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SIYE Time:21:38 on 28th March 2024
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The Forgotten Wizard
By CharmHazel

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Category: Alternate Universe, Post-Hogwarts
Characters:Albus Dumbledore, Draco Malfoy, Harry/Ginny, Hermione Granger, James Potter, Lily Potter, Luna Lovegood, Minerva McGonagall, Neville Longbottom, Nymphadora Tonks, Remus Lupin, Ron Weasley, Severus Snape, Sirius Black
Genres: Action/Adventure, Angst, Drama, General, Romance
Warnings: Death
Story is Complete
Rating: PG-13
Reviews: 53
Summary: On the cusp of the third wizarding war, the truth behind the events of Halloween 1981 and subsequent events finally come to light, when it is revealed that Harry Potter, forgotten and ignored by many, is the Boy Who Lived.
Hitcount: Story Total: 30187; Chapter Total: 3703
Awards: View Trophy Room




Author's Notes:
Thank you for the warm welcome back! Thank you for the reviews, love and nominations on this story!

Thank you to Arnel for her brilliance once again! It's good to be working with you again!

I know not everyone will be happy with the friendship in this story, but I will explain it more in a later chapter.




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July 2002 …

A loud pop broke the silence of the South Welsh Valleys as a man suddenly appeared out of nowhere. Quickly gaining his bearings, the man looked around to make sure he had not been seen, something that was unlikely given where he was. No one, at least to the Muggles’ knowledge, lived in the area as Sirius Black quickly discovered as he checked the area that he had Apparated to.

Pulling out the letter that he had been sent by his godson the previous day, Sirius couldn’t help but wonder if he had come to the right place. He groaned loudly as he reached the part that confirmed that he would not immediately be able to see the house or any indication to suggest that anyone, wizard or Muggle, lived in the area as the house had been put under the Fidelius Charm and multiple wards for the time being.

Just as he spotted the two tree stumps, he had been told to look for, that lay on either side of a small discreet pathway, Draco Malfoy appeared to step out of nowhere. With no word of a warning, Sirius suddenly found himself with a wand pointing right at him.

“What were Lily’s words to me?” Draco asked, a guarded look on his face.

“To trust Harry and accept his friendship,” Sirius answered without hesitation.

Draco simply nodded before dropping his wand and passing Sirius a small slip of parchment.

Harry Potter lives at Evans Cottage in the South Welsh Valleys.

Sirius burned the slip immediately before looking up to see a small cottage appear in front of him. He smiled briefly at the sight of the quaint building, not surprised at the choice of home Harry had chosen, before following Draco down the small footpath and up to the front the property.

“Have you been to see your mum yet?” Sirius asked just as Draco opened the front door.

Draco paused, turning his head as he replied, “Not yet, but I have notified her that I am back in the country.”

“Good,” Sirius chuckled in response. “I don’t need a lecture from her if she finds out I saw you before she was even aware of you being home.”

Draco laughed at the thought of his mum lecturing Sirius as he led them into the house and through the living room where two people were sitting, curled up together, on the sofa.

“Are you going to ignore your visitor, then?” Draco teased the couple as he approached them from behind.

Harry sprang up from his seat and rushed round the sofa in excitement.

“Uncle Sirius!” he cried in excitement at seeing his godfather for the first time in several years.

“Harry!” Sirius responded in kind as he wrapped the younger man in a hug.

Sirius pulled back after a few seconds, keeping a hold on his godson’s shoulders as he took a good look at him. He was happy to see he was looking happy and healthy, though he suspected Molly would think he hadn’t eaten as well as he could have while he was travelling and would be determined to fatten him up over the next few months.

“It seems that travelling has been good for you,” Sirius said as he noticed the other person standing and coming around the sofa to greet him. “Or perhaps it might be the beautiful girlfriend you have that has done you the world of good.”

Harry looked round to see Ginny coming up behind him and reached out a hand to her, which she immediately took.

“Well, I think it might be more to do with the fact that Ginny agreed to marry me,” Harry casually told his godfather, as though it was no big deal.

“You’re engaged?” he responded in shock. “I honestly expected to come here today to be told you two had gotten married! Still, CONGRATULATIONS!”

