Usual disclaimers, no rights to existing characters, this is not JKR's HP, the real world or a Disney Princess story and there will probably be a few changes in the first hour or so after it's posted because things invariably look different in the published version and I don't always like the way it came out
Amelia didn't question the children's information that Pettigrew would be hiding at Hogwarts as Percy Weasley's pet, so she was trying to work out how to get a team of Aurors though the wards of Hogwarts that night without Dumbledore knowing but Harry shook his head in exasperation. Amelia saw him look to Gringott with a request for permission to share something and at his nod turned to her. "There is an automatic notification to the Headmaster whenever anyone crosses the wards Madam Bones, or if they try to apparate into Hogwarts. The only floo which is currently configured to allow people to enter Hogwarts is in Dumbledore's office, and you don't want to be using the floos for anything sensitive anyway..." That got him a look and he said that he'd explain later then went on.
"But there is a way to get in and out of Hogwarts that most people ignore, especially those like the Great Albus Dumbledore who regard them as beneath notice, the Elves! Most Elves can use their version of apparation, which just about no one bothers to block, over great distances, carrying heavy loads with them, and Goblins can do something similar because the two races are related. Going in at night would be a bad idea though, as you would have a much better chance of getting in, grabbing the rat from Weasley's dorm and getting out without being noticed while the boys are in class….. you will need to have at least one trusted Auror present to ensure that Riddle's people can't get Pettigrew released on a technicality, but the question is who?"
He shook his head when Amelia said. "Kingsley Shacklebolt."
"No. In most matters Kingsley is trustworthy, but he never stopped being a part of Dumbledore's Order of the Phoenix and we can't trust him not to go to Dumbledore with this. Dumbledore cast the Fidelius charm over our cottage in Godric's Hollow and then lied about Sirius being the secret keeper to send him to Azkaban without a trial, so there's no way he'd allow any chance of letting that get out if he knew….. I'm thinking Mad Eye Moody… He's pretty much in Dumbledore's pocket too, but I'm prepared to bet on him accepting the proof we can show him, whereas I'm not certain that Kingsley has enough strength of will to oppose Dumbledore at the moment."
Amelia was disturbed by what he had said about Kingsley, but nodded. "Yes, Alastor would be a good choice, besides which, we will need to get him on side for the political battles in front of us, as the House of Moody is a significant member of the Druids' Alliance in the Wizengamot, and what's more, he has never been afraid to oppose any of Albus' proposals that he doesn't agree with there…. And we have another advantage with him, I was the only apprentice he took on so he trusts me more than most people…. May I use your floo Director Gringott?"
Gringott waved her to it, but admonished her to remember what Harry had said about the Floos. As she said, Alastor trusted her enough to come though on her word that she needed to discuss a sensitive and important matter with him in person. When he saw where he was he tensed up, but knew enough about Goblin culture to refrain from drawing his wand. He bowed to Gringott and offered an appropriate greeting in Low Goblin (Harry was probably the only one alive outside of the Goblin Nation who knew High Goblin), and this made enough points with Gringott to get him the greeting of a peer in return. Harry relaxed a little at that, as this was going better than he'd expected so far.
If actually took less to convince Alastor than it had Amelia of the truth of what they were saying, especially after they brought in the Goblins' mind healing experts who not only confirmed what he'd suspected…. that Albus bloody Dumbledore had been obliviating him whenever he saw or heard something he didn't want him to, and had put him under more than a few compulsions as well… but actually managed to reverse most of what Dumbledore had done to him so he got most of those memories back. His towering rage both amused and impressed the Goblins, but there was no question that they had Baron Moody, Head of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Moody on side.
When Alastor raised the question of how they were going to ensure that the rat couldn't escape, Hermione said "Just put him in an unbreakable magic suppressing cage!" impatiently, as if it any idiot would know that, but the look he fixed her with as he coolly asked "A what?" made it obvious that it most definitely wasn't a silly question! That made her realise that someone must have come up with the magic suppression spells that the DMLE used for their manacles sometime in the next seven to eight years and Harry cut off her fumbling with how to apologise for the insult by asking "Do you remember how to cast the necessary spells?", which got him a very similar look to the one she'd just received, but broke her out of the state she was in as he'd intended.
Even knowing that inside these children's bodies were Twenty One year old adults who had fought, and won, a war with Voldemort that was far worse than the one they'd fought and required Harry to finish for them and that she had been an unspeakable of some note before she was sent back didn't negate the adults' shock when Hermione just waved her hand to conjure a suitable cage and then add the requisite unbreakable and magic suppressing charms with non-verbal wandless spells.
