As he was inspecting the surrounding decorations a voice from behind said, "Hello Hadrian it's nice to meet you at last" a voice belonging to a woman said.
Harry immediately put on his emotionless mask that was drilled into him during occlumency lessons and turned to see a regal and noble looking couple standing in front of him; he recognized them as Arcturus Black and Melania Black from the albums his grandfather showed him. He bowed down slightly as pureblood customs indicated and said, "Lord Black and Lady Black I humbly thank you for your invitation." Harry looked completely emotionless during saying this and internally he was on guard as he did not trust anyone there yet, after all he had come here at the request of his grandfather to give them a chance that did not mean he had to forgive them yet.
"You can drop the formalities Heir Hadrian James Potter, this is an informal meeting where we would like to explain certain misconceptions to you and ask for your forgiveness for failing you and the faith you family placed on us, please follow us to the office room, everyone are already waiting for you and you can call us by our names." Arcturus said sombrely.
"Certainly Lord Black, please lead the way." Harry said as he did not want to call them by their first names as he did not want to believe anything without hearing their side of the story. Arcturus and Melania then lead him across the hallway towards the office, he was feeling conflicted and wanted to leave and never return again but he decided he would give them a chance. As they were going to the room Harry noticed some of his Grandmother's photos in which she was younger and a teenager. His gaze lingered on the photo and he stopped for a moment when a hand was placed on his shoulder. Harry flinched as this was the first external physical contact he had since the Dursleys but he did not pull away as it felt comforting and soothing. Looking up he noticed Melania looking at him with what appeared to be genuine worry, he had hoped she would not notice his flinching.
"Yes she is Euphemia Dorea, my dear sister and your grandmother. She is in a coma now. If you want I can take you to visit her after the meeting." Arcturus offered. Arcturus's expressions became soft as he was viewing the photo of his sister. Both he and Melania noticed the flinching but decided not to mention it as they wanted Harry to feel comfortable.
Internally Arcturus swore to torture those filthy muggles after finding them and he will be damned with the consequence but he knew that they had somehow managed to escape the muggle prison they were put in. When the news was out most of the wizarding world was seething and furious, and unofficial private bounties were set up for the Dursley's heads for daring to hurt their saviour never mind that they never bothered to check in on him.
As he was led into the room he noticed there were entirety of the Lestranges, Malfoys, Tonks, Bones, Longbottoms and Blacks present except for the heirs and the children. As he went inside and took a seat everyone in the room were staring at him. They exchanged greetings and Arcturus took his seat and the meeting began. Harry was eyeing everyone carefully and noted that all showed some expressions as this was an informal meeting. He also noted that most of them had a guilty expression especially the one he recognized as Sirius Black and Alice Longbottom, his godparents.
"Harry, pup it has been a long time since I have seen you pup. You look like an exact replica of James and Uncle Charlus but you have your grandmother's jaw and face structure and your mother's eye, I missed you." Sirius said with heavy emotion.
"I have been told but I would like to know why I was abandoned at the doorstep of those muggles." Harry said harshly and coldly. He was harsher than he intended to be but he did not care as the years of suffering, abuse and neglect came to his mind, Harry thought that he was over the time spent at Dursleys but he did not realise that just pushing the matter away did not help. He also did not realise his bottled up rage for being left all alone at his relative's house. Most of them in the room were taken aback by the anger shown by the young heir in front of them.
"Harry we tried but were blocked in every turn we took. Lord Black in fact came to take you back the night you were placed but since Sirius was falsely arrested and hence Wizengamot felt they could not claim your guardianship" Alice told
"Also Headmaster Dumbledore and Minister of Magic claimed that they raised strong blood wards based on your mother's sacrifice on your home. Hence most of the sheep that is the Wizarding public wanted you to remain there and hence we did not receive guardianship. I myself along with many others tried coming to see you and take you back but the wards blocked any magical person. We even tried to bring Curse Breakers to break the wards but the word got out and we were ordered to remain silent. Still we did not give up and tried to gain your guardianship every Wizengamot meeting citing Lily's and James's personal wishes against you remaining there. Their will was also sealed by the Death Eater loving Minister" Sirius said.
