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Chapter Text

The silence of the wood was broken as a rough voice cried out," Morsmodre." Harry peered in the direction where he felt the voice had come from but he could not penetrate the darkness of the surrounding woods. Even with whatever spell the voice had cast creating some light, Harry could still not see the caster. Giving it up as a bad job, Harry looked up as the woods began to fill with sounds of gasps and shrieks. At a guess, Harry put that down to the apparition of the ghostly skull in the process of eating, or was it vomiting out a snake?

"We need to get out of here," Ron said as he and Hermione grabbed Harry's arms and began to pull him out of the clearing.

"But shouldn't we find out who cast that spell?" Harry asked nodding towards where the voice had cast the spell from.

"No, trust me, we do not want to be found anywhere around here once they figure out where that spell was cast from," Ron said gesturing at the apparition above them.

The trio has barely taken three steps before the sound of people Apparating into the clearing. With the instincts that made him such a good Quidditch player, Harry took in the fact that A) he and his friends were surrounded and more importantly B) the Magicals around them all had their wands pointed right at them. "Get down," Harry said dropping to the forest floor and pulling Ron and Hermione down with him. Just in time too as the red beams of stunners shot over their heads in a crisscrossing pattern.

"Stop, stop firing everyone," the voice of Ron's dad called out as he lowered his wand and stepped forward.

"Stand aside, Arthur," Mr. Diggory said moving forward, his wand still aimed at Harry and his friends sprawled on the ground. "Which of you did it? Which of you cast the Dark Mark?"

"Come now, Amos, they are kids," Arthur said.

"Very well I can accept that, but they must have heard who really cast it," Amos said lowering his wand at last.

"We did it came from over there," Hermione said pointing at where they had heard the voice coming from.

"Very good," Amos said as he started to head in that direction.

"Is that wise?" Harry asked.

"What do you mean?" Amos asked stopping which allowed Harry to see that due to the barrage of spells some of the people who had Apparated in had also been hit by stunners and were being woken back up by their colleagues.

"Well, what if the person who cast the spell was not hit by a stunner or for whatever reason has not escaped?   You would be heading after them alone," Harry said.

"He does have a point, Amos. Or has the procedure changed since, I left the Aurors?" Mr. Weasley asked making Ron's mouth fall open in shock while Harry and Hermione shared confused looks.

"No it has not, but numerous stunners headed there it is most likely we got them," Amos said.

"Be that as it may I am still coming along with you just to be sure," Arthur said joining Amos as they headed towards where Hermione had pointed out the spell had been cast from.

"What is an Auror?" Harry quietly asked Ron.

"They are a specialized branch of the Magical Law Enforcement in the Ministry, but instead of just dealing with normal issues they deal with the darkest of dark magic and its castors. Sort of like those Swit guys in the Muggle police force.  During the war against You-Know-Who, they were on the front line to take down the man and his Death Eaters. Those are what his supporters called themselves," Ron explained seeing Harry's confused look.

"I take it, you did not know your father was one," Hermione said.

"No idea whatsoever, though that does sort of explain his lessons as we grew up to beware about cursed objects and the like," Ron answered back with a shrug.

"We got someone over here," Amos' voice called out making everyone, not stunned, pay attention. "That can't be right," Amos said his voice full of confusion.

"We are going to have to take a closer," Mr. Weasley's voice said when it suddenly stopped as a thud was heard.

"Dad, are you alright?" Ron yelled out worried that his father had been attacked.

"He is fine," Amos said sounding as if he was trying not to laugh. "He just tripped over a log or something." Ron facepalmed at his dad making a fool of himself in front of everyone as the other Ministry workers chuckled.

"That was no log. That felt like a body. Oh forget stealth Lumos," Mr. Weasley's voice called out.

"There is nothing there, Arthur you must have just tripped on your own feet," Amos said with a laugh from himself and some answering chuckles from the other Ministry workers.

"No I don't think so," Mr. Weasley's voice said as the sound of something patting the ground was heard. "See what do you make of this?"

"Make of what? Tell us what you found?" one of the Magicals still in the clearing called out.

"Well, Amos, let's find out," Mr. Weasley said as a sound of fabric rustling was heard.

"Dear Merlin, is that who I think it is?" Amos asked.

"I think so, Amos. You handle the Elf, I shall take him," Mr. Weasley said.

As the people gathered in the clearing wait to find out what the pair found another person showed up. "Did you get them?" Percy's boss asked looking around at the gathered Ministry workers.

"We think so, Lord Crouch," one of the crowd answered.

"Good someone is going to pay for this. The bloody fools who had been torturing the Muggles fled as soon as the Mark appeared and with all the foreign Magicals this is going to be a national disgrace if we can not deal with at least one of the problems," Lord Crouch said making Harry understand why Percy loved the man for he sounded official even when he wasn't saying really anything.

"Ah, Lord Crouch it is good that you came can you explain something to us?" Amos said exiting the tree line as he held a small form in his hands. Hermione gasped thinking it was a dead child but everyone else saw that it was the Elf, Mr. Weasley had mentioned.

"Winky, what does my House Elf have to do with this?" Crouch asked his face paling even in the sickly green light cast from the Mark overhead.

"The bigger question is how is your son involved?" Ron's dad asked as he entered the forest clearing behind Mr. Diggory levitating a body behind him. "We found the pair just a bit into the forest. Now can you explain how your son, whom my team captured years ago before he was sent to Azkaban, is here and wearing an Invisibility Cloak?"

"I am sure I don't know, Arthur," Crouch said though lacking his earlier bluster. "But even if had somehow escaped from Azkaban like Black he would need a wand to cast the Mark."

"Yes, indeed, he did not have a wand but your Elf did. It could be that he stole the wand and used it to cast the spell before she took it from him," Amos said.

"And what makes you think the wand is stolen?" one of the Ministry Members asked.

"Cause I know the wand, and I doubt the owner would have given it away," Mr. Weasley said as he pulled out the wand in question.

"That's my wand," Harry said making the Ministry Members turn to look at him.

"Yes Harry it is, and if Winky was able to get it she must have known your son was free Barty. And if she knew he was free and you did not show up for the game itself while she was there he could have taken the wand during the match. Harry, when did you first notice your wand was gone?" Mr. Weasley asked.

"When we first entered the forest I guess," Harry answered.

"Did you have it when you went to bed tonight?" Mr. Weasley asked.

"I don't know, I usually keep it in my robe pocket and I took off my robe before bed," Harry said wondering if his wand had been stolen before he and the others had been forced to flee into the forest.

"Now I want you to think back Harry what is the last spell you cast with your wand?" Mr. Weasley asked.

"Um, I think it was Feather-Light Charm on my trunks so it would be easier to carry out to the Dursleys."

"Thank you," Mr. Weasley said as he turned his wand on Harry's and cast a spell that made a roll of parchment appear from the end of Harry's wand. "Let's see yes here is the spell to summon the Mark, but there also appear to be several curses being cast and an anti-Imperios Charm used before we get to the last spell Harry cast. I am sorry Barty, I am going to have to take you all in for questioning," Arthur said gesturing at some of the Ministry workers who were no longer making fun of him but actually jumped to quickly follow his orders.

As the stunned man, House Elf, and Lord Crouch were taken away, Arthur relaxed a little as he handed Harry back his wand and took the three teenagers back to the campsite. As the small group left the woods they were accosted by numerous people all asking what was going on and if the mark was done by He-Who-Should-Not-Be-Named. The three teens were rather impressed as Mr. Weasley informed everyone that the person who had cast the Mark had been taken into custody and no he could not say who had done it for it was an active case as of that moment. Once Harry's group managed to get through the crowd and make it to the Weasley's tent, Mr. Weasley decided to leave for home immediately rather than wait for a Portkey. So with Mr. Weasley, Bill, Charlie, and Percy holding the younger Magicals' arms, the group Apparated back to the Burrow and finally got some sleep.

The next morning the Daily Prophet ran a story about the events of the night before but made no mention about Crouch being taken into custody for questioning. Mr. Weasley who had gone to work since he had been the one to call for Crouch to be taken in; informed them that the Ministry had placed a Magical Gag-Order on all the papers so they would not report on Crouch until they got the full story of events.

On the second day after the events at the World Cup, Harry received a face full of tea from Mrs. Weasley that morning she had read the headline of the Prophet and spat out her drink. "I am sorry Harry, dear," she said using her wand to clean him up.

"That is fine, Mrs. Weasley, is everything alright?" Harry asked for even though the gag order prevented the papers from talking about Crouch, it still reported that someone had died which was why the Mark had been cast.

"Peter Pettigrew was found alive," she said turning the paper to face him. Harry felt two impacts on either side of him as Ron and Hermione leaned in to read the article as well. It seems that Peter had shown up at the home belonging to Barty Crouch. Harry saw the gag order had ended as the article talked about the home being searched by members of the Magical Law Enforcement Office for the man's possible involvement in the Dark Mark being cast. Peter had managed to get past the Wards around the home only to find himself facing a full five-person team who quickly subdued him and brought him to the Ministry. Under a Truth Potion, the man told everyone how he had escaped death. Harry, Ron, and Hermione winced as the paper shared that he had spent the time since his "death" as a pet rat to a magical family, though thankfully not mentioning the Weasleys. Peter also explained that it had been him, not Sirius, who had been the Potter's Secret Keeper. His parent's betrayer even had gone as far as informing his questioner that he was a branded member of the Death Eaters with the Law Officers finding the proof on his right arm.

Harry's heart soured as the end of the article stated that with all this information the Ministry had called off the search for Sirius Black to send him back to Azkaban, but was now looking for him to both apologize and offer compensation for their mistakes. Dropping the paper Harry hugged his two best friends before he rushed up to Ron's bedroom so he could write to Sirius the good news. Harry hoped his Godfather could read the letter, for due to his excitement Harry's horrible handwriting had gotten even worse but he did not care Sirius was free which meant he did not have to go back to the Dursleys ever again.

Up in a cave in Southern Italy, Sirius took the measure of everything he had to deal with at the moment. While Wormtail was out there, the man was in a place Sirius could not even begin to guess at the moment so he could not do anything about that. Yet with him out of England, he did not have to worry about the British Ministry hunting him which was good. And since he had nothing really to do at the moment it gave him plenty of time to think. The first thing was the letter he had gotten from Harry about the dream of Wormtail having found old Voldyshorts was troubling.

There was something more important on his mind in regard to his Godson, and it could be summoned up in one word Albus. Sirius and his friends had trusted the man, maybe a little too much. For Albus being the one to cast the Fidelius Charm on the cottage at Godric's Hollow, knew that it had been Wormtail and not him who was the Potters Secret Keeper. When Sirius had first been sentenced to Azkaban he, himself had believed it was due to him killing Wormtail and the group of Muggles.   When no trial took place, he asked one of the human Wardens at the prison about it. The Warden had informed him that he was at Azkaban for betraying the Potters as their Secret Keeper.

Sirius had tried to protest but the Warden had put it down to the Dementors affecting his mind. Now knowing why he was there, Sirius was able to get himself out of his slump and pull himself together. And after a full year with still no trial, his trust in the Headmaster had shattered, which had only grown when he had met Harry. Knowing he was the boy's Godfather as they waited for the others to leave the passage under the Whooping Willow, he had offered to take Harry in with him. Seeing Harry respond with an instant yes troubled Sirius, who after he had been forced to flee on Buckbeak had tried to learn about Harry's home life. To his horror, as he used the spot he had first laid eyes on Harry since his release, he found his Godson was living with Lily's sister.

Knowing what type of woman Lily's sister was from both her and James's stories of the woman, as well as Harry's letters, Sirius really wanted to go and kidnap Harry from her, but that was no life for a child. Not wanting to fall into the temptation of kidnapping Harry, Sirius left shortly after Harry had returned from Hogwarts. He cursed himself for his choice of hideouts for he had gone from one temptation to another as he looked out of the cave at the familiar-looking manor house beside the beach. "I think it is time for us to go back to England, Buck," Sirus said as he bowed to his only companion since his escape from Hogwarts. Receiving a bow back, Sirius guided his friend out of the cave and with one last look at the beach-side manor took off towards his Godson once more.  Not trusting the Headmaster, Sirius decided to see if Remus had a place for him to stay. Which he could use for shelter but also find out why Remus had never gone to see how Harry had grown up.

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It took Sirius a couple of days to make his way to Remus' Cabin, so that by the time he finally arrived it was the day that the Prophet had released the article about Pettigrew. Not that either of them knew about it since Remus did not get the paper, and Sirius being on the run would never subscribe to it lest they use it to track him down. "Sirius what a pleasant surprise," Remus said as he opened the door to his secluded and Warded Cabin.

"Hey Remus, we need to have a chat," Sirius said pushing his way past his old friend and into the living room.

"Kay?" Remus said following him with a confused look on his face. "What about?"

"How about why you never went to check on Harry when he was growing up?" Sirius said almost growling.

"I had been told he living a happy and joyous life with his family," Remus answered still a little confused.

"By who?" Sirius asked though he had his suspension.

"Albus, of course, he is Harry's Magical Guardian," Remus said making Sirius rub his forehead as if fighting off a headache.

"You idiot," Sirius said, "I get that being alone for so long with nothing but your inner wolf for companionship is a bad thing, but I never knew it could get that bad."

"What do you mean?" Remus asked.

"Albus was never Harry's Magical Guardian.  Lily and James assigned that position to you. Don't you recall they had wanted to make you one of Harry's Godparents but due to England's anti-Creature laws they could not go through with it so they did the next best thing? And since a Magical Guardian is decided through Gringotts the Goblins approved of it as stated in their Wills. However, from what I have found out since I left Azkaban, the Wills were never read.

Also since you stated Harry came from a good home, let me ask you why did it take him so long to learn how to cast a Patronus? In a letter he had sent me earlier this summer, he told me all about his time at Hogwarts.   He told me it took him months for him to cast the spell properly, even when he was not face to face with the boggart-Dementor," Sirius said glaring at Remus a little.

"Well, to be honest, Harry told me that when he was around a Dementor he heard Lily, and later James's final moments.  I thought his desire to hear their voices had placed a block on his magic," Remus explained.

"Alright I guess that does make sort of sense," Sirius said calming down a little.

"Is that why you came just to point out how I failed, Harry?" Remus asked a little annoyed.

"Only a little bit. In truth, I wanted to be closer to Harry, since I received a letter from him a few days ago about how he felt his scar beginning to hurt," Sirius answered.

"His scar hurt? I have never heard of a curse scar hurting someone after it was made, let alone years later," Remus said scratching his chin in thought.

"Well according to Harry's letter, his scar hurts him when he is around old Voldybritches," Sirius explained.

Remus could not help but roll his eyes at the old nickname for the evil Wizard that James and Sirus had given the man during the first war. "That sounds like some sort of enchantment is still attached to the scar," Remus stated as he began to bite his lower lip. "We need to find a way to get Harry to head to either St. Mungos or talk the Goblins into having an Inheritance test. Am I correct that you made him your Heir?"

"Um, not yet," Sirius said feeling a twist in his gut for having to hide the truth from his old friend.

"Ah waiting to be proven innocent first, that is a good idea no sense making Harry more of a target," Remus said concluding that Sirius was not going to dissuade him of it.

The pair of old friends then began to move on to current events as Sirius asked to see if Remus had been seeing anyone. Remus gave a sad sigh admitting that he had not wanted to either get careless and pass on his curse to another, lie to them about his condition, or face rejection from them when he informed them about being a werewolf. Remus also explained that apart from the last school year he had been forced to work in the Muggle World or work outside of Britain to make enough money to live off of. Wanting to move away from that depressing topic Sirius asked about some of his old friends and contacts. "So Harry's friend Ron, who is his father? Is it Dexter, John, or my old training officer?" Sirus asked.

"Ron is the youngest of Arthur and Molly's male kids," Remus answered.

"Ah, and how is Arthur or have you not kept track?" Sirius asked due to what Remus said he had to get by he might be less focused on what was going on in the rest of the Magical World.

"Well shortly after James's death and you got arrested, he talked Crouch into letting him set up a new department that dealt with Magicals enchanting Muggle artifacts. I think he did it just so he could indulge in his passion while at work and not focus on all that had happened," Remus said.

"I am sure he is happy doing that," Sirius said with a smile as he recalled James introducing Lily to Arthur after he and Sirius had ended their training under the older male. It had taken Arthur's wife to show up holding a sleeping newborn and a pair of toddlers to literally drag him away. Sirius knew that like him, James had stayed in contact with the family and had even taken part in the welcoming ceremony for the twins after they had been born. Sirius was also sure that wherever James was, he would be glad to find out his son was friends with Arthur's boy.

As the pair were getting ready for lunch a while later, the owl Sirius had given to Ron flew into the room and landed before Sirius. Worried that Harry was in further trouble due to his Godson sending him a letter before he had responded to the last one, Sirus ripped it open to find not only a letter from Harry but what looked like an article cut from the Daily Prophet. Reading the article Sirius was a little mistrustful for this was not the first time that the Ministry had offered him his freedom since he had escaped Azkaban. Shortly after the Quidditch match where Harry had fallen off his broom.  Sirius had come across an article, as he was out as Padfoot looking for a replacement broom, that he had been pardoned. Not trusting it, Sirius had created a Golem that could pass as him and arranged a meeting with an old contact. Watching from a place of concealment as Padfoot he sent his Golem out only to see it had all been a trap. Even though the article mentioning Wormtail did not convince him of its validity, since he knew Harry, Ron, and Hermione had shared that Peter was alive the Ministry could be using that to try to lure him in again.

At least this time he had an ally as he passed the article and letter over to Remus to look at. Remus also agreed that it could be a trap so without being asked volunteered to go talk to someone. After learning about the Headmaster's lies about being Harry's Magical Guardian as well as the man not stepping forward to inform people who the Potter's real secret keeper did limit Remus's options, so he ended up going to see the person he had studied under to earn his Masters in Defense. And while his old instructor had no job in the Ministry, they kept an ear to the ground and their eyes open to all that was happening. Wishing he had better robes knowing what a stickler they were, Remus left his cabin and Apparated to Longbottom Manor to see if the article was correct. "Profesor Lupin?" Neville asked as he opened the door to the place.

"Hello, Neville, is your grandmother home?" Remus asked with a warm smile.

"Um, sure she is in the Ward Room would you like me to show you the way?" Neville asked worried about why Remus was there thinking he had done something wrong in the man's classes.

"No thank you, Neville, I know the way quite well.  And as I am no longer your teacher anymore you don't have to call me Professor," Remus said with another warm smile as he headed into the manor seeing nothing had changed since his last visit apart from the pictures on the wall.

Reaching the Ward Room, Remus made his presence known as he went to hug his old instructor glad to see her again. While some might call her overbearing, Remus had always liked the old woman, not least of all due to the fact she was willing to accept him as a student with his condition. Even going as far as letting him stay at Longbottom Manor even during a Full Moon, though under heavy Wards to protect everyone else. "Ah Remus, my dear child, what can this old gal do for you today?" Augusta asked leaning on a cane she had not had the last time he had seen her.

"Old Gal my foot, I think you could still go ten rounds with a bugbear without slowing down," he joked.

"Ah you are too kind, my young former pupil, but the years have not been so kind," she said with a sad smile as she gestured at him to take a freshly conjured seat before her.  "Now, I am sure you have better things to do than just check in on me, though I could be wrong after all from what my Grandson has informed me of your time as a teacher it is possible."

"You are right Auggy," Remus said using his old nickname as she rolled her eyes at him. "I was recently sent an article from the Prophet and wanted to see if it was true or not," he said passing over the article.

After she quickly read it, Augusta called for some tea from one of her House Elves. "Yes the article is true, I am afraid Peter was found alive and was confirmed to be a Death Eater, I am sorry Remus I do recall he was a friend of yours," she said patting his arm.

"So the part where Sirius was exonerated is also true?" Remus asked hopefully.

"Oh yes, that bit is true as well," Augusta said before informing him of some bits of information that the article had not mentioned. Of how Peter while being a Death Eater had somehow learned that Barty Crouch Jr. had been alive and was being kept a prisoner in his own house by his father had gone to free him so the pair could work together to bring back their Master. Augusta explained that the reason it had all failed is that a few days earlier at the World Cup after a Dark Mark had been created Barty Crouch Jr. had been found and taken in for questioning along with the rest of the household. Due to the inquiry being active, it had been left out of the papers so that rather than finding any of the Crouch family at their home, Peter had run into a team searching the house for evidence on Crouch and his son. Remus was glad that the article was true not only for Sirius but also for Harry.  He was also relieved himself just in case he got in trouble for harboring Sirius, so he stuck around a whole to chat with Augusta while using one of the two-way mirrors to send a message to Sirius that it was alright.

Receiving confirmation that the article was the truth, Sirius with some hesitation Apparated to the Lobby of the British Ministry of Magic. There were some screams, as those who did not get the Prophet and had not been notified by their bosses at the Ministry of Sirius's change of status. While he trusted Remus and his source, Sirius had to fight the urge to flee when Amelia Bones and Rufus Scrimgeour stepped off one of the lifts and made a beeline right to him. "Sirius, I am so glad we were able to clear all this up before something unfortunate happened," Amelia said stepping forward and wringing his hand in her vice-like grip.

"I can honestly say the same, having no desire to get kissed by a Dementor," Sirius joked while wiggling his hand to get feeling back to it after she let him go.

"Ah yes, well you know rules and protocol and all that," Rufus said as he and Amelia led Sirius to one of the lifts.

After a nearly silent ride up to the second floor, Sirius was brought into Amelia's office where he was shown the document dealing with his compensation for the false arrest, imprisonment, and man-hunt. Sirius did not care about the money they were giving him or even the fact they were offering him his job back. "You are missing something here," he said after finishing the document.

"What not enough money for you, Black?" Rufus said with a harsh laugh.

"No, it makes no mention of my Family's seat on the Wizengamot, which I still hold since there was no trial, I am still Lord Black. Also, there is no mention of me gaining custody of my Godson," Sirus said not in a real joking mood to see such oversights on the document.

"You are absolutely correct, Sirius," Amelia said as she used her quill to make the changes which were immediately accepted by the document as the additions changed fonts to match the rest of the page. With a nod, Sirius signed that the compensation was acceptable as they signed as witnesses.

With his main business taken care of, Sirius headed down to the Ministry's Owlery and selected a bird that was suitable for long-distance and speedy travel and wrote a quick note before sending it away. Then figuring he needed both a new wand and clothing Sirius headed to Kelpie Alley to purchase a new wand from Master Jax-Gat, rather than head to Ollivanders and possibly get swarmed by the press. Sirus was able to get access to his vaults via a blood screening before he headed to the wand shop to start the process of getting his new wand. After having Cedar and Dragon Heartstring react to his magic Sirius left the shop to get some new robes only to get a response back from his earlier letter informing him the meeting he had requested was on. With a smile and a bounce in his step, Sirius quickly picked out some new robes befitting his Lord status before collecting his new wand.

Wand in hand Sirius Apparated to where he recalled the Weasley's home was, he made his way to the front door and knocked. It was shortly opened by Arthur who beamed at him, "Sirius I take it you found out you are now a free man."

"I have indeed Arthur, and from my sources, I hear it was all down to you finding Crouch Jr. so thank you," Sirius said shaking his hand.

"Ah don't mention it," Arthur said shaking him back. "Now what can I do for you or did you just come over to thank me?"

"No Arthur, while thanking you is one reason, I have come for Harry for as his Godfather he is going to move in with me. Now I realize that it is only a few days before he heads back to Hogwarts, but I want him to get him situated so we don't have to worry about it during the Yule or next summer," Sirius explained.

"Makes sense would you like to come in for a bit as he gets ready?" Arthur asked.

"You know what, I think I am going to stay out and enjoy the fresh air for a bit without having to worry about being hunted for once," Sirius said with a smile not wanting to intrude on Harry as he said his goodbyes to the family of redheads.

As he waited for his Godson, Sirius held the response from his letter tightly in his hand while looking through the small windows of what looked like Arthur's workshop, based on all the Muggle items inside. "Before he comes out, I want a word with you, Sirius," Arthur said exiting the house and making his way over to him.

"What's up, Artie?" Sirius asked slipping into the old nickname he and James had given their Auror training officer back in the day.

"Now where Harry was living was not the greatest place for a kid. Molly and I had been worried about him since he came to stay with us two summers ago for a bit. Now you know my specialty had always been enchantments so when I first realized who Harry was and saw how small he was I cast a spell to make sure he had no negative spells on him.

You see the first time I met Harry in person, my three youngest sons had rescued him from his home. They even had a set of bars that had come from Harry's bedroom window. Now due to my familiarity with Muggles, I know that some Muggles even if they are in upscale neighborhoods have bars and other such protections against crime so I had put the bars down to that. But a few days ago I along with my boys had gone to collect him via the Floo Network.   I saw that the windows of his family's living room did not have any bars on them. I was going to take a closer look as soon as they were back at Hogwarts to not add to the stress after all that has happened recently."

"That would be welcome, Arthur, for last year after I escaped and knowing I was innocent I went to check in on Harry and I did not much like what I saw. I have a feeling if I do anything about it now it could cause issues but if you still take the lead on it I think people would accept it a little more," Sirius said.

"I shall continue with my plan then. Do you have an address I can reach you at when I compile my findings to not send it by owl?" the older redhead asked.

"Not yet, it all depends on a meeting I have scheduled later today. I will let you know where you can reach me when I find out," Sirius said as Arthur gave him a knowing look.

"I hope it all works out with her," Arthur said as with a final shake of Sirius's hand heads back into the Burrow.

"I do to Arthur," Sirius said as he saw Harry, Hermione, and Ron approaching him dragging along Harry's trunk.

Sirius rushed forward to meet them, pulling Harry into a tight hug before shrinking the trunk and putting it in his pocket. "Have  you had a good summer, Harry?" Sirius asked as he broke off the hug.

"It is getting better all the time," Harry said beaming up at him. "So are we going to your place now?"

"Well first we are having a meeting to see which of my properties we will be staying at, but yes we will be going there eventually," Sirius said as he and Harry bid farewell to Ron and Hermione before Apparating away.

Harry who had expected to arrive before a house was slightly disappointed as he took in the familiar street of Diagon Alley. "Come on, Harry, there is someone I went to you to meet," Sirius said as he led Harry into the Alley side door of the Leaky Cauldron and up a flight of stairs to a private meeting room. As Sirius opened the door, Harry was even more confused for inside was a Slytherin student from his year and what looked like the boy's mother. Harry was not the only one confused as Sirius took the woman into his arms and twirled her around a little before kissing her. "Harry, I want you to meet my wife, Adriana Zabini-Black."

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If the two teens were shocked by Sirius's statement, they were both floored when Adriana turned to her son and with a wide smile said, "Blaise I would like to introduce you to your father."

When Blaise could find his voice he said, "But you always told me, dad died." Harry noticed a small hint of hurt flash across his Godfather's face at the statement.

"He might as well have been dead," Adrina said sending an apologetic look at Sirius. "For while I knew that Siri would never have betrayed James and Lily, the Ministry would not take my word for it. I believed that he had somehow been affected by an Imperious Charm leading him to give away their location. If he had been Imperioused his actions would be slightly excusable. I was sure that this would all come out during Siri's trial but one never happened. When you finally asked about him, he had been imprisoned for longer than normal for a trial to have taken place, so I told you he had died rather than let you know that he was in jail without any hope of getting off."

"But what about all the other men you dated?" Blaise said as another hurt look came to Sirius's face.

"There had never been anyone else, all those other men were from the British Ministry and I was trying to find out why Sirius had never gotten a trial, arrange a visitation, and figure out what had happened with Harry," Adriana explained.

"What do you mean happened with me?" Harry asked.

"Well Harry, even if I was in Azkaban since Adriana was my wife, you could have gone to live with her. And you most likely would have done if the Headmaster had not gotten involved," Sirius said in a matter-of-fact tone.

"What do you mean?" Harry, Adriana, and Blaise asked at the same time.

"Well let's see," Sirius said unwrapping his arm from around his wife's waist. "First as the person who had cast the Fidelius Charm, he knew perfectly well that I had never been James and Lily's Secret Keeper. Next after a talk with Remus, Dumbledore somehow made him forget that Remus was Harry's Magical Guardian. And lastly is where you were sent Harry. Yes, Petunia was Lily's sister but the pair hated each other and there is no way that Lily would ever agree to send you there even as a last resort. I also know James would never allow it either, for while he liked your Grandparents there were some valuable items that you were set to inherit meaning a Magical Family should have taken you in. That is why despite Lily having several Muggle friends and family, all your Godparents were Magicals," Sirius explained to Harry. "Besides myself, your parents also chose Alice Longbottom, but due to what had happened to both her and her husband you should have ended up with Adriana."

Harry could hardly believe that the Headmaster had done such things that so affected his life, the man had always been one of the best adults Harry had ever known. And had even given him advice that helped him and his friends out when they needed it. "What sort of items was I meant to inherit?" Harry asked.

"Well, there was the Cloak which had been in the Potter family for years, some tomes and artifacts from Gryffindor, which the Potter line originated from including Godric's Sword. And just all the first children of the Marauders you were meant to get his copy of the map," Sirius said.

"There was more than one map?" Harry asked surprised.

"Of course there was it would be pretty useless to keep track of each other if only one of us had one. I know I left my copy for Blaise to inherit before his First Year at Hogwarts," Sirius said turning to look at his son.

"Yeah, I got it and sometimes use it," Blaise said still not looking at Sirius. "But I have a more important question."

"What is it, son?" Sirius asked.

"Don't call me that," Blaise spat out finally looking away from his mother and glaring at Sirius. "Why did you go? Why leave us?"

"Blaise," his mother said in a reprimanding voice.

"It is alright love. He does deserve an answer and so do you," Sirius said gently before taking a deep breath. "While I had not been chosen to be the Secret Keeper, I knew when the spell was broken with James and Lily's deaths."

"How?" both Blaise and Harry asked.

"Well since James and Lily both wanted it to look like I was their Keeper as Dumbledore put the spell in place, Lily, who had a skill at Charms that was just scary good, cast a spell that added me to the ritual so that I gained all the powers of a normal Secret Keeper.  I had all the normal abilities of a normal keeper but was unable to inform anyone where they were hiding. So it was I felt the spell break with their deaths. As the ritual was only keyed to James and Lily there was still a small chance you would have survived, Harry. So I kissed Adriana and you goodbye," Sirius said looking into his son's glaring face without flinching, "thinking it would take no time at all.

I first headed to Peter's place since he was the real Secret Keeper to find out what had caused him to give the location away, but I found his place empty with no sign of a struggle. Fearing the worst and knowing I was now the only one who could find the place before the spell fully collapsed, I headed to Godrics Hollow. As soon as I arrived I heard you crying Harry and rushed in. Though it pained me, I left James and Lily where they lay as I hurried to your crib. I immediately pulled you into a hug and promised to bring you back to Zabini castle only to see Peter in his rat form leaving the house with Voldy's wand in his mouth.

This was where it all went wrong," Sirius said sinking to his knees before them. "I was given a choice to take Harry back to our home yet let Peter get away, or go after the rat and hope I found some way to handle Harry. As I tried to decide Hagrid showed up.   If I was not dealing with the stress of James and Lily dying and Peter escaping, I would have wondered how he had been able to find the place, for a Fidelius Charm will make it hard for someone to find it even with the person tied to the spell dead for a certain amount of time.  Usually, at least a full twenty-four hours so that people who had been involved with the spell could work out what had gone wrong. When the people the spell was keyed to died it would also prevent anyone but the Secret Keeper from entering, so even if James and Lily had permitted Hagrid to know where they were with their deaths he would have been locked out.

Anyway, I am losing focus here. I passed Harry over to Hagrid and even let him use my flying motorbike," Sirius said making Adriana's face lose all its color at the mention of the bike. "After all, while it was fast and would allow me to travel a lot of ground while following Peter it was also nosy and would let him know I was on his tail. The rat bastard led me on a merry chase for almost a full day and a half before I finally cornered him. But he got the better of me, as he made a show of blaming me for it all before blasting his way into the sewers leaving me to take the fall for him," Sirius explained.

"Why did you have to go after him though?" Blaise asked again. "You could have sent Hagrid after him and come back and then I would not have had to grow up without a dad." Harry almost let out a scoff thinking from what he had heard so far about them living in a castle and Blaise having a mother who most likely loved him he had no right to complain about not having one of his parents when Harry had lost both his and ended up with the Dursleys.

"You think, I did not think of that when I was in Azkaban?" Sirius shot back though in a gentle tone. "As I waited for a trial that never came, I lost myself to the Dementors over that decision, playing scenario after scenario in my head. As they were not technically happy thoughts the Dementors could not take them from me and they were the things that kept me sane for so long until the article where I saw Peter that led to my escape. Over the years I saw you and Harry being brought up like brothers, not always liking each other but together. While I also saw versions of myself who had been so racked by guilt at not going after Peter, I fell to drink and took it out on all of you, or sometimes myself. Everything that could happen for both good and ill would run through my mind over just bringing Harry to live with us. I know I was an idiot but I just had to go after Peter not only for what he had done but also due to him taking Voldy's wand. The only reason I saw the bastard keeping it was if he had some play or method of bringing that Monster back."

"Some part of him did," Harry said quietly causing all three to look at him. "I faced him during my first year when he had become a parasite on the back of Professor Quirrell's head."

"He was the reason that turban smelled so rank?' Blaise asked in shock.

"Yeah, he was after the Philosopher's Stone which was being protected at the school," Harry replied.

"Some protections since you, Granger, and Weasley were all able to reach it as well," Blaise said finding it easier to look and talk to Harry than his long-missing father.

"I had always wondered about that since I was with Hagrid when he picked it up from the bank where it had been kept in a vault that could only be opened by the touch of a Goblin, yet apart from Fluffy, all the other protections guarding the stone were able to be bypassed by three First-Year students. And the only way we got past Flully was due to Hagrid being unable to keep a secret. Before hearing some of the stuff Dumbles had done with my life, I had always wondered why Hagrid was chosen to offer one of the protections on the stone due to his track record of keeping secrets.

"You said you had collected my map," Sirius interjects looking at his son, "Did you ever see the name this Professor Quirrell was listed as on the map?"

"No," Blaise answered shortly. "I only ever used the thing to find my way to a new class the rest of the time I leave it in my trunk."

"That is too bad if you had seen it, we would have been able to determine how much control Voldy had over the man by the name that appeared on the map," Sirius said.

"Is this the only reason you called for this meeting here Siri?" Adrina asked trying to move them away from the subject of the Dark Lord still being alive.

"Well no, I was not really sure if you had found someone else, so I did not want to get into your current life if I showed up with Harry back home," Sirius admitted.

"There has never been anyone else, Siri," she said kissing him.

"But what of the tales I have heard about you being the Black Widow of Europe?" Sirius asked.

"Oh that is Daphnie, you remember my little sister, since she is not in line for the family's title she decided the best way to get the money for her expensive lifestyle is to marry rich old Lords and wait for them to die so she can take their money. I can get your confusion since despite the... eleven so times she has been married now she still keeps the Zabini name as if showing me that she is richer and more deserving of the title," Adriana explained.

"And here I thought Bella was mad," Sirius said shaking his head.

"There was another reason for meeting here, however," Sirius said shifting his gaze from his wife back to Harry. "After talking with Remus about curse scar he has no idea why one would hurt years after it was formed so he suggested, I take you in to get tested at Gringotts to see if they can see why your scar sometimes hurts."

"So once more worrying about Harry than your actual family," Blaise said with a scoff.

"Yes for unlike you he has no one else. I will be taking him in, Blaise, you may not like it but I care for you both," Sirius said.

"Fine whatever, if Mom wants you back who am I to say no?  Just leave me alone," Blaise said without another word leaving the private room.

"I am sorry, Siri," Adrina said.

"No, I get it I have been gone for a long time and don't really know him at all. I know more about Harry and even that is not much, but I could not risk contacting him while I was on the run. I can only hope he lets me into his life," Sirius said with a sad smile as he gave Adriana another hug and led Harry out of the room.

Chapter Text

Harry and Sirius walk in awkward silence to the bank lost in their own thoughts. Harry was feeling slightly guilty that Sirius coming to take him from Godrics Hollow and then heading out after Pettigrew had messed up his Godfather's relationship with his son. But he was not sure how to broach the topic or even if he should, for just like Sirius had told his wife, while he knew more about Harry than his own son they really did not know each other that well.

The silence was broken as Sirus and Harry approached a Goblin sitting at his desk in Gringotts. "What can I do for you today?" the goblin asked looking down a nose that looked like a wilting turnip at the pair of humans.

"Hello... Slashrat," Sirius said reading the name on the nameplate before the Goblin teller, "I would like to see my Account Manager, Vicebell, as well as the Potter Account Manager, I think their name is Bonecrusher."

"Do you have proof of identity?" Slashrat asked.

"Well the thing is I have come to take up the Black Family Rings today, among other things, and I do have a wand but it is brand new so has not yet been fully registered with the bank. So no," Sirius said with a slight blush as he scratched his head in embarrassment.

"Very well. Your wand hand, sir" Slashrat said with an almost bored voice as Sirius held out his wand hand and to Harry's shock let himself get his palm cut by the Goblin. Sirius, however, did not even wince as he allowed the cut before using his new wand to heal his palm. Slashrat let the blood on the blade drop onto a small scrap of parchment which instantly formed into words as the blood wrote out Sirius's name. "Very good sir, all seems to be in order please follow me," Slashrat said hopping down from his stool, but rather than head to the tunnel where the minecart to the vaults was, Harry and Sirius were led through a different door leading to a torch-lit corridor.

After a short walk, the pair of humans were guided into one of the numerous doors along the wall and told to wait. "Was cutting your hand really necessary?" Harry asked once they had been left alone.

"Unfortunately, yes with multiple potions and spells that can change a person's look, blood is sometimes the only thing to tell if someone is who they say they are. Goblins, in particular, are very well acquainted with a Blood test and from a single drop can find out most things about anybody," Sirius said. "I should also warn you that it is wise only to have your Account Manager perform most Blood Test at the Bank, for just like humans there are some unsavory Goblins who would not hesitate to use the access granted by your blood to their advantage."

"But they do not usually remain free too long," a gruff voice said making Harry turn to see a pair of Goblins which were both dressed in similar fashions with the only difference being a patch they wore on their right breast pocket.

"Ah, Master Vicebell, it is an honor to see you again," Sirius said getting to his feet and prodding Harry to do likewise, before bowing his head slightly to the Goblin on the left.  "And I take it you are Master Bonecrusher?" he asked addressing the Goblin on the right.

"That is correct, Lord Black. I see you brought the Heir to the Potter Line with you that is good we have been trying to reach him for a while now," the Goblin on the right said showing Harry that it had been him that had spoken earlier. "Now what can we do for the pair of you today?"

"I have come to collect my Lordship Rings and undertake a low-grade test to see if I have any underlying problems from my time at Azkaban. I would like for my Godson to get a full workup done and possibly a cleansing as well.

"Very well we shall start the procedure right away," Vicebell said in a slightly higher-pitched voice than Bonecrusher. "I hope you do not mind if I have Bondcrusher here administer your test while I go collect your Lordship ring?"

"That is perfectly alright, Master Vicebell," Sirius said with another bow of his head to his Account Manager.

