Harry Potter and the Devil's Apprentice
Summary: At the age of 7, Harry Potter disappeared. 10 years later, the world is in turmoil. The Order of the Phoenix struggles to survive as the Dark Lord reveals his mysterious Apprentice. Is all hope lost, or is it still lurking somewhere, in the darkest corners of the Earth? AU
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.
The Aurors left quickly and efficiently and life went on as usual for the people walking over the place where the fight had just broken out. And no one, magical or Muggle, paid any heed to the teenage boy with the lanky build and shoulder-length hair that skulked rapidly down the street, heading towards Buckingham Palace.Chapter 6: Motion
The overall mood at the Ministry of Magic was the same as usual. For dark times that made it easy to lose all happy thoughts within the shadows had overtaken it. The air stirred and no one bothered to stop and think why. None aware that every little thing that happened set into motion a chain of events that were impossible to correct, especially in the dangerous days in which they lived. No one took the trouble to wonder why the Minister and a few top rank Aurors had suddenly been called away. The Minister was always doing something lately, but nobody knew what. Some even ceased to care. All that mattered was that they live another day, and that their families live another day. So naturally, the presence of Sirius Black and Remus Lupin only caused a few whispers throughout the halls.
But if one were to venture further into the depths of the Ministry of Magic building one would find a completely different story.
The strange black-haired boy had been brought to a room in the Ministry. The Aurors had found two wands, a pack of gum, and a variety of Muggle weapons on his person. Mostly knives were found, ones meant for throwing, but there was also a small Muggle weapon the Aurors were not at all familiar with. Not to mention the strange Muggle devices found in the boy's knapsack. There was talk of calling down Arthur Weasley from the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts office, but Scrimgeour nixed that idea. It was bad enough, he concluded, that Black and that werewolf Lupin had to be there. In fact, if it had been up to Scrimgeour, they wouldn't be there at all. He had no love for Black, who, despite being innocent, had encouraged many people to loose faith in the Ministry by revealing the mistake they had made by imprisoning him. Black himself was a pain to deal with; in fact, Scrimgeour often found himself losing his temper around the man. And Lupin did little to bring prestige to anyone with whom he associated. Scrimgeour did not consider himself a bigot. He did admire Lupin somewhat, and if Lupin were human, Scrimgeour would have loved to convince him to be on the side of the Ministry, instead of teaming up with Dumbledore, who was no use to anyone anymore since the man was now dead. But Scrimgeour was determined to let bygones be bygones; Lupin was a werewolf and thus, no use to him. In the end, Scrimgeour's only wish was that one-day the war would be over and more people than not would live to see it through.
Everything was going on with what seemed increasing lethargy and more than just a little apathy as the boy was inspected, until one of the Aurors noticed some light magic on his forehead. Waving her wand over it, the Auror did find something, a simple concealing charm, so small she had nearly missed it. When she removed the charm, she let out a gasp that caused all attention in the room to turn to her. In that instance, the entire mood of everyone there changed drastically. In one fell swoop the melancholy was gone and shock, astonishment, awe, and a fair bit of relief and joy replaced it. The search of the boy's knapsack was all but forgotten.
Scrimgeour didn't quite know what to think. All he knew was that the situation somehow had to be manipulated to benefit the purposes he had in mind and. And noble as some of his purposes were, he had a feeling he might have a hell of a time getting certain people to agree to his plans. Not that he was going to reveal his plans to anyone yet. In the end, he had no idea if what had just been discovered was going to cause more problems than it was worth. He didn't know how the event had come to be, but all that really mattered to him was what it would mean for the future.
For all he knew (and if the lightening bolt scar was really any indication), Mr. Harry James Potter had just risen form the dead.
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One eye opened to find nothing but a blur of colors and strange, amoeba-like shapes. Harry Potter groaned with annoyance. The spell that temporarily enhanced his vision had worn off. His contacts and glasses were in his knapsack, but he could not remember for the life of him where he put it. Then he remembered the fight…
"Damn!" He thought to himself as closed both of his eyes again.
