AN: I originally wanted to include a lot more in this chapter, but I realised that it was becoming too long so I cut it in half in favour of skimming on the details. Hope you enjoy.

Disclaimer: Everything in the Harry Potter universe belongs to JKR.


"Drink this Harry. It'll make you feel better," said Emma, as she handed the exhausted boy a tall glass of lemonade.

Harry hardly had the energy to sit up from where he was lying on his back on the grass, but he still managed to take the glass from her and down the entire contents in three large gulps. He then fell back down and resumed panting like a wounded animal.

"I see they're still working you like a dog," laughed Emma.

"Worse," said Harry. "I know I said I wanted to play, but this is insane! I don't know if I can keep doing this."

"Well, Lily's laying into James as we speak," said Emma, as she sat down on the grass beside him. "She should be able to get you a day off from their training schedule."

Despite how exhausted he was Harry couldn't help but smile at this piece of information, as a day off sounded wonderful to him.

"You know it's not too late to back out of this if you want," said Emma.

For some reason, Harry didn't even have to think about it before he shook his head. He was exhausted yes, and he loathed the training regime, but that didn't mean he would quit. He hadn't given up on anything before in his life, and the possibility of playing Quidditch professionally certainly wouldn't be the first thing.

"Somehow I knew that would be your response," chuckled Emma. "You Potters are all too stubborn for your own good."

Harry managed a weak laugh of his own at this statement, before rolling to his side and slowly getting to his feet.

He was tired and sore all over, but Harry didn't forget his manners, as he outstretched his arm to give Emma a hand up.

She smiled graciously at him and allowed him to help her up before the two headed back inside the Manor.

As they walked, Harry thought back on the past few days.

In reality, only four days had passed since he'd received the letter from Coach Mason inviting him to practice with the National Team, but those four days seemed like an eternity of pain to Harry.

All he'd done was sleep, eat, and train over that period. He'd be so physically exhausted by the end of the day, that he'd taken to having Hedwig flame him upstairs to his room, as he couldn't climb the stairs with his legs.

Some of the family members were beginning to get seriously worried about his condition, and he'd heard the parents arguing over it the night before, but so far James, Sirius and Frank weren't going any easier on him.

The three ex-Quidditch players had collaborated on a gruelling training regime they thought would best prepare him, and they were sticking to their plan.

As a lean kid with an athletic physique, he'd always thought he was in decent physical shape, but the workouts the adults had planned for him were simply ridiculous and pushed him to his absolute limit.

Each day Harry was woken up at 5:30 in the morning, and promptly told to run around the Quidditch pitch for an hour. After that, he had to run through a military-inspired obstacle course ten times. The course included obstacles like a mud pit that he had to crawl through, monkey bars that he had to swing across, balance beams he had to navigate, tractor tires that he had to push across a field, and walls that he had to climb over. The worst part about it was that the adults timed how long it took him to complete each lap, and if they felt he took too long, they'd make him do it again.

After that, Harry would get an hour break for breakfast where he could sit and talk to his friends like a normal soon-to-be-thirteen-year-old before the three Quidditch-crazed adults would pull him away.

For the next two hours, the four would sit in one of the Manors classrooms, and the three adults would attempt to teach Harry every advanced concept they knew about Quidditch. Harry had never been one to do particularly well at studying theory, but he'd gladly learn about recognising chaser formations, performing seeker manoeuvres, or overviewing team strategies all day if it meant he could rest his body. Most of it was pretty similar to Wood's strategy sessions for the Gryffindor Quidditch team, but they also introduced several new things that Harry had never seen or heard of before.

It was when he was forced to listen to their crazed ramblings about some insane tactic that Harry began to wonder how much of this was really about him, and how much of it were the three adults attempting to relive the glory days of their youth through him. He knew that despite their talent, none of them had gotten to play professionally, but that was because of Voldemort's rise to power and the need for them to go into hiding. For this reason, Harry couldn't get mad at them even if he did suspect that the adults were only pushing him so hard so that they could achieve their own dreams through him. After all, they'd forfeited their opportunity to try and keep him and Neville safe, so a part of him felt like he owed to them.

After the tactical stage in the routine was complete, the four would head outside and finally mount their brooms to run drills in the air.

This was the longest portion of any activity in his training routine, and probably the only one that Harry actually enjoyed.