He swept the engaged couple into a hug, grateful Harry had someone who made him feel happy and loved.

“You’re not surprised either?” Draco laughed. “I honestly thought the moment Ginny said yes, they would be married within days. I am amazed by their patience to wait given how long they have been together.”

“Do you honestly think my mother would forgive me if Harry and I just ran off and got married without telling her?” Ginny asked in response.

Each man gulped at the question, none of them wishing to be on the end of one of Molly Weasley’s lectures about what they did wrong.

“I know Molly knows you are back,” Sirius continued once he had composed himself. “I can only presume that you have already made arrangements to see her before getting down to the task you came back to complete.”

“Yes, Sirius,” Ginny replied. “We, as in myself, Harry and Draco, are joining the family for lunch on Sunday.”

“That will be fun,” Harry muttered under his breath, earning himself a glare from his fiancée and a momentary confused look from his godfather.

“Ah, the whole family is going to be there,” Sirius realised, “and you’re worried about how certain members of the family are going to react to your relationship. That’s not even mentioning how Ron is going to explode when Draco arrives with you.”

“Yeah, that would be it in a nutshell,” Draco said as he avoided looking at Ginny to avoid another lecture about how he would be fine.

Sirius gave Ginny a look that said, “Are they serious?” to which Ginny nodded while holding back the laugh that was threatening to escape her lips.

Sirius immediately turned on Harry, a serious look on his face, “If you’re telling me you are far more scared of your fiancée’s brothers than you ever were when you faced Voldemort, then you are beyond my help. Suck it up and be the Gryffindor I know you are. And as for you …”

Sirius turned and looked at Draco. “I know there is animosity between your two families, but that was mainly because of your father. That’s not to say your behaviour didn’t help, because we both know that it did, but you need to remember that you are not the same person you were back then. Molly and Arthur both know this. Molly adores you and loves having you over at The Burrow and don’t think I don’t know about the letters you and Arthur exchanged in your final year at Hogwarts when you were struggling to move on from the mistakes you made.”

Draco could only gape at Sirius in shock, not having been aware that he had known about those letters.

“We all know Ginny’s brothers are prone to cowering in fear when she points her wand at them,” Sirius
continued. “If they complain, moan or even try to threaten either of you, then it won’t be just Ginny’s wand they will be worrying about, it will be Molly’s too.”

Neither Harry, nor Draco spoke, both too shocked by Sirius’ words.

“Well, now that’s been dealt with,” Ginny said, an amused look on her face, “why don’t we go and have lunch and catch up with one another?”

*HP&GW*

“So,” Sirius said as he put his bottle of Butterbeer down, “when do you plan to get married?”

The group of four were sitting around the kitchen table, having just enjoyed a nice lunch of chicken, potatoes and salad, which had been made by Harry, while catching each other up with what had been going on, who was dating whom and discussing all the adventures the trio had while travelling.

“The wedding is on hold for the moment,” Harry stated firmly, making clear to Sirius that nothing would change his mind on this. “Until we have put a permanent end to Voldemort, we have decided to wait for the moment. I don’t want the day we marry to be spoiled by the potential threat of Voldemort and his minions.”

Sirius nodded his understanding. He remembered Lily and James’s wedding and the nervous tension that surrounded their wedding day. While nothing had happened, thankfully, he knew many of the guests had been on edge that something would happen. He certainly didn’t want that for his godson’s wedding day.

“To be honest, if we end things as quickly as we believe we can, I won’t have to spend every day fighting with my mum about us setting a date,” Ginny noted. “I can, at least, give her a provisional date for next year, knowing that I can delay most of the decisions we will need to make for several months.”

Draco’s eyes flickered over to Harry and, with a small smirk on his face, said, “You’re on own when you two tell Molly that. I flat out refuse to back you up in that situation.”

Harry rolled his eyes at his friend’s comment. Before he could make a cheeky comment in return, Sirius blindsided him with a question he had hoped to avoid for the moment.

“Do you plan to fix your relationship with your father and your brother before or after Voldemort has been defeated?”

Draco and Ginny, both of whom had asked Harry the same question numerous times, turned to look at Harry in anticipation of an actual answer.

