Sirius and Harry landed in an alley from which Sirius led Harry in front of a line of old houses. They looked well cared for.
"Where are we Sirius?" Harry asked.
"We are in London Harry and the place we are standing in front of is my parents' house. Grimmauld Place Number 12. I had hoped to never have to return here, but it is the safest place to be for us at the moment. My family was kind of paranoid so this house is better protected than most buildings in the wizarding world. It has a lot of old and nasty wards, the nicer ones being muggle repelling, the building being unplottable and a dark creature repellant ward. I think only Gringotts, Hogwarts and Potter Manor are better protected here in Britain."
"Potter Manor?" Harry asked incredulously.
Sirius blinked surprised.
"You don't know?" He asked.
Harry shook his head.
"But you must know of your heritage. It's important for you to know the dos and don'ts of your social standing or you could make unnecessary enemies. Some of the old pureblood families really take those customs serious. They are so easily insulted. Did nobody ever tell you this?" Sirius asked shocked.
"No, nobody ever told me anything about the magical world until I got my letter to Hogwarts." Harry explained.
"I see I have my work cut out for me. While I don't believe in this whole pureblood supremacy crap, I know the rules they live their lives by and know how to avoid antagonizing them all in public. Well, let's get inside first and settle you in. Then we can talk about your life so far. I want to get to know you, Harry." Sirius said.
Both walked towards the front door and Sirius nicked his finger to draw some blood.
"Normally I would use my wand for this, but as things are, I have to get a new one first. The house only accepts a blood relative of the Black family to enter. As I found out after I escaped from Azkaban, my mother and father died some years ago, so I am the sole heir of the Black fortune."
"I'm sorry that your parents are dead, Sirius." Harry said.
"Don't be. To be honest, Harry, my family was one of the most awful wizarding families there were. My parents never were Death Eaters." He looked at Harry's questioning face. "Voldemort's servants..." Sirius explained "...but they thought he had the right ideas about how to treat muggles, halfbloods and muggleborn witches and wizards. I ran away when I was sixteen because I couldn't stand my family anymore."
The door opened and Sirius led Harry inside.
"But where did you stay? You were still underage." Harry wanted to know.
"At your father's place. Your grandparents were great people. They took me in and treated me like a second son. After my uncle Alphard left me some money, I got my own place but I was always welcome for dinner at the weekends. It hurt me much more when they died than when if found out that my own parents had died." Sirius told Harry.
Harry just nodded. It sounded like Sirius could understand growing up while being unhappy. Way better than other adults he had met so far. Harry looked around in the house. It was dark. And Sirius warning about his family being dark wizards was only too true. He saw elf heads stuffed at the stairs, a kind of leg, probably a troll's leg used for holding umbrellas, some evil looking portraits and he suspected other vile things in the other rooms. He looked a bit unsure about the idea of living in such a house. Sirius seemed to understand his hesitation.
"It will take some time to clean this place up. The house has been empty for years now, eight since my mother died I think and seemingly the old house elf wasn't up to snuff to clean everything properly." Sirius explained with a repulsed face.
"You have a house elf?" Harry asked surprised.
"Yes, nearly all the old pureblood families have them, mostly more than one, depends on the size of the family and their property to be honest. As the Blacks' numbers have been decreasing, the number of elves decreased. An elf can only survive so long if he doesn't have a Master." Sirius said.
He was surprised by Harry's horrified face. Something he had said must have deeply disturbed the boy. But what would that be?
"What's the matter, Harry?" Sirius asked concerned.
"Well, last year I tricked Lucius Malfoy to set his house-elf Dobby free. He was horrible to Dobby. He kicked him around, the family always ordered him to do extra punishments and he was treated like he was lower than dirt. Dobby really disliked his masters. But I didn't know that Dobby would suffer if I set him free. He was so happy to be free from his masters." Harry said panicking.
"That is definitely a weird elf. Most of them would think it the maximum disgrace to be set free. But I know the Malfoys. In fact my cousin Narcissa was married to the heir of the Malfoys when we were younger. Such a respectable pureblood marriage. My parents were thrilled. Same goes for my cousin Bellatrix; she married into the Lestrange family. Death Eaters all together. They thought house elves to be lesser beings, not intelligent magical beings that have to be treated fairly." Sirius told him sarcastically.
"You are related to the Malfoys?" Harry asked disbelievingly.
"If you only allow your children to marry another pureblooded witch or wizard, there are not that many possibilities. If your grandparents hadn't been so open-minded, there could have been a really big uproar about James marrying Lily. After all the Potters are one of the oldest pureblood families here in Britain. Your mother was one of the most brilliant witches of the time, but still a muggle born. Well at least until she went to Gringotts to make the obligatory heritage test. It was quite interesting to see the faces of Lily and James when the goblins announced that your mother was in reality a pureblood witch." Sirius grinned remembering that event.