During this period, the family would frequently come outside to watch them practice, and Harry would take it upon himself to put on a show for them by performing his best. Be it weaving through conjured hoops, dodging Bludgers, catching the snitch, or perfecting dangerous manoeuvres, this part of the day never failed to put a smile on his face.

It was what came after this though that made Harry hate the training regime.

He'd have a brief respite of an hour break for lunch before the punishment commenced, but after that Harry had to endure three gruelling hours of harsh physical exercise.

For cardio, they would make him first swim laps in the pool with weights strapped to his chest, and then run up and down a hill as many times as he could in half-an-hour.

This never failed to drain all of the energy out of his body, and Harry would usually have to take a ten to fifteen-minute break before he was ready for the next stage of the regime.

As his mother had put her foot down and declared him too young to lift weights, the adults had him performing various exercises to build up muscle and improve his strength and endurance. These exercises included: lunges, sit-ups, push-ups, squats, chin-ups, bicycle kicks, burpees, box jumps, and many others that Harry loathed with a passion.

He found it extremely discouraging how much he struggled with these simple exercises, but he did notice that even in the span of four days he'd made a marked improvement.

When the dry-land training was finally complete, Harry would finish his exercise routine each day by running three laps around the entirety of the property to cool down. At this time Sirius, Frank and James would head back inside and begin discussing improvements they could make in the next day, while the rest of the family would come outside with refreshments to greet him.

Today though, when Harry had collapsed to the ground in relief at the end of his routine, only Emma had come to greet him.

He'd found it a bit peculiar that everyone else had refrained from joining her, but presumed they must be pre-occupied with something important so he didn't question it.

The glass of lemonade that she'd brought him had done wonders to his body, so much so that he considered asking her if there'd been some kind of potion inside of it to numb pain.

He supposed it didn't really matter what had been in the lemonade, all that mattered to him was that his physical discomfort was quickly decreasing, and he'd just finished yet another gruelling day of training.

Now he was one day closer to attending a practice with the National Team, and in the meantime, he could spend the evening relaxing with his friends.


The rest of the week continued in much the same pattern until the day finally came for Harry to attend his tryout with the National Team.

Arrangements had been made for multiple portkeys so that the entire family could travel to the stadium to support him.

The only problem with this idea was trying to get everyone organised. As normal, certain family members were running around at the last minute trying to get organised.

Emma couldn't find her camera, Neville was scrambling around looking for his old pair of Omnioculars, Sarah was trying to choose a book to take along with her, and Alice was attempting and failing to get Matthew and Joshua to change into something appropriate. Both young boys had covered their formal robes in painted phrases supporting Harry, and while he appreciated the show of support, their mother was none too happy about them ruining their clothes.

While the rest of the family waited, they were enjoying watching Sirius, Frank, and James frantically pace around the foyer of the Manor in anticipation.

"Okay, don't be nervous," said a frantic James, as he wiped beads of sweat off of his forehead with a towel. "The trick is to stay loose. Just remember what we've practised, and you'll be fine."

"I'm not nervous dad," laughed Harry, as he watched his mother put her arms around his father and try and calm him down.

"Okay I'm ready," said Neville, as he bounded down the stairs.

"Where's your brothers?" asked Susan.

"They're right here," said Alice as she emerged from the adjacent hallway with her two sons, both of whom were now wearing clean clothing, as the mother had used magic to remove the paint.

"Okay is everyone ready?" Amelia asked as she watched Emma and Sarah each rush into the foyer.

Everyone in the family nodded their heads, as they each grabbed a hold of one of the portkeys.

A few moments later, and they were transported into the stadium where the National Team would be practising. There Coach Mason, who the family finally got to speak with in person, welcomed them.

After a brief discussion, the family was shown to their seats, and Harry was escorted to the changing rooms to prepare.

There, he got his first glimpse of some of the other players on the team.

Just from a quick glance around the room, he figured there were fifty to sixty people in the room, all of them fully-grown wizards, with the oldest looking one having some grey in his beard.

Most of them gave him the cold shoulder when they laid eyes on him, and Harry couldn't really blame them. These men played Quidditch as a career, most likely supporting a family with their earned wages, and yet here he was, a kid not even of thirteen years old looking to take one of their positions.

Finding an empty spot on the bench, Harry set his bag down and began changing into his gear as quietly as possible.

