Dark Phoenix Rising

What!" Sirius screeched. "Harry get away from him! He's dangerous, he'll kill you!"

"He can't kill me," Harry sighed "or he could, I guess, but I'd just come back to life."

"What is he talking about Tom!" Walburga demanded, looking at Harry for the first time since she roused.

"Part of the reason Harry is here with me," Tom explained. "It seems that your son, here, decided to play a so-called prank on someone at school that resulted in them coming into the path of a werewolf on a full moon."

"You did what!" Walburga roared, "and how am I only just hearing about this!"

"Dumbledore," Tom replied, as if that explained everything, although from the sigh the portrait gave Harry thought it might. "Anyway James Potter was able to save the student before anything happened but apparently got bitten in the process, not major but just enough to break the skin."

Sirius paled. "What? No, that can't be right! He'd have told me! And he never turned so you're wrong!"

"The reason he never turned," Tom continued, "is because Dumbledore used phoenix parts and alchemy to transmute him into a human/phoenix hybrid."

"Oh really?" Sirius scoffed, "and how did you apparently learn all this?"

"The sorting hat told us," Harry replied. "He also said that James got pregnant after the two of you fooled around once. It turns out phoenix's are actually mammals and the transformation had the side effect of allowing James to get pregnant, although the pregnancy apparently lasted for 12 months, which is why Dumbledore apparently came up with some sort of prophecy so he and Lily could go into hiding to cover it up."

"That prophecy is why that monster came after you in the first place Harry!" Sirius accused. "He killed your parents because of it!"

"Except he didn't because you're here and as a phoenix James can't die!" Harry argued.

"At least not until after the one he's bound to passes," Walburga added. "You're grandfather Arcturus was slightly obsessed with the creatures although I've never realised why until now."

"The Dumbledore family have had them for generations and frequently flaunted them to increase their standing," Tom nodded.

"Yes, great-uncle Phineas attended Hogwarts with Dumbledore and hated the fact that the man used the bird's apparently light status to distract people from his father's crimes," Walburga scowled.

"What crimes?" Tom asked. "I've tried looking into his past over the years but I could never come up with anything other than his list of accomplishments."

"That's cos there isn't anything," Sirius smirked. "My mother is clearly lying, Dumbledore is a good man."

"Who left you to rot in jail without even trying to find out if you were guilty," Severus sneered.

"I'm not lying you ungrateful wretch," Walburga shouted, interrupting what would likely have turned into a verbal, if not physical brawl. "If you want confirmation you can talk to Phineas Nigellus, he was headmaster when Dumbledore attended Hogwarts so will be able to tell you more. His portrait is in one of the bedrooms upstairs."

"Good then we can check the Black family tapestry and I can prove that Harry isn't my son as his name won't be on there," Sirius huffed triumphantly but Walburga made an almost strangled noise. "What mother?" Sirius snapped.

"His name won't be on the tapestry upstairs whether he is your son or not," Walburga said through gritted teeth, not looking at her son.

"Why not?" Sirius demanded.

"Because that's not the proper Black tapestry," Tom smirked. "You had a copy made when you moved here, didn't you Walburga?"

"That tapestry is famous and I didn't want to risk either of them questioning where it was once they got to school." The portrait's voice was haughty but even Harry could see the image shifting uncomfortably at the confession.

"You had a copy made so you could perpetrate the lie that, what, the rest of the family were dead? You're a mad bitch you know that don't you? I'm surprised Bella didn't rub it in my face when we were at school together?" Sirius pondered.

"I told the rest of them that if either you or Regulus heard anything about it I'd pull you from the school and then they'd really lose their heirs," Walburga announced. Sirius saw red and cast incendio at the portrait but to no avail, the flames simply licked the surface before fizzling out. "As if I wouldn't put decent protections on my portrait before I passed," the painting smirked.

Sirius raised his wand again but Tom stopped him. "It's pointless Black. Let's go see your great-great grandfather and see what he has to say. With any luck this one will have fallen asleep or something before we have to come back down," clearly not overly impressed with the former matriarch.

