At half past six that evening, Stephen apparated from his flat to the Leaky Cauldron, then stepped through the floo to Malfoy Manor. Narcissa met him in the transport room with a smile. "It's good to see you, Mr. Coyner," she said.

"It's a pleasure to see you as well, Lady Malfoy, and please, call me Stephen," he replied with a bow and a smile of his own.

"Then you must call me Narcissa," she said, leading him through the manor to the dining room, where the rest of the family were already waiting with drinks. "Allow me to present my husband Lucius, my cousin Sirius, and my son Draco. Gentlemen, this is Stephen Coyner."

Stephen bowed and said, "It's a pleasure to meet you all."

Narcissa directed Stephen to a seat beside Sirius and a house elf popped in to fill both his water goblet and his wine glass. There was a brief moment of silence, but Lucius spoke up before it had time to become awkward. "Mr. Coyner, Sirius mentioned this morning that it might be beneficial for Draco to make an excursion into Muggle London, if for no other reason than to learn to recognize a policeman, and perhaps also to become familiar with the most common hazards… just on the off chance he ever was to become lost in a Muggle area, you understand. However, as it's been some years since he's been there himself, I wondered if you would consent to accompany them sometime?"

Stephen smiled. "I'd be happy to, Lord Malfoy." He looked from Sirius to Draco. "Perhaps a week from Saturday?"

Draco looked excited at the prospect and Sirius smiled. "I don't see a problem with that," he said. "As it happens, I have a house in London, although it's been horribly neglected since my mother's passing. But I'm determined to get it fixed back up once more. While I doubt it will be completely habitable in a week and a half, it would still make a good meeting place for us, so that you don't have to floo over here and then all of us go back to the Leaky Cauldron or wherever."

"That sounds like a plan," Stephen nodded with a smile. "Did you have anything in particular you wanted to do or see? Other than making sure Draco knows what a uniformed policeman looks like, that is."

Sirius looked eager. "I'd like to go to a music store. I'll need to replace all my Led Zeppelin albums."

Stephen was surprised into laughter. "Oh Merlin! I can see I'll have to introduce you to some of the newer bands around, too. You'd probably like Def Leppard and Metallica." He grinned at Draco. "You might like them too."

Draco looked surprised at being directly included in the conversation. "I don't think I've ever heard any modern Muggle music. Are these bands anything like the Weird Sisters?"

Lucius rolled his eyes. "Just what we need, more obnoxious noise coming from our son's room," he muttered to Narcissa.

She laughed. "And our parents said the same about Celestina Warbeck," she reminded him.

"A little bit," Stephen told Draco, smothering a grin at Lucius' reaction. "You'll just have to hear for yourself on our London trip."

The house elves popped in to serve dinner, and the meal proceeded amicably. Lucius brought up the approval given to the wizarding culture course idea by the Board of Governors, and asked Stephen and Sirius for suggestions. They both willingly offered ideas, and Stephen also agreed to speak with other Muggleborns to ask them what sort of help they wished had been offered to them on their introduction to the wizarding world.

As the meal drew to an end, Lucius stood with a wry smile on his face. "Mr. Coyner, as much as I'm surprising myself by saying this, I've actually enjoyed talking with you this evening. In fact, if you'd be willing, I'd like to continue this line of conversation another time, as I know you and Sirius need to have a private conversation tonight. And on that note, if the two of you will come with me?" He led them to a small office near the back entrance of the manor. A small window overlooked the drive leading down to the stable. "This is one of two rooms without any portraits, the other being my private study. As I understand you have some sensitive topics to discuss, I thought you might appreciate a place to talk without the worry that the portraits might gossip."

"Thank you, Lucius," Sirius said with a nod.

"You'll find a bottle of firewhiskey in the cabinet, should you need it," Lucius said as he left, closing the door behind himself.

Stephen looked at Sirius. "I expect you're confused as hell as to what I have to do with you, aren't you?" he asked.

Sirius nodded. "You could say that," he agreed.

"Some of what I'm going to be telling you will be extremely upsetting," Stephen warned him. "You need to do your best to not go flying off the handle. Doing so could easily cause harm to more than one person, most particularly to your godson."

Grey eyes widened in shock as Sirius drew in a sharp breath. "You know Harry? Is something wrong? Who has him, anyway? The Prophet article on his birthday didn't say, and while I have a fairly good idea as to who was on the Potters' list of possible guardians if I couldn't take him for some reason, Narcissa asked me not to write to anyone until I'd spoken with you."

