There's been a bit of rearranging and fiddling with details in the previous chapters, no major changes just… Fiddling to make it look better for the most part… One change which may confuse people if I don't call it out though is that I've changed Worksop Prep to Rayton Hall, to have the school located on a country estate (and I like the sound of Rayton Hall better)… And there are a group of eight of them from Rayton Hall who tested out of the first two years, so they're all in Third Year and making up one of the Quidditch teams.
I've also moved the last major part of the Quidditch installment to It Isn't Quidditch, while that's added over 1500 words to the chapter though, it won't really effect the story overall if you don't go back to read it.
Oh, and in case anyone was wondering, the Washtons were wiped out in the War like everyone thought… But as they were a cadet line of the House of Rosier, their titles, fortune and everything else had been rolled back into the House of Rosier, so Harry got them. Which meant that he legitimately had the right to use the name Henry Washton, along with Henry Robards, Henry Rakepick and the plethora of other identities he used.
Refer Chapter 1 for the usual disclaimers.
Aside from four or five Prep League Quidditch and Football games a week as training, and the occasional Quidditch Cup game, James, Lily and the others filled their time with classes and studying. Having Harry and Hermione's trunks made this a lot easier for them, because the libraries in their trunks had nearly everything the famed Hogwarts Library did (even more on arcane subjects), and they had everything else they needed to study most subjects without having to leave the trunks. They also used the trunks to help Sirius, Frank and Narcissa get ahead in their subjects, along with other friends. While they remained friendly with John Lupin and helped him out from time to time, he hadn't managed to reach 'friend' status as yet, but that was becoming more and more probable as he'd already proven himself to be a decent person more than a few times…
As opposed to Peter Pettigrew, who was now serving time in St Agnes' for knowingly and willingly acting to distract and divert people from stopping the group of wizards while they were assaulting a young witch at Hogwarts, just because she had embarrassed him by publicly putting him in his place a week earlier. The reason he was convicted and sent to St Agnes' for several years was that the memories and Veritaserum testimony they forced him to provide proved that he had been quite aware of and properly understood exactly what the other wizards were planning to do to her… And had decided that she deserved it, just because he had been embarrassed about her telling him off for something he did. Luckily the prefects he was trying to divert had easily seen through his act and got there in time to stop her attackers before they'd done much more than tear her clothes off, but that didn't change their or Pettigrew's intent, which made them all a danger to society that needed to be removed.
No-one with half a brain was at all surprised when James, Lily and their friends cleaned up across the board at the end of their first year at Hogwarts, the Quidditch Cup, Prep League competition and Academic Achievement Contest, taking the first eight or ninth spots in the top ten for all Year Three subjects between them and Frank… So of course it came as quite a surprise to many at Hogwarts… Pomona Sprout was on cloud nine about having all three trophies in her office, so there was no question who her favourite students would be when they returned for the Seventy Two/Seventy Three school year. Most of their family and friends at Hogwarts had also done well, Sirius and John Lupin had swapped first and second rankings in every subject for Year One, and Narcissa had finished around the top in her year as well (and while Patty Rakepick had been doing well on her own, access to the resources of Lily's trunk had helped her lock in the top spot for her OWL year) and Patty's team came in third in the Quidditch Cup and second in the Prep League, so all in all they were a happy group…
Sirius had been studying with Frank and the Rayton Eight through the year, so it was no great surprise when he tested out of Second Year before they left for the year, so he would be going into Third Year in the coming year. Patty Rakepick had become friends and been studying with Narcissa through the year, so she tested out of Sixth Year to go into her NEWT year with her.
And James, Frank, Patty, Sirius and Narcissa got off the Hogwarts Express at Preston with the rest of them on the way home, so they could spend more time with their friends and Floo home from Rayton Hall… For Sirius and Narcissa, this was partly to see where Regulus was going to school, because he had been attending Rayton Hall since Uncle Alphard became their guardian, but also because James and Lily had gotten approval to run an eight to sixteen team Prep League competition over the summer at Rayton Hall to keep their games up and get their non-Preppy friends from Hogwarts up to scratch to play in the Hogwarts Quidditch Cup and Prep League Cup, so they wanted to see the facilities there.
Between Slytherin, Gryffindor and Ravenclaw, Hogwarts had lost four teams' worth of 'traditional' Quidditch players over the previous school year… Because seeing Narcissa get off scot-free for putting several wizards into St Mungo's on the grounds that she was proven to be defending her honour, while they were expelled, tried, convicted and sent to either Azkaban or St Agnes' for taking part in attempts to claim her and force her to be their sex slave once Lucius Malfoy was out of the way… Gave other witches the courage to follow her example and after making sure they knew what lines they weren't allowed to cross, they started fighting back when wizards attacked them or tried to force them to do things against their wills. That had culled quite a few 'traditional' wizards who held to the belief that they had the right to do whatever they wanted from Hogwarts, and while they didn't come close to the compensation Narcissa had managed to demand as a Baroness of the Most Noble and Most Ancient House of Black... (Arcturus had granted the Barony she was originally intended to get upon her marriage to Narcissa when she became Alphard's ward, because being a Baroness in her own right added considerable weight to the measures they could take against anyone who attacked her.)... With a little advice and assistance, several of them managed to claim considerable compensation payments from their attackers' families…
Most of those families had thought they were being clever by claiming that they couldn't pay the bulk of the compensation payments because they'd been pressured into spending all their available gold on expensive racing brooms for their sons, so they were quite put out when the ones representing the girls stated that they'd be prepared to accept specific types of brooms as partial payment towards what they were owed… At independently appraised values as used brooms, of course… So a fair number of Cleansweep 5, 5/6 and 6 and a handful of Nimbus 1000 and 1001 brooms made up part of the compensation payments, at a fraction of their new price. Their attackers' families were furious, because they couldn't say they didn't have the brooms after using them as the excuse for not having the gold to pay the compensation claims, so they had to hand over most of the decent brooms their families owned for appraisal and inclusion in the payment… And trying to offer up lesser brooms in their place had gotten them mockingly asked whether their reading skills and memories were so poor that they couldn't understand that only Cleansweep Five, Cleansweep Five/Six, Cleansweep Six, Nimbus 1000 and Nimbus 1001 brooms would be accepted for appraisal and use as partial payment. Harry (or rather Baron Peverell) opened up the Prep League upgrade program to the girls to let them upgrade their Fives to Five/Sixes.
At the end of the year at Hogwarts, the Board, Headmaster, Deputy and House Master/Mistresses had sat down and talked over the future of Quidditch at Hogwarts. In the end they agreed that as the Quidditch Cup hadn't been anywhere near as popular as the Prep League Competition over the past year, it would be cut back to one team per house, to maintain the tradition and give those who were pursuing careers as professional Quidditch players an avenue to get the exposure to do so… While the Prep League Cup would be expanded to sixteen teams, to leave twelve slots available for other teams, because the Quidditch Cup teams had taken up five of the twelve slots available that year. So that was what the summer competition was about, getting new teams ready to compete in the Quidditch Cup and/or Prep League Cup next year at Hogwarts, including the witches who had recently acquired good, or at least quite decent, brooms and wanted to learn how to play.