Malfoy had been right; he hadn't been ready for something like an attack. He assumed the attackers worked for the Ministry; they had all been working together under the direction of one person, that was for sure. And although they had been wearing somewhat different Muggle disguises, there had been a sort of dress code they had all followed. They had all worn T-shirts and jeans and the man in charge had been wearing a suit. That man… if only he hadn't… but there was no time to dwell on it.
Harry quickly went over the statistics in his mind: "I'm in the only cell (4 meters by 4 meters) in a room (10 meters by 15 meters) with stone walls and about five torches (magically lit). No windows… but strangely enough, the one door in the rooms is unlocked. Number of living, macroscopic organisms in the room: Two. One is me, the other is another male (medium height, strong build – probably had training)…"
Harry thought he could risk it.
"Excuse me, do you happen to know where my things are?" He asked in the most polite voice he could manage.
The man in the room, who was most likely guarding him, jumped about a foot in the air and turned around so quickly it almost looked as if he had Apparated himself to face the other side of the room.
"Please answer me," Harry tried again, "Do you know where my knapsack is?"
"I… I… it… yes." The man responded. "It's on the table."
Harry nodded. By what he could tell, the man was very young, perhaps eighteen or nineteen.
"Can you bring me my glasses, please?" Harry asked him.
"I… I've been ordered to alert someone immediately once you've awoken." The young man responded. "I can't disobey orders."
"Well…" Harry said, "I don't want to keep you from your duties, it's just that I really can't see very well at the moment. I don't know where I am… all I want is my glasses."
The man hesitated for a moment, "Are they in your knapsack?"
"Yes," Harry replied. "Has anyone searched it or confiscated anything?"
"Well, they searched it," the young man responded as he picked up the knapsack, "But no one told me what they found. Although… they must have found something pretty interesting in it."
"Why is that?"
The man looked at Harry as if he was very strange indeed.
"Because you're Harry Potter, of course!"
Harry kept his face completely blank, "I have no idea what you're talking about. Look, I doubt you're going to find my glasses in there; they're in a certain little pocket inside of the knapsack. Can you just hand me to whole thing?"
The man did and Harry reached in a pulled out a pair of round glasses and put them on. Then he reached in and pulled out a cellular phone.
"Hey!" the young man, who, Harry now saw, was wearing a badge that said: 'Auror in Training', "What are you doing? Isn't that one of those telephone things Muggles use?"
"I need to call someone."
"But..." the man took a step forward.
The instant he did, Harry grabbed him around the neck with one arm as he held his hands in place with another. He then pulled the man's back against the bars, making sure the he had no access whatsoever to his wand.
"You don't think," Harry whispered in the man's ear, "That I would allow anyone to listen to my private calls, did you? I'm afraid your little announcement about my being awake will have to happen sometime after you're awake."
"What do you…?"
Before the 'Auror in Training' could complete his question, Harry conked him on the head in such a way that he immediately passed out. Sometimes basic Muggle techniques were quicker and much more efficient than magical ones.
"That was way too easy," Harry muttered to himself, "You'd think the Ministry, incompetent as it is at times, would at least have the capability to guard a weakened prisoner. Voldemort would have never… Ah! Here it is!"
Harry pulled a small bottle of potion out of his knapsack and quickly drained it of its contents, relieved nothing had been disturbed. He suspected no one had looked too carefully into his knapsack, because many of the charms hiding various things in it were still effective. Grabbing his cell phone, he dialed the number of someone he knew could tell him what the hell was going on.
