Title: An Old Dog’s Will and a New Family
Fandoms: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Harry Potter
Rating: M
Pairing: Newt Scamander/Percival Graves
Length: 3970 words
Content notes: Abuse!
Author notes: This is also a fill for the prompts New and Family.
Summary: Based on prompts on Fantastic Beasts Kink Meme:



Harry is Credence reincarnated. Credence could be a separate personality in him that he talks to or Harry has dreams/flashbacks.

+does this mean Harry is born with an Obscurus or does he eventually develop one?
+what does this mean about Harry being a Horcrux as well?

and

Graves' mother was from House Black, one of the Sacred Twenty-Eight.

...years later, after Sirius Black dies, and elderly Graves finds himself (quite accidentally) Lord Black. (His husband, Newt Scamander-Graves, laughs and laughs and LAUGHS).

Cue Graves descending on the British Wizarding World with all the grace and subtly of an elephant as he kicks ass, takes names, and gets stuff done.

Together with these comments that followed:

Imagine Harry asking if is he supposed to call Graves an uncle or something?
...wait. Does this make Graves Harry's semi-legal guardian? Bleep it, who the heck cares about legalities, Graves is adopting this kid because WHAT THE FUCK Dumbledore, who the fuck leaves a magical kid with people like that, were you trying to make an Obscurus? Were you, huh? Because Graves has SEEN what happens when magical kids are treated like that, he's SEEN what happens when an Obscurus is formed, and FUCK THAT.

...I think the British Wizarding World is totally unprepared for Graves.
My first-born for a fill where Lord Percival Graves-Black descends on Dumbledore AND the Dursley with centennarian righteous wrath. I did not help you defeat Grindelwald for that bullcrap, Albus!
Harry would love Newt. He was so hurt after Sirius died and Newt is used to healing hurt creatures. He would show Harry his animals, talked about taking care of them and in between those talks he would gently coax Harry into speaking about his own feelings (because Merlin knows this boy needs to talk about his feelings instead of bottling them up), about his pain and fears. Maybe an old Niffler would give Harry one of his coins?
And after Graves is done kicking everyone's ass from Dumbledore to Voldemort, he finds his husband with Harry, feeding creatures, and it makes him a little sad to realize that a few decades ago this young man helping his husband could be Credence.



They were in Romania, visiting the dragon reservation there when the owl reached them.

“You got an owl,” Newt said as soon as he relieved the bird of its burden. “From Gringotts.”

Percival raised an eyebrow as he took the letter from his husband. He had no idea what this could be about. He broke the seal and felt that the letter was tied to his magical signature, making it so that only he could safely open the missive.

Dear Mr. Graves,

We regret to inform you, that the current head of House Black passed on June 18th 1996.

Due to this, we congratulate you on becoming the acting Lord Black, effective immediately, until the chosen heir of Sirius Black, one Harry James Potter, comes of age.

We would like to invite you to the reading of the former Lord Black's will on Wednesday, July 10th 1996 at 11 o'clock in our London branch.

Best regards,

Ragnock
Director of Gringotts London

“I'm to be Lord Black,” Percival said, sounding unbelieving, “at least temporarily.”

Newt snorted before breaking down into loud and resounding laughter.

“Haha,” the older man said. “Very funny.”

“Your face!” Newt gasped. “Your should see your face right now. It's hilarious!”

“Thank you for your input. I would like to see your face if something like this happened to you,” Percival scathingly replied. “Like for example you becoming the head of House Lestrange because of your mother.”

“So this is because of yours? Because she was a Black?” Newt asked, finally taking the letter back from his husband and finally reading it.

“Who else?” Percival complained. “Why the hell does she do that to me? I don't want to be involved with the current British political sphere. You know as much as I do how much I hate those pompous bastards and how much I don't want to stop doing what we are right now. We are doing so much good.”

“I know, love,” Newt said, having heard the complaints already more than once. He pulled his husband of almost 70 years close and kissed him sweetly. “However I have no doubt that you will be brilliant as Lord Black, even if it is only temporary.”

Percival grinned at that. He was glad that his husband had such a high opinion of him. Hopefully, the younger man would not be disappointed.

“Back to England then?” he asked and Newt nodded.

“Back to England.”