They had a fun summer with their friends, most of the kids Flooed in each day, but the ones from the Mundane World who didn't live near Rayton Hall or anywhere they could Floo from stayed in rooms in Servants Row during the week. (It had been the simplest way of incorporating accommodation for staff and boarding students when Rayton Hall was built, building a curving row of three storey back to back Georgian terraces made up of bedsitters and ¾ baths under/over the stairs 'behind' Rayton Hall).
Minerva McGonagall was furious when she found out what had been making her fight changes at Hogwarts that were for the most part improving the education and environment of their students for nearly three decades…
Hogwarts' witches following Miss Black's example and fighting back against their attackers had been the trigger for that being uncovered. Because as a woman, she should have been cheering them on when they sent those bastards to St Mungo's for what they tried to do… But instead she was arguing against the wizards being charged, and was even suggesting that the witches themselves should be charged for their violent responses. She never found out who stunned her in the middle of that argument, she just remembered waking up in St Mungo's the next day with large holes in her memories and being told that they'd had to remove whole swathes of her memories to get rid of the compulsions embedded in them, and they had probably found less than half of the compulsions because they were spread through about twenty five years of memories.
For some reason, that period set off alarm bells, but when she tried to nail the feeling down, she found her thoughts spearing off in another direction. She didn't realise it, but the healer was watching her closely, because he had been expecting that reaction from what they'd found.
"Perhaps it would be easier to determine where this happened Madam McGonagall, do you remember where you spent most of your time between Nineteen Eighteen and Nineteen Forty Three?"
Minerva only got "Hogw…." out before she stopped and stared into space. After a five minutes or so her expression cleared and she looked at him. "I'm sorry Healer Smith, I must have been off with the Pixies, what were you asking?"
He was obviously panicking as he said. "I think it would be best to finish here for today Madam McGonagall... I need to talk to some of my colleagues about the best way to proceed with your treatment."
They said their goodbyes and he left hurriedly, but he either didn't know or forgot about the enhanced hearing her cat form left her with, because she could hear him swearing in the corridor outside…
"I have to be more careful about what I ask her, because I could fry her bloody brain with the wrong question… Shite, I thought I already did! I was ready to send the old bat to the bloody Janus Thickey Ward when she returned to her senses… I can't believe that the old fool would have gone so far to hide his secrets that a simple question could have made her brain totally lock up for over five minutes… All I asked was where she spent most of her time over the period for Merlin's sake, but she couldn't get more than half of Hogwarts out before she locked up…."
"Isn't the talking to yourself the first sign of madness Zeke?"
"No, according to the Mudbloods it's answering yourself…. Do you still have that bottle of Ogdens in your desk Reggie?"
"A little early in the day to start drinking, isn't it Zeke?"
"Not when I just almost fried Minerva bloody McGonagall's brain by asking her where she spent most of her time between Nineteen Eighteen and Nineteen Forty Three and made her lock up for over five minutes!"
"She was at Hogwarts… Everyone knows that!"
"Yes, but when she tried to say that, she locked up and couldn't move for over five minutes!"
"But why would…"
"Dumbledore! He embedded compulsions to obey him and act certain ways in all sorts of situations in false memories that he gave her over a period of twenty five years or so. We found and removed a bunch of them, but we obviously missed far more than we thought and even worse, he must have planted traps in case anyone started to get too close. I saw a compulsion making her hive off in a different direction when I mentioned how long a period the memories had stretched and tried to be clever, asking her where she was over that period… That's why I need a few stiff drinks Reggie, because I almost destroyed one of the most respected witches in Magical Britain's mind by trying to be clever! Can you imagine what would have happened to me if I did?"
The two healers obviously walked off at that point, and Minerva sat there, trying to assimilate what she'd just heard. Smith was obviously right, because when she tried to think about what she'd heard, her mind headed off in a different direction, and when she really tried to concentrate on it, she obviously 'locked up' again as he put it, because she felt like she'd been frozen in one spot for a while... She decided not to try that again in case it really did fry her brain.
She wondered what Smith was going to try next, and was just happy that she found her wand in the bag with some of her things, so she tucked it under her pillow so that she could grab it and hex the little shite if it looked like he was going to 'try to be clever' again...
But what happened the following morning came as a compete surprise, because an angry looking Smith walked in with Baron and Baroness Peverell.
"Good morning Madam McGonagall, Baron and Baroness Peverell are here to consult on your treatment, because they have learned some procedures on the Continent that they believe may help us…."
"That's it Smith, get out… And tell the administrators that we will be having very strong words with them about lying to us about your going along with what we told them was going to happen here! For that matter tell them that what I warned them about is now a very strong possibility..."
"You can't throw me out! This is my patient and there's no way I'm going to let you do anything to her without my approv…"
He stopped there, because Hermione had frozen and silenced him. Harry turned to McGonagall.
"Now that that lying little shit has been silenced, I can tell you why we're really here…"
He stopped and looked at Hermione. "Remind me to call a Meeting of the Clans to discuss removing funding from Saint Mungo's. I think it's time to cut those inbred idiots out of loop and offer Magical Britain as a whole medical facilities which will actually focus on healing people instead of so called Healers' reputations and egos…"
"Yes Dear, but for now, aren't you supposed to be explaining to Madam McGonagall why we're here?"
"Oops, sorry Madam McGonagall, dealing with idiots brings out the worst in me… Anyway, the reason we're here is that my lovely wife and I both have Advanced Masteries in Healing and Mind Magics which no one here at Saint Mungo's has, but more to the point, we have knowledge of exactly what was done to you and a process to remove most, if not all of it. What Saint Mungo's, and Smith in particular, are upset about is that we are not prepared to share knowledge of either under any circumstances… That includes with you I'm afraid, and that brings me to the primary reason we're talking at the moment… Which is to ask whether you are willing to let my wife and I use an unknown process on you to remove most… I'm confident that we'll get all of them but I can't guarantee it… Of the compulsion laden false memories and traps that were planted in your memories over a period of twenty five years or so, and hopefully return the real memories that they replaced… Again, I'm fairly sure that we can but I can't guarantee it… Or would you prefer to let Healer Smith here and Saint Mungo's keep poking around in your head with no idea of what they're doing and hope that they don't trigger one of the hundreds of traps that were left to stop anyone uncovering what was done to you and fry your brain? The choice is entirely your's Madam McGonagall. If you don't feel comfortable taking our offer, which would require putting more blind faith in us that I would honestly be comfortable with giving a stranger, we will wish you luck and leave you to Healer Smith's tender mercies…"
Minerva looked from him, to his wife, and the obviously furious Smith, and said drily… "You make my options sound so appealing Baron Peverell… Baroness Peverell, witch to witch, what would you do in my position?"
"Are you sure you want to ask… I'm not too sure whether we're the rock or the hard place in this scenario, but we're one or the other… Whether to trust us or Saint Mungo's? You know that I'm going to say us, we wouldn't be here if we didn't believe that we could help you and were confident that we wouldn't harm you."
"Thank you Baroness Peverell, that was precisely the answer I was looking for. I choose to trust you over the Healer who ran off to get drunk yesterday because, in his own words, he almost destroyed his patient's mind by trying to be clever and he was worried about what would have happened to him if he did."
