DISCLAIMER: HARRY POTTER BELONGS TO J.K ROWLING

1991

"Albus!"

Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, looked up from his gigantic pile of paperwork for the upcoming school year to see a pale faced Minerva McGonagall barrel into his office, clutching a piece of Muggle paper in her fist.

"Why Minerva, a good morning to you too. Would you like a lemon drop?" said the most powerful yet arguably cracked wizard in the world.

"I don't have time for your games today Albus. The replies came from some of the first years today and you have to see this, maybe even bring Severus into this" replied McGonagall in a calm and collected voice which hid the panic she was feeling inside as she watched the Headmaster raise a single eyebrow.

"Why Minerva, I have not seen you this disturbed since you applied for your Transfiguration Mastery with me." Replied Dumbledore with a chuckle as he took the paper from her hand, but promptly stopped when he saw the name written of it.

"Impossible."

"So you see what the cause of my concern is."

Nodding, Dumbledore slowly opened the letter and started reading-

Headmaster,

I don't really know who you are or whether this is a prank, but the owl was really insistent on getting a reply. Anyway, I don't really believe in this whole magic thing but I'm giving you the benefit of doubt as it would explain some extraordinary events which happen around me.

Though I would really like to attend your school and see what it offers to it's students, I don't really understand where I'm supposed to get the stuff for this 'magic' school for I'm intimately familiar with the streets of London and I have never really seen a wand shop there or really any sign of magic, which makes me quite skeptical about this whole thing.

So, I hope you don't mind sending a letter to explain more about this school of yours, I mean that is what boarding schools usually do, at least in the non-magical world. I'm not sending an address along with the letter because if an owl can find me once then it can surely find me again.

Yours,

Oberon Regulus Black

Dumbledore stopped reading and looked up at Minerva, who was distinctly unnerved by the absence of the twinkle present in his eyes.

"This is indeed troubling news, Minerva."

"What are we going to do Albus? The boy is clearly the son of Regulus Black, however may that be possible considering that Regulus is reported to have died sometime around 1979-80, which makes this boy the only living scion of the House of Black after Sirius. If the boy's existence is revealed, the Ministry will come down on him with force solely due to his family connections."

"You are forgetting that not all Blacks are inclined towards the dark, look at Andromeda and little Nymphadora was such a delight. Additionally the boy has surely been raised in the Muggle world and seems unaware of his heritage. Nevertheless, get ready looks like we have a visit to London planned in the books, plus it would be a refreshing change from all this paperwork."

Minerva was almost at his door when she turned and solemnly said, "You do remember that Harry Potter is arriving at Hogwarts this year. Combine this with your plans for the third floor, I cant help but feel that the appearance of this new Black is not a coincidence."

"You are jumping to conclusions, Minerva. The boy hasn't been raised by the Blacks, and I would prefer to withhold my judgment until I've met him"

"Very well" with a swish of her cloak she was gone.

"Well Mr. Black, you have brought quite a storm without even meaning too. I can't wait to see where this is going to lead us." Dumbledore mused.

Magnolia Crescent, Surrey

*POP*

The sound preceded the arrival of two of the most peculiarly dressed people the county of Surrey hadn't seen since Halloween of 1981. It was quite clear to see that even these people were quite shocked to see just how close Magnolia Crescent was to Privet Drive, which had been their destination almost a decade earlier.

"Albus, I've been telling you that something is amiss here. First he is coming to school the same year as Harry Potter, but now he also lives not two miles away from the Boy-Who-Lived."

"Boy-Who-Lived, Minerva? I dare say that you have made me lose my bet with Severus that you are too level headed to use the...ah, how did he put it...'infernal name bestowed upon the brat by dunderheads'...yes that's it."

"How can you be joking at such a time! Who knows what that boy is like? We never knew of his existence. For all we know, he has been raised to believe and follow his family's ideals."

"There is only one way to find out" said Dumbledore as he knocked on the door.

