Usual disclaimer, no rights to anything from JKR's stories.
Sirius knew that most of the Death Eaters would try to run before the next scheduled Wizengamot session, because they had to know what would come out if they were questioned under Veritaserum, but there was one he wasn't about to let get away without paying a penalty, so they had elves watching every one of his likely destinations that would be public enough to humiliate him. Given their history, they weren't too surprised to hear that Malfoy had gone to visit Fudge the day after the Wizengamot session where he and Umbrage had chosen the option of paying compensation of Sirius' choice over facing Sirius in an honour duel.
Malfoy was in Fudge's office long enough for Sirius to be waiting with Amelia, Saul Croaker, Frank, Alice, Pandora and Lily (Sirius, Frank and Alice had been reinstated in their jobs as Aurors and Lily as an Unspeakable after they were accepted back into the society of Magical Britain) outside Fudge's office with Ted Tonks, Horace Fawley and the press when Malfoy came out with Fudge and Umbrage. Seeing the group waiting for them, Malfoy hastily cut off his haranguing Fudge about protecting him from what Black was doing.
Only an idiot would have taken the smile Sirius was giving Malfoy and the others at face value, and this was confirmed when he spoke. "Ah Cornelius, Lucius and Delores. Just the people I've been looking for! You see Frank pointed out to me that it would be just cruel to leave Lucius and Delores worrying about what I will be claiming from them in compensation, so I decided that it would be best just get it out of the way in one go, rip off the bandaid quickly as Lily is want to say. Xeno wanted to report what happens in the Quibbler, because people don't get to see the old laws being enforced much these days, and it wouldn't be fair to our friends at the Daily Prophet not to give them the opportunity to do the same, I hope you don't mind?" It was obvious that they did mind, quite a bit, but Sirius didn't give them a chance to respond.
"Now Delores, we looked into what you have to offer that would meet the compensation requirements, but you don't really own anything of value, do you? I suppose that's only to be expected when your father never got above a cleaner in the Ministry's Sanitation Department and your mother was a Muggle Housewife up until she and your brother disappeared while you were at Hogwarts, but it did present quite a bit of a quandary for me. It was looking like I was going to be forced to change the terms back to an honour duel to get satisfaction from you but luckily Ted, who's my solicitor by the way, came up with another option. Ted pointed out that the only thing of any real value you have to offer is your employment and current position at the Ministry and I've decided to let you off the hook and accept that as your compensation payment, so we're here to officially transfer your employment at the Ministry and current position as Senior Undersecretary to the Minister for Magic to my old family friend Baron Horace Fawley. Horace was actually employed at the Ministry up until he took his family off into the Muggle world back in the war to hide them from the Death Eaters, so I'm sure he'll fit right in. Now as Horace found out when he left the Ministry in the war, we need to ensure that you don't take any Ministry secrets with you when you leave, so Saul will be removing any relevant memories and Amelia will act as the official Ministry witness to attest that it was all performed in accordance with the Ministry's requirements."
Umbrage, Fudge and Malfoy wanted to refuse, to scream and rant and rave about that, because she had far more dangerous secrets in her head than Ministry ones, but they could see that this group were just waiting for an excuse to unleash all kinds of hell on them so they grudgingly gave in, hoping that Croaker wouldn't find anything that would incriminate them too much. Once Umbrage's Ministry employment and position were officially transferred to Horace, she was directed to wait off to one side while Sirius dealt with Malfoy.
The evil smile that appeared on Sirius' face made Malfoy shudder, because the House of Malfoy had already lost their Noble title, major holdings and most of their gold to the House of Black thanks to Narcissa's Great Uncle, and he knew that Black would enjoy making this as painful as possible for him.
"Deciding what to do about you was far more difficult Lucius because as we both know, your insult to me yesterday was far from your first or most serious insult to the Most Noble and Most Ancient Druid House of Black. You've also been remarkably free in telling all and sundry that the one you claim as your get will be Duke Black when the Old Bastard, as you've called Grandfather more than a few times in public, finally dies…. You should be thankful that your brother in law Ted here is an uncommonly forgiving man because he has asked me not to consider your insults to him and his family in deciding what penalties to levy against you…. Which just proves that he isn't the Black in their family because a Black would never be that forgiving. Unfortunately for you, Ted wasn't involved in deciding the matter, it was done by Grandfather, Cousin Andie and myself..."
He glanced at Ted. "Sorry Ted, Andie had to defer to Grandfather and my authority when we decided that all insults against the House of Black would be taken into account in our deliberations."
With that he turned back to Malfoy, whose haughty demeanour had collapsed as he realised that the House of Malfoy was about to be destroyed.
