The Figure Clothed in Black

Chapter 12: Home and Greg

Harry was forced to stay in the hospital for another week. Normally it was two weeks, but his wrists were healing quickly and ever since he had got Sirius back he had been better emotionally. The only things he wanted to do were get out of the hospital and go to the cottage that Sirius had bought. He had brought a catalog that the real estate agent had given him. He and Harry had both agreed on the cottage. It was in the middle of a forest protected from muggle and wizard folk alike. Harry was going to stay with him for a month before returning to school. On the weekends Professor Dumbledore was going to come over and tutor him. Remus was going to come daily to bring him his homework. When Harry went back to school Sirius would be going with him as the assistant Professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts. Dumbledore had created the job especially for Sirius.

It was September 1st. Those going to Hogwarts were all saying good-bye along with one new addition, Hermione's younger sister, Brittany. She had got the acceptance letter when she was eleven, but some reason unknown to Harry, hadn't come. Their parents hadn't wanted her to go, but after pestering from both girls, were allowing her to go this year. Her hair was brown like Hermione's, but not quite as bushy, and she had the same eye color. Everyone was surprised to find out she had a younger sibling. Hermione said that she was her only sibling when Harry had asked if she had any other siblings. They left promising to see him in a couple of weeks on the weekend after he and Sirius had settled in.

An hour later, Harry was standing in the living room of a cottage in the woods. He looked around the room. There was a comfy looking sofa and several chairs, a fireplace and a television that Sirius had insisted on getting.

"Harry, come on you haven't seen the upstairs yet," Sirius called from the staircase. Harry ran over to him. Sirius slipped his arm around Harry's shoulders and led him upstairs. Sirius took him to the second door on the right. "Harry, this is your room," he said and opened the door. The walls were red with swirls of gold. The carpet was deep rich plush red. The bed covers were red with gold trimming. Gryffindor colors. There were posters of quidditch on the walls. His trunk was at the end of the bed and Hedwig's cage was on a table in a corner of the room. There was a dresser on one wall. A nightstand stood beside the bed painted gold. Harry looked around grinning foolishly.

"I went ahead and decorated it. I wasn't sure if you would be up to decorating and I didn't want you doing it anyways..." Sirius trailed off nervously.

Harry turned to him still grinning foolishly. "I love it, Sirius. I really do. This is how I could have done it. I love it. I love the house and I love the room," Harry said still grinning. He rushed forward and gave Sirius a hug. Sirius hugged him back saying, "I love you too, kiddo." Harry rested his head on Sirius's chest, as Sirius was a good head taller then he was. They stayed like this for a few minutes before Harry announced he wanted to see Sirius's room. It was right across the hall from Harry's and similarly decorated as Harry's was. They took a complete tour of the house; the kitchen, two bathrooms, guest rooms, living room again, the computer room (Sirius had also insisted on a computer) and finally outside to the quidditch pitch. Harry was thrilled when he saw this.

"Sirius, why didn't you tell me there was a quidditch pitch????"

"I wanted it to be a surprise," he replied grinning. Harry grinned back. This was the best day of his life. He had said that at his birthday party in the summer, but this was definitely better than the party. He had Sirius, who loved him, and Remus, and his brother and sister, and Ron, the rest of the Weasley's, Hermione, Kayla, and he wasn't with the Dursley's.

They went back in the house and Sirius started to make lunch while Harry went back up to his room and flopped onto his bed. He hadn't realized it before, but the bed had a goose feather down comforter. Harry sank into feeling the happiest he had ever been. Harry felt his eyes starting to drop and welcomed sleep.

Someone was shaking him, calling his name softly. Harry groaned and turned over. The person kept shaking him. Finally he turned back over and opened his eyes to see his godfather standing over him. "Good you're awake. Dinner's ready, and you need to eat. Come on get up you can sleep later. You have to eat," Sirius said hauling him out of bed. Harry rubbed his eyes sleepily and followed Sirius downstairs.

"Did you actually cook the food?" Harry asked.

"Yes, and I haven't done anything to it. All of it is perfectly edible," Sirius replied.

