Chapter 322: The Grimness of Hounds

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I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.

I would like to thank my beta, Awdyr, for his help in this chapter.

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12th September 1995, London (Earth 2)

Sirius Black knew that he wasn't exactly the best portrayal of sanity ever since he escaped Azkaban. Oh, he was much better than he used to be when he just escaped. Honestly, looking back, he had no idea what he was aiming to achieve on that front…

He had simply seen Wormtail in the Daily Prophet and just wanted to kill him, ignoring everything else. After all, this was the traitor… The man who killed James, who killed Lily, who framed Sirius. He needed to have his revenge. It was his right.

Maybe focusing on killing the rat was a bad idea, especially since he could have done much with his newfound freedom. A simple letter to McGonagall would have done the job. Sure, she would have taken it with a grain of salt, but she had nothing to lose by just checking.

In a way, it was this obsession that both saved and doomed him. The prospect of revenge was enough to give him enough willpower to escape Azkaban, but it clouded his judgment. He must have looked like a serial killer when he escaped. It was honestly baffling that Harry even left him time to defend himself.

Even if the rat escaped, seeing Harry properly and talking to him had cleared his mind. On that fateful night, Sirius vowed to be the best godfather he could to Harry, especially since Dumbledore failed to protect him like he was supposed to.

Not that Sirius had done a better job. His godson ended up fighting a dragon, almost drowned in the Black Lake, and was kidnapped and tortured by a newly resurrected Lord Voldemort, escaping with the skin of his teeth.

Which ended up with him hosting the newly gathered Order of the Phoenix in his family home.

He hated this place… It reminded him of his horrid mother, his distant father, and Reggie… He was the perfect little pureblood heir, the one that everyone always called the 'Black heir that should have been'. And what happened to him then? He died, unremembered, at his precious master's hands… His mother must have been so proud, may her soul rot in hell.

He just felt stifled, and Dumbledore was starting to really grate on him. The constant dismissal of anything Sirius said, in his own home no less, was just rude. The man refused to let him out of his sight, refused to allow him to leave his house, where a bad memory sprung up with every gaze he took.

Sirius was a man of action at heart and telling him to stay put was just against his nature. Yet, he did so for his godson. That was what Dumbledore always said, 'we're only doing this for Harry'.

Was it no wonder that the moment he received that letter, he was filled his doubts.

Sirius eyed the piece of parchment in his hand. He was already wary about its content:

Dear Snuffles,

It's been too long since you've stretched your legs, hasn't it? I can only imagine how restless you must be feeling, trapped in that old house with nothing but memories to keep you company.

Your Prongslet will need more than just hope in the days ahead. There is a way to help him, to spare him from the path that lies before him. But it requires more than just sitting on the sidelines.

Remember, Snuffles, in solemn times, the world holds its breath and if you truly seek what your heart desires—for him, and for yourself—you know the words that will unlock the path ahead. However, it is one that you must tread alone.

A friend.

The letter had been a huge red flag. For one, Snuffles was the nickname that only Harry and his friends knew about, and also the fact that they knew that he was staying in his family home.

He had almost sent the letter straight to Dumbledore, but he knew deep in his gut, that the man would exclude him from it again. He needed to know, to understand who it was that knew so much about him…

It had taken him embarrassingly long for him to unlock the letter's secrets. The way the word 'solemn' was used was pretty unusual. He had done it as a joke, more than anything. Without really thinking about it, he muttered the words that had been a part of him for so long, words that once opened the way to countless secrets. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

As soon as the last word left his lips, the back of the letter began to shift. Lines crisscrossed the parchment, forming a small, intricate map. At the bottom, written in the same careful script, was a date and a time, which brought him to a pub on this wonderful night.

He was watching the entrance in his Animagus form for hours, trying to figure out who had sent him the letter. So far, he had seen no familiar faces, not that it was any guarantee since Polyjuice and glamour charms were a thing.