"This is what was decided. The two Baronetcies which the Malfoy Family has used to elevate itself to the Minor house of Malfoy and everything on the holdings associated with those two titles, including Malfoy Manor and your Acomantula silk and potion ingredients farms, are hereby forfeited to the House of Black. So are your shipping and trading companies, including all their business properties both here and overseas, plus a Million Galleons from the vaults you used to pay the guards in Azkaban to leave my cell door open so that the Dementors could get to me and kill me in hope that your heir would then have a clear run at the Black titles. It will be interesting to see how you will get out of paying for your crimes now Mister Malfoy!"
Malfoy was a broken man as he formally transferred the titles, holdings, businesses and gold to Sirius, and the Daily Prophet's reporters were telling their photographer to make sure they got plenty of pictures because The Black sticking it to Umbrage and Malfoy was definitely going to be on the front page of tomorrow's paper. The expression on the Director of the DMLE's face as she looked at Umbrage promised that this wouldn't the only story coming out of this either. Some of the press noticed that 'suggestion' from the Minister's new Senior Undersecretary that he and the Minister should get to know each other before they both headed into the Minster's office sounded more like an order, so there could be a story in that as well.
Harry bounded out of bed, had a quick shower, threw some clothes on and popped out of his trunk at around the same time he used to head down to make breakfast for the Dursleys, but while his new life was far more physically and mentally taxing than his life with them had been, he woke up eagerly looking forward to the day now. A large part of the reason for that was the two girls who were waiting downstairs with hugs for him, and his Mum of course.
Their mornings usually started with a rowdy family breakfast, then the ones who had to headed off to work while the others began their training. Harry's favourite times were outside, flying or spending time with the magical creatures, but he accepted what his Mum and Uncles and Aunties told him about needing to be ready to face the Old Bastard (which was pretty much the only thing they ever called Dumbledore) by the time Hogwarts started next September, so he didn't complain when they spent a lot of their training in the runic time chambers inside their magically expanded trunks or Gringotts.
This allowed them to fit in all the training they needed, not to mention increasing their effective ages enough to forestall the expected arguments. The original idea had been for Neville, Susan and twenty odd other children of the Druid Families and other Houses to use the time chambers to get up to Harry, Hermione and Luna's effective ages and knowledge levels by the time the next school year started but it didn't take long to work out that they were never going to be able to match those three in knowledge and ability or keep up with them in training.
After much debate, it was agreed that it would be unfair to push the others hard enough to age them up to seven years and get them physically, mentally, emotionally and magically ready to deal with Dumbledore in the ten months they had to do it, but all but Harry, Hermione, Luna and a handful of the others were shocked to be given a voice in that debate. More than a few of the adults were quite shocked when Hermione first spoke up.
"It's ridiculous to expect this of the others! Our mums and dads and aunts and uncles have been training Luna and I for this since we were little girls and Harry has effectively spent two years in the time chambers getting intensive training and being healed from what those animals did to him, but most of the others haven't been prepared at all! What will be a relatively easy five years effective time for us to get ready to start as fifteen year olds will be a hard slog of up to six or seven years for some of the others."
The ones who expected this little girl to be put in her place by her parents were shocked to see the coven members and wizards they were expecting to lead them beaming at her in approval as Luna nodded and took over.
"We may only be ten, but as Hermione said she and I have already had at least seven or eight years of what most would consider advanced training from our family to get to here and Harry crammed the equivalent of five or six years of intensive training in while he was in the time chambers. All our mums are members of the Witches' Coven, and you wouldn't be here if you didn't know what that means, so it's unfair to expect the other children to be able to get up to the level we'll be at by the time we start at Hogwarts. We're all going to be fifteen by then and going into Fifth Year, and we're sure to be ahead of everyone else in our classes. Some of the older ones may be ready to join us in Fifth Year when the time comes, but I think it would be far better to spread most of them over the First to Fourth Years, according to what they're comfortable with."
The other adults were nodding now because that made sense, these two may be little girls on the outside, but they were beginning to see that underneath they were brilliant and capable witches who knew more about what was going on than most of them did. Many of the adults present were actually Squibs, because the core group had a plan to strip power from Dumbledore's factions in the Wizengamot like Arcturus and Sirius had stripped it away from the Death Eaters and their allies. It was Jane who had started them down this path, because Hermione had successfully claimed the title of Head of the Ancient Druid House of McKinnon as the only living member of the McKinnon bloodline who was accepted as magical when she was five, and then they quietly revoked the voting proxies that Dumbledore had assigned to one of his supporters and reassigned them to Luna's father.