The food actually smelled well and when he took a bite it tasted good much to his surprise. Sirius was true to his word and nothing happened to him. After they finished eating Sirius made Harry take his medicine the hospital had sent to help speed up the healing of his wrists. Harry didn't mind taking the medicine since it was in capsules instead of a tasty tasting potion.

They went into the living and put in a movie called Holes. Harry had read the book so Hermione would shut up about it. Harry was surprised by how close that it stuck to the book. His favorite part was when Mr. Sir said, "I think I'm kinda purty don't you??" he laughed until he almost cried over that. Harry had to explain some of the things to Sirius, but he liked it all the same. After the movie it was too early to go to bed and Sirius has got a movie called Signs, which was about crop circles and aliens coming to earth. They waited till it was dark to start that. It was kind of confusing at first, but got clearer as it went along. The video of the little kid's birthday party freaked Harry out a little bit since he had not been expecting a tall blue-greenish creature to walk across the street. By the time that went off Harry was starting to get drowsy even though it was only ten, but the medicine he took made him drowsy. Sirius sent him upstairs to change and go to bed. He went up about fifteen minutes later, kissed Harry gently on the forehead before heading across the hall to his room.

You didn't tell him, Sirius scolded his self. Well, he just out of the hospital. I should wait until he's settled in more before I tell him. Yes, that's it. I'll wait until he's settled in then tell him. Sirius nodded reassuring himself. With this thought in mind Sirius went downstairs to tidy up.

He had only been cleaning for five or ten minutes when Kirsten and Dustin showed up. Before he could say anything Dustin said, "Did you tell him?" Sirius blinked.

"No, I decided to wait a few days when he's settled in. I didn't think it was a good idea to tell him the day he comes here and he had just got out of the hospital. I'll tell him soon, I promise."

Dustin was actually being serious. He was usually the more care free and wild of the two and Kirsten was the voice of reason. "You really should tell him. Now that we know he's alive and you're alive also. You are still going to let him live with you right?? As much as we love him and are so glad he's alive, but we each have just enough for ourselves. And the ministry wouldn't let us anyway since we're not old enough to be his parents and all, he's fifteen and we're eighteen-"

"Kirsten, calm down. Of course he's going to live with me. That's the only thing I could understand of what you said. You talk to fast," Sirius said.

She grinned sheepishly. "I know I can't help it. I talk fast when I get worked up, upset, or scared you know that."

"Yes, but please try to talk slower in the future, okay?" She only smiled at him.

"What is he like?" Sirius asked. "What does he look like? How does he act? Tell me everything."

"He has red hair, sort of like Ron's and hazel colored eyes like Dad's," Dustin said fondly.

"Right now he just acts skittish and suspicious of everything. About half of the foster families he was in treated him bad. He's sort of acting like Harry did right before he... tried to kill himself, which is what is scaring me. He's not depressed enough right now to try to do that, but we thought Harry was doing better and then..." Kirsten trailed off. Sirius and Dustin both nodded understanding what she was saying and why she was worried. "I think he'll come around though. He's been talking a little bit more to us, not a lot, but its some progress despite how little it may be," she said.

"Is he going to attend Hogwarts?" Sirius asked. "Does he know he's a wizard?"

"Yes, he knows. He looked like it was the worst thing possible that could happen to him, but we told Mum and Dad had been one, and that we were, and he didn't seem to think it was the worst thing," Dustin nodded.

"When is he going to go?"

"We were hoping he could when Harry went back, but if they don't meet soon and he's doesn't meet you he might not," Kirsten said.

"I get the hint. I'll tell him tomorrow. He seems fine with the house and really the whole world," Sirius replied.

"Did you ever find out what drove him over the edge?" Dustin asked.

"No, I've asked tones of times, but he won't tell me. He always changes the subject. Who's staying with Greg?" Sirius said.

"Remus is. He came over and we asked him if he would stay there with him while we went somewhere. We left before he could refuse," Kirsten said grinning. "We better go. He's probably getting frustrated, or worried by now, depends on what mood he's in," Dustin said laughing. They said their good-byes and left.

