DISCLAIMER: Harry Potter is owned by J.K. Rowling and Scholastic Books. I own nothing and make no profit from this work.
Let's Do The Time Warp, Again!
A Harry Potter AU Fanfic
Chapter 1 – The Old Man
Harry was old. Very old. Unlike with most other old men, this had happened to Harry a few times before. Of course, nobody else was under the thrall of the most evil and wicked curse ever invented. Nobody else was stuck in a time loop.
Harry knew exactly how it happened.
Granted, he forgot a lot of details about his various lives here and there. It was especially true when he happened to be very young or very old physically since his brain had trouble pulling a single memory up out of all the millions locked away in his head. Often he needed a memory potion or for something or someone to jog his memory. At that point he could recall forgotten things, but not easily. However, he had never once had trouble recalling the incident that ended with him stuck in a time loop.
The time loop itself reset at the moment that the Dark Lord Voldemort first hit him in the forehead with the killing curse and it ran until the day he died. Once dead, Harry would find himself right back at the beginning staring up at Voldemort as an infant. The worst irony of all was that the person responsible for creating the time loop was never born again in any of the loops.
This story, like many others, started with a woman in love.
Drusilla Bellatrix Nott (nee' Malfoy) was the beloved granddaughter of his one-time school rival Draco Malfoy. This was during his first life, obviously, the one where the Malfoy's managed to buy their way out of permanent imprisonment or execution at the end of both the 1st and 2nd dark wars against Voldemort. After the 2nd war, the Malfoy family was not in a good position politically. The name Malfoy was poison. Harry, not able to forgive all of the pain and hurt caused by both Lucius and Draco over the years worked hard to make sure it stayed that way. Ron, in his capacity as an Auror, raided their homes on a fairly regular basis looking for evidence of dark activity. It was a petty thing to do, but no one stopped him.
Eventually, however, life went on and things returned to whatever passed for normal in the wizarding world. Ron and Hermione got married and had three children. While the children were little, Hermione worked out of her home for a publishing house, editing new books meant to be published. Once all three of her children were at Hogwarts, she began the daunting task of re-editing older books to make them more in-line with modern ideas and printing methods. Harry came to really appreciate her insistence on large and easy to read print as his eyesight slowly got worse as he aged.
He had married Ron's sister Ginny and they ended up with a large brood of 8 children all told. The first batch was two boys and one girl. When his daughter was in her 1st year at Hogwarts, Harry had been injured while on a raid with his Auror team. He had ended up in St. Mungo's for a long while recovering and then he was pulled from the team because he was counted as physically unfit for field duty. Relegated to a desk, Harry simply retired.
Two years later he was hired to teach DADA at Hogwarts and in the ensuing celebration, Ginny had turned up pregnant once more. That was the start of batch number two which eventually became a daughter, followed by twin boys and then another daughter. With a total of four sons and three daughters, the Potter name was secure.
Tom Riddle's true death had broken the curse on the DADA position and Harry enjoyed a long series of years teaching. It was when his youngest, Miranda, was in her 6th year that tragedy struck the Potters. Ginny was killed along with many others in a sudden magical explosion in Diagon Alley. Harry was nearly destroyed by his grief and it was only the fact that his eldest son soon presented him with his first grandchild that gave Harry a reason to smile and to come out of his depression.
Ten years later he had a brief affair with the daughter of Cho Chang, whose own husband died shortly after they were married. She returned a year later and presented him with his newest son, a child she named Christopher. A discreet paternity test proved that he really was a Potter, though with that hair and those bright green eyes it was hardly in doubt. She disappeared again and Harry was left to raise Chris alone.
Harry had feared that his older children would spurn Chris for having a different mother and being born out of wed-lock, but they all went out of their way to include him as a sibling, or at least as another of their endless nephews.
That's around the time when the troubles with Drusilla Malfoy began. Harry had lots of access to his grandchildren. As DADA Professor, he taught all of his older grandchildren as well as his Weasley nephews and nieces. With Chris in his life, his older children began to bring their younger kids to Hogwarts on the weekends to play with their youngest uncle often. Large family dinners hosted in his private quarters were a common thing and he was often called upon to tell stories of his time as a student and as an Auror with Uncle Ron. Certain family names were prominent in the storytelling and about half of them took a verbal beating time and again. As a consequence, his children and grandchildren, nephews and nieces all tended to see the Malfoy's as the personification of evil.
