Hello to everyone opening this story. I know it has been a while since I published anything, let alone an actual chapter for one of my longer stories.

So hereby, I would like to present the sequel to Family Ties: Unbreakable Ties.

I've, however, decided to add a short (and incomplete) summary of Family Ties with the most important facts. For the full story however, you'll have to read that one.

Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to anything.

Warnings: not for this chapter.

Summary: Strange to think how much your life can change in a year. Learning that your mother is adopted is one thing, but that your arch-enemy is your grandfather is another. Now that his entire life has been flipped upside-down, what is Harry to do? Who can he trust? (Thanks to njchrispatrick).

Anyway: I hope you enjoy the start of this new story!

Recap Family Ties:
The words Sirius had said to him during the summer vacation before his fifth year wouldn't leave him and the fact that Hermione and Ron started dating (after an accidental kiss on the train at the start of the year) left him with nothing else to do but to spend a lot of time in the library. Due to extra time courtesy of being the third wheel he discovers a way in the library to find a way to see if he had any relatives left.

In the meanwhile, as he prepares everything for that one way, he grows closer to Luna and Neville while Dolores Umbridge terrorizes the school in an attempt to show everyone that Ministry is very much in charge.

After discovering that his very worst enemy is related to him and his mother in not quite the Muggleborn they had always believed her to be, his entire life changes in ways he had not foreseen.
His newly found grandfather wants to have a say in his life, he finally gets to visit his parents' graves, he fights with his one-time bests friends due to the fact that Sirius and Remus warn him against angering Umbridge, he gains a familiar and has to choose between the lives Dursleys or the life of one of his friends, only to be betrayed by said newly found grandfather.

During the Battle of the Ministry Bellatrix Lestrange hits Sirius with an unknown spell which causes him to fall into a coma. After chasing after her he meets up with the very person whom betrayed him and he flees into his own mind in an attempt to get his bearing back.
Ginny Weasley is kidnapped during this same battle because of things she had seen.

And with that ends Family Ties (for the full story, you'll have to reread it).

Unbreakable Ties

Prologue

":…:" Parseltongue.

oOoOoOo

He was surrounded by darkness from all sides; a warm, soothing darkness which made him feel safe and calm and content.
He had always preferred the darkness of his cupboard over the light, spacy – though small – room the Dursleys had given him just before his eleventh birthday. His uncle hadn't been able to enter his cupboard, his aunt had an almost unhealthy fear of spiders and his cousin had still been afraid of the dark, something he knew the other still feared secretly.

So the darkness had always been his sanctuary, because when he had been forced to leave it he had gotten hurt – both physical and mentally – time and again. The first time he had gotten hurt in the light, he hadn't understood what had happened and why.
He had been five at the time and his uncle had chosen to punish him for breaking a completely worthless plate Dudley had dropped on purpose. He had fought back because in his naïve mind and in the many movies and series Dudley liked to watch the light always showed the lies and secrets and saved people from pain and suffering.
He quickly learned that those ideas were the lies and that light, for him, was equal to pain and suffering.

By the age of seven he had created his own artificial darkness he used every time he had been dragged into the light only to get hurt: he fled into his own mind where the light – and therefor the pain – couldn't reach him.

He was well aware that fleeing into his own mind wasn't healthy or normal, but the safety of the darkness had always attracted him when he was in pain. It meant that he was safe from the Dursleys or whoever tried to hurt him and it meant that he would wake up in the relative safety of his cupboard some hours, days or weeks later almost completely healed from whatever the Dursleys had done to him. It was always easier to deal with the aftermath if he fled into his own peaceful world.

And that feeling of safety had always meant the world to him.

He shifted in his darkness into a different position, uncaring of his own nakedness or the fact that he wasn't laying on anything. This was his world, the darkness he had created; he could do whatever he wanted in here. In his darkness no one could hurt him, no one could scold him or tell him what to do or think. In this darkness he could rest while his body and active mind dealt with whatever had hurt him.

He absentmindly flicked a small imprint of a memory away without even bothering to try and see what it was about. Memories couldn't hurt him when he was in here, but as he had learned early on neither could he see what they were about.

There was no sense of time in his darkness; he had no need of it.
His body would tell him when it was time for him to move back into his body and into the reality and it had yet to give him any signal whatsoever.
And no one could force him to leave the safety of his darkness before he was ready.

Oh, he was aware of the fact that someone – or multiple people – had tried. He had been able to feel their presence and he had seen their light but with every inch they had moved closer to his darkness he had retreated further into himself until they had either stopped trying to force him out or he hadn't been able to see the light anymore.

