Chapter 14

''I am so glad that you are here pup." Sirius said as he guided Harry up the stairs. "I was wondering what to do about where you would sleep, I was going to set up a room for you but I didn't really know what you would like. So I figured it would be better if I wait for you so we can decide how to make the room. Anyway, I was thinking of having you stay in my brother's room."

"You have a brother?" Harry asked unable to keep the surprise out of his voice.

"Yeah, Regulus, we didn't really get along." Sirius admitted. "I went to Gryffindor and was best friends with your dad and I was friends with muggleborns and half-bloods as well, Regulus on the other hand was the perfect son, the muggle hating Slytherin. Exactly what my parents wanted me to be."

"Sorry Sirius."

"Why you should you be sorry? It's not like it's your fault." Sirius replied waving a hand dismissively. "Anyway, I was going to put you in there but then Kreatcher went crazy about letting 'half-bloods' and 'mudbloods' in his great master's bedroom."

"Kreatcher?"

"Oh sorry, he is the Black family house elf. Except, much like the Blacks themselves, he is more than a little crazy. He's been on his own here for years with nothing but the company of my 'lovely' mother."

"You don't like her." Harry said, it was not a question.

"No, I don't." Sirius said honestly. "She wanted me to be a muggle hating pureblood arsehole, I thought she was a bitch, we just didn't get along. Luckily your dad was there for me or I would have gone mental. Anyway, Kreatcher doesn't really like me, never has. Regulus he loved, my mother he loved, my father he liked, me he hated."

"Where is your mother?" Harry asked.

"Huh?"

"Your mother, you said that your house elf was in the company of your 'lovely' mother."

"Oh, sorry I meant a portrait of her. You know that portrait on your right when you enter the house?"

"The one with the woman who looked like she just smelt something bad?" Harry asked.

"Yes, exactly." Sirius nodded, not even blinking at Harry's description. "That was my darling mother, the woman had a set of lungs that could make a banshee jealous and she would go for her wand if you gave her even the slightest reason. You may think I am unstable but after all of my years in Azkaban I was still far more stable than her. Matter of fact why didn't she scream when you entered?"

"Probably because I had immediately started attacking order members."

"Old hag was probably waiting to see if you would kill them."

"You know Sirius, believe it or not, but I am beginning to feel like you didn't get along with your family, just call it a feeling." Harry said dryly.

"I don't know what gave you that idea." Sirius said just as dryly as they stopped outside one room. The two looked at each other and managed to maintain a straight face for several seconds before they both began laughing, not really a happy laugh but not too sad either. "Anyway you're staying in here." Sirius said as he opened the door.

"Thanks." Harry said as he entered, the room wasn't anything spectacular. It had a bed, desk, chair, the usual things you'd expect in a room..

"I'm sorry if it's..."

"It's fine." Harry cut him off. "Needs a bit of a clean though, no offence Sirius but the whole house needs a clean."

"Yeah, Kreatcher is refusing to do it though." Sirius pointed out. "So unless you want to do it."

"I will, except when I say me, I mean Dobby." Harry called and as expected Dobby popped in. "Sirius meet Dobby, Dobby meet Sirius Black, my godfather and dog animagus."

"Dobby is happy to meet Master Harry's Mr Black." Dobby smiled at Sirius.

"Well I already like him better than Kreatcher." Sirius smiled.

"Dobby, do us a favour and clean this room for me." Harry said before turning to Sirius. "Where do you stay anyway?"

"I'll show you." Sirius said as he escorted Harry out the room and to his own room.

On the door there is a nameplate that says Sirius. The room was spacious with a large bed that has a carved headboard, a tall window with long velvet curtains, and a candle chandelier. The walls of the room were covered with so many pictures that it is barely possible to see the wallpaper. Harry suspected that Sirius had done something to the pictures because if he hadn't then they would have more than likely be taken down ages ago.

There was pictures of muggle motorcycles and bikini-clad Muggle girls. There was also a picture of the four Marauders: himself, Moony, Prongs, and Wormtail though Harry noticed that Wormtail's face was blasted off.

"Not what I was expecting." Harry said as he closed the door. "I'll have Dobby give this a look as well."

"Harry you don't have to do that."

"That's why I am going to get Dobby to do it." Harry said with a cheeky smile.

"Fine." Sirius rolled his eyes. "By the way Harry, can I talk to you about that for a moment?" Sirius said as he gestured to the tattoo on Harry's hand.

"What about it?" Harry said, sounding more defensive than he intended. "Oh sorry, that came out ruder than I meant it to."