Harry and Hermione shared a look at that, then Harry turned to Smith, forcefully probing his mind before snarling, opening the door magically and expelling him from the room so violently that he had to have broken bones when he impacted the opposite wall of the corridor. Then he closed the door, sealed the room and threw up copious security and privacy wards, all wordlessly, before turning back to Minerva.
"Sorry Madam McGonagall, as you can see I have a bit of a temper, but idiots like that should never be allowed to treat anyone… Let's see what this does… Oh dear, that wasn't supposed to happen, how can I make it look like someone else did it? We're definitely withdrawing all funding from Saint Mungo's and putting it into proper medical facilities which only employ Healers who are ready, willing and able to actually heal people!"
He shook his head. "Okay, now that I've gotten that out of my system, let's get rid of what's been done to you. It will be easier for us and a lot more comfortable for you if you aren't conscious through this Madam McGonagall, so sleep tight…"
The next thing Minerva knew, Lady Peverell was offering her a headache potion, which she eagerly took and downed because she felt like her head was splitting open. She glared at Baron Peverell, because he was giving her an unrepentant grin as he said…
"Sorry about that, but telling you what your head was going to feel like afterwards wouldn't have done you or us any good… Okay, there are a lot of angry people outside so we will have to be quick, I'm afraid, does your head feel good enough to handle a quick question and answer session?"
Minerva nodded carefully, the headache potion had done wonders, but her head still felt a little tender.
"You come across a group of fine, upstanding young Pure Blood wizards gracing a lowly Mudblood witch with their attentions, what's your first inclination?"
"Castrate and gut the bastards and then start getting creative, and wash your mouth out with lye soap for using that sort of language."
"A group made up of Muggle Borns and their magic aware Muggle families, Centaurs, House Elves and Goblins want to get a ninety nine year lease on your family lands in order to start a cooperative farming venture to supply quality potions ingredients and other natural materials to witches and wizards of mixed backgrounds at far cheaper prices than the companies of the pure blood families who have controlled the market for centuries, thereby threatening the established businesses by undercutting their prices, what do you do?"
"Lease them the bloody land and join them in the venture, we've been making those lazy bastards ever richer for far too long!"
"But surely you wouldn't let Muggles and creatures take money out of the pockets of fine upstanding Pure Blood families?"
"Too bloody right I would! We're all God's creatures and it will do those bloody toffs good to have to actually work for their money for once!"
Harry grinned. "Well that was hardly an exhaustive test, but as I said, the DMLE are trying to break the door down and I think we can say that most of the underlying compulsions are gone. In the scenario of Pure Blood wizards of good families gang raping a Muggle Born witch, your first thought was to castrate and gut them, then go from there, and you added a nice Muggle reference to lye soap to wash my mouth out with… On giving a group of Muggles, Muggle Born, Centaurs, House Elves and Goblins a ninety nine year lease on your family lands to start a farming co op to supply potions ingredients and other natural materials to the average witch and wizard without the usual massive markups for non Pure Bloods, you were all for it, with the added bonuses of opting to join them, gloating about making the pure blood business owners work for a living and quoting your father, which I dare say you haven't done since you started at Hogwarts… As I expect you've worked out, I did use a compulsion to make you say the first thing that came into your head, sorry, but we're rather pressed for time and I wanted to confirm that what we did worked..."
She stared at him for a moment, then started looking furious, but her next words confirmed that it wasn't at Harry. "That bastard! He made me turn my back on me own Da because he decided that a Muggle wouldn't be a suitable influence! Me own Da! And I canna fix it now because me Da's dead!…."
She stopped and struggled to control herself as she nodded tersely at Harry… "Right you are Laddie, if there's any of that bastard's shite left in me head, it's well buried… But what was that about the DMLE?"
"Oh, about half of their Hitwizards are outside, trying to break in, but they can't scratch the wards I've put up… If you think you're good to go Madam McGonagall, perhaps you should get youself dressed, pack your bag and let me know when you're ready. Once you and Hermione are behind proper shields I'll drop the wards and deal with the Hitwizards."
Minerva looked concerned about his plan to deal with the issues but Hermione laughed. "Don't worry about Henry Madam McGonagall, they won't touch him, and it would be worse for them if they did… So why don't you get dressed and pack your bag so we'll be ready to go?"
While she couldn't believe that they were laughing about this, Minerva quickly conjured a screen and got dressed, packing her nightgown and other things into the bag that someone had brought for her. That was why she missed Harry sending Dobby to the DMLE with a message for Callum Moody…
Which basically told him that his missing Hitwizards were at St Mungo's with John Dawlish, trying to break into the room where Baron and Baroness Peverell had just finished treating Minerva McGonagall because Dawlish's cousin Zeke Smith had called him after Minerva McGonagall chose to have the Peverells treat her over Smith and Baron Peverell threw Smith out of the room, because if what the Peverells and McGonagall were saying got out he'd be ruined… Get the memory of Reginald Macmillan's conversation with him yesterday to find out why Minerva McGonagall wouldn't let Smith treat her any more... And raise the question of why an incompetent so called Healer like Smith was still employed as a Healer by St Mungo's, considering that he had failed his Healing NEWT and most definitely didn't have a Mastery in Healing, but did have a history of harming patients through incompetence listed in his employment record. And Dawlish also had some other cousins who were Ministry Obliviators with him, presumably to ensure that none of them remembered anything about why they threw Smith out of the room.
Harry grinned as he heard a familiar Moody bellow over the listening charms in the corridor. "Dawlish! What in the Seven Hells do you think you're doing?"
"Um.. Ah… The Hospital Administrators called us because a couple of dangerous nutters assaulted a healer and kidnapped his patient, locking her in that room with them to use her as a hostage."
"Which Hospital Administrators? I want all the details from them, and I also want to know why they didn't go through the proper channels."
"Um... Ah… I can't remember the name off the top of my head, it's back at the office… I forgot to bring it in my hurry to get here before they hurt their hostage."
"You can't remember your own cousin Zeke Smith's name? Or you didn't want to mention him because you know quite well that he isn't a Hospital Administrator, in fact he shouldn't even be employed here?"
That caught the attention of someone nearby who was a Hospital Administrator. "What was that about Healer Smith and a patient being held hostage?"
Callum handed him the note that he'd received and turned to shout down the corridor. "All you Hitwizards, stop this unauthorised illegal action immediately and return to the DMLE Office! I expect to see each and every one of you waiting outside my office when I get back there, and anyone who isn't will be in even more trouble than they are now!"
He watched them bolting off down the corridor, then turned to Dawlish. "For the moment at least, you're still a Hitwizard Dawlish, so why are you standing there instead of running back to the DMLE Office like your arse is on fire?"
"I'm the Hitwizard in charge of this operation and I can't leave until the suspects are arrested and processed… Sir."
"You aren't in charge of shite Dawlish, and you never were! I am in charge here, not to mention your boss, and I just gave you an order to get your arse back to the office, so if you aren't on your way there in the next ten seconds, I'll have you arrested and dragged back there!"
Even someone as thick as Dawlish could see that Callum was deadly serious, and he showed far more than his usual intelligence by bolting. Callum signalled one of the Officers with him to follow and make sure that he was, in fact, going back to the office, and ordered some of the other Officers to take the Ministry Obliviators who were trying to sneak away into custody and escort them back to the DMLE offices for questioning... Baron Peverell was certainly making this an interesting day... Then he turned back to the administrator, who was waving the note at him.