When Alastor said he was ready and had his wand in his hand, Emyr used Harry's memories of the Gryffindor First Year Boys' Dorm room to pop in, disillusioned, to make sure the coast was clear and locate the rat then pop back, telling Alastor where the rat was before taking his free arm and popping the two of them into the dorm room, accompanied by Balrog and Gamling this time. The rat was stunned before it could move an inch and Balrog grabbed it and stuffed it into the cage, sealing it in and popping back to Gringotts with it in less than a minute. The others stayed to go through Percy Weasley's things on the off chance they may find something incriminating there, but they were all back in Gringott's office inside five minutes, where they revived the rat so that Alastor and Amelia could have the fun of forcing it back into its human form, because by all reports it was quite painful for it to be done that way.
They slapped the magic suppressing manacles that Hermione had conjured onto Pettigrew as soon as he was in his human form and it took Amelia less than a minute to satisfy herself that everything she'd been told by the kids was true, so they sent him off to be locked away in Clan Gringott's private cells that they maintained for those who required punishment and then tried to refresh the air in Gringott's office, because the rat had reeked!
The next order of business was to get the one they were going to use Pettigrew to clear out of Azkaban and Emyr popped away to scout Sirius' cell the way he had the Gryffindor dorm room, but he was back almost immediately with Sirius in his Padfoot animagus form, because someone had opened the door of his cell to let the dementors get to him! They quickly created a simulcram of Sirius's human form and Alastor and Amelia provided the memories to show the ones creating it how to make it behave as if it were a human who had been given a dementor's kiss, then Emyr popped back into Sirius' cell to leave the simulcram on what served for a cot in the cell. Sirius told them that some of the guards had been opening the door of his cell to let the dementors at him quite often over the last six years but luckily the dementors tended to ignore him in his animagus form, so Amelia got him to put his memories of all instances of that he could remember into the crystal to help try and identify who had been behind that... One or two guards spontaneously trying to kill the one who supposedly caused the death of the Potters that way may be happen-stance, but a score or more over six years screamed that someone trying to cover their tracks, and off the top of her head she could only think of two likely suspects….. or maybe three she amended as she remembered Lucius Malfoy's reported plans to have his son become the next Duke Black.
They agreed to formally question Sirius under Veritaserum before he got cleaned up and went to the healers, because his condition wasn't life threatening, but the images of him answering the questions in this state would have more impact when they used them in court, as would his memories of the dementors using the open door of his cell to get at him, which they also got him to testify about under Veritaserum. At Gringott's suggestion, they got Sirius' cousin Andromeda Tonks and her husband Edward Tonks to come across before they began the questioning, because Andromeda was the only family member Sirius had that he trusted and her husband was quite a good solicitor…. And they needed to get Ted in for Harry anyway, because he was the official Potter Family solicitor... he was also one of the Black Family solicitors, but Gringott decided to let Sirius' cousin tell him that.
After they'd had a happy reunion, Andi exclaimed. "We have to let Great Uncle Arcturus know that Sirius is safe and well, he will be worried about him because I know he has people watching over him in Azkaban..."
Sirius couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Are you crazy Andi? That will bring Voldemort's people straight to us!"
She laughed. "You don't know your grandfather at all Siri. Uncle Arcturus isn't like our parents or the rest of the scum who make up most of the current House of Black. He and Great Aunt Dorea were the ones who gave Ted and I the money and assistance to officially go into practice with Cousin Regulus and Great Uncle Marius as Wizarding Solicitors after we got married and made us the family solicitors for the Houses of Black and Potter…. The rest of the family would be horrified to know that the descendants of the most notorious Black Blood Traitor and Squib and another Black Blood Traitor and her Muggleborn husband are the official solicitors for the House of Black as Rhys, Fleamont and Tonks, Solicitors at Law. He only pretended to disown the two of us, we're the Ancient Druid House of Tonks because Uncle Arcturus blood adopted Ted and made him head of one of the smaller Ancient Druid Houses in the House of Black and made sure that all the forms were present for me to be married as a daughter of a Noble and Most Ancient House, so Dora has retained her Noble House heritage, and you're still Heir to the titles of Duke Black-Glynn, Head of the Most Noble and Most Ancient Houses of Black and Glynn. But Uncle Arcturus is old and tired of fighting what the House of Black has become for most of this century, so he was pretending to go along with them as he waited for you, his Heir, to finish at Hogwarts so that he could start preparing you to take over and stand the House of Black on its head. If you weren't so Merlin be damned hot headed you would have been told this when you were at Hogwarts, but we couldn't trust you to hold your tongue and if Uncle Arcturus' plans got out before we had everything set up the family would have gotten rid of him and you. Unfortunately, thanks to your temper and pig headedness, by the time you finished at Hogwarts you refused to even talk to him so he never got his chance to share the plan with you before you were thrown into Azkaban…. No, Uncle Arcturus will be both relieved and delighted to hear that you are alive and safe Siri….."
