Story: I'm Not the One
Author: Veritas Odium Parit
Rating: M+ for Language & Mature themes. Contains Slash, don't like, don't read. Sirius still alive. Characters are probably OOC. Eventually HP/SB.

Summary: After the ministry fiasco, Voldemort conquers privet drive. Harry manages to kill him and goes to live with his godfather. His old friends have abandoned him after discovering his sexual preference, but new friendships are formed, and in midst of everything Harry tries to find his soul mate. Loads of Harry pairings, eventually HP/SB.

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling does.

Chapter one:

-Like a toy,
to a kid,
I said Jump,
And you did-The Black Keys

Harry sat on his squeaking bed, watching the dusty ceiling, counting the cracks. He was currently at Grimmaulds place, expecting a visit from Headmistress Minerva McGonagall. He still couldn't quite believe how much had happened in such a short period of time. Voldemort was gone, defeated, for good. The light had won over the Dark, and to Harry's surprise, without a huge final battle. Voldemorts defeat had merely been an accident; another encounter, but this one was fatal. A simple tool such as a muggle gun had done the trick.
It was sad no one had thought about that possibility sooner, it would have saved Harry a lot of trouble. The victory had cost it's price though, and all the celebrations came with a dull bitterness: Dumbledore, his mentor and a grandfatherly figure through all of Harry's struggles, had died in the final fight. Though he was already mortally wounded by an ancient curse earlier, his death came as a surprise, and was a big loss for all of them. And of course, how could it be different this year, the victory had caused a new problem for Harry.

He still remembered the last fight as if it was yesterday. After the battle at the Ministry of Magic, Voldemort and his followers had conquered the house at private drive, the blood wards had failed their protection, the order arrived just in time to see Harry grab uncle Vernons gun and blow Voldemorts brain to shreds. In a blind rage, Bellatrix had blown up the ceiling, a big piece was directly aimed at Sirius, just as he was running towards Harry with a smile on his face, and a shout, left unfinished: 'You did..' at that moment, the block hit its target. But it was not Sirius. It was Dumbledore, who, knowing his life would come to an end sooner or later this year, had jumped in the fire line and pushed Harry's godfather aside.
In the short battle that followed they had managed to capture the few Death Eaters present, except from Bellatrix and Fenrir. Bellatrix had disapparated, pulling Fenrir along with her, leaving with a promise to revenge herself on the worthless Potterboy. So, this year was going to be just as 'exciting' as all his former years. He was being chased by a psychopathic woman who wanted revenge for killing her lover. Oh yes, Harry was pretty sure that the mad woman had been in love with her master. He shudderd at the mere thought of being in love with Voldemort. All of his other followers had been captured, most of them with the aid of Lucius Malfoy, who had switched sides just in time. He was freed of all charges and was currently occupying a minor position in the Ministry again. Draco was still an arrogant prick, but Harry had found a liking in his sarcastic humor and a few times during the summer break they had exchanged scribbles. Harry even had contemplated writing a real letter to the Malfoy heir, he was bored to death, but had eventually decided against it. He really didn't know if he liked Malfoy or not. He also didn't want to think about it nor pretend to know how exactly he felt about their 'cease-fire'.

After the victory he had been removed from the Dursleys to live with Sirius. At first, he had been excited, his biggest wish had come true, he could live with his 'real' family, but somehow it turned out to be a little disappointing.
He wasn't allowed outside on his own, somehow they all feared Bellatrix would kill him the second he would even stick his nose outside one of the windows. Nonsense, of course, but no one wanted to take more risks. After the blood wards had failed their protection everyone had become more paranoid then moody, it was annoying, really.

Still, Harry had been having a great time, sitting inside with Sirius doing nothing in particular. He remembered their first evening together, alone. It had been one of Harry's best memories and he was
sure he would cherish it forever. Sirius had burned their food, of course, and Harry had decided to make some pizza's while Sirius had been watching him apologetically. Afterwards, trying to cover for his mistakes, Sirius had attempted to wash up the burnt stove, and this ended eventually in a hexing spree and a few broken dishes. Sirius had shrugged his shoulders, stated that the family Black had enough family silver for him to burn food every day, and with those words he had vanquished the broken and dirty pots and summoned a chocolate pie which molly had left for them to eat. Harry had laughed, his first carefree laugh since a long time, and together they'd eaten the whole pie.
Afterwards they'd sat together at the fireplace and talked for hours, drinking butterbeer. Harry had even taken a few sips of Sirius' firewhiskey, and decided he liked the taste, it had burned his
throat, but he'd liked it.

Grimmauld place was a lot cozier now Sirius wasn't a prisoner in his own home anymore. They finally had found a way to get rid of the awful portrait in the hall, Sirius had banished various other sinister objects and replaced them with comfortable elements. The whole house seemed now more like a bachelor residence, with big red comfortable sofa's and bordeaux carpets.
'Typically Sirius to replace everything assembling to green and silver with red and gold'. Harry snickered and lent back into a scruffy old pillow, coughing as dust whirled up into his nostrils.
He was at the moment in Regulus' old room. Sirius had never entered this room, nor had done anything to change the shabby Slytherin interior, and Harry often visited this room to think if or if he wanted to be left alone. He sighed, lately, he had been inside this room a lot. Far too often
stating the fact that Voldemort was death and he was supposed to be a carefree youngster in a bachelor home with a loving godfather.