"There's plenty wrong," Stephen said grimly. "But Harry is no longer in any serious danger. Dumbledore placed him with his mother's sister in the Muggle world."

"What?! Placed there, as in, permanently?" Sirius stared. "I know Hagrid said Dumbledore was going to ask Petunia to look after him for a few days, just until the will was read, to give me time to buy what I'd need to house a toddler. But then I got tossed into Azkaban…" He shook his head, looking bewildered. "But Lily always said she'd never even consider letting her sister raise her child, because Petunia hated magic."

"She still hates magic," Stephen said. "So did her husband, who fortunately died at the end of June. I hate to have to be the one to tell you this, but Harry was abused for years."

Sirius flinched as though he'd been struck. After a moment, he got up and grabbed the bottle of firewhiskey along with a couple of glasses. He poured them each a drink, downed his in one go and poured a second. "Explain," he growled.

Stephen took a deep breath. "All right… I have to start with a little background here, so you understand how I got involved in the first place. I'm Muggleborn as you know, and I started Hogwarts during your seventh year. I discovered pretty early on that I wasn't going to get the sort of opportunities I wanted in the wizarding world, so I completed my Muggle education by studying in the summers and I'm currently attending a Muggle university. As part of my studies, I'm interning this summer for my Member of Parliament… that's sort of a short-term apprenticeship. Anyway, because of that internship, I was in a position to see and respond to a memo asking that anyone who'd graduated from Hogwarts please report to the Queen's personal secretary. I did, and eventually was asked personally by Her Majesty to oversee the well-being of one Harry Potter. He came to her attention by stepping between her younger grandson and a bully, taking the blow aimed at the younger child. Investigation proved that the bully in question was Dudley Dursley, Harry's cousin, and also made it rather clear that Harry was being neglected at best and almost certainly abused. However, her wizarding advisor told her not to remove the boy from the Dursley home, as Dumbledore had set up blood protections to keep Harry safe, protections that will only work if he's living with his mother's blood relatives. So after summoning the family to court to chastise them about their bully and to thank Harry for his kindness in protecting a smaller child even though he hadn't known said child's importance, the Queen made Harry a Royal Ward. That was the best way she could think of to make it clear to the family that she was taking a personal interest in Harry's well-being. As I heard it, that's what pushed the senior Dursley into such a temper that he had a fatal heart attack, right there in Windsor Castle. Anyway, I see Harry at least once a week, and I'm doing my best to teach him all those things he should have been learning as he grew up. The Dursleys had told him his parents died in a car crash and that magic doesn't exist, and of course, punished him severely any time he did accidental magic… or any time he did anything better than his cousin, for that matter."

Sirius growled again. "It's a damn good thing Petunia's husband is already dead."

"Believe me, I felt the same way," Stephen said. "Unfortunately, Dumbledore isn't dead. I can only guess the man's motives, but not only did he leave Harry with the Dursleys, he broke the terms of the Potters' will in doing so. I have reason to think he knew about the abuse and made sure it continued. I also have reason to believe he purposely turned a blind eye when you were sent to Azkaban without a trial."

"WHAT?!" Sirius roared. His glass shattered as his grip tightened, cutting his hand and spilling firewhiskey down the front of his robes. He absently repaired the glass and healed the cuts.

Stephen remained calm. "Since the Goblin Nation never ratified the Statute of Secrecy, the goblins at Gringotts accepted me as Harry's government-appointed magical guardian, since unlike most wizards, they remember that the Ministry of Magic is not actually the highest level of government here in Britain. That loophole allowed me to get a look at the Potters' will, not to mention Harry's account statements. Dumbledore's been holding the keys to Harry's vaults, by the way; he let the Dursleys believe Harry's parents died penniless, yet he authorized withdrawals from the Potter vaults of 1000 galleons a month supposedly to pay for Harry's upkeep, but which went to his own vaults and not to Harry's relatives. Anyway, the will did indeed give a list of families to which Harry should have gone if you had been unable to take him, and also explicitly stated that Harry was never under any circumstances to go to the Dursleys. Furthermore, the will specifically named Peter Pettigrew as their Secret-Keeper, and since Dumbledore was executor, that means he knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that you couldn't have betrayed them."

Sirius sagged back in his chair, looking devastated. "Why would Dumbledore do anything like that? He was one of the good guys… he was leading the fight against You Know Who."

