A/N: Okay, this is the first chapter of A Sirius Guardian. I'm hoping this will be a long story, going at least into sixth year before things resolve themselves. I think it will end up being a Lunar Haise story (That's my ship name for a Luna, Harry, Blaise romance so yes this will be semi-slashy) I'm not sure if I will go into the sex scenes yet or if I will just do a "fade to black" type of thing…we shall see. Anyway, if you like Dumbledore, this story is not for you. If you like the Weasleys (apart from the twins, because come on, who doesn't like the twins) this story is not for you. They shall be bashed. It will not be overt but they are not good characters in this story. (Same for Remus, I have my issues with him).
Other than that, I hope you enjoy! If you have any suggestions please leave them in the comments. Thanks for reading!
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, just playing with J.K.R.'s wonderful work.
"What are you playing at Albus? Harry is my Godson, he needs me!" Sirius' voice shook with emotion as he glared at the old wizard across from him.
"Sirius, my boy, I've explained this already…" Dumbledore closed his eyes wearily and leaned back in his throne-like chair.
"Then explain it again, apparently I didn't quite comprehend it the first time." Sirius growled back.
The aged Headmaster sighed and opened his eyes slowly. He had been arguing with Sirius about young Harry Potter's summer arrangements for over an hour now.
Sirius caught the exasperated look that Dumbledore sent Remus, who was hovering worriedly behind his friend, and paused. His mind whirled through different explanations for Dumbledore's reluctance to allow him access to Harry.
He obviously wants to keep Harry isolated, away from the Wizarding World. So much so that Lily and James' Will was ignored…But he isn't aware that I know that….hmmmm…why is Moony so ok with this? And why did the old goat leave me to rot in Azkaban?
Sirius shook his head in frustration, bringing his attention back to the matter at hand just as Dumbledore opened his mouth to explain himself again.
Explain, Sirius snorted to himself, more like talk his way out of the situation…
"I have placed young Harry in a safe environment, away from the Wizarding World for his own safety. He is cut off from Owls and other means of communication so that he cannot be tracked. Rest assured, my dear boy, he is safe and happy, is that not what you wish for the boy, Sirius?" Dumbledore said in a grandfatherly tone, twinkling over the top of his half-moon spectacles.
Happy? A boy happy with his home does not jump at the opportunity to live with a complete stranger…Godfather or not, Sirius thought, something is not right here...
Out loud Sirius heaved a sigh and let his shoulders slump as if in submission. He took note of the subtle gleam of smug glee that appeared in the Headmaster's eyes before it was quickly covered.
"Okay, Albus, I trust you…I just worry about him. He is all I have left…" Sirius let an edge of grief tinge his words.
You are not the only one who can act around here, Headmaster, Sirius thought viciously.
"I'm so glad that you can see reason, my boy!" Dumbledore said jovially, though his smile had a condescending edge to it that Sirius did not miss. "I think getting out of England for now would be beneficial for you Sirius, does your family not have properties in France?"
"Yes, one in Caluire-et-Cuire; near the river. And another in Ares on the coast…perhaps some sunshine would do me good." Sirius mumbled thoughtfully.
Yeah right, trying to get me to leave the country…fat chance old man! He felt a light legilimency probe touch his shields, so he allowed a feeling of resignation to slip out. Sirius caught another gleam of smugness flash through the Headmaster's eyes.
"Good, good. Remus, why don't you escort Sirius here to the edge of the wards?" Dumbledore said with one last twinkling smile for his old students.
With one last sigh Sirius followed Moony down the revolving staircase and out into the deserted hallway. He noticed that his old friend seemed to be a little more reserved around him than he used to be.
At first Sirius just assumed that it was because Remus felt guilty about his stay at Azkaban, but now he wasn't so sure. It seemed to Sirius that his old friend was following Dumbledore with a kind of reverence that, in all honesty, scared him a bit.
