The Lesser of the Two Evils
by Healer Pomfrey

All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story.
I am not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes.

COMPLETELY AU! Partly OOC!

Six-year-old Harry Potter was a freak who resided in the cupboard under the stairs of his relatives' house. On this cold autumn day, he had unconsciously cast accidental magic to melt the snow in front of the house, when his uncle had sent him out after dinner to shovel snow.

Before he even realised what had happened, his uncle had pulled him back into the house by his ear, shouting that he would not tolerate it if the boy did freakish things around his house. After swinging his belt forth and back, he forcefully shoved the boy back into his cupboard.

Harry didn't know how long he had been lying on his small baby mattress, sore and in shock about the occurrences, before he resolved to do what he always did when he was in distress.

Unbeknownst to his relatives, Harry possessed an eidetic memory. From the day of his birth onwards, he could remember everything that happened around him, everyone whom he had met, and everything that his parents had talked about. While being locked into his cupboard, he used to spend many hours reviewing the memories with his parents, their friends and his baby buddy Nene.

On this day, he was more distressed than he could remember having been ever before since he came to stay with the Dursleys, especially since he could not properly understand what his uncle's problem was. 'He told me to shovel snow, and I made the snow go away, so what's the matter?' he wondered, crying himself into a rage that was only fuelled by the headache and the other injuries which he had sustained by his uncle's actions.

'I don't want to remain here with Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon,' he thought, angrily. 'I want to be with Padfoot,' he thought, unconsciously releasing a huge amount of accidental magic to remedy his absolutely intolerable situation.

HP

When his cupboard turned around in front of his eyes and finally vanished from the sight, Harry felt frightened at first, however, the strange movement reminded him of something. He had sometimes travelled this way together with his mummy. So he was not overly surprised, when the movement finally stopped and he found himself at a completely different place.

He was not at the Dursleys' home anymore but in what looked like a strange cellar, however, even if it was fairly dark at the place where he found himself, he could see the figure of his godfather lying on a mattress on the floor.

"Padfoot," he hesitantly addressed the man, feeling extremely happy to be with someone whom he considered family.

"Oh Harry, I know you can't be here with me, I must have begun to see things," he heard his godfather reply.

"No Padfoot, I'm here," he whispered, suddenly hearing noises from the neighbouring room. He rose from where he had landed on his bum on the floor and walked over to his godfather's side, carefully putting a hand on the man's arm.

"Harry, what are you doing here?" Sirius suddenly enquired, sounding completely shocked at his sudden appearance.

"I'm sorry," Harry apologized, feeling slightly sad at his godfather's lack of enthusiasm. "I wanted to be with you."

"But you can't stay here with me," Sirius replied, seemingly horrified. "We're at Azkaban, the magical prison."

"Why?" Harry asked, simply. "Why are you in prison?"

"Because they think that I was your parents' Secret Keeper," Sirius informed him, "although..."

"You weren't," Harry interrupted the older wizard. "Peter was their Secret Keeper."

"How do you know that?" Sirius enquired in clear surprise.

"I know everything," Harry informed him, "since I was born."

"Oh Merlin," Sirius muttered, letting out a long sigh.

"Listen Harry, I love you and I'm more than happy to have you with me," he whispered, "but Dementors are all over the place, and they take all the happiness out of people here. I don't want you to be exposed to them."

"It's all right," Harry replied in a soothing voice, as he let himself sink onto the floor, nestling into his godfather's embrace. "I'm here now, and I'll make you happy. I know that I am very happy to have you back, Padfoot."

'Being in prison with Padfoot can't be worse than with the Dursleys at their home,' Harry thought, as he slowly drifted off to sleep, completely exhausted after his large bout of accidental magic.

HP

Harry became soon used to being with his godfather and also realised after a day what it meant to be stuck in Azkaban. However, in spite of the fact that he could not leave Sirius' room and that the Dementors came around every few hours to 'check' on their captives, he felt much happier than he had been at the Dursleys'.

While the Dementors were around, he cuddled close to his godfather, so that they could warm each other, and began to tell the older wizard stories of the time when his parents had been alive, of jokes that Sirius had told Lily and James and of Quidditch matches that the Marauders had held in the garden with Baby Harry riding on James' or Sirius' broomstick.

"Harry, as much as I feel sorry for you for being here, I've never been so happy since they brought me here," Sirius told him on a daily basis.

"I'm very happy to be with you, Padfoot," Harry used to respond, smiling broadly.

When the Dementors were away, Sirius began to teach Harry about magic and the magical world, knowing that with Harry's memory capability, he would profit greatly from these, even if unprofessional, lessons. He also introduced Harry to his cousin, Bellatix Lestrange, who was stuck in the room right next to them, and Bellatrix began to assist Sirius with his lessons.

