Chapter 9: Cleansing Lightning

"So, I take it you're the reason that there's a flashing sign over the headmaster's head," Remus said to Harry, who was laughing at the retreating old man.

"Yup," the boy said, regaining control of himself.

"Aren't you afraid people will tell him that it's there?" the werewolf asked, not seeing the advantage if it was going to be taken away quickly.

"There's an enchantment on it. People will think they can use it to their advantage," Harry said, breaking out into giggles.

"That's right smart of you, Harry," Sirius said, clapping the boy on the back at a joke well played.

"I thought so. Hey, Sirius, I know we have to get to Gringotts, but I have a thought. Do you have anything that's not dark magic and a few more things that do have dark magic that I can experiment with?" Harry asked, looking at his godfather with a tilt of his head. It was something he had been thinking about since he cleansed the horcrux. If he had been cleared and not hurt, and the horcrux had been completely cleared, then maybe he could use it to his advantage.

"Sure," the man said, grabbing a pair of self-cleansing ink brushes and some of the biting paper clips. "Try these," he said, handing them to his godson. They were unimportant. If the kid messed them up, they were easily replaceable, and the biting paperclips were a waste of space anyway.

Harry took all of them and put them in the fireplace and hit them with lightning, which sparked for a few moments and then fizzled out. He picked them up and then gave them to Moony. "Do they still have magic?" he asked the werewolf.

Remus ran his wand over them and nodded, "Yes, the self-cleansing ink brushes are still the same as they were before, but the biting clips are clean, they are now just regular magical paperclips. Why did you do that?" the man asked, handing them to Sirius, who ran the same spells on them just to verify.

"I wanted to see if my lightning is cleansing. I wanted to double check if it just got rid of dark magic, and it did. It might be a cure for you," Harry said, looking at the worn man, who got a look of hope in his eyes.

"Before you try him, why don't you hit me with it first," Sirius suggested, thinking there was less chance of it hurting him. He didn't want his friend to be the first guinea pig, he'd rather take that fall. Not that he didn't trust his godson, but this was new magic.

"You don't have a curse on you," Harry pointed out confused, not sure why his godfather would suggest that.

"I have some residue," Sirius said, thinking of all the dark magic that had been used on him during his lifetime. That and the dementors and such. "You remember what I told you about my childhood, that and my stay in Azkaban," he pointed out.

"Okay, I can try. Go and stand in front of the fireplace, since it's the only brick in the room. This is going to hurt," the teen warned Sirius, who shrugged and decided to sit instead of stand. He figured if it was going to hurt, he'd rather not fall.

And hurt it did. His whole body arched as the lightning cleansed him of all the dark magic that had affected him throughout his lifetime. It was far more than he remembered. His mother must have hit him more as a child than he thought. Or he got cursed more in the war than he remembered. Or the dementors did a number on him, far more than he expected. Either way, he was in quite a bit of pain.

A few minutes later it stopped, and Sirius slumped to the ground and groaned. Harry and Remus rushed to his side. The sparks were still shining in his hair, but he was remarkably unscathed.

"How do you feel?" Harry asked, worry evident in his voice. He hoped he didn't make his godfather a squib. He didn't think so, he was sure it just got rid of dark magic.

"I feel… great. I don't think I've ever felt this good," Sirius said, running a hand through his now spark free hair, getting off the ground and stretching. "My head is clear. You've gotten rid of the dementor effects," he said with a laugh as he grabbed his godson and swung him around in a circle. He took up his found wand and started casting spells, just to prove that he was fine with magic. They all saw that his magic was crisper than before. There wasn't the lag that the wand had last time he used it.

"I didn't think that was possible," Remus said in awe, though there was a huge smile on his face. There was a chance that he could be cured. He would suffer an hour of pain to be free of his curse. Heck, he'd suffer days of pain for that.

"Do you want me to…?" was as far as Harry got, when Remus all but ran and sat in front of the fireplace.

"Merlin, yes!" he yelled with fervor. "I've been looking for a cure my entire life," he said with such passion that Harry had no choice but to believe him.

"Alright, like Sirius, this is going to hurt. Probably for longer," Harry warned, feeling sorry for just how much it was going to hurt the werewolf. He cast the lightning on his father's friend and the howling that followed would have surely had the cops called on them, if the neighbors could hear them.

"Damn," was all Sirius could say as he watched his remaining childhood friend writhe on the ground, but he didn't interfere knowing that he would be fine when it was done. He clapped his hands over his ears and closed his eyes to block out the noise and the sight. It was almost too much to endure.

Ten minutes later it stopped, and a panting man lay on the ground, but there was a smile on his face. "He's gone," Remus said between breaths. "He's finally gone." Then his eyes rolled to the back of his head, and he passed out.

"Is he alright?" Harry asked, wringing his hands as Sirius checked his friend.

"He's fine, he just fainted," the man said with a chuckle.

"Fainted, why?" the teen asked, not sure that men did faint.

"Too much pain, or the shock of not being a werewolf, or both," his godfather said, levitating the ex-werewolf to the couch. There he settled the man, lifting his feet to the arm and leaving the head down.

"Oh, I guess that makes sense," Harry said, nodding his head, though he really only got the gist.

"You could sell this talent and make millions," Sirius said, thinking of all the money the boy could rake in.

"No thanks," Harry said, shaking his head, then added, "I think I'd like to be a kid for a while first. I mean, I'm already the Boy-Who-Lived, I don't want to be the Boy-Who-Cures." His face took on a repulsed look.

"I can see that," the older man said, thinking of those books that Harry hated so much. He was having Andi look into them on the sly. Harry would get his slice of that pie and a cease-and-desist order would be given. If Harry started curing werewolves, then it would start all over again. Now all they had to do was convince Remus.

