Hadrian Potter- The Snake like Lion

by Lord of mystics

3 year old Harry Potter is abducted from Privet Drive by Remus Lupin at the behest of Lord Black who is desperate for a heir. While Harry grows up away from Wizarding World, Arcturus is also hot in the pursuit of Horcruxes he knew from Kreacher. Complete AU. Completed story. New Part is up.

3. Chapter 3

The Great Hall

Harry had stayed up late with his new room-mates. Of course, he knew Neville well from the weeks they spent together while growing up. He had met Ron on the train and they seemed to hit it off well, especially when Harry was open about how that git Malfoy and his two goons did not impress him. Dean and Seamus seemed to know each other from their time before Hogwarts. Dean seemed to be a pretty steady guy, but Seamus was entirely too fond of making things explode. It was past midnight before Percy Weasley, Ron's older brother and a new prefect, came and threatened them with all kinds of dire consequences if they didn't settle down and get some sleep. He also reminded them that the first day of class was tomorrow and they did not want to get off on the wrong foot with their teachers by falling asleep in class.

The gawking started the next day at breakfast as Harry had anticipated. They had barely entered the Great Hall when he noticed eyes turning toward him. He was still taking stock of the hot cereal, pan-cakes, waffles, French toast, bacon sausage, juice, scrambled eggs, syrups, marmalade, and more, trying to make up his mind about what to eat, when the first group approached him. They were a delegation from Hufflepuff, lead by a very pretty first year with strawberry blond hair who introduced herself as Susan Bones. Her friend was Hannah Abbott and there were a few other first years with them. Next up was Daphne Greengrass who introduced her friend Tracey and a few other first years from Slytherin. While they were visiting, Harry discreetly slipped her a note to meet him in the library after dinner. She would have to look for a "notice Me Not" charm. Of course, Draco and his squad, Crabb, Goyle and Parkinson did not join the parade. It seemed to Harry that each of the other tables was watching, taking their turn to come and introduce themselves. Some just wanted to say hello. Some offered their friendship while many just wanted a closer look at the boy who lived to see if the reality was anything like the legend. Most of them just came over, said hello and were gone before he could actually respond to those he found interesting.

As breakfast progressed, Harry grabbed mouthfuls of food between visitors. He realized that today was going to be a long day. His mind was reeling with all those people who were introducing themselves to him trying to become his friends. As great-aunt Cassiopeia had taught him, he politely talked with every one, accepted their compliments and said a word or two in return to each one.

He had been surprised with the number of Slytherin students who came over to see him and convey their wishes or regards. If he were a muggle-born he would have thought all of these people were trying to be his friends but being raised by Slytherins, he knew they were all trying to get in his good graces because he was the heir to House Black.

As he sat to breakfast with Neville on one side and Ron on the other, a tawny owl landed in front of him. It had the Daily Prophet in its legs for him. After paying the owl, he unfolded the paper and groaned. The front page was splattered with a bold head line and a smiling photo somebody had been able to obtain without his knowing:

"THE BOY-WHO-LIVED: THE SAVIOUR OF THE WIZARDING WORLD ARRIVES AT HOGWARTS

By- Helena Campbell

Yesterday, in the sorting of the smallest class yet at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, most of the populace of the wizarding world held their breath while they waited for the sorting of none other than the boy-who-lived Harry James Potter who we are told goes by Hadrian James Potter-Black now. Yes dear reader, the saviour of the wizarding world has been raised by the family of the man who betrayed his parents to you-know-who. (For more on Ancient and Most Noble House of Potter and Ancient and Most Noble House of Black, see P.8)

While we do not yet know of the conditions of his placement with the House of Black, we had not anticipated that he would be given to the darkest of the families for being raised. Some of the sources claim to have seen him wearing the heir ring of the House of Potter and Black indicating a family merger between the two houses. Gringotts also confirmed that he is the heir of both houses by reason of being the last Potter and the heir of Black as he has been declared so by Lord Arcturus Orion Black who lives a reclusive life on the continent. (For more on Lord Arcturus Orion Black, see P. 6)

This also raises questions as to his well –being and the choice of Albus Dumbledore who had assured the general wizarding populace that he was being hidden in a place which is safe from any kind of attack. However sources have informed us that he is quite the charming young man who does not hold any bias against anyone.

In the sorting, it was observed that the hat took its time to sort him. In fact, some of the sources suggest that he avoided being a hat-stall by a matter of a few seconds. The final verdict of the hat was to sort him into Gryffindor where all his family had been sorted through the ages before.

There have been a lot of rumours about him and a rather popular book-series about the adventures of a fictional character based on him, it has been told that he dismissed everything about him as allegory with no substance to those rumours.

WE tried to contact Lord Black, Professor Dumbledore and Hadrian Potter-Black but none of them were available for comment.

We at the Daily Prophet, wish him good luck for his life ahead and hope that he will become a pillar of the community as his family always has been."

Harry read the article and grimaced while people whispered around him. Other than that swipe they took at Sirius, the article was fairly accurate. What bothered him was the realisation that he would not be allowed to have a private life. It did look, however, looked like Dumbledore had taken steps to at least keep the press out of the school and Harry was thankful for that small mercy. It would be exceedingly hard to get on with his studies if he had to dodge interviewers and cameras every time he walked the hallways. He was still lost in thought when Hermione Granger joined them, sitting down across from him.

She noticed the frown on his face and asked, "Hadrian, what is the matter?"

It was Neville who answered, "The Daily Prophet got wind of him and his sorting. Perhaps someone in the castle sold the story to them last night for few Galleons".

As breakfast was going on, Zeus landed in the room and held out its claw for Harry. Harry gleefully took the letter while petting the bird. People around him were openly gawking now. They had seen all kinds of owls delivering the post, but a falcon was unique in their experience. The letter was from Moony who wanted to know about his day so far, how he was settling into the castle and everything that he had done or not done.

Harry fed the falcon some bacon and sent him away to the owlery saying that he will have a letter for him when he had time to write it. After classes were over for the day, Harry intended to spend the rest of the afternoon and evening going around the castle, trying to learn all the secret ways and everything that was worth knowing or would help him in pranking. He had notes from Remus about all the secret passages within the castle that the werewolf could remember and Harry was determined to learn them all.

Harry's belly was getting quite full of all the marvelous food as his head was also quite full of the names of all the people who had introduced themselves. The signal that breakfast was over was given when the dishes on the table were all suddenly empty and clean. Harry observed as four of the professors rose from the staff table and proceeded to the house tables. The greasy haired, sallow complexioned, hook nosed wizard all dressed in black went to the Slytherin table. The witch with the fly-away hair, wearing the patched hat went to the Hufflepuff table. The diminutive, energetic wizard trotted over to the Ravenclaw table. The tall, stern looking witch with her hair in a tight bun, was heading his way with a stack of parchments in her hand. With a wave of her wand, the parchments flew out of her left hand and landed, one in front of each student.

When Harry looked down at his, he realized that it was his time-table.

"Hadrian James Potter-Black, First Year 1991-1992

Monday: 9:00 Charms - Charms Classroom, Professor Filius Flitwick with Hufflepuff; 10:30 Herbology – Greenhouses, Professor Pomona Sprout with Hufflepuff; Noon Lunch - Great Hall; 1:30 Double Transfigurations - Transfiguration Classroom Professor Minerva McGonagall with Ravenclaw.

Tuesday: 9:00 Double Defence Against the Dark Arts - Defence Classroom Professor Quirinus Quirrell with Ravenclaw; Noon Lunch - Great Hall; 1:30 Herbology – Greenhouses Professor Pomona Sprout with Hufflepuff.

Wednesday: 9:00 Charms - Charms Classroom Professor Filius Flitwick with Hufflepuff; 10:30 Defence Against the Dark Arts - Defence Classroom Professor Quirinus Quirrell with Ravenclaw; Noon Lunch - Great Hall; 1:30 Double History of Magic - History Classroom Professor Cuthbert Binns with Ravenclaw

9:00 PM Double Astronomy - Top of Astronomy Tower Professor Aurora Sinistra with Hufflepuff

Thursday: 9:00 Herbology – Greenhouses Professor Pomona Sprout with Hufflepuff; 10:30 Transfigurations - Transfiguration Classroom Professor Minerva McGonagall with Ravenclaw; Noon Lunch - Great Hall 1:30 Charms - Charms Classroom Professor Filius Flitwickwith Hufflepuff; 3:30 Flying - Quidditch Pitch Madam Rolanda Hoochwith Slytherin.

Friday: 9:00 Double Potions - Potions Dungeon Professor Severus Snape with Slytherin; Noon Lunch - Great Hall;

Charms Classroom

Thanks to Remus, Harry knew that charms classes took place on the second floor. Finding the Charms classroom did not take him long. Harry's first ever class at Hogwarts was charms attended with the Hufflepuffs. The diminutive charms professor climbed a stack of books to reach his chair and started calling out their names. When he read out Harry's name, he squeaked and toppled off of his chair. The charms professor set them to learn the "Lumos" and "Nox" charm. Harry had scoffed at the idea initially wondering why would this spell need to be taught but one look at the Muggleborn students and he realised why they needed to learn the charm. He had been brought up in a castle where he had been carefully taught and practiced from an early age. But some of these muggle-born did not even know that magic was real until about two months ago at most.

The charms teacher was a cheerful and energetic person who made sure the students understood the theory first and then demonstrated the spell. He asked very few questions of the students. But when they had a question which was rare, he quickly and cheerfully gave short and clear answers.

Harry had already shown his proficiency in Lumos and Nox and now was trying his hand at the petrification hex. He knew how to cast it perfectly and did that while the muggle-born finished learning Lumos and Nox. He had plans to corner the Charms teacher to teach him duelling because he wanted to participate in the World Under-14 duelling championship. The Charms Professor had been a duelling champion for 9 years in a row and there were things that Harry could learn from him.

