As I'm getting tired of the crap from some reviewers, I thought I'd kick off the next story in this space as a rather AU one, without following the core events of the original story line as I did with Heritage. The world it's set in will be that of Heritage and Origin rather than Harry Potter per se. I'll be using some of the extra characters I created for Heritage, as well as going with Charlus as Harry's grandfather.

As people seem to need this for some reason, Dumbledore's evil and Molly and Ron Weasley are disgusting in this story, and I expect any story that I'll write in this space.

NB: Yes, I'll be finishing Heritage, just spinning off the next story here because I'm getting tired of some reviewers' comments.

Usual disclaimers, no rights to any characters portrayed and this is not the real world, nor is it a Disney Princess tale.

James felt something was wrong just before the front door of the cottage blasted in and Voldemort floated into the cottage. He lost his arm to a blasting spell as he was reaching for his wand, and then Voldemort took the time to enjoy killing him painfully before he floated up the stairs to deal with the child.

The woman aggravated him when she refused to stand aside and let him deal with the child. She actually had the gall to fight him, and put up a good fight at that. When she managed to get a curse past his shields and mark him though, Voldemort forgot all about the assurances he had given his best potions master that he would spare her and struck her down with the killing curse.

As she fell, he remembered what he'd promised, but by then it was too late. Severus would understand though, he'd seen the consequences of people defying his master before. With that thought, he moved to the crib and looked down at the infant. It was disturbing to look into eyes that were smaller copies the woman he had just killed's, and the defiance in them was even more so, it was as if the infant knew that his parents had been killed and was challenging him to finish the job.

Voldemort gave a malicious smile as he raised his wand, thinking that if that was what the infant wanted, he would grant him his wish. His death would ensure the immortality of the great Lord Voldemort and no-one defied Lord Voldemort and lived! When he cast the killing curse to destroy the infant though, Voldemort only had a moment to realise that something was wrong as it rebounded on him and then he was screaming in agony, as his very flesh and bones were burning and turning to ash.

A few minutes later, a hesitant voice was heard calling from downstairs. "Master? Master, what has happened?" When there was no response, a pudgy little rat faced man fearfully crept up the stairs a few minutes after that, calling out "Master? Master, where are you?"

The rat faced man peeked into the doorway of the nursery and gasped when he saw the pile of robes and ash with his master's wand on the floor beside the crib. When he saw Lily dead on the floor, he grew bolder and entered the room, because he knew that it had only been James, Lily and the brat in the house. (He smirked to himself as he thought that they couldn't stop him calling him that now!) He raised his wand to finish the brat off but hesitated, his master had come here to kill him and eliminate the threat of the prophecy, but now his master was gone, what if it was trying to curse the child that had done that? That thought made him fearfully lower his wand.

Faced with the proof that his master was dead, he gave up, quickly pocketing his master's wand and whatever he could find in the pockets of his robes. He also went through Lily's robes, more for a chance to grope a woman's body without being struck for it than anything else, and then quickly went through the cottage to grab anything he could find of value. He was still doing this when he heard the loud 'crack' of someone apparating in outside. Without waiting to check who it was, he quickly transformed into his rat animagus form and hid, scampering out the door after Sirius ran in and fell to his knees at the sight of his cousin's dismembered corpse.


Sirius knelt in front of James' remains in shock for almost a minute before he remembered Lily and Harry and leapt to his feet, racing up the stairs. When he entered the nursery he fell to his knees again, searching in vain for any sign of life in the woman who had been like a sister to him. He gave up after a minute and climbed unsteadily to his feet, hesitantly moving to the crib as he was dreading what he would find there, but as he appeared above the crib, an upset Harry reached out to him fretfully and he swept him up into his arms, thankful and amazed that the protective charms that Lily had crafted and she and James had cast over him had obviously worked. There was no question that Harry had been struck by a nasty curse, as he had a burn mark on his forehead, but he seemed to be fine.

At that moment, Sirius realised that it wasn't safe to stay there, because he didn't know who else might be coming, so he quickly swaddled Harry up in the baby sling that Lily used to carry him around and headed for the door before stopping and going back to quickly grab Lily's notes and journals in an attempt to ensure that no-one could find a way to circumvent the protections that she and James had placed over their son.

He'd only just gotten outside and started the bike when Hagrid came lumbering up. Hagrid was insisting that he had to take the infant because Professor Dumbledore told him that he had to go to his mother's sister. When he came forward to try and take Harry off him though, he suddenly stopped, because Sirius had his wand out and his expression said that he'd kill anyone who tried to take him. Sirius gritted out. "He's my godson and he's my responsibility now! James and Lily made me promise to look after him if anything ever happened to them and I won't let anyone get in the way of that! Get out of my way Hagrid, I don't want to hurt you but I will if you try to interfere with my godson!"

Hagrid put his hands up and stepped back with tears in his eyes. "Wha' can I do?"

Sirius sniffed back tears. "Can you make sure that James and Lily's bodies are safe until someone comes to take them for a proper burial? They're just in there and there's no front door any more."

Hagrid nodded, still crying. "I kin do tha'. You, you take care of the little nipper now!"

Sirius tried to smile through his tears as he nodded. "Oh I'll do that alright! Thanks Hagrid, now I better get going before anyone else turns up." With that he tucked his wand away, checked that Harry was secure and opened up the bike, within a hundred yards it had lifted off the ground and he was flying away south, the disillusion and silencing charms making it disappear as soon as it was in the air.

An hour later he was landing on the drive of a stately manor in southern England and riding up to the front steps. By the time he'd shut down the bike and climbed off, the front doors had been thrown open and two women were hurrying out, Alice and Augusta Longbottom, or the Countess and Dowager Countess Longbottom in society circles.

