Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

When Magic intervenes in the lives of Mortals

A desperate cry escaped the lips of a small boy as a meaty fist pounded into his stomach. The boy fell over and there was a sickening sound as his head connected with the tiled floor of his aunt's house. From his body, a dark red cloud filled the room and a wailing sound tore through the house and escaped into the night. In an instant, a tall man appeared and whisked the small boy away. The entire Wixen population of Brittian felt a coldness running down their spine. 

When Magic intervenes a warning chime rings through the halls of the healer wards. In his office, King Ragnok cursed softly under his breath as a warning chime rang. It was the first time in nearly three hundred years, that they had heard the sound, of a magical child on the verge of death, Lady Magic herself was saving this child. This could only mean things were about to change so much more than they had, had before. Ragnok and the rest of the higher-level warriors ran into the healing ward, each of them carrying either a spear or an axe, some carried both.

The clean healing ward decorated in soft shades of creams and blues to bring comfort to those in need was bustling as the healer goblins got ready. In the middle, they had placed a bed with a cushioning charm to catch whoever was about to fall through. Falee, the head healer was busy preparing herself for what was about to happen. They had been through more than four wars and never once had Lady Magic interfered with the death of a child before. The last alarm rang through the hall before a white light appeared and a small child was gently lowered onto the bed. Beside the bed stood Lady Magic and Lord Death. Every Goblin in the room bowed.

Falee was the first to break the bow and hustled over to the bed. Looking at the poor child, her heart broke, the raven-haired child was almost blue with the bruises on his small body, there was so much blood. She started to strip the boy so she could see his injuries. Ragnok ran across the room, as King, he had to greet their most important guests. He gave a low bow as he looked at both Death and Magic, “ Your graces, this is most unexpected, we will do everything we can for the child. Is it possible for us to know his name so we can reassure him if he wakes up during the procedures?”

Lady Magic smiled at the Goblin King; they had done the right thing bringing the child here. Pulling her pale blue shawl around her a little tighter before she spoke. “My dear Ragnok, his name will come clear once you have tested him. His name in his mind isn’t his real name and it is up to you and your family to help the name in his mind and his real name become one. I must warn you; this child will face many more dangers. I only hope that bringing him here helps to give him the strength to survive the horrible life so many wish to inflict on him. Keep the little one safe, help him grow into the best version of himself.”

Death put a hand on her shoulder, “He is the first master of Death born in nearly three hundred years. I will exact revenge on those that have caused him to appear to us in this state, the rest I can not do until he is ready for me.” They both gently touched the boys’ heads before they left the room.

Falee and the rest of the healers were casting healing spells and washing the poor frail body clean. Each of them works diligently. A small IV appeared in his arm so they could get liquids and potions into his stomach. They had decided to keep him asleep till he was stable. This included having to feed him through tubes so his body could heal enough for them to test what needed to be done. The healer goblins worked for hours, some of them going to take naps and eat as they needed, all of them knew that to help the child they needed to look after themselves too. After they had stabilised the small boy, Falle cast a diagnosis charm on the child to get his full medical history, most soldiers in war conditions were in much better shape than this small child, pages of abuse at the hands of his aunt and Uncle. Once he was fully stable, she would get Ragnok to run an inheritance test as well as a magic test. She needed to know if there was more including the scar on his forehead that wouldn’t heal. Finally, late in the afternoon, three days later did they decide to let the child slowly wake up.

A small groan was heard as the boy tried to sit up. He was wearing star-themed pyjamas as they wanted him to be comfortable when he woke up. A look of pure bewilderment was seen as he looked around the room. He didn’t seem to be afraid of the goblins, if anything he seemed to be curious. He found himself in what he could only assume was a hospital, it looked a lot like the rooms in the one soapy his aunt liked to watch in the afternoons about doctors and nurses. The doctors and nurses here looked very different from the ones on the television, he was worried about that but also relieved, maybe they wouldn’t be afraid of his uncle when he yelled at them. If anything, they looked like Magic, and everyone knew that Uncle Vernon didn’t like magic at all. A doctor, he could only assume as her clothes looked to be special appeared next to his bed. She smiled at him, and he instantly felt comforted, he knew she would do anything to keep him safe.

“Hello little one, I am Falee, welcome to Gringotts healing ward. I promise you that in time you will know more about us, but I need to know how you feel. Could you move your fingers and toes and other limbs for me?”

He looked at his hands and flexed his fingers for the first time in a long time the fingers on his left moved without being in pain. He wiggled his toes, straightened his back and moved his head, other than his muscles feeling a little bit uncomfortable from being in bed for a few days, he had never felt better. His stomach didn’t have the ache he had had for years from not having enough food. He fixed the goblin with a huge smile and whispered to her. “I feel really good.”

She smiled at him, “That’s a very good little one, our King is going to be here in a few minutes. You are going to drink tea with him and have a snack. He is going to do a few checks as well so we can make sure what we need to do next to keep you far away from the people that had hurt you.”

“You mean I don’t need to go back to my aunt and uncle?” a desperately happy voice whispered.

“Child, even if I raise you myself, you will never need to go back to that family. As from this moment, they are no longer Aunt and Uncle but Mr and Mrs, Aunts and uncles worth their salt would never do to a child what those people did to you.” Falee gripped his hand in hers and gave it a soft but deliberate squeeze. There was a throat-clearing on the other side of the bed where Ragnok stood, the little boy remembering that Falee had told her he was their King and from his clothes, the little boy could see his status, the little boy bowed while still in bed, it looked fairly comical but instantly softened the heart of every goblin in the room. The little human had only shown respect and awe until now, which had gone a long way to make the Goblins want to help him even more than they already wanted to.

“Thank your young man, may your gold overflow your vaults and your enemies topple at your feet.” The king smiled at him as he said it. The little boy's face scrunched up as he thought about how to greet the King back.

“May the mountains overflow with gold for you and may you never get cooties.”

The King burst out laughing and smiled at the little boy, “Thank you, child, I have heard that cooties are a fate worse than death for young humans. I am honoured by your blessing. Let’s go sit at those chairs over there so we can chat, and I can help Falee with the rest of the tests she needs now. Would you like a robe and slippers?”

The small boy nodded yes and was gifted with a soft bathrobe and dinosaur slippers, whichever Goblin that had gone to get the small human things, clearly had had fun buying him muggle clothing for his stay. Everything was bright, soft and cheerful with bits of whimsy. He hurried to the chairs where Ragnok was already seated and slipped into a chair opposite the King. Small finger sandwiches were presented to him, and he happily munched on the chicken and cucumber sandwiches.

“Now young man, let's sort out who you are first, what is your name?” The King had a lap writing desk on his lap in his hand was a beautiful pen made from Lapis lazuli and gold.

“I am not sure sir, my family only ever called me Boy or sometimes…” the little one took a pained breath “freak”.

In the background, they heard Falee swear when she heard what he said.

Ragnok looked at the small boy, “Young man, I assure you that your name is most definitely not either of those two words, you clearly had parents before you had been sent to your relatives. I can do a test to see what your name had been originally when your parents named you, would that be okay with you, it will hurt a tiny bit. I think we both know Falee will hurt me if I did anything to hurt you.”

The little boys’ green eyes lit up they reminded Ragnok of the forests in Germany, they were so darkly green. “I would like that very much.”

Ragnok put a piece of paper in front of him, the paper looked thick and was a soft cream almost gold colour. He pulled out a small ceremonial knife from a drawer in his lap desk. “Now young man, come stand next to me so that we can do the first test, to find your name. I am going to make a small cut in your palm and then you are going to put your hand on this piece of paper as quickly as you can. The cut will heal very quickly. The goblin King cut the small pale hand in his and helped the boy put his palm on the parchment. Letting the hand go he indicated the boy should sit down again while the spell on the parchment worked. “Have a biscuit young man, while the parchment does its job.” He could only hope that the parchment would reveal another living relative or a godparent for the child to go to. A small chime chimed once the parchment was done, the king took it from his desk and looked at it properly, oh dear, no wonder the fates had decided to interfere with this child’s life.

Hadrian Arcturus Potter-Black

Lineage:

• Sire: Lord James Charlus Potter (Alive, missing in action)
• Bearer: Lord Consort Regulus Arcturus Black (Alive, memory blocks)

Godparents:

• Lord Sirius Orion Black (Azkaban falsely)
• Lord Severus Snape nee Prince (Alive, memory blocks)
• Lord Consort Remus Lupin (Alive, Memory blocks)

Alternate godparents:

Alice and Frank Longbottom (St Mungos, intensive psychiatric care)

Magical Core:

Pureblooded Soul Mate/ Bonded: To be revealed at 15 years of age for the youngest mate

Magical Ailments:

• Blood adoption: Forced Lily Evans – Can be broken
• Magic Leach (1-year-old and three years old) 70% full power Albus Dumbledore
• Soul Shard Lord Voldermort (Tom Riddle)
• All speak block Cast by Albus Dumbledore
• Parseltongue and Parselmagic block Cast by Albus Dumbledore
• Soul Mate block Cast by Albus Dumbledore
• Memory alterations Cast by Albus Dumbledore
• Self Esteem and Self-preservation block Cast by Albus Dumbledore
• Eidetic memory block Cast by Albus Dumbledore
• Healing block Cast by Albus Dumbledore
• Loyalty alignment- Albus Dumbledore, Petunia Evans, Vernon Dursely, Lily Evans Cast by Albus Dumbledore
• Hatred Alignment- Severus Snape, Slytherin House, Draco Malfoy Cast by Albus Dumbledore

Heritage:

• Lord Slytherin Right of Conquest
• Lord Gaunt Right of Conquest
• Lord of Death Right of Conquest
• Heir of the most Ancient and Noble Le Fey Bearer
• Heir of the most Ancient and Noble House Peverell Sire
• Heir of the most Ancient and Noble House Potter Sire
• Heir of the most Ancient and Noble House of Gryffindor Sire
• Heir of the most Ancient and Noble House of Black Bearer and Godfather
• Heir of the most Ancient and Noble house of Prince Godfather

“Well young man, it seems your name is Hadrian. I see we need to do some more healing on you, never fear, Falee and her team will be able to do a wonderful job on healing you. While she heals you, I am going to send my scout team and get someone very special to you and look to see if I can find the rest of your family as well. I do believe this piece of paper proves that there are people that love you very much and desperately want you back. Did you know that you are four and a half years old?” Ragnok did not show the child the pages but did hand them over to Falee. He smiled at the little boy as the healer lead him out of the room to one of the chamber rooms where they often did intensive cleansing rituals. Behind her, a team of warrior goblins left, going to fetch the easiest of the named people on the child’s list. Then they would set about freeing and finding the other two.

Chapter Text

Chapter Two: Papa remembers

The dungeon was cold, it was always cold, groups of small teenagers were huddled around cauldrons as their potion master walked up and down, sneering at some of the children’s efforts. Again, he felt contempt towards the children who could not get even the basics of the potions correct. How was he to teach them to be healers or potion masters if they couldn’t even chop mint correctly? These children were far more concerned about their friends, quidditch and what was for lunch than wanting to learn how to make a decent potion. 
On the one side of his class, the Ravenclaws were busy attempting to follow the instructions to a tee, not even one of them caught his little trap. On the other side, the Gryffindors were attempting to make potions as if it was as easy as cooking, they didn’t seem to even read the ingredients list properly. 
A small pink-haired child was busy humming to themself while they worked. Professor Snape was about to yell at them for not paying attention when there was a pop sound, and the professor was gone. In his place stood a Goblin with a cheerful smile. 
“Sorry about that class, your professor had an emergency meeting at Gringotts. I am master Ripcurl, I will be helping you finish your potions for today. Is there anyone that needs help and is a bit unsure of themselves?” Immediately fourteen hands went into the air and Master Ripcurl started to help the child closest to him. By the end of the lesson, every child felt a bit more confident about how to make potions. 

***

Remus was making tea for himself as well as the head librarian, they had both spent far too long on their feet while doing part of the annual stock take. Cassie the head librarian smiled at him gratefully when he put the cup in front of her. 
“Bless you and all your future children.”
Remus let out a snort-laugh at that statement “That would be a tad difficult since I am gay and single.”
Cassie gave him a tired smile, “Pish posh, one of these days a dashing man is going to sweep you off of your feet and you are going to adopt a boatload of small happy children.”
She let out a scream when Remus just disappeared. She then saw the goblin sitting opposite her. 
“Not to worry, we decided to sweep him off of his feet instead. There is an urgent matter at the bank we need to resolve, he isn’t involved in anything bad this is good news.”
“Thank you, please look after my friend.”

***

In a dusty room in a dark house, Regulus was sitting, staring blankly at a wall while Kreacher was feeding him. Regulus hadn’t responded to him in nearly four years and had broken the house elf’s heart every time his young master didn’t answer him or even acknowledge that it was morning. Kreacher wasn’t sure if saving Master Regulus from the lake had been a good idea anymore, but he would do what he could to look after his kind master. 
A hand touched Keacher gently, the elf looked at the Goblin warrior standing beside him. “We can help you, master, would you let us take the two of you to be healed?”
The old elf started to cry as he looked at his master and the Goblins “Please help master, I miss him.”
As they arrived Regulus was immediately swept to the side by Falee. Young Hadrian was asleep in a magical coma while his body recovered from all that had been purged from it. He would be asleep for a while longer. They quickly ran an inheritance and health test on him so they could see what had happened to him. 

Lord Regulas Arctucus Potter- Black

• Spouse: Lord James Charlus Potter-Black (Missing in action)
  Child: Hadrian Arcturus Potter-Black (Found)

Magical Ailments:

Oblivate age 15 to 25 Cast By Albus Dumbledore
Impurius Curse Cast by Albus Dumbledore
Healing block Cast by Albus Dumbledore
Magic Leach 90% Cast by Albus Dumbledore
Inferti bite Lake
Soul Mate bond James Potter Blocked Cast by Albus Dumbledore

Heritage:

Lord Le Fay Right of Conquest
Lord Consort Potter, Percevall, Gryfindor Marriage

A quick diagnosis charm later showed that Kreacher had taken good care of Regulus physically and he was rushed away to the ritual chamber. Eleven elves and other curse breakers stood in the ritual chamber as they did the rituals to heal him. One of the curse breakers worked extra hard to undo the Imperius and Obliviate curse so that the young man could remember who he was when he woke up. Hours later he was laid down next to the bed where his son was. A house-elf sat stroking both of their heads intermittently. He had been healed and reassured that his family will be better soon. In a little while, he would go back to Grimmauld Place and clean it thoroughly for his family before they came home. 

Down the corridor in a room, senior account manager Griphook was dealing with Professor Severus Snape. He was unhappy about having been taken out of his classroom. The fact that they kept addressing him as Lord Prince was irritating him even more. 
“Please sit-down Professor Prince, we have a lot to do and a very short time to do it. I highly suggest if you want answers to why you are here that you sit down and co-operate. No amount of robe swishing and snarling is going to make this go faster or let me let you go back to Hogwarts.” Griphook was just as unhappy to have to tell the professor again to sit down. 
The professor flopped down in his chair and looked at the Goblin. “Fine, what do you need from me?”
Griphook took out a piece of paper and put it in front of the man. “Before we are to begin, I need you to do an inheritance test to confirm your identity as well as your health. Once we have that, we will take the next steps. Just three drops of blood on the parchment if you don’t mind.”
Snape cut his finger open using his wand and bled onto the parchment, three drops later, the wound closed. A cup of sweet tea appeared next to him, and he drank a few sips of the lavender-infused tea. By the time he finished his cup of tea the chime to indicate the inheritance and magic tests were finished went off. 

Lord Severus Prince (Snape)

Spouse:
Lord Sirius Orion Black
Lord Consort Remus Lupin

Godchildren:
Lord Hadrian Orion Potter Black
Heir Draco Malfroy

Magical Ailments:
Memory blocker 15 to 26 Cast by Albus Dumbledore
Empathy Blocker: Cast by Albus Dumbledore
Self Esteem blocker: Cast by Albus Dumbledore
Hatred Alignment: Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Regulus Black, James Potter, Harry Potter, Gryffindor House Cast by Albus Dumbledore
Loyalty Alignment: Lord Voldemort, Slytherin House, Albus Dumbledore Cast by Albus Dumbledore
Soul Bond is forgotten but not broken Cast by Albus Dumbledore
Death Eater symbol Cast by Lord Voldemort

Heritage:
Lord Prince (Unclaimed) 
Maternal Grandfather

Griphook handed the parchment over to Lord Prince and for the first time since he had gotten there, the mask of arrogance fell. His hands were shaking as he read through the list. 
“Lord Prince, would you allow me to cleanse you of all the blocks? I am not sure about the Death Eater symbol, but we can try.” Griphook spoke gently to the man that was going through shock. 
“Please,” he rasped out. He followed quietly as Griphook led him to yet another Ritual room, more curse breakers and assistants had been called in from various branches across the globe for all the cleansings that they had to do. He was given a mild sleeping potion and fell asleep as the team started to work.

In the Office next to where Griphook and Professor Snape had been, Remus sat quietly while a young female Goblin explained to him that they had uncovered an interesting anomaly regarding him but they needed to verify he was who they thought he was and had no spells affecting him. If he did, they were happy to offer him a free cleansing so that they could resolve the matter since it pertained to a very important client. 
“Please account manager Alba, you have only been too kind. I must admit I am very curious, so I agree with being tested.” Remus bowed at the female account manager who had happily informed him that her brother had become a healer and she had become an account manager in his stead and both were very happy with the paths their lives had taken. She happily handed him the parchment and gave him the instructions that he needed. She was thankful the werewolf was very gentle-mannered. 

Lord Consort Remus Lupin (Black and Prince)

Spouse:
Lord Sirius Orion Black
Lord Severus Prince

Godchildren:
Lord Hadrian Arcturus Potter Black
Heir Draco Malfroy

Magical Ailments:

Memory blocker 15 to 26 Cast by Albus Dumbledore
Self Esteem blocker: Cast by Albus Dumbledore
Loyalty Alignment: Sirius Black, James Potter, Harry Potter, Gryffindor House, Order of the Phoenix, Albus Dumbledore Cast by Albus Dumbledore
Hatred Alignment: Lord Voldemort, Slytherin House, Severus Snape, Regulus Black Cast by Albus Dumbledore
Soul Bond is forgotten but not broken  Cast by Albus Dumbledore

“There must be an error, I have never been married. Much less to two different men.” Remus stared at the piece of paper.
Alba gently took his hand, “I know reading this paper must be a shock, please let us cleanse and heal you. Once all of that is done, we can discuss the rest of the paper.” Holding his hand, she led him out of the room and down a corridor to another cleansing room. This room had a few of the Bulgarian Curse breakers in it, once he was asleep, they immediately started the process of breaking all the curses and blocks on his body. 

Two days later Lord Prince was the first to awaken. It had been a full moon the previous night so Remus was still asleep in the magical coma they had put him under so that he wouldn’t turn while they were healing him. Severus layed there a long time just looking at Remus who was stretched out on the bed next to him, he had always been tall but now he was far too thin for his height. His wolf had not been looked after these last few years. He hadn’t seen Remus since Sirus had been arrested, and that hurt so much knowing that his one husband was innocent in Azkaban and his other husband had been abandoned. He sat up slowly, he needed to check on Remus, he could see an IV was attached to his arm, and he needed to see which potions they were giving him. 

“Last night was a full moon, we have given him wolfsbane potion as well as various healing and calming potions, he s underweight but has been gaining weight the last year, his health has been improving gradually, we have given him quite a few nutrient supplement potions as well the past two days. For you we have done a complete detox, you have been drinking far too much, but from what I have seen you have only been left with unhappiness these last few years. We have included nutrient potions as well as cell regrowth potions to fix the damage you have done to your kidneys and liver. We were unable to purge the Dark Mark but we have figured out how to break it so we will discuss that with you in due time. Would you like to see your brother-in-law and your nephew? They are both still asleep but doing much better as well.” Falee helped Severus leave the bed and watched as he slowly stroked Remus’s cheek. He then followed her to the other side of the ward where a small boy in dinosaur pyjamas was asleep, next to him was a very pale and thin Regulus. Regulus was clad in pale blue silk pyjamas so very different from what his son was wearing. 

Falee smiled at him as he stroked both of their cheeks, the little boy's scar on his forehead looked like it was starting to heal. “What happened to them, healer?”
“The little boy was sent to live with his imposter aunt and uncle Petunia and Vernon. We don’t know how little he remembers from before his parents were taken from him. We have done a lot of healing of not only his body but also his spirit and his mind. We believe that he will receive enough love now to make up for the lack of love he has received these last three years. There were so many spells and curses placed on him. I am glad to see that we broke all of them including a blood adoption we found to be unwanted. He will be on nutrient potions as well as growth and cellular potions for a while longer, we will keep him asleep until his parents are reunited and well. We are still looking for James.” 

“James would never willingly abandon his child.”

“From what I have read, I don’t think any of you have been able to do anything willingly in a very long time. Regulus will heal, and we hope to wake him up in two days. He has been recovering from damage to his soul by the Inferti, no idea how that happened. He had some nasty blocks to his magic and healing cast on him and was left for dead or as close to being dead as possible. I think if it hadn’t been for the devotion of his house-elf, he would have died long ago.”

“Merlin's beard, all of this news is so much to take in. How is anyone left standing? Is anyone left standing?” Snape sank between the two beds. Falee walked up to him and hugged him, this was the first physical contact he had had in years. He found himself holding onto the goblin healer as he cried, cried for all the years lost with his loves, and cried for what happened to his godson as well as his parents. The darkness that had overwhelmingly followed him for years was slowly letting up as he saw a few of the people he loved the most, far more than he had ever remembered having. The goblin cried with him as his heart slowly started to heal, he needed someone to share his grief and pain with and she was willing to carry that burden with him. 

“Severus” a deep voice muttered softly, Remus was standing behind Falee watching his husband break down and cry. He soon found himself dragged down and hugged as all three of them cried for a while longer. Falee updated Remus about Hadrian as well as Regulus and found himself crying in Severus' arms. 

None of them noticed the dark-haired wizard who had listened to them discuss his son, looking over at the other bed at the small boy so utterly alone in a hospital bed far too big for him. Regulus slipped out of his bed and climbed into the bed with his son, pulling the small frame against his. Whatever happened now, no one was going to take his son from him again. He didn’t know where James was, but he had most of his family back, he wasn’t going to let them go. The strength of not being alone would allow him to find his husband and his brother. Holding his son, he made silent vows that whoever hurt his family was going to hurt even more than they had. 

Chapter Text

Dumbledore was furious it had been nearly a week since anyone had last heard of Severus, no one knew where he was, no spell nor Owl could find the man. In his stead, a Goblin insisted on teaching Potions to the wixen children and teenagers in the school. Filius was ecstatic to have another Goblin on staff, the young ones were enjoying potions. The potions labs were bright and airy for the first time as the classes continued. Everyone noticed the headmaster storming through the castle leading search teams for Snape. Professor McGonagall took over most of Dumbledore's duties as he continued to disappear, one evening there was a very tense staff meeting.

“Albus calm down, I am sure Severus will return as soon as he is able. Professor Ripcurl has assured us that he is fine but dealing with delicate bank business.” Professor McGonagall tried again to calm him down. The rest of the staff watched the sceptical as the headmaster angrily dunked his biscuit into his tea. 

“Minerva, he should be here, he could wait till he was on leave before he left. The term ends in two weeks. I fear him leaving without a word shows that we cannot trust him, and he has instead decided to run off. The Aurors should be notified about his disappearance and made to deal with him and send him to Azkaban. The only reason he isn’t there is that I vouched for him.” Albus liked the idea of distrust he got to push in the staff meeting. 

Professor Sprout was furious, she liked Snape, she felt he had always been handed a raw deal. “Albus! The young man will be back shortly according to the bank. We cannot allow ourselves to distrust a co-worker already. I am sure he will have a perfectly valid explanation about what has taken so long once he gets back and, in the meantime, Professor Ripcurl has been doing an outstanding job taking over Severus' duties.”

“Furthermore, we all know the only reason he became a Death Eater was that you pushed him to become one so that he could be a spy for you. I have no idea why you feel the need to threaten him for having done what you had wanted of him.” Minerva pointed out to him furiously.

The rest of the staff agreed with her. Various staff members chose to side with Severus. In the past, Albus would have used his magic to influence them into agreeing with him, but he had been feeling weak the last week. He was hesitant to go to Madame Pomfrey to see what was happening to him and his Magic. He could only hope that it was not Dragon Pox or something similar. 

After he dismissed the staff meeting and got a cup of tea, he wondered to his office to think. Something was most definitely wrong, but he could not figure out what it was. From the top drawer of his desk, he carefully got a Lemon Drop. He never ate the ones on his desk, they were all charmed to make the eater more likely to listen to him. In the distance, the sounds of quidditch practice could be heard.

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At a boardroom table, Regulus was sitting with a mountain of paperwork. Between the estates that needed managing as well as it was already a full-time job to sort through the mess. What was taking most of his attention now was freeing his brother. They still had no idea where James was, and Regulus was forcing himself not to focus on the hollow feeling inside himself from being separated from his bonded. 

“Here, I bought you a latte and some snacks. Is there anything I can do for you?” Remus put the plate and coffee down in front of him.

“Thank you, I am starting to think I need to call in my grandfather. He understands Wizengamot so much better than I do, he will be able to figure out how to free Sirius in such a way that no one can throw him back in. I really don’t want to make a mistake that costs him his freedom down the line because I forgot to cross at some point during all of this.”

Remus sat down next to Regulus and nodded slowly; he took a careful sip of his tea before speaking. “Wasn’t your brother disinherited? Doesn’t that mean that your grandfather refuses to acknowledge him, so why would he help?”

For the first time since he had been here except for when he was holding his son, Regulus smiled. “My mother disinherited my brother; she is not the head of the house. At this moment in time, which is still my grandfather. I think since he hasn’t disinherited Sirius and it has been fourteen years. He must clearly still be willing to help us.”

“Well, then we need to see if we can get a hold of Arcturus Black and see if we can put things in motion to free Sirius. Can I help with anything on the paperwork front that isn’t Sirius related?”

Regulus looked at his friend, he knew that Remus was a skilled librarian, and so he handed over a stack of paperwork. “There have been a lot of items removed from all of our vaults the last four to six years, can you go through this and see if anything stands out as shouldn’t have been removed while I go through everything else.”

While Remus was busy with the paperwork, Regulus drafted a letter to his grandfather. He used the fountain pen he had bought when he went to university, he refused to use quills again after he had discovered these pens. Sometimes Muggles were extremely ingenious and proper pens, where a vote for them according to Regulus. He bowed when he gave it to the young goblin that was aiding them. “Thank you master Griphook. Is it possible to send this to my grandfather without using my seal but that he understands this is urgent?”

Griphook took the letter from Regulus, “Yes I will put the Banks seal on the letter, that usually gets even the most reclusive people here quickly.” He put the bank seal on the letter and the letter disappeared from his grasp. Bank post-boxes were a wonderful thing. 

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“Aunt Molly, have you seen my class book on arithmancy? I need to do the extra practise sums for tomorrow.” Bill smiled at his aunt while he spoke to her. His aunt and cousins had moved in about three years ago and she was helping his Da while his papa and daddy were gone. 

Molly was busy getting Ginny to eat her sandwich, Ginny was not impressed with today’s lunch choice. “Oh dear, I put a few schoolbooks on the top shelf of the school bookcase, it should be there if it was in the lounge or the kitchen. Let me know if it isn’t there, dear and I will help you find it. Can you also ask your younger brothers and your cousin Ron to come to have lunch if you see them?”

Bill gave his aunt a quick hug, she looked a little overwhelmed, but he could only imagine that looking after Bill, Charlie, Percy and the twins Fred and George as well as her own two children Ginny and Ronald could be a little overwhelming on your own. Their dad had to go into the ministry for yet another muggle instrument disaster.

“Sure, Aunt Molly, do you need me to help with anything?”

“No dear, just call everyone to lunch for me, please. I can help with any sums you are struggling with after lunch.” Molly was dishing up plates and sending them to the various spots on the kitchen table where they all sat. Soon Ginny being three was sitting next to her mom while the twins and Ron were all four almost five sat next closest. Percy who was six, then Charlie who had just turned seven and then Bill the eldest, who was nine, sat further from her and closer to Arthurs's spot at the table. 
Their father’s spot was empty for today. When papa and daddy disappeared, their da had removed their seats from the table, so the emptiness wasn’t so obvious. Their names were still on the family clock, it still read as missing. 

“Don’t you think we should ask Aunt Muriel if she is finished with Trixie, I am sure Aunt Molly could do with the extra hands around the house. Thank you for lunch auntie.” Charlie grinned when he saw it was tomato soup and cheese toasties. 

“Now dear, I am sure your aunt will return Trixie when she no longer needs an extra house elf. Till then we trundle through and make do.” Molly smiled at Charlie.
“But Auntie, she has sixty house elves, why would Trixie make an enormous difference in running her estate? Also, we miss her, you miss her, it must be hard running your business without her helping to keep the chaos of seven of us under control.” Bill pointed out. 

Molly looked around at the house they had jokingly named the Barrow when Arthur, Fabian and Gideon had bought it. It was for most people quite large with six bedrooms and four bathrooms, now it seemed like they were bursting at the seams. Arthur had moved into one of the smaller bedrooms so that Bill and Charlie could share a room. The twins had their own bedroom, while Percy and Ron shared a room. Ginny had the smallest room which was next to Molly’s room. They had turned the attic into a studio for Molly’s textile business that sold jumpers, blankets and forth in family colours and patterns. They were immensely popular as Christmas presents as well as gifts for children heading off to any of the Magic schools in Europe. She had even started selling knit your own kits, mostly aimed at young mums. Which proved to be an excellent idea. Bill and Charlie were right, without Trixie managing the children and her business was getting difficult to manage and while Arthur earned a good salary, there were far too many mouths to feed, and she didn’t want to be more reliant on her brother-in-law after her husband had passed away.  

“You and Charlie are right; I am going to write to Aunt Muriel and ask for Trixie back. I am sure Trixie could do with being in her own room again.”

“Yay, I am looking forward to her treacle tart,” Ron quipped from one side.

“You know Gred, I am sure Ron is correct, treacle tart would be smashing.” Fred grinned at his twin.

“Well Forge, treacle tart is the best with ice cream.” George grinned back.

After lunch and the table was cleared, the boys that were in school all got various worksheets and books so they could start their homework. Molly had gotten Bill a self-refilling pen with a nib like a quill but was easier to use and learn how to write properly with. She and Arthur had decided that they were going to make schoolwork as easy as possible. The boys all had notebooks and paper pads instead of scrolls and parchments without lines. School should be fun, not old-fashioned to the point that it was detrimental; the children could use modern writing implements quite different from what their grandparents had used at school. Charlie and Percy were still using lead pencils for class. Ron and the twins didn’t yet have any homework or anything they needed any extra help with, so they were playing a game of snap in the lounge with Ginny. Molly sent a letter to the family owl; Errol was a beautiful owl if slightly overworked with Bill and Charlie sending letters to their various pen friends. 

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Master Griphook was walking ahead of the wizard following him down the corridor to one of the boardrooms. The wizard was walking with grace and quiet power that showed his status as the head of one of the most prominent wizarding houses. His grey eyes showed only strength and intelligence. His clothing had an understated air of wealth, items made exquisitely well but didn’t scream the latest fashion, these items were tailor-made for the tall thing wizard as he walked. 

When he walked into the boardroom for the first time in years his face broke out of his stoic expression as there was Regulus, his grandson. He recognised Remus and Severus as well, ahh so they finally remember their family. Arcturus has been living in France and remembered things that no one else seemed to remember for a long time. 

“Reggie,” he said as he opened his arms for a hug. Suddenly a tall thin younger version of himself was in his arms. Regulus’s’ long hair was pulled back into a bun, and he was wearing more muggle attire with dark grey slacks and a pale green shirt, but the family resemblance couldn’t be denied. “You finally woke up; I am so glad to see you again my dear boy. I am so glad that the healers here could break through the spells trapping you in your mind. Kreacher deserves a medal for taking such good care of you, wish he had told us he had you so we could have had you healed sooner but what is done is done.”

“Oh Grandpa, everything is a mess, Hadrian is still in a coma, Sirius is in prison, and we have no idea where James is.” Regulus just clutched his grandfather harder, while his parents had never cared about him or his brother other than a means of status, their grandfather had been there for them always. Hugging him was the closest to childhood comfort he had.

“Master Griphook informed me it was a medical coma while the child heals, and they will wake him when he is strong enough. I am sure with a mind healer and time that little boy will be completely fine, even more so with you there to hold him. James, I can’t do anything about it, but I can promise you that we will eventually find your husband. What we can do however is organise the release of your brother. I will contact Amelia Bones and see what the two of us can do to organise his release.” He just stroked Regulus back. 

Chapter Text

The rain was coming in through the window that hadn’t had glass in years. The sounds of screaming down the corridor made it clear that there was a new inmate in the high-security area. The cold from the stone floors and the rain had seeped in his bones years ago, he so very seldom bothered to turn into his human version, the grim was so much warmer. He had realised quickly that the dementors didn’t register his Animagus form at all so he had more peace than those that couldn’t transform. The big grim that was far too thin huffed as it got comfortable on the bed with a threadbare blanket.

He saw the lights that indicated patronesses were being fired down of the corridor. Ahh so whoever was walking down the corridor was important, he could see the echoes of at least four strong patronesses. The sounds of boots walking on the stone were heard as they walked down the corridor. For the first time in a while, various inmates were able to think clearly for a few moments and a painful wailing sound was heard along the corridors from various cells. The big grim put his paws over his ears to try and block the sound. Memories of Remus, Severus and his brother and his family flooded him for the first time in a long time.

The door to his cell swung open and the grim looked up, his grandfather was standing in the front in a dark tweed suit of robes, next to him was Madam Bones, he didn’t recognise the two Aurors, but he was so glad to see his grandfather.
“Turn into your human form Sirius so that I can confirm it is you that we are releasing today.” Madam Bones voice was clipped but still warm, she was so glad that they had, had enough evidence to release him without even needing a trial. Tomorrow the papers would have the story of his release and acquaintance of the false charges that had led to his imprisonment.

The big grim slowly turned into his human version. He was far too thin to the point of frail; he was clearly filthy, but his eyes held intelligence and warmth. He had not yet descended into the madness that so many of the prisoners had succumbed to.
“Come, Sirius, we need to get you to the healers and a few good showers and plenty of meals in you. Your husbands are waiting for you, and I think they have waited for more than long enough. I am incredibly happy to see you, dear boy. Let us take you home.” Arcturus was trying to hide how much seeing his grandson in this state was hurting him, Sirius needed him to be strong at this moment.

One of the Aurors handed him a pair of thick socks and boots while Arcturus pulled a spare warm cloak around his grandson. He helped Sirius stand up and landed up taking quite a bit of his grandsons’ weight. Arcturus was not happy that he was able to manage to help move his grandson, his grandson had been a warrior. Years of training in battle magic from the family and working as an Auror had made Sirius the picture of a healthy soldier before he had been shipped off to Azkaban, he could only hope that the young man would soon look like what he was. He was proud of his grandson for being able to hold his head up and look proud as he walked out of his cell.

The walkout of the prison to where the docks were was silent, no one felt the need to vocalise the horror and dread they all felt. As they left the Aurors, Madam Bones stopped shooting off patronesses and the Dementors went back to the prison. The rain pelted against them as they sat in the boat that led away from the prison. Sirius watched his grandfather pull a flask out from under a seat in the boat.

“Hot chocolate anyone, Remus insisted that I bring enough for everyone.” Arcturus offered.

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News of the release of Sirius Black, hit the papers the following morning. The wixen were shaken as they read that Sirius had been in Wales when the attack on Godric's Hollow had happened. He had not been the Potters secret keeper. The read about the proof that Peter Pettigrew was the secret keeper had been uncovered. More proof was found that while Sirius had confronted Peter in the streets, it had been to bring him in for questioning. Peter had been the one to blow up the street and escaped down the sewers because of his Animagus form. None of the newspapers said what his form was but all hinted it was the type of animal that could have easily escaped down a small drain hole.

The Wizengamot, had emergency meetings as the news broke. If they had screwed up a Lord's case so much that the man hadn’t even had a trial before his sentencing, how many other innocent people were in Azkaban innocently or had received far harsher sentencing than needed. The courts and Parliament were in turmoil as plans for trials and going through extra cases. The Department of Mysteries was called in to offer tests for tampering with court members as well as to purge systems of any tampering that was found.

The Dark lords and Ladies of Parliament as well as the Grey side all went for the tests, all of them horrified about the results of tampering. The DoM landed up working almost twenty-four hours a day as they did the tests and the cleansing, in the end, they called the Goblins for extra help. While some of the Light Lords and Ladies went for the tests, many of the strongest members did not go for the tests.

Due to all the cleansing, most of the old furniture such as old chairs were removed from the chambers and the floors and panelling were thoroughly scrubbed clean. The imposing chamber and its surrounding chambers were repainted and runes, as well as energy crystals, were integrated into the new décor that would prevent most spells from taking place in the chamber as well as indicate where spells were cast from. By the time they had finished the walls were a pale champagne colour while the wood panelling was a deep walnut, touches of deep blues and bronze were used in the rooms to give credence to the importance of the room but made it seem more welcoming. Every member of parliament was thankful for new chairs having been bought into the rooms. The crystals above every family seat almost seemed to sparkle again as magic that had interfered with the chambers had been cleared.

Arthur happily went for the tests; he had been horrified when he read his test results of various spells and potions that had been cast on the various members. Due to the way the spells had been cast, neither the DoM nor the Goblins could pinpoint exactly who had cast anything, but they could help clear up a lot of the mess. It had taken nearly three days from the tests to the purging of his system before he had been able to go home. He had been very thankful Trixie was back at the Barrow to help take care of all the family. He sent Molly for similar tests as members of Wizengamot as well as Heads of Departments families needed to be evaluated and cleansed as well. Molly proved to have a few compelling potions in her system from some of the luncheons of the Wizengamot in her system that was cleared. Arthur was deeply thankful that his sister-in-law didn’t seem to have anything too serious in her, unlike what he had heard about the Malfoy family that had all been potioned and charmed to extreme lengths. They had landed up in the healing wards of the Goblin Bank, including their son that was on the verge of turning five.

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Narcissa watched her grandfather pace the healing ward. She was drinking tea with Regulus and catching up while waiting for her son and her cousin to wake up. Her husband was talking to his best friend and dealing with everything that he was figuring out in the past few years. Severus and Remus were sitting close to where Sirius was in bed, this meant that Lucius was also close to where Sirius was sleeping. Arcturus was pacing up and down the short corridor, he wanted to wake his grandson up as well as his great-grandsons’. Falee was keeping a close eye on him, and he wasn’t going to anger a Goblin healer when it came to the care of his family.

“Do you think grandfather will start wearing a path into the tiles as he paces?” Narcissa asked Regulus as she watched her grandfather turn sharply and pace downwards.

“I do believe at the very least he will wear through the soles of his boots.”

“Indeed, well at the very least it makes what to get him for his upcoming birthday a bit easier. Tell me are you trying to grow your hair into a specific style or just haven’t been able to get a haircut the last few years.”

Regulus laughed; indeed, his hair was different from the short hair he had had the last time he had seen Narcissa. “I haven’t had time to cut it since waking up, but I do think I am keeping the length, it is quite different than anything I have ever sported before. It suits me though.”

Narcissa gave him a critical look, indeed the bun did suit Regulus, wispy strands framed his face, she hated to admit it, but he seemed to have gotten the best combination of the genetics and the thick dark long curls and high cheekbones was a striking combination. “Well, I do agree the longer hair does suit, you are a Lord Consort, we must have you see a stylist. Have you and the rest of you all get a decent haircut? Tell me who has been buying all your clothes?”

Regulus knew his answer was going to surprise Narcissa, “I do believe it is Master Alba, one of the younger advisor Goblins that has been tasked with buying all of our clothes. I know Kreacher has bought us some clothing from that was at Grimmauld Place. I must say I have been enjoying the pyjama suits she has gotten for Hadrian; the dinosaur slippers roar apparently when you step in them.”

Narcissa could barely control a shudder of the thought of Draco running around in slippers that made a noise every time he stepped, her son would find ways to wear them during tea parties and his fathers’ meetings. She looked over to where her son was asleep next to his cousin, both boys were wearing blue pyjamas with flying snitches on them today. She did agree with Regulus, the outfits the two boys had every day since they had been here have been lovely. After three days in the ward, she was ready to go home but Lucius was still weak, and Draco was still fast asleep.

“Remind me to ask Master Alba where she got the outfits for the boys, I do think Draco would be sad to run out of them.” Narcissa found herself staring at the boys as her grandfather kept pacing.

Roughly three hours later, Falee and her team woke up little Draco. The pale blonde boy was soon seated in his mothers’ lap while he had his dinner. They would stay till morning before leaving to go back home. Draco hadn’t been able to understand why they couldn’t wake up his cousin so that they could play but he was happy to know that he wasn’t quite so alone anymore in the family.

“I hear that the Curse Breakers have gone through our house and cleared up spells and compulsions that were in the manor. I shudder to think what this will cost us, but they even fixed some of the things my father had altered on the manor wards.” Lucius was saying to everyone around the table.

“That is a very good idea, while I am under no doubt it was expensive, I can only think that every sickle spent on the cleansing was worth it,” Arcturus said in response.

Lucious found himself nodding, “Yes I do agree. I am seeing if they can do the rest of the family homes.”

The rest of the table had already had their homes and properties added to the list of places that needed to be checked. So far Black Manor and Grimmauld Place had been swept over and cleansed. The family had agreed that they would all stay in Grimmauld Place till everything settled. Going to Potter manor would alert many people that they knew what had happened to them.

They would be staying safely in the ancient wards of Grimmauld till James had been found and then they would all decide what to do after that. Arcturus had been over to the Place the previous morning and charged the house ward stone after the Goblins had finished clearing it of any magic that shouldn’t be there as well as tampering with the wards, this included removing Dumbledore and the entire Order of the Phoenix.

A few of the house-elves from Black Manor had moved over as well to help Kreacher prepare it for so many people. Regulus had asked them to please fix the old potions lab that had been in the basement near the kitchen as a place for Severus to brew safely this summer holiday. The school was ending in a few days for Yule so Master Ripcurl was still teaching potions.

They had all decided that Severus would stay the entirety of the winter holiday with his family. Sirius would wake soon; he needs strong potions for malnourishment and the effects of the dementors were being pumped into his system they would keep him asleep. According to Falee, this meant he should be ready to be woken up, tomorrow evening or the morning after.

Chapter Text

The house had seemed to hum when Arcturus stepped into it. Kreacher and Doxit were standing ready for him when he arrived. The elder Lord Black nodded at two of the oldest elves in his family’s employment. He shuddered a bit when he saw the stuffed heads of generations of house-elves that had worked for the family on the wall in the corridor. He knew both the elves with him had family that were mounted on the wall, he would deal with that in a few minutes. He noticed the thick curtains that were covering the portrait of his daughter-in-law. He steeled his shoulders and started climbing the stairs of the house to the top where the master bedroom was.

“Now remember that neither of you can be in the room while I reset the house, I don’t want either of you to get hurt.” Arcturus had noticed that the house while still dark and unpleasant feeling was however exceptionally clean. He hoped that resetting the family ward stone to his magic, not his daughter-in-laws’ magic would help the house feel like a home again and not to a substantial extent a prison from the Victorian times.

He swung open the door to the master room that clearly hadn’t slept anyone in years. Against the wall above the bed was the family crest in matte black metal. He walked over to the crest and put his palm flat on the middle of the crest. The ward stone instantly sliced his palm so that it could read if he were indeed a Black before it would allow him to key the house properly back into the family Magic. Arcturus had been expecting this, but he still didn’t enjoy the sensation of having his magic judged. In less than a minute a pale silver mist that took the shape of three ravens swept out of the crest and around the room. The ravens swept into every room on the fourth floor and then into the attic, from the attic it swept down to the basement where they flew around. They went into the House elf quarters and then into the gardens* in the back, through the small family greenhouse and the play garden and patio for tea.

As the ravens cleared from every room, the windows were clean and allowed sunlight to stream into the rooms. The dark wooden floors that had been almost black were now lighter and reflected the sun. The dark walls were replaced with lighter panelling and wallpapers. The furniture that had become old and threadbare, transformed into more modern versions and beautiful fabrics. The library on the second floor turned back into a family playroom and all the books returned to the library on the ground floor. The bathrooms renovated themselves into soft coloured bathrooms with modern showers and beautiful deep baths. The kitchen had undergone a similar transformation, the bottom cabinets were deep hunters green with copper fittings while the top cabinets were a beautiful soft white and the surfaces were butcher blocks. Copper pots and pans hung from the ceiling and kitchen herbs were growing in the planter boxes. In the attic, the rooms for the house-elves changed to cosy sleeping areas as well as little sitting rooms for them. Rolls of fabric appeared for themselves to make clothes so they could update their wardrobes without being offered clothes.

It took an hour of Arcturus pushing his magic into the house, but it looked far more like a more modern version of the house he had grown up in than the dark cold version his grandsons had been raised in. He felt a bit weak once he let go of the family crest but for the first time in a long time, he felt the family magic clearly. The house seemed almost to hum as it reconnected with the other family estates.

“Kreacher, I am very thankful for everything that you have done. I do believe I want this home to feel like a safe and warm welcoming place for everyone, my great-grandson and you. If I can make this request, please remove the skulls from the walls of your family and every other elf family. I will happily pay for their proper funerals and allow all of you to do your mourning rituals from tomorrow onwards. I have also gifted you and Doxit and the rest of your team fabric for you all to make new outfits for yourselves. I can only imagine that these haven’t been granted in a very long time. Please do not hesitate to speak to Head Elf of Black Manor if there is anything you need. The house has been reconnected to the family vaults. Any paintings that give you or any of the other members of this house a challenging time may also be moved to the family vaults. Please also if you find any suspiciously dark items, have them moved to the family vault on the estate and notify us so we can deal with them.”

“Thank you, Master Black, I haven’t seen the home look like this in a very long time, not since I was very young.” Kreacher bowed at the elder Lord.

“Yes, let's hope with more family members living here that aren’t insane, the house will be able to become even more welcoming.” Arcturus walked downstairs and stopped in front of the family tapestry, with a flick of his wand, he restored both Sirius and Andromeda names to the family tapestry. From their names, little branches spread adding spouses and any children, including little Nymphadora was added to the tapestry. He noticed that both Hadrian and Draco were finally added as well. This poor house had been cut off and mistreated for far too long.

