It was finally Saturday and Harry had had a nice breakfast with his friends in the great hall. Now he just had to disappear for some time without them getting suspicious. Well in Ron's case that part was rather easy. He just had to say he wanted to learn for some hours. Neville, whom he had made a point to include more into his group of friends, which hadn't been a big problem as both Ron and Hermione liked the shy Gryffindor well enough, would respect his privacy. In Hermione's it was harder. She would want to help him or keep him company. So he decided to say he had to learn some of his additional material and would be gone for some hours.
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Discover moreFan fiction mobileDownload FanFiction appFan fiction booksComics fanfiction storiesWriter collaboration platform"Why can't you learn with us?" Hermione asked.
"It's easier for me to be undisturbed. I mean I will spend some hours in the pensieve and I prefer if nobody tries to interrupt me. And if I were to keep you company in the library or the common room, others would start asking questions. And I don't want to alert the teachers to my new learning materials. Besides I think it would look suspicious to some if I disappeared in a basin for hours. And if the pensieve is in an open place some people could do something I don't want to happen. I just hate being stared at and when they whisper behind my back about things they don't understand. I had enough of that last year when nearly everybody thought I was the heir of Slytherin." Harry said bitterly.
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This stopped Hermione for good as she remembered all too well how depressed Harry had been.
"Until later, I will find you." Harry said and left the great hall.
Discover moreScience Fiction & FantasyChildren's BooksScience Fiction & Fantasy FilmsScience Fiction & Fantasy BooksPlays fanfiction storiesHe went down the corridor that led to the entrance to Gryffindor tower. Kreacher would pick him up behind a curtain that hid a secret passageway. His fathers had both told him how they had written the marauder's map where all of Hogwarts was shown. Harry really wanted to have this map, but neither knew what happened to it. It had been confiscated by Filch when they were in their final year. But Harry didn't want to sneak into Filch's office. The time in there last year was more than he ever wanted to spend there.
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He came upon the Weasley twins, who were behaving strangely in his eyes. They were probably planning a new prank. Well, he would see it when they pulled it. He greeted them and was about to pass by them, they were bent over a piece of parchment, probably with notes for their new prank, when they suddenly hoisted him under his arms and went down the corridor with him.
Discover moreAnime & MangaMobile app developmentMovies fanfiction storiesMobile app marketingFiction writing resources"Fred, George, let me down. What has gotten into you?" Harry asked.
One of the twins quickly cast a silencing charm around them and none of them bothered letting Harry down. Harry found they were leading him where he was supposed to meet Kreacher.
"So Harrykins, Fred and I have a very interesting question to ask you." Harry supposed it was George asking.
"What the hell do you mean? I don't like being kidnapped like this." Harry said annoyed.
Discover moreComicsCrossover fiction guidesMoviesFanfiction writing toolsTV fanfiction stories"Well, you see, this is a very special piece of parchment. When we were looking for a good way to make Snape's life a lot less boring, we saw a very interesting thing."
Harry now looked closer at the parchment. No, it couldn't be. Did the twins find the marauder's map? How? If it was the map he was done for. The map showed his true name.
"How did you find this?" He asked stalling for time to think.
"Well, thing is, Fred and I, when we were just cute firsties and completely innocent." Harry snorted, yeah, the twins being innocent at any point, quite believable.
Discover moreAnime fanfiction storiesCartoonsFan fiction communityCookiesAnime"Yes, maybe more innocent than now would be best to describe it." Fred went on with the story.
"We were found out by Filch when we let some dung bombs loose in the charms corridor. He was busy with filling out one of his reports." George told him.
"Such a waste of good parchment if you ask me, but anyway, we saw this parchment stick out of one of his drawers, the one where he holds the confiscated items. So like every good prankster..." Fred said.
"...we went for it. Fred threw some more dung bombs and I nicked the parchment. This little piece of parchment has taught us more about the castle than all the teachers combined." George explained proudly.
Harry knew he was busted. It was without a doubt the marauders map.
"May I have the parchment for a moment?" Harry asked, deciding to go into the offence.
If the twins saw the inventors of the map as their idols, he could probably trust them somehow. George gave him the map.
"I solemnly swear I'm up to no good." Harry said and tapped the map with his wand, making the castle appear under the stunned eyes of the twins.
Harry looked over the map and saw his dot. Harry Potter-Black it said. Well, no point in denying it now.