The Greenhouses

Next up was his first lesson in Herbology with the Hufflepuffs. They moved in one great mass from the Charms classroom, down the trick stairs and out the front doors of the castle to the greenhouses.

Waiting outside the Greenhouses to greet them was Professor Sprout. Harry's first impression of her from the welcoming feast the night before was that this witch did not care much for her own appearance. Now that harry saw her up close, He could see that she had a kind face, with fly away hair and a laughing, cheerful yet careful nature. Having already taught one class today, there were visible signs of toil, soil and sweat on her generous and well-muscled frame. Harry guessed that working with plants all day was physically taxing and given what he already knew about magical plants, often dangerous. She was also the Head of House for Hufflepuff. It was rumoured that she gave special lessons to her house in herbology by decorating the Common Room with plants from her lessons.

She escorted them inside of Greenhouse number one. This was where the mostly harmless plants were kept, only slight variants from many plants known by muggles. When they were all gathered around the tables, she started addressing them. "Welcome to Herbology. This subject attracts two types of people; those who love plants and those who wish to be potions masters. A large majority of potions ingredients come from plants both magical and mundane. It would be impossible to do anything original with potions without understanding these plants, knowing their properties, how to care for them and how to harvest them. As for my fellow plant lovers, I just find it relaxing and rewarding to see them healthy, growing and maturing. When a plant is not doing well, I take it as a personal challenge to determine what ails it and cure it. I hope that some of you may feel the same way. My job is to teach you all of these things.

"Before we begin, there are a few things that you should know. First, I do not waste my breath. If I caution you about something that a plant does, it is for your own safety. Please pay attention. Second, always wear your dragon-hide gloves. You will be handling plants which have poisonous barbs, corrosive sap, teeth and more. You will also be handling fertilizer. Need I remind you of wear that comes from? You do not want any of this in contact with your skin or it will be a trip to the hospital wing to visit with Madame Pomfrey. Third, If a plant does attack you, you are permitted to yell, and yes swear if you must, to get our attention and alert the people around you to the danger. Fourth and finally, there will be no time wasting in my class. Our greenhouses are vast and there are always some plants in need of attention. Are there any questions?"

Seamus raised his hand, "Professor, if a plant does attack one of us, what should we do?"

She responded, "Finnigan isn't it? It is best to sound the alarm and get out of the reach of the plant immediately. a plant can be repelled with the Flippendo jinx. If, however, you are not able to disentangle yourself, most animate plants can be stopped, without doing any serious harm to them, with a stunner. If, however the plant cannot be stopped in any other way, you may be forced to destroy it with Incendio. We will spend some of this class making sure that all of you can use those spells."

She taught them about Asphodel its qualities, its uses and other details associated with that plant. She also taught the spells she had mentioned.

During the class, Harry made his acquaintance with Ernie Macmillan whose family had been an ally of the Potters. Ernie pompously promised to introduce him to others who were friends of House Potter. When the class was over, she assigned them a foot of parchment to be turned in the next class about the Stupefy, Incendio and Flipendo jinx and their uses in Herbology with the incantation and wand movements.

The Great Hall

By the time Harry had washed up and put on fresh robes, lunch in the Great Hall was well under way. He made a mental note to work more on those household, clean-yourself-up type spells. It occurred to him that they were huge time-savers. Most of the lunch conversation was about the professors and what they had learned that morning. The steady stream of visitors from Breakfast did not repeat itself. Lunch, although he was late, still seemed to stretch out for a long time. This afternoon would be a double transfigurations lesson with his head-of-house.

Transfigurations Classroom

For the first transfigurations class, Harry had used a couple of the short-cuts which Moony had told him about to get from the Great Hall to the Transfiguration classroom on the second floor, and he was first to arrive at the class. Some of the more observant Gryffindors were right behind him. This was the first class that they were going to share with Ravenclaw. He was ready to see the work of the house renowned for their cleverness.

When he entered the class, there was a tabby cat sitting on the teacher's desk watching the students enter the room. Having been forewarned by Remus, Harry knew that this was Professor McGonagall in her animagus form, waiting for the right time to surprise her students. Even though Harry had made a vow to himself not to cross her, he felt that one good prank deserved another. He drew his wand and started alternating between Lumos and Nox to flash a point of light near the cat. She sat stiffly for a while, trying to pretend that chasing a point of light was beneath her dignity. But, witch in disguise or not, a cat is a cat and she started chasing the light around the room. After a few more minutes, the Ravenclaws arrived. Harry, not wanting to humiliate the professor in front of the other students, had the cat chase the light right out of the room and doused his wand. A few seconds later, Professor McGonagall entered the room, looking stoic, her mouth in a thin line and glaring at Harry. He had to work hard to suppress a grin because he did not want to land in detention on the very first day of class.

She started the class with an introduction of her subject. "Welcome to Transfiguration. It is one of the most complex and exciting branches of magic. This subject is useful in daily life as well as in combat to any witch or wizard. With transfiguration you can learn to change one thing into another.". When she flourished her wand, her desk changed into a pig then the pig transformed back into a desk to great applause from the students.

Then she continued, "Since this is a core subject, you will be studying with me for a minimum of your first five years while you are here at Hogwarts. You will also learn to conjure things from thin air.". She conjured a flock of singing canaries. "How to animate objects?" She tapped her desk and it did a convincing soft-shoe until she tapped it again to make it stop. "I will also teach you how to transform animals into people, people into animals, objects into animals, animals into objects and one thing into another. I can teach you how to disguise yourself expertly so that your own mother will not be able to recognize you. This subject requires patience, lots of creativity, and careful control. I warn you that loss of control can have disastrous results. So there will be no stupidity in my classes. Anyone who needs to be reminded of that will be given detention post haste".

After she was sure that she had intimidated her students sufficiently to get her point across, she started teaching them the transfiguration alphabet. She told them that there would be a test on it in the next class. Harry understood the use of the transfiguration alphabet of course. As Remus had told him, the alphabets could be used in weaving wards or other such uses.

The class was good and he observed the Ravenclaws in between. For the most part, they seemed to pick things up quickly. They were also quiet and sober.

As the class was letting out, the professor asked Harry to stay behind, "Mr. Potter- Black, please accompany me to the Head-master's study. He wants to have a word with you".

Harry hung his head, "Professor, I'm sorry. I was just having a little fun..."

Making a visible effort to suppress her mirth, she cut in, "I'm sure I have no idea what you are talking about, Mr. Potter-Black. Come along now".

He dutifully replied, "Of course Professor".

The Headmaster's Office

He got up and followed the stern professor out of the classroom and around a corner to stand in front of a huge, ugly gargoyle. Professor McGonagall said, "Lemon drops.", and the gargoyle came to life, leaping to one side while the wall split down the center from floor to ceiling and slid aside to the right and left. When Harry was able to see inside, there was a moving spiral staircase to take him upwards. He quickly stepped on it while Professor McGonagall said, "He is waiting for you, Mr. Potter- Black and welcome to Hogwarts".

Harry ascended the staircase nervously while his heart kept pounding against his rib cage. He of course had anticipated this meeting and thought that he was ready for whatever Dumbledore might say. If he believed Moony, the old Headmaster would not give him any grief, not with his parent's will in his possession.

Harry knocked on the door and with a soft "enter" the door opened inwards.

The office was a circular chamber full of book shelves on one side, laden with ancient tomes. The rest of the walls were covered with moving portraits. Among them, Harry spotted Phineas Nigellus Black, the least popular Headmaster of Hogwarts. The Headmaster was seated behind a big table on a stuffed chintz chair, his long fingers steepled together, his half-moon glasses perched on the bridge of his nose and his electric blue eyes were twinkling merrily. On the other side of the office, there were little spindly legged tables with delicate silver instruments on them, some of which were whirring and puffing. There was a bowl of candies placed in front of the head-master while on the side was a perch where a beautiful phoenix was sleeping. Harry remembered being told by Moony that the Phoenix was called Fawkes and sang beautiful, joyous melodies.

"Welcome Mr. Potter-Black. Please take a seat", the Headmaster said pointing to one of the seats on this side of the table. As Harry sat, the Headmaster pointed to the bowl of sweets, "Would you care for a lemon Drop?"

Harry replied, "I hope I am able to refuse without any offense, Professor".

Dumbledore shrugged but said nothing for a few minutes perhaps thinking of how to start the conversation. Harry took the time to look around, taking in the office and its contents. As he looked more closely at the portraits, he could see that each one bore a name and the dates when they were headmasters of the school. He knew, from his experience at the Black castle, that these portraits could talk and move between portraits in the same building or portraits of themselves in different locations. This was likely a large part of how Dumbledore kept an eye on things in the school and communicated discretely outside of the school when needed. He could only guess at the function of the silver, puffing instruments sitting on their spindly legged tables. Harry thought they might be some highly sensitive detectors, but given the whimsical nature of the Headmaster, they might just be toys.

Dumbledore's voice interrupted Harry's speculations, "Mr. Potter-Black..."

Harry cut him off with a smile and a wave of his hand, "Headmaster, please call me Hadrian or Harry. Mr. Potter-Black sounds like I am in trouble for something".