"Hey, Lulu. It's Jay-Jay." He said into the phone. "Yes, I have reason to speak in code! Where are you?" a pause. "Thank, Merlin!" another pause. "Is M-Dog freaking out? Mm-hmm… Wait! How could that happen?" pause, "I don't know if it was him or not." He paused to listen once more, "How's Knife? If someone is going to go ballistic over this, it will be Knife." Pause, "Thank, Merlin once again! Some Aurors attacked me and I think I'm at the Ministry of Magic, but I believe it will be very easy to escape. I'm going to try and make this work to my advantage; maybe I can discover what the Ministry wants with me. And yes, they did find out who I am. Anyway, I'll call you later. And Lulu, you were right. I… should have listened to you."
Harry shoved the cell phone back into his knapsack before taking out a common Muggle hairpin and unlocking the cell. He gingerly stepped over the motionless body lying on the floor and walked towards the door. Though unlocked, it had many silencing charms on it so those in the other room could not be heard. Harry grabbed his wand, which was lying on the same table his knapsack had been, and disabled them. He then prepared to strain his ears to listen, or possibly use something to aid his hearing. Any measures such as those, however, proved very unnecessary indeed. The people on the other side of the door were discussing their views quite loudly.
"YOU CANNOT LOCK HIM UP LIKE THIS!"
"FOR THE MILLIONTH TIME, BLACK, THE BOY IS… OH FOR THE LOVE OF… WE NEED TO DISCUSS…"
"WE DON'T NEED TO DISCUSS FOR ANOTHER HOUR; HE NEEDS MEDICAL ATTENTION!"
"Minister, Sirius, please." A voice broke in between the belligerent words; "We need to discuss this in an appropriate, adult manner. We all know what you want for Mr. Potter, but what about what he wants for himself. Don't you think we should consider what might happen if he doesn't want to go along with either of you?"
There was a long pause where nobody said anything, and the man who had broke up the squabbling sighed. Harry couldn't help but snicker. The whole situation was entirely too amusing.
"I agree." A deep baritone cut into the silence, "Potter turned seventeen yesterday. Legally speaking, he doesn't have to listen to either of you. And yet…"
"What?" the Minister's voice half-growled as the deep voice cut off.
"He is… strange. Maybe a little dangerous… I don't know! We need to find out whose side he is on and quick."
"He is not a Death Eater!" the man named Black said rather haughtily.
The man with the deep voice sighed, "Just because he doesn't have a Dark Mark doesn't mean he's on our side."
"What do you mean?"
A sonorous laugh filled the room, "You want to know what I mean? Take a look at me. Just because I'm wearing a three-piece-suit doesn't mean I'm not dangerous. And a person can be as polite and mannerly as can be, that doesn't mean they won't kill you." He laughed again, "Perhaps they'll even be polite and mannerly about it!"
The room was then silent, except for a solitary clapping sound. Everyone turned their heads immediately to see Harry Potter walking out of one of the doors leading into the room, the door that led from the cell area.
Harry surveyed his surroundings. This room was also stone, but it had a few of those fake windows in it and more torches. There were few pieces of furniture, just a long wooden table and some chairs in which the occupants sat.
The occupants themselves were also a concern. Four people sat in the chairs: the Minister of Magic, Rufus Scrimgeour, the dark-haired man that Harry had seen yesterday, Sirius Black, the Auror who had led the attack on him earlier that day, and a brown-haired man Harry thought he recognized from somewhere but couldn't quite place.
"How did you get out?" Scrimgeour asked with a politeness that seemed incredibly forced.
Harry rolled his eyes, "Wouldn't you like to know."
He turned his gaze to Sirius Black, whose attentive stare was starting to annoy him immensely. He glared at Black with piercing eyes.
"H… Harry?" Black almost whispered, his voice unbelieving.
"Yeah, what?" When Sirius couldn't find the words, Harry snorted, "Oh screw it all! You people are bloody pathetic. I'm leaving."
The Auror who had been in charge of the attack stepped right in front of him as Harry made his way to the door. He was tall, dark, and rather dangerous looking when he wanted to be. Harry drew himself up to full height and tried to look as menacing as possible while still remaining half a head shorter than the Auror. The two had a bit of a standoff, neither budging an inch, both looking as if they'd walk through a brick wall just to prove their point.