"Who sent you this, and how did they get this information?"
Callum nodded to the door, which was now opening. "Baron Peverell sent it, so why don't you ask him?"
Harry sauntered out of the room with a smile and greeted Callum. "Thanks for coming so promptly Chief Moody, I was starting to consider doing something drastic that might have resulted in you having a few less Hitwizards…"
Callum snorted. "From what I just saw, it wouldn't have been any great loss, but unfortunately Director Crouch will probably refuse to let me get rid of any of them."
"Yes, you're probably right about that… By the way, if you happen to be talking to your Father and Father In Law today, please tell them that I am calling a Meeting of the Clans on a related matter… Perhaps you and your good wife should also attend, because it will effect you professionally and you at least will be taking over from your Father one day."
"I will let them know Baron Peverell... From what my Father told me about the chaos the one you had called as a teenager created, I'd love to attend... Is there anything you require of the DMLE at this time?"
"Perhaps Baroness Peverell, Madam McGonagall and myself could accompany you to the DMLE's offices to give our statements about what happened here today? You see I don't trust Saint Mungo's not to try and interfere with our leaving here, even though they have no legal right to do so… As I was perhaps a little over eager in expelling their so called Healer Smith from the room after I saw that his major concern about almost destroying his patient's mind by 'trying to be clever' as he put it was what that would do to his reputation… And he may have gotten a few broken bones from hitting the wall across the corridor."
Callum snorted at that. "Very well. Baron Peverell, it would be appreciated if you, Baroness Peverell and Madam McGonagall would accompany me to the DMLE's offices to answer a few questions about what transpired here today."
Harry bowed with a wry smile. "Of course Chief Moody, we are at your disposal."
So St Mungo's Administrators could do nothing but fume as the Peverells and Minerva McGonagall were escorted out of the hospital by the DMLE.
Most of the Clan Heads in Magical Britain had thoroughly enjoyed the mayhem caused by the Meetings of the Clans that Charlus Potter had called on behalf of his younger son Henry Peverell since the War, because young Henry not only delighted in turning the established order of Magical Britain upside down, just about all of the changes he instigated had led to major advances in Magical Britain... So they immediately rearranged their calendars to attend when the call came through from Charlus for another meeting.
Henry wasn't exactly 'young' any more, because nearly thirty years had passed since the first one where he, with Charlus' help, had organised for them to take back control of Magical Britain from the so-called 'Traditionalists'. Over the next decade, he had orchestrated a series of major changes which, as Charlus said, 'Took Magical Britain out of the Dark Ages' and set them firmly upon the path to becoming part of the upper echelon of Magical Europe at least, and their position in the Wizarding World as a whole was steadily climbing as well... So when Henry Peverell spoke, the Clan Heads in Magical Britain listened...
Given the squawking they'd been hearing from St Mungo's and what Callum Moody was telling his peers and his father, it was no great surpise when Henry opened with.
"It's time we did the same with Healing in Magical Britain as we did with Education, take it out of the hands of the Traditionalists whose only interests are lining their own pockets and raising their status. Minerva McGonagall, who just about everyone in Magical Britain knows and admires, almost got her brain fried because her so called Healer, Ezekial Smith... Who couldn't even pass his Healing NEWT let alone earn a Mastery in Healing... Decided to, in his own words, 'try to be clever', and asked her something he was sure would get a reaction... And after that failed in an almost catastrophic manner, he ran off to get drunk because he was panicking about what would have happened to him if he had managed to fry his patient's brain. When he discovered that Madam McGonagall, my wife and myself knew about that the next day, he called in his relatives who were Ministry Hitwizards and Obliviators to try and overcome and Obliviate all of us to stop anyone else finding out... And Saint Mungo's reaction since then has been to try and get me arrested and put 'in their care' to stop me saying anything about Smith, or the fact that there's a history of his harming his patients by incompetence in his official employment record, but he's still employed by them as a Healer and being given carte blanche to screw around with the minds and lives of his patients... So I say that it's time to stop funding Saint Mungo's criminal activities altogether and expand our current services providing proper medical care to the Clans, Muggle Born and Raised and their families to include all of Magical Britain. I don't think we can in all conscience exclude the Traditionalists, but thankfully they aren't likely to willingly use facilities that are primarily staffed by Muggle Born and Goblin Healers, Muggle Born Mediwitches and Hedge Witches. We can do this without too much trouble by expanding the existing hospital facilities in our bigger Workhouse based schools and infirmaries in our smaller schools a little, and hiring the non Traditionalist Healers and Mediwitches away from Saint Mungo's to help staff them."
There was silence for about half a minute as what he'd said sunk in, and then Alastor Moody's gravelly voice boomed. "Well ye got my vote Laddie, we should have done this in the Forties when we set up the schools and infirmaries."
The dam broke with that and soon everyone was shouting their approval and support.
The rest of the meeting was spent preparing the documentation and making the arrangements for St Mungo's to begin rapidly losing over ninety percent of its funding and well over two thirds of its House Elves and staff (though the wage bill was reduced by less than a third, because the Traditional Pure-Bloods who stayed were far higher paid than anyone else). Without the ones who did the vast majority of the work and no money to pay for replacements, St Mungo's was struggling within a week... Magical Britain wasn't though, because information about how to access the Druid Healer Network was published in the Daily Prophet and announced over the Wizarding Wireless Network, and people quickly found that they were getting noticeably faster and better care that cost them significantly less, especially if they weren't Pure-Bloods, and having local medical facilities in the Prep Schools all over Magical Britain made things a lot easier if a family member needed more than a quick visit to address the problem.
The Traditionals tried to get everything forced back to the way it was through the Wizengamot, but they were laughed out of the Chamber...
Unfortunately, their fury at that humiliating dismissal from the Wizengamot probably laid the seeds for what happened a few years later...
The Seventy Two and Seventy Three school years went quickly for James and Lily, while they tried to help their friends keep up with them, they weren't at the same level, so they were generally studying different subjects. They all stayed in the top ten of the year in all subjects, but James and Lily kept getting further ahead, so in Seventy Four, they sat the OWLs with the others (coming in first and second in every subject), then got the same results in the ICW's equivalent of the OWLs, which were taken by Sixth Year students. It was much the same when they sat their Mundane 'O' Levels.