Vicebell gave a nod in return as he turned on his heel to go retrieve the Black Lordship rings while Bonecrusher gestured both humans to sit and began to pull some items out from the desk. "As I am aware you have never had a Goblin test done before, Heir Potter, I shall demonstrate it on Lord Black first," Bonecrusher said pulling out a knife that looked to be made of pure silver and pricked one of Sirius's index fingers. Harry could not help but gulp at the cut, for while the Dursleys had hurt him in various ways they always seemed to take great pains not to break his skin and make him bleed. He had always assumed it had something to do with the fear of his blood somehow infecting them with his "freakiness." Harry watched as several drops of blood were once more collected from Sirius before it was added to a potion that was splashed over a blank roll of parchment. Rather than have the words formed from Sirius's own blood this time it looked like normal, if red, ink.

Sirius Black-Zabini(*)

• Lord of Black
• Consort Zabini

Living Family:

• Adriana Zabini-Black (Wife)
• Blaise Zabini (son and Heir)
• Regulus Black (Brother)

*Compromised

• Daphnie Zabini (Sister-in-Law)
• Fredrick Weasley (Godson)
• Harry Potter (Godson)

Underlying Magical Issues:

• Soul Drain due to long-term exposure to Dementors

*In the process of regaining

While Sirius was glad he only had a Soul Drain, which he knew would work itself out on its own eventually, he was ecstatic to see that his younger brother was listed as alive, if compromised. He and his parents had all thought Regulus had died when he went missing almost a year before Blaise and Harry were born. "See Heir Potter this is nothing to worry about, though your test will be a little different due to Lord Black calling for a full workup," Bonecrusher said as he pulled out another blank scroll of parchment. "Your test will not only include all that has been listed on Lord Black's test but will show you any inconsistencies dealing with your Vaults, as well as any notes that we have from these inconsistencies. Also rather than add your blood to a potion as soon as I make my cut to your finger I want you to use your blood to coat one of your thumbs before pressing it into the parchment in the spot provided," Bonecrusher said as he gently cut Harry's left hand creating a small trickle of blood. Harry felt a little queasy as he pressed his right thumb into the cut and tried to coat the digit while not passing out.

When Harry felt he had enough of the blood on his thumb, he quickly pressed it into a small box on the blank parchment as Sirius quickly healed his hand and cleaned his thumb. Since the test was a higher grade than Sirius had, the parchment took a while longer to fill up letting Harry turn to ask his Godfather, "If that blade is silver what happens if a Werewolf comes to take a test?"

"Well then the person has to inform the bank of their status and rather than a silver blade the Goblins will use some red steel which while just as magical has lower quality than a silver blade but at least will not hurt the Werewolf," Sirius explained. Harry though he had never heard of "red steel" before nodded in understanding glad that if Professor Lupin had to get tested he would not get hurt by what his textbook from last year described as "blood burn." That short exchange had given the parchment the time it needed to write out Harry's results.

Harry James Potter

Parents:

• James Joseph Potter (Deceased)
• Lily Jessie Potter nee Evens (Deceased)

Living Relatives:

• Potter Family

1. See the Potter Family tree located in the Potter Main Vault

• Evans Family

1. Petunia Anna Dursley nee Evens (Mother's sister)
2. Vernon Dan Dursley (Mother's Brother-in-law)
3. Dudley Dursley (Cousin)
4. Gregory Smith (Mother's Maternal Uncle)
   * Compromised

Heir/Lordships

• Potter
• Gryffindor
• Peverell
• Slytherin (from Rite of Conquest)
• Gaunt (from Rite of Conquest)

Godparents:

• Sirius Black-Zabini
• Alice Clare Longbottom nee Beswick
  * Compromised

Godsiblings:

• Blaise Zabini
• Neville Longbottom

Magical Guardian:

• Remus Jasper Lupin

Underlying Magical Issues:

• Horcrux attached to curse scar
  *Containing 1/8 of the Soul of Tom Marvolo Riddle (Voldemort)
  *Update as of May 1993 1/7 of the Soul of Tom Marvolo Riddle (Voldemort)
• Magical Core block 40%
  * 5% cast by James and Lily Potter
  * 35% Naturally occurring as Magic in use to repair the damage done to the physical body
• Increased issues with eyesight (cast by Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore)
  * Automatic Counter Charm any time Harry James Potter is on a broom
• Mail Ward
  *Only allowing people approved by Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore to contact Harry
• Memory/Intelligence Blocks:

1. Potions-83%
2. Charms-23%
3. Transfiguration-13%
4. History-73%
5. Warding-88%
6. Healing-95%
7. Defense Against the Dark Arts-7%

• Block of Magical Abilities:

1. Animagus-57%
2. Parseltongue 43%
3. Parselmagic-100%
4. Dragon Speech-100%

• Soulbond;

1. Blocked
2. *As of this test Harry James Potter has yet to meet his Soulbond

• Basilisk Venom in system-Nullifyed by Phoenix tears

Vault discrepancies:

• Numerous Marriage Contracts were filed for Harry's hand in marriage
  * As of this moment 32,468 Contracts in the system
• 1000 Galleons transferred from Potter, Gryffindor, and Peverell Main vaults a year since November 1981 to the personal Vault of Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore

1. * Granted due to being Harry James Potter's Magical Guardian (Illegal)
2. * Authorized by Griphook

• 5000 Galleons transferred from Potter Secondary Vault to The Bird Fund

1. * Authorized by Griphook
2. * Shell account run by Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore

• 1000 Pounds a month since November 1981 to the Dursley Family

1. * For Harry James Potter's care
2. * Stipulation that money has to be handed to all members of the Dursley family before it is placed in their bank accounts.
3. * Muggle money used in payments to be treated by Anti-Mind Magic Potions and Horcrux-taint suppressants.
4. * Added notes during transfers read as follows:

• - Hurt Harry as you will but do not spill his blood or payments will stop (November 1981)
• - Payments shall increase to 1000 Pounds a month due to your good work now focus on breaking his spirit (July 1984)

1. *Authorized by Griphook

Artifacts Missing from Vaults:

• Gaunt Family Ring
• Merlin's Notebook #3-Gryffindor Vault
• Peverell family Invisibility Cloak-Potter Vault
• Sword of Gryffindor-Gryffindor Vault
• Merlin's Notebook #1-Slytherin Vault

As Harry and Sirius finish reading Harry's results silence falls between them once more. Sirius knew that based on how close his Godson was to the Weasley family it was more than likely that at some point Arthur would have cast a spell on Harry to see if he was under any enchantments. Sirius also knew that Arthur would only check for life-threatening spells on Harry, and apart from the Horcrux which would not show up in the results from a simple Diagnostic Charm, so it made sense that his old training officer had not found some of the spells Harry had been under. "Master Bonecrusher based on the results from my Godson's test I would also like to add a full Healing for him," Sirius said.

"Very well Lord Black," Bonecrusher said as he wrote up the addition to the procedure that Harry would undergo as well as writing up an arrest warrant for the Goblin Griphook.

"We shall remove everything except for the Basilisk Venom and Phoenix tears, lest we do any lasting permanent damage. Is there anything else?"

"I would like Harry to get his Heir Rings, well at least those that are available, as well as stopping all those funds being taken from his accounts," Sirius said placing a hand on Harry's shoulder. "Also as the test reveals Harry has a Soulbound, I would like to nullify all Marriage Contracts and block any more from being submitted."

"Does Heir Potter agree to this?" Bonecrusher asked turning to look right into Harry's eyes.

"I do sir," Harry said, "also the Invisibility Cloak is not missing I have it in my trunk." Harry then patted his chest pocket when he had stored his trunk after Sirius had shrunk it back at the Burrow. "Also after pulling the Sword of Gryffindor out of the Sorting Hat at the end of my second year, I handed it over to Professor Dumbledore. Can I get it back?"

"It shall be taken care of," Bonecrusher said as he made some further notes.

At that time Vicebell came back with Sirius's Black Lordship ring allowing Bonecrusher to lead Harry to start his cleansing, healing, and handle some of the business about Harry's vaults. As Harry was undergoing the procedure Sirius took the opportunity to register his new wand with the Bank so he could use it as identification in future visits. Dealing with the Goblin bureaucracy to get his new wand added took Sirius nearly an hour but Harry was still not done with his procures yet so he was forced to wait for his Godson in the Goblin Halls of Healing. As he waited a Goblin did deliver a couple of things one of which was a package from Molly Weasley of Harry's new school supplies that he had forgotten to pack, Harry's own Owl who had come to perch on his shoulder as he waited for Harry. But best of all was a letter from Adriana, along with a Portkey, that said he could come home. He hugged the letter to his chest as his nose picked up his wife's smell on the parchment. He hoped moving back in with his family would allow him to repair the relationship with his son.

When Harry was brought into the Halls of Healing it had been three hours since the procedure had begun. Though he had hated to leave the bank just in case Harry's procedure would end and he not be there. Sirius had left for a bit after Bonecrusher informed him that due to the Horcrux, the procedure would take another hour at the most. Wanting to head home to his wife and estranged son as soon as Harry was well enough, Sirius had left the bank and Apparated to Remus's cabin to inform his old friend what had transpired. He also asked Remus to look after Buckbeak due to Hippogriff's dislike of traveling by Portkey. Sirius made Remus promise to take care of Buckbeak until Blaise and Harry returned to Hogwarts next week where he would come along to pick him up.  Sirius, barely arrived back into the Halls of Healing when Harry was brought in. Knowing from some of his work with the Bank during his Auror training that the Head of the Hall would not allow a person to leave until they had both woken back up but met with their Account Manager, Sirius settled in to wait for Harry to regain consciousness.

Considering how long Harry's Cleansing and Healing had taken, Harry woke up after only five minutes blinking his eyes in a sort of dazed state. Sirius helped him sit up in the bed as well as handed over some water with a low-grade Healing Potion to his Godson. As Harry drained the glass his eyes took on more focus and looked like he was back to normal. However, the pair still had to wait another ten minutes before Bonecrusher arrived giving them the go-ahead to leave.

When the Potter Account Manager showed up he seemed to be slightly agitated thinking that the Goblin Griphook had somehow escaped Sirius asked what was the issue. "It seems we made a discovery when the Horcrux of Tom Riddle was removed from Heir Potter. Just like blood, a person's Soul gives off a very distinctive well let's just call it a signal. As soon as we removed it we found a similar signal within the bank's Wards. As Horcruxes are considered an SSS-Class Dangerous artifact even by us Goblins we confiscated it and sent it to be destroyed. That is the good news, the bad news is due to Heir Potters' results there would be five more such items out there. We can not search other accounts but we had a closer look at both your and Heir Potter's properties. We detected a third Horcrux within the Black Family Townhouse. As Heir Potter is from the Gryffindor Line we were able to do a surface scan of Hogwarts and detected a fourth signature. With your permission, I would like to send a Cursebreaking team to receive the Horcrux from the Black Family Townhouse," Bonecrusher said.

"Granted, destroy the place if you have to, or even if you don't have to. I know my mum had some dark objects tucked away so if you want to dispose of them as well you are welcome to it," Sirius said instantly.

"Very good, however, as Heir Potter only owns 1/2 of Hogwarts we can not send a team there to search for the Horcrux kept at the school," Bonecrusher said in a frustrated voice.

"What does a Horxrux look like, I may be able to look when I get back there," Harry interjected.

"You most certainly will not," Sirius shot back actually glaring at Harry. "We will find a way to do this. And I know this is rich coming from me, but you will stay out of it and just go to Hogwarts to learn and be a kid for Merlin's sake," Sirius said the anger leaving his eyes as he placed both hands on Harry's shoulders before pulling him into a hug.

"Alright I will try," Harry said after a moment to just enjoy the hug from his Godfather.

After being released from the Halls of Healing Sirius led Harry out of the bank before activating the Portkey that took them to the front door of Zabini Castle. A moment later the doors swung open as Sirius's wife came out to greet them as she kissed her long-absent husband before pulling Harry into a hug. "Welcome to Zabini Castle, Harry," she said as she let him go. "I want you to consider this your home, as it was always meant to be. The main family rooms are on the third level, but if you find a room you like just have one of the House Elves set it up for you. I do not want to pressure you into finding your room so I will let you explore on your own," she said making a wide sweeping gesture with one of her arms. Harry blushed a little as he gave her a nod and headed out to find a room.

Deciding to try on the third level, Harry soon saw none of the rooms here would suit him finding them all too big for his taste. He knew it was part of the abuse from the Dursleys but having lived in small spaces Harry had a slight case of Ballroom Syndrom with the Great Hall, the library, and other locations at Hogwarts only being comfortable to him when they were full of students to keep his mind off of how big the room actually was. The small number of bedrooms on the second level was not much better all still being too big for his liking. Subconsciously Harry began to move deeper into the bowels of Castle Zabini until he found a small bedroom that was still double the size of Dudley's bedroom, but it was also the smallest one he had found yet. Making his pick he called for the Zabini family House Elves to help him prepare the room. Most of which included bringing down some needed supplies and cleaning as Harry began to put some clothes in the large, to him, closet. Knowing he would soon be heading back to Hogwarts he only put a couple of days worth of clothing away leaving the rest in his trunk.

Harry was packing away his new school supplies into his trunk when he heard a scoff behind him. "I would have thought you would have picked out one of the large rooms Potter, not the old servant's quarters," Blaise said from the doorway with a look of scorn on his face.

"They were all too big for me," Harry said with a slight blush as he put a forest green set of robes into his trunk.

"Too small you mean how could they be too big, weren't you raised as some sort of prince? I bet you picked this room to make a statement," Blaise said.

"The only Prince I would have been raised as is the Prince during the story of the Pauper and the Prince when he lived the life of the Pauper," Harry said.

Chapter Text

As Harry went in search of a room to use when he was here, Sirius gave a small sigh and forced himself to contact Kreacher. Knowing the old Elf still lived in the Black Family Townhouse, he might use his own brand of magic to prevent the Goblins from looking for the Horcrux that was in the place. He thought he might as well inform Kreacher of Regulus still being alive knowing the Elf cared for his younger brother more than him. Sirius just wished he knew the Goblins were sending their people over thus getting Kreacher out of their way when they did their work but he would just have to hope that the old half-crazed Elf would listen to his order to leave them alone. "Why is you summoning poor Kreacher away from his Mistress?" Kreacher asked in a rough bark when he appeared before Sirius and Adriana.

"Hello Kreacher, don't worry I don't like this any better than you do. So if you just be quiet I can do my piece and let you return to Mother's portrait," Sirius said through gritted teeth.

"Be speaking fast than nasty boy who broke my Mistress's heart," Kreacher said almost sounding like an order.

Sirius just rolled his eyes before speaking, "First off, some Goblins will be coming to Grimmauld Place at some point, I order you, not to interfere with their work or hamper them in any way."

"Nast creatures coming in to paw over Mistress belongings," Kreacher said in his "whispering voice" which still allowed Sirius and his wife to easily hear him.

Sirius just ignored the Elf like normal as he continued, "Also Kreacher having gone through a test I have learned that Regulus is both alive, but compromised."

"Master Regulus survived," Kreacher said as for the first time looks up at Sirius' face.

"What do you mean he survived Kreacher?" Sirius asked recalling that unlike Sirius and his parents, Kreacher never seemed to have any hope of Regulus being alive after he had been reported missing.

"I saying nothing, Master Regulus orders," Kreacher said with his normal harsh croaking voice.

"Come now Kreacher," Adrina said crouching down and making as if to put a hand on the Elf's shoulder but saw him flinch backward, "If you have any information about where Regulus is located it would make it easier for us to find him and make him better again."

"No," Kreacher said shaking his head with such emotion his ears smacked him in the face. "Kreacher happy Mistress's good boy lives but he be angry at Kreacher for not doing his job."

"What job?" both Sirius and Adriana asked.

"No Kreacher job, but locket could not be broken. Kreacher fail he is bad Elf," the old Black Family Elf said as he fell to his knees and began to bang his head over and over again into the floor.

"What locket?" Sirius asked but Kreacher neither stopped nor answered him. "Did the locket have something to do with the Dark Lord?" This question got Kreacher to stop as he lifted his head revealing a large developing bruise.

"Yes Master Regulus say he need Kreacher's help takes him to place of bad magic. Forced Kreacher to watch drink bad bad potion, not even listen when Kreacher say he can banish potion with magic. After potion Master Regulus takes locket and orders Kreacher to destroy it. Kreacher fails but also runs away as nasty living dead things pull Master Regulus underwater," Kreacher said shocking the pair of humans.

"I know why you could not destroy the locket, Kreacher," Sirius said as he joined his wife crouching at the Elf's side. "It seems that it was a Horcrux and not even House Elf magic could destroy something like that. That is one of the reasons the Goblins are coming to Grimmauld Place to find and destroy it," Sirius said placing a hand gently on Kreacher's shoulder who did not flinch away.

"They come to complete Master Regulus's last order to Kreacher. Kreacher will help them, and as soon as they are gone Kreacher will tell where he last saw Master Regulus," the elf said looking up into Sirius's face letting the man see the Elf's eyes are clear and focused for the first time since he had seen Kreacher after running away from home all those years ago.

"Thank you, Kreacher, we will make sure to get him back and make him well again," Sirius said and was a little shocked when Kreacher actually bowed to him before he returned to Grimmauld Place.

"Yeah right, I just don't see it, Potter," Blaise said.

"I don't care if you see it or not, Zabini, it is the truth," Harry said. "I am not here to convince you of anything. So how about we just ignore each other and treat each other the same as we do at school," Harry said as he pointed to the door to his new room. Blaise just shrugs his shoulders as he turns on his heel and leaves the room. As the other teen leaves, Harry starts to thumb through his new books for a bit to see what he has to look forward to in the coming year. Seeing that this year they would not only start transfiguring mammals but also work on a couple of potions he was very familiar with such as Skele-Gro, Pepper-Up, and Calming Draughts which he had been giving in his numerous trips to the Hospital Wing.

"I see you have picked a room, I hope you like it," Adriana said popping her head with a small smile.

"Thank you for having me, Lady Zabini," Harry said with a small bow of his head as Sirius had prompted him to do with the Goblins.

"No reason to be so formal you can just call me, Adriana," she said coming into the room and going to sit on his new bed. "I heard my son stopped by for a visit. I hope you don't hold his attitude against him. I am afraid it is all my fault, if I had only told him the truth about his father, and relationship with you."

"It is alright, um, Adriana, I have experienced worse," Harry said. "Not to be rude but how did you and Sirius end up together? I thought I heard that Blaise is Italian like other members of the Zabini family, I don't see you going to Hogwarts. I can only assume Blaise went due to Sirius being his father."

"You are correct, I did not go to Hogwarts in fact I first met Sirius and your father on their first solo mission as Aurors," Adriana explained.

"What was it?" Harry said sitting down on the other side of the bed.

"It was to actually guard me. Thanks to my family I was coming to Britain as an ambassador from the Italian Ministry and they were to be my guards. At first, I did not trust Sirius, finding him too childish and immature, but he grew on me. Especially after he and your father saved me from an attack by a group of discontent Magicals from both our Ministries.

The attack led the three of us to go off the grid, as it were, as we hid for a bit in the Muggle World for two weeks. This is also how I met your mother as she took us in. The four of us in Lily's small apartment led us to get to know each other. I soon saw despite how he acted Sirius was not as big of a fool as he tended to act in public. Your father informed me that it was Sirius's personal version of his Pureblood mask, making others underestimate him. Having let his mask drop as we hid I got to meet his real self. It might surprise you that Sirius has quite the talent in poetry, both writing his own and memorizing it," Adriana said making Harry laugh a little. "It's true, he read me some that he had come up with as we began to Court each other. I am sure I still have some of the letters he sent me from that time I could share with both you and Blaise," she said tapping her chin in thought.

"You don't need to do that it is your family's personal business, but thanks," Harry said.

"While you are not related to us by blood, you are still family. Did you not know that your father and Sirius underwent a ritual after Sirius ran away from his family that made them brothers in all but blood? While not the same as a sibling blood pack in a sense it makes you my nephew by magic. Around the time that Lily and I were pregnant with you and Blaise, we all agreed that Sirius was to be your Godfather and James would be Blaise's. This is another thing I have yet to tell him about, though he always asked about his dad but never his Godparents."

"If you don't mind me asking who is his Godmother?" Harry asked.

"He actually has two one is my younger sister, but Sirius also wanted a person who was more responsible so we went with his cousin and one of your mother's best friends, Narcissa Malfoy," she explained. Harry was shocked to hear that the mother of his school rival had been his mother's best friend and just could not picture it. However, he did guess that was why Draco and Blaise were so close at school despite Sirius's son never taking part in the bullying of others with Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle.

As a way to cover up his shock, Harry asked, "Did you really try to gain custody of me?"

"Oh yes, I did. However, as only your parents, Sirius's training officer out of everyone in England knew of my marriage to Sirius, I was thought to be another Magical who was trying to gain "possession" of the Boy-Who-Lived. I tried to get help from Arthur but found out that after what happened to your father and Siri, he had resigned and started up the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts office which most Magicals showed dislike for. I then tried to use my position of Underminister of the Italian Ministry with the claim that it would be better to get you out of England and the spotlight but was stopped by the Headmaster who claimed to be your Magical Guardian. I knew that was a lie having heard from Siri that Remus held that position, but knowing the British Ministry's Anti-Creature leaning, I did not want to cause too many problems for him, you, or Blaise by pushing it."

"Wait you said my parents and Mr. Weasley were at your wedding what about Professor Lupin and Pettigrew?" Harry asked.

"Well I do not know about that rat, but I know that the reason Remus had not come along was due to my parents, who had planned the wedding, had scheduled it for a day close to a full moon," Adriana explained. "We were planning on having a secondary ceremony for them when we received news that I was pregnant with Blaise postponing it for a while so I could share the news with my family. Unfortunately, things keep cropping up preventing the ceremony after that from Remus having been given an undercover assignment with one of the lesser pack of Werewolfs, to my older brother and former Lord of the Zabini line getting killed by a supporter of He-Who-Shall-Be-Nameless. This led me to become the new Lady Zabini and caused the switch from my married name from Adriana Black nee Zabini to Zabini-Black."

"I noticed that on Sirius test that seemed rather strange," Harry said.

"It is a common practice when two Heads of the family marry each other so a line will not end. When Blaise comes of age, he will have to choose between using one of our family lines' names for his title or hyphenating them in whatever way he wishes to. Of course, he might just decide to drop one of the names altogether which means the next in line for the title or any future children Siri and I have might take the name he rejects," she said in a sad voice making Harry think that she was imagining her son and husband never repairing their relationship.

"Well if it is to happen, it will be years for now, but for the immediate future only one question needs to be asked," she said.

"What?" Harry asked.

"Well unless my husband's taste has changed due to his time at Azkaban, I know what types of food everyone likes but yourself," Adriana said.

"I am fine with anything," Harry said with a shrug.

"Surely you have some type of favorite food, that I can have made as a sort of welcome to my home," Adriana said," anything at all."

"I just usually eat what is set before me," he answered making Adriana's heartbreak having heard just a small bit about Harry's previous life after chatting to Kreacher. Only to leave when the House Elves informed her Harry had found a room to his liking. She had arrived just in time to hear Blaise confronting Harry in his new room making her a little embarrassed at her son's reaction as she wished she had been fully honest with her son or shared that she had tried to gain custody of Harry when they were younger.

"Well if you are sure you have no preferred food, if you change your mind just let me know. We tend to start our meals at around six thirty-seven at the latest for supper. Also for reference breakfast starts around seven and lunch is usually set out around eleven forty-five. I try to eat at home as much as possible so that I could eat with Blaise but my job does not always allow me that luxury," Adriana said.

"What is your job?" Harry asked.

"Well, I am the Minister of Magic for Italy," she said shocking him. "As I said my job keeps me quite busy but I try to have at least one meal with Blaise a day while he is home from Hogwarts. Though with Siri being found innocent, I took the next few days off to spend time with my family. I also take off the day Blaise heads back to Hogwarts so I may at least drop him off. Also just to let you know due to Zabini Castle being in Italy and Hogwarts being somewhere in Wales, I have long ago set up a PO box with the Goblins of Gringotts so that any message sent by owl will head to that. So rather than a letter taking a week at the least to get here, it will only take a night in case you wanted to write to Siri or even myself during the school year."

As it was almost time for supper, Adriana showed Harry the way to the dining room. Harry expected the room to have a large table like he had seen while he was cleaning and the Dursleys had watched the movie, Richie Rich. He was thus surprised to see a small circular table even smaller than the one at the Burrow. "As I said, I like to use meal times as a way to be with family," Adriana said as they walked over to the table. Not sure if either of the Zabinis had a preferred seat, Harry waited for the others to sit down before he finally sat down between Blaise and Sirius, who seemed to want to give his son plenty of space. Unlike at Hogwarts rather than just food appearing on their plates, or the Burrow where Mrs. Weasley brought it over the groups' meal arrived on a small food cart that zoomed alone into the room.

Not sure of the protocol, Harry waited for everyone else to take some food before he spooned some items onto his plate. Harry saw from the corner of his eye Blaise gave him a strange look when his meal did not even cover half the plate. Sirius on the other hand sadly shook his head before spooning a little more food onto Harry's plate. Harry blushed a little at his Godfather's action while noticing another confused scowl on Blaise's face as Harry picked up his silverware. Blaise gave a pointed cough drawing Harry's attention to him.

The other boy gave a slight nod to his mother who had not yet picked up her own silverware making Harry worry about breaking protocol for eating before the foreign Minister as he hastily put his silverware down. Once they were back on the table Adriana began to speak, "Lady Magic, we thank you for your gifts of magic in our lives. As further thanks, we offer you these gifts from our table." Harry noticed a new plate appeared in the middle of the table as the three others took an item from their plate and placed it on the new plate. Thinking this was a type of magical prayer like the pre-meal prayer the Dursleys did during the holidays or when Marge was there he took some of the extra food Sirius had put on his plate to put with the others. As soon as his bit of food was added Harry's mouth fell open as the food on the plate began to pulse with a strange light before it actually became pure light.

Harry was so shocked by it that he sat staring at the now empty plate as the others began to eat until Sirius gently nudged him. "Everything alright Harry?" he asked.

"What was that?" Harry asked.

"Have you never offered thanks to her Ladyship or any of the Elder Ones?" Blaise asked confused.

"Elder Ones?" Harry asked turning to look at the other teen.

"You know Lady Magic, Destiny, Fate, Time, Death, Life, etc..." Blaise said.

"Blaise, honey, Harry was raised by Muggles," Adriana said causing Blaise to give a start in shock at the news.

Not looking at the other boy, Harry started to eat his food with his head down making himself as small as he could.  Just like he did when the Dursleys allowed him to eat with them when they had company over and could not hide him. Seeing Harry's posture and her son's shocked expression to find out all that had been told about Harry might have been a lie, Adriana decided to give them some news which she hoped would take their minds off of it. "I have some news," she said causing all three males to look at her.

"What's up, honey?" Sirius asked.

"Well in my role of Minister, I have heard of something very interesting happening at Hogwarts this year. This year the three main European schools are coming together to bring back the Triwizard Tournament and it will take place at Hogwarts," Adriana said seeing the confused look on Harry's face who most likely would not know what she was talking about while her son looked excited by the prospect. However, Sirius's reaction was something she had not seen coming as her husband let his silverware drop from his hands. She arched an eyebrow at him as he took out his new wand and summoned a quill and parchment over to him. "Honey?" she asked as he began to write something on the parchment.

"I don't like this," Sirius responded as he finished writing on the parchment. "Harry sign this," he ordered as he handed the quill and parchment over to his Godson. Adriana thanks to all her work with numerous important documents was able to read the parchment despite the page being upside down for her.

I, Sirius Black-Zabini the Godfather and legal guardian of Harry James Potter forbid Harry to take part in the Triwizard Tournament as a Champion.

Sirius had signed the document and left a space for Harry to sign as well before Sirius tore a bit off his napkin and transfigured the scarp into a pin. Sirius then pricked both his and Harry's fingers and let a single drop of blood from each of them fall onto the document making it legal and binding.

"Why the hell did you do that?" Blaise asked.

"I do not trust Harry not getting forced to take part in that tournament due to what he has told me of his first two years at the school and what Dumblsnores had done to him. If not him one of Voldysnort's followers as a way to get back at him for what he did to that monster," Sirius explained making Blaise wonder what had actually been done to Harry by the Headmaster. Sure most Slytherins did not trust the man but he was Harry's Magical Guardian and Harry was his Gryffindor Golden Boy.

Taking a chance Blaise asked, "What was done to him?"

Chapter Text

At my question, my mom and Sirius both looked to Potter who took a moment as he pushed around some food on his plate. "No," he said without looking up, "I barely know you. As you did not trust me when I told you in my room without any proof, I don't see any reason for you to be given that proof," Potter said and I could admit to myself he did have a point, so I just nodded in agreement. For the rest of the meal, Mom and Sirius began to answer questions Potter came up with about the Triwizard. I was surprised to find that rather than asking about any challenges or Tasks from previous tournaments, Potter's questions were more about different Magical Schools. What did he think that all the Magicals in the world only went to Hogwarts? As I listened to Potter's questions, I came to believe that he either had not thought about Magicals in other parts of the world or yes that Hogwarts taught all of them.

As the meal went on, I noticed that Potter was the first one to finish his food due to how little he had taken. As well as how much food he had given away to the Lady's gift, it came as no great surprise. However, after he finished his meal Potter stacked his dirty dishes creating a small pile, and even folded up his dirty napkin making me arch an eyebrow at him. Not that he noticed too busy asking questions about the various schools Mom and Sirius knew about. Sirius was telling Potter about one of his trips to Ilvermorny during an officer exchange when I finished my own meal. Rather than make a pile out of my dishes I left my seat and carried them over to where the cart now rested by the wall closest to the kitchens and dropped them off. Not wanting to hear more of Potter's endless questions, I knew he had some reason for what he was doing but I could not figure it out, I wished my mom goodnight and left the room without knowing Sirius or Potter.

Arriving at my room, I found a stack of letters sitting on my desk with a note from my mom saying they were some of her correspondence with Sirius during their Courtship. I really had no desire to read them still refusing to accept that man as my dad, but I was willing to do it for my mom's sake. After a few letters, I could only shake my head finding that Sirius seemed to be nothing more than a childish moron, and his prose for the "poetry" was an utter disaster. Maybe it was due to only reading Sirius's letters but the man seemed so full of himself never asking or commenting about my mother as he talked about his friends, and complained about his own mother. One letter actually showed there was hope for the man after all as I deciphered his harder-than-normal bad writing. The whole letter was about Sirius's younger brother who had just graduated from Hogwarts the week before having gone missing. While Sirius did complain about his mother once more in the letter it seemed that he really cares about his brother. For the first time, Sirius complained about the British Ministry and Dumbledore as they both refused his request to be added to the group searching for his little brother.

While the next few letters made mention of Sirius's missing brother, they mostly went back to the childishness of his earlier letters. Unable to take it anymore, I decided to call it a night. As I curled up with a good book an idea came to me about what Potter might be doing in that small room he had chosen. Since Mom knew which room he had chosen and his unfamiliarity with my home, it suddenly all made sense. Potter was going to wait until we were all asleep before moving to a larger room in some sort of prank. Granted it was not up to those Weasley twins he liked level, it might be all he could do on short notice. I was not going to allow it as I called for my personal House Elf, Rosemary, and told her to watch Potter overnight and then report to me the next morning. Trusting Rosemary to let me know where his new room would be, I was able to return to my book before finally falling asleep.

The next morning after my morning constitutional, I performed my morning exercises Rosemary returned. "So what did Potter do?" I asked.

"He read for an hour or so of new class books, Master Blaise. Around ten Misser Potter tried to sleep but he tossed and turned for ten minutes before leaving his bed. Misser Potter put on some Hoggywarts robes and left the room calling for a House Elf. I knowing you not want others to be aware of me watching him, I answered his call," Rosemary explained.

"And what did he ask you to do?" I asked assuming he was having her lead him into a new larger bedroom for his prank.

"Misser Potter wanted help in finding Owlery, so I led him there," she said.

"Ah, he must have wanted to send a secret message," I mutter to myself.

"When we arrived, he called his owl down but rather than giving her letter, Misser Potter turned around and took her back to his room, under my direction again," she said.

"And then he sent a letter?" I asked confused.

"No Master Blaise, first he thanked me and even gave me small hug," Rosemary said blushing slightly for it was rather strange for someone other than a member of a House Elf's family to thank them, let alone hug them. Hell Rosemary was my personal Elf, and while I thanked her I  had never even shaken her hand.

"And then?" I prompted.

"Well Misser Potter took his owl to his bed petted it for a while and just talked softly to it," Rosemary said making the case of Potter grow stranger in my head. He thanks and hugs strange House Elves, as well as treats his owl as if it were an actual pet rather than just a means to deliver letters. Rosemary unaware of what was going through my mind continued with her report, "After about fifteen minutes of talking to owl, whose name is Hedwig, I find out, Misser Potter send her to roost within his room and was soon asleep." I thought that was the end of it since I knew I was an early riser among not only my mother but also my dorm mates but once more Potter surprised me. "Misser Potter woke up at five-thirty and without any help took Hedwig back to Owlery before returning to his room."

"What has he done since then?" I asked

"Misser Potter did some reading for ten minutes before watch beeped on where he... he.... he...," Rosemary said as to my shock saw that she was almost in tears.

"Did he hurt you?" I asked unable to think of why she would cry.

"No Master Blaise, he," Rosemary said as she took out a small handkerchief from her pocket and blew her nose. "He feel we not do good job for he cleaned his room," Rosemary cried out as large tears fell from her eyes.

"There, there Rosemary," I said awkwardly comforting her as she ran forward and buried her face in my lap. "Mom said he was raised as Muggles so he might not know that cleaning is a House Elf's duty as a way to pay back the family. In fact, for all I know you and the Elves who helped him move into the room could have been the first House Elves he had ever met," I say gently patting her back.

"So no insult just ignorance, Master Blaise must set him right," she said looking up at me with pleading eyes.

"Fine, I will talk to him," I say making Rosemary give me a large smile as she returns to her normal duties.

Rather than resume my exercises, I continued to sit on my bed thinking about the growing mystery of Potter. I utterly hated mysteries, not due to creating questions but I always found them too long and drawn out. I recalled the year before I went to Hogwarts as my friends and I were doing some prep reading by creating a sort of book club. Theo had decided during his weeks to choose the book, always picked mystery novels. Draco would always skim the last chapter first so he knew what had happened before he began the story, while his goons Crabbe, and Goyle refused to read the books those weeks.

I would read the book as fast as I could just to get it over with it, and then there was Theo who took his time in the book, and once he reached halfway through it would write down his guess for what had happened. Unless the perpetrator was actually introduced after the halfway point, Theo's guess always turned out to be correct. I could not help but feel the edges of my mouth quirk upward as I thought of how my friends would handle the mystery of Potter. Draco most likely would have done his best to get his hands on Potter's results that Sirius and Potter had talked about last night. While Theo would do what he normally did and just sit back and observe the other boy until he was able to work it out himself. Out of the two options, I thought I would have better luck following Theo's example.

Pulling on my clothes for the day I headed down to breakfast and found Potter was already there, but rather than sitting at the table, he was leaning against one of the walls. "Good morning, Blaise," he greeted me.  I could only arch an eyebrow at him for using my first name already.  Especially after our interactions not only yesterday but at Hogwarts.

"Potter," I said with a slight nod of my head as I took my seat. I expected him to come to take a seat as well but he stayed next to the wall.

"Where are your mom and Sirius?" he asked.

"Don't know, they may sleep in late it being their first night back together," I say as I pull some French toast, bacon, and a glass of milk off the meal cart. "Are you going to just stand there or are you going to have something to eat?" I ask as I put some maple syrup and a glob of butter on my toast. I arch my eyebrow a little as Potter almost literally jumps to take his seat and grabs a small plate of simple toast, a single helping of scrambled eggs, and a glass of water. My confusion grew as he did not add any butter, or seasonings to his food or even start to eat until I took my first bit.

We sat and ate in silence for a moment before I brought up House Elves. "I don't know if you know about House Elves, Potter but they take great pride in their work," I said.

"Okay," he said sounding confused.

"I am just saying for a House Elf taking care of their families and the home is something they take pride in. So if you make a mess or see something that you see needs cleaning it is best to let them know about it and have them take care of it lest you unknowingly insult their work," I explain as I see the color drain from Potter's face.

"Is there a way to find out which House Elf is responsible for my new room?" Potter asked.

"Well maybe not yet but last night I had my Elf watch you, in case there were problems, so you might want to offer her the apology first," I said reaching over for some tea having finished off my milk. I almost choked on it as Potter turned to give me a large grin and asked to talk to my Elf. Calling for Rosemary I watched Harry hug her like she had told me he had done the night before, as he offered her a very heartfelt apology. Rosemary with tears in her eyes from joy and the treatment from him smiled as she took his dirty dishes, yet Potter did not leave the table, he just sat there trying to engage me in conversation as I finished my meal.

When he started to ask me about any knowledge about other Magical Schools and the Elder Ones, I had to fight back the urge to rub my eyes in exasperation and decided to show him one of the libraries to see if that would distract him. I wonder if this is what Crabbe had to deal with his younger brother, sure Potter and I were around the same age, but when he was not in class or flying he seemed younger than he really was. Which his slight frame seemed to emphasize, though when one only eats the bare minimum of food, I guess his size made sense. I would almost put it down to being in training and not wanting to add weight due to him being the Gryffindor Seeker but he had not asked about flying at all. Being more interested in general knowledge of the Magical World. Dropping him off in the library and even suggesting a few books to answer some of the questions he had asked me, I really wished that Hogwarts had the Intro to the Magical World like mom said they taught at Beauxbatons.

Well, now at least I got the answer of why he was friends with Granger as he started going over the books I had directed him to. Free of Potter, I headed back to my room to check out my own new course books for a bit, but I still could not get the strange behavior of Potter out of my head. Draco, who out of all my friends knew the "most" about Potter had always claimed he was a stuck-up prick who thought he was too good for everyone. And wanted to make a splash in our world by befriending a Blood Traitor and a Muggleborn over a Pureblood like Draco.

Yet so far what I had seen Potter was not that arrogant, what he was, I still could not yet determine but he was not arrogant. He also seemed to be a little weak, not in a Magical sense but self-worth which might explain why he treated Rosemary like he did. Having a theory, I decided to test it out, but not wanting to do it personally and having heard that he had no particular foods he liked or disliked, I wanted to see how he would react to a special meal. Putting down my Fourth-Year Study of Ancient Runes book I headed to the kitchens to put my plan into motion.

Trusting my conclusion that Potter was neither conceded nor arrogant, I wanted to see what he would do if a special meal was prepared for him. So talking to one of the House Elves who worked in the kitchens, I had them prepare Potter a special lunch and even had them make the meal a small portion compared to a meal I would request for myself. Knowing that as soon as Potter stepped into my home, the Elves would have done a simple scan on him to make sure they did not feed him anything he was allergic to.  I had them prepare a lunch of breaded chicken breast. But had them put some garlic, honey mustard, and lima beans dust into the breading as they made it. I also ordered Potter a side of mashed potatoes with some hot gravy, but let him decide for himself what to drink.