"What? But how is that possible? I thought Mum was Aunt Petunia's sister." Harry was upset.
"Only by adoption. After Petunia was born, her mother was unable to have another child. Something about severe injuries and it being too dangerous to have another child. I never really understood muggle medicine so I can't tell you more there. But she and her husband wanted for Petunia to grow up with at least one sibling. So they adopted Lily two years later. I doubt Petunia knows this. Hell, I only know this because I was witness to the announcing of the test results. Lily confronted her parents about this and they told her everything.
"She was found as a baby barely a few months old. As no family could be found she was put into an orphanage. Then Petunia's parents came there and decided to adopt Lily as they could tell she was their own child. Everybody thought she was a normal muggle-born witch until this test. They took it shortly before they married. They were nineteen at the time. Lily was the only heiress to the noble and most ancient house of Boldon. They were a family that originated from France but immigrated to Britain around 1600. I don't know the exact year.
"They were an old and wealthy family and soon they built their connections in Britain and bought several major magical businesses. They now all firm under the name Boldon. Before they have been separate shops, farms, plantations and mines. Then, during the war against Grindelwald, they became targets. From what I remember of the history of the 1930's to the 1940's when Grindelwald raged war against continental Europe, he specifically targeted those pureblood families that disagreed with his goals. He started with threatening them and if that didn't work he hunted them down to the last member as an example to those who dared to defy him.
"First it were only small families. If I remember correctly, the first to be victims of his vendetta were the Polish Hagnocks then the German Frandersteins. The Boldons were late victims because of their economic and political influence. Grindelwald only dared to attack them after he had strengthened his power base in society. Had he gone after them from the beginning he would have surely lost his war early on. Grindelwald soon found an easy solution for his problems with killing the whole family. He told the Nazis that they were Jews and so many were killed by them. It was a popular tactic. They only needed to make sure that there were wards that prevented them from escaping their homes when the Nazis came and many lost their lives in gunfire before they could defend themselves.
"You can't imagine how many witches and wizards were lost to World War II. While we separate ourselves from the muggles we are still part of the normal world. This house would have been destroyed if some of the bombs that were dropped on London had hit it. Even the strongest magical wards have problems to withstand that much destructive power.
"After Grindelwald was defeated Lily's family was severely decimated. They had lost most of their members that had lived in France, Germany, Belgium, Denmark and other countries. Later Voldemort went after the last ones. They disappeared one after another and nobody could really tell what had happened to them. They were thought to be extinct until Lily took the test." Sirius explained.
Harry had to digest this information. To learn that his real family had been killed by dark Lords because they had opposed them. This also meant that his aunt Petunia wasn't really his aunt. There wasn't a really good reason for him to stay at Privet Drive. They were not his family. Only by adoption. And they hated him, they had never hidden their feelings.
"Was Aunt Petunia told this?" He asked weakly dreading the answer.
"No. Lily and James kept this information a secret. First Lily had to come to terms with her heritage, then they became targets of Voldemort and it would have been more dangerous if he found out that the Boldon family had an heiress. The family had too much economical influence for him to ignore. As long as the family didn't have a legitimate heir their wealth would be held in trust and managed by the managers of the group. And managers could have been chosen by him after he had conquered Britain. Lily was too much part of the light side to ever even consider joining his forces. He knew this very well." Sirius answered.
Harry nodded.
"So this means I am a pureblood wizard?" Harry asked.
"Yes, but don't get a big head about it." Sirius joked.
"Don't worry, I don't want to become like Malfoy." Harry answered chuckling.
Sirius laughed at those words and Harry thought he liked it when Sirius laughed. He looked much nicer.
"Well, come on. Let me show you the house and then you can choose a room you like. We will need to clean up the house to make it possible to live here, but we will manage. Let your trunk stay here, we will get it, when we are finished. By the way. Kreacher." Sirius called.
A crack was heard and an old house elf appeared in front of the two wizards.
"Yes Master?" The elf asked bowing, seemingly displeased to have to call Sirius Master.
"Kreacher this is my godson Harry Potter. He will live here with me from now on. I want you to follow his orders as you would follow mine. Please begin cleaning the kitchen so we can prepare something to eat and drink when we are finished with the tour of the house." Sirius tried to be nice to the elf, even if he didn't like him because of his past.
Kreacher seemed to be surprised of the treatment from Sirius. But he complied.
"As Master wishes." He answered.
Harry decided to introduce himself properly.
"Hello, Kreacher, I'm Harry, I hope we can have a good relationship." He told the elf, hoping that he wouldn't burst into tears like Dobby did.