That didn't help matters when Drusilla Malfoy decided that his grandson Arthur Potter was her one true love. Arthur, of course, thought that Drusilla was slightly insane and had to be talked out of hexing her blind several times. Scorpius, Draco's son and Drusilla's father, had tried to arrange a betrothal on his daughter's behalf. Arthur's father, Albus Potter, had merely laughed at the idea and stated that he would never torture his youngest child by tying him to a Malfoy. Both Scorpius and Drusilla were incensed.
Scorpius eventually married her off to a son of the Nott family, but the insult was never forgotten nor forgiven. As far as Harry could tell, Scorpius and Draco invented the curse, but it was Drusilla that cast it. It was aimed at Arthur and was meant to send him back in time without his memories so that Drusilla would have another chance at him. Harry, being who and what he was, stepped into the line of fire to protect his grandchild and cast a shield.
There was an explosion of magic that felt as if it was tearing him to pieces. When he finally came too, his first coherent thoughts were about how it had been a long time since dementors managed to pull up the memory of his parents fighting off Voldemort with their presence. It must be true though, since he could hear his father's yell silence suddenly and then his mother begging for his life.
Then, unlike any other time before when this memory hit, he saw a younger and more human looking Tom Riddle peer over at him, sneer angrily and then lift his wand. Harry began to feel the first stirring of panic when his archenemy cast the killing curse. The world went green with agonizing pain and then he passed out.
When he awoke again, he was at the Dursley's and tucked in a bassinet while Vernon and Petunia argued over what to do with him. Vernon was all in favor of drowning him or packing him off to an orphanage, while Petunia was terrified that wizards were spying on them and would kill them if they tried to get rid of her nephew.
It took a while to figure the truth out. Harry was so small and so young that his physical limitations affected his ability to think. He tired out easily and when he awoke his instincts had him focused on his physical needs; usually meaning food and clean dry nappies. In any event, he eventually came to realize that this wasn't some horrible dream conjured up by his damaged mind while his real body languished in St. Mungo's.
He really was back in time and stuffed into his younger self's infant body. Within a year he had determined that his full memories and his entire adult well of magic had also come back in time with him. Physically, he was two and a half years old. Mentally, he had the memories and knowledge of a 77 year old Master of Defense and a double sized well of magic, one half of which was well trained and matured.
That was the start of it all; the abrupt ending of his first life and the confusing and fear inspiring start of his second. At the time, he was so caught up in the concept of having to live his life over and the consequences of doing things differently that he failed to grasp the truth of his circumstance. It would be over a century later that he would learn, to his absolute horror that he was trapped in a time loop, doomed to live his life over and over again.
Chapter 2 – Second Time Around The Wheel Of Life
It didn't take long for him to decide that he didn't want his new lease on life to mirror his old one. Ten years suffering at the Dursley's hands was not something he'd put up with a second time. What's more, letting the war begin again and then drag on would only get good people killed. Albus Dumbledore had meant well in Harry's first life, but he always seemed to do the wrong things for the right reasons when it came to The-Boy-Who-Lived. He was not going to be stunted once more by the old man's well meaning, but ultimately disastrous meddling.
Albus' main failing was that for all he knew and understood about the Light and goodness, he was completely clueless when it came to the Dark and evil. He was always shocked and dismayed over the little evils, which he was far too quick to forgive, and he was always amazed and surprised that most evildoers didn't want to be redeemed and brought into the Light. So many good and honest people had ultimately suffered and died because Albus was so busy trying to save the souls of those who didn't want it or deserve it. No, Harry wasn't going to put up with that again.
Also, on a more personal note, Harry didn't think he could stand another life married to Ginny Weasley. They had married young, right after the 2nd war was over and it didn't take Harry long to realize that he wasn't in love with her. He loved her family and the idea of belonging to the Weasley's in a real and tangible way. She just happened to be the only female Weasley and all of them; Ron and Molly especially, were pushing them together as hard as they could with Ginny's full approval.