He was hoping to get out onto the field without having to talk to anyone in the room, but he hadn't even put on his shin-guards before two people sat down on either side of him.

"Oi Mikey, our boy Harry here is a bit young to be trying out for the National Team don't you think," said the voice to his left.

"Not like that's ever stopped him before Jonesy," laughed the boy to his right. "After all, he did steal the Quidditch Cup from us in his first year."

Recognising the names, Harry looked up with a grin on his face into the smiling faces of Jeremy Jones and Michael Adams. The two older boys looked almost the exact same as they did when he'd last seen them at the end of his first year. The only difference was the beard each of them had grown and the fact that they were dressed in white and scarlet uniforms as opposed to the blue and bronze they wore when they played for Ravenclaw in school.

"Long time no see guys, I heard you had fantastic rookie seasons with Puddlemore United last year," said Harry, happy to see two friendly faces.

The two older boys just shrugged off his praises, and Harry immediately recognised that they wanted to keep the discussion focused on him. He didn't particularly have a problem with this, as he could hardly blame them for being curious about his presence.

"I bet you're wondering why I'm here," said Harry, as he began lacing up his boots.

"Not really," said Jeremy with a large smile on his face.

Not expecting that response, Harry looked over at the boy curiously, only to have Michael laugh at him and hit him on the shoulder with his fist.

"Merlin Harry, you might be young, but nobody with their head screwed on straight who's seen you play can say you don't deserve to be here."

"And if anyone in here is going to be accepting of you, it's us," said Jeremy. "After all we're the only one's that have had the misfortune of going up against you."

"You're one of the most skilled seekers we've ever played against, and that includes the professionals," said Michael.

Harry couldn't help but smile at that, as the two boys began pointing out the other people in the room and the positions they played.

Unsurprisingly, most of the players in the room were Chasers, but there was also a large contingent of prospective Beaters. There were only seven other seekers in the room, and even fewer Keepers, as apparently Mason was sticking with the two players at that position that he already had.

When Harry finished getting dressed, the three of them headed out through the tunnel to the field.

"Good luck Harry, and try to stay calm out there," said Jeremy, as he mounted his broom and took off.

"Who knows, maybe when this is all said and done, we'll be teammates together for once," said Michael with a crooked smile, before he too mounted his broom.

Taking a deep breath, Harry exhaled the negative energy from his body, before swinging his leg over his broom and followed after them.

In that moment, he managed to block out all other thoughts from his head, and just focus on flying.

In his mind, this was just another instance where he was playing the sport he loved, only this time he was doing so with the best players available, and he was determined to prove that he could compete with them.

Much to his delight, he got the opportunity to prove himself right at the beginning of practice, when Mason announced that they'd be beginning with a series of drills meant to test the player's agility, speed, acceleration, and control.

Being the smallest player, Harry excelled in this portion, easily beating whoever he was matched up against, as he made each turn with precision and speed.

By the end of it, Adams and Jones were both grinning at him like mad, while many others were either now staring at Harry in shock or anger.

Harry had to hide a smirk, as he knew none of the other players expected anything from him, and he took great joy in being able to show a few of them up.

After that, Mason split up the players based on position and had each of his assistant coaches take one of the groups allowing himself to watch and evaluate everyone.

Michael and Jeremy left along with the other chasers and the assistant coach named Rick as they began practising with Quaffles.

Focusing on himself, Harry followed along with the other seekers, as they were lead over to one side of the field.

When they got there, the assistant coach quickly introduced himself as Mark before putting them to work.

He unlocked a trunk allowing a swarm of snitches to take to the sky, and then instructed the seekers to catch as many as they could.

The pandemonium that ensued was hectic, but by the end of it, Harry's tally of thirteen catches was third-best, and he was quite proud of himself.

After that, Mark called over the other assistant Sam, and the two organised a massive game of hunt.

Only one snitch was released for the seekers to attempt to catch, but with eighteen beaters and as many Bludgers between them trying to prevent them from doing so, this was anything but easy.

With no protection, and that many Beaters targeting them, no seeker was able to avoid the Bludgers. Harry himself got hit in the left arm twice, took a Bludger to the leg, and nearly got knocked off his broom after particularly nasty hit to the chest.

Some of the other seekers managed to avoid being hit as much, but Harry noticed that as a whole he wasn't the worst. Two seekers, in particular, were practically beaten into submission with how many hits they'd taken and eventually gave up looking for the snitch entirely as they were forced to focus on protecting themselves.