When lunchtime came Mom and Sirius joined, Potter and me at the table. I closely watched Potter as his eyes teared up a little at seeing his specially made meal. I know I would never be able to stomach the combination of spices and flavors, I had the Elves put in his food but Potter ate them all the same without even a wince of displeasure. This makes me think he had a heartier constitution than I had given him credit for, though I guess being around Weasley and his table manners at mealtimes at Hogwarts could also have something to do with it. I did not really pay attention to the conversation the others were having at the table as I took notice of Potter as he ate in my peripheral vision.

I must admit, I might have gone a little overboard after that heading down to the kitchens to have the Elves make Potter stranger and stranger foods until, I could get a reaction from him. Which I did get during lunch on our last day before we headed back to Hogwarts. Having watched him during every meal, I now knew what was considered "normal" for him. First, he would never start eating until everyone else present would take their first bite. Also due to his always smaller portions, which Sirius tried to correct only for Potter to pass the added food over to the Lady's gift, he would finish eating before everyone else. Rather than leave the table when he was done Potter would stack his dishes and wait until at least one other person had finished and left the table before he did.  I say at least for he waited for me to leave after breakfast, but stayed around when Mom and Sirius joined us.  For all I know, he could have only left when everyone else had finished.

When it came to eating despite the random food combinations, I had the Elves prepare for him, he ate them all the same. Yet at the last lunch, I saw a flicker of disgust come to his face as he dug into his meal, spaghetti with shredded Sauerkraut and some pickled grapes mixed into it. Potter still ate the entire meal even though he looked like he was going to hurl after every bite. Seeing this, I saw that I had both been right and utterly wrong about the strength of his character. For he did not once complain about how bad the food was yet he still forced it down as if under the impression that he would not get anything else.

Seeing his expression at the end of the meal, I decided I should apologize to him but did not want to do it in front of my mom lest I get into trouble, though I most likely deserved it. So I waited until after lunch and Potter, as had become his routine, headed to the library. I waited a little bit before I decided to go talk to him. But as I headed to the table he had started to use among the stacks, I stopped seeing Sirius was with him.

Still not liking the man, I hung back and was able to hear part of their conversation. Granted it did not make much sense to me something about the Goblins finding another Horcrux, whatever that is, in a property listed among the Gaunt family holdings. Sirius did say that the Horcrux had been attached to the Gaunt Family Ring so Potter would be unable to fully claim that House, not that there was much left of it according to Sirius. I heard Potter ask something about Grimmauld Plance and Sirius stated that the Horcrux there had been found and destroyed as well. Sirius for some reason also mentioned his brother and a Black Family House Elf before he left Potter.

I was ready to go apologize to Potter as soon as Sirius left, but the man came right to where I was basically eavesdropping in the stacks. Sirius did not look surprised to see me there, a stony look on his face led me from the room. Something told me I should not try to get away as I was led into a nearby drawing room to find my mom sitting in a chair before the fireplace. "Now Blaise, would you care to explain why you have had the House Elves preparing Harry's meals for the last couple of days?" Mom asked.

"I was checking something out," I said with a shrug.

"What how much you could torture him?" Sirius asked not taking the seat next to Mom but pacing before the grate.

"No that was not my intention, I was just trying to figure out if he would say something about it. For I noticed he did not have the same dominant presence he has at school," I said.

"When is that?   When he is flying?" Sirius asked. "From what I saw last year, Harry did his best not to get noticed that much. Which was hard when he was teased for his reactions to the Dementors. Harry still has not permitted you to know what we found out when I took him to Gringotts, but your mother and I agree this has to stop, so I will share with you a little bit about his life before now. I know the Magical World said he was raised like a prince but that was a lie the Muggles he lived with hated all forms of magic, even the sleight of hand Muggles call Magic.

They treated Harry horribly making him live like a House Elf for them until he got his Hogwarts letter. And now here we find you messing with his food just to see how far you can push him. I know I have not been much of a father to you, having left you to get Harry.  But right now I am the closest thing he has to one, and to see you treat him like that just..." Sirius said seeming to become lost for words.

Mom got out of her chair and gently placed her hand on Sirius's arm to help the man calm down. "Harry really is a sweet boy, Blaise, if you had just got to know him he would have most likely shared the information with you, but I also know that you take a while to warm up to people and prefer to "study" them a little first, But I have ordered all the House Elves, including Rosemary not to follow any more of your orders in regards to Harry as of right now, lest it be in an emergency.  I will also be contacting Professor Snape to inform him that for this year I am removing my approval for you to go to Hogsmeade since I can not really ground you with the term starting tomorrow.  Your allowance will also be cut off until you return next summer"

"That is more than fair," I said, "I shall go apologize to Harry then."

"I think that would be for the best," Mom said with a small smile.

I really felt like a heel as I apologized to Harry, and he actually apologized to me back for coming into his family and causing any problems. I assured him that all the problems were my fault, well mine and Sirius, which actually made him laugh a little before asking if I could recommend any further books he should take from the library and look at while at Hogwarts. Surprisingly I could not help but smile as I gave him a few, with numerous ones tied to Potion Making knowing his utter lack of skill in the subject as I told them they had helped me when I had first begun learning to brew. Harry thanked me as he took the books away to be packed.

That night at supper I did request an item for the menu having recalled Harry had a particular fondness for Treakle Tart ordering it for everyone for dessert. Now it really was my comeuppance as I hated Treakle Tart myself but made myself eat a normal portion of it for what I had put Harry through during meals the last couple of days. My mom gave me an understanding nod while Sirius sort of toasted me with his goblet. Harry, I don't think even noticed as for the first time since he had come to stay with us had a bigger portion than normal as he had a double helping of the dessert.

It felt sort of weird arriving at Kings Cross as a group of four rather than just Mom and me. As usual, Mom had shrunk my trunk for easier loading while Sirius made both Harry and me promise we would not mention the Triwizard Tournament to anyone before it was announced. As Harry went up to the Gryffindor potions of the train I headed to the Slytherin compartments to either find my friends or save them a seat. It seemed I was the last of our group to arrive, I found Draco going off about how Harry would try to do that year as a means to show off. Without even meaning to I said, "Knock it off Draco, Harry is not as bad as you think."

Chapter Text

Sirius could not stop grinning as he dropped off Harry and his son for the first time on Platform 9 3/4. He had been glad to see that after their talk the day before, Blaise stopped treating Harry as something to be studied and started to get to know him a little bit. Granted he did not see them close to being fully friends yet but it was a start. As soon as the boys wished them goodbye, Adriana headed back to Zabini Castle, but he was waiting until after the train left to head to Gringotts. With the Goblins confirming the destruction of the Horcrux attached to the locket, Kreacher had finally given the story of what had happened to Regulus. Hearing that his little brother had gone after the locket from where Voldysnorts had hidden it, Sirius was both proud and fearful of what Regulus had done. Sirius had already talked to some old Auror contacts and they were willing to join him in searching the Dark Cave where the locket had been, but Sirius also wanted to see if he could gain some help from some Gringotts's Curse Breakers due to their skills in being able to actually read Magic taught to them during their training.

Sirius smiled as he saw Harry's friends and the rest of the Weasley family arrive at the platform. Ron and Hermione came over as the youngest Weasley male fully thanked him for the owl Sirius had sent him at the end of the last term. He just smiled at the enthusiastic young male saying it had been no problem before directing Harry's friends to the compartment his Godson was using for the trip. Having learned that after his arrest all those years ago, Arthur had stepped away from the Auror's Department, but trusting the man more than any other, apart from maybe Remus, Sirius went to invite him along for his mission. Moving over to his old training officer, Sirius shook his head as the Hogwarts Expressed let loose its final warning whistle. "Hello Sirius," Arthur said shaking his hand.

"Hey Arthur, I was wondering if you would join me on a mission right after this," Sirius said giving a nod to Molly.

"I was unaware you had returned to active service," Arthur said.

"Oh, I haven't. But when I took Harry to the bank, I learned Regulus is alive but compromised. When I informed his old House Elf about it, he told me what had happened to him. Long story short, I am leading a team to find him," Sirius explained.

"Sirius, congratulations, I know how Regulus going missing had hurt both you and your folks. But why do you need a team to find him?" Arthur asked.

"Well, it turned out, according to Kreacher, Regulus had undertaken a mission to collect a dark artifact that his Voldyness was using to prolong his life after death. Not sure what other defenses or artifacts might be at the location, I talked to your replacement and she let me have a team. I also talked to Remus thinking his senses might come in handy and after the train leaves, I will be seeing if I can get the Goblins to send some Curse Breakers for the job as well."

"Why do you need Arthur then if Madam Bones has already given you a team?" Molly asked.

"Well for one since Arthur was with me and helped me through Regulus's loss, and the others not even Remus were there at the time, he can see if the mission is affecting me. And secondly, I do not know of anyone who has the same knowledge of random spells as Arthur does. Though to be honest, I have not really checked since I have gotten free of that fact," Sirius answered.

"I would love to join your team, Sirius," Arthur said giving the younger man a beaming smile before turning to his wife.

"Now Arthur dear," Molly began.

"Oh come on, Molly, I know it is my day off but as we keep telling our kids, family is important. And Sirius is right, he needs support in this, more than others could provide," Arthur said to his wife.

"Actually I was going to say you should help him," Molly said with a slight upturn of her lips as her husband blushed a little, and even his ears turned a little red.

"I am sorry, Molly," Arthur said.

"It is alright, Arthur," Molly said standing on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek. "Go help Sirius get his brother."

"Thanks, Molly," Sirius said. "You know you could come too, I recall Arthur saying you were rather good with Charms."

"Thank you, Sirius, but now that the kids are all gone it is time to give the Burrow a full deep clean, and I just don't trust Magic for that sort of thing. Especially with all those prank objects, the twins think they have hidden in their room," she said causing her and her husband to share a small chuckle. She knew the twins thought she was hard on them, but she had done the same thing with all her children. Playing the devil's advocate to see how truly invested her children were in their dreams. She also managed to help fix some of the mistakes they had made on their prank items over the years, and just like she had done with all her kids if they still wished to follow it after they left Hogwarts she would provide them some capital she had set aside for them when they were younger. Or if they had other plans she would give them the money for that instead just like her parents did for her and her brothers when they were younger.  The only one of her babies she had not done this with was Percy, due to his quiet and introverted nature she had mistaken him for being weaker than the others.  She was therefore surprised when he arrived home after his graduation and informed her that he was well aware of her plans, having informed her he had noticed it since Bill had started Hogwarts.

As the train started to pull away, Sirius and the Weasleys waved at the kids until the train had gone from view. Sirius promised to get in contact with Arthur later after his meeting at Gringotts as he sends one last look at the smoke from the train before he Apparates away wishing both boys a good school year. While inside the train, Harry told his two best friends about staying with Sirius, sharing that his Godfather was married but out of respect for Blaise refusing to tell them any more about Sirius's family. Meanwhile, Blaise was trying to explain why he had told Draco off for getting on Harry's case without revealing anything he learned in the last few days or mentioning Harry coming to live with him.

Arriving at a designated Apparition Point inside Gringotts, Sirius approached the counter to ask to see Vicebell. Being brought into the Goblin's office again, Sirius bowed low to the Goblin. "May your coffers never run out," he said in one of the normal greetings to a Goblin.

"And may the blood of your foes never leave you fully dry," Vicebell responded. "Now what can I do for you today Lord Black?"

"Well after we had the Goblins collect the Horcrux located in my mother's old house, a House Elf that belonged to my little brother informed me where he had last seen him. I was wondering if I could get some Curse Breakers to join me in collecting him," Sirius said taking a seat before his family's Account Manager.

"While I do like the idea that a member of the Black family once thought dead is still alive, I don't see why Gringotts should send any Curse Breakers to go collect him," Vicebell said looking down his bulbous nose at him.

"Well from what Kreacher told me the Horcrux that was taken from Grimmauld Place had originally come from where my brother was last seen. Kreacher described the place as a large lake inside a cave, but it is impossible to know if Voldy did not hide any other dark artifacts within," Sirius said.

"True and if he had taken more items that belonged to the Founders they would not have shown up having no connection with either yourself or your young ward like the others we have found," Vicebell said stroking his short black beard. "Though I doubt Tom would have stored two such items in such proximity to each other, you are right another dark object could be within. Very well Lord Black I shall see about getting you a couple of Curse Breakers," Vicebell said taking out what looked like a coin with a picture of a Goblin's face on the side. "Once your team is in place use this coin to summon the Curse Breakers on duty at the time."

"How?" Sirius said knowing that there were various ways to activate such coins such as a certain spell or code word.

"Easy you flip it into the air as if you are using the coin for a game of chance," Vicebell said before speaking some Gobbledegook to prevent the coin from activating as he showed how to use it.

Sirius was unable to help himself as the coin was flipped into the air as he called out, "Heads." Vicebell grabbed the coin out of the air and revealed it to be tails as the coin now showed the Gringotts logo on the side facing up.

"Please do not use it, until you are in position," Vicebell said reactivating the coin and handing it over.

"Gottcha," Sirius said as he pocketed the coin and left the bank.

Sirius's next stop was picking up Remus at his cabin, which allowed him to greet Buckbeak again. Promising he would return to take him back to Zabini Castle for good on his next visit, he patted the only constant ally from the summer and went to talk to Remus. Having been told to expect him Remus was already dressed in some magic-resistant clothing that Sirius had given him after he had been found innocent. The pair soon collected Arthur before summoning Kreacher to take them to the location Regulus hopefully was.

Arriving before an imposing rock outcropping that looked to be almost a small mountain and a small rocky path to it that looked like it would vanish when the tide was in the four of them did a quick survey of the area. As they searched Sirius finally informed Remus about his wife and son shocking his oldest living friend. Sirius apologized for not telling Remus sooner but he had never really had a chance. After ensuring that there were no traps or countermeasures that would hurt the group Sirius had assembled. Finding nothing outside the cave Sirius activated both signals to summon the Aurors and the Curse Breakers.

All three Magicals were shocked to find that one of the Curse Breakers that had shown up was none other than Arthur's oldest son. "Thank you, everyone, for coming," Sirius said as the group gathered in front of him. "While my main mission is to find my missing brother the place he was last seen was a stronghold of He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named, so who knows what lurks inside hence why I asked for your help. There could be dark artifacts, or even other prisoners so we all need to be on our guard. From what Kreacher," Sirius said indicating the House Elf who looked keen to start the mission, "has told me when he was inside all he saw was a large lake with a small possible man-made island in the middle containing a dark and dangerous potion. He has also given accounts of Inferius which he saw drag Regulus under the water of the lake. We will be separating into three teams led by Remus, Arthur, and myself. One team's job is to guard the magical entrance that is located inside in case there are some spells set up to let He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named or any of his followers know it has been breached this team will be led by Remus. The second team will be exploring the outer edge of the lake and will be led by Arthur, and finally, I will be leading a team to the island itself," Sirius said allowing the Aurors and Curse Breakers to choose themselves who ended up on which team.

Having already been told by Kreacher that to gain access to the part of the cave that held the lake and island one had to pay a tribute of blood, Sirius used some ready-made samples just in case the cave was able to keep track of whose blood was used to gain entrance. Once they were inside Remus's team set up a guard post among its members and Remus sniffed the air a little. "Watch it, Sirius I don't smell anything alive in here besides us," his old friend warned.

"It will be fine Remus, even if Regulus is not here we might find a clue to where he might be," Sirius said slapping his friend on the back as he headed to the lake where the others had gathered.

"Alright, two things," Arthur's son said as Sirius joined them. "First off from what I can detect, this water is not water at all but a Preservation Potion. Secondly, it has an incomplete Inferius creating Hex attached to it. So no one touches the water unless we have no other choice. There, also only appears to be one way to the island," he said as he used his hand to tug a Magic line, bringing a small boat to the surface. "The entire cave also has an Anti-Apparition Charms as well as spells that prevent brooms and other flying objects from working."

"So we just use the boat," Sirius said.

"Well, we could but from what I see it can only carry one person who has access to their full Core at a time," William said.

"That should not be a problem. Arthur?" Sirius asked turning to the older redhead. Arthur smiled as he pulled out his wand to sever the boat from its magical tether before casting a spell to duplicate it until there were enough boats for Sirius's entire team headed to the island. Once the boats were created Arthur connected the original boat back to the tether as the others began to climb into the copies of the boat. Sirius waited until his team was in their boats before he climbed into the tethered boat. Sirius had to smile as some of the others gasped for after he climbed in the whole fleet took off to the island just as he knew it would thanks to Arthur's skill who had connected all the boats but had the tether only register the boat Sirius was in.

Reaching the island in the middle of the lake, Sirius looked back and found due to how large the cave was, he could not see either of the two teams. Having discussed it before heading in Sirius used his wand to shoot a single white flare into the air to signal they had arrived as his team explored the island which was more akin to a large jagged rock sticking out of the "water." William was already examining the only item on the island, the large pedestal which contained the potion where the locket had been kept. "This is horrible," the redhead said looking even more green than just the light the potion was casting on his face was causing.

"What's up, Curse Breaker Weasley?" Sirius asked.

"This is a highly modified Draught of Despair, which is bad enough, but this one not only prevents a person from drinking any type of liquid besides the Preservation Potion but also is more effective than normal," Willaim answered.

"How so?" Kingsly Shacklebolt asked.

"Well, a normal Draught of Despair makes a person feel as if they are in the presence of a Dementor, but this one forces whoever drinks it to actually relive their worst memory over and over again. If your brother had to drink this I don't have high hopes for the state of his mind after all this time.

"That is a cheery thought," Sirius muttered to himself but glad William had not sugar-coated it. "Kreacher where did you last see Regulus?" he asked the Elf who was glaring at the potion.

"There," Kreacher said pointing a long gnarled finger at one edge of the island. Several of the team rushed forward to see if they could find any traces left over, despite how long ago the event had happened, from the spot the Elf had pointed.

"I got nothing," Curse Breaker Hightower said sadly shaking his head at Sirius.

"Same here," an Auror named Hooks stated with a similar shake of her head.

"It could be that after all this time nothing remains," Willaim said patting Sirius's shoulder.

"Why a Preservation Potion?" Sirius asked voicing something that had been bugging him as he tried to not think of finding no clue about his brother.

"What was that?" Curse Breaker Hightower asked.

"Why a Preservation Potion. I mean the Inferius would hardly need such a potion. In fact, the worse condition they are in one would think the better job they would have in scaring people who had come for the locket," Sirius said.

"Good point," Kingsly said rubbing a hand over his shaven head. "A Preservation Potion would only make their bodies last longer which would not be needed when someone is turned into an Inferius. Kreacher do you sense your Master in this cave?" Kingsly said turning to the House Elf.

"Yes, Master Regulus is here," Kreacher said closing his eyes to better get a feel for his missing Master's Magical signature.

"The lake he is in the lake," Hooks said making as if to touch the liquid.

"No don't," everyone called just in time.

"Sorry, but how do we get to him?" Hooks asked blushing a little. At her question, everyone shares a look but has no actual idea of what to do. Sirus tries a summoning charm, and Kingsly tries to cast a Banishing Charm on some of the Preservation Potion while William looks at the potion to see if his Goblin-given Mage-Sight could detect something. Every one of their attempts, however, fails.

"Forgive what might be an obvious question," Curse Breaker Hightower said. "What if we reverse a House Elf Summoning?"

"What?" the others asked confused.

"Well my family does not have any House Elves ourselves, but I know that a family member can summon an Elf to them just by saying their name. Is there a way to reverse it somehow so we could summon Regulus to Kreacher?" Hightower asked.

"I don't think I have heard of such a thing ever being attempted," Sirius said and looked to the others for confirmation and got agreement from the rest of the team. "Though if it can be done, I can only think of one person who can do it," Sirius said as he headed back to his boat the other not wanting to be left behind on the island quickly followed him.

"Any luck, Sirius?" Arthur asked when the fleet of boats returned to the edge of the lake.

"Not so much. We think we have located him but can not reach him," Sirius said.

"I am sorry Sirius," Arthur said going as if to offer some support.

"But someone came up with an idea. Do you think you could reverse a House Elf-Magical Human bond so that Kreacher could summon Regulus from where he is located?" Sirius asked.

The older redhead tapped his lip in thought as everyone looked at him. "I think it can be done with a little nudging," Arthur said after a moment as he began to lay out the plan he had come up with. Thankfully everything he needed was there with Sirius as blood brother to Regulus, Kreacher being the missing male's personal Elf, and Bill there allowing Arthur to use an old blood ritual he recalled from his youth to strengthen a person's magic for a short time. When he got everything in place Arthur cracked his knuckles before he began speaking words that even the combined Aurors and Curse Breakers did not recognize showing off why the man had once held the post of the Head of the Auror department before he had stepped aside after the war.

The magic he used almost seemed to be tangible as the man chanted placing a hand on both Sirius and Kreacher's dominant arms, with William's hand, pressed into his back. Leaving the rest of his team to stay on guard even Remus had come over surprised at the amount of magic being used and was one of the few who actually recognized the ritual thanks to his Masters in History. Remus showing up turned out to be a good thing for Arthur to maintain the reversal of the bond found he could not speak to let Kreacher know when to summon Regulus. With the werewolf there, he was able to direct Kreacher to act as with a single word the missing Black appeared before them all.

As soon as Regulus appeared, Arthur ended the ritual and would have collapsed if not for his son and Remus catching him. As the others looked to see if the redhead was alright Sirius only had eyes for his younger brother. Crouching down on the cave floor, Sirius was shocked to find his brother looked to be the same as the last time Sirius had seen him when Regulus graduated Hogwarts. Putting it down to the Preservation Potion that made it look like his brother was no older than eighteen years old Sirius hoped that Regulus's mind was still healthy as well. As no one else had found any artifacts inside the cave the group decided to head out so that Arthur and Regulus could be seen by trained professionals.

Chapter Text

Making their way out of the Dark Cave and away from the Anti-Apparition protections, Arthur and Regulus were taken to St. Mungos so trained Healers could look them over. Leaving his younger brother with Remus, Sirius made his way to the sign-in counter. He almost ended up pushing others out of the way so that Arthur and his brother could be seen first, but he found he had not needed to as the Magicals recognizing him quickly got out of his way. "You know others were waiting to be seen before you," the Welcome Wizard said in a rather bored voice.

"I am aware of that but I have a Magical who for at least the last seventeen years or so has been submerged in Preservation Potion, and a man I greatly respect suffering from both a Magical overload and withdrawal," Sirius said as the group had diagnosed Arthur from their own bits of training and various Magical Skills.

"Alright the one who had been in the Potion accident should be taken up to the Third Floor, Andrews Ward, while the one suffering from overload and withdrawal can be helped on the Second Floor in the Petterson Ward," the Magical said without even looking down. Sirius thanked them and went to collect the others to start getting his brother and an old friend started on their treatments.

Leaving Arthur and his eldest son on the Second Floor, Sirius and Remus carried Regulus up to the Andrews Ward on the Third Floor. According to the information posted on the Ward's door, the main purpose of the place was to help Magicals who have had long-term exposure to dangerous potions. Meeting the Head Healer inside, Healer Winchester, Sirius gave a brief explanation of when he had last seen his little brother as well as what they had thought had happened to him. Sirius shared the belief William Weasley had shared that due to the Preservation Potion that made up the lake inside the cave and the Inferius Creating Hex attached to it.

According to the guess of the redheaded Curse Breaker, the potion was to preserve anyone who fell into the lake where they would remain themselves until the next person fell in where they would finally become subjected to becoming an Inferius. Healer Winchester nodded as he took notes. "That does make our job a little easier," the man said, "unfortunately while this can help us treat your brother it does not help us know the condition of his mind. Depending on the grade of Preservation Potion he had been submerged in he may have had his mind awake the entire time, or for all we know, he might resume consciousness as if he had just laid down to sleep."

"He might also have drunk a modified Draught of Despair which made him relieve bad memories," Sirius shared making the Healer take some more notes.

"I will have to check our stores, but as long as the potion was not too changed from its normal form I think we should be able to come up with an antidote as well," Healer Winchester said. "I thank you for your time, but for the time it will be better for our work if you leave us to it. I can understand you might not want to leave him so soon after finding him after so long, but just give us an hour to get started at least."

Remus had to basically drag Sirius up to the Fifth Floor tea room to let the Healers work on Regulus, as well as having to cast a Sticking Charm on his friend's chair so he would not return. "Sirius I heard you had gotten off.  So what are you doing here?" a voice asked which seemed to distract Sirius from trying to get free of the spell.

"What do you want Cousin?" Sirius asked shooting a dark look at Narcissa Malfoy.

"Wow touchy aren't we," Narcissa said holding her hands up to show she was not holding a wand.

"And you are avoiding the question," Remus pointed out taking a drink of his hot cocoa.

"Well, there I was just finishing my paperwork when who should pass the door to my office than my old cousin Sirius Black now a free man in the presence of his old friend. So what did you finally decide to pop the question now that the charges had been dropped?" she asked as she pulled up a chair to their table.

"I am already married, as I am sure you know cousin," Sirius said with an almost growl at the Witch.

"Oh do tell?" Narcissa asked as she summoned over some coffee.

"Oh quit joking around I know you were miffed when I did not invite you to my wedding, but you know damn well I married Adriana Zabini, we made you our son's Godmother after all," Sirius said.

"Wait you are Blaise's father?" she asked sounding confused finally stopping Sirius from trying to get free and giving her a searching look.

"When was the last time you got tested for spells or potions in your system?" Sirius asked.

"It is a mandatory procedure done every six months. Why?" she asked taking a sip of her coffee.

"That is strange for I know you knew of my relationship with Blaise, recalling you coming over to babysit for us so Adriana and I go get out of the house and have a night off," Sirius said sounding confused.

"If you don't mind me asking who performs the procedure on you?" Remus asked.

"My normal tester is old Madam Griselda Marchbanks," Narcissa said raising an eyebrow at him.

"She is rather close to Albus if I recall," Remus said recalling the woman heading the O.W.L and N.E.W.T. examination board and had spent much of her time when not testing the students up in the Headmaster's office.

"I guess why?" Narcissa said.

"She might not be sharing with you the full truth or even be enchanting you on his orders," Remus stated.

"That is quite the accusation," she said, "do you have any proof?

"Not really, but you not recalling I am Blaise's father is troubling. Let me ask you what do you recall of Lily Evans?" Sirius asked.

"That Mudblood," Narcissa said shocking Sirius and Remus with the vehemence in her voice.

"Who was your best friend at school?" Remus asked.

'Easy it was... now who was it... I can see their face but their name escapes me. You have to forgive me it was a long time ago and I see countless people a day during my job," Narcissa said with a slight shrug of her shoulders.

"You know Remus, one of my favorite things to do during family reunions during our youth was to take Narcissa's stuffed bunny whom she had named Mr. Scotts, and threaten to give it a haircut," Sirius said turning to his friend who seemed taken aback by the random memory.

"You idiot it was not a bunny, it was a Chimera and its name was Athena," Narcissa said shaking her head at him.

"So much for having a bad memory," Sirius said with a smile.

"I assume you had a point with all that," she said sending him a small glare over the last of her coffee.

"Just proving a point, cousin. I would suggest you find someone else to give you a test or have it done at Gringotts," Sirius said.

"And after you see your results, which I am sure to have been tampered with, make sure Marchbanks does not test you again," Remus suggested.

"That is all well and good but that does not answer my earlier question of what you are doing here," she pointed out.

"Well, thanks to claiming my Lordship rings I found out Regulus was in fact alive and we just returned from collection him where he is being seen," Sirius explained.

"And the Healers told us to leave so here we are," Remus added. Narcissa shocked to hear about the survival of her missing cousin dropped her empty cup and did not even seem to notice it shattering on the floor.

"Where is he?" she asked.

"He is being looked after in the Andrews Ward," Sirius said.

"Tell me everything," she ordered. With her distracting them Sirius and Remus the hour they were told to stay away soon was forgotten as Sirius shared everything that had happened.

On the Hogwarts Express, Harry was looking forward to the coming year to meet more foreign Magicals, though, keeping with his agreement with Sirius and Adriana, he had not shared what was coming to Hogwarts that year. The only downside was thanks to seeing the results of his test from Gringotts, he was not looking forward to coming into contact with Headmaster Dumbledore again, another thing he was not sharing with his friends at the moment not wanting them to worry. "So any idea why we needed Dressrobes this year?" Neville asked who had come to join them after the trip had begun.

"No idea," Ron said shrugging.

"Seriously Weasley? You have a father and older brother in the ministry and you don't know," Draco said with a scoff as he and his gang showed up to their compartment. "Though maybe your father is too low ranked in the Ministry, I guess they would not discuss important stuff around him." Harry looked past his school rival and shot a look at Blaise who gave him the tiniest of shrugs as if to say he had not broken their promise.

"Shove off Malfoy," Ron said getting up and making as if to shove the blonde out of the doorway.

"You better be nice to me Weasley, after all just cause your father is riding high for his finding of Barty Crouch Jr and unmasking the corruption of his father but that fame won't last long," Draco said with a laugh he and his gang left the doorway.

"That arrogant prick, I mean it this year I am not going to take any shit from him," Ron said cracking his knuckles.

"Well, I had an interesting visitor earlier last month," Neville said hoping to change the subject.

"Oh, who Neville?" Ginny asked also wanting to put the brake on her brother's rant about Malfoy.

"It was a day or two after the article about Pettigrew being found when Professor Lupin showed up and talked with my Gran for a bit," Neville said.

"What about?" Hermione asked.

"Well from what I overhear he was her former student. But when I asked her about it later she told me he was checking to see if the article about Sirius had been accurate or not," Neville explained.

"Well I am glad she did," Harry said smiling having had fun despite some hiccups staying at the Zabinis the last couple of days.

Right before they all left the train it started to downpour leading Hermione to cast a Water-Repelling Charm on each of their cloaks as she had done to Harry's glasses last year during the match against the Huffelpuffs. Feeling rather sorry for the new students who would have to ride the small fleet of boats through this, Harry talked Hermione, Ron, Ginny, and Neville to help him cast similar charms on the fleet of boats as they passed them on the way to the carriages that would take them up to the castle. "Mister Potter I received a notice about you casting some spells on the First Year boats," Professor McGonagall said meeting them at the door leading into Hogwarts.

"Yes Professor we did," Harry said not ashamed of helping out the new students.

"You should count yourself lucky that the conductor was close enough to hear the spells you all cast otherwise you would have been all given detention, but for your actions, I think twenty points apiece is called for," she said with a smile as one hundred points were instantly added to the Gryffindor House cup. Harry tries to protest saying they did not do what they did for points but Ron pulls him away before he convinces their Head of House to change her mind.

"Are you mad, Harry this will make us legends and will make everyone forget us losing all those points in the first year with the dragon," Ron whispered at him as he pulled him away. "Just think about it term has not even started and we are so far in the lead you could lose the first Quidditch Match and still hold our place."

"Fine, but still I was not doing it for the points," Harry said taking his normal spot at the table as Ron, Hermione, and Neville took theirs while Ginny left to join her friends.

"It is fine Harry we did the right thing the points are just a bonus," Hermione said.

"Hey'a, Harry, my little brother is starting this year," Colin said taking a seat next to Neville.

"That is nice, Colin," Harry said with as much enthusiasm as he normally had for the younger fanboy.

"I know hope he will have a better first year than I did," Colin said with a smile.

"Siblings usually end up in the same house right?" Harry asked turning to his friends and experiencing a sudden thought of if he had been raised alongside Blaise if he would have ended up in Slytherin or Blaise being in Gryffindor.

"Not necessary after all Padma is in Ravenclaw House while we got Pavati," Hermione pointed out.

Harry was glad he and his friends had done what they did as they saw the group of First-Years enter the hall for their sorting all except for one being utterly dry. The only one that was wet appeared to be wearing Hagrid's large overcoat and looking over at their table caught Colin's eye before sending a thumbs up and mouthing "I fell into the lake." Harry rather hoped Colin's brother, if he was sorted into Gryffindor would not be as big as a fanboy as his brother was. Harry was actually quite glad he was able to hear the Sorting Hat's song having missed it the last two years due to events beyond his control.

For the most part, the sorting looked to be going the same as his year unless you counted Colin's younger brother tripping over Hagrid's coat as he came forward. At least until after calling out one new student's name the student in question came forward and had a quick conversation with Professor McGonagall. After the conversation, Professor McGonagall issued an apology and informed them she had used the wrong name before calling forth Jo Lesky who was sorted into their House. Recognizing the last name of one of the girls in his year, Harry turned to her only to see the girl had a dark scowl on her face. Guessing the pair of siblings did not like each other unlike Colin and his younger brother Harry paid no attention to it as Jo came over and sat next to Dennis and Colin.  During the feast, one of the Gryffindor Prefects came over to the new first year to cast a drying charm on him so Hagrid could get his coat back before he walked back to his hut.

After the last student had been sorted rather than start the feast the Headmaster stood up and summoned the feast. Knowing what he now knew about the Magical World, Harry knew the man was taking credit for the hard work of any House Elves that were living at Hogwarts. Without even thinking about it he put more food on his plate as normal before doing the ritual of offering to Lady Magic. To his surprise, he noticed a small plate appear before him which he put his offering on and saw it being accepted. "What was that Harry?" Hermione asked shocked to see him waste food.

"Sorry, it was a ritual I learned at Sirius's place it is an offering to Lady Magic," Harry explained.

Meanwhile at the Slytherin Table as usual Draco was keeping a close look on Harry. "It seems Potter learned to participate in some rituals over the summer," the blonde said as he put his food on one of the ritual plates in the middle of the table.

"Must have been after he went to live with Black," Pansy guessed,

"Well maybe the man will teach him how to properly behave for once," Draco said as he and the others around them missed Blaise's knuckles turning white around his silverware at the mention of Black. Thankfully all his friends were only looking at Harry as he ate some spaghetti and meatballs. Blaise experienced a pang of remorse seeing Harry smile as he ate the meal, not sure if the smile was from the food or being back with his friends. If it was for the food it would have been so much worse than he had thought for during all the meals he had seen Harry eat at the manor the brunette had never smiled so much. Which means he had messed with possibly Harry's favorite food before he had stopped. Realizing he was once more paying too much attention to Harry than his own meal, Blaise turned away to talk with his friends as they ate..

After the meal had come to an end, Dumbles stood up but rather than giving any start of term notices such as any new items on Flitch's list of banned items or staying out of the Forbidden Forest the man began by telling them all that Quidditch had been canceled that year. There was an immediate outcry from the hall as numerous angry conversations started. Harry could understand this as with Wood having graduated, Harry was excited to see not only who was taking over as Quidditch Captain but also see what happened during a Quidditch Try-Outs since Wood had never really done one.

Harry did not take part guessing the reason for the Quidditch not taking place but not sharing it yet since technically the tournament had not yet been announced. As the hall quieted down the man finally announced the tournament which brought more conversations to the hall, though this time in more happy and exciting tones. Once more Dumbles let the conversation take place before he went into a long speech about the tournament spending time discussing how much honor one could achieve a student could gain for not only becoming the school Champion but also winning it overall.

This led to more conversations which came to an end when Dumbles mentioned an Age Line that would prevent students who were not of age from taking part in it. Ron began to grumble saying it was rather unfair while Hermione thought the man had a point. Harry did not worry either way since Sirius had him sign the form that said Harry was not permitted to take part in the Tournament. Sirius to make sure the form was accepted had made multiple copies, making Harry add a drop of blood for each, and sent one to Gringotts, one through the British Ministry, and even one was taken by Adriana to have filed in the Italian Ministry.

Chapter Text

During their first study period of the year, which came right before lunch on their first day back, Harry, Ron, and Hermione were in the library. Though they did not have that much homework yet Hermione still dragged them to the library to work on what little they did have. Ron was more interested in talking about the Tournament while Harry and Hermione worked. Harry knew in previous years, he would have been messing around just like Ron was doing, but after Blaise had apologized for messing with his food the Slytherin boy had pointed out that Harry was not doing himself any favors letting Hermione do most of his work.

So on the train ride over, he made Hermione promise that if he asked her to help him with his homework, she would only focus on his spelling and grammar and not the content. That way he could learn from his mistakes and hopefully improve. Harry was really worried about Potions for even some lessons with Sirius and Adriana in the two weeks he had been staying with them he was still not confident in his skill. The block that he had in Potions might have been removed, but Harry still lacked any confidence in the subject.  He had confessed to Sirius that he had always been confused by his lack of skill in potions due to how good he was at actually cooking. Adriana had chimed in that it could be that cooking was actually less precise than brewing and told him to focus on exact measurements and cuttings while he prepared his ingredients.

"So what do you think Harry?" Ron asked breaking into Harry's thoughts as he worked on his Potions homework.

"Sorry, Ron. What do I think about what?" Harry asked looking up at his friend.

"About finding a way to enter the Tournament?" Ron repeated not even seeming to be annoyed that Harry had not been paying attention.

"Ron, Professor Dumbledore said he was going to make sure no underage student could complete, I doubt either you or Harry could enter," Hermione said not even looking up from her Rune's essay.

"Yeah I get that," Ron said without losing any of his enthusiasm. "But it is still fun to think about it. We could win and get all that money and honor."

"There are more important things Ron. Good grades, so one can get a good job for one," Hermione said.

'Yes but having all that with a lot of money is nothing to shake a stick at," Ron said.

"It actually does not really matter," Harry said before the two of them got into a heated debate in the middle of the library.

"What do you mean don't you even want to think about it?" Ron asked sounding a little disappointed.

"It is not that," Harry said seeing no reason not to tell his friends. "After Sirius learned of the Tournament from one of his old friends he made sure to have me sign a document that would prevent me from taking part in the Tournament at all."

"Why would he do that?" Ron asked incredulously.

"Well, the Tournament from what I had found out after Sirius had me sign the document is rather dangerous. In one of the last Tournaments before they ended it a century ago all three Champions died. And let's face it we have dealt with enough stuff like that already. Lest you forget we have already had three challenges with Quirellmort going after the Stone in our First Year. Riddle's Diary, the opening of the Chamber of Secrets, and that bloody basilisk in our Second, and then Peter and thinking Sirius was out to kill me last year," Harry said.

"I guess," Ron said.

"You guess?   Would you want to do any one of them again and in front of an audience?" Harry asked arching an eyebrow at him.

"Maybe even the same thing as well," Hermione added, "after all, during my own research into the Tournament last night one of the tasks was to take on a cockatrice which is a close relative to the Basilisk though without a look that can kill someone," Ron visibly paled at the thought having heard about Harry nearly dying while facing the Monster of Slytherin and only being saved by the tears of a Phoenix.

"Alright you made your point, I will not try to find a way to enter the Tournament," Ron said holding up his hands in surrender making both Hermione and Harry laugh which he soon joined in on before they all quieted down after a warning cough from Madam Pince.

"So how was ...," Ron started before he looked around to make sure no one was close to them before finishing in a whisper, "Buckbeak."

