165 Chapter 165: Amends

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I would like to thank my beta, Akisu, for his help in this chapter.

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1 November 1993, Hogwarts

Daphne watched as her best friend got up and left the Great Hall out of obvious frustration over their words and felt a mixture of guilt and shame. This wasn't how she wanted things to go but even if they had done it badly, they had put their point across. It had completely backfired, and the blonde couldn't help but wish that they hadn't confronted him like they had. 

Tracy, Blaise and she did talk the previous night after Harry had gotten to sleep about how he was treating them, but whatever calm manner they decided on to broach the issue completely went out of the window.

It wasn't like this issue was a new thing. It was always there in the background, brewing, and her two friends exploded out of frustration more than anything. They have been trying to push the line as much as they could. And even if Daphne disapproved, a part of her wished to do the same.

Their complaints might be valid but the way they expressed themselves simply wasn't, and Daphne was really afraid that they. Might have damaged their friendship with Harry. They needed some damage control, "We need to apologize to him."

Blaise scoffed, "For what? He's the one who's being unreasonable."

"Really? We're the ones who spun this up on him after he fought off a serial killer and found out it was his supposed dead godfather. He's probably frustrated and angry. We just added more fuel to the fire."

"Do you really think he would have acted differently if that wasn't the case?" Tracy asked.

"I don't know, but that's the point. We don't know. What happened to being reasonably calm and collected, and not ambushing him?"

"He's smart enough to handle it," Blaise responded.

"You're joking right?" Daphne said with a deadpan tone, "Intellectually, you're right. Harry is a genius. He can make wonders of magic that I've never even heard of, and discuss theories that masters probably struggle with. But when it comes to social events and relationships, he's an idiot and you know it. He's going through a lot and all we did was pile on him."

"He's not some fragile bird that we need to worry about scaring off. Don't underestimate him. Just because you have a crush on him doesn't mean that you have to be on his side," Tracy retorted.

The blonde froze at her friend's statement. It was right, in a way. Daphne did have a crush on Harry, and it did tend to cloud her vision a bit when it came to him. And in a way, she was right. The betrayed look Harry gave her when she didn't take his side made her heartache, yet she chose to stay her ground and support her friends to present a united front. For Tracy to throw her crush in her face despite that, was a very low blow. She suppressed the urge to get angry and took a deep breath, "Trace, I'm not saying that he's blameless, but we shouldn't have pushed so much in Hogsmeade, and you know it."

"He's treating us like we're children like he's better than us!" she exclaimed back.

"He is better than us, Tracy. He's always been better than us. Are you seriously going to tell me that you're as good with a wand as he is? Do you think you could have done better against Riddle, against a Basilisk, against a bloody divine beast? Harry has proven for years that he knew what he was doing. You're the ones who told him that you wanted to join, just like I did. That's why I have always followed his lead. I trust him. All we wanted was for Harry to give us more responsibility, and to trust us more, but we chose to tell him that horribly. It was supposed to be a calm conversation, but you literally exploded the moment we broached the subject. All we achieved was show him that he really shouldn't trust us."

Blaise raised his hand in frustration, "He shouldn't have sent us away the moment he could."

"I don't like the fact that he left us behind any more than you do, but now that I think about it, it was the logical move. If you remove the emotional aspect from the story, I know why Harry chose to do it. We weren't ready for this fight. You saw what happened to Lupin. He's a super werewolf for crying out loud and he would wipe the floor with our entire year if he wanted to, except Harry that is. But Harry kept us safe, where we couldn't hinder him, and we couldn't get hurt. Fighting Black would have been stupid, just like we didn't trust him enough to believe his visions and not go to a village where we knew it was about to be attacked. All that did was make us look even more childish than he assumed we were."

Tracy just looked down, "We just wanted to be taken seriously. We wanted him to trust us."

"I know and we could have just told him that. But this passive-aggressive crap isn't going to do it. I didn't say anything because your issues were understandable, but he was well on his way to trusting us. We did the tasks he assigned us without any issues, and he liked that. He likes competence. And look what happened when we followed his plan. We literally caught all the remaining Azkaban escapees, caught Fenrir bloody Greyback who the DMLE have been trying to find for the better part of a decade, alongside his entire pack. You're complaining about doing something that the DMLE couldn't even do. And if we had just listened to Harry a little more, he would have gained the trust that we wanted. His trust in us as his friends and his trust as mages are very difficult things. Sure, he's always been condescending, looking down on us, but when have we really proved him wrong?"

Honestly, she could understand Harry's point. They had come very close to dying that night. She had seen the Potter scion shield and redirect stray spells that were fired in the darkness. She saw his eyes the moment the smiling killer came for them. Harry could have fought him off with them there, but he actively made the decision to go to the tunnel because he knew that he was the only one who stood a chance against that thing. He was afraid until she saw him lock the tunnel. In his eyes, she didn't see any fear, only relief and determination. Harry knew for a certainty that they would die should they try to fight alongside him, and the worst thing was that he was right.

Daphne hated that feeling of uselessness that came with that realization. She had decided to work her ass off until one day, she would be good enough that Harry wouldn't be worried about her in a fight. That he would trust her to have his back.

Both Tracy and Blaise looked suitably ashamed and looked down, "We need to apologize to him."

The blonde released a sigh of relief, "Yes, we do. I'm glad you see that. We'll do it in the common room tonight. I'll try to catch up with Harry. I think he needs someone to talk to."

She prepared to stand up, only to be interrupted by a girl that she learned to loathe over the last few weeks, "Greengrass, good morning. Did you hear about what happened to Hogsmeade?"

"I think that the entire school knows about Hogsmeade, Bones," the blonde retorted trying to suppress any venom from her tone.