With that, she went to the floo and called him. Arcturus didn't question her when she told him that they had a matter of great import to discuss with him, he just asked permission to come through.
When he arrived in Gringott's office, he started to greet Director Gringott in Low Goblin with the proper forms for someone in his position, but broke off and rushed across the room to embrace Sirius and ask how he was here when he saw him.
Once he'd assured himself that his grandson was fine, or as good as could be expected after six years in Azkaban at least, he returned to apologise to Gringott and finish the proper greeting. After that he guardedly greeted Amelia, Alastor, Xeno and Pandora as Madam Bones, Baron Moody and Baron and Baroness Lovegood, and Luna as Lady Lovegood (she had the Laird's title attached to the Lovegood titles as Xeno's heir), gave the twins a suitable greeting for their station in Low Goblin and waited to be introduced to Hermione and Harry, he was fairly sure that he knew who this boy was but like Amelia he felt that the face was wrong. Gringott gave a Goblin smile as he introduced Hermione as Lady Hermione Jean Granger, the Countess Ravenclaw-Dagworth, and corrected his greeting to Luna, advising him that Lady Luna was now Countess Hufflepuff. He then introduced Harry as the young Duke Potter-Peverell, Earl Gryffindor-Slytherin, confirming who he believed him to be.
Arcturus' eyes widened at the titles he'd heard though. "It would appear that the Fates have some game at play Over Chieftain Gringott."
Gringott sobered up as he nodded. "It does indeed Duke Black-Glynn, but before we go into that, I must explain how your Heir came to be here. You will hear at some point from your people at Azkaban that he has died there, you may hear that it was an unfortunate accident by which a dementor managed to get to him and gave him a dementor's kiss, but as you can see he is here, safe and well. With young Harry and Hermione's help, we located and captured the Death Eater who actually betrayed the Potters to their deaths and then framed your Heir for his own murder and the deaths of thirteen non-magical humans, the quite alive Peter Pettigrew. When we went to retrieve your Heir from Azkaban in a manner that would cover up the fact that he was gone though, our plans went out the window because the High Elf who went to scout his cell found that the cell door had been opened to let the dementors get at him, so he grabbed him in his animagus form and brought him straight back here. It worked out well enough in the end though, because our people created a simulcram of his human form and with Madam Bones and Baron Moody's help managed to make it look like a human who had just been kissed by a dementor, so whoever was trying to have him killed will be under the impression that they have succeeded. Now while I accept that Madam Tonks was correct in insisting that you be brought here to be reassured that your grandson is alive and safe, both he and young Harry are in need of a considerable amount of healing to rectify what has been done to them over the past six years, so with your permission I will be sending them to the healers now. Don't expect to see your grandson for at least a week or two though Duke Black, because that was the estimate our healers gave us for Duke Potter and I expect that your grandson's recovery will take a similar period."
Arcturus agreed immediately and after one last embrace, a bemused Sirius was led off with Harry to the infirmary, then the others got down to business. Once he had been caught up with the full story, it took quite a bit of persuasion to get Arcturus to hold off on going after Dumbledore, or Crouch or Bagnold, until Harry and Sirius were ready to face the Wizengamot, but he begrudgingly agreed that what they were proposing would be a better course, and that it would have more impact if he waited to pull the rug out from his family at just the right moment. With that, he reluctantly said that he needed to go back to avoid giving the game away but asked that they keep him advised of everything that was happening with his Grandson and Cousin Dorea's Grandson.
That reminded Amelia that they hadn't gotten the story about why the floos couldn't be trusted yet, so they turned to Hermione and Luna and Hermione explained how people in the Floo Network Authority had been blocking or granting floo access to suit the Death Eaters and their supporters in both wars, and the period in between, and using the floos to listen in on and track calls for them as well. That started a considerable amount of swearing on all sides, and they were so worked up that they didn't notice that Gringott had sent Balrog and Gamling off to get something.
When the twins returned, Gringott explained that the mirrors they were handing out were effectively Goblin Floo devices. Hermione looked up at that and asked. "Like the communications mirrors that Harry's Dad and Sirius made?"
Gringott laughed. "Yes, they found part of the description of the devices in Charlus's private library and worked out how to make a limited version of these work, James got in a lot of trouble for that but it was ultimately decided that by working out how to replace the parts they didn't have themselves, they'd changed it enough to mask its origins so they were allowed to keep them. The parts they came up with themselves were actually quite impressive so we didn't think it fair to take that away from them…. But the proper devices will do a lot more than their mirrors did, and in view of what Hermione has told us about the Wizarding Floo Network, I believe it will be safer to use these for any of our private communications."