As he walked out of Grimmauld Place he could feel as Andromeda and Nymphadora family bonds snapped into place, even Teds bond snapped in place. He was barely down the block when the magic from his great-grandsons was added to the family bond.

“Well now, seems those two boys are far stronger than any of us imagined. Will need to make sure they find either soul bonded before they come of age if we want those houses to keep standing on the eves of their seventeenth birthdays.”

~~~~

Sirius woke up with a shout and was at once swarmed with people that loved him. From Severus and Remus to little Draco who had just climbed onto the bed, family surrounded him. He had woken up hours before anyone had expected him to be able to even start to wake up. He was still far too thin, but his skin was starting to look healthier, and he was clean, that felt so good.

“Uncle Padfoot, did you know that you snore? Uncle Mooney says you snore like a dragon with a toothache?” Draco asked earnestly.

It took a few seconds for Sirius to grasp who the small blonde boy on his lap was, Merlin Draco had grown so much. “I have had your uncles complain about my snoring from time-to-time little Dragon pup.”

Remus couldn’t help himself and kissed Sirius, he was far too happy to let a little thing such as old fashioned manners prevent him from showing his happiness at seeing one of his husbands. Severus found himself craving the contact of his love as well and kissed Sirius as well once Remus had broken away from the kiss.

“Merlin, I missed you both.” Sirius managed to utter.

Draco had his hands firmly covering his eyes. Public displays of affection weren’t something he was used to seeing and he was at the age that found kissing gross. Narcissa chuckled softly at her sons’ antics.

“So, what have I missed? I don’t see James or Hadrian?” Sirius asked while various family members hugged him. He was happy to see his brother looked healthy, far healthier than he had even looked towards the end of school. He hoped this meant not too much bad news would be hitting him soon.

“Hadrian is still asleep, the Goblin Healer Falee said he can’t wake up yet and play with me.” Draco pouted before pointing to the bed a little way off from them where Hadrian was asleep, his bed at this point had three stuffies. If you knew what you were looking at, it seemed as if the family was getting him stuffies of their Animagus forms. There was a wolf, a stag and a grim so far.

“Oh, dear boy, he is so small.”

“He has grown quite a bit since he was bought here, we have upsized his pyjamas twice already as the potions have been working on him. At this point, there is one ritual cleansing left to do. He is hopefully strong enough for them to do it in the next two days. After that, we can wake him up and take him home. We don’t know where James is yet, he was announced dead after the war ended but we have proof he is alive, just no idea where he is. The Goblins and the Department of Mysteries are working on how to get him as well as a few others that we now believe are missing and not dead, this includes the Prewitt twins and Edgar Bones and his wife.” Regulus looked at his brother and smiled, “I am just thankful we have you back so long. I do believe that Remus, Severus as well as grandfather are extremely excited about the idea of us all no longer living in the healing ward of Gringotts. Though Falee, Griphook and Alma have taken such excellent care of us. The King has been nothing but a gift from the Goddess at this point. I do believe we will be needing to make a lot of changes in Wixen society to begin to pay them back for everything.”

“Gideon and Fabian are missing? How has Arthur been coping with so many children on his own?”

“Molly moved in with him after her husband died in an accident, she has been helping him take care of his five and her two. I do believe they are severely outnumbered with seven children.” Severus couldn’t help the small smirk on his face. He wasn’t looking forward to all the Weasleys joining him at school, if they were anything like their fathers then they might have the gift of mischief.

Later that night long after Narcissa and the rest of her family left, Sirius, Remus and Severus were moved into one of the bedrooms of the ward. All three of them had been considered healthy enough to leave though Sirius would be on a strict schedule of medications and food for a while. They had decided to stay until little Hadrian had been ready to be woken and return home with all of them.

****

The ritual chamber had been prepared again and healer elves from Egypt had been called in for this Ritual. The healers from Britain were tired from having worked so hard to help with the Wizengamot. The healer Goblins from Egypt were far less pale than their British counterparts, their robes were also made of Linen to cope with the heat of Egypt rather than the wool of the British Goblins. They had set up the ritual for cleansings of Horcruxes far quicker than most thought possible. They needed to cleanse Horcruxes from dig findings before the artefacts could go to either the Egyptian muggle museums or the Egyptian Wixen museums. They were all looking forward to tonight’s ritual, it would be the first time any of them had ever removed a Horcrux from a living person before. The ritual mechanics were briefly mentioned in a book from roughly three thousand years ago, so they knew it could be done.

Regulus and the rest stood in another room looking into the ritual room through special glass windows. The ritual stones were a bright red as the Goblins and other curse breakers finalised their checks. A tall dark Curse breaker carried Hadrian in and placed him on the central stone. His pyjamas were muggle so that no enchantments interfered with the ritual. All of them almost instinctively held their breath as the ritual started. The crystals pulsed in sync with the ritual taking place.

There was a moment during the ritual when all the lights had flickered throughout the bank. The healer Ritual goblins had spent hours battling the Horcrux but finally, they had removed it. The soul shard had been moved into a Crystal. Once the ritual was done all the crystals turned a dark grey waiting to be cleansed before the next ceremony. Hadrian was carried back to the healing ward so Falee could do checks to make sure he was fine.

Ragnok, the King of Goblins, spoke quietly to his curse breakers as well as Regulus. The confirmed the soul shard was most definitely that of lord Voldemort but it was far too small to be the only one. From their estimation, there had to be at least six more. All of them shuddered at the thought of him having made more than one. Regulus informed them that he had found one and it was in a desk drawer in Grimmauld Place, immediately a small group of warriors and a curse breaker was sent to retrieve it and check the home for anymore.

The Goblins had decided to keep this piece till they found the other pieces so they could destroy them, it would also make finding the rest a bit easier. The Ragnok had declared that all the vaults would be searched from families that were tied to Lord Voldemort and everyone else that was tied to this mess that none of them utterly understood yet. They were to file this as auditing as deemed necessary under Act 765 from Year 768 A.D. should anyone ask questions.

While all this was happening, Regulus sat next to his sons’ bed. He could now only wait till the little boy would awaken, there were three more stuffies on the bed. His uncle Lucius had sent a dragon as well as a veela and Regulus had added a Nundu after his form as well. He had imprinted a little bit of his magic into the stuffy so that it hopefully reassured Hadrian he wasn’t alone. He had a soft smile that the Nundu was the toy that Hadrian was holding. He gently carded his hand through his sons’ hair, he hadn’t thought he would ever be able to do this again. Falee had suggested that he see a mind healer, that they all see a mind healer. He was looking forward in a way for the sessions, hoping it would help his family.

~~~~~

Almost a week later the sound of a child's laughter echoed down the hallway, a big dog barked as it chased the child down the hallway and into the playroom. The house was warm from various fires in fireplaces as well as warming charms that suddenly seemed to work better.

Remus and Regulus were sitting in the library going through documents, the smell of baking ginger biscuits wafted gently through the house. Severus was in the potions lab near the kitchen busy making all the potions the house could need while he was back at the school. In a far corner of the lab, he was brewing wolfsbane potion but that always took multiple days of brewing to complete, for this Yule they would be using potion they had bought from France and from next month everything Remus needed for a full moon would be provided by the house.

Kreacher was busy decorating in the living room for Yule, he had already decorated the dining room as well as the kitchen breakfast nook. He would soon decorate the children's playroom with a mix of Yule decorations as well as some Christmas festive decorations. He had even managed to convince Master Sirius that none of the decorations would be allowed to make any noise, little Master Hadrian’s Dinosaur slippers made more than enough noise thank you very much.

The house looked so festive in the shades of pale gold, dark greens and muted maroons. Neither of the Black brothers could believe it was the same house that had always been decorated in dark colours and minimal lights. The house felt warm and cheerful, even Kreacher had a warm personality now. The state of the house clearly had influenced the house-elf.

Regulus was slowly going ravenous from the scent of the ginger biscuits that were baking. “Do you think Doxit is going to let any of us eat any of these biscuits before Yule?”
Remus chuckled softly, “I do believe that he is baking some ginger wixen for Hadrian and Draco to decorate tomorrow during their playdate. I am fairly sure if you assist them in decorating Doxit won’t prevent you from eating at least one.”

Regulus perked up slightly at that thought, “Wait no that’s only tomorrow, I want one of those biscuits now. That’s it, I am taking a coffee break and going to see if I can convince a house-elf to let me eat a biscuit. I feel like I am eight years old again suddenly.”

Remus couldn’t stop himself even if he tried, he too wanted to see if Doxit would be willing to part with any of the freshly baked treats. He followed Regulus downstairs to the kitchen where Doxit was busy working. The elf was wearing a bright green jumper with little cherries on it that matched his bright red trousers. This ensemble was topped off with a Yule festive apron. The kitchen really did smell divine, he wondered how Severus was coping being almost right next to the kitchen, all that was between the potion’s lab was a half bathroom and the duelling and fitness room.

“Doxit, those look and smell absolutely divine. You are a genius to the art of baking biscuits.” Regulus smiled at the family house-elf he had known since he had been born.
Doxit merely raised an eyebrow at the wizard in his kitchen. He kept cutting the shapes for the gingerbread house he was busy baking for Yule. He had it planned that it had little lights inside so that the sweets planed glass windows would glow as if they were stained glass.

Regulus tried again, “I faintly remember these from my childhood, I was hoping there was a chance that I could try maybe one and share it with Remus. I am not sure if he ever did get a chance to try your gingerbread biscuits.”

“You don’t need to lay it on quite so thick. There are a few biscuits that don’t fit the standards for Yule in the tin next to Remus’s’ chocolate supply in the pantry. Don’t eat all of them and ruin your dinner, leave some for your brother and Severus as well as your son.” Doxit smiled at Regulus. Some things never changed, Regulus always worked around you before asking you straight for what he wanted, this was a result of his childhood.

Regulus surprised Doxit by smacking a kiss on top of the head of the house-elf, “Thank you Doxit, you sir, are a legend amongst all magic kind. I heard from Kreacher that your daughter and granddaughter were looking to move estates. If they are interested, they are always welcome here.”

Remus made three mugs of tea, he had quickly learnt how everyone drank their tea including the house elves, he knew it bothered Kreacher a bit to have the wizard make him tea, but the werewolf pretended not to notice and kept making everyone tea as the opportunity arose.

“That is truly kind of you, I will let them know that there is space for them here. Dottie is a nursery elf and I dare say both master’s Sirius and Hadrian need her services.” The sound of Regulus choking on his biscuit was heard before Doxit continued talking. “Young Debbie is looking for some guidance in life, I can’t help but wonder if maybe working with either you and Remus in the library or assisting Severus would do some good for her. She doesn’t seem to want to just want to work in the kitchens or nursery. The dreams we parents and grandparents have for our children being able to achieve more than we did. Though we have all achieved more already, none of us has decorated a wall in a long time.”

Remus put the mug down in front of Doxit, “I am sure that if Debbie’s skillset aligns with any of ours, we will all be happy to train her so she can get more specialised work.”

Regulus put some biscuits on a plate for him and Remus to share. “I do believe that you will be correct, Dottie will be busy with Sirius and Hadrian so as Remus said, we would all be happy for Debbie to train afield if it matches the work any of us do. If it doesn’t, we will gladly help her find her place. There are enough of us in the family that someone would suit to train the girl”

“Last time I checked, it was only myself and Remus that actually worked in this household,” Severus said as he walked into the kitchen. He stopped Remus from getting up to make him a mug of tea and made his own mug before getting one of the biscuits from the plate.

Regulus let out a chuckle, “I have an interview early in January for a job at the Wizengamot Archives. I do also have a mastery like you and Remus. Sirius isn’t sure he wants to go back to being an Auror, which none of us can blame him. I think from the bit I heard he is considering working for Gringotts as a curse breaker or going to go work at one of the animal reserves. He decided dragons are less dangerous than other Wixen. Don’t think I can blame him for this thought after everything.”

Doxit snorted before he put the cut-out dough into the oven to bake. “I will just go and let the girls know what you have offered them a place to live and work. I do suggest one of you makes more tea and maybe a cup of milky tea as Sirius and Hadrian are on their way downstairs.” With that, the older elf disappeared.

Chapter Text

Draco and Hadrian were playing in the playroom, the two cousins were carefully decorating Yule wreaths under the watchful eye of Dottie. Both wreaths looked as if a box of crayons had exploded onto them but between the colours as well as glitter and flowers used, it was clear that the wreaths were being made with a lot of love.

Regulus was sitting in a corner reading a book and just enjoying being in the company of his son and cousin. Narcissa and her husband as well as their grandfather would be joining everyone for Yule dinner in the evening and spend the night before opening presents with the boys. Sirius and Remus were outside getting the bonfire area ready for that part of the evenings' festivities. Severus was busy at St. Mungo's hospital helping to brew potions for the emergency room for tonight and New Year’s evening or rather Hog gamy. He had promised to be back in time for the festivities.

“So, what do you think you are getting for Yule?” Draco asked Hadrian while adding yet more glitter to his wreath.

“Ah, I am not sure. Papa said that he was sure I would get something fun, but I don’t remember ever getting presents before. I know Dudley got a robot Truck last year for Christmas.” Hadrian answered Draco.

Regulus was trying to pretend he wasn’t listening to their conversation but his heart broke a bit at the reminder of exactly how badly Hadrian had been treated by the Dursleys, none of them was yet entirely sure how Hadrian had landed up in the care of Lily to the point where people had thought she was married to James and when James went missing Hadrian landed up with her sister. He knew Arcturus and Amelia Bones were working on having Dudley removed from all their custody and going to live with a different aunt and uncle in hopes the child would also have a better childhood.

“What's a robot and a truck?”

Hadrian seemed to flounder around while he thought of how to answer his cousin. “It's what muggles use to move things around; they make toys of it like we have toy dragons.”
Draco considered the answer that Hadrian gave him and accepted the answer without thinking too much about all the holes in that answer. Draco didn’t know much about the muggle world and for now, he was happy with that. Regulus was sure by the time that boy was a teenager, Sirius would be dragging him into all the interesting parts of Muggle London and exposing him to many different ideas.

“I want another dragon toy, I have a Chinese Fireball and a Norwegian Ridgeback so far, I am really hoping that I get to add a Swedish short-snout but really any dragon would be cool.” With a last flourish, Draco handed his wreath to Dottie who made all the oooh and aaahh sounds at the brightly coloured wreath. Regulus had to swallow his chuckle knowing the two wreaths were going to go into the floo room and be the first thing guests saw as they arrived late afternoon.

“Mmm… I like dragons as well, but I have always liked big cats. Papa got me a Nugnu softie and it's amazing. It looks like the fluffier version of him. I have softies of everyone now. We can get a pet, a cat? Or I would like storybooks and colouring books, it is fun to make things with you.” Draco let out a surprised squeak as he was tackled in a hug by his slightly younger cousin. Hadrian then gave his wreath to Dottie.

Regulus couldn’t help but laugh, his mother would have died if she had ever seen those wreaths decorating the floo room during Yule, he loved them already and hoped the boys would be willing to make wreaths for many years to come.

“Would the two of you like a snack? I know Doxit has made lovely biscuits for the two of you. Let us go wash your hands and head down to the kitchen to get bellies full. Thank Dottie for helping you two to make such wonderful wreaths. I know they going to make everyone that comes over today for yule feel very festive.”
With a chorus of thank-yous, and hugs to Dottie both boys went to wash their hands. Regulus had to help get most of the glitter out of both Hadrian and Draco’s hair and off their clothes. He was very thankful that Narcissa had packed in a few outfit changes for little Draco. Draco had however requested a pair of slipper socks as well when he had seen Hadrian’s so now both boys were wearing festive robes and bright soft squishy socks.

Doxit wasn’t sure who had enjoyed decorating the ginger biscuits more, Regulus or the boys. A few broken biscuits landed up in tummies but a full set of ginger wixen and quidditch items were decorated.

Regulus and Sirius chased the boys through the house and played ball games with them to work off all the excess energy from all the sugar before both boys had been tucked in for a nap. Kreacher had reported to Remus a while later that both boys and the two brothers were all asleep in the playroom. Dottie had put blankets and pillows under and over various people as they slept.

¬ ¬ ¬

Charlie and Bill were helping to set the table, all of them were getting ready for Yule. They had helped build the bonfire area outside the morning and know they were helping inside. Percy was busy helping Trixie decorate the fireplace with holly, berries, pinecones and fresh evergreens. They had a tree in a corner of the lounge that had little lights dancing around between the ornaments.

The twins as well as Ron and Ginny were busy colouring pages that would become more decorations on the tree and windows. Ginny was biting her tongue she was concentrating so hard. The twins kept switching pages to colour further on the other one's picture rather than switch crayons unnecessarily.

Aunt Molly was trying to not double-check the roast too often but even she was swept up in the festive spirit. Their dad was busy humming along to songs playing on the wireless as he put lights on the bannisters of the stairs. He, Molly and Trixie had worked awfully hard to declutter and clean the house for Yule. They would put the Yule gifts under the tree once all the children had gone to bed.

A couple of hours later, when everyone had relaxed and played games, the house was decorated to the nines. Molly announced that Dinner was ready, Yule dinner was always early so that they could do the bonfire part of the Yule festival before the children got too tired.

The older boys helped the younger boys to portion bites of their food off into spare bowls so that they had something they could burn while making their Yule wishes and blessings. Arthur couldn’t help but be proud of his sons, these last three years without their other dads hadn’t always been easy, he still had Bill and Charlie cry some nights, miserably looking for their papa or daddy or sometimes both. Looking at them now, it was clear that his boys would be okay.

“So does anyone have anything they are hoping that they will get under the tree for Yule?” Molly asked the table.

Percy had his hand in the air first, both Molly and Arthur chuckled about this, somehow in the last few months, the children had started raising their hands at the table to talk, thus ensuring they all got a turn. It wasn’t perfect but it really did help that they all were heard. “Yes Percy, what are you hoping for?”

“I was hoping for a mini library box for my side of the bedroom, I am running out of space to find my bed.” Percy went a little red as he blushed to say what he wanted. Arthur had to work very hard not to sigh in relief because that’s what he had gotten Percy.

Ron went next “There is a baking kit for wixen children. I like biscuits so I think that looks cool.”

Ginny nodded enthusiastically and had her little hand in the air so high she was almost standing, when Arthur nodded to show she could also speak her little shrill voice came out “the baking kit looks really nice, but I also like Charlie's old quidditch broom for my height. I can't ride his current broom; it is too big.”

Charlie's hand shot into the air, “Ginny, if you don’t get a broom, you can use my old little one. I was hoping for a book on dragons or other magical animals. I decided I want to be a zoologist when I grow up.”

Bill high fived him, that was a cool choice for a career. He then put his hand in the air, “I was hoping for a runes book, I saw some at school and it looks super interesting. Did you know they use runes to make wards?”

“Really, that’s interesting, I am sure that will help you become a curse breaker and to work for Gringotts when you grow up. Still planning to work in either Egypt or Japan?” Arthur asked his eldest. He and Molly had smiled and encouraged every answer.

Molly pointed at the twins and showed that they hadn’t answered yet. Both broke out in Cheshire smiles and spoke at the same time “We are hoping for a potion-making kit. We think making our own potions could be incredibly fun, the bit we have seen aunt Molly make potions for home. We want to open a toy shop like Zonkos when we grow up.”

Arthur laughed while the rest of the family all chuckled, it was such a perfect answer for the twins. “George and Fred, I don’t doubt for a moment that if the two of you put your minds to it, you can open a shop much better than Zonkos. I can show you both a few potion basics over the week if you two are interested but your aunt Molly is much better than I have ever been.” Both boys grinned happily at him.

The Yule feast went off wonderfully, later while standing outside, they all carefully threw their offerings into the yule fire. They each had a piece of paper where they had written something they were thankful for, something that they were letting the anger over go and a wish for the coming year. Once again on the papers everyone Percy’s age and older, the thing they wished for was the return of Fabian and Gideon. The younger children had most wished for the things small children wished for; a pet cat seemed quite popular this year on the request forms.

¬ ¬ ¬ ¬

Grimmauld Place was full as various family members arrived, Andromeda as well as her husband and daughter had arrived with Grandpa Arcturus. Kreacher had quickly run to add extra places at the dining room table for the unexpected guests while Dottie disappeared for a little while to get gifts for Nymphadora. No one wanted the little girl to feel left out of the festivities. Doxit had decided that the little lady would get to light the lights in the gingerbread house as her big contribution to this evening’s festivities since her younger cousins wreaths were decorating the floo room. Arcturus had chuckled when he saw the wreaths.

Narcissa as well as Lucius had made a point of praising both Draco as well as Hadrian about their wreaths and were silently thankful the colour explosions wouldn’t be decking their halls.

By the time Severus and Debbie, who preferred to be called Deborah since she is a potions elf and thus serious, arrived back from the hospital, the house was loud from the sounds of various people’s laughter and music playing from the gramophone.

After some careful prodding, Kreacher managed to get them all seated around the dining room table. Arcturus sat at the head of the table, Regulus on the left, Sirius on the right. Next to Regulus sat Hadrian, then Narcissa and Lucius and then Nymphadora. Severus was sitting next to Sirius and then it was Remus followed by Andromeda and Ted. No one sat at the other head of the table spot, but it was clear to all that that’s where James would have sat if he had been there.

The children were helped to put aside food for their offerings, after being promised that they wouldn’t go hungry by putting a few bites of food aside. Sirius made a lot of jokes and the table all laughed.

“Hadrian, so far what is your favourite animal?” Remus asked kindly.

Hadrian thought for a few moments, “I haven’t really seen any animals other than everyone and the owls and cats, I like cats even if Mrs Figgs cats were mean. Mrs Doris used to take her cat Tubbie for walks on a leash, he was always happy for extra head scratchies.”

“That sounds like a very clever cat, would you and Draco like to go to the Wildlife Reserve in Little Lane, during the holidays?”

Draco shouted his answer he was so excited, “Yes, yes, they have dragons and Unicorns! Please, please, please uncle, Remus.”

Hadrian looked at Remus, “Yes but it would be fun if Nymphadora can come along as well. Her hair changes colour, she is very cool.”

Remus laughed gently, “I already asked Nymphadora if they wanted to come along with us. They are very happy to come to see all the animals as well as spend time with you both was meant to be a surprise.”

“Uncle Remus, why do you say they, instead of her?” Hadrian asked while Draco nodded, both boys had picked this up.

“Well Hadrian and Draco, Nymphadora doesn’t really feel like they are a girl, nor do they feel like they are a boy. So, if they decide at some point if they want to be either a girl or a boy, we will call them he/she but for now, they are they. Nymphadora would also like all of us to call them Tonks from now on. I know it's going to take a bit of practice, but it really will make your cousin incredibly happy.” Andromeda smiled at the two boys as she tried to explain to them two boys.

The two boys looked at each other and nodded, “Yep, if Tonks wants to be they, then they are they.”

Both boys got a hug for that while Tonks was blushing beetroot red. They let out a surprised little yelp when Lucius hugged them as well.

That night at the bonfire all of them had returned James’s home as their wish for Yule. The little boys both felt as they threw in their offerings, how Lady Magic hugged them. It felt like their wishes for love and James was carried away in the wind.

¬ ¬ ¬ ¬

Captain John Patrick was sitting on the deck of the Aircraft Carrier. It was starting to become late evening and he was enjoying drinking a cup of coffee watching as a helicopter returned from a manoeuvres exercise, they were off the coast of Nigeria now. He enjoyed working with different Militaries on anti-sea piracy exercises. He had quickly learnt that between the Nigerian and South African Navy, he and his team could learn a lot about how to board ships stealthily.

He had volunteered to spend this time between Christmas and New Year doing the training so some of the other officers could at least video call their families back home if not fly home. The thought of home was slightly bitter, he didn’t have a home anymore.

Lily had sent the divorce papers through a few weeks ago but in reality; they should have never married. It had taken him a while to realise that he was gay, he wasn’t interested in Lily in that way and couldn’t give her the baby she had so desperately wanted. It had added another ticking time bomb to a relationship that wasn’t working.

“You know, you look like shit.” Lieutenant Commander Anna Windlow said as she sat down next to him. He could smell the heavy sunscreen she was wearing, his entire squadron was slathered in it.

He knocked his mug against hers, “Cheers. Been having really weird dreams again.”

“Want to talk about it, might help you get some answers,” Anna asked before taking a sip of her tea.

John sighed, “Yeah sure, I keep dreaming that I am in a townhouse, for some reason it is in London. A little boy is running ahead of me in dinosaur pyjamas and these ridiculous dinosaur slippers. The little boy is yelling at his daddy to come to catch him before papa finds him. As he runs away from me, it always feels like my heart is breaking so I land up chasing him. Last night I caught up to him just as another man appeared at the end of the hallway. Anna, he is the most beautiful man I have ever seen, his hair is long and hangs in a plait over his shoulder, his eyes are grey and these high cheekbones. He catches the little boy and they both look at me and smile. The boy looks like a weird mix of the two of us. The dad or I suppose papa smiles at me and just says ‘look at what you are missing, it is time for you to come home.’ It feels so real, it feels like I am separated from my family.”

Anna looked at him and then nodded almost to herself, “John, I think you need to get to London. This might be your future calling you.”

“Anna, I am a soldier, there is no reason for my future to be a townhouse in London.”

“Stop being stubborn, you aren’t happy, you and I both know you are gay, and relationships are hard in the military. You are finally free from that Banshee. Go to London, see if you can find the man with the long hair.”

“I will think about it.”

Later that night he felt a warmth of light hitting him as he lay in his bunk. It felt as if he was being hugged, while he slept, lights danced around the cabin. For the first time in over four years, he felt a connection to his magic, magic he had forgotten about.

Chapter Text

Regulus was sitting at the desk of the head of the Department of Mysteries. Madam Abbott was reading his paperwork.

“I see you were a Death Eater. Care to tell me why you joined and decided to leave?”

Even though he had been expecting it, discussing that bit of his past always hurt him. “I was forced to take the mark by my mother when I was a teenager. It became clear to everyone soon afterwards, that I wasn’t ever really going to be a good Death Eater. I mostly worked at brewing healing potions badly and doing basic healing.

I became invisible to most of them while my cousin Bellatrix shone. One night when she was rambling, I learnt about something that could be used to hurt Lord Voldemort and I went to see James Potter and Sirius Black. My brother and his best friend, were both in Auror training and while Sirius and I argued a lot. James was still my boyfriend at that point, we had started dating when I turned fifteen.

They both knew I never wanted to become a Death Eater so the few nights where I could sneak away and see them, was what kept me going.” Regulus steeled his shoulders and continued with his story. “When I explained to them what I discovered, the three of us agreed that the only other people that should know was Severus Snape and Remus Lupin. Severus was a spy for the Order of the Phoenix, him knowing that I had deflected would help me stay alive. Remus is excellent at research, and he was the one that helped me piece more of the puzzle together.”

“What did you discover?” Madam Abbott asked, she was fully intrigued.

“I discovered what Horcruxes were, they are pieces of people's souls that they split off and put in items so that when they die, they can be bought back. To make them, you need to do something truly terrible to split your soul into pieces, like killing an innocent child. From what we could gather at the time, Lord Voldemort had six Horcruxes. Remus and I were able to find and collect two, while James and Sirius kept working in the front lines. We got information that there was a third in a cave. By then, James and I had gotten married in a small bonding ceremony, we are soul mates, our son was six months old.

Once we found the information, we realised we needed to hurry to get it. In the end, it was me and the family house-elf, that Voldemort had used to build the area for his Horcrux that went to get it. I am sorry to say that something went wrong in that cave, and I went into a coma till four months ago. Somehow the Goblins got a hold of my son, and they helped my soul and body to reacquaint themselves. We still have no idea how James landed up living in Godric’s Hollow with Lily Evans with our son nor what happened after the attack, and he disappeared. I have proof from the Goblins that James is still alive. Sorry I went off topic there for a few seconds. Thanks to the goblins, we have managed to find and destroy four Horcruxes, there are three left. I know I said earlier that there was six, but on the night, he disappeared he accidentally made my son a Horcrux. This has been fixed and Hadrian is completely fine.”

Madam Abbott found herself staring at the young man in front of her, he had discovered how to destroy Lord Voldemort. He had been brave and continued fighting even when he had had a newborn at home. Yes, she would offer him a job. Not just because he has mastery in Runes, but it was clear he would be an asset to her and her team.

Regulus was trying not to stare at Madam Abbott, but she was beautiful, her skin was as nearly dark as her robes, but her hair was beautiful, in sleek plaits along with her head. He saw the picture of a little girl on her desk, she looked like a mini version of her mother, her hair was put up into two little puffy buns in the photo and she was laughing in the photo. The photo was in contrast with the office, the office reminded him of the restricted section of the library at Hogwarts, some of the books were chained to the bookshelves and between the books were objects that he was sure all had interesting stories.

“Do you still carry the Dark Mark?”

“Ahh yes, the Goblins weren’t sure if they could remove it without hurting my arm permanently, so they left it.”

“Follow me then, we can remove it without hurting you for more than an hour after it was removed. I would rather that you don’t have the mark since you will be working here. I also suggest that anyone else you know that has the mark but was forced into it or were spies in the past also come in to have their marks removed. They can be used to track you. From what I understand that would be professor Prince and Lord Malfoy. I don’t think Lady Malfoy ever took the mark.” Madam Abbott walked out of her office, ahead of Regulus and thus she didn’t see his knees nearly give in.

“Thank you, thank you. No, you are right, my cousins Narcissa and Andromeda never took the mark unlike their other sister.”

“Don’t thank me yet, it is going to hurt.” She kept leading him deeper into the department, Regulus was trying to not stare at everything he saw in the various labs as they walked past. “Here we are, Unspeakable Bell will help you remove the Mark from your arm. I expect to see you and everyone else we spoke about on the third of January for your first day of work. You will be aiding Unspeakable Bell then to remove their marks as well. I would suggest you don’t tell them how the procedure works.”

Unspeakable Bell led him to a specific spot and took his arm with the mark in their hands. Their hood was up and between the robes and the hood, he had no idea who was helping him. The unspeakable rolled up his sleeve and put a tank on the table next to them. Regulus heard a hissing sound come from the Unspeakable and the mark on his arm wiggled for the first time ever. The Unspeakable took their wand and pressed it against the mark and slowly a green mist surrounded the two of them his arm started burning as it felt like the mark was desperately clinging to his arm. He watched in fascination as the mark was being pulled out of his arm, first, it looked like a tattoo but then it took form, soon it looked like a snake was being pulled out of his arm tail first. The keeper eventually got the snake to release his arm and put the snake into the tank. Regulus was woozy from the pain, he was sure the snake had bitten him, his arm was bleeding profusely at this point. The Unspeakable rushed an anti-venom into his system followed by a pain potion and a blood replenishing potion as they healed the mark on his arm.

“Black adders, he used black adders to make the mark. So, they would bite people if people managed to remove the mark. You will feel better soon but sit down. On the fourth, I will need you to administer the potions to the people while I remove the marks, the sooner we do it the less time for either of them to panic about it. You can’t remove the marks since you aren’t a parselmouth, but you can help with the post mark removal healing.”

“Wait that was parseltongue, I thought only Voldemort was a parseltongue?”

“No, there are far too many snakes on earth for only one person or family to have that set of skills. Most of us keep quiet about it in Britain because of Voldemort but there is a fair few of us. I hear some dragon tamers are Parselmouths, they understand each other even though it isn’t a great language crossover.”

“That makes sense. Thank you for removing the mark, I feel free without it on my arm. I can’t say thank you enough.”

The Unspeakable removed their hood and smiled at Regulus, Regulus smiled at a small man of South-East Asian descent, “No need to thank me, it is an immense pleasure to be able to undo some of that man's work.”

****

It was the eighth of February and Regulus was standing in his work robes, he was in one of the ritual chambers. Various other Unspeakables were around him, he was sure a few of them were Goblins but he didn’t ask. He realised the need to keep things like their work here secret, he only knew a few of their faces. To most of the other Unspeakables, he was Unspeakable Pewter. Tonight, they were going to do a ritual. They had with effort realised that a part of James that was hiding him from them was also blocking his magic. They were hoping that if they could unblock his magic, they would be able to find James. Regulus had a band-aid that had a small amount of Hadrian blood on it, Hadrian’s blood was the closest they could find that could link back to James since they didn’t have any of James' hair or his blood.

The runestones as well as the painted marks on the floor glowed as they started the chant, various Unspeakables walking to specific stones before they performed specific words or movements. To some, it would almost look like a highly choreographed modern dance though the Unspeakables had practised their parts of this ritual so many times the last week they could just as well have learnt dance choreography. It took half an hour before the moonlight shone on the centre stone in the ritual. Smoke started bubbling from the altar still the Unspeakables continued with the chant. Lightning struck in the room and darted out of the room; storm clouds settled over central London.

The clouds rolled across the sky and spread as the clouds started searching for Lord Potter. Soon the clouds rolled across the coast and over the ocean. As the last of the clouds left the ritual room, various Unspeakables collapsed, Regulus was lying there on the cold stone floor, hoping that this time, they would be able to find his husband. He was so tired of promising Hadrian that his dad loved him and would never have willingly abandoned him. He knew the only way the small boy would believe him was if James told him the same. He was tired of sleeping on his own or not being able to hold James early in the morning while they both drank their coffee. As he was lying there, he watched the storm as it rolled out of London.

John was watching as a massive electric storm rolled from Europe to the aircraft carrier. They had to call planes and helicopters back as they would rather not lose any planes or personnel due to a storm. He was on the deck helping to make sure the wheel clamps that kept the planes on the deck were properly secured. A part of him was thankful that his third last night on a carrier was a bit more interesting than sailing back to England.

The wind from the storm hit him first as it pounded into him. The clouds enveloped him as they reached over the deck. He felt as he was lifted into the storm, desperately holding onto a plane before his grip gave out and he was sucked deeper into the storm.

It felt as if he hit a solid floor as he landed, as he opened his eyes, he could clearly see he was still in the middle of the storm but seemed to be on a floor. He sat up carefully and looked around, in the centre of the floor stood a man. The man was taller than anyone he had ever seen, and he wore black leathers and furs, John had a moment where he couldn’t help but think of Norse Viking God mythologies as he stared at the man.

“Ahh you are awake Lord Peverell or should I call you James. We don’t have much time before I need to return you to your home. Your husband and son have waited far too long for you. Listen to me before you ask questions or doubt, all will be revealed soon.” The tall man helped him up and lead him over to a chair and sat down opposite him.

“Your name is James Potter it has never been John Patrick; extraordinarily strong ritual magic was done by Lily Evans as well as her master to wipe your memory and put you into a different life. The most important thing you need to know right now is, Lord Voldemort isn’t fully gone yet but there are motions in place to defeat him. It seems this time around you all have a chance to defeat him. You are a soldier but not for the British Military but against the rise of a Dark Lord, you were an Auror which is a mix of the police as well as military for the Wixen of the British people. On the eve of Beltane four years ago, your husband disappeared and landed up in a coma, he has awoken and helped us find you. You and your son went into hiding trusting someone to help keep you safe that you worked with, she betrayed you, you lived with her for nearly a year when on Samhain eve, she led Lord Voldemort straight to your door, your son was injured and taken to her family for ‘safe’ keeping while your memories were wiped, and you were transported into the life of someone else. We are thankful that you have managed to cut ties with her as we do not know if this would have worked if she still had compulsion potions in your system.” The tall man walked and put his hands on John/James's temples.

“Remember who you are. The light needs you for the fight that is coming. Your family needs you, your best friends, your son, and your husband needs you. Your son’s magic has been calling to you, those dreams of a little boy are your son trying to find you. He will be far stronger than you and your husband, but he needs the two of you to keep him safe and train him for the next step in his life.”

James was pushed back into the chair as he felt years of compulsions, lies and dark magic wiped out of his mind. His body shook as violently as the storm outside. The force of the magic slamming back into his body, his magic that had been around him and unable to get in for years, resulted in James passing out.

Lord Death picked his great something grandson up and pressed a kiss to his forehead before carrying James out of the storm and through the night to Grimmauld place. He gently laid James down on the bed where Regulus was asleep. He watched as the two turned towards each other and clung to each other in their sleep, desperate to not let go.

Chapter Text

It was four in the morning when Hadrian woke up. He got out of bed and carefully walked to his papa’s bedroom, he didn’t put on his slippers, he didn’t want to wake anyone up. He carefully opened the door to his papa’s bedroom and then walked into the room. His papa had decorated the room in blues and soft bronzes with pale creams, the room smelt like chamomile, it felt like a hug when he stood in the room. He walked over to the bed and saw two men in the bed, his papa was curled up against another man. Hadrian stared at the man before he realised who he was seeing. His daddy was in bed with his papa, he was wearing funny clothes, but he was clearly James Potter. Hadrian could understand why people kept saying he looks so much like his daddy. Hadrian didn’t want to be left out and climbed into the bed with both his parents and got comfy snuggled on the top of James, Regulus stretched and wrapped an arm around Hadrian and soon all three were fast asleep again. 

Sunlight bothered his eyes and James woke up, his first thought was he had overslept, he was late for duty. This was quickly followed by who was holding him, he hadn’t drunk any alcohol the previous evening, also what was it on his chest? As much as he was curious who was holding him, he didn’t want to open his eyes and look because this was the most comfortable, he had been in years, the last time had been when he had shared a bed with Regulus. 
Merlin, Regulus he needed to get to Regulus. James opened his eyes and saw the dark hair on his chest, the body was male. Oh Merlin, please tell me I didn’t cheat on Regulus was a brief thought. As he took in his surroundings, he realised where he was, this was Grimmauld Place. 

“Reggie?”

The head-on his chest rose suddenly, he could see the person process waking up with someone in their bed. They clearly hadn’t expected anyone in the bed with them either. Grey eyes met his dark green eyes and suddenly it felt as if years of darkness was swept away. It was his Regulus in the bed with him. 

“James? Oh, Merlin, I didn’t expect to find you in my bed. I know we did the ritual to try and find you but the idea that you are here. Oh Merlin,” Regulus burst into tears, James wasn’t sure he had seen Regulus cry more than once in all the years he had known him, only the night Regulus had been marked.

“Reggie, it is okay. My ancestral magic decided to help your ritual and bought me here. I have been living a life so different from my real life, but I suddenly remember everything. I missed you so much, even when I forgot about you, my heart yearned for you.” James wanted to sit up and wrap his arms around Regulus, but the weight was still on his chest and Regulus put a hand on his shoulder to stop him from sitting up. 

“I wouldn’t sit up if I were you, Hadrian is asleep on you, apparently both of us was asleep on you. I missed you so much too. We have so much to discuss but for now, I just want to celebrate being with you again. I missed you so much, James.” Regulus leaned over and pressed a chaste kiss against James’s mouth.
 
James wasn’t happy with such a fleeting kiss and wrapped his arms around his husband and kept kissing his husband, for now he kept the kisses controlled. He didn’t want to wake his son up either, but he needed this connection with his husband for a moment. Slowly they broke the kiss and settled down wrapped in each other’s arms while waiting for their son. Regulus told him everything he had missed that they could piece together so far. James returned the favour and told Regulus everything about his life away from them. 

Hadrian woke up in the same way that Regulus did as if his mind was at war with the idea of ending sleep. The little boy squirmed and wiggled against his dads’ chest; a small fist punched what he clearly thought was a pillow that wasn’t soft enough. The fist then settled as an open hand covering his eyes from the sun that was bothering him. James was trying not to laugh at how cute a small version of Reggie on his chest was. “Come on sweetheart, it is time to wake up. We need breakfast soon and playtime afterwards. Sweetheart, wake up, show daddy that pretty smile he misses so much.”

Hadrian went very still as his sleepy brain processed what he heard, that was daddy's voice, daddy, “Daddy?” suddenly a small boy scrambled into a seating position between both his dads. “Daddy! You are home!” he launched himself at his dad for a hug. The three of them spent some time in bed, just telling silly stories and cuddling. 

Much later when they went down to breakfast, owls were sent to Black Manor and Hogwarts to inform Arcturus as well as Severus that the ritual had worked better than hoped and the missing piece had been found. The letters were kept very cryptic on purpose in case they were intercepted. Remus and Sirius, were ecstatic as their other marauder had been found. Plans were made to inform Madam Bones that James was made and for him to enquire to be moved to the Magic Military intelligence department of her Majesty royal Navy. 

There wasn’t much use for his training as a pilot, but he was high ranking and had been trained as an Auror. Working in Intelligence would keep him with his family, he wasn’t willing to let them go any time soon, if ever. Part of his preclearance involved a trip to the Bank for him to be cleaned by the Goblins. King Ragnok, himself escorted them to the chamber where they would do the test as well as any cleansing rituals needed. 

Lord James Charlus Potter

Magical Core:
Pure-blooded 
Soul Mate/ Bonded: Regulus Black

Magical Ailments:
Magic Leach 70% full power
Albus Dumbledore
All speak block
Cast by Albus Dumbledore
Soul Mate block
Cast by Lily Evans 
Memory alterations
Cast by Lily Evans and Lord Voldemort
Eidetic memory block
Cast by Lily Evans and Lord Voldemort
Healing block
Cast by Albus Dumbledore

Heritage:
Lord of most Ancient and Noble House Peverell
Lord of most Ancient and Noble House Potter
Lord of most Ancient and Noble House of Gryffindor
Proxy of Lord of Death, Paternal Line, son holds the title.

The mix of the magic cast on James from three different people had surprised everyone. James had been able to point out that Lily had been working for Lord Voldemort but pretended to still be good. She hadn’t been happy with the life of being married to a sailor even though she had been part of the ritual to change his history so that he became John Patrick. Their marriage had never been consummated. James, well was most definitely gay and had been unable to do anything with her, not even enjoy any kisses. This had made Regulus slightly less jealous but still unhappy about what had been forced upon his husband. Hadrian however was just happy to have his daddy back. The goblins could finally undo the blood adoption as both parents were alive and present and could sign for the ritual to be done. The vivid emerald eyes disappeared and were replaced with cool green eyes that almost looked grey in a certain light, his face became slightly less round, and he grew a few centimetres. 

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Severus was starting to get used to being back at school, full time. He had had many meetings with Albus but thankfully each time either Minerva or Pomona would appear and help make sure that the meeting didn’t get out of hand or that he would be threatened. He had not yet announced that he was taking up his mantle as Lord Prince, a seat that Dumbledore was using in the Wizengamot. One that Dumbledore had never told him was his. 

He, Sirius as well as James had decided to wait till the summer courts before they made those announcements. As far as he was aware, James was going to see if he could convince Arthur to accept his seat as well as the Prewitt seat instead of Dumbledore. Somehow Dumbledore had gotten control of all their seats as they disappeared or had convinced them that he would use them better in parliament voting. 

Debbie had settled in nicely with him at Hogwarts, she helped keep the labs clean and tidy. Much to his chagrin, he came back from a weekend at Grimmauld Place with the family only to find his lab redecorated. The potions lab had extra vents to help keep the air clean. Racks had been put up so the students could hang up their robes before working. Signage hung recommending that they not wear bulky robes when working, their usual uniform would work much better. The tables had been scrubbed clean and painted cheerful colours to cheer up the lab. Debbie had even replaced the old gas-style bulbs for lighter modern ones, to make the lab much better lit. In one of the bookshelves notebooks and more modern quills that resembled muggle pens were in neat containers. 

“I think it will work better if the students use notebooks and files rather than lose parchment to take their notes. It will also force the students that write far too big or small to become a bit more uniform so marking will be easier. I have put sheets of lined paper and graph paper in one container so students can take paper as needed for their assignments. If you look carefully, I even put up a sign with the incantation to bind the pages of their assignments together. The students can put their tests and assignments into the binders so that when they have appointments to see you to discuss their marks or their futures, all the information is easily accessible. I have even put trackers on the binders for every time they lose points for their house, or they are late with work as well as when you send letters to their parents. Would you like me to automate a charm that notifies parents when their child’s marks get too low in class?” Deborah the house-elf formally known as Debbie asked him. 

“My lab looks very different, why didn’t you discuss this with me?”

“Well, it isn’t really your lab, your lab is back at Grimmauld Place, this is a classroom and now looks like a place where nervous teenagers can learn how to make potions. How many souls with potential get put off potions because they don’t feel comfortable in this class?”

“I can concede that you have a valid point, but I would have preferred that you ask before doing all of this.” Severus walked over to his desk only to find there was clearly a climate control charm in his desk area. He had always run extra cold, so wore heavy robes just to stay warm. For the first time in a while, he smiled in his classroom, it really does look a lot better. “Thank you. Your ideas are wonderful, I am sure the teenagers will think so too.”

All through the castle news of the redecorated potions lab spread like wildfire, even seventh-year students that weren’t taking potions found odd reasons to peak into the lab. Severus pretended to not notice them and drank the coffee in a self-refilling flask that Deborah had put at his workstation. She had put one in his office as well as his quarters. Sirius had been completely enchanted with it every time he and Remus spent the night or the weekend at the Castle. After his fifth attempt at stealing one of these flasks, Doxit had put on in the duelling room and study for back at Grimmauld Place.

Little Tonks had taken to spending their free time in the lab and brewing potions. The little Hufflepuff often hid behind their uncle when school got too tough. Severus spent a lot of time getting the Hufflepuff students to realise that potion making was seeing how their plants could be used once harvested or a much more precise art of cooking. This approach also seemed to work on the Gryffindor as well, Severus was just annoyed as his students that the timetable insisted on putting students with incompatible studying styles together. The Ravenclaws and the Slytherins had a more logical approach to potions while the Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs all needed to be able to see the context when making their potions. Bringing this up in the next staff meeting caused a major argument between the staff and the headmaster. 

¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬

“Really Albus, why are you digging your heels in about this? Many years ago, students were divided by marks and aptitude for the subjects and that had worked well. Severus is merely suggesting we start pairing more compatible learning styles together in certain subjects.” Pomona pointed out while watching the headmaster with a glare.

“Well, I hear you, I do believe that putting the students in the current positions will encourage house unity and them to work harder than the students of the other houses,” Dumbledore answered them.
 
“Pish posh, promotes house unity, more like house hostility. If we have the houses feel less like everyone and everything is a constant competition, we might be able to encourage the students to make friends with each other and not just their own houses. It will allow the children to strengthen their school pride and allow them to root for each other when students compete in some of the international events against other schools. Other than houses for sport and to make dorming easier, we really should move away from this idea of constant house rivalry.” Minerva snorted at Dumbledore. 

Dumbledore clearly didn’t like this attitude for the Deputy Headmistress and the other three of the heads of houses. “This is how I chose to run this school, if you ever do get the chance to run the school, you may make the decisions as you see fit. If you don’t like it go teach at one of the other schools.”

