CHAPTER 55: THE GRIM AT THE ALLEYWAY

Fact:

The Grim is an omen of death, which is reputed to bring about the demise of the person who encounters it. The Grim takes the shape of a large, black, menacing, spectral dog. A well-known omen, the Grim has earned infamy throughout the wizarding world and is considered to be one of the worst, if not the worst, omens around. (Source: Harry Potter Wiki)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was August 6th, 1993, Ed was once again in the training room, practicing his element intently, completely immersed in the training. He now can stop a projectile from moving, stopping in place.

"That's good Ed, remember, imagine removing the momentum of the projectile, and instantly freeze it with the spatial pressure." Gilligan complimented him and reminded the technique.

Gilligan then shot another ball projectile to Ed. he was quite focused, he brought his wand and pointed it to the projectile, completely freezing it in place on the air, black and blue particles was now surrounding the ball, bringing it on Ed's control.

"Now crush it." Gilligan ordered.

Ed did just that, he rotated his wand roughly, and the ball was instantly crushed by the spatial pressure, making the ball unrecognizable.

"Great, you're a monster at learning you know Ed." Gilligan said, complementing Ed again.

"Well, I had a good teacher." Ed countered back.

"After this, we'll move to force field, you already got the basics so it should be fine, but I have to remind you that don't pressure the space too hard, it'll be a catastrophe if you did."

"Black hole?"

Gilligan nodded, "Yes, so be careful, even with your element, you can't control a black hole."

Ed sighed, "All right Gilligan, I'll remember that… what time is it by the way?"

Gilligan pondered for a while before saying. "It's 6 in the evening."

"Shit, I got to go." Ed remembered that the Harry incident was supposed to happen today, he didn't really care about fixing it, all he care is that he needs Harry to lure Sirius, so that he can talk to Ed, and besides, Hermione told him to pick him up after the incident, not before, so the boy will not leave in the Dursley's any longer.

Ed quickly showered and changed his clothes, he got out of the suitcase and were about to blink, but then he remembered that Harry is there, and if he blinked there, he'll be detected early.

He scratched the idea of blinking and instead opened the door. He turned into an owl and shrank himself to the size of a normal screech owl. Then, he flew outside the room, heading towards Little Whinging, Surrey.

On the way, he had already sensed a space fluctuation from the trace, which means that the accident already happened, and he was still flying to the boy. Ed hurried off to catch up with the boy.

A couple of minutes later, he arrived in the Dursley's. he was still in his owl form in front of the house. He sensed Harry hasn't left yet, so he quickly changed back to his normal form and knocked the door.

Ed then heard an annoyed man coming to get the door, it was most likely Vernon Dudley, and when the door opened, Ed's guess was right.

"What is it?" Vernon grunted in annoyance, but when he looked at who knocked, he froze on the spot.

Ed was smiling politely, but there's something about the smile that made Vernon shivers, "Hello Vernon." Ed spoke, "What's this I heard about your sister becoming a balloon?"

"How-" Vernon said, but quickly stopped, "Right, bloody magic."

Ed raised his eyebrow, "So I assumed you haven't been treating Harry kindly." He said, making Vernon paled, "All right, I'll call Roger to broke off the contract, it seems that we can't trust you…"

"No! Wait! It was my sister who insulted him, not us!" he tried to defended himself.

"Really?" Ed shot a questioning look, he changed something, so he wasn't sure that he was lying or not. He decided to look at his mind if he's telling the truth or not.

He looked inside and saw that he was somewhat telling the truth… Ed saw that Harry was still treated as a helper in the house, but he was slowly integrated to the family, which means that Vernon at least tried to make it happen.

Ed sighed in surrender, "Fine, but this is my first and only warning Vernon, go get Harry right now."

Vernon sighed in relief and quickly called the boy-who-lived that was upstairs.

"Boy! Come down here! Your friend is here!" he shouted, which made Harry instantly pop out from the stairs.

"What friend? I would've known if Ron or Hermione will be coming, they'll owl me first if they want to visit." He spoke.

"Just come down boy!"

"Fine." Harry grunted. He quickly stepped down the stairs and into the front door, when he saw Ed, he looked confused.

"Ed? what are you doing here?" Harry questioned, "You look… taller…"

Ed chuckled, "Well, I'm here to pick you up to Leaky Cauldron." He said, "Something happened."

