Guardians, Gringotts and Goblins (Part Five)

Harry and Shiva made a stop at St. Mungos after leaving Gringotts. He received vaccinations for everything Muggle and magical as well as a prescription for nutrient potions to reverse some of the malnutrition left over from his years at the Dursleys. Shiva had received several dirty looks as the results of Harry's deep-scan were revealed though the two quickly corrected the healers that Shiva was actually the one responsible for removing him from that environment. After that the Healers were far nicer and agreed to their request to keep the visit quiet for the time being. It wouldn't do for the majority of the wizarding community to start hating Muggles just because Harry's relatives were the worst of the lot.

After the medical appointment was a shopping trip through Diagon Alley and the nearby Muggle shopping center. It had been an experience for both of them; Harry had never been to one before as the Dursleys always left him at the house when they went shopping. Shiva on the other hand had a relatively willing young man to play dress up with.

After a few hours Harry had stopped being amused and requested to return home.

"Let's go for a walk, kid," Shiva said tossing the bags they had accumulated on the couch and waving towards the door.

"We've been out all day!" Harry grumbled. "Can't we just sit down for a few minutes?"

Shiva sighed and shook her head. "Come on, Harry. We need to talk about that thing in the Prophet I didn't want you to read."

"And we can't do that on the couch why?"

"Because it's a beautiful evening for once and there is a nice park a block away. Stop complaining, we can sit down a bench in five minutes."

"You will be the death of me, woman," Harry said standing back up and following her out. True to her word, Shiva had them on a bench in the park near the house before five minutes had passed and with snacks to boot.

She handed Harry an ice cream cone as she took a seat next to him. Harry raised his eyebrows but attacked the dessert. "This is definitely going to be bad if you are bribing me with ice cream before even starting."

"You know about Azkaban right?" Shiva said wincing at his comment.

"Yeah. The prison. Horrible guards that literally suck out all good feelings."

"Yeah, that's the one. It's also supposed to be impossible to escape from," Shiva paused as a large black dog poked its head out from the nearby bushes.

"Hey, boy," Harry said holding out the remainder of his ice cream to the dog. The dog seemed to consider it for a moment before slowly padding out and licking the cone. "You're a long way from home, buddy."

"You know this monster?" Shiva asked squinting at the dog. It was huge but very underweight. The poor thing's fur was somewhat matted as well. At least it seemed friendly enough.

"He was there when I took the Knight Bus to your place. I figured he'd just ran away but I guess he jumped on the back or something."

"That...seems odd, Harry."

"He's a dog Shiva. Not an evil mastermind. If he was an animagus trying to kill me he could've done it when I first ran into him the other night." The dog's tongue lolled out and he sat down promptly next to Harry. "He's obviously smartly than a regular dog though – probably as smart as Hedwig if he managed to follow me here. He was probably some wizard's familiar or something and the guy died leaving the poor guy alone. Can we keep him?"

Shiva sighed. "I don't think so, Harry. You already have a familiar and I'm more of a cat person. We're not really supposed to have dogs at Hogwarts and we can't exactly just leave him here while we're gone for months." Harry's face fell. "Tell you what, I'll ask around a bit. Maybe one of my friends in Hogsmeade will want to take him in. Then you can visit him during the school year."

Harry smiled at that and the dog yipped. "Okay, that works. Thanks, Shiva!"

"No problem, kid." Shiva gave the animal a scratch. "You should probably name him."

"How about Blacky?" The dog growled at that making Harry laugh. "Guess not. Thunder? Hmm, Snuffles? Oh, you like that one. Okay, Snuffles it is." The newly minted Snuffles licked Harry's hand. "Alright, enough stalling I suppose. What were you saying about Azkaban?"

"A prisoner broke out a few days ago." Shiva leaned back on the bench and stared off into the distance. "His name was Sirius Black."

"You say that like I should recognize the name," Harry said while scratching Snuffles who had fallen silent.

"You were just a baby when he was locked away. Sirius Black was one of your father's best friends, Harry. He was also your godfather." Harry's eyes narrowed and the dog whined a bit as his scratching got more intensive. "When your parents went into hiding with you they were under a charm called Fidelius. It works to hide the existence of a secret – generally a location but it could be anything – from the world at large. Only someone called the Secret Keeper can show or tell others the secret."

