Longbottom Manor

Chapter 11

Albus Dumbledore liked to believe he was a man of infinite patience. And he was when things were going according to him. Hadn't he waited a decade before confirming Voldemort's non-dead state? But currently, he was fretting. It had been more than a week since Sirius had become a free man and taken custody of his godson. The whole of the public had praised the decision. It was only right after all, that the current hero of the wizarding world is raised by an old hero of the world.

Albus had been sure that either the Blacks would have stormed his office by now or he would have been summoned by them. But neither of them had happened and this just escalated to him stewing in his own mind fretting over what was to happen. Molly Weasley had just floo called him, full of anger that the Blacks weren't fit to raise Harry because they hadn't taken her advice. Personally Albus knew that there was no one better to give Harry a good and happy life. The Blacks were influential, ruthless, and loyal to a fault. Once they had decided someone was theirs to love and protect, they would burn the world down for such a person. And they even had Lupin's rational sense to influence their more homicidal ideas, he wasn't in the least worried about Harry, what he was worried about were himself and his carefully laid plans. In retrospect, maybe he should have taken care of Harry's home life, maybe regular visits to keep the Dursleys in check, or maybe putting young Harry with the Longbottoms?

But they would understand, Harry had to stay there, that is the only way he could be protected. And if the Blacks weren't going to take that initiative then he would. With a determined nod and gathering his Gryffindor courage, Albus penned a note to the House of Black.

Augusta Longbottom, to sum up in a few words is a formidable woman. Many lesser men and woman had trembled before her withering glare, but the Black cousins seated before her were not people who were easily intimidated, that alone would have impressed her, if not for the many stories her Frank had told her about the man before her.

Sirius Black, Astrid Black, and Harry Potter had entered from her fireplace at the exact moment they said they would be coming to seek an audience, the first two with elegance, the last stumbling a little. The first time she had caught sight of the Potter heir had her breath knocked out of her. He was as everyone said the exact copy of James Potter. On first look, you could almost say they were one and the same, but a closer observation you could see parts of his mother, most noticeable his eyes, but so were his ears and the way he squinted his eyes. While his nose was all Charlus, his jawline was slowly turning into that famed Black jawline he inherited from his grandmother, Dorea Black. Her eyes nearly watered seeing all of her old friends in this young man, it was how they lived she realized, their lost ones, they lived on in the ones who owned their heart completely, the ones who they gave their lives for. It was how her Frank and Alice lived through Neville, she realized. Sudden grief overwhelmed her with how she had been ignoring the boy, she had felt the pangs of guilt all these years but had selfishly pushed it aside in favor of wallowing in her sadness. No more she decided as she concentrated on the conversation in front of her.

"Madam Longbottom, thank you for seeing us." Sirius said.

"Of course Lord Black, am I right in presuming you are the new Lord Black?" Augusta replied.

"Your wit is as sharp as ever." Sirius conceded bowing his head slightly.

"And Miss Black, I presume all the ruckus was your doing? I don't know any other Blacks with as much backbone and slyness as you."

"My cousin needed me, Madam, you can hardly blame me." Astrid smiled serenely.

"Well, it is the most fun I have had in a long time."

Sirius's lips twitched into a small smile.

"There are two matters that we wish to discuss with you, the first between the houses of Potter and Longbottom the second between the houses of Longbottom and Lestrange."

Augusta and Neville stiffened at the second but said nothing.

Sirius gestured at Harry to speak up. He nervously cleared his throat before speaking.

"It was recently bought to my attention by my guardians that Alice Longbottom is my godmother, while my mother, Lily Potter was Neville's godmother. In another life, I and Neville would have grown up as brothers and I want to reestablish that relation between the Houses of Potter and Longbottom if that is all right with you, Madam Longbottom, and your heir."

Augusta was shocked and pleasantly surprised at this, but she hid it well. A look at her grandson showed that he was also pleasantly surprised and looking hopeful.

"It is acceptable to me, if Neville accepts." She spoke.

Neville looked surprised at this, his grandmother didn't usually let him make decisions.

"Yeah, yeah." Neville said, slightly dazed.

That concluded, Sirius spoke regarding the next order of buisness.

"This I think brings us to the next order of business."

The Longbottom matriarch sat up stiffly.

"The house of Lestrange in married into the house of Black, additionally, Bellatrix was a daughter of the house of Black. They have bought shame to the House of Black, and my relatives should have done something to right the wrong long ago, but they haven't." he paused to take a break.

"What do you propose then Lord Black?" She asked.

"Reparation."

"Reparation? You think money will bring back my parents?" For the first time in ever, Harry saw Neville shaking with anger looking at his godfather coldly.

"No. And I wasn't suggesting that at all."

