Timeline of events:

October 31st- around 10-10:15 PM, James and Lily die.

10:25, Dumbledore tries to seal their wills and claim Harry through Gringotts.

10:30, Sirius arrives at the house and takes Harry from the ruins after 15 minute argument with Hagrid, goes straight to the bank. Harry is seen by Curse-Breaker's and Healers, letters are sent to Lord Black and Sirius is shown to a room.

November 1st- between midnight and dawn, Lord Black comes to bank, learns the situation, goes to the Ministry. Lawyers and Aurors argued, agreement made for Sirius to be questioned. The Goblins kick all Ministry officials out of the Potter home, except for the Unspeakables. Lawyers stop media from surrounding Harry. Walburga is banished.

11 AM, Aurors question Sirius, he sends off letters to the Longbottoms

It is now November 2. A lot happened in less than twelve hours. It should get a little less fast-paced from here on

I cannot claim ownership of anything about the characters or world I have chosen to play in, sadly.


"I've written the Longbottom's, warned them not to come out of hiding just yet and asked if I could bring Harry and stay there for a few days." Sirius informed the Healer, who nodded in satisfaction. "Harry and Neville are godbrothers, Alice is his godmother. He's familiar with them."

"Good. That's good. Too much upset in his life, too many strangers, would make it harder for him to adjust." Narg warned, making sure the human understood that.

"I understand." Sirius nodded.

"Oh my." Alice murmured when she opened the letter from Sirius. She'd been looking forward to reading it, letters were the only communication they had with the outside world, and Sirius always made sure to include the latest news before letting them know how their other friends were doing. There was none of that today.

"Alice?" Frank asked, looking up from his mothers letter informing him of the demise of the Dark Lord Voldemort.

"James and Lily are dead." She said, looking up with tears in her eyes. She and Frank may have been a few years ahead of them in school, but she and Lily were close. Frank and James themselves were godbrothers, just like Harry and Neville were.

He sucked in a breath and thought back through his mother's letter. There was not one mention of James and Lily, just the news that the Dark Lord was defeated and they could finally come home where they belonged. He quickly gathered his wife and held her as she broke down sobbing for her friends as she processed the news.

After a while, she pulled away, still wiping her eyes and sniffling a bit. "What about Harry?" He asked once she'd pulled herself together a bit.

"He's alright. He's with Sirius at Gringotts while they get things sorted out. They were trying to take Harry from him and charge him with treason and kidnapping." She revealed, picking up Neville as a means of comforting herself and assuring him of her presence. He didn't know that, he was still more then happy to have his mother's attention.

"What?" Frank demanded.

"They're getting it sorted out. According to the letter, he and his lawyer should have spoke with the Auror's yesterday." She glanced at the calendar. "He's said to wait to come out of hiding, no matter what we've been told."

"Makes sense." He muttered with a hum. "Mother seems to think its safe to come home now, but his followers are still out there. Most of them knew he was after us and the Potters, we'll still be targets." He reasoned. "Although I think it will be safe enough to make a quick trip to Gringotts as long as we don't linger outside anywhere." He decided, and was rewarded with a beaming, watery smile. "We'll go first thing in the morning, that should give Sirius more time to get things sorted out with the Ministry."

He knew Alice was worried and that the only thing that might reassure her was to see her godson with her own eyes. He mourned that his Neville would never know his own godmother anymore, and that Harry would never know the amazing people that were his parents. He would just have to do his best for the two boys. Sirius, no doubt, was going to need some time to pull himself back together again, he would gladly take care of Harry in the meantime, and he had no doubt that Alice would ensure Sirius was taken care of as well.

"I'll get Neville's things around for a day out." Alice smiled shakily before she scurried off to find Neville's travel bag. Unlike Lily, she didn't have it constantly prepared, she didn't see the need to since they weren't going anywhere for the foreseeable future. But James and Lily had needed to move to a few different safe houses as they were constantly being found. They'd finally moved back into their home at Godric's Hollow because Lily was tired of making her son endure the constant moves, especially after the Fidelius was suggested. If Potter Manor wasn't still under quarantine, they would have stayed there.

