Chapter Text
"I feared this would happen." - Sirius sighed.
Harry furrowed his brows. What was that supposed to mean? Was this some sort of test? Did Harry do something wrong?..
Before he could spiral, the man asked - "What have you heard about the House of Black?"
Admittedly, it wasn't much. While Potter tried to keep up with the rumours (years of seeing housewives of Surrey taught him how strong of a weapon they are), there wasn't much said about Blacks - they were old news.
"Well.. The family is purely Dark, and has one of the most desirable libraries in Britain?" - the boy answered.
Perhaps this was something to do with the library? But what has food got to do with it? Did Blacks have some sort of poisoning ritual?.. This was getting ridiculous.
"There has been a popular rumour.. I think someone just wanted to scare some kids, I doubt anyone knew it was actually true," - Sirius started. Harry frowned. He had a bad feeling about this. "anyways, people said that we-" the boy was surprised to note that his godfather referred to himself as part of the family he said he hated - "..caught muggles, skinned them, and ate them raw."
Harry froze.
He has, of course, wondered how human flesh tastes like. Everyone had that thought at least once. He was always so fascinated with those films uncle Vernon sometimes watched on the telly, the ones that had some sort of gore in them. The man started switching channels as soon as they came up, because of the way Harry reacted. Drool filled his mouth, and it was as if he couldn't focus on anything else other than that pool of blood and delicious meat. But to think he just-
"The rumour is overly dramatic, of course, but-" Sirius's expression shifted to one of concern. "Oh, fuck, you're not feeling sick, are you?" - he asked, breaking the boy out of his stupor.
"No, I.." Harry swallowed hard, drool filling his mouth once again, reminded of the heavenly taste. His canines seemed to sharpen, ready to bite and tear.
"When James and Lily said they wanted me to do the blood-adoption ritual with you.." - Sirius sighed once again, - "I was worried you'd inherit the.. family trait. And I'm sorry for that, I just.." - he paused, guilt becoming more and more prominent on his face, - "I had to check."
"It's fine." - the teen assured, - "It was delicious, so, uhm, thanks for sharing?" - he offered awkwardly.
Sirius barked a laugh, the tension in the room dissipating. "You're taking this surprisingly well for someone who's just been told he ate human meat."
"I could say the same thing."
Black frowned. "What do you mean, Prongslet?"
"Well..." the boy looked down on the shiny kitchen floor. "You said you hate your family enough times, and..."
"No matter how much I dislike my family, I'm still a Dark wizard, Pup." Harry's head snapped back up. He didn't expect Sirius to admit this so casually. "And there's nothing wrong with that." - the man added, - "Plus, I can't resist the urge." - he said, somewhat bitterly. "Believe me, I've tried."
"Oh." - Potter stared at his godfather, but before he could say anything, the door suddenly burst open to reveal Moody, of all people.
Harry started panicking. What if he had heard the conversation? After all, the man was an Auror...
"Black." - Alastor greeted gruffly. "Albus decided that the boy can go to Diagon, if I escort him."
Huh?
This was... not at all what Harry expected to hear.
Sirius grinned, "I owe you one."
Mad-eye just nodded, and with a short - "Be ready after lunch, lad." - exited the dark kitchen.
"..what the hell was that?" - Harry finally asked.
"I know you're sick of just sitting here - I know I am - so I asked Mad-eye to convince Dumbledore to let you go shop at Diagon by yourself." The man ruffled Potter's hair.
The boy's shoulders relaxed.
"Oh. Thanks, Padfoot." - his lips quirked up.
"Just make sure to buy some proper robes." - Black teased, - "you need an entire new wardrobe."
"Wha- I'd have no idea what to choose, I have no eye for fashion!" - The teen looked rightfully horrified at the thought of having to shop for clothes.
The man wasn't wrong, of course. Harry still only had Dudley's cast-offs, which were in no way satisfactory to be worn by a respectable wizard. And, to be honest, the school robes were way more comfortable than usual muggle clothing. Well, perhaps that was an overstatement, but they were more dramatic, which was a win.
"Calm down, pup." Sirius rolled his eyes fondly, "Just go to Twilfitt and Tattings. When they ask who sent you, say it was Lord Black. They'll make you look like a proper heir."
Right. Harry almost forgot about that conversation.
"Sirius, I need your help." - Potter said as soon as he entered Sirius's room for their usual evening talk.
"Hm?.." The man glanced up sleepily.
"You know how my trial is pretty soon, right?" He started, making the man sober up instantly. "I need to look presentable."
"Ah, don't you worry, pup. I'll make sure you put every pureblood snot to shame with how perfect you'll be." - Black grinned proudly, making the teen feel a sudden sense of dread..
"Oh, and don't forget Gringotts too! You have to know your titles before you even step into Hogwarts.." - Sirius grumbled.
"Right, okay." - Harry muttered. Sirius taught him proper etiquette with Goblins, but he was still worried he'll mess up somehow.