Still, they had a good life together and he had learned to love her as a friend even if he wasn't in love with her. She had given him many wonderful children and to be honest, they were the only thing about his plan to change his future that gave him pause. If he didn't marry Ginny, they would never be born. He had loved all of his children fiercely and his grandchildren were a delight, however he just couldn't force himself to march down the path that he knew would lead to them being born. If he did, he would come to resent them and he didn't want to ever look into their eyes and feel hatred. Instead, he had to hope that their souls would be born, regardless of where and how.
The summer that he turned three, Harry had come up with the beginnings of a plan. While out in the backyard playing, Harry had snuck away between the hedgerow separating the Dursley's yard with the neighbor's and crossed the anti-apparition wards. Then, gathering his magic together, he apparated to Hogsmeade. Once there, he summoned several sheets of parchment and a quill from the stationary store and found a clean quiet nook to settle into.
The first was an anonymous letter to the Weasley's. In it, Harry warned them of the vicious and deadly rat-animagus that was seen near their home. He told them that the rat was really Peter Pettigrew, a Death Eater and a spy against the Light for the ex-Lord Voldemort. The explanation touched on how he had been the one to betray the Potter's and how he had framed Sirius Black for his crimes. He pointed out that, to date, Sirius had never had a trial or been interrogated with veritaserum because everyone just assumed they knew the truth. He followed it up with a detailed description of Peter in both rat form and human form and then added several animagus-specific spells at the bottom which would allow Mr. Weasley to lock Peter in either form, shift him to either form and wards to keep him penned in.
The second letter was to Augusta Longbottom. Also anonymous, he pretended to be an old friend of Frank and Alice and informed her that Alice Longbottom had been named as Harry Potter's godmother and that right now the young Potter heir was being raised by Lily Potter's muggle sister. He claimed not to know the full details, but assured her that he did know that Lily had specifically mentioned that she and her sister Petunia were estranged because her sister hated magic and anything to do with it. Petunia had blamed Lily for the Death Eater attack that killed their parents and swore revenge.
He also stated that Lily and James Potter's will had mentioned that in the event of their death, Harry should go to live with Sirius Black, his godfather, or with the Longbottom family. Their will had been ignored and Harry had been shunted off to the muggles without any legal standing.
He also stated that he knew that Frank and Alice's will said much the same, if there were no Longbottoms left to raise Neville in the event of their death, he would be sent to either his godfather; Edgar Bones or his godmother; Lily Potter. Obviously, the Longbottoms and the Potters intended for their respective heirs to be very close, like brothers. It was now up to Augusta to decide what to do.
Once both letters were finished, Harry sealed them up and cast a quick glamour on himself to make him appear a bit older. He summoned a few sickles from the pocket of a passing man and walked into the local owl-post office. It wasn't hard to charm the witch behind the counter with his faked wide-eyed pride at being big enough to perform the chore of sending off post for his fictional mum. After they were sent off, he left and found a hidden spot to drop the glamour and apparate back to the Dursley's. The use of several strong magics without a wand had exhausted him and he crawled into his cupboard to sleep.
Less than two months later the Dursley house was given a surprise inspection by several people from the Wizarding World. Apparently, his letter to Augusta made quite the impact. She had taken the time to request copies of her son's will and it confirmed what the anonymous letter said. At that point, she requested a copy of the Potter's will and it did indeed list the Longbottom family as little Harry's guardians. Not Alice or Alice and Frank, but the Longbottom family and that included Augusta herself.
After double checking the law to be certain, she had then proceeded to raise a huge fuss over why she hadn't been offered the opportunity to raise little Harry. Even if he was fine and settled in with the muggles, she still should have been listed as his magical guardian with control over his education and family matters. That Dumbledore had ignored the Final Will and Testament of the Potter's without even checking to see if she minded taking on Harry upset her deeply.
His assertion about the strength and necessity of the blood wards was brushed aside by her as easily fixed with a magical womb and a donation of unfertilized eggs by Petunia. Dumbledore had gaped at her in astonishment at the novel solution of creating cousins for Harry to share blood with by using the method of a magical womb, which until then had been exclusively used by homosexual couples wishing to have children together. The conception would be done with a magical ritual and then the womb would nurture the growing fetus until it was ready to be born. Her offering to use her son Frank as the other donor so that the child would also be a Longbottom was what had given the ministry cause to support her in this endeavor as it showed her strong belief in raising Harry right.
