A/N Thank you guys for your continued support, I'm sure people must think I'm biased against Hermione, but I think most of fandom is biased against Ron, as I said before he messed up twice in seven books to Harry, most of the time he had Harry's back,I'm just portraying that side of him, Hermione was often envious of Harry, especially in Half Blood Prince when he started doing better academically than she was, make no mistakes I like Hermione, she was wonderful I just found she could be too perfect at times.
Chapter five:
Albus Dumbledore was having a cup of tea and enjoying a lemon drop when Minerva walked into his office, "Albus, there are some goblins from Gringotts wanting to see you" She with a small triumphant smirk on her face, Albus frowned, Goblins rarely had anything to do with Hogwarts.
"Show them in Minerva" he said bracing himself as he got up to follow her, at that moment Molly and Arthur burst into the room
"Ah Molly and Arthur..." but Arthur raised a hand "no informalities today Dumbledore, I'm here on a most serious matter!" He said "it's regarding our sponsor child; Harry Potter, in which he should've been You interfered with that didn't you " the normal calm father of seven said, keeping his temper in, Minerva looked aghast
"Albus, you told me the Weasley family were Harry's sponsor family!" She said flaring her nostrils
"Is that what he told you now is it?!" Molly spoke "don't you have any boundaries when it comes to lying Dumbledore!" She said, Albus sighed "Molly, Arthur...I..." but Arthur interrupted the headmaster "That's Lord Weasley to you" Arthur said haughtily
"Lord Weasley" Albus said hurriedly "I have the goblins waiting for me so if you could..." but at that moment two goblins walked into the room
"Mr Dumbledore" said one goblin "I'm Sharptooth, and this here is Bladeclaw my Assistant, we have reason to believe that an under aged student is being forced to compete in the Triwizard Tournament, is that correct?" He asked in a stern voice, Molly, Arthur and Minerva looked on in satisfaction as the headmaster replied
"Yes Harry Potter..." he started but the goblin stopped him "That's Lord Potter to you, and do not interrupt me! Anyway, since the Goblet is under our jurisdiction, we revoke its decision and Lord Potter will no longer be a champion, since this is the triwizard tournament and not the quadwizard tournament." Sharptooth finished, Dumbledore looked flustered "But you cannot do this! The goblet is on Hogwarts land, young Harry must compete" he said Sharptooth and Bladeclaw shook their heads
"Albus, even if the decision was yours, his magical sponsors do not want Lord Potter, and you being of not a ancient, noble or honourable house, will refer to Lord Potter as such, his magical sponsors do not want him to compete and their decision is final" Sharpetooth said firmly, but Albus smiled "Ah but you see Sharptooth, I am Har- I mean Lord Potter's magical sponsor and I do have the ministry's backing" he smirked but Arthur interjected
"Actually Albus, you'll find your no longer Harry's sponsor parent, not that you've been a particularly worthwhile sponsor parent, but Molly and I are now his sponsor parents , and you'll find that any member of a ancient, noble or honourable can veto the headmasters decision and contrary to your views Albus, I think you'll find that Cornielius Fudge has been most keen to investigate Harry's placement in the tournament in the first place, with the intention of removing Harry from it or cancelling the whole event entirely if need be and even you cannot overturn the ministers final decision Albus" Arthur said with a satisfactory smile on his face,
Albus foresaw his plans falling apart, Voldemort was supposed to return at the end of the year, with the help of the impurised Barty Crouch Jnr, who was currently impersonating his long time friend and ally; Alastair Moody, it had been a perfect plan concocted by himself, Moody and Crouch Snr of course the latter person would have to be eliminated for the purposes of the greater good, Albus had to think up another plan and fast.
Everyone's eyes were upon the aged headmaster, who sighed, "Very well, I shall inform the headmasters of this decision" he said, it was vital that Tom Riddle returned in June and that the boy remained firmly in his grasp.
