The Children of Atum

*** Betaed by picofoxy 6 August 09 ***

Chapter 2: Finding Harry

Sirius Black slowly stirred, wondering at the stiffness in his back and the uncomfortable position he was in, opening his eyes he realised he was sitting on the couch in the parlor of his family home curled around his mate Remus Lupin. A few seconds later he remembered the conversation from last night with Snape and the revelations it included, Dumbledore is evil? Voldemort is not evil? Did his family really have the right idea about dark and light? He realised he should talk to his mother’s portrait in the entranceway; perhaps he had been wrong from the start? Was he just an antsy teenager rebelling from his family? Seduced by Dumbledore and the Gryffindors into believing that the dark side was evil and that Dumbledore was right?

He carefully extracted himself from underneath his lover and made his way to the portrait.

“So you decided to come and see your mother after all this time? I should have removed you from the family when I still could! Blood traitor! Filth!” She yelled from her frame and turned around to put her back to her son.

“Mother wait! please listen to me. I want… I want to talk… I want to hear your side… I want to hear what I never listened to when I was young. Please.” Sirius begged; he had to know.

His mother’s portrait turned back to face her son, eyeing for the first time his bedraggled appearance, the tear tracks still on his cheeks, the dark circles under his eyes. She raised an eyebrow in question and then motioned for him to continue.

“I don’t know where to begin… Um… you see a few months ago the Potter’s were attacked by you-know-who, their baby, Harry he survived. Dumbledore took him, hid him away, I’m his godfather you see, I have been trying to find him, to convince Dumbledore to give him to me but he wouldn’t listen, just said he was safe. Remus, my mate and I have been trying to find a way to locate Harry to kidnap him but we weren’t having any luck. Then Snivell… Severus Snape, contacted us, explained Dumbledore’s machinations, that the dark was not evil. Please tell me is it true? Is the Dark Lord not evil?” He asked these last questions desperately, needing her to answer? Hoping both that she would confirm and deny the ideas. Not really knowing what he wanted to be true.

Walburga Black listened carefully to her son, it seemed this Severus had managed in a few hours what her and her husband failed at for 15 years. Her son finally understood the Black mantra and the dark side of magic.

“Yes my son,” she whispered her eyes shining with unshed tears

“It’s all true, dark is not evil. I will admit that your father and I may have gotten out of hand especially when you were younger. The dark side though not evil, has a bad reputation, especially in the last hundred years, and it is easy for those that are dark to do bad things, even if they are for good reasons.”

Lady Black continued to explain to Sirius the difficulties the dark side faced and to reassure him that the family always loved him, in truth that was why he was never removed from the family, Walburga couldn’t bring herself to do it. She also went on to explain about blood purity and that there had always been significant proof that too many muggles or muggleborns in the family could increase the rate of squibs, however the occasional muggleborn is needed to bring in new blood. The real problem with muggleborns is that they come into the magical world with no idea of its customs or traditions and they are not taught, they also present a great security risk in their families letting the general population know about magic. These issues are a large part of what the dark side is trying to correct and change.

Walburga also went on to explain what the difference is between true dark magic and “dark magic” as prescribed by Dumbledore.

“True dark magic is the magic of our ancestors, it is ritual, wild, sex and blood magic, it requires emotion and it requires a connection with magic and the earth. Light magic is what you learn at Hogwarts, it is sterile, you need a wand, a movement and an incantation and it just happens. The Patronous charm, animagus transformation, metamorphous talents are all dark magic, while Wingardium Leviosa, the cutting curse and transfigurations are light magic. Do you understand my son? What about you Remus?”

Sirius spun around sharply to see his mate hiding in the shadow.

“Sorry for eavesdropping but I needed to hear that” Remus said, facing the portrait he added.

“Yes, I think I am starting to understand, thank you m’lady.” With that he moved forward and wrapped his arms around his lover, breathing in his sent to steady himself, drawing strength from his presence. The three remained there in contemplative silence for a few minutes, absorbing the revelations that just kept coming until they were startled out by the sound of knocking on the door.

“And that must be Severus” Remus said as he let go of Sirius and moved to open the door.

Sirius introduced Snape to his mother and suggested they move to the library, Walburga agreed and said she would meet them in a portrait there.

After a few hours and many failed spells and many resources exhausted, Severus finally found a spell he thought would work.

“I need something of Harry’s though,” he said after telling the others of his find, “do you have anything, preferably something that was a close possession?” he asked the couple.

Sirius patted down his pockets finding what he was looking for he removed a tiny stuffed stag plushy, resising it with his wand he handed it to Severus.

“I took this from Godric’s Hollow thinking it might be of use a while back,” he explained, “it was Harry’s favorite.”

Snape nodded, placed the toy on the bench.

“I’ll need your elf” he said to Sirius, who after rolling his eyes he nodded and summoned Kreacher, the family elf.

The elf immediately popped into the room and eyed the men with thinly veiled disgust, about to start ranting about blood traitors no doubt he was cut off by Walburga’s portrait.

“Kreacher, my son has returned to his senses and is rejoining the old ways. Professor Snape here needs to do a locating ritual and will require some equipment.”

Kreacher spun quickly and reevaluated Sirius, bowing deeply he said “Welcome Master Black to your family home, Kreacher will be glad to serve.”