"And Black was the Secret Keeper for where Mum and Dad were?" Harry asked quietly. Snuffles whined beneath him but Harry gently shushed the dog.

"Not a lot is known for sure about that night, Harry. All we know for sure is that Sirius Black was the most likely candidate for Secret Keeper. From what everyone said he and your dad were practically inseparable. They were basically brothers in everything but blood. Neither your mum nor your dad could be the Secret Keeper since they lived in the house. Black was the next person they'd trust most."

"And Voldemort walked right up to our door." Harry said nodding. "So he knew the secret."

"Yes. Even more damning...their other friend, Peter Pettigrew apparently hunted Black down after that night. Pettigrew caught up to Black on a street in Muggle London. There was a battle; Pettigrew yelled out about how Black had betrayed your family and then Black cast a curse that caused an explosion, blowing up a large section of the street. 12 Muggles died and the only thing recovered from Pettigrew was his finger." Snuffles put his two front paws over his head. Shiva slung an arm around Harry and pulled him close to her before continuing. "The Aurors caught up to Black almost immediately and found him laughing in the destroyed street. He didn't even put up a fight. They stunned him, snapped his wand and tossed him in Azkaban. Nobody ever looked back. A few days ago, somehow...he managed to escape. According to the guards, he had been whispering for several days beforehand that 'he's at Hogwarts'. The Ministry is assuming that he's coming after you; to finish the job that he and his master started over a decade ago."

Harry was quiet for a few minutes, just scratching Snuffles and leaning against Shiva. "So," he finally said softly, "I have a second madman after me. Fantastic." He chuckled and shook his head. "Want to put a bet on whether he'll be our DADA teacher this year? The first one was possessed and tried to kill me and the second tried to obliviate us all. It'd be par for the course for Sirius Black to wrangle the job." Snuffles started a low growl and a nearby squirrel jumped away before he quieted down.

Shiva snorted. "You do seem to inspire murderous thoughts in our Defense teachers, kid."

Harry shrugged as best he could while leaning against her. "It's a talent. Shiva…I think I'm going to start working on more offensive runes this year…"

The older woman sighed but nodded. "I can understand that. Promise me you'll consult with me before going for anything too dangerous?"

"Promise." Harry nodded. "I think the most volatile design would be more Feedback stones. They'd be like the one I used against the basilisk. Directed failures; magical grenades. I've been a bit scared to work on them before after the whole troll incident thing but...I think I have enough of a foundation now that I can do them safely. And I can always go to my legal guardian for advice both in and out of class now," he finished grinning up at her.

"Damn right you can, kid," Shiva said laughing. "Any other ideas I should be watching out for?"

"Well I'm going to have Comm Stones finished before we get back to school." Harry frowned and said, "Muggles have mobiles now. They can contact almost anyone in moments and it's not a one way channel. It's stupid that we don't have something like that in the magical world." Snuffles cocked his head at Harry and Shiva found herself nodding along. "I worked out how to make a cluster that could function the same while at the Dursleys. It's restricted to audio and has to be tied to specific people at the moment but each stone can be tied to multiple others. I can work on making a completely open, untethered cluster later. Can you pierce one of my ears?"

"What?" Shiva asked blinking at the non sequitur.

"Like for an earring? I'm going to miniaturize the Comm Stone. You know, make earrings out of them. The magic flowing through them should be small so the stone can be tiny without worrying about failure or breakage. I was going to make one for me, Hermione, Neville, Daphne, Tracey and you. I'm thinking I might make one for Tonks too so that we could call the Aurors fast when we need them. Maybe one for Susan and Hannah too, but I want to talk to them first so those will probably come later."

Shiva shook her head laughing. "You really don't do things halfway, Harry! I'll take you to get a piercing in a few days. Wait till I tell Bill you got an earring!"

Harry snorted. "Hey, his dragon fang one was awesome!"

"He thinks so too," Shiva commented still laughing. Snuffles started chuffing along with the humans. "Alright, kid, dog, time to head back home."

"Yeah. Let's go home," Harry smiled at Shiva as he stood and stretched. "Thanks for telling me this stuff, Shiva. And thanks for supporting my ideas."

Shiva smiled back at him as Snuffles fell into a trot beside the two. "Anytime, Harry. Anytime."