The Brightest Black

Albus folded his hands and took a deep breath, “I’m sorry Sirius, but I cannot let Harry live with you. There are wards erected to protect him. Wards tied directly to his mother’s blood. He’s only safe from the remaining Death Eaters if he remains with his aunt.”

Sirius shifted Hermione in his arms and leaned forwards, a deadly solemnity in his eyes. One the Headmaster had never seen before. “And I’m sorry Albus, but he’s my godson. Lily and James charged me with raising and keeping him safe if something happened. He may be safe from Death Eaters with Petunia, but he will not be raised. Rather he will raise himself. I know Petunia. I know the stories of her. Hell, I even met her at the wedding. She wants nothing to do with magic. She may never actively hurt Harry, she may even think she is doing the best she can, but she will neglect him. Just ask your pet of a Potions Master. Snivellus grew up with her, he’ll confirm what I said. If for no other reason than not wanting to see Lily’s child hurt.”

“We can take precautions. Set up someone to watch them and ensure that Harry is well cared for. It has been done in the past.”

“No, he’ll live with me and Hermione. End of story. James and Lily would turn in their graves if they knew their son was being raised in a less than healthy environment.”

Albus quickly shifted gears. “Sirius, you can’t be serious. What do you know about raising children? You already have a daughter you barely know what to do with, and now you want a son too?”

Sirius glanced down at the very serious little girl sitting in his lap. She hadn’t spoken since that night, which worried him, but he knew her nightmares were becoming less frequent. And she seemed to be actively studying the world around her, not moving through it in a daze as she had for the first week. Right now she was staring curiously at Fawkes the phoenix, watching as he preened himself.

Fawkes looked up and over at the young girl, making her jump in surprise. Sirius felt a smile tug at his lips, despite the turmoil of his emotions. Hermione had only been in his life for two weeks, and yet it felt like she’d always been there. He hoped he could help her get over what happened on Halloween. He’d fail as a parent if he didn’t. And he never suffered failure, unless he started out intending to fail. Then it was alright.

“Albus, I’m caring for Hermione quite well. I sold my flat in London and bought a nice cottage near Ottery St. Catchpole. There are quite a few wizarding families there with children. The Weasleys even have a little boy the same age as Hermione and Harry. My cousin, Andromeda, is only a floo call away and she’s been very helpful when I have questions. And for anything she can’t handle I have Remus and his research skills. Many new parents have started with less.”

Albus opened his mouth to reply, and then paused, thinking. After a moment he sighed, “There’s no changing your mind, is there?”

“No, and you know I’ll take it to the courts if you won’t give me Harry’s location.”

“My dear boy, I hope you know what you’re doing. It’s against my better judgement, but I’ll tell you. He’s at number 4 Privet Drive, Little Whinging. Try to pick him up by muggle means.”

Sirius stood, shifting Hermione onto his hip. She was old enough to walk, but stairs and stamina were still an issue, making travel a little complicated.

“Thank you, Albus. I’ll see you later.”

“Goodbye, Sirius.” He stood and turned his once again twinkling gaze on Hermione. “Goodbye, Miss Hermione, have fun with your new brother.”

And then, much to Sirius’ surprise, Hermione whispered back, “Goodbye.”

He wanted to dance with joy at her first word in two weeks, but resisted, barely. He didn’t want to scare her. With a last nod to Albus he left the Headmaster’s office, making his way out of the castle so he could apparate.

A few minutes later he stood in his cousin’s small, cheery kitchen.

“Andromeda! You home?” he called out.

A young girl with neon green hair and purple eyes bounded into the room, “Uncle Sirius! Mummy is in the garden, want me to get her?”

Sirirus smiled down at his ‘niece’, “No, Dora, that’s fine. I’ll go talk to her if you’ll keep an eye on Hermione for me.”

“Sure! We can go see my new dollhouse! I got it for my birthday!”

Sirius put Hermione down, who quickly found her hand grabbed by Dora. Hermione immediately stiffened and stared down at the hand holding her own scarred one. She hadn’t let anyone but Sirius touch her in two weeks, not even the doctors. Sadly, they’d been unable to heal all the cuts on her limbs, the knife had been cursed to leave permeant scars.

“Oh, do you not want to hold my hand? It’s okay. I just hold hands so I don’t trip so much. You see, I’m terribly clumsy. Or so my Mummy says.”

Dora started to remove her hand from Hermione’s, but was stopped.

“Is okay,” Hermione whispered.

Dora smiled brightly, “Good! Then let’s go!”

Sirius watched the two girls walk off, a lightness in his chest that had been missing over the past few weeks. Maybe they would all be able to heal once he got Harry back. But first he had to get Harry.