He shifted into yet another position, the first signs that his body was telling him that it was nearly ready to wake up. It had almost finished progressing whatever had hurt him, though he himself couldn't recall what had made him retreat. He never could until he returned to reality.

Soft murmurs could be heard and he felt something gently rub against his darkness; not to invade but to tell him that whoever it was, he or she was there if he needed them. He shifted yet again and the murmurs disappeared until only silence remained, leaving him alone with a barely there feeling of content.

It was not yet time to return to reality, he was not yet completely healed from whatever had forced him into his soothing darkness. But soon, soon he would be ready.
Ready for the world, ready to once again wake up and face the harsh, light reality.

oOoOoOo

"How is he?" he asked her for what probably was the thousandth time, "are there any changes?"
"Physically he is fine, mentally can't be determined until he wakes up," madam Pomfrey told him tonelessly, like a broken record that was forced to repeat the same sentence again and again. And in a way she was. He had asked this question almost three times a day since the day the boy had locked himself away in his mind.

"Any luck with finding his grandfather?" she asked him curiously. She had been near Harry's bed when he had had his conversation with Dolores Umbridge and she had managed to hear enough to understand the gist of the story.
"No, Cornelius is disinclined to show me the records of Harry's adoption as it is a private matter," he answered her softly as he removed his glasses and rubbed his tired eyes, "and the Department head of the Department of Child and Family Matters is a suspected Death Eater."

"So, no help there," she hummed thoughtfully, "correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Dolores stated that Cornelius would send the man a letter to inform him about young mister Potter's state of health? Wouldn't she know the man in that case? Can't you ask her for a name?"
"She agrees with Cornelius," he pointed out wryly, "she'll not give me the name."

"What I do wonder about," the nurse told him with worry easily noticeable in her voice, "is why his grandfather never contacted me. Isn't he concerned about his grandson?"
"I don't know," he answered her tiredly as he placed his glasses back onto the bridge of his nose, "maybe he can't reach him or maybe he is one of the reasons why the poor child is in the condition he is in."
"You don't mean to say…" Madam Pomfrey started but she trailed off.

"As far as we knew, Lily Evans was just another muggleborn girl," Albus told her, "she was smarter than average and a bit more powerful but just a regular girl born from regular muggles. So why did a wizard whom claimed to be Harry's grandfather from his mother's side adopt him? And where did that claim come from?"
"Wouldn't the goblins know?" she asked him carefully.
"They might, but they would never tell anyone who doesn't need to know," he answered softly, "there is one person we could ask and he is currently in no shape to answer them."

Silence fell as they both turned to watch the mentioned person as he rested on the bed, his conscience hidden away in his own tightly shielded mind.
"Oh Harry," Albus murmured mournfully, "how I wish I knew how to help you."

But the boy didn't react and he could do nothing but watch over him as sunlight turned to dusk, and dusk turned to night.

oOo

A heavy, mournful, desperate silence could almost be felt as everyone just stared at each other.
They had been hurt grievously during what was known to them as the Battle of the Ministry. Their group had always been small, so the loss of four people – two of them not even members – was felt heavily.

First of all, there was Emmeline Vance whom had died, the second victim of the Second War. She had been the only one to die and even though many believed the death to be a blessing for the horribly tortured and broken woman, they still mourned her passing.

The second and third – temporarily – losses were Harry Potter and Sirius Black, whom were still comatose. Neither seemed ready to wake up just yet, or any time soon.
They had tried everything they could think of. They had tried testing their minds with Legilimency to see if they were active on some level. They had tried casting every general counter spell, counter curse and counter charm they could think of or they could find in the books in the Hogwarts library without any success. And last but not least, they tried every known potion under the sun that should have woken a person under normal circumstances. But even that failed to wake the two males from their comas.
All they could do on the moment for the two males was to either wait for them to wake up or check the more obscure – but light, always light never dark – texts available to them.

The last person whom was dearly missed was the youngest child and the only daughter of the Weasleys. Ginevra Weasley had been taken captive during the Battle and due to the lack of a spy they had no idea where she was kept, in what kind of state she was in and how she was treated.
For all they knew she could have been killed on the very same day she had been taken, but no one dared to suggest this out of fear and respect for the Weasley Matriarch. The lack of a mutilated body was the only thing that made the family cling onto whatever hope to see her alive they had left.

