Darkness is my ally

A New Player to an Old Game

"Harry," whispered the grizzly-bearded, shaggy-haired form of Sirius Black, "I'm coming…and this time, I won't leave your side, I promise."

Chapter 15: A New Player to an Old Game

Sirius Orion Black:

To some, he was an infamous name associated with many things depending on whom you talked to: Marauder, prankster, best friend, ladies' man, Animagus, party-goer, happy-go-lucky big kid…

The names went on, but lately, people had given Sirius Black new titles: betrayer to Lily and James Potter, source of the orphaning of Harry James Potter, murderer of a dozen Muggles and a known wizard friend, Peter Pettigrew, servant to the Dark Lord, Slytherin in Gryffindor's clothing.

The list went on and yet, in light of those words and titles, Sirius knew that only one was right: he was a servant to the Dark Lord.

Just not the one that people thought he was.

When he was younger, Sirius had become a bit of a rebel against his parents' pureblood dogma, but that didn't mean he didn't take any of it in: when he'd been sorted into Gryffindor along with James Potter, Lily Evans and Remus Lupin, it had been a time of disaster for the Blacks. Sirius' own Mother, Walburga Black, had threatened her son with a disowning on many different occasions until the day of Sirius' sixteenth when, at long last, he was able to give his Mother the finger and walk out.

Being asked to become James' best man had been the greatest moment of Sirius' life after that, or so it had been until the day where Lily had announced she was pregnant with a baby boy and asked Sirius to be godfather. Seeing that small tuft of jet-black hair on the day of the boy's birth and those cute, innocent emerald-green eyes had been Sirius' one and only greatest memory: he'd held little Harry in his arms and made a solemn vow to both Lily and James that he would protect their child with his own life and, in the event that they could not, he would care for Harry like he was his own son.

However, then had come the accursed Prophecy;

Then had come the War;

Then had come the traitor Pettigrew and the action of Sirius forgetting his vow and choosing vengeance over duty: it was a memory that haunted him each and every day of his incarceration in Azkaban.

For nearly ten years and more, Sirius had spent his nights looking up at the moon through the small cracked window in his cell and wondered what could have happened to Harry. What had become of those innocent green eyes and wild dark hair?

However, on the tenth anniversary of Lily and James' death, Sirius had received a shockingly-anonymous note that seemed to blow in off the breezes that surrounded Azkaban and, in an unfamiliar scrawl, there was only one message:

The one you seek has become more than anyone else would wish of him: fulfil your family's legacy and stay true, lest you risk losing him and yourself.

It hadn't been signed, but Sirius had studied the past of the Black Family long enough to wager what it meant: as a Black, he was privy to the legend of Lord Acheron and the powers of the Black Kaiser, but while he was in Azkaban itself, there wasn't much Sirius could do.

Then, on what would be Harry's thirteenth birthday, Sirius found an opportunity when the Dementors of Azkaban suddenly started acting weird and the entire compound was forced into shutdown. Taking advantage of the confusion, Sirius had transformed and made a break for his freedom, his mind solely focused on one key priority.

Finding the Black Kaiser, whom he'd managed to wager was none other than Harry himself, and pledging his life and soul in servitude as penance for the mistakes he'd made years ago.