ad astra per aspera - {♕ f.w.}

2. A Visit to Diagon Alley

Harry Potter turned thirteen and blew up his aunt. 

This time around, the events of Harry's birthday unfolded on his own accord. There was no half giant busting down the door to a shack in the middle of the ocean and revealing he was a wizard. No floppy eared house elf warning him not to return to school and magicking a cake onto an unsuspecting muggle's head. No flying car full of Weasleys arriving at his bedroom window in the late hours of the night to rescue him.

Upon returning from work on the night of July 31st, your parents told you that Harry had lost control during a household dispute and performed wandless magic.

The mental image of Harry standing beneath a woman inflated to the size of a small blimp as she bounced around the Dursley's kitchen amused you, but you kept a straight face as you listened for the sake of being deemed mature enough to hear the rest of the story.

In quick succession, Harry had stormed out of the house, intending to begin life as a fugitive. He accidentally summoned the Knight Bus, a particularly fascinating, violently purple double decker magical vehicle, which took him to the Leaky Cauldron. Here, the Minister of Magic himself informed Harry that the incident was written off as accidental underage magic and that no consequences would be faced.

The write off of Harry's underage magic didn't surprise you because he was, well, Harry. If you performed a simple Wingardium Leviosa behind your closed bedroom door your wand would be confiscated before whatever you levitated could hit the ground.

Beyond wondering how the boy had grown so angry he performed an inflation charm that even you going into your fifth year had yet to master, your biggest confusion surrounded the Minister of Magic's response to the situation. If anything, you'd expected Harry to receive a letter, but the idea of Cornelius Fudge himself leaving the office and sitting down with Harry and talking him through everything seemed odd.

For the week that followed, you casually questioned the Minister's strange behaviour during dinner. 'Why', you asked in various forms, 'would Fudge take time out of his especially busy schedule to go to a dingy pub like the Leaky Cauldron just to tell Harry that he's not in trouble for accidental magic?'

Personally, you thought Fudge had more important things to do.

Your casual asking turned into absolute pestering. Quickly slipping in comments or pointing out oddities in the hopes they would let something slip. Eventually, your mom gave in entirely, explaining almost everything you were raising questions to.

It turns out the Ministry knew more about Sirius Black's escape than you thought.

The details were harrowing and most definitely should've been shared after dinner. Your appetite quickly disappeared. Other than the publicized act of mass murder, you knew very little about why Black had been captured in the first place. Now, your parents had changed their minds regarding what information you were capable of handling.

Twelve years ago, amongst the several innocent people blown to pieces in the middle of a muggle street, mass murderer Sirius Black had killed one of his childhood best friends.

Another detail to note, was that mass murderer Sirius Black was Harry Potter's godfather.

Because of this, the assumption which everyone who was tasked with trying to recapture Black was working under was that he escaped to go after Harry. 

There was a brief flash of relief; Sirius Black had no intentions of coming after you. This feeling was replaced with an immediate flare of worry for Harry; how Black escaped an inescapable building was still unknown, what he was going to do if he found Harry was even more so.