Sirius was in tears as he tried to tell them that James and Lily were gone. Alice took Harry off of him to check that he was OK, frowning when she saw the burn mark from the curse on his forehead, but not saying anything as they hustled Sirius inside. After a calming draft and a fair bit of firewhiskey, Sirius managed to get the story out, telling them how he'd suddenly had a feeling that something was terribly wrong and what he'd found when he reached the cottage. Eventually, secure in the knowledge that Harry was safe with the Longbottoms, Sirius allowed himself to pass out to escape the anguish of thinking about James and Lily's deaths over and over again.


By the next morning, they knew that something was seriously amiss, because the front page of the Daily Prophet was proclaiming that Sirius, as the secret keeper for the Potter's cottage, was wanted for betraying the Potters to their deaths at the hands of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and kidnapping Harry Potter (the only one who ever survived being struck with a killing curse, and what's more, who destroyed He-Who-Must Not-Be-Named when he tried to use the killing curse on him). It also said that Sirius was also wanted for the murder of Peter Pettigrew and over a dozen Muggles in a confrontation in a Muggle village, describing how all that had been found of Pettigrew was a finger and his wand.

They couldn't work out how anyone could have gotten these details, because quite aside from the fact that Sirius was innocent of everything he was charged with, to have this much detail someone would have had to be there! Frank Longbottom (Alice's husband and Augusta's son) narrowed his eyes at that. "Or have been monitoring everything that was going on in the cottage!" Frank was an Auror, and a damned good one, and he'd quickly narrowed the possibilities down to the only thing that made any sense. "Who was in charge of the security of the cottage?"

Sirius looked at him, bemused, as he hadn't really gotten over the binge he had the day before as he attempted to drown out the sight of James and Lily's bodies. "Um, Dumbledore I think, he convinced James and Lily that everyone would know to look for them at Potter Manor and sooner or later someone would tell where they were. He talked them into moving into the cottage in Godric's Hollow and he set up the wards and the fidelius charm. His argument to use Peter instead of me for the secret keeper made sense, because I was too obvious, but James and Lily had to fight with him to give me the secret after that."

Frank exchanged looks with Angela Fawley, his regular partner since Alice had gone off duty to have their son Neville. Angela was Harry's Godmother, as well as having been Lily's best friend and being courted by Sirius, so Alice had no problem with her husband spending so much of his time with her, even if she was a beauty. The pair instantly agreed that someone had to check out the cottage as soon as possible, and who better than two respected Aurors who had been given the secret for the cottage? They took some Longbottom elves with them to collect James and Lily's bodies for burial.

As soon as they got there, they went in disillusioned to cast detection spells and reveal what spells were active or had been recently removed, and they found several active spying and listening devices around the house, including in Harry's nursery, so they knew how the details had been obtained for the paper. James and Lily's bodies were gone though, and they had trouble keeping their anger under control until they left and came back, loud and visible so that they could make noise about the fact that their friends' bodies were missing.

Frank and Angela had of course gone to Hogwarts as well, and they loved the gentle giant just as much as Sirius did (and James and Lily had), so they had no doubt that Hagrid would have done as Sirius had asked. This left one person as likely to have removed their bodies to use in some act for his own glory, Albus Bloody Dumbledore! For that matter there was a question as to how Hagrid had gotten the secret in the first place, because that wasn't something that James or Lily had ever approved, who else had Dumbledore shared it with?

Given that Dumbledore obviously had their bodies, the question on everyone's lips was, why hadn't their funeral been announced in accordance with their customs? They got the answer to that, that very night, when the alarms went off to warn that someone was breaching the wards of Longbottom Manor.


Alice went to the nursery to guard Neville and Harry while Frank, Angela, Augusta and Sirius went to head off and engage whoever was coming for them. Sirius wasn't exactly shocked to see his cousin Bellatrix charging in after the doors were blasted in, and with Bellatrix there, her husband and brother-in-law, Rudolphus and Rabastan Lestrange were no surprise either, but seeing Barty Crouch Junior, the son of the Director of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, that was a surprise!

Sirius engaged Bellatrix as a matter of family honour (even if his family would rather support her following Voldemort over him for trying to follow his own path), and hurried to defeat and kill her so that he could assist the others. Bellatrix had been more powerful than her husband or bother-in-law, but Augusta was not a young woman and she'd never really been trained as a fighter, so she was struggling against Rabastan. A quick look showed that Frank was handling Barty (as the other strong member of their attackers) fine, and Angela was easily a match for Rudolphus, so Sirius engaged Rabastan to get him off of Augusta.

As Augusta stepped back, Sirius caught her eye and nodded for her to go and support Alice with the boys. All of the attackers were dead within fifteen minutes of their blasting in the doors, and they quickly sealed up the hole left by that to prevent any follow-up attacks before they did anything else. Their next move of course was to to run to the nursery to make sure that the boys, Alice and Augusta were OK, then they stopped to take a breath and think about what they were going to do.

One thing that was obvious was that Sirius and Harry couldn't be there when the Aurors officially arrived, and it wasn't safe for Neville to be there either. Augusta had been shocked by the language that Frank suddenly started spouting after he'd had a chance to stop and think about what had happened, but she matched him when he explained. "It was that bastard Dumbledore! He was the one who cast the fidelius for the Manor and he's the only one alive outside this room who has it, so he must have been the one who gave them the secret!"

It took them all a few minutes to get past their need to kill the bastard who had had James and Lily killed (and was obviously trying to have the rest of them killed as well for some plan that he was working to), and start thinking about what they could do to protect the boys.

They were despondent until Sirius suddenly perked up, saying "Home!" with a grin. They looked blankly at him for a moment and then Frank matched his grin. "Yes! Sirius is still living at Potter Manor! Its wards are the strongest in the British Isles, if not all Europe, and us and Remus are the only ones alive who have the secret. Lily was never comfortable with Peter so James never gave him the secret for the Manor, that means that there's no place safer than Potter Manor."