"Oh?" Augusta quirked up an eyebrow inquisitively.

"Money is just one part of it. 50,000 galleons for every year that Alice and Frank spent in ."

"And the other part?" Augusta asked, not reacting to the outrageous price he was offering her.

Sirius looked towards Astrid, gesturing her to speak up. She jumped at the chance, pulling out a few files from her handbag.

"Madam Longbottom, I don't know if you have ever met Cassiopeia Black, she was our aunt and a genius at potions and healing among other things. I was her protege, she personally trained me, and in the last decade that I have been abroad, I have been working with a friend of mine in Switzerland, Healer Ranford."

Augusta and Neville's hearts thudded loudly. They knew who Healer Ranford was, he was one the most acclaimed mind experts in the world. They had heard rumors that he was working on a more specialized technique especially for torture victims but could never find out more about it.

Astrid had an understanding smile on her face. She knew exactly what was going through the minds of the people in front of her. This was one of the projects that she had been determined to make work no matter what and finally, they had succeeded.

"We found a way, to reverse the minds of the people who were tortured, especially under the cruciatus. The success rate right now is 90%. It isn't a fast process, there are still a few minor kinks we are working out, but the patients who have recovered completely have had zero relapses. For a few people, it takes longer to work, that is all. These are all the reports from the cases. I offer my services to personally to look after Alice and Frank and start the treatment for them."

With shaking hands, Augusta took the reports, skimming over the words, tears filling her eyes. Neville couldn't move. The only words in his mind were 90% success rate and zero relapses. He didn't want to believe it. He didn't want to hope and then have it crushed. He vaguely wondered if this was all a dream if he would wake up and cruel reality would crash over him again. He felt a hand on his arm and looked up to see Harry's concerned eyes watching him.

"You okay?" He asked.

He nodded numbly.

"Yeah."

Harry smiled reassuringly at him.

"Don't worry. Astrid is an amazing healer. She wouldn't have even bought this up if she didn't think she could do it."

Harry's words calmed him slightly.

"Thank you." He whispered. He saw his grandmother reading the reports intently and addressed his question to Astrid.

"How does the process work?" His grandmother too put down the papers eager to know more about this now.

"Well." Astrid began as she tapped a file in front of her. Immediately two 3d projections of the human brain popped up.

"First we had to figure out what was the actual problem, we couldn't do that with normal magical means so we had to look at muggle means. Muggles have this machine called a CAT scanner which scans someone's brain and highlights the parts that are wrong. I won't go into the whole details but basically, each part of the brain is responsible for one function. We used the scans to determine which areas were affected and then used a combination of muggle medicine, potions, and spells to right the area. It wouldn't have been possible with just either muggle or magical means. The muggle pills helped the body to create the necessary functions that part of the brain is supposed to perform and the spells and potions are used to replicate that, adapt it to that person's core, and then letting the core itself heal that person. The main reason we couldn't find a cure was because most of the healers wouldn't have even thought to look at muggle means to stabilize a person while they worked. "

Astrid spoke as she pointed out the differences between the stable brain and the unstable brain. As she spoke she showed how the brain slowly mended itself, honestly, Harry thought it was very fascinating. Augusta and Neville were listening intently, hidden hope shining brightly. Tears had leaked out of Neville's eyes, still unable to believe it.

They sat in silence while the Longbottom's composed themselves.

"I accept." Augusta said, her voice wavering still a bit.

"How about we go to the hospital tomorrow and then I can have them signed over to my care Madam Longbottom?"

"Yes, yes." Augusta said.

"I'll owl you the details." Astrid said as the Blacks and Harry stood up to leave.

"Thank you. All of you." Augusta said.

Neville echoed her statement, his voice dangerously on the border of cracking.

Once the three of them left, both grandmother and grandson spent the rest of the day with happy tears in their eyes, looking forward to the new life that would begin the next day.

Sirius, Astrid, and Harry had meanwhile returned to Grimmauld to have lunch with Remus and discuss what had happened so far that day. Astrid had even shed a few tears at the 'pureness and happiness of the occasion'. When Sirius and Harry teased her about it she merely stuck her tongue out at them before she and Remus turned their formal robes with princess dresses. Instead of retaliating, Harry and Sirius instead put up an impromptu fashion show, which they forced Remus to join in. The four of them cackled with laughter, Astrid taking a million photos of them. They all looked very beautiful, Astrid declared. Harry was in a very pretty, poofy emerald green dress, while Sirius was in a very daring red dress with a plunging neckline and a slit. He took full advantage of this, sauntering around them, flipping his hair in a very divaesque movement. Remus joined Sirius in parading around, flouncing the long train of his blue dress behind him very dramatically. All in all, they had a very fun few hours before the Malfoys were due to arrive.