"Any news?" Albus asked softly as he tiredly slumped down further in his chair. He knew that he probably looked older and more frail than ever but the war – especially the fact that Fudge still hadn't cottoned onto the fact that Voldemort was back and therefor denying everything – was wearing them all down. And while he was the leader and should show himself as strong, the truth was that he was tired. So very tired.
Soft calls of "no" and shakes of heads answered his question.

"Did you manage to convince Fudge yet?" Alastor asked him gruffly before he could dismiss them all. He was more than ready to call it a day – so they could all get the rest they needed – but he realised just as much as Alastor had that they should do more. But most of all: he needed to be seen doing something, unless he wanted to lose the leadership to someone who would, with the best of intentions, ruin everything.
"No," he stated with a shake of his head, "neither about Voldemort's return nor about the fact that I need to know who Harry's grandfather is."
"Are we even sure that he's a wizard?" young William Weasley bit out almost aggressively.

Normally, this would have earned him a scolding from his mother and some surprised looks from the other Order members, but the kidnapping of Ginny had hit all of the Weasleys hard. And though the older brothers felt miserable about the fact that she was gone, no one felt as bad or as guilty as the youngest brother. He was more than aware that young Ronald carried a strong feeling of failure with him since that day. A sense of failure he had also carried – still carried – and knew well. He himself had always blamed Gellert for the untimely death of his sister, which was just intensified with the fact that he blamed himself even more.
He just hoped that Ron wouldn't blame Harry for the captivity of his sister, as that would most likely destroy the other boy. If the boy hadn't changed due to the influence of his – still unknown – grandfather.

"The man has to be at least a squib," Kingsley said soothingly, his deep voice cut easily to the murmurs which had started as he had drifted off in his thoughts.
At the questioning looks he elaborated, "no muggle can enter the Ministry."
"It is most likely that the man is indeed a wizard," Albus continued before more questions could be asked, "the one thing I would like to know, however, is how he is related to Harry."

He turned towards the few members the Order had that had had dealings with the muggle's before and knew how to keep the attention away from them, "Remus, Kingsley I need the two of you to see what you can find in the muggle world about Lily Potter – née Evans. Her birth certificate, the records of every school and club she attended before Hogwarts, her friends, her family. Everything you can find should be able to help. Tonks, I need you to do the same, only concerning James Potter. Alastor, see if you have any associates left who are able to help us; either with information about the Potters or with obscure knowledge about spells and/ or potions."

The mentioned people nodded and he was about to open his mouth to dismiss them – for real this time as there was nothing left to discuss – when Molly spoke up for the first time since her baby girl had been taken.
"What about G-Ginny?" she asked with a sob, "I p-promised her to buy her a n-new dress before s-school starts again. T-there are only two more w-weeks left u-until-."
Sobs stopped whatever she wanted to say and his eyes softened as they fell upon the pail and fragile looking woman. The people who had made to stand upon seeing his opening mouth sat back down in order to await his reaction.
"I'm sorry, Molly," he started to say, "but there is no-"

"Like Hell there is," William exploded as he shot up and slammed his fists upon the table, "there are known Death Eaters in Azkaban captured during the last war, ones not freed during the raid on Azkaban. One of them has to know where she is. They just have to."
His sentence ended with a note of desperation and – even though he mumbled a soft apology immediately after his explosion – his eyes implored him to admit that they could. That they knew and that they would tell them.

"Some of them might know," he admitted warily, "but we need the Minister to gain entrance to Azkaban."
He closed his eyes in defeat as he admitted, "and he is not willing to listen to anything I have to say. According to him, those Death Eaters attacking during the Battle of the Ministry were just terrorists who acted on their own and their attack on the Ministry was nothing but an attempt to show that some people still remembered a fallen enemy of the Ministry and would do anything to avenge him. A desperate attempt made by desperate people. He doesn't even believe that they were Death Eaters."

Looks were shared between members of the Order and even though he couldn't see all of the looks he didn't like what he saw in the eyes of some of the members.
"I think it's time we changed the rules of this war," young William – the surprising spokesmen of the Weasleys – stated sharply and he saw some people nod their heads in agreement, "Voldemort has had too much power for too long. It's time we turned his own game against him."
His eyes burned as he looked at him, "everything they can do, we can do better. It's time we showed the world just who we are and what we – the Order of the Phoenix – can do!"

And that: ladies and gentlemen was the end of the very first chapter of the sequel to Family Ties.

As always: reviews are appreciated and I hope to have the next chapter out around Christmas at the latest!

~Marwana