Dumbledore chuckled, "All right then, 'Harry' it is". He sobered up then, "There are a few things that you should know. On that Halloween night, nearly ten years ago, when your parents were killed", he took a deep breath, "I feared that your life was in immediate danger. Voldemort had vanished, leaving behind his wand and cloak, but he still had many followers who were quite dangerous in their own right. Your mother's last act was to invoke an ancient magic to give you a lasting protection against anyone who intended to harm you. Voldemort could not understand the power of love and underestimated her which led him to be vanquished. The protection which she gave to you flows in your blood which meant you were safest at your aunt and uncle's house because she was your blood. You had no blood relatives left on your father's side to take you in. His best friend turned you over to Hagrid to bring you to me. A week later, he was accused of betraying your parents and sent to Azkaban. I did not know who your god-mother was or anyone else who could take you in. Your parents had another best friend Remus Lupin who was not in the country on that night and he was ineligible for a few more reasons. I was told that your aunt and uncle do not like wizards in general but trusting that your aunt Petunia had some of your mother in her, I was hoping that she would be kind to you and raise you well. I was both saddened and horrified to discover how wrong I was when you disappeared and I investigated their home, trying to determine what had become of you. While I do not deserve it, I hope that with time, you will be able to forgive me for my mistake, understanding the limited choices of an old man". The older wizard's face had shown a myriad of expressions all the while he spoke.

Harry understood that he was being truthful. May be he was remorseful for what he did. The truth was that Harry had been ready to confront Dumbledore, give him an earful for his mistake but the Headmaster had already accepted his mistake. He wondered at how uncanny Remus had been in his prediction of Dumbledore's character. The old Headmaster had acted the way Remus said he would. There were still a few questions which he needed answered. He turned to the Headmaster, "Professor, I have a few questions for you. I hope that you will answer them honestly".

The old Headmaster eagerly nodded, "I would be delighted to answer your questions if I can, my boy".

Harry asked, "my first question is did you know that Sirius Black is my god father? Do you know for certain that Sirius Black was their secret keeper? Are you certain that there was impeccable evidence about his guilt?"

Dumbledore pinched the bridge of his nose while collecting his thoughts and after a few seconds, he replied, "When you were born, the war was at its peak with people dying or disappearing right and left. Every day families were being wiped out of existence. No one knew if the Wizarding World would survive his madness. I was the leader of the Order of the Phoenix. I was busy on many fronts leading the war against him. As such, it was impossible for me to know everything in spite of my best efforts. You were born in Potter Castle when your grandparents were still alive. Your grandfather was a warrior and he had a pretty good idea about how to keep his family safe. Your family has been secretive over the centuries. No private details were ever known about your family to the general wizarding world except for what they saw fit to tell. I did not know that Sirius Black was your god-father when Hagrid brought you to me. By the time the goblins had replied to my inquiries about any of your other living relatives or god-parents, your god-father, Sirius was already in Azkaban. I tried to convince the ministry to look into his conviction since the magics behind the oath would have killed him if he tried to betray your parents. The minister had his mind made up. He flatly refused to look into the matter. To make matters worse, he sealed the record of the hearing classifying the files as 'Official Secret' under the Official Secrets Act. I tried to find some evidence to prove him innocent but I was unsuccessful.

"In answer to your second question, James had told me that he intended to make Sirius the secret keeper of the Cottage. I offered to become their secret keeper but by then our ranks had been breached and no one trusted anyone else. In fact, James and Sirius even suspected Remus Lupin to have gone over to the other side which would have been unimaginable during their school days. When the Fidelius charm had been cast upon the cottage at Godric's Hollow, Sirius came to Hogwarts with a piece of parchment with the secret written on it. He refused to speak the secret aloud in case we were over-heard. Since that night, I have come into possession of some facts which indicate that he may be innocent in the whole secret keeper affair. But then there is the issue of the murder of Peter Pettigrew with 12 muggles about which my information is woefully poor. The Aurors who took him into custody arrived too late to see what actually happened. Any statement that Sirius might have made has been sealed as part of the official record. According to some reliable second-hand information I received, he never made a coherent statement anyway. Since he has been in Azkaban he has not been permitted any visitors. Frankly, the whole thing stinks of cover-up and I want to know what they are hiding."

Harry asked, "Do you still have that parchment or a memory record of it? The hand-writing could tell us who the secret keeper was".

The corners of Dumbledore's mouth twitched, "Yes, that could be most enlightening". He rose from his desk and crossed to a cabinet from which he took a shallow stone basin engraved with runes and symbols. He brought the object back to his desk. Then he put his wand to the side of his head and drew out, as it seemed, a shining silver thread which came away, dangling from his wand. He released the thread into the basin and gave it a stir. An image of Sirius black rose from the basin, "The Potters have taken Harry into hiding. Here is the location. I dare not speak it aloud", and he handed the parchment to someone that Harry did not see.

The Headmaster said, "Harry, this is a Pensieve which I use to view or even enter memories. If you are to see the hand-writing of the secret keeper of your parent's cottage, you will need to enter the memory with me. Come, I will guide you through it". Having said that, Dumbledore showed him how to put his face to the basin. When Harry did so, he tumbled into the Headmaster's office of ten years ago and watched again as Sirius handed the parchment over to Dumbledore. He took a good look at the hand-writing on the parchment before Dumbledore set it on fire and destroyed the note. Then Harry felt the firm grip of Dumbledore on his arm and the next thing he knew, he was standing in the Headmaster's office of today again.

"That was it, Harry. I feel like I should know the hand-writing, but, I just can't place it", Dumbledore said.

Harry thought for a moment then said, "It is most likely that the secret keeper was one of my father's three closest friends. Remus Lupin was out of the country. If Sirius Black had been the traitor, his oath as my god-father would have killed him. That leaves only peter Pettigrew, the one known as Wormtail. IF we can get a sample of his hand-writing, we can confirm it".

Dumbledore nodded quietly, "I shall look into that, Harry".

Harry had taken in everything that the Headmaster had said. The meeting had proved to be very illuminating for him and cleared up a lot of perceptions.

It was then Dumbledore said, "Now can I ask a few questions, my boy?"

Harry gave him a lop-sided grin, "Ask away, Professor. I will answer as completely as I can".

Dumbledore saw the lop-sided grin and shuddered. It had never boded well for the school when James Potter wore that expression while he was a student here and he had no hope that anything would change. Anyhow the school had become too monotonous since there were only the Weasley twins left to prank the school. Maybe, they could do with more laughter all around. He would have to wait and see.

He turned to Harry, "Who has raised you all these years? Where have you been living? Who took you out of your aunt and uncle's house?"

Harry gave him the half-truth as Arcturus had instructed him, "I was raised by Lord Arcturus Orion Black of the House of Black who had removed me from the House by an acquaintance of his. Since the person who removed me from the house was neither branded nor had any hostile intention towards me, the wards you placed were unable to stop him. I was raised away from Wizarding Britain in the way of the heir of house. Lord Black made sure that I got exposure to the Muggle world as well. That is all that I can really say I am afraid".

Dumbledore nodded, "I understand, my boy. It is just that I had been worried about you all these years. Now that you are here, I have to make sure that you are well and in fine health. The Minister of Magic has messaged me by floo twice requesting an audience with you. He claims that Lord Black has no right to take custody of you. Do you have anything which can establish his claim?"

Harry pulled a copy of the bequest out of his robes and set it on the table before the headmaster, "This is the last will and testament of Lord James Charlus Potter and Lady Lily Potter nee Evans. This clearly states a list of people who were authorised to take custody of me. You will find that Sirius Black and his legal relatives were placed at the top of the list. Since Lord Black is his grand-father and brother to my grand-mother, he is entitled to take custody.

"I have no desire to meet with the minister who is a bumbling fool with no visions for the betterment of the Wizarding World. Please present this copy of the Will to him and tell him to leave me alone or Lord Black will have to come and set him straight".

Dumbledore had just remembered something, "I also want to thank you Harry for the trust that your parents have created to fund the education of deserving but poor students. Hogwarts education is not cheap and due to the paucity of funds from the ministry, we have not been able to give the best to the students for years now. With this trust fund in place, I trust that they will be better served and we will be able to upgrade many of the facilities of the school".

Harry waved him off, "Headmaster, everyone deserves the best education and I am rather thankful to them that they thought of it".

Dumbledore smiled, "That's not all, Harry. I received a letter from Lord Black on 1st August in which he had provided for a similar corpus fund worth five-hundred thousand Galleons and told us to give those scholarships in the names of James and Lily Potter".

Harry realised in that moment what Lord Black had been doing while Harry was in Madam Malkin's. The old wizard never failed to surprise him.

Dumbledore was saying, "I met with Ragnok a few days after receiving the letter and merged the two funds together, entrusting him to manage it. We call these the Potters Scholarship. With the initial amount of Fifty thousand that was sent, I daresay many students have benefited".

Harry asked him something which had been on his mind, "Headmaster, what do you know about the 'Adventures of Harry Potter' book series? I am told that he published those books with your permission".

Dumbledore chuckled, "Yes. The author approached me about a decade ago with an idea for fictional story books to be published with the boy-who-lived as the protagonist. Since I was the only one that people knew to be concerned with your welfare, he asked for my permission. I initially wanted to refuse but then I realised that he may go ahead and publish those books without asking and so will others who definitely would jump on the wagon when they will see it minting money. So I gave him a license for 10 years to publish those books provided he let me see them beforehand and that he would pay 20% of the net revenue from the sale of the books and related merchandise to an account to be held in trust for you until you were able to claim it. The Gnomes in Switzerland have been looking after that account for you, earning about 9% per annum. At last report, you had thirteen million galleons which you may draw on at any time. You have earned 66 galleons, 13 sickles and 18 knuts while you've been sitting here talking with me".

Just then, Harry's stomach gave a loud growl, "Headmaster, if you have any other questions for me, I am at your disposal, but, I would like to join my friends for dinner".

Dumbledore smiled brightly, "of course, Harry. I'm looking forward to some treacle tart myself".