"Harry Potter, the boy-who-lived. My poor mistress told me about his victory over the Dark Lord. She was so distraught when Master Regulus died in his service. Poor Mistress. Nobody there to console her. Master Sirius gone to hunt the Dark Lord. It broke her heart to see her son betray the way of the Black." Kreacher mumbled.
"What is wrong with him Sirius?" Harry asked slightly disturbed by the clearly insane house elf.
"I think he was alone for too long. This house is full of dark artifacts. They emit dark magic. Add to this that probably the portrait of my insane mother, which I hid with a curtain as a precaution in case you would come with me, gave him orders during the years after her death and you get a confused house elf. Do you know the confundus charm?"
"Yes it was in our spell books. But I had some difficulties to learn it. If it hadn't been for Hermione I would never had mastered it." Harry admitted.
"That's curious. You had an uncanny talent for wandless magic when you were a baby. You gave your parents quite some action when they tried to undo your accidental magic. How are you generally doing at school?" Sirius asked.
"I'm average. I have sometimes serious problems to learn things. I just can't remember all the facts that I am shown or explained. The only thing that ever seemed to come to me naturally was flying." Harry replied.
Sirius frowned. Something was really wrong here. James and Lily had both been incredibly talented wizards. And for their son to not have inherited any of their talents was nearly impossible, especially as he had shown great talent as a baby. He would have to have Harry checked for blocks and curses he decided and luckily he had good contacts at Gringotts. It was probably the only place where the ministry would not be able to get any information. Or whoever was responsible for this.
Sirius led Harry around the ground floor where the kitchen, a study, some storage rooms and a living room were. Then he showed him the rooms in the upper floors. Harry was awed how big the house was. It didn't look that big from the outside.
"How is the house so big inside, Sirius? It doesn't look like this from the outside." Harry asked curiously.
"Magic, Harry. Generations of Blacks have added to the space and the wards that protect this house. My family really hated being troubled by muggles, so they did everything to make this house more or less invisible. It is unplottable, invisible to any non-magical person, has several defensive barriers that can only be deactivated by a member of the family or those who are keyed into the wards." Sirius answered.
"Wow. That's impressive. But it is kind of dark and uncomfortable here." Harry pointed out.
"I know. One of my top priorities is to clean up the house and renovate it completely. Out with the old and dusty things, especially the dark artifacts and in with light and friendly looking things. I want a real home. Nothing shall be remembered of the dark and cold house I grew up in." Sirius stated.
Harry grinned. He could understand Sirius. If he could have his way with Privet Drive, his thoughts drifted away.
Finally Harry decided to take a spacious room two rooms down the floor from Sirius own room.
"Well, we will have to clean it a bit before you can sleep here. Would you mind, if I borrowed your wand for a minute? I'm not that good at household spells but it suffices to get the bed and the floor somewhat clean." Sirius asked.
"Won't the ministry be able to spot it if you do magic? Especially with my wand? I don't want them to find me. Before this mess with underage magic is cleared I fear they would expel me." Harry said.
Sirius saw clearly how much Harry feared to be expelled or thrown into prison. What the hell did those muggles do that he was that much afraid of losing the possibility to go to Hogwarts?
"This is not a problem. The trace the ministry has on underage wizards and witches isn't connected to the wand, more to the area where the spell is cast near an underage wizard or witch. I will tell you a secret Harry, the Ministry is unable to detect who cast a spell. They only can use the trace to find muggleborns using magic because then they are sure who cast the spell. In magical buildings there is too much interference for them to know who did the magic. They trust the magical parents to keep their children under control." Sirius told Harry.
"What? But that is not fair." Harry exclaimed angrily.
"No it isn't. But a lot of things in our magical world are not fair. As well as they aren't in the muggle world. Especially here in Britain. Most of our laws have been written by purebloods to favor them. Some other countries are farther ahead but not all of them. Russia is even farther behind than we are." Sirius informed Harry.
Harry just nodded. Then he yawned.
"I think it would be best if I hurry to clean your bed so you can get some well-deserved rest, we can talk tomorrow Harry." Sirius said.
Harry nodded and gave Sirius his wand.
"Scourgify." Sirius said and waved his wand.
Lots of dust and spider webs disappeared from the room. Sirius repeated the spell five more times before he was pleased with the results. He handed Harry his wand back.
"Well good night, Harry. If you need anything, you know where to find me." Sirius said.
"Thank you Sirius, good night to you too." Harry answered.
Sirius left the room and Harry proceeded to change into his nightwear. He was dead tired and decided to forego brushing his teeth this time. Not even five minutes after he had slipped under the blankets in the big, comfortable bed Harry was asleep.