That was enough to make Augusta feel comfortable about the security of Potter Manor being enough to protect her grandson and her best friends' grandson, but it raised another question. "OK, it sounds good, but how in Merlin's name can we get the boys there?"

Angela grinned at that and called out "Tally?" A female elf in a neat uniform popped into the room. "Yes Miss Angela?"

Augusta had a sharp eye and a sharper wit, so she picked up the Potter crest on Tally's uniform and raised an eyebrow at Angela, waiting for an explanation as to why the Potter elves came when she called.

"When Lily was pregnant with Harry, James was always being called away by Dumbledore so they did what was required to make me a family member so that I could command the elves to do whatever Lily needed. That's neither here nor there though, the Potter elves can take the boys to Potter Manor safely, Alice too, and then we can call our bosses in and make this official. We can say that Alice was afraid for Neville and took him away into hiding because no-one was supposed to be able to find this place while it was under the fidelius charm. That will let us raise questions about Dumbledore as well."

They quickly agreed to the plan and Alice packed bags for herself and the boys before she had Tally and Dommy take them off to Potter Manor, while Sirius apparated outside, rode his bike outside of the anti-apparation wards that the Death Eaters had cast and apparated himself and the bike off to Potter Manor.

Frank, Augusta and Angela checked their memories and Frank and Angela made some quick adjustments to remove any images or indications of Sirius's presence before they called their bosses in, specifically asking for Amelia Bones. Someone must have gone running to Crouch though, because he turned up with Amelia, and he was enraged when he saw his son laying dead on the floor. He called them all liars when they told him that Barty Junior had been part of the Death Eater group who came to kill Neville and the rest of them, even when Frank ripped the sleeve off of Barty Junior's robes to show the dark mark, and they cast prior incantum spells over his wand to show that he'd been casting 'crucio' and killing spells at them.

The Aurors eventually managed to convince Barty Senior that he was too close to the case to be involved and made him leave, so that Amelia could take over. The problem with that was that Amelia was probably the sharpest Auror there was, and she'd seen the holes in their stories. She trusted Frank and Angela, Augusta too for that matter, and knew that they'd never purposely draw trouble anywhere near their home or Neville, so she told the other Aurors to take the bodies back to the office while she finished taking the statements.

When the others were gone, she started to ask what really happened but Frank signalled her to be quiet while he and Angela cast detection spells. They found a number of listening devices that had been hastily planted, and took Amelia off to a clean and secure room to talk, Frank could 'discover' the devices in one of the checks he did at least a few times a week and raise a formal complaint about them then.

As soon as the room was secure, Amelia rounded on them, but Angela threw that morning's Daily Prophet at her. "Yes, we know this, Black showed his true colours and betrayed the Potters to his master, then he hunted Pettigrew down and killed him and a street full of Muggles as well, what's that got to do with this?"

Angela furiously got right in her boss's face. "None of what's in that is true!"

Frank pulled her back and took over. "She's right Madam Bones, Sirius wasn't the Potter's secret keeper, Pettigrew was. Sirius and Angela are also Harry's official godparents, so you know as well as I do that he couldn't harm them after he took that oath. For that matter, Sirius also took a magically binding oath of loyalty and protection to James and the Potter family when they took him in when he was sixteen. That would have been what tipped him off that something was wrong and made him rush off to Godric's Hollow straight after James and Lily were killed. As far as killing Pettigrew and those Muggles goes, Sirius arrived here with Harry less than an hour and a half after James and Lily were killed, and he was here from then until just before you arrived, so we know that he had nothing to do with that. Besides which, you've seen people blown apart Madam Bones, there's always a lot more than a finger left! It may be spread around, but most of it's there somewhere. Someone's trying to pin the blame for all of this onto Sirius, and every indication is that that's Albus Dumbledore."

"Dumbledore? What does he have to do with this?"

"He's the only one other than James, Sirius, Angela and myself who had the secret for both the Potter Cottage in Godric's Hollow and here, we never gave Pettigrew the Secret for here, the only one outside of family and close friends who had it was Dumbledore, who cast the fidelius charms for here and the cottage. The reports in the paper of what happened in their cottage were remarkably detailed, as if the one who wrote them was there, and when Angela and I checked the cottage, there were spy and listening devices all over the cottage. Dumbledore was also the one who created the wards for the cottage so he had access to do that. For that matter, he was the one who convinced James and Lily to move out of Potter Manor, which is the most secure place in the British Isles, to the cottage because he said that sooner or later someone would reveal where they were. Thinking back on it, I'd bet that he must have put some sort of compulsion on them to get them to go along with that because Lily especially was too smart to fall for it otherwise."

"Another thing we found was that James and Lily's bodies were gone, Sirius asked Rubeus Hagrid to ensure that the bodies were safe… By the way, that's something else that adds more suspicion to Dumbledore's role in this, I've told you how serious the oath was to bring Sirius to the cottage so quickly, but Hagrid managed to run there from the floo point in the village before Sirius left. Dumbledore had sent him there to get Harry and take him to Lily's Muggle sister in Surrey (who Lily hasn't talked to since before they were married and who hates anything to do with magic), how did Dumbledore know that James and Lily were dead, and how did he know to make plans about where to take Harry to? If that's not suspicious I don't know what is!..."

He suddenly remembered what he'd been saying. "Oh yes, we went to recover James and Lily's bodies for a proper burial but they were gone, Hagrid told Sirius that he'd make sure they were safe and we have no doubt that Hagrid would have done as he said, but they'd been taken before Angela and I could get there. Pettigrew will be on the run and I can't think of any reason for him to take them. We looked in the paper for the funeral notice which is required by our customs, but while there were all those pages and details of what happened in the cottage and all the other crimes that Sirius supposedly committed, there was no funeral notice. Then we were attacked here tonight, I'll bet that if you checked with the Daily Prophet, you'll find that a joint funeral notice for them and us is ready to go out tomorrow morning!"