Sirius went back upstairs. He peeked in on Harry before heading to his room. He changed and got into bed deciding to turn in early.

*~*

Sirius woke up to the sound of the shower running. He checked to see if Harry was in room. He wasn't so Sirius assumed he was in the shower. Sirius went to his own bathroom and showered, He went downstairs to find Harry talking to Dumbledore who had arrived in the time when Harry got out of the shower and Sirius was taking one.

"Hello, Albus. I wasn't expecting a visit from you until the weekend. What can I do for you?" Sirius said.

"I just need to discuss a few things with you. Alone," he added as an after thought. Harry sighed.

"Follow me," Sirius said leading him to the kitchen. Sirius cast a silencing spell and took the seat across from Dumbledore.

"Have you told him yet? He needs to know and soon. Today. You need to tell him and then they need to meet today. I know it's soon, but Greg is very depressed and considering suicide. He's not showing it on the outside, but he is. I know this because of the whole me actually being a ghost thing." Sirius still couldn't believe the man sitting in front of him wasn't really alive. He and Harry had both been told when Harry was at the hospital.

"I think if they meet, Greg might stop thinking about suicide and decide to give life another chance. He was shuffled from foster home to foster home and almost half abused him. The Dursley's abused Harry. He had been with a good foster family, but Voldemort attacked and killed them. Harry lost you in June. They've both been through similar things and I think it would do him good to talk to Harry. Maybe even sometime sit in on Harry's therapy sessions once or twice if Harry talking to him doesn't do the trick."

"Kirsten and Dustin came last night asking the same thing. I'm going to tell him today. I promise. I'll tell him after breakfast."

"Thank you. I must leave now; I have to get back to the school," he said standing up. Sirius took the spell off and led the ghost to the living room. He flooed back to Hogwarts.

"Breakfast will be ready in a few minutes, Harry," Sirius said.

"I guess I don't get to know what you were talking about do I?" he asked.

"No, not right now, in a little while."

"You mean you're actually going to tell me?" Harry said surprised following Sirius to the kitchen.

"Yes, since it concerns you and another person, but I want to have breakfast first. You've also got to let me change your bandages since I haven't had a chance yet, and you certainly can not change them your self," Sirius said seeing Harry about to object. "I wish someone would invent a water repellent charm that would repel water and keep and the cloth from getting damp. Especially on bandages," Sirius said as he unwound the bandages from his wrist. He got the roll of bandages down from a cabinet and put new ones on Harry's wrist and fastened them and then proceeded to make breakfast.

Sirius had just made eggs and toast and they eating it talking about whatever came to their minds, which was quidditch. Twenty minutes later Harry and Sirius were sitting on Harry's bed.

"You wanted to know what Dumbledore and I were talking about earlier. We were discussing a boy named Greg, your brother. He's a year younger than you are and will be starting Hogwarts the same day you are. His birthday is in July, a couple of weeks before yours. Just a few hours after he was born someone come into the hospital and somehow managed to kidnap him. Your parents went crazy looking for him. The whole ministry got involved searching all over the continent for him. They never found him and was presumed dead two months later. Whoever had kidnapped him was put in jail for murdering someone. He was sent to an orphanage and had been moved from foster home to foster all his life. Almost half of them treated him like the Dursley's treated you, sometimes worse. He had finally found a foster home that treated him well and loved him, when Voldemort attacked them and the whole family was killed except for him. He had been hiding and Voldemort hadn't found him yet. The aurors showed up and Voldemort left shortly afterward. He came out of his hiding spot when he realized Voldemort was gone and found the people he had loved as a family dead. One of the aurors realized who he was and took him to Dumbledore. Dumbleodore told me, Kirsten, Dustin and he asked me to tell you. Also it will be in the paper tomorrow. Dumbledore is concerned about him. He's been through a lot and the only people he viewed as family have been taken away from him. Since Dumbledore isn't really alive he can tell people's emotion better than we can. He says Greg is contemplating suicide, but isn't showing it on the outside, like you did. He thinks that if you maybe talk to him and see him that maybe you convince him to give life another chance."