“Really Albus, I would be careful before threatening any of us, I do most of the paperwork in the school and many of the Heads of Houses are doing at least the work of three other people. I think we will mention this at the school governor's meeting. I do not think they are aware of how you are using the house system to allow alienation as well as bullying of students. Do not think that I am not aware that you have encouraged Gryffindor to bully anyone they see as weak.” Minerva sneered at Dumbledore. 

“Until we find people to sit in the Heirs of Hogwarts chairs on the school board, I don’t think any of the changes we would want to take place will take place.” Flitwick pointed out; they all knew the school governing board were staunch Dumbledore supporters even in the Wizengamot as well as the ICW. 

Severus lifted his head at this point, “I might be aware of a family that has tested as the Heir of two of the Houses, I am sure with a little encouragement we can get the Goblins to do inheritance tests on the children coming in with their parents and find the other two Heirs. I might be able to persuade the Heirs I do know to attend the meetings or rather send a representative.”

“Nonsense no such person exists.” Dumbledore snorted.

“Oh, do believe me that they do, they even have the Lordship rings to prove it, since they are not yet seventeen, their identity is secret by law, but I do believe that their parents will be more than happy to sit on the board in their steed. The one parent is actually the Lord of one of the schoolhouses, but the child already has a Lordship of a house and will be the Heir of their parent's title.” Severus found him sneering back at the headmaster. To think he had respected this man. 

Flitwick smiled at the table, his grin seemed very goblinish at that moment, he was aware of the privacy laws around underaged Heirs, he could only imagine how old a bloodline that family had that they had two Lordships. “Severus, I do believe that is a wonderful idea, it will certainly breathe new life into the school board. I will send a letter to my cousin at Gringotts to put forth your suggestion that children entering the bank get their inheritance tests. You never know, we might find descendants of some of the families that we all thought were dying out or had died out.”

Chapter Text

That summer for the first session of Wizengamot grew closer, the residents at Grimmauld place started to put their plans in action. Amelia and James agreed that the news that James was back should be kept in a back pocket. He was to go by one of the other surnames in his family, so he became Charles Peverell, they used potions to change his appearance just enough that he looked as if he was related to James but was not James. This would allow him to claim his seats on the council as well as function as a proxy for some of his son’s seats. Regulus was to claim his own seat on the council while also sitting as a proxy for the rest of his sons’ seats.

They had decided that James would claim, Peverell, Potter, Gryffindor as well sit as Proxy for Gaunt. Regulus would take his seat as Lord Le Fey and sit as Proxy for Slytherin. Severus would claim his title as Lord Prince and Arcturus was going to retire in a few years so Sirius would be claiming Heir Black, for now. They specifically chose this now as it was also at a time when the ICW was in session so a lot of the more prominent seats would be empty including Dumbledores. So he wouldn’t be there as seats that he ran as a proxy would be reassigned. After a few teas with Arthur, they had gotten him to agree to accept his Lordship. Lucius had offered to declare the contract that had been broken between the two families invalid, so the Ancient and Noble House of Weasley would no longer be seen as blood traitors and the family vaults would be unlocked. Arthur was also going to claim proxy on house Prewitt, in his husbands’ stead. The twins were the heirs as the Lordship went to magical twins first if they were available.

The morning of the summer session was noticeably quiet in the house, Remus was to take Hadrian with him to sit in the family seats so he could watch his family claim their titles officially in the courts. They were seated next to the Weasley clan and Narcissa, Andromeda as well as Draco and Tonks.

As the Wizengamot was called to order so that they could begin, Madam Amelia Bones who had been prepped for what was to happen opened the session. “Welcome to the summer season, before we begin with, are there any members that have come of age that would like to claim their seats?”

The two Black brothers walked in and then the rest of the party, everyone was dressed impeccably, Narcissa had made sure of it. Sirius stood in the front of the Court and smiled “Well Madam Bones, we may not have come of age recently, we would like the opportunity to claim our house seats.”

“Well, that is also permitted, please step forward, raise your wand and declare the seats you wish to claim. If Lady Magic accepts these claims, the crystals atop of the newly claimed seats will light up, if you have more than one house, those seats will merge under the most influential house. Do not fret, your votes will still count as every individual house that you claim. Am I to assume that you would be first, Heir Black?” Amelia asked.

“Why yes Madam Bones, I will be going first.” Sirius walked to the centre and raised his wand. “I wish to reclaim the Heirship for the Most Noble and Ancient House of Black.” The crystal above House Black lit up and Sirius Heir ring lit briefly. Sirius felt the rush as his family magic reaccepted him and he went to sit next to his grandfather in the Heir seat. Every descendant of the family Black felt a soft warming flare in their magical core.

Regulus followed his brother and stood in the middle of the court, “I wish to claim the Most Noble and Ancient House of Le Fey. I am also claiming proxy for the Most Ancient and Noble House of Slytherin.” As with Sirius, the Crystals lit up and two seats merged into one, above the seat sat two Large Crystals. The parliament went into an uproar, both these houses had lain dormant for generations. On Hadrian's hand, a lordship ring appeared on his right ring finger followed by an heir ring on his left pointer.

“He can not claim those houses, we all know that he is a death eater!” Yelled Lady Hastings.

“He is perfectly allowed to claim any Lordships and seats he is intitled to and Lady Magic herself has approved his requests. Though to put your mind at rest so none of you throws such a pointless insult at Lord Le Fey in the future. Lord Le Fey, would you mind showing anyone your forearms?” Amelia asked.

“Of course, Madam Bones, I would be happy to reassure the Court.” Regulus made a great show of rolling the sleeves of his robes up so that his forearms were bare. There was no Mark of a Death Eater on his arms. Once he restored his sleeves to their rightful spots, he walked up the steps and sat down in his seat, which was thankfully next to his brother.

Severus went next, there were a few mutterings, but he ignored them. “I am aware that my mother was disinherited but I was not, I would like to Claim the Most Noble House of Prince.” The light above the Prince seat, one section lower than where Sirius and Regulus were sitting glowed. Severus walked with grace up the stairs to his spot and sat down. The Heirship ring appeared briefly on Hadrian's finger before merging with his other heir ring.

James walked to the centre of the court and smiled at Amelia. “Good morning, I am Charles Peverell and I wish to Claim, the Most Ancient and Noble Houses of Gryffindor, Potter and Peverell, I would also like to sit in Proxy for the Most Noble and Ancient House of Gaunt.” This time the parliament went absolutely silent, for anyone to claim a Most Ancient household was rare but to claim four had never happened before. There was a flare of light as the four seats merged into one and the Crystals aligned themselves. This made that James would be seated between Regulus and Sirius. Once again, various rings appeared on Hadrian’s hand as they merged into various other rings, the child was almost glowing at this point as the family magics to protect him activated.

Arthur was slightly unnerved, but reassuring smiles from Lucius and James helped to settle his nerves. “I would like to claim the Most Noble House of Weasley, the feud between the houses Malfoy and Weasley has been solved most Graciously. I would also like to claim Proxy to the Most Ancient and Noble House, Prewitt.” The seats merged and Arthur walked to his seat, which was next to Lord Black. This time Heir rings appeared on Bill and the twins’ hands. Ginny was briefly jealous that they got jewellery, but the rings were quite plain-looking.

 “Well now, I do believe that was a first to have so many houses claimed. Is there anyone else that would like to claim seats?” Madam Bones and Minister Fudge looked over the court. Quite a few were surprised when Lady Longbottom stood up.

“While no claims are to be made by this Most Noble and Ancient house, this house is changing its alliance. This house is no longer part of the Light party and wishes to be accepted by the Neutral Party.” Lady Augusta Longbottom stood tall while waiting as the family magics decided if it agreed with her statement, suddenly the family crystal and seat glowed before they and Lady Augusta were moved to sit next to Lord Weasley. The Neutral party roared with cheers as even more, prominent people joined them, for the first time in a long time they might be able to have an impact on the voting.

“Are there any more houses that would like to claim seats or switch parties? No, quite excellent, let’s start with the first order of business. The reformation of the Dark Creature act.” Said Amelia as she called the court and Parliament back under control. While she didn’t show it, she was secretly ecstatic.

After much back and forth between the different sections of the court, the Light being pro stricter control and restrictions whilst the Dark was against it, for once the Grey wasn’t neutral and argued that the restrictions should be lifted, and Dark creatures should be allowed to seek gainful employment without discrimination as well as be allowed to pursue an education. This would put the Wixen world of Britain much more in line with what was happening in Mainland Europe. The Dark Side and the Grey side voted together and had a hefty majority in the new rights for Dark creatures. This meant that were-creature and other creature children would be allowed to go to schools such as Hogwarts as well as be allowed to university. This also made it illegal for Creatures to be denied employment or fired because the workplace wasn’t willing to accommodate their needs. Remus found it hard to wipe the smile off of his face as they left the Wizengamot. The newspapers the following day was full of the Creature and Dark Creature reformation acts, so much so that they had forgotten to report about the newly claimed seats.

~~~~

Minerva could not help but laugh as she read the recent transcripts from the first summer session of Wizengamot. It would appear that two of the founders’ seats at the school would be claimed on the school board, she was very curious about this. If managed correctly, finally the changes that they hoped could happen would.

 She didn’t know Charles Peverell, but he was Lord Gryffindor, she could only hope that he would be a noble Gryffindor and take the interests of the school seriously. She was not the least worried about Regulus being the acting Proxy for Slytherin, she had always liked him, and she knew he would fight hard to make the school a better environment for the children.

 Yes indeed, she wondered if she could arrange a tea with the two men to discuss the changes that needed to take place. Once Bill Weasley came to school, she would also work to get Arthur to sit on the school governing board. She couldn’t see Dumbledore being opposed to this, but he would underestimate Arthur’s sense of right and wrong. Yes, this would do nicely, it was time that the damage was done by a headmaster who only cared about the power of his seat but not of his actual students was undone.

She got up from her desk at her family home, her granddaughter was playing in the garden under the careful supervision of her mother. They spoke French with each other as her daughter had gone to Beauxbatons for her education. McGonagall hadn’t wanted her daughter to be a pawn in a war that had been clearly brewing when her daughter was of schooling age. She was thankful though; Marie was an excellent wandmaker and had recently opened a wand shop in Tinkerers Lane in Edinburgh. It was a long time coming, Britain would need an extra wandmaker.

On that thought, she wondered if the new Lords were aware of Tinkerers Lane, maybe they only did their shopping in London. Diagon Alley and its surrounding alleys were all very close to the ministry so far too easy to be kept an eye on. Yes, this would do nicely as an invite to get to know the new Lords better, tea in one of the tearooms and seeing where the new lay of the land was, anything she could do to keep the students safe and out of the coming war.

~~~~

Regulus was sitting in the garden drinking tea watching as Severus and James went through their paces. It was still early so they could practice duelling outside in the sun without overheating. Kreacher had put out pitchers of water with iced cucumber and mint for when the men were done. Hadrian was sitting next to him and colouring in a page of his mystical deep-sea creature’s book.

Kreacher appeared next to him a few minutes later and handed him a letter. Regulus laughed softly; he hadn’t seen this handwriting since school. The neat and tight handwriting could only be McGonagall. He saw the letter was addressed to both him and James though in this case Charles. He opened the wax seal and his eyebrows lifted as he read the letter, it was quite bold.

Dear Regulus and Lord Charles Peverell

Forgive me for being so informal Regulus but I always did feel that we had established a friendship by the time you had finished your schooling. Lord Charles, while I do not know you, the people you seem to count as friends I hold in high regard thus making you seem trustworthy.

There are many things we need to discuss before the first sit-down of the school governing body, as you have both claimed Founders seats at the Wizengamot. I can only assume that you will be claiming the seats at Hogwarts as well.

I do hope that the two of you will be free this coming Thursday to meet me for tea at ten o’clock in the morning at Princes Tearoom in Tinkerers Lane, Edinburgh. The floo address is Princes Tearoom. I would be most delighted to show you through the Edinburgh Magical community neighbourhood after tea. I find that the Ministry is far less involved, and the area has kept its communal charm. A perfect place for little ones to find their feet in the magical world while having their family’s privacy protected.

Kindest of Regards,

Lady Minerva McGonagall

Regulus couldn’t help but chuckle before he stopped Severus and James and forced them to take a break while James could read the letter. James whooped when he read the letter before he handed it over to Severus to read.

“Well, it seems as if the two of us will be going to Edinburgh this Thursday, I wonder Severus if you would mind entertaining Hadrian, or should we organise a playdate for Hadrian? Lady Longbottom’s grandson is the same age as Hadrian, it could always be a good idea for Hadrian to make more friends.” James said as he ruffled Hadrian’s hair.

“Neville Longbottom, yes I do think it is time that the two boys meet. I can’t imagine that he has had many chances to be social with children his own age either. It would be good for Hadrian to make more friends before we introduce him to the Weasleys. I think they might be a bit overwhelming to Hadrian if he is only used to having Draco as a friend. On that thought, it would be good for Draco to make another friend too. Yes, I think a playdate on Thursday for all three boys should be arranged.” Severus drank some of the ice water and looked at what Hadrian was colouring in a selkie.

“Hadrian, would you like us to invite Draco over and another boy your age? The three of you can do some summer crafts, we need summer wreaths, your winter wreaths were beautiful. I am sure Dottie and Kreacher can set up a bubble popping area in the garden for the three of you?” Regulus asked.

“Bubbles! Yes, that sounds fun. Can we make the bubbles different colours?”

James’s face lit up like a child that had gotten his Christmas present early. “Hadrian, I promise I will make sure that the different bubble containers do wonderful and interesting stuff. I will chat with your uncles and make it the best bubble party for the littlest marauder.”

Hadrian’s face matched James’s at that promise, both the Slytherins at the table let out a small groan. Severus was the first to speak, “Nothing that can hurt them. Nothing that can’t be undone with a bath. We don’t know Neville so nothing scary or that causes any of them to transform. No property damages. Remember that both Augusta and Narcissa will hex all three of you if the children get hurt physically or mentally.”

James merely nodded before getting up from the table and walking into the house, they could hear him call out to Sirius and Remus as he loudly shouted, “Padfoot, Moony, we have a children’s playdate to plan. One that they will never forget! Your husband has set ground rules for safety, but we shall prevail.”

“Daddy isn’t going to hurt anyone right?”

Regulus hugged his son that suddenly looked very concerned. “No dear, I promise you that Uncle Remus will keep him and Uncle Sirius in check. Uncle Severus will also be here when the other two are here, so I promise you all should be fine and have some fun. Come let’s write some invitations and talk to Dottie and Doxit about the plans for Thursday.”

“Can I write the inviota-tiones?” Hadrian asked while walking in with his papa.

“Yes dear, sit at the kitchen table and I will get you everything that you need to write the invitations.”

Two hours later, both the Longbottom Manor and the Malfoy Manor received invites, unlike anything they had received before, written in bright blue crayon. Decorated with lovingly drawn if somewhat badly drawn fishes and sea creatures.

 Dear Neville,

Please come play at my house with me and my cousin. We promise to be friendly. My daddy is making a bubble play zone for us and there will be cupcakes.

Hugs,

Hadrian

Glitter had fallen out of the invite. Neville was delighted, he had never been invited to play before. His grandmother had confirmed that he could attend. Augusta couldn’t help but laugh at the excited little boy, she was glad the Potter-Blacks were reaching out to make friends with her and her grandson.

The invite to Draco was very similar.

Best Dragon,

Come play at my house on Thursday. Neville will also be here; he needs a friend. Daddy and the uncles are going to make us a lot of cool bubbles. Doxit will make our cupcakes.

Hugs,

Hadrian

Narcissa had not been happy about the glitter now all over her drawing-room floor, but she did agree and made sure that Draco had a nice swimsuit to wear on Thursday while they would be playing in the bubbles.

Chapter Text

It was early Thursday morning when Regulus and James had gotten up; they had a small breakfast with their son before dressing as Lords. They were both a bit nervous but had decided that they were going to drop a hint or two about who Charles really was, this would make McGonagall trust them a lot faster. If it seemed she was very much still on Dumbledore's side they would say nothing but they both agreed her on their side was needed if they were to help the school.

Hadrian was super excited about his playdate; the Marauders had spent hours setting everything up for the boys even cooling charms and sunshades so that the boys wouldn’t burn in the sun. Dottie had set up a craft section for when the boys got tired. Both Regulus and Sirius were sure that Grimmauld Place had never seen a party like this for the set of boys.

Hadrian got a kiss on the forehead from each of his dads before they left to see McGonagall. The difference between temperature as they stepped floo was almost instantaneous, but the cooler weather was lovely.

“Please follow me, sirs, your table is on one of our private tearooms. The hostess is already there.” A young witch, that was clearly sill in school said as she led them through the tearoom, it was beautiful with plush seating in jewel tones and flowers and teacups hanging from the ceiling acting as chandeliers, while the space leant more feminine it wasn’t so feminine that either man felt uncomfortable in it.

Once they were in the room, Regulus gave McGonagall a hug before releasing her and much to her surprise, Lord Charles hugged her as well, deciding instantly he still trusted her and whispered in her ear, “Hello Minnie, do you still roam the school halls in a tartan bathrobe at night? Have you found a way to stop us Gryffindors from sneaking drinks in after quidditch games yet? Aren’t you glad the Marauders aren’t still at school?”

She pulled away from him and put her hands on both sides of his face while she studied him. “Oh dear, I am so glad to see that you are alive and back with your family. When the ministry sent the DoM to clean the school and its staff, I was so worried about you my missing Marauder. Yes, I do still wear a tartan bathrobe, but it is now the one you gifted me when you graduated.”

While they had tea, they caught Minnie up about Hadrian and the rest of the group. Once they reached the point of eating cakes Minnie bought up the school business.

“Boys, I need the two of you to start shaking up the school board, the governours have been allowing the standards to slip. Hogwarts is now ranked 30^th out of 40 schools registered with the ICW, we really can’t allow for this to continue. A lot of our students aren’t even getting apprenticeships after school or into University Education Programmes. We have taken too many of the subjects away and we don’t have enough teachers for us to be able to give attention to the students that are struggling. Not to mention the entrance requirements have become ridiculous as are the insane school fees. None of this helps us get or retain more children. Fifty years ago, Hogwarts had over six hundred students, we are now in the two hundred and still shrinking.”

“About the school fees, I thought Hogwarts was free for any child that didn’t come from wealth. There were funding programmes for that, I remember a few of the students had been on the programme. One of my aunts had charity events for the scholarship programme,” Regulus was puzzled about how quickly that had changed.

“There was but something happened, and the school doesn’t meet the requirements from Gringotts to access the vaults, so now everything is run out of one vault and well things are slipping away, there are fewer children enrolled and standards are slipping. I must admit, I am worried about the wards.” Minnie answered.

“Regulus and I will go talk to the Goblins about the Vaults. Hopefully, we can all get that sorted before the summer meeting. I am worried about the school ranking, if we can add more teachers and teaching assistants, grades should be able to go up. What subjects have been cut or need updating?”

“All the subjects need updating, Dumbledore isn’t allowing us to follow the guidelines from the ICW School system. Severus, Pomona, Filius and I have added what we can, but a lot of the other teachers just can’t or don’t have the time. I am sad to say I think the four of us are overworked and overly tired. The subjects that have been cut are Wizarding Law, Wizarding Culture and Religions, Mathematics and English, Alchemy, Healing Arts. I would suggest that we add a basic muggle studies course for the first and second years about their lifestyles and religions so that the children raised in Wixen households understand the Muggle world better. We should also make Wixen culture and religions subject for Muggle raised children as their counterparts. Too many of our Muggle-born children return to the muggle world since they never truly feel like they fit in. The sex education programme is appalling, it is even worse than it was when your great grandparents attended. They are relying too heavily on parents for the programme to work.”

Regulus was taking notes as they spoke, “I think the most pressing is adding more teachers and assistants to the existing classes, once we have that established, we can start pushing to reintroduce the old subjects as well as updating, do you have anyone in mind that can be the liaison for the staff and the board, a school secretary perhaps?”

“Yes, I think we could approach Ms Brown. I know she is looking for a job since after the war it has only been her and Lavender. It is hard to raise a child as a single parent. We should also see if we can restore the banned and confiscated books back to the library. So many books have been removed because they didn’t fit the curriculum that Albus is pushing. Not everything can be centred towards the light. The children with Dark cores and grey cores are being worked out or vilified. Most of them don’t seem to realise that the best healers all have dark cores, not that we are still training healers. The children of Slytherin and Ravenclaw are being treated worse with every passing year. At this rate, it will soon only be Gryffindor and Hufflepuff left. Some of the families are already sending their children to other schools if they think their children will be sorted into Slytherin or Ravenclaw. I am sorry there is just so much to do and finally, it seems like there might be a silver lining on very dark and heavy clouds.” Minerva took a sip of her tea and watched the two boys she thought of as grandsons think.

“That won’t do at all, we need healers and potions masters, we can’t make a different type of magic the villain. Just because we have had a few Dark Lords doesn’t mean Dark magic is a bad thing. No this won’t do at all. Do they not realise that most of the Aurors are either Dark or Grey cored?” James asked.

“I don’t think they know or care, but let us take a walk down Tinkerers Lane, there is a shop I would like the both of you to see. I think we might need quite a few more teas for us to come up with a plan. See you both next Tuesday?” Minnie kept an eye on the two men as they walked, yes things were going to change if Gryffindor and Slytherin were working together.

The three of them walked down the lane and both men were thoroughly charmed by the lane, the people were friendly, and the shops were so diverse. There were spices shops for cooking, a wonderful apothecary as well as a well-stocked potions shop. Three bookshops opened onto the lane tucked between tea rooms and coffee shops. The quidditch shop also sold the equipment for various highland games as well as some muggle sports. The clothing stores had a delightful collection of muggles and wixen fashions. There were also traditional tailors selling kilts and tartans to those that could wear the family designs. The two men spent a few minutes buying sweets and treats for Hadrian and his friends before walking further down the lane. Minnie kept pointing outside lanes that included flats that were safe for werewolves and other were-creatures to stay on the full moon. Both Regulus and James were completely in love with the lane and area by the time they came to stop in front of a white shop with bright yellow trim. Silver Birch Wands was written on the window in beautiful, neat font, the pot plants in front of the shop made it seem much more welcoming than Ollivanders.

The three of them went in and a woman that looked like a much younger version of Minnie came to the front to greet them, “Hello, my mother warned me to expect you both. May I see your wands, just to make sure they work well? Are these still the wands you got in school?”

Regulus handed over his wand first and merely nodded; he was curious as to what she would say. She made a soft tutting sound when she looked at the wand. “Please just swish it for me.” Regulus took it from her and gave it a mere swish and flick, to his amazement, the magic wasn’t soft and pleasant but wands in the shop went flying from a shelf.

“Yes, this wand no longer suits you, not entirely sure it ever fully suited you, but Ollivander doesn’t make wands for those with Darker cores. I would happily assist you to get a second wand, more suited for your core.”

James handed over his wand next, she raised an eyebrow and looked at him. “I don’t think you should touch this wand again; it doesn't suit you at all. I promise, I won't charge you for a wand, this isn’t a sales pitch.”

She led them both over to a crystal ball on the counter. “Please put your hands on the crystal, it should indicate if there is a wand or several in stock that suits you, otherwise, I will help you make a custom one.”

James went first, the crystal under his hands glowed for a second and then a singular wand box slid out in front of him. Marie handed him the wand to try, he gave it a gentle flick and ribbons of green, gold and red flew from the top, the wand was beautiful. The wand was shorted and slightly thicker, it had a good grip, the hilt had beautiful carvings of flying birds. James was shocked with how different this wand was from his old one and how good it felt in his hand.

“Well now, this is very different from your old wand but makes sense. The handle is Ebony, and the shaft is Blackthorn, both these kinds of wood are for warriors. The core is of a thunderbird, and dragon heartstring, this makes it excellent for transfiguration as well as combative magic. You will have to work to prove to the wand you are strong enough to weld it, but I don’t see that this will be a problem. I will add a holster to this for you so that you are never unarmed. I must admit, this wand was experimentation three years ago, I never thought it would ever find an owner, but I am glad it is going to someone” She smiled at James as she placed his old wand in the box and handed him his new wand in the wand holster that went along his forearm.

Regulus went next and was surprised that instead of a wand, boxes flew out of the back containing various woods and cores. Marie indicated he should keep holding onto the crystal while some of the woods and the cores flew back into the back, soon there was a mix of woods, cores and crystals.

“Now it appears we will need to make you a wand, never fear, it shouldn’t take very long. As with all my wands, I do not put the ministry regulations on the wands so if at some point you would like to teach your children some spells before coming to school, that is always an option. Other schools start teaching spellcasting at eight so if they were to go to Drumstrung or Beauxbatons. They would be behind if they only get a wand at eleven. Just food for thought. Now, why don’t you just slowly hold your hand above the various wood samples? Let’s see which of these woods suit you best.”

Regulus saw as two kinds of wood slid forward, the Rowan and Walnut, he smiled at that. Next Marie put cores down in front of him, this time only two veela hairs slid forward. She then put the crystals in front of him, just to see if any of them would match him. An Azurite crystal shaped in a pear slid forward.

“Well now it seems intelligence and defensive magic is favoured by this wand, the Veela hair is a bit temperamental but it likes being used by clever and capable people so I don’t think you will have any problems. The azurite will help with any spell work that requires intelligence and critical thinking. All in all, I think this will be a lovely wand for you. Please give me an hour and then your wand should be ready, maybe try out the menagerie or get a coffee or even both.”

All three of them left the shop and they smiled as they each got a coffee to go and browsed the street again.

“Are our original wands really tracked?” James asked.

“Yes, it was to prevent underaged magic originally but like all things can be used for far more than intended. She does do delightful training wands for children that help them practise wrist movements and get used to carrying wands. The training wands for his age just make lights but we all know the importance of being used to your wand. When Hadrian gets a bit older, I would suggest that you both train him in duelling and defensive magic. If you make it a game, he will have fun and be very prepared for when he is ready to go to school, whichever school he goes to.” Minnie said while looking at a bottle of glorious periwinkle ink that seemed to shimmer. She went and bought the bottle, knowing her granddaughter would love it.

Regulus found himself drawn to the front of the menagerie and saw the two kneazle kittens, he crouched down and looked at them. They were beautiful with their grey fur and green eyes. James came to look over his shoulder and the two of them shared a nod. James went to get the things they would need for the kittens such as beds, collars, food, bowls and toys, while Regulus got a carrier and put the two kittens in the carrier with a soft blanket. They carried everything to the counter where they paid, and Regulus filled the form in with the Scottish Ministry for the Kneazles.

After they got Regulus wand as well as a toy wand and holster for Hadrian from Marie. He couldn’t stop staring at his new wand it was longer and far more flexible. The hilt was part of the grip which had three groves in it to make holding it easier. The wand itself had an intricate Celtic design of knots carved into it. He and James thanked Marie again for the wands, they both couldn’t help but be impressed by the young wand makers' beautiful designs and craftsmanship. The three parted ways with Regulus and James taking a quick detour to buy some pastries for everyone at home before they headed back.

Chapter Text

Padfoot was bouncing around with the three boys. Squeals of laughter were heard as the boys were throwing solid bubble balls that burst when they made contact and splattered with colour. Draco and Neville who were both blonde no longer had blonde hair, Neville’s hair was bright pink and green while Draco’s hair was orange and blue. Hadrian’s black hair had a green and purple shimmer to it as they played.

Earlier, they had blown giant bubbles and trapped each other in bubbles. The boys had worked together to free each other from the bubble traps that Remus and Severus had caught them in. The playdate had started a bit timid, but the lure of bubbles and sugar had united the three and soon it was clear that Hogwarts needed to watch out in a few years, the Marauders 2.0 had found each other. Each child is an only child had caused them to instantly bond because they were all a little bit lonely. They were only starting school after the summer and had worried about how to make friends. Severus had made sure to find out what primary school the other boys were going to and Sun Meadow School for the Gifted was thankfully where all three were enrolled. It would help all three of them starting school knowing that they had a friend or two.

The bubbles changed again and suddenly the grass area turned into a shallow pool as the bubbles became a bubbly splash pool. Water dragon toys and other sea creatures such as orcas and merpeople appeared in the water. The three boys sat down and played in the water, the bubbles helping to clear the worst of the colour off them. Sirius only hoped the colour washed out of the two blondes’ hair; he could only imagine the scolding they would get if it didn’t.

“Your daddies are fun,” Neville said while holding one of the orcas that kept licking his toes.

“They are my uncles, they also Draco’s uncles, my daddies are at a work meeting,” Hadrian replied.

“It must be nice to have so much family, it's only granny and me and sometimes my uncle. Granny has a lot of rules.”

“I didn’t always have my daddies and uncles, I used to live with my other aunt and uncle, and they had a lot of rules too. They let my cousin be naughty but punished me for breathing too loud. I don’t get punished like that here if I am naughty, they explain what I did wrong and sometimes I need a timeout on the stairs but it’s never long.” Hadrian smiled, he was happy he wasn’t in his old home but didn’t want Neville to feel left out.

“What is a time out?” Draco asked, quite seriously.

“It's when you need to sit on the step or somewhere else and do nothing but think about the fact that you were naughty or to calm down. After a time out someone talks to you about why you were naughty. I sometimes must help the house-elves weed the garden if I was very naughty. I like plants so I don’t think it’s bad that Grammy makes me help in the garden.” Neville replied.

“Oh, I don’t think I have had that though mummy does make me sit with her if I was naughty till, she is happy. I think that is a time out too.”

Remus walked over to the boys carrying a watering can, he smiled at them, “well gents, I don’t think grannies and mummies are going to be happy if you go home with coloured hair so we going to rinse the colour out quick before it bakes in. After this, Dottie has some summer crafts and drawing papers for you all to do before lunch. Who wants to be soaked first? Gent who holds his nose the best gets an extra cupcake.”

Draco nearly sat on Neville in his attempt to get an extra cupcake, Remus found this amusing and landed up rinsing the two off with the soap mix at the same time, thankfully the colours washed off them really quickly. Hadrian went next but the change to his hair colour wasn’t as dramatic. Severus and Sirius were already in talks on how to make the colours work on darker hair as well.

The three boys were changed into clean dry clothing and sat at the patio table with Dottie, doing their crafts while devouring a cupcake each. The uncles were working hard to dismantle todays play area when Regulus and James arrived home. The two Kneazles were taken upstairs quickly so that the little boys couldn’t overwhelm them, they would introduce Hadrian to the kittens in the evening. Once they had set up a proper play and sleeping area for the kittens and they were fed. James and Regulus walked back into the Garden.

“Hello sweetheart, are you going to introduce us to your friend?” James asked as he sat down next to his son.

“Daddy and papa meet Heir Neville Longbottom. Neville, please meet my daddy Lord Charles and my papa Lord Regulus.” Hadrian had to concentrate as he remembered the proper way to introduce other people.

“Well met Heir Longbottom.” Both James and Regulus said at the same time. It took a second for Draco to remember Uncle James was pretending to be Uncle Charles so that everyone was safe.

“Well met Lord Charles and Lord Regulus,” poor Neville was so surprised to be introduced to more lords that day that he almost hit his head against the stone table as he bowed while being seated. Only Regulus’s’ quick reflexes stopped the child’s forehead from meeting the tabletop with force.

“Neville, did you have fun with all the bubbles? I was quite jealous that we couldn’t be here to play with the three of you.” James asked the boy.

Neville nodded very enthusiastically, “Yes but it was more fun to make friends.” The other two boys gave him a hug when he said it, it was clear that the three of them were going to need quite a lot of playdates this summer before school started. The three lonely boys suddenly weren’t lonely anymore.

By the time summer wreaths were made and hung in the floo room, cupcakes had been eaten as well as chicken salads and serious nap forts had been built so all three boys could nap in the playroom. The five men and two house-elves that had looked after them had all declared the banning of sugar at any future events. Sirius was willing to climb into the fort as well so he could nap with them. He had turned into his Padfoot form and chased the boys in a game of tag to work off their energy from the cupcakes.

Augusta and Narcissa were very relieved to have two very tired, but very happy boys returned to them. Augusta had agreed to take Hadrian the coming Tuesday while his dads were at meetings. Draco had wasted no time in pleading to be able to go with and so it was Augusta’s turn to host the Mischief trio.

 Severus had to go into the school and help his newt students brew the hospital wings potions for the coming year. Remus was still working at the village library in Cornwall but was considering taking a job at the National Achieves at the British Wixen Main Library. Sirius was going to go along with his brother and best friend to Scotland, they wanted to see some of the family properties in Scotland and figured Sirius would be a good person to look bearing in mind his and his husbands' needs. They had decided that they weren’t going to live in separate houses just yet.

~~~~~

James and Arcturus could not believe what they were reading as they went through the school finance reports while Regulus was doing more paperwork to access more of Hogwart's financial information. Minnie was sitting in the Edinburgh branch and signing permission documents as Deputy head of the school. Thankfully in a moment of hindsight from Dumbledore years ago, he had signed over permission for her to access the school financial information, all the school’s financial information. This included to the horror of all of them vaults that none of them knew about.

The three account managers for the Hogwarts were relieved that someone from the school board was finally starting to come ask questions, all the other members had ignored the goblins' summonings. This raised red flags with them all as this shouldn’t be normal behaviour, anyone in their right mind ever ignored a letter from Gringotts. Regulus and James gave them permission to call in the school board members for testing of potions and compulsions as it was against the safety of the school children. Hopefully, soon various school board members would find themselves surrounded by a group of Goblin Warriors and taking for testing and cleansing.

“Of all the school vaults, only the food and housekeeping one is still open, the school fees are being paid into that. Goodness, Dumbledore is taking nearly a 6^th of it every month as his salary. What on earth does he need so much money for? He is taking more than all the other teachers earn combined. Their wages are truly abyssal, we going to have to see about raising their salaries as soon as possible to be in line with what they would be earning at our closest competitor schools. I am happy to sponsor salaries for the next two years while we sort out the vaults. I should be able to cover an extra teacher for every core subject as well as an assistant for every subject.” Arcturus sighed as he read further through the minefield that was the school finances.

Master Ripwish handed him an extra piece of paper. “It appears that by offering to pay the salaries out of pocket and increasing the staff, we can now access the salaries vault. I would suggest we keep to the salary guidelines, so the Vault stays open. This would force Dumbledore to only be allowed to take wages from that vault. It is significantly less than he earns currently but it is very much in line with what every other ICW school master earns.”

James grinned at the Goblin, “would that allow all the teachers to be paid a fair wage as it lowers what Dumbledore is earning?”

Arcturus was speedreading through the document while Ripwish answered James, “Yes, it will allow them to earn substantially more than they had earned before as well as allow us to add more staff as we reinstate old subjects as well as bring in much needed new subjects. Did you know the bastard was charging them for their room and board?”

“Is there any way we can back pay that? Surely room and board were included in their salary packages?” James wanted to start hitting his head against the table in frustration, the more he learnt about the school, the more it felt like solving its problems was a full-time job for a much larger team.

“They were charged more depending on the sizes of their rooms so none of the heads of houses was staying in the proper accommodation for them. I think we need to inspect their current rooms as well as the proper accommodation. It would be nice to know that Minnie and Severus were staying in proper safe rooms.” Arcturus responded.

Ripwish who had been reading the budget and guidelines from the salaries vault barely managed to not give an excited squeak. “We can do back pay for their room and board as well as salary adjustments and monies owed because of being underpaid for so long. We just need either you Lord Gryffindor or Lord Slytherin to sign, would be better if you both sign.”

Regulus got up from his side of the desk, he had been listening to their conversation and signed the paper and used the signet on his ring to validify his signature on the school documents. James smiled at his husband before he did the same. The document glowed before a bright stamp appeared on it to say approved, the money would be in all staff, past and present vaults within the hour. If they were deceased, the money would go to their nearest relative.

“Now that we have two vaults working, we do need to see how the food and housekeeping budget has been used if the school was being run on that. I think we should start with gifting the house-elves rolls of fabric for their personal use in not only the school colours but many other colours and designs so that they can use it for their rooms as well. That should help their magic settle a bit. Honestly, I wonder if we should see if we can sneak Hadrian into the school so that the elves can see a multi-house heir of the school exists and might attend in the future. How do we go about unlocking the other vaults?” Regulus asked as he helped himself to a scone and slathered on blackberry jam and clotted cream.

“We can’t tell you how to unlock the vaults, we can only tell you what they are for, once you have made a significant offer or change to the school, the vault might unlock,” Ripwash answered, he was thankful his twin sister Ripcurl had taught him how to work with these wizards, they showed respect and treated him like he was their equal, it was refreshing.

“Ah yes, that would be most helpful. Hopefully, the names of the vaults can give us some clues.” Arcturus stole one of his grandsons’ carefully prepared scones, Regulus did a playful attempt of swatting his hand away but let him. Good Lad.

Ripwish put a page in front of them with the school vaults and status down in front of them.

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizarding School Vault status:

• Afterschool activities and clubs- Locked
• Curriculum development- Under probation almost unlocked
• Groundskeeping- Locked closer to probationary opening
• Housekeeping and Catering- Unlocked
• Library- Locked
• Salaries for staff- Unlocked under probation
• Scholarships- Locked
• School security- Locked
• School supplies and student needs- Locked

The four of them stared at the page. It gave them hope that they were heading on the right track. They could only hope they could figure out how to unlock the school security vault soon. That seemed to be a huge problem as the school had been a target with the last rising of a Dark Lord, they couldn’t all help but wonder if that was because of where Dumbledore stayed most of the time.

~~~~

Minerva was a bit startled when she sat down to do her budget and looked at her monthly bank statement about the sheer influx of funds in her account. When she read further it appeared it was an adjustment to her salary as well as back pay for that. She laughed a bit when she saw they even paid her back for her room and board for the last forty years. She couldn’t help but wonder how the boys had managed that, she hoped they weren’t paying from their own vaults though she knew the rest of the staff would only be too thankful.

After settling her things and sending a few brief letters to Flitwick, Pomona and Severus to check their accounts. Humming softly, she took the floo to the tearoom where she had an appointment with Charles, Regulus and Sirius. They were going to be looking at their properties in Scotland and were hoping for her insight about towns to raise Hadrian and any other future children.

Tea was delightful soon they all had warm full bellies, they even got Sirius a different wand and then walked to an apparition point. They had the coordinates. Minnie had helped them plot each of the four houses so that they would do the shortest distances between the places and be able to floo home safely.

The four of them stood in front of the gate of the first place. The hedges were high and made it hard to see but Sirius could see the beginnings of a gate. This was one of the Price properties and he was wearing his Prince consort ring, it would allow them to see and enter the house and get a feel of it but if the decision they wanted to use the house Severus would need to pull the place out of Stasis. Sirius liked that the Manor was named Thistle house, he thought the pale thistle in the fields was a lovely contrast with the dark green of the hedges.

When he walked to the area that seemed to be the gate, he saw a saw metal plaque. He used his wand to cut a small cut on his palm which he then placed on the plaque. Soon enough the gate turned into a proper gateway and the gates opened for them. They could see the overgrown gardens in the front had once been lovely. As the four of them walked deeper the house appeared, it was nestled between tall trees and overlooked a loch. The manor was a soft grey and had large windows to let in the views of the forests, gardens and loch. None of them went into the manor yet, they instead walked around it, in the back were flower gardens as well as three proper greenhouses, there even seemed to be a small greenhouse attached to the manor itself. They all knew that Severus would love it. Sirius was taking photographs of the place while Regulus was making notes. This was the second-closest property to Edinburgh; it was in the kingdom of Fife.

James walked up the stairs of the patio and gestured to Sirius to open one of the French doors. Inside they found a medium-sized manor, with a formal and informal sitting room, a family library and a master study. Two dining rooms and kitchen breakfast nook so the family could eat in a cosy setting or entertain if they wanted to. There was a lady’s drawing-room as well as a music room on the bottom floor. On the second floor they found eight enormous bedrooms, the master bedroom had the family crest on it and Sirius stroked it gently, he didn’t have the right connections to power the crest, but it did confirm to the house and its wards that they were allowed in the house. The second-largest bedroom was on the other end of the corridor and was very close in size to the first. They decided they would turn the third largest room into a playroom for Hadrian if they decided to stay in this house. There were no signs of house-elves yet and the house was terribly outdated but that could all be fixed once the manor was pulled out of status and the wards had been powered properly.

They all agreed it was a lovely manor and would suit their needs quite well if they decided to move here. They could easily floo Hadrian to school with his friends, plenty of children took the floo to school.

The next property was the Paisley Manor which was one of the Le Fey properties. This time Regulus was the one to open the gates to the wards for all of them. This property was in a more remote area and verged on one of the wildlife preserves so made it harder for people to find without exact location details. A vast river was on the other border, all four of them felt this was wonderful from a safety perspective. The front gardens had hints of fountains and roses in them but were also overgrown. James was ecstatic to see in the distance there seemed to be a quidditch pitch. Though there were only two greenhouses that they could see.

Regulus walked up to and unlocked the door, the hallway was sweeping and had a large fireplace, it was clear this was also the floo room, but that could be an easy change, to their right were the living room areas, two formal lounges and an informal family lounge that a children’s playroom opened onto as well as the informal dining room. The left had a ballroom that also worked for highland dancing, a formal dining room and the master study.

The basement had huge kitchens and a proper if somewhat outdated potions lab with enough space for multiple potion masters and apprentices to work in. There was also an exercise and duelling training room. The four of them went upstairs to the first floor, the left wind had a master apartment with two bedrooms, a small lounge and a study as well as a large bathroom. There were four extra bedrooms as well, each with its own bathroom and walk-in closet. The right-wing mirrored the left except the master apartment had an extra room clearly for a child as well as the family crest.

The four of them stood and looked at the property. The remaining two were smaller and one was very far away, the other was in Edinburgh but wouldn’t afford them privacy or much room to grow. They all agreed that they would use the Edinburgh home for business and move into Paisley manor. Sirius did a mirror call with his husbands and showed them around the manor and then the photographs of Thistle manor. They all agreed, they would live in Paisley manor until everything was settled or the two families had grown too large to fit into one manor. Minerva, Sirius as well as James left the master room and walked down to the further gardens so that Regulus could activate the manor.

Regulus took a deep breath and walked towards the crest, the house was dark and damp, he only hoped he could get the magic to accept him and make the house inviting much like what Arcturus had been able to do.

He sliced his palm for the second time and placed his bleeding hand on the family crest. He could barely make out the symbology carved into the crest. He felt burning panic as he stood there for a few minutes, hoping that the house wouldn’t reject him, when suddenly a drumming pulse pulsated through the house, the blast of it nearly threw Regulus but somehow, he maintained contact, out of the crest an enormous kelpie emerged, it butted its head gently against Regulus before it ran through the house.

The kelpie started in the attic, where old furniture and books fixed themselves, family portraits in stuck in time loops healed. The elf quarters expanded, small kitchens, lounges and rooms appeared for them, even a classroom area. The manor had space for 30 house-elves and soon empty spots would be filled by Kreacher, Doxit, Dottie and Deborah had already said they would move with their family.

The kelpie ran down to the second floor where there were guest rooms, the floors lightened and gleamed back to their walnut colouring. The walls in the hallways were papered a soft sage green. Each of the guest bedrooms was an off white with walnut flooring, beautiful walnut furniture and then accents off deep greens, burgundies or sea blues. The children’s and nurseries all had whimsical themes of either dragons, unicorns or cats. Bathrooms were updated but still fit into the more traditional styling of the house. The main apartment on the left-wing featured heavily panelled walls and leather furniture all decorated in deep burgundies with hints of cream. The left-wing had a very masculine but refined edged. The main apartment on the right where Regulus was standing had pale off white walls and was decorated in shades of sea greens and blues. The beds were four-poster beds in pale gold, the nursey had kelpies and selkies playing in the water against the one wall. All the rooms on the right had a softer feel decorated in pale golds, blushes, and sage.

On the ground floor the lounges all had themes, one was very masculine and even had stag antlers over a large fireplace whereas the other was more feminine but if you looked carefully seemed to be decorated with elements nodding to the Welsh Dragon, paying homage to Morgan Le Fey’s Welsh roots. The family living room had a soft edge with comfortable leather couches and pillows in deep purples, sage and cream. The children’s playroom was also dragon-themed and even had rocking horses that were shaped like dragons.

The kitchens, potion room and the rest of the grounds were fixed and updated as the Kelpie ran through them and the rest of the grounds. There were grounds keeper huts as well but those seem to have been for when the reserve had been part of the house’s grounds, so they were originally for the dragon keepers.

Finally, the kelpie came charging back, as the house drummed with energy and life again, there was work to be done, but the house-elves were being woken from statis as well and would start with the deep cleaning and sorting of the houses. With his last bit of magic, he could comfortably push into the house, he turned the one room off the main entrance into a floo room and disconnected the floo to every other fireplace in the house. He put careful blocks on the floo that only those keyed in or approved could floo to the house or floo call.

Weakly he walked down to the main entrance where he indicated that everyone should come in. he sat on the stairs while Sirius showed the house post awaking, and everyone agreed this seemed like the right choice for now. Afterwards, they all flooed to their various houses so that the Manor could be cleaned and the residents of Grimmauld place and their house-elves could be packed to move to Paisley Manor.

Chapter Text

Regulus and James both shared a laugh when they went to go wake Hadrian up that morning. Freya and Bast were sleeping on either side of Hadrian and had effectively trapped the little boy in his bed. Hadrian was awake but very much stuck.

“Need a hand sweetheart?” James asked as he walked over to his son. The little boy lifted up his arms so his dad could pull him out from between both the kittens. James chuckled as both kittens just snuggled deeper into the blankets. “I suggest you go wash your face and then we all go downstairs for a birthday breakfast. How does that sound?”

Hadrian gave an excited nod, held up two fingers to indicate to his dads that they should wait and ran to his bathroom to do his morning routine. Regulus got his robe and slippers, they were silent Kelpie slippers, Hadrian’s feet had grown too big for his roaring dinosaur slippers. The entire household was very thankful except for Hadrian.

With Hadrian dressed the three of them went down to the breakfast nook. Sirius, Remus and Severus were already seated but each got up to give the little boy a hug. Doxit floated American style flapjacks or pancakes to the table, Hadrian’s were shaped like trains and Kelpies. He had become fascinated with them since moving to Scotland.

“So, what are you going to do now that you are five?” Remus asked with all seriousness.

Hadrian’s face scrunched up in concentration and then he grinned at them. “Help papa and Uncle Sev brew potions, I really want to learn. Uncle Sev got Draco a basic brewing kit for his birthday, so I am hoping that means I also get lessons.”

