Harry Potter and the Magical Guardian

by Sursr

What if Lily and Petunia had been able to reconcile while Lily was still early in school? If the two remained close until Lily was forced to go into hiding? What impact would that have on a certain headmaster's plan to have a young Harry enter the magical world hoping for an escape? What if Harry knew a lot about his mother, and wanted to be like her rather than his famous father?

4. Chapter 3: Ms Peony Acacia

Ms. Peony Acacia

19 Jan, 1991

Petunia held tightly to Harry and Hermione's arms as they strode down Diagon Alley on their way to the shining white facade of Gringotts Bank. Last week she, the Grangers, and Harry had come out and performed some experiments on finding the Alley. They'd found that once Hermione had guided both Petunia, and Harry, to the door of the Leaky Cauldron they could find it again without assistance. The group agreed to wait a week and see if Dumbledore contacted the Dursleys about it before risking going into the Alley itself.

The Dursleys and Grangers had spent each of the last three weekends together after Harry, Dudley, and Hermione hit off so well that first night. The Dursleys were happy to know they'd have an extra connection to Harry in the magical world that would keep him grounded, and the Grangers were ecstatic to see their daughter coming out of her shell that first weekend get-together, and making friends. They were even more pleased the second weekend, when Dudley and Harry had a large group of other friends come around as well and they all included Hermione in not only their study session but also the snowball fight that broke out once most of the kids had grown tired of books.

In just three weeks, Hermione had gone from 'the new girl' to Harry's new best friend. They had talked on the phone after dark several times, Hermione usually asking Harry to compare something she'd read to his mother's notes, while Harry suggested fantasy novels he thought were closer to real than most. She had avoided fantasy all her life, especially after learning magic was real, since it seemed silly to read about fake magic, but Harry and Dudley explaining their game 'real magic or fake' had her going back behind them offering new opinions. She was even looking into healing at Harry's urging, considering it a great way to both respect her parents and also follow after her new idol, Lily Potter.

After no issues had cropped up despite loitering directly outside the Leaky Cauldron for half an hour the week before, the Grangers had agreed to let their daughter accompany Harry and his aunt when they went, with Harry covering his scar with makeup and wearing a hat. The two adult Grangers had a few backed up appointments due to spending the last several weekends effectively on vacation, so this seemed like a perfect situation to them.

The moment that the old barkeep, Tom, had let them through the archway (and it was so nice to see that the old man was still running the bar like he was the last time Petunia had been there), she'd had to hold tightly to both children as they immediately began pulling towards the bookstore.

"We might as well go to Gringotts first children. I can get some magical money, and then we can shop at more than just the stores that accept pounds." Petunia chided the youngsters.

The steps of Gringotts were as grand and white as ever before. Petunia nodded politely to the goblins standing guard at the entrance, then had to admonish the children not to stare. Goblins, from her memory, were a rather surly lot. Angry and impatient, but always honest if you were.

When they made it inside they found the bank relatively empty, so they were able to walk right up to a teller, who Petunia spoke to, "Greetings, teller. I am here to enquire about the status of my account with your bank. I have been away from the magical world for nine years or so, so I'm not sure if its even still functional to be honest."

The goblin looked up from his counter, most of the 'lost vaults' belonging to squibs hiding from the war had been claimed or closed in the almost-decade since the defeat of the dark lord.

"I am Teller Griphook, may I have the name of the account please?" Griphook knew to ask the question that way. Many of the 'lost vaults' had belonged to squibs or muggleborns that used fake names to hide from the Death Eaters.

"Ms. Peony Acacia. I'm here with my son and his good friend." Petunia had stressed the ambiguous honorific every time she'd corresponded with the bank, and secretly liked to think that it was a special code between her and the goblins. She'd even wrote the 'Ms.' with extra flourish when dealing with them by mail. It wasn't that she wanted to imply anything about Vernon, but she felt it added one more layer of mystery between herself and the persona.