It took nearly an hour before the snitch was finally caught, and that only happened after Harry had jumped off his broom to avoid an incoming Bludger and wrap his fingers around the elusive golden ball before it could escape yet again.

It was mostly luck that he'd been the one to catch the snitch, as he'd only spotted the thing a few times compared to some of the other seekers who appeared to have been in constant chase of the ball. Still, he couldn't deny that it felt damn good when coach Mark wrote his name down to record that he'd been the one to make the catch.

After that, all of the players were brought together again, and the coaches organised a mock game that boasted five chasers, four beaters, two seekers, and one keeper to a side.

With the exception of the two keepers, one being the older-looking player already on the team and the other one being an assistant coach, each of the other position required substitutions, as there were a lot of players that had to sit out at a time.

This game went on for the better part of an hour and a half before finally Mason blew his whistle and called an end to the practice.

Harry, who'd been sitting on the bench at this point, smiled and looked over at the section of the stands where his family was watching. He could see them standing as they clapped and waved at him.

Wanting to get changed as quickly as possible so he could speak with them, Harry started heading into the changing rooms without so much as a look back to see what the others were doing.

He was already half finished by the time Michael and Jeremy entered, both giving him a clap on the back and complimenting him for his exemplary performance.

Smiling, Harry resumed talking to the two as the assistant coaches re-entered the room and began going over the expectations for the next practice.

Mason was surprisingly absent from this session, but that was because he'd decided to have a quick word with Harry's family at the end of the practice.

For their part, the family were all very anxious when they saw the Coach make his way over to where they were seated, as they didn't know if he'd be bringing good news or bad news.

They'd just watched Harry fly magnificently, but they knew that the man had to cut someone at some point, and choosing the youngest player was probably the easiest.

When he reached them though, his words immediately alleviated their concerns.

"I don't know how anyone at that age can possess so much talent, but that boy is tremendously gifted. Not only is he the fastest, most agile player on the field, but he also reads the game incredibly well. It's not often you come across a seeker that can follow the entire game beyond the snitch. I know you have to talk it over first, but if you're willing, it would be great to have him out again. With a bit of work and some experience, I think he could even crack the roster."

James, Sirius, and Frank's eyes all bugged out at that last statement and they began grinning like fools, while Lily thanked him for his kind words.

He hadn't planned on it, but he ended up staying and talking with the family long enough for Harry to emerge from the dressing room.

The family immediately waved him over, and the children ran out of their seats onto the field to congratulate him.

"This calls for a celebration," announced James. "I say we go out for dinner."

"Italian?" suggested Sirius.

"We had that last week, what about Indian?" said Frank.

"How about we just let Harry decide," said Alice, shaking her head at the three men. "It is his day after all."

That suggestion got a round of nods from the adults, who turned to see a grinning Harry laughing with the other children.

Emma once more made good use of her camera and captivated the moment, before beckoning the children over.

Not wanting to intrude on a personal moment any longer, Mason politely excused himself and headed off towards the players' dressing room, as he still had to speak with the other members of his coaching staff.

He hadn't so much as left the pitch, before eight players that had waited behind intercepted him, and began hounding him for inviting a child to their practice.

"How could you let that boy play," said one of them.

"Please tell me this is some kind of prank," said another.

"The lad isn't even out of school yet," whined a third.

Not wanting to hear any more on the matter, Mason immediately cut them off before the disgruntled players could hound him any longer about his decision.

"That boy outflew most of you out there today, and so long as he has the skill to compete he's going to stay. I don't know how this team was run before I got here, but under my rule, we do things my way, and I say the best players are going to be the ones who get to play. I don't care about your age, what your gender is, or your blood-status for that matter, and if you have a problem with my management style, then you can shut up and pack your bags because I don't want you here."

None of the players said anything in response, so Mason quickly pushed passed them and into the coaches' room.

He had a lot of planning to do before the next practice. Today's session was just the preliminary stage to get a feel for each of the prospective players.

If he was going to begin weeding them out based on talent, then he was going to have to begin really putting them through their paces.


Over the next few days, Harry continued to attend practice after practice with the national team, each time defying the odds and being a part of the dwindling number of players that were invited back.

The family was ecstatic about the level of success he was having, and Harry himself was in very high spirits about the experience. He loved the opportunity to fly with professionals and had already learned a great deal about his favourite game.