"You know, I don't think I saw him at all during my time there," Harry said screwing his face up to see if he recalled Sirius talk about the escaped Hippogriff during his time at Zabini Castle. However, he was not sure if that was due to Buckbeak being in hiding in case Blaise knew about the Hippogriff from Draco since Blaise was not in the Care of Magical Creature class. Suddenly filled with worry for Buckbeak, Harry took out a fresh page of looseleaf paper and wrote a note to Sirius asking about Buckbeak, while at the same time telling his Godfather about why Buckbeak had to go on the run in the first place. Not wanting to leave the letter in his bag, due to it dealing with Buckbeak, before he went to lunch he headed to the Owlery to send Hedwig to the PO Box connected to Zabini Castle before he went to go eat.

Zabini Castle.

Thankfully after finding out that Regulus was just in a Magical coma, the Healers had allowed Sirius to take his brother home. Using his Portkey to return to the castle, Sirius had some House Elves help him set up a room for his little brother in an open bedroom close by his and Adriana's room. While he trusted the House Elves at the castle, Sirius knew he would never hear the end of it if he used another Elf summoned Kreacher to look after his brother. Sirius decided to go to bed having been up almost twenty-eight hours after seeing Harry and Blaise off at the Station and being unable to sleep a wink while at St. Mungos.

He could not have been sleeping more than a couple of hours before there was a chime from the PO Box he had set up for Harry. Worried that something had happened after Harry returned to being at the school and close to Dumbledore again, Sirius grumbled a little as he went to check the box. Stifling a yawn Sirius's worry turned to some good-natured humor seeing Harry was worried about Buckbeak. Sirius began to write back to Harry informing his Godson that Buckbeak was alright and as of that moment was being flown to Zabini Castle by Remus. Sirius also wrote that Remus suggests they give the Hippogriff a new name that way if Blaise had heard the story about Draco's run-in with Buckbeak the name would not give it away. He almost added that he felt bad about adding another lie to his dealing with Blaise, but thought Harry did not need to know that. Deciding to end the letter on a happier note Sirius informed Harry that he and his team had managed to retrieve Regulus, while not telling his Godson what was involved in it.

The letter finished but did not need to be sent right away, Sirius left it on his desk as he stumbled back into bed and fell almost instantly asleep again. Sirius barely got another full hour of sleep before the door to the room banged open. "What is it now?" Sirius asked wishing he could just bury his head under his pillows and go back to sleep.

"Master Mutt, Master Mutt come quickly Good Master Regulus is coming around," Kreacher said shouting with joy, an unknown emotion when he normally dealt with Sirius. All tiredness left Sirius's body as he rushed after the Elf to the next room. Rushing into the room Sirius skidded to a stop to see Regulus rapidly blinking his eyes making Sirius wonder if he had time to summon a Healer or not.

"Who's there?" Regulus asked propping himself up in bed while still blinking furiously. Thinking that after so long submerged in the Preservation Potion had led to some partial blindness, not that the Healers had found anything to suggest that to be true, Sirius pulled out his wand and dimmed the lights in the room a little.

"Master Regulus you is well," Kreacher said bouncing with joy on the balls of his bare feet.

"Kreacher is that you? Does that mean Mum, Dad, and Siri are here as well?" Regulus asked as he stopped blinking and began to squint his eyes as he looked around the room.

"Just me, I am afraid bro," Sirius said as he approached the bed and sat on the edge of it.

"Where are Mum and Dad?" Regulus asked a hint of worry in his voice.

"Later," Sirius said taking hold of his brother's left hand. "What is the last thing you remember?"

"Um, I just graduated Hogwarts when someone came to see me about the Dark Lord needing the use of a House Elf. I lent them Kreacher as I prepared to go see my friends for the big post-graduation party. I was about to head out when Kreacher informed me what the Dark Lord needed him for. I was horrified that he would do such a thing to an Elf so I asked Kreacher to take me back to where he had been. With his help, I drank something awful making me think of the time you left home, and some of the fights I had with my friends, mum, and dad when I came out," Regulus said shocking Sirius who had never heard of this. Unaware of his older brother's shock Regulus continued, "After I drank the potion I felt an overwhelming thirst, and though I had been warned about it from Kreacher I could not stop myself from drinking the lake. Next thing I know numerous hands grab me and pull me under... Am I dead?"

"No, Reggy," Sirius said using the old nickname for his brother. "That was no normal lake it was actually Preservation Potion where you have laid since then."

"How long?" Regulus asked.

"Well, you see," Sirius dithered not wanting to answer.

"How long Siri?" Regulus asked again with a hint of steel in his voice.

"Well if you had just graduated Hogwarts. You have been gone for almost fifteen and a half years," Sirius said squeezing his brother's hand.

"So mum and dad thought I was dead and are coming?" Regulus asked.

"No, Reggy, Mom and Dad are dead. They have been for maybe thirteen years," Sirius said.

"What do you mean maybe? Are they dead or aren't they?" Regulus asked his voice rising in anger.

"They are dead, I just don't know when exactly they died," Sirius answered.

"Damn Siri, I knew you guys had a falling out but that is low," Regulus said his voice turning icy.

"It was not due to me leaving home. When they died, I had been sent to Azkaban," Sirius said seeing his brother's mouth fall open in shock at that bombshell.

"Why did they finally make that motorcycle of yours illegal?" Regulus said trying to cover up his surprise with a joke.

"No," Sirius said taking a deep breath. "Since you seem to recall what you were doing perfectly before you vanished I can only assume you recall my school friend, James Potter who married Lily Evans."

"Yesss," Regulus answered sounding a little confused.

"Well just like you, they stood up to the Dark Lord and paid the price, but unlike you, they did end up dying. For some reason, He targeted them directly forcing them to go into hiding under a Fidelius Charm. To better protect them it was decided that I would pretend to be their Secret Keeper while Peter Pettigrew was the real one," Sirius said.

"But he is a Death Eater," Regulus said shocking Sirius.

"Well, we did not know that at the time," Sirius continued, "after He killed them, I left my family to go check on their son, my Godson. I stupidly left my Godson with another and headed after Peter only for him to use the tale, I was the one to betray the Potters before pretending to kill himself. I was taken in and spent nearly twelve years in Azkaban thanks to him."

"Wait, wait, wait you have a family, Peter pretended to die, and you were in Azkaban for over a decade," Regulus said finding it his turn to be shocked at the news.

"Yes I have a family, I met and courted my wife back when I was an Auror. We have one son, who hates me thanks to leaving them for my Godson," Sirius explained. "As for Peter, I had actually thought he killed himself as well in his normal inept manner, but it was not until I saw an article in the paper from a visiting official in Azkaban that I learned the truth and busted out to head after him and protect my Godson."

"Didn't your status of the Potter's Secret Keeper, as well as the checking of your wand to see if you cast the killing spell on Peter come out at your trial?" Regulus asked looking at Sirius who found his brother's eyes were becoming clearer.

"I never got a trial. It seems Mum and Dad were right; Dumbles is an asshole and prevented my trial so he could control my Godson," Sirius said tightening his grip too much that Regulus gave a small sound of pain earning him a glare from Kreacher who was watching from the other side of the bed. "Sorry," he said.

"Whatever you have done worse to me, but I have to ask why was the Headmaster so concerned about the Potter Heir?" Regulus asked though no matter what he said he did pull his hand out of Siris's grip.

"Well, when He went to kill Lily and James something happened that prevented Harry, my Godson's name by the way, from dying. When I was fully exonerated I took Harry to Gringotts and found out that whatever He did He created a Horcrux that latched onto Harry.

"Bloody Hell, he made more than one of those things?" Regulus said.

"He actually created seven of them based on the information on Harry's test results which showed he had the Horcrux in him.

"Dear Merlin, Morgana, and Odin," Regulus said going deathly pale making Kreacher deepen his already dark glare at Sirius even more.

"I do have some good news on that front, since he failed to kill Harry, his lines were given to my Godson through Rite of Conquest. So with that and the powerful magic of the Gobin, we have found and destroyed two Horcruxes leaving just them and the one bit of the man's twisted soul still in his body before he is finally gone.

"That is the best news you've given me yet," Regulus said running a hand over his face before looking at Sirius with fully clear eyes. "Damn, being in Azkaban had hit you like a stampeding Centaur. Though I guess I should not complain I probably look a fright, being submerged in that potion for so long."

"I take it you can see again?" Sirius asked, "And no, unfortunately, you do not look a fright, you lucky bastard."

"I always looked better than you anyway, but come on let me see what I look like now. I bet I look like a shaggy yet elegant gentleman type," Regulus said puffing out his chest a little.

Sirius just rolled his eyes as he used his wand to create a mirror and handed it over. "As I said you are a lucky bastard you look exactly the same as when you left, and from the scans of an overzealous Healer, Cousin Narcissa said hi, by the way, thanks to being submerged in the Potion you did not actually age earlier. And while it seems rather heartless to say so I am actually glad Mum, and Dad did not live long enough to see you return."

"You are right that is heartless," Regulus said.

"Master Regulusis right Master Mutt you is bad boy," Kreacher said finally chiming in.

"Hey, I have my reasons. First off, losing a child and then after more than a decade having them return looking the same as when they went missing. And secondly, you said that you went to that cave basically right after you graduated. It seems that someone either working for the dark lord or possibly Dumbles wanted to create a trail, confuse us, or something by pretending to be you.  I was informed you had gone missing on the twenty-six of June not the eighteenth of May," Sirius explained.

"Master Mutt is correct," Kreacher said in shock. "Master Regulus sent letters home for a while and even was seen in Diagon Alley and other places after ordering Kreacher to leave him in bad cave. How Kreacher never thought of this before. Kreacher is bad Elf should not be reward by having head joining ancestors on wall," the Elf said as he began to bow deeply over and over again for his failure.

"I would not worry about it Kreacher after all Mum and Dad were fooled by the imposter as well," Sirius said which shocked Regulus for him showing compassion to Kreacher knowing the pair tended to hate each other since Sirius had walked out when they were younger.

"But Mistress and Master not know what Kreacher knew," Kreacher said unmoved by Siriu's words.

"It is alright Kreacher, I am back now and I am proud of you," Regulus said which finally stopped the House Elf from its endless bowing to him.

"Master Regulus proud of worthless Kreacher," Kreacher said with a slight sniffle of joy.

"Yes for Sirius just said that the man had lost all but two of his Horcruxes I can only assume you were able to destroy the locket," Regulus said reaching over and patting Kreacher's arm.

"Kreacher did with Master Mutt and Goblin's help," Kreacher said beaming at his returned Master.  Sirius had to bite his lip to prevent himself from laughing at Kreacher, as the Elf puffed up his chest as he spoke.

Chapter Text

Thoughts of Buckbeak, and any further problems he could create between Sirius and Blaise, were driven from Harry's mind at lunch as Ron's older brothers took seats across from them. "What's up with you two?" Ron asked, "I don't think I have ever seen you look so pale."

"We just had a class with Moody," Fred said talking about the new Defense Teacher who had started that year.

"That bad?" Harry asked having no high hopes for the man, as so far only Remus had ever proven competent in teaching the class.

"Well, no. More like intense," Fred said.

"He knows," George added.

"Knows what?" Hermione asked.

"What it is like to be out there facing evil Magicals. Also, he has very little patience for screwing around, word of warning," Fred said.

"Sound like you got in trouble," Ron joked.

"We both got a demerit," George said blushing a little confusing the three Fourth Years who had never heard of demerits being used at Hogwarts since it used a point system mixed with a detention punishment if a student did something really wrong.

"What do you mean a demerit?" Harry, Ron, and Hermione asked together.

"You will just have to wait and see," Fred said with a ghost of the twins' normal grins.

Ron pulled out their schedule before stating, "We don't have his class until Thursday."

In the two days before they had Moody's class, Harry received a return letter from Sirius telling him what had happened to Buckbeak. Harry had also thought about taking the advice that Sirius, Adriana, and Blaise had given him about dropping Divinations, especially with Professor Trelawney still predicting his death. He decided to give her one more chance as he tried to use the proper method to fill out his current homework for her, rather than the method he and Ron had started using last year of filling their homework with nothing but misfortune. Harry was also disappointed in Potions, still finding it a tough subject, and even following Sirius and Adriana's advice in brewing did not seem to help him much. It did not help that Snape was his normal nasty self.

When Harry and his friends finally had Moody's class, they were not sure if they should sit near the front as they had with Remus, in the back like with Lockhart, or in the middle like they had with Quirrell. Deciding to play it safe seeing how rattled Fred and George had been after their class with the man they took the seats in the middle of the room. As their class was right after breakfast they had gotten to the room before Moody had shown up. The man seemed to have something in common with Professor Snape as he arrived after all Gryffindor and Slytherin students had taken their students. Moody arrived with a bang as the door crashed open and the man stomped up to the front of the room using a large wooden cane.

Reaching the teacher's desk he turned around to look at them making some gasp as they saw his face in more detail than they had previously. Harry took in the man's scarred right cheek, the large chunk that was gone from the man's nose, the small amount of flesh in his left cheek which by the looks of it one could see into Moody's mouth if watching him talk from that side. But most shocking, at least when it came to the man's face was his eyes. One of his eyes was half-lidded and with a brown iris, which Harry assumed was his natural eye color, the other eye was huge and continuously in motion with an iris which also seemed to change color at random.

"Let me get one thing straight with you all," the man said in a scratchy voice making Harry wince as he saw he had been correct about being able to see into the man's mouth due to the damage done to his left cheek. "I am not now, nor have I ever been a teacher. I trained Aurors, a fair few of them getting called the best of the best. I have no patience for tomfoolery and as such if you mess around in class I will give you a demerit. Four demerits and you will leave the class for a week, when you return if you earn two more demerits you will either have to self-study or repeat this class AGAIN," he said making them all jump as he shouted the last word. "I also will not be giving you homework just so you can tell me about some spell. This class is Defense Against the Dark Arts so we will be focusing on that. When I decide to give you homework, which I may not even do, due to what we cover in class, I will be giving you several scenarios and you will have to choose one that you would use the spell or spells we have discussed in class to solve. I don't care about your family, financial status, or blood, you do the work and you will do well in class. You will need to pay attention for it is my goal to teach you to remain in CONSTANT VIGILANCE of your surroundings but also find new ways to think your way through any possible situation that might come up.

I have seen your past lesson plans in this class, so I know a little about what you have been taught. This year I will be returning you to various spells one can use during a duel or facing off against the Dark Arts. But to do that you will need to PAY ATTENTION. Ms. Brown, Ms. Patil, one demerit each for talking about homework for another class," Moody said making the rest of the class look towards the pair to find both girls blushing as Lavander put her Divinations Homework away which they had been looking at under her desk showing that Moody's larger eye could see through things a normal eye could not. "I do apologize girls, but I have to be harsh for there are no second chances in my life," Moody said taking a deep sighing breath. "As Fourth Years I assume that most of you by now have some familiarity with the powers of healing with Potions and Spells. So I ask you why do you think I keep these scars and damages on my body rather than having them healed?" Moody asked looking around at everyone.

Most seemed to be too afraid to say anything but after a moment Seamus raised his hand and was invited to give his guess, "Because they make you look tough and cool sir?"

The class fell silent but Moody actually let out a chuckle, "That they do my boy, that they do. But the real reason I keep all the damage that had been done to me, even those that could be healed is a reminder of my failures.  I earned thisunk out of my nose when I was too slow to save a hostage when taking down a dark Magical. And when I say Dark I do not refer to a Magical with a Dark Core but a Magical who has gone bad. I know that many equate the two as the same but there have been Magicals with Dark Cores who were great fighters against evil magic one from recent news of this summer is Sirius Black. While a Light or Gray Core does not necessarily make you a good Magical, for the last two great evil magical had a Light and Gray Core, Grindelwald and He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named respectively," Moody said making some people gasp.

"So for our first lesson we will be working on two basic spells one can find helpful when going up against evil Magicals. I am of course talking about the Disarming Charm, Expelliarmus, and the Shield Charm, Protago. From what I have heard from the other class some of you might know of the Disarming Charm since it was shown to you during a "dueling" club in your Second Year, but a show of hands who has knowledge of or been able to cast a Shield Charm?" Moody asked letting his Magical eye look around at them. Only two students raised their hands, Hermione and Draco. "Yes I can see that," Moody said giving Draco a slight nod before turning to Hermione, "Granger, right?" he asked.

"Yes Professor," Hermione said.

"As I said earlier Granger, I am not a teacher you are all free to call me Moody or the common nickname "Mad-eye," he said pointing at his Magical Eye. "There is a note from Remus about you from his lesson plans so you also make sense. Everyone else PAY ATTENTION," Moody said as he began to teach them the Shield Charm.

When the class let out Harry, Ron, and Hermione saw the exact reason for the twins' reaction to the class, for the ex-Auror put the class through their paces after his introduction. Reminding Harry of Remus's final test from the year before and the obstacle course. The only good side of the class was that like Moody had said he was not one to assign a lot of homework seeing the class as a more practical study of magic than research at least for their current lessons. The good news was right after Moody's class was History of Magic so at least the Gryffindors had some time to cool down from the lesson without too much effort, unlike the Slytherins who had gone off to Charms.

Harry and the others finally had a homework assignment after their third lesson with Moody and just like the man had described it they were given, what Moody said were, former Auror cases with the names changed and told what spells to use to end the situation. Harry chose the case where a person had taken a Potion that addled their mind and had threatened to pour poison into the water supply of a small Magical Clinic while holding a worker hostage. It had taken him a while to come up with a solution for he felt disarming the perpetrator, as the page called him, would cause the man to drop the poison leaving the hostage in greater danger. It had taken Harry going through his book to see that while he had used Expelliarmus since the dueling club he had not really understood the spell. The Disarming Charm would force the person it had been cast on to lose what was in both their hands. So if it was cast on the perpetrator they would lose hold of the poison and the hostage and if he timed it right a stunner, which Harry only wrote about thanks to knowing about it from the World Cup, could put the perpetrator out of commission. Harry was pleased when he got his homework back seeing Moody write a note saying that the way Harry had come up with was the solution the Auror during the actual case had done it.

Blaise's POV

As September gave way to October, Blaise who had been keeping tabs on Harry saw that Sirius had been correct. Harry tended to stay in the background when he was not flying only really making his presence known when he was provoked, mostly by Draco and sometimes Professor Snape. Blaise also saw that Harry had brought about offerings to Lady Magic to start happening at the Gryffindor table during meals as Granger and the youngest Weasley boy started doing it before several other students got involved. Considering that some saw the offerings as old Magic of a type the Headmaster had been trying to strip away from their world for years, Blaise watched the man's reaction to having the ritual take place at the House he favored. The man had been furious, at least by what Blaise saw reflected in the man's eyes since he kept up his "Grandfatherly persona with the rest of his face.

Blaise had also seen Harry trying to improve himself in their potions lessons which were a little hard when Blaise had noticed several of his Housemates throw random potion ingredients into both his and Longbottom's cauldrons. None that would cause the potion to explode if one had the right amount of skill, such as what Harry showed, but enough to make sure his potion failed each and every time. A little disgusted by his Housemates, Blaise wrote a note and sent it to Harry inviting him to a potion tutoring session for just the two of them.

Blaise was not sure the other boy would come since they were both treating each other the same as they had over the last three school years. He was therefore surprised to have Harry show up with a thankful look on his face. Blaise started by showing Harry how to properly set up a cauldron including casting a spell which he told Harry would make it more stable during brewing, but in fact, would block any ingredient that was thrown into it from a certain distance from getting into the cauldron. Blaise then led Harry step-by-step through a potion they had done during an earlier year so Harry could work on the basics of it. Seeing the potion come out just as it was meant to. seemed to boost Harry's confidence a little.

Unfortunately, that was not enough for the next potion lessons, Harry was now protected from the Slytherins throwing stuff into his cauldron. As well as paying more attention to the exact cuttings and measurements of the potion, which did work to get him close to the final product Professor Snape was aiming for, but disaster still struck. Blaise could tell Harry was pleased with himself as he placed his marked Potion on the desk for grading and turned back to his seat, only to turn back towards Professor Snape's desk as he heard glass shattering. Blaise seethed having seen his Head of House astonished to look at the results of the Potion Harry had turned in had purposely lifted it up as if to examine it only to let it fall from his fingers and break. Harry looked as if did not rightly believe Professor Snape when the man said it was an accident. Blaise reasoned that at least Harry could just gather some more potion from his cauldron only to see, at the same time Harry did, that Granger had cleaned up their work table already and had vanished his potion already.

As Blaise had offered Harry a multi-meeting tutoring session, the next time they met Blaise taught Harry a charm to cast on his potion bottles to make them harder to shatter. What Blaise had not told Harry was during his next free period, he had not only written to his mom about what Professor Snape had done to Harry in class but also Professor McGonagall, who as Harry's Head of House should be told of a teacher abuse of authority in his dealing with a student. Blaise had even volunteered to hand over his memory of the event to prove he was not lying. When she asked what was his reasoning for coming forward he sighed before explaining about his relationship with Black and Harry coming to live with them at the end of summer. The news seemed to surprise her as she promised she would look into it, but for some reason that did not fill him with confidence, as for once he hoped Black would get involved for no student should be treated like Harry was by Professor Snape.

Normal POV

As the date when the visiting schools came closer, most of the students at Hogwarts wondered about how they would get to the castle, how they were different from themselves, and other such things. The only person who didn't was Harry who had been shocked at the change in his Potions Classes for not only was he starting to brew his potions to almost perfection which he guessed was thanks to Blaise's tutoring. Professor Snape had started to leave him alone neither calling him out, getting on his case, nor seeming to grade his homework, as an unfamiliar hand had been on his last couple of assignments which he had earned an EE on to his surprise. Not that Harry was complaining about that finding it easier to do his work when the man was not breathing down his neck.

On the day the students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrange were to arrive afternoon classes had been canceled which thankfully meant that Harry did not have Potions that day so was more relaxed than usual as he finally joined in on the speculation on how the other schools would arrive at Hogwarts. Since Harry only knew of four Magical ways to travel none of which were that flashy, which from what Ron's dad said during the World Cup when Magicals got together they just could not help but show off, he did not think those would be the method for their travel to the castle.

Everyone was still wondering how they would arrive when the Hogwarts students were told to assemble on the front lawn at six PM sharp. Harry wrapped his cloak tightly around himself in the semi-cold weather looking all around to see if he could spot where the visitors were coming from. Unfortunately, Harry was not the first to spot either school arriving only turning to see them once someone else called it out. Their arrivals were flashy alright with Beauxbatons arriving in a massive multi-story house-sized carriage and Durmstrange arriving as a shipwreck rising out of the water of the black lake. But as for the students, Harry saw, that apart from their uniforms they looked like normal students.

Beauxbatons wore baby blue uniforms with the males having capes and girls having what looked like shawls. The Durmstrange students' uniforms were a deep red with black fur lining their collars and cuffs the males' uniforms had some sort of shoulder pad while the female students did not. Ron and many other Hogwarts students became rather excited as they recognized Viktor Krum among the students of the Durmstrange contingent. Harry who had enjoyed the man's flying during the World Cup made less of a deal about it since he what it was like for people to act differently around him because he was "famous."

Neither of the visiting schools' students joined them at the Gryffindor table with Beauxbatons going to Ravenclaw while the Durmstrange students headed to Slytherin. Ron had glared at Draco, who Krum had sat down beside, for most of the meal. The only reason Ron looked away was due to one of the visiting students from Beauxbatons coming over and asking about some foreign food that was served by them. After she left Ron turned her gaze onto her making Harry roll his eyes and Hermione scowl a little as Ron shared his belief that the girl was part Veela.

Harry for his part did not pay that much attention to the visiting Magicals, after all, they were going to be there for the rest of the school year he would have time to meet them. This changed shortly after Ron's "Veela girl" had headed back to the Ravenclaw table. Harry was finishing off some of the foreign foods he had tested out when from the hubbub of the hall a light laugh seemed to cut through everything. Looking for the source of the voice, Harry's eyes were drawn right to the Ravenclaw table to see a Beauxbaton student with short black hair being the source of the laughter. Harry was caught off guard at how regal the guy looked with his cape flowing behind him as if in a light breeze. The guy ran one of his hands through his hair as he continued to laugh at whatever was producing that light melody that seemed to touch Harry's very being. As if sensing Harry looking at him the man looked over letting Harry see the guy had the brightest blue eyes, he had ever seen and a pair of dimples at the corners of his mouth. Harry could not help but blush as he quickly looked away.

His movements did not seem too strange as Dumbles got up and started talking about the tournament. Harry barely paid attention as the old bastard went over the rules again and what was at stake. Dumbles then had Filch bring in a casket where he pulled out what looked like a simple goblet apart from the red flame that was inside. After telling everyone about the protection around the goblet was to be an Age Line he sent them all to bed. Harry not wanting to meet the dark-haired blue-eyed student from Beauxbatons rushed from his seat. Arriving at the door to the hall at the same time as someone else he paused to let them go first. Only seeing it was Krum when he looked up. Harry experienced another shock as he looked into Krum's deep brown eyes and strong jawline. Thankfully Moody came alone and got things moving again making Harry breathe a sigh of relief as he basically fled to Gryffindor Tower before any of his Housemates left the hall, most having stayed behind to watch the Goblet for a bit before heading up.

As Harry lay in bed that night he tossed and turned wondering about his reactions to Krum and the Beauxbaton student. So that when he woke up the next morning he felt as if he had run a marathon. Thankfully when he woke up his brain had at least recalled something that might be the reason for his reaction. Digging out the results of the test Sirius had him go through at Gringotts he saw the line about Soulbonds. While he had done some research at Zabini Castle about them he had not been able to find out how one knew they had found their Soulbond. Being too embarrassed to ask Hermione or anyone else, Harry decided to send a letter to Sirius about it after he had breakfast. Harry had only stayed in the hall long enough to finish his meal, as well as see Fred and George try to get past the Age Line only to fail spectacularly. Seeing the visiting students arriving Harry fled the hall until he understood what was going on better finding it better to avoid the visitors altogether.

After sending his letter to Sirius, Harry once more headed back to Gryffindor town to better avoid the two males from last night and tried to focus on some of his homework. At around lunch, Harry was surprised to get a return letter from Sirius.

Harry,

There is nothing to be worried about. Your guess is correct both of the young men you mention could be your Soulbond. I should point out that it is not unusual to have multiple, and with how your Magic had been blocked as well as having had a Horcrux attached to you, your Magic might seek out more than one to bond with. And no I do not care if you bond with any Male, Female, or Other just like Lily and James would want I just want you to be happy.

Your loving Dogfather,
Sirius

Harry breathed a sigh of relief thinking that something was wrong with him due to the feelings he had gotten looking into both Krum and the unknown Beauxbatons student's eyes. Deciding to go down for lunch, Harry left the tower, but he did not meet or see either male until the feast where the Champions were chosen. As for the first time since the night before both males were pushed out of his thoughts as he joined the others eagerly awaiting the calling of the Champions. Though a small part of him hoped that the Bueaxbatons male would be chosen as their Champion so at east Harry could easily learn his name. Unfortunately, it was Ron's "Veela girl," Fleur Delacour who was chosen to be Beauxbatons' Champion. Krum was selected as his school's Champion, but Harry already knew his name. Harry did get a small thrill of shock as before Krum walked to the head table he looked right at Harry and caught his eye making Harry blush, which went unnoticed in the low light of the hall.

As Krum joined Fleur in a room off the hall the Hogwarts students were on the edge of their seats to see who would be chosen. Harry joined with the majority of the hall as Cedric Diggory had been chosen happy for his fellow Seeker. Dumbles began to tell everyone that while they were not selected as Champions everyone in the hall had a job to do to show support for the students that had been chosen. He looked as if he was about to say more but the Goblet shot out a fourth slip of paper. Dumbles easily caught it and opened it up before he called out "Harry Potter." Harry was confused knowing that thanks to Sirius, he should have been prevented from being selected. Ron and Hermione gave him confused looks as well. Blaise at the Slytherin table was confused and a little scared knowing that Harry should never have been selected to be part of this tournament thanks to Black and his mom.

Dumbles started to call Harry up to the front since the boy had not left his seat when the Goblet flashed again. This time rather than a scrap of paper flames shot out of the Goblet itself spelling out the words Void. Everyone in the hall watched in shock as the Goblet began to, well for lack of a better term in their opinion, freak out. The flame word of Void vanished for a moment as more flames shot out and stated Approved before being replaced by Void again. Everyone watched the Goblet send up flames spelling out those two words for nearly a half-hour, even the three Champions peeking out of the door to the side room to see what was going on after the first ten minutes.

The Goblet finally settled down as after thirty minutes had gone by the doors to the Great Hall banged open and Sirius and a Goblin walked in. The Goblin made a gesture and spoke some Gobbledegook which finally stopped the Goblet. "Someone has enchanted the Goblet," the Goblin announced to the hall.

"Well obviously," Snape said snidely from his seat causing Sirius to glare at him.

"Ah Sirius, what I can do for you and your Goblin visitor?' Dumbles asked in a pleasant tone though many students saw his eyes were as hard as diamond as he looked at the former Wanted man.

"Well, as Bonecrusher just informed you all, the Goblet of Fire had been enchanted. I received a confirmation on this nearly a half hour ago when a document, I had my Godson sign at the end of the Summer activated. Knowing what he has had to go through during his time at this school,l I made sure I wrote up a binding contract that said he would neither enter nor take part in this Tournament. It seems that someone placed his name in the Goblet but also did it in a way to make sure he was selected," Sirius explained.

"Such a thing caused the Goblet to malfunction. Hence the "Void" and "Approved" you all saw. I will say the three other Champions are fine to compete but Harry will not. If one tries to do it they will have to deal with the Goblin Nation," Bonecrusher said in a hard voice.

"As well as all the powers at my disposal," Sirius said glaring at both Snape and Dumbledore

Chapter Text

At breakfast on Sunday, November the second all Magicals that got any form of newspaper in Europe read about the story of Harry's name coming out of the Goblet of Fire and what it had done to the Goblet. Adriana at least understood why her husband had not come home last night figuring he must be still at Hogwarts looking after Harry and Blaise. While all the papers told of the events, they only got half the story for it had not ended yet.

After breakfast, Sirius collected Harry to come to a meeting with both Bonecrusher and Professor McGonagall. "What's going on?" Harry asked as Sirius closed and Wared the door to the room.

"I would quite like to know that myself," McGonagall said.

"Well first off since Heir Potter's name came out of the Goblet even if his entrance into the tournament was overturned it was enough for him to be recognized of age and as a Lord of his Houses," Bonecrusher said pulling out a long box from inside his black tailored suit. Opening it up, Harry and McGonagall saw four Lordship rings holding the crest for Potter, Gryffindor, Peverell, and Slytherin lines. "As you were easily accepted as the Heir to the lines all you have to do is replace them with your new Lord Rings. I take it that clears up your involvement with this meeting Madam McGonagall?"

"It does after he gains his Lordship rings I shall show him the location of the Gryffindor House Lord Rooms," Professor McGonagall.

"You are correct. Though there are some things to go over first," Bonecrusher said as Harry switched out his rings.

"Ah yes a Proxy," Professor McGonagall said, "I would assume he would want to use his Godfather or keep who holds the post now"

"He might, but it is his choice," Bonecrusher said. "What say, you Lord Potter? Who do you wish to have as your Proxy?"

"Who holds it now?" Harry asked.

"Albus," Bonecrusher said simply.

"You are right I will need a new one," Harry said simply.

"I think, I read something about that in the library," Harry said before looking at Bonecrusher. "Will you do it Master Bonecrusher?" he asked shocking the others.

"Um, Harry," McGonagall started.

"What according to the book, I read a Proxy should be someone I trust that is of age," Harry said.

"Yes, that is true but why your Account Manager? No offense Bonecrusher," Sirius added quickly.

"Well, to be honest, I don't know that many adult Magicals, I can trust. There is of course you Sirius, but not sure if you voted in the British Wizengamot due to Lady Zabini," Harry said making Professor McGonagall wonder why the Italian Minister had to do with anything before she recalled meeting with Blaise Zabini earlier that term. "There is also Mr. and Mrs. Weasley but from how Malfoy treats Ron and calls them Blood Traitors, I was not sure they would be allowed.  The same goes for Professor Lupin with him being a werewolf and the attitudes towards creatures. The only other adult Magicals I know and trust are you, Professor McGonagall, Professor Flitwick, and Sprout but I did not want to add you to your workload."

"That is very kind of you, Harry, but it would not matter due to a rule in the charter that if any member of staff is a Lord or Lady the Headmaster is their Proxy automatically," Professor McGonagall said.

"A lie," Bonecrusher said to her shock he actually pulled out the Hogwarts Charter. "See this the approved Hogwarts charter that had been held by Gringotts since the last of the Founders died. As you can see there is no mention of Proxy usage or the Wizengamot at all, for Hogwarts had been founded long before the Ministry was formed. Now there have been others who claim changes to the Hogwarts charter, but if such changes had been made it would have changed on this one as well." Bonecrusher then pulled out a ledger from his suit and flipped a couple of pages in it. "Now according to our records at the bank at this time, there are four actual members of staff that are Lords and one that is a Lady. I shall have to arrange for them to be notified of this oversight."

"So will you be my Proxy Master Bonecrusher?" Harry asked.

"I am not sure that would be allowed Harry," Professor McGonagall stated.

"It should be. I looked it up after researching the importance of being an Heir after I moved in with Sirus. I did not see myself attending any meetings of the Wizengamont when I was at school after I came of age. According to my research, all a Proxy has to be is of age and willing to cast my votes the way, I want them to be cast. It made no mention that a Proxy had to be a human just a living being of age. I can only assume Master Bonecrusher is of age for a Goblin since he is an Account Manager and I do believe he is alive so there are the guidelines followed," Harry explained.

Sirius could not help but burst out laughing. "He has got you there Minnie," Sirius said with a chuckle. "Well reasoned Harry, I think your dad would have been proud of the outlandish idea, and your mother would have been ecstatic about the reasoning behind your choice." Harry could not stop a large smile from blossoming on his face from the praise. "I could be your Proxy, Harry for while I am married to Adriana the main Black Family power is located here in England, not Italy," Sirius explained.

"That might be for the best, Lord Potter," Bonecrusher said, "choosing a Goblin to be your stand-in for that body might cause trouble for you."

"But who would be dumb enough to hold that against either me or the Goblin Nation?  Not to sound arrogant or anything, but by picking you as my Proxy, it would emphasize that before Hogwarts, I had no idea about the Magical World as everyone believed. Also, I believe you would be perfectly honest with me about how a vote or meeting proceeded without sugar-coating it due to both my age and being the Boy-Who-Lived."

"That would be accurate, I suppose," Bonecrusher said starting to consider the idea. Plus if he took the job as the Proxy it would remove several important seats from Dumbledore

Added to the seats the man would lose once Bonecrusher notified members of the Hogwarts staff that that man had no authority to become their Proxy for them to work at Hogwarts would be a shot to Dumbledore's power base, and depending on the staff might change the make-up of the Wizengamot itself. "I must ask you, Lord Potter. if I were to serve as your Proxy which group would you have me cast your vote for?"

"I think at the current time the Gray or Neutral section for what I read about the other two seemed rather extreme in their views. I mean I can understand wanting to make Muggleborns feel at home in the Magical World, but to get rid of some of the rituals seemed rather harsh. I have never felt so in balance with myself since I had started to give her Ladyship offerings at mealtime. If other rituals are like that they can not be too bad," Harry explained.

"I quite agree with you, Harry. The Black family though most of the members have Dark Cores usually voted in the Gray section, though my mom did join us with the Dark section when she was alive," Sirius said not going into how after he had gotten exonerated that he found out that Dumblsnores had somehow taken control of the Black family seat and had become its Proxy. Sirius had already taken it back and placed it in the Gray section, and with Harry moving his votes there as well it would all depend on the five votes from the staff members the man was illegally serving as Proxy chose to do. At the moment the Light section only had a few more seats than the other two, if the five moved to the other section the Light would lose power ousting Dumblsnores from his position as Chief Warlock.

Sirius had evidently been lost in his thoughts of ousting Dumblesnores as he was broken out when he heard Bonecrusher say, "I guess I can give it a try to see how it goes, though if I am allowed to serve as your Proxy, I would have to be compensated."

"How much?" Harry asked.

"Maybe a Galleon a meeting," Bonecrusher said, "which we can negotiate with depending on circumstances as they arise."

"Deal," Harry said knowing from some bank statements he had been given after moving into Zabini Castle, he had at least seventy-one quadrillion Galleons at his disposal in actual money, patents, property, and artifacts associated with his family.

"Very well I shall send over some paperwork after the first meeting in which I will serve as your Proxy   I will go to the first one for free as we are not sure if I will be allowed to stand for you,' Bonecrusher said getting up and heading to the door to the room. He had almost reached it before he turned back. "Oh yes, one thing, I had forgotten to mention during the night I had a nice stroll around the castle and found the item we had discussed during your first visit," Bonecrusher said patting one of his chest pockets which had been magically expanded to hold the Horcrux inside its vessel.

"What do you mean?" Professor McGonagall asked but the Goblin had already walked right through Sirius's Wards and had left the room. The Transfiguration teacher then turned to Harry and Sirius and asked again.

"According to the results of a test, I took at Gringotts after Sirius was freed, we found an evil artifact associated with several of my holdings and one in Sirius. The Goblins had thus far been able to get to all that had been found but not the one here. I don't know how bad the item was but evidently, it had been enough for the Dursleys to receive payment for "looking after me" by giving them money directly that had been treated so they would not feel the effects of the artifact," Harry explained hoping she was not going to ask why the artifact would not have affected him or the idea of a Horcrux being attached to him.

Thankfully Professor McGonagall's focus had been on something else. "Those People," she said her lips making the thinnest line he had ever seen her produce, even more so than his first year when she had taken away 150 Points due to Neville, Hermione, and him being out of bed, "were paid to watch you. No offense Harry, but you never really looked that well tended to at the start of your first year."

"That's cause I was not, I was treated worse than a House Elf," Harry said not bringing up that his treatment had been so ingrained in him he had accidentally insulted the House Elves at Zabini Castle before Blaise had set him straight.

"Don't worry Minnie, Adrina and I are already in the process of filing charges against them," Sirius said shocking Harry who had not been aware of this.

"Would you like some of my memories as well? I watched them for a whole day before Albus dropped Harry off with them," she stated.

"That might not be that bad of an idea, with Arthur's findings and you watching them it could show that they had been acting on their own and not been affected by the artifact," Sirius said giving off a predatory smile that was matched by the Deputy Headmistress.

A short time later the meeting broke up Sirius headed out with a small bottle filled with Professor McGonagall's memories of watching the Dursleys before Harry came to them. Sirius immediately left the castle not wanting to seek out Blasie in case his son had not shared their relationship with others, as Harry had written to him saying he had even told Ron and Hermione about Blaise being Sirius's son not wanting to share the news that was not his. Harry and Professor McGonagall meanwhile had headed up to Gryffindor Tower. "Have you been having any further issues in Potions, Harry?" she asked as they walked.

"Um no. Though that could be that Snape seems to be no longer grading my work and has been leaving me alone during class time," Harry said confused as to why she brought it up.

"Well, you can thank, Mr. Zabini, for that.  He came to see me near the start of the term and informed me of what Professor Snape had done," she said putting some emphasis on Snape's job title.

"Why did you not do anything before then?" Harry asked.