Griphook dropped his pen as he stared at the humans in front of him. A woman trying to claim the second richest of the lost vaults comes into the bank with the Potter heir in tow? Sure, his scar was covered by muggle makeup, but there was no way the boy in front of him wasn't Harry Potter.

"Ms. Acacia," Griphook did his best to smile as his mind contemplated all the myriad ways his head could be adorning the front entrance if he messed this up, "If you would, please come with me into a conference room. For the first five years things were handled as had been arranged. However, since then the account has been inactive on account of your long… silence."

"Very well." Petunia gestured to both children to precede her through the booth after Griphook opened it.

"Ms. Acacia, are you sure you wish to have the young muggleborn witch with you when we meet?" Griphook hoped that she would understand the implication of singling out only one of the two as muggleborn. He couldn't come out and say that he knew who her guest really was, even if it was mostly quiet there were still other wizards in the bank.

Petunia regarded the two children; glancing at Harry's scar, barely visible, before she nodded, "I think I can trust these two." Griphook nodded and led the trio through a door behind him into a hallway. Five minutes of navigating corridors later, they were in a smallish conference room with a rectangular table.

"Can I get you any refreshments?" Griphook asked as the two children took seats, the woman stood behind them protectively. So she's familiar enough to know we aren't usually this accommodating. "I'll need to perform a Blood Verification Ritual to confirm that you are the woman who originally used the alias 'Ms. Peony Acacia' to open this account. This test is important because, per magical treaty, since the vault hasn't been accessed in five years it has been rendered 'silent'. Only squib and muggle accounts are treated this way, in case you were wondering." the goblin gave a meaningful look at Harry, "If the original vault owner doesn't claim it after being rendered silent, and before the ten year mark, then we are bound by treaty to turn over the contents of the vault to the Ministry of Magic."

Petunia frowned and paled considerably, and not only at the prospect of her money being seized by the government. She had been assured when she set up the account that they would only need blood again under strange circumstances, "I assume by the name that blood is required for this 'ritual'? How much are we talking about here?"

"We will need two drops of your blood to confirm your identity, it would have been three had you been fully magical." As he spoke he clicked his fingers and a gold plate with arcane looking runes inscribed on it appeared on the table right beside a small silver knife.

"Oh, well that's no problem at all I suppose." She responded while holding her hand out for the goblin and squeezing her eyes closed. The dagger stung when it pricked her hand, but as soon as two drops had spilled onto the gold plate the cut healed itself. Petunia opened her eyes to see the two drops of blood swirling around the plate, causing different runes to glow and dim. After the drops regrouped at the center and stopped moving Griphook touched the knife to the blood, then carried it over to a sheet of parchment. When the blood flowed into the parchment it began organizing into letters and words. Finally, Griphook took the finished product, nodded, and looked back to the humans in the room, clicking his fingers again to make a file appear in his hands.

"Your identity has been verified Ms. Peony Acacia.," Petunia smiled internally when she heard the inflection on the name, "Would you like to continue using that alias for your dealings with Gringotts Bank?" The goblin tried his best to keep the greed out of his voice.

"Yes, for now I think that would be safest, though I believe I will find myself able to frequent the Alley slightly more often these days. You can expect to see more of me in the future."

"Very well, Ma'am. Then allow me to be the first to congratulate you on reclaiming your fortune." The goblin said merrily.

"My what?" Petunia's deadpan voice drew the goblin up short, so to speak. "I know I put too much of my money into the account since I didn't know I was going to lose access, but I would hardly call my parent's estate a 'fortune'."

"Ma'am. You are the richest, independently wealthy, squib in all of Magical Britain." The goblin's brain began to run as he took in the blank stare from all three humans. "Before you went strangely silent, your vault held just shy of thirteen-thousand galleons. From what I understand looking at the file here you put a large portion of your inheritance into the bank, during the height of the magical war."

