
After being told that the order was to pick Harry up two days before his seventeenth birthday, he had to remind them that he would meet them. He refused to back down and ended up saying to meet him in the park then he walked off. Harry got onto the Hogwarts express, he sat beside Neville who was sitting beside Luna. Hermione, Ron and Ginny sat opposite, but Harry could tell they wanted to talk, they couldn’t in front of anyone not connected with the order. When the train slowed, Ron, Ginny, Hermione and Neville stood.
‘Are you coming Harry?’ Hermione asked.
‘Soon, I want to speak with Luna for a minute.’
‘We can wait,’ Ginny said giving Harry a smile.
Harry didn’t smile back, ‘No, it’s private, something I don’t want to share with anyone else, so go, I’ll see you in a few weeks.’
‘But Harry, I was hoping that maybe we could talk, you know, about dating,’ Ginny said nervously.
‘I’m gay Ginny, I thought you figured that out when I kept staring at the boys in the lake,’ Harry turned to Luna and waited until the other four left. He finally hoped Ginny would stop with her obvious attempts to get him into a relationship. When the door closed Harry cast a silencing charm, ‘Sorry Luna, I just needed some time to myself without that lot constantly asking me questions.’
‘I am here for you Harry, I always will be. You did lie though, you aren’t gay, you swing both ways.’
Harry chuckled, ‘I do, but I wasn’t going to tell Ginny that, she never stops staring at me, it’s quite unnerving.’
‘She fancies the-boy-who-lived. So how long are we going to wait?’
‘Five minutes then I’m going to use my cloak to sneak away. But Luna, I want you to be careful, make sure you and your father have an escape plan if it’s needed.’
‘Oh don’t worry Harry, daddy built tunnels and has port key’s all over the house. He makes sure that I always wear my earring port keys,’ she touched her radish earrings which made Harry smile. No one would ever believe that those earrings that many made fun of was a port key. To Harry, it was so Luna to have everyone underestimate her.
‘So what do you plan to do the moment you get to the Burrow?’ Sirius asked.
‘At first I thought of calling an order meeting, but most will ignore me. So I figured I would wait until I’m seventeen then call it or tell them I’m leaving with you.’
‘And I will back you up, so expect some yelling from Molly.’
Harry shrugged, ‘She’s not my mother, she has no say in my life or what I do. Once I’m a legal adult no one has the right to interfere with my life. So did you get any info from Kreacher?’
‘No, that part of his memory was erased, I never knew house elves could have their memories erased, only modified.’
‘So we have no idea who told Kreacher that he was supposed tell me you went to the department of mysteries. It was lucky Dobby reminded me of the mirror or I might have fallen for that,’ Harry sighed, ‘It was either Bellatrix or Narcissa since they are technically Blacks, but it also could have been Dumbledore. We know he tried to keep you away from me even though you are my legal guardian. He just didn’t figure out that we were always together.’
‘Even though we knew he had some secret plans, I still think it was my cousins. We know Voldemort wanted the prophecy, he couldn’t take it which meant it had to be you. So they figured they would lure you to the ministry using me and the fake vision. It was lucky you called me on the mirror, but it was also lucky that he had been at the ministry and was finally seen. It was easy to get in to the hall of prophecy and get the orb, destroy it so Voldemort could never get hold of it. Dumbledore should have done that years ago.’
‘It’s not like it was needed when he had the memory in his pensieve. But you are right about being lucky, Voldy was seen. What do you think the old man’s plans are? Because he risked a lot by keeping all that a secret. He could have died before he told me about the horcruxes.’
‘I have a feeling he told Snape, he just didn’t pick up on the fact Snape would betray him.’
‘I know he trusted Snape but would he really tell him about this if he had any doubt? Snape could have run straight to his master. But also, Dumbledore didn’t trust the order or even McGonagall, not even Moody, they have been friends forever.’
‘That’s why I keep thinking that Albus and Snape planned this or planned something. We knew Albus was dying, so think about it, if Snape kills him then Voldemort would believe he was loyal, really believe it.’
‘Sounds reasonable and it does make sense, Snape wasn’t trusted by a lot of death eaters, now he would be. You know Sirius, I think you’re right about it being set up, and everything was. I mean Dumbledore had been leaving the castle to search for the horcruxes, yet that night I just happened to be with him to witness Snape killing him. It’s too big a coincidence that it wasn’t planned, I was set up to witness it. We found out about that those dangerous events were Dumbledore’s plans or tests. We also know about Molly, Ron, Ginny and Hermione. They were to make sure to tell him anything I did or said. His perfectly placed spies. With Snape, I just don’t know.’
‘Okay, so it was a good plan if Snape was really on our side, which I’m still not sure he is and it has nothing to do with my dislike for him.’
‘Those memories he showed me, there were many more in that cabinet that he didn’t show me. What if there is something there about Snape, maybe it would show us if there is a reason Dumbledore trusted him.’
‘Well, the castle is closed right now, most of the staff would have gone away for a while. They usually do. Only Hagrid and Filch remains at the castle, we could get past them easily enough.’
‘Then let’s plan to sneak in tonight, find those memories and bring them here. If he truly believed that I had to finish this then he left a lot of information out but he also didn’t bother training me. I don’t care what he said about love, and I told you why. I don’t get how he could really believe I was full of love when I only recently felt love for the first time, for you, like a father. No, there has to be more, there has to be something else.’
