"The Wizengamot of Wizarding England has gathered today, on the fifth of August nineteen ninety three for the trial of Lord Sirius Orion Black of the Most Noble and Most Ancient House of Black. Defending the Accused is Solicitor Andromeda Tonks of Tonks & Nott Law firm. Acting as Prosecutor is Evan Belby. Acting as Judge is Madame Amelia Bones, Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. I, Owen Ambrosius, will be acting as Chief Warlock due to conflict of interest between current Chief Warlock Albus Dumbledore and the Accused." Owen Ambrosius, as the head of the second most powerful sect in the Wizengamot was standing in for Albus Dumbledore as Chief Warlock since Dumbledore had been one of the people to sentence Sirius the first time. Albus was not allowed to interfere in the trial and was only allowed to watch from his Family's seat on the second lowest floor (as the Dumbledore Family were only a lower family with no nobility). Altair Potter was also, unfortunately, unable to vote on this case due to conflict of interest, as well as Narcissa Black who was acting as the Proxy of the House of Black. They were both, however, allowed to sit in on the proceedings as they both had seats on the Wizengamot. Harry and Lynette were also there, alongside the members of 'The Alliance' who were heirs to Ancient Houses, as they all wanted to observe the proceedings.
"Acting as Jury are Lord Lucius Malfoy, Lord Theodoric Nott, and Lord Benjamin Parkinson from the Dark Alliance, Lord Edmund Greengrass, Lord Evander Selwyn, and Lady Ainsley Macmillan from the Grey Alliance, and Lord Ellis Abbott, Dowager Lady Augusta Longbottom, and Lord Finnick Shacklebolt from the Light Alliance." Those mentioned were all sitting next to each other in a portion of the room, and nodded their heads in confirmation to the announcement.
From then the trial proceeded, and it was obvious to everyone which side was winning. Madame Tonks was known for her brutality in the court and never losing a case, and she was even more brutal that day due to the fact that her cousin was the one on trial. The trial only took two hours, one of the shortest trials to happen in magical Britain's history, and in the end, after thirty short minutes of debating, Sirius Black was found innocent of all charges, due to in part his willingness to testify under Veritaserum potion, which enabled the truth to be shared to all that attended, and later to the whole wizarding world. Peter Pettigrew was announced as a wanted criminal, and everyone was asked to report to the DMLE if he was seen as he was considered armed and dangerous.
While everything was happening, one man stood at the very end of the visitor's area, looking over the event quietly. The figure was covered from head to toe in black, with a hood on his head that didn't show anything of his face except light grey eyes that looked almost silver in certain lighting. He watched everything that happened closely, and made sure to commit the faces of those that had voted against Sirius's innocence. After making sure that the man was proven innocent of all charges, he turned on his heal and headed back to his apartment, he did still have a lot of work to do.
After the trial, everyone gathered in Potter Manor to celebrate Sirius's innocence. While everyone was either drinking, eating or indulging in conversation with those gathered, two women and one girl were huddled together, discussing something important.
"I invited him to the party but he said he was busy." One of the women gathered, the elegant and fierce Lady Narcissa Black-Malfoy, said quietly with a tone that indicated her extreme exasperation.
"I promise, if he doesn't come and show his living face to his brother, I'm going to drag him here myself." The youngest of the three, Heiress Lynette Ambrosius, said in annoyance. The other two nodded their heads in agreement at the threat, as they'd be right behind her.
As the party continued, a sudden knock on the manor's door alerted everyone to a guest.
"Who could that be?" Harry asked, not noticing Lynette share a look with the two Black women in the room.
"I have no idea." Altair said, motioning for the house elf who had appeared to stay still and going over to open the door himself, but as soon as he opened it he came face to face with a person he hadn't thought he'd ever see again. He threw all caution to the wind and tackled the person in a hug, tears flowing down his eyes as he held on to the person.
Everyone else was confused, as who could possibly be at the door that would elicit a reaction like that from the man that was normally calm and collected at all times. No one could hear the conversation that was happening between the two and couldn't see the person's face as it was hidden in Altair's shoulder. But as soon as he lifted his face and pulled away, every adult and some of the teenagers in the room gasped in shock. They snapped out of their gaping when they heard a choked sob and turned to see that Sirius was looking at the guest in shock with tears running down his face. He immediately ran over and grabbed him in a tight hug, hitting his back repeatedly but weakly in agony and rage.
The two whispered to each other quietly, the man seeming to be apologizing as he tightened his grip on Sirius.
