11

Chapter Eleven – Interlude

Life for Harry at the Grangers was far different than life with the Dursleys would have been, Monica mused to herself several years later.

He had settled in very easily with his new family, and if he occasionally cried out in his youth for his real mother and father, it was completely understandable. In this life he wasn't punished for waking the house with his nightmares about the nasty man who had killed Lily and the bright green light that he had sent at little Harry in his crib. Instead he was reassured and loved.

As they grew, he and Hermione played as well together as any brother and sister, which is to say that they squabbled fairly frequently, but were only occasionally jealous or overly fractious, and this was dealt with appropriately by Doug and Helen.

Once they were old enough to go to primary school, they also started to learn about their magic from Monica, Sirius and sometimes Remus. They knew not to talk about it outside the house to people they didn't know, and to be careful not to lose their tempers, and they learned to start to control it. Having a brother to compete against drove young Hermione to pick up knowledge about her magic as quickly as she picked up other knowledge, and having an intelligent sister encouraged Harry to query things and to keep up with her.

At school, Hermione fit in better than she might otherwise have, as having her brother in the same class tempered her tendency to try and show off, especially knowing that he probably understood the class just as well as she did. In turn, Harry was encouraged to learn things at his natural pace, as he would never have to hide his knowledge in order not to outshine Dudley. Both were considered to be very bright by their primary school teachers, and they were largely (though not exclusively) well-behaved.

Whilst Hermione was definitely the quicker to learn new things, when it came to performing magic it was clear even from an early age that Harry would definitely be a more powerful wizard. With Monica's knowledge of what Harry had once been capable of even with his magic bound, she was able to set the others' expectations to a level that made it a pleasantly surprising diversion, rather than a huge shock to them.

As they grew older and started to take a greater interest in the world around them, Doug and Helen were good at taking them on trips that were both interesting and educational. Monica remembered many of them from when she had been a child, but it was noticeable that with a boy to raise, Doug insisted on trips to rugby games and to buy a BBC Micro Computer that she was sure would have otherwise been vetoed, and which had certainly not been a part of her own childhood.

All in all, it was a very pleasant and educational upbringing for two young children, whose 'Auntie' Monica and Uncles Padfoot and Moony often accompanied them on their trips and otherwise assisted with their lives.

Sirius's exoneration by the Ministry was re-affirmed when Arthur Weasley found a stray rat lurking around his office in late 1982 and realised there was something odd about it. Instead of taking him home to give to Percy as a pet, he talked to colleagues in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures who got Arthur to bring the rat down to their offices on Level Four to see if it was magical.

They were all hugely surprised when a series of spells cast by the Department Head identified it as an animagus and they forced the rat to transform.

Needless to say, the sudden appearance of Peter Pettigrew in front of two Department Heads in the Ministry, a man thought to be dead and martyred a year earlier, led to massive confusion. Pettigrew escaped in the melee that followed, but by then there had been tens of witnesses and there was no doubt now, even among those who had doubted Sirius's innocence, that Pettigrew was the real culprit.

A massive manhunt failed to turn up the rat or the man, and the furore died down almost as quickly as it had arisen, and most forgot that he had ever existed.

It did mean that Sirius was free from much of the sordid speculation that had followed him around since his trial, and he was welcomed much more warmly in Wizarding society than he had been previously, though his pure-blooded cousins continued to turn their noses up at him, as he continued to espouse a reformist rather than a conservative vision for the Black family when he took over the mantle of Head of House.

As healers associated with the Department of Mysteries had been able to break the magical drain that was embedded within Harry's scar, and with time and some ointment, it began to fade away until it was eventually barely noticeable unless one was actively looking for it.

After Sirius's mother died in 1985, he spend a great deal of time cleaning and modernising Grimmauld Place. Whilst still unpleasant and disparaging towards the new head of the family, the House-elf Kreacher was at least not as mad as he had been after years of talking only to Walburga's portrait, and gladly led Sirius to Slytherin's locket, begging him to find a way to cleanse the item.