Their fourth year at Hogwarts was a lot harder for them though, because they lost so much… The first blow was Grandma Mary being killed in the Birmingham Pub Bombings in November Seventy Four… And they were only starting to come to grips with that when a particularly virulent strain of Dragon Pox somehow spread through everyone attending the Wizengamot's Yule Ball at Longbottom Hall, infecting nearly everyone important in Magical Britain, and most of the older generation succumbed to the disease… Including Charlus and Dorea Potter-Peverell and Frank Longbottom's Father, Grandparents and Aunt Enid, along with his Great Aunts Charis Crouch and Cedrella Weasley and their husbands Caspar and Septimus… (While the Weasley family had been dismissed as beneath their notice by most of the Gentry of Magical Britain even before Septimus' father gambled away the family's fortune and Baronetcy in the Thirties, and the Crouches weren't much better, no matter what they liked to think, the Weasleys and Crouches had been invited to the Yule Ball at Longbottom Hall because as Lady Longbottom's sisters and daughters of the House of Black, Cedrella and Charis still commanded respect among Magical Britain's Gentry.)…
Frank Longbottom was forced to take the title of Lord Longbottom at fifteen because in one fell swoop, the Most Noble and Most Ancient House and Clan of Longbottom had effectively been reduced to just himself and his barely functioning widowed mother… And he'd gone from a relatively carefree schoolboy, who while the Heir Secondary of his House, had had few things to worry about beyond doing well at school and treating his Intended Alice MacDonald as well as she deserved (Frank's Dad and grandparents had adored Alice and the way she made him strive to be the best that he could be... So Frank was grateful that they'd gotten to witness him and Alice following James and Lily's example and performing the ritual to become each other's Intended just before they died.)… To being the Lord and Head of a Most Noble and Most Ancient House and Clan, with all the responsibilities that entailed.
While he wasn't hit anywhere near as hard as Frank by what happened, Grandpa Charlus and Grandma Dorea's deaths and how close his parents had come to joining them had shaken James to his core, and shown him something he wished he hadn't seen, just how frightening his Uncle Henry could be when he was angry… And he hadn't even seen him in the Wizengamot.
Like Frank, James and Lily had been very glad that they made both their grandmothers happy by finally admitting that they cared for each other a great deal and couldn't see themselves with anyone else… And then acceding to their requests to let them stand as formal witnesses to the ritual where they become magically accepted as each other's Intended (they had presumed that doing this was part of the 'proper' etiquette that their Grandmothers had been drumming into them since they were little kids, and that Lily's Grandma had agreed to just have the one magical ceremony) before they died… The family had decided to take this opportunity to 'discover' that Lily was descended from Noble Houses on both sides of the family, in both the Mundane and Magical worlds, and that Jimmy and Rose were both in fact magical, by having the requirement for inheritance tests to be completed added to the process of formally becoming each other's Intended… So that Lily would be protected in Magical Britain by both her official status as a Half-Blood from Noble and Ancient and Most Noble and Ancient lines and the Intended of the Heir Secondary to the Most Noble and Most Ancient House and Clan of Potter...
The fact was, Harry hadn't been angry, he was absolutely furious, because even though he hadn't found any evidence as yet to prove that this had been a biological warfare attack, he was positive that it was, and he was determined to eradicate anyone and everyone who had had any part in it.
As soon as Fleamont had recovered enough to take part in the show, Harry had an Emergency Wizengamot session called, with mandatory attendance by all living Wizengamot members who weren't formally exempted as being too ill to attend by accepted Senior Healers, with a list of which Healers were accepted included in the Wizengamot Summons. They also sat down with Arcturus Black (Who luckily hadn't attended any Balls since his wife Melania died five years after he took the title as Lord Black. Alphard had also missed the Ball because he was at home looking after Regulus and while Sirius and Narcissa were there, they were both young and healthy enough to be almost fully recovered in less than two weeks.) to discuss his suspicions and planned course of action, because this Dragon Pox 'outbreak' had cost the Blacks even more than it had the Potters. Arcturus' fury matched theirs once Harry had laid out the reasons for his suspicion that this was in fact a deliberate attack against their Houses and Allies, because his arguments made an awful amount of sense… But after Harry detailed how they were planning to address the matter in the Wizengamot, Arcturus started looking forward to standing shoulder to shoulder with his nephews in the upcoming confrontation and making those lily-livered bastards mess their drawers.
On the day of the Emergency Wizengamot Session, the Chief Warlock waited for as long as he could, because he couldn't see Lord Black or the new Lord Potter or Lord Peverell anywhere in the Chamber, but at the appointed time he was forced to give the order to close the doors and seal the Chamber… And at that very moment, Harry, Fleamont and Arcturus stepped through the doors, standing there with all eyes on them as the doors were closed and sealed behind them before grimly marching in step down the stairway to the floor of the Chamber.
As they grew nearer, what those with the sharpest eyes had picked up the moment they entered the Chamber became clear to the other Members and Officers of the Wizengamot, the fact that none of the three were wearing the expected Wizengamot robes… Instead, their tall frames were all clad in deep green basilisk skin battle robes, tunics, trousers and boots and they were all carrying bastard swords in their battle robes' back scabbards, large crows perched on their left shoulders and Mage Staffs in their right hands, which sent out a pulse of magic every time their tips struck the floor in time with their right feet… Which made their message clear to everyone, even though Arcturus may be showing the strain of his age and loss, and Fleamont of his recent illness, these three Lords had not come to this session as statesmen, they had come as grimly determined battle mages!
A few in the Chamber had the sharp eye for detail and deep knowledge of arcane lore to recognise that the Mage Staff Lord Peverell bore appeared to match the description of the fabled Yggdrasil Staff, which was said to be an ancient magical artefact of great power made from a branch of the Yggdrasil Tree and a large magical crystal of extraordinary power.
When Harry, Fleamont and Arcturus reached their chosen spot on the floor of the Chamber, they all turned out to stand back to back (further reinforcing the warrior imagery) and Harry struck the floor thrice with his Staff… Which frightened those who had recognised it as the supposed Yggdrasil Staff even more than everyone else in the Chamber, because like Grindelwald and Dumbledore, they had dismissed the legends of the Staff as nothing more than fanciful stories… But the force of the magic that ripped through their bodies as Harry struck the floor thrice was strong enough to loosen their bowels with fear, because if the legends of the Staff weren't true, then the new Lord Peverell was more powerful than any other wizard in the history of Magical Britain… Merlin included... The Peverell Ring coming to Harry when he was magically accepted as the Lord and Head of the House and Clan of Peverell had also made him the master of all three Deathly Hallows, and the powerful and foreboding aura their combined magics created about him just added to the effect.
Harry hadn't truly understood what Alastor Moody's Mage Staff was until he was magically accepted as the Lord and Head of the House and Clan which had held it for Millennia, up until Grindelwald expended nearly half of his followers in the process of wiping out the family to seize the Staff just before the War… Only to toss it aside in disgust because as it refused to recognise or accept him, his lover Albus or any of their key followers, it would never be anything more than an oversized wand for any of them…
After Moody lost his wife, son, half a leg and many other things in the Blood War with Tommy, Dumbledore had given him the Staff as a supposed mark of respect and gratitude for his sacrifice in an attempt to lock in the disgruntled Master Auror's loyalty… Because even if it wasn't the powerful magical artefact that the legends spoke of, it was still a significant historical artefact… But the burnt out Moody had just used it as a walking staff and battle wand up until Harry took it off him in Ninety Four. The Staff had recognised Harry when he caught it and he'd felt the power of it, but its true power hadn't been unlocked until he was magically accepted as Lord and Head of the House and Clan that had held its allegiance for Millennia, and the impact of the two near equal versions of the powerful magical artefact (the drain of maintaining the Family Magics for over half a Century had only used up a tiny fraction of the power the one Moody had held) being magically combined into one had left him unconscious on the floor.
Once he had their attention, Harry spoke, and they'd chosen the spot on the floor where proposals were presented and testimonies were given from, so everyone in the Chamber heard him quite clearly.