Severus raised an eyebrow and looked at the boy, he was still wearing glasses, they would have to see about having straps put on so that the glasses didn’t slip while Hadrian worked. They could have his eyes fixed permanently when he turned seven. “Yes, you may become a junior training potioneer. I will set up a brewing station for you or you can talk to Debbie and she will set it up for you. She tends to make more fun brewing areas.” He was rewarded with a smile from everyone at the table.

“Anything else little dude?” Sirius asked Hadrian, they wanted to see where his interests lay so that they could incorporate them in his training. By asking him these questions when training started on Monday it would all be Hadrian’s ideas with tweaks by the five parental figures in his life.

“I want to get better at writing and reading but Papa says that is why I am going to start school soon. I also want to learn how to fly, it looks so fun when papa, daddy and Padfoot go flying. Can I also start duelling, it looks so pretty when different colours come out of everyone’s wands? The reserve looks amazing, do they only have dragons?” Hadrian asked between bites of pancake.

“That is quite a list there. I am sure we can do all of this before you turn six. I am not sure about all the animals at the reserve, but we shall find out.” Regulus answered his excited son.

“Now do you remember what is happening today?” James asked.

Hadrian answered his daddy after sipping his apple juice. “It is my and Neville’s birthday party, his birthday was yesterday. We are going to plant plants in the greenhouse with auntie Pomona and then we are going to do a basic flying class with papa and daddy.” He beamed at his family.

“Good, we will also have cake and presents after the flying lesson and then lunch.” Severus got up as he heard the floo chime to indicate that Pomona was trying to get through to set up for the boys in the greenhouse.

She had some Nifflers Fancy plants for them to replant as well as Puffpods. She had even gotten their planters in their favourite colours that the pictures changed colours if the plants needed anything. After a cup of tea and a hug for the birthday boy, she followed Dottie when Oak had set up the area for them all in the greenhouses. The Head of gardens and grounds House-elf and his team had been working very hard getting greenhouse one under control and would soon be starting on greenhouse two between all the work on the grounds themselves.

Soon three little boys in relaxed robes were in the greenhouse with her, their parents were inside having a lovely chat and tour of the Manor as the boys had the first part of their party. Pomona couldn’t help but be utterly charmed by Neville who was clearly enamoured with the plants around him. Draco and Hadrian were excited as well, but it was easy to see that Neville would be the budding Herbologist of the group.

“Now dears, I got planters for each of you. I was told what your favourite colours are. As you can see there are pictures drawn into the planters. When they turn red, it means the plant is very thirsty and you need to give it water, if they turn blue the plant has too much water and you need to lift it to drain it, don’t worry your families can help you. If they turn orange the plant needs more sunlight. Neville dear, I got you the yellow set, Draco yours are the silver set and Hadrian I got you the blue set.” Pomona smiled at each boy as they got their planters. She seldom got to teach such young children about the magic of plants.

After two hours, many giggles, an unfortunate accident with the water hose that resulted in everyone being soaking wet down to their socks, each boy had a Nifflers fancy and a Puffpod. All three boys were raised in a home with large gardens and suddenly had a much better understanding of the hard work that went into plants.

James, Regulus, Lucius and Sirius took over from Pomona for the boys flying lesion. Knee guards, as well as wrist and elbow guards, were put on, with Neville insisting on wearing a helmet that looked like it was made for Rugby as well. He was very unsure about this flying thing even though his two best friends were nearly bursting through their seems with the excitement of being able to fly. Each boy had a learner Nimbus with the safety wings and charms activated to their age.

James had set up a fun little course for them to fly where they would collect Knut shaped chocolates. It took a bit of coxing but soon all three boys were a meter in the air and flying along the course as dads and uncles helped them with steering and maintaining their brooms in the air. The collecting of coins had helped settle Neville’s nerves and soon he was throwing balls with everyone as they played a few rounds of toss the Quaffle. James refrained from taking out the training Golden Snitch just yet, maybe for next year. It was clear although they had talent, they were all still learning. He did however talk Regulus into a game of catch the Snitch in after everyone had gone home. 

Hadrian got a cake with sea creatures on it while Neville’s cake was decorated with plants. The two cakes were different flavours: lemon and lavender as well as a chocolate cake. Draco then demanded they open their presents straight after cake since he had been waiting all day for them to see what he had gotten them.

Hadrian was sitting with his daddies on the sofa, he was going to get his family gifts when everyone left, this would only be from friends for now. Draco with great enthusiasm put a present on each boy’s lap with help from his father. It was beautifully wrapped in blue paper with white ribbons. At the count of three, both boys unwrapped their presents. Neville had gotten a mini greenhouse for his bedroom with starter seeds while Hadrian got an aquarium with tropical fish. Both boys beamed at Draco.

Auntie Minnie went next and both boys got colourful books, Neville about different creatures in Europe and Hadrian about beginner quidditch techniques. Minnie wasn’t going to waste time with both Hadrian’s parents being excellent quidditch players, she was hoping to hook him young, what she hadn’t expected was Draco’s enthusiasm to read the book with Hadrian.

Augusta and Neville gave Hadrian a beautiful quilt that had charms to keep him warm or cool and had bits of everyone’s magic embedded in it that he would never feel alone if he was away from home if he had his quilt. She had gotten it for him for sleepovers and when there were camps at Primary school. She would have one made for each boy when they went to Hogwarts, in their favourite colours or House colours, whichever they preferred. Hadrian had given her a very big hug at the gift.

After a delightful lunch where everyone had put in the effort, in the informal dining room. Kreacher had decorated it with paper mâché underwater animals and charmed them to look like they were swimming through the air. A few of the paper animals landed up in Hadrian’s bedroom, he loved the selkies, kelpies and Orcas. It had taken a bit to convince Freya and Bast not to try and catch them.

Sitting in the breakfast nook the men had Hadrian sitting between them, it was time for his gifts from the family.

Uncle Remus went first and gave Hadrian a brown leather satchel that could either be worn on his back or across his body. Inside were a lot of little pockets and big pockets. One of the big pockets had a charm so that it opened neatly into bookshelves so Hadrian could put his books for school neatly away. There was also a big pocket for his sports equipment and clothes and the last big pocket was for anything else Hadrian wanted. The rest of the pockets were for quills and dip pens or fountain pens, inks and pencils and crayons, even one for a notebook or diary. Hadrian really liked the bag, it had a featherlight charm on it and an anti-theft charm so no one could get into his stuff. It was in the style of Japanese school bags so would work wonderfully when Hadrian went to school.

Uncle Sirius went next and gifted him a giant dinosaur punching bag for his fighting training, cause if Hadrian wanted to do well at school he needed to be fit and be able to concentrate so they were going to start teaching him martial arts and some Italian dagger fighting. Uncle Sirius had also given him soft sticks so he could practise the dagger fighting moves without hurting himself or anyone else.

Uncle Sev gave him a brewing kit with ingredients and had set up a small brewing station for Hadrian in the family lab. Debbie had decorated it; it was turquoise and had golden snitches painted against the backsplash. She had even put a foot mat down so his feet didn’t get sore from standing too long. Sev had been rather mildly jealous of that, so they were going to put similar mats in his lab at home and the school for him. Sev had also gotten two extra auto-refilling flasks for the lab for Hadrian, one was apple juice and the other one had hot chocolate.

From his daddies, he got tickets to go to the reserve with everyone including Draco and Neville. He was also going to go with his dads to Tinkerers Lane tomorrow and spend a fun day with them. Lastly, he got swimming and holiday stuff for they all went to France for two weeks.

Freya and Bast had gifted him a warm dead mouse.

~~~

Charlie and the twins were out with Auntie Molly today, the rest of them except the twins were all back home. but Charlie had some birthday, yule and pocket money saved up, so he was going to get an owl, he was tired of getting in trouble for the long-distance flights taking so long with his letters to Fleur and Viktor. He and the twins had convinced auntie Molly that they could tag along to Tinkerers Lane and while she was in her meeting the boys could explore.

The twins were looking forward to the one-joke shop that had sweets that were charmed to change your hair colour or taste like your favourite dinner. Charlie was supervising them when he saw a little boy about the same age as the twins and his two pet Kneazle kittens. The kittens were on leaches and walking on their own very relaxed. Charlie couldn’t help himself and rushed to the front of the group, he noticed the boys’ dads, but his main focus was on the kittens.

“Sorry, my name is Charlie, can I look at your kittens? I have never seen a real Kneazle before, they are so pretty.” Charlie rushed his sentence before he cooed at the kittens, Freya instantly went closer so she could get scratchies. Charlie was on his knees giving both kittens scratchies and cooing to them about how beautiful they were.

“Did you have to teach them how to walk on leashes or did they just know? I bet they just knew; they look very clever.” Charlie asked, for the first time looking at the boy with his messy black hair and cool green eyes.

The boy smiled at him, “Freya just knew what to do but she didn’t want a pink leash, she kept stealing Basts' leash. So, we got her a different one at the menagerie, she and Bast picked out the ones they liked. Bast thinks that when you put a leash on him, he needs to run around the house doing zoomies for the first five minutes.” The boy beamed at him only too happy to talk about his kittens to a fellow cat lover.

Charlie smiled back at him, “I knew that they were very clever kittens. Just impossible not to know when you see them. So Bast gets zoomies often?”

“Yes, sometimes at four in the morning, he jumped on Daddy’s face the other morning while daddy was asleep. Papa thought it was very funny when he had to heal daddy’s cuts, daddy didn’t think it was funny. Sometimes Bast forgets to pull his claws back after he jumps, he is still a kitten so it’s a balance thing according to papa.” At this point, Hadrian was also kneeling to give attention to his kittens.

Charlie for the first time realised that he had stopped strangers in the street and hadn’t introduced himself yet, he recognised the boy from the summer session of Wizengamot and wanted to hide, his dad would not be happy about his lack of manners. He squared his shoulders and stood up, saw the twins and beckoned them over. “I am sorry I didn’t introduce myself properly, please forgive me, it was my excitement about meeting Bast and Freya. I am Charlie Weasley-Prewitt, and these are my little brothers Heirs Fred and George Weasley-Prewitt.” all three boys did a proper bow that their Auntie Molly and Aunt Muriel had taught them the beginning of summer holidays and that they had had to practice till they did perfectly.

Hadrian stood up and bowed back at them, “Well met Mister Charlie Weasley-Prewitt and Heirs Fred and George Weasley-Prewitt, I am Heir Hadrian Peverell-Black. It’s quite alright, I can understand introducing yourself to the kittens first. I would have too.” He smiles at the boys, “May I introduce you all to my fathers Lord Regulus Black and Lord Charles Peverell, fathers these are Mister Charlie Weasley-Prewitt and Heirs Weasley-Prewitt. I think the one is on the right is Fred and the one on the left is George.”

Charlie and the twins bowed again and the Lords both did the customary greeting for Heirs. Regulus saved the situation from being very awkward as he could see the oldest boy was worried about having offended them. “I would have greeted the kittens first too; they are after all our owners. How are Arthur and Molly, I haven’t seen your dad or your aunt in a few weeks?”

The twins decided to speak up at this point because clearly, no one was in trouble. “Dad is at work.”

“Aunt Molly is in the tartan shop talking”

“About jumpers that match family tartans.”

“We are here to buy sweets and prank toys.”

“Charlie wants to buy an owl,”

“So that he can write letters all the time about”

“Quidditch and dragons and foreign creatures.”

Charles smiled; it had been some years since he last heard twin speak so perfectly in sync. “So, the two of you are magical twins. That is delightful, love twin speak far too much. Getting sweets and prank gifts sound great. What type of owl are you looking at Charlie if it is for long-distance flights?”

Charlie relaxed, even more, when he realised the two lords were going to be very friendly with them and knew his family well enough to use their first names. “I would love a snowy owl, but I think I am going to get a Barn owl. I only saved 11 gallons and snowy owls are more than that. We have a family Barn owl, he is pretty awesome, he takes the bacon from my plate now when he comes back from delivering my letters to my pen pals.”

James felt his heart melt at the boy who had saved the money for his owl. “How about I make you a deal. Hadrian is starting school with you and your brothers and cousin in September. If you all show him and his friend and cousin around and help him, not get lost, I will pay the difference on a Snowy owl.

Charlie felt his eyes go huge, “No Lord Peverell, you don’t need to pay me for that, I would have done that anyway.”

Regulus chuckled softly, “Charles, clearly, Charlie is a good kid. One we owe birthday and Yule gifts too since his last gift from us was when he was 3. We owe his brothers and cousins gifts too. So how about this, Charlie, you and Hadrian can help me pick out an owl for you and you can use your money to buy the owl a cage and a stand. Charles, why don’t you and the twins get gifts for everyone else, and we meet at the coffee shop for lunch afterwards. I will spend Molly a patroness so that she knows what’s going on and that we didn’t just kidnap her nephews from the street. I will tell her to join you. The boys and I will go look at the fun practice wands for all the children as well while you get the other gifts. No more than twenty gallons a child.”

“Yes, that is a far more sensible idea. Sorry, Charlie didn’t mean to sound like I was trying to bribe you to be kind at school to Hadrian, I can see you are a good egg. So Gred and Forge, where are we heading for gifts?”

Roughly an hour later everyone including Molly met up at Train Cart Coffee Shop in the middle of Tinkerers Lane. Molly was a bit overwhelmed when she saw everything the boys and men were carrying. Charlie could not stop smiling, Regulus had seen him cooing at a Golden eagle and bought it for him. The Eagle was in a special cage that shrunk him down to a size he could carry and made the eagle very light. Charlie had immediately named him Lugh after the one Celtic sun god.

“Really Regulus, a barn owl would have worked just as well for the boy.” Molly scolded him gently.

“Molly, I owed him gifts and since he already uses an owl, it isn’t wasteful to buy him a bird of his own. I did also pay for him to get falconry lessons for the rest of Summer, so he knows how to properly take care of Lugh.” Regulus gave her a reassuring smile.

Molly took a moment to process what he said, “Yes well I suppose as long as Charlie attends the lessons and shows he can handle the Eagle I don’t have a problem with that. Though I suppose the gnomes and the local rabbits might have a problem with Lugh.”

Regulus had made a point of showing Molly the wand shop and soon she and Charlie both had proper wands with the promise that Arthur, Bill and Percy will be going there tomorrow as well to get their proper wands. The twins, Ron and Ginny had all been gifted training wands like Hadrian’s with little holsters to get used to wearing their wands on them.

No one was surprised when the first letter Lugh delivered was a letter of thanks for Hadrian and his daddies as well as just a friendly letter from Charlie to Hadrian.

Chapter Text

It was the evening of Samhain, four dark figures stood outside a very lovely though utterly muggle house in Little Whinging Surrey. None of them said a word as they cast privacy wards over a specific house, to anyone walking past the house would look completely normal. No festive cheer whatsoever for Halloween and all the locals knew not to take their children there to trick-or-treat. The neighbourhood was holding a small American style Halloween for the little children before the bigger festivities for later that night. The hustle of children and parents in costumes meant that none of the men stood out in the very muggle area.

The four men approached the house from different angles, Sirius and Lucius were going around the back while Remus and Severus would go through the front. Whatever wards had been on the house had long since disappeared and the four of them could quite comfortably get close to the house.

They had left Regulus, Narcissa and James at home with the boys, purely because if any of those three had come here, it would be a blood bath. All of them wanted revenge for the mistreatment of Hadrian but his parents and Aunt would happily burn down the entire town in revenge for not helping Hadrian, the other four men were capable of keeping that impulse in check and only burn down this particular house if they were going to set anything on fire.

Severus walked up the path and knocked on the plain wooden door, a pale skinny woman opened the door and let out a squeak when she saw him. “Hello Petunia, I see that you remember me, we need to talk about how you treated my nephew.”

“What nephew, the only child here is my son!” she snarled at him as he pushed into the house closely followed by Remus.

Unbeknown to her, Lucius was on the first floor checking the rooms for anything of value, he saw a boy his own sons' age, that clearly wasn’t being looked after. The boy was overweight from being fed unhealthy foods and not getting a lot of outdoor play time, it was clear by his frame he would always be big but there is a difference between being big and being badly looked after. Lucius knew that there were plans to look after this child, so he cast an extra spell on the boy to keep him asleep and a feather-light charm for when he needed to take the boy away. He also cast a silencing spell so that the boy wouldn’t hear anything he really shouldn’t.

Sirius meanwhile was going through the house from the conservatory, the dark cloud of energy when he got to the cupboard under the stairs surprised him. He had to prevent himself from storming through when he saw a thin mattress and baby blanket, this had clearly been where they had kept Hadrian. He seriously wanted to hurt someone.

Meanwhile, Severus and Remus had managed to guide a snarling and upset Petunia into the living room where her husband had been watching the football game. He stood up and tried to use his size to intimidate them.

“Now see here, you lot have no right to be in my house! We are good people; we deserve to not have anything to do with you freaks!” Vernon was yelling at them.

Severus smiled at them, “We will do our best not to have you ever see us again after all of this. Just answer my questions and if you answer them well enough, I might grant you certain favours.”

“Well, what are the bloody questions?” Vernon yelled.

“Who gave you custody of Harry?” Severus asked coolly. He could see Remus slowly walking around. Vernon hadn’t realised yet that the scariest predator of them all was the mild-mannered looking Librarian.

Petunia answered realising she was now boxed in between all the men. “He was left on our doorstep in a blanket, there was a letter saying he was the son of my sister and her husband, and they had died so we were now to look after him.”

“Ah, was the letter signed by anyone?”

She nodded as she concentrated, “Yes the headmaster of the school you and Lily went to.”

Remus merely raised an eyebrow, so Dumbledore had left Hadrian with these horrible people. Severus could see the way his husband was thinking but they needed more answers.

“Tell me did you take care of him or did treat him with the mistrust you have of magic?”

Vernon was loud in his answer, “We put a roof over that freak child’s head, how did the little Freak repay us, he disappeared one night.” He wasn’t paying attention to his wife gabbing him in the gut to shut up.  

“What did you do that a little boy would just disappear?” Severus asked quietly.

“I was teaching him a lesson for having served the tea a touch too cold. How dare he waste good tea by not brewing it properly. He was complaining that he had burnt his hand on the kettle but how is that my problem, he needed to shut up and obey like a good little freak!”

“How does one teach a four-year-old a lesson like that?”

“I usually locked him in his cupboard for a few days without food but since I wanted him to actually do his chores. I reminded him why I was a heavy weight boxer in school and university. He should be thankful I only used my fists and not my belt on him! Then suddenly the boy disappeared.”

Remus snarled and had the man lifted in the air by his neck, his feet couldn’t touch the floor. “How can anyone do that to a child?”

Petunia answered at that point, “he wasn’t ours, I never wanted him or anyone like him that would be like my perfect bitch of a sister.” That may have been the only thing she said that the four wizards, agreed with.

“So, what do we do now?” Remus asked Severus.

“We stick to the plan. They will suffer a lot more in the long term than if we react to the new information.”

Upstairs a little blonde boy slept through, his parents being cursed to feel no joy. If they hurt someone with their words or physically, they would feel the pain tenfold. All memory of his cousin was wiped from their minds and a new memory was placed in their minds that their own son had disappeared a few weeks ago and both suspected each other. Before he was taken out of the house, Severus ran a diagnostic charm on Dudley and healed the boys’ injuries and sped his metabolism up just slightly so that he could become a healthier version of himself. Severus also put a mind charm on Dudley so that the memories of his parents faded fairly but he would always feel sad about how they had hurt his cousin and made him sad that he had hurt his cousin and not been his cousin’s friend. While the muggles were having bonfires and shooting fireworks, Lucius activated a long-distance portkey while holding the boy. Remus had packed up the boys’ things that he would need and a few toys. Nothing in excess just so that the child had some comforts and a few familiar things.

~~~

It was sunrise in Okinawa Bay, Anna was stationed at the American Naval Base for the foreseeable future.  She and John had talked about her being a place of refuge for a five-year-old that wasn’t being looked after right by his family. John had helped sort out all the paperwork and they were delivering the boy to her this morning. He would be as far away from his parents as possible and between moving between the British and American bases as she did Naval training, it would be very hard to trace the little boy.

She had a Japanese townhouse, so it was very modern on the inside but the use of woods and such as decorations helped to still give the house a homey feel. The little boy was to be given a new name, so he was now known as Derrick Windlow. Anna was going to pretend to be his aunt.

She had decorated a room for the boy, it had a single bed, a nightstand and a desk. She had decorated the room with elements of spaceships but hadn’t gone overboard as she wanted him to be able to decorate it as he saw fit to.

It was nearly eight when she saw a tall blonde man in a very neat business suit and a little boy in shorts and a button-up shirt walk to her house. The man was pulling a bag behind him on wheels and the little boy was holding a toy truck.

She smiled at them as they came closer, she could see she was going to have to get the boy to eat more veggies and hopefully spend a lot of time in the park playing with the other kids. Maybe she could teach him how to surf?

“Hello, I am your Aunt Anna,” her smile was genuine as she smiled at the boy.

“Hello Auntie, my name is Derrick. Thank you for letting me stay with you.” The boy answered her, he was very unsure of himself.

Anna led them into the house, she showed Derrick where to put his things and told him she would help him unpack his bag once she was finished with his social worker. A quick cup of tea for everyone later and breakfast for Derrick while Anna and his social worker finished the paperwork. Anna hadn’t realised that she would have full custody of the boy and his biological parents would never have the chance to get him back. She could only wonder what they had done that they had their full parental rights had been removed from them.

With a reassuring smile, she and Derrick waved the very well dressed blonde social worker away as he had a flight to catch. He had handed her a business card that if she ever needed to contact him if Derrick's family or other people were asking questions that no one ever really should. She carefully put Mr Lucas business card away. She hoped that they would never need it.

It didn’t take long for Anna and her nephew to settle in life on the Military base, little Derrick had asked to go to the local Japanese primary school instead of the school on the base. He wanted to learn how to speak and read Japanese fluently and make friends with the people in the town where they lived. He had looked adorable in his sailor-inspired school uniform and his randoseru, which was his Japanese school bag. It took a little while to fit in but soon Derrick was on the swim team and had made friends, his Japanese was starting to get better than his English.

The school nurse and Anna worked together with the doctors as well as the school lunch kitchen and Derrick was starting to become the picture of health for a western boy, he would be bigger than his Japanese friends for a while but by high school, a few of them may become taller than him.

Anna had taken a job as a security consultant by the time Derrick was eight so that they could stay in Japan, it was clear by then that for the two of them, Japan had become home. They had moved out of the base and into a house in one of the more Japanese only speaking areas and both of them loved it. Derrick got to take the train on his own in the morning to school and in the afternoons, he had after school programmes that kept him busy till Anna could fetch him after work.

No one that had ever known Dudley Dursley would ever for a moment have thought that Derrick Windlow, was the same child. He had asked if he could call Anna okaa-san, at some point once he had settled into his new life. She had been honoured and granted the boy permission to think of her as his mum. By the time Derrick had turned ten, his okaa-san had married a lovely man who worked as a banker and his daughter who was a year younger than Derrick had all moved in together. Ritsu loved Anna and soon treated Derrick as if he had always been his son. Derrick and his little sister Hana were both surprised to have been accepted to attend Middle school and High school at Mahoutokoro, the Japanese school for Wixen. Derrick wasn’t born in Asia so they didn’t normally accept non-Asian descent children but since he had lived in Japan longer than he had lived in England and thought and dreamt in Japanese, they decided they could make an exception for him. They made exceptions for non-Asian kids raised in Asia from time to time. He would be one of four other children from the rest of the world in school in his starting year.

Life for Petunia and Vernon hadn’t gone nearly as well as it had done for their biological son. The next morning after the four wizards had come to question them and taken Dudley away from them. The local police arrived as well as the social workers, they had gotten a serious complaint about child neglect from a reliable source.

While the investigation happened into the disappearance of both the boys that had lived here, adoption papers had been filed for one of the boys. The paperwork for Dudley showed he had been moved with his aunt in the Navy and was happily being looked after and the relevant naval office had done all the home checks to make sure he was fine. The social workers had been very upset when they found a little grave for a Harry James Potter, who had apparently died a few months before they had gotten the tip-off. A little investigation later and they found a lot of evidence that proved that the boy had been abused and killed by his aunt and uncle.

The court case had been quick and both older Dursleys had been convicted on two cases of child abuse and one case of the homicide of a minor. The two had been shipped off to prison, one night during their prison stay at two different prisons both disappeared from their muggle prisons and landed up in a mid-level security cell in Azkaban. Neither Dursleys had lived very long after arriving in the Wixen prison. While no one was sure if it had been the cold, lack of regular meals or the Dementors that had gotten to the two muggles. None of the guards or any of the inmates near them felt the slightest remorse. The two muggles had abused children and that was worse than any unforgivable that any Wixen could have cast.

When Death came to fetch them, he wasn’t kind or gentle as he led them into the night, he instead showed them images of how their son had moved on and would grow up to not only forget about them for the most part but also become a fairly well known Quidditch player and metal charmer while raising his children with a Japanese wizard. Petunia had kept screaming that wasn’t how she had raised her son to be, as they saw the flickering of his life while they were led into, the dark voids of the underworld.

The Muggle authorities had just processed that they had been moved to a different prison and no one other than Marge, ever questioned where either of them or her nephew had gone to. For most of the world and in particular, almost everyone that had ever known them, the world without them was a much sunnier place.

Amelia Bones had enjoyed working with her Muggle counterpart on this case, getting the boys moved to safety or rather all traces of the one boy erased. She had been a bit surprised when the Muggle Minister of Defence, a charming man named Christopher Harper had asked her out. She had agreed and by Yule that year, she and Christopher were dating, he knew she was a witch and he thought that was another thing that made her special, he liked her fire and wit.

Chapter Text

James was sitting in his Wizengamot seats with everyone else, thankfully, laws made that they could all attend sessions without having to take leave off from work. It was seen as an honour to have Lords and Ladies working for you. He knew technically none of them needed employment but the routine of getting up and going to work every morning helped them all.

Sirius had by some weird chance become the stay-at-home husband/brother/dad for all of them, he managed the households. He was excellent at being kept up to date in the happenings of the courts and banking worlds. He also did as much research they needed to be done between various sessions. He even started attending the ladies’ teas with Narcissa and Augusta, this gave him an insight into the gossip including various members' financial states.

 It was at one of these ladies’ teas that he heard the wife of Lord Goyle, complain that her husband had moved some hussy in into their summer home and had changed the wards so that neither she nor her son could get into the estate. Her son’s favourite pony was there, and she couldn’t understand why they couldn’t get the pony and why would the estate with his mistress needed over eighty house-elves, and so much food. She saw the money that was assigned to the managing of the estate, and it worried her that the mistress was being allowed so much. She wasn’t in a marriage of love; she had always known her husband would have side lovers but to this extent of luxury was rather absurd. What was the woman buying, diamond-encrusted forks?

Sirius who had been trained as an Auror knew instantly there was something much bigger than a mistress at play and after an introduction from Narcissa. He was able to get the exact location of the manor, with the promise to investigate the events around the estate as soon as he could. He would of course be very discreet, no need to rock the boat of the Lady’s marriage.

Sirius used his charm and intellect and love of fine clothing to get into the hearts of the ladies of the council, they all knew he was to be a lord when he sat in parliament. He was very much the next Lord Black, even when dealing with the ladies he was Lord Black. The difference was, that Arcturus always seemed cold and ruthless in and out of the courts. Sirius appeared highly intelligent and very friendly but wouldn’t hesitate to put you back in your place with a few chosen words. He knew far too much about everything and everyone. He had learnt quickly that information was power, and he made sure his family, would have more than enough power to see through whatever may happen to them.

Sirius had sat with Amelia, while they had reworked all the documentation, Hadrian was now legally Hadrian Orion Peverell-Black, he had been born to Regulus Arcturus Black and Charles Hardwin Peverell. They had worked very hard to change James' full identity to Charles and the family was now trying to call him Charles even in private so that none of them slipped up in public, with Hadrian going to school it made sense. Charles had been privately tutored as the Heir of such prominent houses and then gone on to Graduate from Drumstrung. James who had spent a year in the exchange program had enough friends that he could fill in about the name change, that if anyone questioned it. He could prove he had been in school with them they had even doctored photos of James to look more like Charles. The new Headmaster Mihael Georgiev Nikolov, of Drumstrung, had been one of his exchange friends and he had been more than happy to make school records for Charles.

They were all working very hard to make sure that no one could claim Hadrian and take him away or disprove Charles’s new identity. As far as the world knew James Potter had died and the boy who lived disappeared and then died a few months ago. Regulus and Charles had raised their son who was a similar age as Harry in France before moving back to England on Arcturus's request to help Sirius and his family settle once he was released from Prison.  Even the family tapestry had been charmed and magicked to accept the changes in the family tree to protect the bloodline. The family trees that the Goblins had, the one in the Wizengamot as well as the one in all the houses also reflected these changes. It had taken them months of careful working but now it was impossible to disprove.

Regulus had been able to do quite a bit of the work they needed in his position as an Unspeakable, Madam Abbott had been thrilled to help protect his family from Voldemort and any future death eaters if the worst that they all feared would ever happen again.

All this prep and careful planning and paranoia to a large extent proved to be useful the first day Dumbledore and his followers were back in court. All the members of the Wizengamot were attending already sitting when Dumbledore and for the lack of a better word his entourage walked in. Late as usual, Dumbledore was dressed in violet robes with gold trim, trying to remind everyone he was probably colour blind or searching for attention. The man didn’t even apologise for his tardiness and climbed up the stairs to where his seat only to find that it was no longer there. He wasn’t being allowed up into the Most Ancient and Most Noble seating area, in fact, he was only allowed into the Noble House seating area.

He turned around and weird smile demanded, “Amelia, Cornelius, I know that you both ordered a cleaning of Parliament, but something must be wrong as I am not allowed to go to my seats.”

Cornelius Fudge had great joy in being able to inform Dumbledore, “No error Albus old chap, while you away some of the seats that you sat in Proxy for where claimed, the only seats you have left are Dumbledore and Dingle. Since neither of them is ranked higher than Noble, those are now your seats.”

“There must be some mistake, what about the Hogwarts seats, or the Potter seats, we all know I am that dear boy’s legal magical guardian, so I am sitting in proxy for him till he turns at least seventeen.” Everyone could clearly see that Dumbledore thought he had won this round.

“Oh Albus, I am sorry, I thought you had been informed though I wonder as guardian, why you are only finding this out several months after the fact. Harry Potter, passed away before Yule, his muggle guardians had abused him. I find it interesting that you were lax in your duties to the point where you did not know he had passed away much less the level of abuse the poor child suffered.” Cornelius made a tutting sound while he allowed what he said to sink into the members of parliament, he activated a silencing charm so they could all hear as he contained to talk over the growing outrage. “Furthermore, regarding your claims as magical guardian, both his parents’ wills were finally unlocked after his death was confirmed, you were never meant to be his magical guardian.”

The roar at this would have been deafening if it hadn’t been for the fact that the silencing charm had still been in place. Lord Nott, had for a brief moment a ridiculous thought that Albus Dumbledores' face matched with his puce robes nicely, his purple rage face had been needed to offset the colour against his complexion. Far too many of the light’s representatives were arguing that this was an outrage against a great man. A few notable families were very quiet, it looked as if their worldview had been shattered.

He then calmly indicated that he wished to speak, the minister nodded at him and indicated he should wait just a minute for the room to regain order. With a nod, the silencing charm on Lord Nott was lifted, “I would like to question the part of his parents’ wills were just only unlocked now. As a parent myself it is very concerning that my will can be locked so that it isn’t executed. How are we to know something similar wouldn’t happen to our children, this is an easy way to commit line theft?”

Amelia was ecstatic that someone not of the Black clan had bought this up. Now it was seen as a valid question not just their paranoia. They had all seen Sirius's reaction to being informed he had been Harry’s godfather and not been informed or that the rest of the will had been followed.

“Lord Nott, if I may, we are currently working to set in basic parameters to allow the Goblins as well as us to unlock wills and testaments of those deceased that still have minors. In the past, the headmaster and his teachers were allowed to be the magical guardians of orphaned children. We feel like we need to put more structures in place to look after our children. It is in fact one of the things we would like to discuss as a bill today. I can’t think of a better day to discuss the welfare of all Wixen children than the day we all found out what happened to young Lord Potter and the return of Headmaster Dumbledore.” She replied to Lord Nott solemnly.

Lord Nott as well as every other person of power in that room that had been or was currently a parent nodded. Even those that weren’t parents all nodded, looking after Wixen children should always be a priority.

Fudge decided it was time to pull the parliament session back in, “Do take a seat Dumbledore, we have a busy day for this session, I am sure we all would like to get started.”

The Lord Peverell stood up at this point and gave a sad smile to the parliament session before he started speaking. “I can not claim that this proposal doesn’t hurt me that we need it, but I feel that it is for the best of our children so that what happened to my nephew never happens again. I have two things that I would like us to put into place. A department of Wixen Children Welfare and a Wixen child crisis centre. The Department of Wixen Children's Welfare should be involved in investigating reports of abuse, helping St Mungo’s do the health checks at all the schools as well as helping families in need. We would like to encourage the use of their services by families in hard times as well, we don’t want to split loving families, we want to help keep them together.

We do however need things in place for the few children that do not come from loving homes or land up with no clear guardian when things go wrong. The child crisis centre will be used by children that are homeless, between homes as guardianships are being sorted, as well as safe shelter till families are back on their feet. This will allow us to know the children are safe if there are any issues with wills and testaments or just tracking down the next person to look after the child. In order to do this correctly, it will mean that workers of the Department will be the magical guardian of a child till they are either placed back with their family or they become seventeen. This will prevent line theft as all of this will be monitored and the child will be able to start Heir training in a safe environment if they do perhaps have seats.

We have drafted a system that works similar to the systems in place in Japan, Germany, France and South Africa. We would also like to have a tie into the muggle equivalent so that if we find Muggle-born Wixen that need help, we can go through Muggle authorities to aid the children. We can only hope we can find these children when they start showing accidental magic that if they are born in houses that fear them or abuse them, we can save them in time.

Now I know most Muggle-borns come from loving homes, but we cannot assume that they all do, just like we cannot assume all Wixen children born in pureblood or half-blood families come from loving homes. I would also like to remind everyone that your magical core is not an indication of how you treat children. None of us drafting this bill believe for a moment how you cast magic makes you better or worse than your peers.”

As Charles sat down, everyone received a packet of documents with the proposed outlines, budget, laws and for a few minutes, the Wizengamot was silent as everyone read the documents.

“Now how are we to get a building big enough to house an orphanage, much less a house that is safe enough. There is barely enough money to fund Hogwarts, much less a project on this scale.” Dumbledore asked, “I would hate on people needing to rely on the services you are proposing only for it not to be available.”

Lord Charles stood up again, “The information of the housing is in the Budget document and including pictures. We are donating Potter Manor in South England to the project. The manor can sleep about eighty children comfortably. It also had forty house-elves and quarters for the teachers, mind healers, and welfare workers. Since it is a Most Ancient and Most Noble manor house, the wards on the estate are incredibly impressive. We will also have them audited and maintained by Gringotts every year. My family estates are happy to fund the maintenance of the wards. If it becomes clear that more housing is needed, I am sure Wizengamot can look at buying another old manor house from Gringotts.”

“How dare you offer the Potter manor; I don’t know who you are, but you are not a Potter. That line surely died out with the death of Harry.” One of the ladies of the light, a Lady Sleeman shouted.

“My apologies, I realise some of you weren’t here for the beginning of the summer session. I am Lord Charles Peverell, I was the cousin of Lord James Potter. When the death of my nephew was declared, I came with my spouse and child over from France to see what we could do to help. It was then I was informed that the Potter line had been transferred to me. So, I am in my full right to make these offers.

My family and I do not wish to stay in my late Uncle Lord Fleamont's home. We have already cleared all family artefacts and heirlooms from the estate. It is a lovely clean estate with a quidditch pitch, a pool, a greenhouse and a stable. I can’t think a child growing up there or spending a few days or weeks there won’t have things to occupy them. I have also left the music room, as well as the art room for the more artistically inclined. We even have worked with St. Mungo’s to set up a healer station like the hospital Wing at Hogwarts, to deal with any injuries.

It is confirmed that my claims are true to my heritage and that Lady Magic herself has allowed me to take over my family seats, I am currently sitting in the seats as Lords Peverell, Potter and Gryffindor.”

After that order was established again quickly and for the first time in a very long time, it was a unanimous decision to enact the Wixen children’s welfare act. Potter Manor was turned into a children’s home. No one wanted to be seen as voting against the care and welfare of the children.

 ~ ~ ~

The sun rose early as Charles and Regulus got Hadrian ready for his first day of Primary school. He has dressed in navy blue shorts, a white shirt with a matching navy vest and a small school tie, with knee socks and oxford style school shoes. His hair was just long enough to curl around his ears and Charles had helped his son get the mop of unruly hair to curl softly. He assumed this was Reggie’s genetics helping tame the Potter's hair. They had followed a guide on styling curly hair by a lovely Madam Chantelle from America and Hadrian’s hair had started to curl prettily and was super soft now. Apparently, they had known nothing about looking after curls, Charles was following the routine himself now as well and it was working. He had sent Lady Chantelle a heartfelt thank you for making her book available on hair care and curl patterns.

Charles was wearing a navy suit from the Muggle world while Regulus was dressed in French Navy robes. The whole family had posed for family photos to remember Hadrian’s first day of school, Severus had come through the floo early to eat breakfast with the family and see Hadrian off. Primary school started on the Second of September, the day after the Hogwarts express left with the older children.

Dottie had repacked Hadrian’s school bag three times and even included snacks for him and his friends as well as future friends. It was always good to be prepared. He had special band-aids from his Uncle Severus for if he fell, that would help with minor scrapes and bruises. Soon it was time for them to go to school, with last hugs to everyone including Kreacher, they stepped through the floo.

“Hello, Hadrian! Bast and Freya at home today?” Charlie asked as he helped Hadrian dust off the floo powder. “Good morning, Lord Charles and Lord Regulus. I was just helping the rest of my family through the floo when I noticed you all.”

Hadrian smiled at Charlie, between the letters from Charlie and the twins, he felt like he had three more friends all ready for the start of school. “Morning Charlie. Congratulations on being made quoders captain for your team. I am sure it's going to help you be an amazing quidditch player when you go to secondary school.”

“Aw thank you, Hadrian.” Charlie was blushing and almost matched his dark auburn hair.

“Charles, Regulus, I forgot that you were sending Hadrian here as well. Good morning, Hadrian excited for your first day?” Arthur asked bending down to meet be a less intimidating man, he was very tall and knew that could sometimes frighten children.

“Good morning, Lord Weasley. I am very much looking forward to school. I think papa is worried though.” Hadrian shook Lord Weasley's hand.

“Now chap, you don’t need to call me Lord Weasley, a bit of a mouthful. You are most welcome to call me Uncle Arthur, all my children’s and nieces and nephews, friends call me that. I certainly heard enough about you from Charlie and the twins to know most of my sons already think of you as a friend.”

“Okay, uncle Arthur.”

Arthur stood up and smiled reassuringly at Regulus, “I have now had six children’s first day of school and it doesn’t get easier watching them leave in their little uniforms. Do you know who his teacher is, the twins and their cousin Ronald are in different classes. While they can’t split twins up, they do try and keep siblings separated. Since everyone lives together Ronald is seen as the youngest of my sons.”

“Glad to know it isn’t just me, Charles is being way too calm about this. He is in Miss Roses's class. I think it is the tadpole class?” Regulus gave a relieved smile.

“Ahh yes, then Hadrian will be with the twins, Charlie was about to walk me to her new rooms, you all are welcome to walk with us. Bill is taking Molly and Ron, to his class.”

After greetings and a reassuring hug to Molly, the group split into two. Charlie walked with Hadrian and the twins in front, pointing out all the most important things such as the best swing, foursquare court and which school fountain gave out chocolate milk on Fridays during the second break. When they got there, Draco, Neville and their families were already there. After enthusiastic hugs and introductions, the five small boys went to go sit at a group desk there had been heavy debate about the blue desks or the green desks.

More hugs and photographs later and a promise from Charlie that he will see them all during the first break, everyone was settled, and the parents went off to either their homes or to work.

Chapter Text

It was coming closer to Yule break; Hadrian had settled into an easy friendship with Fred and George. They quickly added to the level of trouble Mischievous Trio had been able to get into and had been dubbed the sons of Mayhem by everyone including Miss Rose. Poor Percy, who liked peace and quiet and order found the five rambunctious boys a bit overwhelming. He was often seen hiding from his various siblings and their friends by spending his breaks with the quieter children in a book club. The sons of Mayhem often played rather energetic games of foursquare, with even Neville being known as someone with a mean back serve. Ron had made friends with two boys in his class, Dean and Seamus and the two groups of boys were often caught pranking each other.

Tension had been building a while and while Bill and Charlie did their best to diffuse it as often as possible two days before Yule, the second break dissolved into mayhem. What should have been a friendly game of foursquare broke out into the boys declaring war against each other and a fairly large bout of accidental magic from all eight boys. It had all started when a ball had hit Draco in the face, instead of apologising he had been teased that he was a wimp that couldn’t take a hit. When Hadrian had told them to stop teasing Draco, a ball to the face hurt. They had accused him of protecting the Death Eater Spawn but what could they expect when his papa was a Death Eater too so that made the whole group evil.

When Percy had heard Dean accuse Draco and Hadrian of being Death Eater’s children, he had run to get Charlie and Bill. Bill told him to get the teachers while he had Charlie had run to where the younger boys were, a few of their friends had come with them. When the older boys got there, clouds of red were swirling around the boys as the various five- and six-year-olds were punching and kicking each other. Little Hadrian was sitting on Dean’s chest and screaming at him to not say a bad thing about his papa, Dean had a bloody nose and Hadrian had a black eye. It took a bit of work to pull the boys apart, it had taken both Charlie and Bill to get Hadrian away from Dean, he was so furious he kept trying to break free to go hit Dean again.

“Hadrian stop, he isn’t worth it. Breathe dude, breath.” Charlie was rubbing Hadrian’s back while Bill was trying to sort out what had happened.

“Typical, Charlie would rather spend time with the rich death eaters’ children than care about his own family!” Yelled a very red in the face Ron, he didn’t like that Hadrian and the twins had gotten all the attention.

Charlie turned and stared at his little cousin. “He has hurt Ronald and he is a friend of the family. Can you imagine how hurt our dad and your mom will be if they hear you call his parents, their friends that?”

“They are cowards, my dad died in the war while they were in France,” Ron yelled back at him.

“You don’t know anything; my dads aren’t cowards not everything is as easy to answer. I am sorry about your dad but that doesn’t make mine bad.” Hadrian answered him back.

“Well, I would rather have no dad than dads that murder children!” Ron yelled at him.

There was a crack and everyone including the teachers who were rushing to stop the boys from fighting stopped in shock. Charlie had let go of Hadrian and punched Ron as hard as he could in the nose. Blood was gushing out of his cousin’s nose.

“I would rather have my dads proud of me for defending a friend than listen to you dirty our family name. Shut up Ron while I still think of you like family.”

By the time the parents had been called in all the boys had been patched up. The sons of Mayhem had two new members in the forms of Bill and Charlie. The boys were sitting in a tight group refusing to let go of anyone’s hands when the teachers had tried to split them apart.  The twins had crawled into their biggest brother's lap and Draco, Neville and Hadrian were all leaning against Charlie. Percy was holding ice patches to Hadrian’s swelling eye and Charlies' bruised knuckles. Ron and his friends were all sitting in the other corner while Millie Bulstrode, one of their friends was helping to ice their bruises as well.

After far too many embarrassing reassurances that what Ron had said wasn’t what anyone else believed about the Peverell- Black family. Everyone agreed that the children should only return to school after the Yule break. Charlie had almost been fearful that he and the twins wouldn’t be allowed to keep being friends with Hadrian and his friends. Hadrian had just hugged him and told him that he had a mean right hook and he needed to show it to Uncle Sirius when he came to visit. Regulus was furious with the situation was calm enough not to overreact at the boys and arranged a play date with everyone for two days before Yule at their manor in Scotland. He and Charles had already noticed that most of the Weasley boys were here to stay in their family. Maybe if Ron saw how normal the house Hadrian was growing up in, it would stop him from believing silly stories he heard from other children.

~ ~ ~ ~

The next morning saw the first school board meeting since the Summer one to discuss the hiring and recruitment of more teachers and extra budgeting with salary adjustments. Hogwarts was decorated for the first time not just in Christmas decorations but also Yule and Hanukkah decorations. Charles was quite please with the posters encouraging students to learn about each other’s celebrations and let the school know if there were celebrations being missed out on.

The school board room was warm, it had a lovely view over the black lake and on the school grounds, various groups of students were sitting and chatting, some engaging in snowball fights. The school elves had set up a hot chocolate and warm blanket station for the kids outside.

Madam Pince was the first person on the order of business for the day, the school board had wanted to know why she had let the library that had once been the pride of Hogwarts become outdated and lacking. While they were waiting for Albus, Charles was having a delightful chat with Mrs Brown, the school’s new secretary. She was there to keep minutes for them today as well as do the updates about the school finances and other pressing matters since joining the staff. She had helped take quite a lot of pressure from the Deputy Headmistress as well as the Heads of Houses. Charles was making sure; she didn’t need an assistant? She had confirmed that more help would be lovely and was busy filling him in about how the apartment for a small family that came with her school administrator position was wonderful. They had opened the accommodation which meant that the staff only needed to leave the school for two weeks in the summer while wards were being updated and maintained. This was allowing teachers and staff just starting out time to save before buying private dwellings since they only needed a holiday place once a year.

“If I may be so bold, with all the younger teachers and assistants joining the faculty, maybe we should look at a nursery for future children for during the day until the children are old enough to start Primary school?” Mrs Brown asked casually.

“We do not encourage staff to have families, that would allow favouritism and be against the other students,” Albus informed her as he swept into the room, late as usual. “Why we allowed you to work here, I am still not aware, it is not as if you do much.”

Regulus signed, “If you are done insulting a valuable member of staff worth her weight in gold, maybe you can inform us why you are late?”

“My boy, I merely lost track of time while doing paperwork,” Albus answered him while sitting down in his chair which once again resembled a throne.

“I am not your boy; I very much take offence to that term. You may only address me by Lord Le Fay, I would like you to bear this in mind for the future. Secondly, why would paperwork be the excuse, we all have paperwork but were on time.”

“Now, now my boy, surely you understand that as headmaster as well as head of the ICW, I have a lot of work on my plate, far more than an unemployed boy pretending to be a Lord.” Albus gave him a smile, his eyes twinkling at his insult.