Library

After dinner, the next place that fascinated him and Neville was the library. Rows upon rows of shelves in the library were bulging with books and groaning under their weight. The librarian, Madame Pince was a stern looking witch who did not tolerate any one making a ruckus in the library or defiling her beloved books. It had been said that she told students off for speaking too loudly and even banned students for creating a disturbance in the library. The legends also said that she had hexed the library books to beat someone on the head if they defiled the books in anyway.

Harry and Neville took a seat at the back of the library in a niche where people would have to really look to find them and they could see if anyone approached them. They took parchment quills and ink out of their school bags and got started on their homework. Harry had passed a message to Daphne at breakfast to meet him in the library after dinner. The boys were waiting for her to arrive.

Daphne arrived and Harry hugged her lightly with Neville doing the same. She asked playfully, "How is the Lion's den, Potter-Black?"

Neville replied, "Just everyone was gawking at him and murmuring behind his back while he tried to ignore them".

Daphne smirked, "Are you still sure that you should have been in Gryffindor?"

Harry smirked but said nothing. Daphne asked him, "Have you found anyone to ally within the Lion's Den?"

Harry shook his head, "I need to spend more time with them to really know. Neville and I share a dorm with Ronald Weasley, Seamus Finnigan and Dean Thomas. They seem to be alright. Then there's that muggle-born Hermione Granger. She is a know-it-all but she seems to pick things up really quickly. However unlike you Miss Greengrass, I am not friends with the scions of other Houses. As far as they are concerned, I have been living under a rock all my life. I will need to gauge them and their loyalties before I decide if I can ally with them".

Daphne said, "You will need to meet the heirs to the allies of House Potter. Make friendships with them. I can help you to know who they are".

He nodded, "That would be great! For now, I am keeping you as my secret weapon until it becomes imperative for me to use you against any unforeseen emergency".

They kept up the small talk while keeping an eye out for anyone who might be interested in finding their whereabouts or showed too much interest in what they were talking about. Harry saw Hermione approaching and signalled to Daphne who made herself scarce. He made a mental note to remember to use that device his grand-uncle had given him the next time they met with Daphne. They were not going to let others into their secret for now, especially not someone that they did not know at all. They were playing by the rules of Slytherin which needed them to be extremely secretive in their dealings so that no one would realise their move until it was too late. Arcturus had taught him that fame was not a bad thing and should be used for their benefit. It was only the motives which made it bad or good. Harry fully intended to use his fame for his own ends.

Neville and Harry spent the rest of the evening mapping out the secret doors and passageways. They had about three hours until they had to be back in their tower and they were going to make use of every minute of it. They paid particular attention to the fastest routes between their tower and their classrooms. Potions classes in the dungeon were not until Friday morning so they left mapping out that route until last.

Of more interest to healthy, growing pre-teens was raiding the kitchen. Following Moony's notes, Harry and Neville arrived by the painting of the fruit bowl and tickled the pear. When they climbed through the portal, they were greeted by a number of house elves who bowed and asked them what they would like. As Harry looked around the gleaming kitchen, he realized that the hour was getting late and the elves did not have anything ready cooked.

Harry asked, "Do you have any fresh fruit?"

With a squeak of delight, one of the house elves streaked away and came back a second later with a bowl laden with grapes, apples, bananas and a couple of pomegranates. With their ill-gotten gains, Harry and Neville used their best route to get back to the Gryffindor tower before their time ran out.

He remembered Remus's advice about trying to summon the Marauder's map. He drew his wand and raising it, chanted, "Accio Marauder's map". He waited for 5 minutes but nothing happened. Perhaps it was imbued with an anti-summoning charm or it was in a place where a summoning charm did not work.

Gryffindor Common Room

When Neville and Harry climbed through the portal behind the painting of the Fat Lady, they found Hermione in front of the fire, reading ahead for their Defence Against the Dark arts class. They hadn't managed to get much of a start on their assignments while they were in the library, so Harry and Neville joined Hermione by the fire and got to work. In the next hour before lights-out, they managed to get most of it done.

The next morning, Harry woke up just before dawn. The last two days had been hectic, long and busy. He needed to get back to his exercise routine. With Astronomy going until midnight tomorrow, he was already planning to skip his workout for Thursday morning. So, he got to it right away . By the time he changed and went down for breakfast, he felt more alert and awake than he had for days.

Defence Classroom

The first class in the morning was double Defence Against the Dark Arts with the Ravenclaws and Professor Quirrell. Harry had been looking forward to it, thinking that he would get to use some of what his great Uncle had taught him, but; much to his disappointment, the class was a bit of a joke. The teacher was stuttering the whole time. He had a nervous twitch in one eye. He also wore a giant turban and there was a strange smell about him, sort of a mixture of meat that had gone bad and garlic.

With all these distractions, he managed to talk about Gytrashes through his stuttering. He told them about their nature, what threat they posed and how to kill them. At the end of class, he gave them an assignment to write a foot of parchment on Gytrashes to be handed in by next class. Harry had already learnt all the spells that they were expected to be taught in the first year and was really disappointed with the choice of the teacher. There were also some ridiculous rumours going around about the Professor like he was being chased by a Vampire and stuffed garlic in his turban to ward off the vampire or that he had been bitten by an Inferi and was about to become one. Harry had no idea how one could spread such ridiculous rumours or why anyone would believe them.

Another thing had been the muggle-born witch Hermione Granger. Just like in the other classes, she had her hand up to answer every question. Harry understood that she was knowledgeable and knew everything that was in the books assigned to them but that was no reason for her to raise her hand every time a question was asked. Even in Professor Quirrell's class, she had been raising her hand to answer the questions though the Defense Professor was more like a joke than an able teacher. She also had a habit of giving unsolicited advice to others about things. All in all, Harry could see that if she did not change her ways she would be ostracized by the house. She tried to talk to everyone and whoever would talk to her, she would start questioning them or telling them about things she had studied from the books without realising that perhaps others were not as enthusiastic as her.

Arcturus had told him that Voldemort was not dead yet he had sternly told Harry that he was not to stop living. They would keep delaying his return anyway that they could while searching for the horcruxes and destroying them so that if he ever regained a body during Harry's lifetime, he would have to be killed only once. Arcturus had planned everything and the first phase had been to raise him to be able to command power and not to shy away from it. The second phase would be to forge alliances in the school which would be of use to him later in life. The third phase was to seize power in Wizarding Britain and to change its dynamics but that would happen after he had ascended to his Lordships. So, to live his life away from the cloud of Voldemort, Harry had taken to exploring other things which a teenage wizard would do. He loved flying, wanted to learn duelling and when the time came would run the Wizengamot as per his machinations without stepping into the open.

After lunch, they were out to the greenhouses again for herbology. Then the rest of the afternoon was free. It didn't take Harry and Neville long to plow through their homework assignments and get back to the business of mapping out the school.

Neville made an excuse and headed off to the greenhouses, leaving Harry to continue exploring the castle on his own. As he was passing through the transfiguration courtyard he noticed the twins were huddled in a corner and peering at a piece of parchment in their hands. They were so engrossed in it that they failed to notice Harry observing them. Harry casually approached them and cast a fleeting look at the parchment they were peering at. His breath hitched in his throat. They were using the Marauder's Map!

Excited but remembering to breathe, he approached them, "Hello, what are the two of you looking at?"

While one of the twins muttered, "Mischief managed", under his breath and tapped the map with his wand, the other one of the twins said, "Oh, hello, Hadrian Potter-Black".

The other said, "We were just looking at a random piece of parchment".

Together they said, "Don't let us keep you".

Harry smirked evilly, "If you think the Marauder's map is indeed a random piece of parchment, I would be happy to take it off your hands".

Their mouths were open in surprise and they were looking at him with astonishment? Surprise? Awe? It was hard to tell.

One of the twins asked gaping, "How do you know about the Map?"

Harry said, "Simple. I know about the creators of the map. Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs are practically family to me".

One of the twins said, "I do not believe it".

The other said, "However if you can prove it".

They said together, "we will think about sharing it with you".

Harry gave them his best maniacal grin, "Mates, this is not about sharing. This by rights of inheritance belongs to me. Once I have proven ownership, I may allow you to use it".

One of them said, amused, "My dear friend, explain".

The other added, "How can you claim inheritance to it?"

Harry said, "Allow me to show you". He took the map from him and tapped it with his wand, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good".

The Marauder's map appeared and the map of the castle started spreading below the tip of his wand. The twins were looking at him with wide eyes and he wanted to laugh at their expressions. After the map had opened, he tapped it again, "Mischief Managed", and the map went blank.

He turned to the twins, "So exactly when did you find the pass code to open it?"

One of them answered, "After we had been insulted far too many times."

The other added, "Not to mention being told off as cheap knock-offs."

The first one said again, "it was then that we figured out the way."

The second added, "and you opened it as if you know it."

Harry smiled, "Of course I know it. Shall I give you more proof of my claim?"

They nodded, "Go ahead, mate and get insulted."

Harry tapped his wand to the parchment and said, "Prongslet wishes good day to the Marauders."

Writing in a fairly regal hand appeared upon the parchment, "Moony wishes good day to Prongslet and asks him how he came to be?"

Darker, blockier writing followed, "Mr. Padfoot wishes to know how 'Prongslet' knows of the Marauders?"

A third line appeared, "Mr. Wormtail wishes to know who is Prongslet's mother?"

Harry's breath caught in his throat. There it was! That same rounded, squat hand-writing, confirmed that Wormtail was the secret keeper and the traitor.

The fourth line, in a slanted pointier hand, said, "Prove who you are, Prongslet."

Harry said to the map, "I am the son of James Potter aka Prongs and Lily Potter. I am the godson of Sirius Black aka Padfoot while Remus Lupin is Moony and Peter Pettigrew is Wormtail. "

Again one line appeared, "Mr. Padfoot wishes good luck to Prongslet and hopes he has become the next marauder unlike those dubious twins."