"My best guess as to motive is that he wants Harry dependent on him for some reason," Stephen said. "By putting Harry with a Muggle family that hates magic, he made sure the boy would be mistreated as well as ignorant of the wizarding world right up until he got his Hogwarts letter. Then Dumbledore could swoop in and 'rescue' Harry from said mistreatment, while at the same time introducing him to this strange new world that views him as a hero. It's quite likely that Harry would look upon Dumbledore as his most trusted mentor under those circumstances, don't you think? But of course, none of that could happen if you were free and raising the boy." He decided to go ahead and drop the last of the bombs now. "Harry told me that two different schoolteachers made note of the bruises on him and reported him as a suspected abuse victim… and that both teachers got the sack within days of making the report and no one ever investigated the claims. Child Welfare Services might not be perfect, but they take allegations of abuse quite seriously. That the same child was named a possible victim twice but never was checked out is unheard of. Between that and the sacking of the teachers making those reports, I suspect obliviation going on, and since Dumbledore is supposedly the only wizard who knows where Harry is, he'd have to be the one doing the obliviating… because who else would even consider that The Boy Who Lived would be in an abusive home? Who would be looking for the name Harry Potter to turn up in the Child Welfare Services files? The surname Potter is common enough in Britain and there are plenty of first names that are frequently nicknamed Harry. So why are any files on this one child getting erased?"

"Dear Merlin," Sirius whispered. "If only I'd never gone after Peter…"

Stephen shook his head. "Don't think that way. If Dumbledore is willing to let a child be mistreated, who's to say he wouldn't have had you removed from Harry's life in some other way?"

Sirius stared. "You don't think he'd…" He shook his head, not wanting to voice the thought.

"I don't know if he'd go quite that far," Stephen said. "But I can easily see him manipulating your work situation… you were a junior Auror, correct? I could see Dumbledore talking with your superiors and hinting to them that you were more than good enough to be given more challenging assignments. Ones for which you'd have to be away from home for extended periods of time, and in which you would have to be extremely lucky to avoid getting hurt or killed."

"And then he'd step in with offers to help me," Sirius nodded. "Narcissa always did say Dumbledore was a manipulator as smooth as any Slytherin, but I wouldn't have believed it until now. Hells, I still don't want to believe it," he admitted, "but everything you've said makes way too much sense." He started to pour himself another drink, then shrugged and swigged straight from the bottle. "Tell me about my godson," he demanded.

Stephen smiled. "Harry's a bright and compassionate young man," he said. "Well, you heard how he took the blow aimed for the little prince. Mind you, his cousin Dudley is his age and quite a bit bigger than he is… a little taller, and at least two stone heavier… and the little prince isn't yet five. He's also quite clever, good at maths and he's hoping his other grades will improve now that he's got the correct glasses, not to mention he no longer has to fear a beating if he outdoes his cousin in school. Since her husband died, Petunia's thawed out a bit towards him. Not much, but she's treating him marginally better. Dudley is still a bully and still likes to pick on his cousin, but Harry usually can get away from him without too much trouble. I had a healer look at him; he needed some potions to help him catch up to where he should be, growth-wise, but overall his health wasn't bad. The healer did say to give it a couple of months before letting him do any sort of strenuous sports, so he's currently enrolled in a yoga class… that's a form of exercise that strengthens muscles and improves flexibility… and once he's good for contact sports I'm going to get him signed up for a martial arts class so he'll be better able to fight back if his cousin manages to corner him."

Sirius gave a wistful smile. "Does he even know he has a godfather?"

"Yes," Stephen nodded. "After her husband died, Petunia gave Harry a box of things that she said had been salvaged from his parents' house, and that included a photo album. He asked me to identify anyone I could in the photos, and since I had been at Hogwarts during your final year, I recognized you and Pettigrew and Lupin… not to mention, Professor Snape."

Sirius coughed and sputtered as a mouthful of firewhiskey went down the wrong way. "Professor Snape? Dear Merlin, Snivellus is teaching now?"