"Well, for one thing, you did not mention he had singled you out in such a way. I am sure you noticed, but Professor Snape is a rather harsh taskmaster in his classes and he always seems harsher to students from any House besides Slytherin," she explained. Harry had to admit she was right for while he and his friends had talked about how unfair it was for Snape to treat him like he did they never brought it up to her. Though they did think Snape was after the stone in their first year, which should have raised some flags he guessed it could still be put down to them not liking how harsh a teacher he was. "And what about your new free period are you using the time productively?" she asked for Harry after getting back his first assignment in Divinations had come to her to drop the class.

"I guess I have been using it to read some books in the library about various things," he said before quickly adding, "and finishing my homework."

"Very good," she said with a smile as they both reached the Portrait of the Fat Lady. "Good day Gladys," she said shocking Harry who had never known the woman had an actual name other than Fat Lady, "Balderdash." As Professor McGonagall had given the password the Portrait swung open to let them inside. As it was such a nice day and not even lunchtime the Common Room was nearly deserted as Harry was led to the men's staircase.

Harry thought that the Lord Room must have been close to his dorm room as Professor McGonagall led him to the top of the tower, but he was surprised as she had him press his new Lordship rings to the wall at the top of the stairs. Suddenly there was a click as if a lock had come undone as the wall opened up revealing more stairs. The stairs on the other side of the wall were not long as Harry entered a room that appeared to be inside the very peak of the tower as the walls of the room ended at a point above their heads. "Harry this is the Gryffindor Lord Room, only students who have become Lords can access it," she said indicating several small but elegant desks within the room. "Once you claim a desk any laws or issues that are up for a vote, as well as any reference material, will show up. I suggest you go through everything to make an informed decision. After you receive the material you can write up a response to it or just say if you wish your Proxy to vote yes or no on it.

As you get older and if you find out your Proxy has been fully accepted, you may come to a point in which you feel you want to bring forth your own issues. When such a day comes, I suggest you come to me or talk to either your Proxy or Sirius about how to proceed. I will inform you that no material is to be taken out of this room, nor are any copies to be made so that you can go over them outside. Doing so can lead to a breach of security, fines, and even imprisonment.

The Wizengamot meets once a month on the 12th no matter what day of the week it is, so I suggest you make it a habit of coming up here maybe once a week to see if anything new has arrived. Besides laws, the Wizengamot also handles trials, and documents are color-coded for each. Please pick a seat, and don't worry the ones you see are all free after you claim one the rest will vanish and the other Lord's seat will appear. At the moment there are three Lords and Two Ladies in Gryffindor, they have their rooms at the top of their tower. You may meet them yourself, but I will not tell you who they are," Professor McGonagall said before placing her arms within the sleeves of her robe waiting for him to pick out a seat. Once he did the others vanish and a stack of papers appeared on the desk. Without moving closer she continued, "The forms with a pink strip are normal Wizengamont business. You will also notice that a number might be on them this number indicates how soon the contents of the document will come up to vote. A one indicates the motion for it to be voted on has just been approved while three means it will be discussed in the next meeting. Don't worry if there are threes in this batch as it will be your first Wizengamot your Proxy will just be introduced and declare which section you will be voting for but will not be allowed to vote at the meeting.

The orange stripes are for trials that have come up to the Wizengamot. Trial dates are set up for the last weekend of the month except for December due to the Yule/Christmas holidays. They are set up this way so that Lords that are young such as yourself will be allowed to view the events before casting a vote if you are chosen to do so. During trials, only some members of the Wizengamont can actually vote but all are welcome to come to watch if they so will and have the time to do so. Due to you not having your Apparition license yet ,if you go to one of the trials, you will have to have Sirius come to collect you or go with another Lord. You will not be punished for leaving the school grounds for this. This also applies when you are seventeen years old and you wish to head to a normal Wizengamot Meeting. Now according to Master Bonecrusher, you are of age thanks to what happened with the Goblet, I would still suggest you wait until you are seventeen years old to attend full meetings to draw less attention to yourself."

"What do the blue-striped documents mean?" Harry asked seeing one such document with a number two on it lying on the top of the pile.

"Blue... blue," Professor McGonagall said taping her chin in thought as she tried to recall the meaning. "Oh yes, a blue document is a law, or motion that is up for a review such as if it had passed by the barest of margin and someone wants to debate it a little more before calling for a revote. A revote can only be done once, unless there is a large shift in the formation or members of the Wizengamot. I am not sure how to call for one myself so if you need to do it yourself I would once again advise you to ask Sirius. I am afraid, I am not the leader of my House so I am not really familiar with how it all works, and the only reason I know what I know about it is so that I can share it with students such as yourself who had no former background in the Wizengamot or have anyone to help them through it," she said apologetically.

"It is alright you shared with me plenty," Harry said smiling at her. Harry quickly flipped through the documents that had been put on his new desk and saw that none of them had a three on it so he could look over them later, he got up and followed Professor McGonagall out of the room to head to lunch.

Harry quickly explained to his friends as they ate lunch that he had been in a meeting with Sirius about the Goblet not wanting to talk about him becoming a Lord when there were so many people in the Great Hall, he would do it later once they were away from everyone else. After finishing their meals the three started to head out with plans to check out the Durmstrang's ship and the Beauxbaton's carriage since Harry had not gotten a good look at them yet. However, as Harry left the Great Hall a hand fell on his shoulder turning around he could not help but gulp a little seeing the black-haired blue-eyed Beauxbaton student whose laughter had caught his attention a few nights ago. "Bon après midi mon petit ami." (Good afternoon my little friend) Harry was surprised for even though he did not speak a lick of French he found he could understand the older boy. "Penses-tu que tu pourrais me faire visited?" (Do you think you could give me a tour?)

"I guess," Harry said.

"You guess what, Harry?" Ron asked confused not knowing French either, as his family focused more on learning Spanish, German, Swedish, and of course Latin

"That I would give him a tour," Harry explained.

"Merci. Je m'appelle Jonathan Shepard de la noble lignée de Lupin, mais vous pouvez m'appeler John." (Thank you. My name is Jonathan Shepard from the noble line of Lupin, but you can call me John)

Chapter Text

Hermione's POV.

"Is that any relation to Professor Remus Lupin?" Harry asked the Beaubaxton student making Ron and Hermione share another confused look. The tall dark-haired male answered back in rapid French. Hermione whose family had vacationed in France numerous times leaving her with an intermediate understanding of the language could not follow exactly what was being said. "That is good to know," Harry said leading to some more French from the other. "Oh, sorry," Harry said blushing rubbing the back of his neck, "I am Harry Potter." Though Hermione and Ron could only understand Harry's part of the conversation, they had expected the visiting student to act surprised when he learned Harry's name knowing that while the majority of Harry's fame was in Britain from Hermione's studies knew that his name was known throughout Europe. Yet all the Beauxbaton student did was nod his head in greeting before motioning some of his classmates over. Hermione saw that she would soon lose Ron's attention for Fleur was part of the group that had come over for the tour.

"Zank you for giving us a tour, Heir Potter and friends," the Beauxbaton's Champion said giving them a bow.

"You're welcome," Harry said.

"The pleasure is all ours," Ron said giving the blonde girl an overly formal bow, making Hermione roll her eyes while several others let out a laugh at his antics.

"Um sure," Fleur said surprising Hermione by one of the few who had not laughed at Ron rather she looked bored or maybe annoyed Hermione could not tell.

As Harry started to lead the group out of the Hall another voice spoke up in a slow and deep tone. "Um, sure you can come too," Harry said making Hermione turn her head for the speaker had not been speaking French. Hermione arched an eyebrow seeing that it had been Viktor Krum who had spoken which meant he had to have been speaking Bulgarian from what Ron had shared with her and Harry about the Quidditch star's personal history.

Now Hermione knew of several Potions that could enable a person to easily learn a foreign language and it is not inconceivable that Sirius would have had Harry drink them in preparation for this year she did not see Harry not telling her and Ron that he had drunk them. It was not that he would have learned either language with the Dursleys either due to the fact when he was there they had wanted him more as a servant than anything else. And yes, Harry had told them that to hide from his cousin he would hide in a nearby library where he could have read some language books.

Yet Hermione had done so as well at least for French, yet with them and her trips to Paris and other French locals she could not keep up the way Harry seemed to be able to do. Harry had told them that after Sirius had collected him from The Burrow they had gone to Gringotts where Harry had found he had some magical abilities blocked before they had been cleansed. Hermione wondered if Harry had the rare gift of All-Speak which would explain how he was easily able to converse with the two groups of foreign Magicals. This would also explain why she and Ron were still able to understand him as he talked with both groups in what appeared to be English.

Harry's POV

Harry could not believe that Remus had a nephew and that he was one of the students who had come to the castle. However, it did explain how the dark-haired male could speak English without even a hint of an accent. He was not sure why Hermione and Ron were teasing him and pretending they could not understand Jonathan. Harry had been distracted for a moment by Jonathan's name and had forgotten not only to give his name but also the reason Jonathan had come over. Harry and Jonathan's friends let out some laughs seeing Ron bend at his waist and bent nearly double as he talked to the Beauxbaton's Champion. Harry decided to start the tour in the dungeons and the Potions classroom and head the way up the school, but as he stepped out of the hall someone called to him. "Do you mind if I also join in your tour?" Harry turned to the speaker not sure who was speaking for there was no accent in the voice but it was not one he recognized. His eyes widen seeing the speaker as Viktor Krum who was slouching against the door frame.

"Um, sure you can come to," Harry said a slight blush on his face while being thankful that the Quidditch star did not seem to have anyone with him to add to the tour. Leading the group down to the room where Snape taught Potions showing the group of visiting students the classroom but also the public Potions stores in case they needed to brew during their time at the school. As he closed the door to the stores he noticed that some of Jonathan's friends seemed to be confused. "Is there a problem?" he asked them.

"Can you speak a little slower?" one of them asked leading to Jonathan arching his eyebrow at his friend in confusion.

"Why?" Jonathan asked.

"You know I am not fully fluent or confident in my English," the friend said now arching his eyebrow at Jonathan.

"English, but he is speaking French?" Jonathan said his voice full of confusion.

"He is speaking English," all of Jonathan's friends said in French which Harry found he could not understand.

"I am speaking English," Harry had said at the same time as them.

"That is neither French nor English, but Bulgarian," Viktor said which caused both Harry and Jonathan's eyebrows to shoot up in surprise.

"Am I speaking a different language?" Harry asked turning to ask Ron and Hermione.

While Ron was too enamored by Fleur to pay attention to what was going on at the moment Hermione shook her head. "You have been speaking nothing but English though you have been responding to whatever he and Viktor have said in their languages," Hermione said pointing at Jonathan.

"Do you have the talent of All-Speak, Harry?" Jonathan asked.

"Um, what is that?" Harry asked back causing Jonathan to bite his lip in thought for a moment before pulling Fleur to the side to have a quick discussion with her.

"Holy Shit, Krum!" Ron said shaking his head as the Beauxbaton Champion and Jonathan moved around the corner letting the redhead finally notice the Quidditch star. "Can I shake your hand?"

"Um, sure I guess," Viktor said holding out his non-wand hand. Ron looked at the hand as if it was a religious relic sending pleading looks to Viktor.

"He said you could Ron," Harry said seeing his friend hesitate. A large smile bloomed across Ron's face as he grabbed the Durmstrange's Champion's hand with both of his own and shook it as hard as he could.

"I am not going to wash these hands again," Ron said in almost a moan causing Harry to let out a laugh while Hermione rolled her eyes unable to figure out which was worse Ron crushing on Fleur or him fanboying over Krum.

Ron was fawning so much into Krum that he did not even realize Fleur and Jonathan had come back. Walking right up to Harry, Fleur stated, "Bonjour c'est une belle école."

"I am sorry what was that?" Harry asked confused looking between the blonde-haired girl, Hermione, the other Beauxbaton students, Jonathan and Krum.

"So not All-Speak, " Jonathan said.

Obviously, otherwise, you or I would have it as well," Viktor said.

"Good point, but what is this?" Jonathan asked looking at the other visiting student.

"I don't know I have never heard of such a thing like this before," Viktor said with a shrug of his shoulders which did not even break Ron's grip as the redhead continued to shake his hand.

"So we can all understand each other hearing our own language?" Harry asked just to clarify what was going on.

"Seems like it," both Jonathan and Viktor said.

Harry as usual when he had a problem turned to Hermione. "Mione do you know what this could be? We all can all speak in what I assume is our native tongue but understand each other with no problem?" Harry asked indicating himself and the two older males.

"For once Harry, I am at a loss," Hermione said blushing a little to admit such ignorance.

"What if you try to speak in each ozer's language?" Fleur asked.

"Might be something to check out," Jonathan said tapping his chin. "Let's go with one of the earliest phrases I learned in English from an old Muggle show." But rather than saying the phrase Jonathan sang, "Are you Being Served Sir, I'm Humphries and I am Free. Are you Being Severed Sir, What would you like to see?"

"Um, will I hear that twice then?" Harry asked.

"Hey, I understood that," Hermione said at the same time. "Your sentence structure was a little off and you were a tad pitchy but it was still English."

"He said sang it right, just like John Inman did in his song," Harry said.

"It sounded all the same to me," Viktor said finally pulling his hand free from Ron's grip.

"So even if speaking in a different language you can understand each ozer," Fleur said.

"What about non-human languages?" Hermione asked turning to look Harry right in his eyes.

"What like Pareseltonge?" Harry asked turning to her.

"It would be a good test," Hermione said turning to the group of older Magicals. "Does anyone speak Paresletonge, besides Harry?" Everyone shook their heads, no, Viktor needed a partial translation of the question before he could respond.

"Great all we need is a snake," Harry said in a somewhat teasing manner.

"What about the snake in the Slytherin Dorms?" one of the Beauxbaton students asked.

"If they have one, we can't go there we are Gryffindors," Ron said with a small growl not wanting to step foot in the snake pit again.

"What about asking a student from there to help?" Jonathan asked in English so that Ron and Hermione could understand him.

"Oh, yeah that would go well. Hey, Malfoy can we see the snake from your dorms?" Ron said in a sarcastic voice.

"Well we either ask someone or possibly go to Myrtle's bathroom," Hermione suggested.

Harry did not want to bring up Blaise being a contact to the Slytherin Dorms for he did not want to reveal the family drama that could come with it, however, Hermione had brought up an interesting suggestion to see if either Jonathan or Viktor could understand him if he was speaking Parseltongue. If they could he would have someone back him up so that what happened during the Dueling Club in his second year with Justin would not happen again.

"Maybe Hagrid has some sort of snake I could talk to," Harry suggested.

"That could work, better than talking to Malfoy or any of his lot," Ron said as he headed out of the room followed by everyone but Harry, Jonathan, and Viktor.

"What issue does your friend have with Slytherin House?" Viktor asked.

"Well since our current Headmaster took over he has spread the news that most of the students who go to that House turn evil and support Voldemort," Harry said a little surprised as neither older male flinches at the name like most Magicals in Britain. "Also he has told me that his mother's older brothers were killed by the aunt of the Malfoy who is in our year. So their families have some issues. it also did not help when in our second year Malfoy's father slipped a dangerous object into his little sister's shopping which almost killed her and several other students at the time," Harry said leading them out of the dungeons and to the grounds.

"I can see why he would want to avoid him then. It is just like those idiots in my Third-Year at Durstrange who decided it would be a good idea to go around wearing Grindelwald's mark thinking it would make them tough," Viktor said subconsciously cracking his knuckles as he recalled what he and several of his classmates had done to the group of bastards showing them how tough they really were.

"Who is Grindelwald?" Harry asked causing both Jonathan and Viktor to stop in shock at the question.

"He is like your British Voldemort," Jonathan said rubbing his forehead a bit. "But unlike Voldemort, he was an international threat rather than just a British one." Harry wanted to point out that Voldemort had been an international threat since he had killed Adrina Zabini's older brother but once again held his tongue to keep what he knew of Blaise and Sirius's family a secret,

"Lo," Hagrid said in greeting as Harry, Viktor, and Jonathan joined the others at the door to his hut.

"Morning Hagrid do you perchance have a snake?" Hermione asked making the large man tilt his head at the random question.

"A snake?" he asked just to be sure he heard her correctly.

"Yes a snake we want to test something out," Hermione said.

"Kay," Hagrid said not understanding what was going on as he led the group to his back garden. "I sometimes get a snake back here. You can all look for one if you want."

"No need," Jonathan said as he pulled out his wand and cast a simple summoning charm for any snakes that were nearby. At his spell, a small garden snake came zooming into his hands.

"What?" Harry heard the snake hiss as it flew into the Beauxbaton student's outstretched hand.

"Will this do?" Jonathan asked turning to present the snake to Harry.

"It is fine," Harry said turning to the snake and saying, "Sorry for the inconvenience we just want to check something out and then you are free to go."

"A Speaker?!?" the snake hissed in surprise.

"Did either of you understand that?" Hermione asked turning to the pair of eighteen-year-olds.

"I did," both males said at the same time.  "But only what Harry said not the snake's response."

"What is all this about?" Hagrid asked.

"Well it seems that Harry and these two can understand each other perfectly despite not speaking the same natural language that we all hear when they speak," Hermione explained.

"I think I recall going over something like that in one of my classes before I was expelled," Hagrid said scratching his beard as he tried to recall it. "What was it called again?

"Was it perchance a Soulbond?" Harry asked finally voicing what he had been wondering about since hearing that neither Viktor nor Jonathan had been speaking English yet he could understand them.

"Yeah, I think that might have been it," Hagrid said a smile showing through his tangled beard.

"While such a connection is rare I don't recall reading about anything like this before in regards to it," Hermione said.

"Maybe it is due to zem being from different parts of ze world," Fleur suggested, "zeir Soulbond helps zem communicate."

"I guess that could be the case," Hermione said missing a slightly condescending look flash across the older French girl's face as if annoyed Hermione believed she had the highest level of authority on such things. Hagrid, on the other hand, had seen the look and not wanting any trouble to happen suggested Harry, Jonathan, and Viktor talk to either Professor Flitwick or maybe even Moody to see if they could help the group even more. Deciding to end the tour, Harry suggested they do so right then, but Ron suggested that due to the rarity of such bonds, Harry and the two older Magicals go while he and Hermione take over the tour for the others. Harry could tell his friend wanted to do it so he could impress Fleur, but it was a good idea and by traveling in a smaller group Dumbles might miss what he, Jonathan, and Viktor were doing.

Zabini Castle.

Regulus after spending the last two months either stuck in bed or having to ask for help to get around was finally able to walk on his own. He could tell both Sirius and Kreacher were shadowing him, just in case something happened but they were doing it in such a way he still felt like he was alone. Having been confined to his room in the Castle and only ever seeing the attached bathroom and dining room Regulus was exploring the place. As he had spent many hours when his brother and sister-in-law were busy readying books on current events Regulus skipped the library, as well as several sitting rooms he had come across as he just walked around the place.

As he reached the ground floor he felt a small tug on his magic leading him deeper into the castle then the main family rooms to parts that looked almost abandoned. He could not figure out why his magic was leading him here but at least it allowed him to stretch his legs a little. After a bit, he found some signs of recent inhabitants being there as he came to a door with a small placard sign on it denoting it as "Harry's Room." Knowing that Harry was his older brother's Godson and from their talks, about what had happened to the boy Regulus wondered why his magic had led him to this room as he reached forward and turned the knob to open the door. There was not much in the room just a simple double bed, a wardrobe, and a small writing desk. The bed looked freshly made, which with House Elves was a given, but everything else did not seem to have been used that much for even the desk looked brand new with only one thing on it a small photo of someone. Regulus moved forward and picked up the photo-taking in the smiling face of a young teenager with jewel green eyes and a mop of messy blackish-brown hair. The teen was waving in the picture with a huge grin on his face revealing some cute dimples.

"That is my Godson Harry," Sirius said entering the room behind Regulus.

"Why does he need a picture of himself in his own room?" Regulus asked.

"Lily's family, who he had been raised by until I gained custody never had any pictures of him in their home. I just could not allow that so I had a couple taken of him. I let him choose which one he liked best and we put it here while another is in the library, one in the Floo room, and one sitting on the mantle besides ones of Adriana and my son," Sirius said with a small amount of regret in his voice when he mentioned his son, but Regulus did not even notice finding it hard to look away from Harry's picture. After a while of the pair standing in the room in silence where Regulus just gazed down at the picture Sirius let out a cough, "Well we should go now, Cissa finally got a day off work and is supposed to be here in a few minutes." Sirius almost had to drag his brother out of the room and to the Floo room to meet their cousin only to start to worry that something was wrong when Regulus refused to let go of Harry's picture until he saw the one hanging in the room itself.

Sirius worried his brother was dealing with some side effects from his interaction with Voldyshort's Horcrux that had somehow latched onto Harry as another vessel. Sirius was quite glad when Narcissa stepped out of the fireplace in a simple white with black highlights robe. "Cissa can you cast a diagnostic spell on Regulus?" Sirius said as a greeting to her.

"Hello to you too," she said.

"I am fine Siri," Regulus said simply.

"You have been staring at a picture of Harry since you found the one in his room that is not normal, even for our family," Sirius shot back.

"You don't think," Narcissa asked not wanting to voice her worry after hearing everything about the Dark Lord's Horcruxes.

"I don't know," Sirius said with a pleading shrug at her.

"Very well I will cast the most powerful and detailed one I know," she said.

"I don't think that is necessary," Regulus said as she cast the spell on him.

"Well he looks alright," Narcissa said as she read the results of her spell as it printed out of her wand.

"See I told you so," Regulus said turning to his older brother and sticking his tongue out at him.

"Wait here is something," she said as the results reached their end.

"What is it?" both Black brothers asked turning to face her.

"It seems Regulus does have something, it seems seeing the face of Harry, he has come into his Soulbond," Narcissa said shocking both men. Regulus for he had not been aware that he had a Soulbond, which had never been revealed in any previous test throughout his life. As for Sirius, he could not help but think of the letter from Harry when he had been at Remus's two nights ago, before he used his Portkey to come back home, about the two visiting Magicals who could also share a Soulbond with his Godson.

Chapter Text

Following Hagrid's advice as soon as Harry, Jonathan, and Viktor left the rest of the tour up to Hermione, and a distracted Ron; the trio headed to the Teacher's lounge. Since it was the weekend Harry was not sure if he would be able to find either Professor Flitwick or Mad-Eye but he hoped there would some member of staff or even a logbook that might direct him in where to find them. Harry noticed that since the last time he had come to the room when Ron and he tried to talk to the staff about having found the location of the Chamber of Secrets, a pair of gargoyles flanked the door. Unlike the Golden Gargoyle that guarded the way to the Headmaster's rooms, these two had some level of conscious thought. "What do you want?" the gargoyle on the left side of the door snarled at them as they approached.

"We were looking for either Professor Flitwick or Mad-Eye Moody," Harry answered.

"They ain't here," the right gargoyle said just as harshly as his counterpart.

"Do you know where I could find them?" Harry asked.

"Why do you need them?" both gargoyles asked at once mirroring each other as they shifted their heads to the side each away from the door.

"I have a question to ask them about Magic," Harry said not sure if the gargoyles were required to let the staff know why students were looking for a teacher, and not wanting Dumbles to know about his Soulbond being active.

"Oh, a question about Magic, how original. What say you Drun shall we let them know where a member of staff is at, enjoying their weekend?" the right gargoyle asked turning to look at his counterpart.

"Um, I don't think so Kirk," Drun responded.

"Well you heard Drun, now be off with ye," Kirk said waving his arms at the trio.

"Let's just go as Madam Maxine," Jonathan said as the three teens walked away from the pair of unhelpful gargoyles. Having no other idea, Harry and Viktor nodded as they left the castle again and approached the Beauxbaton's carriage. Not sure if non-Beauxbatons were allowed inside, Harry and Viktor waited outside, joining the other students both Hogwarts and Durmstrange in admiring the large carriage house. Jonathan nodded to some of his classmates as he headed to his Headmistress's private cabin and rang her bell. A few seconds later, Madam Maxine came to the door, "Jonathan is everything alright?" she asked in worry peering down at her student in worry.

"Everything is fine-ish Madam," Jonathan said with the customary bow to her, "I was just wondering if you know anything about Soulbonds?"

"That is an odd question if you don't mind me saying so. Can you tell me what brought it on?" she asked. Jonathan told her about how he and a student from both Hogwarts and Durmstrang could somehow perfectly understand each other despite the fact they were all speaking their native tongues. This bit of information shocked the former History of Magic teacher knowing that such cases were rather rare. When Jonathan told her that as a test they had the Hogwarts student, he was not giving Harry or Viktor's names just in case, who was a Pareslemouth talking to a snake. Madam Maxine had to take out a large white handkerchief and dab at her brow as Jonathan told her that he and the Durmstrage student without having any ability in Parselmagic had been able to understand what the Hogwarts student had said to the snake. "Jonathan," Madam Maxine said when he finished," I will relax the rules of non-Beauxbatons students being able to enter the carriage, please bring these two boys to see me we have much to discuss. She then turned around and began to bring out some drinks and treats for the three students for their coming talk.

As Jonathan let Harry and Viktor into the carriage, Harry stayed close to the older males while he looked around everywhere. The inside of the carriage had walls the same powder blue as the outside and looked like it was a hotel with differently colored doors* every couple of feet leading into what Harry assumed was a student's room. Based on the nameplates affixed to the doors each of the visiting Beauxbatons students had their own rooms at least on this level, but there were three other levels above the floor they were on. Reaching the end of the hallway they were in Jonathan rang a bell to a white door nearly three times as large as the other doors they had passed. Madam Maxine soon opened it, her eyebrows shooting up a little in shock since Jonathan had not shared the identity of Harry or Viktor with her.

She soon collected herself and let the trio in before having them take some seats she had set up around a "small" table with the food and drink she had prepared. "Est-ce que l'un de vous parle français?" she asked receiving a hesitant nod from Viktor while Harry looked confused making her see that the boy did not speak any French at all as Jonathan translated her question to him. Hazarding a guess that he would not speak Bulgarian either she turned to the Durmstrange Champion and asked, "Will English be alright?" She once more got a nod from the famous Quidditch player. Leaning forward Madam Maxine placed her hands on her knees and looked at the three boys before her. "Heir Shepard has informed me that you believe you have a Soulbond is that correct?" she asked them.

"Um, yes Madam," Harry said from his place seated between the two older males.

"May I ask apart from your ability to understand each other when they speak in their native tongue why you believe this to be a Soulbond?" she asked looking between the three.

Once against it was Harry who answered. "A couple of months ago, I went through a test at Gringotts which stated that I had a Soulbond, which had been blocked but also not activated. And since we could not think of another reason that we could understand each other even when I spoke in Parsletongue it was the first thing I could think of." Madam Maxine was not the only one horrified that a Soulbond had been blocked on the young boy knowing such a thing could lead to an early death.

"That is sound logic," she said distracting herself a little by pouring herself a drink. "Not to get too personal but were there any other blocks on you?"

"There were some placed in my abilities, how well I could do in certain subjects, and my Core," Harry said grabbing a small cup of milk and doing it rather than looking at anyone. Viktor and Jonathan reached over and began to pat and rub Harry's back as the last domino fell into place for the visiting Headmistress.

"This makes a little more sense now," she said.

"What does Headmistress?" Jonathan asked.

"Well normally a Soulbond is between two people, but if young Heir Potter's Core had been blocked his Magic might seek out more to compensate for the blocks as well as help him to normalize his magic if and when the blocks are removed," she said smiling at the three students.

"I got the blocks removed right after my test," Harry said making the Headmistress nod at him.

"Depending on how large a block that you had on did whoever cleanse you give you a Magical Nomaizing Artifact?" she asked.

"I don't think so. The only things I got from the bank afterward were my Heir Rings," Harry answered.

"Well depending on the families you belong to, they might have worked some Magic into their rings that work as an MNA," Madam Maxine said nodding her head. "Now one question do any of you feel a sort of bond developing that would require you to remain together?" Harry, Jonathan, and Viktor shared a look as if to check with the others before shaking their heads no. "Very well one last question. Soulbonds are a very personal thing, Heir Potter, Heir Krum, do you wish me to inform either of your Headmasters about this?"

Viktor just gave a shrug not caring either way, but Harry shook his head vigorously and simply said, "NO."

"Very well as there is no consensus to protect Heir Potter's wishes, I shall not inform my fellow Heads of school," Madam Maxine said a little surprised by Harry's response.

Zabini Castle

Sirius stood flabbergasted hearing that his baby brother had a Soulbond with his Godson as if his family circumstances were not already crazy enough as it was with his current relationship with his son. This also meant that Regulus would most likely not be letting go of Harry's picture until he saw him in person. The only way that would happen was to wait for the Yule and hope Harry came home rather than asking one of the two others who looked like he had a Soulbond with him to the dance. Either that or Sirius openly shares his relationship with Blaise by contacting the castle to get permission to let his son and missing brother meet each other. He was not even sure how to tell Harry that Regulus had been found to have a Soulbond geared to him for how did one write something like this in a letter? Maybe he should get Remus to lend him his two-way mirror so he could send it to Harry. However, if he did that he would have to let Regulus have a chance to talk to Harry during the call at some point,

"It will be fine honey," Andriana said coming over to him and placing a comforting hand on his chest.

"Will it though?" Sirius asked looking at her before sending a look in Regulus's direction who had made a copy of the picture from Harry's bedroom and had shrunk it down so he could put it in a locket he had just created.

"Magic and love find a way. After all, it did for us," she said kissing him.

Suddenly the fireplace burst into life as a slightly out-of-breath Goblin came out. "Bonecrusher, what is wrong?" Sirius asked having never seen a Goblin out of breath unless a real emergency was going on.

"The bank had just received a report that a special meeting for the Wizengamot is to take place in less than five minutes from what happened with Harry and the Goblet," Bonecrusher said gasping a little as he worked to catch his breath.

"WHAT?" Sirius, Narcissa, and Adriana all cried out.

"We think the Headmaster is behind it to spin the story and try to get Harry back into the Tournament," Bonecrusher explained.

"Over his dead body," Sirius growled. "He wants a show we will give him a show. Since the meeting is called this allows us to introduce you, as Harry's Proxy."

Wizengamot Chambers

The Majority of the Magicals that entered the Wizengamot Chamber were confused as to why a session had been called for today when their normal meeting was eleven days away. Arriving just in time Sirius and Bonecrusher followed Narcissa to the Malfoy family seat and waited for the meeting to start. Lucius arched an eyebrow at their arrival but otherwise showed no emotion to their presence as the meeting began.  Dumbles dressed in plain black robes stood from the center seat and called for attention, an order which was immediately ignored as the members of the Wizengamot shouted at him to ask why the meeting had been called. "I am sure everyone has read the paper about the events from the night before and the hiccup with the Goblet of Fire," the old bastard called silencing everyone. "I called this meeting to discuss the hiccup and Harry Potter's place in the tournament."

"He has no place in that blasted tournament," Sirius called out getting to his feet.

"Um, the Wizengamot recognizes Lord Sirius Black," a functionary called out.

"Now my boy, I know you care for Harry but the document you submitted was illegal since I am his Magical Guardian," Dumbles said giving his best Grandfatherly smile though with a steely glint in his eyes.

"I am Harry's Godfather and legal guardian my actions for him and this tournament were perfectly legal. And since the Goblins ruled it to be so their decision will stand. Also, I think this body should look at how my Godson's name even got into the Goblet since Albus had informed everyone that he had placed an Age Line around the Goblet," Sirius's words lead to mutterings in each of the three main Wizengamont parties.

"While your support of Potter is a good thing since you have not yet come forward to reclaim your Seats for this noble body we can not fulfill your request for an inquiry into Cheif Warlock Dumbledore's Age Line fiasco," a toad-like woman said from the front row. Narcissa leaned in and shared with Sirius that the woman was Dolores Umbridge who was the Senior Undersecretary for Minister Fudge.

"If that is all that it takes I will reclaim them now," Sirius called out in response to the woman. Sirius noticed that Dumbles looked a little annoyed at his response though Sirius was not sure if that was due to his proposal or believing he would take over as Harry's Proxy. If so Sirius was going to shock not only the fool but most likely the majority of the Members as well.

"I would like to second the motion to allow Sirius to reclaim his seats," Lucius said shocking many of the Magicals present.

"That is not needed, Lord Malfoy," Amelia Bones said getting to her feet. When Sirius came in after being proven innocent since he had his Lordship Rings he automatically reclaimed his seats and thus a vote is not needed for his approval."

"Thank you, Amelia," Sirius said sending her a smile as he led Bonecrusher over to the Neutral or Gray Party and called for his family seat to appear. "Then as my first action as my Lord Black and sitting in this body, I would like to order an investigation into the issue with the Age Line, and as my second action I would like to reveal the being that my Godson has chosen as his Proxy,"

"Very well," Albus said his voice sounding tight with emotion. "We will see to it as soon as we deal with the business involving the cup since you brought a Goblin to discuss the issue with the Goblet of Fire. Master Goblin what do you have to say about the events?"

"You are mistaken Albus," Sirius said. "The reason Master Bonecrusher accompanied me today is after he came to Hogwarts after my Godson's name came out of the Goblet was he is Harry's, Account Manager. Early this morning he informed Harry and me that even if Harry was not to take part in the Tournament his name coming out of the Goblet has let Harry be officially seen in the eyes of magic as an adult. Telling Harry, this he asked Master Bonecrusher to be his Proxy," Sirius said as the chamber erupted into an uproar.

"Preposterous," someone shouted.

"He is making a mockery of this body," someone else called out.

"A Lord?  Impossible," still others called.

"QUIET," Madam Bones shouted getting to her feet when Albus did not attempt to regain order. "Sirius, can you explain why your Godson chose a Goblin to be his proxy rather than yourself?"

"It is quite simple Amelia," Sirius said. "Harry was not sure if I would be reclaiming my Seats due to personal reasons. And as he explained it to Bonecrusher, Minerva McGonagall, and myself he thought the people he would choose to become his Proxy would not be accepted. It seems that Harry had been doing some research since coming to live with me this last summer and according to what he found it just mentioned that a Proxy had to be of age and living it made no mention of a Proxy having to even be human."

"Why was he doing research only after coming to live with you?" a member of the Dark Party called out.

"Before I was able to bring Harry to live with me, he had been brought up with Lily's sister's family," Sirius explained.

"So what, I get that Lily was a Muggle but did his tutors not inform him what would be expected of him?" Dowager Longbottom asked.

"He had no tutors," Sirius said shocking the entire chamber while Albus ground his teeth, "he informed me that it was only on his eleventh birthday that he learned of being a Magical when Hagrid delivered his Hogwarts letter," Sirius said.

"WHAT?!?!" the Wizengamot members who also served as Hogwarts Governors asked in horrified shocked voices.

"Harry informed me, that Hagrid gave him his letter took him shopping, and dropped him off back home all without telling him that much even how to reach the Hogwarts Express. if it had not been for a helpful Magical family, Harry would never have found Platform 9 3/4 and would never have made it to Hogwarts for his first year." At Sirius's words, almost the entire population of the Wizengamot turned to look at Albus with a thunderous look in their eyes having been told by the man that Harry had been properly trained in the Magical World growing up even the Muggles he lived with. Some parents who had been told of Harry's rudeness and disregard for Magical culture and protocol suddenly made sense.

"Albus, what is the meaning of this?" Dowager Longbottom said getting to her feet and brandishing her umbrella at the man. But for once the man was speechless as everyone could see him grinding his teeth together. "Fine, I will be looking into this, since my daughter-in-law was also Harry's Godparents and I second Harry's choice of his Proxy. Since it seems the lad has given it some thought, we have seen that he might be unable to trust the adults around him. No offense Lord Black."

"None taken," Sirius said bowing at her. The vote was soon put forth to accept Bonecrusher as Harry's Proxy due to Doweger Longbottom's approval. And except for a few outliers such as Albus, Umbridge, and other Magicals who held Anti-Creature beliefs, Bonecrusher was approved to become Harry's Proxy while the new Lord was attending school.

Chapter Text

"Now that that has been dealt with as Heir Potter's Proxy has he informed you which Party he wishes his seats to be part of?" Madam Bones asked after Bonecrusher had been approved, much to the Goblin's own surprise, as Harry's Proxy.

"My client has stated that after the research he had done over the summer, he wishes his seats to join the Neutral Section," Bonecrusher stated tugging at the bottom of his waistcoat to hide his shock at being a part of the governing body.

"As no one has asked me my position, I am stepping away from where my mother placed my seats in the Dark Party to also place them in the Neutral Section," Sirius said as Albus ground his teeth up at the podium.  Not that Sirius needed to say anything since he had called for his seat waiting in the Neutral section of the chamber.  Yet at Bonecrusher's words, a Goblin-sized chair appeared right next to Sirius with the family crest of Peverell, Gryffindor, Potter, and Slytherin marked on the head of the seat.

At Sirius' announcement, a bell began to ring through the hall confusing some of the younger members of the Wizengamot who began to look around the hall for the bell in question or pulled out their pocket watches to see if some event had been scheduled to take place during the session that they had not known about, forgetting for a moment that the entire session had been a specially called meeting. At her place at the center podium, Madam Bones received a notice for the reason of the bell getting back to her feet and calling for attention from all the members. "It seems that with Heir Potter and Lord Black moving their seats to the Neutral Section as well as several Lords and a Lady resuming their control of their seats and changing their party. There has been a shift from the majority away from the Light Party to the Neutral Party." Her pronouncement was met with sounds of shock which covered up a growl from Albus who in his anger had snapped his quill in twain. It had not helped the man's position that Severus Snape, Mavel Dectic, Hope Estin, Alastor Moody, and Bathsheda Babbling after finding out he had illegally claimed their seats while they were teaching at Hogwarts had shifted their seats away from the Light Section.*  Having been informed of Albus illegally taking their family seats as a Proxy just hours ago, the five Hogwarts instructors had come to the Ministry to take back their seats and thus were on hand when the unplanned meeting had been called.

"Now the Gray Section as the new Majority Seat Holders of the Wizengamot one of your number is to be selected to take over as the Chief Warlock or Wiccan of this body. You can either cast a vote for it or have your longest-standing member take the seat," Madam Bones told the area in which the Gray or Neutral Party control of the seats. All the while Albus fumed beside her not wanting to give up his place of power in the British Governing Body. Using the private message system built into their seats the member of the Neutral Party began to poll its members to see if anyone wanted the position or if they should leave it to the eldest member of their party.

After about ten minutes of quick back and forth between all the members, apart from Bonecrusher since as a Proxy, he could only vote whichever way Harry wanted with the vote being called now, Harry did not know of it he could do nothing. a decision was finally reached as a member in the front row of the Neutral Party stood up and shared their decision with the rest of the Wizengamot. "Madam Bones we have decided that we want Dowager Longbottom to serve as the Neutral Party representative of the Chief Warlock for the time being. At least until we can call a full party meeting and put it through to a vote," the speaker said.

"I, object Augusta Longbottom is a member of the Light Party," Albus protested.

"Albus, she has been a member of the Neutral Party since a little after the recent World Cup for reasons of finding the Light Party's platform was too extreme and allowing Lord Black to be sent to Azkaban without a trial all those years ago," Madam Bones said silencing him and other voices who had raised in protest.