That's what led Augusta to invade the Dursley home with an Auror, two ministry case-workers from the Division of Family Services, her lawyer and Albus Dumbledore. That they found Harry locked in the boot cupboard, filthy dirty and half starved only acerbated the situation.
In the end, both Vernon and Petunia ended up in goal. Vernon was sentenced to ten years and Petunia to five. Dudley was shuffled off to Vernon's sister Marge and Augusta sued for three of Petunia's eggs on Harry's behalf. Harry was sent to live with Augusta and Neville and the first egg was sent off to be fertilized with Frank Longbottom's seed at St Mungo's right away. Less than a year later, Harry had a new cousin and Neville had a half-sister. Augusta named her Hope.
Chapter 3 – The Longbottoms & The Blacks
Harry enjoyed living with Neville and remembering how shy and timid his friend had been when he first started Hogwarts during his original life, Harry made sure to mentor him as best he could, encouraging his spirit, his mind and his magic.
Somewhere in there, Arthur and Molly Weasley had managed to capture Peter Pettigrew. There was a huge fuss made over it in the papers. The Weasley's were being hailed as the last heroes of the war and with the proof that Peter was alive and at Mr. Weasley's insistence, Sirius Black was finally awarded a trial. The Wizarding World was shocked when he testified under veritaserum that he had not been the Secret Keeper. He was supposed to be, but when the word got out to the general public they had secretly switched to Peter in the hopes that Sirius would lead the Death Eaters away. They didn't know that Peter already had the Dark Mark at the time.
As a result, Sirius was freed and his assets unfrozen. He was shuffled off to St. Mungo's to recover from his three year long stay in Azkaban. Augusta went to visit him on Harry's behalf and explained to him all that had happened with Harry and the odd restrictions on his living arrangements. She also informed him that she would give Harry permission to visit once the Healers assured her that Sirius was mentally stable after his long exposure to the dementors, but until then she was limiting their contact to letters.
Sirius was grateful to her for taking in Harry and her arranging the birth of Hope so that he would be safe. He took the initiative to arrange for himself to have an evaluation by some Mind Healers and then set up a series of treatments in order to work through his many grief and Azkaban induced issues. Sirius's own mother was a crazed bigot and James' mother had died when he and his near-brother had been just out of Hogwarts. With his and Harry's seeming betrayal by Dumbledore, Sirius had turned to Augusta for advice and support as a sort of parental figure. Remus reentering his life only helped to speed up his recovery process.
Two years later, Augusta had the next egg fertilized and Neville's older relatives began to try to bring out his magic with little mini lessons and their version of shock therapy.
Harry knew he had to put a stop to that as in his first lifetime, their well meaning meddling had Neville convinced he was a squib and afraid of his own shadow. He confronted Augusta and complained about them. He mainly said that they told Neville and him conflicting things about magic and were very confusing and that they often attacked the two boys, scaring them greatly. He informed her that after talking it over with Neville, they had decided that the heirs of Longbottom and Potter needed to have a 'real' tutor, one that was consistent and didn't attack them.
Augusta took his complaints to heart and the extended Longbottom clan stopped harassing the heir apparent. Neville calmed down and grew to be a happy and cheerful child once more. The change in his demeanor must have been obvious, because Augusta met with Sirius about it.
Sirius was now living in a cramped little apartment with Remus Lupin. Sirius' mother had just died recently and he had inherited the entire Black family vault and properties. He had run away at age fifteen and he had been disowned, which left his younger brother as the heir apparent. However, with the death of Regulus, he was the only male Black left alive so he had no choice but to inherit.
Not that there was very much to it. At least, much that Sirius wanted. The Black's were an ancient family and one of the founders of the original British Ministry of Magic, but they were a family on the decline.
That seemed to be the cycle with magical families, particularly the darker ones. The insistence on purity of blood often led to severe inbreeding. This caused strange quirks to pop up in various lines. The Malfoy's were all blond and at risk for infertility and the Weasley's were all red haired and highly fertile. The Goyle's and Crabbe's were very stupid and magically weak. The Potter's had extreme vision problems and untamable hair. The Lovegood's suffered from hallucinations and the Longbottom's were often extremely tall and had extra large teeth.