Sirius reluctantly relented and they all started heading upstairs. He looked over at Marvolo. "I thought you'd be all for listening to her rant away since she was always such a big fan of yours."

Tom shook his head. "I can't condone her behaviour, nor her beliefs. A parent shouldn't turn a child away because of something that is beyond their control. Unfortunately I know from experience how painful that can be."

Sirius looked at him quizzically. "So you lot aren't actually against homosexuality?"

"It would be a bit hypocritical if I was," Tom smirked.

"I suppose that's one thing in your favour anyway," Sirius huffed looking resolutely forward so he missed the conspiratorial glance exchanged by the others.

Sirius led them straight into one of the bedrooms, thankfully knowing where the portrait was. Or at least would be, Harry assumed, since the frame was currently empty.

"Damn it! Fucking bastard is never here when you want him to be!" Sirius complained, kicking the end of one of the beds in frustration.

"Must you swear," Severus huffed, "there is an actual child present, not just someone with the mental age of one."

"Oh I don't care," Harry shrugged. "Dudley used to swear quite a bit when Petunia wasn't around as she hated it with a vengeance. She always said that it was a sign of a lack of intelligence but I usually assume the opposite of what that lot thought is actually true."

"Quite right Harry," Sirius grinned. "Not only is swearing therapeutic but it's also quite clever. Did you know that fuck is the only word in the English language that can be a noun, verb and adjective? 'Fuck the fucking fucker!' is a grammatically correct sentence."

"I taught you that!" a deep voice hissed from the empty frame.

"You can hear us?" Tom asked the empty frame.

"Yes but I'm trying to feign sleep so the old coot doesn't realise that I'm listening in to his rants. I'm quite enjoying watching him go crazy trying to find his so-called saviour."

"Would you be forced to tell him anything should he demand it?" Tom asked worriedly.

There was a huff and what sounded like shuffling before a middle aged man with a pointed beard appeared in the frame. "No, Dumbledore can't actually compel me to tell him anything," the portrait huffed, "or I wouldn't have risked talking to my great-great grandson. Who are you by the way?"

"I was born Tom Marvolo Riddle."The so-called dark lord?" the portrait interrupted. "You're looking very young to be that person."

"It's fairly complicated and involves me having split my soul," Tom huffed, obviously not wanting to get into too much detail.

"You made horcruxes," Phineas Nigellus shook his head. "No wonder your mind was vulnerable."

"What do you mean vulnerable?" Tom pushed. "Do you mean to say he attacked my mind?"

"Not directly, at least not as far as I'm aware anyway," Phineas Nigellus said, "but he did mention something about a broken bond leaving you weak."

Tom nodded. "That is something I plan on rectifying, once I've reconnected with the main bulk of my soul anyway."

"By the way my lord here is your new wand," Severus said, handing over something from his pocket. "Its beech; the wandmaker said it was good for mental balance and as well as working with old wisdom and magical research so the wand maker, Alexi, thought it would be a good fit. Its core is Rougarou hair which is meant to have a strong affinity for dark magic."

Tom touched the wood almost reverently before clasping it tightly, a visible shiver running through him as he did. He swished the wand through the air and bright white sparks were emitted. "I think this is an even better fit than my previous one."

"That's good to know," Severus sighed as if in relief. "The wandmaker's wife is apparently a seerer and helped pick them out without me even having to say anything. She even insisted on me getting a new one, pine with white river monster spine, as well as an extra one which I now figure is for Black."

"What!" Black exclaimed, spinning around to look at Severus.

"Dogwood and Veela hair," Severus stated, handing over the wand to Sirius. "I queried the use of Veela hair as it's supposed to be temperamental but Alexi said that was why it paired well with the quirky nature of the wood."

Black swished the wand and the sparks not only shot out but seemed to dance around the room. "Huh!"

"This one is for you, Harry. Pear wood, which they said works best with those who are warm hearted and generous, with horned serpent horn, said to be very powerful with an affinity for parselmouths and apparently emits a low tone when danger is around."

