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Chapter Text

„How?”

„What?”

“How do you know that a muggle was there?”

A flustered Minister Fudge looked at his Undersecretary for help. She whispered something to him.

He turned back to Harry and said, “You wouldn’t understand.”

“So, you don’t know?”

“What? Stop these impertinent questions!”

The woman with the monocle turned to the Minister and said, “I would like to know that as well. I do know for a fact, that no Auror was allowed to investigate, even if it is standard procedure when a magical child casts a defensive charm.”

The whole court started muttering. Until now, they had been fully on board with taking the boy down a notch, but now they felt a little uncomfortable.

“Is that so, Cornelius? I myself would like to know this as well, now. And I would also like to know why the Potter heir cast the spell in the first place,” a stern-looking old woman called out.

A shockwave went through the Wizengamot. They realized that this was no mere muggle-born here, but a future peer. What was going on?

Minister Fudge felt the whole situation slipping out of his control, and tried to bluster his way through it to regain it again, “This is inconsequential. We know the boy cast a spell in front of a muggle-”

“But how do you know that?” Harry asked again.

Minister Fudge turned red. “Be silent, boy!” He yelled, spittle flying.

Harry shrunk back clearly cowed, Fudge noticed with satisfaction. Unfortunately for him, others noticed as well. More and more brains started to engage. This was a child. He just turned 15 for Morgana’s sake.

The woman with the monocle stamped her foot, since she had no gavel, and said, “This farce stops now. I will question Heir Potter in my office as planned. Come, Mr. Potter.” With that, she led the relieved boy out of the chamber using a side door.

They missed Albus Dumbledore, who was sweeping in to save the day by just a few moments.

Chapter Text

When they reached the office, Harry was asked to sit in a comfortable armchair and the woman with the monocle, who had introduced herself as Madame Bones, got ready to start the interview. But he interrupted her by asking, “Is that a pensive?”

“Yes. If you know what it is, do you want to just show me the memory?”

“Yes! I just don’t know how to extract it…”

“I will do it. One moment.” She tapped a button with her wand and said, “Gladys? Pensive protocol, no one may enter.”

“Understood, Madam Bones.”

Madam Bones tapped another button, and all openings were shuttered. They closed like camera lenses. It looked really cool.

“Now we are not vulnerable, while we watch the memory.”

Harry nodded, remembering how it felt when Headmaster Dumbledore had pulled him out of the memory unexpectedly. Not nice, that was for sure.

With her instruction, the memory soon was in the stone bowl and they both stuck their fingers in the liquid. One had not to dunk one’s head in, Harry learned.

As they watched, Harry noticed how bad he looked in that memory. Drawn and downtrodden. At least he wore clothes, Mrs. Weasley had organized for him, today. They were threadbare but fit so much better.

The memory ran until Mrs. Figg came along ranting about a Mundungus Fletcher for not keeping watch.

They exited the memory much more controlled than Harry had experienced before and as soon as they were out, Madam Bones started writing rapidly.

Afterward, she said, “May I take a copy of the memory? It is evidence in an investigation now. The Dementors could not have found you without help. Someone in the ministry must have had their hand in this.”

Harry nodded a little shocked. He had not thought about that.

The woman duplicated the memory and returned it to Harry.

“Very good. That means, you had ample cause, to cast the spell and the so-called muggle was your cousin, someone in the know. You now only have the mark from Summer 92 in your file.” She smiled at Harry.

“That wasn’t me either, you know?”

“What? Then why didn’t you protest it?”

“I didn’t know, I could?”

“Merlin. What are they teaching you in that school of yours?”

“Nothing practical, that’s for sure. But if I ever need a pincushion and have a hedgehog at hand, I am all set,” Harry said cheekily.

Madame Bones was biting her lips, hard, to keep herself from grinning and then said, “You do know, why you learn that spell?”

“Not really? But Professor McGonagall never uses words I understand. She might have told us.”

“Right. Anyway, do you want to protest the mark in your file?”

“Yes! Want to see the memory as well? It’s short.”

“Yes, please.”

Soon they watched Dobby snapping his fingers and Harry getting the warning via owl in a muggle household, scaring a visiting muggle and causing much chaos.

After they exited, she said, “I am really starting to feel ashamed now, by the impression we are making. Can I have a copy as well?”

“Sure.”

“Anything else I need to see?”

“Oh yes!”

“Oh, dear. How many?

Harry thought about it and said, “Two and an additional one each with the Minister’s reaction to it?”

“All right. Give me the earliest one. Let’s go chronically.”

They then watched the meeting in the Shrieking Shack. She learned about Sirius’ innocence for betraying the Potters and killing the muggles and Pettigrew’s confessions.

Harry was just happy while watching the memory, that Sirius was better now and didn’t attack Harry’s friends and hurt them.

Madam Bones was speechless, so the memory was copied and returned like all the ones before and all the ones that would follow and they watched the one, where Fudge denied the report, the children gave him.

She had decided to refrain from taking notes after watching a memory. There was too much to unpack in each and Heir Potter allowed her to copy them thus far, so she could rewatch them anyway.

The next memory was the hardest and Harry asked if he had to watch it again. Fortunately, he could sit that one out. As Madame Bones watched the end of the third task, the murder of Cedric Diggory, the resurrection of Lord Voldemort with the help of the same rat from before, the appearance of all the Death Eaters, and Harry’s escape. But it didn’t stop there, Harry was dragged into an office and Barty Crouch Junior made an appearance.

When she came back, she just sat down and stared. Her brain was on pause it seemed.

After a few minutes and the copy/return spiel, she said weakly, “Let’s see the last one, first.”

“Ok.”

Harry watched this one as well. It was just the short scene in the Hospital Wing about Fudge having let his Dementor lose on Barty Crouch jr. and denying the resurrection.

Afterward, Madam Bones exclaimed emphatically, “What a clusterfuck.”

Harry barked out a surprised laugh.

“Sorry, I usually do not swear like this. Now, I really hope that that’s all.”

“These are the important things, where something still can be done, I think. All the other stuff is over and done with.”

“All right. Thank you. When this mess is solved, and I had a long vacation I really would like to see the rest. I heard crazy stories.”

“Yeah, take them with a grain of salt, please, if they were told by Susan and Hannah. They both hate me.”

“I see.” The woman looked shocked, but Harry didn’t care. The girls had been vicious. Starting after the dueling club meeting in 2^nd- year and getting worse last year.

“Now, your slate is clear again. I have marked the instances in your file as investigated and resolved. What I am wondering is, that there are no instances of accidental magic noted in this file. Did you never cause any?”

Harry barked out a surprised laugh again, “You are kidding, right? There were quite a few instances with muggles involved as well. I even turned the wig of one of my teachers blue in front of the whole muggle class.”

“What? That should have gotten a major response! But there is nothing. Not even redacted.”

“That is strange because someone clearly intervened when a teacher reported my living conditions,” Harry said without thinking. He then waved his hands and cried out, “Please forget what I said.”

“Mr. Potter, this is incredibly serious. I need to investigate this, and I will. Please don’t feel bad. But I will do my best to get to the bottom of this. Quietly. But more importantly, even, I will start investigating and acting on the last four memories you shared with me. Even more quietly but as quickly as I can. – Now, I will lock up all of these memories and my memory of this meeting, as well. Something is really wrong here.”

Harry nodded, he thought so, too.

After all the memories had been secured, the lockdown on the room was retracted and as soon as everything clicked in its usual hidden place the door burst open and Albus Dumbledore stood there, fuming. “What is the meaning of this?” he called out in a booming voice.

Madam Bones looked rather taken aback and said, “I could ask the same?”

The old wizard started and took in the shocked faces of the boy and the Head of the DMLE and quite obviously tried to get a hold of himself. He smiled, but his eyes stayed hard as blue pebbles, Harry noticed. Quite a few people were standing in the doorway behind the powerful wizard, watching.

“I am sorry my dear, I didn’t know what was happening in here and was worried.”

Amelia Bones raised an eyebrow, “Of what?”

“Well, the door didn’t open, you know how easily one worries for people close to one’s heart.”

‘Close to one’s heart?’ What is he on about? Harry thought.

“Didn’t Gladys tell you that I just had the pensive protocol running?”

People started muttering to each other, if that was all there was, why did the headmaster raise such a stink?

“Yes, she did but it took so long!”

“You made a scene from the get-go,” a clearly annoyed woman said. That’s probably Gladys, Harry thought. What was Dumbledore so worked up about?

“I want to know what you did in here!”

If he stamps his foot now, he really will resemble a toddler, Harry thought unkindly. Is the stress getting to him?

Madame Bones answered calmly, “I did my job. I investigated the accusation the Minister raised, that Heir Potter here did magic in the presence of a muggle.”

“What is all this about this ‘heir’ stuff? Why do you keep calling me that?”

“Harry my boy, it is really time to go now, come on, you need to get back to safety.”

Harry smelled a rat and dug his heels in, literally, “No! Why do people call me Heir Potter?”

The people were talking quite loudly now. Things like, “What is going on?”, “How does he not know?”, “Why is the headmaster trying to keep him in the dark?” could be heard.

“Enough!” The now angry man bellowed and grabbed Harry’s shoulder painfully and marched the struggling boy out.

The last thing everyone heard was, “You are hurting me!”

Chapter Text

At Grimmauld Place, Harry was marched into the kitchen and the Headmaster said angrily for all to hear, “Do you know how much damage control I will have to do now?”

“What did he do?” A flustered Mrs. Weasley asked appalled.

“He talked to Amelia Bones without me. Who knows what she now knows.”

“Professor Dumbledore, wasn’t Harry supposed to talk to her? Why are you so angry about it now?” Hermione asked timidly.

The headmaster only now seemed to realize that he had quite the audience. Again. He really pulled himself together.

“Never mind, my dear. I was angry because the hearing was rescheduled to an earlier time and was to be held in front of the whole Wizengamot. And when I had gotten wind of it and rushed there, Harry had been taken somewhere else and when I got there the doors wouldn’t open and I got really worried. Irrationally so. I am sorry, my boy.”

Harry, who was still rubbing his shoulder, scowled, and looked at the man as if seeing him for the first time and said, “But you got really angry when I asked, why everyone called me ‘Heir Potter’. And then you hurt me.”

Silence.

“You don’t know that you are Heir Potter?” Ron scoffed, “Come off it.”

Silence.

“Harry my boy, you don’t need to bother yourself with this old-fashioned, dark stuff. Just forget about it for the moment, we have bigger things to worry about, all right?”

“If it is so inconsequential, why are you so hung up on keeping the knowledge from me?”

“Now Harry, don’t speak to the headmaster like that. Come on tell us. Can you keep your wand now?” Mrs. Weasley tried to calm down the situation.

Harry nodded smiling, “Yes! Madam Bones was amazing.”

“Well, that is great. I baked a cake to celebrate this. Come on, sit down all of you. Albus, where are you going? You can’t leave now when so much anger is in the air.” Mrs. Weasley ushered the reluctant Headmaster to the kitchen table.

It was quite an uncomfortable tea. Harry felt locked in, like in his cupboard. Well without the hunger, at least.

Sirius sat at the table with a very strange look on his face. He didn’t fool around like he usually did, trying to lighten the mood. No, he looked serious, alert, and thoughtful. At one point he glanced sharply at the headmaster and said harshly, “Get out of my head.”

The old man chuckled and said, “Forgive me, my boy, old habit.”

“Is that so?”

“What is happening?” Hermione asked.

“The headmaster just told us, that it was an old habit for his to enter other people’s minds.”

“You can do that?”

“I can’t, But Albus here and Snivellus are very good at it.”

“Snape reads people’s minds?” Ron yelped.

“Yes.”

“Isn’t that forbidden?” Hermione asked anxiously, thinking of her thievery of boomslang skin.

“It sure is, but how would you prove it?”

“Sirius, please don’t frighten the children,” Mrs. Weasley tried to intervene.

“So, you have no problem, with people invading children’s minds, but with me warning them about it?”

“It’s Albus,” Mrs. Weasley said forcefully.

“And Snape, mum,” Ginny exclaimed. She hated the thought of someone in her mind. Again. She shuddered.

Mrs. Weasley obviously didn’t know how to answer that. She turned to Albus, just to notice, he had stolen away. She felt conflicted. Her admiration for Dumbledore and her need to keep her children safe at war with each other. So, she turned on Sirius as an easy target for her ire, “This is all your fault!”

But it was not Sirius who jumped to defend himself, showing his irresponsibility. No, it was Harry, who just asked, “How?”

“What?”

“Wow, déjà vu. How is it all Sirius’ fault?”

“Why déjà vu?”

“Don’t distract me, Hermione. Mrs. Weasley, please answer.”

Hermione huffed and Mrs. Weasley was at a loss. She had no good answer, so she did what mothers did when in a conundrum like this, she said, “Never mind that, dear, you wouldn’t understand. More cake?”

“No thank you. Sirius, can we talk? In private?”

“Sure, pup. Come.”

“No, you can’t!”

“Why?” Harry asked.

“I... Albus said... You need to tell us of your hearing!”

“Later. Sirius?”

Mrs. Weasley watched helplessly, as the two left for parts of the house unknown, just as Hermione asked, “Now, what does the heir stuff mean?”

Chapter Text

Sirius led Harry to a floor, which Harry hadn’t noticed before. It was clean and bright. No dust or darkness anywhere.

“Wow! Can I live here? It’s so much better than the rest,” Harry said, jokingly.

“Sirius chuckled, “Sure pup, I had hoped you would but was told you wanted to share a room with Ron...”

“Hell no. He is my best mate, but he snores like three old men together and I cannot cast magic here.”

“Actually, you can, but I was told to keep my mouth shut about that. I will only do so with other people’s kids from now on. Not my own.”

Harry felt warmth blossom in his chest and tears spring into his eyes. He sniffled and was pulled into a hug, “Hey son. I mean it. I’ve got you.”

Harry cried a bit. It was a totally forgotten feeling, being held while crying. Strange that. He quickly pulled himself together.

Sirius ruffled Harry’s hair and smiled at the boy.

“Let’s look for a room for you,” he said.

“Yes!”

“Well, this is my room,” he opened a door to a bright room, with beige walls and red and gold accents.

“Very Gryffindor,” Harry said.

“Too much?”

“Nope, it’s great, just not for me. I have this color scheme 10 months a year after all.”

“All right. Then let me show you the Blue Room.”

Three doors to the right of Sirius' room, Harry was shown a room, in blue and brown colors of many shades. Light and dark. He loved it and he said so.

“Then it is your room.”

“Thanks! Uh, now I have to brave the downstairs to get my stuff.”

“You don’t. Kreacher!”

“Master calls for Kreacher?”

“Please get Harry’s things for him. He will live in this room from now on.”

“Right away, sir,” the elf said agreeably and popped away.

“Am I in an alternative universe?”

Sirius chuckled, “It’s an act, the muttering, and the insults, I mean. We came to an agreement when I moved in, and he learned that Voldemort has returned. He hates that monster. But he doesn’t like non-traditional people and how they behave in this house, at all. And he is right, now that I think of it. I was much too passive before, wallowing in my guilt and pain and trusting the others to know better than me, but when Albus tried to read and rearrange something in my mind just now, I noticed, being altered. And you not knowing that you were an heir and –”

“Sirius breathe! Can we sit down, and you tell me this a little more slowly and in more detail?”

“Yes, sorry. Come, there is a room, where we can hang out.”

Harry was led into a comfortable living room, full of overstuffed couches and they fell into them.

“So, what stayed with me is that the headmaster tried to rearrange your mind?”

“Yes, very subtly. But I was on high alert, due to your hearing and his uncommon behavior”

“And what did he do exactly? Did he try to make you forget?”

“No, he tried to pull my anger, pain, and irresponsibility to the forefront of my mind. Very advanced stuff, I think. But he did it as easy as breathing.”

“That is scary.”

“Yes, it is. We need protection against mind magics.”

“Are there things we can do?”

“Yes, long-term, it would be best if you learned to occlude your mind. But it takes years to learn it. We need something short-term, right now.”

“Maybe by doing that, it would weaken the strange link I have to Voldemort, too?”

“Good thinking. Well, nothing to it. We need to don the rings.”

“What? I am not marrying you!”

“What? No!” Sirius laughed loudly, “Not what I meant. No, we old families have family rings, which protect us from mind magics and poisons and such. I just evaded them till now, because I am the oldest male Black - well the only male Black and the ring will choose me as Head of my family. And I wanted to shirt that responsibility… or was made to... Damn.”

“But I am no Black family member.”

“You are my godson in the old traditional way, and my heir, so you are. And we are related somehow as well. There is a little bit of Black in you,” Sirius grinned toothily.

“I wish wizards had dentists,” Harry murmured.

“Tooth healers? Ugh, don’t remind me about that conservation I had with your friend Hermione,” Sirius shuddered. “Why did you say that?”

“Uh...”

“Come on, pup, spit it out.”

“I just wish the wizarding world had tooth healers because so many of you have really ... uh...”

“…really ugly teeth?”

“Yeah.”

“Me too?”

“Yeah.”

“Damn. Sorry. Kreacher!”

Pop

“What can Kreacher do for Master Sirius?”

“First of all, are there family rings in this house somewhere? We need two.”

“Finally. Kreacher has them.” He reached into his surprisingly clean tunic (did he glamor himself, when downstairs?) and produced two little ring boxes and handed them to Sirius. “What else does you need, sir?”

“An efficient tooth potion. The expensive kind.”

Sirius was handed a vial with a white potion coming from within the folds of Kreacher’s tunic.

“Anything else, Master?”

“Do you have anything else with you, that you think I desperately need?”

Sirius was handed a comb.

“Anything else?”

“No, master.”

Harry sniggered.

“Quiet, you. Now, wait here a moment, I need to go to the bathroom.”

Three minutes later, Sirius was back. He was freshly styled and grinned widely at Harry, showing off his white and straight teeth.

“Wow. It’s that easy?”

“Yes, that’s why some of us forget.”

“What is Snape’s excuse?”

“No idea.”

“Did you tell Hermione about that potion?”

“I didn’t get a word in, edgewise.”

Harry sniggered again, “She will freak out.”

“Oh, dear. Warn me, before you tell her?”

“Where would be the fun in that? Now, about those rings?”

Chapter Text

“Right. Let me put mine on first, not that you get made Head of House Black. Molly would kill me.”

Harry watched intently as Sirius put on a simple golden ring. It easily slit onto his finger and then changed into a heavy, golden signet ring. It looked right at home on Sirius’ finger.

Much more surprising and alarming was, that the man fell back against the backrest twitching and groaning, and black goo ran out of his ears and nose.

“Sirius!” Harry rushed to the panting man, who pulled out a cloth and started to clean his nose and ears with a handkerchief, evenly spreading the black stuff all over his face, making Harry giggle.

Sirius pulled out a mirror and scoffed at the sight he made. He spelled the goo away, then.

“What was that?”

“My guess would be, lots of residue of dark magic from my childhood and the Dementors. It collects if one does not do the cleaning rituals, which I always decided to do later, somehow.”

“And how do you feel now, and didn’t you have family rings as a child?”

“I feel better than ever actually and no, mother forbade us to wear them.”

“Horrible woman.”

“You can say that. Now, if the ring ejects dark magic, better lay down before putting it on. Who knows, what residue the Killing Curse left”

“Ugh, ok.”

Harry did just that and Sirius handed Harry the ring.

“Which finger?”

“Right-hand ring finger.”

Harry put it on and watched as it shrunk to fit him and morphed into a smaller version of Sirius’ signet ring. He then felt magic wash through him like a warm wave, starting on his right-hand ring finger. When it reached the scars on his left and right arm and his head, he screamed. It felt like they were burned with hot pokers. But it didn’t last long. First, the pain in his arms receded, and then the one in his head.

“Wow,” he panted, his eyes crunched shut. Something was running into his right eye.

“Feel better now?” Sirius asked and vanished the black goo on Harry’s face and coming out of his ears.

Harry blinked and looked at his arms then, pulled up his sleeves and held them out to Sirius to be cleaned, as well. There was black goo there that was being vanished, too.

He then took stock of his state of being and said, “I feel lighter. And less angry.”

“Good. Some dark cloud came out of your head and screamed. Scary shit.”

“Ugh. I just hope, that was my connection to Voldemort.”

“Me too. Now, the scar on your forehead opened a little again, but I healed that easily. How are your arms? Were you hurt there as well?”

Harry looked down and saw the puncture wound from the basilisk fang and the knife cut from the rat were open, too. So, he held out his arms once more and Sirius waved his wand and healed them easily.

The scars disappeared. Well, the one from the basilisk bite stayed, but was much smaller.

“Uh, I will tell you how I got those another time, ok? But if those scars are much smaller, does that mean…” Harry looked to Sirius, question clear in his eyes.

“It is nearly gone, Harry.”

Harry beamed.

“Do you want to tell the others?”

A mischievous smile appeared on Harry’s face. “Nope,” he chirped. “Let them notice it by themselves.”

“And let me guess, you will keep wearing your hair hanging over your forehead?”

“Yup.”

Sirius laughed. It was just a small prank, but it was one. He then turned serious again. “Now tell me, Harry, the clothes you wear right now and the stuff you usually wear. Are they really fashion statements?”

“What idiot did say that?” Harry scoffed.

“Molly. And she had it from Albus.”

“Wow. No, they are hand-me-downs. From my fat cousin. I hate them.”

“Shit. Kreacher!”

“What can Kreacher do for the now much better-looking Lord Black?”

“Cheeky. Harry hates the clothes he has. Not the school stuff, but all of the ugly hand-me-downs. Could you do something about it?”

“Kreacher can. Only wizarding clothes or muggle wear as well?”

“Both,” Sirius said. “Everything including head-, foot- and underwear.”

Harry blushed and Kreacher held out his hand in his direction and moved it up and down and then said, “Right away, sirs.” And popped away.

“Wow, this is a really productive day.”

“Oh yes. So, tell me about the Ministry.”

“I wish you had a pensive.”

“Oh, I do. Wait here, I will get it.”

Soon after, Sirius sat there blank-faced, his finger in the liquid, and Harry read a book he had found in the bookcase in this room.

He was just glad that viewing of a memory went much quicker than the duration of said events had been in reality, as he had dumped the memory from entering to leaving the ministry into the pensive. He sniggered at the thought that he was watching Sirius, who was watching his memory, with Sirius watching a pensive memory of Madam Bones watching a pensive memory.

Half an hour later Sirius appeared again.

“Merlin!”

“You may call me Harry.”

“What?”

“Ok, you need time to digest.”

“Yeah...”

Silence.

“You...”

“Me?”

“You made the Head of Magical Law Enforcement watch memories that prove Voldemort’s return and my innocence?”

“Yup.”

“I could kiss you.”

“There you go again, with the lovey-dovey stuff.”

“What?”

“First rings, now kisses?”

“Idiot.”

Harry laughed.

“No. Seriously…”

Harry opened his mouth, but Sirius was quicker, “Shush. I need to say this. It was amazing how you first rendered Fudge’s whole game-plan moot and turned the old geezers against him and then told Amy everything.”

“The thing with Fudge was accidental. I really just wanted to know, how they thought they knew about this ominous muggle. And Amy is who?”

“Amelia Bones, Madam Bones.”

“You know her?”

“She was a young Auror when I started training. We always got along fine.”

“She seemed rather clear-headed,” Harry agreed. “But Dumbledore was strange, right?”

“Yes. He really was. He didn’t want you to talk to her, that was obvious. And he doesn’t want you to know, that you are of noble decent in our world.”

“What do you mean?”

“The Potters and the Blacks are nobility, Harry.”

“Really?”

“I am the Earl of Blackriver and you will be Viscount of Godric’s Hollow. This is really news to you?”

“Yes!”

“Well, damn. You just earned yourself a crash course in all the fun things like comportment, ballroom dancing, manners, oh, and sword fighting.”

“Sirius?”

“Yes?”

“Did everyone expect me to know all this stuff?”

“Yes.”

“Shit.”

“Yes.”

Silence.

“When do we start?”

“After you ate something, sirs.”

“Eeeks! Where did you come from?”

“Master Potter’s room, Master.”

“Right. Food. Yes, please bring it. I don’t want to see that banshee right now.”

“Mrs. Weasley means well,” Harry said.

“Possibly, but I don’t trust any of the adults here right now.”

“Not even the twins?”

“Who in their right mind trusts these two?”

“Ok, dumb question. But in a pickle, I would trust them above anyone, except you.”

“Understood.”

Chapter Text

Harry spent most of the rest of the two and a half weeks left of the summer holidays, learning everything Sirius and Kreacher could stuff in his head and body, via muscle memory.

The rest of the current inhabitants of 12 Grimmauld Place tried to interfere, especially Mrs. Weasley, but the three just disappeared to the hidden floor, where no one else could follow.

Obviously, Hermione asked right away about Sirius’ teeth at dinnertime, and Harry told her gleefully about the tooth portion. She just sat there open-mouthed and then started to rant, but not about the unfairness that muggles didn’t have it, as Harry and Sirius had expected her to, but about the sloppiness of so many witches and wizards. How her parents had nearly left again, after entering the Leaky Cauldron for the first time and seeing the barkeeper’s toothless grin. And now she learned, a simple potion could change that?

Sirius said, “Uh, not so simp-”

She rounded on him immediately, “And you listened to all my explanations about dentists and didn’t deem it necessary to tell me about this potion?”

“You didn’t let me get a word in edge-”

“And why did you fix your teeth only now? I dropped enough hints, that they needed attention.”

“Uh, I didn’t-”

“Men,” Hermione huffed and walked out with quick, hard steps, too incensed to let Sirius explain.

The rest sat there for a moment, speechless, until Harry started sniggering and Sirius let his head sink to the table, only to be scolded by a slightly embarrassed Molly. She felt a little annoyed about strangers judging her world, but they had a point, too. Not that the girl was a stranger, she quickly corrected her own thoughts.

When Hermione later figured out that Sirius taught Harry things and not her, she had the expected tantrum, but Harry asked her to give him time with his only real family, and she relented quickly when he turned his puppy eyes on.

There was another instance, when she realized that Kreacher was the one who had gotten the new clothes for Harry, that she exploded, but this time Sirius took her aside and taught her about house elves and their dependence on wizarding magic. He agreed with her that some people threatened their elves deplorably and something should be done, but freeing them would not help them, at all.

He got her a big book about the origins of the elves and their bond to human magic users, and she spend the next few days happily devouring it.

The only other thing she did, was bugging Ron and Harry (to an extent) to finish their summer homework. Harry was really quick and efficient about it, as he had other things to learn right now. Ron’s last weeks at Grimmauld Place were exhausting, on the other hand. He had to spend all of his time, dodging his mum and Hermione who were both hounding him about his homework. Also, Harry disappeared every time he turned his back on him. His friend had new clothes and started to act posh, too. Ron was really disgusted and just a bit jealous.

Harry’s training quickly showed. He held himself differently and did neither slouch, shrug, nor do any of those uncouth things. Sirius had told him not to do them for a while. Later he could make a conscious decision to behave differently, but not for now.

Sirius had also decided to have Harry come over each weekend during the school year. Not for the company (well, that too), but for teaching Harry more of the things he needed to know and wouldn't learn at school.

Even though the staff of Hogwarts wanted to refuse, they couldn’t go against the wishes of one of their highest lords in their world. When they tried to strong-arm Sirius out of his decision, he threatened to throw the Order out and pull his support of the group. They quickly shelved their plan to make him see it their way.

At least, Harry got Sirius to agree to let him go to the Quidditch matches, but not for weekend training. Harry really needed all the time he could get, learning the things befitting his station.

Dumbledore didn’t show up during that time. Other order members said he was at the Ministry nearly daily, trying to speak to Madame Bones, though.

Harry spent the 31^st of the month with his friends. Ron was a little standoffish, but Harry ignored it. He was tired of the jealousy and just couldn’t be bothered anymore.

At least they got their letters now, and wow, they made Ron a prefect. Harry was just glad he wouldn’t be the one that Hermione would boss around, but he didn’t envy her either.

So, when she asked him, when they were alone in the drawing room for a moment, if he was angry that he didn’t get the badge, he looked at her and said, “No. That was always your dream, but I feel sorry for you a little, now.”

She got defensive, and asked sharply, “Why?”

“Well, it just doesn’t seem like such an honor anymore, when the laziest boy of our year gets the job. And you do know what that means, right?”

A now frowning Hermione said, “No? What?”

“They are counting on you to do his job as well.”

Hermione stared at him open-mouthed, and then sat down hard.

“You are right,” she whispered, “and this is our OWL year.”

“And you are expected to lug us through those as well.”

Tears gathered in her eyes and Harry sat down next to her, laying an arm around her.

“When did you get so smart?”

Harry chuckled, “You are the smart one. I am just better at looking for hidden motives.”

“I take everything for face value. It’s my biggest flaw, my parents always tell me.”

Harry nodded.

“You think so too?”

“Well, I don’t see it as a flaw. You are trusting, not a bad thing in my mind. Means you didn’t get disappointed badly enough yet. The problem I see is, that you think books don’t lie.”

“They don’t,” Hermione exclaimed.

“Well books are written by humans, and humans lie all the time.”

“True. I never thought of it that way.”

They sat there for a while, just enjoying the silence, until Mrs. Weasley came in and demanded Harry’s Gringotts key and Harry declined.

“But I need to get your supplies. Now hand it over,” the woman said forcefully.

“No, thank you, Mrs. Weasley. Kreacher will get my things, and Hermione’s too.”

“Don’t be silly, I will get your supplies, it is no bother.”

“I am not silly, and it is very uncouth to demand the key from a child. What would Bill say, if he heard of it?”

She brushed that argument aside, and said, “You never had a problem with it before.”

“I didn’t know better then, Mrs. Weasley.”

“Give her your key. She is buying me a broom!”

Didn’t Ron understand how bad that sounded? What it implied? Harry shook his head, plugged the list of supplies out of Hermione’s hand, and just left to go to the hidden floor, where he called Kreacher.

“Master Harry wants Kreacher?”

“The list of supplies arrived at last. Could you please get the things for Hermione and me?”

“Kreacher can.”

The elf took the two lists and popped away.

When he got down again, Hermione whispered, “Thank you,” while Ron glowered. But Mrs. Weasley was gone, at least, so she must have decided to leave.

Ron started needling Hermione, “You heard that he is sending that house-elf, right? What about the slave labor now?”

“Since when do you care?” Hermione asked, actually interested.

“Who says I do?”

“So, you just want me to get angry at Harry? Is that it?”

Ron huffed in disgust and left the room. He was hungry anyway, he told himself. Deep down he knew he was being an idiot, but he just couldn’t help himself.

“Why are we friends with him again,” Harry asked rhetorically.