"Who is he?" Harry quietly asked Lynette, who had moved to stand next to him and was watching what was happening with a satisfied smile on her face, her father stood next to her with the same expression and amusement twinkling in his bottle green eyes.
"That's Regulus Black, he's Sirius's younger brother that was thought to have died thirteen years ago." She explained patiently.
"Where was he then, if he wasn't dead?"
"He worked with my father." She said simply, knowing Harry would understand. And he did, nodding his head slightly. She had explained to him how her parents worked very secretive jobs that she wasn't allowed to tell anyone about.
"Where have you been?!" Sirius said, seeming to recover from the shock of finding his supposedly dead brother right in front of him, very much alive. His happiness at seeing Regulus had quickly turned to anger at making everyone believe he was dead.
"I've been working with Lord and Lady Ambrosius behind the scenes, I had to play dead for my safety, as the Dark Lord's followers would have killed me if they had found out I was alive and had betrayed him." Regulus explained quietly, straightening himself and coming to stand beside his brother and best friend. The two brothers looked quite similar, with grey eyes and raven hair, but there were some differences between the two. While Regulus had short wavy hair and a sharp, square jawline, Sirius had shoulder length straight hair and a more round jawline. Both had the purebloods' iconic sharp cheekbones, and the famous Black Family grey eyes that all the members had, but while Regulus's eyes were a lighter shade of grey that was almost silver, Sirius's eyes were a darker grey that was close to pewter. The two made an intimidating sight as they stood beside Altair Potter, who already looked aristocratic with Hazel, almost gold, eyes and the brunette hair that was streaked with blonde that he had inherited from his mother, Lady Dorea Black-Potter.
From then, the party flowed smoothly, with everyone getting to know each other or catching up on lost time. After dinner, everyone began to slowly leave. Regulus decided to leave with Owen Ambrosius, his superior and friend, and his daughter Lynette.
"Why'd you decide to reveal yourself now?" Owen asked Regulus, his arm around his daughter's shoulder as they left Potter Manor after a celebratory evening.
"I…felt it was time. I'd missed my brother and Altair too much for me to stay away longer than that. They're the only family I have left."
The father and daughter nodded in understanding, before Lynette piped up. "You have us too you know."
Regulus laughed at that, nodding his head in agreement. He put his arm around Lynette's other shoulder "Yeah, I guess I do."
Nothing really important or life altering happened after that, Sirius and Altair spent the rest of the summer getting to know Harry and teaching him everything he'd missed out on during the years of living with his aunt. Harry continued getting to know the members of 'The Alliance', and they him.
Another development was the appearance of Remus Lupin in his life. While he did not trust the man, as he'd left him to rot in Private Drive and trusted Dumbledore's word without investigating anything, unlike his uncle who had kept looking for him without fail, he had welcomed him into his home (and wow wasn't that still shocking to say, he actually had a home of his own) but hadn't really gotten comfortable around the man.
While Sirius had been happy by his friend's arrival, Harry had noticed that Altair had shown the same amount of mistrust towards Remus that he did, if not a little more. He was curt and reserved with his words and rarely gave the man a genuine smile. When Harry had asked his uncle about his attitude, his response had been pretty simple. "He never reached out to anyone, he believed when they said Sirius was guilty and hadn't tried to question anything, he believed Dumbledore when he said you were safe, never questioning if you were happy or not, and he never contacted me, even when I lost my brother. Whenever I sent him letters to check up on him, like I knew James would have wanted me to do, he'd reply with short responses and emotionless answers, never asking about me. Why should I trust someone who had never shown me that he can be trusted?"
And Harry had agreed, and had waited to see if the man would do something to prove himself, but he hadn't, and Harry was disappointed. He had thought one of his father's closest friends would be a little more…engaging.
Who he had gotten to know, and had been impressed by, was Regulus Black. He found that the man was witty and funny, and really intelligent. He realised that Regulus knew a lot about different types of magic, and knew how to get Harry engaged when he was explaining something. He came to trust Regulus and his opinions, and had even asked him about his electives, with Regulus replying with a list of pros and cons to every subject, as he'd tried all of them and then some, helping Harry come to make a decision easier. He'd also noticed the close friendship between the youngest Black and his uncle, and had asked the two about it.
"We're the same age, and became friends during our third year in secret, afraid that our brothers or parents wouldn't approve of our friendship. And we've been best friends since." Altair had replied simply, sharing a secretive look with Regulus.
"It also helped when I save his life in fourth year." Regulus said, laughing at the offended look Altair gave him.
"I had it covered, thank you very much. You're the one that decided to play hero when I could've taken care of myself just fine."