I need to see how deep his loyalty runs…Sirius thought as the silence stretched.
"Moony?" The werewolf jumped slightly at the sound of Sirius' voice.
"Yeah, Padfoot?"
"I was just wondering…why didn't you ever check up on Harry?" Sirius asked hesitantly, afraid of spooking the werewolf, but determined to get his answers.
Remus paused and looked at Sirius like he had grown an extra head before replying in a tone that clearly questioned Sirius' mental state.
"Because Dumbledore said it wasn't safe to? Besides, why would I need to check on him? Dumbledore said he was safe and happy."
That's it? Dumbledore said? Oh Moony…I thought you were smarter than that. Sirius thought, both surprised and saddened by his friend's answer.
"Oh. Right. Of course." He said uncomfortably before changing the subject slightly. "Well you had a year with him, can you tell me about him? He seems to have inherited James and Lily's magical talent." Sirius chuckled lightly.
"Huh? No, Harry seems pretty average to me Pads, I was kind of disappointed to be honest; he struggled with everything I threw at him."
"What? Moony, he drove off over a hundred Dementors at once! If that's not talent then I don't know what is."
"Pads, you were hurt and probably in shock. I would guess there was only one or two Dementors and Harry held them off until help arrived."
Sirius had a determined look in his eyes as he turned to his friend, "No Moony, I'm sure that there was at least a hundred. They had me pinned by the lake, I was sure I was a goner. Then Harry saved me, with a corporal Patronus. It was a stag, Moony, a bloody blinding stag!"
"I was trying to teach him that charm for half the term, Pads, the best he could do was a light mist. There's no way that he could produce a corporal Patronus. You must have been seeing things."
This isn't like him… he was the brains of the Marauders and now he's refusing every piece of evidence given to him... what the hell is going on?
"I guess..." Sirius said with a dejected sigh.
They walked rest of the way in awkward silence, neither one knowing what else to say. When they finally reached the edge of the wards Sirius gave Moony a long, sad look then apperated away.
xxXxx
"And don't come back in until that bloody garden looks perfect, Freak!" Vernon bellowed as he launched Harry out the back door.
Harry flinched in pain, the welts on his back oozing fresh blood, as he landed heavily on the grass. He glowered angrily over his aching shoulder but his Uncle just slammed the patio door.
"Bloody git," he mumbled, dragging himself to his knees and crawling awkwardly to the waiting flowerbeds.
Harry absolutely loathed coming back to Privet drive during the summer. Ever since he started attending primary school his Uncle Vernon had thought it would be appropriate to beat the "freakishness" out of him. So his summers weren't as relaxing as his classmates'.
For as long as Harry could remember Vernon had favored a quick backhanded slap to Harry's face whenever something went wrong. It didn't matter if it were Harry's fault or not. But the abuse (as much as Harry hated to think it, there really was no other word for it) had gotten steadily worse since he had started Hogwarts.
Now it was commonplace for Harry to feel Vernon's belt at least once a week, on top of Dudley using him as a practice dummy for his boxing moves.
Still angry Harry started yanking weeds from the flowerbed in front of him as he continued to grumble under his breath.
"Useless freak am I? Bloody idiots, I cook their food. I could poison the lot of them and no one would ever know…" Lost in his anger Harry almost missed the quiet whine coming from a bush to his right.
Looking around in confusion Harry spotted a familiar black form watching him from a cluster of shrubs at the edge of the yard.
"Padfoot?" He whispered in shock before moving closer to the grim. Padfoot took a step back and dropped a piece of parchment on the ground then pushed it towards Harry with his nose.
"What are you doing here Padfoot?" Harry asked, continuing to get closer to the animagus. Padfoot made a low growling noise and Harry stopped.
"What? I know you're Padfoot, so why are you growling at me?" The young wizard asked in confusion. Padfoot rolled his eyes and nudged the parchment closer to Harry again. Finally getting the hint Harry picked it up and broke the seal.
