AN :
If we hit 250 power stones by tomorrow, I will release an extra chapter.
(Couple of days later)
Pushing his blue hair out of his eyes as he overlooked Number 12 Grimmauld Place, he could understand why his godfather disliked the place based on its depressing appearance.
"See what I mean, Harry?" his godfather asked.
"Yes, but it's the best option available to us at this time," he said, referring to the wards.
"Maybe that is the case, but I still have a lot of bad memories here."
"Sirius, you are now Lord Black," he stressed the *Lord* part. "You are well within your right to burn the house down if you desire and then have it rebuilt the way you want! This is your house, not your mother's.
You can choose what it means to you now. You can even go as far as decorating it with Gryffindor colours and play-wizard posters if you choose to," he said, seeing amusement lighting up his godfather's eyes at the idea, before he quickly added, "However, my room will be decorated how I want it to be, with some style."
"I still can't believe you're a Ravenclaw," Sirius said, shaking his head.
"I could have easily been a Slytherin. You've already seen my cunning side," referring to the recent events.
"Something that I am most grateful for, I assure you," Sirius said, giving him a serious look. "You are so much like your mother—so grown up, you know."
"What can I say? I was forced to grow up due to my relatives. It's what happens when your only haven is a classroom and the local library," he said, seeing his godfather flinch at the statement. "Come on, let's check the place out and decide whether we should burn it down."
Getting to the door, Harry said, "You first," because he didn't know what the wards would do, nor did he want to test them, considering the Black family reputation.
"If you insist," Sirius replied before stepping up to the door and saying, "I, Sirius Orion Black, as my right as Lord Black and owner of this property, demand entry."
He watched with interest as Sirius picked up a piece of broken glass, which had appeared out of thin air, and cut open the palm of his hand before smearing it across the door and healing the cut with a flick of his new wand. The wand, ironically, had a whisker of a Grim as its core, with mahogany wood.
The blood slowly faded into the door before the door glowed gold for a second, made a clicking sound, and swung open, granting them access to the house. Harry followed his godfather through the door carefully, staying fully alert for any traps.
Pop
The noise caused him to instantly spin around, his wand shooting into his hand, ready to defend himself—only to see an aged house-elf. He lowered his wand slightly, but still was on guard, since house-elves were very powerful within their own properties, especially old ones, since they were so in tune with the house's magic.
"Kreacher," Sirius said in greeting, in a rather harsh tone.
"Master Sirius returns home," the elf said in a rather mocking fashion, which was surprising considering every elf he had met so far had been overly polite and helpful.
"Kreacher, immediately start making this place habitable."
"Of course, as Master wishes," the elf said, once again giving a mocking bow.
"Good. This is my godson Harry. You will respect him and take orders from him as if I were giving the orders to you myself. Do you understand?"
"Yes, Master Sirius. Is that all?"
"No. You will not attempt to harm us by any means, and you will not tell any of our secrets. Now get on with your tasks—I want this place clean and tidy," his godfather said, dismissing the elf. With a pop, the elf was gone.
"I sense a story," Harry probed, wondering why his godfather was so harsh to the elf.
"Let's just say Kreacher made my life very difficult and was very much my mother's favourite elf," he said, offering no further explanation.
Just nodding, accepting the explanation, he was sure he would find out more in time. It didn't take long to find out more after a rather rude meeting with the former Lady Black's portrait and being called a blood traitor no sooner than a minute into the discussion. The wall mounted with house-elf heads was almost as disturbing as the portrait.
Turning to his godfather, realizing they would be better off starting anew, Harry said, "I think we need to start from scratch and go through the whole place and gut it. We can put any heirlooms and items of historical importance in a vault and get rid of everything else. After all, I doubt you want the elf heads?"
"Yeah," Sirius said, obviously not listening.
"So, do you want the elf heads or yes to gutting the place?" he probed, raising an eyebrow in a questioning manner.
"You know what I mean, or do you want pink eyebrows as well as blue hair?" Sirius threatened.
"Just saying," he said quickly, already hating the fact he had blue hair. Actually, it wasn't the fact it was blue—he mostly hated that he didn't know a spell to change it back! Hopefully, it would wear out before he went back to Hogwarts.
"Yeah, pup," Sirius responded before asking, "You said you read the Animagus book me and James were working on. How far have you got?" never mentioning Peter's name.