The Black's however, were often inflicted with insanity. The family trait had captured Sirius' mother, his cousin Bellatrix and her two parents and even his cousin Narcissa suffered it a bit. As a result, the properties were a mess, the vault was not nearly as full of gold as it should have been and the name Black had been tarnished to the point where Sirius had been assumed to be an evil Death Eater by heritage alone.
Augusta popping in to announce that Harry and Neville needed a proper tutor and mentoring seemed to give Sirius a real focus and goal. He suddenly had a real reason to fix up the mess recently dumped in his lap. He suggested Remus, who was in the process of writing a book on Defense and Dark Creatures under a pen name as the tutor. He also offered to completely remodel his ancestral family home and reopen it as a primary educational school for young magical children preparing for Hogwarts.
He felt that not only would it help redeem his family name, but he could provide a safe place for Harry and Neville to meet other children and learn how to read and write, do basic math and learn the various wizarding traditions that are so important to society, albeit only the light ones. Augusta agreed.
Remus then spent the next year tutoring the two of them privately while Augusta and Sirius handled the process of turning the house at Grimmauld Place into a school. Sirius concentrated on the physical alterations of the building itself. He tore down walls, put up walls, repaired and cleaned up the attached greenhouse. He updated the kitchen, repainted everything and turned bedrooms into classrooms. The basement dungeons were stripped bare of dark artifacts and turned into two surprisingly airy potions labs. The biggest, most dangerous and expensive part of the whole process was switching the property's wards from Dark to Light.
Sirius took glee in freeing Kretcher after the elf caused one too many problems and then bought three new elves to help with the upkeep of the slowly emerging school. Harry made sure to collect Slytherin's locket and secret it away. He didn't have a way to destroy it yet, but he could store it until then.
Augusta focused on the other end of it. She pushed the school charter through the legal process, set the curriculum needs and hired teachers and staff. She included classes such as; reading and writing in both English and Latin, wizarding culture and traditions, math, basic magical theory, magical pets and animal care, basic gardening and herbology, basic potion theory and making, magical arts and crafts, dancing, etiquette and manners, broom riding and sports, literature, basic health and nutrition, and the basic history of prominent magical families.
She had it set up so that the children would be taught by age; four and five year olds were together, six and seven year olds were together, eight and nine year olds were also a group. The ten year olds had their own group and were considered to be in a 'Pre-Hogwarts' program. Everyone had to study reading and writing, math, and basic magical theory. The rest of the classes were separated by age. The class on pets and arts and crafts for the younger, while the herbology, potions and brooms were for the eldest. Etiquette, dancing and nutrition were for the middle years.
Pretty soon the school was nearing completion and the next Longbottom sibling was born. Harry's youngest cousin was a boy that Augusta named Nigel. Nigel's birth also prompted Neville's first bout of accidental magic when the baby rolled off of his perch on the fainting sofa. Neville had seen the baby start to fall, gave out a huge cry and lifted his suddenly glowing hands towards the infant. Nigel began to glow the same color as Neville's hands as his big brother floated him to safety. Luckily, Augusta had been there to see it and made a huge fuss over Neville's magical prowess and his protective streak. He was instantly labeled to be 'just like his father' and all whispered hints of his squibhood were firmly squashed for good. Harry was thrilled.
Chapter 4 – Elementary School, Pureblood Style
Before he knew it, Harry found himself alongside of Neville as they were shuffled off for their first day at the new Longbottom-BlackPrimary School for Magical Children. He was pleased to find out that the Weasley's were there. Ron and Ginny were in his and Neville's class. The twins were in the next age group up and Percy was in the group above that. Bill and Charlie were already at Hogwarts. Molly herself was a teacher at the new school. She would be teaching pet care and crafts with the youngest, nutrition and health with the middle aged kids and a series of unrelated lectures and projects with the oldest children. Her salary covered the tuition and once they were all off to Hogwarts too, she would have an income as well as her husband.
Harry also recognized Susan Bones, Ernie McMillian, Oliver Wood, Alicia Spinnet, Tracey Davies and her older brother.