"What do you mean? Am I not expelled?"

"Expelled?" Ed laughed, "Fudge wouldn't dare to expel you, well, at least not now, especially with Sirius Black is on the loose."

"Sirius Black?" Harry questioned, Vernon also listened in the conversation, as he know who Sirius is. "The murderer?"

Ed nodded, "The ministry believed that he's targeting you, he's a wizard Harry, not a normal muggle."

Harry gulped loudly, "Pack your stuff, we need to go, Vernon, your sister will be fine, the aurors or some sort will help her get down." Ed continued.

Vernon nodded blankly, while Harry just rushed off to his room, quickly packing his stuff, leaving Vernon and Ed in the front door with an awkward atmosphere.

Ed then looked behind the man, and saw that Dudley was peaking a look at him. "You should tell your kid to go on a diet Vernon, it'll help him in the long run."

Vernon just eyed Ed for a while before nodding, "Well, I'll leave you to wait here, I'll go inside." He said, entering the room to sit in front of the television.

Ed just hummed and waited for Harry to finish packing. Not an hour later, Harry came down with his trunk ready and a smile on his face.

"Ready?" Ed asked while crossing his arms.

"Yeah." he said.

The two then walked to the pavement and just walked towards a random direction. Harry noticed this and began to ask. "Where are we going exactly?"

"Well, let's just search for a quiet place to call something." Ed informed, which made Harry more confused. "Call what?" He asked again.

"You'll see…" Ed said vaguely, making Harry looked at him suspiciously. "So, what's this about Sirius Black hunting me?"

"Oh that, he's not really hunting you, but the ministry don't know that, so they guard you instead." Ed said, surprising Harry.

"So, who is he hunting then?"

"Well, you will see in school year." Ed said vaguely once again, making Harry sigh.

"I can't exactly trust your words if you're keep going like this Ed…" Harry spoke his mind.

Ed chuckled, "I don't really plan about getting your trust Harry…" Ed said, "But I'll tell you something that might interest you."

Harry raised his eyebrow, "What is it?"

Ed then came closer to Harry, and whispered to him, "Sirius Black is innocent, and he's your godfather."

Harry was definitely surprised by the statement, he looked like he have hope in his eyes, "W-What…"

Ed smiled softly at the boy, "Well, don't trust anything you've heard about him Harry, just follow your heart." Ed said as he already sensed Sirius Black closing in on them. "Right, it's time to call the bus."

"Wait what? hold on, how is he innocent?! And what bus?!" Harry quickly threw more questions to Ed, but Ed just replied with, "The more you know, the crazier you'll be Harry, so let's just leave it at that, you'll piece it together soon enough."

Ed then raised his wand, and suddenly a deafening bang was heard from the corner of the street, and the next thing Harry knew was there was a bus in front of him. Harry fell backwards, stumbling as he hit his trunk. Then, in an alleyway behind the bus, he saw a pair of yellow eyes, glaring at him, it was a giant black dog, and Harry didn't know why, but he instantly shivered when he saw the dog.

Then, a man got out of the bus and spoke lazily,

"Welcome to the Knight Bus, emergency transport for the stranded witch or wizard. Just stick out your wand hand, step on board, and we can take you anywhere you want to go. My name is Stan Shunpike, and I will be your conductor this eve —"

Stan Shunpike froze as he looked at the fallen Harry, he was looking at him strangely, like he was some kind of a homeless man.

"What were you doin' down there?" he said abruptly.

"I fell over." Harry answered.

"'Choo fall over for?" questioned Stan once again.

"Well, I didn't do it on purpose." Said an annoyed Harry as he was helped by Ed to stand up.

Harry then got up, but he continued to look at the alleyway beside the bus, looking at the black dog that was staring at him.

"'Choo looking at?" Stan asked as he looked at the alleyway, but there's nothing there.

"T-There's a black dog there." Harry stuttered.

Stan checked once again, but found nothing, so he shrugged, "Well, come on in then." He spoke.

Harry then followed Stan to the bus, entering it. But Stan was stopped abruptly as he saw Ed still looking at the alleyway, "Not comin' in?" Stan questioned.

Ed shook his head, "No, I've got some business to do, see you at Hogwarts Harry, you've got the money right?"

Harry nodded and pulled out a couple of sickles and knuts from his trunk, "I do."