"You," the Auror said, "Are not going anywhere until certain questions are answered. The first one being: what happened to the person guarding you and how did you get out? We had that cell you were in specially made to alert someone if magic was performed inside of it."
Harry laughed, "I suspected that was the case. But even without magic, getting out of the cell was much too simple. As for the bloke who was guarding me, it shouldn't take too long for him to regain consciousness."
The Auror folded his arms and glared, "He's unconscious?"
Harry rolled his eyes, "Relax, it's not like I killed him or anything."
"So you have killed before." The Auror replied easily.
"I never said that. The fact remains that you have no solid evidence against me. Thus, I should not be here. But then again, the rules around this place seem to be 'guilty until proven innocent' these days."
Something flashed in the Auror's eyes. His brow furrowed, and he looked as if he were trying to solve some kind of puzzle. Harry decided not to worry about it, he had his own puzzles to solve, and the pieces were scattered far and wide.
"What do you want, Minister?" Harry asked abruptly.
Scrimgeour must have decided not to cut corners for once and got to the point. Something about Potter led him to believe the boy would see through any kind of act he put on.
"I want to ask you," the Minister began, "To consider a proposal. I'm not too concerned about what you have or have not done in the past. The fact remains that you are Harry Potter. You can single-handedly repair the wizarding world's morale that has been previously broken by the Apprentice. The Ministry would be happy to assist you throughout your life if you…"
"Become the Ministry's poster boy? I don't think so." Harry interrupted.
Scrimgeour's fists clenched, "Then you will be kept in custody until we can find out why you refuse my offer. Shaklebolt, make sure he doesn't get away."
There was a moment in the room where silence reigned. Both Harry and the Auror, Shaklebolt, stared blankly at Scrimgeour as if the man had gone mad. Then, Sirius Black, who had been surprisingly silent throughout the strange passing of events, spoke.
"You can't do that." He said, looking calmer and more dangerous than he had had the entire day.
"I can and I will," the Minister replied icily, "This is a time of war and certain precautions must be taken. If he is not with us, he may very well be with the Death Eaters."
"Just because he isn't with us doesn't mean he's against us," the brown-haired man spoke in Harry's defense.
"Lupin is right," Shaklebolt agreed, although he seemed rather reluctant about it, "So far as we've seen the boy has broken no laws. It is not a crime to remain neutral."
Scrimgeour looked as if he was fighting to stay calm, "What about all those Muggle weapons we found on him?"
"These are dangerous times for everyone, why wouldn't I want to protect myself?" Harry broke in.
The Minister took a deep breath before saying: "Black, make your proposal to the boy. It may be of some use after all."
Black appeared to be lost for words, but quickly recovered.
"Harry," he started, "I don't know much about you and what you've been up to these past… well… this past decade. But, I have always hoped that, if you want a place to stay, you could come live with me. I don't know if anyone has ever told you this, but… I'm your godfather and your parents wanted me to take care of you if anything should ever happen to them. I know I could never take their place but I could provide you with everything you need until you'd be ready to leave and…"
"No." said Harry simply.
"Then you're under arrest," the Minister stated. "I want to keep an eye on you, Potter. These are dangerous times, and you are still too suspicious a character to let out of my sight. I don't trust you living on your own without a guardian."
Before Harry could respond, Lupin spoke, "May I ask humbly request permission to speak to Mr. Potter in private, please."
The way Lupin said it, it was more a statement than a question.
"Fine." Harry and Scrimgeour grumbled at the exact same time, causing both men to glare at each other.
Lupin nodded curtly and headed to the room Harry had previously occupied before barging into the conversation. Harry followed close behind.
"You know," Harry smirked as Lupin shut the door and placed a few silencing charms on it, "I could easily murder you in here and nobody would know until your body was found."
Lupin laughed then, actually laughed.