With that, he went on to explain how to use them to communicate, and expand them to allow them to be used for magical transport. Each of them got a couple of mirror devices linked to their magical signature so that they could set up one in a safe location and use them for magical transports. With that, Arcturus made his goodbyes, mentally shaking his head at the old world weary eyes these two little girls had, as they indicated far more hardship than the ten years of war that he knew that they'd been involved in would explain.
Amelia had her own people planted in the prison staff too, and they and Arcturus' people reported a couple of days later that Sirius Black had been discovered with his cell door open, apparently kissed by the dementors. He'd died later that day and was buried in an unmarked grave. The interesting thing about that was the fact that the guards had been specifically ordered not to say a word about what happened to anyone, and there was nothing in the Azkaban records about any prisoner being kissed by the dementors, let alone Sirius Black.
Alastor asked Gringott whether they could find out whether any large payments had been made to the Warden or any of the ones Sirius identified as having opened his cell to let the dementors in and Gringott gave a Goblin grin, because they'd blood adopted Sirius into the Gringott family so that they could officially use the facilities of the Goblin Nation to heal him, and the Goblins' code in regard to family overrode any agreements they made with the Wizards. They quickly identified the one who must have opened the cell by the size of the payment made to him, though the payment to the Warden was even larger and a number of the others must have been involved in covering it up because they received payments as well. Nor was it any great surprise to find that the payments came from the vaults of publishing and distribution houses that Dumbledore had had created to publish and sell the Harry Potter stories, having given them exclusive rights to publish things using Harry Potter's name as Harry Potter's self proclaimed magical guardian.
Gringott laughed at that and told them how Dumbledore had been trying to get access to the Potter fortune and assets ever since he used his power in the Wizengamot to seal Lord and Lady Potter's wills and proclaim himself Harry Potter's magical guardian a couple of days after Lord and Lady Potter were killed. Given the fact that, as the sole Heir to the Potter line and titles, Harry had been Lord Henry James Potter from birth and had automatically become Duke Henry James Potter upon his father's death, the Goblin Nation had told Dumbledore that they held nothing to do with any Harry Potter and told him to leave. He'd come back a few days later with the key to Harry's trust vault from the Potters' cottage in Godric's Hollow and the Wizengamot documentation appointing him as Harry Potter's Magical Guardian, demanding access to his ward's vault so that he could properly see to his well being and they took the key off him, demanding to know where the infant that this key belonged to was located as they had entered into binding contracts with his parents to give him proper protection and education in the event of their demise. Dumbledore had refused to tell them anything and again demanded access to his ward's money… Gringott tried to look remorseful but failed dismally as he said that they'd gotten frustrated because Dumbledore's mental shields had been strong enough to prevent them getting Harry's location out of his head, so Dumbledore was literally thrown out that time, which had caused quite a furore with the Wizards, but Dumbledore had been using the so-called Goblin Liaison Office ever since then to try and force them to give him access to the Potter money. His constant failure to access any of the Potter vaults was the reason he'd created those companies and gave them exclusive rights to sell Harry Potter stories, but he had made a fortune from that.
Amelia nodded grimly at that. "Yes, that's something else we need to task Rhys, Fleamont and Tonks with once the current crisis is past, reclaiming all the money that Dumbledore and others have made off Harry's name for him, but for now, Harry, Hermione and the Lovegoods are safe here in preparation for moving them into Potter Manor with Harry, so I believe that our priority should be Sirius. He's safe while he's here in Gringotts, but he can't leave here until we clear his name….. I have to admit that I was as guilty as anyone of taking everything at face value in regard to his guilt, even though if I'd used an ounce of common sense I would have questioned how someone I knew to be like a brother to James could have turned on him like that…."
Gringott shook his head. "No Madam Bones, I believe that my guilt there is greater than your's, you see I was the official witness for the Goblin Nation of both the formal rituals for Sirius to become young Harry's Godfather, and the blood adoption to make him Sirius' Heir, and therefore the Secondary Heir to the House of Black….
"While I do not believe that you should feel too guilty about Sirius though Madam Bones, I do have a bone of contention to pick with you and the others in the Druids' Alliance…. Why did you allow Dumbledore to seal Lord and Lady Potter's wills, proclaim himself Harry's magical guardian and assign the House of Potter's voting proxies to himself?"
Alastor stepped in at this point, because Gringott was furious, and rather frightening.
"Because without the Potter families' votes, we were powerless against the so called Light and Dark Houses' voting blocks in the Wizengamot! The Potters held over half of our votes and we couldn't use them when the voting proxies associated with the Potter Family were in question. Perhaps if we'd known we could turn to Duke Black… No, that wouldn't have worked because Cygnus Black was voting the House of Black proxies at the time. At least Dumbledore didn't know to claim any more than the House of Potter votes, because that was only a fraction of the votes that the Potter Family controlled. Not even the fact that the Potter House Magic refused to accept his proxies so the Clerk of the Court has to manually add the proxy votes to the issue at hand was enough to stop it going through. He did try to claim the voting rights for some of the other Potter Family Houses when he found out about them, but without the shock of the Potter's deaths and the rejoicing over Voldemort's death to help him steamroller over any opposition we managed to put enough doubt in the other Wizengamot members' minds about what he was trying to do to get him rejected every time after that…."