Harry sighed in defeat, knowing he could no longer put off this conversation. It had been easy to do so with Draco and Ginny as they had never pushed him to answer when they did ask him. He knew he would have to at least be on civil terms if he was going to approach the Order for support and help with the plan they had to bring down Voldemort.

“I don’t know, Sirius,” Harry finally answered. “It still hurts that they constantly forgot about me, that they pushed my needs aside and that they… well, more Dad, tried to keep me out and away from everything.”

“He was only trying to protect you, Harry,” Sirius responded, surprising even himself that he was defending James for the mistakes he made with Harry.

“I know that, Sirius,” Harry snapped. “It’s also one of the reasons why I hid so much from Dad and Matt; I just wanted to protect them from the dangerous knowledge we had about Voldemort.”

He sighed as he dropped his head into his hands, his elbows resting on the kitchen table.

“This would have been easier had I been able to tell Dad what I discovered,” Harry finally continued. “Perhaps I should have tried harder to tell him or Matt, rather than letting them brush me off every time I tried to say something. I just gave up in the end, because they were never going to listen to me.”

“He brushed me off, too, Harry, when I tried to tell him he needed to listen to you, listen to what you knew,” Sirius replied, a tinge of regret in his words. “James insisted that you were to be kept away from everything and anything to do with Voldemort. He became more and more consumed by the need to train your brother for a fight that, we know now, was never his to fight. So, like you, I gave up trying and, instead, chose to support you, help you, make sure you were ready to do what needed to be done when the time came.”

“Neither of you are to blame,” Ginny said as she reached out and took her fiancée’s hand. “It’s clear there has been a serious breakdown of communication between yourselves, James and Matt. If anyone is to blame, it’s Voldemort. He thrives on tearing friends and families apart and he has succeeded here in a way I doubt even he could have predicted.”

Sirius smiled at Ginny’s words, knowing she was right. Looking over at his godson, he could see, however, Harry was struggling to accept her reasoning.

“What about Matt, though?” Harry questioned. “He was my best friend as a child, before we started Hogwarts, even when Dad had started to explain and teach Matt about what he thought his destiny was. He began to pull away from me when we began Hogwarts and he had made friends with Ron and Hermione. Once he had faced Voldemort, though, at the end of our first year and saved the Philosopher’s Stone, it was like I didn’t exist to them anymore.”

Harry looked directly at his fiancée, godfather and best friend, one by one, asking with his eyes why his friendship with his twin brother had broken down.

“I want to say it is because he is the product of his own upbringing, like I was,” Draco answered. “Matt and I may have never gotten along…”

Ginny snorted, “Gotten along? Try again, Malfoy.”

“Ok, we hated one another,” Draco said, correcting himself to the amusement of the room, “but even I could tell he was a decent person who would do anything for those he loved, just like you are. He thought he was protecting you, but by doing so, he pushed you away without even realising it.”

“You need to talk it out, though, with both your Dad and Matt,” Ginny continued, pleased they were getting through to Harry after trying for years to get him to make amends with his family. “Explain to them how it made you feel, how it hurt you, but make sure to explain to them that you understand because you chose to protect everyone by keeping the information you had to yourself and those you were closest to.”

“But, what if…” Harry began to ask.

“No. No what ifs, Harry,” Sirius interrupted. “There is no guarantee that we could have ended the war permanently at an earlier date had we told them sooner. We need to put the past behind us for now and move forward with our plans to finish off Voldemort, so we can all live a life in peace and without fear.”

The three friends nodded in agreement.

“So, moving on to Horcruxes,” Sirius continued, “how much more progress have you made?”

Harry closed his eyes as he took a deep breath and cleared his thoughts and feelings about his dad and brother from his head. When he was ready, he opened his eyes and responded.

“I wish I could tell you we have made plenty of progress and can go straight to planning destroying Voldemort once and for all, but I can’t,” Harry answered honestly. “In addition to the diary, locket, diadem and myself, we have only managed to destroy one more Horcrux.”

“Which one?” Sirius asked.