As the weeks passed, not only Harry but also Sirius and Bellatrix realised that Harry was able to cast spells wandlessly, and they began to teach him spells that would be useful for their stay in Azkaban like warming spells or charms that helped protect themselves from the Dementors' influence. Harry also cast silencing spells around the three of them.

"Harry, you're absolutely amazing," Sirius blurted out, when the Dementors passed by without having any effect on him.

Harry merely smiled, feeling very happy to be able to be with his godfather the whole time and not only being allowed to study but being taught the most interesting thing by Sirius and Bellatrix. He felt as if he had finally gained a family, which he had missed greatly ever since his parents died.

One day, Bellatrix had an idea. "Harry," she said, smirking, "since you're so powerful, maybe you could try to become a phoenix Animagus. As a phoenix, you'd be able to flash the three of us out of here."

"That sounds cool, Bella," the now eight-year-old replied, thoughtfully, "but how do I do that?"

Sirius chuckled and changed into his dog form, much to Harry's amusement.

"Padfoot!" he blurted out in delight, gently wrapping his arms around the dog's neck. "Can you teach me how to change into an animal?" he then asked.

From that time onwards, Sirius added thirty minutes of Animagus training to their daily lessons. "I'm not sure if it's possible to transform into a magical animal at all though," he warned Harry to not get up his hopes too much.

'I will,' Harry decided for himself and tried as hard as he could to change his left hand into his phoenix wing. Nevertheless, it took him almost three years of intense practice, before he was able to accomplish the complete transformation into a water phoenix with dark blue wings and light blue back feathers.

Casting a tempus charm at the wall, Harry realised that he had only three days left before he was supposed to travel to Hogwarts. Even if he had not received such a thing as a Hogwarts letter, Sirius insisted that he should make his appearance at the castle.

The following three days were spent with many discussions among the small family of Sirius, Bella and Harry, while Harry eagerly practised walking on his bird feet and flashing into Bella's room and back. In the evening of the first of September, he felt confident to flash himself to Hogwarts with two people in tow.

HP

Making sure that Sirius and Bella tightly held on to his back feathers, Harry flashed out of Azkaban, feverishly thinking that he wanted to arrive in front of the entrance doors of Hogwarts.

"Harry, can you please cast a cleaning spell at us and change our attire to more presentable robes?" Bellatrix instructed the boy, knowing that he had become very good at OWL level Transfiguration spells and Charms.

"Of course," Harry replied, smiling. He picked up a small stone and transfigured it into dark blue robes, which he held out to Bellatrix, before he repeated the process and made green robes each for Sirius and himself. When all three of them were contented with their attire, he reached out for Bella's left and Sirius' right hand, and together, the small family entered Hogwarts and stepped into the Great Hall, where the Sorting ceremony was just about being finished.

They quietly observed how Ronald Weasley became sorted into Gryffindor, before they walked up to the high table, where several professors immediately drew their wands upon realising who they were.

Harry looked at the old wizard in the centre seat of the table and recognised him immediately. 'That's Dumbledore, the one who dumped me on the Dursleys' doorstep,' he thought, before he let his eyes wander over the rest of the professors, recognising the half-giant who had taken him to the Dursleys' and the one who he had called Granny Mina as a baby. She had tried to talk Dumbledore out of leaving him in front of the Dursleys' doorstep.

"Harry, Sirius, Bellatrix," Dumbledore finally spoke up after getting over the first shock of seeing Harry, who had been reported missing five years ago, together with two convicts who seemed to have broken out of Azkaban.

"Professor," Harry addressed his Granny Mina, not sure what her surname was. "Could you please call the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement here?" he asked what they had decided before leaving Azkaban.

"Sure," Professor McGonagall replied in apparent surprise and headed to the fireplace, shouting into the fire, "Amelia Bones, please come here instantly and bring two Aurors."

"Harry, let's sort you first," Dumbledore suggested, still having his wand trained at the convicts.

"No thank you sir," Harry replied in a firm voice, causing a huge gasp to come up from all parts of the Great Hall.

Before he could add any other word, Madam Bones stepped out of the fireplace, closely followed by two Aurors.

"That's Madam Bones, my cousin Tonks and Auror Shacklebolt," Sirius whispered to Harry, who nodded in understanding.

"Madam Bones," Harry spoke up, overriding the headmaster who had just opened his mouth, probably to give out instructions. "I'm sorry for not making it straight to your office, but I only just now managed to transform into my phoenix Animagus form and flash the three of us out of Azkaban, and my godfather instructed me to flash right to Hogwarts."

