Chapter ten

During his free period Harry headed up to the headmaster's office with Padfoot beside him. The gargoyles moved aside when he approached, he figured Dumbledore had spelled them to do that so he wouldn't need to know the password.

'Come in Harry.'

Harry and Padfoot stepped into the room to see not only the headmaster but a woman with a monocle on her eye, a man and a woman in auror robes.

'This is madam Bones, the head of the department of magical law enforcement, with her is Auror Shacklebolt and Auror Tonks.'

'Hello,' Harry nodded.

'We found the real Mad-eye Moody trapped in his trunk, the man who arrived last night was Barty Crouch junior, who we all believed died in Azkaban,' Albus looked to Amelia.

'We questioned him when we took him to the ministry, we also questioned his father who works for the ministry. We found out that Barty's mother was dying, she pleaded with her husband to get their son free, that she would take his place in Azkaban. He was the one that sent the dark mark into the air at the world cup. It's thanks to your ability to see through glamour's and polyjuice potion that allowed us to find out his plans, which was to bring Voldemort back, using a dark ritual.'

'Using my blood.'

'Yes, it needed blood of the enemy along with some other ingredients. We sent a group of aurors to the place where Voldemort and Peter Pettigrew were staying.'

'You saw him?' Harry asked.

'Yes, he was questioned this morning, we got the full truth about what happened that night,' Amelia handed Harry some parchment, 'The Minister, Professor Dumbledore, as Chief Warlock, and I signed this the moment Peter spoke that he killed those muggles and betrayed your parent's to Voldemort.'

Harry read, 'Blimey,' he grinned then looked down at Padfoot, 'You're free Padfoot, change back.'

Padfoot look from Harry to Albus who nodded, he changed, 'I'm really free?'

'You are Mr Black, with sincere apologies from the Minister. Because of this situation we are bringing in some new laws. Every person will be given a trial with the use of veritaserum. We have aurors at Azkaban right now, questioning every prisoner. Minister Bagnold and Bartemius Crouch should not have been allowed to send so many to Azkaban without absolute proof they were guilty. I take it your animagus form is what kept you sane during those twelve years.'

'Yes ma'am, the dementors didn't affect me while I was Padfoot,' Sirius turned to Harry, 'We can be a family pup, until you get older and want your own place.'

'I'd like that Sirius, we can stay at Godric's hollow for a few years, then work out what we both want to do,' Harry was surprised when Sirius hugged him.

'I'll always be here for you from now on, even if it's just to talk. We're family, it's what your parent's wanted.'

'Thanks Sirius.'

'Now since this was all done after the Daily Prophet came out, we've sent word via owl to everyone in the law enforcement along with the muggles that you are innocent. There could still be some that will try to curse you, we suggest you remain hidden until tonight, when a special edition of the Daily Prophet will be sent out to everyone.'

'Sirius can remain with me in here while Harry finishes his classes.'

'I only have herbology left for today.'

'What about potions?'

'Not with that man pretending to teach, I will use the time to study in the library.'

'I have received many letters from my niece Albus, he should not be teaching or at least he should be pulled up for his treatment of students. Susan mentioned that he can become quite cruel towards some students, mostly towards Mr Potter. It's a disgrace that he is allowed to get away with treating any student as he does. Mr. Potter saved our world and just saved it again, once word gets out the major part he played in the capture of Voldemort he will have the majority of the magical worlds support.'

'Originally I planned to use Severus as a spy, but he could not let go of his hate for James Potter, yet he never took the time to realise that Harry is more like his mother than his father. I will be speaking with him after dinner, things will change or he will leave. If he does leave Harry would you consider remaining in the magical world?'

'It goes towards convincing me Professor, especially now I don't have to use old fashioned quills or wear robes that I still believe look like a dress. I will give it this year before I decide if I stay or return to the non-magical world. I should not be made to give up that part of me and I don't want to, the non-magical world offers so much more and it's not run by prejudice purebloods.'

'I believe you will see a big change in that area very soon Mr Potter. When we questioned Barty and Peter we got the names of all marked death eaters and we found out that to take the dark mark you had to do it voluntarily, along with kill and torture. The ministry was in lockdown this morning while we arrested ten of the twelve governors of Hogwarts, half the members of the Wizengamot and many, many ministry employees. They were all in their positions ready to help Voldemort take over. Albus spoke with me before you arrived, the governors will now be made up of pure-bloods, half-bloods and muggle-borns, the same will happen with the Wizengamot. This way it is fair for all magicals, not just pure-bloods. Times are changing Mr. Potter, if you can give us backward magicals some more time you will see that and hopefully become a major part of our world.'