"My sister married rich," Petunia interrupted, Griphook raised an eyebrow, "she insisted I have her half of our parent's estate. I put almost all of it here, since my sister said this was the safest place in Britain and I could use the account here to deal with Diagon Alley by mail."

"At that time," He nodded and continued, "The value of the Galleon was falling, at its lowest the conversion rate for Pounds to Galleons was ten to one. At the time of your largest deposits in late '79 the rate was twelve to one. Now, with the magical economy once again booming, the conversion rate is twenty-two to one." Griphook waited a moment, as the woman needed to sit down after that revelation

"In addition, your account was only authorized for a couple specific investments, many other non-pureblood accounts were basically fleeced dry by the ministry to help pay for war damages. But they used transaction fees and the like in the magical world only. Your stock in Muggle 'telecom' companies, and a 'computer' company in America,... Microsoft?" he slowed down and stumbled over the unfamiliar words, "made quite an impact on your bottom line. Between those dividends and interest on the account itself, your vault sits at 57,506 Galleons, plus the one-hundred, each, Sickles and Knuts you requested always be available when the vault was arranged. The timing of those companies, particularly the last one 'taking off' as they say, during that time, coupled with the rapidly rising value of the galleon in the wake of the war as business returned from overseas led to your account doing rather well for itself."

Petunia was stunned… she sat in the chair between the kids, staring at the goblin who'd just told her she was richer than she'd ever imagined. The money she'd lost to the magical world had increased well over ten times! It was up to Hermione to finally vocalize it.

"That's over a million pounds." She whispered.

"Indeed," the goblin responded, "You may be pleased to learn, Ms. Acacia, that with the end of the magical war, Gringotts has found reason to branch further into the Muggle world. While you're here today, we can set up an account for you with Lloyd's Banking Group that will allow you to convert and withdraw your Galleons as Pounds whenever you find yourself needing non magical funds. You would only need walk into any of their locations and inform a teller that you are there on Gringotts business. Our conversion rates are also much more favorable to an account of your esteem."

"Oh, that would be helpful. I wish that had been an option a decade ago," The goblin slid a sheet of parchment to her, then clicked his fingers once more, causing a quill and inkwell to appear on the table, "I had forgotten you used such… old methods… on this side." She took the quill and glanced over the terms of the Muggle Accounts Contract before signing.

"I would also like to withdraw a bit of money while we're here for shopping in the Alley before we head home. I'm dreadfully short supplied on potions ingredients these days." Petunia smiled at the inside joke.

"That will not be a problem, though… We had to move your vault to one on a lower level than you likely remember due to its increased value. We will also need to create a proper key for the new vault as well before we go. Part of the security of the mid-level vaults like yours is now is that the vault owner must physically remove Galleons from the vault if they come into the Bank in person. After all, this is the only means of withdrawal with no limit. Unfortunately, this will require two more drops of your blood."

"That makes sense… we have a bit of shopping I was looking forward to, if we could go to my vault then?" Petunia wasn't sure what exactly the goblin meant by 'vault'. But she was imagining something from Indiana Jones based on her experience.

Griphook looked awkwardly between Petunia and the children without rising, nothing ventured nothing gained, or so he thought the human idiom went.

"Forgive me if I'm being to forward, but do you not wish to consult with Account Manager Axegut?... The Potter account manager?" He inclined his head towards Harry, "Muggle techniques of illusion will fool most wizards, but we goblins can smell a disguise. I knew who he was the moment you all walked up to my till."

Griphook took a deep breathe, if this blew up in his face now he was worse than dead, but something didn't seem right about this situation. How did the owner of a lost vault find herself in the company of Harry Potter? She even called the boy her son! And neither having contacted the magical world in all that time?