"The Neutral Party has selected Dowager Longbottom for the post due to her reputation of being incorruptible, her standing up for her principals, and well her long history with this body," the Neutral Party speaker said as Dowager Longbottom made her way down the stands for a bit before Sirius came forwards and gave her a hand.

As she turned to look at him, Augusta gave him a conspiratorial wink as she showed that she was not actually using her cane to go down the stands and looking weaker than she was. Sirius almost burst out laughing at the old gal's acting to make people underestimate her making him see the Black family traits from his Great Aunt. "Give 'em hell Auggy," Sirius whispered to her as they reached the floor and she started on her way to the podium on her own taking off her hat and its stuffed vulture from her head so that the Chief Warlock/Wiccan skullcap could be set on her graying hair.

"You know it," she whispered back as she leaned in to kiss both his cheeks letting him go back up to his seat.

"Albus, please leave the podium so that our new Cheif Warlock/Wiccam and take her place," Madam Bones said giving him a look to say she would not hesitate to use her position as Head of Magical Law Enforcement which granted her the rank of Head Totem guard and was in charger of the Wizengamot security to move him if need be. With some grumbling Albus left the seat, removing the skullcap and vestments, but rather than folding them up like a decent human being he just tossed them haphazardly onto the seat.

Madam Bones rolled her eyes as she used her wand to clean and straighten the Cheif's garb as well as change its size to fit Dowager Longbottom's form while Albus basically stomped his feet over to the front row of Seats of the Light Section and sat down pouting a little like a toddler who had been told he was not getting dessert after his meal. If the majority of the room was not focused on Augusta's fake weak and halting steps some of his supporters would have been shocked by the man's attitude at being ousted. Since the current meeting had been a special session all that happened after Augustus arrived at the center podium was Madam Bones placing the Chief Wiccan vestments and skullcap. Augustus's first order of business as the new Chief Wiccan was to create the group to look into the Age Line issue that had been approved of earlier.

At Hogwarts at each of the Lord/Lady rooms inside the castle, documents were added to all the students' Wizengamot files who had not attended the special meeting. If the student was a Lord who had a proxy cast their vote and was a member of the Neutral Party additional forms were put into the pile for the candidates that were up for election to become the full-time Chief Warlock/Wiccan. Harry was aware of none of this still sitting in Madam Maxine's cabin finding out about people with Soulbonds.

The large French Headmistress having heard that Harry did not want his Headmaster to know about the bond between the three students offered to let the trio use her special PO box to let them send a message of their bond to their families. Jonathan immediately wrote to his parents and older sister about the discovery, while Viktor wrote two letters one for his parents but also one for his younger brother who had just started at Durmstrange. Harry who had already let Sirius know about the possibility of finding his Soulbond decided to send a message to Zabini Castle so that his Godfather could give it to Professor Lupin. As he had not known Jonathan's name during his last letter he wanted to let Magical Guardian know that one of his Soulbond was the man's nephew.

"Now there is something I would like to have you all test out for me," Madam Maxine once she collected the letters they wanted to send out.

"What Professor?" Jonathan asked his Headmistress.

Madam Maxine pulled out a book she had been looking through as the three had been writing their letters. "I was reading up on Soulbonds between Magicals who come from different parts of the world and through magic can understand each other. Now the book mentions that since Magic makes it possible for you all to hear the language spoken as the one you are most comfortable with, it does state that it is possible with some effort to speak without the magic being used. Thus allowing you to talk to yourself as if working out a problem without the other members of your bond knowing what you are saying. An example they give is a member of a Bond wanting to throw a surprise party for the other so suppresses the magic of communication to plan the party. Unfortunately, the book does not mention how to suppress the communication magic. And even if it did there is the issue that both Heir Krum and Jonathan both have some understanding of the English language so Heir Potter would be unable to prevent you from understanding him.

"Unless the suppression of the magic would stop us from properly hearing it," Jonathan ventured.

"Maybe we should try to suppress the communication magic and see what happens," Viktor said.

"How does one suppress magic though?" Harry asked.

"Well, that is a tough concept, one that if a person does too strongly can lead to them becoming what is known as an Obscurial but that mostly happens if one does it for years at a time so be careful on how often you work to suppress your magic," Madam Maxine said shocking Harry. He was surprised that he had not become an Obscurial after he had to keep his magic under control at the Dursleys lest he got punished. "The best way I can think of how to describe it is to picture your magic as a river flowing through you with each of your spells and abilities being a different stream that flows into it. In the vision create a dam blocking the stream from the main river."

Harry did as she suggested, closing his eyes to better focus on the river of his magic. In his mind's eye, Harry saw what looked like a map of a large river with unmeasurable streams feeding into it. Picking one at random Harry mentally labeled it as the magical skill he had to understand Viktor and Jonathan's languages and their ability to understand his. Harry first tried to block the stream with a simple beaver dam but some small trickle of water still got through it so he envisioned something like the Hoover Dam and placed it in the stream. "Testing. Testing can you understand this?" Harry asked still with his eyes closed. He heard some gasps not only from Victor and Jonathan but from Madam Maxine as well. "Is something wrong?" Harry asked opening his eyes and letting the dam vanish from the stream within his mind.

"What did you say, Heir Potter?" Madam Maxine asked.

"Um, testing. Testing can you understand this? Why does that mean something different in the Magical World?" he asked.

"Heir Potter, you were speaking in Paresltonge," she informed him.

"Was I really?" Harry asked surprised having never been able to speak Parsletounge when he was not around a snake before.

"Yes, to us it just sounded like a bunch of hisses," Jonathan said looking to Viktor for confirmation as the Bulgarian gave him a nod.

"So, I guess that explains how I would be able to talk without Jonathan or Viktor understanding me but unless I found another person who can speak Paresltonge, I would just be speaking to myself," Harry said.

"I wonder what would happen if I surpassed both the magical communication and my Paresletongue ability?" Harry wondered aloud before he labeled another stream on his map "Parslemagic" before placing a Hoover Dam at the connection of his magic river. "What about now? Can anyone understand this?" Harry asked looking between the three others in the room.

"I can, Heir Potter," Madam Maxine said.

"Can what Professor?" Jonathan asked.

"I understood when Heir Potter asked if I could," she explained.

"But all he did was move his lips, no sound came out?" Viktor said.

"Interesting since you both understand English if Heir Potter places a block on both the communication and the other know Magical language he can speak you just get dead air as it were," Madam Maxine said tapping her chin in thought. "Tell me Heir Potter have you ever been able to speak snake language when there was none present before?"

"Never," Harry admitted.

"Well, then this lesson was a success on more than one level. Since you can now speak Paresltounge without a snake around you would be able to learn Parslemagic. It is a rather rare form of magic that specializes in Healing, Charms, and reading some runes," Madam Maxine as she used her wand to summon a book over to her. "As I understand that there is more than slight discrimination against Parsletongues and Parselmagic use in Britain I can assume you will not find many books on the subject. This book contains some introductory lessons in the use of Parslemagic. Depending on where you got your talent in it I would suggest you check out any family Grimoires you possess to see if they have any lessons in it as well."

"Since were are Soulbonded do you know if the normal protection measures still exist on our family Grimoires?" Jonathan asked.

"I don't know," Madam Maxine answered with a shrug of her large shoulders.

"What do you mean by protection measures?" Harry asked.

"Have you never dealt with a Grimoire?" Viktor asked.

"I was Muggle raised so if my family had any I have never seen them," Harry answered.

"Ah," Madam Maxine said in understanding, "well Heir Potter as a Grimoire is where families keep the spells, rituals, as well as blueprints for any Magical Invention the family creates they are covered with some of the most extreme protection magic there is. This is to punish anyone who tries to steal a family's secrets or if it is a member of the family itself prevent them from selling said secrets to others. Most have a spell in place that if one tries to share the contents with another they will lose their voice for a time chosen by the family when the Grimoire was created. That is just considered a warning, however, and if someone tries to share a family's secrets after it the punishment will get worse. Usually with the perpetrator losing access to the family Magic, and even losing their position of Head of the family, even if they are the last of the line as you are."

"Wait does this mean that each family has multiple Grimoirs since it can not be shared with anyone but a child of the family?" Harry asked.

"No, most Magicals when they get Married, Bonded, or however you want to call it usually go through a ritual to let their mate, spouse, whatever have access to the Grimoire.  That is why Jonathan asked if they would apply to us," Viktor explained. "As we are already Soulbonded it could allow us to access each other's books as long as we undertake the proper ritual to declare we will not share the secrets within."

"I think I will just stick with this book first," Harry said indicating the book Madam Maxine had handed to him. "I have enough to get on with without having to worry about any family magic, as do you," Harry said looking at Viktor. "While I am a student of Hogwarts, I want to see you win the Tournament, no offense," Harry said looking at Jonathan and Madam Maxine.

"You will get no disagreement from me, even if Fleur is my friend and classmate. But I would prefer you focus less on winning and more on survival," Jonathan said. "So what did they say about the First Task?"

"Boys while it is all well and good to cheer him on, I would ask that you don't cheat since you all come from a different school and would have access to all information," Madam Maxine admonished her student. "That being said there is one slight issue that you will have to figure out for the tournament."

"What issue?" the three asked at the same time.

"Well, at the Yule Ball, you can only bring one date, and while it is alright to come with someone else I don't want any of you to lead someone on and spend the event with the others. And since it is only one date per person, you would not all be allowed to dance with each other at the same time either," she explained.

That is not an issue," Harry said, "since there are certain people I don't want to know about the Soulbond, I think the best way to handle it would be for Viktor and Johnathan to go together and if I recognized the term Yule correctly as taking part during the Winter holiday break I can just head to see my Godfather." Madam Maxine breathed a sigh of relief at Harry's statement for as one of the Heads of the schools taking part in the tournament, she knew that the Yule Ball and who the Champions choose to go with or spent the most time with at the event would become their "hostage" for the Second Task. She had not wanted to send the Fourth Year boy down into the lake to be rescued just in case he was the one that Viktor had taken to the ball.

Chapter Text

Headmaster's Office

Albus wanted to blast something as he removed the charm on his robes letting them return to their normal flamboyant design rather than the all-black motif that he had worn as Chief Warlock. "How the Bloody Hell did Sirius know about the tournament," he growled to himself before turning to the portrait of Headmaster Phineas Nigellus Black. "Did you tell him, Phineas?"

"I have not seen my descendent since he left Grimmauld Place," Phineas said with a scoff.

"Well, he had to learn about it from somewhere beforehand. There is no way he could have decided you know what I will make Harry sign a contract to prevent him from taking part in a tournament that has not been held in ages," Albus snarled.

"Why does it make any difference if the boy took part in the tournament at all?" Phineas asked though not expecting an answer from the bastard who currently serves as Hogwarts Headmaster.

"It was necessary for the Greater Good. For while I made a show of putting the Age Line in place it was not needed," Albus said not worried about any of the portraits sharing his plans with anyone due to the magically created loyalty that was geared towards his position of Headmaster. "The Goblet would only accept a student that was of age that it felt worthy of becoming a Champion. I had to use my wand as well as an old ritual I had found on the tournament which allowed a Headmaster to select a Champion to compete that would be added to the normal three."

"But why?" Phineas prompted again hoping to gather any information on the man's plans and hope that someone showed up at his other portrait since as Hogwarts' most hated Headmaster Phineas had found a way around the magical protections that forced him to be loyal to the current Headmaster. Granted the spell he had found confined his movement between his portrait in the Head's office and the one in Grimmauld Place but it was worth it.

"It was for the Potter family Lordships and Seats in the Wizengamot. The money and artifacts that came with it also helped," Albus said.

"So you got the Potter brat to enter so that he could what, sign everything over to you?" Phineas asked.

"No I already had control of the lines but being chosen as a Champion would have made Magic recognize Harry as an adult. As you know if he had not claimed his inheritance within a year it would show that he was allowing me to still run everything for him. But then your blasted Great to the X power nephew comes in and ruins everything" Albus said shooting daggers at the Slytherin Headmaster.

"A brat that has distanced himself from my family," Phineas said while inwardly smiling at Sirius for disrupting the bastard's plans. "I still don't see why having the Potter brat's power is so important."

"His power is just a bonus for me, no his importance is that he might be able to take down Voldemort. If he dies while doing so all the better," Albus said. The current Headmaster was so focused on Phineas's portrait that he missed the other portraits that lined the room inhabitants' faces clouding over knowing that Albus himself was responsible for creating Voldemort in the first place.

"Come now, I am sure you could take Voldemort down yourself and get all the fame that came with it," Phineas said playing to the man's ego.

"That is true, I could if I wanted to, but the man has plans that he put in place so to stop them I set the boy up as a handy distraction," Albus said not going into the idea of the Prophecy as all the Portraits knew that the whole thing had been a lie in the first place.

They had seen the real prophecy from Trelawney during her interview in the Headmaster's office. Trelawney had spoken of the Dark Lord being pushed back for over a decade only to rise again unless stopped by one who had thrice defied him. Hearing the prophecy Albus had taken out the Elder Wand and enchanted the woman as he removed her memory of the prophecy and put one of his own in its place. The Portraits had watched in horror at his actions knowing that because of what he had done, Albus had caused Trelawney to lose her actual gift as a Seer. This along with what he had done to Tom Riddle to forge him into Voldemort caused many of the previous Headmasters and Mistresses to turn against him.  Well as much as they could while the enchantments on their Portraits were still in place.

"So you are just using the brat as cannon fodder?" Phineas asked.

"Well, he was until Sirius got involved," Albus said.

"I don't see the problem," Phineas stated, "you might have lost the power and money you were getting from the boy but Voldemort should still be focused on him and not you right?"

"That is true," Albus said calming down a little, "but if Sirius had taken Harry in to get Cleansed along with what he has already done with the boy he might find out some of Voldemort's plans which I am trying to stop myself."

"Thus stealing the fame, you rightly deserve," Phineas said.

"Right," Albus said nodding along with the portrait.

"Don't worry I am sure my worthless grand nephew could do nothing else to disrupt your plans after all, you are the Great Albus Dumbledore and he is just the black sheep of the Black Family," Phineas said with a fake laugh.

"You are of course right, Phineas, thanks I needed to hear that," Albus said as he opened up his desk drawer and pulled out a bag of Peeps to snack on as he planned how best to disrupt the Gray Parrty's election for Chief Warlock as well as how to regain his power in the Wizengamot. His first part of this plan was to get in contact with his Goddaughter, Rita, and sick her on any possible candidates to take control of the Gray Party so she could pass him any material he might use to blackmail them to make them run the Wizengamot the same way he did.

Main Castle

After leaving the Beauxbatron's carriage with the books he had been lent on Parselmagic, Harry returned to showing Jonathan and Viktor around. Since they no longer had the large group to mingle with to prevent Dumbles from seeing them all together, Harry took less traveled pathways. Having already visited the Potions classroom and ingredient storage rooms in the dungeons the trio went up the Grand staircase heading for the next closest classroom, Transfiguration. While Harry wanted to avoid well-traveled routes as he did the tour there was no getting past the fact that the Grand staircase was the only path from the ground floor up to the first.

As Harry quickly led the way up, he was spotted by Draco Malfoy who had left the Slytherin dorms heading to the library, since the library in the dorm room did not have the necessary books he needed to look over for the scenario he had been given by Mad-Eye. Finding it strange that Potter was not with his two worthless friends but was hanging around with the likes of Krum, Draco decided to put off going to the library and see what was going on. As there were not many students around, Draco hung back hiding a little behind one of the Hourglasses, and took note of where Potter, Krum, and the other foreigner were going before he ran up the stairs to follow them.

Draco saw what looked like Potter giving the pair of students a tour. Which might not seem that strange after all he had seen other students even some of his fellow Slytherins showing some of the visiting students around the castle. No, what Draco found strange was that Potter was only speaking English. While he did not know about the other student joining Potter and Krum, he knew from trying to talk to the famous Quidditch Player that Krum did not understand that much English, and spoke even less. Yet from the expression that Krum had on his face, he looked to understand what Potter was yammering about. Draco would have thought if anyone should be star-struck and just going along with everything it should be Potter aimed towards Krum, not the other way around. Besides the death of his parents, Potter had not done as much to earn any fame compared to Krum who was one of the best Seekers in the world at the moment. Draco just knew the stories told about Potter's previous years had to be performed by either Dumbles for his pet Gryffindor, or possibly the Mudblood using something she read in some book or other.

Draco became even more confused as the random Beauxbaton student asked something in French, now Draco due to the Malfoy line coming from France knew the language. The rando was asking about how Transfiguration was handled at Hogwarts. Rather than answer the rando in French, Potter talked about some of the lessons in Transfiguration that he had over the years. Draco could not figure out why they were talking in different languages to each other rather than just using French or plain English, and he did not see either them or Krum casting a translation spell as they talked. A long-term spell required more time between a different language being spoken to translate for the person but Potter and the rando were talking back and forth without waiting for any translations to occur. Something rather strange was going on here, but for the life of him, Draco just could not figure it out.

It did not surprise Harry that Jonathan, Viktor, and he finally caught up to Hermione, Ron, and Jonathan's friends at the library. Harry had to bite his lip a little as Johnathan passed on the message that they wanted Harry to take over the tour again finding Hermione giving too much information on what she had read about in Hogwarts: A History. Ron was not helping as he had spent the tour following Fleur around like a love-sick puppy. Finding out where Hermione had already shown them Harry set off from the library towards the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. The Beuaxbatons and Viktor were surprised to see the Evil Magic Detectors, Moody had set up in his room.

Some thought they were too advanced for the younger years to be around, especially for Muggleborn First Years who were not used to Magic yet. Harry set their minds at ease as he approached the Foe Glass and showed them that Moody had placed Wards around each item. Harry even invited them to do what Moody had done when he had first brought the items to class by having them perform any spell they could think of to get past the Wards. Taking a step back Harry caught Hermione's eye and smiled as the group tried everything they could to see if they could bypass the Wards around the items. And while some like Fleur, Viktor, and Jonathan caused the Wards to become visible and even seemed to shrink a little none of them could get past the Wards at all.

The group finally gave up trying to get past Moody's Wards after half an hour before they quickly went to the Charms and History of Magic classrooms before heading back down to supper. While they had shown the visiting students where all the core classes were, Harry could not help them anymore since he was not sure where the classrooms were for Runes, Arithmancy, Ghost/Spirits studies, or any of the Muggle Studies. The only extra class he knew how to find was Divinations but no one was taking that class for they lacked the gift which was a prerequisite to take such classes in their schools. Harry had wished such a thing was present at Hogwarts, it would have saved him the time he had to deal with the class before finally dropping it.

During supper, Jonathan and Viktor sat back with their classmates rather than with Harry and his friends. From his remarks during the meeting with Madam Maxine, they both assumed Harry wished to keep their relationship secret from certain people. Viktor assumed it was possibly Harry worrying about some fangirls like he got for his talent as a Seeker, or worried about some crazed fan of Viktors going after him. Jonathan just thought Harry was shy or due to him being Muggleraised was not aware that being in a same-sex relationship even one that had more than two partners was perfectly acceptable. In truth, Harry just wanted to prevent Dumbles from knowing about the Soulbond since it had been listed as Blocked on the test from Gringotts.

Harry was glad that they had found that their bond did not require them to stay close to each other since it would be strange for either Viktor or Jonathan to audit his classes due to their age difference, and from what Jonathan had shared during the tour Hogwarts seemed to be a little less advanced than the other schools. For Hogwarts students would be taught Human transfiguration in their Fifth Year as far as Harry knew learning how to become an Animagus was not taught. Jonathan had shared that at Beauxbatons while a student was taught Human Transfiguration Magic they were also given some lessons on how to achieve an Animagus Form. Unlike Brittian, if achieved a Magical was not required to register with their Ministry.

After supper, Harry was glad that like most of the students of Hogwarts, he had made sure his homework had been finished before the Goblet of Fire had been revealed so the weekend could be spent wondering about what the Champions would have to face in the coming Tournament. Thus Harry had a ready excuse, of finishing his homework, when he returned to the Gryffindor Lord's room and took a closer look at the documents that had been on his desk. When he arrived in the room he not only found it empty again but also two new documents had been added to his pile. The first was a letter from Bonecrusher informing him that he had been approved to stand in as Harry's Proxy.

The second document was about the change of leadership that had happened during a meeting earlier that day. It seemed that the party that Harry had directed Bonecrusher to place his seats into had become the Majority Party so one of their numbers would stand in as the Chief Wiccan. The document stated that until a full vote could be cast Neville's Gran was serving as temp leader of the party and Chief Warlock/Wiccan. Since Harry was a member of the Gray Party a list of members of the party had been in the document so that if Harry wished to put a member forward he could.

Not knowing anyone on the list Harry decided he would talk to Neville to see what type of woman his Gran was and to see if he should vote for her to become the full-time Chief Wiccan or if he should just abstain. Going over the rest of the pile Harry saw some laws up for vote for an increase of taxes to help pay for some maintenance of the pathways on the Magical Alleys all over Great Britain. Thinking it was a good idea he marked that Bonecrusher should vote yes on the measure, as well as a vote that was coming up to allow Werewolves and other Creatures to get jobs without discrimination.

Harry marked that Bonecrusher should vote against the measures of higher security in several locations around England due to the events of the recent World Cup, but that was only due to the vote called for Dementors to be used in the locations. Harry was also against a recent vote that had been called from the meeting right before he joined to make it illegal to have offerings for the Elder Ones at meal times due to what he had found out after he had started to do it himself. Looking over the vote that was up for further debate and seeing it had to do with more rituals that someone had wanted to make illegal to perform he thought he would do some more research into the ritual to see if it had any added effect on his body or magic like the offerings to the Elder Ones.

Reaching the end of the pile of documents, Harry saw it was almost the time he normally went to bed for the night before a day of classes. After slipping into his sleep clothing Harry pulled out the book on Parselmagic. From the table of contents, he saw that the third chapter of the book dealt with rituals and wanted to try them out like the offerings Harry flipped to the chapter and began to read. According to the book a Magical who had the gift of Parseltongue would find the talent for the gift and their magic, in general, would work easier and be more powerful if they had high agility and flexibility like a snake did. Most rituals talked about in the book for increasing a Magical's agility and flexibility were more complicated than he could do at the moment unless he used large chunks of his free time to perform them. There was one ritual in the chapter that looked like he could easily do, however, it said to work best after meals. Not wanting to be seen with the book by anyone considering how everyone had acted in his Second Year about him being a Pareslemouth Harry memorized the ritual so he could perform it after breakfast.

Arriving earlier than normal for breakfast, Harry was able to finish his meal with enough time to do the simple ritual before he had to get to class. He was interested to see if the ritual did anything for him for it looked to be nothing more than some simple stretches but of course, the offerings to Lady Magic and the others were nothing more than putting extra food on a special plate yet it made his connection to his magic greater than it had been previously. Feeling a little self-conscious Harry headed into a corner to begin the ritual.

It started easily enough placing his feet in a stable position before raising his arms as far as they would go above his head. Wiggling his fingers a little, Harry brought his hands together before slowly lowering them to his lower chest he moved his hands apart from each other, but not before trying to crack his knuckles as the ritual told him to do. With each arm, Harry reached across his body and he used his other arm to pull it as tight as he could to himself hearing his elbows pop a little. Once Harry managed to pop both his arms he placed his bookbag on the floor and set his glasses on top of it. He then moved to the nearest wall he arched his back, as he walked down the wall with his hands to crack his back. And that was it according to the book that was all the ritual was saying it would help Harry better digest his food as well as get him limber for any activity he would do for a couple of hours.

Harry was not sure if the "ritual" had done anything at all for it was such simple stretches. Yet as he went to his first class of the day, D.A.D.A. he did what had become routine for most students. Shooting a random spell at the Wards around the Moody's Evil Magic detectors. As he had previously only been able to make a small bit of the Wards flash where he hit it, Harry was rather shocked to see his spell do the same thing Fleur, Viktor, and Jonathan's did the day before making the whole Wards become visible and shrink for a moment. If that was down to the simple stretches he did, Harry was anxious to see what the other rituals in the book could do for him.

Chapter Text

"Very good Potter," Moody said clomping into the room. "You have increased your power to make the Wards shrink some, have five points." Harry received some good-natured slaps from his Housemates while the Slytherins in class wondered how he had been able to increase his power enough to cause the Wards around Moody's Dark Detectors to shrink. "Alright, settle down," Moody barked as he went to his desk to start the day's lesson on the various levels of the Incarsurus spell. Going from the simplest version which only created rope bindings up to the two most powerful types one which created actual metal chains and the other magic-dampening cuffs.

As the class started doing their day's practice of the spell, Ron and Hermione leaned in to ask how Harry had been able to increase his magical powers. "Is it due to finding Jonathan and Krum?" Hermione asked in a whisper knowing that Harry wanted to keep the knowledge of the Soul Bond with the pair a secret.

"I don't think so," Harry said, "otherwise you would think I would have shrunk the Wards when we showed everyone during the tour. If I had to guess it is due to a ritual I performed this morning."

"Like the offering to Lady Magic, you learned at Sirius' place?" Hermione asked having found that when she participated in it as well her magic seemed to feel a lot more settled down and thus easier to control."

"Not really," Harry said throwing a look around the room to make sure no one was paying that much attention to them. "When we talked Madam Maxine she helped me be able to use Parseltougne even when there were no snakes present. She even gave me some books on Parslemagic and right after breakfast I did one of the rituals."

"Can anyone do it, or just Parselmouths?" Ron asked in a whisper thinking he could get some points as well from Moody if he could make the Wards shrink.

"I don't know but we can try it. though according to the book I learned it from the ritual works the best when it is done right after meals," Harry said with a shrug as he cast his Incarsurus spell and produced metal chains to wrap around his group's dummy.

True to his word right after lunch before their lesson in History of Magic, Harry led his two friends in the ritual he had found in the Parselmagic book. He was not sure what would happen since History was more of a lecture class than a practice lesson. Thus he was shocked that during the lesson he had been able to focus and take notes rather than fall asleep like he normally did. Harry was not sure if he was awake from performing the ritual twice for Ron had joined in on the ritual and had dozed off in class his face resting on one of his hands. During the next lesson, Charms neither Hermione nor Ron showed an increase in magical ability during the lesson making Harry guess that the ritual would only fully work if a person was a Pareselmouth. This did not stop Hermione and Ron from still doing the stretches, as Hermione agreed with the part of the book saying they did at least help a little with a person's digestion after they ate.

A few days later as the three Champions were taken out of class for the Weighing of the Wands ceremony, Harry was taken out of Potions to meet with a reporter. Albus had given his permission for this thinking everyone would be distracted by the ceremony they would not stop Rita from talking to Harry. He knew Severus would not care since he hated Harry and had told Albus that earlier that term had been ordered, by the School Board and Minerva to leave Harry alone in class and pass all the boy's assignments to Poppy to grade.

Harry was confused as the blonde reporter removed him from Potions class to get an interview with him. As he left Blaise recognizing Rita made a mental note to himself to send a message to his mother to have her inform Sirius and get them to watch out for any article the woman might produce knowing Rita's reputation to twist things to her own advantage.

"Why did you want to meet with me, Miss Skeeter?" Harry asked as the woman led him into an unused classroom.

"I have come to talk to you, Harry, you don't mind if I call you Harry right?" she asked but did not wait for his response as she continued, "About that whole incident with the Goblet of Fire and then the selection of a Goblin as your Proxy in the Wizengamot." Taking a seat on the teacher's desk she sets her crocodile skin handbag down and reaches in to pull out a roll of parchment and a strangely ornate quill which she began to suck on for a moment. "You don't mind if I use a Quick Quotes Quill?  It will let me speak to you in a more ordinary way as it works."

"Um," Harry said.

"Good," she said giving him a smile that showed a few gold fillings or caps, Harry was not quite sure.

"Now tell me how did you feel when the Headmaster called out your name for the tournament? Glad? Excited? Did you get a little thrill for breaking the rules?" she asked.

"I was mostly shocked due to my Godfather had me sign a magical contract that would prevent me from taking part in the tournament," Harry answered.

"Are you sure it was a valid contract, for how much legal understanding does Sirius Black possess after all he was unable to win his trial to stay out of Azkaban all those years ago?"

"That was because he never received a trial in the first place," Harry said.

"I don't know where you get your facts, Harry but you are wrong I reported on the trial myself," Rita said. This statement made Harry realize this woman was not to be trusted in the slightest as he glances at the Quick Quotes Quill at work and sees it had just finished writing the line, "Harry stood mystified as I shared the fact that Sirius Black had lied to him about not receiving a trial." Deciding to go with what he read Harry closed his eyes as if overcome with emotions as he entered his mindscape of the river that was his magic. Placing the Hoover Dam over his ability to speak he began to mutter in Parselmouth.

According to the books given to him by Madam Maxine even if he only spoke in Parsletoung if there was a House Elf that was bonded to his family, they could understand him. So he gave a broad order to any House Elf that he could, to take off any magic connected to the Quick Outes Quill as well as destroy the parchment it had been writing on. A moment later the quill seemed to spark as it and the parchment went up in flames for no apparent reason making Rita swear a little and Harry use Parsletounge to thank whichever Elf had helped him.

Rita reached into her bag to pull out another quill and parchment only to find that all of her Quick Quote Quills had been turned to ash making her sweat again. "Fine we will do this the old-fashioned way," she said taking a disregarded quill fragment from the floor and filling it with ink. "Now where were we?"

"You were lying about my Godfather having a trial when neither, he nor his family recalls him getting one, that includes from what I have heard Lady Narcissa Malfoy," Harry said smiling a little as he saw the color drain from Rita's face as if she imagined what the Malfoy family would do if she ran with the lie her Godfather had given her.

"Ah it was just a little joke to put you at ease," Rita said hastily. "Now how have things been at the castle since your name came out of the Goblet?"

Harry thought of finding his Soul Bond with John Shepard and Viktor Krum and how any free time the trio had they tried to spend together, but he was not going to inform Rita of this. Nor was he going to share with her the progress he had made in his study of Parselmagic. Such as a free period just yesterday when he had gone to the Hospital Wing.

Flashback

"What is it this time Mr. Potter?" Madam Pomfrey asked.

"Um, I was hoping you might help me with something?" he asked.

"Help you with what you don't appear to be hurt," she said.

"Not, now," Harry said, "but I found a ritual for healing that I wanted to try out to see if it would work for me. But I thought it would be best to do so under your supervision for the first time."

"What ritual?" she asked, "as you know, Mr. Potter, Healing magic is only taught during a student's Seventh Year."

"I, in fact, did not know that. But it is not a normal spell I learned but a couple of rituals I found in the field of Pareslemagic," he explained.

"I see, did you learn it from one of the visiting students?" she asked knowing that there were no books in the Hogwarts library on the subject.

"Yes," Harry said not wanting to go into how he really got the books.

"Very well but be careful since if you mess up the ritual, I will be unable to help you," she cautioned him.

"That is alright, I am doing the first couple I found in the book and if I mess it up all you will need to do is help heal me," Harry said to her in shock, he pulled out a small flask and asked, "Can I have a sanitized bladed please?" With some misgivings, she passed over a clean blade to him. "Thanks," he said as he made a cut into his palm and drained some blood into the flask he had pulled out. When the flask was a fourth full he turned his hand over to prevent more blood from falling into it.

Harry then began to speak the words for the ritual in Parseltongue. "May what is torn and broken of my body be mended like the noble snake shedding its old or damaged skin." Madam Pomfrey gasped as Harry's cut palm began to heal itself his skin knitting together with what looked like a snake scale. Once the cut was gone, Harry turned his hand over letting the scale fall to the ground. He then turned his attention to the flask of blood. Once more in Parseltongue Harry said, "Let this, the lifeblood of my body be tainted so that it may not be used against me in any way." At his words, the blood turned a sickly-looking green as if it had become poisonous. Returning to normal English Harry lifted the flask and held it out to Madam Pomfrey. "Can you test this for me?"

"Um, sure," she said casting a Diagnostic Charm on the contents of the flask. While she had seen the flask getting filled with Harry's blood before it changed color, she was shocked to see that according to her spell inside was now a deadly poison with not a single trace of blood. "How?" she asked confused.

"According to the book I found it in, the ritual is to prevent anyone from using my blood to forge documents or use in a Polyjuic potion. The book said that I only had to do it once and anytime my blood is removed from me without me doing so it will instantly become the same poison.

"Ingenious," she said, "and the other one?"

"Just a simple healing spell," he said but added upon seeing the look in her eyes, "Unfortunately from what I have seen only those with the gift of Parselmouth can use the rituals I have discovered.

"More the pity," Madam Pomfrey said. "If you do find any more healing ones you want to test out don't hesitate to come back, so I can supervise."

"I will," Harry said leaving the hall.

End Flashback

"Apart from the visiting students, not much has changed since the Goblins had ruled that my Godfather's document was ironclad. Though I did spend some time talking to some classmates about the upcoming election for the Chief Wiccan post of the Wizengamot," Harry said.

"And what did you find?" Rita asked thinking she could use this to help her Godfather's plan to get his candidate to win the election.

Flashback #2

Harry noticed he had been mistaken when he first looked over the nominees for the upcoming election. Besides Neville's Grandmother, two other candidates were possibly related to students at Hogwarts. Harry also saw that somehow Sirius had been nominated but did not think his Godfather would want to have anything to do with the job for it would be hard to get time to see his wife with him as Chief Wiccan and her the Italian Minister of Magic.

Harry decided to talk to the three students who might be connected to a candidate, saving Neville for last. His first meeting was with the Sixth Year Hufflepuff Wanda McPherson. Harry asked her, first if she was related to Zoey McPherson who was running, and found out it was Wanda's mother. Explaining that he wanted to know a little more about Zoey's platform than what had been provided to him, Harry asked about Zoey's platform. Wanda was happy to share that her mother wanted to get rid of some of the anti-Creature laws. Harry was glad to hear this until Wanda added that the laws only applied to those with Creature-Blood that were considered Light such as Veela or Elves and would still be in place for werewolves or other "dangerous" creatures. Zoey was also in favor of bringing back some of the old rituals but not all of them, Harry did not see that rituals should be stopped, just like creatures for having a Dark Core orientation as long as it was not an evil ritual.

Next, Harry paid a visit to Shelby Lesky in his year seeing that Donald Lesky was also campaigning to be the new Chief Wiccan. "Ah, you heard that my Dad is going for the Chief Warlock's seat ah Potter?" Shelby asked when he went to speak with her. "Don't worry it is not like it is my Uncle or my older brothers. My dad will make Magical Britain great again. You most likely want to know how he plans on doing that?"

"I do," he said.

"It is simple first off he will make sure that none of those half-human beasts no matter their alignment will have rights, can own property, or get jobs. What happened last year with that Freak Lupin will never happen again. They will all be rounded up and sent either out of the country or to prison," she said proudly.

"I see," Harry said.

"Yep, and I know that he will also work to outlaw those unnatural practices of men dating other men or women with women. And don't get me started on those touched in the head like my little sister who thinks that they have no gender, are a man in a female's body, or vice-versa.  He will make sure all go through Healing procedures to get fixed let it be by simple potions for the brain damage they have suffered or in more extreme cases Magical Shock Therapy.  I also heard my Dad and Mom talking about passing a law to make sure no one can have an abortion no matter the reason for needing one due to how low our Magical Population is."

"What about if signs point to the child being born a Squib?" Harry asked not knowing if such a thing could be determined but wanting to see if Shelby or her parents had a response to it.

"Not even then, the child could still be useful like Filtch is," Shelby said showing nothing but faith in her words.  "My mom also wants my dad to make sure that the likes of Granger and Thomas can't come to Hogwarts."

"Becuase they are Muggelborn?" Harry asked in shock.

"Of course not.  My family is not a bunch of Blood Supremacist.  Not they and others like them such as Lee Jordan and Blaise Zabini should not be allowed to come to Hogwarts due to them being Black.  If they want to learn Magic they can go to another country or do the basic Ministry lessons so they can learn their proper place.," Shelby said.

"I see," Harry said not needing to hear any more to decide that Don Lesky should not be elected due to his Bigoted and Racist views.

Finally, Harry went to talk to Neville about his Grandmother's platform.  He could guess that she at least was not anti-Creature since Neville told them she had Remus as her old student when he was earning his Masters.  When Harry asked his friend about his Grandmother's platform, Neville shared a letter from the woman as she told Neville what she would do if elected.  Harry read it as a way she was telling Neville what she was doing that might make them spend less time together when he was back home. 

Lady Longbottom wrote that besides trying to get rid of many anti-Creature laws she would increase funding to Ministry departments that were responsible for child care and abuse so they could perform their jobs better.  She would appeal to the Hogwarts Governing Board since the Ministry did not have much power over the running of the school to have them bring back and update several classes.  She also seemed alright with allowing people to choose which rituals they performed themselves as long as it did not hurt others, even if they had been classified as being Dark but not evil.  Harry did see that while she had no standing on peoples' love lives which he only thought of after his talk with Shelby, Lady Longbottom did support many causes and things that Harry agreed with making him decide he had been right to tell Bonecrusher to vote for her when the time came.

End Flashback #2

"Well looking in three of the candidates who had family members at Hogwarts, I tried to find out what their position on certain issues was, at least according to the family members I talked to," Harry said.

"And did any of them interest you as a candidate you would support?" Rita asked hoping she could write about him endorsing Don Lesky like her Godfather did, due to Albus agreeing with many of the man's ideas.

"I think for the moment I shall keep my own thoughts on the subject," Harry said.

"Come now Harry, I am sure that if you endorse them, the candidate will be sure to win," Rita said flashing him another gold tooth-lined smile.  "What about your Godfather, I have heard that someone have put his name down for the position since he declared he was moving the Black family seats to the Gray Party."

"That is up to him if he decides to run or not," Harry answered with a small shrug.

"If not your Godfather, then who?" Rita pressed.  "Maybe the father of one of your Housemates Lord Don Lesky?" she asked thinking if she could just get him to say the name she could with her Godfather's help manipulate the memory of it to make it look like Harry supported the man's campaign.

However, before Harry could answer the door to the room opened and Champion Krum appeared.  "Ah there you are, Harry," Viktor said in slow English making sure he got every word correct having been notified by John that he had seen Harry being led somewhere by Rita Skeeter when he returned to the class he had been auditing.  As Rita's reputation was well known to students from both visiting schools, Viktor had left the class to go make sure Harry was alright.

"Ah Champion Krum, what a pleasant surprise.  You know Harry?" Rita asked wishing her Quick Quote Quills had not all just been destroyed.

"He is elping me vith my Englush," Victor explained.

"Ah such a nice young man, he is.  I do wonder if you would have had the same relationship if he had been made a Champion?" she said.

"Ve vill never know," Viktor said as Harry mouthed what the repulsive woman had just said so he could understand it better.

Chapter Text

Since Blaise had let Adriana know that Harry had been removed from a class by Rita Skeeter, Sirius had been scanning each paper printed in England and Great Brittian for an article about his Godson. Finding an article two days after Blaise had let them know, Sirius saw red. He knew that most of the article had to be Rita's brand of "personal account journalism" for he could not see Harry talking about James or Lily's thoughts on his name coming out of the Goblet nor him taking control of the family seats. Thanks to his son's warning, Sirius was ready for this. Using the Zabini Castle's Floo, he called his favorite cousin and her husband. "The article has been printed meet me at Hogwarts in half an hour," Sirius told Ted Tonks before pulling his head from the fireplace. Sitting back he realized this gave him a good opportunity for some Marauder-level mischief. "Reggy get ready we are heading out," he called to his brother.