Once Sirius had realised that it contained a Horcrux, he immersed himself in the Black library, knowing that it was the sort of dark magic that his family would have revelled in knowing and performing, and his efforts bore fruit in a dusty tome that not only guided the wizard along the path of constructing one of the foul devices, but also in how to destroy one.

A few days of study, and one nasty ritual later, which would give Sirius nightmares for a month or two, and the Horcrux was no more. Upon presenting the unburdened locket back to Kreacher, the elf abased himself in submission to Sirius, acknowledging him as the rightful Master of the house, and changed his attitude completely.

Thus far things were looking very positive for Harry, and for Monica's efforts to allow him to live a normal and happy life.

The one major fly in the ointment was Albus Dumbledore.

Having attempted multiple times to get the Wizarding Courts to reallocate custody of Harry to him, it meant fairly regular visits from the Ministry to the Grangers (including from a number of witches and wizards who rather looked down on them as non-magicals), and a number of court appearances by Monica to finally dissuade the Ministry from letting him get his way.

Then, when Harry was eight years old there was a botched kidnapping attempt.

Two masked men abducted Harry from the school playground as school finished one Friday afternoon.

Sirius had been due to pick Harry and Hermione up, and arrived just a few moments after Harry had been whisked away.

Sensing that this had been a magical abduction, Sirius called Remus to help and they traced the Portkey that had been used to a deserted warehouse in Knockturn Alley. It seemed that the trail went cold there, but Remus was able to pick up Harry's scent and following it left them at the doorway of Borgin and Burkes.

Here it seemed that there had been some sort of scuffle, as there was a fair bit of blood on the ground. On questioning the proprietor, he said that he'd sent an injured man through the Floo to Saint Mungo's but there had been no boy with him.

St Mungo's wouldn't give them any details, and Remus was directed to the DMLE if he wanted any information.

DOHPDOHPDOHPDOHPDOHPDOHPDOHP

Knockturn Alley

Friday 11th March 1988

(Ten minutes earlier)

Two masked men scrambled down the street in Knockturn Alley. The larger of the two hauled the unresponsive form of a young boy along with him, carrying him with relative ease and little care, not concerned that he was being rag-dolled along or the occasional bump against other denizens of the Alley.

"Damn it!" the shorter man cursed at his colleague. "Did you have to hit him so hard?"

"It was the easiest way to get him to quit screaming and attracting attention," his companion shrugged.

"We're supposed to be abducting him, not killing him."

"Not sure what different it's going to make. Master'll probably kill him anyway."

"He can't if he wants to use him for the ritual."

"Don't care 'bout that." the bigger man said.

"You should. We're already going to be targets for the Aurors for kidnapping. You want to add murder to that?"

"Gotta catch us first."

"Yeah, and how're you gonna explain to the Master that you accidentally killed the boy?"

"..."

The two men were just passing the entrance to Borgin and Burkes when they were interrupted.

"Well, well well. What do we have here?"

"None of your business," the large man said, and tried to force his way past the newcomer.

"I don't think so."

The stranger, a tall, sallow-faced man appraised the scene, and his eyebrows raised suddenly as he realised the identity of the boy the larger man was carrying.

"Exactly where do you think you are taking the Boy-who-Lived?"

"Told you, it's none o' your business."

The large man swung his fist, but was badly hampered by the weight of the boy. His partner was quicker though, and pulled his wand.

"Diffindo!" he cried, but his aim was off, and the spell barely sliced the sleeve of their obstacle.

The sallow-faced man was no slouch with his reflexes.

"Sectumsempra!" he cried, and a huge gash opened up down the leg of the larger man, which forced him to drop his burden. The wand continued in a smooth motion towards the smaller man, but his wits were about him, and he had set off at a quick pace down the alley as soon as he had realised that his own spell had missed.

The large man stumbled into the doorway of the shop, fumbling for the door handle with one meaty hand as he attempted to stem the flow of blood from his leg with the other.

Taking a quick glance at the man in the doorway to ensure he was no threat, the tall man picked up the young boy and strode off away towards the junction with Diagon Alley, carrying the child rather more carefully than he had been carried earlier on the journey, and headed for the Apparation point.