Madam Bones looked furious. "Do you have a secure room that I can make a floo call from?"

Frank nodded and led her out of the room. Their expressions when they came back in left little doubt as to what she had been told by the Prophet.

Augusta put a tumbler of firewhiskey in her hand, and while she went to reject it at first, she changed her mind and downed it in one gulp. It wasn't every day that you find out that the leader of the light has been setting young families up to be slaughtered by Voldemort and his Death Eaters to progress some sick plan for, what?… It was bad enough when the biggest problem was the fact that the son of the DMLE was a Death Eater who had come here to kill the family of one of their Aurors….

"Shite, with the rest of this I almost forgot, we need to get the details about the attack tonight straight."

Frank took the tumbler of firewhiskey from his mother with a quiet. "Thanks Mum." and sat down, taking a sip before he began to speak. "It wasn't much different from what we told you. The alarms went off to say that someone was attacking our wards, Alice went into the nursery to protect the boys and Mum, Sirius, Angela and I headed for the Foyer. They blew the doors in and came in with curses flying. Sirius took on his cousin Bellatrix and put her down fairly quickly, then took on Rabastan because he was pressing Mum pretty hard. Once Rabastan had engaged with Sirius, Sirius sent Mum to help Alice look after the boys. Barty Junior was giving me a run for my money, but Angela wasn't having too much trouble with Rudolphus. Once we'd put them all down and made sure they were dead, we ran to the nursery to make sure that Mum, Alice and the boys were OK, then we sat down to sort out our stories. After Sirius pointed out that Potter Manor was the safest place there was for the boys, Angela called one of the Potter Elves to take Alice and the boys there and we adjusted our memories to remove any references to Sirius." He looked at her. "So the story we gave you was accurate except for the fact that we removed any references to Sirius."

Madam Bones nodded, then got all of their wands to cast prior incantum spells over them, recording the spells cast. With that and a copy of Frank's memory of Barty Junior's arrival and the fight with him, she deemed that she had enough to wrap up the case. Before she left though, Augusta gave her formal notification that the Noble and Ancient House of Longbottom would be claiming the titles, holdings, seat and fortune of the Noble House of Lestrange by right of conquest, and that they would also be demanding reparations from the Minor House of Crouch for Barty Junior's part in tonight's attempt to wipe out the House of Longbottom.

Madam Bones smiled. "Thank you Augusta, I didn't believe that anything could make me feel better after what I've heard here tonight, but the thought of the reactions when that goes through in the Wizengamot did. As far as this business with Dumbledore and Sirius goes, we'll have to lay low for a while, but I'll want to talk to Sirius about it. If it were possible to do so at Potter Manor so no-one else has any chance of finding out, I believe that would be better…." She gave Frank and Angela a determined look. "I'm not dropping this, I realise that the Potters were family to you and they came after your immediate family as well, but we'll need to be very careful if we want to take on Albus Dumbledore and survive to tell the tale. I will, however, get one of you to take someone to the Potter's cottage in Godric's Hollow tomorrow so it can be carefully examined, and if those spy devices are still there, we'll have a strong case to start a proper investigation."

Frank, Angela and Augusta nodded, looking more satisfied at that.


After Madam Bones left, Angela called for Tally again and they were taken to Potter Manor by the elves. Frank was relieved to see that Sirius had his wand in his hand when they arrived, even though he was expecting them. There were tearful reunions between Frank and Alice and Sirius and Angela, even though they'd only been apart for less than two hours, because the events of the last day and a half were enough to make them all anxious and emotional.

They stayed at Potter Manor that night, because they had little confidence in integrity of the wards of Longbottom Manor after the Death Eaters got in. Frank, Angela and Augusta went straight to the Ministry of Magic from there in the morning.

It was interesting to see that the funeral notice that was in the Prophet in the morning was for James and Lily, and Peter Pettigrew. The reason that it was so interesting was because it had been for James and Lily Potter, plus Frank, Alice, Augusta and Neville Longbottom the night before. The night editor of the Daily Prophet had been wetting himself as Madam Bones was telling him what would happen to him if one word of anything to do with this was told to anyone but her, or if he failed to tell her every detail about any changes that were made to the notice, so she should have the name of who changed it by now.

The story about the attack on Longbottom Manor was obviously intended to cover up what happened, as it just said that a few people tried to break in, but they had been defeated. Nevertheless, the Prophet always had reporters in the Wizengamot during sessions, and they'd be ensuring that the full Aurors' reports made in regard to the events would be read out as part of their case against the Lestranges and Barty Crouch Junior, Barty Senior wouldn't be covering this up!

When Augusta checked the agenda for the Wizengamot session that day, she was pleased to see that Amelia Bones had already ensured that the items she wanted addressed were on it, but she was less pleased to note that there was a very general item in regard to the Potter estate on the agenda as well, so she floo called Frank and told him to make sure that he and Angela were there, with Angela's official copies of James and Lily's wills.


When Dumbledore took his seat as the Chief Warlock, he wasn't at all happy to see Augusta and Frank Longbottom and Angela Fawley in attendance, because he had hoped to get the items about the Potters passed quickly and quietly. When he saw the items that Augusta Longbottom had had added, he sent someone to go and get Barty Crouch as quickly as possible, as he tried to work out how he could squash them.

Dumbledore's fears were realised when he tried to slip through the motions to have the Potter's wills sealed and have himself declared Duke Henry James Potter's magical guardian, because Augusta pounced, asking what the grounds were for these motions. He tried to argue that the contents of the wills would be traumatic for the boy as his nominated guardian had been instrumental in the murder of his parents, realising too late that he'd handed her just what she wanted on a silver platter.

"I must ask how the Chief Warlock has any knowledge of the contents of the Potters' wills, as to my knowledge he was not named or involved in the wills at all, and therefore he has no legal right to access those wills!"