While Jane and Roger had been dentists, that had mostly been due to Roger following in his father's footsteps and Jane changing her path to be with him. They had come together through their shared passion for research, and after they moved into the Magical world so that their daughter could be protected by the coven and the goblins, this passion and their talent for it came to the fore. They did do legal research for Rhys, Fleamont and Tonks, but the majority of what they did was working with the goblins to determine how many of the so-called Muggle-Born and Muggle-Raised had valid claims to Houses and Druid Families that had been made extinct in the war so they could claim their Houses and Families and take their votes back from Dumbledore, as well as any other extinct Houses or Families their people had a valid claim to.
This was how Dumbledore had acquired the power base he had in the Wizengamot, using his position as the Chief Warlock to claim or allocate the voting proxies of Houses and Families that had either been made extinct or no longer had any adults available to cast their votes…. When they had the time they'd be looking into how many of those houses had been laid low as a result of his machinations, Harry's Houses and the McKinnons definitely had been and he'd been directing the Longbottom votes for the last seven years by manipulating Augusta, so others had undoubtedly fallen victim to his plans as well and he'd be made to pay for his crimes when the time came….
What Dumbledore either didn't realise or was hoping that no-one else knew was that the Most Ancient and Ancient Houses and Families had had their rules of succession locked in by the Druid Laws, and these couldn't be overridden by Wizengamot Laws. The Wizengamot Laws stated that the Heir to the Head of a House or Family could not claim their inheritance and take control of their family's votes until after they had reached their age of majority at seventeen. What the incontrovertible Druid Laws stated however was that the Heads of Most Ancient Houses and Families reached their age of majority at eleven, and the Heads of Ancient Houses and Families did so at fourteen…. but if they were the last member of the bloodline who was recognised as magical, they could be deemed to have reached their age of majority and take control of their family's votes and assets as soon after birth or the previous head of the family died (whichever came last) as their Family Magic judged them to be mature enough to claim their place as Head of the Family.
Minerva had been quietly extracting magical children's details from the book of magical births and passing them on to Jane and Roger since they started hiding in the Magical world and they in turn had been doing the research to locate the parents of magical children so that the extended family could offer them protection. After Jane's magical family were wiped out and Dumbledore swooped in to grab their voting proxies though, they started looking into what could be done to thwart his plans.
That was why this group was there, several of them had what were classified as Muggle-Born or Muggle-Raised children who had successfully claimed their places as Head of their Houses or Families and then quietly revoked the voting proxies that had been assigned for their family's Wizengamot votes, reassigning the voting rights to members of the Druid Faction via proxies or becoming vassals of the Druid Houses. Part of the reason the other children were to be spending time in the time chambers was to get them up to the age of majority they needed to claim their places as Head of their Houses or Families because they still had living magical relatives.
Harry added his two knut's worth when Luna finished talking. "The thing is, our Mums are brilliant…." The semi-serious miffed looks on Xeno and Roger's and his father's magical portrait's faces made him hastily amend that. "Just as our fathers are, so they've been teaching the girls all of this stuff since they were little, and I was given the equivalent of two or three years worth of crash courses in magic and politics while they were putting me back together in the time chamber and a few more in the time chambers since then. That will continue for next five years of training we'll be doing in the time chambers so it's just not fair to expect the others to be able to catch up with us and deal with the same things we'll be dealing with. Our parents and aunts and uncles have made sure that we understand what we'll be up against, and it isn't pretty, the Old Bastard as they call him..."
Most of the group laughed grimly at that because from what they'd heard that was a very apt description of the one who had so blithely destroyed anyone who got in his way.
"Will be coming at us hard as soon as we come out into the open and I don't want anybody else to be in the firing line…. I'd rather the girls weren't either but I remember the way Auntie Pan and Auntie Jane tore strips off all the men in the family when I was little so I know I can't stop them…"
The laughter was freer this time because the determined looks on the girls and their mothers and the men's winces as they recalled those incidents made it obvious that Harry wasn't exaggerating about that.
"I guess what I'm saying is just what Hermione and Luna said, it isn't fair to push the others that hard. I lost my chance of a happy childhood when I was dumped with Mum's relatives after Mum and Dad were supposedly killed so I can't miss what I never had, the girls are determined to join me in spending the next five years effectively working hard to get ready to face Dumbledore and I can't stop them, but the rest of the kids should be given a chance to hold onto their childhoods while they can. Give them the chance to decide for themselves how hard they want to push themselves, waiting another year or two, three, four or more to get control of more votes to use against Dumbledore and the Death Eaters won't make or break us, but pushing the ones who have to claim their houses to get those votes hard enough to make them hate us for it could ruin everything we're trying to do..."
There was silence when he finished speaking as everyone took in what he'd said. Many of the adults were thinking that whatever they looked like at the moment, these three weren't children, in just a few short years they would be the leaders of their world, but just about everyone was agreeing that Harry was... no they all were…. right, everything they were doing would be wasted if they pushed the children to assume adult responsibilities before they were ready. Harry's point that waiting a few years to gain control of all their votes wouldn't be the end of the world was what drove it home for many of them though.