"Mr. Potter," Bones replied in clear confusion, motioning her Aurors to hold on to Sirius' and Bellatrix' arms. "What exactly is the meaning of this? Why were you in Azkaban?"

Harry sighed and explained, "You see, Professor Dumbledore here placed me in prison as soon as my parents died. My relatives' house was a hell hole, worse than Azkaban. Anyway, at the age of six, I apparated myself to my godfather with accidental magic, as I couldn't bare my prison anymore, and I stayed with him and Bella in Azkaban."

"I'm glad that you managed to get out. I wished I had known before," Bones interrupted him, seemingly horrified.

"That's all right," Harry replied, smiling. "Actually, I had a good time compared to the years before that," he added, glaring at the headmaster. "Anyway, I'd like to ask you to give my godfather a trial, as he is innocent and never had a trial. He wasn't my parents' Secret Keeper. Peter Pettigrew was, and I can give you my memory as proof."

"Very well Harry, I'll see to it that your godfather receives a trial first thing tomorrow morning," Madam Bones promised, before she pointed to Bellatrix and said, "I know for a fact that Mrs. Lestrange is not innocent at all though."

"Yes," Harry admitted. "That I know. However, she has spent her time in Azkaban developing a counter spell to the Cruciatus curse, which she cast on my baby buddy Nene's parents, and she'd like to visit them and heal them. Please allow her to do that and then maybe honour her deed by not sending her back to Azkaban."

"Very well, I shall accompany Black and Lestrange to St. Mungo's and further to a holding cell at the Ministry," Madam Bones decided, glancing at the two convicts.

"Thank you so much, Madam Bones. I will accompany them," Harry replied in a firm but soft voice, causing Bones to cast him a questioning look. "Are you not going to remain at Hogwarts, Harry?" she asked in confusion.

"No," Harry replied, firmly. "Knowing that Dumbledore, who abandoned me to that hell hole, is the headmaster of Hogwarts, I have no interest in studying here. Sirius and Bella have already taught me in all subjects but Potions, and I'm going to continue my studies in private and will apply for the OWLs with the Ministry of Magic next summer or the year after."

"But my dear boy..." Dumbledore spoke up, rising from his seat in clear panic.

However, Harry completely ignored the old wizard and added, "And Madam Bones, I'd like to make an appointment with you and speak about the charges against Albus Dumbledore for ignoring my parents' wishes of having me placed with my godparents and their families and instead kidnapping me and placing me into an abusive home."

"Of course Harry," Madam Bones replied in a soft voice, sending a glare in the direction of Albus Dumbledore, before she instructed Shacklebolt to make a Portkey for all of them to St. Mungo's.

They were just about to leave, when a boy of about Harry's age came running over to the small group. "Please let me come with you," he said in a small voice. "I'm Neville Longbottom, Harry's god brother, and I wish to accompany him. My granny will surely agree with me. She always said that she was the one supposed to raise Harry, and frankly speaking, I don't care about the opinion of a criminal headmaster. I'll study together with Harry."

An instant later, the group was whisked away to St. Mungo's, from where they left thirty minutes later, much happier and with two more members on board.

HP

Arriving at the Ministry of Magic, Madam Bones questioned Sirius and Bellatrix under Veritaserum. While Sirius claimed that Peter Pettigrew had done everything for which he had been sent to Azkaban, Bellatrix informed her that she regretted everything that she had done and was willing to give the Aurors a detailed list of Death Eaters, who were still running around. She also asked Sirius to annul her marriage with Rudolphus and accept her back into the Black family, to which Sirius agreed, before Madam Bones led them both to holding cells, where they would remain until their trial the following morning.

At the same time, Alice and Frank returned to Longbottom Manor together with Neville and an enthusiastic Harry who had now realised that his family had just grown with the addition of a godmother, her husband, a grandmother and his god brother. 'And at least Sirius will be free, maybe Bella too, so I can go and see them at any time. I'm not in a prison anymore,' Harry thought. 'It's going to be so cool having Aunt Alice home school Neville and me. I really like them all.' Somehow, he felt confused, but also incredibly happy at the latest events.

"My poor boy, you really ran away from the Dursleys' and spent five years in Azkaban?" Augusta Longbottom asked, clearly shocked, as she gently pulled Harry into a hug. "You should have lived here with Neville and me the whole time."

"I know, but still, since that was impossible at that time due to Dumbledore's meddling, Azkaban definitely was the lesser of the two evils," Harry replied, smiling as he relaxed in his new grandmother's arms.

The End