A fraught Sirius and Remus missed him by barely five minutes, and their enquiries led them nowhere, until, as they headed back out of the Ministry without having managed to raise the necessary paperwork for St Mungo's (and fortunately also without having raised a full hue and cry about Harry's abduction), they were confronted by Dumbledore, who insisted that they go to Hogwarts with him.

DOHPDOHPDOHPDOHPDOHPDOHPDOHP

Hospital Wing, Hogwarts

Same day

As Dumbledore led them into the Hospital Wing, they immediately saw that Harry was sat upright in a bed, being tended to by Madam Pomfrey.

"Harry! Are you alright?" came Sirius's immediate cry.

"He'll be fine in a short while, Mister Black," Pomfrey responded. "He's just got a nasty bump to the head and a few cuts, bruises and scratches. Nothing that I can't fix up in a few minutes."

They came over to his bedside.

"What happened, Harry?"

He looked a little ashamed, and hung his head.

"I'm not really sure," he said. "We got let out of class a little bit early, and I was looking around the playground, waiting for you to arrive, and talking to Nigel. The next thing I knew, this huge man had picked me up and slung me over his shoulder.

"I thought it was you for a minute, surprising me, until I got a better look at him. Once I realise it wasn't, I started screaming.

"I think we then took a Portkey, but I didn't stop screaming, and when we arrived I think he hit me. The next thing I remember is waking up here."

Sirius and Remus shared a look.

"How did Harry come to end up here, Headmaster?" Sirius asked.

"Perhaps we should discuss that privately," Dumbledore replied, and gestured to Madam Pomfrey's office.

"Are you gonna be okay for a few minutes while we talk to the Headmaster, Harry?" Remus asked.

Harry nodded.

"He needs to stay here and not rub off this salve, anyway," Pomfrey advised, and the three men slipped through the door into the adjoining room.

"It was fortunate indeed that I happened to need some odd ingredients that could only be found in Knockturn Alley and had asked young Severus to collect them for me this afternoon," Dumbledore began. "It appears that he almost literally ran into the two abductors right outside Borgin and Burkes and was able to defeat them and rescue young Harry.

"Naturally, he abandoned the errand I had sent him on and brought Harry straight back to Hogwarts where he could receive treatment without anyone being the wiser for his presence."

"That was awfully fortunate, wasn't it?" Remus asked. "It seems rather a strange coincidence that Severus happened to be there right at that moment."

"Very much," the Headmaster replied. "I should think it behoves you to thank him for his actions. Harry might otherwise not have been rescued in such a timely manner, and it worries me to think how he might had been misused by those still serving the dark. Severus thinks he may have overheard one of the men referring to some ritual that might have been used to re-embody Lord Voldemort, and one shudders to think of the consequences!"

"Indeed," Remus agreed. "It looks like we'll have to ensure additional protection for Harry when he's at school now, as well as when he's at home. Sirius – will you talk to the Grangers and Monica about that?"

"Definitely," Sirius said. "Perhaps we should create some sort of tracking charm for him as well, that he could wear under his clothes, just in case someone tries this again."

Remus nodded in response.

"Perhaps I could be of help in providing additional protection?" Dumbledore suggested.

"What did you have in mind?" Sirius asked.

"Well, if you allowed me custody of Harry I could go ahead and implement those blood wards that I had always planned upon, and he could live safely with his Aunt and Uncle."

"You never give up, do you, Dumbledore?" Sirius asked, rhetorically. "I thought I'd made it absolutely plain that Harry was never going back there. They don't want him, and he doesn't want to leave the Grangers'. It doesn't matter what supposed wards you think you can put up there, they don't matter."

"I'm just thinking of Harry's safety."

"No. You're just thinking of how you can get him under your control again, and I'm not standing for it. Come on, Remus, let's get Harry and get out of here."

As they reached the door, Remus turned back.

"How is your search for the Horcruxes going, Headmaster?" he asked.

"My search?"