“Again, it is Lord Le Fay, if you are too busy to do your duties to the school, you either need to resign from the school or from the ICW, the children deserve people that care about their futures in charge of the school. Furthermore, I am not unemployed I am very gainfully employed at the National Archives.” Regulus answered while calmly taking a sip of his tea, he had checked that the tea wasn’t laced with anything, he had noticed everyone had checked their drinks. “Before we waste more time, we have a few things we need to discuss. One of them is the state of the school library, Madam Pince.”

Madam Pince stood up, she cast an imposing figure, “Yes, in the last thirty years, the budget has been cut to a tenth of what it was when I started and by then budget cuts had already happened. In attempts to help the budget, all the assistants have been let go as well as the subject experts on Sundays for students struggling with assignments. In the last few years, I have been forced to close the study rooms for the older students as Professor Dumbledore feels like this gives them areas not to study but to do other things.

My biggest complaint is a lot of the books about the subjects the school used to offer has been taken away, with a lot of effort, they have been sent to the National Library so we can get them back. We have also removed a lot of the books aimed at Wixen society, laws, customs, religions. We have also removed all source material that isn’t focussed on light cores. I fear that the children with Grey or Dark cores are being damaged or limited by bigoted ideals.

The care of Magical Creatures, Defence against the Dark Arts as well as the healing books have been stripped back to almost non-existent. We have also been forced to remove the fiction books, so children can’t take out books just for the joy of reading.”

Lady Flint, a skilled healer got really upset when she heard about all of this, “Pray do tell how we are training Aurors, HitWixen or Healers if we have limited these sections?”

Lord Shacklebolt answered then, “Well on the Hitwixen and Aurors, we aren’t, none of the graduates from the last three years has gotten into the programme. In fact, the last two Wixen to get fully into the programme without extra training and precautions put into place was Lord Sirius Black and the former Lord James Potter. We are at this point actively recruiting from other countries as our own students no longer meet the requirements, nor do they meet the requirements for Curse breakers or Healers. I have spent the last year, helping my daughter get extra NEWTS post-Hogwarts so that she could enrol in the healer programme, we decided to send her to France for her training.”

“This is absurd, the school fees are far too high, for our children not to be allowed to get into the further study programmes for their futures.” Lady Flint answered.

“Well, I suggest we up the budget for the library, Madam Prince, if you were to ask for the full catalogue of schoolbooks back and we hire two senior assistants and four junior assistants, would that help at least getting knowledge back? I would also like us to unlock the books aimed at all cores and have lessons when school opens for everyone to be taught how to use the library correctly and find the right books for their research? Is anyone opposed to the senior study rooms being opened again. I am sure we can put propriety charms on the study rooms, so the students don’t study each other’s anatomy too in-depth?” Regulus asked the board. “I do like the idea of Sunday help sessions, could we maybe ask the subject assistants to take turns on Sundays to offer this service till we have the school library back on its feet properly. As soon as we have the old books back, your team can go through them and start keeping track of extra resources and books we would need. If I may be so bold, maybe we can add a leisure reading area for children reading fiction, put charms on the books against damage so that the teenagers can drink hot drinks and relax after their studies? Obviously, the drinks wouldn’t be allowed out of that area, I think it may make the hesitation of using the library less and the students feel more comfortable and help our bookworms find a retreat. We could encourage book clubs?”

Madam Pince looked at Regulus and smiled, “Yes I could contact the National Library and get our books back as well as get us, assistants. I am sure a few busy with their mastery hours would welcome the chance at working with children. The reading area sounds like one of my favourite coffee shops, yes I approve.”

“It doesn’t depend on Madam Pince approving, I don’t like this at all, we should keep the focus of knowledge to the light, we can’t allow the children to fall to the Dark,” Dumbledore argued.

“Seriously Albus, how a child casts magic doesn’t make them more or less likely to be evil. Treating children that have nonlight cores as if they are evil and spurning them, is how we push them to the actual Dark. I think us showing all the knowledge and casting cores in a good light is what is desperately needed at this school.” Minerva answered.

“Why don’t we all vote rather than argue? It might save us some time.” Regulus proposed, finding himself being the keeper of the peace.

The vote while was very much in favour of returning the library to its former glory as well as allowing social areas in the library and book clubs. Charles carefully showed that the school library vaults were happy as well as the afterschool clubs and activities vaults, they were closer to those two vaults opening. The curriculum development vault flared blue to show it had been opened.

“Wonderful news, the school vault for curriculum development has opened, I think the reintroduction for books on all core focus and the tutoring hours were the key to those, they are still under probation but hopefully we can meet all the criteria to keep them open. I think we should take this as a time to look at reintroducing courses for next year. I am hoping for having assistants and extra teachers have allowed the headteachers time to re-assess their current class needs?” Charles spoke for the first time to the room.

Flitwick smiled at Charles, “Yes, I have already looked at my core curriculum and between myself and the rest of my team, we are updating some of the work. We are also looking at some of the more wandless charms from the fifth year and up. Nothing even remotely difficult, just basics without a wand to help students keep in touch with their cores for casting. It would really help if we could reintroduce Magic theory, Spell theory as well as warding as subjects. I know Pomona and Poppy would love us to reintroduce Healing, but we will need to add to the medical staff here.”

“Well from various discussions, we need to update all the subjects, headteachers, would it be alright if I leave the curriculum updates in your hands? If you need any assistance or just want to bounce ideas off of someone else, you can contact Mrs Brown. She will make an appointment with you to see either myself or Lord Le Fay. Regulus does have a mastery in Runes, I am afraid unless we are looking at fitness programmes for the children my own Mastery in the Military wouldn’t be of much use, but I am more than happy to listen.” Charles gave a soft chuckle, “on the subjects we need to reintroduce quickly I think we can all agree we are looking at, Healing, Spell theory, Wixen Culture, Sexual education that’s non-biased, Warding, Magical crafting and Physical education?

I know we have quidditch but not all children play it. If we could introduce the children to various forms of fitness from Yoga to football and swimming, we can start having clubs and teams for that. The school has huge empty stables, I don’t see why the children that ride aren’t allowed to bring their horses and ponies as well for stabling, will be good for the children and their equestrian familiars.”

Once again, the subjects were approved and a budget to acquire more staff was set aside as well for the curriculum development was approved.

“Now before we leave for the day, is there anything anyone else would like to propose or discuss?” Charles asked, he was surprised when Lord Shacklebolt raised his hand.

“Yes, I would like to discuss the difference in dorms, between my own children and nieces and nephews, my family currently has a child in every house and the difference in their dorms are astounding. The Ravenclaws only share rooms for the first two years whereafter they get dived into groups of three till their fifth year, in the fifth year they are again split into rooms of two and it remains that way till their seventh year when they get their own rooms. Each child also gets a desk in their rooms to work at as well as allocated space in the common room. The Slytherins get split in half from their fourth year and only get personal desks from then on but do have allocated workspace in the common room, from what I understand it is also always cold and damp and dark, no matter what the children do to lighten and warm the rooms. The Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors never split into smaller rooms, but the Hufflepuffs do have desks from the first year onward, but the Gryffindors don’t even have enough desk space for everyone in the common room, no wonder they have the worst marks in the school. I would like to propose that all the common rooms take the Ravenclaw approach to rooming and study spaces. We should also have the goblins check the Slytherins common rooms and workspaces when we update the wards to see if there isn’t something going on with the school's magic, doubt any of us want to be the reason some students are sickly.”

“Now, this was put into place for the various children’s learning styles, I am sorry about the dungeons being cold, but it is in the lake, no I don’t think we need to update anything,” Albus answered.

Lady Flint looked like she was considering punching Dumbledore, “I wholeheartedly vote for the upgrading of the houses to a more Ravenclaw style. I also vote for the Common rooms and sleep areas to be checked through the castle to make sure the places are safe for all the children.”

Again, save for Dumbledore, the vote was unanimous, neither Severus, Pomona nor Minerva had known how the other common rooms looked and the disadvantages their houses had when it came to studying. Albus all but stormed out of the meeting, they could hear him destroy the objects in his office as he threw a temper tantrum.

While Regulus and Charles left the room, Regulus whispered in Charles's ear, “You know, even Hadrian’s temper tantrum yesterday was less destructive. It’s weird that a man in his hundreds has less restraint than our five-year-old.”

Charles just laughed and kissed his husband on the cheek as they left the boardroom area and walked back out to the apparition point, they would be making a few multiple hops before going home, just to make it harder to trace them.

Chapter Text

During Hadrian’s third year of Primary school that he had to do a family tree and his parents helped him. They told him the official story was they had been introduced by Sirius and Remus when they were older teenage boys during a summer holiday in France. Hadrian had wanted to know the real story as well. His dads had given him a very age-appropriate version of their love story but the look they gave each other made it clear that they still remembered the whole story.

James was being hugged by his parents on his first day when he saw the Black family join them on the platform, he knew Sirius from some of the garden parties, but he didn’t recognise the boy standing next to him, he looked like a smaller version of Sirius but with far more solemn eyes.

“Hey, Sirius, who is this?” James asked, trying to sound friendly.

“Hi. This is my little brother, Regulus, he is going to join us next year. He is a bit upset that he won’t be getting to go with us this year.” Sirius said hugging his little brother.

“Oh yeah, that must really suck. Hey Regulus, my name is James. If you are keen, I can also write to you this year, so next year when you get to go to Hogwarts you know two of us?”

Regulus looked at the boy in front of him, with his darker skin and big hazel eyes, his hair was an untidy mess, but he had kind energy and a big grin on his face. “Yeah, that would be nice. I would like more friends.”

 Walburga laughed and hugged her eldest son. “See nothing to fear, you go off to school and make friends and learn. Reggie stays with me and gets ready for next year. Now, remember, you can be in any house, you can make friends with anyone. Stay away from Bellatrix and remember your father and I love you.”

For the rest of that year, James and Regulus wrote almost weekly. Walburga knew more about what was happening with her eldest son from the letters to her youngest son from his friends than his own letters. By the time Regulus was old enough to go to Hogwarts, he was a lot less fearful than he had been when his brother left to go to school. He had been so upset when he had been sorted into Slytherin thinking that was the end of his friendships, but James, Remus and Sirius had stood on the benches cheering for him for being sorted into Slytherin. Sirius had even walked him to the dorm and asked Cousin Cissy to look after him at night. The next morning after he got his schedule, had firmly been moved to the Gryffindor table along with another Slytherin boy Severus Snape. His best friend had stopped speaking to him when he had been sorted into Slytherin and the other boys had decided to make him join the group just to show you could be friends with different houses.

It was during his fifth year that his friendship with the Potter boy changed.

“Reggie, seriously you need to wake up. How hard did that bloody blunder hit you? Shit, it nearly scared ten years from my life watching you fall like that.”

“Jamie, what are you doing here, am I in the infirmary?” Regulus tried to sit up, but it hurt too much, so he flopped back down.

“I uh kind of snuck in to see how you were doing, Sirius and I sat with you till visiting hours finished, Severus and Remus, have scoured the school and grounds to get you good books and chocolate. A blunder hit you and broke your collarbone, the fall from your broom broke your elbow and femur, so you going to be here for a few days. I figured you could do with some company; your fifteenth birthday is in two days, and I didn’t want you to feel alone. So, I will be sneaking in after curfew as much as possible and the rest of us will come to sit with you during breaks and off periods. Severus already arranged with Slughorn to get all homework and assignments for you. So, we can help you not get behind, well Remus and Severus can. I volunteered for helping with Defence, but your brother informed me that you know more than I do, so I will be sharpening your quills.” James showed him the pile of get well treats.

“Thanks, Jamie, uh that’s helpful. Jut what do we do if Madam Pomfrey comes?”

“I will put on my cloak and hide, duh, now scoot over, it is getting kind of chilly.”

Madam Pomfrey said nothing when she caught the two boys curled up into each other the next morning. She made a big deal of opening the ward doors and getting tea so the boys could pretend that James just snuck in after waking up rather than spending the night.

It was during a game of exploding snap that Regulus asked James a question he had been curious about since James turned fifteen, he desperately wanted to know who his soul mate was. When his brother had woken up with two names on his wrists and now Sirius, Remus and Severus were all happily dating each other. Lily wasn’t speaking to any of them, she kept reporting the three for doing things that they were to the point that Severus called off his oldest friendship.

“Jamie, look I know this is private, but you are my best friend, and I don’t know the answer and well I am scared about my birthday tomorrow. Who is your soulmate, is it someone truly vile, is that why you haven’t said anything or shown any of us?” Regulus asked while eating a chocolate frog trying to appear nonchalant.

“Oh, no, nothing like that. I just don’t know; they clearly haven’t turned fifteen yet. I know I am not asexual, so hopefully, someday soon, I get a name.” Jamie grinned at Regulus; he had been asked this before by Sirius as well.

“Wait I thought the name appears on your arm when you turn fifteen?” Regulus asked.

“Yeah, not according to my mom, it appears on the arm of the youngest person who turns fifteen. Sev and Remus only got their names when Sirius turned fifteen, they also had to wait. It is a protection thing; it stops marriages from being arranged before the youngest partner is old enough to write their name much less decide if they like the other person more important if there is an age gap. Like your cousin Cissa and Lucius, he is six years older than she is right? Imagine what would have happened if his name appeared on her arm when she was nine.” 

“Yeah okay, yeah that makes sense. I never thought of that. Are you hoping for someone? I know Barty was hoping for Lily and was over the moon when it turned out to be her.” Regulus asked, feeling shy suddenly.

“Yes and no, I don’t want to get my hopes up and then be disappointed it isn’t that person’s name. So, all I am hoping for is someone clever, funny, compassionate, hopefully, good at quidditch. I know I prefer guys, so would be awkward if it was a girl but will cross that bridge if I ever get to it.” James flicked another chocolate frog at Regulus.

“That makes sense, I think I prefer guys too, so fingers crossed, tomorrow isn’t bad news.” Regulus let out a nervous laugh.

“Hey Reggie, no matter what, you will always have me as a friend. See you after class, I have potions now.” James got up with a quick hug later and left, hoping that tomorrow it was his name on Reggie's arm.

That night, James snuck back in, and the two boys sat under the light of the moon, waiting for the clock to strike midnight to see what it showed on Regulus's arm. The whoop of pure joy that escaped from James when his arm was marked with Regulus' name and vice versa was one of the best sounds Regulus would ever hear. Poppy smiled when she heard them celebrate, a few of the staff had hoped it would be the two of them, years of sneak peeks and shy smiles had shown that those two boys were crushing hard.

Once the two settled and James couldn’t help himself, he leaned over and kissed Regulus, he had been wanting to kiss Regulus Black since he figured out, he liked boys when he was thirteen, at sixteen he wasn’t going to waste a moment and not kiss Reggie Black.

Reggie seemed to melt into him when they kissed, Reggie was still smaller, he was a year younger and a seeker. The feel of James' lips against his own had to be pure magic. The two had sat there kissing and just enjoying being able to touch each other. They didn’t go past gentle kisses; this was all new and Reggie was still healing from his fall.

The gentle love that they had established that night became the steady rhythm of their love for the rest of their school careers. When Regulus had been forced into becoming a death eater to save his mother, the summer before his Seventh year. James had moved him into his flat in central London that he shared with Severus, Remus and Sirius. The five of them in the small flat had been a tight squeeze but still been worth it with helping Severus and Regulus deal with the horrors that they were seeing as the Dark Lord forces grew.

The night before Regulus went back to school, had been emotional, Reggie had felt broken that people would think he had wanted to become a Death Eater, emergency portkeys had been made and communication mirrors so that they could chat every night had been made. It was also that night that the two boys decided to take their relationship to the next step.

Reggie’s older brother had drunk far too much fire whiskey in an attempt to forget the sounds he had heard coming from his best friend and brother’s bedroom.

“Well, it’s about time.” Severus carefully put a morning after potion in front of their door.

“Merlin, I hope I never have to hear them again. Can we ward their room to be silent forever?” Sirius asked in all seriousness.

“Sirius, I am sure they have heard us or even walked in on us. None of us is particularly discreet. You can not make either of them feel awkward tomorrow. They about to be apart till Yule break for the first time since we were firsties.”

Sitting in the Kitchen while chatting to his dads, Hadrian learnt that his papa had been forced to take the Dark Mark when a summer tea party had been raided by Lord Voldemort and his followers, all the Slytherins at the party had been forced or they were killed as well as their families. His Uncle Severus had also been at the party as well as one of the Goyle brothers.

His papa had gone back to school marked as his worst nightmare and had helped the Aurors keep tabs on the Death Eater movements at school. None of them had really supported Albus Dumbledore and his Order of the Phoenix. While Regulus had spied at school for the Aurors, James had become a spy on the Order of the Phoenix for the Auror department. This had helped them keep track of the various raids and helped keep most civilians safe. They had hidden their relationship from everyone, soon people had forgotten they were soulmates, playing that Regulus becoming a Death Eater had broken the Bond.

When Regulus finished school, he had started his Runes Mastery in London and kept living with James and the rest. He looked enough like Sirius that matching haircuts had helped them hide him in Muggle London from preying eyes. Moving into Grimmauld Place when they could. This was where they had gotten married and had Hadrian. The plan had been to hide at the Black Estate when Regulus had come home with the necklace that was the Horcrux and hide till Hadrian was a bit older and the war ended when Regulus didn’t come home. James had been captured in a raid and been part of a complex spell to change the war, so that the Dark Lord, could grow stronger. No one could have predicted him attempting to kill Hadrian has triggered the protection spells on him that James, Regulus and Arcturus had put on him and caused the killing spell to backfire and trigger the end of the War.

“So, dads, just curious since Uncle Sirius is now expecting baby number three. Am I ever going to get a sibling? Or are we a strictly pets also count as kids’ household?” Hadrian asked while eating a biscuit he had carefully dunked into his tea.

“We are a one kid only household, I know that means you have a lot of responsibility as you get older, but we can’t have more kids. The lake changed the chances of having more siblings, sorry little dude if you wanted a sibling. Though I think your uncles are giving you a lot since we all still live in the same house.” Regulus ruffled his son’s hair.

“That’s okay keeping up with Kayla and Keila is more than enough work, I shudder the idea of another one.” Hadrian shook dramatically to emphasise his point. “So, soul mate marks only appear when the youngest turns fifteen? I hope that I am the youngest. Dad, how did you cope with turning fifteen and not knowing?”

Charles laughed and kissed Reggie’s arm, where his name was, when they had changed James’s name in the eyes of magic, the name had changed on Reggie’s arm as well. “Oh, it was hard, I hoped it was your papa, but I had no way of knowing for sure till he turned fifteen. I knew the chances that I was polyamorous was low but that too was a risk. Your grandpa Fleamont had to wait ten years before a name appeared on his arm. He waited till your grandma was finished with her mastery and two years of work experience before he even started courting her. The only thing I regret was I could never properly court your papa with the war going on. If you can, do the courting rituals, my love. I have done them the last few years and they really do mean a lot.”

“What are the courting rituals?” Hadrian asked, pulling his notebook of things he was researching closer.

Regulus refilled everyone’s tea and smiled at his son, if that kid wasn’t in Ravenclaw he would eat his favourite cloak. “There are four steps or gifts, first a gift from your house to show that you are interested, if they are interested, they will gift you a symbol of their house in return. Then a gift to do together of interest, your father took me to Korea so we could study gumiho together since, my Patronus form is a fox, he helped me be able to cast it comfortably. I took him to the Netherlands so we could learn more about his favourite artist and see his art in person. The third gift is something to symbolise that you are now a couple. Some people exchange engagement rings, some get tattoos, depending on the couple. Your friends the Weasleys, their dads bought a house as their promises to each other. The final gift is the commitment, so the bonding ceremony or wedding. Doesn’t end after the bonding ceremony, soul bonds take work to maintain, just because someone is your soul mate, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t put in the work and treat them as the gift that they are.” 

Chapter Text

It was early morning a few days after Hadrian’s tenth birthday while Charles and his hit squad followed Lily, her disguise as a brunette didn’t stop them from being able to find her. Marnie Diggory was in the air, carefully following her car as she left her muggle townhouse and drove out to the Crabbe estate, from what they could establish, she had been moving through various of the inner circle estates and each time nearly destroyed marriage as she moved. It had been Sirius who bought the blonde destroyer of marriages to their attention.

Charles and his squad stood at various parts of the wards, the very angry Lady Crabbe was standing beside him conferring with the head house elf of the estate and confirmed that there was something weird going on in the basement. Lady Crabbe was going to let them into the estate while the house-elves were going to prevent any apparition out of the estate while the Hit squad and the Military teams swept through the estate. The main objective was to capture Lily but also to see what she had been doing at every estate.

At a quarter past ten early in August, the squad moved through the estate. The estate seemed very normal till they reached the cellar, the level of dark energy coming from the door was intense. Charles and one of the other curse breakers on his team broke through those wards. Thanks to the elves and the estates' wards no one could apparate. The doors had been a challenge and it had taken a while to get the door to open.

Once they had finally broken through the door, what they saw was worse than anything they could imagine, in neat rows, laid missing Wixen from the war. Tubes ran from their arms to a weird column in the back, it glowed with different colours and every once in a while, it seemed to pulse. Charles tried not to get distracted as they moved through the huge room, he tried not to notice Edgar Bones and a few other others. Lily was flinging hexes at them with a fair amount of accuracy. Marnie was going around her so they could hopefully box her in. Kingsley had at that point noticed she was doing something to the column, they all realised they needed to stop her before she could hurt anyone more. It was hard duelling with someone while trying to not hurt any of the comatose people lying in the beds. It took them five minutes to take her down, but it had felt more like five hours. Eventually, Kingsley and Marnie were holding her down as James/Charles got close to her. He made sure she could see through the glamours he wore so she knew she was dealing with a thoroughly pissed off James Potter.

“What is going on here Lily?” he all but roared at her.

Lily had a moment where she contemplated trying to flirt her way out of this situation, but she knew that James Potter would never let her flirt her way to safety. She decided that maybe if she was helpful one of the others might spare her. Her need for self-preservation was far more ingrained than even into the most dedicated of Slytherin. “It’s a power ward, it allows us to collect everyone’s magic power so that once the Dark Lord comes back, we can restore him to full power. We have been draining them for years and storing their power. This should also allow everyone in the inner circle to recover from battle even faster now that the truth about our two healers has been revealed.”

“Who is this we?” Marnie asked.

“Barty Crouch Junior, Lord Parkinson, Lord Smith and Peter Pettigrew, though Igor Krakoff has been assisting us with storage.”

“Merlin, this is sick. I thought what you did to me was sick but this. Lily, you are the vilest human to walk on earth. How many children have been made orphans because of this room?” James gestured wildly. One of the members in his squad was already sending reports to Madam Bones and Rufus Scrimgeour.

“Well, them to bring healers, at least twenty, we going to be busy. Marnie, Kingsley, please take her to the special cell to wait for Amelia. I think we need to contact the Department of Mysteries as well, so they can help us see if it is safe to move these people to St Mungo’s, Merlin is that Gideon?”

By the time Amelia got there, Regulus and his team were working to undo the magic that was causing the poor people to be hooked to the power drainers. Other than a soft hand squeeze, Regulus and his team hid their identities from Charles and his team. Now was not the time to let too many secrets be known. Regulus and the DoM worked hard with the healers and while it took them five hours, they had people safely removed and transported to St. Mungos. The wards in St Mungo’s went into tight lockdown where the people from Crabbe Manor were transferred too.

Small, specialised Hit Squads were sent to arrest the people that Lily had named, including an international team to capture Igor Krakoff. The teams had moved swiftly and had been brutal with the efficiency they used to take down the various squads. Krakoff had just accepted a teaching position at Drumstrung as a duelling instructor so hopefully, no real damage had happened to any of the students at the school. He had been arrested outside the school gates while smoking, a note was left on the principal’s desk to let him know what happened.

Small group sessions of Wizengamot were called together for the trials, too many of the members had families that had either been found or captured in the resulting raids. It had taken Amelia and her assistant quite a lot of time to figure out who was best to sit into every session of the trails, so people got the fairest trails. No one wanted to let Arthur Weasley know that his sons' pet rat had been a death Eater. Peter Pettigrew, Barty Crouch, Lord Parkinson had all been sentenced to maximum security sentence at Azkaban. Their screams and pleas for mercy had rung through the halls as they had been led by a hit squad out of the court and to their final destination. They would all serve a year and then be subjected to a dementor's kiss each.

It was a rainy cold morning when it was Lily’s trial, the Aurors, hit squad, DMLE and the few members of the Wizengamot that were serving as the court were all quite quiet as Lily was led into the room. It took a potion to reveal her real identity. Where she had once been beautiful, she was now everything but pretty. Her skin was sallow and saggy, her eyes had lost their sparkle and her hair was dull. The members of the court listened in horror as she explained how she had stolen James Potter and his child; she had never known who the mother was of the baby. She had used advanced charms to keep him subdued while she and Bellatrix did a ritual to make everyone remember she was Lady Potter. It had gone all wrong when even Voldemort had forgotten that she was a death eater and they had done this to get a mole into the Order of the Phoenix. Once the Dark Lord had been informed of a prophecy he had decided to move them to the muggle world in different identities. Something had gone wrong during the ceremony and when Voldemort had decided the Potters shouldn’t have the child from an unknown person and decided to kill the baby. The spell had backfired and triggered the rest of the ceremony. Little Harry had been left behind in smouldering rubble while his parents disappeared leaving him in the clutches of a different monster, Dumbledore. The court decided there and then it would be safer to have her kissed and completely removed as an obstacle. It looked like she had become completely insane much like Bellatrix.

~ ~ ~

Two weeks after the last trial, in a hospital room, where Gideon and Fabian had gently been woken up and been bought up to date with what had happened all these years, a joyful shout was heard as a child broke free from the rest of his family. For once little Percy didn’t care about the right thing, he saw his papas and that was all that mattered. His shoes squeaked against the tile floors as he ran into the room and bounded to their bed.

“Papas! Papas! Oh, I missed you!” Percy cried out as he flung himself at the nearest of his papas. Fabian caught the small auburn-haired boy and held him tight. Within seconds the bed was filled as five boys were crawling over their dads. It took Fabián and Gideon a few minutes to place each boy. The little twins were the biggest surprise, they had been just two when the two older twins had disappeared.

“Oh, our dear brave boys, look how much you all have grown. Bill, Charlie, Percy, our biggest boys, look how beautiful the three of you have gotten. Fred and George, oh boys, you two are delightful.” Gideon and Fabian spoke at the same time. “Arthur, our love, you did such a wonderful job raising them, look how beautiful our sons are. We missed so much but we are here now. We going to catch up and get to know all of you as individuals, so glad we get to see you all become young people.”

Arthur found himself pulled down and settled in the middle of his husband, gentle kisses on each cheek, he just got to enjoy being held by his husbands and watch them all get to know each other again. Nothing was off-limits as Gideon and Fabian asked the boys questions. Everything from Bill and Charlie both being in Gryffindor while Percy was in Ravenclaw. Everyone was fairly sure the youngest twins would land up being in Slytherin, but no one wanted to jinx them.

The boys were telling their papas about helping Aunt Molly move to the Cottage they had built next to the Barrow for her and her family. Molly's husband hadn’t been one of the missing people found but no one had expected that seeing as he had died in an accident on holiday. Bill and Charlie were telling their papas about rooms had been reshuffled so Arthur was now back in the biggest room so all the parents would fit into the same room. This resulted in a reassuring hand squeeze between all the fathers. They knew that they all would land up as a family with mind healers and individually, but they were all together and that was a big deal. Percy had turned the smallest room into a study which the twins had turned into their experiment room when he went to school.
It was for the first time a chance for all the boys to have their own rooms, except for the twins, as magical twins no one was going to separate them.

It took three weeks before Fabian and Gideon had been allowed to go home. Their sons had them packed and ready to leave within three minutes after the healer had given them the all-clear. Bill and Arthur had installed a funny lift chair that could go up and down all the floors since the older twins were still weak and the stairs would be tricky for a while. Charlie and the rest had a betting pool going about how fast it be for their papas to get fed up with the chair lift and start climbing the stairs in stubborn protest. Even Arthur and Bill were in on the bet but not a peep was spoken to the older twins.

The family slowly regained a sense of closeness, due to so many children’s parents being found. All the children were allowed to go home for the weekends for the school year. From next year the school would allow everyone to go home every second weekend. Arthur who was now serving on the school board had taken great joy in telling his husband about how upset Dumbledore was about this new rule, but it would look absolutely heartless not allowing children back to their parents, even more so if the parents were heroes of the last war. There had been quite a few heroes of the last war found in the manor.

Bill was telling his dads and the rest of his siblings about how he had been helping the Ravenclaw school champion prepare for his one challenge. The Triwizard’s championship was at Drumstrung this year but he had gotten a letter from the Ravenclaw asking for information about a ward that cast fireproof protection. Bill was very proud of himself for being able to assist. The next championship would be when he was in his seventh year, and he was hoping that he might be able to be picked. The championship would be at Hogwarts and with all the increase in school security, everyone was hoping it would be less deadly than it had been in the past.

They all watched the championship on the wiz-telly, a clever company in South Korea that had made it possible to show the events on screen and live. They were using the Triwizard’s championship to test it as well as small quidditch matches before rolling it out to the various sports leagues. Percy quite liked the one story from South Korea, he had gotten the youngest twins hooked as well. The wiz-telly showed a mix of Muggle and Wixen shows, and it was quite common to hear the smaller Wixen talk about the Power Rangers. At school with the introduction of telly, the Muggleborns found that they were suddenly included in conversations with the Purebloods about a show. Some of the Wixen shows were helping the Muggleborns learn more about their Wixenborn friend's lives and vice-versa. Professor Moody had apparently seen a programme about sparkly vampires and spent a week raving about how real vampires weren’t like that, to the point where they had had a vampire quest lecturer to teach them that vampires burnt in the sun but didn’t sparkle unless someone threw glitter on them.

Fabian and Gideon had caught the delighted looks on his youngest son's faces at the idea of sparkling vampires and had spent time getting the boys to promise no sparkling vampires, they had however forgotten to make the twins promise no sparkling Wixen. George had spent a while working on the perfect glitter to glue potion mix while Fred worked very hard on a small party popper that exploded the mixture over the victim, the entire house had sparkled for a few weeks while the two had worked out the kinks to the prank. Fabian had spent a lot of time with Fred to make sure it was a soft explosion with little sound and the glitter didn’t get into anyone’s eyes or such. Gideon had helped George make the glitter environmentally friendly and wash off quite easily.
Bill and Charlie had tested it for them by putting the small explosive poppers on the Gryffindor table the night before a big quidditch game. The whole school hall had roared with laughter when everyone whether they were a Gryffindor or not were covered in maroon and gold glitter if they had been at the Gryffindor table. The Slytherin team had ordered a few of those poppers for their own table for their next big game as well.

The glitter poppers had even been used at the primary school to great effect during a sports day. What people hadn’t considered was how competitive a lot of the parents of the senior class were. Parents of the different years had arrived in respectable outfits befitting watching your children take part in various sports and then not to embarrass themselves in the parents’ races. No one had expected it when Lady Narcissa Malfoy had arrived in very beautiful running attire in a pale periwinkle. Lady Zambini had as well as Molly had similar outfits in different colours. Quite a few of the other mums had been a bit taken aback by the attire of the three women till they noticed that there were nine dads all dressed in sporting attire much to the embarrassment of their children. Arthur was going to do the event as Ron’s dad so that Fabian and Gideon could run for the twins. Regulus was faster than Charles, so he was going to compete in the running race, his closest competition was Lucius when it came to running. The dads had all agreed to be a team in the tug of war competition as well as the rowing competition. Fred and Hadrian were laughing quietly at the look of fear in some of the other dads' faces. Charles was Neville’s dad for all the events that needed a parent to do physical activities. Dowager Longbottom had a comfortable chair under a shade with a sign to support her grandson, but she had no intention of working up a sweat. Charles and Regulus were enjoying competing against each other way too much to be upset about not both representing their son. It was safer for everyone that all that competitive energy was channelled against each other.

Hadrian gave Fred a quick hug before he got up putting his helmet on, his name had been called for the finals in sabre fighting, he was going against Dean Thomas. The week leading up to the school event had been all the competitions to get the finals, today was only finals. Hadrian had watched the way Dean fought intently had was fairly sure that while Dean was stronger, he had the better technique, and he was faster. Around the duelling area stood a lot of proud parents, Dean was slightly taken aback at the sight of so many people to cheer for Hadrian. One of their teachers was refereeing the competition. The fight was clean and furious, the two boys almost throwing themselves into the swords but with two points Hadrian won. His uncle Sev healed the hairline fracture in his arm and Dean's two broken fingers. They both smelt like arnica and something else for sore muscles and bruises from the bruise balm after the fight.

Ron and his team had done very well in the football game against the twins, and he had been a bit boastful about being better at football than the twins. George had taken great delight in tripping him when he had gone up the podium to get his medal. One of his papas had caught him, so now he was glued to Fabian's side till the end of the day.

Quoders, a modified version of quidditch that was played two meters in the air and the ground very much charmed to be soft was the final game for the event. Hadrian had played seeker till his growth spurt and suddenly he was one of the taller kids in his year. Ginny was the seeker for their team while Hadrian and Draco were the chasers as well as Blaise, the twins were the beaters, they had gotten Neville to be the Keeper. The other team had Ron, Dean, Daphne, Goyle, Crabbe and Seamus on the team and a small girl none of them really knew was being the seeker, she was almost as blonde as Draco. The two teams had been evenly skilled until Ginny had accidentally flown into the kiddie’s snitch, it smacked her in the face. She had caught it to prevent it from hitting her in the face twice. Ron had not been impressed with his sister and yelled at her for being a traitor. Apparently, he had been bullying her to not catch the snitch. It had been the surprise of everyone when Neville had been the one to stand up to Ron about how he treated his little sister. Didn’t he realise that there were other kids who would kill to have a sibling? Before there could be another fistfight, Charles had comfortably picked Neville and carried him away while Arthur did the same to Ron. Neville had been given an extra scoop of ice cream in his victory ice cream in celebration of defending a friend.

Chapter Text

Fred and George were nervous, they had spent a lot of time with their papas this last week getting ready for Draco’s birthday. The two of them had gotten haircuts, for once they didn’t have identical haircuts, Fred’s hair was short with a spiky bit on the top. George had gone for longer and slightly framing his face. The two had also gotten robes that matched but weren’t identical for the party, so they both had royal blue robes, but Fred’s were longer and stopped at his knees with his trousers sticking out the bottom, he had white stitching of fireworks on the cuffs. George had gone for short robes that showed his trousers off completely and he had a floral design on his lapels. Their papas had been supportive of them wanting people to get to know them as individuals and not just as the twins. They might share a soul, but it didn’t mean they were one person. They had also gotten Draco two individual gifts. When they arrived at the party and looked so different a hush had fallen over everyone in the garden, just when George was starting to panic that this had been a terrible idea, Draco had come barrelling down and hugged them, both telling them how good they looked. He knew instantly which twin was which and was telling them how their new looks suited them. The grins on all three faces were a bit terrifying for all their parents. It was agreed that the 6th of June in four years’ time was going to be an interesting day for those families if the first of April had gotten the twins to wake up with blank arms. The way those three boys were looking at each other, there were definitely crushes involved.

Draco’s birthday was a bit different to Hadrian’s or Neville’s birthday, he had them all play old fashioned party games for prizes, with a live band for the rounds of musical chairs. Hadrian had landed up sitting on Draco’s lap at the end of the one round much to everyone’s laughter. The two cousins had declared it was cousin privileges and Hadrian hadn’t been disqualified that round much to Pansy's horror. The lemon and lavender birthday cake had been divine after a full lunch spent under the trees. It was during lunch the glitter poppers had gone off covering everyone in a fine layer of silver glitter. Sirius had nearly gotten into trouble with Aunt Cissy when this had happened, she had been convinced that it was his fault. Draco had also received a blanket for Hogwarts from Molly, it had a charm that would allow it to either be Draco’s house colours or Malfoy family colours depending on where the blanket was. The party had been delightful and at some point, when a lot of the guests had left the Sons of Mayhem that had been at the party had settled in the playroom to watch movies. Bill, Charlie and Percy had stayed at Hogwarts, it was too close to exams for them to be able to leave school but had sent Draco a huge stack of sweets and really nice notebooks for the next school year. Sometime during the movie, Draco had fallen asleep cuddled between the twins, his head on Fred’s lap and feet on George’s lap, beneath his birthday blanket, all three boys had been fast asleep with small smiles on their faces.

“You know, I am not looking forward to these three being in the same house when they turn fifteen, it's going to be stressful no matter which way it goes. We are either going to deal with broken hearts or some serious pregnancy scares. I don’t know which is worse.” Lucius said as he slowly picked Draco up to carry him to his bed.

“I think a broken heart is better than becoming grandparents too soon, we will make sure the twins have the talk as well everything to prevent babies by the time they are fifteen,” Gideon said as he picked up Fred.

George grunted as he snuggled into Fabian as he settled into the hold, “Let's hope for no broken hearts and no pregnancy scares, hell we have five sons, I am hoping for no scares of any of that kind by the time they all finish school. With three bearers going to boarding school, we might need to get them all on the potion when they turn fourteen, works better the longer that you are on it… apparently, let's hope their genetics doesn’t beat it the way ours did. Lucius makes sure you have a thorough talk with Draco when he is thirteen and fourteen, we will do the same with all our sons, we get to practice on Bill and Charlie this year.”

“Three bearers, I know the twins are but who is the other one? Also aren’t we being a little forward assuming it will be twins and Draco and not Hadrian and the twins?” Narcissa asked while folding blankets up and helping parents find their sleepy children.

“The twins and Charlie are all bearers,” Arthur said while getting all his sons' things rounded up.

“I am fairly sure that Neville is in love with Luna, the little seeker for the other team at the school sports event. I have seen those two in the greenhouses and forest so often. So, if it is someone in this crowd on Draco’s arm, going to assume it is the twins. Though it could easily be someone from school or even another country. No law says fated mates need to be born in the same country.” Regulus answered as he kissed Hadrian’s cheek as he was cuddled up into Charles's arms.

“Dear Merlin, this is all too much thinking about what if. Let’s just hope for happy and healthy children.”

~ ~ ~

“Albus this is serious, we have enough children that have seats in the Wizengamot thanks to the last war that the school is a security breach. We need a way to keep the documents that the various heirs have private from prying eyes.” Arthur signed as he found himself explaining yet again that changes were needed to be made.

“Now, now Arthur, what do you propose that is fair for all the children, it's not like we can give all the heirs their own rooms, that would show extreme favouritism over the muggle-borns,” Albus smirked as he sipped his tea. He was enjoying this a lot today.

“No one is saying discriminate against the muggle-borns but the government secrets should be kept safe that these children are working on. What if we have Heir rooms, rooms in each house per year that the heirs share with safes for their documents. Prevents anyone that doesn’t have a seat from entering except for an emergency. Then it would allow the head -prefect as well as the head of house into the room to help the children. They will still share the room. We could even make it that the heirs are no more than two a room and that is their room the entire time so that they don’t get single rooms until they are in their sixth and seventh years like the other sixth and seventh years, to balance out the not sharing in the dorms when they are younger. The rooms can grow with them as they get older, and they can get dividers for some privacy as they are older.” Minerva suggested to the room.

“I like this idea, so long they have some way of being able to study in silence as they get older. It should be doable to add heir rooms to every dorm, maybe we should add an heir wing to every dorm as extra security?” Lady Greengrass asked.

“Yes, there aren’t that many heirs at the moment but are fair few are coming in. This would allow us to adjust the rooms as more or less are needed per year. Also, this will make it harder for anyone to scream discrimination if they can’t see the rooms. This includes siblings and those of different family situations.” Regulus grinned as he answered.

The vote was narrowly in favour of adding heir wings to the dorms, it was agreed that all the rooms would resemble firth year rooms, so two double beds, two desks, two wardrobes, two chairs in front of a fireplace, privacy screens that could be moved as needed. Each room would also have a safe per child as well as a bathroom to share. They would also be allowed to decorate and bring objects from home to furnish as they want since these would be their rooms for the full seven years of schooling.

Next one of the student representatives, a lovely Hufflepuff girl had two suggestions for the school board the students. Miss Jeanette Johnson had a lovely speaking voice, “Hello everyone, thank you for allowing us to be part of the school board, we spoke to all the members of our houses, and these were the two things that were a fair concern of everyone. A lot of the things that used to bug us have been solved like the marking rubrics as well consistency with the points systems. We wanted to approach the lack of school spirit, we are encouraged to constantly compete against each other for everything, which works for school sports, but we don’t really have chances to make friends with other houses. Even in shared classes, we are divided by our houses. Unless we have siblings in other houses there are very few opportunities to make friends. We saw the divide clearly with the Triwizard challenge, only the Hufflepuffs really knew the champion so the rest of us didn’t really follow it. We wanted to recommend that unless it's feasts, can we have smaller tables in the great hall that encourage us to sit in different groups so that the tables are more randomly spaced than the uniform tables. We would also like the school banner to be the main banner up all year round except for the house cup feast and sorting feast? The last thing we would also like is to introduce notebooks, paper blocks and pens like other schools allow. A lot of us learnt how to write with fountain pens or dip pens and even for us switching to quills was hard. For the muggle-borns, the leap from ballpoint and gel pens to quills is even more unfair. We like the idea of notebooks and paper blocks and binders since it will be easier to keep our notes and homework neat. They also come lined and graphed, so will be easier for our teachers to mark. We could standardise the paper sizes, so it makes it easier for everyone, but we think from a learning perspective it makes sense.”

“Thank you, Ms Johnson, those were some excellent suggestions for us to consider, Does anyone have any points to argue about her first suggestion?” Dowager Augusta smiled at the Hufflepuff. She had offered the girl an apprenticeship in the greenhouses a few days ago. She would be the first Muggle-born to get a living in an apprenticeship at the Longbottom Apothecary and Medical greenhouses once she finishes school.

“I have one, we need to update the school robes in any case, so why don’t we remove all the house colours except for a small band of colour on their breast pocket. The children would be allowed to accessorize as they wish with either the school scarves, beanies and gloves or their house colours, but the divide doesn’t need to be as noticeable when they are in large groups.” Charles grinned at the entire room.

“Yes, the new uniform is perfect for us to implement such a change. I have read that Professor Prince-Lupin-Black, as well as Professor Moody, would like more formfitting garments when the students are in their classes since it will be safe in their subjects, they both recommended long-sleeved tops and tighter trousers with giving in them so that nothing can get caught in either process of making potions or when the students are learning how to duel in potions. They both recommended tighter over robes that have come to the floor and then slits at the hips and the back for ease of movement and trousers. This will be warmer and easier to maintain while everyone grows. I do agree with black ankle or knee boots as per students’ preference and the season. It is easy enough to add robes and winter coats as needed for winter and offers versions of the robes in linen for summer, so fine wool in winter and linen for summer?” Arthur asked the board.

“Oh, that will look quite dashing and will flatter so many different builds. Am I correct that we are going to allow the children to customise the uniforms a bit? Not everyone looks good in black so allowing them to maybe have their family or house colours as the collars, I hope we are getting rid of the ties? It sounds as if these robes will be much better looking with a high collar.” Lady Greengrass had a look that dared anyone to argue with her.

“How about we will allow a cm of fabric to be added to the collar in the child’s favourite colour, not house or family colours. The tailor shops can charm that for us. They may however wear an accessory such as a pendant or cuff or broach with something representing their family. No political insignia nor merchandise of their favourite bands just something to show their family or their courting gifts if they get something from another family. We will obviously explain this to the muggle-born children and help their families decide on a symbol or coat of arms if they have something like that.” Lord Shackbolt suggested.

“Yes, that sounds delightful. Now the suggestion about the tables is acceptable to me. I think we should have tables of 2 to 16 in various even arrangements such as 4, 6, 8, 12, 14 and maybe one or two tables of 16. That way it can be very social or more intimate as the groups need it.” Lady Greengrass was enjoying this far too much.

The school student representatives were surprised at how quick their ideas had been accepted and expanded upon by the parents. The stationery debate was a bit more serious, in the end, it was agreed that dip pens and fountain pens would be allowed, they also agreed to either A4 paper and binders or B6 for the students that preferred slightly shorted notepads, books and binders. There had been a debate on ink colours and all essays had to be done in either black, dark grey or navy blue. What you wrote your notes in or the pens you used for notes were up to each individual student. The students had been surprised when the headmaster had thrown a tantrum about something silly like pens. It was agreed that during exams students would be provided with anti-cheating charmed quills or fountain pens.

One of the other students, a very studious Ravenclaw had a moment of bravery just before the end of the meeting. “Is it possible for us to bring muggle style technology to school? There are shops that sell tablets and laptops that work in Wixen homes. My cousin has all her school textbooks on her tablet, she has one sleek device the size of an A4 paper block that has all her textbooks, a lot of novels and so on in one device. she told me some of the Muggle-born are even able to send letters and do calls to their parents on the devices. Similar to our call mirrors that so few of us can afford. Beauxbatons has allowed their students to carry these devices and it works.”

Without the headmaster to throw a spanner in the works since he had left after his stationery tantrum, the school board decided to allow tablets only from the next year. They already allowed cameras and music playing devices, cellphones, as well as laptops, were only allowed if the students proved that tablets would be beneficial to learning and students could be trusted not to abuse the privileges. A list of providers for the tablets would be provided as they needed to be customised for the school. The shops that sold the devices were notified by owl so that they were warned before the school supplies lists would be sent in the middle of summer.

~ ~ ~

“Merlin, Hadrian, do you think you ordered enough notebooks and pens for the school year, even with the featherweight charm, the delivery owl looks exhausted.” Remus teased as he put the box from Japan in front of Hadrian.

Hadrian’s face lit up, “it’s finally here!” his breakfast had been forgotten he quickly cut open the seal on the box with the penknife he had gotten from his uncle Severus. He unpacked the box and grinned with glee as he packed everything into different coloured stacks.

“When it comes to sabre fighting, duelling, his absolute fearlessness with flying, he is one hundred per cent Charles son but with this, the joys of notebooks in what I am not mistaken is clearly colour coding, he is very much Regulus’s’ son. Also, the talent for potions and arithmancy is very much a Black talent. The defence against the dark arts I think is a fifty, fifty with both his families.” Remus told Sirius as he dropped a brief kiss on Hadrian’s head.

“You are just jealous; I have a valid reason to buy stationery. Look I got three pens per subject as well. I also got highlighters and coloured gel pens for my normal schoolwork.” Hadrian resorted to sticking out his tongue.

Sirius laughed as Regulus walked in, Regulus looked just as excited as his son about the stationery. “Oh, brilliant the notebooks are here, we can go through them and decide on anything we still need to order before you go to school. Did you pick a colour per subject?”