Frank watched her go before glancing back down at his mothers letter, shaking his head. She didn't mention anything at all about James and Lily dying, or how Harry was. It was just a long ramble about the Dark Lord finally being gone and how nice it would be for them to come home. He was going to need to have a talk with her it seemed.

Maybe it was time to bring her mind-healer back into the picture, his father had always been concerned about how... obsessed she was with her son. She and Molly Weasley were a lot alike in that regard, but Augusta Longbottom was a much more formidable woman with a more powerful family name behind her.

In the meantime, he quickly sent off a message to Gringotts alerting them to their arrival the next day. The Goblins weren't deaf, blind, or dumb. They knew everything that was going on in the wizarding community, so they would know to keep an eye out while they had so many people in danger from Death Eaters within their walls.


"I don't get it, I really don't." Johnson muttered, staring at Peter Pettigrew in the holding cell they'd thrown him into the day before. They'd just finished questioning him, and he was disgusted.

Thankfully Black had mentioned the whole 'rat animagus form' thing, otherwise they would have lost them. After interrogating Black, they'd returned to their desks, filed the paperwork exonerating Black of any wrongdoings, pushed through the backdated paperwork, personally ensured the guardianship paperwork was filed correctly this time, and obtained a warrant for Peter Pettigrew (all within the hour, they might add). Then they'd gone straight to Pettigrew's house, only to see him in the process of making his apartment look like the scene of an attack. As soon as he'd seen them, he'd squeaked and tried to transform to scurry out a nearby mouse hole they'd found hidden behind the couch.

"Don't get what?" Selwyn asked, steering him towards the door to return to their desk. They still had to deal with the higher ups and Dumbledore.

"How could they possibly think they would get away with doing that to Black? I mean, hiding paperwork, accusing a man, and attempting to steal his godson? Did they really think we wouldn't question him?" To say Crouch had not been pleased when they returned from the bank without Black was an understatement. In fact, they'd seen a signed form on Crouch's desk authorizing immediate transport of the prisoner to Azkaban to await trial.

Selwyn sighed. "I don't know... We might not have, if it weren't for his lawyer and Lord Black." He admitted. They were so busy, and so eager for everything to go back to normal, and Black had been painted as a traitor and murderer, so... He, personally, couldn't say it was bias against a Dark house, Johnson maybe. His issue would have been solely the 'traitor' part. Just because Selwyn came from a dark family, didn't mean he himself agreed with the Dark Lord's policies.

That was a scary thought that they could have sent an innocent man to Azkaban without even questioning him.

Johnson frowned, but didn't say anything.


"Excuse me?" Lord Black stood from his seat, staring coolly down at the long-bearded wizard sitting in the Chief Warlock's seat.

"The Potter's funeral is to be held in four days at the Godric's Hollow cemetery. I have already made the arrangements." Albus Dumbledore repeated himself stiffly, and then tried to move on.

"I think not! Under what authority do you presume to make these arrangements without consulting any of their family?" Arcturus leaned forward, looming over the seats in front of him, even placing his palms on the back and settling his weight over them.

"Family? Their only family is a fifteen month old baby. What do you expect him to be able to plan?" Elphias Doge scoffed, glaring at the Black Lord.

"Many of you may have forgotten, but James Potter was of Black blood, his mother was my niece. As it stands, I have already made all the arrangements as his great-uncle. Their funeral will be in two days at the Potter Family burial grounds at the Family Manor, as befitting members of the Most Ancient and Most Noble House of Potter and the Most Ancient and Noble House of Black." Arcturus icily reminded the room. "Please inform me ahead of time if you wish to attend, so I may inform the Potter Account Manager of who to expect so he can plan accordingly for our entry onto the grounds." The house was still under quarantine, after all, the wards around the property were going to have to be adjusted in order to allow them through safely.

Thankfully, the quarantine period was only for another two months, so the chances of anybody getting Dragon Pox from entering the grounds were next to nothing.

"You can't- we can't have a Death Eater planning the funeral of two war heroes for the light!" Elphias protested.