"I have faith in my ability to defend myself," he replied. "Although I must say, I also have quite a bit of faith in you. A little too much faith, most likely. But I was betrayed once, so I think, if you were really going to turn on me, I could spot the signs much easier than I did before. Don't take me as one to blindly trust, I know you've probably deceived many people already."
Lupin looked the Auror in Training that was still sprawled on the floor where Harry had hit him.
"What do you want?" Harry asked, not for the first time that day.
Lupin looked Harry in the eyes, "If you are who I think you are, I want you to live happily. I want you to live the life you deserve. Tell me, Harry, do you have a place to go?"
"First I was 'Mr. Potter' and now I'm 'Harry', what brought about this change?" Harry snapped.
Lupin laughed again, "I'm sorry. My guard has dropped a bit I suppose. I was trying to be polite and respectful, you see, but I was just remembering a time when you were just Harry, the Harry who would drink from a bottle and spit up on me on occasion."
"You knew me as a baby?" Harry asked, his face completely blank.
"I did. There was many a time I wished to visit you in your youth, but the Ministry refused to let me anywhere near you. Now tell me, do you have a home?"
"Not a home." Harry replied, "But I do have somewhere to go."
Lupin nodded, "I know very well how that story goes. If you want to try something new, I suggest you consent to stay with Sirius. He's a very agreeable person once you get to know him and would treat you well. I'm not asking you to see this my way. Merlin knows, I don't have much of an idea about what you've been up to these past years and relocating might cause you unwanted difficulty. But look at it this way: Scrimgeour isn't going to stop hassling you until he is sure you won't be a threat to the wizarding world… and the Ministry's public rep. Scrimgeour apparently thinks that you staying with Sirius will give him a better chance to keep an eye on you."
"So if I go with Black," Harry said, "I'll not only have free room and board, but also get Scrimgeour off my back. That's what you're saying?"
"Indeed. But you don't have to stay there long if you don't find it to your liking. If you do decide to leave, Sirius and I can cover for you so the Ministry will still be out of your hair and you can go back to how you were living previously, in hiding. Although, we will probably want to keep in touch."
Harry turned to Lupin, "What do you suggest?"
Since Harry's face was still pretty blank, it was impossible to tell which of the two was more surprised by Harry's last question.
"I would suggest," Lupin began, "That you stay at Sirius's place for a couple days. You could go in and out as you please, but I think it best you get used to the atmosphere over there before you decide you dislike it because it's different than what you're used to."
Harry closed his eyes, still refusing to show emotion. Lupin could almost see the wheels turning in the boy's head. Harry was weighing his options, deciding if what Lupin suggested would really benefit him in any way. He then opened the door and walked through it, heading towards where the others sat.
"I am going to stay with Sirius Black," Harry announced. "So you don't have to waste a cell in Azkaban on me, Minister, although I'd probably just have escaped anyway. Personally, sitting around with a bunch of dementors seems like a waste of my time." He then turned and motioned towards Lupin, "I kind of like this guy. Why don't you have more people like him working here?"
The throbbing vein in the Minister's forehead reminded Harry very much of someone he wished he could forget.
"He doesn't work here!" the Minister snapped.
Harry blinked, "He doesn't? Why not?"
"Because," Scrimgeour practically growled, "Remus Lupin is a werewolf."
Lupin's eyes shot to the floor, as if the man feared to look at Harry or anyone else. Before he dropped his gaze, however, Harry caught a flash of what appeared to be shame hidden in their depths. Other than that, the werewolf did not react.
Harry blinked again, "So…"
"What do you mean by that?" the Minister asked, exasperated.
Harry rolled his eyes, "Just because he turns into a monster once a month doesn't mean he's not human 353 days out of the year. And I must say, he's a much better human than certain people in this very room." Harry paused and glanced around the room, "I do believe, Minister, that you wish for a moment to talk with Mr. Lupin and Mr. Black. I will wait outside the door until you have finished your business with them."