Augusta taught the class on etiquette and dancing, but she mostly handled the administration. One of her dear friends taught the traditions class and another taught the one about magical family history. Sirius taught the broom riding and sports class as well as potions theory. Remus taught the reading and writing as well as basic magical theory.
The school day only went from 8:30 in the morning until 4:00 in the afternoon and all the children were shuffled back and forth from their homes each day. The school was a huge success, of course. The parents loved the idea of formal tutoring combined with the fact that their children could make friends and they now had time to devote to younger siblings or to other things, such as jobs or housekeeping.
Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy insisted on touring the school to see if it was good enough for Draco, but thankfully in the end they decided on private tutors. Apparently they didn't want Augusta having that much control over what was taught to Draco in his youngest and most easily influenced years.
Seeing Ginny was the hardest part of it all. It was especially difficult since she was at the point where he wasn't Harry to her; he was The-Boy-Who-Lived. She even called him that to his face, only to run and hide in a bout of shyness. It was an awkward situation and Harry didn't know what to do.
It didn't help that Ron and the twins were being right prats about it. Harry knew that he tended to idealize Ron in his head. Ron was his first real friend ever during his first life and Harry had bent a lot in order to keep it that way because he had been so young and insecure. Over the years Ron had matured a lot and Harry had grown used to the quirks that didn't fade away or developed over time. This was different.
Ron was younger now then Harry had ever known him in his first life. He wasn't nearly as sensitive to others, not that Ron was ever real good at empathy. All he knew was that Ginny was his baby sister and that Harry Potter had made her run away and be upset. That Harry didn't do anything other than stand there and gape at her didn't matter to Ron.
The twins, however, thought that this was hilarious and stirred up as much trouble for everyone as possible. The good thing was that their magic was mostly untrained and their jokes as such were more verbal harassment than involuntary transfiguration. The bad thing was that they hadn't yet learned not to cause harm in their pranks, nor did they know yet where to draw the line. Harry suddenly had a very firm understanding of just *why* Percy had taken such pains to distance himself from his family. The twins were a non-stop menace and with so many little ones demanding attention, Molly literally didn't have the time to deal with it all so many of their pranks and jokes got ignored or brushed aside as unimportant.
That was slowly beginning to change as the Weasley brood spent more time apart. The twins were corralled by the other teachers and Molly's duties allowed her to include more structure in the children's lives. She was also able to hire on help at the burrow part time so that she could devote more time to the children and less to the housework.
Separating Percy from his brothers at a younger age also seemed to help the boy become more than just a rule quoting stick in the mud. He probably had felt the need to quote rules so much since the twins constantly broke them and Molly had been hard-pressed to enforce them.
Still, the Weasley family problems were slowly becoming less urgent as time went on and Harry and Neville tended towards Susan Bones' company. The next year, Luna Lovegood joined the school and Harry pulled her into their circle of friends before Ginny could.
Harry hated to admit it, but Ginny's friendship with Luna in the early years of Hogwarts during his first life had been one of need on Ginny's behalf. She felt shunned in Gryffindor over the events in the Chamber and had sought out the Ravenclaw misfit just to stop from being completely alone. That didn't keep Ginny from dismissing Luna's thoughts and insulting her to her face on occasion. Harry knew that Ginny had never been a good friend. She had too much personal trauma to overcome and tended to believe her own preconceived notions over the truth of events. It had taken a long time for her to become someone Harry could care about in her own right, even after they had married.
All in all it was a far different childhood for Harry. He was amazed and amused at the vast differences and that was usually enough to keep him from bursting with frustration at being stuffed in a small weak body and having to pretend to just be learning magic instead of a Master in his chosen field. He was also surprised to find himself learning things that he never knew; particularly wizarding traditions and etiquette. He had never realized just how rude muggleborns must seem to wizards as muggle manners were far different from wizarding ones.
He mentioned that once as an aside to Neville, but Augusta overheard and she began a campaign to have muggleborns identified earlier so that they could go to the Primary school and learn the basics of the wizarding world. She even suggested a few classes be offered to their muggle parents so that they could more easily understand their child and the world into which they found themselves.