Harry took the beautiful golden coloured wand and felt the warmth in his fingers immediately. "And I can use this without fearing the Ministry will come down on us?"

"Yes. On the continent, especially in the east, they are much more lax and children often get given a wand as soon as they can talk which is often the reason given as to why Drumstrang performs better than Hogwarts," Severus explained.

Sirius frowned. "I thought Hogwarts was the best school?"

"God no!" Phineas Nigellus chuckled. "Drumstrang unfortunately earned the reputation of being lesser when the tri wizard tournament was going on and the school failed to win a single tournament although that was only because of a bylaw in the games which stated that only Latin spells could be used. The countries that tended to attend Drumstrang have a proto-germanic origin in all their languages, as opposed to the latin base of southern and western Europe, and the school used to use Crimean Gothic for their spells so were always at a major disadvantage. They've since tried to get the games reinstated to try and set the record straight now that they teach latin spells regularly but, unsurprisingly, nobody wants that here. Although the dangerous nature of the games doesn't help their cause."

"There are spells in other languages!" Harry exclaimed, causing Severus and Tom to groan.

"Yes child," Phineas Nigellus explained, "and this is something you would have realised if Dumbledore hadn't scrapped the magical theory lessons as soon as he became headmaster. Tom, Severus, can I entrust my great-great-great grandson's education to you going forward. He'll probably learn more with you than he would at Hogwarts currently anyway."

"Is that your way of telling me he's actually my son?" Sirius asked.

"Yes Sirius and I think it's high time you started putting a little less faith in Albus Dumbledore, especially after how he treated you. James is still very much alive as well since he came back with Dumbledore that night although I've no idea where he is now."

Sirius sank down onto the bed shaking his head. "No, that can't be true. There is no way James would betray me like that."

"What do you remember of that night?" the portrait asked.

Sirius frowned in thought. "I'd gone to check on Peter, after hearing some worrying rumours about vol- I mean the dark lord making moves, and found his house in a state so I knew something must be wrong. I apparated straight to Godric's Hollow and saw straight away that the house had been mostly destroyed. I ran in and saw James lying face down just inside the door and knew, or assumed, he'd died so I didn't bother checking him. I ran straight upstairs knowing I needed to check on Harry. Lily was there," Sirius choked a bit, "there was no need to check her, the whole room had been burned. There was something black and smoking in front of the cot, well the remains of it, yet somehow, in the middle of all the destruction, Harry was there, crying but, but otherwise fine.

I picked him up and," Sirius paused, his arms in front of him mimicking his actions that night, then he shook his head as if clearing some fog from his thoughts. "I took Harry downstairs and met A, Hagrid at the door. He said, he said." Sirius paused and shook his head again. "Sorry, Azkaban seems to have made everything muddy. Where was I? Oh yes, Hagrid said Dumbledore had sent him to collect Harry and take him to safety. I, I knew I was the only one who, who knew about Peter's ability so, so I had to go after him. I reluctantly handed Harry over to Hagrid and went in search of the traitor. I managed to track him down the next day and we started dueling. A cutting jinx from me caused two of his fingers to fly off. Then there was an explosion and screaming. It wasn't me and I didn't think, no, it must have been Peter, could only have been." Sirius shook his head again. "Anyway it was enough to distract me and in that instant Peter disappeared down a drain and I couldn't track him again. I started laughing because that was probably the one time he showed some ingenuity in, well, anything and that was how the Aurors found me. They then didn't give me a chance to explain anything and shipped straight to Azkaban with no chance to explain anything. Dumbledore visited and I, no, that's not right, no one came. I thought they might, maybe Remus but," he shook his head again as he trailed off. He had a haunted look in his eyes but Tom and Severus were both looking at him intently.

"Mr Black, I know you have no reason to trust either myself or Severus but I'd very much like you to let one of us check your memory because, from the disjointed retelling of your story, it sounds very much as if someone has been messing around inside your head."

Sirius frowned and shook his head. "That's just Azkaban; the dementors mess with your memories."

