Chapter - 29 : Reflections of Change

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Harry did not, in fact, sleep well. The pins-and-needles feeling had slowly progressed to a sensation of daggers stabbing every inch of his skin. His pulse quickened and his whole body ached at every beat of his heart as blood pumped through his veins. The magic was in his blood – it was always in the blood – and Harry wondered just what changes would result from the Black magic now within him.

He knew he'd still be the son of James and Lily Potter, with Sirius becoming in effect a sort of third parent. The extent of the changes caused by the Adoption Ritual weren't entirely predictable, however; magical strength played a role, as did emotional attachment. Harry was self-aware enough to admit, if only to himself, that he'd projected a lot of what he felt about his godfather onto the Sirius he'd just met - and suspected Sirius of doing something similar in reverse. They hadn't known each other long enough to build a proper familial relationship. He hoped the fact that they did care about each other would make up for that lack.

After dozing fitfully for a few hours, and then spending several more staring at the ceiling as he gritted his teeth and tried to ignore the pain he was in, the ritual magic finally faded away. Harry was left exhausted and immediately fell into a deep and restful sleep, only waking at the sound of impatient knocking at his bedroom door.

"Oi! Orion! You awake yet?"

"I am now," Harry grumbled into his pillow.

"Well, let's see then!" Sirius slammed open the door and charged into the room.

"See what?" Harry asked, still sleep-addled.

"You, of course!" Sirius huffed. "Come on, get up!"

"Oh! Oh yeah!" Harry's brain finally caught up. He threw back the covers and bounded out of bed. "Ow, damn it," he said as he stubbed his toe on one of the bedposts, then turned to face Sirius. His godfather was looking at him with a rather strange expression on his face. "So?" Harry prompted, spreading out his arms.

"You look… you look like a Black," Sirius said slowly.

Harry rolled his eyes. "Wasn't that the point of the whole thing?"

"No, well yes, but I mean… you look like a Black, like my son," Sirius said. His eyes were wide with amazement as he stared at Harry.

"Right, okay," Harry said, not quite getting why Sirius seemed so unsettled. "Could you conjure a mirror for me? I'd like to see for myself."

"Your magic not trained enough to handle it? Fine." Sirius shrugged, drawing his wand and wordlessly conjuring a silver framed looking-glass. "There you go."

Harry could only stare at his reflection, scarcely able to believe it was actually him. His glamours had worn off hours ago, but the features they'd been hiding had changed considerably. His black hair had smoothed out enough to no longer be called messy, his face was narrower, and his mouth seemed to naturally fall into a crooked smirk. His eyes had also changed considerably, with their heavy lids giving him a slightly sleepy expression – though that could be due to Harry having just woken up.

All things considered, Harry had to work hard to recognise the face reflected back at him. Traces of his old features remained around his jaw line and his nose looked the same as before - and Harry still had the same knobbly knees - but his resemblance to James Potter had faded considerably. A stranger might think they were distantly related, as most purebloods tended to be, but no more than that. Overall Harry judged his transformation into Orion Black to be complete.

He began pulling various faces in the mirror, trying to familiarise himself with his new appearance. The experience reminded him of drinking Polyjuice Potion - the sheer oddity of being in a stranger's body was the same, the only difference was that the adoption was irreversible. Harry would never revert back to how he looked before - the unfamiliar boy in the mirror was him and he'd just have to get used to it. He tilted his head up and adopted a haughty expression, imitating several snobbish purebloods he'd met over the years, then hastily dropped it when he realised just how conceited it made him appear. "Bloody hell, for a second there I looked like Malfoy!"

"What, you mean Draco?" Sirius looked confused. "Why do you say that? You're not blond."

"Well no, but I had the same smug, arrogant expression he always wore when we were at school," Harry said, sneering at his reflection in distaste.

"You mean you looked like any normal pureblood," Sirius said, rolling his eyes. "If you want to show you're less stuck up than they are, try smiling - just a hint. In any case, you and Draco are cousins now, so it makes sense there'd be a slight resemblance between the two of you."

"Hmph, I still don't like it," Harry grumbled, before a thought struck him and he laughed in surprise. "Hey, Tonks is my cousin now! And so is Andromeda… weird."

Sirius leaned against the bedroom door, still looking fascinated by Harry's new appearance. "You mean Andy and little Nymphadora? Why would that be strange?"

"Well I knew both of them rather well," Harry explained. "Tonks even made me godfather to her son Teddy, and then after she died Andromeda and I raised him between the two of us."

"Dora had a son? She's just a kid herself!"

Harry shrugged. "Not really, I mean she's in her last year at Hogwarts at the moment. So she's of age."

"Still! A baby," Sirius sputtered, seeming to have difficulty wrapping his mind around the concept. "Who was the father?"

"Oh, you'll love this. Remus Lupin!"

"Moony?mHe's way too old for her!"

"Oh come on, Sirius, it's not that big of an age gap," Harry said. "And they only hooked up five years or so from now. Tonks was a fully-fledged Auror by that stage, she was old enough to make her own decisions. Of course, Remus took some convincing. He was fixated on that whole 'I'm a werewolf so I don't deserve anything good happening to me, ever' thing. Luckily Tonks managed to beat some sense into him, and they ended up getting married and having Teddy and everything. They really loved each other," Harry finished wistfully.

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