Both started to pack up their stuff to travel back to Newt's home country catching an international portkey the next day.

---^^---

The reading of Sirius Black's will was about two weeks after the two men returned to Great Britain. They got ready early in the morning to have some time in Diagon Alley before the reading.

They visited the apothecary to get some more ingredients for healing potions for the animals currently in Newt's ever present suitcase. Then they went shopping for the various foods the beasts required.

By 10:30, they had most of the things they needed and made their way to the bank. The duo was quickly directed to the chamber where the will would be read.

As soon as they entered, a hush fell over the room. Both men could see that not many people recognized them and they also did not recognize many of the assembled.

It didn't take long after they had sat down for the reading to start.

“May I have your attention, please?” the old goblin in charge asked. The room quieted immediately. “We have gathered here today for the public reading of Sirius Orion Black, former head of House Black as far as Magic was concerned. While the current head of House Black already knows some of the points contained...”

Here, he was interrupted since none of the other people in the room knew who the current head of House Black was and everyone wanted to know.

“Order!” the goblin shouted to be heard. The room quieted gradually.

“As I already said, a few points of this will have already been shared with the current Lord Black.” Here, Percival could practically feel Dumbledore's gaze on him, assessing him. He was pretty sure that the old man would not recognize him since he he had pretty much left the public eye to be with his husband about 65 years earlier, about five years after their bonding. Newt also had kept away from the public as much as possible for an award winning author since this made their life much more difficult when dealing with poachers and traffickers if someone recognized them.

“Now for the will,” the goblin continued. “'I, Sirius Orion Black, declare this my final will and testament. Any others that came before this are herewith declared null and void. I am sound of body and mind, or at least as sound as one can be after having been left to rot in Azkaban for 12 years innocent and without a trial.'”

As he heard this Percival began to seethe. As a man of the law – even if he took some parts of it into his own hands by now – this remark had him planning to look into this case as quickly as possible. He hated it when sentences were carried out without a trial. This had nearly cost him his husband.

“'I will 5,000 galleons to Remus Lupin. Buy yourself some new clothes, old friend, and treat yourself to something nice. Furthermore, Maurauder's hideout is to be left for you to use. You earned it.' Remus Lupin, please step forward to sign.”

The moment the man in a shabby cloak stepped forward, Newt leaned closer to Percival.

“ He's a werewolf who hasn't accepted his wolf. We need to talk to him after this is over,” the younger man whispered. Percival only nodded to show his understanding.

“'Secondly, I will 4,000 galleons each to Nymphadora and Andromeda Tonks. I also ask the new Lord Black to include them into the family again. Unfortunately, I was not able to.' Nymphadora and Andromeda Tonks, please step forward to sign.”

Both witches did and Newt and Percival vowed to find out why they had been kicked out of the family.

“'Thirdly, I will the summer house in Kent to Narcissa Malfoy under the stipulation that neither she, nor her husband of sister had a hand in my death. Should this be the case, Narcissa Malfoy is to be removed from the House of Black due to regicide of her Head of House and her marriage to Lucius Malfoy is to be annulled due to not keeping certain points of her marriage contract.' As far as I can see, Magic is of the opinion that Narcissa Malfoy did have a hand in the murder of the old Lord Black. I trust that the new one will follow the wished of his predecessor as quickly as possible.

'Fourthly Bellatrix Lestrange is to be removed from the family as well, due to her numerous crimes against fellow witches and wizards. Should she have a hand in my death, she is to be disowned and her marriage to Rodolphus Lestrange is to be annulled due to not keeping the marriage contract.' According to this, Bellatrix Lestrange is directly responsible for Sirius Black's death. I trust that Lord Black will know how to proceed in this case as well.

'Fifthly, to Molly and Arthur Weasley, I will 2,500 galleons each for taking care of my godson when I could not. Use it well.' Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, please step forward to sign.”

Both Weasleys did, Molly crying all the while.

“'Last but not least, to my godson, Harry James Potter, I will everything else, including my position as Lord Black. I love you, prongslet.' Since Mr. Potter is not with us today and has not replied to our invitation, this part of the will – yes, headmaster Dumbledore?” the old goblin reacted to the old man's increasingly annoying attempts to get is attention.