‘There is, but we may never figure it out pup. Think of this as well, he didn’t even tell you how to destroy one if you found one. I only know since I grew up learning about this stuff. All we can do is work on our plans and even though one might not be used we have many more. It’s war, you do whatever you have to so you can survive. Now though, if we find out that Snape and Dumbledore had this planned, what do we do about Snape?’
‘We still take him out, after the way he treated you then he tried to make me do something reckless by goading me. He wants us dead, we know that and we know he wouldn’t hesitate, so we deal with him.’
‘Good, I was hoping you would say that, he deserves to die.’
‘Okay, even though I’ve mentioned this before, how could Dumbledore only trust me with all this when he knows how I feel about most of the people in the magical world, at least the magicals in this country? I wouldn’t use an ounce of sweat to help those people. We’ve discuss this before, even if I helped and by some miracle I won, it wouldn’t change, they are just stuck in their own beliefs and stuck on their old traditions. I might be English and it’s my home but no one has really ever done anything for me, not until you escaped. Then there is your situation, no trial, still thought to be a criminal and even your old friends believed you betrayed them. How could anyone, including the order believe I would bother helping anyone when none of them helped you?’
‘They believe you would follow Albus in whatever plans he had, what I don’t get is why he wanted you to only tell Hermione and Ron and not me. I can hide easily enough, I would make a great spy as Padfoot. People don’t think of a stray dog if they are talking about sensitive information.’
‘That’s true, McGonagall could use her cat form as well. I overheard a lot, but nothing about why he wouldn’t use your animagus form especially when only a few knew you were an animagus. Okay, say I did want to save everyone like I used to when I was eleven and twelve, with everything that has been said about me or done to me, how could they believe that wouldn’t change me? Which it did, they just don’t see it.’
‘They don’t want to save their own arses. Even though I hate thinking this pup, they might use me to make you find the rest.’
‘Then when I inform the order you make sure you had some investigating to do, something, anything that they might believe could delay you being there.’
‘It’s only a couple of weeks, let’s port key to the island so we can get everything set up.’
‘I thought we were going to wait to see what they say?’
‘I know but I have a feeling it won’t change anything, they will expect you to follow through with Dumbledore’s plans. They know you can apparate now, but there are anti-apparition wards around Grimmauld place and the Burrow but port key’s aren’t warded against. I had a thought though, why don’t you write to them now, tell them that the Dursley’s realised how dangerous it was and would be worse once the protection from you mother is finally gone that they decided to sell up and leave. You can say that since they left you wanted some time to yourself, to think, then you will arrive at the Burrow on your birthday.’
‘They’ll say the death eaters will be watching.’
‘True, but you have your cloak, you can sneak away from Privet drive then when you’re far enough away you can apparate. We don’t even have to say any of that, just that the Dursley’s left and you left so you could get some time alone, at least for a while.’
‘Okay, let’s sneak into Hogwarts now then I will send them a letter. I really want to wait for the last minute to send the letter off otherwise they will constantly sending me owls.’
Harry and Sirius found it too easy to sneak into Hogwarts and up to Dumbledore’s office. The door might be warded but the window wasn’t. Harry and Sirius flew up to the window and let themselves in. The first thing Sirius did was cast many spells to make sure the portraits were blind and deaf, then to make sure there were no humans or animagus in the office or the private rooms at the back. They had Kreacher and Dobby take all the memories back to the house along with the pensieve. They did not want anyone to get hold of them just in case they try to say Harry has to face Voldemort and face him alone, it could be dangerous to Harry. Sirius did a few spells around the office while he was there, he found three silver instruments that connected to Harry, Sirius made sure they were shattered into a million pieces then he banished the pieces. They had their plans ready, they just had to wait until Harry called a meeting of the order of the phoenix but they knew now that no one could track Harry.
Harry and Sirius went through a few vials that Dumbledore hadn’t shown Harry. The first one surprised them, Snape making a promise to protect Harry for Lily but it would not make him like the boy. He would only protect him until he could face Voldemort, after that, the boy was fair game. When Snape said that, Dumbledore didn’t even protest or say he shouldn’t, nothing. The old man didn’t care if Snape killed Harry, as long as Harry dealt with Voldemort first.
The second surprise was seeing proof that Dumbledore and Snape had worked on the plans so Snape would kill Dumbledore, but at the right time. The third surprise had been when Snape first approached Dumbledore. He only asked the old man to save and protect Lily, not Harry or James. There were a few more shocks for Harry and Sirius, some they never thought of, but now they knew the truth.
‘That seals it for me, we still make sure Snape dies for the way he treated you, but because he was going to allow you and James to die as long as Lily was safe, bastard.’
‘We’ll think of some plans to take him out but I’m not really worried since everyone believes he murdered Dumbledore. We know he actually opened my mind more and caused those migraines, he deserves to suffer. But remember Sirius, it was Snape that told Voldy about the damn prophecy in the first place. He goes on about remorse but we saw he was only willing to save my mother, he didn’t give a shit about me or my father. He only changed his mind because of what Dumbledore said.’
‘Then he will die, let’s just play it by ear at the moment. For all we know he might end up cursed by daddy death eater or by the light side since they believe he murdered Albus Dumbledore.’
‘Okay, but I also want to deal with those others as well. I always knew something wasn’t right, now we’ve seen proof.’
‘Then we will, but we have time. So let’s have dinner, we can go to the island first thing in the morning, make sure everything is ready.’
Harry and Sirius headed into the kitchen, they did wonder what the order would say when Harry explained a few things to them. Sirius couldn’t take the chance of being there but he would love to see their faces when Harry did tell them what he planned.