"I, Earl Henry Peverell, Magically Accepted Lord and Head of the Most Noble and Most Ancient House and Clan of Peverell and Its Associated Houses and Clans, speak for the House and Clan of Peverell and Its Associated Houses and Clans, So Mote It Be!"
The flash of the magic acceptance of this decree left everyone seeing spots with ringing ears, so there was no doubt that Magic had accepted his decree.
Fleamont spoke next. "I, Earl Fleamont Potter, Magically Accepted Lord and Head of the Most Noble and Most Ancient House and Clan of Potter and Its Associated Houses and Clans, speak for the House and Clan of Potter and Its Associated Houses and Clans, So Mote It Be!"
While not as strong as the flash when Harry spoke, there was no question that Magic had accepted Fleamont's decree either.
Then Arcturus spoke. "I, Earl Arcturus Black the Third, Magically Accepted Lord and Head of the Most Noble and Most Ancient House and Clan of Black and Its Associated Houses and Clans, speak for the House and Clan of Black and Its Associated Houses and Clans, So Mote It Be!"
Again, while not as strong as the flash when Harry spoke, Magic had obviously accepted Arcturus' decree as well. Harry took over again.
"Everyone here knows about the mysterious outbreak of a particularly vicious strain of Dragon Pox at the Wizengamot's Yule Ball that was held at Longbottom Hall three weeks ago, which many of Magical Britain's most respected and revered Witches and Wizards died from… But the reason you have all been summoned here today is that the Houses of Peverell, Potter and Black share the conviction that this outbreak was no accident… But rather a deliberate attack on our families and allies… One that has cost my brother and I our parents and several other beloved family members and friends, and almost cost me my brother and sister in law as well… And it cost Lord Black his beloved sister, our dear mother, and far more beloved friends and family members than us… So the Houses of Peverell, Potter and Black swear that we will locate everyone associated with this attack on our Houses and Allies and bring them to justice under the old laws!…."
He nodded when the crow on his shoulder leaned in and croaked something in his ear in a scratchy voice, saying… "Thank you Babd, I must have forgotten the required forms in the heat of the moment…"
Then his voice rang out. "The Most Noble and Most Ancient Houses and Clans of Peverell, Potter and Black and Their Associated Houses and Clans hereby declare Vendetta on any and all who are found to have taken part in this cowardly attack on our Houses and Allies. So Mote It Be!"
Fleamont and Arcturus joined him as he cried out "So Mote It Be!", and the magical acceptance for this decree was even stronger than Harry's earlier decree… So much so that the air in the Members and Officers' benches became rather… Fragrant… Because that combined declaration of war from the grim Lords and Heads of the three most powerful Houses in Magical Britain quite literally scared the living shite out of many of them… As there was no question that that was what it was, the old laws were very draconian, so anyone they decided had had any part in this attack, as they believed it to be, was as good as dead…
And the way Lord Peverell had talked to that crow on his shoulder and addressed it by the name of one of the three Morrígna was, if anything, even more disturbing, especially as there were in fact three unnaturally intelligent looking crows down there...
(Babd wasn't actually one of the three Morrígna of course, she was in fact Hedwig in her favourite alternate form. As Harry's bonded familiar, she had gained enough of his affinity for Animagus transformations when she bonded with him and Hermione to transform into different birds… She commonly used her alternate forms because she was much too distinctive as a Snowy Owl, and she usually chose Babd over her other forms because among its other advantages, she could talk to Humans other than her Master and Mistress as Babd.
Like Dobby, Hedwig had recognised that she would not be able to meet her Master and Mistress' needs by herself when they arrived in 1943, so she had searched far and wide to find two other post owls exceptional enough to be worthy of bonding with and serving her Master and Mistress… This, with the eight Elves, bought their bond up to thirteen members, which seemed to strengthen it... The other two owls had gained the ability to transform as Hedwig had when they bonded with her Master and Mistress and like her, they recognised the many advantages of the crow forms, so they usually took them as well… And they were delighted to take on the names Babd, Macha and Nemain for their crow forms as their Mistress suggested, to represent the three Morrígna.
Harry had decided to incorporate the three Morrígna into the imagery they were using to intimidate the Wizengamot and frighten the guilty parties into admitting their guilt, and from the reactions to him and Babd talking to each other, it appeared to be working.)
Harry, Fleamont and Arcturus let the Wizengamot Members and Officers stew for a while, carrying on what appeared to be a very serious discussion under a privacy bubble while the crows scanned the benches from where they were perched on their shoulders, occasionally saying something to make the three Lords turn to look at whoever they had mentioned. After coming to the Lords attention this way, some of the Members were starting to ask themselves whether they were more afraid of the Lords or the crows.
William Abbott, Head of the Minor House of Abbott, was the first to break, leaping to his feet and shouting. "It was Macmillan! He's been going on and on about how you lot are destroying all our traditions and how the proper leaders of Magical Britain will lose everything if you aren't stopped! And he decided to use Dragon Pox as the way to stop you because he holds Lord Black to blame for his sister dying of it, saying that if you lot hadn't forced us to change the structure of our society to let all those filthy Mudbloods in, she wouldn't have been infected with it!"
The fact that that last statement was totally illogical made it all the more believable.
Harry dispelled the privacy bubble as he almost casually waved the Yggdrasil Staff at Arcturus' brother-in-law, Earl Archibald Macmillan, Lord and Head of the Most Noble and Ancient House of Macmillan, to freeze him in place because he'd also leapt to his feet, looking furious and pulling out his wand. Then in what appeared to be an afterthought, he waved the Staff at Macmillan again, and then Abbott, encasing both of them in black bubbles.
Fleamont asked. "What are those bubbles Brother?"
"Impregnable shields Brother, nothing can get in or out… After Lord Macmillan seemed so intent on silencing Sir William, it occurred to me that there will almost certainly be others in the Chamber who don't want us to hear what either of them have to say…"
"When you say nothing can get in or out, what about air?"
Harry gave an unconcerned half shrug at the question and said in a bored voice.
"Oops… Oh well, they should have ten or fifteen minutes of air left… Unless of course they start panicking, in which case it will probably be less than five… But I take your point Brother, we should begin the interrogations to ensure that we can get at least some of the answers we came here for… I am thinking Macmillan first, as trying to silence Abbott certainly made him look guilty in my eyes, do you concur Lord Black?"
Arcturus just nodded, struggling to maintain his grim expression. He was quite ready to believe what Abbott said about Archibald being the one behind this, because he'd always been a stupid, close minded, spiteful little man, and if even half of Abbott's claims were proven true, he'd ensure that Archibald paid dearly for his crimes… But the way Henry was playing everyone in the Chamber so masterfully, using the full Battle Mage trappings, crows, their status as the three most powerful Lords in Magical Britain and the power of the Yggdrasil Staff to frighten them into submission, and making mistakes like Abbott's, was simply delicious… He just wished that his own son could have been half the Black that Dorea's was.
Thinking about what a hateful little man Archibald was made him think of another who was much like him, and he was unfortunately not at all surprised to see Charis' son Barty looking very nervous when he turned to look up at the Wizengamot Officer's benches. He was disgusted and swore to himself that he'd see Barty burn if he'd played a role in his parents, aunts, cousins and everyone else's deaths...