“The ring. It took us a long time to find the right spell we needed to remove one of the curses we had discovered when we finally thought we had everything in place to retrieve it. There was a nasty curse on the ring that would have slowly killed us had we picked it up and put it on. I am amazed we were able to fight the Compulsion Charm to put it on.”

Sirius was shocked that just one curse had caused them such a delay in retrieving one Horcrux. He knew he could ask why they had not consulted with Dumbledore regarding the matter, but Harry had made it clear that he wanted to minimise all contact with his former Headmaster to avoid raising suspicions. However, before Harry and Draco had left Hogwarts, Dumbledore had given them every piece of information he had managed to find on Voldemort, his past and his movements throughout the years.

“Before you ask, I honestly would have gone to Dumbledore for help had it not been for the fact that the ring contained the Resurrection Stone,” Harry continued, causing Sirius’ jaw to drop. “I was not risking him coming to harm all for the potential to get his hands on an unfulfilled dream of his.”

“That makes sense. What about the final two Horcruxes? Have you confirmed what we thought they were? Do you know where they are?”

“Nagini is definitely a Horcrux,” Ginny responded. “The way she responded to Voldemort when he regained his body was unnatural, even for a snake. We couldn’t get as close as we wanted to destroy her when we went to rescue Harry.”

“Rescue me?” Harry questioned. “I would have managed to escape without your help after what happened with my and Voldemort’s wands. Even then, he was in no shape to do much damage to me after I managed to make sure the ritual was messed up enough to cause him harm.”

Ginny glared at him. “You probably would have escaped without help, but I wasn’t about to stand around waiting for you to escape.”

“Fine,” Harry said, throwing his hands up in defeat, knowing full well Ginny was not one to sit around and not be part of the fight.

“Anyway, we are leaving her for last,” Ginny continued. “We figure if we can distract Voldemort long enough, when we finally confront him, then we will stand a chance of getting to Nagini. Hopefully, then, Harry can finish off Voldemort within seconds, if not minutes, of us having destroyed her.”

“Agreed,” Sirius replied. “He is going to keep her close from now on. This would have been easier had Nagini been at Hogwarts that night, but I think we can make that plan work. What about the Cup?”

“That’s where this gets tricky,” Draco admitted. “We have been thinking for a while that it was probably in the possession of another Death Eater, like the diary was with my father, so I contacted my mum to see if she could look into it, see if there was evidence to suggest my Aunt was given the cup to look after.”

Sirius nodded, not remotely surprised that Bellatrix was likely to be in possession of the cup.

“Mum cannot access any vault but the Malfoy one, but she found some papers outlining the full content of the Lestrange Vault. Noted near the end of the list was a golden cup with notable features of an engraved badger and two handles.”

“Ah, I believe I see the tricky part here,” Sirius said as he realised how complicated this could get.

“We have a plan to procure it,” Draco confirmed. “You are just one person who could potentially help us get our hands on it without the need to do something very stupid and dangerous.”

“That I can help with,” Sirius replied, “but I suspect I know what your back-up plan is, and I really hope the first plan works because I don’t think it is a clever idea to anger the goblins. However, I do have just one question.”

“What would be that be?” Harry asked.

“Why now? Why wait to retrieve the cup until now?” Sirius questioned them, genuinely confused as to why they would have left something they could have destroyed long before now.

“The only time we came back into the country, after Ginny had joined us on our travels, was to deal with the Gaunt Shack,” Harry answered in response. “Had the Cup been elsewhere, somewhere more inconspicuous than Gringotts, we would have dealt with it earlier. It wasn’t, though, so we decided to wait until we came back and we knew everyone who could potentially help retrieve it was also in the same place at the same time as us. That just happens to be this summer, based on the timeline we were working with.”

“We have been able to enjoy travelling the world, exploring new cultures, learning new magic, while doing it in the company of those we love,” Ginny said, taking over from Harry. “All of that in addition to researching the necessary spells we needed to safely retrieve the ring and other spells we can use when we finally bring down Voldemort. Admittedly, I do think it is time for us to settle down and begin the next part of lives together.”

Sirius smiled in response to what Ginny had said about her and Harry settling down. He could only hope that would mean babies for him to spoil and to help him further the cause of the Marauders.