'Maybe you could help in ways Harry, you have most of the students right now not wearing their robes and three quarters of the students have borrowed pens from you, even Filius borrowed one of your pens. We might be able to keep some of our traditions, but we can come into the modern world, it will just take time,' Sirius said.

'I like this world and so far all this sounds great, I'll stay and I do want to help, someway. I know I can take the Potter seat when I'm seventeen, I need to learn a lot more about how the Wizengamot works before I do that.'

Sirius groaned, 'I can teach you that pup, I had all those lessons when I was young, since I am Lord Black, the seat falls to me. I would have given it to Regulus if he didn't turn dark. Oh, I just thought of something, I can bring my cousin, Andromeda Tonks back into the family and kick out Bellatrix and Narcissa, which will shock the blond pounce when he loses all that money.'

'You will have to explain that another time Sirius, I have to get my books for herbology,' Harry turned to madam Bones and held out her hand, 'Hearing how quickly all this was done, especially helping Sirius shows me that there are a lot of good people in this world that want to work for all people, thank you.'

'You're welcome Mr Potter, but it is me and our world that should thank you, again.'

'Off you go Harry, you will see Sirius as himself right after dinner.'

'Okay,' Harry got another hug from Sirius before leaving.

'It sounds like the-boy-who-lived is not overly happy with our world, not that I blame him. Hopefully now that we have cleaned out the ministry and he has his godfather he might finally see this world could be just what he needs.'

'That is our hope Amelia, but I do have a suggestion, it would need some work convincing the right people. Harry does like Hogwarts, from what I found out he thought of Hogwarts as his first real home. He put himself in danger at the age of twelve just so the school would not close. What if we have Harry represent the students, he could be the thirteenth member of the governors. Children will often tell their friends things that they will never reveal to an adult, especially a teacher if they feel the entire staff would support each other and not the student. He could find out what the students think, some may have idea's that people like us would never think of. I am very old even if I am still very active, you, Sirius, Kingsley and many others are all purebloods, we stick to our old beliefs. Maybe it is time to listen to ideas from the young, it may just help our world expand instead of shrinking as it has done over the last thirty years.'

'Having Harry Potter represent the students could work. He is friendly with some students from three of the houses, I'm sure some of those would tell him if there was something they did not like or would like here at Hogwarts,' Amelia said.

'He could help by speaking with some of the purebloods that aren't against muggles or the muggle world. While we were at Godric's hollow Harry explained about some of the muggle sports, there are so many and some are so popular that they pack stadiums every weekend. You could have one stadium full of people who like to watch something called football, another stadium full of people watching cricket, hundreds of thousands of people. When I went into Harry's dorm room last night I noticed that one of the boys, Dean Thomas, he had a poster above his bed of a muggle football team. I heard some kids talking about the time they played soccer before they came here, then you have a lot of kids that did things like dance, I'm not sure what type but they would go once a week to have lessons then put on shows. The muggle raised students had to give up a lot when they accepted their spot here. If we can keep all our magical traditions but also add some non-magical things, like extra sport, it just might keep a lot of muggle raised people here instead of returning to the muggle world. What do you think cousin?'

Tonks smiled, 'My father said similar, he played cricket when he was young, he had to give that up when he became a Hogwarts student. My father likes a lot of the traditions, but he stopped using quills the moment he graduated. He returned to the muggle world after graduating then went university to become a lawyer. As a muggle-born he could not get work when he left Hogwarts, he also knew that many turned him down because he was a muggle-born. He thought by becoming a lawyer he could help muggle-borns or muggle raised people. Pureblood numbers have dropped dramatically, eventually muggle-born and muggle raised people will outnumber the purebloods. If we don't allow them to keep some of their traditions, then they could go too far by changing everything, remove everything traditional from the magical world and bring in muggle ways. If we combine both then everyone is happy.'

Amelia, Kingsley, Albus and Sirius all believed Tonks is right, if they didn't change things soon then there wouldn't be a magical community in England that could support it's own government. Even magical shopping places like Diagon alley would slowly be lost since there would not be enough people spending money to keep those shops open. Things in the magical world needed to change and if they start now and slowly, then it just might save their world.