He came back with. "James Potter was discussing young Harry's proposed guardian with me, and against my advice he was adamant that Sirius Black was being named as the boy's guardian. As we know Black was their secret keeper and betrayed them to Lord Voldemort, leading to James and Lily's murders."

Augusta fixed him with a stare. "I was not aware that Lord Black had been tried and proven guilty of these alleged crimes Chief Warlock, when did this trial occur?"

Dumbledore was getting aggravated. "Black has not been captured as yet Madam Longbottom, surely you understand that he cannot be tried until he is convinced?"

"And yet it appears from your comments that he has already been convicted Chief Warlock? Anyway, quite aside from that, I am pleased to be able to inform you that your information as to Henry's intended guardians is incorrect. You see the Potters were a very prudent and careful couple, and they included a prioritised list of their choices for guardians for Henry, and it just so happens that their first, second and fourth choices for Henry's guardians are present in this session. Miss Fawley, would you be so good as to read out the Potters' choices for their son's guardians please?"

When Angela came forward to read that section of the wills, Dumbledore tried to stop her. "It is illegal to open the Potters' wills until a formal ruling has been given here!"

Augusta had to hide her smile of triumph. "These are Miss Fawley's own registered copies of James and Lily Potter's wills Chief Warlock. I'm sure that you are aware of the practice of registering a copy of the will to the person who has been entrusted with protecting the most significant items in the will, which in this case is their son, Henry James Potter?"

They could see that Dumbledore wanted to deny that, but too many heads were nodding around the chamber, it wasn't a common practice, but it was known among careful people. Angela allowed the court scribe to sight the proofs that these were her registered copies of the wills, and then read out James and Lily's choices for guardians for Henry.

"First, Angela Susan Fawley, Henry's Godmother. Second, Frank and Alice Longbottom. Third, Sirius Orion Black, Henry's Godfather. Fourth, Augusta Longbottom. Fifth, Edward and Andromeda Tonks. Sixth, Remus John Lupin. Seventh, Minerva McGonagall. Eighth, Poppy Pomfrey. Ninth, Filius Flitwick and Tenth, Pomona Sprout. I must point out that the formal oaths that Mister Black and I gave when we became Henry's Godparents would have prevented him from betraying the Potters in the way that he was accused, and that there is also an addendum to my and the other copies of the will to say that Peter Pettigrew has in fact been the secret keeper for the Potters' cottage in Godric's Hollow…."

Dumbledore tried to cut her off, saying. "Thank you Miss Fawley, that has no relevance to the matter at hand…." But he was himself cut off by members of the Wizengamot demanding to see proof that the Heir to the Most Noble and Most Ancient House of Black was being falsely accused.

Amelia was trying to keep a straight face as she projected the images of both the guardians list, and the note about Pettigrew being the secret keeper for all to see.

By now Dumbledore was wishing that this whole thing would just disappear, but as he'd raised it he had to call for a vote on sealing the wills and him being made Harry's guardian, and the resounding "NO!" was almost unanimous for both.

Before the matter was closed, Augusta asked Angela whether she accepted the responsibility of being Henry's guardian, and when she said "Of course! YES!", Angela got the formal confirmation from the Wizengamot then and there. Augusta was having no better luck at hiding her look of triumph than Dumbledore was at hiding his look of resigned hatred at her when she won that round.


They went through a few other items, and then Augusta's items came up. Dumbledore and Crouch tried to get them stopped on the basis that the investigation of the matter hadn't been concluded yet, but Dumbledore had already shot himself in the foot, as the Muggles say, by trying to use Sirius's presumed guilt to seal the Potters' wills and get himself proclaimed Harry's guardian.

Augusta and Amelia brought out all of the reports and evidence from the previous night to show that the marked Death Eaters Bellatrix, Rudolphus and Rabastan Lestrange and Bartemius Crouch Junior had somehow obtained the fidelius secret for the location of Longbottom Manor, and breached the wards and building before attacking the occupants of Longbottom Manor with unforgivable curses (the reports of what had been cast from all seven wands that night were shown, proving that all four Death Eaters had been using unforgivables liberally).

Frank and Angela also presented the evidence that Angela had only been there because she had been upset about James and Lily being killed, so it had only been the Longbottoms who were supposed to be there that night and of them only Frank had been an active Auror in the last year and a half. Few missed the point that without the unexpected presence of a second capable and active Auror, it was unlikely that the Noble and Ancient House of Longbottom would have survived against the infamous Lestranges, let alone Barty Crouch, who had quite a reputation for duelling.

When the vote was called for on their claim to the titles, holdings, seat and fortune of the Noble House of Lestrange by right of conquest, they received a clear majority in their favour, and the same again for their call for the dissolution of the House of Lestrange in Magical Britain. Enough Wizengamot members were afraid of Crouch's retribution to seriously reduce their majority on the vote for the Minor House of Crouch to be penalised fifty percent of their holdings and fortune for Barty Junior's part in the attack (as the Heir to the House of Crouch), but it still passed.

Augusta, Frank, Angela or Amelia Bones weren't involved in any way with the call for Crouch to be removed from the position of Director of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement on the grounds that his own son had been a marked and active Death Eater without him knowing, but the baleful glares he was casting their way made it obvious that he still blamed them for it. His animosity only increased when that motion was passed almost unanimously before Augusta nominated Amelia to replace him and Amelia was voted in unopposed.

It had been a very bad session for Albus Dumbledore and Bartemius Crouch, but it had been a very good session for Angela, Harry, Frank, Augusta and Amelia. Angela had been formally confirmed as Henry's guardian before anyone could come up with a solid basis to contest it. Harry was saved from Dumbledore being granted guardianship of him and doing Merlin knows what to him and his fortune. Frank and the Longbottom family gained the titles, holdings, votes, a considerable fortune and a Wizengamot seat from the Lestrange family, which they then eradicated. They also won half of the holdings and fortune of the Crouch family. The Longbottoms had increased their votes by over fifty percent, giving them considerably more power in the Wizengamot and Augusta gained her own seat, separate from the Longbottom family seat, so that both she and Frank could sit on the Wizengamot at the same time on matters of serious import. And Amelia managed to leapfrog over the wizards who probably would have held her in a more junior role until she retired, thereby gaining control of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement by being in right place at the right time with Augusta's nomination.