“You two were a package deal.”

“Right. And he is my friend. He is just such a jealous git sometimes.”

“Yes, we all have our weak spots.”

The two chuckled, thinking of their conversation earlier.

“Ron is a jealous prick sometimes, you are too trusting sometimes, and I don’t think things through and rush into dangerous situations, hoping for the best and not thinking about my own well-being, sometimes.”

“Exactly. So, let’s give him a chance. But I will not do his prefect job for him, I decided. And I'll not pull you both through the exams. Fair warning.”

“So noted. Better warn him as well.”

“Ugh, he'll explode.”

“Do it in front of witnesses then.”

“Yes, I will, thanks.”

Chapter Text

The next day which was September 1^st and a Friday, Harry shared a compartment with Neville, Ginny, and a girl called Luna, who was quite fascinating. She was obviously highborn as well, but she carried it so naturally and with such grace, it was actually quite unobtrusive. It was quite astounding to Harry.

Hermione and Ron arrived later, after the prefect meeting was over, and Ron groused about Malfoy being a prefect, too.

In a quiet moment Hermione said seriously, “Ron, I need to give you a fair warning.”

“About what?” Ron’s hackles went up quickly, but Hermione soldiered on, “This is my OWL year and I have made some decisions.”

“About what?” Ron looked impatient.

“As the adults think you are responsible enough to be a prefect, you don’t need me to push and pull you to do your jobs like homework and stuff.”

“Good, at last,”Ron blustered.

“So, you'll need to think of your responsibilities yourself, and not rely on me to remind you, all right?”

“Bah, when do I ever?” Ron snorted.

“Great. Happy you understand. The teachers were right then that you are responsible enough.”

Ron nodded proudly. Harry mouthed ‘Slytherin’ to Hermione, Ginny facepalmed, and Neville looked out of the window, biting his lips. Hard.

Luna lay her head to the side and told Ron, “You've got a Nargle infection, did you know?” and went back to reading the Quibbler upside-down. The rest of the students in the compartment looked a bit lost, but then they shrugged and Harry asked about Neville’s summer.

A little later, Hermione looked at her wristwatch very obviously and got up. She slowly walked to the door, looked back at her friends, and then left.

“Where is she going?” Ron asked.

“You tell me. What time is it?” Harry answered, heavily hinting, as well.

Everyone in the compartment waited for Ron’s penny to drop.

It didn’t.

“It’s two, mate. Just when is the trolley coming?”

Harry sighed.

The first days of school were strange. The other children reacted instinctively to Harry’s new behavior. It was like the school at large relaxed around him as he was giving the right signals, at last. Most of it was nonverbal. Just his posture and bearings were enough, it seemed.

Malfoy even cornered Harry, after just two days, on the grounds where Harry had been flying his broom, and asked about it. The Malfoy heir wasn’t his usual confrontational self, as he was too confused.

Harry answered honestly, “I just learned about my station and am learning all the things I should have been taught from early childhood on.”

“You... You didn’t know?”

“I knew very little. Muggle-raised, you know?”

“But we were told you had tutors from a young age on.”

“Really? By whom?”

Malfoy thought about it and then sighed, “By some fiction books. Sorry. It seems we all fell for it. I just wonder who published them. One cannot do this without the consent of a guardian, which is probably why we all fell for it.”

“Is that so? Thank you for telling me that. I will have it investigated."

“Someone really did you a disservice. May I spread the word?”

“Please do.”

They shook hands and parted ways.

Only later did they both realize the significance of that gesture.

And so, the weekend went. Draco spread the word, Harry contacted Sirius via the mirror, and Hermione did her prefects duty, but only her own, while Ron lazed about.

Monday started with the ‘delightful’ classes of Potions and History; to be followed by Defense.

Potion lessons were strange. Snape tried to get a rise out of Harry, but the boy stayed as cool as a cucumber, and Snape could not read the boy anymore, either. Additionally, none of his Slytherins laughed at his ‘jokes’ about the Gryffindor. What was going on? He started to feel rather silly about his behaviour, Snape noticed, but just the sight of the boy made Snape so angry and that familiar hate rose in him, like always.

History was sleep- and homework time, as usual, and Defense was a bore as well. They had to sit around and read a very boring book, while the simpering and fidgeting Professor watched them like a hawk. Harry knew her from the hearing. She had been in pink robes then too, but not as twitchy. She tried to get a rise out of them, but only managed to do so with Ron, who glowered at Harry for not defending Remus. In the end, Ron earned himself detention.

As soon as they had left the classroom, Ron rounded on Harry, “Why didn’t you say something?”

“What was there to say?”

“That what she was saying was not true!”

“Everyone knew that.”

“But we should've told her!”

“Do you actually think she would have believed us?”

“No. But still!”

“I get your frustration with her, but it was strategically nonsense to get into a fight with her at this point in time.”

“Don’t tell me about strategy!”

“Huh, okay.”

With that, Harry walked on, ducking away from Ron’s long arm which was reaching for him, and went up to the common room.

Ron stood there fuming. He was the strategist! He alone!

Chapter Text

On Friday evening September 8^th, Professor McGonagall had enough and called her 5^th-year prefects to her office.

She had them standing in front of her desk and said, “You know, why I called you.”

Even though no question had been asked, Hermione Granger answered, “Actually, I don’t.”

McGonagall was taken aback, “You are not fulfilling your duties.”

“Please tell me one instance where I didn’t Professor.”

“Well, you always are there, but Mr. Weasley wasn’t.”

“Whut?”

“You, Mr. Weasley missed every prefect meeting, and every round you had on your schedule. You are not helping the first years. Do I need to go on?”

“But... Hermione?”

“Yes?”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Do you remember what I told you about on the train ride a week ago?”

“Uh… yeah.”

“Then there you have it.”

“Uh.”

“Please tell me as well, Miss Granger.”

“Very well, I told him that since the staff found him to be responsible enough to be a prefect, it would be on him to carry his weight. That I had enough to do with my own duties as a prefect and OWL studies. He agreed that he didn’t need to depend on me. May I go now?”

“No. I will make it your job now, Miss Granger, to remind Mr. Weasley and push him if needed. Have I made myself clear?”

Hermione looked at the teacher she had always respected the most and then at Ron, who looked back triumphantly. She turned back to her professor, swallowed, and asked in a small voice, “Is this your last word?”

“Yes, Miss Granger,” McGonagall said, looking righteous and proud.

“Very well then.” Hermione nestled with her badge, pulled it off, put it on her professor’s desk, and said, “I refuse to do the work for two, just because I am a muggle-born girl, and he a pureblood boy. I resign.”

With that, she whirled around and left.

Silence.

“Uh, can I go too?”

“No.”

Silence.

“Tell me, Mr. Weasley, what are the duties of a prefect?”

“Uh, to boss everyone around? To take points?... Uh... no?”

“Did you read the rules?”

Ron frowned, he had chucked a leaflet to the side, when he found the badge in his Hogwarts letter... He shook his head. Shit.

“Do you actually want to be prefect? Or did you just want that broom?”

“Uh.”

“I am waiting.”

“I don’t know.”

“I give you until tomorrow at lunch to decide. Here are the rules again. Maybe you will read them now. Now leave!”

Ron ran out, the leaflet pushed into his pocket.

McGonagall sat there for a long time, head in her hands. She really had botched this up. Hermione Granger reminded her so much of her young and idealistic self. How had she become, what she had hated when she was young?

This situation had happened before, but she had been in the role of the half-blood to be exploited. And now she had become the monster behind the desk. It was a very painful realization.

She pulled out her own copy of the Hogwarts rulebook, to read up on the duties of her three offices as a teacher, as a head of house, and as a deputy, and then she read up on Headmaster duties as well.

It was a hard night for her, full of realizations. But in the early morning, she made some decisions. She had realized she had done, what Miss Granger refused to do. She did most of the job of her male counterpart, as well.

But not anymore.

She didn’t go to bed that night and therefore didn’t turn on her alarm for the Gryffindor common room, which she normally turned on every evening and off again, every morning.

Ron stomped into the common room, ready to lay into Hermione. Who did she think she was?

But she wasn’t there, “Where is she?” He yelled.

“Who?” Ginny asked.

“Hermione!”

“Could you yell a little less loudly?” A 7^th- year called out, annoyed.

“She is in her dorm, Ron. Crying. You broke her dream,” Harry said.

“Yeah? What do you know? Perfect Potter! I might have to give back my broom, because of her!”

“Why?”

“She made me look bad in front of McGonagall! And now I might lose my badge and with that my broom!”

The 7^th- year prefect scoffed, “You didn’t need her, to look bad, mate. You managed that all by yourself.”

Ron got so incensed by that, that he swung his fist and hit the perfect in the face, breaking his nose.

In reaction, quite a few stunners and binding charms came flying in his direction. And one bat-bogey hex. He fell over unceremoniously.

“Shit. Take Seth to the hospital wing.” The other 7^th- year prefect ordered, and two classmates rushed to help the boy to the Hospital Wing.

“What do we do with him?” Someone asked, pointing to the stunned Ron.

All looked helpless at one another. No one had the idea to get their Head of House.

“Let’s just levitate him onto the couch and cover him. He might be more himself tomorrow morning.”

They really didn’t think that that would be an improvement but didn’t know, what else to do.

So, they laid Ron on a couch, bound, and stunned with bat-shaped bogeys hitting his face, but with a blanket draped over him.

The rest left the common room to go to their dorms and Hermione had her first honest and meaningful conversation with her dormmates. The only problem she saw, no one wanted to be the 5^th-year female prefect now. Especially not with Ron.

In the other 5^th-year dorm, the remaining boys had a good and silent night. No loud snoring at all.

But before that, Neville and Harry filled the other two in. They all could understand Hermione perfectly now.

“And who cares if one was a prefect in Hogwarts later, anyway?” Neville asked rhetorically.

Harry said, “Good question. It might just be a big hoax.”

“Well, I think it teaches leadership?” Dean said.

“Hm, I don’t know. It also saves money, right? No staff needed to watch over the kids.” Harry answered thoughtfully.

“I think Harry is right. In the end, it always comes down to money, me dad always says.”

“Huh? I thought I was the devil incarnate?”

“Nah, sorry Harry. I got pulled in by me ma and the Prophet. Dean talked some sense into me.”

“Oh good. Otherwise, this dorm would have become a real minefield.”

Neville looked confused, “A what?”

Chapter Text

The next morning at breakfast, Harry was sitting with his scowling Quidditch teammates. It was Saturday and their team captain had decided to have a training session at 6 o’clock in the morning, in protest of Harry’s planned disappearance for the weekend.

The only problem with it was, that Harry was the only one not miserable. He cheerfully went through all the drills Angelina had them perform, outperforming the rest by a mile due to him being disgustingly awake.

George was grumbling angrily into his porridge and Angelina said again, “Well, you can thank Potter here for the whole thing.”

Harry had enough, “Angelina if you don’t stop with this peer pressure tactic, I will need to draw the line. Please don’t make me. You can easily go without me on weekend training. It’s not like I have leisurely free time these two days now, you know?”

“Bah, what line can you draw?” She scoffed.

Fred, quite awake now, tried to stop her. He had seen how hard Sirius had Harry working in the last weeks and rued having edged Angelina on and not explaining it to her.

Before he could stop her, she went on, “Draw away, I have no use of you like this,” quite expertly poking Fred’s hand with her fork when he tried to cover her mouth with it.

“A hard line. Please don’t make me,” Harry begged.

Unfortunately, Angie was adamant. She needed to show her leadership qualities and not give in. Her dad had coached her in the summers. He was a trainer for a local football team, so he should know, “No Harry, you need to be available on the weekends, or I will need to replace you,” she pulled her last trump card.

Harry sighed really sadly, and she felt a feeling of victory rise up in her. She had him now.

Harry got up and said, “It has been a blast guys, thanks for the time on the team. I had a great time, but my education about my responsibilities is more important, unfortunately.” With tears in his eyes, he walked off and to the Floo in one of the antechambers, that only nobility with family rings could use for their endeavours.

Angie sat there, stumped, “What just happened?”

“You kicked the best seeker off the team, we had ever had,” George said sadly.

Angie rounded on him and said, “What? No! You said he had to learn silly stuff like ballroom dancing and how to bow the right way.”

“Yeah, our bad. We should have explained it better. He needs to learn how to move within his circles.”

“You sound like he is a lord or some such rot. No, he will come around.”

“He is nobility. He just found out this summer. We thought he knew. And no, he will not.” Fred said, trying to make her see.

But Angelina had her dad’s voice in her head not to give in too easily, and shook her head. “Nonsense. The wizarding world has no nobility. If he wants to be on the team, he needs to comply and do as I say.”

“Better look for a seeker as well then, next to a keeper,” Katie said, still in shock. She could not believe what had just happened. Did Angie really not know? Angie’s mum was magical. But muggle-born, her mind supplied. Damn, they really should have explained it better.

Angie scowled and stubbornly said, “I will, watch me. My team needs to put Quidditch first.”

“You sound like Oliver,” Fred whined.

“And look where it took him. Right to Puddlemere United!”

“Yeah, but his team at Hogwarts won because it had a great seeker!”

But Angelina’s stubbornness won out unfortunately, and the team was without a seeker.

A little later, the Gryffindor quidditch team was still hanging around in the Great Hall, too tired to brave the stairs, when four Aurors and Madam Bones herself walked into the room and right to the staff table.

Madam Bones said clearly, for all to hear, “Dolores Umbridge, you are under arrest for the attempted murder of Heir Harry James Potter. Please come quietly, or we will use force.”

The pink woman stood up and scolded the impertinent witch, “Do you know, who I am? I am the Undersecretary to the Minister himself. You cannot just arrest me.”

“I sure can and will. Now come, or we will do this the hard way.”

The headmaster tried to help, “We should take this into my office, surely the children don’t need to see this, Amelia.”

But to no avail. Bones gestured to her Aurors, and they took the pink-clothed woman’s arms on each side and marched her out.

“Was this really necessary, my dear?”

“You know as well as I and everyone else here that you should address me as 'Madame Bones'. I am here in an official capacity and these attempts of establishing familiarity and superiority are rather obvious and quite unbecoming, Headmaster.”

Dumbledore looked shocked for a second, and then answered, “Please forgive me, Madam Bones. I am sure this is but a slight misunderstanding. So, pray tell, when will I get my Defence teacher back?”

“You actually want her back?”

“Why yes. The children need their teacher.”

“Well, she committed a crime and needs to be held accountable. Also, I know her NEWT grades in Defence. Do you?”

“I am sure she did well in her exams.”

“Headmaster, she barely got an A in her OWLs and did not actually take the NEWT in Defence. Not in Hogwarts and not later. She is absolutely unqualified.”

Murmuring could be heard, coming from all tables, even the staff table.

“Well, you know, my dear, how hard it is to find Defence teachers.”

“It’s Madam Bones. And yes, I know...” Dumbledore relaxed, “... that is why the Ministry as well as Gringotts offer every year to get rid of the curse on the position, but you always decline. Every. Single. Year.”

The attentively watching and listening students started talking loudly about that astonishing information but quickly quietened down again when the adults went on talking.

“Now where is Heir Potter? I need to talk to him,” the woman asked authoritatively.

When she got no reaction from the headmaster she looked to the tired-looking deputy.

McGonagall shook herself and said, “He is not here. He is learning about his station from his guardian.”

“Very well, I will contact him later then. Thank you.”

Dumbledore shook himself out of the stupor he had fallen into and tried to save face and his plans, and said, “Madam Bones, you may talk to me about Mr. Potter’s affairs, please follow me to my office, my dear.”

“You just can’t help yourself, now, can’t you? No thank you, this does not concern the Minor House of Dumbledore, which is a vassal to House Potter.”

Dumbledore rocked back. He had never wanted that information to get out. What now?

He thundered, “We do not cater to the old, dark, and evil traditions here at Hogwarts, Amelia. Please refrain from talking about such horrendous things in front of children.”

That had been the absolute wrong thing to say. Nearly all children from all houses, but Gryffindor, looked at each other in shock and then, as one, stood up from their benches and turned their backs to him in a clear sign of public shunning. A thing not done for centuries.

He had obviously miscalculated the student’s immersion into the wizarding traditions of all of the lesser houses (the ones not Gryffindor). How could he have blundered so badly? Albus asked himself. The children weren’t supposed to know and honour the old traditions.

How did this happen?

He was at a loss. Even some teachers had gotten up and turned their backs on him. He knew it was out of his hands now. Everything he did or said would be ignored, and soon the children would inform their parents.

He slashed his wand, to inhibit all owl mail leaving the school, but Hogwarts did not react! Was she shunning him too?

Most of his Gryffindors were looking around, confused, not knowing what was happening. They were the ones Dumbledore had based his words on, when admonishing Amelia Bones just now. They, at least, were totally uneducated in the old ways, it seemed.

The voice of the Gryffindor quidditch captain could be heard loud and clear, “Now they are all playing up that nobility nonsense as well? Is that a prank, Fred?”

“No, this is dead serious, Angie.”

“I don’t believe it!”

“Well, that concludes my business here. Thank you, Deputy Headmistress McGonagall, but please do educate your house in our traditions,” Madam Bones said. She was shocked as well, and proud of the students for standing up for their way of life.

She left and Albus had to let her go with so many witnesses around. Now the children were rushing out of the door, to write home, and he could do nothing. What was happening?

He wished he could turn back time, but his blunder was done. He had openly declared himself to be an opponent to the millennia-old traditions. Calling them evil and horrendous, even. What had he been thinking?

He would be stamped as a blood traitor now - a real one. Bugger.

The Gryffindors looked around for someone to explain. They had purebloods in their house, like Neville and Alicia. Those had not gotten up when the other houses did, but they had turned around a little too, showing their support for the shunning. Most of them had rushed out with the rest, not to be the ones having to explain how their world worked.

Hermione was stumped. She looked to the headmaster, who still stood there, like a statue, obviously in shock. But what exactly had happened? She looked around for answers, but all the pureblood members of her house had left, except for the twins. Ron, who she normally turned to in such a case, still lay on a couch in the common room, snoring, face covered in still lazily flapping bogeys.

So she did as she always did when in a pickle, she went to the library.

Chapter Text

Harry arrived at Grimmauld Place, feeling miserable. He was off the team. He had been so sure he could manage both if he explained it to Angelina, but the young woman had not listened. She had just scoffed, and the twins didn’t help, fooling around, and making fun of Harry and him studying for his role in their world.

But when a beaming Sirius rushed into the room, obviously happy to see him, Harry shook off his sadness and grinned back.

“All set?” Sirius asked.

“Yep, I have done all my homework, but unfortunately I am off the team now. Angelina did not appreciate me being gone for the weekend and made me choose. Well, here I am.”

“Oh no! How could she?”

“She does not believe that our world has nobility in it, I think.”

“Oh darn, didn’t she attend the house meetings were... no? There were no house meetings, or you would have known some of the information as well. I am so close to writing a howler to Minnie. Know why I don’t?”

And so started a weekend full of lessons, but they had fun too. Especially when Sirius dressed up in a huge ballgown, stockings, and all, for the ongoing dancing lessons. He had even painted his unshaven face. He looked incredibly funny and overacted his role quite badly. He had Harry in stitches for more than five minutes and the boy giggled on and off throughout the entire lesson. Especially, when the much taller Sirius batted his overlong lashes at him.

Minerva went to the staff room to do, what she had planned on doing last night. Regardless of the shunning this morning, she needed to get it done before she lost her courage.

Albus was sitting at the staff table, brooding, with the other teachers walking around him on eggshells.

The shunning didn’t mean that no one would talk to him anymore, but his social standing was at the bottom of all of the Noble Houses. Even the Lesser Houses, like the Goyles and the Filches, were above him now. As he had lost his post as Chief Warlock already, he couldn’t lose it again, but he would have, and he had no chance of regaining that position anytime soon.

“Albus, I need to talk to you. Here.”

“What is it, Minerva?” He asked tiredly.

“I decided last night to resign from my post as Deputy Headmistress. Today’s happenings just confirmed the validity of that decision. My house is sorely uneducated in all matters of our world, and I urgently need to remedy that.”

“What? No. You can’t, Minerva, I need you.”

“Yes, I know. You need me to do your job as a Headmaster, but I won't do it anymore. The students are suffering for it.”

“But Minerva, you really can’t. You have a contract with me.”

“Is that so? Show me that contract, Albus.”

“What?”

“Please show me the signed contract of me being employed and paid as Deputy Headmistress.”

“Well, I don’t have it here, you surely do understand.”

“Balderdash. You can easily summon it. We all know that.”

Albus was caught, but tried to bluff his way out of it and summoned Minerva’s contract as a teacher and as a Head of House, and said, “Here they are, my dear.”

“Oh, now I see why Amelia got so angry with you for the ‘my dear’ business. It makes me look smaller and you benign, right? Anyway. I asked for my contract as Deputy.”

“You know, I haven’t gotten around to writing it yet. Please be reasonable.”

“Well, you had 30 years, that is beyond reasonable and should be enough time, even for you. I will not do this unpaid work any longer and I will not do your work, either.”

She turned around to her intently watching colleagues and said, “Please do not make the same mistake as I did, when he offers you the position. Insist on a contract from the beginning and do not let him sneak his work to pile onto yours. I read up on the two jobs yesterday again, and found that I did about three-quarters of his as well by now. And I neglected my Gryffindors. The Head of House and Deputy Positions should exclude one another.”

“Now that you say it, I think they actually do. It is against the rules, I remember now. Albus probably couldn’t write up a contract because of that,” Filius said. “But how could I forget? I need to read up on all of the rules.”

Many of the teachers nodded, deciding on doing the same.

Albus had another statue-moment that day. What was happening? And Filius was right, it was against the rules, and he hadn’t been able to write up a contract. What to do?

“Severus –”

“No.”

“But you-”

“No.”

“I need-”

“No. I will not interrupt you anymore if you can assure me, your next question is not about the job as your deputy. I have far too much to do as a teacher, Head of House, and Potions Master, and the other things you do tend to foist onto me, already.”

The headmaster stayed silent, but unfortunately, Filius’ brain was engaged now. “Severus? Do you have a contract as a Potions Master for Hogwarts?”

“No? I was told the job as Potions teacher automatically made me the supplier of all potions.”

Poppy sat up straight, “What? I was told you were paid handsomely for your services as a potioneer. That’s why I insisted on you supplying them all.”

“And I was told, I could not get any new brooms, because you asked for so much money for your services as a Potions Master,” Rolanda exclaimed.

Severus was shocked. That was why Poppy was so demanding and why Rolanda always sneered at him?!

Filius asked the most important question, “Where does all the money go then? The one for the Deputy, for the Potions Master, for the brooms? For our equipment?” He looked to Albus, but the man had left. He had stolen out, like a thief.

“I think I can get the Ledgers due to the shunning. Wait here,” Minerva said and rushed off.

Ron woke up to excited and loud chatter. Could they not be a little more considerate? He was sleeping here!  And what were they talking about? The headmaster being shunned? Umbitch under arrest? Harry off the Quidditch team? What nonsense was that?

He remembered hitting the stupid prefect and then nothing. His stomach growled. Was it morning already? He slowly sat up.

It was half past ten, the big clock over the fireplace showed him! He nearly missed breakfast! He jumped up and ran out of the door, rumpled clothes, bogeys, and all.

He thundered down the stairs and ran into the Great Hall and piled food on his table. Just 15 minutes left! Luckily, he could eat very fast.

Chapter Text

Somewhere within Hogwarts, the prefects held a meeting about yesterday’s events. The Gryffindor prefects were asked why they didn’t call their head of house?

“Huh? Should we have?” Donna asked.

“Well yeah? Who else is responsible for your house?” The Head Girl asked. “She did tell you to at the beginning of the year meeting just one week ago, didn’t she?”

“No? She hands out schedules and that’s that?”

The rest was totally stumped.

“So, you didn’t know to call the Hospital Wing via the floo in your common room, either?”

“No?”

“We can do that?”

All of the prefects and head students all stared at one another.

The Head Girl got up abruptly and said, “Come Tyler, we need to go to the staff room.” And the two were off.

The rest decided to wait and see what would happen now. Meanwhile, they tried to figure out why that topic never had come up in former prefect meetings and came to the conclusion that to some, it was such common knowledge, they expected everyone to just have, and the others had no idea, there was knowledge they were missing.

Elspeth Wilkins knocked on the staff-room door and after hearing a call of ‘enter’ she opened the door.

“Are you telling me, all this money has been siphoned off for years?” Professor Sprout was exclaiming angrily. Elspeth had never seen her head of house like that.

“Uh, if it’s a bad time, we can come back later?” Tyler Stevens stammered.

All eyes turned to them, and Professor Filius said, “Nono, the head students are always welcome. What is it, Mr. Stevens, Miss Wilkins?”

Elspeth soldiered on, “There was an incident yesterday evening in the Gryffindor tower. One prefect punched another, and broke that ones nose.”

“What? Why didn’t someone get me? My alarm didn’t go off. ...Oh, it wasn’t active,” Minerva realised.

“No one knew they could get you and how. That’s why we are here,” Tyler explained.

“What?” Minerva looked shocked.

“None of the Gryffindors even knew, they could call for medical assistance via the Floo. They didn’t even know they had a Floo,” Elspeth said, looking upset.

Poppy Pomfrey looked absolutely appalled, “So in an emergency, no one would have known how to get me?”

“No. They think they have to lug the one needing medical attention to the Hospital Wing. Alone.” The last was said a little accusingly in Minerva McGonagall’s direction by Tyler.

It was too much. She had failed so badly. Minerva put her hands over her face and started crying, much to the shock of the two students.

Madam Pomfrey and Professor Sprout rushed to her, and Professor Flitwick cast a privacy charm on the women. He then said, “Thank you for bringing this to our attention. We are actually just working on making things better. Now, who was the prefect, who punched another?”

“Ronald Weasley.”

“Why am I not surprised? Please give me your badge for a second, Mr. Stevens, I need to recall Mr. Weasley’s,” Flitwick said decidedly.

He did so.

Elspeth said, “Are you aware that by now the Gryffs have no 5^th-year prefects anymore?”

“What? What about Miss Granger?”

“She resigned yesterday, not wanting to do the work for two.”

“Understandable, but it should not have been necessary.”

“We agree. She was very dedicated and a great addition to us prefects.”

“Yes, I can imagine. Now, there are things moving here, within the staff. Can you handle your work without those two for a few days?”

“Sure. Weasley didn’t do anything anyway and Granger will be missed, but we can adjust our schedules. – May I ask something else?”

“Absolutely.”

“What will happen with the Defence lessons now?”

“We Heads of Houses decided unanimously, to call on the goblins to find and destroy the curse on the Defense post. We will then look for a new teacher with credentials stating that the curse was broken.”

“And until then?”

“Do you have an idea?”

“Couldn’t we get Professor Lupin back? He was the best.”

“We will check. Good idea.”

Chapter Text

Dumbledore had scheduled an Order meeting for that evening a week ago, and therefore before the events this morning. He had just not been able to help himself. He had wanted to interrupt as much of the time Sirius spend with Harry back then. Now he had other, more urgent tasks, but he had to go through with this as some members could not be contacted at such short notice. Also he hoped that maybe he could keep the news from spreading if he was present. After all, they looked up to him and he was the Leader of the Order of the Phoenix.

When they all were seated where they usually did -he had come on time for once, not giving anyone time to chat- he started the meeting, “Severus? Do you have anything to report?” He asked kindly, eyes twinkling.

“You know perfectly well, I have not been called since the last time we spoke. This morning.”

“Yes, my boy, but one never knows the secret ways of Lord Voldemort.” He said mysteriously.

Severus scowled, “There are no secret w-”

“Yes, yes, thank you. Kinsley anything new at the Ministry?”

“Well, we arrested Dolores Umbridge today. As you well know.”

“Yes, yes. Anything else?”

But the question was downed by the barrage of others, who wanted to know what happened.

“Well, we found, that it was she who sent the Dementors after Potter.”

“What?”

“No way!”

Albus interjected, “Please remember, she is innocent until proven guilty.”

“We have plenty of proof, all right,” Tonks scoffed. “She is guilty as hell.”

“Really? What do you have on her?” Sirius asked, quite interested.

“Now, now, this is not the matter of discussion right now. Please stay on topic,” Dumbledore interrupted.

“I thought the topic was the happenings at the Ministry?” Moody asked.

“But not Umbridge, anything else?”

“Well, the Headmaster of Hogwarts-”

“I meant at the Ministry!”

Shacklebolt huffed and said, “Well, everyone at the DMLE believes that You-know-who has returned, and that Sirius is innocent by now.”

“What? When did that happen? And how?”

“Why do you look so angry, Albus? This is very good, right? Now they can reinstate you as Chief Warlock again. Oh, what happy news,” Molly gushed.

Minerva scoffed, “As if. He is politically dead due to what-”

“Minerva! Don’t spread rumours. You should know better,” Albus really tried to keep the horse from leaving the barn. But it was out already, and the barn had burned down to its foundations. No way around it.

“Rumours? Bah!” We all saw it at Hogwarts. You were shunned by three-quarters of the student body,” Minerva nearly yelled.

Pandemonium.

“Yep, politically dead,” Sirius agreed after they all had settled down again. “How did that happen?”

“He – don’t you dare interrupt me again, Albus – he was rebuked by Bones, who said, it was not Albus’ business that she wanted to talk to Heir Potter, as Albus was of the Minor House of Dumbledore and that they were mere vassals to House Potter, and Albus replied that Hogwarts didn’t adhere to the 'old, dark and evil traditions'. That’s when they shunned him,” Minerva explained.

“But why? Wasn’t he right?” Molly put her foot in. “What?” She asked when most of the people present stared at her.

“Molly, do you really think, three-quarters of our society are dark and evil? That Shack here is evil? Me? Elphias? Were the Potters evil? Is Moody?” Sirius asked with real interest.

“What? No! But you don’t adhere to this old stuff, do you?”

“What ‘old stuff’ are you talking about?”

“Well, the whole manner thing, the bowing, Earl this, Baron that. This nonsense.”

“Oh, I do.”

“What? But you always slouch around here!”

“In my own house. Yes. And we do the traditional things here as well. You just ignore them, which is all right. But is not evil.”

“This whole house is evil!” Molly got angry.

“You are not wrong. What my parents did to this place, was unfortunate. That does not mean I am evil as well.”

“Yes, you are!”

Sirius looked at Arthur and raised his eyebrow. But nothing came, so he turned back to Molly and said, “Margaret Weasley, nee-”

“Stop! Don’t! You can’t throw her out!” Albus got up and raised his wand. He would need to alter all of their minds now. They left him no other choice. It was for the Greater Good.