"Ms. Acacia, may I ask how you came to know the Potter Heir? How are you connected to young Harry Potter?" Griphook gave his best toothless smile, trying hard to show that he wasn't trying to be an enemy. "Within Gringotts, the custodianship of the Potter Estate has been in a state of confusion. Chief Warlock Albus Dumbledore declared himself Harry Potter's magical guardian in 1981, but from what I understand there was supposed to be a different guardian. The Accounts Manager was furious, but the Wizengamot had the Potter will sealed to allow Dumbledore guardianship. I was wondering if you could shed some light on the situation."

Petunia looked to the children at her sides, this conversation is starting to sound too adult for them, "I still want to go by my alias outside this conversation… I am Petunia Dursley, formerly Evans, the sister of Lily Potter. I am Harry's maternal aunt and have raised him since his parents died. Now, I have another question. What is a magical guardian?"

"A magical guardian is the same as a muggle guardian. The person who acts as protector, and important-decision-maker for a minor. In the case of a young witch or wizard with one or more magical parents, the two roles are combined in the parents. The distinction only matters for those magical children who are the first in their family, such as the young miss here, or magical orphans raised by muggle family, such as Heir Potter. In those situations, the magical guardian has full decision-making power over the child in all situations that happen in the magical world; and the Muggle one has that power in the Muggle world."

"By default," Griphook continued, "all muggleborn children are the magical wards of the Headmaster of Hogwarts, also Albus Dumbledore at the moment, until they are sorted into a house. At that point, the Headmaster cedes guardianship to the student's Head of House. Though Dumbledore has relegated his default guardian status to his deputy, Minerva Mcgonagall for every child since the seventies until one special case." Griphook looked meaningfully at Harry, who squirmed under the scrutiny.

She didn't seem like she really knew what was going on here at all, but this could potentially take the knees out from under Dumbledore. After the war, the Chief Warlock had begun pushing for tighter legislation against the goblins for not helping more against Voldemort. It's not as if they could had they tried, the treaties prevented them from mobilizing above ground unless a goblin or goblin-friend was endangered. And the vaults? Gringotts had no illusions that if they had tried to penalize the vaults of those they knew were death eaters they would not have the Wizengamot up in arms about mistreatment of 'upstanding citizens of the magical community'. A no-win situation if ever there was one.

That notwithstanding, It was a well kept secret from outsiders that the reports from the Acacia account prompting the goblins to move into muggle technology was the only reason the bank had remained profitable during that time. Had the wizards known about it they likely would have tried to make it illegal. The goblin nation owed Peony Acacia, Petunia Dursley, for showing them where muggle economics were going in time to save themselves from the wizard's self-destruction.

"If you have time, Ma'am. Could you explain the situation regarding how Heir Potter came to be in your care? Your lack of knowledge tells me that Albus Dumbledore has failed in his responsibilities to your charge. It could even be argued that you have performed the role of magical guardian for him for the last nine years, two-and-a-half months and qualify for the position, officially, by assumption of responsibility."

"How can I qualify as his magical guardian? I'm not magical." She asked.

"I'm not sure who told you that Ma'am, but they were incomplete in their explanation, you are not a witch, but you are a squib. That was confirmed when I verified your identity. Normally that would mean that you are a person born to magical parents that is unable to perform magic yourself. But I understand your confusion, I'm not quite sure how to explain you being a squib and not a muggle, I don't think I've ever heard of a muggleborn having a squib sibling before. But the distinction is important! As I said, you have performed the role of guardian for him since the deaths of his parents. That, coupled with the fact even though you cannot cast spells you are magical, means that you could apply to be his magical guardian."

Petunia wasn't sure how many more life-shattering revelations she could handle in one day, but she risked her sanity by asking two more questions, "Does the magical or muggle guardian control the family's financial accounts until Harry is of-age? And if magical… what has… what has that man done with my nephew's inheritance?" She couldn't help the venom in her voice, she didn't need to hear Griphook's response to her questions to know what the answers would be.

Before he could answer though, there was a knock at the door and a larger, portly goblin was let in by the guard outside. Was there always a guard out there? Petunia thought to herself.