"He is," Stephen didn't elaborate. "More to the point, those photos started the chain of events that led to your freedom. Harry asked why none of his parents' friends ever came to see him. At the time, I thought, along with the rest of the wizarding world, that you'd been found guilty in a trial, so I told him the story that was believed to be true. He told me he wanted to know why you did it, because if you'd been threatened somehow, he could forgive you, but not if you'd only done it to gain some sort of reward. I told him I'd see about getting a copy of the trial transcripts in hopes of finding out one way or another, and started my inquiry through Gringotts. That's when they discovered that your vaults had not been either placed in trust for your heir or seized by the Ministry, which proved you'd never had a trial. That's when I decided to involve the Malfoys. Sure, I had the Potters' will naming Pettigrew as Secret-Keeper, but if Dumbledore got wind that I had access to both Harry and the Potter account information, I figured I'd be obliviated and prevented from being in contact with the boy ever again. But since Lady Malfoy is your cousin, and Lord Malfoy has business within the Ministry, I hoped I could talk them into 'discovering' that you'd never had a trial. And I managed it, too."

"I certainly can't thank you enough for that," Sirius said with a nod. "But what I really want is to see Harry."

Stephen nodded. "I figured you would. That's why I suggested a week from Saturday for the London trip with Draco. So that you and Harry can get acquainted this coming Saturday."

Sirius' face lit up. "Really?"

"Really," Stephen smiled. "I've been making a point of not doing any magic around the Dursley house, because I don't want to send up any red flags to Dumbledore that Harry is in contact with another wizard. Even if he's got watchers in the area, it's unlikely that any of them would recognize me as a wizard, so I'm safe enough to be seen coming and going from that house."

"But I wouldn't be… I'm too easily recognized because of the publicity."

"That's worked around easily enough. Our yoga session ends at ten, and we can meet you anywhere you like by about half-past," Stephen said. "As long as I know where ahead of time, so I can side-along apparate him there. And of course, he'll come along too when we all go to Muggle London next week."

"How can I ever thank you enough for all you've done for Harry?" Sirius asked quietly. "You've been acting like more of a godfather to him than I have."

Stephen shook his head. "That's hardly your fault. Remember, if I'm even close to being right in my suspicions, you'd have been prevented from getting close to Harry in one way or another."

Sirius rubbed a hand over his face. "There is that," he admitted. "I just… this is all so much to take in, you know? It seems so impossible, and yet it all makes such terrible sense."

"I know. Believe me, I know," Stephen said. "So let's talk about something more cheerful for now. Is there anything you'd especially like to do with Harry come Saturday?"

"I want to buy him his second broomstick and teach him to fly properly," Sirius said enthusiastically. "James was such a great flyer, and Harry was so adorable on the baby broomstick I gave him for his first birthday! It was charmed so that the child couldn't go more than a couple feet up and it also had built-in cushioning charms in case he hit anything. But he took to that toy broom like a duck to water. I'd bet anything he'll be a natural on a real broom."

Stephen laughed. "That certainly sounds like an excellent plan, but where will you teach him? He lives in a Muggle neighbourhood, remember."

"Oh… right," Sirius said sheepishly. "Um… I'll go to Gringotts this week and see which of the Black properties are isolated enough to work for flying over. My parents preferred living in town, but I know there was at least one country estate. We just never visited it. I imagine whatever house is there is a wreck, but as long as the weather isn't too terrible, that shouldn't matter. It's not like we'll be flying indoors, after all!"

"Right," Stephen chuckled. "Owl me once you've settled on where we'll be going, so you can let me know where we'll be meeting you."

"I'll do that," Sirius nodded with a smile. "But for now, I'll let you get out of here. I know you have to work in the morning, so I expect you don't want to make too late a night of it. Tally!" he called.

The little elf popped in with a big smile. "Yous called for Tally, Master Sirees?"

"Escort us to the transport room, Tally, and then once I've seen my guest off, I'll be returning to my room," Sirius said.

"Yes, Master Sirees," Tally nodded enthusiastically. She led the two men through a maze of hallways to the transport room. Stephen made his farewells and vanished into the floo, and then Tally brought Sirius back to his room.

Once there, Sirius rummaged in the desk for parchment, quill, and ink. He dashed off a note to Hagrid, letting the half-giant know he'd been found innocent and asking if the man still had his motorcycle. He took a little longer over his note to Remus, expressing his hope that his old friend was doing all right and would be willing to meet soon as he thought they had a lot to discuss that would be better told in person than by letter. If possible, he said, he hoped they would be able to meet on Sunday for lunch. After he wrote his letters, he had Tally take them to the manor's owlery and send them off. Only then did he collapse into bed, too weary to continue fighting back the tears which had been threatening since learning of his godson's life to date.