Immediately the door was opened and a childish voice said "Seriously, who spends ten minutes outside of someone's door? I have been waiting for so long for one of you to knock. Anyway I am Oberon Black, you can call me Obie, nice to meet..." the voice of the now identified Oberon trailed off as he realised that his audience were not paying attention to him, rather they were staring at him transfixed.

Dumbledore was rather shocked at the appearance of the young boy. He knew that in the Ancient and Noble Houses some characteristics were hereditary, like the Malfoy's blonde hair and pale skin and the Potter's rather messy black hair, but the boy in front of him surpassed those expectations by quite a margin. The boy had inherited the Black's customary black silky hair though his was a close cropped unlike the mane like one often seen. He also had high cheekbones and an angular face and had a nice bronze tan which made him almost look like royalty. But his eyes, they ruined the perfect Black image, as they were an unnatural orange bordering on gold, unlike the usual grey often sported by members of the Black family. The boy also held himself in such a way which spoke of self confidence, a trait which was rather rare to see in pre-pubescent children. Overall he was quite sure that the young Oberon Black could quite easily stop Phineas Nigellus in his tracks with nothing but his looks. Now that was a prank to consider. Suddenly his eyes widened as he felt a small amount Leligimency brush against his mental defences, a probe which was coming from the boy.

"Uhh...is there a problem?" queried the young boy with slightly narrowed eyes which were inspecting the 'wizards'. They were quite oddly dressed and had that crazy but still mysterious look going on for them, especially the old man, who had to be Albus Dumbledore, no one with that many titles could look sane and this old man just proved his theory. He mentally sighed, looks like he lost that particular bet. He didn't realise that in his musing, he had lost control of his mind for a moment and sent a probe towards the old man. His eyes widened as the probe crashed against what felt like a wall before he could have a glimpse of the old man's mind. He looked up to see his surprised being reflected back in the man's eyes.

"Ah! Pardon me, the old mind seems to wander quite a lot these days. I am Albus Dumbledore and this is Minerva Mcgonagall, we are from Hogwarts and received a letter about some queries that you had."

"Yes, I sent that letter, though I was not expecting the Headmaster and Deputy Headmistress to come personally..."

"Nevertheless we decided that it would be better if we came personally to insure that everything was in order and that there would not be any mistake like the one with your , it would be better if we continue this discussion inside the house, won't you agree , Minerva?" Dumbledore not so subtly suggested.

That seemed to have broken his Deputy out of her daze. "Yes of course! After you ."

"Uh..yeah, sure! C'mon in."

The house was small, if could even be called that, a shack was a more fitting word. It contained a small living room with two old, worn out sofas and a couple of shelves which were empty. There were two more doors, one leading to a bedroom and the other to an equally small kitchen.

"You don't have much stuff,do you?"Minerva asked looking around trying to find anything that would give any indication as to the boy's personality.

"Yes. I don't believe in particularly cluttering a place not to mention that you would need money for that and.."he abruptly stopped and turned a furious red as he mentioned something which he considered private.

"Is there anyone else around? Perhaps your guardian?" Minerva asked quickly, children who were not well of were quite sensitive about monetary matters, though that wouldn't soon be a problem for the young Black in front of her.

"No, I live alone." came the curt reply.

Minerva raised an eyebrow "Surely you are not implying that an eleven year old lives by himself ?". Surely the boy had someone? Mother?Aunt? or even a cousin?

"Nope"he said, popping the p "that's how it's been since I was 7."

Minerva and Albus exchanged a look at this.

"My boy, perhaps we would be of more help if you could tell us how you came to be here. It could certainly clear many as none of your family has ever found themselves on this side of London."

"My family? You know them?"

Dumbledore just raised an eyebrow and motioned for him to continue with a wave of a hand.