Another followed, "Mr. Wormtail still has doubts but wishes good luck to Prongslet."

And there it was again. There was no doubt.

Third line appeared, "Mr. Moony hopes Prongslet would beat those twins who cannot guess a password."

Fourth followed, "Mr. Prongs wishes Prongslet good luck to beat those twins at pranks".

The twins huffed, "This rag of a parchment has insulted us too much".

Harry was torn. Here was proof that Wormtail had been the secret keeper. But to use such a dubious artifact as evidence was shaky at best. Harry decided to let Dumbledore have some time to do as he said he would before resorting to using the map in that way. For now, he decided to leave the map in the care of the Weasley twins. Harry smirked, "Don't worry. You can use it provided you will let me join in your pranks".

The twins shared a look which said that this would be interesting. Harry took his leave of them, leaving the Marauder's map with them for whatever prank they were planning and kept touring the castle.

In the evening before he went to bed, he had the time for developing the photos that he had taken on the train ride and during school. The only trick was finding a dark-room to do the developing. From what he was told, the process of developing wizarding photos was not too different from the way the muggles did it. The main difference being that wizards used specific potions which animated the photos while the muggles used chemicals which created a fixed image. He used the bathroom just off the seventh floor dormitory that he shared with the other first years, having blocked off the window and doused the lights, he developed them all and then left them to dry. With the photos drying, he wrote a lengthy letter to Remus which he planned to send with Zeus who was waiting for him in the owlery. In the letter to Remus, he had told him all about his exploits and that he had recovered the map already. He also asked him to send over the enchanted mirrors which Remus had kept with him all these years so that he would not have to wait for Zeus every time he wanted to send a message or would have to send Hedwig. While he could talk on a floo with Moony in the Gryffindor Common Room or even in their dorm, they wanted to keep it to a minimum not giving any reason to Dumbledore to suspect his involvement in Harry's abduction. He knew that since Moony and Lord Black were in London now, he would get the enchanted mirrors in two to three days if Moony was not pre-occupied. As it was, the werewolf had been looking after Harry's businesses and acting in his stead as Regent for House Potter dealing with Gringotts. They had decided that in the upcoming session, he would be officially invested in his capacity as Lord Regent of House Potter. Only a handful of people knew of his condition as a werewolf and most of them were already dead so there was nothing to fear on that score.

Looking ahead tomorrow was going to be a long day. Charms, DADA (Defence Against the Dark Arts), double History of Magic and capping it off with double Astronomy which went to midnight. Oh well, it could not be helped and all his fellow first years had to do the same thing. Popping the window to the dorm open, he gave a shrill whistle which summoned Zeus from the owlery. Having tied the letter with the photos to his leg, he opened the dorm window and sent him back to the Black townhouse.

Black Town House

The pre-dawn glow was just beginning to light the sky on Wednesday morning when Remus was sitting in the library reading some books. Lord Black was in his study tending to some House Business. They had been working on many things since they had returned to Wizarding Britain because the days of living in the shadows were over. Hadrian Potter-Black was back among the populace and they no longer had a reason for hiding. Now it was time to make some waves. Arcturus had not forgotten the insults or the behaviour of Fudge towards him and wanted to make him rue the day he had refused to agree to a request from Lord Black. The bumbling fool needed to be reminded that the name of Black was still formidable despite whatever had happened in the war.

Remus raised his head when he heard tapping on the window and saw Zeus hovering outside it. The falcon must have flown all night to make the trip from Hogwarts and arrive at this hour of the morning. He flicked his wand and the window opened inwards. Zeus flew in and landed on the arm-rest of his chair bearing a letter in his talons. Remus eagerly tore through the envelope in his haste to read the letter and a bunch of photos fell to the ground with a letter from Harry. He picked up the photos and placed them on the table while he started to read the letter. It was very detailed as he had expected.

"Dear Moony,

I am so disappointed. All the detailed accounts you gave me of the castle do not seem to do a bit of justice to the castle. Everything that I heard from you turned out to be an understatement as I saw the castle from the boat. It felt like I have never seen anything more beautiful than this in my life.

I took a lot of pictures on the train and in the school. I have enclosed them with the letter so that you can put them in an album for me.

Professor McGonagall is as stern as you told us and she showed no favour to anyone for their name or ancestry. Dumbledore as you said is brilliant but a bit crazy. He announced it to the Great Hall that the right wing of the third floor is out of bounds unless someone wishes to die a painful death. I wonder what he meant.

Talking of Dumbledore, he called me to his office the day after sorting and asked my forgiveness for placing me with the muggles. I was expecting him to manipulate me, make me feel ashamed and try to force me to go back to them but he outright accepted that he was in the wrong about placing me there and explained why he believed that he had no other means to keep me safe other than some blood wards he had erected over their property. After his apology, I find it hard to hold on to a grudge against him. I think I would rather make an ally out of him than an adversary. After all we have the same goals in our sight. He would be a massive help if Voldemort decides to make a comeback.

I also found the Marauders Map with Fred and George who are twins and sons of the Weasley Family. They nicked it out of Filch's office and have been able to unlock it after a heap of insults from Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs. I proved that it belongs to me by way of inheritance because in living memory I am the only one alive who can claim to be an heir of the legacy of the marauders. I let them borrow the map for a few days to help them with their pranks.

I met Peeves and gave him your message that the Marauders would come back and give him trouble. He almost fell out of the air.

I also had my first classes and I am disappointed with the choice of defense teacher. Professor Quirrell suffers from lack of confidence, stutters all the time while he is teaching and is afraid of his own shadow. The charms teacher Professor Flitwick is a very jovial bloke and tries to liven up his classes and keep the mood of the class up all the time. He is very patient with his students and does not rebuke them if they make some mistakes.

I also like professor Sprout. She is very down-to earth and treats everyone the same. I have already seen some fascinating plants. She says that there are much more exotic plants in the other greenhouses, but, for our own safety, we won't be dealing with them until we have a lot more experience.

Neville and Daphne are well and send their love to you. I am making some more friends. Lord Black (please don't tell him I called him that) would be happy to know that.

I will write soon to tell you about my experience with the other classes.

"You should also know that I have learned that the one who betrayed my parents to Voldemort was Wormtail. If you can find a sample of his hand-writing and send it to Dumbledore, we can prove it.

P.S. - please send me the communication mirror so I would not have to wait for Zeus to bring a letter to me or for Hedwig to make a trip to London to know how you are doing.

Love,

Prongslet"

Remus smiled to himself. The lad was settling in well and enjoying school. By the looks of it, he would have no trouble in school for anything that he chose to do. He was nostalgic for a moment when he remembered the map and the peaceful happy times when it had been crafted. He merely cringed a little when he thought what havoc Prongslet would wreck on the castle with the map and the cloak in his hands. He was curious to know how the lad had figured out that Wormtail was the traitor. Proving it might help to get Sirius released, but it could go the other way because it was also more than adequate to show motive for murder if Sirius knew the same thing. Laying hold of some of Wormtail's hand writing would be difficult. He had been dead ten years after all and his parents were no longer around... Then he remembered what the Marauder's map can do and it all fell into place. No matter, Pettigrew was long dead and there was no rush.

He picked up the stack of pictures and started looking through them. He was happy seeing the lad smile and being a child around people of his own age until he found a photo which made his blood run cold. The photo was of a compartment of the train and there were Harry, Neville and a red-headed boy in the picture with a rat. A rat which had a finger missing which could be coincidence but as Remus looked closely, he found that the rat had all the markings which were distinguishable on his former friend, the one touted as a hero and thought to be dead- PETER PETTIGREW.

Remus clutching the photo ran the three flights of stairs to the Lord's study and entered the room without even knocking.

Arcturus jumped in surprise, "Remus, what... what is the matter? Has something happened with Harry?"

Remus wheezed, "he is... he is alive. Pete... Peter... Peter is alive, Lord Black. Sirius is innocent and I have the proof!"

Arcturus jumped out of his chair and held Remus firmly by the shoulders shaking him in the process, "what are you saying Remus? How do you know?"

Remus showed him the photo, "It was he who betrayed Lilly and James. He is at Hogwarts near Harry, ready to harm him if the chance comes."

Arcturus looked at the photo, scrutinizing it and gave a maniacal grin, "It looks like we are going to pay a visit to Amelia Bones."

Bones Manor

The sun was just barely showing at the horizon. Amelia was relaxing over breakfast and the morning edition of the Daily Prophet. She still had a couple of hours to go before she took the floo network to the ministry to start her work day. It had been three days since Susan had gone to Hogwarts and the empty manor felt like a castle to her without her little girl running around. She had raised Susan since her parents had been murdered during the first war and not having any children of her own; she felt that Susan was her own daughter. The wards around the manor chimed meaning that someone was at the ward line and demanding entrance. Carefully, she put her wand in the sleeve of her robes and ordered her elf to escort the visitors to the parlour from the boundary of the property.

The manor had been designed in such a way that there was a ward line around the entire property. Inside the ward line, there was a parlor set at a side at a distance from the main building which was surrounded with wards of its own. So anyone could enter the ward line but not the main building unless Amelia let them. She strode carefully to the parlor and entered to find Arcturus Orion Black and Remus Lupin sitting there. She knew Lord Black by reputation and Remus through Edgar who had studied with them at Hogwarts though they were in different houses. She was surprised to see these two together. Mainly because Remus Lupin was a light wizard who had fought on the side of the Order of the Phoenix in the war while Lord Black's descendants had fought for the dark side. To see the two of them sitting peacefully together in her parlor was a bit unsettling for her.

She levelled her wand at them, "How do I know that you both are Arcturus Black and Remus Lupin?"

Arcturus said quickly, "We can take a magical oath to prove that we are who we claim to be."