But as soon as the memory spell – aimed at Sirius – left his wand, it was deflected to the ceiling, and beams of red smashed at him from every corner of said ceiling.

He dropped like a stone.

“What did you do?” Molly screeched, rounding on Sirius.

But he just sat there motionless looking back impassively, while Arthur answered, “Molly, Albus attacked a Lord in his own home. The wards reacted.”

“But when Albus entered Sirius’ mind before, to rearrange it, the house never reacted like this!”

“What?”

“What?”

“He did what?”

Pandemonium, again.

Only Sirius sat there quietly.

When it was quiet, Sirius just said, “You knew.”

Molly huffed and Arthur looked at his wife as if she had grown horns.

“Sure, I knew! You needed to be kept down!”

Sirius raised an eyebrow and said, “Leave now. You are not welcome here anymore Margret Weasley nee Prewett.”

“You can’t make me!”

“You sound like one of your children. Come on, Arthur, you can’t be that henpecked. Get her out. You know what the wards will do to her in a minute.”

Arthur nodded and pulled at his wife. He actually got her out of the house before she was forcefully ejected.

Sirius looked at Bill and asked, "Are we good?”

“Yes, we are. I do not share her beliefs. Nor do Charlie or Percy. Sorry about that, though.”

“Good. Now, as you heard, Albus here rearranged my mind in the past. He is a very accomplished Legilimens and even though I know Occlumency, I only noticed because I was on high alert at that moment.

"He tried to pull my anger, my pain, and my irresponsibility to the forefront of my mind. So, I implore you to check your minds for tampering, or have them checked by a trusted mind healer. He might have done that to others, like Molly, or Snape here. Even Moody’s paranoia might have been forced upon him.”

Snape scoffed, he was sure he was the master of his own mind. But was he the master of his feelings? Doubt crept into his mind, and he decided to check. Better be safe than sorry.

Moody looked even more paranoid.

“It is a really bad thing that we are falling apart right now, though,” Sirius went on. “Voldemort is out there, and we need to stand united. I was willing to let things be bygone, but after today that is not an option any longer. So, what do we do now?”

Shacklebolt said, “We keep going. I joined because I wanted to do more, but we only talk and guard the DoM halls, and I don’t even know what for. I really want to share intel and act proactively.”

“Me, too,” many voices agreed.

“Then you all may come here to meet. Just not Molly, or Albus. And you will have to do a secrecy vow.”

All but Snape nodded.

“What about the Fidelius?” Moody asked.

“I will transfer the secret keeper to someone else.”

“Who?”

“Moody, this is the stupidest question you ever asked. It’s a secret, man.”

Moody grumbled but agreed.

They agreed to meet again on Friday in two weeks and all except for the still stunned Albus left, after Sirius assured them that he just needed the man to be present to change secret keepers.

As soon as they all were gone, Sirius said, “You can come down now, Harry,” and a minute later he heard Harry skipping down the steps.

The boy entered, grinning widely, “Wow, that was a trip.”

“Right? Who would have thought.”

“Umbridge gone, Dumbledore shunned, Mrs. Weasley brainwashed... Awesome, and horrible.”

“Yes. Now, who should we make the secret keeper?”

“I have a possibly stupid question.”

“Go on, I love stupid questions.”

“Why can’t it be yourself?”

“Hmm. Actually, I don’t know. Let’s look it up. Kreacher? Could you watch Albus here?”

“Yes, master.”

They went to the Library and Harry gushed about how amazing the listening spells embedded into the house were. He had heard everything.

“With a camera, it would be perfect.”

“A photo camera?”

“No, a film camera.”

“Huh?”

“Come on. You have been to the movies.”

“Let’s finish this talk later and look for the Fidelius now.”

With the keyword register they found it easily, and read that in earlier times everyone had been their own secret keeper and it had become too obvious, so it had become customary to have someone else do it, but it was not necessary at all.

“Damn, why didn’t we look it up back then,” Sirius said mournfully.

“Yeah,” Harry agreed just as sadly.

“Well, it’s decided. I am my own secret keeper, and we don’t tell anyone, but act mysterious. Good that no one can read your mind anymore. Now let’s go downstairs.”

“Wait, I have another question. Can the secret keeper take the secret back? Like from Mrs. Weasley?”

“Good question. Yes, they can. I just read about it here,” he held up the book in question.

As they went down Harry said, “I just read that when the secret keeper dies, all in the know become secret keepers as well. Can they take the knowledge back too?”

“Yes, but not from other secret keepers. Only from people who were told after the original secret keeper died. If too many know, the spell breaks anyway.”

“Oh, that makes sense.”

As soon as Sirius was his own secret keeper, they had Kreacher take Albus to the gates of Hogwarts, and Sirius sent a Patronus to Poppy so she could collect him.

They then cleaned up the chaos in the kitchen and Sirius asked, “So how is it going? Did anyone comment on your non-existent scar?”

“Nope, funnily no one noticed yet, but I always keep my hair over my forehead. Except when flying with the team.” Well, that wouldn’t be a problem any longer," Harry said sadly.

“And still no visions while dreaming?” Sirius asked.

“Nope. And no over-the-top anger as well. Just a clear head. – Learning is so much easier now.”

“Good. And your friends? They didn’t notice either?”

“Oh no. Ron was too busy lazing about, and Hermione was busy with her prefect duties and making sure not to do Ron’s part as well.”

“She is managing that? Good for her. Minnie still clueless?”

“Oh no. She called Hermione and Ron to her office yesterday and scolded Hermione for not keeping Ron in line. It ended with Hermione giving back her badge and Ron keeping his.”

“No.”

“Oh yes. Hermione went up to her dorm very soon, clearly distraught and when Ron came back a little later, he was oh so angry at her. Yelling and stuff. And when another prefect intervened, he got his nose broken by Ron.”

“No!”

“Oh yes! Ron got stunned and bound and hexed and put on a couch and the prefect was taken to the Hospital Wing. Ron was still snoring on the couch when I left this morning.

“And where was your Head of House?”

“How should I know?”

“...”

“What?”

“Well, I need to talk to Minnie. Normally she came by when something happened in the common room or the dorms.”

“Hmm, she came, when you slashed Ron’s bed curtains.”

“Well, good,” Sirius blushed a little. Remembering his idiocy back then.

Harry grinned and then yawned.

“Off to bed with you.”

“It’s just nine and Saturday.”

“And when did you get up?”

“Okay, okay, I’m going,” Harry grumbled and went to bed.

Sirius finished the evening by taking the secret back from Molly, Arthur, Albus, and Dung. He felt a little sorry about Arthur, but knew the man would be made to spy on them, if he could still come to meetings. Maybe with the oath, he could come back, Sirius mused.

When Kreacher had returned, the elf was tasked with packing all the stuff the Weasleys had left lying around and returning it.

"And see if Dung had taken anything from the house and return those possible items as well," Sirius told him.

Kreacher gleefully went to work.

Chapter Text

Severus’ mind was in turmoil. The day had been harrowing. First the shunning, then the discovery he had been duped by the ‘Leader of the Light’. He scoffed. He had laboured hard for years, brewing potions for the Hospital Wing. Well, not any longer.

Minerva had resigned from her post as deputy, she had been duped quite badly as well, and they had discovered that Albus actually had stolen funds from Hogwarts for years. Decades even. Who was that man?

And this evening had been quite eye-opening as well. The Ministry knew about the Dark Lord and Black. That alone changed things. He was rather surprised that he hadn’t been called yet because of this. The DMLE really managed to keep it under wraps, it seemed.

What had really shocked him was the claim that Albus did the most forbidden thing a Legilimens could do. He supposedly pulled emotions, he wanted others to feel the most, to the front of their consciousness.

Why would Black claim it, if it wasn’t true? Few people even knew it was possible.

Severus went to the meditation mat he had in one of the corners of his rather spartan quarters, and sat on it crossed-legged.

He hadn’t meditated for a long time, he now remembered. Never finding the time. Well, this stopped now, as well.

It took him quite a while to find his equilibrium and then he looked around in his mind. What a mess. He had just chucked his memories into it for years, but that wasn’t what he was here for. He went into another, much more private part of his mind to study his emotional layout and holly shit. Someone had messed it up to make it nearly unrecognisable. All emotions had been pushed behind a few very prominent and very negative ones.

What stood there tall and proud was hate for himself and the world, anger at everyone, and guilt, overwhelming guilt. And when he studied it in more detail, the hate and anger had the exception of Dumbledore and Lilly woven into them, and for some people the feelings had been made even stronger than he thought possible. It was a wonder he could function as he did, and not go around, snarling and growling at everyone.

Now, what to do? He could trigger a mental breakdown, if he wasn’t careful, so he very, very slowly and meticulously began dismantling the ‘tower of hate’ (for lack of a better name), and when the other two unnatural and amorphous ‘structures’ started to become unstable, he dismantled parts of them as well. Okay, it seemed that he had to dismantle them slowly and at the same time. He had only managed to take down about a third, when his exhaustion got the better of him and he went to bed. Unfortunately, the hard part was yet to come. First, in taking down the rest of the structures, which became thicker and denser at the bottom, and second, in finding his real emotions and strengthening them. He couldn’t leave the place empty, after all, or he would become quite sociopathic.

Chapter Text

Harry and his godfather had breakfast at seven in the morning, and they had it like the poshest of people one could imagine. Sitting there straight, elbows close to the body and sipping their tea delicately. They both had a hard time not laughing at each other. But Sirius really was good at it. He looked naturally elegant. Harry had a long way to go to achieve that, for sure.

Soon Kreacher brought the newspaper they both had been waiting for. So they decided they were finished with being fancy and moved to a couch to read it together.

The frontpage was split vertically in half, one side had the title

Fudge’s Undersecretary’s
Murder Plot for Potter Heir

With a picture of Dolores Umbridge, a Dementor, and Harry (from fourth year) each and quite some text under it

And on the other half, stood out just as fat and bold

Hogwarts Students SHUN
Albus Dumbledore!

And a picture of ¾ of the students standing with their backs to Dumbledore. How they had gotten that picture really was the question. It had been taken from somewhere at one end of the Slytherin table, close to the staff table. One could see Dumbledore standing there looking quite flummoxed, the staff, and Amelia Bones, as well as the sea of students getting up and turning their backs on the man.

What amazed Harry was the fact that all the children’s faces were blurry.

“Huh? Why are they all blurred?” He asked confused.

“What do you mean? Oh, the kids? Well, they are underage, obviously.”

Harry just pointed to the perfectly clear picture of himself on the left side of the page and just looked at Sirius questioningly.

“Right. Remember when you contacted me last week, about those books about you?”

“Yeah?”

“Well, I have contracted a lawyer to look into it. It’s Tonks’ mum, my cousin Andromeda. She already found out that the books were permitted and cleared by Dumbledore, who acted as your guardian.

“Huh? He can do that?”

“That’s what Andy is looking into right now. It’s a little murky because Albus was Chief Warlock at that time.”

“And the papers?”

“They seem to have standing permission to print whatever they want about you.”

“Let me guess. Also given by Dumbledore.”

“Yes.”

“Wow.”

“I as Lord Black did send a rather harsh warning to them, via Andy, to tread carefully from now on, or we will sue them extensively in the future. And to get ready to write a front page retraction about last year’s articles and lies, and the libellous way they reported about you this summer.”

“Good.”

“So, now let’s actually read the articles.”

And they did. The page was perfect for reading it together. They just had to switch places on the couch to read the other article after finishing the first one.

After they had read both (and Sirius had taken notice of how hard Harry squinted at times) Sirius said, “Well, they are both politically finished.”

“Good,” Harry said again.

“I wonder when the news will break about Voldemort’s return. It’s a wonder it didn’t already, if all the DMLE knows about it now.”

“Maybe that is why Madame Bones asked to talk to me, yesterday.”

“Quite possible, but they will not be able to keep the lid on that one much longer. Dumbledore will see some of his standings return then, as he obviously didn’t lie about Voldemort’s return, and some will flock back to him to save them - again.”

“Sounds about right.”

“But him calling the traditions, and ways that Merlin and the Founders lived by, ‘evil’ will discourage many. This picture of the mass of students’ backs turned will stay in people’s minds.”

“Yeah, one picture says more than a thousand words.”

“Exactly.”

Later that morning, Kreacher brought a letter to Harry that had been sent to Sirius via Gringotts, as it had been returned to sender before, apparently. It was from Cedric’s dad.

He asked Sirius for a moment to read it immediately.

“Sure, the inner workings of the ministry can wait,” Sirius answered grinning.

“Funnily, that topic doesn’t seem so boring anymore, after all…,” Harry opened the letter with trepidation and read it.

Honored Heir Potter,

Please forgive my uninvited letter to you, and for not keeping the form of polite correspondence, but I felt a great need to write to you.

You see, Amelia Bones contacted me and invited me to her office this Friday. As soon as I was there, she prepared me that what I was about to watch would be very disturbing and horrible, as it contained the death of my son, Cedric. She then allowed me to watch your memory of his final moments and what happened after.

Heir Potter, I must confess that I was not your biggest supporter before seeing this memory, but that changed enormously. Seeing the two of you decide to take the cup together to make it a win for Hogwarts was heart-warming and so very like my son. And you, offering to let him take it, was equally heart-warming and noble.

The rest of the memory was just horrifying. Like a nightmare come to life. But at least we now know how our son died. My wife and I had been unable to go on living with the uncertainty about what happened to our son, before.

So what I really wanted to say to you is thank you for bringing his body back while being in such dire circumstances. Thank you for being a good friend to my son and thank you for unknowingly giving us closure by sharing this memory with Amelia.

Amelia asked me, to keep my knowledge under wraps for the time being, as she and her department are moving in on all the Death Eaters in the memory, covertly and secretly. So please keep this letter to yourself for now.

Thank you again.

Most sincerely,

Amos Diggory, Head of the Minor Noble House of Diggory

PS: This letter returned – like all mail sent to you, apparently – so we contacted Gringotts for help. I hope it worked.

Harry handed the letter to Sirius wordlessly, fighting his tears.

Sirius read it and hugged the teen, just as wordless.

Harry cried, safe in Sirius’ arms. For the handsome and friendly young man, that had died much too early. For the parents of said young man, who were so deeply in mourning. And for himself, who had witnessed Cedric’s death and still felt guilty about it. It took quite a while for him to collect himself from that one.

“Better now?” Sirius asked gently.

“Yeah, sorry. I am becoming quite the crybaby,” Harry said, after blowing his nose.

“That’s all right, son. It had been a long time coming.”

“Yeah.”

“But it’s a great letter for Amos. The death of his son must have really changed him. He was always such a pompous prat.”

This pulled a surprised laugh out of Harry. He couldn’t disagree. “And we know now what’s going on with the DMLE,” he said.

“Right. Now, I wanted to ask, may I watch the memory of the resurrection as well?”

“Huh? Didn’t you watch it with all the other stuff of that day of my hearing?”

“You didn’t enter that memory with Amy, remember? So, I watched you sitting in her office, waiting.”

“Uh, right. Wait, then with the other memories, you watched us watching the memories?”

“Exactly,” Sirius grinned.

“So, if you shared that memory, I could watch you, watch us, watching the memory?”

Sirius laughed and nodded.

“But yeah you ca... uh... may watch it.”

“Good save.”

Harry grinned. And then remembered something else, “What does he mean with This letter returned – like all mail sent to you, apparently – ...?”

“Good question. It seems like you have a mail ward on you.”

“Huh, but you could write to me.”

“Actually, I wrote to you soon after I escaped, and the letter came back. But I took it as a sign, that they were protecting you from me. After our run-in, it worked. So, I never thought about it again. Until now.”

“Oh.”

“Did you ever get any letters at your muggle home before Hogwarts?”

“Only my Hogwarts letter, nothing else. My relatives would have blown their tops, otherwise.”

“So, that’s why, possibly. Well, it’s not uncommon for famous people – especially famous children – to have such a ward. Some people are just crazy, and others send dangerous stuff.”

“Yeah, Hermione got a letter with undiluted bubotuber pus in fourth year, once.”

“What? In Hogwarts? I hope the sender was charged.”

“Huh? No?”

“So, no one investigated? Not even the teachers?”

“No?”

“Well, damn. Anyway, the ward makes sense, but not that you and I have no control over it. Let’s go and change that right away, all right?”

“Sure,” Harry jumped up. Anything to escape the lesson about the ministry. Additionally, he was immensely glad, that there was not a mountain with unanswered mail somewhere. Ugh, the horror!

Chapter Text

Poppy and Minerva sat in some stuffed chairs in the staff-room, enjoying some tea and a few minutes of rest, but like most of the time, they soon talked about school-related issues.

“So Albus is awake now from being stunned four times at once?”

“Yes, Minerva, and he is quite weak. Being hit by so many stunners simultaneously is rather bad for such an old body. He will have to stay in my care for at least a week.”

“Shouldn’t he be at St. Mungo’s?”

“Oh, he should, but he refuses to go.”

“Typical.”

“Oh yes.”

Severus entered the room, somehow looking different. He came over to the two women, sat down in another of the multiple chairs, and prepared himself some tea.

“Good morning, Severus. We missed you at breakfast. It was quite exciting.”

“Good, that I missed it then.” He took a sip and sighed in pleasure.

The two women chuckled.

“Well, it just was the paper reporting what happened here yesterday, quite truthfully, amazingly. But you look different Severus. Do you know, why?”

“Yes, Poppy. We were told yesterday that Albus influenced a person by pulling some of their more negative emotions to the forefront of their mind, making them angry and act irresponsibly, or something like that, at least. Drowning out all other feelings. It’s a very obscure, and frowned-upon technique that only Master Legilimens’ can practice. Apparently, Albus can do so nearly unnoticed. The one who told us asked us to check our minds for tampering like that. Or have it checked. – I first scoffed at the thought that someone could do that to me, but I checked anyway. Thankfully any feelings for superiority weren’t engorged, or I never would have.”

“Oh no. He did get to you?”

“Yes. You need to understand, influencing one’s mind is bad enough, but influencing someone’s emotions can fundamentally change the affected person’s personality. It cannot induce completely new feelings, but it can greatly heighten and increase existing ones. For example a small dislike for very loud, shrieking children, can become immense hatred for all children combined, who make just the tiniest of noises.”

Both women covered their mouths with both of their hands, looking at Severus with big, horrified eyes.

“Last night, I discovered that my feelings have been greatly tampered with.”

“Oh no,” Poppy exclaimed.

“Yes. And I started to dismantle the overblown feelings to how they should be. It’s a long and dangerous procedure, because, if it goes wrong, it could induce a mental breakdown of epic proportions.”

“But you can heal yourself?”

“Yes, Poppy. And I would not tell you about it, if it weren’t for the fact that you two might have been influenced as well, and you need to be warned.”

“Oh no. How do we check for this?”

“Well, if you trust me, I can check it, via legilimency, but I must warn you, I cannot set them to rights like I started doing for myself should I find anything. You need a specialised mind healer for that, and I wouldn’t dare anyway, as long as I am not clear of any influences myself.”

“But you can check, right? Without fear of causing a breakdown?”

“Yes, that I can do.”

“Can you do it now?”

“Not here. Maybe in Minerva’s quarters?”

A voice piped up behind Severus, “Could a half-goblin be influenced that way as well?”

Severus turned around and answered the half-goblin who was walking around Severus’ chair that he had been standing behind unseen, apparently, “Yes. Your mind is protected against tampering, but your feelings are not. Hagrid could have been changed as well.”

“Can you check me too, then? And how can we make sure he stops doing that?”

“Yes, I can. As for the other question... I need to think about it. Short-term, you could get little pouches filled with fresh white sage around your neck. It’s not a 100%-protection and will not heal existing damage, but it should help ward off new attacks.”

“And it’s easily done,” Poppy added.

“Exactly.”

After they arrived at Minerva’s quarters, Poppy wanted to get checked first and soon Severus found an interesting golden dome covering her feelings. He checked the rest and found some holes in her memory, but no other tampering. The golden protection was there as well.

He gently extracted himself from Poppy’s mind and said, “It seems your healer’s oath protects most of your mind.”

Poppy sighed relieved.

“But you have been obliviated a few times.”

“Oh? Can you tell me how many times?” Poppy didn’t seem worried.

“About ten times.”

Now she frowned and said, “I know of two instances where I let my memory charmed that way. Medical persons sometimes agree to let it be done, but we always make a note about it in our personal log beforehand, just in case we find the hole in the memory later. This is very concerning. Can you find out who did it and what was removed??”

“No, I cannot. Maybe a specialist, I don’t know.”

“Well, thank you for checking me.”

“You are welcome. Who is next? Minerva? Well, let’s start.”

Five mines later Minerva was told the results of his check.

“You have been tampered with, emotionally and otherwise. Minerva, you really need to see a mind healer at once.”

“Can you tell me how, at least?”

“I’d rather leave that to the healer. You can function and some of it is breaking down, but in order to make sure you have no spectacular breakdown, you need professional help immediately.”

“Do you know someone?” She looked at Poppy and Severus with worry in her eyes, but it was Filius who answered, “I know of two options. The first one is Thelma Hiddlebrixton, you might remember her? Ravenclaw in the nineteen-sixties. She became a renowned mind healer. And she is just a good person, but it might be hard to get an appointment immediately.”

“I remember her, I would have no problem with her helping me. What is the other option?”

“I have a cousin who is an amazing mind healer, and she could look at you today, I think.”

“I hear a ‘but’ coming.”

“But she is a goblin. So, if you have no problem with that, we could go there as soon as Severus checked my mind.”

“I have absolutely no problem with your cousin being a goblin. Chances are much higher that she is clear of any tampering that way, too.”

“Well, then move, woman! I need to lay on the couch now.”

They changed places and Filius was checked as well.

“The bad news is, that you have been tampered with emotionally, as well. The good news is that it is much less extensive than in Minerva’s case.”

“$§#$%&#”

“Quite.”

“Well, that decides it. Let’s go to Gringotts, Minerva.”

“Yes, will you two hold the castle, Severus, and Poppy? And tell Pomona as well?”

“We will. Good luck,” Poppy nodded and two went to Gringotts immediately, while the other two went back to the staff room to inform Pomona about what was happening. The Herbology teacher wanted to get checked as well, but Severus asked her to wait for the others and the news they would bring.

Chapter Text

Hermione felt out of her depth about the whole nobility thing, and where to look in the vast Hogwarts library. She had been there the whole day yesterday and this morning as well and could find very little.

At least it was Sunday and she could really spend quite some time in the library.

In the end, she called on her courage as a Gryffindor and walked up to a table which held a quietly reading Daphne Greengrass and a doodling Tracy Davis.

“Excuse me?”

“Yes?” Came the cool answer from her blond classmate.

“I’m sorry for interrupting, but I need help. You see, I am looking for information about the noble families of the wizarding world and the rules and traditions of our society, but I cannot find much at all! Could you point me in the right direction?”

“Thank God! I thought you’d never ask,” Tracy Davis exclaimed and Daphne Greengrass facepalmed (elegantly).

“Uh, what?”

“We are sitting here since yesterday, waiting for any Gryff to actually ask about the ‘old, dark, and evil traditions’,” Tracy explained.

“What my oh-so-un-Slytherin companion is trying to say is, yes, we can point you in some direction, but these things were purged from the library about 50 years ago. They are best taught via word of mouth anyway. Please take a seat, Miss Granger.”

“Thank you. So, we call each other by our last names?”

“Yes. That is actually a good place to start a lesson about our world, if you want it, that is?”

“Yes, please,” an eager Hermione got out some paper and a pen, and sat there waiting excitedly for the promised information.

Daphne chuckled and Tracy beamed, and so Hermione got her first instruction about the high society of the wizarding world.

Much later, when their bellies started making hungry noises, Hermione packed up her writing supplies, and they walked to the Great Hall together.

On their way Hermione asked, “Miss Davis, may I ask you a question?”

“Certainly. And please call me Tracy.”

“Hermione, then.” Hermione beamed, “When we started talking you said ‘Thank God’, not ‘Thank Merlin’ as I have come to expect from wizarding folks. Could you tell me why?”

“Oh darn! I try, not to do it here, but my mum is muggle-born, and she says it all the time.”

“Huh? So, the rumours that only purebloods go to Slytherin...”

“Are nonsense. Oh, and call me Daphne, please. It would be awkward if you said ‘Tracy and Miss Greengrass’.”

“True. Please call me Hermione then, too.”

Daphne nodded regally, and asked, “Did your parents find your name in a Shakespearean play?”

“Yes. They met in a theatre actually, watching ‘The Winter’s Tale’. You do know of Shakespeare, Daphne? Was he a wizard?”

“No, but he knew some. And he is well known in our world as well. He was an amazing writer, after all.”

“Yep, my mum says, there is magic in his words.”

“Mine does too,” Tracy said grinning. “But even more, when she wants me to say ‘please’.”

They laughed.

“So, I had thought that since all houses except Gryffindor collectively decided to shun Professor Dumbledore, all muggle-born went into my house, but that can’t be right either… Justin is muggle-born for sure…” Hermione trailed off, frowning in thought.

"Oh, all the other houses teach their muggle-born 1^st and 2^nd years everything there is to know. They even get invited to homes of purebloods to immerse them in our culture. Unfortunately, that doesn’t help much with employment in our world,” Tracy explained.

Before Hermione could inquire in more detail, they heard an unwelcome voice jeering behind them, “What’s this, hanging out with snakes now? And here I thought you couldn’t sink any lower, after Friday. My bad.” Ron said and rudely pushing past them to get to lunch.

“Wow, what a low-life,” Tracy exclaimed when he had entered the Great Hall they were standing in front of, “How did he ever become a prefect? It couldn’t have been money like with... hmm hm...” Daphne was covering Tracy’s mouth, grimacing lightly, and scolded, “If you can hear it, it is talking.”

Hermione sniggered. She had a very good idea whose name Tracy had wanted to say.

Daphne added, “Weasley wore no badge, did you notice?”

“Oh?” Hermione started.

“Well let’s get food first. Meet up later again?” Tracy asked.

“Gladly, and thank you so much.”

“Let's meet in the Library in an hour, and you are welcome, Hermione. Until later,” Daphne said.

They waved to each other and went to find some food.

That afternoon Harry was told they would get visitors for afternoon tea, and to dress accordingly. So Harry went to his (blue) room and freshened up in the en-suite bathroom, changing into the formal clothing Kreacher had laid out

He wondered who was coming, as this house was extremely protected by the Fidelius Charm.

He went down to the drawing-room, which had been renovated by now, and stood next to Sirius.

“Who is coming? Please tell me,” he begged.

Sirius smirked at him and said, “Patience, young padawan.”

“You, a wizard, are quoting Star Wars?”

“Yes,” Sirius buffed his nails.

“How?”

“The cinema?”

“And you don’t know, what a film camera is?”

Sirius smiled enigmatically, and Harry grumbled, “I give up.”

dingdong

Sirius sighed when the screaming started, “She so much adores to rub it into my mother’s face that she is able to visit, and that mother cannot do anything about it.”

“Who?”

“The screaming stopped abruptly, and a short while later, Kreacher opened the door and announced, “Mrs. Andromeda Tonks, nee Black, her Husband Mr. Edward Tonks, and their daughter Miss Nymphadora Tonks.”

Harry grinned when he heard Tonks hiss in displeasure and then pulled himself together again. The Tonks’ were dressed just as spiffy as he and Sirius were. Ted Tonks was in fancy robes and the women wore beautiful robes/dresses. Yes, Tonks too.

They did the whole spiel of greeting each other and kissing the air above hands and such, and then had a very formal tea with thin cucumber and cress sandwiches.

Tonks was grimacing as often as her mother’s head was turned.

The conversation was as boring as watching paint dry. They even talked about paint drying when they talked about the ongoing renovation of the house.

But Harry persevered. Sirius had bet him he would not be able to hold form, but Harry did. He was combative enough for that.

The group was led to the couches afterwards, and Sirius started clapping his hands and said beaming, “Congratulations Harry. You made it. Tonksie here didn’t manage it for 5 minutes, but you did beautifully." He then announced dramatically, "And now, the stiff manners can be put aside.”

Mr. Tonks fell back into the couch and sighed in relief, “That was horrible. Please never invite me to a tea like that ever again.”

They all laughed.

“Yes, I will refrain from doing so. I promise. Harry needed the experience just this once. He needs the skill to keep his face straight and interested.”

“I did it too,” Tonks protested.

“Nope, you didn’t. Better never go undercover in high society,” Sirius grinned at her.

Tonks pouted and turned her hair blue.

Her dad patted her head, “There, there.”

Andromeda Tonks sighed resignedly.

"Now, there was a second reason I asked the Tonks family here. Andy is my lawyer, as you know, but Ted is a Healer and has agreed to look you over, Harry.”

“Uh.”

“Why don’t you two go into the next room and Ted does his thing?

Harry frowned and said, “I will, under one condition.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah. The condition is, he looks you over as well. Today.” Harry turned to Ted and added, “If that’s all right with you, that is.”

“Sure. I have tried a couple of times, but he always slips away, so Sirius first then you, or he will weasel out of it again.”

“Exactly,” Harry agreed.

All looked expectantly at Sirius until the man slumped and walked to the door like he was walking to his execution.

As soon as they had left, Andromeda cheered, “That was amazing, Harry.”

“Yeah, if he corners me like that, I will retaliate.”

They waited for half an hour, just chatting until the two men came back. Ted looked accomplished, Sirius as if he had been suffering enormously.

That changed, when Harry said, “If it’s that bad, I don’t know if I want to go...”

Sirius ‘magically’ got better immediately and said very upbeat, “Oh, I am just kidding. It wasn’t bad at all. No reason to be afraid.”

“If you say so,” Harry said sceptically and got up. “Let’s get it done then, yes?”

“That’s the right mindset,” Ted agreed and the two left.

In the next room, Ted told Harry to sit down, and then that he would extract a drop of blood for the diagnosis, but Harry was familiar with that part, wasn't he?

“Uh, no? Madam Pomfrey never did that.”

“Well, you did see another Healer before her then, didn’t you?”

“Maybe as a baby?”

There was a pause until Ted said, “Okay, full check-up it is.”

Chapter Text

The four heads of the Houses of Hogwarts were meeting that evening in Minerva’s office. Just the four of them, and they compiled what they knew so far.

1. Dumbledore was shunned by the student body and Hogwarts acknowledged it.
2. Dumbledore messed with at least 3 of the 4 heads’ minds/feelings.
3. Dumbledore stole funds from the school in various forms.

There were quite a few more things, they strongly suspected he did, but these three things were facts that could be proven.

Now, what to do? After reading up on the rules again, they knew that they could remove a headmaster if he had committed 3 major misdeeds.