A few hours later Gryffindor tower was celebrating, their fellow lion was no longer part of the tournament, They had gotten the announcement at dinner, Harry also had another reason as to why he was happy, Sirius was going to have a formal trial day after tomorrow, he had the threat of the dementors kiss lifted, Amelia Bones and Cornelius Fudge seemed very keen to see justice done, especially Fudge, who was determined to get Dumbledore, Harry knew his godfather would be set free but he was still nervous, Harry was drinking some butter beer, but he was feeling reckless, a new sense of bravado had kicked in, he was fourteen and for the first time in his life, he could just be a (relatively) normal teenage boy, and he was going to make the most of it, just then he had an idea, he looked at his best friend who looked back at him.
"Mate" Harry said "fancy grabbing the invisibility cloak and heading to Hogsmead?" Harry said with a roguish smile, Ron returned that smile "C'mon them, shall we bring Neville along with us? He really needs to come out of his shell" Ron said, Harry nodded, he agreed that Neville should come out of his shell, he made a vow to himself that he would be a better friend to him this year
"Let me grab my cloak, and I'll meet you and Nev back down here" Harry said and Ron nodded before he went to grab Neville, Harry had just approached the stairs to the boys dorms when Hermione approached him "Harry" she said softly, Harry gave the girl a hard stare and went to side step her but she grabbed his arm "Harry, please, I'm so sorry for being a bad friend" she said "I reacted that way because I was scared for your life, the truth is" she said, as Harry continued to look at his former friend "I really like you" she said "I mean I really really like you Harry" she said, Harry smirked, inwardly he was laughing at the hopeless attempt at a reconciliation but Harry decided to play along "Granger" he said "I'm flattered that you feel that way about me, but I don't find you attractive, however if it's friendship you want then I would like us to be friends again" he said, Hermione smiled, but Harry could tell that the smile was false
"Oh thank you Harry!" She simpered "I'll see you tomorrow at breakfast tomorrow then" Harry nodded as Granger went upstairs to her dorms, Harry shuddered, even though he knew his former friend was pretending to have a crush on him, it was still unnerving, he thought as he ran upstairs to grab his cloak.
He came downstairs a few moments later, and saw Ron and Neville by the portrait door "what did Granger want?" Neville asked as they went out the portrait door, putting on the cloak
"She was apologising and I accepted" Harry said, Ron and Neville looked aghast "after what she's said and done mate!?" Ron asked, Harry nodded "of course Ronald, after all as the muggle saying goes, keep your friends close but keep your enemies even closer, I don't trust her anymore mate but I need to keep a close eye on her, I've noticed that she's been visiting Dumbledore a lot lately and I want to know why" he said determinedly as the three boys headed to the village via a secret passageway for a night of rambunctious fun.
Further down south as three boys headed to the Three Broomsticks to get merry, two grown men were already drunk, Sirius looked over at Remus, he had already passed out on the sofa, the full moon was tomorrow and Remus was going to be hungover as fuck, a hungover werewolf was normally a bad idea, but the grown men in their mid thirties couldn't help it, Sirius was finally going to be free, finally free after thirteen long years, Gringotts had provided the proof that stated that Wormtail was the secret keeper, the proof that Albus could have easily provided if he wanted to, but Sirius now knew that Albus had deliberately kept him away from Harry, Albus had witnessed the last will of Lily and James, and he had gone completely against them, Sirius in his drunken stupor shook his head, he honestly didn't know who was worse, Dumbledore or Voldemort, at least Voldemort was openly evil, Dumbledore gave off a facade that he was all caring but in truth Dumbledore was worse than Voldemort, he had knowingly allowed his godson to be sent to abusive relatives, Sirius knew something wasn't right when Harry, who after only knowing him for an hour, had jumped at the chance to live with him, he also knew Lily would never had wanted her bigoted sister to raise her son.