Much to his delight, Michael and Jeremy were both among the dozen remaining prospects vying for one of the three starting chaser positions, which meant that he had friends within the camp.

All and all it was shaping up to be one of his most enjoyable summers ever, the only problem was that he wasn't spending as much time with his family anymore.

He still did physical exercises with Sirius, James, and Frank during the evening, and he had time to talk to the family during dinner, but he missed most of them during the day.

With the summer Wizengamot session drawing nearer as the days passed, less and less of the family members continued attending his practices, as they had to stay behind at the Manor and research.

Eventually, it came down to only James and Sirius being able to attend, and it wasn't long after that until even Sirius had to stay behind.

Finally, on the day that James told him he'd be unable to attend - as the entire family had to stay behind to go over the case they were preparing - Harry realised how selfish he was being.

The whole family was dedicating their time to a project that they were pursuing solely for his benefit, and he couldn't even be bothered to help them because he was too busy fulfilling his own self-interests.

The thought made him feel sick to his stomach, so Harry decided to make a judgement call and do something about it.

That morning, instead of picking up his equipment and activating his portkey, Harry walked into the library to talk to his family.

Surprisingly, the only person he saw in the room was Hermione. The sight made him pause for a moment, as he wondered where everyone else was, but then he realised that they could be at Grimmauld Place, the Ministry, Gringotts, or anywhere else where they could get information.

Deciding that Hermione would be as good a person to approach as anyone else in the family, Harry walked up to her intent on apologising for pursuing something as trivial as Quidditch when he should be helping them ensure that he got the piece of Voldemort's soul out of his head.

Unfortunately, Hermione saw him before he could open his mouth, and she immediately asked him why he hadn't left for practice.

She had bags under her eyes and Harry felt ashamed knowing how much sleep she'd probably lost in her search to find something helpful for their cause.

Making up his mind at that moment, Harry pulled out a chair and sat down at the table with her before pulling a book in front of him. Opening it up, Harry looked directly into her eyes and announced, "I'm quitting Quidditch."

Hermione was completely flabbergasted by this declaration, and could merely stare at Harry in shock as he idly flipped through the pages of text.

"Harry you can't quit," said Hermione frantically when she finally regained her voice. "You love Quidditch! What about all the work you put in to achieve this! Why give up now when you're having such success?"

"Quidditch is a waste of time Hermione," said Harry, his eyes locked on the text of the book. "I should be here helping you and the rest of the family prepare the Wizengamot case, not gallivanting around on a broomstick."

"Harry it's really noble of you to say that, but you don't need to," said Hermione.

"Yes I do Hermione," said Harry, as he finally took his eyes off the book in front of him and looked up into her eyes. "I've been so selfish the past couple weeks, spending all my time practising, while you and the rest of the family have been working on a project that is entirely for my benefit. I know I can't make up for lost time, but I can at least try. I owe it to all of you for everything you've done for me."

At that moment, Hermione could see in his eyes how strongly he felt about this. She knew he probably felt like he needed to earn the forgiveness of everyone in the family, but Hermione felt like that couldn't possibly be further from the truth. When Harry bent his head again to go back to reading the book, Hermione placed her hand on his to get him to look back up at her.

"You're wrong Harry," said Hermione, her voice managing to be both soft but strong, as she locked eyes with him. "You weren't being selfish in choosing Quidditch, you were just doing what made you happy and so are we."

She could see the confusion on his face at that statement, so Hermione attempted to explain herself.

"Harry, everyone in this family wants what's best for each other. We're all more than happy to dedicate our time to something that will help you, especially after everything you've done for us. You've touched each of our lives and made them better by bringing us all together, and until now, we didn't ever think we'd have the opportunity to return the favour. You might think you owe us, but the way we see it, we're making up for everything you've already done for us."

"But I could still help," said Harry.

"But you don't have to," said Hermione. "We're managing quite well on our own. You should keep playing Quidditch. You're really good at it and it would be a shame to see you quit. Plus, seeing the smile on your face every evening when you return home is just as enjoyable for us as knowing we spent the day working to ensure that smile stays there long into the future. I can't speak for the others but I know that if such work happens to make the Wizarding World a better place by improving the condition of oppressed sentient beings, then that's just an added bonus on the side."