“As Mr. Potter's magical guardian, I will sign for his inheritance,” he declared, already making his way to the podium.

“Oh no, you won't,” Percival denied,stopping Dumbledore in his tracks.

“And why won't I, pray tell?” the head of the Wizengamot asked.

“Because you are not Harry Potter's legal magical guardian. This role belonged to Sirius Black as his godfather. It cannot have been taken from him, as he did, according to his own words, not receive a trial. Only this trial would have been able to declare him unfit. We all know that one cannot lie in magical will and this is obviously one,” Percival replied. “Due to this Harry James Potter was still the godson of Sirius Black at his death and Sirius Black was his magical guardian, whether you like it or not. It also means that I am now Harry Potter's magical guardian until he comes of age next year since I am the acting Head of House Black. So I am going to ask you and I am only going to ask you once, where is my ward?”

“And who exactly are you to talk to me like that?” Dumbledore asked, not liking how this man was talking to him, especially with the Malfoys there. This could spell disaster, with how much Lucius was grinning right now.

“Percival Graves, acting Lord Black,” Percival replied smirking, “and this is Newton Scamander-Graves. You might have heard of us.”

During the verbal sparring match, there had been much whispering that immediately died down at Percival’s declaration.

Newt could see Lucius Malfoy and Dumbledore swallow heavily, while Alastor Moody at his side smirked. The ex-auror was one of the few that had recognized them. It was no wonder since Percival had been one of the people that had trained him together with Newt’s older brother Theseus.

“Ah, so you have heard of us then. I have to say that I am disappointed, Albus, that you didn’t recognize us. We did help you to get rid of Grindelwald after all,” the man went on. “Now, where is my ward?”

“Percival, my boy, surely, you understand that young Harry’s safety has to be considered before any steps are taken,” the old man said, his eyes flickering to the Malfoys and back. Percival understood perfectly well. The old man was stalling, thinking that the new Head of House Black would back off because of the blond ponce.

“Oh, I have the perfect solution for this,” he said and waved his hand to open the door wandlessly. “Amelia, if you would,” he called before moving over to the Malfoys conjuring magic restraining cuffs as he went. “Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy, you are under arrest for conspiracy to murder of Sirius Black, former Head of House Black. Since Sirius was the Head of my House, I insist that you use veritaserum when questioning them.”

“Of course, Lord Black,” Amelia answered, smirking.

“You can’t do this,” Lucius Malfoy hissed. “I am the Head of House Malfoy. You can’t use veritaserum on the Head of a House.”

“Oh, but we can, if it is a foreign wizard demanding it, even a Head of House can be forced to take veritaserum to avoid an international incident and look at that, I’m American.”

“You don’t have any proof for this and you need proof to go through with this,” Malfoy said, his air of superiority back.

“But, Lucius, we do have proof. We have a magical will, or at least a copy of it,” Percival replied. “Bloodfang, if you would?” he addressed the goblin and everyone in the chamber drew a collective breath at how effortlessly he had addressed the goblin by his name without the being having a nametag of having introduced himself.

“Oh most certainly, Lord Black,” the goblin grinned rather shark-like. “As soon as you sign as acting Lord Black for Mister Potter, I’ll be happy to provide you with a copy.”

Graves just waved his hand while still staring Lucius down, and his signature appeared at the appropriate place on the will. The goblin looked it over once more and then snapped his fingers, duplicating the will and the copy floated into Graves’ outstretched hand.

“Thank you,” the man said, before handing the scroll to Amelia.

“This should suffice, Amelia, dear,” he said, motioning for her to take the Malfoys out of his sight. The moment they had left the chamber, the door slammed shut and Graves rounded on Dumbledore again.

“No, where is my ward?” he asked again, deceptively calm.

“Percival, my boy, I thought we were past this point. Harry’s safety must be the main priority,” Dumbledore sighed.

“I am not your boy, Dumbledore and the longer you keep me from my ward, the more I get the feeling that there’s a reason for it, that there’s something you are not telling me,” Percival said, narrowing his eyes. “You better tell me where he is right now, or I call Amelia back and have you arrested for the kidnapping of a Head of House.”

Dumbledore sighed again.

“Fine,” he said, “but I must insist that Harry stays with his family, where he is safe.”