Although they all wanted to head straight to Potter Manor to share the good news when they left the Wizengamot session, they went to Gringotts first, much to Barty Crouch's misfortune. By lodging the papers for the rulings of the Wizengamot as soon as they reached Fangfist, the Longbottom's account manager's office, the Lestrange and Crouch accounts were immediately locked until the requisite reallocations were confirmed and completed, so Crouch was heavily fined for attempting to transfer holdings and funds that he was no longer the owner of when he rushed in just behind them to try and move things out before he lost them.

Crouch was enraged and started taking it out on his house elf, which any wizard should have known was a stupid thing to do inside the goblins' domain. When Fangfist told them what was going on, Augusta immediately asked that they be taken to where Crouch was causing the disturbance. Fangfist knew what the older Countess Longbottom was like from serving her family for decades, so he jumped to comply.

Augusta saw Crouch's hand raised to strike the elf and her voice rang out through the chamber. "Stop! I claim this elf as part of the settlement that the House of Longbottom is due from the House of Crouch. She is now a Longbottom elf Mister Crouch, lay a finger on her at your own risk!" Crouch raised his hand again out of spite or stubbornness, but he was frozen in that position by the goblins, and Fangfist went forward to take the elf by the hand and lead her to her new mistress.

Once Augusta had completed the ritual to bind her to the House of Longbottom, Fangfist bowed to Augusta and then turned to Crouch, saying in a voice that carried across the chamber. "There will be an additional hundred galleons fine for wilfully attempting to damage the property of another house. This is to be added to the fines being levied for attempting to remove holdings and funds that no longer belong to the House of Crouch."

He turned back to Augusta but kept speaking in the same voice. "Madam Longbottom, this elf has obviously been mistreated and will need to be brought back to full health before her worth can be realised. I would recommend that her value be listed as no more than sixty galleons."

Augusta kept a straight face as she bowed her head regally but mirth was dancing in her eyes.

Fangfist waved for the goblins to release Crouch, but while it was obvious that Crouch wanted to go for his wand and curse them all, he wasn't quite so far gone that he didn't realise that if he did he'd most likely be a dead man, so he just whirled about and stormed furiously out of the banking chamber.

Augusta looked at Winky, the elf, a trifle bemused. Her only thought had been to save Winky from more abuse, but now she had a dilemma, as Winky wasn't at all likely to fit into the Longbottom elves. Angela could see the issue that was facing Augusta and asked if she might make a suggestion? That got her a grateful nod from Augusta. "Of course."

"Why don't you send her to Potter Manor as Neville's nanny? As a Longbottom elf serving the Longbottom Heir, she won't have to fit into the expected behaviour, and the Potter elves are less rigid anyway. Then, when she comes back to Longbottom Manor with Neville as his nanny, the Longbottom elves should give her more leeway as both a nanny and coming from a different household."

Augusta hugged her for that, she knew that Frank and Alice always said Angela was brilliant, and she could see why now. She knelt down to get closer to Winky's level. "Winky, would you like to be my grandson's nanny?"

Winky's eyes lit up. "Yes Mistress, Winky loves childrens!"

Augusta smiled. "Well, that's your job then!"

Winky was almost bouncing with eagerness as Frank helped his mother to her feet with a smile.


They went back to Fangfist's office to finalise the Longbottom dealings, and negotiate their cut of the fines that were being levied against Crouch, then they were escorted to the office of the goblin handling the accounts of the House of Potter so that Angela could find out what was expected of her as Harry's guardian. All three of them froze when they realised that they were standing in the office of Gringott the Eighth, the Head Goblin of Gringotts and the Goblin Nation of Britain.

They were broken out of that state by a chuckle coming from the other side of the polished marble desk, but the being who stood and came around the desk to greet them was nothing like what they had come to believe to be a goblin. For a start, he was much taller, standing over five feet tall and well muscled. He lacked the pronounced nose and ears and long fingers of normal goblins and he had a thick mane of jet black hair drawn back into a soldier's queue. His voice was more like a man's, though he showed the sharp goblin teeth when he spoke. "Yes, that's the reaction that most of the Potters had the first time they come in here and saw me and my office as well. I am, for want of a better term, one of the goblin nobles, we were left here by the high goblins to look after the goblin people."

He kissed Angela and August's hands and shook Frank's when he reached them. "Miss Fawley, it is so nice to meet the one entrusted to look after our young Duke Potter. Now as you, Lord Longbottom, and you, Lady Longbottom, were also listed as possible guardians for Duke Potter, I believe that you deserve to be included in this explanation of why Duke Potter and the Most Noble and Most Ancient House of Potter are so important to the Goblin Nation. However, as Lord Black and the other Lady Longbottom have also been listed among his potential guardians, perhaps it would be better to have this discussion at Potter Manor, so that they may be included?"

Angela, Frank and Augusta looked at each other, wondering how the Head Goblin knew that Sirius and Alice were at Potter Manor, or even had knowledge of the Manor, but they nodded hesitantly. With the Head Goblin's answering nod, they suddenly found themselves standing in a room in what Augusta realised was in Potter Manor when she saw the magical portrait of Charlus and Dorea, Harry's grandparents.

The explanation that the Head Goblin and Charlus gave after Sirius and Alice had joined them took hours, because it included the history of Magical Britain and the role that the House of Potter played in it, and the Houses of Black and to a lesser degree Longbottom as well. By the time the Head Goblin left to return to Gringotts, the living humans in Potter Manor were shaking their heads at the parts the Potters and Blacks had played in shaping Magical Britain, and dealings with the goblins in particular. They had in turn filled him in about what had happened in regard to James and Lily's deaths and the other things that they'd discovered, and he was not at all happy with what they told him.