Harry,
Stop looking at me idiot, sheesh you're as bad at this cloak and dagger shite as James was! Look, I need to talk to you. Meet me by the swings in that little park up the way ASAP. Try to be inconspicuous, eh? Dumbles has a guard watching you, and I don't want the old coot to know I am here.
Padfoot
Harry looked up, a frown on his face, and realized that Padfoot was gone. Confusion overtaking his anger for the moment he resigned himself to weeding the garden but his mind was racing.
Why does Sirius want to talk to me in secret? And why is Dumbledore watching me? Why doesn't he want Dumbledore to know he is here? I thought he flew off on Buckbeak…
After an hour of pulling prickly weeds in the summer heat a tired, confused and still slightly angry Harry Potter made his way inside hoping to grab a quick shower in order to wash the sweat out of the stinging wounds on his back.
"That garden better be perfect, boy." Vernon growled as Harry made his way through the kitchen.
"Yes, Uncle Vernon," he replied emotionlessly. Vernon grunted without raising his beady eyes from the telly. Harry rolled his eyes and started towards the stairs but his Aunt's voice stopped him.
"Where do you think you're going, freak?"
"I was going to wash up Aunt Petunia," Harry said without bothering to turn around.
"And waste our water? I think not, get outside! And stay out there until it's time to start dinner!" She said, shoving him out the front door.
Harry hissed in pain from her rough shove to his back, but immediately took off toward the park where Sirius was waiting for him.
Halfway to the park Harry remembered that Sirius had mentioned that Dumbledore was having people watch him. He slowed down and strained his ears, trying to catch the sound of footsteps behind him. He heard nothing so he shrugged and picked up his pace.
Oh well, what would I do if someone were following anyway? Its not like I can use magic…Harry snorted shaking his head at the thought of the Dursley's reaction to another ministry owl.
Within a few minutes Harry made it to the ramshackle park and made a beeline for the broken swing set in the back corner. He looked around curiously but found no sign of his Godfather.
"Hey Pup," Sirius' voice came from the tree line behind the park swings.
Startled Harry whipped around and practically tackled his Godfather in a hug. Ignoring the pain, Harry relished in the feel of Sirius' arms around him. He couldn't hide his wince when Sirius patted his back as they broke apart, though, and fervently hoped Sirius hadn't noticed.
"How have you been?" Sirius asked with narrowed eyes, he had indeed noticed the tension in his Godson and the wince that flashed across his drawn face.
"I'm fine." Harry said automatically. Sirius looked at the teen incredulously, one eyebrow raised, but Harry merely shrugged.
"Harry, Lilly told my what kind of person her sister was, I know that they can't be treating you right, you're thin as a rail."
Harry bowed his head and said, "I'll be fine Sirius, but you shouldn't be here. The Aurors and muggle police are still looking for you."
Clever change of topic, but that won't work on me. Sirius vowed to himself that he would have a serious (heh heh) discussion with Harry about the Dursleys sometime over the summer.
"I cast a notice-me-not charm and a muggle repelling ward on this part of the park." He said dismissively. "Now, how would you like to stay with me this summer? Away from those muggles, eh?"
Harry stared at his Godfather in shock for a moment before breaking into a wide grin. "Really? Sirius, I would love to, but…" his voice trailed off as a frown slowly formed on his face.
"But what, Pup?" Sirius asked, worried that Harry didn't want to spend time with him after all.
"But Dumbledore seems determined to keep me here with the Dursley's, Sirius…I don't know why, and if he has people watching the house…" again Harry's voice trailed off, but Sirius had a wide grin on his face.
"Don't worry Pup, I have a plan," he said with a mischievous smirk. "But first, I think we need to talk about the illustrious Headmaster." Sarcasm dripped off of his description of Dumbledore and Harry quirked an eyebrow in question.
"What do you mean, Padfoot?" Harry asked slowly.