"I think you are wondering about my change in name?" he asked matter of factly.
"Blimey Fred, we have seriously underestimated little Harry here." George said, getting an indignant shout from Harry.
"Yes, who would have thought he would know about something so infamous like the marauder's map?" Fred agreed.
"How could I not? My father was one of the four who made it." Harry informed them.
"You are the son of a marauder? Which one?" George asked eagerly.
"Prongs is James Potter, my father, Moony is funnily Remus Lupin our new Defense teacher, Wormtail is Peter Pettigrew, the traitor, that sold my parents to Voldemort, it was not Sirius Black, who by the way is Padfoot and has adopted me some days ago." Harry told them.
The twins were flabbergasted. Never would they have suspected this.
"So Harry, if he is innocent, why was he sent to Azkaban for twelve years?" Fred asked.
"Because the Ministry is a bunch of idiots, the Minister for Magic being the supreme idiot. Pa was sent to Azkaban without a trial. Everybody should think that he was the secret keeper for my parents, so that Voldy and his merry band of death munchers would go after him and my parents and I would be safe. They chose Pettigrew to be the real secret keeper as they thought he would be the least likely choice. Sadly he was a death muncher and betrayed them."
Harry had balled his fists at this.
"When Hagrid took me from my parents' destroyed house on Dumbledore's orders to bring me to mum's sister to live there, Pa went after the traitor. He didn't want to hand me over to Hagrid, but he had no choice. If only he hadn't gone after Pettigrew then, I wouldn't have had to grow up there. He cornered Pettigrew and the rat accused Pa of being the traitor, blew up the street behind him, cut his finger and transformed into his animagus form, a rat and disappeared into the gutters. Sirius found everything totally hilarious and began laughing. That was how the aurors found him. He didn't get a trial at all, Crouch just sent him to the dementors.
"That is one reason I fear dementors so much. I have heard what they can do to you. I have had enough horrible experiences in my life to make our whole year faint if they were confronted with them. So I learned the patronus charm at least the beginnings. Pa found out where the traitor has been hiding and that was the reason he escaped. He wanted to protect me from him, because in case Voldy comes back, the rat is in perfect position to strike again."
Fred and George looked at each other, both sporting a serious look for once.
"Scabbers!" They said at the same time, coming to the obvious conclusion.
"Yes. I will reveal Scabbers as Pettigrew in front of McGonagall as soon as I can get a chance. I thought about a lesson in Transfiguration when we learn the animagus revealing spell. I will hit the rat 'on accident' and McGonagall gets a big surprise. With McGonagall's vote, which won't be questioned as she has a very good reputation, there will be no way the Minister can worm his way out of this. They have to clear Sirius of all charges and I can finally live with him openly, not in disguise."
"So let me get this straight..." Fred began. "Sirius Black is innocent. He is Padfoot, a marauder. Another marauder betrayed your parents and faked his death as Scabbers, worming his way into a wizarding family to keep informed when his old master returns. To get the dunderheads in the Ministry to admit the made a mistake you need Wormtail as proof together with McGonagall's word."
Harry nodded. The serious faces of the twins changed into delight.
"Harry this has to be the best prank ever pulled." He shouted delightedly.
"We will gladly help you pull one over the bigots at the Ministry. As you may perhaps know they have treated dad lousy all those years, just because he likes the muggles so much." Fred
"He adores their ways to solve problems and would like nothing better than to spend his time to find out how their technology works." George
"We kind of inherited his research liking, just in the field of jokes." Fred
"Yes he really was an inspiration working on his Ford Anglia." George
"Pity the car is lost to the wild in the forbidden forest, best work of dad so far." Fred
"But the sneakiness dad put on to avoid mum finding out what he really did until he was nearly finished was impressive." George
"We had to get this character trait from somebody. What we want to say is, we Weasleys have been seen as lower than normal wizarding families and we are sick of it." Fred
"Yes. you probably have found out about this, seeing as how Ron is really embarrassed if somebody mentions our poverty or how Ginny was sad because all she got last year were second hand things." George
"We know we have to stand on our own feet as soon as we leave Hogwarts as mum and dad won't be able to help us get started." Fred
"We will never start at the Ministry like Percy the prat wants to do." George.