Sirius knew he'd get the trial was just a formality that was long overdue, Cornelius was most apologetic as the short man had personally visited him after Sirius had received word from Gringotts that they had evidence to clear his name, Sirius had plans, he was going rebuild his family's dark legacy and reform it, he was already working on expelling his cousins Bellatrix and Narcissa and their husbands out of the family and reintroduce Andromeda and her family into the clan, he had already made Harry his heir, even if Sirius had a child of his own he wanted Harry to be his heir, he considered the boy to be his son and loved him from the moment he was born, he also planned on becoming a governor of Hogwarts so he could keep a very very very close eye on Hogwarts and its evil headmaster, Sirius was going to accept his role as Lord Black, thankfully his father hadn't disowned him, partly because he wanted to hedge his bets, both sons on opposite sides of the war so whoever won the Black family would come out winners either way, and Regulus had died in 1979, his father died that same year, Sirius hadn't been able accept the title of Lord until his mother died, which wasn't until 1985, by that time it had been too late, he was in Azkaban, had he been able to take his lordship title earlier he would not have been thrown into Azkaban without a trial, Sirius felt anger rise from the pit of his stomach, how was it he, a known soldier against dark forces was discarded and left in Azkaban for twelve years when Snivillus who was a known death eater, so well known in fact, he was Voldemort's next in command after Bellatrix and Lucius, yet Dumbledore spoke on his behalf in the death eater trials, how did this happen? Why? Sirius never quite understood the relationship between Dumbledore and Snape, Snape was prejudiced, he was an appalling teacher compared to Horace Slughorn, the potions teacher and head of Slytherin during his time at Hogwarts, and he had a pathological hatred for Harry, sure he and James did pick on Snape but Snape also started most of he fights between them, but at least they were on the same even platform when ever the three of them fought, Snape was a grown adult and he bullied his students so badly that the Longbottom boy was more afraid of him than The Lestranges who attacked his parents or Voldemort himself according to Remus, Snape was the worst bully, he emotionally abused the children in his charge, that's not equal footing, Snape had an unfair advantage, Sirius had great plans for Snape, he was going to make his life hell, Sirius took another sip of his fire whiskey and a drag of his cigarette, he then looked out into the Yorkshire moors at night, tomorrow, Sirius thought, was the first day of the rest of his life, Sirius felt lighter than he had felt in years.
Harry, Ron and Neville were sitting around a small table, on their third beers, it turned out Madam Rosemarta was more than keen to serve under aged students as longs as they were honest, plus seeing the three boys reminded her of three other similar boys she once knew nearly two decades ago, one of whom was the father of the boy sitting in front of her now.
Neville was a lightweight but Harry and Ron decided to grab another round of drinks, "Guys guys guys" Neville said or slurred "should we head back as it's late" he said trying to be serious, but in truth he was having the time of his life Harry and Ron looked at him with an incredulous look "you mad! Nights still young" Harry said, he wanted to be free! Besides Ron's crush, Rosmerta...oops" he said with a smirk knowing that he said that loudly, Ron glared at him as he went beet red in the face "won't say anything, will you Rosie?" He winked at the barmaid, who returned the wink "me snitch on the son of James Potter, not likely!" She smiled, as she handed the boys out three more beers, Harry smirked "see guys, we're in the clear!"
"You know what" Ron said "we're exactly like the marauders" Harry smiled, Neville looked questionably "who and what are the marauders?" He asked, Harry went to explain "the marauders were a group of students in the 1970s, they were my dad, Sirius Black and the one and only Professor Lupin, otherwise known as Prongs, Padfoot and Moony" he smiled, Neville was shocked, Harry continued "there was a fourth member but he betrayed my parents to Voldemort" the other boys shuddered at his name "Sirius is innocent and soon I'll be living with him and Lupin" Harry said happily, Ron also smiled, his best mate deserved happiness, the three boys continued to drink until Rosmerta kicked them out at 1am, the sneaked into the now closed Honeydukes and went back through the tunnel.