"Right, being restrained by three sixth year Slytherins was definitely having it covered." Harry had laughed at the back and forth, amused by the two.
And through the advice of Regulus and Altair, Harry finally chose Study of Ancient Runes and Arithmancy as his third year electives. He had chosen Arithmancy, as his love for math growing up had outweighed his curiosity about magical creatures, as he learned he could either ask Rolf Scamander, who he had gotten to know through Lynette, or read books about the subject. He had also chosen Ancient Runes because of his growing interest in the subject, having read books from the Potter library about it and hearing about it from Altair and Regulus, especially Altair who had a love for the subject that was rather contagious. His uncle had been a curse breaker (using the fact that he travelled around the world to look for Harry internationally) and had loved it. Through his job he'd managed to get a mastery in Ancient Runes and had started teaching Harry the basics of the subject alongside his other lessons, and Harry had fallen in love with it as well and decided to take it.
Sirius had also started giving him lessons, and through those Harry had gotten to know the fun loving, mischievous man that was his godfather (after Sirius had attended many Mind Healer sessions, of course). He'd taught Harry the Potions basics that he was supposed to have known, making Harry realise why exactly he had always been subpar in potions. These potions lessons, that Regulus took over after the basics were taught (as he'd always been the more talented of the two brothers at the subject) with Lynette helping from time to time, made Harry realise that he loved Potions when Snape wasn't there breathing down his neck, and that he had a natural affinity for it. Altair was not allowed to give him any type of potions lessons as the man was a disaster when it came to the subject (which was rather ironic considering his natural affinity to Herbology and his status as a member of House Potter).
When he had asked Sirius about it, his godfather had explained that the Potter Family were well known for their talent in Potions making, and that his ancestors had all created many potions that were used by all magicals on a regular basis, and that the Potter fortune was built by the invention of these potions. That had surprised Harry a lot, as he hadn't known this, thus prompting his uncle to give him lessons on the Potter Family and their history alongside his other lessons. These lessons included politics and etiquette, magical culture and history, estate management, money and investment handling, and even duelling with his very talented godfather, who he found out had been a Hit Wizard during the war alongside his father.
Because of these lessons, and the wardrobe Sirius had gotten him in the summer (and wow did his godfather love to shop), Harry entered his third year at Hogwarts School a new person. He had a larger group of friends from all houses, perks of being a member of 'The Alliance' (he had been initiated a week before the new school year), he acted like the Heir he was, and he had filled up a lot during the summer, due to the nutrition potions and consistently healthy meals he had at home, so that he didn't look like a skeleton like he used to but rather had built muscles that had come from long hours of duelling, weapons handling (as he'd found out that he had a natural talent with a sword) and martial arts.
Unfortunately, these developments had an effect on his old friendships. While he gained more friends during the summer, he had slowly realised that his friendship with Ron wasn't as close as it once was. While he'd always appreciate Ron for being his first consistent friend, he found that as he got to know the Wizarding World and found his place in it with a loving family by his side, he didn't have as many common interests with the red-head as he once did. Ron did not want to talk about books or lessons, had no interest in politics, and had gotten mad at Harry for his choice of electives, as he'd chosen the easy way with Divination and Care of Magical Creatures. He'd also gotten jealous when Harry had invited him and Hermione to Potter Manor, as it was much larger than The Burrow. This all made Harry feel rather uncomfortable around Ron and made him question their friendship. And even though his friendship with Hermione had flourished with the changes that had happened in his life, his and Ron's friendship seemed to be sinking.
He asked Regulus about it once during the summer, and the man had been comforting but blunt in his answer. He'd hummed as he listened to Harry's rant before he'd said "It's all really simple really. The reason your friendship isn't the same is because you are changing and maturing while he is still the same. You've found yourself in the Wizarding World, and now have a support system around you, so you don't necessarily need him like you did before. And while you are trying to get him engaged in what's interesting you and trying to involve him in what's happening in your life, he wants things to stay the same, which is why you end up talking about the same thing, Quidditch."
While Harry still loved Quidditch and ended up in the quidditch pitch on the grounds of the manor with Regulus playing against each other almost every day, as he found out that Regulus had been his house's seeker when he was at Hogwarts and had been the person who'd set most of the records Harry had broken, he was interested in other stuff as well, but Ron didn't want to talk about any of them, which is why their friendship had become so stagnant.
And this is how his third year passed, nothing of importance really occurring, peace reigning throughout the year with no Dark Lords or snakes trying to kill him (and didn't he feel grateful for that, as he finally got to live his life).