Harry waved the Staff at Macmillan again, making the bubble encasing him float down to the floor of the Chamber. As it did so, he called out. "I, Earl Henry Peverell, Magically Accepted Lord and Head of the Most Noble and Most Ancient House and Clan of Peverell and Its Associated Houses and Clans and Member of the Witches Council, call for the Stone of Truth and Judgement to weigh guilt and pass judgement!" Causing what most in the Chamber presumed to be the Stone of Truth (because they hadn't been present at the trials where it was used as an instrument of the court) to appear before the Wizengamot Officers' benches.
The brighter ones worked out that this was something that anyone with the proper authority could have done, but to most it looked like Harry was performing two complex acts of powerful magic simultaneously and they were staring at him with ever growing Fear and Awe…
Harry cancelled Macmillan's shield bubble as it touched the floor in front of the Stone of Truth, which was in fact a rather large crystal mounted on a plinth, immediately replacing it with a semi-spherical shield covering him and the Stone, because he'd been quite serious about the probability of someone wanting to silence him, and Babd had told him about Arcturus' sudden suspicious look at Barty Crouch… And said.
"Place your hands on the Stone of Truth and Judgement Lord Macmillan, the Houses of Peverell, Potter and Black seek proof of your guilt or innocence in regard to the crimes Mister Abbott's accusations lay at your feet."
"I'm not touching that thing! It will probably just kill me! I demand that you release me and let me leave this Chamber!"
"The Stone's name indicates what it is, an instrument of Magic used to uncover the Truth and pass Judgement on guilt or innocence… But while there are limited circumstances where you may be killed by the Stone itself, that would only happen after you had been judged by Magic itself and found guilty of crimes serious enough to justify your losing all your magic… And you aren't going anywhere until the Stone of Truth and Judgement has determined your guilt or innocence, so put your damned hands on the Stone or I will make you!"
"I am Lord and Head of the Most Noble and Ancient House of Macmillan! You cannot make m…"
His tirade was abruptly cut off as Harry jabbed the Staff at him and he was jerked forward by his hands, which seemed to stick to the crystal the moment they touched it. The light from the crystal grew until it was blinding, and stayed at that level for two or three minutes before it receded. Macmillan slumped to his knees, utterly spent, but he couldn't collapse on the floor because his palms were still stuck to the crystal. Then the Stone began to 'speak', and it spent over twenty minutes detailing Macmillan's plans, actions and all of his known accomplices in the act of deliberately infecting the Heads and Heirs of most of Magical Britain's most powerful families with a virulent strain of Dragon Pox that far too many of them didn't survive. As it named someone in the Chamber, Harry waved the Staff at them, encasing them in a shield bubble and floating them down to the floor of the Chamber. By the time the Stone had finished speaking, Macmillan had been joined by Abbott, Barty Crouch and fifteen other Wizengamot Members and Officers, all encased in shield bubbles (what Harry had withheld was that whatever was inside the bubble was held under stasis, so it didn't matter how long they were kept in there).
As the names came out, Harry was kicking himself for not putting two and two together, as Macmillan and half a dozen of the others had all sent last minute apologies and excuses for not attending the Yule Ball, but he hadn't made the connection before this.
When the Stone finished, Harry turned to Arcturus, he really wanted to set Macmillan alight and watch him burn to death for what he'd done, but Arcturus had lost his sister Dorea and many of his cousins and friends, in fact he'd lost most of his generation… So while the loss of Charlus and Dorea would leave a huge hole in Fleamont and Harry's lives, Arcturus was almost alone because of this bastard's actions… Therefore it was only right that he be the one to call for his brother-in-law's punishment. When Harry said this to Arcturus, he nodded and took a moment to collect his thoughts before he spoke…
"The House of Black requests that the House of Macmillan be eradicated and all its titles, holdings, gold and other real, monetary and company assets and family magic be forfeited to the House of Black in compensation for what the House of Macmillan has stolen from us… We request that survivors of the Macmillan family be allowed to retain their family name as they appear to be innocent of their Head of House's crimes… However, the House of Black demands that Archibald Macmillan, Head of the extinct House of Macmillan, have his magic forcibly ripped from him until he is dead, dead, dead!"
There was a brief delay as the Stone of Truth weighed his requests and then it spoke. "It shall be so. The House of Macmillan shall be eradicated and all its titles, holdings, gold and other real, monetary and company assets and family magic will be forfeited to the House of Black… The extinct House of Macmillan is hereby replaced with a New Blood Family of the same name established today for any of the Macmillan family who choose not to remain as Unassociated Witches and Wizards… And Archibald Macmillan, Head of the extinct House of Macmillan, shall be stripped of his magic until he is dead."
When the decree finished, Macmillan suddenly stiffened and arched back with his mouth open in a silent scream as if he was in great pain, and stayed that way for a few minutes until he suddenly slumped down, dead. His hands were released from the Stone at that point, so he just collapsed on the floor.
The interesting part of Macmillan's sentence was that Magic had apparently decided to turn his entire family into the Mudbloods that he despised and permanently associate the Macmillan name with their new status, and gave him just long enough for that to register before it began his final punishment… Which made it appear that Magic regarded a painful death as insufficient punishment for his crimes… And it did the same to every other family whose Head or Heir was judged and found guilty that day…
Harry waved the Staff to move the body out of the way and floated the next contestant across to the Stone of Truth. This went on for another four hours and by the end of it nineteen more houses and families had been eradicated and forfeited everything to the houses of the victims of their attacks, and another four had forfeited at least half of everything they owned... Harry couldn't help wondering whether giving the Weasley Family the Crouch Baronetcy would make their lives better or worse… But he had been furious to hear it confirmed that the Director of the DMLE Barty Crouch Senior was totally unrepentant about playing a key role in the attack that had killed his own Parents, Aunts and Cousins, Grandpa Charlus, Grandma Dorea and so many other important citizens of Magical Britain, so Harry joined Arcturus in demanding that everything be stripped from him, including all of his magic…. The young Head of the Auror Investigations Office, Amelia Moody née Bones, was shocked to be made the Director of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement over her father-in-law and boss Alastor Moody, the Head Auror, and her husband Callum, the Head of the Magical Law Enforcement Squad, but Harry had let the Stone of Truth view the collected memories of Amelia ably performing that role and it proclaimed her Crouch's replacement to both Alastor and Callum's loud approval…
Out of the twenty seven who were identified as having played a part in the attack (Callum Moody had had the other nine rounded up and dragged to the Chamber to face justice), only six survived judgement and left the Chamber alive, but they all left Magical Britain soon after that to escape the constant condemnation they were met with, along with over half of the others' surviving families… Barty Crouch Junior didn't get to leave Magical Britain though, because he was sentenced to St Agnes' until he was transferred to Azkaban upon reaching his age of majority for attacking James and Sirius at Hogwarts with a poisoned dagger, determined to kill them because he blamed their families for his father's death.
That Wizengamot Session made the Houses of Peverell, Potter and Black even more feared than they had been before the Dragon Pox outbreak. Harry just hoped that that fear would be enough to make the next group of Pure-Blood supremacists wanting to return to the 'old' ways remember what they did to Macmillan and the others and have enough sense to decide not to risk bringing that down on themselves. He wasn't holding out much hope on that front, but he was hoping.
