Disclaimer: I own nothing, and I make no money. It all belongs to J.K Rowling.

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Harry had almost forgotten where he was when he woke up the next morning, then it all came back to him. He was in his room in Grimmauld Place. He was about to start jumping on the bed, something that would have gotten him buried in the backyard at the Dursleys, but someone knocked on his door.

"Come in!" Harry said the jumping would have to be postponed.

Sirius opened the door and stepped into the room. "Hey kid, first thing in the morning as promised. Time for your Occlumency lesson."

"What? I didn't think you were serious?"

"Harry, are you feeling well? Of course, I'm Sirius! I'm your godfather, remember?!"

"You're hilarious," Harry deadpanned.

"No, I'm SIRIUS!" Sirius ran over and put a hand on Harry's forehead. Harry's pushed him away, fighting a smile.

"Okay, okay, why do we have to do Occlumency right now?"

"Because when you wake up your heart rate is slow, you're relaxed, a little sleepy, this is the best time to calm your mind and work on your shields."

"Okay, makes sense," Harry dragged himself from out of the covers and sat cross-legged on the bed. Sirius sat down and did the same.

"Now, how Legilimency works is that the person attempting to peer into your thoughts will try to get you to think about what he or she wants to know. For example, McGonagall asks you if you finished your homework, you think 'oh no, I forgot', then she plucks that thought from your mind and you get a zero. But, it doesn't work well if you are distracted because you aren't focusing on what they want to know. That's why they will try to make eye contact, to have your full attention. Now the best way to defend against this is to clear your mind of all thoughts so that there are none to read."

"You do this by meditating. You practice emptying your mind and pulling your thoughts in. Like everything, the more you do it, the easier it becomes. That's why abused children have an easier time learning Occlumency. It wouldn't do for an angry or vengeful thought to appear on their face. They push them down, take deep breaths to slow anger, and they don't dwell on the hurt."

Harry nodded, unfortunately, he could relate to what Sirius was telling him. He himself had to tamp down on murderous thoughts on occasion, like whenever Aunt Marge opened her mouth.

"So, we take a deep breath to a count of five and we release to a count of five. Do not bother trying to think of nothing, you'll end up thinking of everything. Just focus on your heartbeat. We'll do this for fifteen minutes, and then we'll have some breakfast."

"Sound great."

Harry closed his eye and listened to Sirius count. He tried to focus on his breathing, but he had to stop to scratch his knee, then he shifted to get more comfortable, then he started thinking about what Mrs. Weasley might have made for breakfast. About seven minutes in, he finally settled. He could feel his heart beat slowing down, he hadn't felt this peaceful in a lon-

"Okay, kid. Time for breakfast!" Sirius leaped off the bed.

"What?! But I was starting to get into it." Harry complained.

"You did great, Harry. I fidgeted for three sessions and the fourth time I fell asleep. Don't worry, we'll meditate again the day after tomorrow."

"Why not tomorrow?"

Sirius gave him a strange look. "You have your hearing tomorrow, you're going to have to get there early, just in case Fudge tries something."

"Oh yeah, the hearing," Harry said a bit glumly.

"Don't worry, kid. If they expel you, you can always come live with me," Sirius said it as though Harry would rather chose death, but couldn't he think of anything better. If he was expelled, not that he would be, it was nice to know that there was someone who wanted him.

"Thanks, Sirius."

Sirius got that embarrassed look again and towed him to the bathroom. "Go on and get ready, kid."

Harry went into the bathroom and closed the door. He looked to his right and noticed that there was another door in here. He crossed the room and went through the door into…

…into a closet! A closet filled with clothes for every occasion. Harry snagged the nearest shirt, 'This looks expensive! How did Sirius get all this?!' Harry could hardly believe it, no more wearing Dudley's rags! He hurriedly put together an outfit and did his morning routine.

Harry left his room and went to join everyone in the kitchen. When he strode in, the mouths of half the people at the table dropped open.

"Ah, so you finally stumbled on my other present." Sirius was looking pretty smug.

Hermione, who had finally closed her mouth, said "Wow, Harry, you look brilliant!"

A look of jealously flashed across Ron's face, it might have been for Hermione's compliment or for Harry's new expensive clothes, but it was gone by the time Harry took a seat next to Sirius.

"Thanks, Hermione," Harry said, he turned to Sirius, "How did you get all of this?!"

Mrs. Weasley interrupted, "SIRIUS?! You left the house?! Dumbledore told-"

"Actually! It was me who bought the clothes for Harry," Lupin stated, before Molly could get started, "Sirius gave me the money and told me to go wild. I hope I chose well, Harry."

Harry started to say that his choices were wonderful, but Molly couldn't help herself and said "Where did Sirius get the money!?"