"I mean, Harry, that I don't trust that old fool as far as I can throw him." Sirius said, "Please tell me you have noticed some of his manipulations?"
"Yeah, actually," Harry said, sighing in relief that Sirius didn't seem to blindly worship Dumbledore like Professor Lupin did. "I have been questioning some of his oh so brilliant ideas for awhile now."
"Good, Pup." Sirius seemed to slump in relief, "I was worried I would have to un-brainwash you or something," he chuckled.
"Right," Harry rolled his eyes at his Dogfather's antics, "So what is your brilliant plan to spring me then?"
"Ah, it is brilliant if I do say so myself," Sirius puffed out his chest to Harry's amusement, "You just need to have each of them read this," he held out a piece of parchment with a few lines of text on it.
Harry Potter is here. He is in his room, you have already fed him and you don't want to see him.
Harry looked up at Sirius, confused about how these few lines of text would do anything other than piss the Dursleys off. At Harry's questioning look Sirius elaborated.
"The parchment has a spell on it, Pup. Once they read it a compulsion charm will take hold to make them believe what's written there. Its not very strong, but it should work fine on muggles."
"Okay, that takes care of the Dursleys but what about Dumbles' minions?" Harry asked.
"Well that is where this little beauty comes in," Sirius replied with another sly smirk. He pulled a small, plain, white doll out of his pocket and handed it to Harry.
Harry took the doll carefully and looked at it closely. It was made of some sort of stone and had no defining features whatsoever. Harry handed it back with a shake of his head.
"I don't get it, what is a doll going to do?" He asked.
"This, my dear Godson, is a Golem." Sirius said, obviously expecting Harry to understand the significance. Harry just shook his head and shrugged to show his ignorance.
Sirius sighed and seemed to deflate for a second before explaining himself; "You just lay this doll on your bed tonight Harry, and smear a couple drops of your blood onto it. It should turn into an exact copy of you."
"An exact copy?" Harry asked incredulously.
"It won't be able to talk or think of course," Sirius rolled his eyes, "but you can program a couple basic functions in. Have it walk to the desk and sit for a while, then cross the window to the door every few hours…should fool the Order. And since it contains your blood it should fool Dumbles' wards too."
By the time Sirius had finished his explanation Harry was sporting a huge grin. He grabbed his Godfather in another rough hug but this time Sirius was careful not to put too much pressure on Harry's obviously tender back.
Hmmm…I will have to have words with him about that once I get him out of here…Sirius mused.
The pair spent a few more minutes finalizing their plan before Harry glanced at his watch and realized he would be late cooking dinner if he didn't get back quickly. After a hasty, "Tonight Pup, I will be here, good luck!" from Sirius, Harry ran back to Number Four to start dinner.
xxXxx
"Uncle Vernon?" Harry approached his Uncle in the living room after the dinner dishes were all washed, dried and put away.
"What boy?" Vernon spat.
"Could you read this please?" Harry ground out as politely as he could, holding the enchanted slip of parchment out. He had already gotten Petunia and Dudley to read it.
"What is this rubbish?" Vernon snatched the parchment from Harry's hand and ran his beady eyes over it. As soon as he finished reading it he handed it back to Harry and seemed to forget the teen was even in the room.
Harry shrugged; this suited him fine. He made his way to the cupboard under the stairs, pulled his trunk out then made his way up to his room to pack the rest of his belongings.
He quickly but carefully packed everything he owned, which wasn't much. He then went to Hedwig and opened her cage.
"I don't know where I'm going Hed, can you follow me once I'm out of the house?" He asked her, stroking her soft chest feathers. She hooted softly and seemed to nod her head before taking off out the window.
He watched her ghost away into the trees before turning to survey his empty room. There was still roughly an hour before nightfall so he pulled his battered photo album from his trunk and settled in to wait.