If there were fewer offences then at least three of the heads of houses would need the governors to rule with them as well.

So, he would be replaced. That was a given. But should he face consequences? That they debated. They didn’t want to go public about their messed-up emotions, but who knew, if they were the only ones? Could they really keep quiet about it?

In the middle of their discussion, Pomona insisted on Severus looking into her head as well.

After he was done so, he said, “Well, the good news is, you are not as messed up as Minerva was/is.”

Minerva said, “I’ll tell you later.”

Severus went on, “But your emotions have been tampered with as well. May I tell you how, in front of the others?”

“Please.”

“Your love for Hufflepuff and Herbology is blown up so big, it marginalises all other emotions. My guess is, he couldn’t increase negative emotions with you, as it would have been too obvious.”

“So he made me a caricature of myself?”

“In a nutshell.”

“How do I get back to normal? Can you help?”

“Sorry, no. You need someone professional for that. But maybe Minerva has news?”

“I sure have. Filius’ cousin was immensely helpful, and I now understand why you wanted a healer to talk to me about it, instead of telling me yourself, Severus. She visualised the mess that was my feelings. It had become rather unstable. – She hypothesised that I was the one he practised on for decades. There were not a few feelings dominating the rest, like with you, but she said that some emotions had been pulled in front and then shuffled back again more than once, so that feeling anything had become harder.”

“Oh, Merlin. That sounds awful. Can she help you?” Pomona asked.

“Yes, she can, but it will be slow going. I need to visit her for an hour every day for at least a week, maybe longer.”

“That actually sounds very quick. I thought it would take years,” Severus said astonished, raising an eyebrow.

“Oh right. She said with conservative, wizarding mind healing it would. But she has a way to visualise, manipulate, and calculate the best way to proceed. I am not allowed to talk more about her method, but it is way faster than everything else that is available. It will just take longer with me than with everyone else she worked with before.”

“Fascinating. Do you think I could visit her as well?”

“She said, the method only works with people who are entirely uneducated in the mind arts, as everyone else will subconsciously try to help or hinder her procedure in unpredictable ways, as they will become intimately aware of the things happening in their minds and emotions when they use her method, and would be unable to stop themselves in doing so.”

“I understand.”

“She also said, the best method still is, if one does it themselves as you do. Nothing can top that.”

Severus looked appeased.

“And you, Filius?”

“Oh, she did the same for me. I have been put back to normal.”

“That is unbelievably quick,” Severus exclaimed.

“Yes. And I feel much more like myself than I did in years.”

Pomona looked to Filius and asked, “May I visit her as well?”

“Sure, just go with Minerva, tomorrow evening. It is not for free, but I sure will sue Albus for this. Basilroot is documenting everything as irrefutable evidence.”

“So we are doing this? We are reporting Albus and filing complaints?” Severus asked.

“I would say so. We must sue him as Hogwarts’ representatives as well, and demand the stolen money back,” Filius answered.

“Well, then we need to do it this week, as long as he is in the Hospital Wing. I'll write to Amelia and ask her to come as soon as possible. We cannot all leave at once, after all,” Minerva stated.

“The poor woman looked tired already, yesterday. But she knows how to delegate, I am sure,” Pomona said.

“So, we have a plan? I write to Amelia, Pomona and I go to visit Healer Basilroot tomorrow, and we sue Albus individually and as Hogwarts?”

“Yes. What about the other teachers? And even worse, the students?” Severus asked.

“I would say wait with the others. We cannot hold it under wraps if we tell Hagrid, for example. Not that he is here at the moment, but you know what I mean. When the accusations become public, we will check them all. As for the students, Basilroot told me that neither children nor teenagers can be influenced long-term like that. Their emotions can be rearranged short-term, but as the brain is still developing and shuffling stuff around, even the emotional centre, their feelings bounce back like rubber bands. Especially teenage emotions are just too unpredictable.”

“And don’t we all know it.” Severus sighed and the rest chuckled.

“But if one can do so short-term, would it leave something like scars?” Pomona asked worriedly.

“Not if is only done once or twice, but they don’t know what repeated manipulations like that would do to a teen. No one ever tested that in a controlled setting, obviously,” Minerva answered. She did have a long talk with Basilroot after her first session. “Why do you ask?”

“It’s probably nothing. Teenagers behave like idiots all the time. I just thought of Ron Weasley punching that other prefect. But that was probably only normal teenage nonsense.”

“I see. Well, if I were asked, I would think about Granger and Potter first. They behaved out of character occasionally, I thought. But again, it is probably nothing.” Minerva answered.

“Maybe you should tell Potter’s guardian. I would agree to scan him.”

“You?”

“Yes. One of the emotions at the forefront is hate for all things Gryffindor, and Potter especially. I have reduced it already, and it’s not as burning as it has been.”

“Let me guess, another of those emotions is anger.”

“Yes. That, and the last is guilt. All three were towering and dwarfing everything else. I will work on them tonight again.”

“Damn that man,” Minerva exclaimed.

The others nodded and Minerva poured them a whiskey.

“So, I tried to contact Remus yesterday about teaching Defence for a while, but have gotten no answer as of yet. He must be far away,” Filius said.

Minerva looked thoughtful, “Albus sent him somewhere, I think. Concerning order business. He might not be easily reachable. He will answer as soon as he can, I am sure. Did you tell the owl to wait for one?”

“No. I didn’t think of that. Oh, could Albus have manipulated a werewolf’s emotions as well?”

“Yes, I think so. Maybe even more easily,” Severus answered looking slightly worried. He then had a thought, “Minerva, could you tell the one who warned us about Albus’ manipulations? His mind has obviously been messed with as well. And I don’t think, he knows Legilimency. Would the goblin method work for someone only schooled in Occlumency?”

“That I don’t know, but I will ask tomorrow and yes, I will warn him then.”

“Oh, I nearly forgot to tell you. I commissioned Gringotts to search for the curse on the Defence curse, and I told them that the finances were under investigation by us, and to freeze all of Hogwarts and Dumbledore’s accounts. They need a formal request to verify this signed by all four of us, but they did so on my word for the next 24 hours.”

“Oh, thank you, Filius. Any idea when they will arrive?”

“Tomorrow morning.”

“Efficient as ever. We should mark in our request that they may charge the vaults of Hogwarts regardless of the freeze and keep paying salaries, as well as letting the elves buy the necessities, but only them,” Minerva said thoughtfully.

“I will write up the formal request and have you sign it tomorrow. Please give it to the Horde, when you go to Gringotts tomorrow,” the Charms Professor agreed.

“I will. Thank you Filius. – The last two points on my agenda are the sage pouches. And my 5^th-year prefects, but both can wait. I am so done for the day.”

All nodded emphatically.

Severus went back to his quarters, to work on his messed-up emotions. If he didn’t stick to it now, he would soon lose sight of rightening himself.

Chapter Text

That Monday morning started with another shocking article in the Prophet. This time, no one –  except Harry – could have expected it.

Multiple (alleged) Death-Eaters arrested

The headline had a huge picture of an arm of an unidentified person with a very black dark mark on it. The article itself was rather short.

This night at two o’clock in the morning, fifteen auror strike teams enacted fifteen arrest warrants against Death Eaters simultaneously. Due to Amelia Bones, who gave us a short statement, new evidence had been unearthed a few weeks ago that had made this action necessary.

‘Those men and the one woman had been declared innocent in 1981/82, but none of them was cleared via truth-serum. Rumours of bribery have not died down since then, but that was not the reason for tonight’s arrests. Unfortunately due to the ongoing investigations, I cannot tell you more at this point in time.’

Who those 15 persons are is unclear as of yet, but everyone can make an educated guess. Curiously, we at the Daily Prophet could only unearth the names of 8 individuals who had been released after the war. So who were the other 7? Did we live with Death Eaters in our midst for fourteen years without any the wiser?

Keep your eyes peeled for our next edition with more background information.

Loud chatter and cries rose up from all tables. Even the Slytherins couldn’t keep quiet. Strangely the Slytherin boys of Harry’s year stayed quiet, and were just sitting there, stone-faced.

Harry had no idea how to feel about them. Many of their fathers must have been arrested yesterday and that was great, but he kind of felt sorry for them for having their dads in custody. With an eye on Ron, who sat close by but was ‘ignoring’ them, Harry refrained from saying so to Hermione.

Even though most of his attention was on the food in front of him, Ron could not miss the news and so he went into attack mode anyway; all plans of ignoring Harry and Hermione forgotten, “Watch out, so you will not be arrested too! You are in cahoots with Death-Eaters now too, Granger!”

Harry was so astonished by the accusation, he turned to Hermione and only said, “Huh?”

Hermione snorted and answered, “I had no time to tell you about it yesterday evening. You came back so late. After Saturday’s events, I went looking for information regarding the traditions in this world and found no books, but two girls from Slytherin who explained the basics to me.”

Harry started answering, “That is grea—”

“You could have asked me, not some slimy snakes!” Food was spraying out of Ron’s mouth.

“Gods, you are disgusting. Is it so hard to remember the sequence ‘chew, swallow, talk’? How could someone as uncouth as you tell me about manners?”

“Shut up.”

“Well, aren’t you the eloquent one?”

“Shut up, mudblood,” he yelled, so incensed that his few brain-to-mouth filters were all overridden.

Silence.

The whole Great Hall was silent. All were staring at Ron open-mouthed.

Professor McGonagall got up and said calmly, “You are suspended for a month from Hogwarts, Mr. Ronald Weasley. Please go to my office and wait for your parents to come to pick you up.”

“What? You can’t do that!”

“I can and I will. If you don’t move right this minute, it will be 2 months.”

“But try-outs!”

“One, two...”

Ron ran out of the Great Hall, dodging past Remus Lupin who was just walking inside tiredly, looking confused by Ron’s behaviour.

“Professor Lupin!” came the cheerful cry of nearly all of the students. Only the 1^st and 2^nd years looked confused by the happy faces surrounding them after the shock, everyone had just had a minute ago.

Harry and Hermione rushed to Remus as well as some others, and asked if he was the one to teach Defence to them now.

Professor McGonagall, who was still standing, said, “Welcome, Mr. Lupin. I see you got Professor Flitwick’s Letter. – Students, Tis is not yet decided, but we hope, he will teach you for now. –  We contracted the goblins to look for the curse, yesterday. They should be here any moment now. — You all know of Mr. Lupins affliction, but he will not be at the castle on full moons, So that will not be a problem. — Now, please follow me, Mr. Lupin, I have a free period , so we can discuss matters after I have contacted the Weasleys.”

With that, she led Remus out of the room, and the students got ready to go to their first class when someone else came through the doors.

It was about twenty goblins!

This time Professor Flitwick welcomed them and they left as well.

“Wow, what a day, and now off to Potions. Yay.” Harry said with a flat voice and Hermione giggled.

When they arrived at the Potions classroom, the Slyths were there already. They were even more serious looking than was normal. Much to his surprise, Hermione pulled Harry toward two girls, curtsied, and said, “Heiress Greengrass, Miss Davis, may I introduce Heir Potter? Harry, this is Heiress Daphne Greengrass and her friend Tracy Davis. Both have been kind enough to introduce me to the basics of wizarding society’s rules and manners.”

Harry bowed perfectly to both girls and kissed the air above their hands. They curtsied and answered with the expected greetings. The rest of their Gryffindor classmates watched them rather confused.

“You are doing great, Heir Potter. We were told, you only started getting any training at the end of this summer?”

“Yes, some people kept calling me Heir Potter and I asked, what that was about. I am sorry, all of you, that until now I didn’t adhere to our world’s social conventions.”

Most of the Slytherins nodded.

Daphne Greengrass said, “Please excuse the distracted ones, they had unfortunate news today.”

“Certainly. I am not sure how to ask this, but Professor Snape wasn’t at breakfast... “

“We do not know the answer to that question.”

Just then, the door to the potions classroom opened and they moved inside. There stood Professor Snape like he always did. But he looked different somehow. Outwardly he was the same. Tall, black-clothed, with sallow skin and greasy hair. But the sneer was missing, and somehow he just didn’t look as angry as he did before.

“Please take a seat,” he said, with his deep, velvet voice.

“The students complied immediately, and they then experienced the best lesson they had ever gotten from the Potions Master. He talked to them about the potion they would be brewing, gave a short history of its invention, and then went into the details of the recipe and what to watch out for, he ended with the most common mistakes made when brewing it. He then covered the ingredients and asked some questions about the plant-based ones that Neville couldn’t not want to answer. When the answers were correct, Neville got house points. He nearly fainted. And only after all of that, they were allowed to brew said potion, and it went incredibly well. All of them managed at least an A. Even Crabbe and Goyle, regardless of the distracting news that morning. 

They left the classroom, feeling like they were walking on air. It had been so amazing. Harry had even dared to ask a question about stirring anti-clockwise, and the professor had said it was a good question and had answered it.

“That was surreal,” Harry said wonderingly.

“Yes, so great,” Hermione said dreamily.

Falling asleep hadn’t been hard in History class that day, at all.

Chapter Text

Lunch at least was uneventful. The students shared the news, about the events they could glimpse since the morning. Someone had seen Ron Weasley being marched off by his loudly scolding mum.

Someone else had seen the headmaster trying to sneak out of the Hospital Wing, but easily being caught by a huffing Madam Pomfrey. Why he was in there, was everyone’s guess. And they did. Guess, that is.

Many had seen goblins inspecting the most curious places, and the 6^th-years reported that the Defence classroom had been closed and was being examined extra carefully. McGonagall had told the school that all Defence classes would be cancelled until further notice, and that Remus Lupin would teach them some Fighting The Dark Arts in the room on the fourth floor, next to the armour that burned pink bubbles. (She then had to reassure the lower years, that the armour hadn’t eaten Madam Umbridge, much to the hilarity of the rest of the students.)

“So different name for the class and a different room. Good idea, if the curse targets the defence post specifically or attacks the teacher in that room,” Hermione nodded. “I wonder why no one thought of that before.”

“Because it would be logical?” Harry mused.

Hermione sniggered and said, “Let’s go up to the new room.”

Harry nodded and soon they looked into the classroom, where Remus was sitting at a desk, looking through papers, looking a bit frazzled.

“Hey, Professor Lupin. Good to see you,” Harry said excitedly.

“Harry, Hermione. Good to see you too. I am a little overwhelmed with organising impromptu classes just now.”

“Why not make it a practical class and teach us the first spell, we should learn in 5^th year? It’s just the second week, and Umbridge didn’t teach us anything. Hell, you could just start with the first lesson you did for the 5^th-years, two years ago.”

“You are right Harry, I am making this much more complicated than necessary. Thanks,” Remus relaxed and grinned tiredly at the two, “Where is the third of your trio?”

“Oh, suspended. He was being an arse.”

“Language Harry,” Hermione called out appalled.

“Am I wrong?”

“Uh, no.”

“It’s a longer story than we have time for now. Him being a prefect did not do him any good and he called Hemione the ‘m’-word this morning,” Harry explained.

“He didn’t!”

“He sure did, perfectly timed, so everyone heard it in the Great Hall.”

“Oh, dear.”

“So we are a duo now,” Hermione added.

Remus wiggled his eyebrows, “Better not let Sirius hear that. The teasing would be relentless.”

“Ugh,” was Harry's only answer.

Other students came into the classroom then and everyone took their place.

Remus was confused that there seemed to be so very little animosity between the Gryffs and Slyths. That was certainly new.

“Well, good afternoon, class. It is nice to see you again, after one and a half years. For your information, the last full moon was just 2 days ago, and therefore the next one is going to be at the beginning of October. Should I still be teaching then, I'll leave the castle one day before, and return one day afterwards to ensure nothing can happen to you.”

“Why one day afterwards too? You are not dangerous then, right?” Seamus called out.

“No, but the transformation is very painful and I need time to recover from it.”

“Oh, right, that’s why you look so tired.”

Remus nodded smiling and said, “Now, please try to talk about ‘fighting the dark arts class’ from now on. It may make a difference. So, let’s jump right into it. This is your OWL-year after all.”

And so, the much more palatable class went. The children were happy to have their best Defe- no Fighting teacher back. They had decided to ask the 7^th-years for the book they used in their 5^th and Owl-order new ones in the meantime, if they could.

Remus taught the last class for today to excited 1^st-year students. They were very happy to not to have to sit around and read a boring book that went mostly over their heads, but were playfully introduced to the art of dodging. Fun!

Afterwards, Remus went to the staff-room got himself a nice cuppa, and sat down, sighting in relief.

He was handed a little pouch, smelling of sage by Pomona and was asked to wear it around his neck for the time being. She said she was conducting an experiment and not to take it off, except when in the shower.

He opened his mouth to say something, but Severus of all people came up to him and said, “Could I talk to you privately for a second, Remus?”

Remus was taken aback. Severus spoke to him like he never did, two years ago. Like a colleague. What was going on? He nodded and curiously went with Severus into a corner and Severus cast his amazing muffling spell, silently as always, and slouched into one of the stuffed chairs that seemed to always be multiplying in the staff-room, and gestured for Remus to take a seat as well.

“Well, can you tell me why I need to wear a protective talisman against the mind arts?” He asked while sitting down on another comfortable chair.

Severus nodded and answered, “I knew you would know what it was for. Yes, I will tell you, but please keep quiet about it for the moment.”

“All right,” Remus said intrigued.

“So Black told us at the last order meeting that someone had used an obscure Legilimency method on him very stealthily and to check our minds for tampering.”

“Who? And why are you so amicable?”

“It is part of my story, let me tell it first, then ask your questions, please.”

“Sorry. So Sirius suggested you check yourself for tampering.”

“Exactly. First I huffed and felt it to be unnecessary, but that evening I decided to better make sure.”

Remus nodded.

“So I went into my mindscape and everything was normal, if a bit unorganised. But Black had said it had been his emotions that were targeted. I don’t know how informed you are about the mind arts, but the emotions are located somewhere else than the mind. Though it’s all in the non-physical body, mind you. So I went to look at my emotional centre and what I found was shocking. Someone had rearranged my emotions quite grotesquely. Three emotions were hugely overblown and towering in front of the rest, hiding them effectively and keeping them corralled. Those engorged emotions were hate, anger, and guilt. There is more to it, as it seems the perpetrator had time to actually differentiate and very precisely define who and what to hate and feel anger toward to.”

Remus looked horrified, “Albus...”

“Yes. He is the one who did that. I am in the process of dismantling the forcibly overblown emotions, and setting my emotional centre back to rights, but it’s a process that will take me weeks. Apparently, the dismantling I already did is very notable. I only dismantled the easiest part in the last two evenings. About half of what was forced out and it makes a huge difference already, apparently.”

“You were quite angry as a teen, maybe you learned to manage to function, regardless?”

“Yes, that might be. Anyway, I do now realise that my anger toward you and my hatred of you was mostly unwarranted, and I must beg your forgiveness for treating you so deplorably.”

“Severus, no. You were quite warranted to be angry at me, but I forgive you if that’s what you need. I am still so very sorry for what happened that night.”

Severus nodded, his stringy hair falling into his face. He then took a deep breath and went on, “The thing is, I was not the only one Albus moulded into a grotesque caricature of themselves. I looked into the minds of four of our colleagues by now, and only one was protected by an oath, the rest had their minds messed with as well.”

“Let me guess, Poppy was protected by her healer’s oath.”

“Yes, but she has been memory charmed more often than her documentation suggests.”

“Pomona handed out the pouches. So Minerva probably, but... hm, Filius is a half-goblin.”

“You are on the right track, but you need to understand that even if half-goblins, half-giants, and werewolves have protection against the mind arts, those do not include the emotional centres. So yes, Filius was the fourth.”

“Shit.”

“Indeed.”

“Could you check me as well?”

“If you trust me, yes, I could. By now I am quite practised.” Severus right corner of his mouth twitched as if it tried out a smile. “Why don’t you lean back and take off the pouch for a second? Best lay it on the table here. It will only take a minute. The others will just think we are staring at one another in a battle of wills.”

Remus chuckled and cast a small ward to keep people from interrupting and leaned back, looking at Severus, who went right to work.

After he left the man’s mind again, he sat back and said, “Yes. He got to you, too. Do you want to hear it?”

Remus nodded frowning and put on the pouch again.

“Your fear, your loyalty, and your submissiveness were highly increased. It looks like the last was nearly non-existent before. Like you might actually be an alpha. If so, your wolf must be at total war with you.”

Remus shook with anger, “Can you take it down?” He was nearly in Severus’ face, shouting.

Severus stayed calm, “No, but I know of someone who might be able to.”

“Tell me!” Remus had a wild look on his face.

“I will. The goblins have a mind healer named Basilroot who works miracles. She had Filius right as rain in just one sitting. Minerva visits her with Pomona. This evening.”

“No! Now!” Remus jumped up

“All right, let’s go then. Come,” Severus decided to just go along with it.

Remus grabbed his wrist and pulled him out of the room, dispelling their privacy spells by tearing through them.

Severus had just the time to call out, “Basilroot.”

And off they were. Most of the staff present were confused and worried, but when Filius chuckled and said, “Don’t worry. We Heads know what they are doing,” they relaxed.

Chapter Text

From Tuesday on, the students noticed that not only Professor Snape was different, but Professor Lupin was as well. He was much less mild-mannered than before. He thankfully did not become the angry, hateful bully Snape had been, but he was now very decisive and strict when someone misbehaved. Fortunately, he stayed a great and fun teacher.

Most amazing was, that the two men seemed to become friends now, when they had been like water and oil before.

And McGonagall was changing as well. She became more approachable and even smiled at them sometimes and at their pranks. At least, the funny ones, which did not humiliate someone.

They all agreed that the headmaster’s absence must be the reason, and they all felt validated in their shunning of the man. Even those who had not participated. The changes were just too good after the headmaster was indisposed and stuck in the Hospital Wing.

Another difference for Harry was that the Gryffindors in his year became a cohesive group. The four boys hung out and had fun and the girls did as well, which was even more unusual. One might even come to the conclusion that Ron had been the dividing factor of their group. He also started to hang out with Hermione and the two Slyth girls, Daphne and Tracy, and after a while, Blaise Zabini and Theo Nott joined their group as well. The two Gryffindors were coached by the Slytherins in all things wizarding traditions, and they in turn taught the others about the muggle world. Theo really wanted to visit the movies now, and Blaise a planetarium, after Hermione had gushed about visiting one once.

On Wednesday evening, Madame Bones visited again, but after she ate with the staff at their table, she and the Heads of Houses disappeared with no one was any the wiser.

Until Friday morning the Prophet proclaimed,

Dumbledore, a Thief

By Rita Skeeter

Last Wednesday evening, Madam Bones, Head of Magical Law Enforcement, visited Hogwarts once again after the historic events on Saturday when the students had shunned their Headmaster.

This time she came on the invitation of the four Heads of Houses Minerva McGonagall, Pomona Sprout, Filius Flitwick, and Severus Snape.

She learned, the staff had discovered that the Potions Master had been told his services as the potions supplier for the Hospital Wing were included in his salary, but that Madam Pomfrey had been told that he was paid handsomely for that service. So, they investigated.

The four Heads showed Madam Bones the Hogwarts Ledgers and the inconsistencies in the finances the books contained. Normally the Headmaster is the only one allowed to handle them, but since he is indisposed at the moment, a Head of House is able to open them as well.

What the ledgers showed, was horrifying. They revealed that the headmaster has been redirecting money for

• The salary meant for the Deputy Headmistress (see page 2 for more information).
• The salary meant for the Potions Master supplying the Hospital Wing (page 2).
• The salary meant for the History teacher (page 3).
• The salary meant for the Care of Magical Creatures teacher (page 3).
• The difference between the starting salary each teacher was paid and the current salary they should be receiving after the automatic pay raises.
• The money for new brooms.
• 3/4 of the money meant for equipment (new purchase and maintenance) for each subject.
• Money/salaries for classes long abolished by the current headmaster but paid for and required, according to Hogwarts Charter.
• Miscellaneous smaller amounts.

All of this went into his own coffers. Hundreds of galleons, each month.

How can that be? How did we, as a society, misjudge that man so badly? He, the Defeater of Grindelwald and the man who had a hand in all the younger generations’ education. He, who was our Chief of Warlock and represented us internationally at the International Confederation of Wizards for decades until this summer. It really boggles the mind.

Anyway, his accounts and vaults have been frozen until further notice, as well as the ones of Hogwarts, except for the most basic expenses, like salaries and groceries.

“We decided, to ask the goblins of Gringotts for help, as they are the financial geniuses of our world. Hopefully, they will resolve these matters quickly and we get as much of the money back as possible. As Hogwarts and individually,” Professor McGonagall told us.

“Mr. Dumbledore is now in our holding cells where he is receiving all the medical attention he needs. We are still investigating, but his flight risk is too great. Unfortunately, our cells are packed already, but needs must.” Madam Bones added. “Additionally, there are more charges that need to be investigated, but you know the procedure. I cannot tell you, until we have irrefutable evidence, and no one is put in danger by the publication of said evidence.”

There is more? And this man is in charge of our children? I for one demand that should he get convicted, he will be fired from his job.

Also, where are the governors in all of this? Isn’t it their job, to look at the headmaster’s fingers to prevent exactly this scenario? I hope, the Investigation will find answers to this question as well.

Additionally to the article, there were four pictures of Dumbledore in all of the functions he was known for. (Mugwump, Warlock, Headmaster, and Defeater of Grindelwald/Order of Merlin 1^st-class recipient.)

This time, the second and third pages of the paper were in high demand as well, as they contained more information about the Hogwarts staff.

There was an article about Minerva McGonagall, who apparently never got a contract for working as deputy headmistress because working as both a Head of House and a Deputy excluded each other. One could not do three full-time jobs, after all, especially if they did not always align. She had apparently resigned from the third job, stating that she had neglected her Gryffindors for much too long already, and that she planned on changing that, as soon as things calmed down a little.

The next article was similar, Severus Snape did 3 full-time jobs and luckily for him, they did align but were much too much for one person to handle, even if he had somehow managed. But there was money in the Hogwarts coffers set aside, especially for the potions needed and he never had received any of it. He had been exploited for more than fourteen years.

The article about Binns asked how long that man was teaching and where his salary had gone since his death. It went on to question the quality of his lessons and quoted some statistics about how many students were taking the NEWT in history. Very few. It asked if the education of the students really had to suffer, just to cater to the greed of one old man.

The last article was about Hagrid, who worked as Keeper of the Keys, a more ceremonial position than his job as a  groundskeeper, and who also had a full-time job as the Care of Magical Creatures Teacher, even though he only got a small salary for the first two, not the last one. The article asked as well, how someone who had been expelled from school in his third year was allowed to teach, even if he had experience in their subject.

The students had so much to discuss now. Harry was feeling good that this stuff had been discovered and pulled into the open to hopefully bring changes for the better, but he was sad about Hagrid, too. He felt rather conflicted about his loyalty to his friend on the one hand, and his agreement with some of the points made about Hagrid’s lack of qualifications on the other.

Hermione was equally torn. Especially as she really enjoyed the lessons, they had with Professor Grubbly-Plank now. They were so much more structured and concise, and not all over the place like the one with Hagrid as the professor.

But that Dumbledore had been arrested for theft boggled all their minds. He had been seen as the second coming of Merlin, after all.

And now they had neither a headmaster nor a deputy. What would happen now? The article about McGonagall said she didn’t want to take the job. Either one. She loved teaching and wanted to be a better head of house. Those were her goals, apparently.

In the end, the students shrugged. Except for meals, no one really saw the headmaster, and no one knew what he did anyway. Must be behind-the-scenes stuff, someone said, and all nodded wisely.

Chapter Text

The day before, on Thursday morning, Poppy put her Wing to rights and sent out the notes she had wanted to send since Monday, and now that Albus was gone, she could ask those two here.

Harry Potter came by first and she rounded in on him at once for taking potions each lunch, which she hadn’t approved first.

He said, “I don’t know why you are so angry. I saw a healer on Sunday and he prescribed them.”

“He should have cleared it with me and your former healer. You can’t just change healers and let them prescribe potions to you without a check-up first. Don’t you know anything?” she asked forcefully.

Harry started to get angry, “No, actually I don’t, and since when do you care, anyway?”

“What do you mean? I always cared.”

“Did you? I mean I was here often enough, and you never noticed that I never had a check-up before.”

“What? That can’t be! Wait here I am getting your file. It surely cannot be as you say,” she bustled off to her file cabinet and started rummaging through it.

Harry waited angry and confused. Ted had been quite incensed when he discovered that Harry had seen so little medical attention except for the most imminent emergencies.

Madam Poppy came back with a file, which she quickly opened and started reading while frowning.

“Here is a remark that you saw a healer every year in summer, and everything had been taken care of, but it was written by Albus...”

“Yeah, not the most trusted person anymore, right?”

“No,” she sighed. “I am sorry, Mr. Potter. I jumped down your throat before getting all the facts. That was quite unprofessional of me.”

“I forgive you, if you check all of your files whether he wrote more remarks like that in the files of others.”

“Yes, I will. Oh, dear. Thank you for pointing that out. And could you give me the name of your healer, so I can contact him?”

“It’s Ted, uh, Edward Tonks.”

“Oh, he became a healer? That is nice to know. Well, that was all, Mr. Potter. Thank you for coming by.”

Potter ran off, and Poppy decided to visit the goblins later, like she had planned, to see if they could help her with those mysterious memory charms, and then started to look through all files she had on her students. Soon it became clear that nearly all of the muggle-born and some half-blood students with one muggle-born and one muggle parent had such a note from Albus in their files. Did that really mean they had never seen a healer outside of her Hospital Wing? That would be incredibly irresponsible and needed immediate attention. If one of them caught a disease they had not been vaccinated against and infected the others, there would be hell to pay.

 She immediately contacted St. Mungo’s via her Floo and asked for a healer who specialised in teens.

That healer came out of the Floo rather quickly expecting an emergency. Why else would Hogwarts contact them otherwise, right?

He sure found an emergency, but a rather different one than he had expected. He agreed that they had to react quickly, now that they knew of this mess.

“How did he actually do that? And why, for Merlin’s sake?”

“He always had the files in his office until the new school year, so that could not have been hard, but the ‘why’ stumps me as well. What benefit does he get in not making sure the muggle-born students are healthy?”

“You don’t think...” The healer trailed off.

“I try not to. I mean the stealing and some other stuff he did is bad enough, but this is possible murder by wilful negligence. Does something like that even exist?”

“I think so. Well, it must be reported, that is for sure. Why don’t you go on looking through the files and I write up a report that includes all the names? I will also start calling in the of-age students for their check-ups. What do we tell them? If I remember correctly, news travel fast at Hogwarts.”

“I am unsure. I don’t want to lie. Maybe, that we overlooked that muggle-raised students don’t see a healer automatically as all the others do? That we are modernising?”