She nodded and they both whipped their wands out and took a magical oath that they were who they claimed to be. After Amelia lowered her wand, Arcturus approached and took her hand and pretended to kiss her knuckles, "Madam Bones, thank you for allowing us into your charming manor and giving us an audience". Remus bowed to her respectfully.

She signalled them to sit and took a seat across from them appearing to be carefree but she was taut as a bow-string, ready to draw her wand at a moment's notice and start hexing the other two wizards at the slightest provocation.

She turned to Arcturus, "Lord Black, what brings you here today? I suppose there must be a good reason for you to publicly show yourself after a decade".

Arcturus beamed at her, "Madam Bones, recently I came into some evidence which certainly proves that Sirius Black is innocent of betraying the Potters, of murdering Peter Pettigrew and is very likely not responsible for the death of the 12 muggles either".

She frowned, "He was convicted by the war tribunal, Lord Black. He confessed".

Arcturus sighed, "Were you personally a witness to that hearing, Madame Bones?"

She responded, "The whole proceeding is a matter of public record. You know that I wasn't there".

Arcturus frowned, "Then you were not there. Neither was anyone else that I have been able to find. I have not seen anything to indicate to me that he had confessed or that he was rightfully convicted. I tried to ask the minister to let me see those documents but that idiot Fudge sealed those documents under the Official Secrets Act, meaning that only you can access those documents now".

She shrugged, "If I accept that you are speaking the truth, what evidence do you have of the innocence of Sirius Black?"

Remus produced the photo which Harry had sent to him. It showed the rat. He told her how Peter had become an Animagus in the form of a rat. The rat in the photo was missing a toe from its right forepaw. All they ever found of Peter was just a finger. He also said that the markings on the rat in the photo, taken last Sunday on the Hogwarts Express, matched his memory of the markings on Wormtail.

When he had finished, she said, "What you have here is a wild story and a photo of a rat with a toe missing. Even supposing that I believe you, I need proof to connect your story with this photo. That will give me enough to apprehend this rodent and attempt to question it".

Remus spoke, "I was witness to many of his transformations. I can give you a memory record which clearly shows his transformation and unique markings".

Amelia said, "that would do it. I would like the two of you to enjoy the breakfast table of my manor while I gather what we will need from my office".

She ordered her house elves to see to the meal. Arcturus and Remus both stood and bowed to her before she stepped to the fireplace. She took a box from mantel and tossing a pinch of powder into the floo, she said clearly, "Ministry of Magic". Then she disappeared in a flash of emerald flame as she stepped into the fireplace.

In less time than it took for the two wizards to consume two plates of eggs benedict with hash-brown potatoes, Amelia was back. She emerged from the emerald flames with her investigator Anna Daily and four Aurors- Proudfoot, Gawain Robards, Kingsley Shacklebolt and Hestia Jones in tow. She was also carrying a Pensieve and a file with the records from Sirius's hering.

She did not waste one minute. She tossed the file to Arcturus for him to review saying, "No one is to ever know that I let you see that file however you were right. The file only contains the arrest memo and nothing more. If the minister got snarky about it, he could send me to Azkaban for it". To Remus, she presented the Pensieve and said, "OK, let's have a look at that memory. If Peter Pettigrew was indeed alive and living near Harry Potter then he could not be allowed to remain at liberty for one moment more."

Remus pulled a silver strand from his temple and placed it in the Pensieve. He placed the basin on the table and Amelia's entourage took it in turns to enter the memory of Pettigrew transforming into a rat and running in circles, showing all sides of his markings. They each took notes and made sketches of what they saw then compared what they had observed to the photo. They all agreed that the rat in the photo was indeed the illegal animagus Peter Pettigrew. When they concurred their findings, her mind was made up.

Hogwarts, Headmaster's Office

Dumbledore was sitting at his desk, pouring over applications of potential recipients of the Potter Scholarship when there was a burst of green flame in his fireplace. He knew that there were less than 20 witches or wizards in the entire world who had access to his floo address, so it wasn't that big a surprise to see the head of the DMLE looking up at him.

He said, "What may I do for you Madame Bones?"

She said, "I have a matter of some urgency, Headmaster, would you be able to accommodate a party of eight in your office?"

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled as he said, "Certainly. Be my guest". Then he turned to the portraits and said, "Please inform the heads of house to meet in my office immediately".

The figures left their paintings as first Amelia, then her investigator, followed by the Aurors, then much to Dumbledore's surprise, Lord Black and Remus Lupin!

"Remus, my boy!" Dumbledore exclaimed, "Where have you been hiding all these years?"

The werewolf was excited and it was not clear if he did not hear the Headmaster's question or ignored it. He was also surprised to see Arcturus in the castle. The door to Dumbledore's office swung open as Professor McGonigal entered, followed shortly by Flitwick, Sprout and finally Snape.

He focused on Amelia, "Madam Bones, what brings you here today?"

Amelia said to him gravely, "Headmaster, I came into some information today which may prove that we committed a gross injustice to a law-abiding citizen 10 years ago by throwing him into prison without any offense".

Dumbledore asked curiously, "Who are you talking about?"

Amelia replied, "Sirius Black who has been languishing in Azkaban all these years for betraying the Potters has never been properly convicted of any crime. The previous administration bungled it and the current administration did not care to set things straight".

Severus Snape sneered, "He was guilty of betraying the Potters, Madam Bones".

Remus wanted to punch the hook nosed professor in the face but Arcturus beat him to it, "Keep your forked tongue behind your teeth, death eater. You have a lot of gall to stand here preaching about my grandson being guilty while you gleefully took the dark mark and served that charlatan".

Dumbledore pleaded, "Lord Black, please do not insult a teacher of this school.". He turned to Snape, "Severus my boy, please be quiet and let me talk to them. This is more important than your childhood grudges".

Amelia showed the photo to Dumbledore, "Headmaster, the rat in the photo is an illegal animagus who goes by the name of Peter Pettigrew. Mr. Lupin has confirmed that it is the same person by means of a memory whose credibility I have established through a solicitor's Pensieve".

Dumbledore replied, "Then let us proceed to the Gryffindor tower, Madam Bones. We should corner him before he realises that you are here to capture him".

Dumbledore led them to the portrait hole and the fat-lady swung outside without waiting for the password. As they were entering, Dumbledore said, "Who would have thought that I, a Gryffindor through and through would lead two Hufflepuffs (Amelia and Professor Sprout), a couple of Slytherins (Arcturus, Severus), a couple of Ravenclaws (Hestia, Professor Flitwick) and a whole bunch of Gryffindors into the tower willingly." The others chuckled at his statement despite the general mood being grim.

As they entered the common room, Kingsley cast the imperturbable charm on the portrait hole so that no one could go out and he and Hestia stood on either side of the portrait hole with their wands drawn. Dumbledore pulled out his rather strange looking wand and cautiously strode forward towards the stairway to the Boy's Dormitories.

Harry was in the common room having just returned from his running around the Black Lake when the strange entourage entered the room. He bounded over to embrace Remus joyfully, then bowed respectfully to Arcturus as is proper for an heir to do.

Arcturus stayed with Harry. Flitwick and Snape took up station on either side of the door to the boy's Dormatory stairs. The rest of the party quietly climbed the stairs until McGonagall and Sprout took up station on the landing at the sixth floor. Dumbledore, Amelia, Daily, Gawain, Proudfoot and Remus walked up to the first year dorms at the top of the tower.

Dumbledore asked Gawain and Proudfoot to stand guard at the door while he, Amelia and Remus rushed into the room, wands drawn. They startled all four of Harry's room-mates awake which was evidenced by the grumbling followed by four sets of bed-curtains being drawn back by blurry eyed youths, trying to find out what was going on. For a split second, the rat poked his nose out from Ron's bed and locked eyes with Remus. Then the chase was on. The red stunners followed the rat in rapid-fire succession as the trio tried to stop the fleeing rodent. After a few seconds, they got smart and Dumbledore fired in front of the rat's line of travel while Amelia fired to its right and Remus fired to its left. The rat obligingly dodged straight into Remus's stunner and was knocked senseless.

Ron who had been dumb during this entire scene cried out, " Scabbers! What are you doing to my rat?!"

Remus picked him up by the scruff of his neck growling, "Hello Peter, thought you would escape us?"

In a calm, measured tone, Dumbledore said, "I am sorry, young Mr. Weasley but that is no rat. You may come with us if you want to see what he really is".

They brought the stunned rat to the common room where McGonagall forced him to return to his natural form. The rat transformed into a man who was half-bald, short height, watery eyed and looked like a rat. His nose was even twitching like one. Ron just looked on in horrified fascination.

Harry asked Remus, "Is this him, Moony?"

Remus viciously smiled, "Yes, Harry. Allow me to introduce you to Peter Pettigrew".

What? "He... He is an animagus? He lived with me for 10 years!" someone exclaimed and they turned to see a red-head boy with a Prefect badge on his robes doing imitation of a fish gasping for breath. The twins were smirking, no doubt planning to rub it in that he had been sleeping with a bloke for the last 10 years while Ron looked mortified that his stupid pet was a death-eater in disguise.

The contingent of wizards took their leave of the tower to go to the Headmaster's office and Arcturus let Harry tag along saying that of all people, he deserved to know the truth. Dumbledore had sent Severus to fetch the strongest Veritaserum that he had ever brewed. The potion master was of course happy to cooperate. It only took Severus ten minutes to return to the Headmaster's office with the potion in-hand.

Peter Pettigrew had been tied to a chair with an anti-animagus jinx and was enervated now. The rat was seeing certain death in front of him in the form of Albus Dumbledore, Amelia Bones, Remus Lupin and Harry Potter who despite his small size looked ferocious enough.