Some of them had been working towards this for the last seven years and it would be another six to ten months at least before most of their children would be able to claim their titles and get control of their families' votes, but the core group had already made great strides towards knobbling the ones who had kept a tight grip on the reins of Magical Britain for the last few decades, so it would be ridiculous, not to mention unconscionable, to ruin everything by trying to force the children to do more than they were ready to.
Neville spoke up at that point. "I'm not in the same position Harry and many of you are, because I have my Dad back to handle these things for our family now, but I think Harry and the girls are right. Harry has stepped up and taken the votes for his family back from Dumbledore's faction, so did Dad and some of the others and Great Uncle Arcturus and Uncle Sirius have taken even more off the Death Eaters, so what we're talking about here is more increasing the margin we have in the Wizengamot than chasing the votes we need to take control…."
"Sue and I and some of the others have been training with Harry and the girls in the time chambers this week and I don't know about anyone else but there's no way I can keep up with them. I've learned a bit about magic over the last five or six years but Gran and the other coven members have been doing their best to teach me about what I'll need to know to take over our house in a year or so when I reach my majority at eleven, and even with the foremost experts in the field teaching me since I was a toddler, Harry's already years ahead of me, not to mention the fact that he has already stood up in front of the Wizengamot and taken control of his Family and its votes. I guess what I'm saying is that I for one aren't ready to try and keep up with Harry and the girls because I know that that would just turn me into a gibbering idiot. I'll be doing my best to add at least a few years to my age and go to Hogwarts having learned enough about magic to do my parents, Gran and the House of Longbottom proud but honestly, that's as much as I'm capable of."
Sue hugged him and nodded. "I agree with Neville. Like him, I've got my Auntie Ami to look after the affairs of the House of Bones, but Auntie Ami's busy as the Director of the DMLE so I've received even less training than Neville has, I've gotten more training in the time chambers this week than I ever did before and I'm not even close to being ready to take over my title as Head of the House of Bones. For anyone who hasn't managed to spend time with Harry, Hermione and Luna yet, you can take it from me that they're a force of nature. Auntie Ami said and I agree that their parents are the most brilliant people we've ever met, but they're the first ones to say that those three are going to surpass them and everyone else within the next few years. Like Neville said, trying to keep up with Harry, Hermione and Luna would turn me into a gibbering idiot so I'm just going to do the best I can and try to make Auntie Ami and the rest my family, wherever they are, proud of me."
Some of the other children who'd spent time training in the time chambers with Harry and the others spoke up, saying similar things, so it was agreed that it would be left up to the children to decide how much time they would spend training in the time chambers and how intense that training would be. The only parents who made an effort to convince their child to make an extra effort were the Greengrasses, but that was because they really believed that their younger daughter Astoria would be much safer if she started at Hogwarts with her sister Daphne and the others, so they encouraged her to make up at least three and a half years more over the next ten months in the time chambers so that she'd be old enough to start at Hogwarts in the next school year.
Harry and the girls had settled into their routines pretty quickly, spending nights in the runic time chambers in their trunks doing classes and training and sleeping, which also got them used to sleeping inside their warded trunks for when they went to Hogwarts and wouldn't be behind the ancient Potter wards any more. They generally had breakfast with the extended family and did their Care of Magical Creatures and Herbology classes and other outside activities up until lunch, then spent afternoons doing training in the time chambers using higher acceleration factors in Gringotts. The outside sessions were the most exciting because they used the goblin floos to go all over the world for them.
The gullible nature of Magical Britain was demonstrated by the fact that the Daily Prophet reporters hadn't linked Minister Fudge's quick acquiescence to his new Senior Undersecretary's 'suggestion' that they get to know each other with the fact that his previous Undersecretary was having her memories reviewed by the Directors of the Department of Magical law Enforcement and the Department of Mysteries and the most titled employees of the Ministry of Magic. None of them had the slightest doubt that they'd get enough out of Delores Umbrage's head to send her, the Minister and many senior Ministry and Wizengamot people to Azkaban if they wished, and that was how Horace easily commanded Fudge's cooperation.
Horace had hardly had time to soften Fudge up with veiled threats of what Sirius and the others would do to him if they found that he'd been involved in the downfall of any Houses currently affiliated with the House of Black before Amelia returned with Sirius and an anonymous Unspeakable (Lily, of course). Horace had to stifle a smile at the secretive smirk Sirius sent him, they obviously hadn't taken long to crack the toad. Amelia and Sirius settled into the chairs across the desk from Fudge while Lily stood there being…. Inscrutable…. After looking at him without speaking for long enough to make him sweat, Amelia began.