As he looked through the photo album, he thought about how different this summer would be now he would be staying with Sirius
No more 'Boxing training,' no more yelling from Vernon, no more condescending insults from Petunia, I can't think of anything better… He thought, finally feeling the excitement he had been suppressing all day.
He smiled and looked back down at the photo album in his lap. His mum and dad were holding each other, twirling around a fountain, smiling at the camera without a care in the world. He lost himself in thought, wondering how drastically different his life would have been if they had lived.
I doubt I ever would have even met the Dursleys, it's apparent that Petunia didn't like my Mum. I wonder if they ever got along, maybe Sirius will know. Harry mused.
Finally breaking out of his introspection, Harry looked up at his window. The sun had sunk below the tree line and night was falling fast; time to activate the golem.
Harry rose to his feet and pulled the key to his escape from his pocket. He laid the stone-like doll on his bed and paused. He felt like smacking himself for forgetting to grab a knife from the kitchen.
"Stupid! Now what…" he growled to himself. His eyes fell on his trunk, "Potions' knife, duh…"
He opened his trunk and dug around until he found his potions' kit. His hands were shaking as he yanked the lid open and grabbed the small knife. Shivering in a weird mix of excitement and fear, the teen scrambled back to his bed and, without pausing to think about it, jammed the point of the knife into his palm.
Harry watched with morbid curiosity as his blood fell onto the doll. With a blinding white flash of magic the golem grew in size and started to look more and more human. After a minute it looked exactly like Harry, down to the scruffy hair and scar on his forehead.
"Brilliant." Harry said with a smile. "Right, look you." He addressed the Golem in a no-nonsense tone; "Every few hours or so you will get up, walk to the desk and look like you are reading a book. Then at irregular intervals you will walk over to the door, stand out of sight for a few minutes then come back over by the window. Understand?"
Harry waited until the Golem nodded its head before continuing, "Okay, be sure to lay on the bed for at least eight hours every night. That should convince whoever's outside…"
After one last glance around the room he grabbed his trunk and Hedwig's cage then pulled his Father's invisibility cloak over himself and his things. It was awkward but he made his way down the stairs and crept out the front door without being noticed.
Once on the sidewalk Harry picked up his pace, still being careful to keep covered by the cloak. A few minutes of walking later he was glowing with excitement as he finally spotted Padfoot's shaggy form in the park.
The large shaggy grim got to his feet as sniffed the air as Harry drew closer. He gave a low whine and turned toward the tree line, with one last look over his shoulder at Harry's invisible form he darted into the trees.
Harry found him, once again in human form, in a small clearing a few hundred yards from the park. The teen was still grinning widely as he pulled off his father's cloak; even a trek through the woods in the dark couldn't dampen his current mood.
"You're looking pretty pleased, Pup. Some bird give you a goodbye kiss then?" Sirius smirked.
"Nope, even better," Harry said with a laugh, "I'm free of Dursleys! For a whole summer!" He did a wide victory dance around the small clearing, whooping loudly the whole time.
Damn…either he is way too excitable, or I underestimated his dislike for Lily's sister…Sirius mused as he watched his Godson celebrate.
"Whoa, slow down, Pup!" Sirius chuckled, grabbing Harry as he stumbled over his own trunk. "We have all summer to celebrate, but right now we need to get out of here. We aren't home free quite yet."
Breathing heavily from exertion Harry nodded in understanding. He grabbed his things once more and grinned at his Dogfather, his bright green eyes wide and expectant.
Shaking his head and mumbling something that sounded oddly like "crazy kids" Sirius pulled Harry close to his side.
"Alright, Pup, hold on tight. We are going to Apparate to my place." He said, "It feels bloody dreadful, but its quick and damn near untraceable." Harry nodded and tightened his hold on both Sirius and his trunk. Sirius had Hedwig's cage in his other hand.
"Alright, on three…oh and you might want to close your eyes." Sirius said. "One…two…three!"
With a soft *Pop* they were gone.