"I can assure you, I have never supported that half-blooded madman." Arcturus declared, causing a stir. "And this isn't a matter I need permission on, this is a House and Family affair. You wouldn't allow somebody to come in and plan something as important as this for one of your family, would you?" He challenged. "No, you would do it yourself, as is right." He sat back down, content that he had made his point. The others around him murmured, and he was pleased to hear that they were not pleased with how Dumbledore was overstepping his bounds in this matter. Arcturus was right, after all. They wouldn't let somebody come in and take over arrangements like this for their family, why should Arcturus let it happen with his?

Albus fumed for a moment, but decided to cut his losses there, that wasn't a battle he was going to win. "Next on the agenda is the placement of Harry James Potter. I have already made arrangements for him to live with his maternal family, as soon as he is retrieved. When will Sirius Black be returning the child to my care?" He demanded of Arcturus Black.

"He won't be. He is the child's godfather, legal, and magical guardian." Arcturus said, bored. "Move on. Now." He said warningly. "I do not appreciate you trying to meddle in family affairs that are none of your business."

"Albus is the boys guardian!" Elphias Doge spoke up again, glaring. "Black is a traitor! A Death Eater who sold them out to You-Know-Who!"

"If you bothered to read the Auror reports you would know that my grandson was questioned and cleared of all suspicion, Peter Pettigrew is now in custody after being revealed as the real traitor." Arcturus sighed, he would have rolled his eyes if it wasn't improper. "And before you cry about paperwork not being filed, James and Lily's Will's both name Sirius as their child's guardian should anything happen to him, and the paperwork has been refiled... correctly this time." He glanced at Albus, just knowing that he had something to do with the paperwork going missing the first time. He doubted anybody would be able to prove it, though.

"I would very much like to attend the funeral." Amelia Bones smiled slightly at Arcturus, even though she herself was still reeling from the death of her brother and sister-in-law just a few weeks ago while learning how to take care of her orphaned niece. Arcturus nodded his acknowledgement. She also wanted to get off the topic of Harry Potter's custody before it turned into a political massacre between the Blacks and the Light side.

"I as well, will be there." Augusta Longbottom nodded regally at him, but otherwise did not say much. Most of the 'Light' side of the Wizengamot voiced their own wishes to be there, as well as a few 'Neutral' Lords and Ladies, and a surprising amount of 'Dark' family heads. He assumed, though, that they were only wanting to go because of the reminder that, despite his last name and political leanings (as well as his well-known association with Dumbledore's 'secret' group), James was a blood-member of the House of Black, one of the darkest families in existence.

"I will make the arrangements." Arcturus inclined his head at the group, making a mental note of who was attending so he could accurately tell Sharpaxe how many pendants they would need to temporarily grant access through the quarantine wards around Potter Hollow.

"Yes, yes. If we could move on." Albus said, testy. He'd been shut down so quickly and thoroughly, and with the reminder of Dorea being born a Black, that nobody would hear of him taking the boy right now, he would have to come at it from a different angle, but not here. The other Lords and Ladies would not hear of it, not so soon after the accusation of interfering in Family Matters was thrown into the conversation. The last thing any of the Pureblood families wanted was outside interference in their affairs, especially by the Ministry.

"Certainly." Arcturus said, raising an eyebrow at him. Albus and his lackey's visibly bristled at the way Arcturus permitted it, as if he were in charge here, but didn't bring it up anymore. Arcturus had the sympathy of the room at the moment, after all.

"The trials for captured Death Eaters and supporters are to be held-" Albus forced his attention back to what he was supposed to be going over for the day's meeting.


"Sirius, the Longbottom's will be here tomorrow." Grinder said, stepping into the room briefly. It was getting late in the day, he wondered briefly how Arcturus was doing in the Ministry, the man hadn't had a chance to see his grandson today, even though he'd said he would be back.

"What? No, I told them to stay in hiding." Sirius said, confused and alarmed.

"Don't worry, we are taking every security precaution." Grinder assured him. As Frank Longbottom insinuated in his letter, the Goblins weren't dumb. They had five high-profile targets for an insane Dark Lord's followers about to be in one location, mere days after said Dark Lord was defeated at the hands of one of the targets. (Or so the official story went). All five targets (the three adults, anyway) were also highly valued clients of their bank, nobody was getting any of them while here.