“If you think about it, though,” Draco said, snapping Sirius out of his dreams for his godson, “we didn’t even begin the work necessary to access the Gaunt House until after Ginny joined us. We spent the first year going over everything Dumbledore had given us, checking the suggestions he had made for hiding places that we had not yet visited.”

“Would love to say the cave was fun to discover, but the Inferi sort of dampened that adventure,” Harry said with a shiver.

The room was quiet for a moment as all four occupants’ minds thought about what they had discovered and how it had matched up to Kreacher’s story about Regulus and the locket.

“Anyway,” Draco spoke again, breaking through the morose thoughts of everyone, “by the time my mum had been able to provide an answer about the cup, there just didn’t seem much point in returning to deal with it until this summer.”

“When was that?”

“Just before Christmas.”

“It also made sense to leave Gringotts until now to avoid any chance of a goblin, witch or wizard sympathetic to Voldemort’s cause from revealing we have removed something from a vault that does not belong to us,”
Harry explained.

Sirius thought over everything they had just explained and was impressed with the decisions they had made. None of his sources and contacts had given him any information to suggest the three had been followed or discovered in any of their activities. The only time they had was when it had been too late to warn Harry of the plan to get to him to help resurrect Voldemort once again.

“I cannot fault any of your reasoning,” he finally commented, “especially as none of my usual contacts have mentioned anything to do with the three of you over the last three years.”

Harry could only breathe a sigh a relief on hearing that. They had taken steps to make sure they could travel without being recognised, whether it was changing their names or using disguises of some kind. He didn’t dare tell his godfather, however, that they had purposefully worked towards having Voldemort kidnap him as to avoid taking Matt once again, or any other magical being for that matter. The only thing they had not planned, what they couldn’t plan for, was when it would happen, so it still managed to catch them off-guard when he was kidnapped.

“We need to discuss arranging a meeting with the Order,” Sirius continued, changing the subject. “I am not quite sure how some people are going to take you three coming in and taking charge of what happens next, especially if the last meeting is anything to go by.”

“I am going to take a wild guess and say my dad was not happy with what Dumbledore had to say.”

Sirius nodded and explained what had happened at the meeting.

“Admittedly, I probably shouldn’t have taken my anger out on your dad,” Sirius stated with regret, “but, as always, your dad was more consumed by the need to make sure your brother is prepared. I think everyone else will be willing to work with you, but you need to explain everything, or they will not comply with any plan willingly.”

“I don’t have a choice, do I?” Harry questioned his godfather. “I am going to need to talk my dad and Matt and, at best, call a truce between us. There is too much at stake for them to go and do something that could potentially set us back years.”

“You understand that you can’t keep them away from being a part of this fight, though?” Ginny said, much to Harry’s shock. “It would be like asking me not to fight. Your dad and Matt, just like me, deserve the chance to be a part of bringing Voldemort down, once and for all, especially after everything they have been through and how much they have done to help so far.”

Harry could only stare at Ginny with wide eyes, shocked that she was speaking for his father and brother. While he had no intention of keeping them away from the fight, knowing how much losing Lily had affected the three of them, he still hadn’t figured out how they could play a part without interfering with what he, personally, needed to do.

“I accept that they both deserve to be involved,” Harry finally answered, “but, you all know that they will want to be heavily involved after everything we have been through, especially with us losing Mum.”

“That we will deal with, Harry,” Draco replied. “Even if it means my role in helping is purely fighting his Death Eaters, just so your Dad and Matt can do something more important, then so be it.”

Sirius, sensing the potential for an argument, spoke up, “We can deal with who is doing what later. Right now, your main priority is to meet with Dumbledore. I have already set the meeting for next week, with the intention of the three of you meeting with those of the Order I have felt need to be told the full story and your involvement. We can arrange a meeting to put the plan together for Voldemort’s destruction once we have dealt with the Cup.”

Sensing no complaints or disagreements from them, he decided to ask the question that had bothered him for years, despite Harry’s previous reassurances.

“I know you have heard this, many times now, Harry, but are you absolutely certain that your brother is not another accidental Horcrux?”
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