A lot of people at the Ministry were incensed over the idea, but Augusta's insistence that most of the offensive muggleborns probably had no clue that they were being so off-putting. Hogwarts didn't offer an etiquette class or a wizarding culture class. These were things that a student was expected to know on arrival. How could a muggleborn know things they were never taught? Instead of joining wizarding culture, they were introducing muggle culture. That could be stopped by teaching them what they needed to know at a younger age and by teaching the parents as well.
The debate raged back and forth, but by the third year it was open, the Longbottom-BlackPrimary School for Magical Children was seeing its first wave of muggleborns. Harry nearly danced with joy at seeing Hermione again.
The classes for the muggleborns turned out to be the best idea ever, particularly the notion to include their parents. Many turned out to be huge supporters of the school and the whole idea of magic. The issue of blood-purity both offended and appalled them and many new concepts about inbreeding were brought to light. At least, they were new to the wizarding world. The muggles had figured it out ages ago.
One muggle woman was overheard in public to make her children promise that they wouldn't marry into a pureblood family ever as she didn't want her grandchildren to suffer from whatever twisted and mutated genetics were lingering in their family line. She wanted healthy, intelligent and strong grandchildren, thank you very much.
The fact that so many of the muggleborn's parents cringed in horror at their so-called superior blood and backed it with a long string of scientific proof made a lot of purebloods pause. They had long since seen themselves as the pinnacle of society and to find themselves the sudden objects of ridicule, or worse yet, pity was just beyond the pale.
Not to mention a huge wake-up call when a series of magical tests and studies revealed what the muggles already knew; extreme inbreeding brought about physical and mental abnormalities and deficiencies. Many ancient lines, whose family trees tended to resemble celtic knots and braids suffered the worst of the problems. It suddenly became fashionable to marry one's child to someone from another part of the world to infuse the line with new blood. Young men suddenly found themselves betrothed to Russian, Germanic and Spanish young women.
Half-bloods also came into demand as the bride or groom of choice. Sirius mentioned a string of petitions for his youngest cousin Nymphadora, whose own father was a muggleborn. Augusta also received a few betrothal petitions for Harry and his two young Longbottom cousins. By this time, Hope was nearing her 4th birthday and was far more interested in going to school with her big brother and cousin then in the possibility of being married off. Nigel was at the stage where he was trying to teach himself how to do everything he saw the bigger kids did and that usually ended with flowers torn out of gardens instead of weeds, pages ripped out of books instead of being read and dressing himself which many times ended in tears or a naked toddler dashing through the house.
Needless to say, that between her teaching and administrative work at the school, raising two eight year olds, a four year old and a two year old, dealing with the financial and social duties of two ancient families (Longbottom and Potter) as well as staying involved with her long time social circle and political friends, Augusta was one very busy woman. The Longbottom elves were delirious with the extra work this all created. The Longbottom cousins from the extended family all sent their youngest to the school as well. Since Neville was the heir of the main branch of the Longbottom family and a much more confident and outgoing child this lifetime, he was the undisputed ruler of their little clique with Harry as his closet friend, confidant and advisor.
While it wasn't said in his hearing, Harry knew that many of the Longbottoms hoped that he would choose to marry one of the daughters of the extended clan. He didn't see that happening, because as much as he loved Augusta, Neville, Hope and Nigel, it just didn't seem right to marry into a family he considered his own. He had learned that lesson with Ginny.
Chapter 5 – The Black Heir
It was into this hectic and non-stop action that the last of the three eggs taken from Petunia came ready to be fertilized. Augusta never said anything, but it was obvious to Harry who understood and related to adult problems more than any real child his apparent age ever could that she was reluctant to have another Longbottom be born and yet she didn't want the egg, and thus Harry's cousin, to die. It was just that she was stretched thin as it was between all of her obligations. He knew that she already felt guilty for leaving Nigel in the hands of the elves and her nieces as much as she did now. Another infant would only add to that stress.
Surprisingly, it was Sirius that came to her rescue and all on his own.
He had lost the love of his life during the 1st war. Sandra Covington had been a half-blood girl that had been a year behind him, James and Remus at Hogwarts. He sheepishly admitted to doing something dreadfully stupid during his 5th year at school that caused him to be estranged from both James and Remus for a while. Harry knew what that incident was, but he didn't say anything about it or Snape. At this time, however, Sirius' home life also became unbearable and he found himself doing a lot of growing up in a very short span of time.
