His Guardian Angel

Chapter 7

The next day, Harry arrived at Dumbledore's office and stopped short when he realized that the door was open and Dumbledore was chatting with someone. 

“Now see here Sirius, I understand that he’s your godson but you said it yourself, you don’t want to uproot him.”

“Right, but he’s not yours to choose what happens to him! It’s the summer, he should be at home and able to walk about London-” Dumbledore’s eyebrows drew in with frustration. 

“Sirius Black, I distinctly remember telling you that Voldemort is at large once more. The times are no safer now than they were all those years ago when you heard James and Lily were going into hiding. Harry is in extreme danger if he leaves the grounds, you know this. Why are you so adamant about getting him to leave?” Sirius’s shoulders slumped. 

“You’re right. I just waited for so long to be let out of that hell-hole that I didn’t stop to think that life outside might still be dangerous.”

 “And more importantly, you have more healing to do with the mind healers at St. Mungo’s. You have been going, haven’t you?” A dangerous edge made its way into Dumbledore’s voice, something that Harry had only heard once before when he told Dumbledore that Voldemort was back.

“I...I go twice a week.” 

“Sirius, you swore you’d go in four times a week like they recommended!” Sirius cowed in his chair like a child being scolded by their mother. “I demand that you go back to what the healers recommended and that you get Grimmauld Place cleaned up. No more dark magic artifacts, no more dark colours and most certainly get rid of the pests you’ve got crawling around there.”

“The pests are gone-”

“Clearly not gone enough, that’s a pixie bite I’m looking at on your arm and it’s fresh to boot. You need to learn to care for yourself before you can hope to care for anyone else, is that clear?” Harry cleared his throat just then, not wanting to impose on their conversation any longer. 

“Sir, I didn’t mean to interrupt but-”

“Nonsense, it’s time for our lessons anyway. Sirius just came to say hello before his meeting with the healers at St. Mungo’s.”

“I really should be going, but it’s good to see you J-Harry. I’m sorry I’m not in better shape to take you in during the summers.” The man Harry had met in third year was considerably better than he’d last seen him. His cheeks weren’t so gaunt and his skin not so sallow but he was still too skinny for his height and obviously wasn’t getting enough sunlight. 

“Professor Dumbledore is right though, I like spending my summers here. I learn a lot more when it’s quiet and I don’t have to worry about a book I need from the library being checked out all the time.” He was grateful when Sirius seemed to accept this and left. He liked the man, but it was a bit awkward talking to someone who seemed to want to take him away from the life he’d built for himself and couldn’t completely tell the difference between him and his father. Besides, he was much too invested in the life of Tom Riddle to want to leave the castle for any length of time. 

He and Dumbledore delved into memory after memory until Harry could barely think straight. He went to bed each night with more information on the child that became a monster right before his very eyes. He watched as Tom discovered more and more dark magic and he cried when Tom found a way to break his soul apart in an effort to remain alive under any circumstances. He cried harder when Tom killed the girl from the second floor bathroom and then again when he went to murder his father’s family.