There was one thing in particular that soured the afternoon though, because the Head Goblin had gone to see Harry before he left, and he was quite concerned about the burn mark from the curse that had struck him. His insistence that a team would be up to examine Harry first thing in the morning raised concerns in all of them, because his behaviour seemed to be saying that that mark was more serious than just a burn.


True to his word, a team of goblins, witches and wizards arrived early the next morning. The worrying thing was that only some of these were healers. Angela was there to keep Harry settled, and she heard enough to know that the majority of them were curse breakers. When they were marvelling over the protective charm that had been cast over Harry and trying to work out how to get it to release the dark magic (or whatever it was) that was retained around the burn mark, Angela called for Sirius. Their surprised and grateful expressions when he handed over Lily's notes for the charm told Sirius and Angela that they didn't believe that they would be able to work around her charm without the notes.

Even with Lily's notes, it took them nearly a week to devise a way to remove the dark magic that they were confident that would be safe for Harry, and everyone else in Potter Manor. When it was released from the mark, it coalesced in the air above Harry as if looking for a new target, but the goblins jumped to contain it before it could do so.

The thing forming above him had frightened Harry, so it took Angela a while to settle him, but by the time she handed him over to the healers and curse breakers to confirm that he was OK, she'd noted two things. The first was that he had stopped fretting for the first time since the attack on Halloween, and the second was that the burn mark seemed almost healed, even though it had resisted all of their attempts to heal it before this. It didn't take long for the healers and curse breakers to confirm that the dark magic was gone and that Harry was in perfect health, in fact their findings showed that his magic was stronger now that it had been before they removed it, so the curse breakers were of the opinion that his magic had been trying to fight it off.


James and Lily's funeral came up in that week. Sirius couldn't go, because the graveyard was being filled with Aurors in the hope of capturing Death Eaters taking the opportunity to attack the funeral goers, and as expected, the press were there in force as well. The press did get a front page picture, but not the one they were expecting. When they arrived to find Pettigrew's casket right beside James and Lily's, Angela and Frank were incensed at the disrespect of having anything to do with that creature near James and Lily, so they grabbed their wands to banish it away from their's. They were surprised when the casket was banished right out of the graveyard, but when they turned around they found that they'd had quite a bit of assistance. They weren't that surprised that Alice and Augusta had their wands out, but Madam Bones, Professors McGonagall, Flitwick and Sprout and Madam Pomfrey did as well, and the one who really shocked them was Severus Snape, standing there with tears streaming down his face.

Snape broke down, saying that he'd tried to do deals with both the Dark Lord and Dumbledore to save Lily but she'd still been killed. Amelia cast a silencing spell on him as soon as he started speaking and had Moody take him back to the Aurors' Office by Portkey, because she didn't want Dumbledore and others to hear anything until she got the whole story out of him. She looked at Angela, and when she nodded to say that she understood, Amelia portkeyed back to the office to start interrogating Snape.

Dumbledore had to stay for James and Lily's funeral to save face, and then got involved in an argument with Lily, Frank and Augusta when they told the undertaker that if Pettigrew was put anywhere near James and Lily, they'd rip it all up and send it through his bedroom window at speed. Dumbledore somehow believed that they'd swallow his benevolent grandfather act and tried to tell them that this was just their grief talking, and that they would be wracked with remorse when they later realised that they'd denied Peter his rightful place beside his friends.

That was definitely the wrong thing to say! Even those who knew Angela the best had never heard her go into full-on harpy mode before, but she did now. "Friends? That little bastard betrayed my best friend, my sister, and her husband to be murdered by Voldemort! You know as well as I do that that maggot is still out there somewhere, and when I catch him, first he's going to confess to everything that he did, and then I'm going to make sure that he dies in even more pain than Lily and James did. And when I can prove your part in this, I'll be coming after you as well old man!"

Dumbledore was speechless at that, and when he suddenly realised that the press had caught every word, he apparated away in a panic. He dithered about for half an hour, wondering how he could turn this around to make himself look better, before he remembered about Snape and rushed off to the DMLE. He barged into Madam Bones' office and demanded that Severus Snape be released to him. She didn't bother covering her anger as she told him that Mister Snape was not being held, he'd come in to assist them in their enquiries and then left. The look she gave him when he demanded to know what enquiries he was assisting with almost made him wet himself. "The investigations of the DMLE are confidential and no business of your's Mister Dumbledore, leave, now!"

He couldn't find Snape anywhere, and Dumbledore would have been shocked to know where he was, because he was at Potter Manor with Sirius, Remus and the boys. Amelia had called Angela in as soon as she and Moody finished their interrogation and showed her the transcripts, telling her that she believed that he was truly remorseful.

The story that came out was that Severus had joined the Death Eaters as an angry and spiteful young man while he was still at Hogwarts. He'd realised what a mistake he'd made soon after that and went to Dumbledore for help to get out, but Dumbledore had blackmailed him into staying with Voldemort and acting as a spy. He'd overheard the first part of a prophecy that was being given to Dumbledore in seventy nine, but when he'd told Dumbledore about it and what he'd heard, Dumbledore had ordered him to tell Voldemort what he'd heard.

It was only after Neville and Harry were born that Severus realised how the prophecy could be interpreted, and as he still cared a great deal about Lily even though their friendship was over, he'd begged both Voldemort and Dumbledore to have her spared. Neither of them did so and now she was gone, he couldn't honestly say that he felt remorse about James Potter after everything he'd done to him, but he certainly did about Lily. When Amelia told him how Dumbledore had set it up so that Pettigrew could betray James and Lily to Voldemort, Snape told her everything he knew about Dumbledore and his actions.