His entire canine body froze when he heard a cough behind him. He turned and saw a boy around his godson's age giving him an amused smile, "Hello, Mr. Black. I believe it would be more constructive for our conversation if we were to speak as humans, don't you?"

Sirius hadn't even heard him with his enhanced senses and that freaked him out. Still, he morphed back to his human form and gave the young man a sheepish look, "Well, I had to make sure that I wasn't stepping into a trap."

"Wormtail is working for Voldemort… They probably already know about your Animagus form… Lucky for you, I'm not here to hurt you in the slightest. Why don't you walk with me?"

Sirius followed him a bit as they walked in silence in the middle of London, "Who are you?"

"Harrold Smith. I go to school with your godson… I am here because I believe you can help me in killing Voldemort."

Sirius snorted at that, "Don't you think others haven't tried that? The guy is immortal, only Dumbledore can stop him."

"I haven't had a crack at him yet…"

The dog Animagus was amused more than anything, "So, you're saying that you, a teenager, want to go after one of the worst Dark Lords in history… Believe me, I fought the guy. He was a fucking monster. I saw him once kill five guys with a single killing curse… One fucking killing curse… I didn't think that was even possible. James and I barely escaped with our lives that day."

"Well, if I don't beat him, then Harry will have to. It's prophesized to happen after all. So, are you telling me that you want the boy to fight him? He's a good guy, pretty nice even if he has a bit of a temper on him. But he's kind and a bit naïve, but that's part of his charm, isn't it? I kinda like him but I don't think he's anywhere near ready to fight Voldemort…"

"What do you know about the prophecy?" Sirius asked panicked.

"I know all of it if that's what you're worried about. It's nothing really game-changing. There is going to be a fight between Harry and Voldemort and only one of them will come out alive… It doesn't guarantee his victory or anything. It doesn't change anything since Voldemort actively wants to kill Harry and doesn't want anyone else to kill him. Inevitably, the two will fight, and one of them will win. Call me dubious but I don't think Harry could beat the guy, especially with his immortality thing going on…"

The dog Animagus couldn't help but be unsettled by the prophecy. If the boy was telling the truth, then the prophecy was pretty useless. That meant that Dumbledore was using it as a way to lure Voldemort into the open somehow. He was tricking everyone – members of the Order and Death Eaters alike – by pretending that this was his ace in the hole. No wonder he didn't share the contents; it didn't really change anything. Voldemort was always going to try to kill Harry, even if the damn thing didn't exist if only to destroy a symbol that people might rely on, or to destroy any doubts about his power from his own followers.

"And you can?" Sirius answered with a dry tone.

"I have already done more than Dumbledore ever did to kill the monster. I'm just being subtle about it…"

"Well, he looks pretty damn alive right about now."

"I'm trying to unravel his immortality… It's why I sent you that letter, after all."

"You know how he's immortal?" Sirius asked with a surprised voice. This was literally the first lead they had on how to permanently kill the monster. Maybe this wouldn't be a waste of time, after all.

"Yes. Voldemort created something called Horcruxes. Do you know what those are?"

The former prisoner tried to think back on the word and shook his head, "No…"

"I'm not really surprised. I don't think even your family would sink so low. Anyway, the idea behind Horcruxes is pretty simple. It was created by this guy called Herpo the Foul, some dark lord in ancient Greece, where he modified the Ancient Egyptian Phylactery creating a ritual to bypass the dangers of someone getting a hand on it. Instead of putting his entire soul inside an object, he split it, with a part of it living inside him, and a part of it staying in the object, acting as an anchor should he die. It's a pretty horrible thing since you'd be splitting your entire being apart, but it's pretty effective."

Sirius couldn't help but be horrified by the idea of someone performing this ritual, "Voldemort created a Horcrux then… We only have to destroy it to make him mortal."

"No, he created seven," Smith simply stated.

"Seven?" he exclaimed.