"Hmm, I read the whole thing twice so far. I'm trying to access my inner animal by using my mind arts rather than using a potion or ritual. It may be more difficult, but from your own notes you mentioned a hypothesis that it would help build a more powerful connection, as well as help transfer some of my form's natural gifts to my human form," he explained to his godfather, who just nodded.
"Why am I not surprised? Of course you would pick the hardest way to achieve a transformation," Sirius said, shaking his head in amusement. "You know the potion would be so much quicker."
"Yeah, I know it was the reason the potion was originally created, but I feel I would be cheating myself, you know," he said, hoping Sirius would understand.
"No, I don't," he said, shaking his head.
"I just feel it in my magic that by taking the easy way, such as using the potion, I would lose out on something beautiful and special," Harry said, talking honestly. Sure, he had yet to see his animal and only got a mist surrounding the creature, but he could feel it.
"I'll take your word on it," Sirius said, pausing for a second before adding, "Maybe you could ask Professor McGonagall about it. I'm sure the old bird will know something about it."
"Old bird? Surely you mean ancient old bird," he said with a smirk, getting a chuckle out of his godfather, lightening the mood.
"Yeah, but seriously, that old bird knows a lot about Transfiguration and Animagi. She could help."
"Maybe," he said, not really wanting knowledge that he was working toward an animal form to be public. "Shouldn't we get started on cleaning this place?" he asked, trying to change the subject.
"Sure, but I think we're going to need an extra pair of hands—or three," Sirius stated in agreement, whilst wiping a finger across the surface, picking up a thick layer of dust and grime.
"We might as well make a start whilst we're here," he said, pulling out his wand. "You still have a couple of hours before you are meant to meet Remus," stressing the word *you*, having no desire to meet his father's second friend.
...
A couple of hours later
Harry quickly threw on a clean pair of jeans and a top after a quick shower because he was hoping to get out of the house before Remus arrived. He strapped his wand holster to his arm, making sure it was fastened before putting on his watch.
Quickly looking himself over in the mirror, he checked his appearance before smiling, happy with the results, even with having to work around having blue hair thanks to his godfather's pranks.
He headed down the stairs to grab an apple on the way out, as well as a couple of other things, but luck was not on his side. As he entered the kitchen, he noticed an unfamiliar figure sitting next to his godfather, who had to be Remus. He wasn't impressed based on the man's shabby appearance—not that it was surprising considering how hard life was for a werewolf within Britain with all the anti-werewolf laws in place.
Making to leave, he heard Sirius call, "Harry."
He was half tempted to ignore his godfather; however, the mature part of him decided otherwise. "Yes, Sirius," Harry answered while looking over his shoulder.
"My God, he looks just like James—but the eyes are all Lily," Remus said, none too quietly.
Sirius ignored Remus' comment and said, "Harry, I want to introduce you to Remus, a.k.a. Moony."
Raising an eyebrow at his godfather's odd behaviour before saying rather coldly, "I kind of guessed that. No need to state the obvious. After all, you have been going on about meeting up with him all morning."
"Harry, be nice," Sirius scolded before saying affectionately, "Me and Remus were just going over old times," smiling at his friend. "He's been looking forward to meeting you."
"Harry, it's nice to finally get a chance to see you again. I remember when I first met your father in my first year, bragging about his Quidditch prowess. Your mother just sat there looking at him like he was a fool. Who knew they would get together," he said, shaking his head at the idea. "They turned out to be a truly amazing couple, and the world is darker without them in it.
I still remember the day your mother tried getting you to call me Uncle Moony. So I look forward to getting to know you like I did with your father and mother, and help watch over you like they asked me all those years ago," Remus said with a sad smile, putting his hand forward.
"Really?" he challenged, ignoring the outstretched hand. "For someone who talks so fondly of my father and mother, you never contacted me—their orphan son," making Remus recoil at the remark.
"Harry," Sirius protested as Harry walked away.
"It's true though. For someone who was meant to be one of my parents' choices for my magical guardian if anything ever happened to them," Harry snapped, referring to his mother's journal. "He never contacted me, never checked up on me. So what right does he have to just walk in here and act like he's an old friend? You have an excuse for not being there—he doesn't. Now, if you excuse me, I'm going out."
Leaving the room and grabbing his sweater, before throwing some Floo powder in the fireplace, he muttered his destination so he couldn't be followed. As he walked into the fire, he heard Sirius call out, "Wait!" as he disappeared.
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Hey guys I really need some power stones to Elevate the ranking :)
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