“That would be the truth in a way. All right.”

“But why only the of-age students?”

“Well, we need the permission of the younger ones parents first, obviously?”

“We never thought of that with muggle-born students. How can we contact the parents? An owl might not be feasible.”

The healer looked at Poppy strangely, “You write them via muggle mail? Every owl post office offers that service and the setup of a mailbox. Don’t you know that? How do you inform muggle parents when something is wrong with their children?”

“We don’t. We had muggle-born students in here for months, and the headmaster said it was not necessary to worry the parents.”

The healer looked at her in horror and said after a moment of gathering himself, “I see. Well, this needs to go into my report as well. Unfortunately, you might face some backlash for this. You should know that you have to inform the parents of minors, even if they are muggles.”

Poppy looked shocked, she always tried to do everything perfectly. To blunder this badly..., “I understand. Was this always the case? I never heard of it during my training.”

“Well, no. I see. So, your actual problem is, that you didn’t keep up to date with changes in the law, and not that you knowingly broke it.”

“I always kept up with the achievements and developments in the healing arts. It never even occurred to me that I needed to do so for changes in the law as well.”

“Well, usually it’s your employer’s job to keep you informed... “

“Somehow it always seems to come back to that one man, but this one is my fault as well.”

Well, nothing to it. You probably will get off with a warning. Now, let’s start.”

Late afternoon Remus came by, still looking rather tired and unhealthy, so Poppy told him she would like him to get a full check-up and healing, which he readily agreed to.

He stayed for the night and felt so much better the next morning.

Moony was content now, after 20 years of snarling in the back of his mind, and his body felt as good as it was possible with magical healing. He thanked Poppy profoundly, as he was extremely grateful, and went on his way.

Chapter Text

Due to all the events happening, Sirius and Moody decided to change the date for their next meeting to this Friday. All responses to that decision were full of relief and at 7 pm they all sat around the kitchen table. There were a few snacks, but sadly for some. no heavy meals that Molly used to treat them with.

From Hogwarts, Minerva, Severus and Remus came. The ministry contingent was there as well, except for Arthur, and the few from the old crowd, as well as Bill and Fleur, came. They were about a dozen people all in all.

Moody started the meeting, “Well, welcome all. We thought it prudent to meet a week earlier than we agreed on, as much has happened since last Saturday. I can confirm that the accusations about the theft are correct, but we are still investigating. The goblins are doing so, too. They might have found even more discrepancies. But this is not the topic for today.

“We caught all the Death Eaters who had been at the resurrection of You-Know-Who. It went fairly well. There were two deaths. Sadly, one of our own died, and not so unfortunately a Death Eater called Avery. The rest are in holding cells, as the Prophet reported. – We even did get Pettigrew.”

“What? You did? That is great,” Sirius exclaimed.

“It is. We already have his full confession under veritaserum. Since we have the memory of the resurrection and therefore proof his guilt, we could use it on him.”

“You have a memory?”, “From whom?”, “Since when?”

“Right, we got distracted last time. Remember when I told you the DMLE now believed in You-Know-Who’s return? Well, that was, because the Potter lad had shared his memory with Amelia Bones during his hearing with her. From that moment on, we worked on taking You-Know-Who down. We decided to take away his power base first and - if we got lucky - take him down as well. He resided at Malfoy Manor, after all. We got all of those who were there. Malfoy, Pettigrew, Greyback. All, except for You-Know-Who. He escaped.”

Many were gasping and opening their mouths to speak, but he held up his hands and added, “Please let me finish. We don’t know where he disappeared to, and are looking for the place the graveyard might be at, but we had no luck so far. We even went to the muggles for help. So, I wanted to ask you, Snape. Did he contact you?”

“No. I didn’t hear anything from him, which I find concerning. He obviously does not trust me. He didn’t even contact me after the article about Dumbledore’s arrest.”

“That is curious. Maybe he has no subscription for the Prophet himself,” Moody said thoughtfully.

“Possible. How would you order it, after all? As Lord V? You-Know-Who?” Severus answered drily.

Some couldn’t help but chuckle.

“Right, that would be awkward. Anyway, keep your eyes and ears open. Hopefully, he now has no help anymore, and freeing his followers from Azkaban all by himself should be more than hard, even for him,” Moody said.

They all nodded, looking relieved.

“That is it from my side. Anyone else? Remus? You are back from the packs?” Moody moved the meeting on.

“Not with any good news. They didn’t forget that we promised a lot during the last war but never made good on it. The restrictions even got worse. So why should they trust us? And they are too afraid of Greyback to even consider joining us. I don’t know if his arrest will change some minds, but I think we should let them be.”

The others nodded again.

Elphias said, “We couldn’t do anything for them.”

“Keep telling yourself that,” Remus snarled, eyes flashing yellow. “I looked up who voted for – and against – forbidding werewolves to work. You yourself voted for it. So just shut up.”

Elphias Doge shrunk back, blushing crimson red, and looked down, clearly taken aback by the vehemence of Remus’ response.

Bill looked confused, “About that, how can you work at Hogwarts then?”

“As a volunteer and a favour to Minerva, who gives me some money for ‘expenses', but I have no official contract. That would be against the law, thanks to Elphias, Albus, and the Potter vote in part.”

Sirius started, “What?”

“Later, let’s finish this meeting first.”

“Okaaay,” Sirius frowned.

Moody nodded and said, “As the papers hinted, there is something else we are investigating about Albus, and it might concern the rest of the people present. Remember when Sirius warned us last time that his emotions had been influenced by Albus?”

Some nodded.

“I know that most of us ministry workers got checked and set to rights by the goblins. By the way, thanks for informing us, Minerva,” Moody nodded to the stern woman. “But what about the rest? Bill?”

“Yes, I did get checked. At Gringotts, when news reached us about what Albus did, everyone got checked who had been in contact with Albus. Fortunately, I was in the clear, but they found some who had their feelings tampered with. Mainly four goblins. The account managers of Hogwarts, Black, and Potter, and a young goblin called Griphook.”

Sirius sprang up from his chair and exclaimed again, “What?”

“Yes, sorry man. You will be contacted soon.”

Sirius took a few deep breaths and nodded, “They better, or we might just go there tomorrow.”

Moody looked at the others from the old crowd, “Elphias? Did you get checked?”

“No, why should I? Albus is my friend.”

“He actually might have pulled your loyalty to the forefront of your mind, overshadowing everything else.”

“He wouldn’t do that.”

“Then what would it hurt to check?”

Elphias looked around for help but found none. What he found were pitying looks. “How many did he mess with then; did you find anyone else except Sirius here?” He asked defensively.

Severus, Minerva, Remus, Sirius, Alastor, Kingsley, Emmaline, and Sturgis raised their hands.

Elphias slumped.

“Jones? Diggle? Did you get checked?” Alastor asked.

They shook their heads.

“Do so. It’s unhealthy and as you can see, Doge, Albus did not hold back with old friends like Minerva and me.”

The man nodded sadly, “I will. But I don’t think I can stay a member of this group, if that's the case.”

“Get checked and then think about it.”

“I will.”

Sirius had forgotten all about the votes and account managers, and stared at Remus and Severus.

“He messed up both of your heads? Damn. How do you counter that? It takes a while.”

Severus nodded, “It does. If one is a Legilimens it takes a few weeks, and with normal mind healing it would take years, but – as Moody alluded – the goblins apparently have a method to check and move everything back where it belongs in a rather short amount of time. Most just need one sitting, others need about a week.”

“Like me. He seems to have used me as his practice dummy,” Minerva added sadly. “But it’s all well now, except for the guilt I feel for ‘letting’ that happen and the consequences of that. I need another mind healer for that, I was told.”

“That is amazing. Well, I mean that they can do that not, that you need a mind healer still,” Sirius said astonished.

“So, Doge, Jones, and Diggle let the goblins have a look. Or ask Severus here. He should be quite good by now. At checking for tampering at least, I was told. As I said, we three from the ministry were informed by Minerva about the goblins on Wednesday, and went to get our emotions checked and readjusted the next day. The others not here - like Figg, Hagrid, and Fletcher - should get checked as well at some time.”

“Uh, I might have taken the secret back from Dung. It seems he stole from the house, and I am not comfortable letting him back in.”

Moody baked out a laugh, “Serves him right. But Albus was not wrong. We need someone on the underbelly of our society. I will talk to him. Maybe he agrees to take an oath. Before we go to the topic of oaths, anything else to add to the tampered minds?”

Sirius said thoughtfully, “It might not pertain to anyone here, but just to be throughout, I think I should tell you how I got my mind set to rights. There is another way, but only a few have that option. I donned my family ring, which is a rather powerful magical artifact that every member of an old family has the right to wear. It protects me from mind tampering and cleans one of all foreign and non-consensual influences. The dark residues, the dementors, and my mother’s curses had left, were forced out as well. The same with Harry. So, if any of you has such a family ring, you might want to wear it. Tonks here, for example, has a Black family member ring now as I took her family back. They should work for Olde Major Houses up to the Most Ancient and Noble Houses.”

“Albus said, not to wear mine,” Dedalus scowled. “Now I can guess why.”

They all nodded, and Severus looked a little dejected, “I wish my mother hadn’t been disinherited. Otherwise, I might get the Prince family ring and save so much time building my emotional centre back to how it should be.”

“Check with Gringotts anyway. There is more than one way to disinherit a person. You might actually be able to wear one.” Bill suggested.

Severus nodded thoughtfully.

“Just ask for an inheritance test. It costs 5 galleons.”

“I will, thank you.”

“Maybe you should do that as well, Bill?” Sirius suggested to a first startled and then thoughtful Bill.

“Now, let’s go back to the oath Sirius proposed. We Aurors have taken an oath to the Ministry already, so I am uncomfortable with the idea. But I agree it would be good. On the other hand, right now the dark geezer is hamstrung and might get desperate,” Moody said.

“I would propose we at least swear, that we will not knowingly tell the dark geezers’ side about our meetings?” Sirius proposed.

“With that, I could live. What does the rest say?”

All nodded, except Severus who said thoughtfully, “I could say, you forced me to take an oath to keep quiet. But I have no idea, what he would do. He might even kill me as I would be of no use anymore, then; or he could force me to drop my work at Hogwarts and stay with him.”

“But you would not swear to keep Hogwarts secrets. You can still be of use as a spy there. Maybe tell him, the Order was disbanded?” Sirius suggested.

“That might work,” Severus agreed.

Sirius was struck by the changes in the man, but he himself didn’t feel the all-encompassing hatred and need to put Severus down anymore, either. So, that had been artificial too, he guessed, or at least greatly exaggerated.

They did the oath, Sirius proposed, and Moody summarised the meeting, “So, this meeting was about sharing the facts about the captured Death Eaters, the still at-large Dark Lord, us being influenced by Albus, and the oaths. My proposal would be, to let the DMLE deal with the search for You-Know-Who, the investigation into the Death Eaters and Albus, and all that this entails, and concentrate on getting the Order members free of external influences no one agreed to, first and foremost.

“I will contact Figg and Dung, as well as Hagrid, as soon as he is back from his mission. My last question would be, does anyone of you actually know, why we are supposed to watch the DoM?”

All shook their heads, looking clueless.

“Then I would suggest that you all think about it and bring your ideas to the next meeting?”

All nodded and Moody closed the meeting. Proposing another one in two weeks’ time, except if something happened beforehand.

Hestia and Dedalus approached Severus to get their emotional centres checked right away. They set up privacy charms in one corner and went to work.

Meanwhile, Remus approached Sirius. The men hugged and felt their friendship re-emerge. It seemed the tampered-with emotions had overlaid it since the early eighties. Sirius invited Remus to stay for the weekend. Remus agreed gladly but would need to leave by Sunday afternoon.

When the tree returned from the check-up in the corner, Dedalus and Hestia were scowling.

Hestia said, “I will go to Gringotts tomorrow. This feels so invasive.”

“Agreed. I will go there as well and get a ring out of my vault. At least, most purebloods wear theirs, so he could not have messed with them,” Dedalus said. “Now I wonder who else could be still alive of the old crowd, if they had worn their rings. Albus had us all take them off in the sixties/seventies.”

“That’s when he started messing around with my head,” Minerva added.

“I feel violated,” Shacklebolt calmly added, and they all nodded.

Minerva gasped then and said, “I need to contact Augusta!”

Comprehension grew on more than one face.

“He wouldn’t!”

“No!”

“No one would stoop so low!”

“Better make sure of that.”

Doge stood there with tears in his eyes. His old school friend. “What happened to you, Albus?” he wailed internally. He just could not believe it. But he would get his family ring out of his vaults as well, he decided sadly. Hopefully, nothing would change.

“I will do so, now. May I use your floo, Sirius?” Minerva asked urgently.

“Sure. It’s open to you.”

The transfiguration teacher nearly ran out of the kitchen and slowly the rest of the crowd dispersed, until only Sirius and Remus were left.

“Damn, what a clusterfuck,” Sirius exclaimed.

“Agreed.”

“Let’s go sit in front of a fire and have a drink.”

“Gladly, but I will be in charge of the bottle.”

“Good idea.”

As they walked in the direction of the informal living room (the den, as Sirius called it) Sirius said, “You seem different as well. Did he mess you up very badly?”

“You have no idea”

As soon as Severus was in his quarters and sank down onto his meditation mat. He then remembered that he had been tasked to inform Black about the possible scaring of Potter’s and Granger’s emotional centres.

“Hmm, next time I meet him I will tell him for sure. And Bill as well - about the younger Weasleys,” he decided.

Chapter Text

The two friends sat down in the den at 12 Grimmauld Place and Remus poured them a drink.

“Tell me, please.”

“Well, Albus magnified a very small submissive part in me to enormous proportions. The goblin healer said that I am actually an alpha.”

“Well damn. No wonder, you and Moony were constantly at war.”

“Exactly. He is so much more content now.”

“So Albus didn’t mess him up?”

“Thank Merlin, no. But he overcompensated by twisting my human side into the mildest lapdog he could.”

“I wonder how the next transformation will go now.”

“You and me both.”

Both sat there and stared at the flames of the flickering and crackling fire in the fireplace and nipped from their tumblers for a while in contemplation.

Sirius started to talk again after about 5 minutes, “You remember when I told you all about the dark residue, which came out of my body when donning the ring?”

Remus blinked, “Yes, but the Lupin family has none.”

“Yes, I know, but maybe I can take you into my family?”

“I am not marrying you.”

“Why does everyone keep saying that?” Sirius whined. “There are other ways. I could adopt you, we could become blood brothers, or you could become my vassal.”

Remus chuckled but got serious quickly.

“I don’t think Moony likes being someone’s vassal or adoptee but he and I could happily live with us two being blood brothers, but it might infect you- We can’t do that either.”

“Hogwash! You know as well as I do that one can’t get infect anyone outside of the full moon, Remus,” Sirius said exasperated. “To make sure we could wait until the new moon. Its recommended anyways.”

Remus nodded and said decisively, “We can only do that with a healer around.”

“I’ll ask Ted. When is the next new moon anyway?”

“Next week on Sunday, the 24^th. In the evening, I think.”

“Perfect.”

“But what will happen when I put on the ring? The werewolf infliction is a dark curse, after all.”

“I actually spend the last 2 weeks researching it. I was not the first with this idea. Most people reject and expel their family members when they get infected, but not all, as you can imagine. They found that a ring from one of the old families does not cancel the werewolf transformation. No magical artifact seems strong enough, unfortunately. But the ring gets rid of the dark part of the curse or a dark curse that was cast on the species… They didn’t figure out why exactly, but it does help immensely.”

“How does no one know about this?”

“As far as I discovered, it had been common knowledge and therefore scarcely anybody wrote it down. So, the knowledge slowly disappeared over the centuries.”

“If there really is an additional curse on my kind then it would open up a huge field of research. Oh, I want to do it. The blood brotherhood and the research.”

Sirius grinned and raised his glass, “Then it is a date. Next Sunday, we will become brothers. I will ask Ted to come then.”

“Ted who?”

“Ted Tonks, Tonks’ dad, and my cousin Andi’s husband. He will be quite interested in this as well, I am sure.”

“So, he is family?”

“Exactly. I reinstated Andy and her family last Sunday, after Ted did a check-up on me and Harry.”

“Oh dear, that is another thing going on at Hogwarts right now. Albus messed with the muggle-born student’s medical files by noting that they had seen a healer each summer, but they didn’t.”

“Shit. That man’s crimes pile up like players in a mass collision at Quidditch. Why did he do that?”

“I have no idea. It makes little sense. But Poppy and a healer from St. Mungo’s are working on correcting it and reporting it. The only problem is that they need the permission of the parents of all the underage students. They only have a quarter of those by now. Most of the parents have questions, so it takes longer as Poppy has to visit them first.”

“Well, it’s understandable, don’t you think?”

“Yes, I didn’t look at it from their perspective. It must be hard enough to let your child go into a different world all by themselves and you cannot even visit them.”

“I wonder if some actually let their children’s magic be bound.”

“Even if it lowers their live expectancy?”

“Only to muggle levels. It’s totally normal to die between 70-90. “

“Merlin! Imagine that,” Remus gaped.

“Well, a house-elf must be horrified at our low life expectancy as well. I think Kreacher is nearing his first millennium.”

“Are you saying we are a different species than muggles?”

“Maybe a... I don’t know... a sub-species?”

“Interesting idea.”

“Yes, I have too much time here alone... but you wanted to tell me about the Wizengamot votes.”

“Right, that. Someone votes with Harry’s family vote.”

“Not Dumbledore again.”

“No, but one of his cronies.”

“But no one from the Order?”

“No, thankfully not. But you should probably put a stop to that.”

“Oh, I will. Well, I want to go to Gringotts tomorrow with Harry anyway, because of the other news regarding Harry's and my account managers. Maybe the goblins can shed some light on that, too.”

The rest of the night, they spend on lighter topics. They were all done with seriousness for the day.

Chapter Text

The next morning Harry arrived bright and early at Grimmauld Place. He skipped to the kitchen, where Kreacher served him breakfast and the two chatted until Remus came down, following the alluring call of bacon.

A little later, a blurry-eyed Sirius shuffled in as well, inhaled coffee before he even noticed Harry, and said, “Huh? What are you doing here already?”

“No Quidditch practice, remember? So, I came right over after getting up.”

Sirius scowled at the thought of Harry being expelled from the team, “They didn’t reinstate you yet?”

“Nope, Angie is glowering at me, whenever she sees me, and Fred told me, she still waits for me to give in. But honestly, by now I don’t even care that much anymore. I still can fly and hang out with the rest of the team, and I have more time for you and OWLs.”

Remus nodded in understanding, but Sirius was still angry for Harry’s sake. If Harry loved being on the team as much as James did he must be secretly devastated, he thought.

Harry added, probably realizing what Sirius’ problem was, “You know, I never tried out. I was part of the team before I even knew what Quidditch was. I thought McGonagall was going to beat me when she took me with her, looking for ‘wood’.”

“Why did you think she would beat you?” Sirius exclaimed.

“Because I rose to the challenge of a bully and flew my broom, to save an item, Neville had lost. The bully threw it and I caught it in the air. But we had been warned not to fly without a teacher present. We were threatened with expulsion if we did. So, when McGonagall caught us, I thought I was going to be punished.”

“And instead you got chucked into the team?”

“Yep. I thought for a while it was in punishment, as well.”

Both men gaped at him.

“So, you were not happy when you joined the team?”

“Nope. I was confused, Ron was happy, though. And jealous. So, that was a minus point as well. Do you know what Oliver said to me before the first match? ‘Catch the snitch or die trying.’”

“No!”

“Yep! He is nuts,” Harry grinned. “But don’t get me wrong, I did catch it and it was amazing. I was hooked from then on.”

“Only that you nearly fell to your death in your third year. I saw that. I nearly had a heart attack as Padfoot.”

“Me too,” Remus added.

“Yup, I had my moments of near deaths while trying to catch it. I did catch my first snitch with my mouth, after trying not to fall off a cursed broom.”

“What the hell? Did you know about that, Remus?”

“No!”

“Well, now I am not sad anymore that you are off the team. Just tell me if your second year was any better?”

“Harry thought back, “Weeeell...”

“No!”

“Nah, that year it was only a bludger-related injury. Unfortunately, the Defense teacher of that time ‘tried’ to help and vanished all the bones in my arm. At least, it was not broken anymore…,” Harry chuckled, and then seeing the two men’s faces he added, “Not funny?”

“No!” The two nearly yelled.

“Uh okay. It’s nice someone actually cares now.” After seeing the two men’s sad faces Harry quickly went on talking, “Did you hear what Ron did, Sirius?”

“No? Do tell. A prank?”

“As if. No, he called Hermione a mud-thingy in the Great Hall. On the top of his lungs.”

“Dear Merlin. Why in the world would he do that?”

“Because according to him she is a Death Eater now, or some such rot, because she was talking to two Slytherin girls.”

“That does not make sense. A mud.. uh… thingy Death Eater? Slightly contradictory, wouldn’t you say?”

Harry sniggered and said, “Well, logic was never his forte. Amazing that he can play chess so well if you think about it.”

“So, was he punished for it at all? Minnie doesn’t have a great track record, after all.”

“Oh, he is suspended for a whole month. Mrs. Weasley had to come and collect him. She was not happy.”

“You don’t say. Well, good for Minnie. She is growing some… uh… claws. And there I am, sending her a letter about my questions regarding her handling of you and Gryffindor House a couple of days ago. Uh, she didn’t comment on that yesterday, now that I think of it. Maybe she hadn’t seen it yet?”

Harry blinked at the barrage of words and information and sent one right back, “Well, we are all becoming better friends with each other now, the Gryffindor 5^th-years I mean. It’s great. And we are friends with Daphne Greengrass, Tracy Davis, Theodore Nott, and Blaise Zabini now, too. Things are really changing. Only Ron isn’t, and he had to leave. Hm. So anyway, what are we going to do today” Harry asked.

“Oh, You, Remus, and your dog are going to Gringotts today. I send a letter warning them about it. Hm, you remember, why we donned the rings, right?”

“Because Dumbledore can read minds and mess with our feelings?”

“Exactly. Yesterday I learned that he tampered with the emotions of our goblin account managers as well.”

“Oh no. Are they alright?”

“I don’t know, that’s why we visit them today.”

“I bet he stole from us as well.”

“Yes, that is probably the case. We will see.”

Chapter Text

That Saturday morning, the first to enter Gringotts was Dedalus Diggle to get his family ring. He donned it at once and it felt like his mind and heart was cleared of decades-old cobwebs. His loyalty to Albus broke irredeemably.

Second to come was Aberforth, who had been visited and warned by Alastor the night before. He wanted his ring again. Stupid. He scolded himself. Listening to Albus like that. Well, he still had been a rather young student then…

But he could not get to his ring, as all Dumbledore family vaults were frozen now.

And did they even have family rings after his father’s incarceration and the downgrading of their house status, by the Wizengamot after his dad’s trial? Maybe they weren’t eligible for rings anymore anyway, being a Minor House now?

So, he was offered the services of their mind healer and since Alastor had informed him of this method he gladly paid the fee.

His appreciation for goats disappeared that day and his brother became a persona non grata to him and the Hogs Head from that day on.

On his way out an angry and disgusted Aberforth saw a stiff and resolute-looking Augusta Longbottom and a curious Minerva McGonagall leading two spaced-out and sickly-looking persons into the bank. He knew them, he thought, but was unsure as of how.

But at the moment he didn’t really care.

Emmaline Vance accompanied Hestia Jones for moral support. Hestia was easily helped in one sitting as well.

The two women met Severus in the lobby, where he asked for an inheritance test and was led into an adjacent office. There he told the goblin in charge named Grobnuck he would like to see if he was entitled to a family ring, as one would help him with his tampered mind.

“Certainly, Master Snape. You do know about our success in mind healing in similar cases, don’t you?”

“Yes, but I was told that since I am a Legilimens, I am not treatable by this method.”

“Yes, that is the case with Legilimens’. Very well, 3 drops of blood into this ink please.” Severus was handed a small ceremonial silver blade and he proceeded to add the blood to the ink-like potion. He was quite interested in it but knew not to ask. The goblins guarded the knowledge about this potion with their lives.

The ink was sucked into a special quill and then set to work on a never-ending parchment roll.

It stopped writing quite quickly and so the goblin cut off the note, copied it, and handed the copy to Severus. Both of them read their short notes in silence.

Severus Tobias Snape, born 9.1.1960
Possibly eligible to inherit the Prince estate and lordship

“Well, I knew that it was a possibility before. What now?” Severus asked a little exasperated.

“We know much more than before now. This tells us you are part of the Prince family. It means that you can put on a family ring without repercussions. And that the ring will judge if you are applicable to inherit the estate and lordship.”

“That is indeed more than we knew before. May I try putting on the ring?”

“You may, but if you were subjected to dark magic it would be better to have a healer at hand.”

“Yes, I was. Additionally, I wear the mark of the monster, who promised us the world, but only brought destruction.”

“We actually don’t know what will happen then, as all ‘Death Eaters’ wear fake family rings. The true ones are in their master’s vault.”

“How can that be? And why have I never heard of this.”

“We don’t know if they gave him the rings willingly or unknowingly.”

“Then it could well be, that the rings actually can rid one of the dark mark.”

“At least the dark magic parts of it, that can be used to hurt you.”

“That would be ideal. If he could call, but not hurt me. Someone needs to keep their eyes on him.”

“So, you being a spy was no lie.”

Severus looked at the goblin, not saying anything. He had said too much already.

The goblin nodded, seemingly in satisfaction, and said, “I need to write a request, to extract the ring from the Prince family vaults, then you can go to the healers.

Severus lay on a small cot wearing a grey tunic only and was holding the small gold band in his hand.

A goblin healer wearing a strange mask was standing nearby.

Severus took a deep breath and slipped the ring on his ring finger and felt the magic it held move through his whole body, starting on his right hand where the ring was located.

As the magic moved, he felt it purge all the dark contamination his body held and that he had never gotten rid of while he was drowning in guilt. It was a very peculiar feeling. When the magic reached his left arm, it moved over it as if taking its measure, and then he felt a horrible, but short pain. Fortunately, it was over so quickly it was soon forgotten.

He opened his eyes and looked at his left arm, which seemed to be covered in a black film, so he could not see if the mark was still there. He noticed that his whole body was covered in it. Not as strongly as his left arm, but enough, to make his skin look dark grey.

“Ugh.”

“Lay still. You can go and clean up in a moment,” The healer barked at him in their amazingly high voice (for a goblin).

He nodded and waited until she(?) had finished scanning his body again. The healer had done so as well before he had been allowed to don the ring.

As he lay there, he took stock of his body and mind. His head was clearer than ever. Even in his childhood, he had been full of fear and anger the whole time, it seemed. Except, when he was with Lily. Then he had felt content.

He had dabbled early in the dark arts, having found a book in his mother’s collection, and tried out some small things that were possible without a wand. He hadn’t read the boring part, about purging the dark residue out of his body. And when he had actually read it at a much later time, he had been filled with so much guilt for Lily’s death, he had seen it as just punishment.

“You go and clean up now!” The healer barked at him, pointing to the bathroom door, he had changed clothes just a few minutes(?) before.

He nodded and got up to walk to the bathroom, but he had to wait for a second, for his legs to hold him and for vertigo to disappear. He then walked to the door and felt light. The dark magic residue had really pulled him down. Literally. No wonder children skipped all the time. He didn’t do that, obviously, but he really felt like it.

He took a full shower and when he washed his neither region he felt a hint of pleasure, which was new to him. Damn, had he been so saturated, he had lost his sex drive as well? He had always thought, he just wasn’t wired that way. His love for Lily had been platonic from the get-go, after all.

But this wasn’t the place to explore it and so he finished cleaning himself thoroughly and made himself presentable again. A short look in the mirror showed even his hair was free of dark magic and looked clean. Well, damn.

He left the bathroom and went back to the two goblins waiting for him.

“Much better,” the healer commented.

The other nodded, “Yes, no comparison to before. Sit, please.” He pointed to a set of low chairs and all three took a seat. Severus awkwardly half-crossed his long legs, in order to not have his knees next to his ears.

“The results of my second scan showed that you are healthy, but need to eat and sleep more. And you need to purify your body after you practised the dark arts. Do you not know how?”

The Severus of old would have snarled and been offended. The new (or real?) one just nodded and said, “Yes, I do. I didn’t know at first, but when I learned about it I was drowning in guilt, so I was punishing myself, idiotically.”

“Understood. Visit a mind healer then, if possible.”

“I will see.”

“You want to check your mindscape for your emotional centre now?”

“I am curious, but I fear, it would take a while.”

“Yes. But do so during the next couple of months. You need to get to know yourself again. Start tonight at the very last.”

Severus nodded. So, donning the ring hadn’t really freed up more time, but it was much better having it anyway. And he still had that pile of unsorted memories waiting for him. He sighed internally.

“What of my mark?” He still had it, but was it the same? He had felt that quick, but horrible pain, after all.

“You are still connected to the Dark One, but he cannot siphon magic from you anymore and he cannot send pain or death through it. But you will know should he try to do so. What he can do, is call you with it. That’s about it,” the healer answered.

“That is perfect. As if all my exact specifications and wishes were met.”

“It might well be that this is exactly what happened. The rings are incredibly powerful artifacts, which were crafted by Merlin, Morgan, and a third person for all the families of the round table,” Grobnuck said.

“Oh no. Don’t tell me I am a descendant of Sir Gawain.”

The goblin cackled, “No, be at ease, you are not.”

“But?”

“Well, you know the name of the family you actually descend from.”

“Prince. But... you don’t mean...?”

“Yes. You are a descendant of Medraut, also known as Mordred. The illegitimate son of Arthur and his half-sister Morgan le Fay. – He was first married to Guinevak a younger sister of Guinevere and you do descent from their oldest child, that had been spirited away at the age of eleven by his grandmother, Morgan le Fay. For the child was magical. It always was just known as ‘The Prince’.”

“I don’t know what to say.”

“Well, you are not the heir of a lost kingdom. That I can tell you.”

“Thank Morg... no... thank Merl... hell.”

Now both goblins cackled again at the flustered man.

“But we digressed. We were talking about your health. Are we done, Healer Gipswhite?”

“Yes, you are. Take care of your health and don’t come back, Lord Prince.”

With that, the flabbergasted man was ushered out and led back to Grobnuck’s office.

After they had taken their seats, Severus asked, “Lord Prince?”

“Yes. Look at the ring.” ‘You imbecile’ was implied and heard but not actually said.

Severus did so and saw a heavy, golden signet ring, like he had seen on Black’s hand, adorning his right-hand ring finger.