No one could do anything but stare as Harry exited the room with a slight bow. The sarcastic teen they had previously dealt with had, at the last moment, seemingly transformed into a polite young man. A young man in pants with chains on them, but a polite one nonetheless. The occupants of the room were now faced with two options to believe. Either Harry Potter could hide his emotions very well and was prone to violent mood swings, or Harry Potter was a very, very good actor.
As for Harry Potter himself, he'd gotten all he wanted from the situation.
"I will depart as well then, Minister." Shaklebolt said, before turning abruptly and following Harry outside.
Once in the hall, the Auror turned on Harry, who merely stood silently and listened to what the older man had to say.
"Look, kid," Shaklebolt said harshly, "I only defended you in there because what Scrimgeour was trying to do was wrong. I've seen too many innocent people thrown into Azkaban because of this government. But that doesn't mean I think that you are innocent. In fact, I don't trust you at all. Boy-Who-Lived or not, the Minister isn't going to be the only one keeping an eye on you, Potter."
Harry let out a short laugh, "It would be in your best interest to stay away from me and everything associated with me, Auror Shaklebolt."
"Are you threatening me?"
"Perhaps I was, or perhaps I was merely giving you some useful advice."
Shaklebolt raised an eyebrow before turning to walk away, looking calm, but alert. Before he was out of sight, however, the Auror turned and said:
"Before I go, let me give some useful advice as well, Potter. If you were to do anything unsavory, it would be in your best interest to stay away from me. Like I mentioned before, I don't trust you."
"Smart man…" Harry murmured once Shaklebolt was out of site, "Too bad he has no idea what he may have gotten himself into."
Harry laughed darkly and absentmindedly fiddled with his wand, waiting for Black and Lupin to emerge. He didn't have to wait long. Soon enough, the two were accompanying him outside and a charm was cast over all three of them to avoid eavesdroppers.
"How many know?" Harry asked while exiting the Ministry, "How many know who I am, that I'm alive?"
"At the moment, only a few Aurors." Black responded.
Lupin nodded, "I think Minister Scrimgeour is going to hold off on revealing that you're alive until he is certain you will improve morale instead of lowering it even more. The Boy-Who-Lived alive and on the side of the light would be a great success story for Scrimgeour's administration. The Boy-Who-Lived alive and against the Ministry would cause problems."
Harry nodded and became silent. He wondered briefly where Black lived and what his home was like. A small apartment came to mind, a cluttered little bachelor pad with dirty clothes strewn over every surface. Harry almost sighed aloud. If he was going to live with someone for a time, he wished it didn't have to be someone so… He didn't quite know how to describe it. What he sensed from Black was not something he was very familiar with.
"So…" Black said nervously, "We have a ways to go before we reach my place. I thought that since it's here in London we should just take the underground. Um… Could you tell us something about yourself, Harry?"
Harry's eyebrows shot up, "Why do you want to know? And what do you want to know? Don't think I'll spill every little detail about my life to you just because…"
"I'm not trying to pry!" Black quickly exclaimed, "I just… want to know what you've been up to. You don't have to tell me everything yet… or ever, if you don't want to. But, well… why not tell us why you disappeared from your Aunt and Uncle's house all those years ago?"
"I ran away. End of story." Harry muttered impassively.
Harry continued walking in silence and jumped when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned to find Black, looking at him with a peculiar gleam in his eyes. They had reached the entrance to the underground and were walking down into the darkness.
"I ran away too," Sirius said quietly.
For reasons he couldn't quite explain, the knowledge hit Harry like a ton of bricks.