"And try to convince Mad-eye to let you into Knockturn, the place is shitty, but you might find some gems here. And-"
"Don't give out my name, don't speak if not absolutely necessary, I know." - Potter interrupted, having heard this way too many times.
"See? You know everything! Don't worry, pup. Now, how about you finish your breakfast?.." - The man offered hesitantly.
Harry was very glad his godfather said this, because he's been craving for more of that delicious human meat.
As members of the Order (or, rather, the Weasleys..) swarmed the kitchen, Harry tried to escape before any interactions could happen, but it seemed like luck wasn't on his side this time.
"Harry!"
The boy sighed, not ready for the confrontation.
"What is it, Hermione?" - he turned around to see her and Ron standing there. Granger looked slightly annoyed, while the ginger seemed conflicted.
"We need to talk. And don't you even try deny it!" - she added, before Potter could say anything. He wasn't going to deny it, he knew they had to talk. He was just.. not ready.
"..fine, lets go." Harry went to his room, listening to the hurried footsteps behind, that indicated the duo following him.
. . .
"I- I'm sorry." - Hermione said. The boy could feel that she was genuine, but raised an eyebrow, gesturing for her to continue.
"It was wrong of us," - she pointedly looked at Ron, who flushed bright red (which clashed horribly with his hair), and nodded quickly. - "to not write you properly. I know you must've been scared, being cut off of any information, and we weren't helping at all."
Harry wouldn't say that he was scared. He spent most of the time trying not to kill himself (no matter how much he deserved it, but it was too easy, he needed to suffer-), but getting the same responses over and over did add to the stress.
"You're right. It was wrong."
Both of his friends flinched, looking uneasy.
"But I forgive you." - Potter sighed. He was forgiving people way too easily. What's next, he's forgiving Malfoy? Snape? Voldemort? The locket on his neck hummed pleasantly, making the boy feel a bit calmer.
The two were slightly surprised, but finally stopped looking so tense.
Hermione opened her mouth to say something, but Harry interrupted her - "I don't trust you though." He felt oddly guiltless as hurt spread across their faces again. "Especially Ron. After how you acted during the tournament.."
Ron looked ready to protest, but after a few moments muttered - "..yeah, I was a right git back then."
"Just.. give me some time, yeah?" Harry suddenly realised just how tired he was of this conversation.
"Of course." - Granger smiled softly, but he felt uneasy. Would they be so accepting if they knew about the books that he read? The views that he shared?
When the nauseating twist of apparition ended, Harry's senses were attacked with the usual overwhelming amount of magic at Diagon Alley. Potter regained his footing, and immediately hear Moody ask - "Where to, boy?" Suppressing a flinch, the teen muttered - "Gringotts."
The auror gave him a weird look, and hurriedly started to limp towards the building. Harry liked to think he was good at reading people, but Alastor was a complete mystery. Especially since all of his efforts of getting to know the professor last year turned out to be in vain.
. . .
The goblin's small, sharp eyes narrowed at Potter. - "What's your business here?"
"Extraction of money and an inheritance test." - Harry stated calmly.
"Follow me." - the goblin nodded.
As the three walked through the bone-white corridors, Moody's curiosity seemed to finally outweigh his need to act all angry and mysterious. "Shouldn't you have gotten the inheritance test done years ago, Potter?" - his eyes narrowed in suspicion.
"Evidently, I haven't." - the teen replied.
The auror looked unamused by the answer, unlike the goblin, who had a sharp grin on his face.
. . .
Moody was left in the corridor for "confidentiality reasons", while the goblin led Harry to what looked like an office of sorts.
The boy scratched the covered scars on his wrist nervously, as he listened to the sounds of drawers opening, and parchment rustling.
"I'll need three drops of your blood, Mr. Potter." Harry offered his hand without hesitation. As soon as the beautiful red liquid touched the parchment, words started forming, slowly but surely. The text seemed to be in Latin, from what the teen could see. He'd started learning it in his second year at Hogwarts per Riddle's suggestion, but still didn't understand it well enough. Thankfully, the goblin muttered some spell, that made the words rearrange themselves into English.
"I'll be there to answer any questions you might have." - the goblin said with a sharp smile. If Harry hadn't seen way worse, he would have shuddered at the sight.
"𝐻𝒶𝒹𝓇𝒾𝒶𝓃 𝒥𝒶𝓂𝑒𝓈 𝒫𝑜𝓉𝓉𝑒𝓇" was written at the top of the parchment. Sirius told him that his name wasn't actually just "Harry", but it felt too weird to connect such a fancy name with.. himself.