“I will be the judge of that,” Graves replied, not even considering for a moment to leave his ward wherever he was right now.

--^^--

Harry wiped the sweat from his face with the hand that was less dirty. Today’s chores were, among others, to weed and water the garden and to mow the lawn. Again. Given the fact that it was nearing 40°C in the shadow, there were definitely better things that Harry could imagine doing. However, he didn’t want another beating after the one last night. Truth be told, he wasn’t sure if he would survive it. Or rather if Vernon would survive it, because Harry wasn’t sure if he would be able to keep the darkness inside another time.

Obscurus, that’s what Credence had called it. An Obscurus and Harry was an Obscurial. Had been one from birth, which was the real reason Voldemort’s Avada Kedavra hadn’t worked. And why the part of Voldemort’s soul that had separated from the madman when he had tried to kill them had not been able to latch onto Harry and had instead been obliterated. While Harry didn’t remember this, Credence did and had told Harry after the Chamber incident in their second year.

“Cre?” Harry asked, rather suddenly. “Did you ever think about finding Mr. Scamander?”

While they both shared one body, Credence and Harry were still separate conciousnesses and could not read each other’s thoughts.

“Sometimes,” Credence admitted. “When the muggles were especially vicious. To get you out of here.”

“Do you want to do that next year?” Harry asked. “Or maybe after the war? Once we’re free? He seemed nice in the memories that you showed me.”

And that was something they could do. Credence could show Harry memories from his past life. It wasn’t necessary the other way around, since Credence could see and feel everything that happened to Harry.

“I think he was. I would like that,” Credence replied.

“Cre?” Harry asked again.

“Yes?” the older boy replied.

“I’m scared,” Harry admitted. “Vernon has been really angry the last few days and it’s not getting better.”

“I know,” Credence sighed in their head. “I know.”

The thing was there was nothing Credence could do, but be there for Harry. They weren’t allowed to use any magic outside school and Credence couldn’t take over their body. He was always just the silent spectator to the atrocities happening to this little boy that was so much like him. And now their only real source of help that was an adult was dead.

A car drove up the street and into the driveway. It was Vernon’s and Harry swallowed heavily. He wasn’t even close to finishing his chores for one thing and Vernon was back much earlier than he was supposed to be. This could only mean that something at work had gone wrong.

“Boy!” the fat man shouted and Harry only cautiously came closer.

“What the hell have you done?” the man demanded, grabbing Harry by the arm and pulling him closer to his increasingly red face. “What did you do?”

“I do-don’t kn-know wh-what you mean, u-uncle Ver-Vernon,” Harry stammered, frightened. “I wasn’t do anything besides my chores.”

“You did some of your freakishness to make me lose my job, didn’t you, boy?” Vernon demanded, narrowing his beady little eyes. “I will make sure that you will regret it.”

The fat man had started to pull his by now very frightened nephew to the house. Dread filled Harry’s stomach like lead. Vernon had lost his job and thought it was Harry’s fault. He was going to kill him.

“Unhand my ward at once,” a cold voice suddenly said, causing Vernon so spin around to look at whoever had spoken and to drag Harry with him.

“Who the hell are you that you think you can talk to me like that and interfere in my disciplining my criminal nephew?” Vernon spat.

“I am Percival Graves, Lord Black and your nephew’s legal guardian until he comes of age next year,” one of the two men standing on the path to the door said. Harry immediately flinched back from the man’s angry gaze, set in a face that he knew all too well from Credence. This was the face of the wizard that had tried to use Credence and the Obscurus in him. If this man was his alternative to Vernon, he wasn’t sure which one was worse. After a moment however, Harry’s rational side won. It was well documented that the man that Credence had met and that had pretended to be Percival Graves, had not, in fact been him at all, but rather Gellert Grindelwald in disguise. This much they had found out from various sources in the Hogwarts library.

“And this is Newt Scamander-Graves, my husband,” the man went on and Vernon went purple.

“Leave my property at once, you disgusting freaks!” he bellowed in rage. “You are abominations!”

“We will not,” Graves calmly replied, studying the shy teen behind the overly large man. The child had clearly been abused, that much was certain. And not only for a short time, but over years if his short frame was anything to go by. However, the child was somehow also afraid of him, even if he had only met him just now. This was puzzling.