Remus opened the interrogation, "Lilly and James treated you better than a brother! They trusted you! How could you sell them out to Voldemort (most of the people shuddered)?"

Amelia pushed Remus aside growling, "This wretch has been hiding for ten years. Your yelling at him is not going to loosen his tongue nor do I think harsh language will work, Mr. Lupin". Drawing her wand, she fired a high-powered bludgeoning hex at him. He cried out in pain as the unmistakable sound of cracking ribs was heard.

He even squealed like a rat, "I have rights! You can't torture me!"

Amelia gave him an evil smirk, "You were declared dead and awarded the Order of Merlin, Third Class for your bravery ten years ago, Peter. An innocent man was convicted for your murder. A dead man has no rights".

She ripped off his sleeve and there it was. The Dark Mark, the brand of Voldemort. It had faded to grey lines from the dark lines that it used to be during the war but it was unmistakable. She asked Kingsley to pull his head back and poured three drops of Veritaserum down his throat. It took effect after a few seconds. Amelia turned to Dumbledore, "Would you in your authority as Chief Warlock authorise this investigation?"

Albus jovially replied, "Of course Madam Bones. Get me a transcript after you are done and I will ratify it in my capacity as Chief Warlock".

Amelia turned to Peter, "What is your name?"

Peter's eyes had rolled up in his head and he replied monotonously, as if in a trance, "Peter Almeidus Pettigrew".

Amelia asked, "Are you a death eater?"

Peter responded, "Yes."

She asked, "Was Sirius Black a death-eater?"

He answered, "No."

Amelia asked, "Who betrayed the Potters, Lilly, James and Harry?"

Peter answered, "I did."

Amelia asked, "How did you end up being their secret keeper?"

Peter explained, "James and Sirius suspected that there was a spy of the Dark lord in the Order. They did not trust anyone with their security. I planted suspicions in their minds regarding the loyalty of Remus Lupin and so they kept him out of their plan. Lord Charlus Potter had performed the Fidelius on the cottage and they made me the secret keeper. They let everyone believe that Sirius was their secret-keeper. They thought it was the perfect deception. They could not have known that I, a talentless thing was the very spy they feared. I gave their secret to the Dark Lord".

Amelia asked, "Who else did you betray to the Dark Lord?"

Peter listed them off, "The Prewett twins, Dorcas Meadows, Caradoc Dearborn, Edgar and Ellie Bones, the McKinnons."

Amelia wanted to kill the rat at that instant. She had never cast an unforgiveable but the list of his crimes was making her hate this vermin before her with every fibre of her being and if she didn't care about freeing an innocent languishing in prison then she would have killed the rat and dumped his body in the forbidden forest.

Amelia asked, "What happened that night when the 12 muggles were killed?"

Peter answered, "Sirius had been tracking me for the last three days. When he cornered me at last, on a muggle street, I started shouting as if he had betrayed James and Lily. Then I cast the bombarda behind my back and escaped as a rat into the sewers through the hole I created. I did not mean for the muggles to die. They were just standing too close when I fired off the spell. I wandered for a few days before I reached Ottery St. Catchpole where a read-head boy adopted me as his pet."

After the investigation was completed, Amelia administered the counter potion to him. He was shackled with magic restraining cuffs and transported to a safe house. He would be held there until he could appear before the Wizengamot on Saturday. Dumbledore happily signed an order to transfer Sirius Black from Azkaban to St. Mungo's where he would be under the care of the healers until the hearing on Saturday.

As they were leaving, Arcturus told Harry that he would take him to the Wizengamot for the hearing on Saturday. Remus hugged him telling him that it was a stroke of luck that they had captured Peter and Sirius would be with them soon.

The Great Hall

The whole business had been wrapped up in less than an hour. Such was the efficiency of Amelia Bones and her hand-picked crew. Harry left the Headmaster's office and charged back to the Gryffindor tower to find the common-room full of the students talking about what had happened. The Weasleys, all four of them, seemed to be at the centre of the group with everyone firing questions at them. A ripple went through the crowd as people realized that Harry had just come in through the portal. They turned and started to try and question him, but he waved both hands in the air, gesturing for silence.

"I don't know about you blokes, but all this excitement has made me hungry.", He gave his best lop-sided grin, "What say we all go down to breakfast." Turning back toward the portal, he gestured from over his shoulder, "Let's go!"

Without another thought, they all poured out through the portal and headed down the stairs to the Great Hall. They made quite a scene and any students who saw them along the way joined the throng out of curiosity.

Harry and Neville started walking in step. The idea caught on and before they knew it, the entire crowd was marching together. By the time they reached the Great Hall, Harry had all of Gryffindor, most of Ravenclaw and even a few Hufflepuffs, marching in step behind him. As they passed the tables, the students of the other houses split off until only the Gryffindors marched past the Slytherin table and took their seats. Dumbledore's beard was moving at the corners. Snape stared with sullen disbelief. McGonagall's mouth was not quite so thin a line as usual. Hadrian Potter-Black had just made a statement.

The first years all sat in a group with the twins near by. Hermione started asking questions about what happened that morning, something which the others probably wanted to do anyway, "Harry, who were all those people who came in the tower this morning? Who was the man who was hiding as a rat? What crime did he commit? What will happen to him?"

Harry sighed. "Miss Granger, I am sorry that I cannot answer all of your questions. You will have to be content with what I can say. While I like your active, inquisitive mind, some things must be kept confidential. I hope that you will respect that. Now as to your questions, I can say that the people who came this morning were Madam Bones- the head of the DMLE and a few of her Aurors. The old man was Lord Black of the Ancient and Most Noble House of Black and the one who spoke to me was Remus Lupin. The rat is Peter Pettigrew, an illegal animagus. He has been hiding and presumed dead for nearly ten years. It was thought that he was murdered, along with twelve muggles, in an explosion at the hands of Sirius Black. I'm sorry I cannot say anything about what the man may have done or his fate because it is part of an active investigation and I could face criminal charges if I did."

Hermione again had a lot of questions but she said nothing deciding to find out answers by herself. The extensive library of Hogwarts would contain all those answers.

As he was leaving breakfast, he was approached by Draco Malfoy, "Hello Potter. I am Malfoy, Draco Malfoy. I was looking for you on the train. You should have told me that you are Harry Potter. I just wanted you to know that I can help you here. Certain families are better than others and you would do well to be my friend. With the Slytherins behind me and the Lions behind you, we can rule the wizarding world. Surely you would not want to become friends with the wrong sort".

Harry looked at him scornfully, "Yes, I have heard about you, Malfoy and what would the wrong sort be? As far as I know, your father was accused of being a death eater and used the imperious curse defence to narrowly escape spending the rest of his life in Azkaban. This is not the case with the people who actually are my friends. Also, what do you have to offer me to consider your friendship? Your family name? That is dirt on the continent from where they actually came. The Family Line of House Malfoy is disgraced in France and your family is never allowed to return. You cannot lead people by yourself and intimidation will not work without the Black name backing you up. I can see who the wrong sort is".

Draco wanted to retort but at the same moment Professor McGonagall descended and he left followed by his posse of lackeys.

Ron said to him, "Wow Harry, you taught him a good lesson. The Snakes are all death-eaters".

Harry glared at him, "No, Ron. Not all of them. The parents of that mangy lot for sure, but not all. Do you know that there are a couple of Slytherins in your family tree, Ronald? Your own grand-mother and my Great aunt Cedrella Weasley nee Black was a Slytherin during her years at Hogwarts. The man who was arrested yesterday from the Gryffindor Common Room was a Gryffindor during his time at Hogwarts. Our choices define us, not which house we belong to. I for one will not tolerate bigotry or biases".

Ron started to open his mouth then thought better of it.

The first class for the day was Charms with the Ravenclaws again. The time flew by as the professor engaged the class. Harry looked for opportunities to engage some of the Claws in conversation, but it was a busy classroom and they were intent on their studies.

Next up was DADA with Ravenclaw again. They moved as one body down the hall-way to the Defence classroom. Once they got their home-work handed in, the class got pretty dull.

The students managed to make out what the teacher was talking about through his stuttering then opened up their text books to try and learn something useful. Nobody tried to ask any questions and after a while, the teacher just sat silently behind his desk until the period was over.

Lunch, Great Hall

The firsties were sitting together in a group for lunch. However Harry noticed that Hermione was sitting away from the others. Although he did not know the muggle-born witch too well, he felt that it was wrong to leave her sitting by herself. He hollered to her, "Hey Granger, come join us here".

Ron tried to stop him, "Harry, she is a bossy, annoying know-it-all who asks too many questions. Nobody can stand her".

Harry glared at him, whispering, "Ron if you want to be my friend then please stop judging others. She is new to the wizarding world and she feels like she has something to prove. It is natural that she would be inclined to ask questions. She will be fine once she gets some acceptance from us and settles down a bit".

Hermione hesitantly rose from her seat and joined them. Harry wanted her to feel included in his group because he had realized that she could browse through the heavy tomes in the library more rapidly. A skill like that would help with research, home-work and, yes, finding spells for pranking. He started asking about her family, her parents, their occupation and other little details, mostly to keep her from asking questions because he knew that once she got started, she would not stop asking questions.

Lunch was a cheerful, enjoyable affair. They were talking about their families in general. Dean was perhaps a half-blood or a muggle born while Seamus was a half-blood. He of course knew about Ron's family. The red head also grumbled about Harry not taking him along all over the castle while exploring and Harry told him to stand for himself. He sternly told him that one must carve their own path and not try to latch onto others. Harry was trying to be inclusive and get to know everyone, but Ron had a bad habit of putting his foot in his mouth, running other people down or complaining and it was starting to wear on his nerves.