Sirius gave her a filthy look and it dawned on her that that might have been a rude question. Slightly apologetic, she snapped her mouth shut and started to serve breakfast.

Harry leaned over to Sirius and whispered, "But seriously, where did you get the money?"

Sirius chuckled, "I was never given a trial or formally charged, so I still have access to my vault at Gringotts and I can use the loot box."

"The loot box?" Harry whispered back.

"Yes, I write down the amount of money I want, I stamp my family crest on it using my blood as ink, and I place it in the loot book. An hour later, I open the box and I have my gold. You can only remove up to 500 galleons a week, but it does the job. A few weeks of withdrawals and my godson has himself a new wardrobe."

"Why have I never heard of it?"

"You have to be at least a Most Ancient house to have a crest, like you are, and you need a crest to get a loot box. The Weasleys aren't a Most Ancient house, and your other roommates are a half-blood and a muggle-born, they wouldn't know too much about that. Longbottom would, but knowing his grandmother, she probably doesn't allow him within sneezing distance of their crest stamp. If he lost it, someone could do a lot of damage with it."

"So, I have one too?"

"It should be in your family vault in Gringotts, as the last of your line you have the right to claim it anytime."

"What are you two whispering about?" Hermione said from right next to him. He didn't notice her sidled up to him, but he quickly said, "Nothing, just thanking him for the clothes. Oh, and thanks Professor Lupin."

"It's just Remus, Harry," Lupin said patiently.

Harry nodded and started spooning breakfast onto his plate.

"So Harry," Hermione continued, "We have a break from cleaning today. I figured you, me and Ron could properly catch up, and we could go over what you're going to say at the trial tomorrow."

"Yeah, sure," Harry said between bites, "That's a good idea. Oh…Uncle Remus?" said Harry. Remus looked up, startled.

"Un...Uncle?" Remus was surprised, surprised but pleased.

"I don't consider the hungry hippo my family; you were the family that my parents choose. Is it okay that I call you that?" Harry was suddenly uncertain.

"Of course it is! What did you want to ask me?"

"The portkey that you used to bring me to headquarters, what spell did you use? Can you teach it to me?"

Arthur Weasley decided to cut in, because two of his children were looking very interested in the answer to that question. "Portkeys are strictly regulated by the Ministry, Harry."

Hermione looked alarmed, "Then why-!"

"They are regulated, but not for high-ranking members of the Ministry-"

Ron interrupted, "That's not-"

"Son, if I could finish speaking," Arthur said good-naturedly. Ron turned pink and mumbled an apology. "People of high rank, like Dumbledore, can make portkeys as needed in case of an emergency, like an attempted assignation or kidnapping."

"Exactly," Remus picked up from there, "Moody's plan involved more people and flying all the way to Headquarters. But Arthur suggested that we just ask Dumbledore for a portkey. Sorry, Harry, I can't teach you. As we learned with the Dementors, the Ministry doesn't care if you are just trying to protect yourself."

Harry sighed, they were right unfortunately. What kind of government was so rotten that they punished their people for protecting themselves? He obviously had to do something about that as well. 'After Voldemort, overthrowing the government is child's play.' Harry shook away his thoughts of world domination. 'One thing at a time, Potter."

Cognizant of Mrs. Weasley watchful eye, he leaned over to Sirius and said, "I really need to talk to you later." Sirius nodded, he also noticed Molly's unrelenting stare.

"Are you ready, Harry?" Hermione and Ron had finished their breakfast and were getting up.

Harry wolfed down the last of his breakfast and stood up. He followed his friends to a part of the house that he hadn't seen.

"It's this way to the library. Sirius is so lucky; there are hundreds of books on just about every subject." Harry could hear the excitement in Hermione voice, 'She's probably ready to move in here permanently'. "There are plenty of law books, there has to be something in there that can help you. There is no way that what Minister Fudge is doing is legal. Not to mention the Prophet!" Harry let her words wash over him. Harry was peacefully ambling along when he saw him!

"Oh, that's Kreacher. He's–" Hermione cut off when he saw the rage and loathing on Harry's face. "Harry! What's wrong?!"

Something was going on with Harry and Hermione did not like mysteries, she would get to the bottom of it. "Do…do you know him?"

"What?" Harry got himself under control. "No, I just…that filth that he keeps muttering."

"He doesn't mean it, Harry. He's old and not feeling well." Ron snorted, "I keep telling Sirius to free him but-"

"He has a fit if Sirius even thinks the C-word, Hermione. When will you accept that House Elves Don't. Want. Freedom!" Ron said impatiently.

Hermione huffed. "But Dobby-!"

"Dobby was horribly abused, Hermione," Harry intervened, before an argument could break out, "That was a different situation." Hermione harrumphed, and stomped down the hall, she threw open a set of double doors and vanished into the room.