Once the dust had settled, Harry went back to revisit something that had been worrying him since Grandma Mary and Grandpa Charlus and Grandma Dorea died, why the Hell his parents had no memories of how or when they died… Their memories showed that their grandparents were all gone by the late Seventies, but there was nothing about when or how they died, funerals, anything, and Lily and James had loved their grandparents, so there was no logical explanation for them to forget about them… Unless their memories had been removed….
Harry couldn't see how stealing their memories of significant parts of their lives from them could benefit Dumbledore (it couldn't have been anyone else, really, because he was the only one with access and motive to interfere with both of their memories), but it was pretty clear that he had. Then he suddenly saw it, Dumbledore had been doing the same thing to his parents as he did to him, taking away their families' support in an attempt to make them too weak and unsteady to interfere with his plans for Magical Britain, or the Wizarding World for that matter. In that timeline, he was almost certainly behind the events that killed their grandparents… And were probably meant to kill their parents as well, but he'd been forced to come back and deal with them later... Then he removed all their memories of the events to stop them looking into what happened and uncovering his involvement. Harry was so angry about that that he wished he could go back to Forty Three again and find a far more more horrible way to kill the old bastard, because the basilisk had given him far too easy a death.
James and Lily were able to take the time to deal with their loss before diving back into their studies with a vengeance, and they were ready to take their NEWTs and 'A' Levels in half their subjects by the time exams came around in May, so that they could start working on their Masteries and degrees in those fields in their Seventh (fifth for them) year… And the rest of the Rayton Eight and Frank followed suit to varying degrees…
A few of them were only planning on starting easy Masteries and Associate Degrees because while they weren't terribly interested in pursuing further education… But as Lily pointed out, academic credentials helped their standing and improved their employment options in both worlds and they weren't likely to be seriously considered for any decent jobs at sixteen anyway… So they may as well make use of the next few years getting themselves the credentials and work experience to make them more likely to be hired for the jobs they wanted at eighteen.
They also listened when Lily and Alice told them about how much better their options for getting accepted for masteries and jobs in Magical Britain had become after they took their inheritance tests and confirmed that they were from magical families, and took the inheritance tests… None of them were too surprised to find that they weren't the long lost heirs of fabled witches and wizards, but the least impressive heritage discovered for any of them was a dormant few hundred year old Magical Family, which was reactivated in Maggie's name.
Their newfound heritage was put into perspective by James when he pointed out that they now all had higher status than anyone in the Traditionalist families that had been officially restarted as New Blood Families after all their houses and families were magically erased as part of their punishment for taking part in the attack that had killed his and Frank's grandparents, Frank's Father and Aunt and nearly all of the older generation of the Most Ancient Houses at the end of 1974, because even Maggie's restored Magical Family had Centuries of seniority over any of those new New Blood Families… Which was a formal classification that the Traditionalists had instigated in the Nineteenth Century to prevent Muggle-Borns' families being given the same status as 'proper' Wizards' Magical Families… And those who had chosen to remain Unassociated… Which was the official designation that applied to most Muggle-Born… To avoid being formally made part of a New Blood Family had even less status…
So by the rules that they themselves had insisted be applied to Magical Britain when they were king of the heap, they were at the very bottom of the pecking order in Magical Britain now… And the Ministry would be making a point of coming down hard on them for each and every infringement from now on, including making any false claims about their or their families' status or seniority, because the Ministry was terrified of what might happen if the Most Noble and Most Ancient Houses decided to step in and deal with the matter themselves again after the Houses of Potter, Peverell and Black showed how far they were willing to go to get justice if the Ministry failed to do so…
And that was what they did for the rest of their time at Hogwarts, they all sat at least some of their NEWTs and 'A' Levels at the end of the Seventy Four school year, getting accepted to commence their Masteries and Bachelor or Associate Degrees in those fields by distance learning in the Seventy Five school year. The others were a little miffed, but not overly surprised, that James and Lily had earned a couple of minor masteries each and dove back into more challenging ones even before the year ended. And they finished at Hogwarts in much the same way they had the previous four years, taking all the top spots in all subjects in their NEWTs and 'A' Levels.
It was around that time that Harry found out why Hermione had never been anywhere near as worried about her own parents as she was with his… Because they had basically gotten married after they graduated with their Dental Surgery degrees in 1975 because they agreed that a successful professional couple running a Dental Surgery practice together would present a lot better image than working with someone else who may take the limelight off them. So passion had never really been part of their relationship, it was primarily a business arrangement with the occasional recreational activity thrown in when they'd imbibed a little too much at parties... And when Hermione's mother got pregnant from one of these recreational activities after the British Dentists Association's Post New Years Celebration in 1979 (They held their celebrations after New Years to make sure that they didn't miss out on all the lucrative dental emergencies that went hand in hand with hordes of people running around drunk, not to mention the fact that the venues were much cheaper when no-one else wanted them.)… They decided after some debate that a successful professional family would present an even better image than a successful professional couple, so she had the baby, and gave her a Shakespearean name to show their appreciation for the fine arts.
At first they had been delighted with their little genius, because aside from strange things happening sometimes when she was happy or upset, she made a wonderful little show piece to trot out and impress people with her brilliance and maturity…
Then in July 1991, a strangely dressed woman appeared on their doorstep and informed them that their daughter was in fact a Witch, and that she would be going to some secret Witches school in Scotland… Or she would have her magic bound and they would all have their memories of magic wiped, again… Because apparently people had come several times to cover up what happened when Hermione making strange things happen had gotten out of hand, and they'd bound her magic, wiped everyone's memories of the incident and left them to get on with their lives. This Professor McGonagall had told them that when young witches or wizards were more powerful than most, they sometimes broke through the bindings that were meant to hold until they went to Hogwarts, and given that that had happened four times with Hermione, she was obviously going to be an exceptional witch… As if they were supposed to be pleased with that…
The only reason they gave in and let Hermione go to this Hogwarts was that the way this so-called Professor was talking, if they didn't, and any more incidents of this 'accidental magic' occurred... 'The Ministry' would most likely ensure that the problem was dealt with permanently, and they'd be included in that permanent solution… So Hermione went to Hogwarts, met the famous Harry Potter and her life hadn't been the same since…
That was why her parents had been so happy to throw a pile of money at her and send her off to stay with Harry in Diagon Alley for the last three weeks of the Summer Holiday before their Third Year, because if she was safely hidden away in 'their' world, she wouldn't be able to do or say anything to make people in the real world ask embarrassing questions about her…
So they just confirmed that Richard Granger and Penelope Miller had gotten married in August 1975, and marked their calendar to confirm that Penelope was pregnant in 1979.
A/N: On Amelia being Mrs Moody, with the Victorian values of Magical Britain, respectable witches would have been expected to get married, so it's unlikely that an unmarried witch would have been considered suitable for promotion to any position of authority. Widows, on the other hand, would be more respected, especially if their husbands had been well regarded, so a capable witch who had lost her husband in the war could be considered acceptable for a senior role. And it is neither unacceptable or too unusual for widows to return to their maiden names, especially if it helps keep their family name alive… Men were also expected to get married and sire families, so Moody losing his family in the war made more sense than him being single… And sons often follow in their father's footsteps, so Amelia could have quite easily been introduced to her boss's son at work and started going out with him.