"We appear to have a serious problem Cornelius..."
Fudge went to ask her what the problem was but stopped himself, obviously deciding that it would be better to wait for her to tell him. Amelia and Sirius shared a glance, he was apparently brighter than he looked, but that could work in their favour because a little rat cunning would help remind him of what the consequences would be if he crossed them.
"You see Delores became quite talkative about what she's been doing for you and others when she realised that we had her cold, and apparently she's kept proof of everything she's done for whom…. I've got someone collecting that evidence at the moment. I don't think I need to tell you that this doesn't look good for you…. At all."
Lily was wondering whether she was going to see her third fat pig having a heart attack in just over two months, but Fudge's magic kept him alive, and to be fair he was nowhere as obese as the Dursleys.
"I'm sure you know my views on those who abuse their authority for personal gain and you've already heard from me what I think about those budget cuts for my department that Duke Black Glynn raised in the Wizengamot, but Duke Black and Lord Longbottom have reminded me of a Muggle saying that is quite apropos here…. Better the devil you know…."
She left him to sweat for a few more minutes before continuing, as she was starting to enjoy herself.
"I was opposed to what they were suggesting at first because it sounded like blackmail, but Lord Longbottom has convinced me to view it as giving you an opportunity to redeem yourself, and that we could always go ahead with the criminal proceedings if you failed to do so..."
"How do you feel about getting a chance to redeem yourself and your good name Cornelius?"
Fudge was stuttering that he would be ever so grateful for the chance to make things right, but Amelia cut him off.
"You do understand that we aren't going to let you off with any empty promises here, don't you Cornelius? If you promise us that you will stick to the straight and narrow from now on and then go back to taking bribes for agreeing to bend or break the rules on behalf of supporters, you'll be up in front of the Wizengamot before you can say 'Merlin'! And we'll be keeping all the evidence about this agreement and your activities in a safe place, so we'll be able to prove everything if you make us take it to court."
She was pretty sure that had just made him wet himself, she was getting a little too much enjoyment out of torturing him like this but people had suffered and died because of this little bastard's money grubbing and overly flexible morals so she couldn't make herself feel guilty about that.
"No, I mean yes! I will change, I promise Amelia!"
Amelia made a point of turning to look at Sirius and at his thoughtful nod to say that he believed that Fudge was being honest, she turned back to Fudge. "Very well, we will give you a chance to prove that you've changed Cornelius, but may the gods help you if you try to trick us!"
"Now what are we to do with your partners in crime?"
"Partners in crime? I'm not a partner of any criminals!"
"That was merely a saying Cornelius, I'm talking about the other ones that Delores has been telling us about, and there's enough correlation between what she told us and what the audit of the Ministry budgets has shown us that I'm inclined to accept what she'd said without waiting to see the evidence she has been collecting. We will be moving on a number of them soon enough, but two in particular bother me, because they hold positions which could allow them to do quite a bit of damage... I'm referring to Barty Crouch and Archie Macmillan, as the Heads of the Department of International Magical Cooperation and the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. We'll be charging more than just them but they need to go as a matter of priority and I need to know whether we will have your support in replacing them at the next Wizengamot session with more trustworthy candidates?"
"Of course Amelia! Do you have anyone in mind? I can recommend some outstanding individuals..."
"Forgive me for being a little blunt here Cornelius, but your judgement to date when it comes to those you regard to be outstanding individuals has left quite a lot to be desired. While I haven't discussed the matter with them as yet, I already have qualified and trustworthy people in mind for both those positions. I believe that Lord Francis Longbottom has the background, connections and integrity needed to make far a better Director of the Department of International Magical Cooperation than anyone in recent memory and I can't think of anyone better suited to heading up the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures than Laird Newton Scamander."
"Excellent choices Amelia, you can rely on me to support Frank and Newt's instatement as the Heads of those Departments as soon as we get rid of Barty and Archie. Would you like me to make the official announcements for you?"
"No Cornelius. No announcements of any kind will be made about these matters until after charges have been laid against Crouch and Macmillan, which brings us to another point, before we leave this office I need to have you give me your unbreakable oath that no trace of this discussion will be revealed in any form to or in front of anyone other than those currently in this room, well Duke Black Glynn, Baron Fawley and myself, as the Unspeakable's identity must of course remain a secret. They are actually here to seal the oath when you give it to add another layer of security to the oath…."
She waited for him to start to speak and then cut him off. "The oath is non negotiable Cornelius, the only other option is for us to obliviate you of this meeting and prosecute you for your crimes that Delores Umbrage has revealed to us."
Fudge closed his mouth with a 'clack' of his teeth hitting each other and stayed pale and silent for the rest of the meeting except when he gave his oath.
