Dylan's New Reality

"There is no sugar-coating it, Dylan," said Harry grimly. "The Lestranges are quite - ahem - disliked by the common wizarding public. That's why we reacted as fast as we did. Your name raised a red alert and we had to keep you safe before someone took advantage of you by feeding you information for their benefit."

"You did the same thing, didn't you?" snapped Dylan. After a few seconds, his eyes brimmed with tears of fear. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to say that; please don't be mad at me, Harry!"

"I'm not mad at you," said Harry softly. "I know how you feel. I know that we just met each other a few hours ago, but please, Dylan. Can you trust me? I won't leave you alone. I promise. My life was and is very similar to yours so I can understand you better than anyone. All I am asking is that you give me a chance. Please?"

Grey eyes meet green, looking for any sign of deceit. After a minute, Dylan nodded slowly as more tears flowed down his cheeks. This was all too much for him to handle at such short notice, especially finding out that his father was a notorious mass-murderer. Harry simply rubbed his back, trying to calm him down.

...

Harry stayed in the hospital with Dylan for the next several days. He wanted the boy to trust him and so far, it was going great. Even though Dylan was an illegitimate child, there was no denying the fact that he was the Heir Apparent of House Lestrange unless one of the Lestrange brothers sired another child, which was not possible considering they were in Azkaban for life.

The political ramifications of this would be huge, not to mention quite ugly, so before anyone to contest to be the guardian of the boy, Sirius and Amelia had quietly gotten it done. Dylan may not be Bellatrix's child, but the Lestranges had intermarried with the Blacks a few generations ago, so it was all clean. Besides, this would ensure that other dark families wouldn't try to get their claws on the boy. There was no telling what they would do. Even Lucius Malfoy would do his best to get custody. They had decided that it was better this way.

Once Dylan was fully healed, Sirius used his influence as the owner to make Rita Skeeter write an article in the Magical Daily newspaper, letting people know the truth. This had to be handled delicately because the name Lestrange might have once been quite influential, but it had since been disgraced because of the actions of the three which led to the state of the Longbottoms. The article correctly conveyed what had happened to the boy's mother and her family and that the boy had been raised in a Muggle orphanage, not knowing of his heritage.

There had been massive uproar as expected, but then again, even the smallest article with juicy information could get the population to talk or protest. The traditionalists on the Wizengamot had immediately tried to get custody, but Sirius announced that he had already gained guardianship of the boy. Albus Dumbledore was all for it even though he had been annoyed at not knowing about it. He did not want another child going down a dark path and the young Lestrange would be safer if he was kept as far away from the former Death Eaters as possible.

Augusta Longbottom had been another problem.

The woman had said that the boy should not be allowed at Hogwarts or any other magical school in Britain knowing what his father had done. Sirius had rebutted her statement saying that they shouldn't judge a child based on their parents' crimes. Dylan had never even met his father and didn't know of him until recently. He argued that Augusta was looking at Rabastan in Dylan and that was unethical. Augusta had been fuming and refused to talk to Sirius or Amelia after that.

A few others had said that the boy was illegitimate and hence could not access the Lestrange title or fortune. Sirius had calmly pointed out that no one at the Wizengamot had the authority to stop the boy from claiming his inheritance and anyone stupid enough to do so would be charged with line-theft. The family magic would decide if he could claim his position as the Heir. Needless to say, it was quite a messy political battle and Sirius was exhausted at the end of it.

Once he was healed, Dylan was taken to Black Castle where they spent their summer. The boy was in awe of the castle and also the beautiful beaches of the island. Daphne and Astoria had had also decided to come along. Dylan slowly began to open up over the course of the holidays. He also seemed to trust Harry the most, sticking to him wherever they went. Harry and Dylan went shopping for clothes along with Elizabeth Greengrass and by the end of the trip, the boy couldn't stop stuttering his thanks. Dylan had also devoured all the books Harry had given him about magic.

All in all, the summer holidays were going quite well.

....

Join my exclusive P@treon community for 60+ thrilling chapters!

Link: pa*treon.com/MidnightWonder (Remove the *)

If you join now you will get 2 Chapters for free as well.

Don't miss out, join now!