"Where?" Regulus asked him.

"Hogwarts, we are going to deal with Albus and possibly meet up with Harry," Sirius explained making his younger brother's mouth turn up in a huge grin. Sirius did not want to ask if the grin was going after Dumbles or finally meeting Harry to start establishing a connection formed by their Soulbond. "Just act sickly as if I was afraid to leave you alone," Sirius directed him.

"Got it," Regulus said before making such a convincing hacking cough Kreacher popped into the room with a worried look on his face.

"Good Master Regulus, what is wrong how can Kreacher help?" Kreacher asked summoning a glass of water/healing potion and pressing it into his beloved Master's hands.

"Nothing is wrong Kreacher," Regulus told the devoted Elf getting to his knees to look Kreacher right in his eyes. "We are going to Hogwarts and, Siri thinks it is best to make everyone think I am ill and with any luck, I will meet Harry."

"Kreacher wishes Good Master Regulus luck then," Kreacher said as the pair of brothers used the Floo to head to Remus' old cabin so they could easily Apparate to Hogwarts.

Ted met Sirius and Regulus at the doors to the grounds of Hogwarts, arching an eyebrow at Regulus but not asking his identity. "Did you bring what we talked about?" Sirius asked the man.

"Got it right here," Ted said patting his robes where the packet of information Sirius had asked him to gather was held in an inner pocket.

"Well let's do this," Sirius said pushing open the gate and marching down the path to the castle only to slow down as Regulus "stumbled a little. "Sorry I was too distracted," Sirius said heading back so he could help his brother.

"Who is that by the way, Sirius?" Ted asked.

"Around the start of the recent school term thanks to Gringotts we found out my brother was alive and while he has been rescued from where he had been held he is still a little sickly. So Ted Tonks met Regulus Black. Regulus this is Ted who married Cousin Andromeda."

"Nice to meet you," Regulus said in a weak-sounding voice adding a small cough as he spoke.

"It is wonderful that you have been found, I am sure my wife will love to hear of your return," Ted said gingerly shaking Regulus's hand and was a little surprised at how strong the younger man's grip was.

"Oh, when you tell Andy let her know that the way he had been held involved him being placed under enchantments so he is technically the same age as he was when he went missing. And before you ask the Goblins have already vetted him, so I have not had the wool pulled over my eyes," Sirius explained.

"I will make sure she knows," Ted said taking his hand back from Regulus and shaking it a little to get some feeling back into it.

Sirius was a little disappointed in Hogwarts security as he was not stopped by any of the staff or students wondering what he was doing at the castle until he and his group were just one floor away from Dumble's office. And then it was only Filtch coming to complain that they were making a mess since they had not cleaned their shoes off when they entered the castle. Reaching the Golden Gargoyle blocking access to Dumbles' office rather than just guessing random sweets that the man used as his passcode, Sirius took out a new version of the Maurader's Map that he and Remus had recreated. Seeing the code, Sirius spoke "Peeps" making the gargoyle move aside to let them up. Regulus leaned into Sirius as they rode the moving staircase up to the Head teacher's office. Without waiting to be invited in and see the man in the office thanks to the map Sirius barged right in. "Sirius, what a surprise, what do I owe this visit?" Dumbles asked a fake smile coming to his face.

"I think that should be obvious to you Albus," Sirius said slamming down a copy of the Prophet with the article about Harry onto the man's desk.

"I already get the paper," Albus said a small twitch of his lips as if he was trying to make a joke.

"Can you tell me how a reporter got into the castle?" Sirius asked. "Though I guess it should have been rather easy since we managed to get here without anyone stopping us either."

"Well, with the tournament the Wards were reduced in strength," Albus said.

"You still should be protecting your students, Headmaster Dumbledore," Ted said.

"And you are?" Albus said making Sirius hold back a smirk for the man to show off his disinterest in all but the Gryffindor House since Ted had the second highest grades in his Graduating class after his wife both being in Ravenclaw.

"Ted Tonk I am Sirius' Barrister," Ted said pulling out his card.

"And why did you feel the need to bring a Barrister, Sirius?" Albus asked a hint of concern in his voice as if Sirius had disappointed him.

"Cause I am trying to decide if I will be suing Hogwarts for what has happened to Harry since he has been at this school," Sirius said shocking Dumbles.

"I beg your pardon," Albus said shocked by Sirius' statement.

"You may, but it will not help you. Rita's article is just the latest in the long line of troubles that my Godson had experienced at this school," Sirius said leaning over Albu's desk and placing his plans on the solid surface to not bawl them into fists.

"What my client is trying to say is," Ted began.

"I mean come on, Albus, you made a big deal when I was a student after my classmate Wesley Crusher's father had died in the line of duty making him the new Lord of his house," Sirius said interrupting Ted. "You prevented any reporter from coming to interview him saying it was an invasion of his privacy. So how is my Godson's situation any different?"

"My client was correct," Ted said bringing out the date of Hogwarts preventing students from being interviewed by members of the press when at the castle.

"Also I know Harry, and he would never have brought up Lily and James as it was reported did," Sirius said. "From what I have learned he was interviewed when he was meant to be in class so I would like to find out how that happened."

"And how did you come to this bit of information?" Albus asked.

"It does not matter," Sirius said, "what matters is if it is true?"

"It is," Albus said.

"Well, it better have been History of Magic then," Sirius said leaning further forward. As he did so, Sirius caught sight of his Acesntor Phineas Nigelus Black who pantomimed mixing a potion.  While at the same time giving Regulus a startled look and trying as best he could to convey his desire to see either of them at his other portrait.

"I am sure it was," Albus said quickly unaware that Phineas was sharing the class Harry had been in right behind him.

"Let's be absolutely sure," Sirius said as he turned and nodded to Ted. Ted removed a contract he had picked up at the Prophet which would bring Rita right to them unless she was going to the bathroom or getting dressed. Activating it there was a small flash as the blonde woman appeared seeming to be mystified about how she had got there.

"Another strike against the Wards, thanks to the tournament no doubt, since the summoning Porkety was able to bring Ms. Skeeter right to us," Sirius said. Ms. Skeeter welcome back to Hogwarts. From what I know you visited the castle recently to interview my Godson. Care to explain what class you removed him from as well as why you embellished his words?"

"I don't have to answer to you," Rita protested. "I could charge you with kidnapping."

"We did no such thing, Ms. Skeetet," Ted said. "I visited your place of employment yesterday to talk and explain that due to Harry being under age even if recognized as an adult you did not have permission to interview him without my client's content as his legal guardian. We threatened to sue the Prophet for this breach of protocol which as Harry and my client are both Lords of pretty powerful families decided to bargain. They would give us leave to summon you to hear your side of the story first. And since this all happened at Hogwarts under Headmaster Dumbledore's watch, I think it would be best for you to talk to us all here," Ted said passing over the permission to talk to her as well as a note from her bosses placing her on probation.

"So what class did you take my Godson out of for your "interview" with him?" Sirius asked in a growl at the woman.

"He was in Potions," Rita said after reading the document from her boss telling her if she did not cooperate she would be fired rather than the Prophet getting sued.

"I see," Sirius said using his wand to create three Patronus to summon Minerva, Snivillus, and Harry to see exactly what he had said during the interview.

"And who did you just call up here?" Albus said through gritted teeth.

"Minerva since she is the Head of Harry's House. Severus to find out why he allowed Harry to be removed from his class and of course, Harry to find out what really happened during the interview unless you would like to share with us what happened Ms. Skeeter?" Sirius said arching an eyebrow at her.

"I started my interview with my normal quill but after a while, the spell on it went haywire making it, and the parchment I was using caught on fire. This required me to use my memory to recall everything I had done as I wrote my article," she said quickly.

"Did you use a Pensive?" Ted asked.

"How could I use one?" she said scoffing at him.

"Well, I saw one at the Prophet's main office, so I guess you would use that one," Ted shot back.

"I guess there is that," Rita replied.

"You better have a good reason for calling me up here mutt," Severus said stomping into the office arching an eyebrow as he took who was in the office.

"How did you get him to come up here?" Regulus asked in a whisper as he pretended to lean into his older brother for support knowing his old Housemate and his older brother got along as well as oil and water.

"I threatened to sue him and report him to the ministry," Sirius whispered back. Speaking in his normal voice Sirius answered the angry Potions Master, "I do have a good reason, Severus, can you explain why you let Harry out of your class a few days ago to give an interview?"

"I was told to let the boy be during his lessons in my class," Severus readily answered.

"For good reason," Sirius said glaring at his old classmate. "From the stories I have heard you never got over your anger at James and took it out on Harry. Grow up."

"You are one to talk mutt," Severus sneered at him.

"I did. My delightful stay in Azkaban forced me to," Sirius said as Ted grabbed his arm to help calm him down a little. "But you were told to back off from harassing, my Godson, not help break the law."

"What?" Severus asked in shock. "I did not break the law."

"My client is correct by allowing a reporter to interview Lord Potter due to his actual age while he was meant to be in your class you broke the law," Ted said. "Article 12-3-21-2b an Heir or Lord who is under the age of seventeen needs permission from or be with their guardian when being interviewed. This was put in place when unscrupulous reporters tried to use the Heirs or young Lord's age and possible ignorance to find out about upcoming laws or trials that have not made it into the public domain yet. So by letting Lord Potter out of your class to meet with Ms. Skeeter without Lord Black's presence, you could end up serving a sentence of no less than five years in prison."

"I was following orders to leave Potter alone, and how was I to know he was a Lord or Heir, he does not act like it," Severus protested looking around the office as if seeing if some officers were about to arrest him.

"He does not act like a Lord or Heir for he did not know about such things until I took him in this summer before that, he was living with Lily's sister's family," Sirius said hiding a smile knowing what was going to come next.

"WHAT?!?!" Severus thundered turning his glare to the Headmaster.

"Oh yes, apart from some time he spent with the Weasley family, Harry was living with Petunia and her husband, along with their child. Didn't you know?" Sirius said.

Breathing heavily Snape said, "I was unaware."

"Of course you were, you never took the time to see him as Lily's son you only saw James so let old feelings take hold," Sirius said.

"My client is willing to be lenient for your criminal activities by not pressing charges against you, but only if you see a court-appointed Mind Healer for no less than three years," Ted said pulling out another document from his robes and handing it to the Potions Master. "However, this issue has still been brought to the court's attention so while you see the Mind Healer you might be out of a job or under observation for a while. It all depends on what the Hogwarts Governers decide to do."

"I understand," Severus said letting his shoulder fall in defeat as he sent another glare at Albus.

"Ms. Skeeter you, on the other hand, will not be shown leniency for as a reporter you should be well versed in Article 12-3-21-2b. And depending on if Lord Potter's version of the events is similar to what you printed in your article, you will be facing full criminal charges," Ted said pulling out another document from his expanded pocket and handing it over to Rita whose face turned so white she could have been a ghost.

Suddenly Sirius hears a gasp from his brother making him guess that Harry had arrived. "Siri?" Harry asked as he entered the office moving to his godfather while doing his best to avoid both Rita and Snape.

"Hey, Harry glad you could join us," Sirius said.

"You make a big deal of Mr. Potter leaving Potions to take part in the interview, but you summon him out of Divinations to come to this meeting.  Why not head back to class Harry we can talk to you later," Albus said putting on his fake Grandfatherly expression while addressing Harry.

"I dropped that class a week into the term.  This is a free period for me," Harry said not moving away from his Godfather.

"But you can't," Albus said before stopping himself he needed the boy in that class not only so he understood the power of prophecy and realize once he knew about the one concerning him and the Dark Lord the brat would try to make it come true thus giving it power.  He also wanted the boy being taught by Trewalwney for due to the spells Albus had cast on the woman it would cause her to predict Harry's death constantly thus making the brat's mind equate prophecy and death and a noble sacrifice to end Riddle's reign.

"Yes I could, Professor McGonagall cleared me to do so.  It was not like the class was that useful.  The Professor predicted my death at least once a lesson and when I took the time to do the proper calculations and study for the assignment I was given a bad grade just cause I did not fill it with events that would cause me pain or bad luck," Harry explained.

"Is this true?" Ted asked in shock as Regulus to keep up his frail and sickly act had to put his hands in his robes so no one would see him bawl his hands into fists.

"Yes it is, um whoever you are," Harry answered.

"I am Ted Tonks your Godfather's Barrister and Cousin," Ted said holding out his hand to shake Harry's.  "I find this very distressing, Albus, if a teacher is predicting a student's death each lesson this could be seen as emotional or mental abuse.  What is going on at this school?"

"That is just Sybill, she likes to do this to greet her classes.  Picking a student at random and predicting their death I assure you that these are just small jokes and a way to spark the students' interest in her class," Albus explained.

"She has done this before?!?" Ted asked horrified as he pulled out a quill and a legal pad to write a note for later.  "It seems I shall be having to talk to the Governors about more than just Potion Master Severus Snape, if your Divinations Teacher makes a habit of telling a student in each of her classes they are going to die.  Granted we are all going to die but no one needs a constant reminder of it, especially from someone who is meant to be teaching them and thus in a position of power.  If this goes on what is to stop this woman from making sure her prophecy comes true by attacking the students?"

"I don't think, Sybill would ever go that far," Professor McGonagall said showing up at last.  Ted, it is good to see you again," she said moving forward to shake Ted's hand.  "So what is going on here?"

"We came about the article in the Prophet where Harry was interviewed.  As I did not permit for Harry to be interviewed, I am getting to the bottom of this.  We just got a little sidetracked by other issues that he has been having at this school," Sirius explained also reaching forward to shake his old Head of House's hand.

"I see," Minerva said looking between the still shell-shocked Rita, Severus glaring at the Headmaster, Albus sitting at his desk looking uncomfortable, Sirius with an arm dropped protectively on Harry's shoulder and...  "My God Regulus," she said seeing Sirius' younger brother not looking a day older than when he had last been at the castle.

"Hello Professor McGonagall," Regulus said making his voice sound both weak and horse.  Regulus was a little amazed it was the Deputy Headmistress that had been the one to recognize him.  He knew that Albus would never do it for the man never focused on the students of Slytherin unless spreading lies about how they were all evil and would join the Death Eaters.  But Severus could have recalled him they had been Housemates after all, granted Severus was the same age as Sirius so was a few years older than Regulus.

"How?  Why?  What?" Minerva asked making Harry try not to laugh seeing her so out of sorts, something he had never seen before.  "How are you here and not a day older than the last time I saw you?"

"About a month ago, when Harry and I collected his and my Family Rings, we found proof that Regulus was alive.  After a small search, we found him and I have slowly nursed him back to health.  He is still a little weak so I did not feel right about leaving him at home," Sirius lied having wanted to get his brother to Hogwarts to see how powerful the Soulbond between his brother and Godson was.  Sirius hoped it was not an overpowered bond that would require Harry and Regulus to remain together lest they feel unending pain.  Just in case they did, he had a solution for it as well.  "Now that, that is cleared up we should get back to the topic at hand.  Harry, I don't believe much of the "interview" you had with Ms. Skeeter was actually done during your meeting.  I hope you can lead us through what happened."

"Sure thing Siri," Harry said not knowing anything about the interview since neither he, Hermione, nor Ron got the paper.  And if Johnathan or Viktor did get it they had not told him what had been printed about him.  "So what do you want to know?" he asked.

"Lord Potter, I think it would be better, rather than have you explain what happened but to just show us using the Hogwarts Pensive," Ted said.

"I am afraid I can not allow that," Albus interjected.  "That Pensive is meant for school business only."

"Very well.  We will just have to use the one I brought which unfortunately is not as sophisticated as Hogwarts' one is but should work just as fine," Ted said removing the Pensive from his pocket and placing it before Harry.  "Now Lord Potter, I am not sure if you know what a Pensive is, but it is an artifact that allows you to share memories with others.  Normally this involves removing the memory you wish to show from your head but this is a Court Issue Pensive so all you have to do is stick your hand into the Pensive and it will broadcast the memory you wished to show like a Muggle Camera in a movie theater."

Harry took a few moments to focus on the memory of the interview before sticking his hand into the Pensive.  Just like Ted had explained an image of the memory appeared above Harry's hand showing a scene, that to Harry's surprise, had him in it.  The scene showed Harry being removed from Potions class, Severus only nodding his approval for Harry to leave.  Ted made another note on his pad seeing the Potions Master had not asked for any proof that the interview was allowed or Rita had permission to be at the castle.  The scene did show that Rita had been partially right as it showed her Quick Quotes Quill malfunctioning and setting the parchment on fire.  But the memory also showed Harry seeing the quill lie about what was going on in the interview already lying with just one question being asked.

Seeing the parchment and quill being destroyed, Regulus had to change his laughter into a hacking cough.  Unlike the others due to the Soulbond he had with Harry, he had heard the young man calling on a House Elf to destroy the quill and parchment. He did not have to hide his laughter, Sirius started to laugh himself, as Harry put Rita in her place and called out her lying to him using Narcissa as a threat against the woman.  The interview did not last much longer before Viktor Krum arrived and pulled Harry away to help him focus on learning English.  Only Sirius and Regulus noticed Harry in the memory mouthing what Rita said to the older boy.  "I applaud you for trying to help Champion Krum get better situated at the castle Harry, take five points for Gryffindor," Minerva said smiling at him full of pride at his actions.

"Um thank you, Professor," Harry said having removed his hand before they saw the memory of him and Viktor having a conversation thus revealing they could speak to each other without any language barrier.

"Almost looked like you were fishing for my Godson to give a candidate a recommendation or endorsement there, Rita," Sirius said.  "While you don't lead your House you should know that all votes for any issue in the Wizengamot are confidential."

"I was just seeing if he had a candidate in mind who looked like a good person to lead the Wizengamot.  Nothing wrong with that.  You would like to see if he votes the same way you do," she said.

"I don't care if we vote the same way or on opposite sides of any issue.  The votes are his choice, and I will respect it just as I would any other person who has a seat in the Wizengamot," Sirius stated.  "I trust Harry to have his own ideas of what he thinks best for the country and will not pry to try to change them if they do not correspond with my own."

"Well, Ms. Skeeter I am sure my clients will also be filing charges since everything you wrote in your article was not said by Lord Potter during that short interview," Ted stated making another note on his legal pad.

Finding her voice at last Rita protested.  "I was permitted to come to the castle and talk to any student due to the Tournament."

"Even if that was true, you only asked him one question after switching to normal quills and that is if things had changed since his name came out of the Goblet," Ted said.

"Well since you targeted my place of work to file your complaint I will take it to the Hogwarts Governers to show I had permission to be here and talk to any student I wish," Rita said giving them a predatory smile knowing that the Governors would rule in her favor due to her Godfather having the declining vote.

"You are welcome to go that route if you so choose to," Ted said.

"Why do I sense a but in there?" Rita asked.

"Well, as Lord Potter was found to be the control of two of the Founders' Lines, he automatically gets to be placed on the school board of Governers.  Okay if he was not a student he would be allowed to but since he is still underage and attends classes here," Ted said.

"I become his Proxy for the board and while we can not remove teachers without probable cause," Sirius said shooting a look at Snape.  "As we have two of the four Founders' votes the only one that could prevent your motion from failing is if the other two Founder votes were used to put the board into a stalemate or every single person on the board voted your way."  Albus realized neither of those things would work in his favor for no one knew who if anyone was the current Heir to the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff lines.  Not to mention that due to the split between Dark, Light, and Gray Cored Magicals making up the board there had never been a unanimous vote on anything since Albus had been a member of the board.

Chapter Text

Little Hangleton

Lord Voldemort knew he should have gone with Wormtail to free Barty from the elder Crouch's control, but he had still felt a little weak after using some of his dwindling supply of magic to kill that Muggle a few days earlier. Now Wormtail was two hours overdue, and considering Voldermort had given him a three-hour window to get the job done based on how worthless the man was this was not good. The best-case scenario was Wormtail was having a hard time getting Barty away from torturing his father which had caused the delay. Lord Voldemort, however, had not survived this long by believing in the best-case scenarios. Calling Nagini to him Lord Voldemort pulled his shrunken form onto her back and ordered her out of his father and Grandparents' ruined Manor house. "Go to the groundskeeper's cottage, my pet," Lord Voldemort ordered the snake containing a piece of his soul.

As Nagini slithered into the now ownerless hovel, Lord Voldemort saw a five-person team of Magical Law officers Apparate onto the law of Riddle Manor before breaching the place. "Seems Wormtail not only failed me but gave us up to the Ministry fools," Voldemort said wishing nothing more than to use his wand to kill the team and Wormtail but knowing he did not have the strength to do so. "If they follow standard procedures they will bring the body of that Muggle back here so no questions will be raised by the other beast," Voldemort shared with Nagini having her hide them somewhere inside the man's hovel as he used what little magic he had access to, to place a Ward around the pair of them to hide their presence being detected by other Magicals.

It seems that Rookwood had not been lying to him all those years ago, for nearly an hour later one of the law officers brought the Muggle into the hovel and staged a scene to make it look as if the man had passed away in his sleep. The officer was unaware that he was being watched by Lord Voldemort's shriveled form hiding in the rafters above him as he laid out the Muggle beast on the bed. Voldemort thought about leaving his hiding space to possess the officer, but due to how weak he was the man would have been able to fight him off possibly leading to Voldemort's "death" once again. He still had his Horcruxes so he would not die but he would most likely be come a Shade again and who knew how long before he could come back from that? So he waited and went on waiting for other Muggles to come and check on the dead one. For even with how weak he was there was no way a simple Muggle beast would be able to throw off his control.

What he did not expect was how long it took for another Muggle to come looking for the old man. By the time they had arrived, Voldemort was nearly powerless and his shriveled form had shrunk from the size of a premature human baby to about as big as a newly hatched chicken. He was thankful that despite his form and dwindling powers several old rituals he had performed on himself before going after the Potters remained in place. The rituals allowed him to go without sleep for over a month if need be so he did not miss the pair of Muggles entering the hovel to look for the old man. And while he had Wormtail produce a special potion from Nagini's venom and other ingredients the rituals also allowed him to survive without food or drink for two months.

Voldemort looked down at the pair of Muggle beasts seeing them to be police officers who had most likely been called to check on the old man. Seeing one was rather skinny and the other someone thicker, Voldemort moved his body to be above the larger one. He knew from dealing with snakes and other creatures that his possession of them caused him to burn through them in maybe a week, and he did not see the Muggle beast lasting any longer than that. Given the choice, he would go for the larger Muggle who hopefully could hold his longer than his smaller companion. As the pair of officers leaned over the man and discussed how it was about time the murderer had taken to finally die, Voldemort tumbled from his hiding spot and landed on the back of the larger Muggle beast' neck. Using half of his remaining Magic, Voldemort merged with the man and found his mind flooded by the beast's thoughts and history.

Voldemort was able to learn his new host's name was Richard Dawn but preferred to go by the name Bob or Bobby. Bob had a happy mindset which made Voldemort sick as he saw in the beast's memories of Bob playing with the village kids who he encouraged to call him Bob the Bobby. He got rid of all the joy and happiness in the beast's mind twisting the thing's memories so it looked like everyone had made fun of him when they called him Bob the Bobby thus making it easier for Voldemort to gain full control of the beast.

"Hey, Vince why don't you report in, I'll watch this bastard," Voldemort made his new meat suit say to the other cop.

"Sure thing, Bob-O," Vince said leaving the room to call their chief and report they had found Frank Bryces' dead body. Once he was alone in the room, Voldemort reached up and grabbed his wand from the rafters before ordering Nagini to stay until he called for her. Pocketing his wand, Voldemort waited for Bob's partner to return before they both left the hovel as the town coroner showed up to take the body. Voldemort allowed his meat suit to take over as he drove to the Little Hangleton police station. Letting Vince go in first, Voldemort made sure no one was watching him either living or those artificial eyes from the CCTV as he pulled out his wand and cast a spell to place a Ward around the town preventing anyone from leaving or getting in contact with anyone in the outside world.

As he cast the spell, Voldemort used what little magic Bob had in his body which also drained the Muggle beast's life essence. He would need a new meat suit soon. Voldemort limped his way into the station doing his best to hold his meat suit together as he followed the things memory to the chief of police's office. "You are right there Bob?" Chief Arlean said.

"Just can't believe the bastard is finally dead," Voldemort made his meat suit respond.

"There still has been no evidence that Bryce ever killed the Riddles," Chief Arlean said.

"Probable cause, even if there was no evidence," Voldemort said smiling to himself knowing who had really the Riddles all those years ago.

"Be that as it may," Chief Arlean said, "do you have anything else to report?"

"I do," Voldemort said closing the office door as if what he had to say was for her ears only.

"What's up?" the blonde-haired captain asked.

"Just feeling a little worn out.  I need an upgrade," Voldemort said as he forced his meat suit to start heaving.  With a worried look on her face, Chief Arlean ran around her desk to see if he was alright.  Which was just what he wanted for as soon as she was close enough he let lose a wave of magic out of Bob as he shifted into the chief's body.

Taking the Muggle female by surprise, Voldemort was easily able to gain control of her as the meat suit he had just vacated crashed to the floor.  Taking his wand from the beast's corps he cast a spell to create a giant bruise on the man's forehead.  Voldemort let out a terrified shriek as if in alarm causing someone to look into the room.  "Bob just... just," Voldemort said as if he was in shock at seeing Bob collapse and brain himself on the desk.  As a cop helped Voldemort calm down another checked on Bob before pronouncing him dead due to the head wound.

Seeing how easily it was to burn through a Muggle Beast's body, Voldemort tried to keep his current meat suit as long as possible.  He did find that as long as he did not use any magic besides just possessing the beast they lasted longer.  In his new guise of Chief Leandra Arlean, Voldemort retrieved Nagini and brought her to the local vet.  "I need some help," Voldemort told Dr. Ghast.

"Isn't it animal control that puts down these beasts?" the Muggle Vet asked making Voldemort hold back on cursing the man thinking he was more of a worthless beast than Nagini was.

"I am not looking to have this noble creature put down, but I had a call from a friend before we lost phone service asking to get an antidote from this snake's venom," Voldemort said thinking if he could get the Muggle to start collecting Nagini's Venom he could start to brew his potion again to regain more of his magic in hopes of getting his own body back.  He had little hope of using the ritual that he planned on using to be brought back.  While he still had access to his bastard of a father's bones he no longer had an enemy he could collect blood from let alone a follower who would sacrifice their own flesh for him.  At the moment his first task was to get at least a form of body back rather than possess these Muggle beasts longer than he had to.

"I shall do my best how much do you need?" Dr. Ghast asked.

"Several gallons," he lied.  "There was an attack from a nest of these things on a school leaving the students and staff ill while stretching emergency services to the breaking point which is why I was called in to provide what little help we can give."

"I will start right away," Dr. Ghast said as he began to fill out some paperwork, thankfully missing Voldemort and ordering Nagini not to attack the man.

It felt strange for Voldemort to inhabit a female form but at least Chief Arlean had some power within the community of Little Hangleton.  Voldemort's meat suit not only had the power and underlings but even better he was not being called on like the town mayor to deal with the current crisis the town was going through.  Voldemort just had to sit back and smile as thanks to the Wards he had cast as Officer Bob no one could enter, leave, or communicate with anyone outside of town.  Or so he believed, but a week after he had taken possession of Chief Arlean, Voldemort felt a spark through his Wards of someone entering and then quickly leaving the town.  

At first, he thought some Magical Law officer was doing a secondary search for him, he had no choice but to use magic to track down where the breach had occurred.  He thankfully had a new meat suit at hand in Chief Arlean's husband Paul.  Casting his spell to find where the invading Magica had come from he was shocked to see it came from the Gaunt Shack.  So as Chief Arlean's body burned out and he took possession of Paul, Voldemort headed when he had left another one of his Horcruxes.  He was horrified to see the Gaunt Family Ring was no longer where he had left it, but there were no dead bodies lying around it either.  Well apart from the remains of his Grandfather which Voldemort had enchanted to act as a guard for the ring.  Since the ring was gone yet the remains of Marvolo were still intact, Voldemort had to activate a fail-safe he had put in place on the shack.  The good news was that since it had been in place he did not burn out his new meat suit to activate it.  The fail-safe informed him that the ring and his Horcrux had been removed by a group of Goblins.

This confused him for while he hardly had any interaction with the Goblins due to not having an account at the bank when he was young and then ordering his followers to pay for anything he needed when he started his campaign against the rest of the nation, he did know that the Goblins did not get involved with human matters.  He could not figure out why they had come to take his Horcrux or the vessel away and was too reluctant to use more magic to see if he could find out.

While he had lost much of his power when he changed meat suits, being in Paul now gave him a lot more free time.  Voldemort decided to use the time to brew up the potion he would need thus strengthening his connection with the Muggle Beast so that he could at least perform more than one feat of magic without burning the body out.  Once he had a sufficient supply of his potion to work with, Voldemort decided he would change bodies by his own choice this time.  Acting as a worried husband, Voldemort scheduled a meeting with the Mayor to find out what was being done to find out what happened to Chief Arlean.  Once he was alone with the Mayor, Voldemort pulled out his wand and transferred his soul over to the man taking complete control in an instant.  Since he now had a store of magic to use, Voldemort then plucked his wand out of Paul's slackening hand before he killed the man and transfigured him into a roll of crumpled-up paper.  Throwing away his former Meat Suit, Voldemort began to make some plans on what to do next.

Being Mayor Darek Lei did give Voldemort more power than he had since his attack on the Potters he did lose the free time he had as Paul.  He also had to use some magic to make Dr. Ghast believe Nagini had been brought in by Mayor Lei rather than Chief Arlene.  His planning was constantly interrupted by people coming in to complain about the lack of contact with the rest of the nation.  If not then the town's coroner was trying to bring his attention to the strange deaths and disappearances that had happened since Frank Bryce had been found dead.  "You almost sound as if you think Bryce is haunting us," Voldemort said with a laugh.

"I am not trying to say that Mr. Mayor, but just pointing out it is odd that things began to happen when he was found.  First Officer Bob passed out and died from a blow to the head, but when I examed him I found nothing but the bruise on his forehead there was no damage internally that should have been the cause of his death.  The bruise was superficial and I have been unable to find anything else.  Then with us losing contact with the rest of the world and anyone who tries to leave getting hurt is beyond bizarre..  And while most who have tried to leave get hurt and sent to the clinic we somehow lose Chief Arlean and her husband without a trace.  Detective Nortin had not found a single trace or clue as to their whereabouts."

"I admit it is a strange set of events but what do you expect me to do tell everyone to remain inside until we figure everything out?" Voldemort asked pretending to play a bumbling mayor who found himself dealing with things to far over his head, all the Dark Lord had to do was imagine how Fudge would act having heard from Wormtail that somehow that idiot had been promoted to Minister for Magic after he had gone after the Potters.

"No, sir," the coroner said rubbing the bridge of her nose.  "I know you can't do anything, no one can from what I can tell.  I guess I just needed to vet a little."

"I get that," Voldemort said making his Meat Suit give the woman a kindly smile.  "We are all under a lot of stress at the moment.  Here look at this," he said passing a report over to her.  "According to this, since we can't get supplies in we might have to start rationing our food for a while."

"Damn," she cursed looking over the report.

"So, yes I do grasp your concerns but there is just one facet of the troubles our town is facing at the moment," Voldemort said gently patting the woman's shoulder.  "But we will get through this as a community and be stronger for it."

"Thank you, Mr. Mayor," the coroner said seeming to find a new resolve as she got up and left his office.

"Muggle worm," Voldemort said as soon as the door had closed.

It took over a month before Voldemort came up with a plan to get his body back.  Since he could not use the ritual he had been planning to use he decided to use the one he had focused on using before Wormtail had found him.  It would lead to more deaths than the other ritual, and he would not gain the protection from whatever Potter had that had driven him out of Quirrell's body but it would at least allow him to get a new body of his very own rather than possess a Muggle Beast.  He would no longer have to worry about his body being burned out after the ritual either for it would be a body just for him and able to access and fully use Magic again.

However, the setup for the ritual took another three weeks, where Voldemort as Mayor Lei had gone around town to check on the citizens as he placed Magical Markers at certain places around town in a giant rune for the ritual.  Once everything was in place, Voldemort moved to the very center of the town and began the ritual.  Speaking in a combination of Pareseltounge, Ancient Sumerian, Atlantian, and High English he activated the Magic Markers which made them visible to the Muggles for the first time.  The Muggles began to freak out seeing the glowing icons appear in their town.  At first, nothing happened as Voldemort gathered all his magical power knowing that it would not matter if he burned out Mayor Derek Lei's body after the ritual was finished. 

Voldemort had to smile for it seemed that as he gathered his strength one of the braver or foolish members of the town had touched one of the Magical Markers.  At once the marker drained all the magic and life force out of the person making anyone witnessing it scream as the person appear to shrivel up and decompose in an instant.  The boast of his power from the Muggle's life force helped Voldemort start the ritual in earnest as he activated the Magical Markers to drain the life force and what little magic out of everyone in town.

Yet as the drain kept feeding him power there was not enough of it to form a body.  Through his connection to the Wards and the runic symbol he had created with his Markers, he found there was not enough life force to complete his goal.  He almost lost it seeing that everything he had done for the last nearly four months had been in vain.  Yet as he was getting ready to just absorb all the power into Mayor Lei's body so he could make it last longer he nearly jumped as Nagini slid onto his shoulders.  Since Dr. Ghast had died the large serpent had made her way to her Master.  A twisted smile came to Voldemort's mouth as Nagini was just what he needed.  After all, she held one of his Horcruxes so that he could go on living.  It was her purpose to make sure he stayed alive.  So as she settled in on his shoulders he created a new Magical Marker and placed it on her scales.   Nagini writhed in pain her life, magic, and his Horcrux were leached out of her by the Marker.  He felt no remorse as he used her gift along with the rest of the life force he collected to create his new body.  

As the ritual came to an end Voldemort used his current Meat Suit to finish off his body before transferring himself over to it.  He took a moment to marvel at the strength of his body after being trapped as a spirit and in the Muggle Beasts' bodies.  Voldemort also knew that the ritual while giving him a body would also draw attention from the Ministry as well as other Magical organizations so before he got caught by any of them he retrieved his wand from the pile of ash which had once been Mayor Derek Lei before he Disapperated away from Little Hangleton, hopefully for the last time.

Gringotts.

Ever since Heir and then Lord Potter had come to the bank with Lord Black a few months ago, Bonecrusher had assigned a Goblin to keep an eye on his client's results.  As the test was auto-updating he had been using it to keep track of how many Horcruxes of Lord Voldemort had remained.  On the day of the First Task for the Triwizard Tournament one of his underlings rushed into his office to inform the Goblin Prince that according to the results, there was only one piece of Voldemort's Soul left in the world.  Bonecrusher let out a small curse for he knew that none of his teams had discovered a Horcrux so he had no idea what it had been or how it had been destroyed.

British Ministry of Magic

The Detection Charms for Magical Catastrophes went haywire inside the Improper Use of Magic Offices.  Seeing the source was the Muggle town of Little Hangleton which was also found to have been under a powerful Ward since late August causing the head of the department to contact both Madam Bones and Rufus Scrimjour to inform them of the catastrophe.  A team of normal law officers and Auror were quickly assembled to check out the town.  The team was on their guard since this was reported as the last known location that Peter Pettigrew had been before trying to free Barty Crouch Jr. and if the man was to be believed where some form of the Dark Lord was to have been in hiding.

As the group entered the town, after Apparating a fair distance away and walking into it, they were all horrified.  The town itself was still standing but there were piles of ash everywhere they looked.  There did not even appear to be any wind since the piles were all sitting where they lay without a single fleck of ash floating about.  Some of the team cast spells on the piles looking grim as they found the piles were the remains of people and even animals.  Other members of the team checked out the town soon finding that all forms of vegetation had withered and died.  

After the teams reconvened they discussed the fact that not a single living thing was left in the town.  "That is not true," one member, Watkins, pointed out as their colleagues all agreed with the assessment.

"You found someone, or thing alive?" everyone asked hoping to find some witness to whatever happened in the town.

"Whatever happened did not seem to affect the bugs in town," Watkins said.  "Also when I was searching the center of town which appeared to be the epicenter I found this."  He held up a lump of snakeskin.

"So what?" many asked.

"Well, other animals I found had been turned to ash just like the humans who lived here yet this snakeskin did not turn," Watkins pointed out.

'Now that you mention it that is strange," Supervisory Agent McNeal said rubbing his chin in thought.  "Send it to the Department of Mysteries for analysis and while you are there ask them if they would be willing to bring some Unspeakables in to check the place out."

"Yes, Sir," Watkins said as he turns to Apparate but find he could not do it.  "Um, can anyone Apparate here?" At his question, most of the team tried to Apparate out of the town but found the ability somehow blocked.

"Right, let's leave here now and get the Unspeakable here quickly," Agent McNeal said as he ushers everyone to leave as quickly as they could in case there were other side effects they had not discovered yet.

Hogwarts.

Not trusting Albus not to do anything to Harry with the Tournament, Sirius had used his new position on the Governors to allow all the Governors and the Champions' families if they wanted to come.  Sirius had brought Regulus along but not his wife since they had not heard of Blaise sharing their connection yet.  Sirius had tried to sit next to his Gidson, but Regulus had slipped in between them.  It seems that Regulus was not ready to tell Harry that they might share a Soul Bond yet, Sirius' younger brother had taken one of Harry's hands as they waited to find out what was going to happen in the First Task.  On Harry's other side, John who Sirius had been shocked to discover was Remus's nephew, was gripping Harry's other hand.  John did not even seem to notice Reguls holding Harry's other hand.  As Ludo Bagman announced what the task was, Sirius saw Regulus, Harry, and John's faces pale learning that the Champions had to face a Nesting Dragon to claim a Golden Egg from it.  

Since he had told Regulus about Harry's other two Soul Bonds, Sirus was sure that all three young men were worried about Viktor but it would also give Regulus a reason for his reaction and why he was holding Harry's hand so tightly since as Sirius' brother he would have heard that Harry would have been in the tournament if not for the contract Sirius had made him sigh.

Chapter Text

After Harry had been summoned up to Dumble's office after his "interview" with Rita a lot of changes had come to the castle. Hearing that Sirius would be stepping in as his proxy on the School Board, Harry had him get in contact with Neville's Gran. Since his friend had mentioned that Lady Longbottom had hoped that when she became the full-time Chief Wiccan of the Wizengamot she would try to make changes at the castle. Using the authority behind two of the Founders' lines, Sirius was able to get a jump start of her plans for improvements at the castle. While it was not an improvement, Snape's classes were now all monitored by a pair of observers. One was Potions Maker Lacroy to make sure Snape was teaching them normal brewing practices, while the other observer, Healer Hekons was there to make sure the man did not emotionally abuse his students. From what Harry had heard around the castle, Healer Hekons had also been assigned as Snape's court-ordered Mind Healer so she also attended meals, unlike Lacroy.