Harry stared at Sirius trying to take in what had all just been said. He was silent for a good ten minutes before saying, "I have a little brother. I didn't think there was enough time between my birth and the time my parents died to have any younger siblings, but the time frame if right. It's hard being abused as a child and then learning to love someone and let yourself be loved, and then have them taken away from you," he finished quietly. "When can I see him?"

Sirius smiled relieved. "Today. Dumbledore thinks he might try suicide soon."

"I'm pretty sure I can talk him out if it. If someone had done the same thing for me I probably wouldn't have, but there wasn't anytime for anyone to come since I wasn't showing it on the outside and I wasn't considering it until I read the letter anyways." Harry immediately covered his mouth after saying that. He really hadn't meant to say that.

"What letters?" Sirius asked staring intently at him.

"The ones Remus gave me as a birthday present, the ones from Mum, Dad, and you. The ones you all prepared in case something happened to you. Reading them made me miss you even more and since there was one from Mum and Dad it just added to it and the next thing I knew I had a knife in my hands ready to..." Harry trailed off leaving the sentence unsaid. Sirius sighed. He should have known. He had written that letter in Grimmauld Place after Christmas.

"Where did you get the knife? Kirsten, Dustin, and Remus said you didn't leave your room," Sirius said now sitting beside Harry on the bed with his arms around Harry.

"I had it hid under the mattress of my bed," Harry said quietly laying his head on Sirius's chest relaxing into the embrace. Sirius sighed again and stroked Harry's hair.

"I'm sorry," Harry whispered almost inaudible.

"About what?" Sirius asked just as quietly.

"About what I did," Harry said quieter if possible. Sirius kissed the top of his head.

"I know, but you're moving past. We both are. Come on, I told Dumbledore I would tell him once I told you."

"Okay," Harry said following Sirius downstairs. Sirius stuck his head in the fire and ten minutes later Dumbledore and a boy with red hair and hazel eyes were standing in the living room.

"Hi, Greg," Harry said.

"Hi, Harry," Greg said. Harry looked at his eyes. They looked dull and Harry could tell by his posture and face that he really didn't want to be here. He wanted to be alone in a room. Harry gave him a smile trying to be friendly and Greg returned with a small, sad half smile.

Sirius and Dumbledore were talking leaving the two bots avoiding each other eyes, not sure of what to say. Harry took a step closer to Sirius and gently nudged him. Sirius glanced down at him while continuing to talk to Dumbledore. He seemed to understand that Harry wanted him to say, or Dumbledore to say something to break the awkwardness between Harry and Greg. Sirius broke off his conversation Dumbledore addressing the two boys saying, "Harry, why don't you and Greg go to you room while Professor Dumbledore and I discuss a few things?"

Harry nodded at Sirius. "Follow me," he said to Greg leading him up the stairs. Once they got in Harry's room things weren't any less awkward; they were more awkward.

"So," Harry said trying to think of something to say, "did they tell you about..."

"Yeah, they told me you were my older brother along with Kirsten and Dustin. I'm the baby of the family. I was the oldest with the Jones'." A cloud passed over his eyes.

"It hurts to loose someone you care about," Harry said quietly.

"How would you know?" Greg said angrily, voice full of bitterness and resentment, "You have your godfather, the Remus, fellow, and you actually know Dustin and Kirsten. Did you grow up being moved form foster home to foster home? No, you didn't. I don't know much about you, but I know that wasn't your childhood. Did you ever get beaten? No. Did you ever not have enough to eat? I bet you always had enough to eat. You grew up with that godfather, who loves and you grew up knowing you were loved," he was an inch away from Harry's face now. He wasn't shouting, he was whispering, voice full of hatred. "Weren't you? I just described what you life was and is like didn't I?"

Harry stared coolly back at him. He had let him rant at him. Harry had wanted to do the same thing to anyone who he thought had had a happy childhood and loving parents after Sirius's "death."