"Yes. It's no wonder he became a mad monster. He made the first one at sixteen, I think. It's pretty depressing when you realize he ruined his life out of fear of death while he was still a teenager."

"How do we find them?"

Smith shrugged, "Four have already been destroyed. I destroyed three, and your godson destroyed one when he was twelve. It was a diary that possessed the Weasley girl and opened the Chamber of Secrets. I don't know if he told you about that or not."

Harry did, in fact, tell Sirius about it during the summer. He wanted to hex Dumbledore then and there. A Basilisk… A fucking Basilisk… Was the headmaster out of his mind?

Still, he couldn't help but be curious, "What about the three you destroyed?"

"I found one in his old family home and one in a secret room in Hogwarts. The other one was a bit more troublesome… I had to break into Gringotts, the Lestrange Vault to be precise, to get it. It's why I'm on a bit of a time crunch. The moment the Goblins realize that someone broke into one of their most secure vaults, Voldemort will break his Death Eaters out of Azkaban, and get one of the Lestranges to verify that the cup wasn't stolen…"

"You broke into Gringotts… How the fuck did you manage that? How did no one even notice?"

The boy shrugged in reply, "I'm just built different… Anyway, it's such a shame that the Lestrange family is left with just a small pile of gold after their immense fortune."

Sirius ended up cackling at the thought, "Bella is going to be so angry. I wonder what she'll do if she realizes that the family she married into is now fucking destitute."

"As amusing as this is, there is a reason I contacted you in the first place. You see, I tracked down one of the Horcruxes to an old cave filled with inferi, only to realize that it was replaced with a fake. Imagine my surprise when there was also a hidden 'fuck you' letter from your brother that he sent beyond the grave. With a little investigation, I found out that his elf was there, Kreature, I think, and that he had the Horcrux. And since it's kinda troublesome to break into a Fidelius Charm without anyone noticing, I thought I'd just ask…"

"Reggie? He turned on Voldemort?" Sirius asked pleadingly.

"Yes, the letter says that he realized just how much of a monster Voldemort was, especially when he found out about the Horcruxes. He probably thought there was only one and that he was doing the world a favour by stealing it…"

Sirius wanted to believe the boy; he really did. But using his brother like that was a sore point. And when he was distressed, the Last Black tended to get angry.

The dog Animagus pointed his wand at the boy and snarled in anger, "If you've been lying about my brother…"

Smith didn't seem impressed and just raised an eyebrow, "All I was going to ask was for you to summon the elf. It's not really that unreasonable… Then again, you were always a rash person. I suppose I don't really have a reason to hide, do I? Not to you of all people…"

Sirius was about to question that last statement, however, the moment the boy's sentence ended; his face started to morph slowly. His hair turned black, and his eyes turned green. He looked slightly more different, but the similarity was there… The boy looked exactly like his godson, "Harry? How?"

"Hello, Sirius… It's a long story, but why don't we start by summoning Kreature… I'll explain after I destroyed the damn thing."

The dog Animagus numbly nodded and lowered his wand, still trying to figure out what the fuck was going on.

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AN: So, I made a bit of progress on that front. I decided not to write a Gringotts chapter since it would have been a rehash of the heist a few chapters back. I know some of you won't like the fact that I got Harry to reveal himself to Sirius but it's sort of the only opportunity to have a proper interaction between the two in the story. Plus, it will be funny to see Sirius react to the differences between the two worlds.

In terms of plot, it does also make sense. Sirius is an easy way to get to the locket without taking some serious risks, and he's pretty frustrated with Dumbledore and the Order in general, enough to make an offer of sparing Harry the horrors of fighting a war look appealing, even if it's from a stranger with a familiar face.

I still don't know if everything came out like I wanted it to in this chapter. As usual, please let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions.

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If you want to support me check out my patréon at https://www.patréon.com/athassprkr

I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.

Thank you guys for your support in these hard times.