Another change that Sirius had been able to implement already was to bring back an old apprenticeship program which gave most of the staff some extra help in their lessons and marking of the students' homework. After going over some data collected by the Hogwarts wards which revealed almost every member of the staff doing at least two jobs while some have to handle four. Sirius talked the board into using some of the school's funds to hire additional support staff including two new librarians, a dedicated person to take over as Head of House, and even some Medi-Magicals helpers to help her care for the inhabitants of the castle.

The only staff member who did not get some new help was Filch but that was only due to Sirius and the rest of the board removing Albus' standing orders that the House Elves could not be observed doing their job of cleaning and taking care of the castle. Some Muggles were horrified when the House Elves appeared thinking just like Hermione that they were simple slaves. Each of the new Head of House held a meeting with the students and had a few House Elves come along to explain all about them. Even after the meeting some students still thought the Elves were slaves or treated them like they were slaves. This leads to detention and point loss being handed out to any student trying to "free" an Elf or mistreat them in any way.

When it came time for the First task, Sirius had talked the board into allowing the members of the Champions' immediate family as well as the board members themselves from going to the event. He had done so to make sure Albus did not try anything to force Harry from getting involved in the tournament. This also allowed him to bring Regulus who was still pretending to be weak and needing constant care to join Harry and Johnathan as they watched Viktor compete in the First Task. Sirius was not sure how he would get Regulus back for any of the next tasks, since by the time they took place, Regulus would be "fully healed."

Harry was glad that thanks to Sirius he had been able to get out of taking part in the Tournament as he and the rest of the crowd were informed what the first task would be. He was not sure what he could have done against a dragon even if his test had listed one of his formerly blocked abilities as Dragon Speech. After all, why would one listen to him anyway, all it would be good for to know was that the Dragon thought of him before it slurped him down its gullet. Fearing the same thing happening to Viktor, Harry squeezed Johnathan and Sirius's hands a little tighter. His fear of the dragons takes up most of his focus so that he misses that he is seated and holding Regulus's hand, not his Godfather's.

After Ludo Bagman had informed everyone what the First Task was going to be, a cannon went off and Fleur stepped into the enclosure to face her Dragon. While she looked a little frightened, at least from the distance they were seated, Fleur was not frozen in terror. The Blonde Quarter-Veela took a breath to settle her nerves before she began to sway back and forth a little. Harry could not figure out the girl's plan though he did notice that the Dragon was waving its long neck back and forth along with the girl's movements. "Is she trying to hypnotize it with her movements?" Harry asked.

"I think, Fleur is trying to find out how much of her Allur can affect the Dragon before proceeding," Johnathan answered.

"You mean like the Veela mascots did during the World Cup?" Harry asked wondering why he was not being affected this time.

"Not as powerful since she in not a full Veela, she could also be trying to focus the Allure only on the dragon so no one tries to "impress" her by entering the enclosure.

At this, Harry turned away from Fleur to look at the spectators seeing some in the front rows near where the blonde girl was at were also moving along with her body as she focused on her dragon. "Is that possible due to them being different species?" Harry asked.

"A Veela's Allure can affect most Magical beings unless of course, the Magicalin question has a predestined mate, an Asexual, or a Veela themselves," a somewhat unfamiliar voice said to his right making him turn to see not Sirius but his younger brother.

"Sorry," Harry said letting go of the other's hand finding it a little hard to do so for some reason. "Wait," Harry said thinking of something Regulus had just said. "The Allure can make someone fall someone for someone of a gender they are not attracted to?"

"Unfortunately yeah," Regulus said looking a little uncomfortable. "It has a harder time working if they are trying to influence someone who does not prefer their gender, but it still works. Thankfully most Veela when they realize their Allur is not working because of this do not push it."

"Don't worry, Harry, Fleur hates to use her Allure as it is, let alone use it to influence anyone," Johnathan said giving Harry's hand a comforting squeeze.

After a few moments, Fleur had finished her test using her Allure as she seemed to focus something in her hands before blowing a kiss at the dragon. It was almost like an old cartoon, Harry had seen during one of his old classes in Muggle school, with the "kiss" going right at the Dragon's head. When it made contact, Harry assumed, the Dragon began to nod off in sleep. There was a great cheer, making the Dragon wake back up and Fleur sent a glare back at the spectators before trying again.

This time when the Dragon fell asleep there was no cheer from the crowd letting the Beuaxbaton's Champion try to collect her egg. It was all going well, until the dragon snored and let out a breath of fire right at her. While she was able to dodge the blast, she still got a little singed but did not stop. Fleur dropped and rolled to kill the flames and rolled into the Dragon's nest. A few moments later, Fleur climbed out and limped her way to the Medical tent where Madam Pomfrey and some of her new helpers quickly healed Fleur who passed out in pain at last.

During Fleur's attempt, Harry unconsciously grabbed Regulus' hand again as the Dragon's fire hit Fleur. Feeling a little better holding both older male's hands, Harry did not let go of Sirius's younger brother's hand especially when Bagman stated Viktor's turn was next after the Dragon Handlers changed out the Dragon on the field. When Viktor came to the field, he instantly found where Harry and Johnathan were sitting and gave them a small wave. Harry's nerves about what Viktor would have to face and the fact he was holding tightly onto Johnathan and Regulus's hands prevented him from waving back.

As Viktor's attempt began, the Durmstrange student raised his wand and cast a spell. Despite being able to hear and understand anything Viktor could say, due to the distance, Harry was unable to make out the spell that had been cast. At first, the spell did not appear to do anything but there was a zooming noise as from the Durmstrange ship, Viktor's Firebolt Mark 2 came to hover before him. The crowd went crazy as Viktor mounted the broom and took off, making the Dragon roar and shoot a blast of fire in anger at the noise. "Keep it down, two-leggers, your noise might damage my baby in their eggs," Harry heard the Dragon say in its roar.

Hearing what the Dragon said as he watched Viktor fly around it made Harry a little uncomfortable since the dragon seemed to think Viktor was an egg thief or a poacher. And even though Viktor had not cast any further spells the Nesting Dragon still thought he was trying to steal one of her babies. Harry wanted to call out to explain what was going on but did not want to A) reveal his Dragon Speech had been unblocked, but also B) was not sure if his interference would count against Viktor.

After about ten minutes of flying around the Dragon and avoiding her flames, Viktor finally annoyed it enough that it spread its wings to go after him. Just for some peace from his buzzing or so the Dragon had muttered to itself. But as the Dragon took off, Viktor performed a dive like he had done during the World Cup, swooping into the nest and out again holding the Golden Egg that he had been sent to collect. "MY BABY! GIVE THEM BA... Wait a moment Gold. How did... Oh just take it and leave me alone, Tow-legger," the Dragon roared as it wrapped itself protectively over its nest and its real eggs. Seeing Viktor had not been hurt, Harry could not help but let go of Johnathan and Regulus' hand before hugging both men. He blushed when he realized he had hugged Sirius's little brother but noticed a wide smile on Regulus's face.

Once more some time was taken as the dragon was switched out for another Dragon and a clutch of real eggs and the fake golden one. As Cedric was brought in, Harry could read fear on the older Hogwarts student's face. It also did not look like Cedric had a plan as he lifted his wand, which was shaking, and sent a spell at the Dragon. Unfortunately, Cedri;s aim was off so rather than hitting the dragon in one of the few weak points it had, its eye the spell bounced harmlessly off the Dragon's scales. Cedric tried over and over again but due to his fright since he had only discovered he was facing the Dragons in the Champions' tent he failed at hitting the Dragon's eye. Mostly due to the Dragon moving its head around along with his bad aim from the fear. Some students even joked later that it had looked like Cedric was about to piss himself in fear at facing the dragon. Thankfully the teasing did not last long as others would ask how they would have handled themselves in Cedric's shoes.

Mr. Diggory constantly called out support and suggestions to his son, but if Cedric heard them he was too afraid to act on the advice. "Enough you little pest," the Dragon roared as it turned to face Cedric head-on. Seeing the Seventh Year Hufflepuff's knees shaking, Harry did not think that the older Seeker would be able to dodge anything like Fleur had done earlier.

As the Dragon's body inflated a little as it got ready to unleash its fire, Harry could not help himself as he called out. "WAIT." At his word the crowd went silent as almost every student, staff member, and visitor to the school turned to look at him.

"Who said that?" the Dragon asked shooting its blast into the air rather than at Cedric.

Thinking it was responding to him, Harry let go of Regulus and Johnathan's hands so he could climb onto the bench. "I did," he called.

"You speak my language two-legger?!?" the Dragon asked mystified.

"I do, please do not hurt the two-legger before you," Harry asked not paying attention to the rest of the crowd who were looking in utter fascination as he let out loud dragon-like roars as he talked to the Common Weslh Green within the enclosure. Regluis and Johnathan could not figure out why some of the crowd looking at Harry had their hands over their ears, for with their ability to understand Harry as gifted from their bond to him after Harry's first shout he had spoken in his normal soft tone of voice.

"Why should I let him be, he comes out and starts attacking me. To harm my babies no doubt," the Dragon called out shifting its gaze towards Cedric who was using this time to gather his nerve and make a plan.

"He does not want to harm you or one of your eggs," Harry said.

"You are in league with him. Meant to distract me when he steals one of my babies," the dragon said shifting its head so it could watch both Harry and Cedric.

"We are not. I know he does not mean you or your kids any harm because that is what he is meant to do for this task," Harry said.

"Explain?" the Dragon ordered as it sent a stream of flame out both its nostrils.

Harry not only went on to explain about Cedric taking part in the Tournament but also what Viktor and Fleur had done in retrieving their eggs. "So your kind is stealing more babies?" the Dragon cried out inflating itself to unleash a full-powered blast of fire at Harry.

"The eggs they took did not belong in their nest," Harry called out. "If you don't believe me check your nest. You should find one egg that does not belong in it."

"Very well, but if the two-legger attacks me when I do so I will eat him and you," the dragon said mashing its teeth while still keeping its fire blast at the ready.

"Cedric, stand down for a moment," Harry called out as everyone heard him speak English for the first time since he had started to roar at the Dragon. Cedric had no idea what was going on but having noticed that when Harry had been roaring at the dragon for some reason it had focused on the Gryffindor, the Hogwarts Champion let out a quick nod as he still tried to force his frightened mind into gear and come up with a plan. The Common Welsh Green shifted its body a little to peer into its nest before letting out a cry of alarm seeing an imposter egg nestled among its babies. Seeing the two-legger speaker had not been lying about imposters in its nest, the Nesting Mother opened its mouth and grabbed the Golden Egg. The crowd let out a gasp as they saw the Dragon remove the egg from its nest. Since the speaker among the two-leggers said the pest had only wanted the egg, she spat the Golden intruder at him.

Cedric saw the golden egg shot his way and acted on instinct, his legs no longer feeling like jello as he avoided the egg like he would a bludger during a Quidditch Match. Walking over on unsteady feet, Cedric collected the age to a scattering of applause. But the Hufflepuff did not leave the arena on his own. Once he had the egg, Cedric's fear finally caught up to him making him faint. As the Dragon Handler moved in to take care of the Common Wesh Green, Harry saw Ron's older brother Charlie and another pull Cedric out of the enclosure and to the Medical tent.

Chapter Text

As Cedric collected his egg and got off the field the judges put up a privacy spell to decide how many points the three Champions should get for their job during the task. Igor was rather smug with himself since Viktor had gotten his egg the fastest, had not been hurt, nor had any outside help. Four of the judges started to get annoyed with Albus as he tried to argue that Cedric should get more points even though it appeared he had been helped by Harry. Albus was arguing that Cedric had shown some incredible skill by shooting weak spells at his Dragon while he had been secretly casting a spell into the crowd to make someone stand up and start roaring at his dragon. "If that is the case, which I don't think it is," Madam Maxine said, "Champion Diggory should get even fewer points for casting enchantments on someone in the crowd.

"Why don't you think it is the case?" Bagman asked.

"There should have been no way that if Champion Diggory knew a spell to cast on a member of the crowd it would be unable to get past the barriers around the arena. it is one thing for Champion Krum to cast a Summoning Charm, it is quite another thing to place enchantments on a spectator on the other side of the barrier," she said.

The Beauxbaton's Headmistress did not want to share what she had witnessed when she like the rest of the crowd had turned to Harry when he started to growl. Since the young man's voice was loud even at the judge's table she was not surprised to see that those around Harry had their hands over their heads to protect their ears at the racket he was making. All except for Johnathan and some other male sitting on Harry's other side. This led her to believe that Harry had not been enchanted to have his voice be louder as he made random sounds as Albus was suggesting, but the young man could speak to Dragons. She knew that after the task was over she was going to have to have a chat with him. Just to make sure he could not also speak Mermish thus revealing the clue for the Second Task to any of the Champions.

After a half-hour discussion, the judges had reached a verdict as Bagman got to his feet and recast the charm on himself to magically magnify his voice. "Thank you for waiting, we have finally reached a verdict on the Champion's job during this task. Before I announce them I think it would be prudent to introduce you to the five judges of the tournament. There is of course me Ludo Bagman, former Beater for the Wimbourne Wasps," he then paused for any applause only to continue right away when no one clapped their hands, "and current head of the Great Britain's Ministry's Department of Magical Game of Sports. Next, we have the new head of the Department of Magical Cooperation, Winston Weatherby. Rounding out the judges are Headmaster Dumbledore, Headmistress Maxine, and Headmaster Karkaroff." This time there was some applause as the students from each school cheered for their Head teacher.

"Anyway," Bagman said sounding a little annoyed not to get any applause while the three Heads got some, "The top score the Champions could earn for this task was fifty points with each judge having ten to work with. In first place, due to his skillful flying, and reflexes as well as being the first to collect his egg, we have agreed to reward Champion Krum, with forty-three points." All the judges except for Bagman shot Albus a dark look since he had chosen to give the Bulgarian student only three points for how Krum had handled the task. "In second place due to her use of natural talents as well as quick thinking when she got hurt, we reward Champion Delacour forty points. Lastly, due to his only passing the task thanks to some outside help, though showing bravery by not running away, we reward Champion Diggory twenty-two points." There were cheers from the crowd, though some of the Hogwarts students were rather disappointed in how low Cedric scored compared to the others. Meanwhile listing with the other Champions outside the first aid tent, Cedric was surprised he had gotten so many points for how badly he had done. Making a promise to himself to do better in the next task.

As the crowd broke up to head back up to Hogwarts, some of the judges went looking for Harry but were unable to find him. As the judges were deciding the points, Charlie entered the stands under orders from his boss to collect Harry. While they did allow Harry to hear the points given to the Champions the Dragon team leader wanted to have a serious talk with the young man. "Heir Potter, your reputation precedes you," the man said as Harry entered his tented office space.

"Um, thanks?" Harry said a little confused as to why Charlie had brought him hear. But at least he was not alone since Siri and his Godfather's younger brother had been allowed to come with him.

"I am guessing you are wondering why I wished to see you?" the man ventured.

"The thought did cross our minds," Sirius said moving to a position that was between his Godson and the man but not in the way.

"None of the team we brought to this event have Dragon-Speech, but I have worked with enough who do to recognize it when it is used," the man said.

"So what?" Sirius said shifting his stance to allow his wand to slip out of the arm holster and into his hand.

"I know you are rather young Heir Potter, but I would like to offer you a job... maybe an internship at the moment," the man said shocking Harry, Sirius, and Regulus.

"Wait you want to give him a job?" Regulus asked, his shock at what was being offered to the young man he had a Soulbond with, a Soulbond which Harry himself had not been informed of yet, caused Regulus to forget to sound like he was still recovering from his missing years.

"Or an internship if he wishes to start right away," the man said shooting a look to Regulus as if in confusion as to either who Regulus was or why he was there in the first place.

"Can I ask why you want me to work with you?" Harry asked.

"I would think that is obvious, Heir Potter, your Dragon-Speak abilities. One does not have to have it to work with Dragons such as Charlie here, but those who lead in our field try to get those with the talent to join us," the man explained.

"You just said one does not need the skill to do your job surely there are others who would be more than qualified to be a Dragon Handler. I can think of one off the top of my head, Hagrid," Harry said making Charlie chuckle a little.

"It is true that Hagrid would be great with dragons, though he would treat them more like house pets than the wild and sometimes dangerous creatures they are. But you with your talents would be a better boon. Not to sound callous or anything but having Hagrid, myself, or even Jamie here work with the dragons is like finding a Sickle on the ground. Yet if you became a Dragon Handler it would be like finding a full Galleon," Charlie said.

"At least you did not compare us to Knuts," Jamie muttered as he gave Charlie a dark look for just a moment before he grinned at his underling and friend. "While I would protest to being either a Knut or Sickle, Charlie's point is a valid one."

"Just because he can talk to Dragons does not mean he can control them," Regulus pointed out this time making sure he coughed and made his voice quiver as if to show off how weak he was feeling. Sirius acting the part quickly created a chair for Regulus to sink into.

"Um, he is right," Harry admitted. "When I talked to Cedric's Dragon it did not want to believe me and only agreed to look into its nest to see the imposter egg."

"We don't expect you to control Dragons, Heir Potter, not even others in our field who have your gifts can do that even after years at their post. But talking to Dragons does make our job easier, as would teaching," Jamie said.

"Teaching? How can he teach others to communicate with Dragons?" Sirius asked.

"Well, we have come teams working with others who share his skills and they have been able to "train' the dragons a little. By listening to the Roars of the speaker, as well as introducing some hand signs the rest of us can use the signs to partially communicate with our charges. Charlie has also informed me that you also possess the gift of Parseltongue which can also be useful," Jamie explained.

"How so?" Harry asked.

"Some Dragons due to the nature of their forms also know Parseltongue which means they might know Parselmagic Runes, which you could teach us as well as check with them to assign the runes to specific means," Jamie said.

"I don't know any of the runes," Harry admitted since he had learned some spells and rituals from the books Madam Maxine had given him but he had not tried out any of the runes yet.

"Working for us, even as an intern would allow you to have access to material to learn if you wish," Jamie said pulling out a book of Parslemagic Runes.

"If you have this why don't you use it yourself?" Sirius asked using his wand to check out the book, just in case, before handing it over to Harry.

"Currently we don't have anyone who can speak Parseltongue in our crew. Our last one retired three years ago leaving us this book for when we found a replacement for her. Also, it would be interesting to find out if the runes along with a Dragon-Speaker could make the rest of our team understand Dragon's better," Jamie said in an almost pleading voice.

Breathing a sigh of exacerbation, though seeing no harm in it, Harry said, "Alright I will think about it."

"Wonderful, you may keep the book and look through it as you decide. However, if you choose not to join us or we find another Parseltongue user we will like it returned to us," Jamie said moving forward to vigorously shake Harry's hand.

"Can I ask a favor in the meantime?" Harry asked making Sirius, Regulus, Charlie, and Jamie shoot him confused looks.

"Depends on what it is?" Jamie admitted not wanting to just say yes in case the young man wanted to give him something else like a dragon scale from each of the dragons they brought as a sign-in bonus.

"I would like to take the three Champions to see their Dragons so I can explain to them what happened as well as have the Champions apologize to them," Harry said.

"Wait, What?" Jamie asked while Sirius, Charlie, and Regulus started to chuckle.

"They deserve to know why they had to deal with the Champions," Harry said a little sharply, "as well as why they were brought here."

"Fine I will arrange it," Jamie said shaking his head a little at the young man making him hope Harry one day in the future joined his team with a heart like that and that if he did join the cruelty of the world would not have gotten to him.

Thirty minutes later, the three Champions arrived at the Dragons' enclosures. Harry wanted to run over to Viktor to both hug the older man and congratulate him for being in first place in the tournament at the moment. The thing that held him back was while Fleur knew a little about of his connection to both Viktor and Jonathan, Cedric did not. It was not that he did not trust the Seventh Year Hufflepuff, but the more people who knew of their connection the more likely it would be that Dumbles learned about it. Harry did end up getting hugged, not by Viktor but by Cedric as the older student rushed over giving him a tight hug and thanking him for whatever he did with his Dragon.

"What are we doing here?" Viktor asked his voice taking on a little edge to see Cedric hugging his young Soulmate so tightly.

"Heir Potter, wished for you all to come here to meet the Dragons you faced during your challenge," Jamie said.

"Why?" Fleur asked.

"It was revealed during, Champion Diggory's task that Heir Potter has a talent for Dragon-Speech," Jamie shared. "As this is a rare gift that members of my job, I offered a post to Heir Potter. He said he would consider it, and as he did so he wanted to bring you to your Dragons so they could learn why you face them during the task and also hoped you would apologize to them for any harm you might have caused."

"Any harm we caused?" Fleur asked a little testily since she had been harmed when the sleeping dragon set her clothing on fire.

"They thought you were trying to take their unborn children," Harry pointed out.

Fleur opened and closed her mouth unable to find fault in his statement," Okay, I guess."

It was a slightly awkward encounter between each of the Champions and the Dragon they had faced, Viktor seemed the most sincere, at least to Harry, as he bowed deeply to his Dragon during his apology that his head was in the dirt. An action that seemed strange to everyone there apart from Harry, Sirius, and Regulus, considering that Viktor had only annoyed his Dragon and had not caused it any harm apart from the bit of worry as he dove into her nest.

As the students left the forest they found Jonathan waiting for them. Knowing that Harry wanted to keep their Soulbond a secret, Jonathan did not rush forward to hug and congratulate Viktor but informed the group, "My Headmistress wishes to see you, Heir Potter, about some books one of my classmates lent you."

"Okay," Harry said thinking that Madam Maxine wanted to see how much progress he had made into Pareslemagic.

"What about his classes?" Cedric asked.

"She has gotten her meeting approved with his Head of House, from what I heard," Jonathan said.

"Ah," Cedric said as he headed to the Greenhouse for his Herbology lesson hoping he would not get in trouble for going to the meeting with the Dragons.

Once Cedric was far enough away, Harry hugged both Jonathan and Viktor as the pair of students congratulated the Durmstrange Champion for his handling of the task. For some reason, Harry also wanted to hug Sirius's younger brother but since he had no idea why he felt that way he ignored the impulse as Sirius helped Regulus towards the edge of the Wards to leave Hogwarts. Harry wondered how badly his Godfather's brother felt since it sometimes appeared that Sirius was having to forcefully pull the other along to the exit. With no one else in sight besides, Fleur, Harry took both older male's hands as the group went to the Beauxbaton's carriage. Fleur only went there to drop off her egg and change out of her uniform, not having felt like changing into them even with her own area in the Champions' tent.

Since Madam Maxine had only wanted to see Harry, Viktor had not been allowed into the carriage as he headed to the Durmstrage ship, the Fredrick II, to drop off his own golden egg before heading to the Hogwarts Library for a bit. Harry was a little confused as he was sent in to meet with Madam Maxine by himself as Jonathan went to audit one of the Hogwarts classes. "You wanted to see me, Madam Maxine?" Harry asked as he was allowed into her room.

"I did indeed. First off, I wish to say good job at your actions during your school's Champion's task. You might have saved his life," she said beckoning him over to the small, for her, tea table.

"I think I might have," Harry admitted.

"As I said good job at doing so. But the main reason I wanted to talk to you is to find out something," she said.

"What?" he asked.

"Since you have informed me that you can speak Parseltongue and now with the reveal that you have Dragon-Speech, I must ask can you speak to any other Magical Creature?" she asked giving him a very serious look.

"Only if they speak English," he joked trying to ease the tension in her look.

"This is not a joke Heir Potter," she said a little sternly. "The reason I ask is that the clues the Champions just collected used a Magical Creatures voice and language to tell them what is going to happen in the next task. I don't want you to hear it and translate it for Champion Krum and the others. If you can understand other languages other than snakes and Dragons, please tell me just so I know if I have to put some spells on you so you will not divulge the clue until they work it out themselves," Madam Maxine explained.

"When I was tested, I could only talk to snakes and Dragons. It did say I have an Animagus form, though I don't know what it is or even if using such a form allows one to understand a creature who normally has that form," Harry shared.

"There is some debate on that subject, but Animagus forms are normally non-magical creatures even if the animal a person may differ from a normal form of the animal. Such as being a different color, size, or gender of a normal animal," she explained breathing a sigh of relief that she would not have to place an enchantment on the young man.

"Normal gender?" Harry asked a little confused.

"Such as a male Magical that becomes a cow, a female that can become a bull. Or say a male that becomes a Calico cat they would not instantly become sterile in that form," Madam Maxine explained.*

"Oh," Harry said a little in understanding.

"So now that that is out of the way, and I did talk to your Professor McGonagall to chat with you until supper, how has your work on Parselmagic been coming along?"

With a large smile, Harry began to tell her all about how using some of the rituals in the book had already increased his Magical power, how he had managed to do some simple healing spells and even one that turned his blood into poison if someone tried to take it from him forcefully. She made sure to ask him if he had told Jonathan and Viktor about the poison blood spell just in case they accidentally scratched him or if in the future either decided to give him a Hickey and accidentally broke his skin and made him bleed. By the look on his face, she saw Harry had never even thought about that which made her a little glad seeing what she was aware of what had happened to him, which was not that much, he was still a little innocent.

Chapter Text

A few days after the First Task, Sirius was a little surprised to receive a message from Amos and Samantha Diggory requesting a meeting. Having no idea what the Diggorys wanted, Sirius agreed to meet with them not at his home but in a private room in the Leaky Cauldron. Adriana did not accompany him since the letter from the pair had only been addressed to him; she was also somewhat busy working on a new bill for her Ministry. "Hello," Sirius said as he entered the private room to find both Diggorys waiting for him.

"Ah, Lord Black, thank you for joining us," Samantha Diggory said, getting out of a chair to approach and shake his hand,

"You're welcome, Lady Diggory, Lord Diggory, but I have to wonder why you wanted to meet with me?" Sirius said, accepting her handshake.

"We received a letter from our son," Amos said. "He has already thanked your Godson for saving his life."

"Our boy believes he owes, young Lord Potter, a Life Debt," Samanatha interjected.

"Right, but he also wanted us to talk to you about something," Amos said without missing a beat, making Sirius believe the pair had rehearsed everything they were about to talk to him about.

"I see, and what does your Heir want us to talk about?" Sirius asked.

"He wanted to check something out," Amos said.

"Our son informed us in his letter that he has developed a small crush on your Godson. He wishes to know if Lord Potter has any Marriage Contracts," Samanath said, shocking Sirius, who had not seen the conversation going this particular direction.

"He had over a thousand when I took him to Gringotts after my name was cleared," Sirius reported. "But since most of them were from people in thanks for stopping old Voldyshort, we got rid of them all."

Amos and Samantha, who had started to flinch only to roll their eyes at Sirius's nickname for Voldemort, shared a look. "Is he currently seeing anyone?" Amos asked.

"Yes," Sirius said.

"And it is serious?" Samantha asked.

"A little bit, yeah," Sirius said, not wanting to inform them about the three possible soulbonds Harry had at the moment.

"Have they started to officially court each other?" Amos asked.

"No, not really," Sirius said as the Diggoryes shared another look.

"Thank you, that is all our son wanted to know," Samantha said, getting to her feet and shaking Sirius's hand again.

"I hate to say this, but I don't think your son will have a chance at winning Harry's heart," Sirius said as the pair headed to the door.

"Ah, but he has not even tried yet," Amos said with a hint of bravo in his voice, making Sirius just shake his head as the pair left the room.

Ministry of Magic

It had been a very close race in the Gray Party to choose the new Chief Wixen of the Wizargarmot. Augusta Longbottom had only one by two votes, neatly beating out Zoey McPherson. Sirius, despite having not done anything, had even managed to get five votes, yet Don Lesky had only received a single vote, his own. This did not prevent the man from going to the Prophet to say the votes had been miscounted and that he had been the winner of the election. The man raised so much noise that a team of law enforcement officers actually did look into the matter. Rather than finding any evidence of miscounted votes or any other issue regarding the election results, the agents found evidence of child abuse that Don and his wife had committed to their youngest child. That, along with some of the female underlings who worked for Don coming forward and sharing tales of his sexual misconduct, led to Don and his wife being arrested.

When Lady Longbottom officially took over as Chief Wixen, rather than do any of the paperwork on her desk from before the special election, she had been called to a special meeting with Minister Fudge and the head of the DOM. Overseer Magic delivered a report to both Lady Longbottom and Minister Fudge about some strange occurrences in the Muggle Town of Little Hangleton. "Some Ministry Law officers checked the place out after Pettigrew's arrest during the summer," Overseer Magic read off a report in their hand. "But shortly after they had cleared the place, some sensors at the Ministry detected a Ward placed around the entire village. It seemed no one acted on it, evidently under the impression that another Ministry team put the Wards in place just in case Pettigrew was correct and whatever is left of You-Know-Who was in the village. The Wards remained in place until just a few days ago, before they vanished.

Whatever caused the Wards to fall or possibly had been contained by the Wards set off all the alarms in the Improper Use of Magic office, leading to a team to check the place out," Overseer Magic said.

"And what did they find? Not evidence of He-Who-Should-Not-Be Named, surely?" Fudge asked.

"They found a ghost town, to use a Muggle term," Overseer Magic.

"Everyone in town was dead?" Augusta asked.

"They believed so, but there were no dead bodies in the normal sense," Overseer Magic reported.

"What do you mean in the normal sense?" Fudge asked.

"Every living thing in the town, except for insects, had been reduced to piles of ash," Overseer Magic said. "Well, insects and a bit of snake skin, which the agents sent to my department to analyze."

"What did they find?" Augusta asked.

"The skin belonged not to a normal snake but a person under a Blood Malediction curse. So far, my teams have been unable to determine if it was thanks to the cursed person being able to touch magic at one point in her life led to her remains from turning into ash or some other reason," Overseer Magic said. "The agents, after entering the town and finding all the piles of ash had not been disturbed by anything, even the wind, had decided to contact my department right away, but it was what happened after they found the snake skin which made turned the whole thing into a priority for us."

"What did they find?" both Fudge and Augusta asked.

"After finding the snake skin and wanting to get it checked out as soon as possible, one of the team tried to Apparate away from the town. It was soon discovered that no one could Apparate in or out of the place as determined by where the Wards had been previously."

"How is that possible?" Fudge asked.

"We are still trying to determine that," Overseer Magic reported. "But from early studies some of my department have done on the town led us to find out that not only can one not Apparate within the boundaries, but even if a Floo Network is permitted to form a passage will not manifest. Nor will Portkeys work, and even everyday spells seemed to be suppressed. One of my teams discovered this when they were still working after sundown. Someone had cast a Lumos charm, but it had been like it had been dimmed to their normal level. Nor could they get any of the Muggle electronics to work. One of my team even got in contact with the Misuese of Muggle Artifacts office and had them stop by. Arthur Weasley, who, as you know, has a lot of knowledge on Muggle Machines, could not get anything to work. This includes not only lights, but TVs, music boxes, hell, Arthur spent a full two hours trying to start every vehicle in town with no success."

"For the moment, cordoned off the place from everyone but your team and any specialist you may need. I permit you to use anyone in the Ministry to discover the cause and how to fix whatever this is," Fudge said, hearing enough. Overseer Magic, whose body was completely covered by their cloak, could not help but roll their eyes at the Minister trying to order them around. The Members of the DOM reported to Magic itself, not to the actual Ministry; they just shared information if it was in everyone's best interest, such as whatever happened in Little Haggleton.

Hogwarts

Since he had been able to talk to the Dragons during Cedric's part of the First Task, Harry was trying to see if he could speak Dragon language without Dragons around. Having found out he could use Paresletongue without a snake around by blocking off the communication stream within his mind, Harry focused on the mental river of his Magic and placed dams over normal speech, his Parslemouth abilities, and his connection to Jonathan and Viktor. He then tried to say something. After several attempts both around the two elder males and away from them, Harry found out that, unlike his Paresletongue abilities, he had to be around a dragon to talk the language. According to Ron, Hermione, Viktor, and Johnathan, when he had tried to talk, his mouth would move, but no sound would come out.

Harry was also doing his best not to reveal what Madam Maxine had informed him about the clue for the Second Task. Granted, what the French Headmistress had informed him would not allow anyone to solve the clue within the Golden Egg, but it would give the three Champions a starting point to work with. That was one of the reasons Harry had worked on finding out if he could speak to dragons without any around, as well as diving deep into studying the book Charlie's boss had given him. Thankfully, the book did give him a reason to hang out with both Johnathan and Viktor since it was about Parselmagic runes. And while Harry had not taken Study of Ancient Runes, both older males had and were helping him understand the concepts behind runes. Most of which involved various calculations and measurements when writing out a rune. Harry soon learned that even a single degree change in an angle within the runes' make-up could mean the difference between a healing rune and a cursed mark.

Harry followed Madam Maxine's warning and informed them about the ritual he had done a few weeks ago that changed his blood into a poison once it left his body. Hearing this, Jonathan and Viktor would alternate who helped Harry learned runic magic and who would do some research. Both older males were looking to see if they would be affected by the poison due to their Soulbond with Harry, so far with little to no luck. Not that either male had any plans on doing anything to Harry to break his skin or cause him harm, let it be intentional or unintentional, such as giving the younger teen a hickey.

On the weekend after the First Task had taken place, every student at the school was asked to attend a House Meeting with their Head of House. Harry and the other Gryffindors' meeting did not take place in Gryffindor Tower but in a large empty classroom where seats had been arranged around the walls of the room. "Thank you all for coming," Professor McGonagall said once everyone had taken a seat. "This year at Hogwarts, thanks to the Tournament, will also host a Yule Ball. All students fourth year and above are allowed to come, while the younger years can only enter if they have a date from an older year. There are some rules to this; while you don't necessarily have to have a date, if you come as a group, only partners of two are allowed to take part in dancing at the same time.

While this is a party, don't forget you are also representing Hogwarts to our guests, so try to behave yourself," she said, shooting a look and the Weasley twins who put on airs of pure innocence, making several students chuckle and Professor McGonagall roll her eyes a little. "Besides dancing and a meal, there will be a hedge maze for nighttime strolls with your partner or friends. All of which are monitored, so don't get any funny ideas," she said, giving them a hard look. "For those of you who have never been to a Yule Ball before, I will say that due to the tournament, we are keeping it formal, hence why Dressrobes were on your booklist for this year. Since the Dressrobes were listed as optional, since we did not want to ruin the surprise of the tournament, anyone who did not buy robes doesn't have to worry. That goes for you, younger students who may be asked to attend the ball, since Hogwarts has a supply of Dressrobes you may use. There are limited numbers, and once they are gone, they are gone," she said, giving everyone an apologetic look.

"There was something else before we start the second part of this meeting, which is teaching or reminding everyone what sort of dances are allowed at the ball, now what was it?" Professor McGonagall said, patting down her robes as if looking for something. "Ah, yes, here it is. Shelby Lesky, due to all the detentions you have gotten in the last couple of days you have been bared from attending the Yule Ball as well as any other event concering the tournament," Professor McGongall said shooting a look at the fourth year girl who after hearing about her dad losing the election as Chief Warlock followed by the arrest of both her parents had begun to harass her younger sibling to the point of tears daily. Everyone in the house had come to Mx. Jo Leskey's aid against Mx's sister, leading Shelby to get detention for the rest of the year and a spell placed on her to prevent her from getting anywhere close to Jo.

Shelby shot a disgusted look at Jo before, with a huff, got out of her seat and left the room. No one stopped her. Once the door had closed behind her, Professor McGonagall called Ron Weasley up and showed everyone where to place their hands on their dance partner. With a flick of her wand, she started some music and, using Ron, showed the simple steps of the approved dances for the ball. After a while, McGonagall let go of Ron, who quickly fled the dance floor, blushing madly, as she had others stand up and start dancing with a partner. For the rest of the two-hour meeting, McGonagall corrected their dancing and taught some moves to the students in her house.

Down in the room where Professor Snape was informing the members of Slytherin House about the coming Yule Ball, Blaise breathed a sigh of relief. He knew his mother had punished him for what he had done to Harry during the few days they had spent together before term started, which involved him being unable to go to Hogsmeade. Blaise was just glad the punishment had not extended to prevent him from going to the Yule Ball like the sixth-year Fulton Narrows and fifth-year Karoline Kruse. He still had no idea who he wanted to ask to the Ball, but at least he had the option to go.

In the room where the Huffelpuffs were informed about the Ball, Cedric could not help but smile to himself. His parents had sent him a letter saying that, according to Harry's Godfather, the younger boy, while seeing someone possibly seriously, was not in the process of courting them. As Cedric had been watching Harry very closely since the First Task, and apart seen the younger student studying with two of the visiting students. Cedric did not think either of the visitors was the one Harry was seeing since his parents had confirmed that Harry had no official Marriage Contracts in place. And from what Cedric had learned about Harry since the younger boy had saved his life, it did not sound like Harry traveled during the summer holidays unless it was leaving his place to visit the Weasleys.

As soon as the meeting ended and the students were released, Cedric ran from the room, hoping to find and ask Harry to the Ball before anyone else. He completely missed Professor Sprout calling for him to stay so she could tell him about having to open the ball as one of the Champions; he just wanted to reach the younger boy first. Knowing that all four of the Houses were having these meetings in similar empty classrooms around the castle, Cedric ran to the nearest one he knew of and could not help but smile seeing a stream of Gryffindor Students leaving the room. Cedric also ended up ignoring several Gryffindor students asking him if he would go to the ball with them, as he weaved through the stream of students trying to find Harry.

Cedric finally found Harry leaving the room with his two friends after almost everyone else. Coming to a stop before Harry and his friends, Cedric took a moment to catch his breath before asking, "Would you accompany me to the Yule Ball, Harry?'

"Um, not to be rude, but why?" Harry asked.

"Well, to be honest, I had liked the way you had flown during Quidditch, and then saving my life made my feelings grow into a full crush. I have heard you are seeing someone, but just give me a chance," Cedric said, almost in a pleading tone.

"Um, thanks," Harry said, not wanting to inform Cedric that he had a Soulbond with Viktor and Johnathan. "But I was not planning to attend the Ball. I was going to spend the holidays with my Godfather," Harry said.

"And miss out on the Ball?" Cedric asked, confused.

"I would rather spend the holiday with some loved ones, um, no offense, you two," Harry said, looking towards his friends.

"Not to worry, mate, we sort of expected it," Ron said.

"I do have some good news for you, Ron," Harry said with a smile.

"What?" Ron asked.

"Since I won't need my Dressrobes, you can have them rather than wear that frilly monstrosity," Harry said.

"I don't know," Ron said, not wanting to accept the robes as a small dark part of his mind saw it as charity, which he and his family were always too proud to accept, especially from Harry.

"Just think of it as an early Christmas gift," Harry said.

"You already got me the Omnioculars," Ron protested.

"Which you paid me back during the game," Harry said.

"With Lepercaun Gold," Ron shot back, making Hermione roll her eyes a little.

"Knowing these two, this may go on a while," she said to Cedric, who was still standing there watching Harry and Ron go at it.

"Um, I guess I will go ask someone else," Cedric said after a few minutes before heading away in defeat.

"Thanks for that," Harry said quietly to his two friends once the older boy was out of earshot.

"Don't mention it," Ron said. "Good idea with the Dressrobes by the way."

"Oh, no, that was real. Since I am going to see Sirius, you can still use them, if you don't want to keep them, just have them washed and put on my bed," Harry said, making Hermione roll her eyes at them again.