They'd been so tied up in the argument that they'd forgotten about who else was in the room, so they were shocked when a small voice spoke up. "Riddle isn't dead… The protections that Harry's Mum presumably put over him destroyed Riddle's body, but he had created Horcruxes to anchor his soul to the mortal realm, so he can't really die until they're all destroyed, and one of them is in Harry!…."
Hermione stopped at that and turned to look at Luna. "At least it was, Luna, have you seen any sign of Riddle's soul fragment in the scar since we came back to this time?"
Luna pondered the question for a while and shook her head. "No. I hadn't been looking for it, because it was an ugly thing, but as far as I can see it's gone."
Hermione spun around to beg Uncle Gringott to get the healers to scan for any indication of a dark soul fragment in the curse scar on Harry's forehead, or anywhere else on him, and he barked some orders that had Balrog and Gamling running out of the room. Meanwhile the ones in the room were listening to Hermione, because she was working through the matter out aloud with Luna.
"It makes sense actually, you and I were both taken close enough to death to allow our future selves to take over our bodies, but we didn't actually die because Death won't release anyone who's come into his realm without a price being paid….. But Harry had a piece of Riddle's soul in him that he needed to get rid of…... so the Fates must have made some sort of deal with Death to accept Riddle's soul fragment as his price for letting Harry return…. But the question is, was it just that one soul fragment or do we need to round up and send on the rest of Riddle's soul fragments to prevent Death claiming Harry's soul again? Damnit… I'm not willing to take that risk with Harry's life! We know what and where most of them are so we'll just round them up and destroy the other soul fragments, though hopefully some of Uncle Gringott's people can find a way to release the soul fragments from Rowena's Diadem and Helga's Cup without destroying them, and possibly the Peverell Ring too, though that was killing the old bastard so I won't let Harry take any risks with it. Mind you getting to it was apparently a death defying situation too…. Maybe there's some way for the Head of a House to call their House's heirlooms to them without going through all that again? Uncle Gringott will know!"
She broke off her ruminating and turned to say "Unc…..", breaking off again because the others in the office were all standing there, staring at them. Gringott was giving her a Goblin grin as he said.
"That was a very interesting and enlightening hypothesis Hermione, it certainly made more sense than anything I or my people as you call them have managed to come up with since you and Harry arrived that night. There is indeed a process for the Head of a House to call missing heirlooms to them, but I would suggest that you wait until after you have claimed your titles and house rings to try it. Now I believe that you just said that you know what most at least of the Horcrux objects are and where to find them?"
Hermione nodded. "Yes Uncle Gringott…. As I said, one was in the curse scar on Harry's forehead, though hopefully that one is already gone…. The last time another one was Riddle's snake familiar, Nagini…."
Amelia broke in at that point. "Who's this Riddle that you two keep talking about?"
Gringott grinned and waved to Hermione to answer. "Tom Marvolo Riddle was the bastard son of Merope Gaunt, a Pureblood witch from a family who falsely claimed to be descended from Salazar Slytherin…. it was actually his Squib sister that they came from…. who was so inbred that she was more Squib than Witch, and Tom Riddle, the Muggle son of a local land owner who Merope used love potions on until he married her and got her pregnant. She thought the fact that she was carrying their baby would be enough to make him stay so she stopped feeding him love potions then, but as soon as he came out of the effect of the love potions he was so disgusted with her that he went home to his parents and they had the marriage annulled immediately."
"Merope died in childbirth and the boy was mistreated at the orphanage he was raised in so he was already bitter and twisted and using magic to hurt people by the time Albus Dumbledore, as the Deputy Headmaster at Hogwarts, came to offer him a place at Hogwarts. Dumbledore kept sending him back to the orphanage to be abused every holiday, so he had become what you know as Voldemort by the time he was sixteen….. When Harry comes out of his reconstruction he can show the memory of how Riddle demonstrated that I AM LORD VOLDEMORT is just an anagram of TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE… So all those haughty Pureblood Nobles have in fact willingly become the branded slaves of a common half blood bastard.… Actually, given the fact that Merope Gaunt was pretty much a Squib, you could argue that Riddle was actually a common Muggleborn bastard.... Anyway, Dumbledore was certain that Riddle turned Nagini into a horcrux in Albania in the early Nineties to protect the weak and vulnerable homunculus he created with Pettigrew's help to host his shade that had fled back to Albania after Harry destroyed his possessed host at Hogwarts in Ninety One….."