Harry couldn't formulate a verbal response to that, and Hermione was worried that the look of adoration on her face would make her face turn pink so she quickly looked away.

She didn't expect Harry to reach across the table and pull her into a hug.

"You're sure about this?" Harry asked.

Caught off guard by his initiation of physical contact, it took Hermione a moment to return the embrace and respond, "Positive. Ask anyone of us, and you'll find that we're happy to do this."

Pulling out of the embrace, Harry smiled at his friend as he tucked a loose strand of her hair behind her ear. "You're the best Hermione, you know that?"

That time Hermione did feel her cheeks heat up in embarrassment, so she quickly pushed him away and told him, "You better hurry up and get out of here. I need to get back to work and you need to get to practice and apologise to Mason for being late."

Smiling, Harry scrambled out of the room to fetch his broomstick and activate his portkey, leaving behind a very pleased Hermione.

Harry arrived to practice thirty minutes late that day, and Coach Mason made him run up and down the stairs of the stadium for an hour as punishment, but none of that mattered to Harry.

He was hardly even aware of the physical pain this caused his body, as his mind was too busy marvelling at how amazing and selfless his best friend was.


Later that afternoon while Harry was still at practice, the remaining family got together to sit down in the living room for one of their final information sessions. They'd completed almost all of their work, but now they had to go over everything they had and establish a plan of delivery.

"Okay so the summer Wizengamot is in three days," announced Lily, as she flipped over a new page in her notebook. She'd been designated note-taker of these meetings long ago and was now poised to write down any important information that came up in the discussion. Wanting to go over her checklist and make sure they weren't overlooking anything, Lily suggested that they do a quick re-cap of what they knew.

The family all nodded their heads in agreement and soon began regurgitating facts and arguments from their research.

'Well, we know that Articles C-31 and 32 are the two clauses that we want to repeal from the existing legislature of the Sentient Being Act. These clauses prevent Goblins from living outside the Underworld beneath Gringotts Bank, and restrict them from enjoying the same basic rights that witches and wizards do," said Amelia.

"In particular, we know that Ragnok is interested in establishing some kind of foothold into the Wizengamot chamber," said Susan.

"Which means that it's not going to be enough to grant them immediate luxuries like increased property ownership rights or the freedom to leave the Underworld," said Hermione. "We need to give them a political voice in the way society operates in the long term."

"This is where we're going to run into opposition because we know from our historical research that after several previous rebellions, witches and wizards have grown wary of goblins. Based off the stigmatisation alone, we should expect that we're going to have to win over the Wizengamot members to our cause, as it's unlikely that their first reaction to what we have to say will be one of support," said Frank. "In fact, we might even be accused of opening the door for a goblin rebellion, as some wizards may believe that lightening the restrictions on goblins will lead to them using the opportunity and attempting to overthrow the Ministry."

"Which is why the major point we want to stress to the Wizengamot in our proposal, is that although we're giving more freedoms to the Goblins, we're still enforcing many of the old regulations upon them, and ensuring that they don't have the capability of threatening wizarding society," said Alice.

"So how are we going to achieve this," said Lily, as she flipped through her notebook to the pages with the components of their proposal.

"We're going to use the carrot and the stick philosophy that Hermione and I found when we were researching colonial wars in muggle history," said Neville. "Ideally, we want the goblins to focus on the benefits we're giving them, but we also want them to fear the retribution that could befall them if they step out of line. If we can achieve both, then the goblins will have twice as much reason to behave themselves."

"The trick is that we're going to have to be very subtle about finding the right balance," said Remus. "We can't have the wizards on the Wizengamot thinking we're granting too many freedoms to the goblins, and we can't make the regulations to harsh or Ragnok will say that we're not upholding our end of the Agreement."

"Which is why interpretation and delivery are going to be everything," said James. "If we want this to work, we're going to have to convince the goblins and the wizards that they're each getting the better end of the deal."

"This shouldn't be too much of a problem on the Goblin side of things," said Dan. "They'll probably be very happy with the bill we're proposing as an alternative to Articles C-31 and 32, as it grants them rights of expression, association, and property ownership that have previously been denied to them."

"But we're still not allowing them to carry wands," said Matthew.

"That's correct," said Sirius. "The wand ban will still be part of the restrictions in place, but we're also introducing several new guidelines and conditions to relieve the fears of the Wizengamot and ensure that the goblins conduct themselves in a civilised manner."