“Yes, I got white for transfiguration, light blue for charms, dark blue for potions, green for herbology, red for defence against the dark arts, yellow for astronomy and purple for the history of magic, I also got orange for languages and grey for muggle and wixen studies. I got a few extra binders and reams of paper so that if something happens, I should be covered. I decided to use the slimline B6 binders with paper for classes and I have thicker binders to put my notes in after class or when we finish a chapter. The binders can stay in my room. Are going to Tinkers Lane for the rest of my school supplies today?”

“Yes, once your dad remembers how to wake up, we will go get the rest of your school supplies. Have you decided if you want a tablet, or do you want paper textbooks? I see you get special pens so you can write on the digital books and highlight the textbooks on the tablet.” Regulus asked as he helped himself to breakfast. His brothers’ daughters were being a bit of a handful, keeping Sirius and Remus busy making sure they weren’t storing snacks from breakfast to gift to pets that were on stricter diets.

It took a while but eventually, Charles and Regulus had managed to decide that it was only them and Hadrian going to buy school supplies. Severus was brewing mass quantities for the school and Remus had a fairly big project that was taking his attention and Sirius was needed at the bank. The twins would be with Dottie for the day, Doxit would be helping her keep an eye on the two girls.

Hadrian was wearing dark green robes with black jeans and black ankle boots as he walked with his dads, both his dads were dressed in relaxed clothes that still somehow showed that they were distinguished. Regulus had black slim-fit trousers and a polo neck with a beautiful green blazer on. Charles was in black jeans, boots and a dark blue peacoat. They waved and chatted to various people they knew in Tinkers Lane. From Tinkers Lane they went to Navigator’s ally and got Hadrian a tablet, it was in black and had a cover over the screen so that it wouldn’t break in his bag. They also stopped to get him a new school bag, which was similar to his previous school bag but in dark brown leather and had more expansive and featherlight charms. They even got him a bag for his sports gear, he would continue sabre fighting, duelling club and rowing in his first year and hopefully have quidditch from his second year. His trunk was beautiful, they settled on a rich deep brown leather trunk with both the Black and Peverell crest on it. The trunk had a compartment for only books and folded out into a bookcase or a bookcase with an attached desk if needed, the middle part had a fold-out wardrobe and shoe racks. The last compartment had special boxes for school supplies such as sports gear, potions ingredients and so on. It even had statis and cooling charms for any food that Hadrian wanted to keep in his trunk. The trunk could be password and blood protected, eventually he could even have rooms and extras added onto it as he needed but for now the three compartments were perfect. The trunk as well as his schoolbook bag were shrunk down, and his dad was carrying them. They knew that Hadrian was a parseltongue, so he had set the password in Parseltongue.

From the trunk shop, they went to the Edinburgh branch of Gringotts, Hadrian had a long chat with Griphook about his cousin’s recent ceremony due to his promotion as an axe breaker, they were having a lovely conversation in Gobbledygook about it. His dad was organising that Hadrian’s vault key for his pocket money would be linked to his heir ring, which was the only ring visible, his lordship rings were all invisible. They had long since decided no one needed to know he was already a lord so his lordship ring which was a combined ring of all his lordships never showed. He had a few coins in a vault bag but would mostly need his ring for purchases, even on the train and in Hogsmeade not that he was allowed Hogsmeade weekends yet.

From Gringotts with the usual greetings of “may your enemies have nightmares when they hear your name and your gold flow endlessly into your family vault.” The family went to go get a new wand holster, he already had a wand, it had been custom-made for his tenth birthday, his wand was cherry and had a thunderbird feather as well as a Thestral mane hair. The handle had beautiful carvings at the hilt that resembled the designs of Thomas Telford’s engineering drawings inlaid with small emeralds for its properties to help with peace, wisdom and emotional regulation. His holster was a slim dark brown one, charmed to prevent it from letting his wand be summoned against his will, his wand would return to the holster if he ever dropped it and would prevent it from being broken if he knocked it during sports.

From there they went to Hunting Brookers Tailoring shop for his school robes there was another boy being fitted for his robes when Hadrian and his family got there. Hadrian was quickly shown to the measuring podium while the tailor was asking his parents questions about how fast he was growing at the moment and general body builds in the family. He had noticed that his dads had greeted the woman with the boy formally so they must be a lordship family.

“Hello, I am Heir Hadrian Peverell-Black, it is nice to meet you. Are you also going to Hogwarts?” Hadrian bowed showing his open palms.

The boy squeaked and then returned the bow, “Well met Heir Peverell-Black, I am Heir Nott. Yes, I am also going to Hogwarts, my aunt is helping me get my school supplies, she has decided it would be better if I come shopping with her and her family. She is Lady Avery, are those two men, your parents?”

“You can call me Hadrian if you want, I know it’s a bit of a mouthful. That’s nice of your aunt, I hope. Yes, the one with the black braid is Lord Le Fay otherwise known as Regulus Black, the one with the short brown curls is Lord Charles Peverell. His surname and title line up.” Hadrian tried not to laugh at the measuring tape measuring his nose.

“Oh, that’s great, you can call me Theo it is actually Theodore but that is also a mouthful. Do you have any idea which house you going to land up in? My father was in Slytherin, and my mum was in Hufflepuff. I am hoping for anything but Slytherin, Ravenclaw sounds like bliss.” Theo grinned shyly at him.

“Ravenclaw sounds wonderful, I love books, but I also like sports. I honestly don’t know. My family is a mix of Slytherin and Gryffindor except my dad went to Drumstrung so I don’t know if that is an automatic Slytherin? My papa says no matter which house I land up in they would be proud of me, but yellow isn’t my colour, so I might only want to use yellow subtly on my school things if I become a Hufflepuff, same with red though.”

“Which sports do you do, I play tennis and do rapier fighting. My cousin does axe throwing, he has been teaching me, it's amazing. The Notts and the Avery families have a lot of Scandinavian roots, we tend to marry into Scandinavia every few generations, so we do axe throwing and rowing.” Theo grinned wildly; his dark blue eyes almost glowing in excitement.

“I also do swords, but I do sabre fighting. Axe fighting looks amazing, I will come to watch your competitions. The Peverell family and the Potters are very close, so we have Indian roots, my great-grandma was from India. I swim as well and play quidditch, I played football at primary, but I would rather do rowing so dropping football for rowing this year.” Hadrian grinned back.

“Come dear, we need to get the rest of your supplies. You will see Heir Peverell-Black at school in two weeks. Worst case you could send each other an owl?” Theo smiled sadly at Hadrian before climbing off the podium while his aunt smiled gently at him.

“Hey Theo, keep a lookout for my owl, we can share a compartment on the train to school. I can introduce you to some of my friends. Have a lovely afternoon.” Hadrian rushed his goodbye, sad that he had just made a friend and the friend had left.

Regulus paid for the set of seven robes, three sets of practical shirts and ten regular school shirts as well as ten pairs of slim fit trousers for school. He got the sets in winter and summer fabrics. They paid for the weather charms as well as growth charms that would last two years. Hadrian also got four pairs of boots, two for summer and two for winter. He chose scarves that would only show subtle detailing of his house colours as well. His winter cloak was thick and had both his family crests embroidered on it. Hadrian was taking other clothes for evenings and weekends so wouldn’t need his uniform for everything.

After his uniform fitting the family sat down for lunch and looked at the rest of his school needs list. His potions ingredients and supplies were already sorted, Uncle Severus had gotten everything for him, Draco and Neville as well as the twins. Between uncle Sev and Dowager Longbottom, they had more than enough of everything that they needed for Potions and Herbology.

“It looks like all you still need is a telescope and a pet. I don’t think Freya or Bast should be separated, and you are only allowed one of each pet. We have upgraded the rules to allow an owl and a cat or toad or snake. So, if you do decide you want to pet it’s an owl and something else. Please don’t go for something lethal, you have no idea if your roomie is going to be afraid of certain pets.” Charles ruffled his sons’ curls.

At the menagerie, Hadrian walked through the whole store, slowly listening to the sounds. His dad was preventing papa from entering the store, everyone knew Reggie could spend a fortune on pet supplies in a heartbeat. Hadrian stopped abruptly in front of a white owl; she was beautiful. “Hello girl, look how beautiful you are. Look how fearsome your talons are, you are lovely.” Hadrian cooed at her, she preened under his attention. “Girl, do you want to come home with me?” he smiled when she bobbed her head to say yes, the sales clerk moving her to the front.

He stopped in front of the snakes and looked at them, they were all far too deadly to take to school, they were also all fully grown. Sighing softly, he shook his head, none of the snakes had been friendly when he spoke to them, he didn’t want to risk taking them to school. At the counter he saw a small snake in a tertium, she looked a lot friendlier, she was very young and enthusiastic.  The sales assistant saw him looking at her. “Sorry sir, she is going to the one reserve, she is far too small and lethal to be a pet, she is pretty tough. She is a boomslang, they are the most venomous snakes in the world that aren’t magical.”

Hadrian smiled at the assistant, “Yeah, my papa would not let me take a snake-like her to school. Have you got any Kneazles in? I am not allowed to take the family Kneazles to school.”

It took about ten minutes but soon Hadrian was cuddling a tiny kneazle in his arms. The shop assistant assured them the kneazle was over three months old, he was just the runt of the litter. Regulus helped Hadrian get a lovely cat carrier and bed for the new kitten that had promptly been named Liquorice. Charles helped pick out toys, a lead and bowls.

Chapter Text

Hadrian was running and looking for somewhere to hide, he could hear laughter, laughter was never a good sign. He saw a bob of white hair and bounded over to Draco. He slid along the ground to where Draco was hiding behind a rock. The two cousins had determined looks on their faces as they popped up in formation. Hadrian casting the bat boogey hex well Draco was powering their shield. The two cousins maintained their fighting stance switching between first- and second-year defence against the dark arts spells as they reflected the spells thrown at them by Uncles Remus and Sirius. Neville managed to leopard crawl to where they were without being seen. He popped up his shield before Draco dropped his shield. Now both cousins were firing spells at the uncles.

Charles and Narcissa were walking along the practice area, making notes of how the boys were working in tandem. Tonks was cheering wildly at them; they were visiting as they had this weekend off from their training for Aurors. Tonks and taught Hadrian the bat boogey hex just minutes before that had managed to catch Lucius who had stood a little too close to the active duelling area.

The boys managed to last five minutes against their uncles which was impressive, Uncle Sirius had returned to working as a Hit Wixen in emergency situations, so he had gone through all that training again and Uncle Remus had his mastery in Defence Magics. They ran through six more simulations as the boys were explained things that they needed to pay attention to and practice till they got them right. Aunt Cissa did some healing as needed, her being a trained healer helped a lot for days like today.

Tomorrow they would get the train for the first time to Hogwarts, there had been much debate on whether to send Draco to Drumstrung but after a lot of tearful boys, Lucius had been unable to split the trio. They had been best friends since they were five, not being able to see each other and talk to each other often was to them a death sentence.

And Andromeda and Narcissa had made sure everyone was clean before being allowed at the dining table, even though they were all at the Paisley Manor, dirty people weren’t allowed at the dining table. The Dowager even did a nail inspection, before the boys were allowed to sit down to dinner. The twin girls were dressed up like little ladies, they had started their manners studies three weeks ago, the first lesson had been how to hide a dagger on your body without ruining the lines of your dress.

“So why didn’t I get crazy to learn how to fight lessons when I was their age?” Tonks asked while helping themself to more peas.

“Well dear little cousin, none of us thought with how clumsy you are that giving you blades or extra chances to trip was a good idea. Clearly, you proved us wrong. How is training going?” Sirius grinned at Tonks.

“Oh, yeah that makes sense, my training partner is always amazed I don’t trip during combat. To be honest, so am I. it’s going well hey. I had a cloakroom to myself because no one was sure what to do with me. Though I made a few friends with other trainees, and they moved into my cloakroom so we now four people that just don’t notice anyone else’s gender. It's nice just getting to be Tonks with other people. My training partner is very cool about my gender. He just doesn’t care.”

“Who is your training partner?” Regulus asked.

“Oh, Oliver Flint, he was in my year at school, he was a Slytherin but always nice.” No one didn’t notice the blush on Tonks's face.

“Wait, isn’t the name on your arm, Oliver Flint? Does Amelia know that she paired up soulmates for training?” Ted asked his child.

“Ah yeah, that would be Oliver, yes Amelia knows, she straight up told us, hopefully, we sort out our soul bond stuff as well. She reminded us that the soulbond doesn’t need to be romantic, it is sometimes just your best friend. Oliver is demi-sexual; he doesn’t feel romantic feelings unless he has strong emotional bonds. So, hey maybe this works at the very least I know I have a very good friend that accepts me.” Tonks didn’t really look up from their dinner at this point.

“Tonks, if that works for the two of you, great, just remember none of us will ever judge you for it, sweetness.” Remus squeezed their hand and smiled at them. “Love comes in so many forms the only important thing is that you have it and that you feel it for others in some form.”

“Thanks, Remus. Hadrian, how did that bat boogey hex work for you?” Tonks grinned while changing the topic of conversation.

“Oh, it is brilliant, seriously it was fun. Sorry, uncle Lucius didn’t mean to hit you with it.”

“It's quite alright Hadrian, I think I prefer the bat hex to the slug hex your aunt uses when she is upset with me.”

“Really Cissy, you hex your husband with slugs when you are upset?” Regulus grinned at Cissy.

“Hush now, we are Blacks, he can count himself lucky that I use that hex instead of something far more serious when he upsets me.” A small shudder went through every non-Black at the table. “So, Hadrian, Neville, are your trunks completely packed?”

“Yes, Aunt Cissy, papa made sure I was packed yesterday so that if we needed anything last minute, we had time to get it. I know Neville went through something similar. The only thing I need to pack tomorrow morning is my pets. We locked Trevor in his terrarium so hopefully, we don’t have a lost toad tomorrow morning.”

“That toad should have been named Houdini, I swear the amount of time we have searched for that frog, is the 10^th of my life.” Draco sighed dramatically.

“Have we found the heir for Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff yet?” Lucius asked, he was very curious if they would have all the Founder's heirs at school.

“Yes, all the Founders seats have been claimed, Lady Abbott has claimed Hufflepuff. They only have one child, Hannah. She is the same age as the boys. The Lovegoods have successfully claimed Ravenclaw, I know their daughter is going to Hogwarts next year. Their coming of age is going to be interesting at the school. The goblins have already asked us to have all the children touch the ward stones when they turn seventeen exactly. The school could do with the excess power to power the wards.” Regulus answered Lucius.

“Well with everything else the goblins have fixed on those wards; the extra power might make the school a fortress,” Severus responded.

“What do you mean Sev dear?” Sirius asked him, wards had always interested him.

“The goblins have been coming and fixing the wards every summer. They found so many gaps and weak points the first time, they landed up spending three weeks just getting the outside safe the first year but believe me it was wonderful, they even prevented howlers from coming through the wards.

 The second year they tackled the dorms, the outer wards were basic powering and fixes, and the amount of weird magic they cleared in the dorms was astounding. The Slytherins and the Hufflepuffs are finally warm, and the light is clean and bright in the common areas. They even found hatred compulsions in Gryffindor and Slytherins dorms where the children were sleeping, so those were cleared.

Third-year all the classrooms were the big projects, classes are clean, residual magic free, they vent the spent energy into powering the wards.

Fourth-year was hallways and corridors and club rooms, the old castle feels band new, even the armour is shining. They also tied emergency ward points to all the heads of houses and the school healers, so if there is a crisis, the right people are moved to where we need them.

I know the last year has been major sweeps for dangerous artefacts and rooms well making sure all the other wards were still in place and nothing new has happened to anyone. They even found compulsions and hexes in the staff rooms and teacher rooms, so all of those have been fixed and we were all given rings to warn us if something is cast in our areas other than our lessons.” Severus grinned back at his husband. “Heck, they found the curse on the Defence Against the Dark arts teaching post the first year they worked on the wards and suddenly we have managed to keep Moody and Puth in those positions for the last five years.”

“Well, it is good to know the old castle is safe, lets's get the boys to bed. Tomorrow is going to be a long day and busy. I do find it funny; we are in Scotland and we going to London only to train the boys back to Scotland.” Charles grinned leading the boys to Hadrian’s room. They all knew the boys were going to land up sleeping in the same bed, they had been doing this since they were five. Liquorice and Mrs Scratchison were overjoyed to snuggle between the boys and soon even all the excitement of the next day was beaten by the temptation to sleep by the how comfy the bed was and the rhythmic snores of the two kneazles. Bast and Freya were sulking and had taken to following Regulus as his second shadow leaving only Hadrian and Draco’s kneazles to spend time with the boys that were leaving.

~ ~ ~

Steam was misting up the platform by the gleaming red train. Hadrian was taking photos with his camera, so he had references for when he tried to sketch the train later. His papa and Uncle Lucius were putting wards on the compartment so that no one with ill intentions could come into the compartment. Neville had somehow lost Trevor, so the god-Uncles were helping him look for Trevor. Hadrian was just hoping that Liquorice, hadn’t caught or eaten Trevor, she was still thankfully small, so he doubted it.

Draco was arranging everyone’s trunks to be shrunk and put into the right pockets, only bags were allowed to be kept unshrunk if they were going to fit Fred, George, Charlie, Bill, Percy, Draco, Neville and Hadrian in a compartment. Hadrian hoped that Theo would also join them and had told Draco to bear that in mind while organising everyone’s things.

“Hadrian, come on love, it's time to go to the compartment, the rest of the brothers of mayhem have arrived.” Regulus grinned at his son.

Hadrian saw Theo behind his papa, looking nervous. “Theo, there you are! Come, my papa was about to show me the compartment, let's shrink your trunk and you join us. Hello Lady Avery.”

Theo grinned at Hadrian. “Hey, Hadrian. I couldn’t see you. That sounds great. I don’t know how to shrink my luggage. Though.”

“Not a problem dude, I am in charge of shrinking trunks for today’s journey. I am Charlie by the way. Hadrian told me an extra friend was joining us, we landed up combining two of the larger cabins so there is plenty of room. Well, uncles Regulus and Lucius combined the cabins, don’t think any of us knew that was possible.” Charlie jumped off of the step and bent down to shrink Theo’s trunk. Before handing it to Theo. “We have a box in the cabin everyone’s trunk is going into, so we don’t lose them. Percy my younger brother bought a table for snacks and games.”

Theo looked slightly overwhelmed with everyone being so loud and friendly to him, but he hugged his aunt tightly and waved to his much older cousin as he went to the prefects meeting. Soon he found himself in a cabin that had benches, cushions and blankets with a clearly marked box for luggage. Shrunken trunks and owl cages were in the box. The owls had been instructed to fly ahead to the school, as well as Charlie’s falcon. He saw a very grumpy looking toad locked up tight in a terrarium. “That toad looks unhappy.”

Bill grinned at him. “Well met Heir Nott, I am Heir William Weasley-Prewitt of House Weasley. Everyone calls me Bill through. Let me introduce you to my family, Charlie, Percy and then the twins' Heirs Fred and George of House Prewitt. The toad is Trevor, he is Heir Neville Longbottoms. The cat being bought in is Mrs Scratchison, she belongs to Heir Draco Malfoy. I am sure everyone is going to be happy to have you call them by their names so relax and grab a seat. Hadrian’s cat is still asleep in his carrier so we will introduce you once Liquorice wakes up.”

“Well met Bill.” Theo smiled at him before sitting next to Hadrian.

During the ride, a young witch had come in crying because she had been tripped by some other first-year girls and she had been looking for a place to sit and read quietly. Percy had helped her shrink down her bag and put a sound muffling charm on her. She could hear if someone spoke directly to her but would be left in peace and quiet to read for most of the journey.

When Elma came through pushing the train trolley, drinks were bought, various teas, coffees and blackcurrant juice. They got the girl who was a muggle-born a pumpkin juice and a tea. Bill made sure everyone bought a healthy lunch and a few sweets, nothing insane but some chocolate and snacks. One box of Jellybeans was braved and everyone including the girl called Hermione joined in the bravely stupid competition to see who got the best and worst flavours. Chocolate frogs’ cards were given to her to collect as well unless they found something none of them had yet. Bill even went and bought her a collection book for her cards. Mrs Scratchison spent most of her time out of the cage either on top of Draco, Fred and George or playing with Hermione. Draco had been firmly planted between the two and was snoozing on them at one point during the journey letting out soft snores of happiness.

“Don’t mind Draco, he turned Fred into his head pillow and George into his footrest when we were seven and hasn’t stopped napping on them since.” Neville grinned when Hermione and Theo looked at them. Fred was playing with Draco’s hair. Mrs Scratchison was poured over Draco’s feet and resting on George as well also asleep.

“He didn’t really turn them into a bed, right?” Hermione asked.

Bill laughed at the mental image. “No, don’t think so but don’t tempt him. He has a talent for sleeping on the twins. He has attempted sleeping like that on Hadrian and Neville but apparently, they aren’t as comfy.”

“Hush now you are just jealous.” Fred chirped Bill.

“That no cute blondes want you,” George smirked at Bill.

“They got you, their brother, though maybe if you smile nicely at Neville, he might snuggle with you.” Charlie grinned at Bill.

“I think not, Bill is all lanky. His elbows and knees will hurt.” Neville joined in.

“Will someone cast a silencing charm, you guys are waking me up,” Draco grumped at them barely opening an eye. “My Gred and Forge, no sharing.”

Percy charmed Draco with the same sound muffling charm so he could nap while the boys could join in the conversation. “Thank you, Percy, you are a gentleman amongst mice.”

This relaxed conversation and jokes carried on throughout the journey. Some of Bill and Charlie’s friends came to say hello, there had been a lengthy debate about Quidditch when Oliver Wood had popped in to say hello. Hermione had never met someone as singularly focussed on one thing as she was before.

“Do you think he is also autistic?” She asked Charlie when Oliver left.

“You have autism, Mione? No stress, we just need to let Madam Pomfrey the head of the healing ward knows. She will help you on difficult days. Yeah, Ollie has autism, he is doing pretty fine at school. So, I know you will do fine as well.” Charlie grinned at her.

“Yeah Mione, don’t worry about it, you aren’t the only one. I am sure your Head of House will be informed as well and if you need anything just grab any of us, we will be happy to help you. I have the booklets we all got when Ollie got into Gryffindor. I will make sure to give a copy to everyone in the cabin. We got your back honorary sister.” Bill smiled reassuringly at her. At some point, Liquorice had woken up and taken a liking to play with Hermione’s hair. He was very gentle and kept purring for her whenever she scratched below his chin.

The boys cast privacy screens while everyone took turns changing into their school robes. Charlie and Bill both had thin red trim on their robe collars and the top button was gold. They both had Weasley and Prewitt crests on their breast pockets underneath the much bigger school crest. Percy was almost identical but with the Blue of Ravenclaw and a bronze button. The rest of them wore some variation of this but in all black at this point. Only once they were sorted would colour appear. Hadrian and Draco both had the Black Crest on the left Bottom side while they had their Sire crests on the right. Hermione had a beautiful floral crest on her pocket below her school emblem.

“Hermione, does your Family have their own coat of arms?” Draco asked looking at the crest. “It's very beautiful if it is your coat of arms on your pocket.”

“Yes, my dad was very happy when he found out we could have it put on my uniform.” She grinned at Draco.

“You look very smart. Do you mind if we put some of the hair potions to prevent Hadrian’s hair from being a messy mop in your hair? It should help your hair curl beautifully and prevent frizz. Hadrian has the most insane hair; it breaks hairbrushes when he doesn’t use the potion. Obviously, you can tell me to bugger off if I am overstepping.” Draco looked nervous as he realised, he could just have hurt her feelings.

“I don’t mind trying something, would be nice to hair my hair looks neat. Promise it won’t make my hair straight?”

“Promise, it doesn’t straighten his or Uncle Charles's hair, just keeps it soft and defined curls. I know it works better straight onto freshly soaking wet hair, but a little bit might just bring the poof to more curl.” Draco grinned and relaxed as he poured a bit of Sleak-easy curl define into his hands and carefully worked into Hermione’s hair the same way he did for Hadrian on days when Hadrian was too tired to. It took two careful applications; Draco didn’t want her hair to look oily and suddenly her hair was in beautiful tight coils down her back. Draco had a colour changing ribbon in grey that would change to her house colour when sorted that he tied like an Alice band around her head. “You look lovely my dear.”

Bill and Charlie helped the firsties to the boats, casting waterproof charms on them so they stayed dry and warm. It was Draco, Fred and George and Hermione in the first boat. Neville, Hadrian and Theo were joined by a nervous Hannah Abbott in their boat. Bill helped Ron and his friends to their own boat. By halfway through the lake, it had been decided that Hannah was another one of their friends.

The boat ride to the castle was awe-inspiring with the lights of Hogwarts reflecting on the lake, it wasn’t raining so the weather was perfect to lead the children to their next step in life. Soon a bunch of nervous First years were huddled at the boat entrance. There were quite a few more first years than before since more children from various parts of the United Kingdom had been invited and gotten scholarships. The boys and Hannah introduced Hermione to the people that they knew.

“Well, if it isn’t the traitors Malfoy and Black, look at you hanging out with half-bloods and even worse.” A shrill voice sneered at them.

“Well, if it isn’t pug face and her little gang. What do you want Pansy?” Draco sneered back.

“Just to remind you to stay away from your betters. What my parents thought thinking you and your family were worthy of our time is beyond me. You all bring shame to your houses.” Pansy sneered at Draco.

“That is enough Miss Parkinson, you will learn to address your fellow students to respect. Do not be the first person to lose house points for their house before they were even sorted. One more remark from you and you will spend tomorrow in Detention from me.” Professor McGonagall said. “Now please make two lines try and stand more or less where your surname falls in the alphabet, good now follow me.”

The First years all followed her as they walked into the Great Hall. Gasps were heard as they saw the bewitched ceiling and the floating candles. Huge banners were hanging above the tables where the various Houses were seated, there were as many Hogwarts Banners as House Banners hanging from the ceiling.

On a stool on top of a podium, so everyone could clearly see, there was an old, patched hat with various patches. Professor McGonagall led them all up to the podium.

“Now after the Hat has sung its traditional welcoming song, I will call out your name, one after another you will have the hat placed upon your head and be sorted into the house. The decision of the hat is final, you may only request a resort in years three and five if you have a valid reason.”

The hat opened its mouth flap and sung:

"Oh you may not think I'm pretty,

But don't judge on what you see,

I'll eat myself if you can find

A smarter hat than me.

You can keep your bowlers black,

Your top hats sleek and tall,

For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat

And I can cap them all.

There's nothing hidden in your head

The Sorting Hat can't see,

So try me on and I will tell you

Where you ought to be.

You might belong in Gryffindor,

Where dwell the brave at heart,

Their daring, nerve, and chivalry

Set Gryffindors apart;

You might belong in Hufflepuff,

Where they are just and loyal,

Those patient Hufflepuffs are true

And unafraid of toil;

Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,

if you've a ready mind,

Where those of wit and learning,

Will always find their kind;

Or perhaps in Slytherin

You'll make your real friends,

Those cunning folks use any means

To achieve their ends.

So put me on! Don't be afraid!

And don't get in a flap!

You're in safe hands (though I have none)

For I'm a Thinking Cap!"

The hat had barely finished when the professor unrolled a parchment and started reading their names. Hannah Abbott their friendly brunette friend was sorted into Hufflepuff almost immediately as well as Susan Bones. Terry Boot was the first to be sorted into Gryffindor, while Mandy Brocklehurst was the first Ravenclaw followed by Lavender Brown in Gryffindor and Millicent Bulstrode into Slytherin. Hadrian tried to pay attention but there were far too many, he did notice when Hermione was sorted into Ravenclaw and threw her double thumbs-up as she settled next to Percy. Soon Neville was sorted into Hufflepuff, the sorting hat hadn’t even fully touched his head before it roared Hufflepuff. Draco’s sorting was almost identical to Neville’s except he was sorted into Slytherin. Theo was sorted into Ravenclaw much, to everyone’s surprise, people had assumed he would be Slytherin. The Patil twins were split much to the horror of Fred and George who were clutching each other’s hands, the Patil twins were divided with Parvati in Gryffindor and Padma in Ravenclaw. It felt like an eternity before Hadrian’s name was called.

“Yes, yes, I see so much courage it comes out of your ears, but very ambitious as well… mmm… quite kind as well. See you come from a long line of Slytherins and Gryffindors, so family politics isn’t a problem… mmm… what to do with you.” The hat said into Hadrian’s head, whipping his head around and looking at the various houses.

“Please put me in the house where I can learn the most and am best suited.” That was all Hadrian thought, he was unsure himself of where to go.

“Learn hey, well now that clears it up, I know what to do with you, better be RAVENCLAW!” the hat yelled the last bit for everyone to hear.

Hadrian went to sit with Percy, Hermione and Theo with relief watching the sorting ceremony. He cheered loudly when the twins were sorted into Slytherin while Ron was sorted into Gryffindor. He didn’t miss the looks Bill and Charlie gave their cousin, something told him Ron was going to be watched.

The headmaster Albus Dumbledore stood up at that point and gave the warnings about staying out of the forbidden forest as well as staying out of the left corridor on the third floor. Before starting the feast. Hadrian noticed that Hermione was still wearing the sound muffling charm and looked very happy discussing books with Percy. At some point after the school song was sung loudly and badly, they were led out of the hall by the prefects, the Ravenclaw Prefects Penelope Clearwater and Ryan Westrup lead them to Ravenclaw tower. Showing them how to tickle the statue to get in or informing them that they would need to solve a riddle to get in.

“Right, we are going to go over the House rules now so that you all know what is expected of you before showing you your rooms. There are curfews for every year, Firsties your curfew is eight-thirty pm and lights out are at nine-thirty pm. You may have your reading lamp in your bed on, but it will switch off at ten-thirty automatically. There are mandatory study sessions in the common study area once a week where tutors are available, and Professor Flitwick will be here twice a week to explain work if you still struggle with it. We maintain a certain grade average in order to do school activities. You are all required to do at least one school activity, all sports except Quidditch are available from the first year but we do ask you to watch our house games. Now dorms are split into three parts, girls up the left staircase, I will show you where to go.” Penelope read them the rules with a smile.

“All boys to the right, I will show you where to go, your luggage and pets are already by your beds.” Ryan smiled at the boys.

“Thirdly all Heirs and Lords and Ladies will be sleeping in a separate area, due to the statute of secrecy act with the documents you all work with it was deemed that you will sleep in smaller rooms with serious entry restrictions. Sadly, this means only your roommate is allowed in your room, no visiting friends or massive sleepovers for you. I will be your point of contact if you need any help with Wizengamot information or trouble in your specific dorm areas. My name is Robert Hilliard. So, Heirs and so on please follow me.” Robert grinned at them before he started walking, Hermione followed Penelope and Percy had already left to unpack his things.

Theo and Hadrian were standing outside of a door that had a little bronze plaque with their names on it. Robert had led them to their room after having shown Padma Patil her room.

“Right boys, you two will be sharing till the sixth year, you can decide then if you want to continue sharing or split the room into two individual rooms. My roommate and I decided to keep sharing. The room is warded that only the two of you are allowed in except for emergencies when I or Professor Flitwick can come in. The rules here are simple. You each have your own vault for your Wizengamot paperwork, please don’t allow the other one access no matter how much you trust them. Because this is your fixed room for the next five years, your family elves are allowed access as well as some decorating is allowed. We have a little kitchenette in the corner with snacks and drinks, just as an idea. One pet each though your owls may sleep on the owl perches in your rooms and another pet. Hadrian, I see you have a kneazle. Theo, I would suggest nothing the Kneazle would like to hunt like a rodent. If you have any questions my door is the blue one, you are welcome to come knocking. I would recommend unpacking and getting comfy; breakfast starts at seven. Since tomorrow is Sunday, Professor Flitwick will be here tomorrow afternoon to greet you all and answer any questions, the signup sheets for school activities are also up after breakfast. With all that good night boys, will see you both at breakfast.” Robert smiled at them and then left.

Theo and Hadrian both stared at their room, it was huge. In one corner was a bed and nightstand and in the other far corner away from the windows was an identical double bed with a nightstand. Each bed area had a wardrobe with hanging space and drawers and space for trunks to be stored on top of them. Between the beds was a bathroom which was divided in two with privacy screens containing a loo, shower and sink. In the middle was a bath that was clearly to be shared, not at the same time. In front of the two windows were desks and each desk had a bookcase and a vault. The middle of the room had a fireplace and two armchairs. There was a space next to the door that was empty.
“Something tells me this is the perfect spot for a kitchenette. I wonder if we can vent it to make it also a safe place to practice making potions.” Hadrian grinned as he unpacked both Hedwig’s things and Liquorice’s things.

“A kitchenette will be nice. I don’t want to get into trouble with the school about potions though.”

Hadrian grinned at Theo, “I will ask my uncle, Professor Snape, he is the head of Potions, he will know if we can set up a safe potion lab in our room. Now, which side do you want the left or the right?”

In the end, the two boys tossed a coin to decide where to sleep. Hadrian had his blanket from Mrs Weasley on his bed and his two favourite stuffies the Ndunu and Stag were carefully put on the shelf above his bed, they still contained a little bit of his father’s magic to make them feel reassuring.

Theos bed also had a soft family blanket and he also had a stuffy on the shelf above his bed while also was Liquorice doing a room inspection.

Chapter Text

Draco was watching the twins unpack, the three of them landed up sharing an Heir room because Draco hadn’t wanted to be alone. Professor Snape had managed to combine one of the smaller single rooms into their room so there was enough space for all three. George had already unpacked his field potions kit and Fred his small containment area for testing.

Draco had just marvelled at what the two of them managed to unpack. “Wait how is this possible? How did you two fit so much into your trunks?”

George just grinned at Draco, “Simple we are sharing a lot of the things except where we need induvial things so that took a lot less space. We also put things in all our brothers’ trunks, so tomorrow by lunchtime we will have everything. I must say having an owl perch in our room is handy, none of us needs to climb to the owlery to send letters to anyone.”

Draco just grinned and kept unpacking his things before having a moment of thought, “Dobby?”

There was a pop, and a wide-eyed elf was grinning at Draco, “Hello little Master. Did you miss Dobby?”

Draco hugged his favourite elf and smiled “Yes, I did, I was hoping if you could set up a kitchenette area for us and stock it from home? Some sweets but mostly healthy snacks and um drinks, like hot chocolate.”

Dobby looked at the space that Draco was pointing to as the kitchenette area, “Yes it will take a day, what colours will young masters want?”

Fred smiled at Dobby, “if it could blend in with the furniture that would be wicked.”

~ ~ ~

The next morning Marcus Flint walked with Draco, Fred and George to the Great Hall for breakfast. He was answering questions about various school sports and had encouraged the twins to try out for Rugby, if they wanted to be beaters in Quidditch it made sense and the Junior team needed more players. Percy was walking in the door as the group of Slytherins walked in.

“Fred, George, I couldn’t get to you both last night. Congratulations on getting into Slytherin. You two are going to have a blast there. Want to sit with us during lunch, it's still house tables this morning while class schedules are being handed out. Morning Marcus.”

“Morning Percy. Did you get the book on Runes that I recommended for you during the summer holidays?” replied Marcus Flint.

“Yes. It is so good; would you mind if I asked you questions about it at some point?”

Draco and the twins were watching as Marcus and Percy were flirting with each other. Both of them were maintaining eye contact and finding little reason to touch each other. Marcus even removed a bit of imaginary lint from Percy's shoulder. Bill and Charlie led the small Slytherins away from where Marcus and Percy were standing, seemingly lost in their own world.

“Yes, they are crazy about each other. No, they don’t know the other one likes them. we are leaving them to figure this out on their own. We will only interfere from the end of October if neither of them makes an active move by then. Tell the others. Also, how are the new digs?” Bill was grinning at them while helping himself to some toast from the Slytherin table.

“We are sharing a room.” Draco grinned at Bill

“Yes, we set up our potions station in the corner.”

“We also have a kitchenette thanks to Draco’s family.”

“We asked Winky if she minded warding the potions area and sourcing ingredients. So, we provide potions and Draco provides food.”

“Seems the fairest that way.”

“Draco stole the good window for Mrs Scratchison, but I would rather have worse light and a happy cat hey.”

“She cuddled with you in bed this morning, I don’t understand the complaints?” Draco asked pretending to be offended.

Bill was laughing at his younger siblings and their Draco. “Draco, you and I both know they sneak that cat treats and have bought her birthday presents, even if you hadn’t tried to commandeer the good window for her, they would have set it up for her. So have you decided what clubs and such you want to do this year?”

“I was looking at Runes club and chess, I will continue sabre fighting and duelling with Hadrian though,” Draco answered Bill.

“Those are great, did you sign up already?”

“Yes, while Fred signed up for rowing and Duelling and extra potions and George signed up for rowing, healing club and the school newspaper.”

Bill grinned at his youngest brothers, “That sounds great you two, you guys are going to have a blast this year though remember your homework as well. Shout if you lot need help. I should go get my own schedule.” He hugged all three of them and then ran off.

As Draco got comfortable sitting with a few of the other first years one of the girls, Daphne signed “Your older brother is so dreamy.”

“Ugh we wouldn’t know since he is our older brother,” George replied while buttering his roll.

“What does he look for in girls?” Daphne asked, definitely trying to get the inside scoop on Bill.

The twins looked at each other and then at Draco, all three of them shrugged, “he is very clever, he likes sports, and he solves Rune puzzles for fun. He likes muggle rock music and reads muggle fantasy novels. That’s all we can tell you; the rest is a family secret.”

“He is an Heir, right?” Daphne asked

The twins decided to mess with her at that point, “Yes, but our family betrothal contracts are very specific. Good luck with getting a magical twin and a pet unicorn as a gift.”

There was a throat-clearing sound behind them and they all saw Professor Prince standing behind them, “Yes, your fathers are very specific in their betrothal contracts now here are your class schedules. Write your after-school activities on the back of the lines provided and they will update you with your practice times as well. The schedules are also charmed to you so I will be notified if you aren’t studying enough.”

All three boys nodded a little terrified that Professor Snape would be keeping track of their studying hours.

* * * * *  * * * *

The first class for the Ravenclaws was herbology with the Slytherins, Hadrian quickly commandeered one of the larger tables for the rest of the group so that Hermione, Theo, Draco, Fred and George could sit with him. Professor Sprout just winked at him and put a copy of Neville’s schedule in front of him since she knew they were going to try and syncs schedules for some group time. Hadrian beamed a thankful smile at her as he pulled out his schedule to compare. Soon the table was engulfed by everyone, and schedules were laid out, they had all come early to the first class in order to do this. They carefully blocked out the double free period after class on Monday and Wednesdays as group study times and Sunday afternoons as group relaxing times.

“If all of you are going to study together, run to the library after class, I will let you go early if you finish the lesson properly and go book a private group study room in those slots while they are still available. They fill up quite quickly.” Professor Sprout said as she set up the lesson for the day in front of them.

“Good morning students, welcome to the wonderful world of Herbology.” Professor Sprout started the lesson with a flourish, behind her some of the plants were dancing in their pots.

“Now can anyone name practical reasons why we have herbology as a subject and don’t just tell you to go buy certain ingredients at the apothecary?”

Hermione’s hand shot up as quick as a whip, Hadrian’s hand wasn’t far behind hers. There were a few other hands in the air as well. “Wonderful, I see so many excited faces, when you answer please introduce yourself as well. Girl with the pretty bow may answer first.”

Hermione beamed, “Hermione Granger, Professor, so we can understand how the plants look and how they grow so we have a deeper understanding of potions, healing and other subjects that may use plants like Care of Magical Creatures.”

“Excellent answer, point to Ravenclaw.” Professor Sprout smiled at the girl.

The lesson had them replanting certain plants, with no Neville, Hadrian and Draco had to rely on the lessons learnt while with Neville in order to be able to do well in the class. After drawing out grids with how planting works and stopping Hermione and Fred from planting everything in neat alphabetical rows. Hadrian was laughing at how hard Draco was scrubbing the imaginary dirt out from under his nails.

“You know if getting your hands' dirty bugs, you this much, you should look at getting gardening gloves,” Hadrian said to his cousin while drying his hands.

“No, then I will look like Neville’s Granny while in class,” Draco responded. Hermione and Theo had to work at not snorting with laughter.

Hadrian shrugged, “Uncle Sev and Papa wear gloves while working in the garden and the greenhouses. Not all gardening gloves are floral with pink lace trim. I am sure Dowager wears those gloves to mess with people.”

Draco regarded his cousin, “fine if we can get cool looking gardening gloves, I will wear them. Maybe we should get in the habit since some of our later plants are poisonous.”

Professor Sprout, who had been listening in on her firsties, “Talk to your uncle, he orders them in black, you could get them in black or your house colours. Draco gloves will help you a lot, I know you squirm when your hands feel dirty. Your grades will be thankful for that, maybe get a gardening apron as well to keep your uniform clean. I know some of the older students prefer wearing them too.”

“Thanks, Professor, I will ask Uncle Sev about getting gloves.”

“Draco, at school we are supposed to call him Professor Prince, not uncle Sev.” Hadrian laughed softly.

“Well, he hasn’t introduced himself as our Professor since we haven’t had Potions yet, so he is still uncle Sev.”

Hadrian nodded while putting away his school supplies. “When do you have potions?”

“Only tomorrow and Friday and you?” Draco grinned while pulling out his schedule so that they could compare. “Jeez, we hardly have any classes together, it's Charms and Herbology.”

“We have health and fitness, together as well. Also, Wixen and Muggles customs together.”

Draco scowled at the timetable, “Yay, I get to go all red and sweaty in front of everybody. I see you have fountain pens, why did you decide on pens and not quills?”

As the two cousins leave the classroom and head back to the school's main building, they are joined by the rest of their friends and wave at Charlie who is hurrying to Care of Magical creatures, looking extremely excited.

“Hi everyone, chat during lunch don’t want to be late for this class. Hi Hadrian.” Charlie shouted as he hurried past, far ahead of the rest of the third years that had also taken care of magical creatures.

George who was next to Draco asked fairly loudly, “Do you think, Charlie thinks the first one to class gets to keep the creature as a pet?”

There was some unsure laughter as everyone knew that Charlie had a habit of rescuing and adopting various creatures that he found around the Barrow, their dads were starting to worry if they needed to build a paddock and stable at the rate Charlie was collecting pets that needed help. “George, don’t joke papa will have a heart attack if Charlie brings home another animal.”

“I think it is awesome that Charlie keeps trying to save animals, it makes sense with what he wants to study.” Hadrian defended Charlie as they kept walking up.

Draco piped up at this point, “What dragon keeping, do you study for that?”

Hadrian rolled his eyes at Draco, “No, he wants to become a Magical Zoologist with a specialisation in Dragons. A dragon healer and Habitat specialist. He needs a lot of very hard subjects in order to be able to pursue the field.”

Fred grinned at Hadrian, “The fact that you know more about our older brother than we do is hilarious. What’s your next class?”

Hadrian smiled at them, “I like Charlie, he is cool, he doesn’t treat me like I am a baby. We have transfiguration, see you all during lunch, right?”

When the Ravenclaws as well as the Hufflepuffs arrived at Transfiguration, the Professor wasn’t there except for a pretty tabby cat that was sitting at the desk. Hadrian grinned and winked at the cat and the pretty tabby winked back. Hermione couldn’t help herself and go to pet and coo at the pretty kitty. Hadrian put their bags down so he would be seated between Hermione and Theo and went to pull Hermione who had been joined by Neville away from the cat.

“Really Neville, a cat in Transfiguration class and you decide you want to pet it? You know better. Hermione, I will bring Liquorice to lunch on Saturday morning and then you can pet a cat that you are allowed to pet. Let’s go sit so the class can start.” He dragged them both off to sit. Neville is next to Theo. Hannah and Susan are behind them.

The entire class watched as Professor McGonagall transformed into her human form as she leapt from her desk. They were all awed at how smooth her transformation was. When she turned her desk into a pic and then back into a desk, Hadrian and the rest of the class were hooked.

“Right, now we will start at the beginning, I would like you all to try and turn the match into a needle. Careful controlled movements are preferable for this class.”

Professor McGonagall was lovely as she walked between the desks and helped students that were struggling. Both Neville and Hermione were the first to get their matches somewhat pointy and silver, so she gave them both equal house points. Hadrian watched them and the instructions and powered his spell a bit more like his papa had taught him, causing his match to roll slightly but it turned into a needle.

“No fair, how did you get it right?” Draco elbowed Hadrian in the ribs.

Hadrian just laughed at his cousin, “I watched what you and Hermione did and put a little bit more power in my casting, I may have focussed so hard on the incantation and movement at first that I forgot to power my spell.”

Professor McGonagall walked past them and inspected their work. “Excellent work the lot of you. Hadrian, you seem to have inherited Regulus’s talent for transfiguration. I look forward to seeing what you achieve in time. Once you do decide to become an Animagus, remember to come to me so we can register your form. Hermione and Neville, your needles are excellent, I will award you both Outstanding’s for today’s work.”

* * * * *

Severus was busy pouring himself tea when the floo in his apartment fired up, the first few days of classes, his family normally stayed at home but this week the girls were being terribly clingy, and Sirius had resorted to bringing them through every night. Apparently, at seven the horror of not seeing one of your three parents every day was too much. Sure, enough Sirius had Kayla and Keila holding his hands as they came out of the floo, the floo lit up a second time and little Sebastian came out being carried by Remus.

“I don’t think the crying is worth it, we need to move into family housing here during the term, all three of them worked themselves up in a right state because you weren’t there to tuck them in,” Remus said as he kissed his husband he hadn’t seen in a few days.

Little Sebastian cried and full-body wiggle threw himself at his papa, his little toddler body already strong if not well co-ordinated. Severus gathered the armful of toddlers and smiled at his daughters, they were six now and in Year Two at Primary school.

“What about Charles and Regulus?” Severus asked while cuddling an excited toddler. Their daughters were each holding onto his legs, so he was stuck where he was. Sirius had taken over making tea for everyone. He and Remus soon had the girls settled at the coffee table with colouring-in books.

Sirius smiled at him, “well dear if they want to spy on Hadrian at school, they can each take turns teaching DADA or apply for some of the third years and up teaching positions. It would drive your boss up the wall if somehow, we were all teaching here. Well except for Charles, he is too busy at his day job and changing the world. No in seriousness, they will understand us living here during the term for the kids and being with them during holidays.”

Severus looked at both his husbands and smiled, “Some of the kids find our surname a mouthful, I am just using Professor Prince in the class. Just a heads up.”