"Yes – I mean, you seem convinced that Voldemort made several of the foul objects, so how are you getting on with finding them?"

"I'm not sure that's necessary just at the moment," Dumbledore replied. "I'm sure I can guide Harry to their locations once his is older and more able to deal with such magic."

"I'm sorry? Why would Harry need to have anything to do with them?"

"You know he's the one foretold by the Prophecy that can defeat Voldemort."

Remus sighed heavily, and pushed Sirius through the door back into the main infirmary, as he could sense his friend's hackles rising once more.

"Headmaster, I'm sure you've been told this already, multiple times, but allow me to reiterate for clarity:

"Point one: it's your interpretation of the Prophecy that it involves Harry in some way. Nobody else's.

"Point two: even if Harry is the one to defeat the 'Dark Lord', it doesn't specify who that Dark Lord is.

"Point three: even if you are right on both the previous points, there's absolutely no reason why Harry has to deal with the Horcruxes – or even if he does, that he is the one who needs to seek them out. Why have you not simply collected them up yourself, and if Harry truly does need to destroy them, have him throw them into a volcano, or obtain a supply of acid strong enough that he can pour it over them or whatever is required.

"It's not your job to send him on a quest to collect all these items, and I would hazard to suggest that unlike Gandalf to Bilbo, you are not his wizard!"

Dumbledore appeared to understand the reference clearly enough, and reddened at the comparison to the fictional duo.

"Finally, you've been told repeatedly that the Prophecy you are so hung up on has already been fulfilled, yet you seem to be acting as though it hasn't. Stop trying to hold all the information so close to your chest and actually talk to the Unspeakables and they will confirm it; they had no problem with Monica doing so, several years ago!

"If you don't stop trying to interfere in Harry's life, we'll give up trying to moderate you, and we'll keep him away from Hogwarts completely; he won't come here when he's eleven!"

"You can't do that!" Dumbledore said, shocked. "He's got to come to Hogwarts!"

"No, headmaster. He doesn't. And if it means keeping him away from your manipulations, he won't."

"You don't have the right to make that decision, Remus."

"That's true, but Sirius does. If you keep pushing on this, I'm not even going to have to work very hard to get him, Monica, the Grangers and their children to leave the country. Perhaps the Headmistress at Salem Academy would be less inclined to interfere?"

"Harry can't leave the country!"

"Of course he can! And the more you hound him and his family, and try to take him away from them. The more likely it is that they will!"

Remus turned back to the door and left the Headmaster to stew in his thoughts.

"Are we ready to go?" he asked as he re-entered the infirmary.

Harry leaped up out of the bed and into Sirius's arms as soon as Pomfrey gave him the all-clear, and they headed back to Crawley to reassure Monica and the Grangers that Harry was safe and well.

DOHPDOHPDOHPDOHPDOHPDOHPDOHP

Other than this one upsetting incident, things progressed fairly smoothly in the Granger household, with Harry and Hermione getting enough magical education to ensure they wouldn't be disadvantaged when they finally went to Hogwarts, but without overloading them. Monica had to keep a close eye on Sirius in particular to make sure that he wasn't trying to push them to far, too fast, but his initial very tight focus on Harry began to soften somewhat as he saw the young boy developing, and he was tempered by the re-introduction of Andromeda and Ted Tonks into his life once he became head of the House of Black.

Whilst not a traditional daughter of Black, Andromeda still made sure that Sirius paid proper due to his role, and helped push him towards dating and eventually marrying Agnes Ollivander, a granddaughter of the wand maker, and the birth of three sons (Aries, Leo and Procyon) over the following seven years kept Sirius very busy in his own family life. Agnes was a few years younger than Sirius, but sufficiently steeped in pure-blood traditions to understand how to run a magical household with the reputation of the Blacks.

In fact, as Harry and Hermione grew, Sirius put more effort into introducing them to other witches and wizards of a similar age through the Longbottom and Bones families than on directly teaching them any magic, and they became good friends with Neville and Susan, as well and friendly with a number of other youngsters.

The next big moment in their lives came with the arrival of Hermione's Hogwarts letter...