At that point Andromeda asked them to wait while she called Uncle Arcturus and have him come over, because she knew he would want to hear this. Arcturus lit up with unholy glee when he arrived and they told him the truth of Lord Voldemort's origins, but allowed himself to be persuaded to hold off on casting Bellatrix and Narcissa out of the House of Black and dissolving their marriages until they could make the most use of the disruption that would cause. With that, he apologised for the delay and asked Hermione to continue.
"Riddle's first horcrux was the diary that he had stored his memories and persona in as a Sixteen year old…. Oh no! The Basilisk! We need to get rid of it again and I won't let Harry be bitten to do it this time!"
Amelia broke in at that. "What Basilisk?"
"The thousand year old, eighty or ninety foot Basilisk that Salazar Slytherin originally created to guard his Chamber of Secrets under Black Lake, and get rid of anyone he didn't approve of in Hogwarts, and Harry killed with the Sword of Gryffindor in Ninety Two… Riddle had opened the Chamber of Secrets in the Forties and apparently somehow managed to convince it that he was the Heir of Slytherin and therefore its master because it did his bidding. It killed a Muggleborn student, Myrtle Warren, in one of the girls toilets in the dungeon before Riddle locked it back inside the Chamber of Secrets and framed Hagrid and his pet Acromantula Aragog for killing Myrtle. Riddle was Headboy at the time so the Headmaster and teachers didn't bother checking whether the half breed was guilty or not, they just snapped his wand, expelled him and sent him to Azkaban as a Fourteen or Fifteen year old on Riddle's word. Dumbledore would have known that Hagrid was innocent, but I doubt that was why he got him released and gave him a job as an apprentice gamekeeper at Hogwarts after he used the situation that led to the death of a student to depose Dippett as the Headmaster, it was probably so that he'd have a ready scapegoat on hand to blame for any crimes he couldn't cover up. The horcrux creation process reportedly requires a murder to be committed so Myrtle was probably killed to create the Diary Horcrux. Anyway, Harry used the basilisk fang that broke off in his arm to destroy the horcrux and Riddle's shade. At this point, Lucius Malfoy should be keeping that diary in the secret chamber full of prohibited dark objects he has hidden under the drawing room floor in Malfoy Manor."
The others were staring at her at that point, stuck on 'the basilisk fang that broke off in his arm' and Amelia blurted out. "How in Merlin's name did Harry survive being bitten by a Basilisk?"
"Dumbledore's phoenix, Fawkes, brought the sorting hat to Harry, he got the Sword of Gryffindor out of the hat, and after he was bitten Fawkes cried on the wound where the fang went into his arm. Phoenix tears have incredible healing powers and that was how he survived, but as I already said, I do not intend to let Harry get bitten again! If we can't come up with any other solution I'll…" Luna looked at her and she amended that. "We'll kill the bloody thing by collapsing the Chamber of Secrets on it!"
"Anyway, the Peverell Ring, which they claimed as the Gaunt Ring even though no Gaunt was ever accepted by it, is currently hidden under the floor in the Gaunt shack near Little Haggleton, but it's protected by several layers of parseltongue magic wards and large numbers of real snakes that have been attracted to the parseltongue magic. Harry's a parseltongue so he might be able to help with that if necessary, but I don't want him going anywhere near that place, that's why I was asking about calling heirlooms to us. There's also a curse on the ring that almost killed Dumbledore but it's got the Resurrection Stone in it…."
She saw the disbelieving looks on most faces in the room. "Oh the Deathly Hallows are real alright! As I said, the Resurrection Stone is in the Peverell Ring, Dumbledore has the Elder Wand and the Cloak of Invisibility is a Potter Heirloom, which Dumbledore also has at the moment because it was confiscated off James in Seventh Year and when he asked for it to be returned when he left Hogwarts, Dumbledore claimed that it had disappeared, but he used it to try and curry Harry's favour on his first Christmas at Hogwarts by returning it to him with a cock and bull story about his father leaving it with him for safe keeping."
Gringott spoke up at that point. "I do not know about the Resurrection Stone or the Elder Wand, but the Potter's Invisibility Cloak is certainly real, our people who had a chance to examine it said that they have ever seen another one which was anywhere near as effective." He waved at Hermione to continue and she nodded.
"We're not a hundred percent sure about which order the next two Horcruxes were created in as they were apparently created around the same time from two objects stolen from the same woman, one was probably Salazar Slytherin's Wife's or Mother's Locket that Merope pawned when she was pregnant with Tom Junior and the other's Helga Hufflepuff's Cup. The Blacks' crazy Elf Kreature in the Black's London Townhouse in 12 Grimmauld Place is either wearing the locket or has it in his cupboard…."