When Amelia told Angela all of that and asked if they could hide him at Potter Manor where it was safe, Angela talked it over with the others and shared the transcripts that showed that he'd tried to get out just after Hogwarts, but Dumbledore had trapped him into staying, and that he hadn't done anything terrible since then. It was a tough decision, but they eventually agreed to give him sanctuary.

Over the next couple of years, the curse breakers worked on Severus's dark mark until they managed to remove it. Severus, Sirius and Remus had resolved their issues by then, as one thing that Sirius and Remus had to concede was that Severus was a brilliant, knowledgeable and extremely powerful wizard who had considerable insights into the twisted minds of both Dumbledore and Voldemort, so he was a good man to have on their side, even if he was still a moody git a lot of the time.


Once the dark magic was out of Harry's head, they settled down to life at Potter Manor. The Longbottoms stayed at Potter Manor until the goblins had finished repairing and strengthening the wards and removing and replacing the fidelius charm at Longbottom Manor. Once Longbottom Manor was deemed safe to move back into, the Longbottoms did so, but Augusta, Alice and Neville still spent most days at Potter Manor. There were a number of reasons for this, the first being that after the attacks, none of them felt truly safe unless surrounded by people that they could trust. While James and Lily's wills had provided proof that the majority of the charges that Dumbledore had drummed up against Sirius were false, the new Minister for Magic had allowed herself to be pressured by Dumbledore (as the Chief Warlock) so Sirius was still wanted on those made-up charges and therefore it wasn't safe for him to leave the grounds of Potter Manor.

The other primary reason was that being at Potter Manor gave Neville the opportunity to be immersed in all manners of magic with Harry, they were growing up being able to interact and speak to elves, goblins, centaurs, merpeople, all manners of magical beings, and they were being introduced to the different types of magic from an early age as well. Amelia Bones' ward, her niece Susan, also spent most of her time at Potter Manor from when she was a toddler. Like Frank and Alice, Amelia was much happier knowing that Susan was safe, had companionship and was learning so much about their world that she couldn't elsewhere. The three children were being trained in the lore and practices of all the magical beings, and this enabled them to control their magic to the point where they started their formal magical and non-magical training at five.

Alice had gone back to work as an Auror by then, as Sirius, Remus Lupin, Severus and the elves, goblins and all the rest were there to look after the kids. The Head Goblin had initiated a search for Remus as soon as Angela was officially made Harry's guardian, because Remus was another one of Harry's nominated guardians and they wanted him back with the family where he belonged. After they located him and brought him back, it was safer and more sensible for the three men to stay at Potter Manor with the kids while the others dealt with the world outside because Remus's status as a werewolf was little better than Sirius's as a fugitive, or Severus's as a known Death Eater. Harry's other nominated guardians were also made a part of his life, being brought in to interact with him, Neville and Susan regularly.

When Alice went back to work, after a period of being teamed up with the legendary Auror Alistor Moody to get back up to speed, she was teamed up with Frank again while Angela was teamed up with the up and coming Kingsley Shacklebolt, who was the only one up to her standard who didn't keep making advances at her. Along with Alistor, these four were acknowledged as the best Aurors that Amelia had, something which created considerable resentment in other Aurors who didn't believe that they were getting the recognition that they deserved, no matter how little basis there was to this belief.


Soon after the kids started school, Sirius's great uncle died, so he inherited and was accepted to the titles of Duke Black and Head of the House of Black. This was something that shocked and angered many in the Black family, because they had believed that as a fugitive, he would not be able to claim his inheritance and therefore someone else in the family would have been able to claim it. Sirius was sorely tempted to banish his mother from the Black family, and Black House (the Black Family's London Townhouse) as well, but he decided to let her be and go out as a Black as she was on her last legs.

There were two members of the Black family who were glad that Sirius had become the Head of the House of Black, Bellatrix's sisters. Andromeda had been banished from the family after she refused to accept the marriage that had been arranged for her and ran off to marry a Muggleborn, Ted Tonks. Sirius had always loved his cousin Andi, and she was the only one who had rivalled him as the family outcast, so his first act as the Head of the House of Black was to formally accept her, and her daughter Nymphadora, back into the family.

Her sister Narcissa, who was married to Lucius Malfoy, heard of the family outrage over Andromeda and her half-blood daughter being accepted back into the family and drew hope from that. She immediately contacted her sister and asked her if she could put her in contact with Sirius, and when she managed to talk to Sirius she begged him to cancel her marriage to Lucius so that she and her son could get away from him.

At that, Sirius banished Narcissa from the Black family for bringing the family name into disrepute by dealing with Death Eaters, then ordered the dissolution of her marriage to Lucius Malfoy and the return of her dowry. As Malfoy had mainly married her in hope of getting access to the Black family's titles and fortune, he started preparing to cast her out at that, but she disappeared with their son Draco and the house elf Dobby who she'd brought with her before he could do anything. They reappeared in the Black family records as Narcissa and Draco Black the next day, and they moved into Potter Manor.

When Draco joined the other kids in their lessons, he was behind at first, but he worked hard to catch up and he did so with their help. Unfortunately, it took him a little longer longer to lose the attitudes that he'd acquired from his father.

Narcissa soon got bored sitting around the Manor, so she made a proposal to Sirius, this being that if he named her as the Steward of the House of Black, she could represent his interests in the Wizengamot and other dealings with the outside world. That made sense, so she was formally accepted as the Black Steward, and she joined Angela, as the Potter Regent, Augusta, as the Longbottom Steward and Amelia, as the Bones Regent in turning the tide in the Wizengamot.

The old wizards who had ruled the Wizengamot for centuries were not at all pleased to have a group of witches with minds of their own and a strong voting block coming into the Wizengamot and going against the way things had always been. The Chief Warlock was one of their strongest opponents, because it had taken him a few years to recover from the damage that Angela did to his reputation after what she said at James and Lily's funeral had been splashed across the front page for days.