"Hey, you're not the only person in this house with tattoos." Sirius said as he gestured to where he had his own tattoos from Azkaban. "Now don't get me wrong, I am not going to shout at you or tell you I am disappointed or whatever. You're legally an adult now, and if you want to get more then I can't really stop you but do us a favour and don't start covering yourself head to toe in them. Also if you absolutely must then can you please, at least for my sake, wait until you are physically of age to get them. I don't want your mother to rise out of the grave and attack me for not trying to talk you out of it."

"I don't really plan to get anymore," Harry admitted. "unless you think a grim would go nice around here." Harry joked as he pointed to his chest.

"Nah, on your shoulder." Sirius grinned back. "Let's see this again." Sirius said as he took Harry's hand and looked at it. "If he was still alive then Prongs would be crying his eyes out right now, your mother would be somewhere between upset that you got a tattoo and glad that you love her enough to keep a memory of her."

"You miss them a lot." Harry noted in a sad voice.

"They were my family, you're all I have left now Harry." Sirius responded.

"At least until I have kids, or until you get kids. Matter of fact I don't think it's too late for you to get a wife."

"We'll see." Sirius said, slightly disbelieving.

"By the way, I...sort of have a way for you to sort of see dad again." Harry said in a quiet voice.

"How?" Sirius asked, his voice as soft as it was the first time he asked Harry to live with him.

"Give us a sec," Harry said as he pulled his hand out of Sirius's and went to close the door. Harry pulled his wand out. "expecto patronum." Harry said, and a second later his patronus shot out of his wand and ran around the room several times before it stopped in front of Sirius. "Say hi to Prongs." Harry smiled. Sirius gaped for several moments before he was able to recover.

"Come here." Sirius said to Harry. Harry walked over and was pulled into a hug as soon as he was in arms reach.

"I must confess, I am glad you are all here." Voldemort said, he along with all of the death eaters he was currently able to amass were in Malfoy Manor. Voldemort was sat on a throne, looking down at the kneeling death eaters while his snake, Nagini, was next to him. Draco Malfoy was included in this, while he was not a death eater yet Voldemort had insisted that Draco join the meeting, Draco was thrilled and his parents were in no position to disagree. "It seems as if it was only yesterday when we were raging war against Dumbledore, now it feels like an event to look forward to. Severus, kindly tell us what has been happening with Dumbledore."

"Yes my lord," Snape nodded. "the headmaster is a bit frustrated as he hasn't been able to recruit as many members as he would like. Partly due to the Potter brat not supporting him and also due to Pettigrew denying your return under veritaserum."

"That is good news," Voldemort said in a pleased voice, as he idly twirled his wand. "and what of Potter?"

"The Potter brat had run from the order member when they arrived at his house, he at the time believed that they could have been your servants. From what the order members told me when they returned, when they tried to catch him Potter had manged to injure about five members while hurting two others, which included Mad-Eye Moody." Snape said, a brief look of surprise appeared on Voldemort's face but it was gone just as quick as it came.

"Really?" Voldemort asked in amusement. "Seven members of Dumbledore's group all dealt with by a running teenager?"

"Yes my lord," Snape answered. "after that Potter had followed the order members back to their headquarters, when a meeting was happening Potter attacked and injured seven more members before his mutt of a godfather was able to stop the fighting."

"My, my, how entertaining." Voldemort chuckled. "There will hardly be any order members left to kill if Potter continues. What else Severus?"

"I had to leave quickly, but I was able to find out that Potter believes he will not get into trouble under ministry laws due to the Triwizard tournament making him legally an adult. The only other really important detail is that the blood wards that were supposed to protect Potter failed to keep out whoever it was that you sent, while we are on that topic Dumbledore does not know who you have sent as far as I am aware."

"I don't expect that he would," Voldemort replied, Nagini hissed, Voldemort spoke to her in parsletounge for a few moments before turning back to his death eaters. "I assume that you all would like to know the identity of the one sent to attack Potter. Here he comes now."

The doors opened, every person in the room turned in the same direction to see who had entered. The figure wore black shoes, black trousers, black gloves, a grey shirt and black robes that ended at his thighs. He had silver pads on his shins, knees, elbows and forearms. His hood was up, covering his face in a dark shadow, making it impossible to see what he really looked like. He walked forward, his body language told everyone in the room he wasn't nervous at all. To many it felt like watching a tiger walk among deer.

The figure stopped in front of Voldemort, not bothering to bow or kneel. He began speaking, not in English but in parsletounge. Snape along with many of the other death eaters wished they could understand parsletounge so they could understand what this stranger was talking about. Voldemort began replying in parsletounge, the two engaged in a small conversation, Voldemort's face was an amused one.