"Ms. Acacia, this is Accounts Manager Axegut, the primary accounts manager for the Potter accounts." Griphook stood and introduced the new goblin, "To answer your last questions before I must depart, the magical guardian has a large amount of control over family finances, but isn't allowed to take non-monetary items from the vaults, or sell land properties unless to pay off a family debt incurred before the financial regency. So only Knuts, Sickles, and Galleons could be affected for the most part."

"For your second question," the goblin went on, "you will need to speak with Accounts Manager Axegut. I'm afraid that as a mere teller, I'm not allowed to be present during discussions with a senior account executive. Please don't take my departure for rudeness. I will be waiting for you to complete your business, then I shall escort you to your vault." And with that the little goblin beat a hasty retreat, bowing to Axegut as he left.

"Ma'am, Heir Potter," the goblin bowed stiffly to each, who returned the gesture, before he sat down. He looked at Hermione, "I don't recognize you, miss," He turned to Petunia, then Harry, "Ma'am,Sir, I'm afraid I feel uncomfortable talking about Potter family finances with a stranger in the room."

"Hermione isn't a stranger, she's my best friend! We don't need to keep secrets from her! Do we Aunt Petunia?" Harry started out with fire, but when he turned to his aunt it was almost pitiful. Axegut chuckled, typical Potter male to be ruled by the females in his life.

Petunia stood up for a minute to think and Harry moved over a seat so he was beside the girl and put a hand on her shoulder to comfort her. She looked dismayed that she might have to wait alone, and Heir Potter's mood seemed to fall in direct proportion. When Petunia returned and indicated that there would be no secrets from Hermione today her nephew was overjoyed, the old goblin made a note in his ledger.

"Are you able to answer the question I asked to Griphook?" Petunia asked once Axegut had seemingly finished sorting his paperwork, "What has that man done to my nephew's inheritance?"

"I'm afraid that I can't answer that question at this time, Ms. Acacia. But Gringotts would be happy to assist you in taking the steps necessary to claim guardianship of your nephew, and thus control of his finances. I can have the paperwork ready for you in five minutes. You see, Albus Dumbledore is only Harry's magical guardian from the perspective of the ministry. The Wizengamot allowed him to declare himself such after he claimed, at the time incorrectly, that the true magical guardian was unavailable. We allowed him leeway due to the circumstances, but recognize that he doesn't have any legal right to challenge a family member."

"What does it mean that Albus is his magical guardian at all? How did that happen?"

Axegut frowned… he thought about asking the children to leave… but they looked to be drawing strength from each other. Hopefully that would be enough, "Tell me, Ma'am. How much do you know about the circumstances of your sister's death? More specifically, how much do you know about Sirius Black?"

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"I beg your pardon?" Emma's outburst caused a few of the other cafe patrons to turn and look at the pair of women, despite their secluded corner-booth, "Petunia, are you saying that once Hermione goes to that school they have total parental authority until she comes home?"

Petunia had offered to take Emma out on a "girl's day" the weekend before Valentines to give their husbands a chance to impress them, the kids were brewing a boil ointment from the first-year book and would be fine on their own for a little while, the dentist had no idea how important her friend's ulterior motives were.

"That's correct. According to their laws those like Hermione, magical children born to non magical people, need two official guardians. Wizards apparently don't believe muggles to be capable of understanding the 'frightfully complicated nuances of the magical world.'" she said the last with air quotes and a sarcastically disgusted tone, "This is even more important than normal, because magical schools have higher rates of injury than regular ones. Most have a fully-licensed healer on-staff, just in case. It would be like a boarding school that had a need for a full surgical team on permanent standby or something."

"Since you told me what the Headmaster had done with your nephew's family affairs I was beginning to question if Hermione would actually be going to that school. Now that decision seems made, Dan and I are not losing her to that world for nine months a year. What if something happened to her? If she got hurt? Are you saying they wouldn't even contact me?"