"Okay okay fine. From what I've been able to find out I was born in a low class hospital on 25 April 1980, my mother died while giving birth to me only leaving behind a name for me and nobody knew my father. My condition was kinda difficult because of that as there was no one to take me in, my mother never mentioned any family for whatever reason. And then I was shifted to an orphanage where I was told that the wardon was actually raised there along my mother, which I soon found out to be lie, never knew why that lie was even fabricated. I lived there for a few years, learned to speak and read and write and then I learned about the wardon's true colours, he kept the kids upto 6 years of age separate from the rest, you know well fed and everything because that is the age with the most likely candidates for adoption. After that you were put to work. Anything from manual labour to begging to pickpocketing, I survived that for a year before the dear old wardon became enraptured by the wonders of betting and alcoholism and life turned into hell. He was starting to have some crazy ideas and I decided that I have had enough and bailed from there. Two years of living on the streets, working some odd jobs, keeping my head down until I had enough money to buy this place and then starting life anew in this small, quite, boring little place. So that's my life in an incredibly tiny nutshell, now can you answer my questions, beginning from how exactly I can do magic and why have I never seen anyone else do it? You guys run a school, so clearly these witches and wizards are not an endangered species."

Oberon paused to look at the completely gobsmacked faces of one Albus Dumbledore and Minerva McGonagall, in a few years he would realise just how incredibly rare this moment was.

"You...ran away and...lived on...the streets of London...for two years?" McGonagall asked in a trembling voice.

"Yeah, as I said, life in a nutshell."

Dumbledore cleared his throat and gave the boy a once over. It was barely noticeable but the boy held the poise of a self made person who had already experienced the less than stellar side of life. The boy's monologue cleared quite a lot of questions but brought out just as many.

"Well to answer your questions, your family comes from a long line of witches and wizards who had an incredible impact on the Magical Community, both good and bad. You have to understand that the Wizarding World is not utopian and almost a decade ago a wizard named Lord Voldemort started a war in the Wizarding World based on the purity of blood, the older the better, unfortunately most of your family believed in that propaganda and blindly followed him, until he was defeated in 1981 after which most of them were either killed or imprisoned. Considering what you said in your letter and how you have been acting I am lead to believe that you already knew a small amount about the Magical World, though I wonder how as you've clearly mentioned that you have never met another witch or wizard. Moving on the entrance to the Wizarding World is through a small pub in London called Leaky Cauldron which leads to Diagon Alley, the main market place for the witches and wizards of Britain. If that is all then perhaps you could help placate the curiosity of this old man, as I still have some rather important questions for you."

"And don't forget to explain how exactly you managed to survive on the streets alone." Minerva said sternly.

Oberon sheepishly rubbed the back of his head before answering her,"Well I did say that I learned a variety of skills both at the orphanage when I started working and also from the streets, though I'm not completely comfortable in discussing them with a figure of authority, I hope you understand that."

"Quite understandable, my boy"Dumbledore quickly replied before Minerva could start berating the boy,"though I am quite confused as to why did you not focus on inquiring about your family instead of answering Professor McGonagall's question?"

"Yeah, at this point anything you tell me about my family is just like history, I would not consider myself to be immediately related to them and also not follow whatever ideals they were following under this Voldy guy. I am my own person and knowledge about my family is more of a curiosity rather than obsession."

"That is quite the mature answer for your age. But you are still not answering my questions." said Dumbledore dryly as he assessed this new addition to the Wizarding World and what the reaction would be, nothing good as the Blacks were still quite prejudiced as their last Acting Head had been none other than the lovely Walburga, who had died about six years ago.

"Very well, I guess I've stalled long enough, what exactly do you wish to know?"

"To begin with, even though your letter made it clear that you questioned the existence of magic, it is quite clearly not the case. Moreover you have access to information about your past which is not possible for any 11 year old to accumulate, with or without magic. What do do you have to say about all this?" McGonagall asked sternly, never a step behind Albus when it came to questioning things especially related to her pupils, past,present or future ones.

"Ok, so it started when I was around three, or atleast that's my oldest memory, small things you know, I essentially summoned things from faraway, fell down from the roof of a building and bounced off the ground instead of going splash."

"But there is more, isn't there?" Dumbledore queried gently.

Oberon sighed,"The problem started when I was around 6, I started hearing voices in my head. At first I thought I was going crazy, but then I realised that the voices were of other people...in their heads."