She really hated Susan Bones. She didn't know much about her before the start of the semester, only that she was a Hufflepuff and the niece of the current head of the DMLE, but that was it. Unfortunately, the redhead decided to ask Harry to be his partner for her Runes project alongside Longbottom. Every week, they spent a few hours together, working on their project, time that the Hufflepuff always used to flirt with him as much as possible. Luckily, Harry seemed oblivious to the redhead's advances. However, Daphne was not.

The Hufflepuff girl smiled, "I was actually in the village when it happened. It was scary at first until that weird black fog came and I couldn't see or hear anything. Even my wand didn't light up. It only took half an hour until the entire thing was gone, and there were petrified people all over the place. The Aurors arrested the ones wearing masks. I was lucky; Greyback was just a few yards away from me when he was petrified. Were you there?"

The girl shuddered at the end, and Daphne felt relieved that she was alright; she didn't wish Greyback on anyone, not even Bones, "We left before the attack, thankfully. So, why did you want to speak with me?"

"Oh, right. Do you know where Harry just went? Since we don't have classes today, I wanted to see if he would be willing to have our project meeting earlier."

Daphne shook her head, "No, I'm afraid not. Good luck though."

"Thank you. If you see him, let him know that I want to speak with him."

And just like that, the Hufflepuff returned to her table and Daphne unclenched her hand, "As I said, I need to find Harry. I need to make sure he doesn't do anything foolish."

Tracy giggled at her, "Is that what we're calling Bones now?"

"You're not funny, Tracy," the blonde grumbled before leaving. She had a friend to find, after all.

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Far away in an empty Muggle neighbourhood, what looked like a pile of ash materialized inside one of the empty homes. It took some time, but slowly, almost imperceptibly at first, the ashes began to stir. They swirled in a haunting dance, coalescing into a more solid form, a painful rebirth from the remnants of destruction.

His name was once Sirius Black, the 'White Sheep of the Black Family'. It was a nice pun that James came up with. He tried to remember the man that he once called his brother to distract himself from the immense pain he was in. It was excruciating, having nerve endings slowly build back, allowing the parts of his body that used to be made of flesh to return to their natural state.

The process was slow, excruciatingly so, as flesh and bone knit themselves together. It must have taken hours but finally, his form gradually took shape, lying sprawled on the dusty floor. The pain faded away slightly as he paused his regeneration, leaving only the one he was constantly familiar with since the fire that took his brother from him. He was still just a pile of ash in a humanoid form, but at least he had a face now.

His last attack was a really foolish move. He should have controlled himself better. Alas, the anger at Lily's spawn clouded his judgement.

He wanted to curse Lily's spawn for his pain, but he was the one who tried to overpower magic that he was unfamiliar with. Still, there was something nice about the fact that he was hit in a fight. Perhaps, it meant that there was still something human in him. He wasn't sure.

He should have expected the boy to be like his mother. He even fought like her, using clever tricks with some kinds of obscure magic instead of the usual duelling tactics.

Deciding to regenerate his flesh once more, he gritted his teeth as his pain flared anew. He really hated how his body regenerated. He tried to remember the good old days to distract himself from the pain. It was always a good tactic. Alas, his only untainted memories were of James. The others had betrayed him.

It might have taken hours, but he finally returned to his previous state, with only half his body decayed once more. He couldn't heal any more than that. Magic always had a price, and he paid it to materialize himself into the physical world once more. He took a deep breath which sounded like a ragged gasp than anything, but it was good to have lungs once more.

He giggled madly, "Fuck! Losing to a fucking teenager. How pathetic am I?"

"Now, don't be so pessimistic, Mr. Black. You fought against someone with unknown capabilities. You shouldn't have been surprised that the boy had a few cards up his sleeve."

He turned, surprised that someone else was there. He was prepared to fight once more, only to freeze to see who was sitting calmly on the couch in his room, "You!"

The man grinned, "Me. You're a hard man to find, Mr. Black."

"I told you that I wanted nothing to do with you!"

"Oh, don't be like that. Shouldn't you be a little thankful for me? After all, if it wasn't for me, you would have still been stuck on the other side. You wouldn't have been able to fulfil your glorious mission."

The dog Animagus growled, "You know how that went!"

"Yes, how disappointing, losing a child. After all this time, you're still making the same mistakes you made in your youth. You truly are an impulsive man."

The former Black scion simply glared, refusing to answer. The man, expecting this, continued, "You said that you were an agent of chaos, anarchy personified. And you threw it all away the moment you saw the boy. Alas, I do have a soft heart. It's a weakness of mine that I inherited from a very old friend. So, I'm here offering you a hand of friendship once more."

Sirius prepared himself to tell the bastard to go fuck himself, only to be interrupted once more, "There's no need to be so stubborn and refuse outright. I'm just like you, an aggrieved victim of Dumbledore's crimes, one of the secrets he kept buried away. Do you still wish to destroy Dumbledore's world, remove his taint from his existence? Do you still wish to destroy Lily Evan's legacy?"

"Of course, I am!" Sirius answered hotly.

"Luckily, it seems like your goals align, for now, at least. The issue was that while your ambitions were admirable, but your methods were faulty. At my side, you will have me to assist you, to personally help you plan your path for vengeance, and I promise you that in the end, you'll get to watch the world burn just like you want to."

Sirius couldn't help but giggle at the absurdity of the offer, but it wasn't like he had a better alternative, "For the greater good?"

"Exactly."

When the man told Sirius his plans, he couldn't help but burst into laughter. What a mad, mad world. 

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If you want to support me check out my patréon at https://www.patréon.com/athassprkr

I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.

Thank you guys for your support in these hard times.