"I was sixteen," continued Black, who seemed unsure of what to do, "My parents were really in to the whole pureblood-mania thing. They always had been, actually. It drove me crazy, even when I was young. They were always looking down on other people I thought were great. At first, I just thought I was weird, but my Uncle Alfred told me differently, saying it was OK to question what was right and wrong. Eventually, I started to become the bane of my parent's existence. I was always asking them why they thought purebloods were better and the more they tried to explain the more ludicrous their beliefs began to sound to me. Then I got sorted into Gryffindor and made friends with people whom my parents considered blood-traitors and all hell broke loose. From then on, every time I was at home my mum would yell at me, telling me how terrible I was and how absolutely wonderful my younger brother, Regulus was. She screamed it at me so much I actually started to believe it. Occasionally she'd throw things at me as well. My father, meanwhile, would just trod silently around the house when I was there, looking at me as if I were the vilest creature on Earth. I should have known he'd crack sooner or later..."
Black trailed off and looked fleetingly towards Lupin.
"It's fine, Sirius." Lupin said without even a second glance at his friend.
"What's fine?" Harry asked.
"Procyon Black," Lupin responded, "Cracked the second he discovered his eldest son was best friends with a werewolf."
"Yeah… I hadn't seen that coming." Sirius gave a short laugh that didn't meet his eyes. "I had shut myself up in my room for almost the entire day in hopes of avoiding my mother. Come nightfall, however, I ran out of food and decided to risk going downstairs to get some more for my private stash. Little did I know, my dad was in the kitchen, drunk. He'd found out Remus, one of my closest friends, was a werewolf. The moment he saw me, he started shooting off hexes in my direction. I dodged most of them since my dad's aim was a bit off. He did hit me with some nasty ones though. He also managed to lock the door so I couldn't get out, but I escaped through a window. That night, as I walked through London in the pouring rain with no wand, no coat, and no shoes, I was sure of only one thing: I was free. I was also pretty damn miserable after awhile. At three o'clock in the morning I finally found the Leaky Cauldron and snagged some Floo Powder so I could get over to your dad's place. You should have seen the look on James's face when I showed up at his house before dawn and sneezed all over his glasses because of the cold I'd gotten! Now, I look back on that night and think: thank Merlin it wasn't winter!"
Harry smiled slightly, "Yeah. Nothing is colder than being stuck in the middle of a snowstorm with no one to turn to and no place to go."
Sirius and Remus both looked at Harry, their faces showing signs of something Harry saw only on very rare occasions, and never directed at him, a kind of understanding… But Harry ceased to care. His heart just wasn't in something so useless. For his heart had frozen with the snow one fateful night long ago, when the air he had breathed was colder than in any other place in the world.
"Here's our stop," Lupin said suddenly.
Harry blinked. He'd barely remembered boarding the metro. Nonetheless they had arrived at their intended destination. He wondered briefly if he should question the two men some more. Thinking about it, Harry would rather not speak again, but if he was going to get any information out of them, he was going to have to gain their trust.
"Are you stopping by his place too?" Harry asked Lupin.
"Actually, I live at Sirius's house." Lupin responded.
Harry blinked. The bachelor pad he had imagined was suddenly filled with both Lupin and Black, making it overcrowded in his mind.
"So are you guys good friends, or really good friends?" Harry smirked, unable to resist asking.
Sirius burst out laughing and Lupin made a strangled sort of groan.
"Why does half the world think that I'm…?"
"Aw, Moony!" Sirius interrupted his friend's tirade, "Maybe if you'd work up the courage to actually ask a certain someone out, people wouldn't assume your feigned disinterest in women is more than, well… feigned."
Harry raised an eyebrow, "Does he have a fear of commitment or something?"
"She deserves better than what I can give her!"
"There's someone in particular?" Harry inquired.
"Can we not talk about my pathetic, nonexistent love life?"
"My cousin," Sirius confirmed. "She's head over heels for him too. Only the wanker is too busy being noble to notice."
Harry nodded, "Is it only you two living there then?"
Black let out a laugh that sounded a lot like a bark, "No. In fact, you'd think I was running a bed and breakfast seeing how many people are inhabiting my humble abode!"
Harry suddenly got a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach.