𝒮𝒾𝓇𝑒: 𝒥𝒶𝓂𝑒𝓈 𝐹𝓁𝑒𝒶𝓂𝑜𝓃𝓉 𝒫𝑜𝓉𝓉𝑒𝓇 (𝒹𝑒𝒸𝑒𝒶𝓈𝑒𝒹)
𝒞𝒶𝓇𝓇𝒾𝑒𝓇: 𝐿𝒾𝓁𝓎 𝒫𝑜𝓉𝓉𝑒𝓇 𝓃𝑒𝑒 𝐸𝓋𝒶𝓃𝓈 (𝒹𝑒𝒸𝑒𝒶𝓈𝑒𝒹)
𝐵𝓁𝑜𝑜𝒹 𝒶𝒹𝑜𝓅𝓉𝑒𝒹 𝓅𝒶𝓇𝑒𝓃𝓉(𝓈): 𝒮𝒾𝓇𝒾𝓊𝓈 𝒪𝓇𝒾𝑜𝓃 𝐵𝓁𝒶𝒸𝓀
𝐸𝓁𝒾𝑔𝒾𝒷𝓁𝑒 𝓉𝒾𝓉𝓁𝑒𝓈:
𝐿𝑜𝓇𝒹 𝒫𝑜𝓉𝓉𝑒𝓇 (𝒻𝓇𝑜𝓂: 𝒮𝒾𝓇𝑒)
𝐿𝑜𝓇𝒹 𝒫𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓇𝑒𝓁𝓁 (𝒻𝓇𝑜𝓂: 𝒮𝒾𝓇𝑒)
Here, Harry had to take a pause. Peverell? As in the actual most Noble and Most ancient house of Peverell? The one that's rumoured to have Death itself on their side?
..he knew Sirius looked way too smug, talking about "surprising heritage".
𝐻𝑒𝒾𝓇 𝐵𝓁𝒶𝒸𝓀 (𝒻𝓇𝑜𝓂: 𝒷𝓁𝑜𝑜𝒹 𝒶𝒹𝑜𝓅𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃)
Well, at least that wasn't surprising.
𝑀𝒶𝑔𝒾𝒸𝒶𝓁 𝑔𝓊𝒶𝓇𝒹𝒾𝒶𝓃𝓈𝒽𝒾𝓅:
𝐿𝒾𝓁𝓎 𝒫𝑜𝓉𝓉𝑒𝓇 𝓃𝑒𝑒 𝐸𝓋𝒶𝓃𝓈 (31.07.1980 - 31.10.1981)
𝒜𝓁𝒷𝓊𝓈 𝒫𝑒𝓇𝒸𝒾𝓋𝒶𝓁 𝒲𝓊𝓁𝒻𝓇𝒾𝒸 𝐵𝓇𝒾𝒶𝓃 𝒟𝓊𝓂𝒷𝓁𝑒𝒹𝑜𝓇𝑒 (31.10.1981 - **.**.1994)
𝒮𝒾𝓇𝒾𝓊𝓈 𝒪𝓇𝒾𝑜𝓃 𝐵𝓁𝒶𝒸𝓀 (**.**.1994 - 31.10.1994)
𝓔𝓜𝓐𝓝𝓒𝓘𝓟𝓐𝓣𝓔𝓓
That.. wasn't really what Potter expected. Dumbledore was his supposed guardian until he met Sirius? And apparently, Harry got emancipated when he got entered into the Triwizard tournament.. which did kind of make sense..
𝒞𝑜𝓇𝑒: 𝒟𝒶𝓇𝓀
. . .
Oh.
In hindsight, it wasn't that surprising, with how well he performed Dark spells, but..
How was this even possible? Everyone always talked about how Light the Potters were, but.. was that really true? Harry'll need to have another long talk with Sirius when he gets back.
𝒜𝒻𝒻𝒾𝓃𝒾𝓉𝓎: 𝒩𝑒𝒸𝓇𝑜𝓂𝒶𝓃𝒸𝓎,
..the Potter luck, huh? He became interested in the art of Death, and now, he conveniently finds out he's supposed to be good at it. Perhaps the Peverell vault will have some good books on the topic...
𝒮𝒽𝒶𝒹𝑜𝓌𝓂𝒶𝓃𝒸𝓎,
Harry will have to research this one too, since he'd never even heard of such branch before.
𝒫𝒶𝓇𝓈𝑒𝓁𝓂𝒶𝑔𝒾𝒸, 𝐵𝓁𝑜𝑜𝒹 𝓂𝒶𝑔𝒾𝒸.
This was a lot to take in at once. Potter wanted to visit his vaults, but this was enough Gringotts for today.
"That was.." Harry looked away from the paper. "Informative."
The goblin stared at him.
"Right. I want to try to get accepted for the family rings."
With three brand new rings on his fingers, a pouch connected right to his vault account, and a mind full of thoughts, Harry exited the large building, Mad-eye limping behind, eyeing everyone suspiciously.
"Uhm.." Harry looked back at the auror, "Do you know where Twilfitt and Tattings is?.." - he asked sheepishly.
Moody's eye narrowed, "That's near Knockturn." The boy nearly shuddered at the glare. He was wrong. Voldemort is not as terrifying as the paranoid auror.
"Si-Snuffles pointed out that I need proper robes, and that I won't be questioned there." - Harry muttered. Alastor looked at him for a long moment, before sighing - "Let's go."