Harry Potter A New Sirius Black

After they had calmed down, Sirius pondered on what to ask next. Should he ask more about the Dursleys, or more about Harry's life at Hogwarts? Right now, it seemed as though the boy was in a good mood after the laughter that had been shared, so he figured Hogwarts was the way to go. "Tell me more about your school years," he said. "I know about this year, but tell me more about your other years at Hogwarts."

And so, Harry began to talk, telling him everything starting from when his letters had begun arriving. As Sirius listened, he began to get more and more disturbed by what he heard. He was expecting to hear about what Harry thought of the subjects he had taken, and what his professors had been like, but instead he heard tales of a boy who had constantly been in danger.

By the time Harry reached the end of his first year, Sirius's face was a fearsome thing to behold. He'd had an extremely hard time not interrupting as Harry told the entire story. After Harry explained how his mother's sacrifice had burned Quirrell, it took everything in him for Sirius not to cry out. It was easy to see how Harry still struggled with feeling responsible for Quirrell's death, even though it had been entirely in self-defense. When Sirius said this to him gently, Harry replied, "I know," in a monotone voice which told Sirius clearly, "I don't believe you." Harry then rushed to move on with the story, and Sirius told himself firmly that this subject would be revisited at another time.

But after he'd heard that Harry had lain in the infirmary, unconscious and close to death for three days after saving the stone, he was beyond livid. "You mean to tell me," he said, his mind on a detail Harry had given earlier, "that you told McGonagall you thought the stone was in danger and she did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING?" he growled, his heart pumping so fast he thought it would burst. Was that what her apology to Harry had been about when she'd come to see him in the hospital wing? If so, she needed to do a lot more than that to make it up to him. "And Dumbledore didn't figure out that one of his teachers had LORD VOLDEMORT sticking out of the back of his head, just like he didn't figure out that another of his staff members was not the friend and ally he'd known for decades and instead a Death Eater in disguise! And he didn't realize that the summons to the Ministry was a way to lure him away from the school so you could go riding to the rescue? He didn't show up to "save" you until it was all over? Oh, when I get my hands on that man ..."

Sirius had an awful feeling he knew exactly what was going on. He'd had an inkling before that Dumbledore needed Harry to fulfill the prophecy, but now it looked like the boy had been put through tests. The information Harry had received, and the way he had received it, was just too convenient. The way he'd received the Invisibility Cloak (James's cloak, Sirius thought, his heart aching), the way in which he'd stumbled across the Mirror of Erised (Oh God, what a dangerous thing to have in a school full of children, some who had been through hell, Harry included. How dare Dumbledore allow Harry to come near that thing!) ... the pieces of a puzzle Sirius truly hated were clicking into place.

"I was okay, though, Sirius," Harry tried to reassure him. "Professor Dumbledore explained that the stone had been destroyed after that."

"Oh, that's great," said Sirius sarcastically, his face full of fury. "Waiting till after you'd almost bloody DIED to destroy the thing. What a fantastic job those adults did, taking care of you. Like I did any better," Sirius mumbled under his breath, the guilt crashing over him again.

"Sirius, please," Harry pleaded. "You're here now, and that's what matters. And it was my choice to go and save the stone. Mine, Ron's, and Hermione's. Professor Dumbledore didn't make us do it."

"That's the point," Sirius said desperately. "He was testing you, Harry. Trying to see if you could do it on your own."

"I did think it rather strange at the time," Harry said slowly, thinking again about what had happened three years ago. It seemed like a lifetime ago to him. "It was weird that he didn't try to stop us."

"It was criminal. You. Are. A. Child," Sirius snarled, and Harry's face paled. Sirius's voice immediately softened as he said, "Kiddo, I'm not angry with you. You did what you thought you had to do to keep the school and your friends safe. But it shouldn't have been up to you. Why Dumbledore decided to hide the stone in a school full of children, I'll never understand. But why he allowed three first-year students to go after it ... Merlin, I am so bloody angry at all the so-called adults tasked with your care. Did it get any better your second year?"

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