The man was only out for a few minutes, and in that time Sirius and the elves gathered up all of the goblin made items that his family had turned into dark objects. He had Harry cleanse them so they could be returned to the goblins. This way they wouldn't charge him for the cleaning, which was one of the reasons he had been reluctant to take them back in the first place. Now, he was downright giddy at the prospect of it.

Harry was having a grand ole time just blasting away at them. The whole house was feeling cleaner by the moment. Dobby and Kreacher were popping around and grabbing anything that felt the slightest bit tainted, even the books.

Remus groaned when he recovered. "What hit me?" he asked as he sat up, then he remembered what happened. He stood up and whooped, jumping in the air, and pumping his fists in a 'yes' gesture.

"I see you remembered," Sirius said, jumping over to his friend and clapping him on the back. "I have a theory," he added, thinking of something. "I want to see if you are now an animagus."

"You think?" the other man asked, trying to think of how he felt when he turned to a werewolf to see if he could transform that way. He felt something and followed that feeling and slowly transformed into a wolf, but he kept his human mind. He wasn't a werewolf, but a common grey wolf. That was okay by him. He didn't want the preconception that went with being a magical animagus.

"Are you going to take Albus up on his offer?" Sirius asked, changing the subject, while the elves continued to ply Harry with dark objects.

"I had thought not to. Why?" Remus said, changing back to human.

"I think you should, if only to keep an eye on him. That and if you don't tell him that your curse is gone, you can have me sub for you," Sirius said with a wicked grin. It would be a great prank, to have everyone think that Remus was still suffering. That way they would treat him the same. This would also give Harry time to be a kid, and he could convince Remus to leave the kid alone about curing the other werewolves. Or have Harry do it on the sly. It would take some planning, but Harry didn't need the publicity.

"That sounds downright Slytherin of you, Padfoot," Moony said, though he wasn't sure if he could call himself that anymore. Then again, wolves still howled at the moon. He wanted to shout it to the world, but he could see that Sirius had other plans. He would wait to see what they were. It wasn't his secret to share.

"Thank you, Moony, and yes, that will still be your Marauder name," Sirius said with a decisive nod. He was just glad that Remus didn't seem to want to push it for now.

"Okay, I think I've got it all," Harry called from the fireplace, looking a bit worn out. There was a pile of artifacts next to him. "This is all the goblin-made stuff you have in the house," he added, waving to the pile. He was getting knackered from all the magic use. "I'm going to get a snack before we leave," he said, going to the door to head to the kitchen.

"Alright," Sirius said, clapping his hands and rubbing them together, "let's get this show on the road." He waved his wand and put all the items in a bag he conjured and headed to the kitchen to wait for Harry.

After Harry fueled back up, they left for the bank.

Hphphp

Meanwhile, Dumbledore made it to Hogwarts and was trying to get to his office when he was waylaid by Severus.

"Did you find the Potter brat?" the dour man asked as he walked besides the old man. He knew the old man had had people looking for the brat for a week now. He, himself, had had to check to see if the Dark Lord's followers had somehow kidnapped the child. It had been a dangerous undertaking, but he did it without giving away his position. It had been close, but he was a good spy.

"Yes, but he is no longer important," Dumbledore said, and Snape saw a sign that stated he was saying the truth in neon pink. Albus kept walking not noticing the sign over his head, nor did he seem to notice that he was giving information freely.

'That's new,' he thought, and then asked, "Why?"

"Harry no longer has an essential piece of a puzzle that I need," the old man said, which caused the sign to read 'minor manipulation' in neon green.

"And what piece would that be?" Snape insisted, wondering if the man knew he was broadcasting his intention in such a manner. Well, he wasn't going to tell him. He could use this, and he hoped that others would find they too could do the same. It had been too long that Dumbledore had used people as chess pieces, perhaps it was time someone else controlled the board. Or at least the pieces controlled themselves.

"There was a horcrux in his head, which is no longer there," Albus said, waving his hand like it was not an issue, which caused the sign to read 'mostly true' in neon orange. Which meant that it was true, but it was more important than he was making it out to be.

"I think that is very important," Snape disagreed, knowing what a horcrux was. "When were you going to tell me about the Dark Lord's horcruxes?" he asked instead, not caring about the one gone. Well, that wasn't completely true, but that also meant that Potter was no longer in danger from Dumbledore, which lessened Snape's burden.

"I didn't want to burden you," Albus said, with a pained look. This time the sign read, 'barely true' in dark purple.

"You are hiding the truth from me. While that is true, there is more," Severus stated, stopping his walking, and making the old man do the same. "Tell me, why keep this a secret?" he demanded.

"I thought you'd fall into old habits and try to make one yourself," Dumbledore confessed, hanging his head.

"I thought you trusted me," Snape said in barely a whisper, hurt that the old man didn't trust him enough to tell him about the horcruxes. As if he would ever do something as evil as to make one. He might be dark, but he was not evil.

"Dark magic is addicting, I know this, I have done my best to keep you away from it. I only want what is best for you, my boy," Albus said, the sign stating that his spoke the truth as he knew it.

"You should have trusted me to be adult enough to know what is best for myself," the indignant man stated, whirling away in a flurry of robes. He needed to get away from the old man right now. "I will contact you later about the Dark Lord's horcruxes. Something else you should have confided with me and the others in the Order. Your keeping secrets from us shows that you think little of us. If you don't let the others know, I will, and you will lose their trust as well." With that he stormed away.

Albus Dumbledore shook his head at what just happened, then disregarded it as unimportant right now. He had other things to worry about. He needed to get Voldemort's horcruxes. The Order's hurt feelings could wait until that task was complete. Now that Harry Potter was horcrux free, he couldn't rely on the boy to find them. It was up to him now.