"I disagree Black," Severus said. "If it was Azkaban then you would expect general fuzziness but you seemed to stumble over very specific spots, as if you were expecting to say one thing and then your brain 'corrected' it."

"And I assume the places where you stumbled are fuzzy, less clear than the others," Tom suggested.

"Yes," Sirius nodded, thinking carefully, "but does that really mean anything?"

"We won't know for sure unless we actually look, so would you let us?" Tom asked. "We don't have to fix any problems if you'd rather we didn't."

Sirius shook his head. "No point in risking you going in twice if you're right." He eyed them both carefully. "Never thought I'd be saying this but I'd rather have Snivellus messing around in my head, if it's all the same to you oh great dark lord."

"That's fine but you might want to hold off on the insults for a bit unless you want to risk him leaving your mind a mess when he leaves," Tom smiled.

"Careful, my lord," Severus sneered, "I don't want you making promises I can't keep. I doubt Black's mind was even close to being ordered even before his incarceration, what with all the inbreeding in his family."

"What inbreeding!" Phineas roared. "There was never any inbreeding in the family until Arcturus allowed Orion to marry that shrew Walburga and didn't he regret that in the end. Dumbledore was the one who started the rumours about inbreeding after that and annoyingly it stuck despite us making a point of marrying different families throughout the generations."

"Is that even possible if you only stick to purebloods?" Harry asked.

"Of course it is!" Phineas insisted. "There are dozens of pureblood families, especially if you look outside of the so-called sacred 28, and what a bunch of rubbish that list was. So long as you make sure to keep a good few generations before you marry someone of the same line again then it isn't even an issue."

"I had wondered where that rumour had come from," Tom mused.

"Can we just get on with this!" Sirius huffed.

"Of course your highness," Severus taunted, complete with a mock bow.

"You might have to be the bigger person in this case, Severus," Harry said, trying to stop them from getting in another yelling match.

"Fine," Severus sighed, "as a favour for you since he is your father. Black, lie down on the bed, the experience will likely be quite jarring and I don't want to risk you accidentally braining yourself on the bed." He muttered something under his breath but it was too low for Harry to hear so he let it slide. It was a start at least.

Sirius scowled but lay down as instructed, locking eyes with Severus and holding himself rigid, refusing to flinch when Severus raised his wand.Legilimens! "

Harry and Tom watch as the pair seemed to get lost in each other's eyes whilst simultaneously seeming to see straight through each other. The seconds ticked by although it felt like forever until they finally started blinking again. Severus came back to himself first, holding his head as he sank back into a nearby chair. Sirius's reaction was considerably more violent.

"That rat bastard!"

"Is it too much to hope that you're talking about Dumbledore?" Tom asked.

"Yes I'm talking about that arsehole!" Sirius hissed. "He was there that night, with Hagrid. As soon as I held Harry I knew that there was something off, something more than a simple godfather bond. Dumbledore distracted me though: it was his idea for me to go after Peter saying that I was the only one to bring him to justice. Dumbledore was supposed to go and convene a special Wizengamot trial with those he trusted to make sure that justice was actually served and Peter didn't get let off on a technicality which was the only reason I handed Harry over, and even then it was a fight. A part of me knew I shouldn't give Harry up but Dumbledore said it was the only way.

"And there was definitely someone else there when I was attacking Peter! Neither of us was anywhere near that substation. I saw the signs warning about danger and purposely hearded Peter away to minimise the risk but suddenly something hit it although I couldn't see anyone, as if the spell came out of nowhere. Then Dumbledore came to visit me in Azkaban and altered my memories, making it seem like it was all my idea and that I'd just abandon my son to a near stranger."

"He did a sloppy job too, not that I'm complaining," Severus moaned, still rubbing his temples. "He probably assumed Azkaban would finish the job."

"Unfortunately for him dementors aren't particularly interested in animals, even if it's only an animagus," Sirius grinned.

"So that's how you did it," Tom smirked. "I must say Black that I'm impressed."

"Annoyingly I am too," Severus huffed, causing Sirius to grin.

"I am as well Sirius," Phineas said. "Contrary to what your mother used to say you do have a brain, you just don't always choose to use it. I was curious, however, whether this new revelation will affect your plans."