It only took a moment to let Andromeda know that her 8-year-old daughter was playing with Hermione while he went with Remus to collect Harry.

Thirty minutes later he had collected Remus from his home and they had boarded the Knight Bus for Little Whinging. Neither of them knew enough about the area to apparate there, so the bus it was.

The bus was fairly empty and the two of them found seats on the deserted third floor. Remus sat on a squishy armchair across from Sirius, staring at him rather seriously. Sirius could guess why – this was the first time the two of them had been alone since Halloween.

“Well, are you going to spit it out?”

Remus closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead, “Do you have to be so blunt?”

“I’m always blunt, you know that. If I wasn’t I wouldn’t have nearly so many problems.”

“True. So, mind telling me why I wasn’t told the secret keeper changed? Or even why I wasn’t considered before Peter?”

“The Death Eaters would find you much too easy to break.”

Remus frowned, “Excuse me?”

“Exactly what I said. All they’d have to do is keep you looked up over a full moon with an innocent child. You’d either go insane or break. Likely the former. None of us could stomach that idea, so we distanced ourselves. Hoped that would remove suspicion from you. Keep you safe.”

Remus looked sick at this, “Oh, Merlin.”

Sirius leaned forwards and put a hand on Remus’ knee. “I want you to know, it killed us, pretending like we didn’t trust you, but we had to. And it’s not your fault either. You didn’t choose to become a werewolf. It was war, we did what we had to.”

Remus chuckled sickly, “When in the world did you become so wise?”

“Turns out James spoke the truth when he said becoming a parent changes you. I have to be wise. I have to stop and think. What happens to Hermione and Harry if I don’t? The law won’t let you be their guardian if I end up dead or in prison.”

“What indeed?” Remus whispered.

The two of them spent the rest of the bus ride in their own thoughts. Wondering just what other changes had been wrought from those terrible events two weeks previously.

XXX

Petunia had just put the casserole in the oven for dinner when the doorbell rang. Curious, she plastered a smile on her face and opened the door.

It only took her a moment to realize that the two men standing at her door were freaks. If there clothes hadn’t given them away she would’ve known from their faces. They’d been at Lily’s wedding. And she and Vernon had been the only two normal people there.

“What do you want?” she spat out.

The dark-haired one sneered at her, “What do you think we want Petunia? Harry of course.”

Her smile turned into a grimace, “Let me get him.”

She started to slam the door in their faces, but he put a hand up, stopping her. “You really don’t want to leave us standing on the front stoop.”

She pursed her lips in frustration and then spun around. She headed straight for the cupboard under the stairs. Yanking it open she stepped back and gestured at the contents.

“There, take him. Just know if you change your mind I’m not taking him back again.”

“You kept him in a CUPBOARD?” the dark-haired one exploded.

She scoffed, ignoring the way her heart raced in fear at his expression. “Where else would we keep a freak?”

The dark-haired one’s fists were clenched as he took a threatening step towards her. There was an insane fury in his eyes she’d never seen before. She stumbled backwards as the other one put a hand up, stopping him.

“Sirius, remember what you said on the bus.”

That stopped the dark-haired one, Sirius, in his tracks. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. When he opened his eyes again he still looked angry, but not on the verge of exploding.

Without a word or a glance at her he approached the cupboard and pulled out the young toddler, who was just now groggily waking up. As soon as Sirius scooped the young boy into his arms and stood up the two men spun on their heels and quickly departed without another word.

Petunia managed to shut and lock the front door before she collapsed, shaking, to the floor. A moment later she began to laugh hysterically. She’d never felt quite so afraid in her entire life.

But it was worth it, if it got rid of the freak.

XXX

The first meeting between Harry and Hermione did not go quite as Sirius had expected. But, as Andromeda was quick to point out, there was a good ten months between the two in age. A rather large gap when under the age of five.

They had stared at each other as if they were two alien species for a few minutes. And then they had promptly ignored each other for their own toys. What he didn’t realize at first was the instant acceptance that passed between them. What he did notice was that as soon as Harry came to live with them, Hermione stopped having nightmares.

At least, that’s what he thought. He learned differently on that first Christmas Eve, after staying up late to build Hermione her own dollhouse.

He barely heard the muffled cry before it ceased. Frowning in worry, he crept up the stairs of the cottage until he reached the small nursery that the two children currently shared. The sight that lay before him had him smiling as tears threatened at his eyes.

Harry had climbed out of his own crib and was in Hermione’s toddler bed. His little hand was wrapped in hers and he was almost humming.

What amazed Sirius the most about it was that he’d never found Harry outside of his crib in the morning. The boy had to be using magic to climb back in, there was no other way.