By the end of the year, he had renounced his family, made up with both James and Remus and had settled down into a far more serious and studious person. When he returned to Hogwarts to start his 6th year he found, to his surprise, that many more people liked this new calmer Sirius. Including young Sandra. They dated the rest of the time Sirius was in Hogwarts and they planned to marry shortly after she graduated a year later.
She was killed in a Death Eater raid before that happened. She was home for the Christmas holiday and visiting with her parents when their home was attacked. No one survived the massacre. Sirius never fell in love again. He doubted he ever would.
What he wanted to do was have the last egg as his own to fertilize and raise as his heir. The child would be Sirius' son or daughter as well as Harry's cousin. He and Remus had shared an apartment at first to both save money and to offer emotional support and healing. Now, they were both working and they both were in a much happier place mentally. He would sign over the apartment to Remus in full and then fix up the one remaining Black family property. It had been his Aunt and Uncles' home and it was where Andromeda, Bellatrix and then Narcissa were raised. It wasn't as large as his own family home, which was why he didn't consider it for the school. Then, as long as Harry lived there for six consecutive weeks per year, the blood protection would extend to that house and those that lived there as well as Longbottom Manor.
Augusta agreed with the plan easily enough. She really wasn't up to another child and she had long since believed that the serious and quiet man that was Harry's godfather was a trustworthy person. He may have been a bit of a wild child and he may have acted out in his grief and pain at the loss of Sandra, but the incident in 5th year only started the process that was then completed by Peter's betrayal and the next handful of years in Azkaban.
He could have easily turned dark and dangerous, insane and uncontrollable. Basically, what little Harry remembered of him from his first lifetime. That Sirius had wavered between a severe and deadly depression to an almost manic need to move and do things. He had been easily stirred to hysterics and often forgot where and when he was. Remus had ended up being his keeper more than his friend.
This Sirius had not spent even half that time in Azkaban and he had been cleared of all charges, his innocence proclaimed before the world. He also had enjoyed the benefits of healing in St. Mungo's both physically and emotionally. Then, he was given a real purpose instead of being locked up and kept away from everyone but Remus.
Despite being so much more stable and healthy, those incidents had forever marked and changed him. He was quiet, thoughtful, and slightly moody but for the most part content with his life even if it wasn't anything like he'd planned. He would make a good father.
They both talked to Harry and Neville about it as it would affect their lives as well. While Neville was a little sad to not be getting another sibling, both boys felt that Harry's next cousin being a Black was a good thing.
The Tonks family was more than happy to help, especially since as head of the Black family, Sirius had disowned Bellatrix and reinstated both Andromeda and her daughter Nymphadora. Together with Andromeda's husband Ted, they fixed up the old house and removed all of the dark artifacts. Andromeda's help was invaluable with this as she knew where all the hiding spots were and had a better than good idea of what to look out for.
Narcissa made a bit of a fuss over some of the items. She claimed that they were Black family heirlooms and she didn't want them thrown in the garbage heap. Sirius was very reluctant and made it quite clear that he didn't trust Lucius Malfoy with access to dark objects that held curses, traps or a lot of dangerous power.
The only thing that kept Narcissa civil about the whole thing was Sirius' insistence that Lucius wasn't good enough for her and how his vast wealth didn't make up for a lack of good sense. She took that to mean that while Sirius disapproved of her husband, he did approve of her personally. It became publicly known that it was Lucius' decision to keep Draco, a Black by blood, out of Sirius' school that caused the rift. While that was true enough, what wasn't known was Sirius' disgust at Lucius' politics; in particular the Dark Mark on his arm that branded him a Death Eater despite his bribing his way to freedom.
In the end, Sirius and Andromeda boxed the dark items away and sent them off to Gringotts. They arranged to have a cursebreaker go over them and make them as safe as possible. Then they would be held in storage to be divided between Nymphadora, Draco and Sirius' unborn heir still in its magical womb.
In due time, Sirius moved into his new home and shortly after that his son was born. The whole clan took the time to welcome little Polaris Black into the world. Harry was instantly moved into the home for six weeks so that the blood wards could settle over Black Cottage as well as Longbottom Manor.