"You bet it will," Sirius growled. "Dumbledore took my son away from me and left me to rot in that hell hole so that he could make his little saviour but I'll be damned if I miss any more time with Harry than I already have."

"You do realise that thanks to my phoenix blood and Tom killing me as a baby that I'm now bound to him so will be going where he goes," Harry informed him.

"Well I guess we're all stuck together then," Sirius stated, "so we should probably try and get along."

"Not insulting Severus will probably be a good start dad," Harry said, trying the word out for the first time and feeling a little weird since it was something he never thought he would be saying.

It was probably something that Sirius wasn't expecting to ever hear either, if the look on his face was anything to go by.

"Do shut your mouth Black, you don't know what might fly into it in this place," Severus snapped.

"Ok," Sirius said, shaking himself out, "but where are you guys actually planning on going from here since I assume you're not gonna be staying in England?" Sirius asked.

"Well we hadn't decided that yet," Tom admitted. "I still have to deal with my wraith form that's floating around in Eastern Europe. I will admit that I would prefer staying in England would make it easier to keep an eye on things but we would have to find somewhere we could be sure Dumbledore won't accidentally stumble upon us."

"You should go to Black Castle," Phineas Nigellus suggested. "No one other than family can enter without permission and from the sounds of things Severus is the only one who wouldn't fit that bill, if you are actually bound to Harry, Tom."

"Actually he is included," Tom admitted, "since he and I are bound as vampire mates."

"You're not a vampire!" Sirius exclaimed.

"Not in this current form but I will be when I absorb my wraith since I got myself turned in a bid to achieve immortality."

And are you ok with that Harry," Sirius questioned, "being bound to two vampires?"

"Yes," Harry replied. "Severus has been good to me, especially in the last term at school, so I know they'll both look after me."

"Even though it means they'll both have to feed from you," Sirius pushed.

"I don't think that'll be a problem, I mean it's no lt like they can actually kill me," Harry shrugged, "although neither of them has tried yet." He looked over at Severus. "Does that mean you haven't been feeding? Isn't that a problem?"

Severus sighed. "I don't have to feed from you until we're properly bound although I haven't been able to feed from anyone else either with Dumbledore watching me closely since I handed in my notice."

"Then you need to fix that," Tom snapped. "I don't want to risk you getting sick over something like that."

"Do you need to feed now?" Harry asked, walking over to his former Professor.

"It probably won't be ideal at this precise moment," Severus said, looking a little uncomfortable, "but we can discuss it when we get settled somewhere."

"Good idea," Phineas Nigellus agreed. "Kreacher!"

A small, elderly looking creature appeared in the room. "Yes Master Black, what can Kreacher be doing for you?"

"I need you to take these people to Castle Black," Phineas Nigellus instructed.

"But they's be half bloods and traitors sir!" Kreacher exclaimed, seemingly disgusted with the idea, "and Mistress Walburga said that one was to never go to the house of his grandfather."

"Yes but she is no longer mistress of this house and you know my authority our ranks hers anyway," Phineas Nigellus scowled.

"But the family won't look good to the dark lord when he rises again if we's housing a traitor," Kreacher argued, eyeing Sirius worriedly.

"I am the dark lord Kreacher so I fear the opposite will be true," Tom announced.

The creature squeaked and then vanished, appearing a moment later holding a locket with a green 'S' on it.

"My lord," Kreacher bowed, "Master Regulus was a truly faithful servant sir. He learned of the evil one's plans and took Kreacher to retrieve this for yous although it cost him his life. Kreacher tried to destroy it as Master Regulus commanded but Kreacher was unable sir."

"What is it?" Sirius asked.

"I do believe it is a horcrux," Tom explained, "a vessel containing a fragment of a soul."

"Why would Regulus want to destroy one of your vessels?" Severus asked.

"No, not the dark lords! Master Regulus never betray his master like that!" Kreacher wailed.

"Who's is it then?" Harry asked.

"Dumbledore's," said Phineas and Tom.