"We even tried to buy out your Muggle Uncle's company in hopes of them signing your guardianship to us. But Dumbledore somehow found out and he started spewing some nonsense about love and sacrifice and that it's important that you stay with them. As he was not only chief warlock but he was also the ICW's Supreme Mugwump we had to listen to him as he had high authority and could ensure that we would never see you again" Melania told him.
"What about sending some muggle to check on me, they could have brought me outside and then you could have contacted me" Harry snarled.
"We tried but we realised that you could not have any contact with any magical human being with the boundaries of London. The wards were that strong" a woman whom he recognized as Amelia Bones said calmly.
"I do not claim to understand your anger Harry but we all care about you and wanted you away from those piece of shits but we were blocked on every way possible. We want to ask for forgiveness and we understand if you do not forgive us but all we ask for is a chance" Alice told him softly. Internally she was sad that she had failed her godson and he had to go through so many difficulties alone.
"What about you Heir Black, you had me on that wretched night, why did you hand me over to Hagrid." Harry asked Sirius. Sirius seemed to be in pain in being addressed as Heir Black and not Padfoot or Sirius or Dogfather as he was referred to by Harry when he was young. Magical children developed faster than muggle ones hence they could speak when they were as young as 3 months old.
"Pup I do not know what came over me but my mind went blank. Please believe me I would never abandon you I would rather die than betray James and Lily like that" Sirius pleaded to him.
"What the mutt is not mentioning is he was also found to be under somebody's control as proven by the Gringotts records. Harry we really care for you and we will never give up on you. I personally just ask you to forgive us" Bellatrix told him. Sirius made a childish offended face on being addressed as a mutt which Harry found slightly amusing.
"We wanted you out but did not have any means to except for losing our magic by tearing through those wards. Sirius here was all for losing his magic but we stopped him as Magical people will become very weak and will die very soon if our magic is lost" Narcissa told him.
"All we ask for is forgiveness and nothing else, I personally knew Lily well enough and know she would be disappointed in us for leaving you there but you have to understand we had no choice heck we were losing most of our allies trying to gain your guardianship but we did not care. Please just try to understand our dilemma" Andromeda said.
"The decision is yours to make Harry just know whatever choice you choose we will support you" Arcturus told and Melania nodded.
Harry was thinking on what to do. On one hand he was rather bitter and angry on being left with Dursleys but on the other hand he knew that they tried their best to rescue him but he did not understand on whom to vent his anger and frustrations on. Harry had never before felt so conflicted on his feelings. He decided to ask the opinion and advice of Cosmos as he was the one who Harry completely trusted. Through his mind he asked Cosmos, "Cosmos what should I do should I forgive them or not. Such decisions are so frustrating to make"
"Harry I feel you can give them a chance but make it clear that it would be their last one and there would be no forgiven for next mistakes. You humans have some complex emotions which I admit that I do not have much understanding on this particular topic but I feel that you need someone other than me and you Grandfather's portrait and other portraits and elves to talk to. Do not be socially reclusive. Whatever you decide I am with you all the way" Cosmos replied in what he assumed to be a wise and sagely tone.
Harry finally came to a decision and sighed and said, "Fine I forgive you all but do not repeat this mistake as I do not forgive repeatedly. All of you just get one chance." Everyone nodded and were relieved and happy on getting Harry to forgive them.
"What about grandmother, could you guys take me to her" Harry asked them.
Arcturus nodded and stood up and instructed him to hold his hand and gave him a warning that he was about to apparate. He then felt worse than when he was portkeying and felt as though he was about to puke. When he landed he noticed that he was in a rather lavish bungalow.
"Just like Charlus and James you do not like magical means of travel" Arcturus laughed.
"You can laugh all you want but this was quite a horrendous way to travel.
Arcturus was about to respond when a female voice cut him off, "I did not expect you to visit so early brother I thought you would visit like usual at night."