“So, I am a Lord now. And I have little idea of what is expected.”

“Well, not my problem. Find another Lord and learn.”

Severus nodded.

Grobnuck went on, “But we need to talk about the Prince estate now, let me call the account manager for the Prince family, to introduce you two.

Severus left the bank two hours later with a head stuffed full of new information.

On the steps he saw Potter, Lupin, and a black dog and went over to them.

“Greetings. I see you concluded your business as well?”

“Yes, we did, Severus. We are just thinking about what to do now. How about, we go back to Padfoot’s home, and take some lunch there? Please come as well, Severus. We can share our new information there in peace,” Remus answered.

Severus nodded and they left through the Leaky Cauldron’s floo. Potter was waving to the grinning barman Tom, Potter grinned back but winced a little at the sight.

Elphias Doge entered Gringotts late that day. He put on his ring and wept for a friendship that was no more. He never contacted either Albus or the Order ever again, feeling incredibly betrayed.

Chapter Text

Sirius, Remus, Harry, and Severus had a nice lunch.

It was surreal. Even two months ago this would not have been possible.

But now it felt easy. Sirius blurred out the most important change about Severus, he noticed at once, “You don’t reek of dark magic anymore! Ah, I see you got your ring.”

Severus frowned and nodded, “Was that, why you were immediately against me when we met as little kids on our first train ride?”

“Well, yes. You smelled like Bella and my mother. Both were entrenched in that stuff and never purified themselves. They thought they didn’t need it. And they brought pain. So, I associated the… well… feeling/stench of dark magic, with that.”

“I see. Not many have the ability to sense dark magic directly. So, to explain, I did it at such a young age to escape my father and thus pain. It was a safe haven for me. And I hadn’t known about purifying my body until much later.”

“Shit. So, we were but two sides of the same coin?”

“Quite possibly.”

Harry who had listened with great interest asked, “How could dark magic help against your dad?”

Severus blinked and answered, “I could make myself disappear from his sight without a wand. I could cast a shield over my mum without a wand, things like that.”

“You can do that with dark magic? Wow. I sure would have used it too then, if I had known.”

“I thought you grew up like a pr... No, you didn’t,” Severus really looked at Harry and groaned. “I fell for the propaganda, didn’t I.”

“Yep,” Harry made the ‘p’ pop. “But you got your ring? Wow, it looks like Sirius’. Are you a lord too?”

“Yes, Severus Snape, Lord Prince at your service.”

“Lord Prince? Should that make sense? It’s like King Baron.”

They all sniggered.

“Maybe he is of royal decent,” Sirius said jokingly, but saw Severus wince slightly. “You are?” He exclaimed.

“Let’s change the topic, please? So yes, I am a lord and I have absolutely no idea what that entails.”

“Well, I could help you...” Sirius said grinning.

“But?”

“... only if you tell us who your descent from.”

Severus shot back, “Only if you swear not to tell anyone else in any form.”

“Deal!”

Severus slumped a little and said, “Those, who don’t want to swear, please leave for a few minutes,” He waited, but no one moved. “Well then go on and swear.”

So, they did and looked at him expectantly and he sighed, “Well, I learned, that all the family rings were crafted by Merlin, Morgan le Fay, and a third unknown person for everyone at the round table and I jokingly said, please don’t let me be a descendant of Sir Gawain, who is essentially Gryffindor for me. The goblin said no, and my forefather was in my last name. Prince.”

“No! Not Mordr...” Sirius trailed off, eyes bulging.

“Unfortunately, yes.”

“Who?” Harry asked.

And Remus answered a little awed, “Mordred, son of King Artur and Morgan le Fay.”

“Woah!” Harry imitated Sirius’ look. “Does that mean?”

“No, it doesn’t. There is no long-lost kingdom I will inherit now, and I certainly can’t and won’t dethrone Queen Elisabeth II.”

Sirius looked confused, “Who?” And was now stared at with eyes bulging and mouths hanging. “What?”

Remus blinked, “Sirius, she is our Queen!”

“We have a Queen? Since when? Did that happen while I was in prison? I know a band with that name. Lily introduced me to it...”

“I knew, the wizarding world is isolated, but Queen Elisabeth II has been on the throne since the fifties, Sirius,” an exasperated Remus said. “Now let’s go back to the topic that Severus here is a direct descendant of the greatest King and the most famous witch of Great Britain.”

“Well, I got the title through my mother. The line was broken if you only look at the paternal line. I bet many of you have them as ancestors in some way.”

“Not the Black family, of that I am sure. We descent from someone else.”

Now Severus looked interested, “Pray tell, who would that be?”

Now Sirius was in the same dilemma Severus had been in, “Uh...”

“Do we need to swear again?” Harry asked exasperated. Who could possibly top King Arthur?

Sirius nodded and they did. Again.

“Well, our ancestor was a half-demon. He was of the blackest magic...”

Amazingly, Harry was the first to make the connection, “Merlin!”

Remus looked at Harry, his eyes full of curiosity, “You know who? Gah, not that one, I meant to say, you know whom he means?”

“Merlin.” Harry said again.

“What?” Remus asked.

Now Sirius started to get entertained. Severus had gotten it as well and started chuckling, too.

Remus looked at all of them and said scowling, “Come on, tell me.”

Sirius laughed out loud, and Harry joined in, a little disbelieving still of how obtuse Remus was being.

Severus took pity on the now angry-looking werewolf and said, “The Blacks descent from Merlin.”

“Merlin!”

“Exactly.”

Sniggers.

“Wow, this conversation is so confusing. But we do have the direct descendants of Arthur, Morgan, and Merlin in this room? Amazing. But calling out ‘Merlin’ or ‘Morgana’ will be strange now,” Remus said.

They all nodded, feeling quite in awe.

Harry thought about it and said, “Do the Potters have rings too? I didn’t ask at Gringotts.”

Sirius nodded, “They do, and you will take it as soon as you are ready since you will become Lord Potter immediately.”

“Like I did – only it was Lord Prince,” Severus said in a voice befitting a graveyard, it was so deep.

“Well, I am teaching Harry every weekend. You are invited to join now. We could meet the next couple of weeks every evening and I teach you the basics. I think we should start today. Remus can take over History lessons for Harry here and I show you some of the pensive memories of the first few theory lessons I gave Harry. That way, it will save time.”

Severus nodded thankfully, “That would be very much appreciated.”

So, they all went to work.

When they joined back together for dinner, Severus asked, “What happened with your account managers anyway?”

Sirius chuckled, “They are so angry at Dumbledore. He overinflated their loyalty and turned it to him somehow. Apparently, he really had to twist them enormously to manage that. Like taking their low-level loyalty to every living being on this planet – as no one wants to live on a dead rock – and twisting it to mean loyalty to him.”

Severus looked shocked, “That is quite far-fetched.”

“Absolutely. And he used that to have them pay him a small monthly stipend from Harry’s and my accounts. He tried to make it more, but their loyalty to Gringotts and gold couldn’t be twisted that far.”

Harry scowled, “I so want to know, why he needs so much money.”

Severus nodded, “That is the 1000-galleon-question.”

They all nodded again.

“But you stopped it?”

“Immediately, and we sued him as well. The goblins were quite happy to help. They have sued him too, for tampering with employees of Gringotts’ minds and siphoning money to his own vaults illegally.” Sirius said.

Harry exclaimed, “The DMLE must have such a huge list by now.”

They all nodded.

“So, you still have money in your vaults?”

“Yes. And we can be sure now, that he didn’t need the money for the Order or to help his friends. Harry and I own quite a few properties he could have rented out for a lower price to his associates, the goblins would have been easier to convince to do that than handing out money directly, but he didn’t,” Sirius told Severus, who looked thoughtful.

Sirius then turned to the others and said, “It’s really a mystery. But what he did, was take Harry’s Wizengamot vote and give it to one of his cronies.”

Harry scowled, “And the guy voted like no Potter would ever vote, I am sure. I sued that guy as well for unlawfully voting and not doing so in line with the Potter guidelines. He will be in deep shit.”

Remus looked accusingly at Sirius, who pretended not to notice, and asked, “Now how was your history lesson, Harry?”

“Amazing. I learned so much. History and Potions were the lessons I had been looking forward to the most before I came to Hogwarts.”

Severus winced, “I am sorry even more, they were so disappointing then.”

“Yeah, me too, but that was Dumbledore messing with your head, right? Your lessons are sooo good now.”

“Thank you, Mr. Potter, I do try.”

Harry grinned and then asked, “And you? How was watching the lessons? Did he show you the practical ones, as well?” Harry sniggered.

“No, he didn’t? Only theory, why?”

“Because the dancing lessons became so much more fun after he started dressing in a ballgown.”

“No way,” Remus exclaimed.

Sirius whined, “That was only once and Harry needed to know, what it is like to dance with a partner wearing one!”

Harry sniggered, “He looked great, Make-up and all, but he didn’t shave.”

“I need to see that,” Remus laughed and the rest grinned. Well, except for Sirius.

Harry looked at the poor man and said, “Remember, when I asked you about dentists in the magical world? And you told me, potions could so easily fix the problems that people let it slide? Could we maybe give Tom the barkeep that white potion you took?”

Harry took care not to look at Severus when he asked that.

Sirius took his question at face value and answered, “They are rather expensive, and he would need a tooth-grow potion first.”

“Could I like… buy them for him? As thank you, for his help during the summer before my 3^rd year?”

“You may certainly do that.”

Harry turned his big green eyes to Severus, who had narrowed his black ones, and said, “Could I commission those two potions from you?”

“You look far too innocent to not have a second agenda with this question. Is this your way of telling me, I should take care of my dental issues, as well?”

Harry blushed and nodded sheepishly.

“Well, Mr. Potter, I thank you for your polite way of pointing this out and you are right, I really should. - Very well, I will brew them and alert Poppy to the lax way we wizarding folks handle that topic. Messrs. Flint, Filch, and some others would benefit from them greatly as well, I would think.”

Harry nodded enthusiastically and was rather relieved. The Snape of old would have exploded.

Severus was invited to come back the next morning and flooded back to Hogwarts via the special floo, which only wearers of a family ring could use. Convenient, that.

He would have liked to start the tooth potions right away but needed to look through his mind first.

Chapter Text

Sunday morning saw Harry, Sirius, and Remus sitting around the breakfast table blurry-eyed. Sirius and Remus had talked long into the night, and Harry had started reading and looked at the clock at 2 am the next time.

“I think, Severus will arrive soon; you asked him to come by this morning, after all,” Remus remarked.

“Why did you do that, anyway?” Harry asked interested.

“That would be my question as well,” sounded the deep voice of Harry’s Potion Teacher from the kitchen door.

“Merlin!” Sirius yelped. He was sitting with his back to the door and sloshed himself with hot tea.

Harry sniggered, while Remus vanished the hot liquid.

“We will take breakfast in the sun room from now on. Even the informal ones,” Sirius said decisively. “Better security against surprises.”

Kreacher nodded, “At last.”

Sirius groaned. It seemed when sleep-addled he regressed a little. But he shook himself and answered the question, “I asked Harry if I could watch his memory of the resurrection and thought you two might want to join me. Maybe we find some clues the Aurors missed.”

The other men nodded grimly, Sirius was right, they should all watch it.

“Uh, do I have to come?” Harry hedged.

“No, pup. If we have questions, we can ask them later. But this will not mean free time for you, I have prepared a lesson in the drawing room. Why don’t you start now, we will join you, when we are done.”

Harry nodded and marched off to do just that and the three men went to the library to watch the memory, which Harry had deposited in the pensive kept there, last weekend.

Sirius didn't have the guts to watch it alone. Not he told that to anyone.

They watched the memory with horror and then a second time in order to actually notice any details. Afterwards, they just sat in their armchairs in deep thought, letting the information settle.

At last, Severus broke the silence, “He used Mr. Potter’s blood.”

Sirius nodded thoughtfully and then sprang up from his chair and dashed to one particular bookcase, which had not been visible before. He pulled out a very heavy and big tome and carried it to one of the book stands to leaf through it.

Severus and Remus watched with interest but didn’t interrupt the search. Sirius seemed to be hot on the trail to a possible solution, after all.

After about twenty minutes the man exclaimed, “Got it,” and waved for the others to join him, looking at a particular page. The headlines of that chapter were:

Recall of Black Blood
When used without authorization.

“That’s it,” an excited Remus cheered. “What do you have to do?” He started reading, not waiting for an answer. “Ritual… Lord Black… Other members of the family strengthen… Sirius, this sounds absolutely doable. It is even stronger if the one whose blood was taken can take part, and it’s not that hard. It would be even stronger when done on a solstice or an equinox. The next would be the autumn equinox, right? Mabon?”

Sirius nodded, smiling at his babbling friend. To see an alpha werewolf this delighted was fun. He answered, “Yes, the 23^rd, of this month.”

“Oh no. That would be exactly one day before we do the blood brother thing.”

Severus looked up in astonishment, “You plan to become blood brothers?”

Sirius nodded, “Yes, I researched the family rings and the werewolf curse. It seems that putting on such a ring rids the wolf of some of the darker aspects of his kind. There might be another dark curse on the species, which the ring takes care of. Because of this, we decided to become blood brothers for Remus to become applicable to wear a family ring.”

“That is amazing. Why isn’t it common knowledge?”

“It was, so nearly no one wrote it down…”

“And the blood brother ritual has to be on the 24^th?

“Not Exactly, but Remus is afraid of infecting me and it was said in another book that it was best done on a new moon, or on a… oh. Wait a minute please!”

Sirius rushed off again and came back with another huge tome, he heaved onto another book stand and looked through it. Obviously knowing where to look.

“Aha! On a new moon OR one of the eight high festival days of the calendar is best. We could do both rituals on Saturday next week. The blood brotherhood will be even stronger, as it is so close to the new moon, as well as on Mabon.”

“Incredible. It seems rather fateful,” Remus said amazed.

Severus added, “And for once, it’s not Samhain…”

“Right,” Sirius nodded. “Well, why don’t you go and tell Harry and I write some invitations to Andy, Cissy, and Tonksie.”

“Goof,” said Remus, as he and Severus left the room.

As they moved down a stair, Severus asked, “Cissy? As in Narcissa Malfoy?”

“Yes, he is in contact with her and, as her husband is awaiting trial, she is free to be herself, it seems.”

“Good to know. I always liked her. We were kind of friends at Hogwarts, even if she was a year above me.”

“And Regulus one below, right?”

“Yes,” Severus looked sad. “He was so not Death-Eater material. Such a bookworm, but wanting to please his family…”

They then proceeded to tell a very happy Harry about their conclusions and waited for Sirius to finish his correspondence.

After a late lunch, Severus told the other three about the questions the heads of houses had regarding the possibility of Dumbledore temporarily influencing teens emotionally and if it would leave any scars - for lack of a better word.

He hit a bit of a snag when Harry exclaimed, “So he did it to all the heads of houses as well? Is that why you are all so much better teachers now?”

“Oh, I thought you knew. Having a ring yourself.”

“I knew about Sirius and me, and wow was there much black goo, especially in my scar. Oh, and I knew about you having a ring, since yesterday, but I didn’t know about the rest. Just that Sirius warned you all of the possibility. What a horrible man!”

“Hey!”

“Not you, Sirius. I meant Dumbledore.”

Sirius grinned at Harry.

Severus nodded and scolded himself internally for not keeping track of who knew what. Some spy he was. Well, nothing to it, so he went on, “Anyway, the goblins have no data concerning longer exposure of these methods on young minds for obvious reasons. So, we grew a little concerned about the so-called golden trio especially, with all your ‘adventures’ and such.”

Harry was biting his lip, looking concerned, “It would explain, why Hermione decided to brew a… oops, no, forget what I said…” He waved his hands as if to make everyone forget he had talked and then went right on talking, “It could explain Ron’s descent into idiocy, right?”

“We will talk about that interrupted sentence later, Mr. Potter, but yes, it might. But be aware, that some teenagers just become unstable and nasty all by themselves. Hormones and magical development are hard at work during that time of development. Though Mr. Weasleys recent behavior brought up the question in the first place.”

Sirius looked a little worried and asked, “So what do you propose we do? Go to the goblins again and have Harry checked?”

“You could do that, or you trust me enough to let me take a look. I am quite accomplished in doing that, by now. But I would not be upset or annoyed at all if you’d rather have the goblins have a look.”

Harry looked at his teacher and considered the question, “Would it take long?”

“Just a couple of minutes, as long as your guardian consents as well.”

Sirius tilted his head slightly in thought and then nodded, “It’s up to you, pip, but I saw him do it with others. It looked painless and was done quickly. You would have to take off the ring though.”

“Uh right. If you don’t mind, Professor, I really would like to know.”

“It is no bother at all, Mr. Potter. Why don’t you relax in your chair and let me look into your eyes, you shouldn’t feel a thing.”

A minute later Severus pulled out of Harry’s mind and said to the slightly worried-looking two men and the blinking teen, “Well, all is as it should be. If it’s due to the family ring, or due to the nature of his resilient teenage mind, I cannot say.”

A relieved Harry put his ring and new glasses back on and asked, “What about the others? Would you look? Would you need Hermione’s parents’ consent as well? And Ron? Uh, his mum…”

“All good questions, Mr. Potter. Well, regarding Mr. Weasley I could maybe alert William Weasley to the possibility. He works at Gringotts after all, and probably can have his brother scanned on reduced fees for employees.”

“Yes, that sounds good. And Hermione?”

“I will talk to her. Maybe bring her to my office on Monday evening at seven.”

“Yes. May I tell her beforehand? She will want to know why.”

“That is a little tricky as the emotional manipulations haven’t been made public as of yet. Do you think you can talk to her alone and she will keep it to herself for the time being if you ask her to?”

“Sure.”

Severus nodded and took his leave to write to Bill, as well as to brew the tooth potions and inform Poppy of the matter. He would come to Grimmauld Place a little later on Monday for his lessons, they had decided. He wasn’t really worried about Potter and Granger spilling the story. They could keep secrets and with all the theories floating around Hogwarts about all the events and changes, what was one more, anyway?

When Harry arrived back at the Great Hall in Hogwarts this evening an excited Hermione pounced and hugged him, “Did you see the papers today?” She called in his ear, causing him to wince. “Sorry,” She pulled back and grinned at him. “I am just so happy for Nev!”

“Uh, what about him? I actually missed the paper today.”

“Apparently Neville’s Grandmother discharged Neville’s parents from St. Mungo’s Hospital, where there have been since ’81, and brought them to Gringotts. And the Goblins could help them. They are conscious again, if weak. Madam Longbottom is suing the hospital now because they just stashed the Longbottoms there and did nothing to help them.”

“Wow, that is awesome! I didn’t even know about Nev’s parents. This is great. Is he here?”

“No, his grandmother took him out of school for a week, so they all could spend time with each other. It’s so amazing!”

“It really is. But also, a bit frightening, when you think that the leading magical hospital in our country wasn't able to help them, but that Gringotts did within a day, or hours even. And they are nobility. How bad are they in treating average people then, I wonder.”

Hermione looked worried and nodded, “Good point.”

“Dumbledore couldn’t have gotten to them too, right? This is becoming absurd how many people has he twisted on such a fundamental level Even Goblins were not safe from him.”

“No.”

“Yes. But let’s look for a more private place, where I can tell you all about it, okay?”

Hermione looked around and saw many quite disappointed faces at their house table, where they had sat down while talking, and nodded, “Sorry folks, you need to get your gossip fodder somewhere else, now.”

The people sitting in their vicinity laughed and started talking to each other, while Harry and Hermione went looking for an empty classroom. Their Slytherin friends joined them and soon Harry had filled Hermione, Daphne, Tracy, Blaise, and Theo in on the goblins, whom Dumbledore had influenced, and his Potter votes, which had been used against the Potter guidelines. He kept the meddling their former headmaster did with their teachers’ emotions to himself though, as he was only allowed to tell Hermione for now.

Chapter Text

On Monday, September 18^th, Amelia sat at her desk and sighed. It was becoming absurd by now. All the new cases, which had popped up on her desk since Potter’s hearing…

Potter! She had wanted to contact him, she remembered for a second, but then she took out her list of things she had started the day of his visit and forgot about it again. The list was spelled to the nines so that only she could read it and she carried it in her moleskin pouch with her at all times.

She looked through it and sighed again. There was so much to do. She really needed to get some of the lesser stuff marked as ‘done’ or ‘delegated’. She skimmed the list and saw the points under the header ‘Improper Use of Magic Office’. That office was in a headless state, literally, as its head – Dolores Umbridge – had been charged with attempted murder and was waiting for her trial. It was part of Amelia’s own department, so she should fix it immediately. She didn’t want the one next in line as the head, though. It was one of the dizzy pureblood witches, who seemed to fill their offices.

What to do?

Then she had an idea and scheduled an office meeting with all the members of that office in one hour. Someone from the Aurors was to watch the maps for emergencies.

She then wrote two questions on top of an empty parchment and duplicated it so every member of that office would get one.

She then went back to her list of the different points she had noted there with detailed descriptions. Even the abridged version read like a decade of work:

• Organize Trials for the Death-Eaters and Umbridge -> still ongoing
• You-know-who (still at large) -> search still ongoing
• Black’s case (awaiting Pettigrew’s trial) -> pending
• Inform Amos -> done
• Investigation of Albus’ crimes -> still ongoing (together with Gringotts)
• Investigation into Fudge and the Dursley family -> not started yet (sensitive)
• IUoM office needs a new head + a structural overhaul -> starting
• Investigation of the member of the Wizengamot using Potter’s vote -> needs to get started!

She sent another memo to the Wizengamot Administration Services that she needed to talk to one of their researchers.

At least, Potter seemed to be all right as far as she could tell. His call when Dumbledore grabbed his shoulder that the man was hurting him, still haunted her. She had still been so in shock, from the memories she had watched minutes before that she had not reacted as quickly as she should have, and she still scolded herself for that. Well, all she could do now, was to do better, should she ever be in a similar situation, she decided resolutely.

Five minutes after she had sent the latest memo, there was a knock. Her request had been answered promptly by her friend Sylvia Abbott, who worked as a clerk for the Wizengamot Administration Services.

“You needed one of us, Amy?” Sylvia asked and took a seat.

“Yes, Sylvie, I need information but without the office knowing about it. It is an investigation in an ongoing case.”

“So, you don’t want it to spread?” Sylvia grinned. “I can keep it between us for now. Just tell me when it’s not under wraps anymore.”

“Will do. I need you to look into who is voting with the Potter votes, who appointed them, and their vote history.”

“Oh, dear. Now I understand why this is hush-hush. Do you want me to see if the votes align with the Potter guidelines?”

“If possible, yes.”

“I thought, the boy was on top of all of that?”

“Sylvie, he grew up with muggles. You seem to have bought into the stories from the fictional books.”

“No.”

Amy nodded sadly, “As most of our world did. But please keep silent about this too for now.”

“All right, I will.”

Amelia nodded. She knew Sylvie loved to gossip, but that she could keep secrets as well if necessary so she trusted her friend.

Sylvie added, “Anything else? I am terribly curious who did vote, how that happened, and how they voted.”

“Yes, me too. That is it for now. Thank you!”

Not much later she got her office full of the entire IUoM Office. Fortunately, her room adjusted for all five to fit. The chair in front of her desk duplicated itself several times, so she could say, “Thank you all for coming on such short notice. Please, take a seat.”

When they had done so, Amelia went on, “As you know, your boss Dolores Umbridge is in a holding cell awaiting trial. So, you are without a department head. Now usually I would await the results of this trial, but I will not keep her in that position even if she gets free.”

Some gasped.

“As some of you have realized by now, I need to appoint another head for your office, and I thought to do a little test. You will be shown two short memories and I want you to think about what you would change in our response and what you would keep.”

She noticed that some looked confused, and one perked up. Davis is the one to watch out for now, she was sure. They were to look at the two memories alone and then go quietly into one of the four corners of her office where she conjured a chair with a clipboard. If all seats were taken, one could always sit in front of her desk.

“Be quiet now, please. This is not a team effort. When you are finished please leave quietly and return to your work. Begin.”

They looked at one another and then Davis got up and was mentally gone for two minutes, while his finger stuck in the pensive liquid. As soon as he had finished, the next entered, while Davis sat down in one of the corners and sat there thinking with his eyes closed. When the next left he started writing slowly and thoughtfully, whereas his mentally returned colleague started writing at once.

When Davis had finished, he was the last one, to hand Madame Bones his clipboard, together with a rather pale Mafalda Hopkirks. The two left quietly right away and Amelia went to work.

When Amelia looked through the ideas, it became apparent, that one was absolutely not right for the job, as his answer was, ‘All went, as it should.” That was it.

Amy’s mouth hung open after reading it. Was the man really thinking his job was so secure? He was the nephew of Fudge twice removed, or something. No, that would not save him. Fudge would not stay in office forever.

Two answers were adequate. They at least noticed that sending an owl into a muggle residence might not have been a good idea.

Hopkirks’ answer was full of apologies for not noticing that it had been a house-elf, casting the spell and she then tried to explain why no Aurors were allowed to be sent to investigate the casting of an obviously defensive spell as shown in the second memory. She offered no suggestions, on how to improve their work procedures.

The only one that did, was Davis. He had obviously thought about the weaknesses in their way to respond to accidental magic for a while. There were many doable and logical suggestions, and she had a winner, for sure.

She sent another memo for Davis to come back and within minutes he was there.

“You wanted to see me, Madam Bones?” He asked with trepidation. He really had taken a leap of faith there. This could make or break his career.

“Yes, please take a seat. Now, I would like to know if you’d like the promotion.

“Yes! But can I fire Bolder?”

She chuckled, “Yes, I insist you do that.”

He sighed in relief, “So you like my suggestions?”

“Yes, they show, you have thought about it and want the office to become better at what it is doing, but the first thing you should think about is more staff. You don’t have someone at hand right now, don’t you?”

“Actually, I do. She is an amazing, smart, former head girl and she cannot find a job.”

“Let me guess, she is muggle-born?”

“Yes. She finished school a year ago and is considering going back to the muggle world.”

“Then hire her and I will back you up. What’s her name?”

“Penelope Clearwater.”

“Good. Ask her, if she knows of other muggle-born with the same problems, who would like to work in the office.”

Davis nodded.

“And I can really fire Bolder?”

“Would you mind if I do that myself?”

“Not at all, it would make it easier for me.”

“Very well, please keep quiet about the promotion until I announced it, yes?”

“All right, boss. And thank you!”

Bones nodded, “Now, I would like you to very quietly look into, why Harry Potter’s accidental magic before Hogwarts went unattended. He told me he turned muggle teachers wig blue in front of the whole class for instance and no one came.”

“That can’t be. I will look into it, quietly,” Davis nodded.

“Good.”

Here, is a more detailed list:

1. DEs
   • Arrest all DEs seen in memory done
   • investigate them done
   • charge them done
   • initiate trials in process

2. LV
   • Search for LV in process
   • Investigate LV open    
   • Arrest or kill LV open

3. Black
   • Investigate arrest and incarceration in Azkaban -> search for evidence and trial transcripts in process
   • Inform press open
   • Keep Tonks off this case, (family relations)

4. Diggory
   • Inform Amos
     done
   • Open murder investigations
     • Charge Peter Pettigrew with the murder of CD
       in process
     • Charge LV with instigating the murder of CD
       open

5. Albus
   • Investigate theft of funds -> sued by Hogwarts staff
     in process
   • Investigate theft from vaults of Potter and Black -> sued by owners
     in process
   • Investigate the denial of medical check-ups and embezzlement of money meant for it. -> sued by multiple parents
      in process
   • Investigate tampering with emotions -> only use guards with family rings -> sued by HoH of Hog, Lupin + Gringotts
     in process
   • charge him
     in process
   • initiate trial
     open
   • Why? The Money, the manipulations, the bad education?
     open
   • Why not get rid of Defense curse?
     open

• Needs incorruptible Aurors and high oversight of DMLE -> Moody, Williamson, and Tonks

6. Fudge
   • Investigate reasons for denial of evidence of Black’s innocence -> overstepping authority. Not informing DMLE
     open
   • Investigate the kiss of Barty Crouch jr. -> overstepping authority. Not informing DMLE
     open
   • Investigate reasons for denial of evidence LV’s return -> overstepping authority. Not informing DMLE
     open
   • Investigate reasons for kangaroo court for Potter -> outside of regulations, overstepping authority
     open

• Cannot be done by normal Auror. Needs Head of DMLE

7. Umbridge:
   • Investigate done
   • Arrest done
   • Charge done
   • Initiate trial in progress

8. Improper Use of Magic Office:
   • New department head done
     • why sent Owls to Muggle residences, where there could be muggle visitors? (Show Memory)
     • How did they not notice it was elven magic?
     • Why not investigate, if a defensive spell is cast, regardless of orders from above?
     • How did they determine there was a muggle present?
     • Why did no one investigate Potter’s accidental magic before the age of 11?

                  Everything delegated. Davis is looking into it.

• Fire Bolder open
  
  

9. Mungo’s Hospital
   • Investigate the Longbottom case open
     
     
10. Albus’ friend voting for Potter à sued by Potter and Guardian  In process

• Investigate if the job was legally obtained, or unlawfully voting?
  • If later, check all W-decisions since then, if deciding vote
• doing so in line with the Potter guidelines?

      -> Sylvia Abbott is looking into it.

11. Dursley family
    later, be done before the school year ends
    • Why is Potter with them
    • Investigate Potter’s living conditions
    • Why were reports of living conditions repressed? How?

12. Hogwarts:
    • Ask Minerva, why HP didn’t know, he could protest a note from the Improper Use of Magic Office.
      Later
    • Why did Potter not know, why he learns to change a pincushion into a hedgehog?
      Later

13. Potter
    • Watch other memories. later
      
      
14. Susan
    • What is the matter with her ‘hating’ Harry? later
      
      

-> Inform Wizengamot about LV, DE’s, Fudge. SOON!

Chapter Text

Harry sat at the Gryffindor table and ate his lunch while Hermione was in the library to ‘just quickly look something up’.

He was grinning in remembrance of the funny situation, which occurred when Sirius told them about his family’s origins.

Life was good right now and getting better. At school, the Potions and Def… uh… Fighting classes were the best in his opinion. Who would have thought? About the Potions anyway. And Fighting didn’t look so good at the beginning of this school year, either.

He sniggered in remembrance of Ron’s exasperation about the pink lines he had to write in detention but sobered a little at the thought of the only dark spot in his life right now (except Voldemort). His friendship with the red-headed boy.

Ron was still suspended for the month, after calling Hermione the m-word. The boy would return to Hogwarts in October at some point.