As soon as they were back in Amelia's office with privacy wards erected, Amelia collapsed in her chair, unable to stop laughing. When she was back in control enough to speak she said. "I'm beginning to see the appeal of the pranks you lot pulled at Hogwarts Sirius, it was a struggle not to laugh in his face every time he just about wet himself."
Sirius smirked at her. "Yes, but this is better than the pranks we pulled at Hogwarts Amelia, because it will actually help us get rid of some of those bastards who have been hiding behind Pureblood privilege and put trustworthy people in to replace them. Now do you believe me that it was Lily who came up with all our best pranks?"
"Yes, and thank you for managing to come up with a prank that will benefit Magical Britain Lily."
Lily curtsied with a smile. "You are most welcome Amelia… But the crowning achievement in this whole business was Sirius's contribution, no one but a Black could ever come up with the idea of using a prank to blackmail that fool into becoming a proper Minister!"
Sirius stuck his nose in the air and snootily said. "Did you not hear Director Bones Regent Potter, we did not blackmail our esteemed Minister Fudge, we offered him the opportunity to redeem himself, while taking the precaution of keeping the evidence in case he failed to do so!"
"Oh can it Black, it was blackmail, pure and simple, but it was the best piece of blackmail I've ever seen."
He smirked at her. "I must admit that I was rather proud of it... Okay, now that we've locked in Fudge's support for Frank and Newt to replace Crouch and Macmillan, are we going to wait until the next scheduled Wizengamot session or call an emergency session to get it over and done with quickly? I must admit that I'm looking forward to seeing how many Death Eaters will be stupid enough to turn up. We've already heard from Gringotts that Malfoy, Nott, Avery, the Carrows and McNair have all tried to clean out their vaults and run, and apparently they weren't too happy to be reminded about the law that required their vaults to be locked down until they were cleared of the charges against them. I'm betting that Lucy and Nott at least will have enough gold stashed away to get out of Britain but I can't help thinking that Crabbe and Goyle will be stupid enough to believe that they can get off, unless some of the others managed to get it through their thick heads that they'll be dead if they testify about anyone else, of course. It will also be interesting to see whether Lucy bothers to take Cissa and the brat with him when he runs."
Amelia was shaking her head at the way Sirius was going on about Malfoy, but answered him. "I don't want to give any of them the chance to try and gather support. At the moment we've got the votes and vaults of the known Death Eaters locked down so they can't do much, if we call for an emergency session we can charge Crouch, Macmillan and the other Ministry officials that we've got evidence against and use Fudge and the Wizengamot to push through our chosen replacements for the ones who can cause trouble before they have any chance to regroup. Most of the ones in the Ministry lost a lot when those transfers from the Ministry vaults were reversed so it will hopefully take them a while to scrape up enough gold to buy the support they need. I say we move quickly before they get the chance."
Sirius nodded, musing. "It will be interesting to see whether Bagnold will make any real effort to bail her people out, or she'll just run before they get a chance to drag her down with them."
Lily snorted in a rather unladylike manner. "Oh please! That bitch has never cared about anyone but herself, the first time one of them asks for help she'll take her gold and run!"
He grinned at her. "Are you sure enough of that to make a wager on it?"
"What stakes, and what odds will you give me?"
"Whatever you want, and why don't we make it five to one?"
She gave him an evil smile and pulled out a communications mirror, when the call was answered she asked. "Hi Sweetie, are you willing to lend Mummy Two Hundred Thousand Galleons for a few days until I have a chance to move some money around?"
He sounded suspicious as he answered. "Sure Mum, but what's it for?"
"Uncle Sirius was silly enough to offer me five to one odds on a bet that ex Minister Bagnold won't take her gold and head for the hills as soon as the ones who paid her off to get their positions at the Ministry start asking for help because we're putting them up on charges."
They all heard Harry and the girls' laughter at that, so they must have been with him. "I think it's our duty to teach Uncle Sirius to stop making silly bets like that Mum, can you put me down for another Two Hundred Thousand on top of your bet..." He paused as the girls said something. "Sorry, can you make that Four Hundred Thousand please? The girls want in on this too. With any luck losing Three Million Galleons will be enough to make Uncle Sirius learn not to be so silly. As there isn't much chance of us losing, you don't need to worry about paying me back until the bet has been determined."
Lily looked a challenge at Sirius and he nodded in a huff, so she laughed and said. "Done! I confirm that I am borrowing Two Hundred Thousand Galleons from you until after the bet has been determined and betting an additional Four Hundred Thousand Galleons on your and the girls' behalf. Thanks Sweetie, I'll see you at dinner."
Harry said goodbye with a laugh and they finished the call.