"According to Axegut, Hogwarts' official policy is to handle any non life-threatening issues in-house without alerting anyone outside, ostensibly to prevent panic in the magical world over the safety of their children. A magical, and only magical, guardian would have to specifically ask to be informed of lesser injuries in order to be so." Petunia made a face at the obviously backwards thinking, "In addition, if an injury could be life threatening the policy is to only inform the magical guardian of the student. Since that person is a teacher for muggleborn students, their families are almost never contacted. Even then though, the affected students are heavily discouraged from telling their parents themselves as well." Emma gasped.

"If you can imagine, those families get angry when their children come home and tell them, for the first time, about serious injuries they incurred at school. Which comes to the reason I didn't know any of this from when Lily was there… Those students were often pulled from Hogwarts, and the ones that remain keep quiet when things happen to them. Because they want to stay."

"But that's exactly what a parent is there for! To protect their children. A child is too young to make a decision like that, magic tricks can't be worth risking getting permanently injured." she drew in a deep breath, "Thank you for telling me all of this… I'm not sure how i'm going to explain to Hermione that she's not going to Hogwarts now… I hope you'll still let Hermione come around..."

"You're not going to do that Emma."

Mrs. Granger gaped at her like a fish out of water, "... I say again, I beg your pardon? After everything you've told me…"

"Because if you do that Hermione will die young." Emma stopped and stared at the other woman, "What the Wizards don't bother to mention is that your child's magical guardian is still a staff-member of Hogwarts. If you pull your child out of school before passing their fifth year it defaults to the wizard government itself, and their policy is to wipe the memories and bind the magic of anyone who leaves their world for the muggle one. That is what they would consider you to be doing, only the magical guardian can enroll a student in a magical school and the government won't enroll your child outside the country so Hermione would be abandoning magic completely."

Emma had tears in her eyes as Petunia finished, "Besides all of you losing your memories of magic, and that would include us and Harry, if her magic is bound then it will literally cut her lifespan. The goblins have data that shows that an unbound witch or wizard lives on average half again longer than those whose magic is bound, only looking at those who died of natural causes…" Petunia looked away, tears in her own eyes now, "Many muggleborn whose magic is bound when they are very young apparently feel that something is wrong, missing, and tend to be depressed and suicidal by their twenties or thirties."

"What do I do? Professor Mcgonagall seems like a nice enough woman, but I don't want to trust Hermione to someone off in Scotland with no proper bloody way of contacting her. If she had been more forthcoming about all of this when she was explaining things to us back in September I might feel different, but…"

Petunia smiled at Mrs. Granger, "Don't worry, Emma, I have a solution. You aren't going to lose Hermione, she isn't going to lose her magic, and they aren't going to cover up anything bad happening to her at school." Petunia pulled a small stack of parchment out of her purse, "These are Magical Guardianship Registration forms. When we went to Gringotts a few weeks ago I learned that I'm technically not a muggle. I'm a squib, a magical person that can't cast spells. That doesn't mean much for my life, honestly, but it does mean that I qualify as magical. Last week I finalized the paperwork to officially become Harry's magical guardian. I used the alias I used during the war to hide while in the alley everywhere except the original form, and because I was blood related the Headmaster couldn't stop me. The goblins said that Dumbledore has been in a couple times trying to find out the new guardian's identity. But he hasn't once come by our home."

Petunia pressed on, "If you would like, and if you trust me to do right by your family, I could become Hermione's magical guardian as well. If you do, it would mean that if anything ever happened to Hermione they would have to contact me, Gringotts found a way around the Headmaster's block on our magical mail too, and I would have you on the phone as soon as humanly possible." Petunia chuckled, "I could even request periodic academic progress reports from the teachers if I wanted, something they don't offer to muggle parents even by request." Emma smiled at that.