Remus laughed and held out his hand to Sirius who just passed over three galleons. Severus put Sebastian in Remus's arms and bent over the floo and called Lilac Brown and Minnie.

“Hello, sorry to inconvenience you both but I have a few questions that will be easier to ask in person. I have tea and shortbread as well as good firewhiskey if you need it.” Severus said into the floo call.

Soon both women were in the little lounge, Sebastian was now being cuddled by his Granny Minnie. Both Kayla and Keila had butterscotch and an iron brew that she had bought through the floo with her. Lilac smiled at the richly decorated rooms, in sharp contrast to the man that dressed only in black.

“Pleasure to meet everyone, what can we do for you, Severus?” Lilac smiled at Severus.

Sirius smiled at the woman his brother and best friend raved about. “Well, we were hoping for family accommodation, Remus, I and the kids normally stay with brother and his husband during the term and see Severus as often as possible, but the girls aren’t coping with their papa and all their cousins have gone anymore. It will be easier if we move in together.”

Minne nodded; she had been surprised they had lasted as long as they had. “Yes, that makes sense, I would recommend one of the towers so actual sunlight comes through the windows and we can have a little courtyard for a play area?”

Lilac smiled, “we can put an instant access door to the dungeons so the prefects and the rest of the house can get to you quickly if there is an emergency.”

Minnie smiled at them, “So five bedrooms and at least three bathrooms, a sitting room, kitchen and a study with a courtyard? Does that seem about right?”

“Minnie, three bedrooms should suffice, the girls will share, and the adults do share.” Severus looked at her.

She laughed at him, “Oh dear, here I was assuming your nephews would spend weekends and nights when they learn their family is here and your in-laws would visit now that their entire family is here at Hogwarts.”

Remus laughed, “Thank you, Minnie, that would be amazing, enough room for most of the family to visit as needs are. Draco and Hadrian can share a room for the nights they do sleepovers.”

Lilac was taking notes. “Any preference for the tower? I notice there are two Gryffindors in the room other than Minnie.”

Severus replied before his husbands. “The teacher tower please, my Twins and the Weasley twins are not allowed to be around each other unsupervised at all. Not after the last time, they played a harmless prank.”

Minnie snorted into her tea and Remus stood up. “Right, girls, these two lovely women are going to help us all live together. You both have school in the morning so hug papa goodbye. I will bring you both to visit him again tomorrow night.”

Kayla was first and hugged her papa, “So we get to come to Hogwarts early? Does that mean we can stop primary school and start the cool lessons already?”

Severus laughed as he hugged the little brunette with Mercury coloured eyes, her curls up in a loose bun, “No little one, you get to live here and see your cousins over weekends, but you keep going to your normal school. Hadrian had to wait so do you.”

Kayla flicked his nose and then grinned at him, looking like a naughty kitten. “Okay Papa, love you.” Scrawny arms wrapped around him and then she climbed off his lap.

Keila’s hug goodbye was more tearful, “I don’t want pink in our bedroom, we are big girls now, no pink.” She cried into his shoulder. Severus was still surprised where the sudden anti-pink campaign had come from.

“No pink, not a problem, Mrs Brown will make sure you don’t get a pink bedroom.” Severus hugged her, “Go home with your athair, little kitten.”

Sebastian was asleep in Severus' arm while they planned the new home for ten months a year. They had decided on a u-shape design with the family rooms on the right side and the guest rooms as well as the study and kitchen on the left side. The courtyard would be a balcony with strong wards to prevent children from climbing or falling off. The furniture was chosen to be modern but soft and comfortable, with gorgeous leather couches as well birch wood for the floors and the use of soft blues and pale creams for most of the rooms. The girl’s room was decorated in soft greens and would show their favourite animals in the silhouettes against the main wall.

After Sirius took a very tired Sebastian with him to sleep in his own bed. Minnie and Lilac left smiling and promising him that his rooms would be ready by the weekend.

* * * * *

It was during breakfast the next morning that it came apparent that Ron had fallen in with a very different crowd to his cousins. Severus and Minne watched as the youngest Weasley stormed over to one of the tables where all his cousins were sitting, Hadrian, Draco, Neville, Hermione, Theo and Marcus Flint.

“So, I am not even good enough for you all to leave me a spot to sit.” Ron bellowed at them.

Bill raised an eyebrow at his cousin while sipping his apple juice. Percy instantly cast the sound blocking spell on Hermione to not upset her. Charlie whose back had been turned to Ron turned around to face Ron. “Good morning, Ron. We weren’t aware that you wanted to join us since you haven’t spoken to any of us since the train station. We are happy to organise a seat if you would like to join us.”

“You should just keep me a seat at all times!”

Charlie chuckled, “That would be rude of us Ron, if we take a large table others might not be able to sit with their friends. If you want to sit with us, we can move to a twelve-seater table but we not going to keep empty spots if you don’t join us.”

“But how did you know to keep extra spots for everyone? Also, why are you sitting with a bunch of Firsties and Slimy snakes?”

“We kept spots for our friends that indicated they wanted to sit with us. Some of the Slytherins at the table are our brothers, do you really expect us not to talk to our family because they are in a different house than us. Ron, what’s going on, do you want to sit with us, or are you just looking for attention?” Bill asked.

“Well clearly you guys didn’t have friends before Hadrian and his gang came to school!” Ron bellowed.

Charlie sighed at his younger cousin, “Ron, Hadrian is my best friend, he and his friends aren’t our only friends but we are in different houses so I will make an effort to see him during meals and such. I tried to chat to you last night and you blew me off to go chat with Seamus. If you want us to keep a seat for you during meals, tell us and talk to us.”

“No, you would rather have Hadrian than me as a cousin!” Ron screamed at them.

George snorted into his apple juice and Fred was laughing into Draco’s shoulder at this point. All the Weasleys except Charlie were in some form of a giggle fit at this point. Professors Prince and McGonagall were laughing at this point too, Charlie ran a hand over his face. “Ron are you obtuse? Hadrian means the world to me but the last thing I want is for him to be related to me. Would be awkward with what I feel for him if he was my cousin. I am not trying to replace you as my cousin. Your mom is my papa and athairs’ sister, and your dad was my dad’s brother. You are like my double close cousin. So, remove the carrot up your arse, stop being jealous for no reason, grab a chair from the other table and join us.”

Ron looked like the wind had been slightly knocked out of his sails and then went to go grab a chair to join them for the last bit of breakfast. He mumbled an apology to everyone and soon was sitting and listening to Charlie and Flint discuss the new Nimbus 2000 on the market.

When the firsties stood up because they were on their way to Wixen society class, they made sure Ron knew that he could walk with them. He was chatting with Draco about the dorms and how Gryffindor tower looked different than the Dungeons and Theo was piping in with commentary on how Ravenclaw tower looked. As they got to the class there was a fairly large group already in the front since all the firsties had the class together.

“Well, well, look it is the guy who was out friend till his older cousins were willing to help him pretend he is cooler than he is. Really been friends since Nursery but Charlie says sit and suddenly, we aren’t good enough huh Ron?” Seamus taunted Ron.

To everyone’s surprise, it was Neville that spoke up, “Seamus, shame on you, do you really think he should stop being friendly with his family or try and get along with them just because you are his friend?”

“No one asked you, no one wants to speak to you, not even your parents, they been in hospital for ten years, you must be one a hell of a loser if your parents would rather be in hospital for ten years than spend time with you.” Pansy Parkinson said she had been standing next to Seamus and Dean.

The entire corridor went super quiet, all the purebloods and half-bloods knew about Neville’s parents, and the muggle-borns were all confused about the hush that had broken out between the students.

“Pathetic, your friend spends time with his family and gets to meet different students and instead of being happy for him, you attack him and the people that defend him. Only someone with serious issues would bring up Neville’s parents the way that you did. You had better hope that none of the purebloods in this corridor writes and lets their parents know. Insulting someone from the sacred 28 in such a manner is a career breaker. Your mom wants to pass a bill now, doesn’t she Parkinson? You can bet your best dress; my family won’t support such a bill if that’s how you talk to one of their allies’ children. Pathetic.” Hadrian stood right in front of Pansy.

“I challenge you to a duel Peverell-Black!” Pansy screamed at him, her voice going shrill.

Hadrian looked at her and smiled, “It is Black-Peverell and sure, I accept. Where and when?”

“Trophy room, midnight and Seamus will be my second.” She declared him.

“Fine, will get you there, my second will be Neville.” Hadrian smiled at her, that smile unnerved their professor as the women who had been running late came up the steps to her classroom.

Chapter Text

Severus was laughing while talking to Gideon while drinking his coffee, he had come to visit early Sunday morning via the floo. He was explaining how he had just given all the Weasleys, all the descendants of the house of Black and their friends, detention for playing with Hagrid's dog.

“Wait let me see if I completely understand, Hadrian was challenged to a duel, to defend Ron and Neville’s honour, the entire family decided that if Hadrian was going to be duelling then they would support him, including Percy? They then snuck out of various dormitories at Midnight and went to the trophy room for the Duel. Miss Parkinson warned Flinch that there would-be students out of the bed and in the Trophy room at midnight for them to get caught. In an attempt not to be caught by Mrs Norris and Flinch, the children ran through the school in their bathrobes and landed up in the forbidden corridor. At this point, my son who is as obsessed with creatures as Hagrid met the Cerberus. Charlie has declared his undying loyalty to said Cerberus and started singing nursery rhymes to the dog. When you finally found the children all of them were fast asleep on the Cerberus called Fluffy. Hagrid has offered Charlie a puppy when Fluffy visits his lady friend this coming summer in Greece. How in Merlin's name are we keeping a Cerberus?”

Fabian and Arthur walked into the kitchen at that point, “What do you mean keeping a Cerberus?” Arthur asked as he pressed a kiss on Gideon's forehead. Arthur and Fabián joined them at the table, and they got tea as well.

“In his wisdom since Charlie’s most recent three detentions, Hagrid has offered Charlie a Cerberus puppy. Dumbledore has made the offer the puppy stays at the school with Charlie during the term. I would suggest that the three of you look at more land and um a hut or cave for the puppy to sleep in once it is full-sized.” Severus said with a smile.

“My sons are caught out of bed for a duel that is against school policy and instead of being called in they get three detentions and a Cerberus puppy. I am starting to think the combo of Charlie and Hagrid is always dangerous. Our one barn is a field animal hospital for all the animals that Charlie rescues. What are we going to do with that boy?” Fabian said with a fond smile.

Arthur nodded as he did the maths, “we can afford to feed the dog over the summers, but Charlie will need to get a job when he turns fifteen over the holidays to help with the upkeep of his pets, he needs to learn financial responsibility. We also need to get Hagrid to promise no more Pets for Charlie, no matter how cool they are, before we land up with a teenage boy smuggling a dragon, again.”

Severus nodded, “I can find out if Charlie can work at the Dragon reserve near our house in Scotland during the holidays, I think with his personality and grades, a magi-zoologist with a specialisation in healing will be a great career for him. If the boy is always going to be rescuing animals, may as well earn a good living from it. We have also learnt thanks to Charlie and Draco, that Fluffy is terrified of Mrs Scratchison. Draco’s cat is capable of reducing a quite terrifying Cerberus into a whiney puppy that tried to hide behind Charlie or Hagrid so that they protect him from the scary white puffball that is smaller than one of their paws.”

Fabian let out a silly laugh and grinned at Severus, “on a different note, I have decided to start working again. I need something to do, you still had an order pending in my books during the war, would you like me to resume the order, or would you like to make changes to the order, Severus?”

Severus smiled, “Yes, I would like to add to the order though if possible. Could I get a clock with the family for school and paisley manor? Add your sons to the school one as well please so I know when to worry when the children go on an adventure. I am not far from casting warning spells on their beds to let me know if they left them during the night or didn’t go to bed.”

Fabian laughed, “so I am assuming portal peril on the school clock, adding that to the manor clock? Will it give Charles a heart attack if he sees how often Hadrian gets into trouble?”

Arthur smiled, “I think he would be more surprised if Hadrian’s name never went into the mortal peril part. As much as they have grown up quite a bit, three of them were the Marauders at school and still think of themselves that way.  Hadrian has already proven he has that gene. He broke Charlie into the dragon preserve a few years ago and they attempted to get a small dragon as a pet for Charlie. I think Charles and Regulus know they are raising a little demon disguised as a sweet boy with an angelic face and an adorable pout.”

“That pout keeps getting your second eldest into trouble and keeps getting Hadrian and the rest out of it. I think most of the faculty and the students think Hadrian is far too prim and proper to ever get into trouble. As if he wasn’t given his own copy of the marauders' map and an invisibility cloak to explore the school.” Severus said before taking a sip of his coffee.

“Am I the only one concerned that there was a Cerberus in the school? Also, why is there a forbidden corridor where said Cerberus is staying? Don’t they need a lot of room to roam?” Gideon asked.

Severus carefully put his mug down and blinked a few times. “That colourful sneaky bastard, what the hell does he think he is doing putting a dangerous creature in the school and confounding all the teachers? So that they don’t question what he is up to but instead help him build an obstacle course for children instead of guarding it. I think it is time that the Marauders explore a corridor and see what is going on. Charles and Regulus as well as Lucious all being on the school board means that we should be able to sort out whatever is going on that shouldn’t easily. I need to start wearing my Lord ring to prevent that old man from getting spell happy with me. Gideon. Could you give me a check-up please while I am here?”

“Sure Severus, would you prefer some privacy for the check-up?

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Hadrian was sitting next to Draco; they were in Transfiguration watching as Hermione was trying to help Ron with his enunciation. Draco was trying to not laugh at Hermione as she asked Ron if he was sure he hadn’t been a muggle-born and hadn’t gone to a Muggle Primary School? Ron’s grumpy reply that just because she was a genius didn’t mean she needed to rub it in that he had a thick accent and transfiguration was hard for him.

“So, think Hermione likes Muggle pop and rock music?” Hadrian asked Draco after turning a beetle into a button. He smiled at the bright green button with a pink dinosaur he had made.

Draco looked at him funny and smiled, “only one way to find out.” He carefully tapped his hand against the desk and stamped his foot once before continuing with the beat.

Hadrian smiled and picked up the beat, soon all the muggleborns and half-bloods were tapping the beat on the desk and stamping their feet in sync. More than one pureblood in the class was a little surprised at the class making so much noise. Professor McGonagall was a bit amused that the last few minutes of the class seemed to be dedicated to making buttons and Queen. Since it was the last few minutes, and the kids were actually working she let them continue. She was wondering when one of the kids would start singing.

Dean Thomas cracked first bellowing out “Buddy, you're a boy, make a big noise, Playing in the street, gonna be a big man someday, You got mud on your face, you big disgrace, kicking your can all over the place, singin', We will, we will rock you, We will, we will rock you” he was soon joined by Harry and Draco and every child that had heard the song before. She even had a few of them clapping as they sang. The twins were having a blast conducting the rest of the class in the hand moves. As the bell rang a very bemused Alastor Moody was smiling as firsties filed past him and kept singing We will rock you by Queen.

“Don’t start Alastor, they were making buttons when suddenly Little Malfoy and Little Black started the beat, and I had an impromptu Queen concert in my class. I must wonder how many more songs the purebloods will learn because of those boys and their eccentric parents.” She tidied the last of the desks and cancelled the spells on the beetles so that they were no longer buttons.

Moody laughed as he helped her, “think those kids have a decent understanding of Muggle rock?”

Minerva smiled at Moody, “Two of those kids call Sirius Black, Uncle Padfoot, I think their Music taste has been warped for life. We better warn Filius his choir might be learning some new songs from now on.”

Moody laughed as he held his arm out for Minerva and the two of them walked to lunch. When they got to the Great Hall more and more of the kids were singing “We will Rock you” as the infectious music moved through the school.

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“Hadrian, where did you learn that song you guys did in transfiguration?” a very bemused Theo asked him as the two of them got ready for bed.

“Oh, my parents listen to a lot of music at home. It’s quite normal for them to have music on when they are reading or when they are busy cooking. My dads also dance with each other on Friday nights, hell they dance with each other at the drop of a wand but often on Friday evenings they will dance and sing and have a big party at home with my uncles and the cousins. Draco and Neville as well as Charlie are used to having my dads start playing music and dancing randomly. My dads also love muggle rock and pop as well as some others, so we have a lot of various music in the house. My papa insisted that I can play an instrument, so I have a guitar in my trunk, and I go play the piano in Professor Princes' rooms on Sundays to stay in practice. Papa will not be happy if I stop learning an instrument. Draco has too as well.”

“Oh, so it isn’t something I missed out being home schooled it is something you learnt at home?” Theo asked as he settled in his bed. Scratching Liquorice behind their ears.

Hadrian smiled at Theo, “Yeah no, this is my parents like music, so I was taught how to play instruments and know the lyrics to a lot of songs, muggle or wixen in origin.”

“Are you going to try out for the choir?”

“I don’t think so, I know Draco and Neville are, but I have a lot to do already, and I want to have some time to read for fun. We don’t have to do everything together. If you want to try it out though, I can help you practice the song?”

Theo blushed deeply, “That would be really nice.”

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The duelling club was set up early the Saturday morning in the Great Hall. Students were divided by their skills according to Moody and Prince. Charlie and Bill were facing Harry, Neville and Draco. A few of their friends were laughing that they were paired with firsties instead of second and third years, but Bill and Charlie were worried. They knew how much training the three boys had gotten from their family.

“Right, some of you may have noticed that you are paired with younger students. It is either because the younger students have some talent for the subject, or they are very new and need a bit of help. Either way, we are trusting that you do not take the duels with younger students too lightly. Inexperience can be more dangerous than experience. Constant Vigilance is required. Junior students, Professor Pugh can’t be here, so he sent along his recommendations for your duelling levels. Professor Prince and I will be walking between all of you and helping. For today’s exercise, you need to get your opponent's wand from them. using any reasonable method and force.” Moody walked between the groups focussing on the older students while Severus was walking between the junior students.

“Professor Moody and I will give a brief demonstration of how to properly start a duel and an example of disarming. Neither of us is aiming to harm the other one, just get their wand.” Professor Prince said as he and Moody faced each other standing at opposite ends of the duelling area.

Both bowed to each other under the careful eye of Professor Flitwick. As quick as a flash the two of them were casting tripping jinxes and tickle jinxes at each other while maintaining their shields. Neither of them tried the traditional disarming spell on each other. Moody caused the ground in the duelling area to start shooting up in jiggered areas to trip Severus when it was clear he couldn’t disarm Severus with reasonable force in a demo for the kids. Severus refused to trip over that and shot an Incarcerous at Moody catching him off guard for a moment. It took a few more spells but Severus had Moody’s wand in his hand.

 “That was a marvellous demonstration of creative thinking from both of you. Severus, I am surprised that you don’t compete in Duelling tournaments.” Professor Flitwick said as Severus freed Moody and they returned the duelling ring to its original state. 

“Thank you, I don’t have the time with the children and my responsibilities, but I do keep in practice with my husband since he went back to working as a Hit Wixen and needed to upskill a bit after years of retirement.”

Moody laughed, “Yes, I thought some of those moves were very Black in style. The man thinks combat is a game, a game he is very good at. Will be interesting to see what these children will be capable of with some more creative combat tactics thrown.” He looked at the students, “Well don’t just stand there like goldfish, start duelling so we can see if anyone needs help or learnt anything.”

Hadrian, Draco and Neville threw hand signals at each other, and brief nods followed. Severus tapped Filius and indicated that he should watch as well. Hadrian and Bill did the formal nods followed by the rest of the group. The three smaller boys started strong flinging bat boogey hexes at Bill and Charlie that only Charlie blocked in time. Bill flung a decent tripping jinx when to the hall's surprise Neville ran a bit forward and dropped down casting a shield. His shield blocked the spells that Bill was casting at not only him but his two best friends. Hadrian grinned at Draco and the two of them slid in on Neville’s sides. From the right, Hadrian started casting the stick-fast Hex on both Bill and Charlie while they were ducking out of the range of Draco’s Tickling Jinx. Once both brothers were stuck to the ground, Draco and Hadrian cast floating charms on Bill and Charlie's wands while Neville cast a cheering charm on both of them so that they were both so happy to give up their wands.  The three boys got the wands and then released their spells on two of their favourite Weasleys.

“Merlin’s beard, where can I learn to fight like that too.” That was all Charlie said before he sat down on the floor. The fast spells had made him a bit dizzy.

Hadrian quickly rushed over to Charlie to check if he was okay while feeding him bits of chocolate. “Sorry Charlie, we didn’t mean to go hard on you guys we were going for quick, so the fight ends quickly not ruthless. Uncle Sirius and the dads have made things like these games since we were seven. Friends?”

Charlie pulled Hadrian in his arms and smiled down at him, “always.”

Chapter Text

Professor Pugh was exhausted after demonstrating a fighting stance with the first years, the class of Slytherins and Gryffindors before had nearly bought the man to tears. The heir of the house of Malfoy had clearly decided to take his revenge on the heiress on the house of Parkinson and clearly, they had it in for each other. He never saw anyone master hexes as quick as young Malfoy. The heiress had barely finished insulting Miss Granger before her own hair fluffed up and her nose resembled the snout of the dog that people kept comparing her to. What really hadn’t helped was Heir Malfoy refused to undo the spell until Pansy put on her big girl pants and apologised to the entire school for the shame that they had to witness her bring to her family. Professors Pugh and Prince were both worried that young Malfoy would declare Miss Parkinson undesirable. Between him and his twins, they wielded power in the House of Snakes, which would have severe consequences for her and her family.

“Mr Malfoy, yes what she said was completely unacceptable, but you shouldn’t be causing extra work for your father and the Wizengamot because you don’t like the girl.” Professor Pugh said while putting away the lesson plans for tomorrow that he had adjusted.

Draco eyed the young professor and sighed, “she should learn that her politics and views are outdated, and no one has time for that nonsense. She seems to forget that some of the most powerful Wixen were either halfbloods or muggleborns. We need to get to the point where your blood status doesn’t matter at all.”

Pugh nodded while the boy spoke, “Yes, that seems to be the way the neutral party in the Wizengamot is leading. Their lord Peverell isn’t shy about calling out the various old members with their outdated viewpoints. The reshaping of the school has allowed a lot more children to attend the school. Draco, if I may be so bold. Give the girl enough space to realise her mistakes. She isn’t going to listen to you, but she will notice that she isn’t making any friends if this continues. I hear her roommate has already asked for a transfer.”

Draco smiled at Professor Pugh, he had been a Slytherin and statements like this showed the man had played the house politics game very well when he had been at school. Draco couldn’t imagine how many hoops the man had had to jump through to teach DADA. “My uncle has been shaking up the Wizengamot a lot, of course, the house of Malfoy is very excited to be part of the future.”

“I didn’t realise that Lord Peverell was your uncle?”

“Yes, Uncle Charles is married to my mom’s cousin Uncle Regulus Black, so Hadrian Peverell-Black is my cousin. It also means that Professor Prince is my uncle as well as my godfather because he is married to my other uncle Heir Sirius Black but my Great-Grandfather has announced he is stepping down as a lord at Yule this year so Uncle Sirius will soon be Lord Black.”

Professor Pugh smiled at Draco, “Draco, why are you telling me all of this? I somehow doubt your family wants a stranger to know all the family secrets.”

Draco laughed and smiled at him, “oh that’s quite simple. You are a Slytherin, you need to know where the true power is coming from so that you can make informed decisions and not risk any students. My uncle Charles says never tickle a sleeping Dragon and the Houses Black and Malfoy are the only ones with Dragons. The dragon has been tickled so now we are watching what it will take for the dragon to calm down.”

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The rest of the time till the build-up till Samhain everything went smoothly. The children were in awe as they walked into the Great Hall for the feast that evening. The hall was decorated more in line with Halloween, but the children had all been guided through the Samhain festival before the feast and now the silly feast felt like a great way to cheer up children that saw relatives that had died during the war. The house-elves had outdone themselves and the children had all gotten a lovely starter of fruits and nuts. Each table had little fires as centre pieces that were reminiscent of the bonfires that they had been at earlier next to the black lake while led through the traditions. Teachers and older students assisted the younger students. Percy and Marcus had helped Hermione when she got overwhelmed.

They were all taken by surprise when Professor Pugh ran into the Great Hall during the feast. “Moody, Prince, there is a troll on the second corridor. I saw it on my patrol looking for the lost first year. I need some help please to take it down.”

Professor McGonagall stood up and declared loudly talking over Dumbledore that had been starting to say something idiotic about students being led to their dorms. “Students please remain seated, Professor Spout will be calling in the Aurors, a troll shouldn’t have managed to get into the grounds much less the school. The teachers not trained to catch a troll will stay back in the hall with the students and we will blockade the doors to keep you all safe. If a few seventh years are happy to assist with the safety spells that would be appreciated. I will arrange with the house elves that there will be beds made for everyone in the hall. I promise we will do everything to keep you all safe.”

Professors Moody and Prince were walking to the main doors while Professor Sprout was at the floo talking to Amelia Bones about a troll being let into the castle. Soon one of the hitwixen squads was stepping through the floo. Severus smiled softly when he saw Sirius in his Blood red uniform step through. He had joined the Hitwixen squads for emergencies a while back.

Soon the team of six went to where Professor Pugh saw the Troll. They could smell the troll and it wasn’t a pleasant smell. Sirius carefully pulled a piece of Parchment out of his robes and laid it on a table. “I think we should see what is going on around us before we rush in blindly. He tapped the parchment with his wand and said, “I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.” They all watched as the castle unveiled itself on the parchment. They could see as the troll was clearly making its way up the stairs to the corridor that the headmaster had declared was forbidden.

“I thought he had gotten rid of Fluffy?” Sirius asked.

Severus pinched the bridge of his nose, “Clearly, he lied to us all. Do I need to go fetch Charlie so he can keep that dog calm? Hagrid is at his cousin's wedding this week; he is only returning this coming Sunday.

Kingsley the Auror that was part of the hit squad with Sirius sighed, something told him he wasn’t going to like finding out what a Fluffy was and why they needed Charlie. “What is Fluffy and who is Charlie?”

Moody almost growled as he answered, “Fluffy is the grounds keepers’ Cerberus that should be protecting the perimeter of the school by the Forbidden Forest. It seems to still be in the corridor where the headmaster locked it up as a training exercise for students, but the school board had that stopped, clearly, he didn’t follow through with the order to have Fluffy returned to his original area. Charlie is Charlie Weasley, he has a talent for befriending weird and wonderful creatures, the next Scamander or one hell of a magi-zoologist healer in the making. The problem is that Charlie is only a third year, so it is irresponsible to ask him to guide Fluffy out to the forest, but it is the safest. We need to deal with the troll first. Kingsley can you ask Bones to prevent the headmaster from leaving. He should have gotten the Cerberus out of the castle ages ago.”

“We going to need to go check if the rest of his silly obstacle course was also taken down? Clearly, we can’t take the man at his word. Sirius can you let Regulus and Charles know as they are on the school governing body that we think the course is still there.”

It took the various defence masters less than an hour to capture the troll and have it port keyed back to the region he came from. This allowed them to carefully go to the area where Fluffy was being held and they all winced, none of them could get Fluffy to calm down even when they played music for him.

In the end, it was Severus that went to fetch Charlie and was surprised when he saw Narcissa Malfoy standing in the hall with a bunch of other healers. They had been called in out make sure all the children were calm.

“Narcissa, it might be useful if you came with me, please. We might not need your skills, but we also might need someone with your skillset. Charlie, come with me please.”

“Certainly Severus, l will grab my bag.” Narcissa couldn’t help but wonder what was going on when she followed Severus and Charlie Weasley out of the Great Hall.

By the time the odd little party got to the Forbidden Corridor, Regulus and Charles were there as well. Charles and Sirius were handing out protective gear for Professor Pugh, Moody, and Regulus and getting some ready for Narcissa and Severus.

“Charlie, come here lad. We going to need you to keep Fluffy calm and relaxed while we lead him out of the castle. The poor dog needs sunlight and exercise so we are willing to let him go back into the grounds behind the castle, but we will be relying on you and Professor Prince to check up on him and make sure he is truly happy. Now Charles is going to draw protective runes on your arms and then we going to put you in protective gear. Charles, you, Professor Moody and I are going to lead Fluffy back into the grounds okay. After that, you get to go back to dinner and as a reward, you keep the gear, okay?” Regulus crouched down slightly when talking to the redhead, his face relaxed into a fond smile, as he helped Charles get Charlie ready for the corridor.

By the time everyone was in various protective gear and understood what was to be done. Charlie had his fiddle back from the Gryffindor common rooms as well and they all watched in awe as the thirteen-year-old led the gargantuan Cerberus out of the room and down the corridor. Narcissa was definitely a few shades paler as she watched them lead the dog.

“Don’t, Charlie is the only option other than Hagrid that any of us trust to get that dog out of here and Hagrid is at his cousins' wedding this weekend so he couldn’t be here. Even Hagrid recommended that specific Weasley for the task.” Severus said to her watching as she went pale.

“He is thirteen years old, for Merlin’s sake, how can anyone expect a teenager, one that is barely a teenager at that to be responsible for moving that monster?” Narcissa hissed at him.

Sirius looked at his cousin, “Cissy, he is so good with that dog, he was offered a puppy and his parents are cool with him having one. We put that boy in more protective gear than he normally has on him when he comes to visit Fluffy. I know from Hadrian that Charlie often brings Fluffy snacks from the kitchen wearing his normal school uniform. We are being careful; the lad would have been fine leading Fluffy out of here without his fiddle, but every step helps. If he wasn’t here to help, we would have been in real trouble though I completely understand. If anything happened to Charlie Weasley, Hadrian would have our heads on a pike in front of the Manor as a warning to anyone else.”

Soon a very relaxed-looking Charles, Regulus and Moody appeared, Charlie had gone back into the great hall to eat dinner with everyone else. Charles and Sirius we both bouncing on the balls of their feet, the two were far too excited to see what Dumbledore had hidden in the corridor.

Kingsley sighed and looked at two of the highest-ranking crisis response wixen in the country that was as excited as if they were teenage boys about to go on a grand adventure.

“Regulus, how do you cope with them at home?” Kingsley asked as he and the rest of the party walked to the trapdoor.

Regulus laughed watching his brother and his husband peering down the darkness that was the hole in the ground. “Oh, I am younger than both of them, I was born used to Sirius, so Charles is normal to me. They have calmed down quite a lot since the twins were born. Having two babies that cry at any sudden noise got these two dunderheads to calm down quickly. So, I will be letting them have their fun tonight while we are out of the house.” He barely finished answering Kingsley when Charles winked at him and jumped down the uncovered hole of the trapdoor, closely followed by Sirius.

From down in the darkness Charles's deep voice echoed back up at them. “It’s perfectly fine to jump down, we landed on Devils snare, we can let everyone pass safely down it once everyone has jumped, just remember to lie still once you landed and you will be fine.”

Soon Moody, Kingsley, Narcissa, Regulus, Severus and Pugh had joined the other two down on the devil’s snare. Charles uses charms to slow down and guide everyone’s descent to the bottom.

“Now I know what happened to Pomona’s prized plant. She is going to be very happy but angry that we found it, well angrier about where we found it.” Moody said as they all slowly sunk down to the stone floor below.

As they walked, they could hear the fluttering of hundreds of wings, the sound got louder as they followed the sloping corridor deeper into the deeps of the castle. Eventually, they came into a room that was large and very well lit with ceilings that were so high it seemed to be a challenge to the lighting. The party stood in awe as they saw the various keys flying around the room. Some of the keys were lazy and others seemed to dart around the room as quick as a flash.

Narcissa walked over to the door and looked at the lock. It was a large silver lock with an intricate design. She and Regulus both examined the lock carefully before trying a few choice unlocking spells. When it was clear the door would only open once the key had been used. She and Regulus both having been Seekers at various stages of their school careers nodded at each other. They both expected the brooms available carefully before making their selections. Regulus was fairly sure his broom was the one he had used during his flying lessons as a student. He was thankful that they had upgraded the school brooms for the students.

The two seekers took into the air, and both flew lazy circles as they checked the various keys. Charles and Sirius both looked a little put out that there were only three brooms and all of them agreed the third broom was a death trap, it was quietly sparking and bucking as it was in the broom stand.

Narcissa suddenly started flying quickly after a key. Regulus did his best to stay out of her way but trail closely so that if something went wrong, he could assist. He doubted she needed his assistance; Cissy had been a formidable seeker at school. Only due to the war, hadn’t she gone professional. Soon she had the ornate silver key in her hand and flew gracefully down to where the door was.

They all stood closely behind her as she opened the door and shuffled quickly behind her into the next room as they heard the metallic sound of various keys flying full speed into the door.

The next room was a giant chessboard and at this Kingsley smiled excitedly, it was a fast but almost brutal match on the chessboard as they played. Moody and Sirius had been hurt and they were all thankful for Narcissa and Severus with the well-stocked medical healing bags that the two had on them.

“Kingsley, I didn’t know you were an avid chess player?” Professor Pugh said as they waited patiently for Narcissa to give the all-clear to keep going down the depths of the school.

Kingsley smiled at Pugh, he had met the younger man at a few talks in defence techniques and the man was kind and highly intelligent. “I used to play as a child a lot against my mother and then when I went to school, I played for the school team. I must say, this chess board was not set to easy mode.”

Pugh laughed softly as the rest of the group joined them.

Once again, they started walking down a corridor that clearly sloped downwards at a steady incline. Occasionally, Sirius would pull out his map and cast charms at it. Clearly adding this new area, he had never known about to the Marauders Map. They all waited for him to do so, agreeing that having the school mapped out and plottable was wonderful for school safety. As long as the map never fell into enemy hands.

Once they got to yet another giant wooden door, the heat coming from behind the door was almost unbearable.  Runes had been carved into the door and glowed red as the magic carved into them was clearly at work. Moody and Charles both spent some time studying the door and the sigh as they turned around and looked at the group was palpable.

“Good news everybody! The next room will definitely be warmer than the cold corridors that we have all been dealing with until now. The bad news is the one person at this school capable of dealing with the heat fairly well is currently at a wedding and the two people that might be able to deal on a similar level to that person are children and I am not letting my son or Charlie near that thing. So esteemed gentle wixen, we are dealing with a dragon, if I understood the runes on the door correctly it is a Hungarian Horntail.” Charles said with a sign after starting off dramatically.

Pugh looked at him, “is it Norberta? I thought Hagrid had sent her to the reserve in Romania?”

Charles looked at him, “you are most welcome to take a peek and confirm if it is Norberta, as long as you know some weird trick to dealing with it. Though I might need to know your given name before you open the door.”

“It's Linden Pugh, um not sure how to safely peek though,” Pugh answered them with a shy smile. He was still young, barely 25 years old. He had taken the junior teaching position after finishing his mastery at the University of Edinburgh.

Moody smiled at the young man, he had taken under his wing, “well now, how about we all flatten ourselves against the wall and maintain icing charms while the dragon blasts. There are enough of us that while the dragon is busy reheating, we should be able to safely stun the poor thing. We will have to follow up with the dragon reserve either in Scotland or in Romania about safely removing this dragon from the room. Can’t be good for the poor thing. It must be very boring.”

So, they lined the walls and used cooling and heat-protective charms on themselves and others before Kingsley cast a powerful unlocking spell at the door. None of them was sure if they were thankful that the door opened with an easy swing. Inside was a teenage-sized Hungarian Horntail and she looked very upset with her treatment.

“Yes, that is definitely Norberta, she should be in Romania,” Pugh said to the group right before a blueish flame roared past all of them down the corridor.

Almost as one, the various wixen in the corridor started slinging the various stunning spells. They all went for a mix of lower and high-strength spells to weaken it and give the higher-end spells time to work. Eventually, the dragon went down, all of them panting hard from the exhaustion of the spells that they needed to use. Narcissa’s hair was no longer neatly pulled back from her face and Regulus's bun was askew. They quickly crossed the room till they got to the corridor that led to the next room. During that time Narcissa was handing out energy protein bites. They all had a few moments to eat the snacks and to drink some water using Moody’s hipflask to spell water. They then proceeded to walk to the next room.

Severus sighed when he looked at the room, he recognised it immediately as a logic puzzle, he had had his seventh year do it two years ago during potions class while their potions simmered. It had been one of the classes where Dumbledore had done the class inspection. He sighed while he read through the logic puzzle and nodded when he noted it was exactly the one, he had given his students. Carefully he inspected the bottles, sighing in frustration at the choice of bottles that were all very elaborate and made it difficult for him to confirm the potions that were inside. After double-checking himself, he picked up the small bottle with a blue crystal stopper and nodded, “well now, this is the potion that will allow us to walk through the flames safely.”

One by one they all drank the potion that kept refilling itself after he put the bottle down. Eventually, soon they all walked through the flames into a large room with a single-standing mirror.

Now Moody was swearing like a man possessed by a swear wolf. “That bloody imbecile, how utterly bloody ridiculous that that mirror should be in the flaming sodden school grounds. I thought he had it destroyed after the Urquhart case two decades ago where Minerva’s ex-brother-in-law was involved. Pugh, go stand in front of the mirror and focus on the cute girl that works at Three Broomsticks and if you should go for it and ask her out.”

Pugh went bright red as he made little gasping sounds looking a bit like a surprised goldfish, “I haven’t been wondering if I should ask Anya out, she is just nice.”

“Kid I dare you to pull the other leg it has bells on, there are three new girls that started working at the Broomsticks and you only worried about one. Go on, go look in the mirror and think of the pretty Irish witch you are mooning over.” Moody answered him with an amused smile.

Pugh, now known to the group as Kid and Linden, straightened his back and with a bit of a flounce walked to the front of the mirror and let out a gasp. He swirled around and looked at Moody, “Is this true? Is this the future?”

Moody walked over to him and shook his head, “no Linden, the mirror shows you your heart’s deepest desire. I was hoping your deepest desire was pure enough that it would work on any enchantment Dumbledore had placed on the mirror.”

Linden Pugh looked slightly crestfallen and nodded before pulling a red gem out of his pocket. “Well after this I would like to go ask out Anya, hopefully, we can do something over the weekend or on my off evening.”

Sirius was swearing while he examined the stone, Regulus joined him and was soon muttering things while pulling a moleskin pouch out of his bag. “Who the hell stores the Philosophers stone in a bloody school. Well, I know who but how on earth did he get a hold of it and how do I send it back to the Flamels. I am going to have to take this into the office to see if Abbot can help me return it.”

Moody looked at Kingsley and Charles, “this mirror should have been destroyed more than twenty years ago. We clearly can not trust it to be destroyed by anyone other than ourselves. Kingsley, Charles can either of you cast fiendfyre?”

Kingsley shook his head, “not at the moment I am still recovering from magical exhaustion from a raid a week ago.”

Charles nodded grimly, “I can but let’s check for another way out first. I would rather not have to do that corridor again or be trapped in this room if something goes wrong.”

It was Narcissa and Severus that found the hidden staircase that had revolving stairs that took you up. She and Severus took the stairs to the top and came out in a corridor near the kitchens. Severus quickly sent off his Patronus that happily flew back to Sirius to let them know the stairs were safe to use. The crow Patronus headbutted Sirius before disappearing into the air.

Once everyone was at the staircase and almost everyone was on the staircase Charles took a deep breath and centred himself. He kept taking deep measured breaths for a few counts before casting the incantation to fiendfyre. Soon a dragon made of flames roared as it circled the mirror and set it alight. Charles stood and watched the dragon as the glass of the mirror melted and bubbled as it mixed with the pewter that made it reflective. The dragon continued to circle the remnants of the mirror until nothing was left other than a hint of smoke. He then cast a powerful scourify on the smoke marks on the floor before he closed and locked the door with the wards he used while at work for the ICW as a hitwixen and then took the stairs up to his friends and family. He smiled tiredly at the house-elf that had come out of the kitchen carrying coffee and tea for everyone before he leaned against his husband for support.

Chapter Text

The Great Hall was quiet as various students settled in for the night. The Aurors led by Madam Bones had locked the students into the hall and they had continued the feast as a post-Samhain ritual. The antechamber was used by older students that did the rituals later. The house-elves had been decorated with more commercial-style decorates for the feast, but the singing skeletons had been removed when it was announced that the students would be sleeping in the hall. The junior students had stared in amazement as Professors McGonagall and Flitwick had charmed the floors to be warm and transfigured napkins into camping-style mattresses. 

There had been a lot of excitement in the air while everyone had waited for news about what had happened. When Charlie had appeared wearing the protective gear from Hadrian’s family he had been stormed for questions. Now a reassured Hadrian that both his parents had been fine when Charlie had last seen them was coming down from all the sweet treats he had consumed, and the excitement of the day and he was using the older boy’s shoulder as a pillow. Around them, more and more of the firsties and second-year students were starting to drop like flies.

Professor McGonagall clapped her hands briefly to get people’s attention. “Good evening, everyone, thank you for bearing with us. Please remain in your seats till I have told you that you may move. First, through Third Years, there have been sleeping areas arranged for you near the teacher’s table. You are required to sleep there. Fourth and Fifth years, you will get the middle section and six and seventh years you are closest to the entrance hall. First years if you have older siblings in one of the other groups and you would rather sleep next to them than your friends, let either me, Professor Sprout or Professor Flitwick know. We will be in the hall all night and take turns being awake with the assistance of the other Professors and teachers so you all will be well looked after. The Aurors have assured me that they will be manning the doors till morning, or the threat has been neutralised. Even if the danger passes while you are all asleep, they will be here at least till morning. Now the first group, the house-elves will be sending you bedding now. In it, you should find a clean set of pyjamas and warm blankets and pillows for your beds. Please let me know in the highly unlikely chance that they missed sending anything to you.” the group watched as their bedrolls appeared before them.

There was a bit of noise as some of the group, the entire lot of Weasleys, the brothers of Mayhem and their Hermione and Theo all were set up in the corner. Soon Marcus Flint and Oliver Wood joined them as well. It seemed that once other students had seen people join the group in the corner, two girls with bedrolls under their arms appeared wearing almost identical pyjamas. Daphne with her pale blonde hair and Susan with her bright red hair stood at the edge of the group.

“It seems that you have far too many boys and not enough girls, you need more balance. In order to help with your balance problem, Daphne and I have decided we will grace you with our presence and share the box of chocolates that my aunt snuck me.” Susan grinned cheekily at them.

Bill who had gotten permission to stay with the younger years rather than his family over running the middle section chuckled at the little first year in her bright green pyjamas with flying unicorns on them. She and Daphne clearly bought their sleepwear where Hadrian got his. Hadrian was sitting next to Charlie in blue pyjamas with trains speeding around on the tracks on them. “Excellent point, we really do have too many boys, but my dads’ didn’t listen when we asked for baby sisters and instead, we got the twins. Now I think they won’t try again but we have a little cousin that is a girl coming next year, mind you, she plays a good game of quidditch and punches hard. Please join us. Would you two prefer nearer the wall or closer to the corridor?

Soon more chocolates were had while various students settled in for the night. Professor McGonagall smiled when she noticed the sheer number of Weasley jumpers and blankets the various students from First year to Seventh year had wrapped around themselves. Clearly, Molly was making sure that these students associated warmth and comfort with her products.

The hall had settled and almost everyone was asleep, a few Ravenclaws were dismayed when they couldn’t read further but soon everyone was settled. Minerva noticed when Amelia beckoned for her to join in the antechamber and Pomona took over Minerva’s patrolling duty seamlessly as the Deputy Headmistress left the hall. Inside the antechamber, she met with the very tired party that had returned from Dumbledore's odd maze he had built in the school.

“Well now, what did you all find?” She asked while settling down with a cup of strong tea. Smiling in thanks when Moody put a tot of whiskey in her tea. She settled back and listened to the accounting of the events of the evening and found herself bristling. The chess board she built to teach children how to play while getting some sunshine used to hurt people and guard a silly stone. Not only a Cerberus but a dragon? How in Merlin’s beard did Dumbledore get a Dragon onto the school grounds?

“I am going to need memories to verify that you all experienced the same things. We will also have to send in the Goblins to dismantle that disaster. Charles, can you contact the Dragon reserves and Sanctuaries to see if anyone is missing a dragon or wants a dragon?” Amelia asked after she blinked slowly for a few minutes processing what she heard. “Kingsley, we will be needing to press reckless endangerment charges against the headmaster. Minerva, how many children are in this school?”

Minerva who had been dealing with the paperwork could instantly answer, “there are currently 530 students enrolled in the school. More will be coming next year. There are between the holdings and the various small schools about forty thousand wixen students in total in the country. We are the most expensive wixen school in the country, so our attendance is much lower than some of the other schools. Also, we are the only boarding school, plenty of families aren’t sure about sending their children to boarding school and events like this make me understand their point.”

Regulus perked up, “wait, I can have Hadrian back home full time, he doesn’t need to stay in boarding? These long periods without seeing him are killing me.” Narcissa looked interested in this as well as Amelia, as her niece and brother lived with her and Christopher.

Charles smiled, “How about at the board meeting in two days, we bring up students getting to go home over weekends? The floo in the main corridor can be expanded to allow safe travel for the students. We agreed to send Hadrian here because of tradition and the experience, we need to give him wings but we can see make it so all parents can see their children more often and still have the experience of going through puberty at school, not at home.”

Minerva laughed softly, “Regulus, don’t make me forget to pretend that I don’t know that you have lunch with Hadrian in Severus' quarters twice a month on a Sunday. Though I do agree that it might be good for the students to go home over weekends and see their families. I know some of the boarding schools in other countries do it that way with great success. We have veered from the original topic. Amelia, why did you want to know about how many students there are?”

Amelia’s smile became scary, every man in that room that reported to her or had reported to her at some stage whimpered. “Well, it means that I can press five hundred and thirty charges of reckless child endangerment against him. yes, I know some of them are technically adults but they are still students and of schooling age so we will use that to our advantage. Where is the old coot, after all, I haven’t seen him all evening?”

“Five hundred and thirty counts, yes I do believe the ICW and the Wizengamot will not be able to look aside at the charges.” Narcissa's smile took a similar turn as Amelia’s. “I know quite a few members of the Wizengamot that would make sure the charges stick.”

Severus smiled, Sirius had fallen asleep with his head against his shoulder, “the headmaster is currently on tour with the English Quidditch team to help boost morale for the semi-finals against Brazil.”

Quite a few eyebrows were raised as various members of the school board, the ICW, and the Wizengamot all processed that the headmaster wasn’t at school to do his job much less guard his own maze.

Pugh suddenly asked the question that he had been dying to know since they had found the stone, “why would the stone be here? Surely there are safer places to guard the stone?”

“Well laddie, assuming that the stone is the real stone, Nicholas Flamel and Dumbledore have worked together in the past though from what I understand it was a rather tumultuous relationship, so I doubt he got a hold of the stone through honest means. The second is that I am sure this is still to do with his belief that Voldemort is out there waiting for the chance to come back.”