Sirius was looking dumbfounded as Lily asked Amelia. "Will you witness our wager please Regent Bones? The wager is that Duke Potter and I are betting a total of Six Hundred Thousand Galleons with Duke Black at five to one odds, meaning that Duke Black will be required to pay us Three Million Galleons if any of the ones we're charging at the upcoming emergency Wizengamot session attempts to get Millicent Bagnold to bail them out and her reaction is to take her gold and leave rather than bailing them out."
Amelia grinned. "Your wager is duly noted Regent Potter. Shall the amounts being wagered be placed in escrow or are both of you prepared to accept each other's promise to pay over the other party's winnings if they lose?"
Lily raised an eyebrow at Sirius. "I am quite prepared to accept Duke Black's word if he will accept mine?"
He was looking rather disgruntled but he formally promised to honour the wager and pay Regent Potter and Duke Potter Three Million Galleons if they won the wager and accept her word that they would pay him Six Hundred Thousand Galleons if he won, then muttered. "It was only supposed to be a joke, you women are evil and so is my Godson! I obviously need to get myself a new Godson. Neville is a nice boy, I'm sure he'd never do something like this to his Godfather!"
Amelia laughed at him. "You never did know when to stop Sirius. All you had to do was apologise and call off the bet before Lily got off the call to Harry she would have agreed, but you didn't. So you only have yourself to blame!"
She shook her head in exasperated amusement. With anyone else, casually betting between Two Hundred Thousand and Three Million Galleons (One to Fifteen Million Pounds in Muggle currency) like that would have been a joke, or lunacy, but when it was The Black and The Potter, it was just the stakes for a friendly wager. The Black and Potter families were the richest of their world, they could easily buy small countries on a whim and both had done so in the past, so it was no more than a pittance to them. This would have been a regular occurrence if James had lived, and it was obvious that Sirius wasn't in the least upset about the bet, only that Lily and Harry had successfully called his bluff and turned the joke back on him.
The Emergency Wizengamot session panned out quite well for the family. Derrick Flint, Thomas Crabbe and Gregory Goyle Senior were stupid enough to turn up (Sirius should have tried to get someone to bet on that) and were forced to testify under Veritaserum. As well as the three of them being sent through the Veil of Death for their crimes, their testimonies and memories were accepted as sufficient evidence to get arrest warrants approved for the score of other marked Death Eaters who had failed to appear, as well as bans on their families holding seats in the Wizengamot for as long as the current head of family lived and seizure of their Gringotts vaults was certainly a win. While they were wanted criminals they were denied access to transfer titles or assign voting proxies, so their votes ceased to exist in the Wizengamot until they died and their designated heirs were accepted to take over the titles.
On top of this, eight senior Ministry officials and ex Senior Undersecretary to the Minister Delores Umbrage were all found guilty of corruption and criminal charges, fined, sentenced to Azkaban for a few months or years and given lifetime bans against working for or with the Ministry in any capacity.
This let the family use the Pure-Bloods' trick that Malfoy thought had guaranteed that his heir would become Duke Black against them. Part of the Druid Laws mandated that when magic found someone guilty of a crime serious enough to be imprisoned, they were stripped of their titles. Under the old rules, the Head of a Family could only be tried by the Druid and then Wizards Council and only serious crimes carried the sentence of imprisonment because it was effectively for life. The idea was that if the head of a family was sentenced to a crime serious enough to justify imprisonment they would be stripped of their titles, allowing the family to be taken over by someone else who would hopefully lead it in a different direction from where the criminal had been leading it.
After the Druids had been pressured into expanding the Wizards Council into the much larger Wizengamot which was much more mired down in politics though, this was turned into a popular method to take over a Family or House. Buy the allegiance of someone in the family and then set up scenarios to put the Head of the House or Family and anyone else in the way of the title on trial for minor crimes which had a prison term of a few months or so (something which hadn't existed when the Druid Laws were created) so that they lost their titles and the bought man could take over the family.
The thing was, the inheritance tests they'd done had shown that some of the Squib lines of people in their group actually had stronger claims to the titles of their families than the 'Pure-Blood' lines who had recently held the titles, so the Senior Noble and Ancient House of Macmillan, Noble House of Smith and Minor Houses of Crouch, Flint, Crabbe and Goyle were all successfully claimed by right of blood after the previous Heads of House were sent to Azkaban. They only got three Minor Houses from the Dark Faction, but what they took from the Light Faction was significant because the House of Macmillan had been the most powerful House they had.