When Harry was not actively engaged in conversation, he was observing the Slytherin table. Their firsties seemed to be divided into two groups. One was led by Draco Malfoy and others who joined him were Crabbe, Goyle, Parkinson and Bulstrode. The second group was led by Daphne and present in her group were Tracy, Zabini and Lilith Moon. The only oddball was Nott who was by himself and did not seem to be mingling with either of the two groups. Harry mentally smirked that Daphne had started laying groundwork for future domination in Slytherin. They only had to neutralize Malfoy's power and things would be easy for them.

History of Magic Classroom

The entire afternoon was taken up by double History of Magic with the Hufflepuffs. Once the students were settled in their seats, the teacher came drifting in through the blackboard. This Professor Binns was almost as bad as Quirrell! He was a ghost. No, he was not a pleasant and engaging spirit like the Gryffindor ghost, Nearly Headless Nick. Harry guessed that this fellow had been an intolerable, old bore before he left his body behind and kept right on teaching. From Harry's reading, it seemed that the shade had his facts straight at least, but, the way he got all of his student's names wrong and just droned on and on in his raspy monotone was enough to put anyone to sleep. When a student wanted to ask a question, he seemed genuinely surprised and somewhat annoyed to find students in his classroom. This fellow was able to make thoroughly boring tripe out of epic battles and even the most amazing political intrigue. Harry thought, and he was not alone in this, that any other teacher would have had the students sitting on the edge of their seats with this material. As it was, even Hermione Granger had trouble keeping her head from drooping.

Library

After History of Magic, they only had a half hour to meet in the library. Harry took Neville with him. They took a seat at the very back. Harry produced a little contraption which Lord Black had given him and placed it in the centre of the table. When he tapped it with his wand, the device erected a "notice me not" and a "privacy" ward around them. They both had agreed that they would use the device when they wanted to meet with Daphne for a study session or for having discussions with her. She knew about the device and had been taught about how to find the notice-me-not wards in the library so she would not have to pull her hair in frustration from not finding them.

Daphne came about 10 minutes later with her arms laden with books and dumped those on the table while growling at him, "Where is your famed Gryffindor chivalry, Potter-Black? Can't you help a lady with her burden?"

Harry smirked. "Sorry Miss Greengrass, but each to his own". Neville however was being a proper gentleman to her, helping her with the books and to settle down at the table.

After she made herself comfortable, she asked him, "did you find anyone worth allying with, Harry?"

Harry smiled, "Yes. I befriended Ernie Macmillan who has promised to acquaint me with friends of House Potter and House Black. I have also met charming Miss Bones and Miss Abbott who are very pleasant ladies. I hope to get to know them better during Astronomy tonight. I have yet to find a claw who is interested in making idle chat while we are having a class, though. Also, I am looking through the Lions to find some who are really interesting."

She replied sarcastically, "And what about the Serpents, Oh Mighty One?"

He gave her a lop-sided grin, "As you know, we have yet to have a class together. So far, I have had two encounters with Malfoy and his crew. He seems the sort to be avoided, rather unpleasant. Of course, you and Tracey seem fine for a snake, but I'm reserving judgement until I get to know the others better. Of course, I am counting on your impeccable judgement in that direction. Our first class together is flying tomorrow, before dinner. Let's just wait and see what happens there."

They spent the next 15 minutes making small talk and plotting to rule the wizarding world together before Harry removed his device from the table and went down to dinner with Ron. Daphne waited a discrete few minutes before rounding up Tracey, who was flirting with some third years, and heading down to the Great Hall herself.

They passed the evening in the Gryffindor common room, working on homework assignments and roundly abusing Professors Binns and Quirrell. They generally agreed that Flitwick and Sprout were alright. They were, however, reserving judgement on McGonagall. She seemed a bit too strict for most people's taste, but nobody fell asleep in her class and she did seem to know her stuff.

The sun had long since set and it was a beautiful, clear night. Harry and Neville knew that no matter what route they took, the top of the astronomy tower was going to be a long walk. About 8:30, they packed up their work and started toward the distant tower top. The other first years, who had learned by now that Harry did not get lost and was typically first to arrive at the classrooms, noticed the movement and followed the two of them out through the portal.

Top of the Astronomy Tower

The Gryffindor first years made a long trek through several secret passages and trudged up about 20 flights of stairs. Finally, they emerged at the top of the tallest tower of the school, into a crystal clear, cool night. From up here, Harry could see for miles in all directions, as far as the mountains on three sides and past the town of Hogsmead toward the sea on the other side. It was plain why the founders had chosen this location. The entire area was defended by natural barriers. With relatively little effort, many square miles could be hidden from muggle eyes and made impenetrable to even the most determined invasion force.

Professor Sinistra was already there and she greeted the Gryffindors as they emerged onto the rooftop. They all had a few minutes to look around before the Hufflepuffs arrived. They did not have Harry to lead them up here and, coming from the area near the kitchens, they had even further to travel. But they did arrive, as a group, still puffing from the long climb up the stairs.

The professor asked the last to emerge to close the door behind him, shutting off the last bit of light from inside the castle. In the distance, Harry could see the light in Hagrid's window go out, leaving them with nothing but the light from the night sky. The stars seemed to be more intense and numerous than Harry could remember ever seeing them. The waning crescent moon did not give much light. The professor set them up in teams to take turns using the telescopes and recording their observations.

With a quick word to Neville, Harry went to the two Hufflepuff girls who were working on their star charts. Presenting himself like he had been taught by Great Aunt Cassiopeia, he greeted them, "Hello, I am Hadrian Potter-Black".

One of the girls who had strawberry blonde hair, said, with a grin on her face, "Yes, we introduced ourselves to you at breakfast on Monday. I am Susan Bones and this is Hannah Abbott. May we call you Harry?"

He smiled warmly, "By all means, Miss Bones. I expect I have leave to address you by your name then?"

Hannah answered this time, "of course you may. May I ask you a question, if you do not mind?"

Harry answered, with his lop-sided grin, "You may always ask, However, I may not always answer".

Hannah asked him, "Where were you all these years? We knew that you had been hidden away from the magical world but nobody knew where. We all grew up reading "the adventures of Harry Potter" but we do not believe that they are really about you. We think that they are just someone's attempt to mint money using your name and teach values like bravery, compassion, friendship, empathy etc. to small children."

Harry had been anticipating the question and knew that the same question would be asked again and again by everyone who became his friend. In a show of goodwill, he would have to say something to them. However, it did not mean that he had to tell them the absolute truth about his whereabouts for the last decade.

Harry gave a genuine smile to them, "I have read those books too. They are a work of fiction, but I could think of worse ways to use my name. As for the rest, I will answer what I can. I was taken out of the cottage at Godric's Hollow and taken to a location which is under the Fidelius Charm and I cannot speak about it. I grew up there with elves and a few relatives on my father's side".

Hannah started to ask, "Do you remember anything about..."

But Susan clamped her mouth shut and said, "Sometimes, her mouth can get the better of her. She does not have a filter on her mouth and just says whatever comes to mind".

Harry nodded. He knew the other girl was going to ask if he remembered anything about that night and the truth was that Harry could not recall anything from that night. He had been so small that it would have been a marvellous feat if he had remembered anything at all. The earliest memories which were present were fuzzy and distorted. They were of a little house with a beefy man and a horse faced woman. He gathered that they must have been his muggle aunt Petunia and uncle Vernon but he had no idea where that place was. It was clear that they were not his parents. He had seen photos of his parents and he had got their best features including the black mop of hair on his head, which was a Potter curse.

Susan asked him, "Did you know that our parents were friends? They were in Hogwarts at the same time and good friends during the war. My auntie was your father's superintendent in the Auror force".

Harry nodded, "Yes, I was told this. If things had been different, we might have grown up together. Did you two girls know each other from before Hogwarts?"

Hannah cheerfully said, "Yes. We have been friends as long as I can remember. Susan's mother was my mother's friend and Aunt Amelia sent her to my house very often considering she had active duty as an Auror during the war and as the Head of the DMLE later".

The three hours went whizzing by, taking turns at the telescope, recording their observations and chit-chatting the whole while. Before they knew it, the professor was asking them to turn in their charts of Saturn with its rings and moons for next class and they were packing up to get to their beds.

Harry had enjoyed his time with Susan and Hannah. Even though he had never met them before Monday morning and had never seen them before Sunday evening, they already felt like old friends. They were friendly and easy to talk with. They would be his way into the Badger's hole and making some more friends there.

His next target was Ravenclaw. He would befriend a couple of them and then they would introduce him to others in the house. The Badgers had been easy to befriend by just being friendly to them and maintaining an air of mysteriousness around himself. By the time first year ended, he would have almost three quarters of the school behind him.

A/N- So this is it for this chapter, guys. Well we will see how Hadrain Potter-Black will fare against the Dungeon Bat when he knows about his history with James Potter. Also since the boy has studied potion making before Hogwarts, things will not be the same. Thanks for your lovely reviews.

Thank you Anarion, fifespice for the appreciation.

Rebecca: Thank you for the lovely review which you have posted and trust me, he will cause so much waves.

Debygoebel: thank you for the review. I hope you will like the story as it progresses.

Mizzrazz- Well, I can't show my hand before time, can I?

Atmeyer: Thank you for the review. I am glad you like this story. However as we know Dumbledore is the most powerful wizard and know of ancient magics, would it not be better for Harry to ally with the Old Wizard and make use of the opportunity to learn of ancient magics and become powerful?

Hazeleyes: I loved your review absolutely. I do hope sincerely that this story would keep entertaining you.

ObsessedwithHPFanFic: I always love your reviews. Keep showing your appreciation.

THANK YOU HYPERGYM FOR EDITING THIS CHAPTER AND MAKE ME LOOK SMARTER BEFORE THESE FINE PEOPLE.