Sirius frowned, but didn't say anything else. "Thank you for letting me know." He gave a small smile and went back to helping Harry build his current tower of blocks.

"How is he doing?" Grinder asked, watching the child.

"He hasn't started asking for them yet, but it's not unusual for him to be left with me for a few days while they do things for the Order." Sirius sighed. "They didn't want to, they tried to withdraw... Dumbledore is good at guilt trips." He'd had a lot of time to think about past interactions with the Headmaster today, it was honestly easier then thinking about what happened that drove them to be here, in this room.

"So it will be a bit yet before he gets hard to handle." Grinder winced. He hadn't spent much time around human children, especially ones who had just lost their parents. He hoped that Sirius would be able to cope.

"Hopefully Alice and Neville can distract him for a little while longer." Sirius whispered, leaning down to press a kiss to the fuzzy head in front of him. Harry blinked up at him before going back to his tower, laughing happily when it fell. As far as the little boy was concerned, this was just another day with his Padfoot, he wouldn't start to realize that something was wrong for another week when he still had not seen his parents.

"Your grandfather has made arrangements for the funeral to be held in two days at Potter Hollow, in the Family Burial Grounds. He will take care of the Rites." Grinder informed him quietly. He'd received a message just a few minutes ago, along with the warning that he'd advised anybody who wanted to attend go through Sharpaxe, and the list of everyone who had already indicated they would be there to pay their respects.

Normally the Goblins would protest him getting involved in another Families affairs, but James Potter was family to the old man, and the duty fell to Arcturus' grandson as the guardian of the Potter Heir. They were merely giving Sirius the time he needed to grieve and let Harry settle. Grinder and Sharpaxe would give it a week or two before politely reminding Arcturus to stay out of the Potter Family matters if he was still getting involved without Sirius' permission or knowledge.

Sirius swallowed at the reminder, and his grip around Harry's waist tightened briefly before he forced himself to calm down. "Alright. Harry and I will be there." He said absently, running his hand through the boys hair. The boy wouldn't understand what was happening, and Sirius wasn't sure if letting him see his parents bodies was going to be a good idea, it might make it harder for Harry to adjust if he saw his parents, but was taken away from them again without even a hug or kiss from them. But he wasn't going to miss his last chance to say good-bye, and he wasn't going to keep Harry away.

"We have also found Remus Lupin, he was with the Welsh werewolf pack, trying to convince them to fight for the Order of the Phoenix." The look on Grinder's face let Sirius know how the goblin felt about that. Personally, Sirius didn't know why Remus bothered, either. He knew full well that the werewolves did not trust Albus Dumbledore, and for good reason. After all, Remus Lupin was the only werewolf to attend Hogwarts since Albus Dumbledore became Deputy Head.

He would have to ask later.

"Has he been informed of what happened?" He asked, voice tight.

"Yes. The Goblin delivering the news had to flee, as the wolf took over in his grief, the pack alpha assured us that he would ensure Lupin did not go feral and would be well enough to return after the full moon. He advised that it would be best for the remainder of Lupin's pack to run with him at that time, as well." Which meant Padfoot while Harry possibly stayed with Frank and Alice. It would be too dangerous for Harry to be near him then, even though Harry was the pack cub and no wolf would ever harm their cub no matter what form they were in, he was too young and grieving werewolves were... unpredictable at best.

Sirius sighed explosively. He was barely hanging on right now, and that was only because he was completely focused on Harry. He wasn't sure if being near Remus like that would be a good idea for him, they would probably just feed off each other and make each other worse. But he also knew that the chance to grieve together would be good for both of them. The Full Moon was in a week, that gave him some time especially if the Longbottom's were coming tomorrow. "I'll be there." He promised. Hopefully Mooney was rational enough to hear the Goblin say that Pettigrew was the one to betray them, and not Sirius.


John Martin sighed as he watched two of his beta's race around Remus Lupin in a convoluted, high-risk game of tag. They were hoping to wear him out enough that his wolf calmed down and let the human mind take over again so that the man could start to properly grieve. Besides that, it was also incredibly dangerous to be near the grieving werewolf right now.