“Thank you Kreacher,” Sirius replied, surprised in the change in the elf.

“Please gather this equipment.” He said handing Kreacher a list that Severus had hastily copied from the book. “Then please get yourself cleaned up and prepare us some refreshments.”

“Yes sir, Master Black sir” the elf replied disappearing with a crack. Returning moments later with a small silver bowl, a piece of blank parchment, five blood red taper candles and a stick of chalk and a small silver dagger, then disappearing again.

“This is only a small ritual, thus we can do it here” Snape explained, while placing the stuffed toy in the middle of the cleared off bench. He then placed the five candles around the toy and quickly copied runes for love and finding around the candles. The silver bowl was placed beside the stag in the center.

“Now Black you will have to do the ritual, I am not close enough to the boy and Lupin can’t cut himself with a silver knife.” At Sirius fearful squeak he huffed a sigh and dragged the man over.

“All you must do is light the candles starting at the top and moving clockwise, then cut your hand and let about 1o drops of blood fall into the bowl, say this phrase” indicating to the book, “then place the parchment over the bowl. Once the writing stops blow out the candles working backwards. Easy.”

Sirius read over the instructions and memorised the short Latin incantation, drew a steadying breath and began. The ritual was over quickly, Remus and Sirius watching transfixed as words appeared on the parchment in Sirius’ blood Harry James Potter, The cupboard under the Stairs, Dursley Residence, 4 Private Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey, England. The Potion’s master had to prod Sirius to remind him to blow the candles out to finish the ritual and dispel the magic. All three were shocked by the second part, The cupboard under the Stairs.

“Merlin, who is keeping my Godson in a cupboard?” Sirius whispered, then coming out of his daze he said with a growl.

“I’ll kill them, lets go Moony, we have to get him now!” But he found himself flat on his face subjected to the leg-locker curse from Severus.

“Let me go you bloody bastard, I know you didn’t like James but I have to save my Cub. Let me go NOW!”

“Black, Shut-up, we can’t just barge in now in the middle of the afternoon and take the boy, think first. Bloody Gryffindors.” Snape swore.

“I have a plan that will hopefully lead to the old man not realising he is gone, don’t you think that might be a better idea?”

“Yeah, ok, can you let me up now?” Sirius sighed, resigned to wait. Severus quickly released the man and helped him up. He removed an envelope from his pocket.

“Now, I know that that is Lily’s sister, Petunia’s place, Albus place Harry there for the blood wards, I also know that the Headmaster left the boy on the door step with a note explaining his circumstances and asking them to look after the boy. Now the thing about Albus is that once he sets something in motion he rarely checks on it, believing his plans to be perfect, thus we can assume he will not be monitoring the boy. I have here some of Albus’ stationary, we will write a note to the family, thanking them for looking after baby Harry and telling them that he decided to place him somewhere else. We will take the boy in the night, leaving them the note, the family will be happy and Dumbledore won’t know the difference until Harry is ready to go to Hogwarts. What do you think?”

“Sounds like a plan.” Both men answered together, “But we do it tonight” Sirius added.

The trio agreed and sat down to discuss the details while eating the surprisingly good food Kreacher had supplied.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Three quiet cracks were heard in Private Drive as the tree men appearing in the dead of night, in much the same way an old man did three months previously, they headed up to number four and silently entered the house. Locating the cupboard, they unlocked the deadbolt on the door to show the 18 month old boy curled tightly on a thin dirty mattress, a threadbare sheet all that was protecting him from the cool January night. The boy was dirty and thin, with none of the baby fat that most his age still have, his normally unruly hair was matted and tangled and he was whimpering quietly in his sleep. Severus quickly cast a sleeping charm over the boy and Sirius picked him and the sheet up. Realising the boy was clutching a soft blue blanket with an embroidered HJP on the corner he smiled thanking whoever was watching that the monsters up-stairs had at least allowed him to keep it. Remus entered the kitchen and laid the note on the table returning to the other two men.

“What are we going to do about this?” Asked Sirius with a growl.

“Nothing Black” Severus snapped, “we can’t do anything to them otherwise they won’t think it was Albus. That doesn’t mean we can’t come back later.” He smirked, while pushing the other two out the door. The three with their precious cargo began to walk back down the drive, Snape noticing a movement in the bushes pushed the other two forwards.

“Quick, Death Eaters, run, I’ll hold them off” he whispered.

“No wait” called a female voice, the three turned around to see Arabella Figg emerge, “I was just checking to see who it was.”

“Figgy?” Asked a bewildered Sirius, “What are you doing here?”

“Albus stationed me down the street to keep an eye on Harry, not sure why though ‘cause he wouldn’t listen when I said he was being treated well. I’ve been thinking about contacting you for a while to get him out of there but couldn’t work out how without alerting Albus.” She explained.

“Take him, look after him, I didn’t see you and if Albus asks the boy is still with his relatives.” The old women then hurried away, back to her home and bed.

The three stared at each other for a minute before continuing back to Grimmauld Place where they could clean and heal the boy before waking him up and explaining what was going on. It would take many weeks before the boy was back on his feet and had gotten over the trauma from those few months with his relatives. The three men united in their care for the sweet boy were already planning their next moves and how to bring the boy up. How much to teach him, for they were sure he would be a big part of the upcoming war and needed to be ready before he re-entered the wizarding world when he turned 11.