Ron gave a long-suffering sigh. "Come on, mate." He trailed Hermione into the room and Harry followed suit.

'Wow,' was Harry first thought. The library had huge ceilings that were filled to the rafters with shelves, shelves that were chock-full to the brim with dusty tomes. There were squashy armchairs scattered all over the room. He could hear Hurricane Hermione rampaging from somewhere to his left so he figured that was where Ron disappeared to.

He followed the noise and entered what must be a lounge. The area was carpeted and had comfy-looking chairs forming a semi-circle on the rug, there was a small table in the middle of the lounge and Hermione was currently slamming books on it. "She must be cheesed off, never seen her be that rough with a book before.' Harry sat down in one of the chairs.

"These books should help you, Harry." Hermione picked the first book off the top of the pile and buried her nose in it, not saying another word to them. Ron and Harry each went to grab a book when the twins popped in. Ron yelped and dropped the book on his toe.

The twins ignored his cursing and converged on Harry. "Harry! What did Sirius say last night? If Mum didn't want you to know, then it must be good." Fred probed.

"We talked about the Order, you know, just stuff." Harry was feeling pretty smug to finally be the one who could hold out information. He indicated for them to sit so he could fill them in.

The twins each grabbed a seat and Ron leaned in to hear. Hermione was 'reading' without moving her eyes, so Harry told them what he knew.

"Guarding something?" George said, "Something that starts with a P."

"A pistol?!" Guessed Fred.

"No, a pernach!?

"A pickaxe!"

"No!" They chorused at the same time. "A penis!"

"You can bugger You-Know-Who to death!" Fred explained. Harry looked a bit green so Ron saved him.

"Guys, Harry's hearing is tomorrow. Just help us look over these books."

Thankfully they each settled down with a book, and there was silence in the library. They were still reading without success an hour later, so Fred offered to get everyone Butterbeers from the kitchen. Drink in hand, Harry continued reading Ancient and Noble Laws, when he stumbled on…'this is…perfect!…This could solve all my problems! For once the bias of the Wizarding World to could work in my favor.' Harry closed the book, he didn't want to say anything in case it didn't work. Like Sirius said, the Ministry wasn't a friend to him, and it wouldn't do to get everyone's hopes up.

"Why don't we take a break, guys? I need to talk to Sirius about something anyway." Everyone was thankful for the reprieve and dropped their books, everyone except for Hermione of course. She waved them away and continued reading. Harry left the library and went in search of Sirius. When he passed by a muttering Kreacher, he made sure to give him his filthiest glare. Seeing the look, Kreacher closed his mouth and actually looked a bit frightened. He quickly scurried away from Harry. Harry smirked and continued his search.

Harry luckily found him alone in the drawing room off the kitchen.

"Sirius," Harry said, "Do you think we could talk now?" Sirius pointed at the chair across from him, but Harry said, "Shouldn't we go somewhere private?"

Sirius shook his head. "It'll make Molly more suspicious if we disappear. Don't worry, I'll perform a charm that makes it sound like we are talking of something unimportant."

Harry sat down and Sirius did the charm. When Sirius gave him a nod, he told him everything, about the package on his bed, the letter, his suspicions about Dumbledore, and the fact that there might be more people he couldn't trust. When he finished, Sirius was silent for a long time. 'Maybe he doesn't believe me.'

When Sirius finally spoke he said, "Holy poop on toast, kid!" Harry cracked a grin, "Okay, first we have to ward those books to high heaven. Did you tell anyone else about this?" Harry shook his head, "Good, don't. This is serious stuff, if we don't know who to trust, then we can't risk them falling into the wrong hands." Just the thought of that frightened Harry, he felt guilty about not being honest with his friends, but it was true, he needed to know who to trust first.

"Let's not waste time, we'll do it right now." Harry led Sirius to his room and showed him his hiding place. Sirius put every undetectable ward on the books that he could think of, and then steered Harry out of his room. "Go and spend time with your friends, I have to think more about this."

Harry did what he was told, and left to find Ron. 'I might as well let him beat me at chess.' The day passed quickly after that. Harry played chess and other games with Ron. Hermione only looked up from her books to eat, use the bathroom, and drill hundreds of tips into Harry's head. The twins did work on their secretive projects in their room. Ginny was staying with Bill and hadn't come back yet, and the rest of the adults were doing whatever adults did.

At dinner that night, everyone was telling Harry not to worry and that he would do fine at his hearing. Mr. Weasley was taking him in early and promised to keep him occupied. Harry thanked everyone, but inside he was totally confident. He wished everyone goodnight after dinner and went up to his room. After picking out a suitable outfit for the next day, he collapsed into his bed. His last thought before he passed out was that Fudge had better be…

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