Regulus sighed once more, “I will verify at work if that is the real stone if it is, the DOM will make sure that it is returned to its rightful owner and that better care is taken to keep it safe and away from children. Sadly, on the note about Voldemort, Charles, myself and the rest of my family have good reason to believe that Voldemort is still out there as well. Does anyone know what a Horcrux is?”

Kingsley and Amelia started to both swear, due to their lines of work and studies they knew what it was. When it was clear that Moody, Pugh and McGonagall didn’t know what Horcruxes are. Regulus went into the shorter but accurate description. “We have recovered and destroyed a few but we are sure there are more. It seems that there are still at least two out there that we are trying to find. The Goblins are sure there is one in the castle but till we have someone reliable in charge of the wards they can’t track it. It would make sense that Dumbledore would try to lure Voldemort to capture it but what if the mad man had managed to succeed in getting to the stone?”

“I don’t think we can keep him on as the headmaster if this is what we can expect him to do. No, I think it’s time we acknowledge that the time of Dumbledore is over, and we need to force him into retirement. Now Professor McGonagall, would you be willing to be the new Principal of the school?” Charles asked, his voice quiet but everyone could clearly hear him.

“Why yes Charles, if the board approves, I will gladly step into the role of Principal.” Minnie answered him honestly, “if Severus agrees, to be vice-principal that is.”

Severus looked surprised for a few seconds before nodding, “are you sure you wouldn’t rather have Pomona or Flitwick, they both been Heads of Houses for very long times.”

“Exactly, neither of them is interested in more than what they have due to other interests. Severus we would need to get a second Potions Master in and see if any of the staff is happy to take over your Head of House duty? For you to have any semblance of a normal life you would need to Delegate. May I suggest that you only teach the Newts classes and maybe one first-year group.”

Narcissa looked at them and smiled, “I am happy to take over as the Head of Slytherin, I have been transferred here to help with the infirmary. One Mediwixen for 530 students is too few. Poppy and I have been discussing it so neither of us get overwhelmed.”

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Draco was not happy with his mother taking over as the Head of Slytherin, she had reinstated the etiquette classes as well as the formal dance classes and they were mandatory for all Slytherins even though the classes were hosted in the Great Hall. His mother had appearance inspections on a random day every two weeks and all the Slytherins were checked. The first time she saw a boy with black nail polish and eyeline, a lot had expected her to give them detention. Instead, she offered makeup classes to anyone who had questions. What helped Draco feel not as singled out as the person that’s mom was changing the house of Slytherin, was Hadrian kept calling her Auntie Cissy in the corridors when he walked past her. He and all their friendship group were also attending the etiquette classes and the dance classes. After a few moments of confusion about how Draco could dance with Fred and George at the same time, Fabian had been called in to help his sons and their little Dragon. There had been tears with a previous disastrous attempt.

Hadrian was yet again in his dancing shoes, his papa had insisted on buying him dancing shoes, in the Great Hall watching Auntie Cissy demonstrate the steps for the Foxtrot. Charlie was standing next to him and concentrating very hard too. Daphne and Susan were standing next to Charlie and studying the moves.

“Okay, so which one of us is Fred Astaire and which one is going to be Ginger Rogers?” Susan asked Daphne.

“I have no idea what you are talking about Susan.” Daphne looked at her puzzled.

“Fred Astaire is considered the greatest dancer of all time, but it was actually Ginger Rogers since she did everything he did backwards and in heels.” Hadrian and Susan said at the same time, sharing a silly smile. “Have you seen Top Hat? Like holy smokes, I hope that Auntie Cissy doesn’t expect us to be able to dance like that by our Seventh year.”

Susan let out a delighted sound, “You have also watched the movies! Top Hat is so good, but I love Shall we Dance. Hadrian with the sword fighting and duelling, I would think the dancing would help.”

Hadrian blushed slightly, the tips of his ears turning pink, “yeah, the dancing helps but jeez that's just a whole new level. I just like dancing with Charlie and my friends. Helping me in duelling is a plus, my papa is so happy that I am now learning how to dance properly. He and Dad dance together a lot and it always looks fun and very impressive at parties even though papa doesn’t wear heels going backwards.”

Narcissa walked between the students and watched as Charlie and Hadrian paired up as well as Susan and Daphne. “Your fathers are wonderful dancers; all the ballroom classes you grandmothers insisted on paid off. Though they do dance almost every style while. Hadrian adjust your grip a bit firmer around Charlie’s waist, remember he is relying on you to be his eyes and guide him around the room. Charlie dear stop looking at your feet, that’s how you two keep stepping on each other’s feet. Susan, same advice, adjust your grip, don’t be afraid to get a firm grip, especially in the beginning. Daphne, we need to get you dancing heels, you will feel more stable going backwards in them.”

Hermione was sitting next to Neville watching the dancers wistfully. Narcissa saw the two of them. “Now dears why are you two sitting like wallflowers?”

Hermione looked with fear at Narcissa, while Neville answered, “Hermione gets overwhelmed learning the dances where everyone else is in bumping distance, so we watch here and then practice early in the morning before breakfast.”

Narcissa nodded, “Hermione would you like me to put the same protective spells on you that I have on Oliver Wood who is dancing with Angelina? Would it be okay to attempt that? I would love to see the two of you dance with all your friends.”

Soon all the students were practising the foxtrot very carefully and none of them noticed Lucius walking into the hall to see his wife and son. He smiled when he wrapped an arm around her waist, “Hello dear, I didn’t expect the foxtrot to be on the curriculum for quite some time.”

Narcissa smiled at him, “I don’t expect them to be good, but it helps the older students.”

Lucious looked around and smiled when he saw how the standard of grooming had gone up, even the wixen that had more goth, punk or emo aesthetics were polished in their grunge. “Well dear, presentation-wise if you continue like this; parents would be reconsidering why they send their children to Beauxbatons instead of Hogwarts. Though doubt we will get any French students.”

Narcissa laughed and took his hand in hers, smoothly guiding them both into the dance positions. “Dance with me?” by the time the dance period was over, none of the students could doubt that the older Malfoys were excellent dancers. Hermione and Neville had a wonderful time dancing with each other in the hall after Narcissa had charmed Hermione.

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Bill sighed while in class, transfiguration was being very difficult once again for no reason. He was much preferring ancient runes, spell crafting and athermancy but he needed an Outstanding on his N.E.W.T.s for transfiguration so he would suffer through. The young teacher that taught the class just didn’t have the same level of skill that Professor McGonagall had and often had to stop and double-check her notes. He hoped that teacher got more confident with the class as she kept teaching.

“Right, right everyone this is our last class before Yule break. We will be making an interesting box to wrap a present in. for this class each of you will get an ice mouse and we will be turning them into snuff boxes. You will get points for how little of the mouse is remaining when you have finished, the pattern and if you have managed to keep the icy feel of the mouse. Each of you will get an ice mouse that you can eat after the lesson. Rather don’t eat the transfigured mice even after they turned back.”

Cassius Warrington that sat next to Bill sighed, “Seriously, who am I giving a snuff box to my great grandmother? Why could we not learn something from this century.”

Bill chuckled at a smirking Warrington, “well I can maybe give it to my aunt Muriel.”

“Dowager Muriel Prewet?”

Bill nodded while concentrating on creating his box.

Cassius could barely contain his shudder. “I met her when I was introduced to the Wizengamot, she is terrifying. My condolences that she is family.”

Bill laughed while he kept poking his mouse. “Yeah, my dads had fun getting their seats back from her.”

Cassius was also focussing on his snuff-box, “how do the titles in your family work?”

Bill grinned when he looked up at Cassius after the ear turned into a lid. “Weasley goes to the eldest and Prewet either goes to the next in line or in the case of magical twins, magical twins get the seat automatically. So, Charlie would have been Heir Prewet still, but the twins were born. I think Charlie is happy about this. He is more interested in animals.”

“That and Hadrian Peverell-Black, though that kid might have enough titles that if each one of his children could get more than one title.”

Bill grinned and then sighed when his box twitched. “This is impossible. How on earth can anyone do this?”

Cassius sighed, “it’s because you keep thinking it’s a real mouse, its flavoured ice in a mouse shape. Transfigure the ice, not the mouse.”

Bill looked down at his mouse and then nodded before sighing and retried the transfiguration, when it worked, he let out an excited squeak. “Can you sit next to me every time?”

 Cassius laughed, “sure, as long as you help me in Runes? Deal?”

“Deal!”

Chapter Text

Regulus sighed as he got ready for work that morning. It was near the end of term and neither of them could wait for Hadrian to be back home. The year had gone past rather quickly once they had installed McGonagall as the interim Principal while Dumbledore was under investigation by the Auroras. Though now the wait for their son to come home was starting to get to him and he suspected Charles too. He was thankful that the school would only be semi-boarding from next term, the kids could go home every weekend.  

He carefully finished tying his tie, a pale blue one that Hadrian had seen in a shop one day and bought for him as a present on a whim because it would pretty with his grey eyes. His son was a lot like Charles in that regard, if they saw something that they thought you would like they would get it for you if they could. Displays of affection were common with them, they didn’t try and buy your love, but they did do their best so that you knew that you were loved and adored. Physical reminders of affection were a thing the Perceval men understood and did naturally.

He walked down to the kitchen and sat in the breakfast nook and smiled at his brother and Remus, they were sorting their fussy children down, the twins were a handful, and their toddler son Alfie was just as much a handful as the twins. He smiled as Charles put a cup of coffee down in front of him and kissed his cheek softly.

“So got a lot to do today?” Charles asked as he slowly straightened out the newspaper. Kreacher hadn’t been feeling well this morning, so he had taken over breakfast while the other elves took Kreacher to the healer for a check-up. It had been a small fight trying to get Kreacher to see the elf healer but in the end, Doxit had managed to convince Kreacher to go to the healer. The house would still be standing when they got back.

Regulus nodded, “Yes Professor Flamel is coming in today so we can inspect the stone and figure out if it is the actual philosophers stone and how it landed up with Dumbledore at the school and not their vault in their manor, they swear there was never a version of it by them at Gringotts. You, got anything you need to do today?”

Charles nodded, “yes, we are going over the dark creature’s act, with limits on employment and education for werewolves, vampires and other creatures similar to them.  With the invention of blood replenishment potions and wolfsbane, there is no reason why anyone has anything to fear about the shop clerk or banker being a creature. So, we are hoping to change the employment laws. It is time for us to start modernizing.”

Regulus smiled at Charles, Charles worked for the British Military as the head of Wixen Defence and Security, he reported directly to the Queen, as well as Madam Bones, and he ignored both the minister of Magic and the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, he only listened to those two women and the tightening of the Magical secrecy act and bringing in and adapting muggle technology fell under his jurisdiction. Young muggle born, often wanted things that reminded them of their homes but didn’t understand the impact of their actions and the statute of secrecy. Charles and his team worked hard on ways to hide magic from the public while also keeping the Wixen up to date with what was happening in the Wixen world. He had some very young genius wixen working on ways to keep security leaks under control. While all-out acts of war and rebellion also fell under Charles's jurisdiction the keeping of magic secret was his biggest priority.

Sirius smiled up at his brother, “Have you all worked out how to implement the spell to keep Wixen off of Muggle cameras and technology yet?”

Regulus nodded, “Yes soon no more Wixen will show on security cameras and any technology that records our movements. We will be implementing the spells and wards soon, the team is still busy putting the last of the anchor ward points in place then we will have entire England, Scotland, Wales as well as the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland covered. It was easier to ask permission to include the Republic of Ireland than to figure out how to avoid their boundaries. France and much of mainland Europe will be setting similar spells and wards in place soon. This way children with phones won’t give away our secrets since muggle technology won’t be able to show any pictures of us.”

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The corridors to the Department of Mysteries were dark but the offices and labs were well lit. Regulus was chatting to his boss, Ms Abbott while both got tea. Regulus was waiting for Professor Flamel to arrive so that they can inspect the philosopher’s stone together.

There was a quiet buzz as a tall redheaded woman walked down the corridor to his office. She was wearing a simple pale cream suit. Her smile was soft and genuine and Regulus realised how much power she controlled.

“Hello, I am looking for Regulus Black, I am his ten o’clock appointment.” her voice was gentle, but it was clear she would take no notice.

Regulus nodded softly before holding his hand out in a handshake, “hello, I am Regulus Black, thank you for taking the time to see me. Please follow me so that I can show you the item in question, would you like something to drink?”

“Green tea if it is available.”

Regulus noted that Professor Nicola Flamel was nothing like he expected, he had firstly expected a man but had been informed that Nicolaus Flamel had identified as female since she was five and her family had helped her transition, she had been female well over six hundred years. He was very thankful that it stated this in the file he had been handed by Madam Abbott when he had bought the stone in. He still didn’t understand why she was misgendered for over six centuries.

Inside the boardroom, he and Madam Abbott got the stone ready while the house elf in charge of the department kitchen presented them with their drinks. He noticed the slightly bemused look on Flamel's face when he thanked the house elf but he had been thanking elves since he was a small boy and he wasn’t going to start now. If his father had been nicer to the family elves, they maybe wouldn’t have looked aside when his mother poisoned his father. He made damn well sure all elves that worked for him were treated with the utmost respect and if they wanted compensation then he would be happy to pony up and pay them for their work.  

While everyone had their drinks whether it was coffee or tea Regulus bought Nicola up to date, he had felt quite honoured when she gave him permission to use her first name to address him, stating that she had been friends with his great-great-grandmother, Ursula. He slowly bought her up to date with what happened and how they had found the stone and honestly admitted they had no idea if it was the real stone.

“It isn’t, it is a copy that Albus tried to make when he was my student, he never truly understood alchemy in particular the stone no matter how badly he wanted to make one as a young man. The stone looks real enough, almost an exact replica of the one he got to study but other than helping cure a common head cold the stone is quite useless.

I do believe the Vault it was reportedly stolen from was the vault I helped him set up as a young man. While I am not sure who he was trying to lure with this stone, I can take a few educated guesses. Tell me what is happening at the school currently?”

Regulus sighed softly in relief though felt him bristle almost in anger, why to go to all the trouble to plant a fake at the school, endangering so many children. “Minerva McGonagall is currently acting Principal; we have dropped the outdated use of Headmaster and Headmistress for a more gender-neutral one. We are trying to reintroduce more subjects from next year, we have spent the last six years, updating the library and restoring the books, fixing the wards, and removing curses that should have been removed years ago. We are also updating the school curriculum and have added muggle subjects to the school as well. I am not entirely sure why we didn’t have Languages, Maths and business subjects as part of the courses since so many of the students need it, we even added the sciences and more art subjects, so we are hoping that more well-rounded educated students graduate.” Regulus smiled at Nicola.

“Wonderful, I never understood why we didn’t teach the students how to write well and think critically. How is the house rivalry going, is it still enemies from the get-go according to a hat?” Nicola asked before smiling as she sipped the matcha latte that an elf had bought her.

“It is now mostly just for when the students are partaking in a competitive sport but from next term, we will be competing in the European school sports league so hopefully that will bring the remaining tension down quite a bit. The students now mostly see the houses as where they sleep and a point of contact if they need anything, we have increased the staff and are looking at more full-time heads of houses rather than it being a teacher at some point. May I ask why you are asking about the school?”

“My wife is bored again and considering going back to teaching, we heard that Binns has stopped teaching so Pernelle or Nelle as she prefers to be called is interested in the position. I am trying to see if it would be a good fit for her as she was very frustrated the last time, she taught there with how the school still was ridiculously outdated compared to modern life.”

Regulus grinned, “well we are still working on it, but the school had come a long way the last few years, my son is in the school, and we want the best for him so my husband and I are a bit pushy on the board. My cousin as well but she was always good at getting what she wanted.”

Regulus got home that night feeling lighter, he had been shown how to spot a fake stone and destroy it safely he had also been offered the chance to study alchemy and he and his boss had thought that would be a great idea. So starting in two weeks he would spend the day with Nicola learning. He and Charles had gone out for dinner to celebrate the new chance that had come to Regulus.

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Charlie was sitting next to Bill at the end-of-term feast, and his cousin was sitting across from him. for the first time in a long time the tables were again the long lines that they had traditionally been, and the students sat by their Houses. Although quidditch had gone well this year for the Gryffindors with some of the fights and lack of dedication to schoolwork, they weren’t going to win the house cup this year. the lions had sat through a long discussion with their new Head of House, Professor Lupin this morning while he had explained where the wheels had fallen off of the bus and how he would be implementing changes next year to help his cubs. Professor Lupin would be teaching estate management from next year to the students that needed it and spend the rest of his time with his husbands and their three children.

Charlie watched with glowing pride when house Slytherin walked into the Great Hall, they had won fair and square this year much to everyone’s astonishment with the twins being in the house, but Draco somehow kept them out of the worst trouble. Once the Slytherins who had all been organised according to year and status within the house got to their seats they saluted the other houses by clasping their elbows with their left hand and doing a small bow then almost as if one they saluted their current House with a deeper bow and then turned to the Principal and Deputy Principal and did low bows to them. they only stopped bowing when Professor Prince bowed back at them in acknowledgement of their respect.

“Bill, that looked really cool, we need to get something like that going for our spirit things and to build order in the house,” Charlie whispered.

Oliver who had also heard what Charlie said, nodded, “yes, we definitely need to start something like that. Maybe professor Lupin has ideas for us?”

“Good evening students, to the Slytherins thank you for that delightful display of unity and respect. I had quite forgotten that you had traditions in-house for special occasions. that bought me back to my days as a student here when the Slytherins displayed their traditions more openly. I can only hope that we will start seeing the other houses' traditions on sports days as well as on other occasions. Sharing our house traditions allows the whole school to celebrate with us, for too long have we hidden the beauty of what makes our houses unique. Now that we are more united, we can start to celebrate the differences rather than fear what we do not know or understand.

As we know the Quidditch cup was won by Slytherin this year in a daring display of flying. We can only hope that the calibre of flying displayed by all the houses this year will follow us in good stead next year when we start competing against other schools. I know our first match will be against the Ireland Institute of Celtic Magic. They are tough opponents and I have been informed the school senior team that will be competing has already been chosen and will be training over the summer. To those competing on behalf of Hogwarts or training for sports and cultural activities over the holidays, know that we as a school are very grateful for your efforts and dedication.

Before we can start the feast in earnest on the food that the house elves have prepared for us, I have a few announcements. The house elves would like to thank everyone who donated fabric and money and in particular socks to their elf orphan drive. They assure me quite a lot of baby elves will be able to stay warm and happy this coming year as well as go to their schools.” at that McGonagall beamed fondly at her students. “Lastly, we have winners of the House cup to announce this year. to Slytherin for the first time in six years, congratulations on your win, it is well deserved, and we are all aware of how hard you all worked.”

Behind Charlie from where the Ravenclaws were seated between the Slytherins and the Gryffindors, the Ravenclaws started stomping their feet. Every fourth stomp they would slap their thighs. They did this three times before bowing to the startled Slytherins and then sat down.

“Wait the Ravenclaws also have cool secret handshakes that we didn’t know about? How is that fair?” Charlie wailed at his brother.

The Gryffindor and Hufflepuffs just stood and clapped for the now blushing Slytherins. Charlie couldn’t help but notice the way the prefects were looking at Professor Lupin, he just smiled and nodded indicating that he understood that his house wanted traditions too.

After dinner, the various Weasleys and their friends met up for brief hugs and congratulations. Various holiday plans had already been made. Hermione had been surprised when her parents had informed her that Arthur had arrived and had them connected to the floo network as well as had gotten them an owl. Two days later Charles had arrived and warded their house for them. he had already arranged to teach Hermione how to recharge the ward stones to keep her parents safe during term while she was gone. Her parents were also given emergency portkeys and signals for help in case something happened that was beyond their reckoning.

As they were leaving the hall Professor Lupin called out to Charlie, “Charlie a word if you please.”

Charlie nodded and walked over to Professor Lupin who was with Professor Prince and McGonagall. “Certainly professor, what can I assist you with?”

Remus smiled at his cub, who was not only in his house, but he was genuinely fond of. “Charlie, we were hoping that you would do us the honour of being the seeker for the senior quidditch team. We debated only asking you next term when you are in your fourth year, but we would rather that you have the chance to practice with the team during the holidays.”

Charlie couldn’t help the beam that broke out over his face. “I would be delighted, sir. Thank you for the honour professors.”

Chapter Text

Hadrian was lying on the picnic blanket with his head pillowed on his dad’s lap. Charles was raking his fingers through his son’s hair while watching with fondness as Reggie was playing with Alfie. The twins were having a special bonding day with their dads, so Alfie was with his uncles and cousin for the day. Since it was a wonderfully warm day in the Highlands the family had decided to have a picnic. Reggie was helping Alfie keep his balance on the toddler broom. Both Reggie and Alfie had huge grins on their faces, for a brief moment Charles felt guilty that he would never be able to give Reggie another biological child, but Sirius was happy to share his children with his brother.

“Dad, did I tell you that Charlie is now on the Gryffindor quidditch team?” Hadrian asked, his voice still high. Charles was briefly happy that his son hadn’t started puberty yet, for this holiday at least he could pretend that Hadrian was still his little boy and not facing manhood yet. Though he was aware that was changing soon.

“No, though I heard from Remy. He must be very excited about being able to join the team, Gryffindor has always taken it very seriously.” Charles replied.

Hadrian smiled up at his dad, “yeah, he has already started practising and uncle Fabián has put him on an athlete’s diet so that he can build the right type of muscle. Last I heard he and Bill are now running and swimming with Uncle Gideon. Do you think I should do that too since I want to try out for the Ravenclaw team?”

“You are already on an advanced athletes’ diet with all the sports that you do and the combat training, so nope, eat your sweets and have the snacks that get snuck to you by Doxit. It is all worked out already, with the sports and the combat training from a fitness perspective you are already doing more than enough for your age. However, both your pa and I will be happy to spend more time training you in quidditch if you want more flying training. Hadrian also remember that Charlie is two years older than you and in the terms of puberty that is a lot. You will catch up at some point.”

Hadrian smiled up at his dad, “Will he always be taller than me?”

Charles laughed softly, “Your pa was taller than me till I was around seventeen. Honestly, it wasn’t a big deal if he was always taller than me. Don’t let things like height, weight and size be definers of who you are, you can’t do much about genetics but rather focus on the things that you are good at and that brings you joy, as definers of your personality. I bet you Charlie has never once thought, you know what would make Hadrian an even better friend. Him being taller than me.”

Reggie dropped down next to them on the picnic blanket. Alfie was fast asleep in his arms. “Is this a serious private conversation or can other people join?”

Hadrian sat up briefly to smile at his pa before getting comfortable again, “no, anyone can join in, dad is making me see that I was being an angsty worm for no reason.”

Reggie looked at Charles, “Oh?”

Charles wanted to laugh at Hadrian’s choice of wording but also wasn’t impressed with how his husband was now concerned about how he was talking to their son. “I didn’t use the words angsty worm, he was being a little insecure about his height and all the extra training that Charlie is now doing for quidditch. I reassured him that he was doing everything right for his age and not to worry about things he can’t change like his height but rather focus on the things he is good at and enjoys.”

The look that Reggie sent him when Hadrian confirmed that Charles hadn’t been an example of toxic masculinity but rather been a supportive and loving father made Charles's cheeks heat up. Charles understood, Walburga had ruled her sons and husband with an iron fist, and Orion had done his best to look after his boys, but they had been raised in a fairly toxic environment, it was only at Orion’s death that the extent of how many mind controlling potions he had been under had been discovered.

“Pa, dad said that you both could help coach me in quidditch if I wanted to get better for tryouts this coming season?”

Reggie smiled at his son while he helped himself to a scone with strawberry jam and clotted cream, “sure Hadrian, we can start going over drills and moves tomorrow. Your dad was an exceptional chaser, I played seeker and Padfoot was a beater. Any idea what position you would like to try out for?”

Hadrian looked at both his dads looking a little lost. “Why don’t we just start at broom skills and fitness and then figure it out from there? Do you think Neville and Draco would like to come over for flying training?”

“Draco definitely, Neville I don’t think so. He always seems like he has struck roots into the ground.”

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 Draco was lying on the floor of Hadrian's bedroom, he was so sore and stiff he wasn’t sure if he could sit up much less if he could go another round on his broom. Hadrian was lying next to Draco on the ground, the two cousins who had thought that they had been fit were surprised at how brutal training was with their family. Draco had been surprised when his mother and Uncle Sirius had joined in on their training. Draco had mentioned he wanted to be a seeker and suddenly Uncle Reggie and his mom had gotten a terrifying gleam in their eyes. Hadrian and Draco who were similar in size had both been put through their paces in exercises designed for chasers, seekers, beaters and even some keeper exercises. “Remind me again why we are doing this. I swear sword training hurt less.”

Hadrian sighed softly before answering Draco, “twins are trying out as beaters for Slytherin, you want to be on the team with them? Charlie is on Gryffindor; you don’t want him to beat you at any sport. I want to play quidditch because I like flying and think it will be fun to get to know more people.”

“You really are a social butterfly, also don’t pretend that you aren’t also very competitive. Seriously you do more after-school activities than all of us. Can you imagine what your marks would be if you channelled all that energy into just your schoolwork?”

Hadrian smiled at his cousin, “I am already at the top of the class, this way you and Hermione still have a chance at beating me.”

Draco nodded before weakly chucking a pillow at his cousin, “How is Theo doing btw? I know some people weren’t too happy with him sharing a room with you. They seem to think since his dad was a death eater, he shouldn’t be allowed to share a room with Lord Peverell's heir.”

“Theo is a great roommate; I sincerely have no idea why people are bothered by your parents were a death eater thing. It is like they forget that roughly half of my family was. Granted they were either spies or defected quite soon after taking the vows but still.”

“I like Theo, he is cool, he gets along so well with most of our friends that I forget we haven’t known him for years.”

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Charlie was running through the gardens as fast as his two legs could carry him, behind him, his newest puppy was chasing him. Fabian was sitting with his head resting against Arthur’s shoulder as they watched their son joyfully giggling while a small Cerberus puppy was chasing after him. Charlie had picked the runt of the litter; he had named her Queenie and so far, the pup had followed him most loyally. Charlie was by far their quietest child, but he also had such a calming presence that people always knew when he was in the room. Small children and animals seemed to find him whenever they needed comfort. Most people assumed it would be Percy that was the quietest, but Percy would chat your ear off about anything he found interesting as he read his books or learnt something new. Fabian was sure that his middle child would change the world by just being his studious but passionate self. It was Charlie that cared about animals and flying which people sometimes forgot about. Fabian was so glad for Hadrian and his family that put value in the loyalty and quiet comforting presence that was Charles Aidan Weasley.

Bill came out to the patio handed them all a cuppa and then sat down on the chair closest to his father's. “I have a question.”

Fabian looked at his eldest, “do you need me to get Gideon as well for this conversation or is just you Dad and I enough?”

Bill looked at his pa and his dad, smiling softly, “the two of you should do fine but if you want to discuss it with him then that’s fine. If he has an option, he is welcome to share it with me as well.”

Arthur smiled at his eldest, “so what is it you wanted to talk to us about William?”

“I am turning fifteen in a few months and well, there is someone that I like. Just I don’t know how to deal with either situation of my name being on his arm or not. He isn’t exactly what I think any of you would approve of normally, but I really like him.” Bill said all this really fast and stared down at his cup of tea.

Fabian nodded and looked at his son, “oh sweetheart. Feelings can be dreadful just before you turn fifteen and it is only July now, you have the wait till November for your birthday before finding out. Does he turn fifteen before you?”

At Bill's nod, Arthur smiled softly and looked at his son, “Bill, we raised you well. You know that a mark on your arm isn’t the be-all and end-all. A lot of people don’t marry their soulmates because they are instead just soul mates, as in destined best friends. If you and this boy genuinely care about each other who cares about what is written on your arm? Do you know if he feels the same about you?”

“He has been writing every day that we have been on holiday. His parents were death eaters. He knows we don’t support those views and has been making an effort to see where we come from. I don’t think he will ever be a huge supporter of Dumbledore, but he respects Lord Charles. I must be honest and say I respect Lord Charles more as well and not just because it is clear he is a good person. His politics makes more sense to me than Dumbledore’s and his strict views on the light. I think Cassis is either a Prince of Slytherin or he may have just become king. I know we have always been Gryffindor, but the twins aren’t and they like and respect Cassis.” Bill answered them, his emotions clear on his face.

Fabian stood up and pulled his eldest son in his arms. “Bill, it sounds as if you have made up your mind already about the boy. If the war comes, all I hope for all of you is that you stay neutral and safe. No one wants you or anyone your age to fight in this coming war. If Cassis treats you with respect and your family with respect, none of us can ask for more.”

“I don’t want any of you to fight in this war again. We just got you and pa back.” Bill mumbled into Fabian’s neck.

Charlie came up the stairs with the beloved oversized puppy that was lagging behind him from being played to exhaustion. “If there is going to be another war then we shouldn’t be so willing to die again. I would rather we have a proper plan and that we protect the little ones. I know Hadrian and his family are going to be involved in the war and I will stand by him, but I won’t be another soldier for Dumbledore, too many of our houses have nearly been wiped out by his approach to the last two wars.”

Fabian looked at his second eldest in surprise, “I see that you have thought about this Charlie. It is clear that we as a family have moved on from the days of following Dumbledore. I will contact Charles and find out how we can be involved in what they planned. I think this time we should use our skills better than just fighting between us being healers and inventors, I am sure we can be involved without being on the front lines if at all necessary. Hopefully, none of us needs to face a rising Dark Wizard or two for our and our great grandchildren’s lifetimes.”

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On the 3^rd of August, the Wizengamot was in turmoil, Lords Malfoy and Peverell had just ripped the proverbial carpet out from under the feet of the pure-blooded lords and ladies that still had outdated views on blood status.

“Members of the court, I put it to you that while magic is a blessing that Lady Magic has blessed a few muggle-borns with, quite a few of the current muggle-borns are in fact dependents from our houses. We have been offering children of all blood statuses free inheritance tests through Gringotts as part of their thirteenth birthday. So far, we have uncovered heirs to thirteen thought to be extinct bloodlines and members of families facing extinction as well. From the tests, we have found that many of these children come from either one or two squib lines. By abandoning our children that do not show magic talent we are dooming our own futures. We need to embrace those that are new blood. Since the sending of invites to primary school for all wixen children, more and more of the complaints against muggleborns are irrelevant. These children have been a part of our world since the age of five, they understand our customs and our religions and many of them and their families are embracing our ways.” Lucius Malfoy said to the Wizengamot at large but looking at those that had been Death Eaters with him.

Lord Ogden looked at Lucius, “Young man, are you sure of your facts, your father will be rolling in his grave if he found out you were making up facts to support your new thoughts. If you are sure then I am willing to listen to a Malfoy and I know a few more of us will too.”

Lucius nodded to the old Knight, “My father might not be happy with what I have proven but under no situation can he fault the research and evidence that supports my theory. While there are a few muggleborns that have no ties to the old families, a good thirty percent of them have ties back to old houses. I myself have found three descents of the Malfoy family; this gives hope that the curse on us limiting our numbers is busy breaking. I am proud to say two of them are strong enough magically speaking to attend Hogwarts and that they are brothers. The other one is attending one of the academy schools. The Malfoys will pay for the education of any muggleborns that can prove with certificates from Gringotts for their education. I know the House of Peverell as well as the House of Black has pledged similar.” The noise as Lucius sat down was a roar as the various Wixen in the Parliament processed what he said.

Lord Ogden looked at the two men, “Well know laddies, how does one go to find out if any members of your house have been found? I know that I too pledge that House Ogden will pay the schooling of any muggleborns that are found. I must however say that testing from thirteen on seems much too late for us to truly help those children that could and should be part of our families.”

Here Charles stood up to answer, “Lord Ogden, we agree with you which is why we are bringing it up to the Wizengamot, without this being part of the tests we go on all children before they start Primary or Prep school, we might not catch children before they fall through the cracks. Gringotts will gladly come to do the tests on the day of enrolment for Primary school children at a steeply discounted rate to the Ministry of Magic. By testing all the children, none of the children will be singled out and unless a child is a pureblood of the Noble houses, they might not know their family history. So many families went into hiding during the rise of Grindelwald and then with Voldemort, many of us may have cousins or even lost grandchildren walking around school with no idea who they are related to because they are a half-blood or muggle raised. This project will help all children as well as quite a few families. We can have every school child tested by the beginning of next year's summer school holidays if we start the testing in September, after that it is simple enough to arrange to test as children enrol in school. Before anyone suggests that it will help selected children, by knowing how magic works and understanding bloodlines, we can find new ways to keep our world safe. For too long many families have rejected their Squibs but there are a lot of jobs in our world that they are well suited to do and they can build successful careers for themselves if we let go of some of our outdated ideals. Many shops insist on having Hogwarts graduates working in them, these are our strongest children magically and while I see nothing wrong with our children working for extra pocket money. The children from the academies as well as squibs are much better suited to these positions. There are no reasons for accountants, bookkeepers, barristers and shopkeepers to name a few professions not to be done by the graduates of the academies. On that note, the academies should be accepting the squibs for higher education. They offer many subjects that no need for magic is needed in order to do well at the subject.”

Lady Lestrange stood up, “those are highly skilled careers that you mentioned. How can you suggest that a nonelite do them much less a squib?”

Charles smiled at her, “simple my dear lady because those are careers quite a few of the squibs in the muggle world are in and are highly successful in. the current head of the Muggle Police Department, their version of the Aurors is a squib, her wife that is also a squib is a muggle healer. We need to stop thinking of people without strong cores or no cores as unable to do anything worthwhile with their lives. As a society, we need to acknowledge that power and intelligence aren’t the same things and we have quite a few professions in our lives whether it is in the Ministry or our personal professions that do not require a Hogwarts certificate or even magic. Before anyone suggests that I am out to get Hogwarts, please remember that I am Lord Gryffindor, I have been working very hard with the school board to make the school one of the bastions of wixen education not just in Britain but also in the world.”

Lady Augusta looked at Charles, “How many children will you be testing, how many children will this new bill impact? How many children that aren’t in Hogwarts and that will never be able to attend, lives are you planning to change or try to change?”

Charles smiled at Augusta, “there are currently of the five million wixen in Britain, one point six million children of school-going age. Hogwarts only has five hundred students enrolled in it. Some children in the academies should be in Hogwarts but aren’t due to their family’s financial situation but even then, the school would only have three hundred extra children, we must acknowledge that by focussing on our most elite children we have done a grave disservice to the rest of them. one that Lord Malfoy and I as well our alliances are keen to rectify.”

Chapter Text

Death chuckled his laugh rolling through the room like rolling thunder. Next to him Lady Magic was smiling as they both looked at the littlest of the Peverell’s that was recognised by magic. It was a few minutes short of his birthday and the two deities had finally decided on what they would be gifting him. Death had been keen on Ancient Vampire powers, but Lady Magic had pointed out how difficult it would be for the little one to eat safely at school then so instead they had settled on something else.

As Death lent over his greatest grandson, bright green eyes looked up at him. “I remember you; you rescued me when I was little.”

Lady magic smiled at the young man, “yes, we have decided to come to intervene in your family occasionally, as needed, for far too long we didn’t do enough to protect the line and now you are all almost wiped out. Well not if we have a say in it. The royal house of Pendragon and Emery’s will survive for they carry the blood of Peverell, and no one should be able to wipe out the descendants of Death. Your great too many times to count Grandpa has a birthday gift for you Hadrian, may we call you Haddy?”

Hadrian smiled at the lady whose skin was the purple colour of sunset and her eyes were the orangish-red that the clouds streaked as the sunset. “Yes, my lady, I would be honoured to be called Haddy by you and receive a birthday gift from my Greatest Grandfather. I haven’t met any of the others.”

Death chuckled again as he walked to where his grandson could see him clearly, Haddy knew in an instant while his father had a striking resemblance to Death’s human form, Haddy would be his mirror copy though possibly not as tall. Haddy bent his head in respect though for though Death was family he was still the god Death.

A deep rumbling voice vibrated deep in Haddy’s bones as he spoke, “Dear Hadrian, the gift is a blessing, but all blessings can sometimes also be a curse, remember this was given out of love and we are doing everything to protect you from the self-proclaimed lord of the Light as well as the Lord of the Dark. Be warned that only one was chosen as the lord of the Dark and he has been corrupted and twisted to the point where he is no longer able to fulfil his duties. The lord of the Dark must be destroyed so that a new lord of the Dark can rise. Furthermore, the true Lord of the Light is currently fighting with the imposter Lord. It is not your task to defeat the imposter lord but the task of the true lord. Your destiny little one is to defeat the dark lord to make way for a worthy and healthy Dark Lord to take the mantle. For you to do that you need to become the Lord of the Shadows, the Gray or Neutral Lord, the peacekeeper in the middle to balance out the extremes of the Dark and the light.”

Lady magic smiled gently at the twelve-year-old boy, “the lord of the Dark can also be a lady, only time will tell but I can tell you that they are not a Death Eater, not now, not ever.”

Haddy looked at the two of them feeling a bit overwhelmed, “grandpa, grandma, how am I to achieve this, I am just Haddy.”

Both Deities kissed his forehead softly, it was lord Death that answered, “Haddy, the family magic has opened for you. You will be able to wield it all and in order to wield it you will be the first Peverell Necromancer to walk the earth in over six hundred years. As you get older you will hear in hushed whispers of the powers of the Peverell, and it is not just your father’s ability to win in the Wizengamot or the power he displays when casting magic but more importantly the ability to do the Magic of and in the shadows. Your father is not a shadow walker, his destiny is much lighter with your Pa at his side. Your destiny with your mate is to walk between the light and the darkness, the plains between life and death and to master them. when you wake up you will notice a few small changes to your appearance, no one other than your parents and your soul mate can see them. as you grow into your powers the changes will be more dramatic, but I promise you that there is nothing that you can’t handle with your family and friends. Remember though you are destined to walk in the shadows, you are not destined to walk alone. A grimoire will be on your bedside table, it is spelt that only you can ever read it, no one will be able to take it from you, it will always return because it is done not only with my magic but your honorary grandmother's magic as well.”

His grandmother smiled at him, “I have one last gift to you, your familiars are now entuned to my and your magic, they will be with you always and you will have true bonds with them, you will be able to communicate with them, one day when you have bonded to your mate, they will also be able to hear your familiars. Look after the wisest and strongest warrior symbol of Artemis and the Shadow warrior of Freya.”

With a gentle flick against his forehead, Haddy was sent to sleep as his grandparents melted into the shadows, his honorary grandmama completely enchanted with the little wizard that had declared her his without even pausing to think about it. She smiled at Death as he watched from the shadows and the first necromancer ring appeared around Hadrian’s left wrist. It resembled a pale thin silver cuff. On his right ear at the top of his helix, a small purple stud appeared. The studs in his ear would show his progress to his status as the lord of the Grey while his arm would show his strength as a necromancer as he grew and partook in the stages of requirement. The little wizard and his parents weren’t aware of the marks as they slept through the night. Reggie and Charles had decided to make Grimmauld their home, they slept safely knowing the old Black family magic that they had purified and cleaned would keep them safe. The Black family's ancestral home is only too happy to have people living in it, casting magic.

Charles walked into his son’s room to wake him for his birthday breakfast, it was a ridiculous breakfast of Eaton mess on top of crepes, but it tasted divine and had become a birthday tradition. He stilled when he saw his son. He immediately understood the necromancer ring, when he had been small his mother had hoped that he would inherit the most elusive of the family magic, but he hadn’t his mother who was a bit of a seer had then been convinced it would be one of his children and had taught him everything that she knew. Charles immediately left the room and went to get Reggie, with hushed whispers he explained to Reggie that Hadrian was showing signs of being a necromancer, the first in centuries.

“Charles, relax, you are acting as if we weren’t expecting this. We knew there was a chance one of our children would have it. Your mother had been quite insistent when we started dating, she even made me do the training of a necromancer’s parent so that I would be prepared. If Hadrian is one then it is just a continuation of his family magic and the boy has so many of our dormant family lies that claimed him, that this is a surprise yes but not shocking. Now let’s go wake up our son, eat way too many crepes and prepare to spend the day at the dragon reserve with Charlie and whichever of the other Weasleys wanted to tag along as well as Neville, then have a very fancy dinner in London with our families and the Weasleys. Our son needs to know that this doesn’t change how we feel about him.”

Charles scoffed as he walked next to Regulus to Hadrian’s door, “of course this doesn’t change how we feel about our son, I just wanted you to know ahead of time because there is a chance that his eye colour has also changed.”

The two fathers jumped onto the bed each on one of Hadrian’s sides and proceeded to tickle him awake. “Hello, little skeleton king, did you have an interesting night?”

Hadrian laughed as his pa conjured a mirror for him to see his reflection, his eyes were still green though now more the shade of moss than the emerald green they had been before. He quite liked the look of the stud and the band and explained to his dad’s that it made him look edgy. Regulus agreed that it made him look like a twelve your old trying to be edgy but one day would let him look edgy, hopefully.

Haddy sat at the breakfast table in the kitchen while informing his parents about what had happened during the night. By the end of the story both his parents were overwhelmed by the implications of the visit of Death and Lady magic or as their son called him, Grandpa Death and Granny Hecate. The two adults decided that they would discuss this tomorrow once they had some time to process what Haddy had told them.

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Charlie, Bill, Percy and the twins in their nicest going to be physically active clothes, no robes were in sight instead all five brothers were wearing mixes of muggle athleisure wear. Charlie was quite chuffed with his royal blue and green trainers that went with his joggers and t-shirt. They were waiting at the entrance of the reserve for Hadrian and his parents.

“Charlie, hey, you got here before me, I told dad he was going to make us late but no, he had to attempt to do something funky with his hair.” Hadrian smiled up at Charlie, Hadrian was wearing an outfit like Charlie's but in black and green.

“You still beat Neville, so all is good. Though I am surprised that Draco isn’t here today?” Charlie asked while hugging Hadrian.

Hadrian smiled at his favourite Weasley and shook his head, “No aunt Cissa has decided to further her education and the entire family is in Seoul for the Summer so he couldn’t come no matter how hard he had tried.”

While the parents carefully made sure that each child had a safety bracelet on their wrist a very rushed-looking Neville appeared, “I am so sorry that I am late. Our floo was acting up and granny wasn’t entirely sure what the coordinates were so we couldn’t apparated so instead we took the Knight bus, I must tell you that it feels like we already had a huge adventure.”

Hadrian hugged his best friend, “all good Nev, happy birthday for yesterday. Will exchange presents at dinner like normal? Nev, where is your gran if the two of you took the bus?”

Nev grinned back, “gran has decided that today had already been quite enough and is waiting for us in the tea room for when we are all civilised, she has a good new book to read. It is a murder mystery, and she is quite keen to get stuck in.”

As if the words stuck in, were magical the guide for the tour came out to fetch them. They were led to what looked like a safari vehicle that tourists on Safari in Africa sat in. The guide was a fairly young witch that was busy completing her degree in magi zoology and worked at the reserve part-time for extra money and experience. Her name was Shelby, and her blonde hair was pulled in a messy bun atop of her head.

“Good morning, all, we going to take the vehicle out and ride the route between the various enclosures after that we thought a tour of the rehabilitating animals’ enclosures and seeing the pen where we keep dragonets would be interesting for everyone,” Shelby said to all of them while they got settled in the spots, Hadrian who had asked everyone to start calling him Haddy, was seated between Charlie and Neville in the highest spots. From the smile on Charlie's face, you would not be aware of the fact that this was in all earnest a birthday present for Neville and Haddy and not for Charlie.

The tour of the reserve was amazing, the highlight for all the boys and the most terrifying moment for the adults had been when three Ironbellies flew overhead. Their scales shone a bright silver in the light of the day. Haddy was laughing as he caught snippets of their conversation. The three dragons were mostly interested in the arrival of a new female to the reserve and were wondering when she would be let out of the quarantine enclosure so that she could fly freely with them. one of the Ironbellies decided to swoop lower so that he could see who was in the vehicles one of them had an interesting smell to him. the wind that his wings generated was intense as it swooped closer to look at them. Once he picked up the human with the interesting scent he flew back to his brothers.

The tour through the grounds took them roughly five hours and then they all smiled when they were led into the enclosure with dragonettes. They were small Hebridean Blacks which made all the members of the Family Black smile. The Dragonologist in charge of this enclosure was a member of one of the famous Dragonologist families. Charlie asked keeper Macfusty so many questions.  

By the end of the tour and the playing with the smaller safer animals that were there, the keeper handed his card to Fabian, “that Charlie of yours is going to come home with a pet that he really shouldn’t, or he will study dragonology when done with school. Keep my card for when you need help or when he is fifteen and needs a part-time job over the summer.”

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Shopping for school supplies was a lot faster this year than previously, the entire family had been thankful that they had missed the book signing of Lockhart who had proudly announced he would be teaching at the London School of Magic this coming year, so many masters and heads of departments already made notes on where to test their new staff in the next four years of any gaps in their knowledge as they entered the workforce after their degrees.

On the train back to school after a delightful summer, Haddy smiled happily when a tired Theo and slightly overwhelmed Hermione joined them in their compartment again as they went back to school. This year students would be allowed to go back home every other weekend via the floo network. The muggleborns even had their homes added to the floo network so that they could go between home and school. The special floo room at the school had impressive warding that only parents and students could use the floo and only when they had the best interests of the school and their children in mind. The magic that had been used to ward the floo network had been taxing and intensive, Regulus and his team had all taken long breaks afterwards since the ritual had drained their magical cores quite a bit. Even with the extra power from some of the strongest Wixen in the country, the spellwork had been draining. Severus and his husbands, Lucius and Narcissa as well as Charles and Amelia Bones had all added to the magic done by the Unspeakables and all had felt drained.

The students quickly settled into a routine of sorts, Oliver Wood and Marcus Flint had intense discussions about quidditch while Percy spoke quietly to Hermione about new books that he was reading. The twins were chatting to Cassis and Bill about the magic that they were learning in Arithmancy and trying to see how it would fit into their future plans. Neville was chatting to Draco about a new plant that he was cultivating. Haddy spent the quiet time checking in on his friend and roommate that looked far too tired.

“I am fine Haddy, I just struggled to sleep last night, my cousins are still small, and they are ill, so they cried me awake a few times every night for the last three days.” Theo smiled at his overprotective friend. “Where is Ron?”

Haddy looked up from eating his cauldron cake, “he is sitting for a while with his little sister and making sure she finds her friends from primary and makes new friends. He said he will join us when he is sure she is okay.”