If he didn't know that Sirius Black had to take care of their pack cub, or that the cub was only a year old, he would have demanded the Goblins bring the two of them here right now instead of doing this the hard way, but oh well. Wishes didn't always become reality.

"You three, cut in. Give them a break." He ordered three others standing nearby, watching and ready to step in if needed. All three of them groaned, but they didn't argue and quickly jumped in, distracting Remus long enough for the other two to get away.

"This is going to take a while." One of them panted.

"Nothing we haven't done before." John murmured.

"The Dark Lord is gone. What now?" His mate asked quietly. While they'd had no intention of joining the madman, no matter what pretty promises he'd made, they knew that things weren't going to improve for them. They knew that Albus Dumbledore was just as bad when it came to making promises he had no intentions of keeping, and the man had been making a lot of them.

While the Death Eaters would be too busy saving themselves to bother the wolf packs much, the Ministry would not be so thoughtful, and neither would Albus Dumbledore.

"I don't know yet." John sighed. For now, he was going to focus on ensuring they didn't end up with a feral wolf on their hands, and then he would worry about the Ministry and Dumbledore.


Albus sat in his office, wondering why everything wasn't going as planned.

Why had Arcturus Black gotten involved, to his knowledge the Black Lord had not left his home in over a year, not even to attend his younger grandsons funeral rites, not even to attend his great-nephew Draco's birth. But suddenly he was back in the Wizengamot fighting for his grandson and Harry Potter. Why? What was the motivation for him to help the family's 'disgraced heir' who refused to follow the Dark Lord over those who did?

He didn't understand, why couldn't everyone see that everything he was doing was for the Greater Good and get out of his way? Harry needed to be with his maternal aunt and uncle for his own good and so he could be properly molded and raised. Sirius needed to stay away from him. Now that it was on record in the Wizengamot, though, that Peter had been the traitor all along he wasn't going to be able to charge him with anything. Prison would have been the best place to keep Sirius safely out of the way until he was needed again. It would also make him more pliable, Sirius always was difficult, he was the more rebellious of the Marauder's.

He needed to be Harry Potter's guardian, he needed to be the one to guide the boy once he was older and the time was right! He also needed access to the boy so he could determine how he survived and if there was chance (he was sure there was) that Tom had also survived. Every attempt he made at Gringotts to see the boy was met with stony glares and the sharp end of the spear pointed towards him.

He was being blocked from everything to do with the boy! He'd thought he was successful in sealing the Potter's Will's, but apparently not. He would need to have a serious conversation with those goblins... And somebody had gone back and filed the guardianship paperwork again! He wasn't even able to plan the funeral! He'd had something grand planned out for the two war heroes, a large funeral for everybody to come pay their respects and see where everything happened, a chance to establish the good they'd done and everything their son had done, but even that had been taken over by Arcturus Black!

He'd almost succeeded in getting Sirius out of the way, but those Auror's had to go and question him wherever he was hiding out, leading to them ensuring the paperwork was filed properly and now it was even announced in Wizengamot, at Gringotts, and he suspected they would announce it in the paper soon as well, leaving no doubt just who was in charge of the Boy-Who-Lived, as he'd started to call the boy. In fact, he was surprised that it hadn't been all over the papers yet, in fact, any reporting on this matter had been fairly conservative.

Harry Potter wasn't mentioned despite how often he'd dropped the boys name that night when spreading the word. The media was following the Ministry line of 'the investigation is underway, there is no definite answers at this time'. They weren't screaming from the rooftops that Voldemort was dead, merely expressing that he'd disappeared after an attack on the Potter family, Lord and Lady Potter were dead, Heir Potter was the sole survivor who was currently safe with his loving godfather. That was the only mention of Harry Potter in the news, just that he was alive and safe.

He didn't understand.

He'd told them what happened, the boy defeated the Dark Lord, he'd even given them a name to call them by. He'd seen and heard wizards celebrating and raising their glasses to the Boy-Who-Lived (thanks to his rumor-mongering), but there wasn't a single mention of it in the newspapers.

Why was nothing going right? Tom was gone for now, everything should be going his way.

Why wasn't it?