Lily had fun stringing Sirius along for a while about the Bagnold bet before she admitted that the Three Million Galleons had been donated towards helping set up the new Werewolf Health and Liaison offices they'd planned for Frank and Newt's departments to stop him sulking about it. After that Harry and Sirius each added a few million more to get things moving in the right direction more quickly. The rest of Sirius' pique disappeared when Lily reminded him that there was actually a silver lining in Bagnold running off to the Continent with her gold like that, because she was a lot smarter than most of the Pure-Bloods which meant that she was more dangerous. Her leaving Magical Britain got rid of what was probably the most dangerous of the Pure-Blood puppet masters, which meant that they wouldn't need to waste so much time keeping an eye on her, giving them more time for the other things they were working on.
With Frank and Newt taking over the two key departments, the revision of the werewolf and other 'creature' and muggle laws moved forward quickly and Remus was able to be openly accepted as a Thane for Sirius, Harry and the girls' houses. While it wasn't made public, Andie had also been made Steward for Harry and the girls' houses because Lily, Xeno and Pandora were quite ready to admit that they would never be able to match a Black in the Wizengamot or Noble House politics.
Harry laughed as he rolled away from the spot where Agaroth, Gringotts' young Swedish Short-Snout, had tried to catch him in mid-air and darted off. This was their last game of tag before he and the rest of the kids had to head off to Hogwarts and he wanted to make the most of it. The girls were back at the Manor following him through their link as they didn't want to set off Agaroth's territorial instincts by having females around, and they would have had trouble keeping up with Harry and Agaroth in dragon form anyway. None of them wanted this episode of their lives to end, in the last ten months since Harry's Mum was returned and rescued him from Petunia and her family in the 'real' world, Harry and Luna had lived seven years, a little over six for Hermione, and aside from the first seven months of painful physical reconstruction for Harry they'd loved it. They'd been together pretty much all day, every day, and while others may not have enjoyed studying and training hard for sixteen to eighteen hours a day most of the time, they did.
For the time they'd 'lived' in their trunks, the atmosphere in the trunks had been adjusted to make use of the High/Low training method which Lily explained had been developed at the Mexico Olympics in '68, their sleeping chambers set to match the air at 2500 metres and the rest of their trunk environments at 1000 metres. While the physical health and fitness benefits they gained from this were increasingly obvious over the 'years' they lived in this environment, not many of the others adopted it as they gave up before they got acclimatised to it because it was uncomfortable, apparently the people in the Wizarding world weren't the only ones who tended to avoid things that were hard work.
Of course, while Harry had been having the time of his life and Fudge's survival instincts had kept him on the straight and narrow so he'd only needed the occasional nudge from Horace, Amelia, Saul or Frank to get him back on track when he was being tempted to waver, things hadn't all gone their way. As the adults had predicted, even with all the proof of Dumbledore's crimes against Harry, Sirius and so many others, the sheeple who made up most of Magical Britain had gone back to believing what the 'Leader of the Light' and the Pure-Blood owned Daily Prophet were telling them.
The rules of bigotry worked the same in the Magical world as they did in the Non-Magical world, the most ordinary people with nothing to offer to distinguish themselves will grab at anything that they can point to and say 'I'm better than them because….' In the Magical world, they didn't need to rely on skin colour for this (though bigotry on the basis of skin colour was far more prevalent than they were willing to admit in merry old England where they didn't trust darkies and those other foreigners), because they could use magic! Magic was perfect for that, as it let the Pure-blood guy in the pub who would never amount to anything more than a factory worker or some other part of the blue collar masses in the Non-Magical world have something to hold up and say that he was special! It didn't matter if he was as common as dirt and had trouble adding up the shopping list, he was a wizard and so had his Da and Grandad been, so he was as good as Nobility!
Those uppity bastards who blew in from the Muggle world didn't recognise that though, who were they to show off how much more magic they could do than him? They didn't have the heritage he did, they came from common Muggles for Merlin's sake and they dared to think they were better than him? He'd show them!… Well you get the point, just like in the Non-Magical world where they'd needed things like the Jim Crow laws to keep them others in their place, your average Pure-Blood wasn't about to let go of the idea that their heritage of being able to trace their magical family back for generations made them better, even if they couldn't spell heritage or generations. These were the sheeple who made up much of Magical Britain, so it was hardly a surprise that they listened to Dumbledore, the Daily Prophet and anyone else who told them that their magical heritage made them better than those who came from the Muggle world, and that was why they were prepared to lap up everything Dumbledore said about Lily, how Harry was being corrupted by her and how Sirius was obviously damaged by his time in Azkaban because he tried to deny his heritage as a proper Pure-Blood Lord.
Needless to say, this got up most of the family's noses, especially Harry and Hermione who were sick listening to these inbred idiots maligning their families, so they were planning to make an impact when they got to Hogwarts. Lily for one had no problem with the fact that 'impact' was all too likely to be literal because Harry and Hermione had her and Jane's tempers.