“Newt, why don’t you go with Harry to pack his things while I deal with this disgusting pile of dragon dung?” he asked, drawing his wand.

“Good idea,” Newt said, smiling at the boy who smiled back hesitantly. The boy seemed to at least like Newt. Good.

“I will not have any of you entering my house!” Vernon hollered.

“And how exactly do you want to stop us?” Percival asked, twirling his wand in his hand. “I suggest you lead the way to the living room where we talk about how to treat a human being.”

That was the last that Harry heard before the voices faded away due to him and Mr. Scamander-Graves reaching the top of the staircase. Harry led the way into his room and motioned for the man to sit in his chair.

“What’s going on?” he asked.

Newt sighed, not sure where to begin.

“Do you know about Sirius Black, the former head of the Black family being your godfather?” he asked. Immediately, Harry’s face darkened as he remembered Sirius’ death and his part in it.

“Yeah,” he muttered, his head hanging low, before defiance shone through and he raised his head. “I know. I also know that he was innocent. Don’t you dare slander his name!”

“I wouldn’t dream of it. We know this and we are working on this also being publically recognized,” Newt replied, smiling.

“You are?” Harry asked.

“We are,” Newt confirmed. “And we hope that it will go through rather quick since today Sirius’ will was read and it confirmed that he wasn’t given a trial and that he was innocent.”

“His will was read?” Harry asked, frowning.

“Yes,” Newt replied, his face also creasing into a frown. “Gringotts should have informed you. In fact, Bloodfang said they did, but didn’t receive any reply. He was rather worked up about you not being at the reading.”

“I never received any mail from Gringotts. Not once,” Harry denied and he could see Newt’s eyes narrow at that.

“Well, while I will certainly tell Percival about this, it does not matter now,” he said. “We need to pack your things so that we can be on our way once my husband is finished with your uncle.”

“Will he hurt him?” Harry asked in a small voice.

“Not any more than necessary to make sure that you can come with us,” Newt tried to calm the boy down, thinking privately, ‘And certainly much less than he deserves.’

“Why are you even here?” Harry wanted to know.

“Because while you are the main beneficiary of your godfather’s will, you are also still a minor. Due to this, the House Black needs an acting Head of House which is Percival since he is the only member of the Black family that is alive, of age and male. He will only hold this position until next year until you come of age. Then, he will step down and you will be the Head of House Black,” Newt explained. “But now we really have to pack your stuff.”

“I don’t have any,” Harry replied, looking down. “Well nothing in here beside my owl, who is hunting right now and a few clothes.”

“What about your school supplies?” Newt asked. “Personal items?”

“Locked up,” Harry muttered.

“What? I didn’t quite catch that,” Newt replied, not liking the picture he was getting one bit.

“I said, they are locked up,” Harry repeated. “In the cupboard under the stairs.”

“I see,” Newt said, his lips pursing. “We’ll get them on our way out then.”

Silence settled over the two of them and none of them bothered to fill it for a long moment. After a while, Harry couldn’t quite hold the question back.

“I that really Percival Graves down there? Are you sure that it’s not Grindelwald?”

Newt looked taken aback at the question. While it was true that MACUSA had never tried to actively keep this fact hidden, it was still something that was not well known.

“Yes, I am sure,” he confirmed. “I was one of the people that rescued him and, by now, we have been together for nearly seventy years.”

“I just had to be sure,” Harry muttered, turning red. In that moment, the door opened and the man they had just been talking about entered.

“Do you have everything you need?” he asked as the two occupants of the room stood, before adding in warning, “You won’t be coming back.”

“His stuff is in the cupboard under the stairs and any clothes he has here will stay here, because we are going to take him shopping for new ones as soon as we have the opportunity.”

“Very well,” Graves said. Then he turned on the spot and marched down the hall and staircase. Newt motioned for Harry to follow.

As they reached the bottom of the stairs, Newt came to a stop as he saw his husband’s thundering face. He immediately stepped closer and peered into the open cupboard. What he saw in there let his rage for these muggles raise another notch.

They grabbed Harry’s trunk without saying another word, only glancing at each other for a moment. More wasn’t needed. Percival would take care of this situation and everything else surrounding it and Harry and Newt would take care of Harry himself.