Ed nodded, "Then I'll see you later."

Harry then settled down on the bus, and the bust disappeared, launching itself to the street, going to the Leaky Cauldron.

"Now…" Ed said as he stared at the big yellow eyes, he walked to the dog, but the dog didn't run away, he just growled at him. "Hello uncle, or is it cousin? How do you call your mother's cousin exactly?"

The dog froze on the spot, he looked at Ed suspiciously and bolted off, running away from Ed.

"Oh no you don't" spoke Ed, he stretched his hand and locked Sirius in place as he was surrounded by black and blue particles, making him frozen on the spot.

"Damn, that's more useful than the cursed ice…" Ed mumbled to himself. He walked to the front of the dog, "Oh Sirius, you smell really awful right now, how come you didn't come back to your house first." Ed commented, the dog just stared at Ed, unmoving, his eyes followed Ed's movement, watching every step.

Ed then point his wand at Sirius, and released the Animagus form, revealing the homeless-looking Sirius. Ed released the grip on the space around Sirius and dropped him on the ground. "Now, be a dear and don't run off will you?"

Sirius growled in his human form and spoke, "Who are you?!"

Ed raised his eyebrow, "Me? I'm your cousin's son, didn't you notice the eyes?" Ed said while pointing at his silver eyes.

Sirius looked at the silver eyes and calmed down a bit, but still suspicious at him, "What do you want then?"

"To help you of course." Ed casually says.

Sirius laughed like he was a madman, "Cornering me in an alleyway isn't exactly helping is it?"

"Well, I can't help you if you ran away either." Ed countered, he stared at Sirius dead in the eyes and continued, "You want to catch Pettigrew right?"

Sirius froze once again and turned angry all of a sudden, "I don't want to catch him, I want to kill him!"

"Killing him won't do you any good Black." Ed said, "Aunt Narcissa and I will help you be released from Azkaban, I'll also try to rope Amelia Bones to help you."

"Narcissa?" Sirius laughed madly once again, "That death eater's husband wanted to free me? Don't make me laugh!"

"Well, you're the last Black Sirius, so she wants to at least keep the bloodline going." Ed informed, "Besides, Lucius's dead, Narcissa is in control of the Malfoy family for now."

Sirius smirked, "Lucius is dead? How did he died?"

"An ice sword through the neck, choked in his own blood." Ed said coldly.

"You killed him?" Sirius was surprised at this.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Ed returned to his innocent face.

Sirius noticed this and laughed once more, "I get it, you're similar to Darius you know, good at acting."

"Right." Ed smiled weakly, "Now, you just need to go to the Black ancestral house and hide there, I'll inform Aunt Narcissa."

"I still don't trust her." Sirius grumbled, "What if he betrayed me and make me take the kiss?"

"She won't." Ed shook his head, "You know that the Black sisters hated the pureblood ideology right? Especially when they were forced to marry someone they didn't know if they didn't find a partner quick enough."

Sirius went silent, "Really? All of them? I thought it was just Bella and Dromeda…"

"All of them Sirius." Ed said, "Narcissa is just a black sheep, my mother married because of love, and Aunt Dromeda ran away. Aunt Narcissa is stuck in the family probably because you two ran away."

Sirius sighed, "Fine, I'll try to somewhat not make a scene once I saw her."

"Good." Ed nodded, "Now, go to your ancestral home and wait there, I'll deal with the rest of it."

"What?! why must I wait?!" Sirius yelled quietly.

Ed sighed at Sirius whining, "I'm really starting to regret not doing this last year… do you know how much trouble you caused?! Dementors were sent out to Hogwarts because the ministry thought you were hunting Harry, Dementors for fucks sake Sirius, they turned a fucking school into a second Azkaban! All because of you!" Ed raged into Sirius's face, making the man quiet. "So just shut the fuck up, and follow my lead okay? Your recklessness will be your downfall Sirius, so best fix it quickly."

Sirius just grunted, "Fine." He said, "I'll wait."

"Good." Ed nodded once again. "Now, if you'll excuse me." Ed turned around and walked away from the man, "Remember, stay inside the house and don't go anywhere."

Sirius grunted once again and turned back to the black dog, running towards the direction of the house.

Ed just sighed and blinked back to his house, leaving a trace of black and blue smoke.