She stopped at that point and looked at Gringott. "Did the people who went to Privet Drive find Harry's Room?"
Gringott nodded grimly and the others could see that there was something in that so they asked what she was talking about. Hermione was just as grim as she said. "Harry was kept locked inside the cupboard under the stairs whenever he wasn't working or at school. At some point he scratched Harry's Room above the door on the inside because that was the only room he ever knew, even though there were at least two or three empty bedrooms upstairs….."
"Anyway, Kreacher will either be wearing the locket or it will be in his cupboard. Harry may be able to call it to him as a Slytherin Heirloom, if so perhaps Kreacher won't be quite so crazy when Sirius has to go to the townhouse, though I doubt it because Sirius' crazy mother's portrait has gotten even crazier since she died and Kreacher hangs on her every word….. Part of that could be because he's still punishing himself for failing Sirius' little brother Regulus though. Regulus became a Death Eater, but he saw the error of his ways and tried to make amends, taking the Horcrux Locket from where Riddle stashed it and replacing it with a facsimile to stop Riddle using it for whatever he intended. The poison he had to drink to retrieve the horcrux locket was killing him, even though it was the inferi who actually killed him in the end, and as he was dying he made Kreacher promise to get the Horcrux Locket away from there and find some way to destroy it, but he couldn't… Those bloody things are very hard to destroy…. so Kreacher has been punishing himself for failing his beloved Master Regulus ever since…."
She broke off as she suddenly realised that Regulus' grandfather was there listening to this story and when she looked at him Arcturus was in tears, but he shook his head. "No, thank you for telling me that my grandson was willing to give his life to do the right thing in the end. We all make mistakes, it is how we deal with those mistakes that measures us and now I can remember him proudly. You weren't wrong about his mother though, that foul witch poisoned my son and grandson's minds, only Sirius managed to escape her… Alastor, would you do me the honour of accompanying me to the townhouse and helping me recover that locket? Kreacher wasn't a bad Elf when he was young, so I believe that Lady Hermione is correct, he is being corrupted by that thing and Walburga's portrait, so if we can remove both of them and destroy the locket as Regulus charged him to do, Kreacher may have a chance of recovering from the sorry state he is currently in."
Alastor nodded and promised to go with him, then waved at Hermione to continue.
"The other one created at that time was made from Helga Hufflepuff's Cup. It is in the Lestrange Vault here but I'm not sure about the best way to retrieve it. It would probably be simplest for Luna to call it to her as Head of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Hufflepuff, but it's a dark object of an order high enough to make the fines you could legitimately levy on the Lestranges for storing it in a Gringotts vault wipe them out, especially as they also set nasty and lethal curses on it in there. I'll leave you to decide about that Uncle Gringott…."
Gringott's eyes gleamed at the idea of cleaning out the Lestranges and the look that passed between him and Arcturus said that they would be having discussions on combining forces to ensure the House of Lestrange was destroyed.
"The next one was made from Rowena Ravenclaw's Diadem. Riddle conned the Grey Lady at Hogwarts, who was actually Rowena's daughter Helena, into telling him where she hid the Diadem when she stole it and ran away to Albania because she was pregnant to the man who was to become the Bloody Baron, the Slytherin House Ghost. Riddle came back to Hogwarts when he returned from Albania, supposedly to apply for the Defense Against The Dark Arts position, but once again, instead of doing anything about the one who even he admitted had turned truly dark by then, Dumbledore just entertained him for a while and then let him leave. While he was there, Riddle hid Rowena's Diadem in the Room of Requirements, what the Elves call the Come and Go Room, on the Seventh Floor and it's still there. He reportedly also put the curse on the DADA position when Dumbledore turned him down. If I can call the Diadem to me I will, because I don't want any of us to get caught in Hogwarts..."
"All of the Horcruxes are very dark objects, so dark you don't want to be in the same room as them, and they're mostly loaded with strong compulsions to make people do whatever is required to trigger them, so however we retrieve them we need to have containers that can screen anyone from their effects ready to lock them away in…."
She looked at Arcturus and Alastor. "You'll want to have one of those containers for the locket." Alastor nodded to say that he'd gotten the message.
By the time she finished, Gringott was obviously making plans and everyone else except for Luna (who it wasn't news to) was looking very disturbed about what Hermione had told them.
Gringott arranged for a suitable container for the locket and the two wizards went off. Alastor came back with the locket and a disturbing story.