McGonagall took a sharp breath and gave Dumbledore a look, which clearly said "You know something about this situation, which I don't".

Dumbledore ignored the look for his own question, "Can you control it?"

"Yes...or at least at first. Nowadays, it is getting quite harder and believe me I'm trying my best. You wouldn't the type of things going on iin people's head." He answered with a shudder.

"Albus, how is this possible? Legilimency by an eleven year old boy? This is unheard of."said McGonagall.

"Legi-what! You guys can actually do it! This is awesome, I thought I was the only one. We should totally compare notes on who has the most disgusting stories!"

Dumbledore chuckled, it never failed to amuse him to see such young children acting their age, indeed the folly of youth."You see , Legilimency to put quite simply is the art of reading people's mind. Though I dare say, you are an unique exception to it. You see, most Legilimens, who practice the art, learn to do so and are not born with that ability. This makes you quite unique, as you are the first Natural Legilimens I have seen in the past few decades as they are exceptionally rare to find. As for your ability to control it, it arises a problem as Natural Legilimens can't stop their abilities unlike the other ones, the best you can do is practice it to a point that the voices turn into nothing but a buzzing in the back of your mind until you focus on them. Moreover, as you grow older, so will your capability with the skill, I suppose that is the reason you are starting to have a problem with it."

"Wow! That's a lot of information in a short amount of time. But it doesn't explain how I hit a brick wall when I tried to reach your mind."

"Wizards can be quite clever when they wish to be, Mr. Black, this cleverness resulted in the formation of Occlumency, the art of shielding your mind from external attacks, and with all modesty, I'm quite a good hand at it."

"I don't think I can stomach any more information about this mind reading stuff without throwing up. So, let's move on to other topics, if you don't mind? How am I supposed to buy my things for school, I really can't afford it."

This time it was McGonagall who replied, accepting the boy's decision to change the topic, "Money won't be a problem for you . The Blacks are quite rich and have gathered quite the fortune over the years. It is the duty of Hogwart's staff to introduce those without the knowledge of magic, to the Wizarding World. If you won't mind, I think now is the best possible time to go to Diagon Alley and I suppose I could accompany you for Headmaster Dumbledore has quite a few things to check." She gave Dumbledore a look, she had argued that this was the best possible opportunity to go and check on Harry Potter.

"But what about Harry?" questioned Oberon.

"Harry?" Dumbledore and McGonagall intoned together, with the slightest note of worry.

"Yes, he is my friend who lives just a few streets away in Privet Drive and I'm reasonably sure that he is also a wizard, however much he denies it."

"Could you... could you perhaps elaborate a little." questioned McGonagall in a plain voice, most of her suspicions and misgivings having been laid to rest after the conversation with the young man, though she could not stop her shudder at the thought of another pair of a Potter and Black being friends after the experiences she had with the Marauders.

"Yeah sure. When I moved in, I decided to explore the neighbourhood. When I reached Privet Drive I saw this guy weeding the garden, dressed in rags in No.4, I thought nothing of it until the next week when I saw some of these kids from the same school bullying him and then the women came from his house, scolded him and dragged him inside. Now, I am a naturally curious guy and this smelled fishy. So after some questioning the neighbours, both verbally and magically I reached quite the conclusion. The official story is that the saint like Dursleys, the family in question, actually took in their nephew after his parents died in a car crash. The kid, Harry, was supposedly a trouble maker, you know lying, stealing and stuff like that, most of which was just hearsay. The story in the family was quite opposite, I gleamed from their mind that Harry was apparently forced upon them by some 'freaks' as they thought of them, I think that they meant wizards, and quite simply put, hated him. Made him sleep in a cupboard under the stairs, starved him, made him cook their food, gave him worn out clothes and made him do all the chores around the house. This was simply unacceptable, so I decided to help him. Stopped his bullies and helped him in his chores out of the house when his relatives weren't around. When their whale of a son, Dudley, complained that the 'freak' had befriended 'another freak', Vernon Dursley came around to threaten me." at this point Oberon simply stopped to observe the reaction of his audience.