"Who all is there?" He asked warily.
"Well…" Sirius began, oblivious to Harry's predicament, "There's the Weasley's. Their family is doing so much for the war, so when they needed a place to stay to keep their children safe, I told them they were welcome to stay at mine. Then there's the Granger's. They're Muggles, but their daughter is a witch and at the top of her class at Hogwarts. The family got attacked because some Death Eaters didn't like the fact that a Muggle-born was getting better grades than every pureblood in the school. They're staying at my place for safety. The Bone's are staying over. A few of their relatives were murdered and they're afraid they'll be next. My cousin, Tonks, stops by so much she might as well live there. Kingsley, you know him as Auror Shaklebolt, comes over a lot. And another boy, Dean, is staying too because he's a Muggle-born and possibly a danger to his family. I have reason to believe Voldemort wants him dead, but I'm not entirely sure why… Is something wrong, Harry?"
Harry didn't answer. The little apartment he'd pictured Sirius living in was getting smaller and smaller as more and more people appeared in it. He suddenly felt claustrophobic. The idea of having so many people around made his head spin.
"I'm fine." Harry mumbled, "I just don't do very well with people."
Sirius laughed, "You're doing just fine with us."
"Yes, but this is necessary! And I'm pretty sure neither of you are going to kill me anytime soon..."
"Hold on a second," Lupin interjected, "You're saying that if it is necessary to speak and you are sure that those you are speaking to aren't going to kill you, you're just fine, but you have difficulties talking for fun?"
"My persuasive skills are OK, my small talk, not so good. People are bound to ask something along the lines of 'How are you doing?' and 'What have you been up to lately?' and other questions I don't want to answer," was the reply.
"Bring up Quidditch!" Sirius suggested.
Harry inwardly sighed, exasperated. Black was supposed to be one of the leading exponents in the fight against Voldemort. He was supposed to have been very close to Dumbledore before he died. He was supposed to have some more useful information than 'Bring up Quidditch' to disclose… But just as Harry was starting to regret his decision to go along with Black, he was handed a small piece of parchment that said in narrow, loopy handwriting:
The headquarters for the Order of the Phoenix may be found at number twelve, Grimmauld Place, London.
After reading, Harry looked up, not fully comprehending what was happening. The instant he did, another house between number eleven and number thirteen started to reveal itself.
"Here we are," Sirius announced, "My London home. Also known as the Official Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix!"
Harry was sure that if he weren't so good at hiding his emotions, his jaw would have dropped the ground.
"Order Headquarters," he thought with an overwhelming sense of awe, "When I told Draco I'd try to make this whole situation work to my advantage, I had no idea things would turn out to be this advantageous..."
Hooray for hiding information in pronouns, codenames, and one-sided phone conversations!
In the next Chapter, enter: Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and quite a few others. What are their lives like now since Harry has not been a part of them? Plus, Harry is about to meet a character he will inevitably and constantly clash with.
I wasn't trying to make people feel guilty about not reviewing when I wrote that this story had more alerts than reviews; I did say "some people have been just as lazy as me!" This clearly implies that I can be pretty lazy myself. I just thought it was rather amusing. Want to know what else is amusing? This story still has more alerts than reviews!
'Procyon' is the name of a star; it means "before the dog" in Greek. In the northern hemisphere, Procyon rises just before the "Dog Star," Sirius. I thought it was an appropriate name for Sirius's father.
Yes, I know, I don't update enough. I did have this chapter done a week ago but my beta was busy and it got put on hold. I was also working on my original story some more and got distracted. It's coming along ok, except in my attempt to make one of the worlds most perfect villains, my antagonist has become pretty damn invincible. I need a good way to defeat this guy without killing my protagonist and destroying the world. Lately though, I've been really sick, and am still really sick right now, so I haven't been doing much of anything the past few days. One the bright side, I got all A's on my report card (see, I actually work hard when I'm not writing… most of the time).