"Before you make any decisions," Petunia concluded, "find time to go to Gringotts. Inform the teller you walk up to that you are there to ask about your daughter's guardianship at Ms. Acacia's request. Ask for my accounts advisor, Griphook, to give you the information on magical guardianship that he gave me. If you decide you can trust me, you would need to look over this paperwork and sign it; and do write a letter to the Deputy-Headmistress thanking her for her help introducing you to the magical world. Inform her that you are requesting Hermione's magical guardian be changed, via Gringotts, to a squib that you met at a work function or something. If you tell her before the paperwork hits her she likely won't question it beyond a simple authentication with the bank. When you write her, feel free to tell her the squib's name is 'Ms. Peony Acacia.'"

Emma took only seconds to think before accepting the parchment, "Why did you choose such a strange sounding name for your alias? If I were looking for a 'Petunia, sister of Lily', I'd start with the obvious fake name with two flowers in it."

"I made it sound ridiculous so the magicals would all just overlook it. How much sense can they have to be terrified of a man who calls himself 'Voldemort'?" Petunia smirked, remembering when Griphook had told her the proper name of the wizard that killed her sister.

The Grangers had been to France often enough on vacation that Emma and Hermione had learned a conversational amount of the language; it was enough to translate the silly name into English. Flight From Death, he might as well have called himself Tim the Enchanter for all the terror that should evoke.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

7 June, 1991

Albus Dumbledore had not had a happy New Year, not at all. It had started out well enough, he had begun the final planning phases of the trap he intended to set for Voldemort in the coming school year and was beginning to get antsy waiting for the time to reclaim Harry Potter from his internment among the muggles.

But, the last week of January he had been struck a most surprising and devastating blow in the form of an official statement from Gringotts re-assigning Harry's de facto magical guardianship to a squib named 'Peony Acacia' who was somehow related to the Potters. The goblins had been all too happy to strip Albus' access to the Potter vaults in favor of a relative, even some distant and forgotten squib. Especially once they somehow learned that Albus wasn't taking action to help raise the boy; which is what he'd told them to justify his withdrawals from the child's trust account over the last decade, since he wasn't the magical guardian they had on file even before Ms. Acacia came into the picture.

The first thing he had done was floo-call Mrs. Figg, his spy in Privet Drive. She had told him that there was nothing especially out of the ordinary in the last several months, Harry was a quiet boy who mostly stayed inside. Every now and then he would join the local kids for a game or two, but he spent most of his outside time mowing his neighbor's lawns and washing their cars for extra spending cash. He even did her own yard regularly during the summers these past few years. Though, she mused, he never seemed to have many new things except at Christmas and his birthday, which he shared with his cousin. Albus had never felt so vindicated in sending Harry to the Dursleys. With no financial support and no love of magic in the household Harry would learn to be quick-thinking and resourceful, useful traits for helping him achieve his destiny. That the Dursleys at least cared enough to include him at Christmas and celebrate a birthday, even a wrong one, meant that the Blood Wards he had placed would hold strong.

The fact that a pair of muggle doctors had been bringing their daughter over the past few weekends didn't concern him, having a close friend in the muggle world would make sending him back there every summer that much easier. Though she would need to be watched in the future, it wouldn't do for the Potter Heir to become too close to a muggle. None of that information helped Albus figure out who 'Peony Acacia' was, though, so he had done the unthinkable and begun contemplating who else might know something. An order by the Wizengamot could force Gringotts to present the magical guardian, but that was a last resort. He wanted to avoid bringing the Ministry into this issue if at all possible, but he had been given the run-around by the goblins for the last five months and he was growing desperate.

As Albus contemplated his problems, he rounded a corner in the castle to find Minerva sending the Weasley twins off, likely after giving them detentions. She kept much closer ties to her graduated students than he did. Perhaps, the Headmaster thought, she would remember James mentioning an 'Acacia' family that he was related to.

"Minerva, how fortuitous." He called to her, his eyes twinkling as he smiled, effectively hiding his stressed nerves.

"Albus? How can I help you? I've just finished undoing the newest act of chaos by those twin menaces, so I'm not in the mood to hear how you need me to take more paperwork at the moment! At least wait for the last few weeks of term to pass!"