Maybe it was time to get rid of the crib, it obviously wasn’t doing its job.

XXX

The years slowly began to pass and Sirius slipped into the role of father for his two young charges. Neither of them called him that though, he wouldn’t allow it, out of respect for their own fathers. He was Padfoot to them.

He managed to persuade Remus to tutor the two children when they turned five so he could go back and finish up auror training. He loved staying home and raising Harry and Hermione, but he wanted to stop living off of his inheritance, it sat wrong with him. Plus, he was no good at teaching young children. Once Remus realized he was not being given charity, rather, he was performing a necessary duty, he agreed. Before too long Remus was effectively running a one room schoolhouse made up of Harry, Hermione, the Weasleys, and Luna Lovegood. Even the Weasley twins, a troublesome pair that took great pleasure in upsetting and pulling pranks on others, found themselves unable to pull one over on Remus Lupin. They just couldn’t figure out how such a quiet, bookish man could spot and predict pranks so easily.

This amused Sirius to no end. He often teased Remus that it was all due to the Marauders that Fred and George Weasley learned some humility. Remus admitted that he was more proud of how he taught Percy Weasley how to stay true to himself, while still relaxing. Not that he was entirely successful, but over the two years he taught the straight-laced boy he saw him actually stop to consider, once or twice, if a rule was truly worth upholding. Personally, Sirius thought the boy was a hopeless case, but what did he know?

He also found it rather humorous when he caught Hermione teasing Harry about having found a girlfriend in Ginny Weasley. Somehow he thought James and Lily would enjoy seeing their son in the midst of a young childhood romance.

Before Sirius knew it ten years had gone by and he was sitting at the breakfast table watching two owls deliver Hogwarts letters.

And then, even quicker, the two of them were off to school and he was alone in the cottage, with only himself for company. Remus was still teaching Luna Lovegood and Ginny Weasely, but he was now doing it at the Lovegoods’ house.

For the first year he kept himself busy during his off-time sorting through his inheritance. It had been rather shocking to learn that as the last remaining member of the direct-male line holding the Black name he inherited the whole of the Black fortune, despite being disowned. That amused him greatly, though he didn’t enjoy what it entailed.

Dealing with Kreacher and sorting through all of the items at Grimmauld Place was a nightmare. After one too many fights with Kreacher over some dark object or another he finally threw up his hands in frustration.

“Merlin’s Balls, Kreacher! I am head of the Black Family now and if I want to torch everything here I can bloody well do so! Now give me the twice-bedamned locket and let me get to work!”

Kreacher stopped yanking on the chain of the locket and gazed up at Sirius, “Master means that?”

Sirius frowned, “Means what?”

“Master means to destroy the locket?”

“Of course I do! I mean to burn it with the rest of the garbage!”

Kreacher stared “Here, Master. Can I watch? Will you do it now?”

Sirius frowned in confusion, “I suppose. Why is it so important?”

Kreacher’s mouth opened to respond, but then he froze, obviously fighting himself. Finally he blurted out in a rush, “Master Regulus be asking me.”

That gave Sirius pause. He stared at the locket carefully. If Regulus had wanted it destroyed…and Regulus had been working for Lord Voldemort before he disappeared…

Sirius’ heart gave a lurch and he had the sudden urge to be sick. Regulus…his baby brother…

He clenched his jaw as his blood began to boil in anger. “Kreacher, I promise to destroy it, but I need to ask someone for help. I’ll be right back.”

Sirius drew his wand and sent a patronus to Albus. He had a feeling that whatever this locket was, the Headmaster would want to see it.

XXX

Albus stared down at the melted lump of metal that had once been a horcrux. It had been pure luck that they had found it. With it destroyed, then Voldemort should lose his mortal tether and move on.

Should being the optimum word.

Because he hadn’t.

No, he’d possessed Quirrell and tried to steal the Philosopher’s Stone. Albus groaned and put his head in his hands.

It had been a long day.

And he was getting too old for this.

He’d rushed off to 12 Grimmauld Place as soon as he got the patronus. Then, after destroying that, he’d received a message saying he was needed in London. Upon arriving he’d gotten an incredibly bad feeling and instantly apparated to Hogsmeade. He’d run past Hermione Black helping Ronald Weasley back through the trapdoor. He’d gotten to Harry Potter just as the boy had passed out. After mysteriously burning Quirell with his touch, when Albus knew for a fact that blood protection should not be active. He’d witnessed Voldemort’s spirit fleeing his dying servant.

He knew he wasn’t gone.

And he knew he should be, since his remaining here meant one thing and one thing only.

There were more horcruxes.

Which had to be impossible.

Right?