Arcturus' intention had been to remove Walburga's portrait and store it in one of the Black family vaults, because magical portraits were regarded as an extension of the witch or wizard, so destroying their portrait was regarded as a form of killing the witch or wizard, but she'd gloated that his line was all gone now that her biggest disappointment, her eldest son, was dead. She sealed her fate though when she said. "They were all a disappointment! Regulus turned on his master, and your fool son refused to pay compensation for his son's failure, he actually said that he was proud of his son for standing up for what he believed in… then he was too weak to take his proper punishment for that defiance, he hardly lasted fifteen minutes before he gave out! And your daughter was incapable of producing anything to carry on your line so it's dead now! At least the House of Black will be able to get proper leadership when you finally go…."
Even a crazy witch like that should have been able to recognise the towering rage that was building in Arcturus at that but she continued to taunt him, confident that he would never go against the mores of acceptable behaviour in magical society, right until he calmly drew his wand and obliterated the portrait with fiendfyre.
Alastor shook his head. "I've never seen such a controlled application of fiendfyre, there wasn't a trace left of her portrait or its frame, but he'd kept it from doing any more than scorch the wall behind it! So the primary corrupting influences are gone from the Black Townhouse now, and Arcturus has charged the Elf with moving every single dark object and magical portrait in the house down to the basement and making the house liveable again, like it was before he turned it over to Orion and that witch."
Sirius came out of therapy after a week, but the healers said that Harry would be there for at least another week, so Sirius was told that he would be spending that time with Andi and his Grandfather, learning how to act the part of the Heir to the titles of Duke Black and Head of the Most Noble and Most Ancient House of Black, because that was who he'd be in the court room and they needed him to do his part. He found that crying with his grandfather over Regulus' and his father's fates, but agreeing that it felt good to be able to remember them with pride now, made it possible to bond with his grandfather at last.
They also spent a good deal of time planning how they would strike back against the Death Eaters in court. It was a given that Bellatrix, Narcissa and her son Draco were all being banished from the House of Black and Bellatrix and Narcissa's marriages were being annulled, with all titles, holdings, properties, moneys and belongings that were rightfully the House of Black's being reclaimed, along with any and all moneys accrued from what rightfully belonged to the House of Black, but for Bellatrix, they had to ensure that Helga Hufflepuff's cup and any other dark objects of a high enough order to incur fines would remain as Lestrange property so that Gringotts could strip as much as possible from the House of Lestrange, and for Narcissa, the team of Aurors and Unspeakables going in with the Elves reclaiming the Black property needed to find and get into the secret chamber under the drawing room floor so that they could discover the dark objects there and use them against Lucius, and spirit the Horcrux Diary away in a suitable container before Lucius Malfoy had a chance to get away from the court room and block them.
They also had to ensure that Barty Crouch Senior was held in the court room while they raided his house and captured the supposedly dead Barty Crouch Junior. Between reparations made to Sirius and the House of Longbottom, there would be nothing left of the Houses of Crouch or Lestrange and Arcturus would call for the dissolution of both Houses to remove their stain from Magical Britain. Arcturus agreed when Sirius suggested that the House of Black didn't need more titles, so any titles belonging to the Houses of Lestrange or Crouch would be forfeited to the House of Longbottom, which would help strengthen their house.
After a few days of this, Andi actually had to force Sirius to come away for his etiquette and politics lessons, because he was quite enjoying spending time with his grandfather.
Harry, Hermione and Luna didn't need etiquette and politics lessons, because the Fates had given them the information they needed for their task when they were sent back, and after the Goblins' healers removed all of the blocks that Dumbledore had put on Harry he had access to everything.
That wasn't all though, because he was making plans with the girls and Gringott between therapy sessions and he and the girls had agreed to accept all of the titles they were entitled to, and also make the maximum number of magical betrothal contracts they could between their houses, with blood ties, to get the maximum possible benefit from the growth, power and knowledge boosts they received from the Family Magics and Knowledge.
As a result of that, by the time Harry and the girls came out of the reconstruction process, they still looked like children on the outside, but it was more like ten or eleven year olds than seven or eight year olds because they were all close to five feet tall…. and they were far more ready magically and knowledge-wise to take on the magical world than Sirius and most of the others.
For that matter, they had more real world experience of the ravages of a dirty war and dirty politics than most of the family too because even after they'd defeated Riddle, the traditional Purebloods who were desperate to stay in power had passed laws to disenfranchise anyone but them. Hermione had quite possibly been the only Muggleborn in the Ministry of Magic who held anything more important than a base level clerk's job, and the only way the Head of the Department of Mysteries managed to give her that job was by playing on the fact that she was a key member of the Golden Trio, and it was only the fact that he was Harry Potter that allowed Harry's advancement to come even close to his achievements as a Half-blood, while Purebloods who were barely doing anything more than turning up for work were being promoted over all the Half-blood Aurors who were risking life and limb on a daily basis taking down the remnants of the Death Eaters and their minions and closing the cases.
They hadn't really shared what their world had become with the others, but it was bad enough that they were prepared to do whatever they had to to prevent it happening again….