"No, you did not describe what my life was like. I grew up with my abusive non-loving aunt and uncle. My uncle beat me and I never had enough to eat. I had to wear hand-me-downs form my cousin who is ten times bigger than me. My cousin was the bully at school, him and his group of friends. No one talked to me, if they did Dudley, my cousin, beat him or her up. I was never happy. Things got better when I turned eleven and went to Hogwarts. Dudley and my aunt and uncle weren't there. I was able to make friends and allowed to eat until I got sick if I wanted to, but I never did. I had to stay the summer at my aunt and uncle's when school let out. My first summer there after school, they starved and my friend Ron came and got me out of there before I starved to death. My third year at Hogwarts I met my godfather, Sirius Black. He's your godfather also, I asked, but there was one little problem. He was on the run from the Ministry of Magic; you know what that is don't you?" After getting an affirmative nod from Greg, Harry continued.

"The whole wizarding world thought he had murdered thirteen people with one curse; twelve non-wizards and one wizard, everyone also thought that he was the one to betray our parents to Voldemort. Peter Pettigrew was the one who handed them to Voldemort. He framed Sirius for everything. Sirius got sent to Azkaban, the wizard prison, for twelve years before he escaped after seeing Peter, disguised as Scabbers, my best friend Ron's rat, on his shoulder on the front of the Daily Prophet when Ron's family won a drawing. He went after Peter and ran into me. There's a lot more to the story, but I'll tell you the details later. I kept in contact with him through 4th year through the Tri-Wizard tournament. Once again long story, I'll tell you later. The only thing you need to know is that Voldemort came back at end of the third and final task in which one of my fellow classmates died. I watched him get killed and I fell guilty for his death because I led him to it unknowingly."

"5th year brought troubles I couldn't have imagined; particularly in the last month of school, June. Voldemort sent me a dream in which he had Sirius and if I didn't go and save him he would die. Sirius and I are very close and were then also. I view him as the father I never had. Anyways, I went to where I thought Voldemort had him, but when I got there he wasn't there. After a while I realized it was trap. The nightmare was false. Some of my friends had come with me and along with some of the members of the Order, who showed up later, we fought Voldemort. There was a veil in the room we where fighting in. Sirius and Bellatrix Lestrange were fighting and she sent the stunning curse at him and he fell through the veil. I thought he was dead. We all did. A few months later it was discovered that you can get people out of the veil, or they can come out of their own accord. I'll explain how Sirius got back later."

"The summer was very hard on me. Remus moved in across the street and I found out that I had an older brother and sister. I really don't know them that well. I'm hoping to get to know them better, along with you, in the next month before I return to school. I was very depressed then, but finding out I had family helped me over some of the depression I was in. I still missed Sirius dearly, but not as bad. I had received letter than Sirius and my parents had prepared if anything was to happen to them. I read them and it drove me over the edge. I tried to kill myself," Harry said and pulled up his sleeves so Greg could see the bandages. His eyes widened slightly as he looked at the bandages. It obviously wasn't what he had expected.

"Kirsten and Dustin found me and they rushed me to St. Mungo's, the wizard hospital. That very same day I found out that Sirius was alive so I had slit my wrists open for no reason. Dumbledore told me that you were considering suicide. Don't do it. I know it may seem like the only way out, but it's not. I know it hurts to loose someone you love, but you can get through it. I know being abused as a child is hard, but please don't try to commit suicide. Especially not the way I did it either. It won't work. All you'll do is damage some cells. Sure you could bleed to death, but there are too many people here to let that happen. Why don't you give me a chance? Sirius and Remus were best friends with our parents. They have tons of stories about pranks on the Slytherins especially Snape. So what's your decision: are you going to keep being depressed or are you going to try to live again?"

Greg was giving Harry a look that Harry couldn't decipher. He could see Greg was weighing his options. After fifteen minutes of silence he said, "How did you meet Sirius? You said it was a long story I like long stories. And could you tell me everything else that you said was long?"

Harry smiled. "I can't tell you all of what was a long stories, at least not today, but I will." He then told him how he had meet Sirius first on Magnolia Street and how he ran into him at Hogwarts. Greg listened to every word, and actually laughed when Harry told him that he had blown up his aunt Marge.

Sirius, Dumbledore, Kirsten, Dustin and Remus, who had arrived not too long after Harry had took Greg up to his room, all smiled softly glad that Harry had got through to the boy.

*~*