It was true that at first living here with his godfather seemed like a dream. Every now and then, Remus or Moody would visit him and Sirius, and Harry was as Happy as he thought he could possibly be. He and Sirius had often played childish games, pillow fight or pulled minor pranks on one another. Sirius was more like a big brother then a godfather to him, but he knew this was going to happen and it didn't bother him to cook or do other chores, as long as Sirius threw his dirty laundry in the washing bin instead of random diverted all over the living room.

It had been quite disturbing the first time he found a pair of red boxers with the text 'Can my wand enter you chamber of secrets?' in front of the fireplace. The text gave him a laughing fit as well as a hysterical shudder of apprehension and it took a few of firm shakes form his godfather to calm him down.
The picture of Sirius with these boxers still plagued his mind now and then, and after the incident Harry had begged his godfather to throw his laundry in the wash bin and Sirius had agreed, not wanting to startle his godson in such manner again.
Though he planned to pull a small prank involving said boxers on Harry at a later stage, he just needed a few precautions and preparations. Little did Sirius now Harry had planned something similar as a payback for mentally scarring him. But neither of them had had a good chance to
follow their plans through, yet.

Harry chuckled at the mere thought of his plan, but then his smile faded and he started thinking how Grimmauld place had become a lonely place for him.

Like already mentioned, at first, nothing was wrong. After their first night, they had spent much more other nights this way. Sirius had told him story after story about his own time at Hogwarts and the pranks he, James and Remus had pulled. Harry in turn told him about his life before he'd met Sirius. He avoided talking about his abusive relatives, he didn't want Sirius to know nor wanted
him to feel guilty for not being there for him. He always knew to distract Sirius from the subject, and was at those moments very happy for his Slytherin traits, and, with due respect, Sirius Gryffindor tendencies. Merlin, he almost sounded like Snape.

After two weeks inside though, Harry really wanted to get some fresh air. Sirius understood his Godson, but couldn't allow anything to happen to him, so he called upon the order to find some proper protection. Harry could leave the house now four times a' week, but it wasn't much fun,
'constant vigilance' and not longer then two hours, and never during the night.
At some point, he convinced Sirius to take off together to party in a muggle disco. Sirius, who was as excited about the plan as Harry, agreed after only a few minutes of nagging and together they had
partied all night long. Unfortunately Molly had decided to visit them just said early morning. After finding an empty house, she'd worried sick and called upon the whole order, explaining the emergency. Every single member apparated immediately onto the first steps of Grimmauld place and everyone stood collected in the hall, just as Molly had ushered them inside, trying not to panic and at the same time trying to discover what had happened, Sirius and Harry had walked in, the former drunk and the latter lightly tipsy, laughing and obviously healthy and unharmed.
Their smiles froze as they saw the whole order standing in the front of them, each one of them looking at them with stern frowns, some scowls even matching Snapes', but none of them reaching his look of utter hate and distaste. Because even the black clad bat had appeared to come to an aid and was highly displeased he had lost valuable time because of the irresponsible actions of the Potter brat and his Dogfather. Molly had practically thrown herself at Harry, crying she'd worried sick. Harry had, of course, felt guilty, and promised to never sneak out again and Remus had dragged Sirius off to the kitchen to sober him up and have a 'chat.'
After the 'chat', which probably meant Remus scolding Sirius for his irresponsibility, explaining him what the dangers of such expeditions were and finally threatening to take Harry away if Sirius couldn't keep up to his promises, Sirius had learned his lesson and refused to take Harry outside on a 'little' trip again.

One week later, Harry had tried to convince Sirius to accompany him to the movies, but Sirius had refused and started to become more of a severe role model. And for someone like Sirius, that was a very strange behavior. He didn't gave in, Harry had to stay home, he had tried to convince Sirius countless times to sneak out together, but Sirius simply refused, the last encounter with Remus seemed to have knocked some sense into the otherwise irresponsible Godfather. Harry accepted this 'new' side of his godfather, he didn't want to disappoint Sirius by disobeying him, or complaining. Because, in all other points, Sirius was still Sirius, Harry lived by no rules except one: he had to stay inside and only leave in company of a few order members. It frustrated Harry nonetheless, but he decided to ignore his irritation and to enjoy his time inside with Sirius. They'd build a long slide, made with a little help of Sirius' wand, a few mattresses and loads of water, it was now possible to slide down from the attic directly into the living room, of course you could also jump on the roller-coaster from Harry and Sirius' room, the slide was bumpy and charmed into sharp curves with only magic keeping you from falling. Remus, who had once after hours and hours of persuasion, tried the 'slide of hell', as he called it afterwards, (Harry decided to keep the name), called it a Mad mens project and refused to ever set foot onto the sickening mattress slide again, but Harry slided down
almost every morning, until he and Sirius had found another part of the house to 'ruin with their mischief'. (also a phrase used by Remus).
Unfortunately Sirius, who was of course by now freed of all charges, had received a job at the ministry of magic in the Auror department four weeks after the start of summer break. Sirius saw his opportunity, seeing a chance to hunt Bellatrix down, to regain respect in the Wizarding world and finally to be able to do something for the order in return, and accepted his new post with joy.
Harry was happy for him, and celebrated alongside everyone else. They'd, or rather, Harry had, prepared a dinner and he had seen Hermione and Ron for the first time since the start of summer break. The party had been great, but, after only one week of work Sirius had been sent abroad for a mission. He hugged Harry tightly, and left him in charge of the other members.

That was the first step in turning his summer holidays into a little disaster.

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