"Ah. no, quite… No, I was wondering if you had heard of an 'Acacia' family before? It's apparent head is a squib woman named 'Peony'... I've been trying to get in contact with them for some time, but I seem to have lost their records."

The professor looked at him like he'd grown a second head, "Albus, don't try to lie to me, why are you going through my correspondence? You specifically handed guardianship responsibilities for all muggleborn students to me the year after I began working here."

"Ah, but Minerva, I did not give you guardianship of one specific child, ten years ago. You remember?" He returned.

Minerva was still displeased that poor Harry had been simply left on that doorstep, there were plenty of magical families that would have raised him, Merlin she would have done it. Albus assured her that he kept in contact with Harry, but she doubted it sometimes. He never had any stories of the boy to tell, just 'he's doing well' or some such platitude.

"What are you talking about Albus?" She furrowed her brows in confusion, "Ms. Peony Acacia became the magical guardian of a muggleborn girl some months ago. I was worried when I first received the letter that she was trying to transfer to a different school, even at eleven I could tell this girl was uncommonly brilliant, but after the change in guardianship went through, Ms. Acacia merely asked that she be kept apprised of young Miss Granger's health and standing while at school. What does this have to do with your special case."

Miss WHAT! Albus thought to himself, isn't that the name of those doctors that Mrs. Figg mentioned a few months back? How is that possible?

"Minerva, when did this change in guardianship happen?"

"I received a letter from the Grangers asking for the change the week after Valentine's. I signed and returned the assignance confirmation the next week."

"And the girls parents?... What did they do? Their profession."

"I must say Albus, this level of interest in a random student is a little unsettling." Minerva frowned at her mentor, "Her parents are both dentists, a kind of muggle doctor that deals with teeth I believe" Albus appeared lost in his own mind, so she waited for him to remember he wasn't in the privacy of his office.

Oh no, he thought. If this woman took the Granger girl's guardianship just a month after she started coming around the Dursleys' house… There was only one explanation, Ms. Acacia may not be willing to interact with people, but she was clearly watching Harry Potter now that he was her ward. There was no way Albus would be able to get guardianship back if there was evidence that this woman was actually taking an interest in the boy's life. He couldn't even bring out that the she couldn't directly contact Harry without revealing what he'd done to keep the child isolated.

No, Albus realized. Until he could find Ms. Peony Acacia, meet her on his terms, and convince her to give him back guardianship of Harry, he would need to tread carefully. Being caught snooping around the Dursleys now could be used against him when he made his move.

The Headmaster remembered he was standing in the middle of the corridor with his deputy staring at him, "I'm sorry Minerva, It wasn't Miss Granger I was actually concerned about. You've given me much to think on though, thank you and good day." With an extra twinkle and a smile, he turned and headed towards the gargoyle that served as the protector of his sanctum. Three months till the term started back, perhaps I can learn what I need from the boy then.

Minerva McGonagall had thought the Granger family changing magical guardians like that was rather strange. They had requested more information from her multiple times and every time she'd returned with answers and titles they could purchase for reference. The whole family was smart, she knew they wouldn't act quickly or rashly. Minerva had assumed that Ms. Acacia was a family friend that had revealed herself as a squib after Hermione got her letter.

Now… now she felt it was time for her to write a letter of her own. The response was pretty much what she expected after that incident with the Headmaster:

"Deputy Headmistress Mcgonagall,

I am well aware of the machinations of the Headmaster with regards to the more..,

famous, of my wards. Thank you for your openness with this issue, it gives me great hope for my wards' future at your establishment. Please let me know if Albus continues to bother you about me and I shall have the goblins deal with it. I look forward to meeting you in the future.

- Ms. Peony Acacia"

It was as to be expected… except that very few people felt comfortable referring to Albus Dumbledore with the same tone they would a particularly offensive cockroach.