He wondered how life was for Ron right now. Apparently, Mrs. Weasley had been rather angry with Ron when she collected him. Should he write to Ron? He was of two minds. Ron was his first friend, who was the same age as Harry and he had a hard time letting that go, on the other hand, the boy’s jealousy and insecurities were exhausting and the way he treated Hermione was just unacceptable.

Hm. Maybe, I wait, until he writes to me? He called me ‘Perfect Potter’ and then ignored me when we saw each other again the following Monday morning until he verbally attacked Hermione, Harry mused.

Well, maybe Bill and the goblins could actually help Ron. One could hope. Let’s wait for that, he decided.

Harry liked that the Gryffindor 5^th-years were such a cohesive group by now. In earlier years, it had always been the Golden Trio, Dean&Seamus, Parvati&Lavender, and a lonely and quiet Neville. But not now.

Harry grinned at the thought of Neville and his parents. The goblins were awesome. It must have been so hard for Neville to have his parents physically present, but not aware of their surroundings and son. What a horrible thought. Also, his grandmother didn’t seem to be the nurturing kind at all. It sounded like a recipe for a lonely childhood.

It was so strange, Neville’s life had been so similar and yet so totally different from mine, he mused.

One similarity was, that both their lives had taken a turn for the better now. Neville’s with his parents and Harry’s with his godfather and soon-to-be goduncle.

Harry beamed again at the thought and started wondering what this Ritual of Recall of Black Blood would bring next Saturday. 

Next to him, someone sat down, and he looked to his right into the face of his former teammate Katie, who was biting her lip and busying herself with getting some sandwiches.

“Hi Kat, how are you?” Harry asked with interest.

“Gosh!” broke out of her, “I am so annoyed with Angie right now. She is just so stubborn. She now knows that you have good reasons for leaving each weekend. We all have told her repeatedly about the realities of our world. Even the twins sat her down and told her that they were just taking the mickey of the situation, really. But. She. Doesn’t. Believe. Dumbledore. Could. Do. Wrong.” She hit her hand on the table between each word and afterward slumped and sighed.

Harry patted her back and said, “It’s okay, I still can fly and it’s my OWL year anyway so I am not unhappy with the situation. Maybe next year when you are captain you could make me the reserve seeker, or something like that? Who is your Seeker now anyway?”

Katie huffed, “No one!”

“Huh?”

“We got McLaggen as a keeper. Blargh. But Angie thinks you will fold soon and that she then can dictate everything about your schedule.”

“Uh, that is bad. As of now, I don’t have time for training at all…” Harry looked apologetically at Katie.

“We knooooow,” Katie wailed.

“But I will stand by should you need me for the actual game, just in case her need to win is greater than her pride, ok?”

“Thanks! I think by now it’s a matter of principle for her, and Angie always had a hard time admitting that she was in the wrong.”

“Well, let’s see what happens. The first game is at the beginning of November, right?”

Katie nodded dejectedly.

“So, that is in about six weeks…”

“Yeah. It’s just much more miserable now, without you, but with Cormac…”

“Sorry, to hear.”

“That idiot even tried to take George’s beater bat and show him, how to do his job, while Alice and me scored goal after goal in a mock-up game.”

“Wow, sounds like an idiot, all right.”

Katie snorted, “You can say that.”

They ate in companionable silence for a few minutes. When Katie asked, “Did you take a look at the message board today?”

“Huh? No. Anything of interest?”

“Yeah, McG scheduled a house meeting tomorrow evening at seven.”

“Woah, any idea why?”

“No. But she is different now, much more approachable, right?”

“Absolutely, and she smiles. And she explains things in a way I understand now.”

“Yeah.”

They both sighed happily.

Since it wasn’t common knowledge that Dumbledore had messed with their teacher’s heads, Harry kept mum about that, but could not help but add, “All the Heads of Houses are better as teachers now, especially Snape and McG, right?”

Katie nodded emphatically.

“Well, let’s hope, it’s a meeting about something good,” Harry added.

Chapter Text

That evening after dinner, Harry pulled Hermione into another empty classroom than the one they had used on Sunday evening and told her about the emotional manipulations Dumbledore had done on some adults.

Hermione was horrified and started to doubt all of her decisions at Hogwarts. And the idea that it might have left permanent scarring horrified her immensely.

So, it was half past six when they were knocking on Snape’s office door.

“Enter.”

The two rushed in and their teacher raised an eyebrow at the panting teens who had clearly been running to his office, but he had no chance to say anything, as Hermione started talking immediately, “Sir, please look at my mind at once! Oh god! There cannot be any damage there!”

“Good evening. Well as Mr. Potter was supposed to tell you that as you are underaged, I would prefer to have your parent’s consent to do that, Miss Granger.”

She deflated and said quickly, “Oh no, that would take days! I can absolutely assure you they will agree to your doing this and I mean, I am just a year away from being considered an adult in the wizarding world. I am sixteen after all.”

“You are?” Harry asked in surprise, “When was your birthday?”

“On the 9^th.”

“Oh no! Did I forg... no. I never asked you when your birthday was. Oh, I am the worst friend ever,” Harry looked devastated.

“No, you are not. It’s not a big deal. The Granger family doesn’t really do birthdays, don’t worry. Now back to my question, Professor, could you check please,” she turned her huge, pleading, brown eyes onto him.

Their professor swallowed and then nodded, “But please have your parents send me a letter as soon as possible, giving their approval in retrospect.”

Hermione nodded and took a seat looking big-eyed at the Potions Master expecting him to check her mind right away.

Which he did.

It only took a minute, and he hummed in thought.

Hermione asked anxiously, “What did you find?”

“First and foremost, I can tell you all is well.”

She slumped and exhaled, while Harry cheered.

“But it’s unclear whether your mind has been tampered with in the past. Maybe the goblins can determine it, but I cannot, since there doesn’t seem to be any scaring.”

“Oh, what a relief. Thank you so much for checking, Professor. I would have worried so much for days.”

“Yes, I figured. That’s why I checked right away. It would have been more detrimental to your emotions than checking without your parents’ consent, I believe.”

Hermione nodded enthusiastically, “Now only Ron needs to get checked over. Maybe the goblins could have a mandatory check for everyone who enters their bank? Like, for safety reasons?”

“Good idea, Hermione. That way most of the wizarding world could get help if needed? They could make Dumbledore pay for it, right?”

“Not a bad idea Miss Granger and Mr. Potter, I will share it with Professor Flitwick. Now, I believe we are done here or was there anything else?”

The teens shook their heads and thanked him, leaving much more relaxed than they had arrived, discussing Hermione’s birthday nine days ago on their way up to the tower.

Tuesday evening, Minerva McGonagall stood in front of her entire house assembled in the Common Room and said, “Thank you all for coming. I scheduled this meeting to tell you about a few changes our house desperately needs.

“First and foremost, I will inform you about the safety procedures we have for emergencies.”

And with that, she told them of the possible ways to get her to come quickly, how to use the floo to reach the Hospital Wing, what to do should a natural disaster hit, how to call for a Hogwarts house elf in an emergency, and so on.

The students listened attentively. Happy to receive that information as nearly all had been in situations they could have used that information. At the part about calling an elf they all eyed Hermione carefully expecting her to go into a full rant mode, but were happily surprised when she didn’t.

Professor McGonagall then clenched her hands and squared her shoulders, “Now, that the most pressing information has been shared, I need to apologize to each and every one of you.”

The students looked at her in shock.

“I failed you on so many occasions and levels as your head of house, as I always let the needs of my Gryffindors fall to the side, for the needs of all the students of this school as the deputy headmistress. And I was plainly overworked, so for example a letter filled with a harmful substance, that actually hurt one of you wasn’t investigated, and I didn’t notice that most of you had no idea why we change hedgehogs into pincushions for example.”

Some students giggled and Harry blushed.

“This will change now. I have dropped the job as deputy and am merely your head of house and teacher from now on.”

McGonagall was relieved to look into mostly happy faces. There were a few disinterested ones, but she could live with that. Better, than the outright anger, she had feared.

“Additionally, I will hold weekly classes about the wizarding world for muggle-born and muggle-raised students as I should have always done. That most of you do not know what public shunning is and that we have nobility for example. That many have no clue about our traditions is quite alarming and therefore I expect all, not entrenched in the intricacies of our world, to attend those classes regardless of blood status. People expect you to know these things when you leave school, so better be prepared for it. Understood?”

Here she looked a few of the more relaxed (meaning, hanging over furniture) students, but especially the frowning Angelina Johnson in the eyes until she got nods from them all.

“Please check the message board daily, I will post there when these classes will take place. Oh, and don’t be afraid, to visit me during my office hours with every topic you need my input on or help with. As I said, if there is an emergency you can always call me. Thank you. – Now, if the 5^th-years could meet with me next to the fireplace, I have one more topic to talk to you about.”

With that most of the students dispersed and Harry and his classmates went to the fireplace to check what their head of house wanted.

“Well, you probably could guess why I called you.”

“The 5^th-year prefects, right?” asked Seamus.

“Exactly, Mr. Finnigan. So first and foremost, Mr. Weasley was declared unfit to be a prefect and therefore, I would ask you, Miss Granger, if you would take the badge back? I promise you will not be asked to take up the slack of your partner prefect again.”

Hermione looked wide-eyed at her professor and teared up a little. With a small voice she said, “But I went against you, Professor!”

“Yes, and rightfully so. That was a very fine example of courageous and righteous behavior, Miss Granger. You were the very embodiment of a true Gryffindor that evening.”

Hermione blushed bright red and Harry clasped her shoulder proudly.

“So, will you forgive this old woman and take the badge back? You earned it fair and square. I think all of your classmates agree with me about that.”

Hermione looked at the others and only saw nodding and smiling faces and so she took a heart and answered, “I would love to.”

“Very well. Here is your badge back, Miss Granger.”

Hermione took it and hefted it onto her robes proudly, beaming over her whole face at her cheering classmates.

“Now, who would be the male 5^th-year prefect?”

Harry answered quickly, holding his hands in front of him, “Not me! I am drowning in things to learn already. No time.”

The rest chuckled and Professor McGonagall nodded, “I was thinking of Mr. Thomas, actually. What would you say, Miss Granger?”

Harry sighed in relief and Hermione nodded, “Yes, I think Dean would make a good prefect.”

Dean smiled proudly and got handed the badge and a pamphlet with the rules and duties of a prefect.

“Very well, you are the first pair of muggle-born students becoming prefects in their year. Congratulations. Well, this concludes my business here. If none of you has anything else that needs my attention, I will be on my way.”

When she got some happy ‘Good night’s she left the Gryffindor tower, feeling rather accomplished.

Meanwhile, the newly named prefects went to the other prefects to (re-)introduce themselves. They were welcomed quite happily.

Chapter Text

Early Friday morning just at the start of breakfast, Harry got a letter from Amelia Bones. It was not very long and told him she was sorry she hadn’t contacted him earlier due to an immense workload and that she had shown his memories to the Wizengamot yesterday. That she had been immensely fortunate that the story hadn’t leaked already before that day, but that luck wouldn’t have held much longer so she had needed to act. All the news were just too big to keep under wraps. She said she was sorry she obviously hadn’t been able to keep him out of the revelation of the happenings at the end of his third and fourth year so maybe get Miss Granger and Mr. Weasley and hide for a day or so, as the Daily Prophet should be interesting today and they would surely be hounded as well.

Harry sat for a moment, staring into space. Then he nodded to himself and turned to Hermione, who was bursting at the seams to ask him about the letter, “Are you done? We need to talk to Professor McGonagall.”

She looked down at her half-eaten breakfast and said, “I could stop eating now. What is it? Why do we need to talk to the professor? Did something happen? Who was the letter fr– hey!”

At this point, Harry had huffed, taken her hand, and started pulling her gently toward the head table, “No time! I will tell you as soon as I can. Time to act first. We’ll talk later.”

Now it was Hermione’s turn to huff, but she decided to go along with it. At least they were rushing toward an authority figure.

At the head table, Harry asked his curious-looking head of house, if they could talk in private. Maybe in the antechamber? She agreed and under the eyes of the whole school, the three of them walked to the little room with the fireplace which only the nobility used.

As soon as they were inside, Harry thrust the letter he still held in his other hand at his professor and said, “Read it, please.”

Hermione huffed again, exasperated to still be kept in the dark and Harry squeezed the hand he was still holding gently.

McGonagall was a fast reader it seemed as she soon handed Harry the letter back and said, “I see. I take it that you would like to flee before the Prophet inevitably arrives?”

Hermione said, “Oh!”

Harry nodded and answered, “Yes, please. It is Friday and we could spend the weekend at Sirius’ place until the first hubbub dies down.”

“You are right, I doubt much teaching and learning will take place today anyway after the news break, so you two may as well go to your godfather’s place. I have an elf pack a few necessities for you, Miss Granger.”

Hermione, who had snatched the letter out of Harry’s hand nodded distractedly and Harry snorted when she distractedly answered with a “Hmhm.”

Professor McGonagall’s mouth twitched, and she said, “I need to go back and warn my colleagues of the coming chaos which will surely ensue. Have a nice weekend, you two.” With that she quickly walked out of the room.

Harry pulled Hermione toward the fireplace and said, “Let’s go, okay? The sooner we are at Grimmauld, the sooner we can talk about this.”

“Right,” now that Hermione had finished skimming the letter she was all for it. So they flooed to Order Headquarters while still holding hands due to the required family ring when using this floo.

They stepped out and Hermione blinked and said, “You are much better at using the floo by now.”

Harry huffed a laugh and answered, “Having been taught how to use it correctly helped immensely.”

“Huh, but it was in the…,” but here she was interrupted by Sirius quickly coming into the room, looking concerned.

“Harry! Hermione! What are you doing here? Are you alright? Is there an emergency?”

“Nono, we are just fleeing the coming chaos and barrage of questions before the Daily Prophet arrives at Hogwarts as Madame Bones showed my memories to the Wizengamot yesterday, apparently.”

“Oh, good thinking then. The paper hasn’t arrived yet; it’s later than n normal. Did you have breakfast?”

“Only half. Then we did the strategic retreat thing.”

Sirius chuckled and said, “Then come. I am in the middle of it and would be happy to have some company,” with that he ushered them toward the sun room.

After they had been seated and Kreacher had served breakfast to the two teens, Sirius said, “So the news will hit the Wizarding World now. The reporters were still busy writing about Dumbledore, Umbridge, and the Death Eaters. I am curious how they will handle even more earth-shattering news,” he chuckled a little manically. “Some might implode!”

“I am just glad we escaped the barrage of questions for now,” Harry exclaimed. “Hopefully the Prophet will have a lot of information in it, so they have time to read and digest.”

Hermione nodded, quite aware of their fellow student’s attitudes when they needed to just know.

They ate and after having finished waited in the drawing room for the paper which was brought by a grinning Kreacher. It was fat.

Sirius took it and planted himself in the middle of one of the couches with Hermione and Harry sitting right next to him on each side and opened the paper.

The front page showed only one huge, blinking headline:

He-Who-Must-

Not-Be-Named

IS BACK (p. 2)

Then the headline was kicked off the page by another one, stating:

SIRIUS

BLACK

INNOCENT (p.4)

That headline was shoved off as well by:

FUDGE

THROWN

OUT (p.8)

Aaand another:

PETTIGREW

BETRAYED

POTTERS (p.10)

The next one said:

CORRUPTION

at the MINISTRY

(p.12)

And:

PETTIGREW

KILLED CEDRIC

DIGGORY (p.13)

They watched a couple more in amazement until Sirius cheered, “I will frame this page and hang it up in here. This is amazing. Like an ant hill that had gotten kicked over by Amy.”

Hermione huffed and ordered, “Turn the page.”

Harry sniggered and Sirius snorted and started distributing the different sections of the paper to the waiting teens and they started reading.

That afternoon and exhausted Remus arrived with Hermione’s bag. He fell onto the next couch in the room the three were hanging out and groaned.

“Hey, Moony, what’s up with you?” Sirius asked.

The werewolf groaned again and said, “Well, the main witness of the events, described in today’s papers had disappeared so the students looked for other people named in it. Guess whom they found?”

Sirius chuckled, “Oh, did you get hounded, wolfie?”

The teens sniggered and Remus growled.

“Well, you are here now and save. A long and busy weekend is ahead of you, future brother of mine,” Sirius grinned at Remus who perked up. “At least, tomorrow will be busy. Today we will relax.”

They talked about the news and what it meant for the wizarding world and were rather optimistic about the future.

A little later they moved to other topics and Hermione said, “Oh Sirius, did anyone tell you about the Healer from St Mungo’s and Madam Pomfrey doing check-ups on all the muggle-born students since Dumbledore was arrested?”

Sirius nodded, “Yes, Remus told me the bones of it, I think. How did it go?”

Harry sniggered and said, “I think Madam Pomfrey is so lucky muggles can’t make howlers. But she went white and red often during the last days reading her mail at breakfast. – Hermione’s parents wrote one of the letters. Oooh, and did you know they paid Hogwarts good money to organize for a healer to do a magical health check-up each year and now learned, that it never happened? They all want a refund.”

Hermione nodded heartily.

“No. He had the parents paying for it? Is that why he did it? It’s just another scam?”

“It seems so,” Remus said.

“I just don’t understand what he needs all that money for. His robes and lemon drops can’t be that expensive,” Harry exclaimed.

Sirius nodded, “Yes, that is the question many want answers for. Hopefully, we get them soon.”

Chapter Text

Saturday saw many visitors at 12 Grimmauld Place. Remus, Harry, and Hermione had spent the night so they were already there, but the Tonks family came as well as Narcissa Malfoy and Severus Snape.

They all gathered in the Ritual Room each Black-owned dwelling possessed, and Sirius and Remus performed the Ritual, of Blood-Brotherhood with all the others as witnesses and Ted as the Healer, standing by should something go wrong.

It went off without a hitch after they both had taken off their robes and shoes, to stand there bare-footed in trousers and white shirts with the sleeves rolled up and performed the short ritual.

Afterwards, the two men hugged and Sirius said rather earnestly and heartfelt, “Welcome to the family, Moony,” and handed a small golden band to Remus.

Before Sirius could stop Remus and tell him to lie down first, the man had put the ring on his finger.

All Sirius could yell was, “Lay down!” which Remus thankfully heard and complied with (kind of). He sank to his knees, and they all watched as magic seemed to move over the man’s body and concentrated on his shoulder where Remus had been bitten by Fenrir. Remus started to convulse and fell forward, but caught himself with his hands. He let out a yelp-like scream and the old bitemark must have opened again, as his shirt was turning bloody and black in that area. Not a pretty sight.

Ted jumped forward and was at once waving his wand, diagnosing the wound, dispelling the clothes, cleaning the wound, and starting to cast healing spells. All within a minute.

Severus, who had come prepared started pouring potions onto the wound after checking with Ted.

It didn’t take long, and Remus was healed, cleaned, and clothed again and most importantly he was looking happy.

The witnesses were calming down again as well, having had quite the adrenaline rush just by watching.

“How do you feel, Remus?” Harry called.

“Quite well. And Moony does too,” an elated and beaming Remus answered and got up from the floor. “I feel much lighter.”

They all cheered.

They moved to the drawing room to rest for a while and Hermione asked if she could see the ring on Remus’ hand.

He held it out to her, and she said, “So, it looks like Tonks or her mother’s ring now. While Harry’s and Sirius’ are bigger than that. Especially the Lord’s ring. But it looked much thinner before you put it on. Is that normal?”

Harry nodded and said, “Yes, it was just as thin before I donned mine. Sirius’ ring as well.

Sirius had listened in and explained, “The rings are like proto-rings first. They check the magic of the one donning it and decide which status the new wearer has. Lord, heir, family member, or spouse.”

Ted Tonks showed Hermione his hand with a smaller ring than the family ones.

“And if a family gets bigger?” Hermione asked fascinated.

“There are always enough rings. They always come from and return to Gringotts.” Sirius said.

“So, are they bound to a certain family?” Hermione asked.

“Well, I always assumed that this was the case, but I don’t actually know. Hm. Good question. Well, Snape and I could switch, but I’d rather not. Who knows what would happen.”

Severus nodded, “The goblins said, that they were rather powerful magical artifacts made by Merlin and Morgana themselves and I don’t think experimenting with them would be recommendable.”

“I wish muggle-born could get them too,” Hermione sighed.

Sirius answered, “Well, you would have to marry into one of the old families or let me adopt you. Or become a blood sister to Harry here, after he gets his Lord’s ring. I am not sure if you would be feasible for a Black family ring via blood siblingship with Harry before he takes his Potter one. Hm. Now that I think of it, If the rings hadn’t been bound to a certain family, he would have become Lord Potter, when he put on his ring last summer…”

“Or the ring read the intend it was given with and made him the Black heir first,” Severus added. “It certainly read mine regarding my dark mark.”

“My brain hurts!” Sirius whined and the rest chuckled.

“Uh, if the rings come from Gringotts, how come, Kreacher had two, last summer?” Harry asked.

“He is the house elf of a Most Ancient and Noble House. And he is nearly one thousand years old, I guess he has his ways,” Sirius said.

Hermione was rather distracted by this information, and they moved to other, lighter topics. But Harry promised himself, to remember to ask Hermione to become his sister after he had taken his lordship in the future.

In a dilapidated shack in the woods near Little Hangleton the greatest Dark Lord of the century (debatable) was sitting on a conjured chair and scowled. He had no idea, what was going on in his world, as none of his followers answered his call after his strategic retreat from Malfoy Manor.

Aurors had swarmed it and easily caught his unfit and out-of-practice followers, so he did have no choice but to leave.

But it couldn’t be, that they all had been caught. Only a few had been at the Manor, after all. Were they all too frightened of the Ministry to come to his aid?

He scoffed and sent pain to all marks, regardless of the mark-bearer’s location. Those, who were in Azkaban should feel his wrath as well, he decided. He was too angry to differentiate.

A big snake brought a rabbit for his dinner, and he sent a killing curse at the snake in thanks. He was just so tired of rabbit roast.

The Dark Lord Voldemort roared. All of this was just so incredibly below his station!

The only follower he hadn’t contacted yet was Snape. He was too weary of the slippery man’s loyalties to call him. The chance that he would tell Dumbledore was just too great. He, Voldemort, was too vulnerable, he feared.

He sent another killing curse at the already dead snake.

A second after it had hit the carcass, he felt a strange pull within his body. Everywhere. It felt like his very blood tried to leave!

He screamed again and gathered his magic to hold himself together, for lack of a better description.

The pull got stronger, and he had to spend huge amounts of magic to keep himself together. It felt like he was running out very fast and so he started pulling magic from his followers. A just punishment for not answering his call!

But the pull didn’t stop. He felt like it tried to rip him apart even when his follower’s magic was starting to run low.

The only option he saw in his desperation, was the magic in the ring below his feet and its brethren's magic, and so he went ahead to suck all the magic out of his soul anchors connected to him. First the ring and Nagini, then the cup, the locket ( a very small part of him wondered why the locket was close to the cup), and then the rest.

When that well of magic had dried up, he tried to connect to one of the lay lines, but was too weakened. So in a rather unspectacular and quiet fashion, his body fell apart.

A small cloud of blood disappeared and a nearly empty robe fluttered and sank onto an enclosed rotting human hand and a human thigh bone.

No spirit left the scene, to go to Albania once more and most of the snakes just slithered away and left the area.

The hand and bones were found later by adventuring kids and posed a riddle to a myriad of constables and inspectors for quite some time.

Little Hangleton became rather famous for its mysterious murder scenes, first the unsolved murder of the Riddles and now this. Two human body parts, in very different states of decay.

Chapter Text

Sunday morning saw Sirius, Remus, Hermione, and Harry at breakfast, chatting about the rituals the day before.

“That Recall of Black Blood ritual took a rather long time, didn’t it?” Hermione asked. “Was that normal?”

“No, but my guess is that the dark wan…,” Sirius caught Remus’ scowl, “Uh... ah… Moldevort had much more magic at his disposal than the average wizard has, so he could resist longer.”

The others nodded, slightly amused by Sirius’ new name for Lord Voldemort.

“Good that we didn’t give up even when we were starting to lose our voices from chanting for so long,” Harry said emphatically. “It did work out after all. Even if it was very little blood, that came, but I remember Pettigrew only used a few drops… Anyway, I really wonder what it did to him.”

“Well, Severus’ dark mark disappeared, so Moldevort – I like that name! – is at least without a body, if not dead,” Remus said thoughtfully.

“The bad one is being dead, Kreacher thinks,” the house elf said to all of their surprise. “His Horcrux is being gone from the locket.”

“His Horcrux?!” Sirius and Remus yelled to the astonishment of the two teens, who looked at each other with incomprehension.

After a lot of emotional explanations about Regulus by Kreacher and Horcruxes in general by Sirius and Remus, the five were silent for a while.

Harry then asked, “Do you think he sucked the magic out of them, to hold himself together?”

“That would be my guess. He was anchored by and therefore connected to them,” Remus nodded thoughtfully.

“That would explain why it took so long, right?” Hermione asked. Her mind was whirling about the implications of a soul and parts being ripped off of it.

The rest nodded and Kreacher got up and said, “The Daily Prophet arrived. Kreacher be getting it.”

“It is rather late again,” Sirius said. “I wonder what shocking news it contains today.”

They waited with some trepidation for this day’s news.

Soon, Sirius could open the papers and exclaimed in shock, “He had another source of magic! Oh, wow! Albus! How?”

“What? His magical source was Headmaster Dumbledore?” Hermione exclaimed in shock.

“What? No!” Sirius held up the front page for them all to see and this time two headlines fought for the top space on the front page:

ALL

DEATH

EATERS

DEAD

And

DUMBLEDORE

GONE

INSANE

“What?”, “How?”, “What about Severus?”

“Okay, let me read the first article, or better, let me read it out loud, all right? Let’s see,” Sirius opened the paper and started to read, “Yesterday, late afternoon, all of the alleged Death Eaters in the holding cells at the Ministry started screaming for the third time that afternoon. As reported before, they seemed to be getting tortured via their dark marks, which they have on their arms (see yesterday’s edition for more information). This had already happened multiple times while they were in holding. But this time was different. It went on for much longer and they seemed to get weaker with the minute.

“A healer – who always is on standby whenever there are prisoners in holding – cast diagnostic charms on them and reported that their magical cores were being drained but the healer could not determine the cause. The healer tried all they could think of but to no avail. The Death Eaters were all drained completely. Leaving them muggles. But it didn’t stop there. As their life force was being pulled out of them as well until they all succumbed and died. – Questions were raised, who had done it (You-Know-Who?), why (Punishment? Need for Magic?), and what of the incarcerated Death Eaters in Azkaban? Well, let me tell you, they are all dead as well. Every single one of them.

“So, what did their master need so much magic for? It can only have been You-Know-Who, right? We at the Daily Prophet are shivering in our boots at the thought of such a powerful Dark Lord somewhere out there. To sacrifice all of one’s (known) followers is a rather bold and horrible move, after all.” Sirius’ voice trailed off.

 Silence.

“We killed them all?” Harry said rather weakly.

“Nope pup, Modlevort did that. We only took back what he stole. Nothing more, nothing less. He decided to drain his Horcrux and his own followers in order to stay in his body. He didn’t have to. He was anchored to the physical world after all. Because, I am sure, he drained his followers first and the Horcrux later. And he didn’t have to pull their life forces. He sucked them all dry. He could have just gone back to being a wraith and tried once more,” Sirius said quite vehemently.

Harry looked thoughtful and then nodded, “You are right. Phew. And Professor Snape was alive and kicking yesterday evening, thanks to the ring changing his mark. They seemed to have forgotten about him in the papers.”

Hermione looked anxiously at Sirius, “And Professor Dumbledore?”

“You can’t help yourself in being respectful, hm?” Sirius teased her, “All right, let’s see,” and he started reading again. “Albus Dumbledore, who was in a holding cell next to the ones all the Death Eaters were at, watched in horror as the events unfolded as described on page 2. When it became obvious that magic was being drained, he started calling for his phoenix again as he had done for the last few days. But again, the majestic bird didn’t come. Dumbledore got more and more anxious but when the first of the Death Eaters died, he went insane. He absolutely did. Yelling and swearing and spilling a lot of strange things.

“Here are some examples:

• No! They cannot die! They need to help reinstate the Dumbledore family as an Old Major House again! I have the money! Nearly all of it!
• Ring! I want my ring back! No one should have them if I don’t!
• Harry! Where is he? He needs to die! Now! It is his fate!
• Gellert, I am sorry! I tried! We should have been together by now! Young again!

And more of that kind. Until he started frothing at the mouth and the already very busy healer banished a potion into his stomach, making him go quiet and docile.

“You can imagine our horror while witnessing this. (As you know, dear readers, the press can enter the holding cells at the Ministry, but not directly engage with the prisoners.) Now the former Headmaster was later assessed, and one of the trainees muttered, ‘He has snapped, all right’. Well, dear readers, we are rather speechless by now. Snapped? What does that mean?

“Unfortunately, the DMLE hadn’t yet interrogated Dumbledore and so his words were all that we can get for the time being on the question of why the formerly so respected man had done all of these illegal things he has been accused of... We will keep you updated in the coming days.”

The silence after Sirius had stopped reading was even longer.

“…” Harry tried to say.

“Yeah…” Sirius answered.

“That’s heavy…” Remus answered.

“Who did he mean with ‘Gellert’? I only know of Gellert Grindelwald,” Hermione’s brain had started to engage again.

“Uh…”

“Is that what he wanted all that money for? To change the status of his family from a Minor to an Olde Major House? Can one even buy that?” Harry asked.

“I think there was some scandal last century with the family, and they got downgraded to a Minor House because of that and they lost the ability to use their rings. One can pay, to get one’s House reinstated again after one century. But it is shockingly expensive. I think the Weasleys had the same problem.”

“Wow… Talk about ‘dark and evil’, huh? He wanted back into the higher echelons of our society. What a hypocritical moron!”

“Well, let’s take it all with a grain of salt, all right? After all, he seemed to have a psychotic break or something like that,” Remus cautioned. “Maybe the healers can help him, and he can be questioned about it all, later.”

“Yeah, right. They have such an amazing track record, after all,” Harry groused. “Let’s not suggest Gringotts to them. He can stay crazy for all I care if he wants me dead!”

“Right.”

“You bet.”

“Oh, Harry!” Harry was engulfed in a rather tight hug by a teary-eyed Hermione.

Sirius swore to himself to tell all the others in the know not to insist on Dumbledore being brought to Gringotts. He figured they wouldn’t be able to help the man anyway, but still.

At lunchtime, a smiling and surprisingly handsome-looking Severus entered the kitchen.

“Something is different,” Hermione muttered.

“He is smiling,” Sirius, who sat facing the door now, said in wonderment.