McGonagall looked beyond furious and according to her thoughts most of her wrath was directed at her employer sitting beside her, who had paled considerably but nothing could be gleamed about his thoughts because of his Occlu-thing.

"Before you start screaming Minerva, I would like to comment that at present I am reconsidering many decisions I've made over the past few years, which I thought were the right ones." Dumbledore said with a sigh.

"As you should, Albus. I told you that they were the worst Muggles that you could live Harry Potter with. Oh Gods, James and Lily murdered in a car crash? The boy not knowing where he comes from, who he is? Whatever are we gonna do?" McGonagall was almost hyperventilating at this point and her meagre Occulumency shields had long collapsed, owing to the massive shock she was going through, which was proving to be quite a headache for Obie as his brain was blasted by her memories of Harry's parents and their friends, which included his uncle Sirius Black...huh...interesting.

"Perhaps it would be better if Mr. Black continued his tale before we make any rash decisions. But nevertheless, I would like to perhaps check on the wards surrounding the Dursleys home and see if they are still active." Dumbledore mused in a somewhat defeated voice, "Please continue, Mr. Black."

"So Vernon came to threaten me, but I gleamed his thoughts of a particularly pretty secretary at his office, with whom Vernon had some less than professional encounters, Vernon thought that she was in love with him but I am pretty sure that she was buttering up her boss for a quick promotion. So I basically threatened Vernon back about telling Mrs. Dursley about his little lady friend and with that the spineless man melted. Harry's life practically changed overnight as he was suddenly shifted to the fourth bedroom in the house, his chores lessened, Petunia was told to act professional with him and Dudley was given a stern talking about bullying. Harry got a somewhat dysfunctional family and I got a somewhat groupie in Harry, it's rather annoying. But even the newfound family is currently refusing to allow Harry to attend Hogwarts and I've received a plea of help from the specky git. Honestly, its like he expects me to float around and solve all his problems, quite annoying, really." ended Oberon with flourish.

"So he has a family looking after him after all."McGonagall asked with barely restrained impatience while Dumbledore simply adopted a thoughtful expression.

"Do they love him and care for him like their own? No. But they do provide him with all the essentials required for a healthy living, which is loads better than how they used to be. I am quite proud of it."

Dumbledore finally gathered his thoughts together and explained his plan, " Mr. Black, if you would like I think that it would be better if you did your shopping today. Minerva would be able to accompany you to Diagon Alley while I would like to go and have a personal look at 's living arrangement and after that I could take him to the Alley and we could meet there and clear a few things."

Obie noticed how while asking him about his shopping, the Headmaster never really gave him another choice, but he still nodded his head to show his consent to the laid out plan.

"Very well, Mr. Black if you would take my hand and I will promptly introduce to one of the magical means of transportation. Brace yourself for the first time can be quite...disorientating." McGonagall said as she stood up and held her hand for the young man to take while giving Albus to show that she was not opposed to the plans after hearing that the Potter Heir did not need immediate help.

"Wait! What do you mean disorientating? And why are thoughts about tight tunnels and puking going through your head? Unhand me women!", said Oberon, once again slipping into a petulant child, having not noticed McGonagall rolling her eyes and grabbing his hand as soon as he started his babble, after all you simply did not become Deputy Headmistress without meeting some excessively expressive children, as Mr. Black was behaving like.

With a pop both them were gone leaving a amused Headmaster behind.

"Well Mr. Black, you answered my question about your affect on the Wizarding World." Dumbledore chuckled quietly before coming to an abrupt stop, wondering if the boy would end up as another Marauder.

"Better not think about such morbid thoughts." he murmured and left the house, heading to the Dursleys house hoping that Harry wouldn't hold his previous decisions against him, however much he deserved it.

A/N: This is an AU story based on the thought of what would happen if the Golden Trio had another member who had some measure of survival instincts and didn't jump headfirst into potentially lethal situations.

Also, the character of Oberon Black was inspired by the thought that James and Sirius shouldn't be the last of Potters and Blacks to attend Hogwarts together.