"Making sure those regulations will be firm enough to control the goblins is going to be critical," said Emma. "After all, if we're somehow able to convince the wizarding public and our bill gets passed, all of the blame will come back to us if the goblins suddenly decide to take advantage of their newfound power and begin causing problems."

"Which is why we spent the majority of our time worrying about the reaction of wizards to our proposal," said Clarissa.

"Clarissa brings up a good point," said Lily. "Do we have any idea as to where the votes may fall when we present our case before the Wizengamot?"

"Well amongst our allies, we know that the Lovegood's and Abbott's have already promised us their vote," said James. "The others weren't as receptive to the idea of changing the existing law when I approached them, but none of them gave me a response that would lead me to believe they couldn't be won over once we present our case to them."

"We also know from the information that Narcissa so graciously gave us, that the conservatives are still utterly disorganised after Malfoy's departure," said Sirius. "According to her 75% of the votes that Malfoy would usually swing in his favour came from bribes, and with him out of the picture, those votes are now up for grabs."

"I find it funny how goblins are the ones labelled as money hoarders when wizards are so eager to sell themselves to Malfoy for a bit of gold," said Joshua. "At least the goblins have honour."

"That may be true, but in this instance, gold may very well be what swings the votes in our favour," said Sarah.

This got a large grin from almost everyone in the family. They knew she wasn't referring to bribing the Wizengamot members, but the main argument they'd prepared for why the Wizengamot should consider their bill over the existing legislature.

It had taken surprisingly little research to stumble upon the revelation, but once they had there was no denying that improving relations with the goblins would be beneficial for wizards.

There were several reasons for this, but the main one was the promise of money.

If goblins were allowed the same economic freedoms as wizards, the influx of producers and consumers would be great for business, as it would cause more gold to circulate. There was also the added prospect that Gringotts could lower their tariffs and exchange rates in return, which could further the amount of money that wizards could make in passing their bill.

"Let's just hope it works, because, at this point, I don't have any other ideas as to how we can placate Ragnok," said Lily.

"Actually, I was thinking about that the other day, and I think I've come up with another plan that might be enough to uphold our end of the Agreement if we can't pull this off," said Hermione in a slightly nervous voice.

"What is it?" Alice asked eagerly.

With a quick glance in her parent's direction - both of whom gave her a proud smile for encouragement – Hermione took a deep breath and explained her plan.

"It might sound a little weird, but I think we should send a letter to Professor McGonagall and collect that favour she promised us in return for the work my parents did in re-convincing the muggleborns to enrol at Hogwarts."

"What do you have in mind," said Lily, her eyes shining with curiosity as most of the family merely glanced at each other in confusion.

"Well, to put it bluntly, I think it would be beneficial to get rid of Professor Binns," said Hermione.

Even before she explained herself, this earned a few smiles from members of the family, as anyone who'd been taught by the ghost would be happy to see a replacement.

Pleased with their reactions, Hermione informed them as to why she thought this might be something they should consider pursuing.

"He's a horribly boring teacher that constantly puts most of the entire student body to sleep with his lectures, but more importantly he's extremely anti-goblin in his teaching. If we can remove him, we'd be doing the goblins a great service as he's influenced generations of witches and wizards with his prejudice."

"Amazing," said James, his voice full of wonder as he stared at Hermione in awe. "Not even in her third year and she's already plotting to remove her second teacher from the school."

Lily smacked her husband on the arm, as Sirius erupted in laughter.

"Wouldn't it be easier to go through the Board of Governors," proposed Emma. "After all Professor McGonagall doesn't have the authority to remove another teacher from the school."

"Yes but if we go through the Board of Governors then we have to do the work, and we're already plenty busy enough as it is," said Hermione. "This way we have Professor McGonagall go to Dumbledore and convince him to remove Binns instead. It saves us a lot of effort, and it could very well be quicker too."

"I think it's a total win-win," said Amelia. "The Goblins will certainly be happy to see Professor Binns removed, and Professor McGonagall will go for it because sacking the ghost will improve the quality of education at the school."

"Plus, by going through Minerva instead of the Board of Governors, it won't become known that we were the ones pushing for Binn's removal," said Remus.

"Well, I guess that settles it then," said Frank. "We better send a letter to McGonagall."

The four younger children all smiled excitedly as they ran out of the room shouting for Hedwig.