"Merlin beware. We would try to prank the hell out of all the pureblood faggots" Fred
"Would be really funny, but wouldn't be well advised for making career there, so better scratch the thought completely and turn to use our strengths..." George
"Inventing joke products to start a joke shop after school. That's our goal. This will be our first field test and I can't wait for it. I am sure we can improve your plan." Fred.
A sharp crack was heard.
"Master Harry?" Kreacher asked.
Harry laughed at the stunned faces of the twins when Kreacher had suddenly appeared.
"Fred, George, may I introduce you to Kreacher? He is the Black head elf and has been in the service of the family for many decades. He and Pa are renovating our house while I am at school so it will look more appropriate for our needs. It was too dark before. Kreacher, these are Fred and George Weasley, they have found out about my adoption from the marauder's map and want to help us prove Pa's innocence and catch the rat." Harry explained.
"It's very nice to meet young masters. Every friend to the house of Black is a friend to Kreacher. Is Master Harry ready to go home?" Kreacher asked.
"Yes I am. Fred, George, please tell nobody about what I told you. Dumbledore has his own agenda and I am not sure I like it, he has not been the best in making decisions how I should live. He was the one who placed me with the Dursleys and I found out more, I just can't tell at the moment. I will be gone for some hours, so it would be great if you covered for me if somebody asks."
"No problem Harry. We will start planning. We have a Ministry to prank after all." George said.
Harry nodded, took Kreacher's hand and the elf disapparated them.
Sirius waited impatiently for his son to arrive. He had planned a lot for today, but not his pensieve lessons. He had prepared a surprise for his son. Sirius also wanted to start Harry on some physical exercises. He had always thought it was stupid that in the wizarding world there were so few opportunities for sport. The only real demanding one being Quidditch and there your broom did most of the work. No he intended to introduce Harry to some sports and let him decide which one he liked best.
He heard the familiar crack of Kreacher's reappearance and went down to the entrance hall where they had arrived. He saw Harry looking around and he was really happy when his son's face lit up when he saw him.
"Pa!" Harry cried happy and ran to Sirius.
He flew into the open arms of his father. Sirius spun Harry around to avoid being sent onto the floor and hugged his son.
"Hey son, how was the first week?"
"Really great. I must show you my memories of the first Potions class. Snape's face was priceless. I totally let his attempts to make me look like a fool backfire."
"That's great. I'm looking forward to it. Have you already eaten or do you want something?"
"No I'm good for the moment. I just had breakfast with my friends. But something happened just before Kreacher came to get me. I found out where the marauder's map is." Harry told Sirius.
"Really? That's great where is it?" he asked.
"The Weasley twins have it. They nicked it from Filch's office when they were first years. Regrettably they saw my new name on it and confronted me about it. I had to tell them, that you adopted me and that you are innocent. Fred and George took it really well and they want to help us pranking the Ministry. Old grudge for belittling their father all those years. By the way, has Mr. Weasley agreed to meet the CEO of Juneur WT?" he asked.
Sirius needed a moment to sort his thoughts. The twins knew and were ok with it from what Harry said. It would probably best to meet with them to make sure they would really keep everything quiet and to point them in the right direction where they could start their pranks. Well, nobody could say he neglected the encouragement of the next generation.
"I don't know if he has, I haven't heard anything from Juneur yet. But I think I should meet Fred and George in private to make sure there won't be problems. This has to be handled the right way so we can be sure that Peter doesn't escape. But if they are serious about their offer to help we could really use them. Pranksters always have the best ideas because they think out of the box."
"Yes that would be great. What are we going to do today? I only have some hours before Ron and Hermione get too suspicious. I told them I wanted to learn on my own to not be called a weirdo when I am in the pensieve and that I don't want the teachers to find out about my extra learning. It helped to mention the whole heir of Slytherin thing from last year. But it won't do forever." Harry explained.
Sirius grinned.
"Dobby." he called.
The elf appeared with a crack.
"Yes Master Sirius?" He asked happily. "Oh hello Master Harry. Kreacher has gotten you from school then." He said.
"Yes, hello Dobby. What do you want from Dobby Pa?" Harry asked confused.
"Have you prepared the things I asked you Dobby?" Sirius asked not answering Harry's question.
"Yes Master Sirius. It's all ready in the training room."
"Thank you Dobby. You can go back to your work then." The elf bowed and left.