"My loyal followers," Voldemort said to the death eaters in English. "the day of the third task Barty Crouch Junior succeeded in getting Potter's blood so I could regain a body, however that was not all that we succeeded in doing. There was just enough blood left for a little experiment of mine, the person you see in front of you is the result of a mixture between my blood and Potters. He has only two purposes in life, destroy Potter and serve me. He is my heir." Many of the death eaters did not know how to react to the fact that their lord was able to produce an entire person using magic and blood, especially when some of the blood was from Harry Potter.

Severus Snape was in what someone could describe as pure disbelief, he knew that Voldemort possessed abilities that most men and women would only dream of but to be to actually make a person from blood and magic was ridiculous and impossible yet the result was in front of him. Still, despite that Severus could not fathom why Voldemort would chose Potter's blood of all people. Was it simply because the boy was his second major enemy and because the boy's blood would be easier to obtain than Dumbledore's?

More than likely, after all in Snape's mind Potter was nothing but a spoilt and arrogant brat.

"But...but my lord..." Draco spoke, Snape along with a few sympathetic death eaters winced as they realised that the boy was likely going to get hurt. Lucius Malfoy and Narcissa Malfoy, Draco's parents, also seemed to realise that if the tensing of their neck and shoulders were any indicator. "...Potter's just a filthy half-blood! He shouldn't..."

Draco found himself cut off as Voldemort's heir, without warning, turned and kicked Draco straight in the mouth, knocking out a tooth and sending the blonde pureblood on his back. Lucius and Narcissa flinched but did not say anything. Draco was on his back, hand on his bleeding mouth as he looked up at Voldemort's heir who had begun hissing at him in parsletounge.

"Ah young Draco," Voldemort chuckled once his heir had stopped hissing. "it appears that my heir does not appreciate interruptions, nor do I for that matter. If you interrupt again then it will be me who punishes you, is that understood?"

"Y...yes my lord." Draco said in a shaky voice as he got back to his knees.

"Half-blood." Voldemort's heir spoke in English for the first time since entering the room as he looked at Snape, who tensed slightly upon realising that he was the one being talked about. "A half-blood in our ranks." He said in a voice much like the one of a younger Voldemort, many death eaters looked at Snape, the vast majority not knowing that he was a half-blood.

"Ah yes," Voldemort smirked. "Severus is indeed a half-blood, which makes it all the more amusing that he believes himself to be better than us."

"My lord, I do not..." Snape began protesting.

"Do you not?" Voldemort asked in a fake confused voice before suddenly shifting to his regular voice. "I hate liars. You are capable of fooling many people Severus, but it is extremely unhealthy for you to think that I am one of them, I see how you walk and talk like you are better than us as do many of my followers."

"Shall I kill him?" Voldemort's heir asked, flicking his wrist and allowing a black wand to come into his hand.

"No," Voldemort said with the slightest shake of his head. "Severus is fortunate enough to still hold some value and wise enough to not reduce it, aren't you Severus?"

"Yes my lord," Snape said quickly. "I..."

"However," Voldemort interrupted. "that does not mean that Snape should not learn what happens when people overestimate their worth. Do keep it controlled." Voldemort's heir nodded before he jabbed his wand in Snape's direction and hit him with a cruciatus curse, Snape fell to the floor, screaming in pain. The curse was held for about thirty seconds before released. "Did that feel good?" Voldemort asked, his heir nodded while Snape's body suffered the after effects of being put under the curse. "I do hope you have learnt your lesson Severus, it would be a shame if you needed another demonstration about why you should control your attitude."

"Y...yes my lord." Snape barely managed to get out.

"Good, now my heir will be giving us all a small demonstration." Voldemort said, he pointed to three death eaters. "You three come forwards." The death eaters nervously stood up and walked to the front, knowing better than to refuse. "I will offer you three a deal, the first one able to defeat my heir will take his place and will be personally trained by me. I do hope you'll try your best."

"Dumbledore!" Snape said as he entered the headmaster's office.

"Severus, I am glad you are back," Dumbledore replied. "what has happened? What have you learnt?" Dumbledore asked, judging by the look on the potions masters face he thought he might not like what he as about to hear.

"Potter must have been lying to you." Snape replied, a shocked look on his face. "Moody and Shacklebolt must have been fooled somehow, or someway."

"Severus, what are you talking about?"

"They said that Potter fought with the man who attacked his muggle home."

"Yes, but I do not see..."

"If Potter truly fought him then he should be dead!" Snape interrupted. "There is no way the brat could have lasted longer than a minute against him."

"Who was he Severus?" Dumbledore asked.

"Voldemort's heir!"

"What?!"

"You're going to want to get your pensive out." Snape said, he was tempted to tell Dumbledore that he might as well give up now but knew that the old man was too stubborn to listen.