Remus nodded, looking equally baffled.

“You took the potion,” Harry exclaimed.

“Huh?” Sirius blinked. “Oh! When did that happen?”

“A few days ago. But no one noticed, until now.”

“Well, in our defence, you used to snarl and pull back your lips baring your teeth, in earlier years. But not anymore. And you don’t smile much either…” Harry explained.

“I know Mr. Potter, I am not disappointed no one noticed. I mean, no one seemed to have seen the difference in your appearance, either.”

“That’s not true,” Hermione protested, “I have noticed his new glasses and clothes.”

“But not the most important thing,” Severus said.

Harry sniggered.

“What?” Hermione stared at Harry. “No. Everything else is the same. Right?” Hermione asked Remus, who nodded just as clueless-looking.

“Do you think, it might have been a Horcrux as well, Severus?” Sirius asked.

“A Horcrux? What are you on about?” Severus looked shocked.

“Right, sorry. Let me fill you in. You see, Kreacher here…” And with that Severus was filled in, while Hermione and Remus stared at Harry, trying to figure out the change, but listening in.

When Sirius had finished, Severus said thoughtfully, “So, you think he tried to make another one but was involuntarily stopped by toddler Harry? And that it latched onto the baby? Hmm… quite possible. But the Dark Lord wouldn’t have been able to finish the ritual and therefore the family ring was able to purify it. That’s what happened, am I right?”

Harry and Sirius nodded, and Hermione and Remus were frowning at them, until Hermione exclaimed, “Your scar.”

Harry nodded grinning and swept up his hair, to show her his forehead with the nearly invisible scar.

“Oh, Harry!”

He got hugged tightly again.

Chapter Text

The next Friday they had their Order meeting once again and Moody started it by saying, “Well, much has happened last week. The wizarding world got informed that all Death Eaters died, except for Snape here. And that Albus went bat-shit-crazy. The only really open topic now is You-Know-Who.”

Severus nodded and said, “Evidence points to the fact that he is gone as well. The most obvious one would be that my dark mark has completely disappeared. It didn’t when the Dark Lord had been defeated in ’81 and was able to return last summer. Maybe he was attacked in some way and tried to defend himself with everything at his disposal. I think that is why he might have drained all of his followers.

“But not you?” The old auror asked in a gruff voice.

“No, my mark had been changed by the Prince family ring, which I donned before last weekend, luckily.”

Moody nodded, “All the marks on the now-dead Death Eaters had disappeared as well. I came to the same conclusion as you. I just couldn’t figure out how you survived. Well, let’s agree to keep our eyes and ears open, but not worry about that bastard anymore, all right?”

Everyone was nodding and Moody wondered if some knew more about what happened, but decided to let it rest. They had enough to worry about now.

Well,” he went on, “Then let’s talk about our former leader. Anything new, that wasn’t in the papers?” He scowled.

“Well, I can report that as of today all of Dumbledore’s illegally obtained money has been returned with interest to all wronged parties. There is little left for Aberforth to manage, but he is content with what he has and is happy the Dumbledore name is going to die out soon,” Bill told them.

“Furthermore, I have to tell you that Mum has had a nervous breakdown after the news about Dumbledore came out and Ron wouldn’t stop shouting. So, Dad and I packed them up and brought them to Gringotts. I had wanted to do that anyway, but Mum had declined it before.

“I had hoped that they had been messed with emotionally, but the goblins could find no evidence of it. Mum really is the Dumbledore worshipper she always portrayed and Ron is the berk he has shown us. 

“But on a hunch I had them scan Dad as well, and yeah… Dumbledore messed with his emotions. He was made really meek and submissive. That has changed now for sure. “Mum is at the hospital right now. The goblins couldn’t help, after all. It’s just her, no outside influence… First, the healers thought there might be a connection to Dumbledore’s break, but apparently, it’s another illness altogether. Just the symptoms are similar…

“Ron on the other hand is experiencing horrible hardship in his opinion. He must complete all the homework he has delayed doing until now and has to help in the kitchen. The torture,” Bill said sarcastically.

“Well, I am happy to hear that Arthur has found his backbone again. I will invite him to come to visit soon,” Sirius decided.

Bill nodded thankfully. His dad could need all of his friends right now.

“Oh, and one more thing. The goblins have decided that every visitor to the bank needs to do a mandatory scan now, once. To ensure that we get everyone Albus has messed with,” Bill added.

Severus smiled internally when hearing this.

Moody nodded, “I have additional information about Albus’ possible motivation for stealing all that money. I talked to Aberforth just before coming here and he told me, that in 1891 their father Percival Dumbledore was sentenced to Azkaban for life because he had assaulted three Muggle boys and the Wizengamot – or better the Lords in it – lowered the standing of the Olde Major House of Dumbledore down to Minor. Aberforth told me, that when their father was led out of the courtroom, he told Albus to do his duty and take care of the family and to restore the Dumbledore name and standing.

“Apparently, Albus didn’t do so well with the first task. His mother and sister died tragically before he was twenty and while Abe was still in school. So Abe thinks that Albus must have developed an obsession to at least manage to fulfill the second task his father gave him. – Anyway, what about Hogwarts, Minerva?”

Minerva shook herself out of her thoughts and said, “Well, it doesn’t excuse his messing us up and making us dance to his tune! But you asked about Hogwarts… things are looking up. As Bill said, Hogwarts and everyone swindled out of money has gotten it back with interest. It were some nice and tidy sums, let me tell you,” she grinned to Severus whose mouth twitched a little, trying to answer her smile.

She went on, “The next great news is, that the goblins have found and destroyed the curse on the Defense post. It was on the four-poster bed, in the suit for Defense teachers. How he got into that room, is everybody’s guess. Some even speculated that not You-Know-Who but Dumbledore might have cast it. But it had already been destroyed, so we couldn’t check. So, another unresolved riddle,” now she scowled.

“Anyway, the posts for headmaster and deputy are soon to be filled by some administrators, from a school in Malta and another one in Canada. Let’s hope, they bring the school into this century before it ends.  It’s good to sit back and concentrate on teaching and on my house, let me tell you.”

Everyone smiled at the fierce speech from Minerva.

“And the governors?” Sirius asked scowling.

“Have been disbanded. They certainly didn’t do their jobs of oversight of the headmaster and the school but earned themselves quite some money for doing nothing. And, as they aren’t necessary according to the rulebook they were thrown out. It was quite satisfactory to do that, let me tell you.”

Here even Severus grinned in remembrance, and he nodded, “Never anger all four heads of houses at once.”

“Oh, and all the muggle-born and -raised, who hadn’t seen a healer before, are now vaccinated and their health has been seen to,” Minerva told them and then had to explain that statement, as most heard about it for the first time. She added, “And now, Poppy is on a dental crusade. Apparently, our world has gone lazy regarding our teeth. So watch out for her, or get them fixed.”

“That’s why Tom has teeth now. White teeth,” Tonks exclaimed. “I nearly fell over my own feet, when I saw him last time.”

“You fall over your own feet just by standing upright,” Moody groused and Tonks scowled.

“Walked right into that, Tonksie,” Sirius teased her, “Or rather, you stumbled.”

Sniggers.

Even Tonks had to grin.

“All right, anything else?” Moody brought them back on track.

Sirius answered ginning, “Well, as you all know, I have been exonerated at last. –  And it seems that the DMLE and Wizengamot Administration Services have found out who votes with the Potter votes, and they are in the process of checking if it was the deciding vote in any ballot and if so if it was cast according to the Potter guidelines. They have to go back fourteen years, so it might take a while. But the werewolf legislation seems to have been such a vote and it just might be, that it will be overturned. If not, I will have it revised, like some other bills, which went into becoming law in the last fifty years…

“As I have just implied, I have taken the Black seat and also the Potter’s vote, with Harry’s permission. That guy, someone from the Filch family, kicked up quite the fuss if you can believe it. Well, let’s hope he goes to Gringotts soon and gets some help if needed. If they find nothing, I will file a complaint against him.

“Oh, and Andy got the ‘Harry Potter Adventure Books’ moved into fiction and Harry will receive all the royalties for them from now on. Aaaaand the Prophet has no permission anymore, to publish anything about Harry.”

“Hear, hear,” Remus called out.

“Anything else?” Moody asked.

“Well, what about Hagrid? Shouldn’t we recall him? There will be no war after all, apparently,” Remus asked.

“Damn, you are right. I will write him at once.” Moody said angry with himself for not thinking of the gentle half-giant.

“Make sure to send a smart owl and a long-distance one, as well. And tell her to wait if there is an answer but to stay clear of any giant.”

Moody nodded and sighed, “Well, I have one last point. You remember your homework from the last meeting?” He was met with mostly questioning looks. He sighed again, “Why we possibly guarded the DoM entrance…”

Comprehension.

Shacklebolt answered rather haltingly, “Well, there are many things in the DoM, but one thing Dumbledore said stuck with me. Something about Harry and fate. Couldn’t it be something in the Hall of Prophecies?”

Severus flinched rather visibly.

When they all looked at him, he nodded and haltingly told them of the prophecy, he had overheard in his Death Eater days.

Seeing how devastated the man was still, Sirius couldn’t even dredge up any anger with Severus. He felt rather compassionate toward him, to his own amazement.

“Damn, that all sounds orchestrated by Albus,” Moody sighted.

Severus looked up in surprise, “You think…”

“For sure. Having a job interview in the Hogshead in the middle of a war? Bah. You, hearing exactly enough to make You-Know-Who worry? Yes, that reeks of someone pulling the strings.”

Severus started to use his mind to analyze the situation and not his heart and couldn’t help but agree.

Moody scowled, “So it was probably some elaborate plot of some kind. Those two seem to have had a great love for them. Maybe to lure You-Know-Who to the Ministry. Maybe Potter as well. After all, according to Albus, the boy had to die.”

“Merlin, I hate that man,” Sirius exclaimed and the rest nodded. “So now what?”

“Well, one day, Potter might want to take a look, but no hurry,” Shacklebolt suggested, and the rest nodded.

“So that’s it? We keep our eyes and ears open; I inform Hagrid and steer him towards Gringotts, and we all go on with our lives?” Moody asked.

“As long as you don’t forget Dung and Figg, I agree,” Sirius said and the rest voiced their agreement as well. “I would also suggest we do not announce our belief that You-know-who is dead. It will keep everyone wondering and a little on edge. That way our society will not fall back into their old lazy and corrupt ways and complacency again.”

The others nodded thoughtfully.

“Right. Then we are disbanding the Order until further notice,” Moody said and the rest cheered, because it meant, the danger was gone.

And now their meeting dissolved into quite the party, much to Sirius’ delight.

Chapter Text

“How?”

“What?”

Harry sighed, “How was it all my fault?”

Ron blustered and answered angrily, “You know, how.”

Harry shook his head, “I really don’t. Enlighten me, please.”

“What?”

“Please tell me in more detail how you came to the conclusion, that I am responsible for all your woes, whatever they might contain.”

Ron’s face got even redder, much to Harry’s amazement, and yelled at his former friend, “Stop talking like a stuck-up.”

“I bet he didn’t understand a word and is deflecting now,” they heard from another student standing close by, who was watching the confrontation in the courtyard of Hogwarts.

Harry grinned at Daphne, who had said that to Theo.

Ron yelled at her, “Shut up, Death Eater.”

She coldly answered, “I am not dead, am I?”

“What?”

Theo sighed, “This is getting boring. Come, Harry, we are to meet the others soon. Luna promised to show us a wackspurt.”

Harry grinned and then looked back to Ron, “Sorry Ron, good talk, see you later,” and moved away from the other boy, who was reaching out to grab his shoulder, but Harry ducked away.

“Hey! We were talking,” Ron yelled at the retreating back of his former friend.

Someone else said, “Talking…, my ass.”

Ron whirled around but was met with a lot of judgemental faces, yelled out in frustration, and stomped off.

Potter! If not for him, his mum wouldn’t be at St. Mungo’s, Dumbledore would not be there either and he, Ron would be still on top of the food chain in Hogwarts! “Gah!” he yelled at a passing first-year who jumped back startled and scurried off.

“Are you alright?” Daphne quietly asked Harry on their way to their lair, which they had started calling ‘their’ empty classroom.

“Yeah, just sad, you know? I don’t understand, how he can possibly blame me for everything. We were best mates for three years and now, since he came back from his suspension, he is like this…”

“He is a moron, in the midst of puberty, looking for a scapegoat for all of his problems and you make the easiest target in his tiny mind,” Theo explained, and Harry nodded sadly.

“I just wish it weren’t so…”

“If wishes were hippogriffs, right?” A new voice said behind them and Luna linked her arm with Harry’s, saying, “He will calm down, you know? But you never will be more than acquaintances from now on.”

Harry nodded sadly and they entered ‘their’ room, which they had transformed into a small and cozy common room. At least, he and his other friends had formed a friendship with the quirky Ravenclaw he had met on the train at the beginning of this school year. One day she had just walked into their room, sat down, and said, “Hi.” and that was it.

Unbeknownst to them (except to Luna) the house elves had warded the room so that only they could see and enter it. Like the elves had done for many students before them. They had long-standing orders going back to Helga Hufflepuff to do exactly that. But only if decency was being kept.

In the room, Hermione, Tracy, and Blaise already were in deep discussion. About the British Museum of all things. Waving distractedly at their arriving friends.

“So, the only one missing is Nev?” Harry said and fell onto an inviting couch and sighed.

“What about the Hufflepuffs you are getting friendlier with? Did you invite them as well?” Daphne asked.

Harry shook his head, “No, not yet. We are just getting to know each other, now that we have cleared the air between us. There is still some stuff to unpack and trust to be built. Maybe next year? I mean, after yule. And I will ask you all before I invite anyone.”

Theo nodded, “Who are you thinking of exactly??”

“Susann, Hannah, Justin, and Ernie. They are nice, I think. Not Zach.”

Tracy, who had started to listen in chimed in, “Neville will be happy to hear that. About Hannah, I mean.”

They all sniggered, thinking about Neville who was always getting flustered when the girl was nearby.

“I bet he is digging and weeding in one of the greenhouses and has forgotten the time, again,” a ginning Hermione huffed.

“He tends to do that,” Harry nodded to his future sister. As soon as he took the Potter ring, he would ask her, for sure. Maybe in the summer after school ended?  He wasn’t in much of a hurry to take up his lordship anymore after most of his problems seemed to have disappeared. Sirius was his legal guardian now. No more Dursleys. Ever.

Harry sighed in contentment and mused if it had been the right decision to allow Sirius, Remus, and Severus (as he was allowed to call the man when at Grimmauld now) to cast just the same small spell on the three muggles in retaliation for Harry’s miserable childhood. They had not been allowed to do anything hurtful.

Apparently, they had decided on a truth spell that worked wonders when cast on Muggles. Aunt Petunia, Uncle Vernon, and Dudley could not lie anymore. Poor them. Harry sniggered, imagining his relatives telling their neighbors, colleagues, and schoolmates what they really were thinking of them. Oh, the embarrassment and disgrace. (The only thing they couldn’t tell the truth about was the wizarding world. Severus made sure of that.)

Meanwhile, Daphne filled the others in about the confrontation that had just happened in the courtyard.

“That boy,” Hermione sighed. “Well, I hope Bill and his dad can help him become a decent human being now…”

Tracy clapped her hands and said, “Different topic! This one is depressing. Now, who do you think we have to thank, for the dental intervention Madame Pomfrey has started? It’s so much better now and it’s spreading in the wizarding world after the Daily Prophet wrote an article about it.”

“And said in it that our teeth were worse than the ones of muggles overall,” Blaise grinned. “Very Slytherin.”

Harry grinned too, “I think Tom the barkeep of the Leaky is the best advertisement.”

Hermione agreed, “If he would clean up his taproom as well, it would be perfect. But to your question, Tracy, the first one I know who used the potion was Sirius Black, to my knowledge.”

Harry looked impressively innocent when all looked to him in question, “I might have started asking questions about it to Sirius and then Professor Snape.” He hedged.

“My hero!” Tracy crowed throwing her arms in the air and they all laughed.

“Oh, on another topic, did you all see Professor Lupin this morning? Wasn’t the full moon yesterday night and he had said earlier, he needed one day to recover from the transformation?” Theo asked.

Harry perked up even more and nodded happily, “You remember when I told you about him becoming part of the Black family and this unknown curse, the family ring purified him off?”

They all nodded and he went on, “The transformation is now nearly painless and so he doesn’t need time off anymore.”

“That’s great!”

“Cool!”

“I wonder if his bite still is infectious?” Hermione mused, “But how to test that? Does he lose his mind when transformed, still?”

“No idea about your first two questions,” Harry answered, “But to your last one, no, he doesn’t. Moony is in charge but Remus is aware and it seems to be a much more symbiotic relationship between human and wolf now. Remus, Ted Tonks, and Professor Snape are planning to study this curse and a possible cure with Sirius as the financial backer.”

“Good!” came from all sides.

“Do you think Neville will ever arrive?” Tracy asked then.

“No, he lost track again. But it doesn’t matter. I will show you another time,” Luna said smiling. She was just overjoyed to have actual friends now.

The rest sniggered and settled back into their couches.

“Did Johnson invite you back onto the team, Harry?” Blaise asked and Harry shook his head.

“No, she didn’t. She probably was told what I said about having no time anymore… But I told Katie about Ginny and her ability to fly and they are training her now.”

“She is lucky, the school has decent brooms now, wouldn’t you say?” Blaise grinned and they all nodded emphatically. It was amazing what the school with funds and a decent headmistress and deputy headmaster could do in just two weeks.

“I heard they are hiring more teachers to help with the current subjects and are planning to reinstate a lot of courses, Dumbledore had dropped and taken the funds for himself,” Hermione sighed in pleasure. “The school is becoming much more like I had dreamed when I first learned of it.”

They grinned at the happy bookworm and decided to go and look for dinner In the Great Hall.

On their way there Harry said to Daphne, “You remember when I told you all about my hearing in front of the Wizengamot?”

“Yes, it seemed to be a bit similar to the conservation with Weasley, earlier.”

“Exactly. That’s why I was thinking about it again. Do you know what the strangest thing about it is?”

“All the changes that hearing kicked off?”

“Hm, that too, but no. The strangest thing is, that I still have no answer.”

“What do you mean.”

“I still don’t understand, how Fudge knew, that a ‘muggle’ had been at the site when I cast the Patronus, while the two dementors went undetected.”

The end.

Chapter Text

Early summer, 1998

Harry and Sirius walked up the steps to Gringotts.

Many wizards and witches stopped to watch the two extremely dashing aristocrats with appreciation. A Lord and his heir, a revered member of the Wizengamot and the Boy-Who-Lived. They were famous and so handsome.

Many a woman sighed.

Sirius Black was as handsome as he had been before his stint in Azkaban but more mature and poised, and Harry Potter had grown like a weed since his 5^th year and had started to fill out a little. he still was rather slender, but he moved with such elegance.

“I heard Harry Potter got engaged Did you know?” one witch said to another.

The other one looked startled, “Oh! To which one? The Lovegood girl? Granger? Weasley? There were so many rumors and the Prophet is not reporting on it anymore-”

They both scowled.

“No, the older Greengrass girl, as far as I heard. Apparently, they have been a couple for two years.”

“No! But what about all the other girls?”

“Where just gossip, it seems.”

“Bah! Interfering busybodies! All of them!”

Her fellow pillar of the community nodded sagely, “Yes, always waggling their tongues.”

“Disgraceful, let me tell you! So, what do you think the two of them are doing at the bank now?”

“Well, Harry Potter might take up his Lordship, don’t you think?”

“Oh, you are right. What will that entail, do you think?”

“No idea. Something about these rings, I guess.”

Her friend nodded, “Right. Well, I must be off. I need fresh salamander tongues and they are always sold out first!”

“Good luck! And see you Saturday.”

Her friend waved and rushed off.

Meanwhile, the two wizards had entered Harry’s account manager’s office and taken the offered seats.

“Good morning, Senior Account Manager Grootknife. How are you?” Harry asked.

“Very well, Mr. Potter, earnings are good. Yours, as well as mine. Now, what can I do for you, today?”

“Well, Sirius here is tired of manning our seats at the Wizengamot by himself and ordered me, to take up my lordship at last.”

“Very well. You have been to the inheritance office to ensure the ring will not reject you, am I right?”

“Yes, two years ago. But I decided to wait as I had much to learn and wasn’t considered an adult anyways.”

The goblin nodded and answered, “Very well, as you are wearing a family ring already, so we can be sure no health issues will occur, here is your ring,” with that he put a small ring case in front of Harry, who took it and unceremoniously put the small ring he found in it on his right-hand finger above his Black heir ring. The new ring resized to fit perfectly and grew as well, to resemble a signet ring, like Sirius was wearing. Just with the Potter coat of arms engraved in it.

Harry felt new but also familiar magic wash over him and then settle in his core. It bolstered him and gave him some knowledge about the properties, the Potters owned. There were more and bigger than expected. Additionally, wards were connected to him, from said properties.

“Oh,” he sighed.

“Quite the influx of knowledge, right?” Sirius asked. “Be aware, that some knowledge will only appear, should you need it. Like hidden paths and passwords.”

Harry nodded, quite in awe of the wizards and witches of old, for managing to craft such amazing artifacts.

Harry started, “Right. That reminds me. I really would like to know, which knight of the round table I descend from.”

“Well, I can answer that, now that you have the ring,” The goblin answered and grinned at the faces full of expectation on his clients. “The knight you do descent from was known as Peredur.”

“Oh,” Harry looked a little dejected.

“Which is the Welsch and the original name for the knight, also known as Perceval or Parzival.”

“Woah,” Harry exclaimed, wide-eyed. “Percival – Peredur – Potter?”

“Indeed. He married into the Peverell family. A daughter or granddaughter of the third brother I think.”

“Huh, I wonder how the name Potter emerged out of Peredur and Peverell?”

“The family journals will tell you, but I believe one of your ancestors had to hide during the 15^th century and changed his name, to accomplish that. What was meant to be just temporary stuck, as he had started a family and fathered many children known as the little Potters, I believe.”

Harry chuckled, “And so here I am, centuries later, still a Potter.”

“You can always change it back to Peredur or Peverell if you want to, you know?” Sirius said.

“Hm, I will confer with Daphne about it. It would make sense to do it before we marry and have any little Potters ourselves. She already complained playfully that she was going to be Daphne Potter soon.”

“Not as pretty-sounding as Daphne Greengrass,” Sirius agreed. “Good thinking. It will affect both of you, after all.”

Harry nodded, “Yes, we are equal partners in this.”

The goblin nodded as well, “Was that all my lords?”

Harry blinked and then nodded his head, “Yes, I think it was, wouldn’t you say, Sirius? The rest of my estate is in order, as far as I am concerned. Thank you, Senior Account Manager Grootknife.” Harry got up and bowed slightly to the goblin.

Deep in the bowels of Gringotts, Hagrid was taking care of their blind dragon. The beastie was doing so much better now, he thought happily.

He had arrived at Gringotts with Moody, who had recalled him from his mission of gaining the help of the giants, a couple of years ago. He had been so confused.

That was until goblin Basilroot had healed his feelings, which Albus had greatly messed with.

He had felt so betrayed and angry and had lost all his trust in wizards and so had asked the goblins if they had a job for him.

They did.

Harry and Daphne were standing in front of Potter Manor in Wales, which he just had learned he had inherited.

According to his godfather, his father James Potter had listened to Dumbledore and had never donned the Potter ring, and therefore never gained the Lordship after Harry’s Grandfather’s death and by doing so, had lost all knowledge of the estate he had rightfully inherited.

If they had hidden here…

But this was a happy day, so he pushed all thoughts about Dumbledore and imaginary ‘what-ifs’ out of his mind.

“Well, that is a pretty meadow,” Daphne remarked dryly.

“Huh? Oh.” Harry chuckled and reached for Daphne’s hand, so she could see, what was actually there.

“Ah, that makes more sense. Well, that does not look like the dwelling of a potter.”

“Nope, this manor was built on the foundations of the castle of Peredur, also known as Perceval, knight of the round table.”

“Sweet Morgana! That is more like it. Why the name ‘Potter’ then?”

Harry told her what he had learned that morning.

“So, you would not be averse to changing your last name?”

“Not at all. I mean, it’s a new chapter in my life now, and ‘Harry Potter’ is such a household name for a child hero. And you will change your last name as well. Why not me too, to celebrate our union.”

Daphne did something she rarely did, she beamed at him, “You are the best fiance a woman can find.”

Harry blushed and kissed the knuckles of the hand he was holding.

She thought about it, “So you could either use ‘Peredur’ or ‘Peverell’, right?”

“Exactly.”

“Hm. Harry and Daphne Peredur. Daphne and Harry Peverell. I like both. Do you have any preferences?”

“Hm, I like both too. My gut says, better take Peverell. Maybe we can name one of our sons Peredur.”

“Right. Children.”

“You know we have time to talk about that later. I mean, we decided our wedding will not be before we are twenty-one and children are further along the line.”

“I am so grateful for contraceptive charms and potions.”

“Oh yeah,” Harry had a silly grin on his face, making Daphne chuckle.

“Mind out of the bedroom. Say, how many children do you want to have, anyways?”

“Many!”

“Is that so?”

“Oh, it depends mostly on you, though, but I am happy with every child you are willing to carry.”

Daphne chuckled, “Good answer. Well, we would need one heir for the Potter, or better the Peverell name. One for the Greengrass estate and maybe one for the Black family name, depending on your godfather.”

Harry smiled happily, “So three at least?”

“If we like parenthood, we always can talk about adopting more, but I don’t think I want to carry any more than three.”

“Understandable. But I am happy you might consider adopting as well. Davis, from the Improper Use of Magic Office – where I started my internship, you know? –  well, he told me, they are finding more and more muggle-born who would have fallen through the cracks in earlier times. Most are in desperate need of a family.”

“Let me guess. Dumbledore and a formerly incompetent Ministry at work again?”

“It surely seems so. Davis has had the job as office head for 2 ½ years now and says he still finds idiotic rules and procedures once in a while.”

“Amazing. Good that Bones has the reins now. But anyway. Let’s have a look at that ‘little’ house of yours.”

Harry snorted and they walked through the gates, which opened for them by themselves.

‘Don’t be as stubborn as Johnson’, had become an often used saying in the Wizarding World. It originated from Hogwarts and people knew it had something to do with Quidditch.

Angie, who rued the day she had let Harry walk off and then been too hard-headed to ask him back, changed her last name. All because of that saying.

She mellowed out a little, but not much since her dad whom only her abridged version of the story to work with, had praised her proudly.

2001

Ron scowled at the Daily Prophet in his hands. Damn! Harry was marrying that pretty Slytherin girl today.

What a waste! He had hoped, Harry would marry Ginny and become his brother-in-law. But no, Ginny had to decide that she liked girls better than boys and to become a Quidditch star and Harry had changed his famous name into a stuffy old one. The stupid idiot, the teenage part in Ron scoffed. The small adult part was just sad and resigned.

“Good morning Ron,” his dad greeted him and sat down to eat the breakfast Ron had prepared.

Ron nodded.

“Anything in the papers, son?”

“Well, the Wizengamot and the Minister have signed the muggle-born equality act into law and Harry’s wedding is today…”

“That is great to hear, son. Well, I must be off. Thank you for breakfast, son.”

Ron nodded and got ready to go to work in the kitchens of the Leaky Caldron.

At least he liked cooking now and thankfully had inherited his mother’s talent.

Daphne and Harry Peverell had three children. Peredur Remus Peverell, Primrose Siri Peverell-Greengrass, and Pollux Severus Peverell-Black.

And their house became a home for many muggle-born children, which Harry collected in his work at his Office for Magical Child Services. They adopted quite a bunch of them themselves and Harry was always busy with finding good families for the rest. Rather successfully.

The Dursleys on the other hand did not have such a nice life. All of them landed in prison after they told about the child abuse of their nephew (Petunia), embezzlement of company money and sexual assault of a co-worker (Vernon), and physical assault and drug dealings (Dudley). Even Marge landed herself a prison sentence for animal cruelty and the physical and verbal assault of an animal-rights activist.

Sadly, no one ever thought to scan them.

Somehow, after Gringotts was checking everyone to the wizarding world’s knowledge it didn’t occur to anyone, and Harry had just wanted to put his childhood behind him.

Albus and Molly spend the rest of their days in the long-term ward of St. Mungo’s Hospital, while their broken minds remained unfixed.

And Hogwarts? Well, it became the premier school for magic it always had claimed to be.

With a rather content Minerva McGonagall, a long-term Defense teacher named Remus Lupin, and the renowned Potions Master Severus Snape.

The last two could often be found at 12 Grimmauld Place visiting Lord Sirius Black, or at Peverell Manor, seeing their godsons and the rest of the huge family.

2003

At Gringotts, the last person who had their emotional center messed with by Dumbledore was discovered and healed. Their scanning and healing process had been so improved by all the scanning they did, they had invisible scanners installed at all of their branches by now.

Much money could be saved that way. And the scanners made them money as well, as the governments of all magical nations had the scanners installed in their buildings, too. (After making sure they had now mind-bending effect on the workers and visitors of said buildings.)

2009

Sirius heard the floo and the wards told him it were his blood brother and Severus, so he didn’t stop pretending to be the dragon, Pollux, his little five-year-old heir was fighting mightily with his wooden sword right now. (Thank Merlin for cushioning spells.)

Sirius the Dragon roared and was whacked over the head with the sword and ‘died’ a dramatic death just as the door was pushed open and Remus bounded into the room, crowing, “We did it!” at the same time, Knight Pollux yelled, “Victory! The evil dragon is dead!”

The ‘dragon’ didn’t know what to do. Stay in character or ask Remus what he was on about. Fortunately, Pollux decided it for him and yelled, “Uncle Sev!” and ran right past Remus to jump into Severus’ arms. The man grunted a little but caught the child easily. He was quite practiced by now, after all.

“Well, two accomplishments at the same time, isn’t that great?” Sirius grinned and got up from the floor, “You did what exactly?”

“We found the cure for the dark curse on the werewolves. A potion that works regardless of age and how much time has passed since they were bitten. Tested and documented.”

“That is amazing. Congratulations!”

“We are on our way to the Patent Office right now. Are you still sure, you don’t want any money for financing the research to make the recipe as inexpensive as possible?”

“Yes, I am sure. It’s my contribution to the wizarding world, I think.”

“Very good. Then let’s go, Severus.”

Pollux had to accept that his favorite uncle had to leave again and soon was happily slaying an ‘Acromantula’ until they were interrupted again by Aunt Hermione and Uncle Blaise and their twins, Pollux’s cousins, and bestest friends.

They had the best hair ever!

The end. Again.