"You see Harry, I have thought of the things you will need to defeat Voldemort and came up with lots of things for you to learn. There is just one problem. If you only train, you could forget why you are doing all of this. True, the magical abilities and contacts will help you in the future, but I don't want you to lose all of your childhood. So I decided that today we are going to enjoy the weather and visit the London zoo. I promised you to make a family trip and with the danger of dementors and all the training before school we never got to do it.
"As you have some hours for yourself, I think that would be sufficient. I will just let you take the pensieve with you for school and you can study the things we should have covered today sometime tomorrow or over the week. You can call Kreacher or Dobby to get it back here when you are finished with the lessons. I want you to relax and have fun today."
Harry's face lit up. His father hadn't forgotten about his wish. He was so happy. He impulsively hugged him. That was one of the first pleasant surprises he had gotten in his life. Sirius smiled and held his son. He was glad to be able to make his son happy by such simple means as a zoo visit. He really had to get the Dursleys back for what they had done to his boy. Well, what were lawyers for? He wouldn't need to get his hands dirty when the Dursleys had done that themselves. He had to maintain his image as the good one after all, even if he wanted nothing better than to hex them into the next century with the most evil curses his family library had to offer.
Harry had the best day of his life. Sirius took him to the zoo by side-along apparition. They got their tickets without problems as Sirius was trained how to use muggle money properly. Harry could visit all the animals he wanted without fearing of interference of his stupid cousin. He looked around, smiling when he saw the lions that were lazing in the September sun, the monkeys chasing each other around their big outside perch, the elephants being trained by one of the zoo employees. He really liked the daily presentation at the dolphinarium, the things the dolphins showed were fantastic.
For lunch Sirius used the prepared food he had asked Dobby for. Harry thought it was really good. They had some sandwiches, meatballs, fruit, juice and some candy Dobby and Kreacher had made the last week. For the first time in his life Harry felt like a normal boy. He could spend time with his father, see some interesting animals, get delicious food at a picnic and just forget that the most evil wizard of all times would one day come after him again. For these hours he was just Harry.
Harry returned to Hogwarts an hour and a half before dinner would start. He thanked Kreacher and asked him to put the pensieve into his trunk to keep it safe. Kreacher bowed and disapparated. Harry went looking for his two friends. He really wanted to see them now. He went to the Gryffindor common room first only to find that Hermione had somehow managed to coax Ron and Neville into accompanying her to the library. So Harry went there.
The three were at a desk with some potion books around them. Harry thought they had to be doing their essay for Snape. He sat down next to them.
"Hey, did you have a nice day?" He asked innocently.
"Hey Harry. Where have you been all this time?" Ron demanded to know.
"I told you at breakfast that I would be studying for hours Ron." Harry answered.
"Hours? Well, I didn't know your idea was that you meant more than three hours. It's nearly time for dinner. You missed lunch."
Harry chuckled. It was obvious Ron would be opposed to the thought of missing a meal.
"I had some snacks with me, don't worry. And I had more than one lesson to do, so it was only natural to be absent for so long."
"What did you study today?" Hermione asked interested.
Harry was prepared for this. He had done a quick overview over the next lessons, he would be doing in the next days so he could give some information to questions.
"Well, today it was inventive uses for defensive spells, usual charms and what was very interesting, ways to combine magic with technology. I tell you Britain is so far behind the rest of the world in this area. By the way, Ron, your dad was really interested in muggles, right? Did he ever mention Juneur Wizarding Technologies to you?" Harry asked.
Ron was taken by surprise and thought about it.
"Yes I think so, perhaps once or twice. Why do you ask?"
"Because it was fascinating to learn about the ingenious ways the wizards found to include muggle technology into their lives. There was this witch Estelle Juneur who lived at the beginning of the twentieth century. She was born in France. She was the pioneer in combining techniques the muggles developed with magic. I think the WWN is one of the most well-known accomplishments of this. It was really interesting. I think it would be great if there were more ways to do this." Harry explained.
Neville, Ron and Hermione looked intrigued. They obviously had never heard about that topic. Neville especially looked interested. Perhaps because his grandmother had raised him so secluded.
"That sounds really interesting Harry. It would be really great if in this way wizards would get to understand muggles better and we could use some of the inventions that are really useful in the wizarding world." Hermione agreed eagerly.
They talked for some time, until it was time to go up to the tower to get ready for dinner.
That's it for now. Hopefully until next week.