Disclaimer: I own nothing; it all belongs to J.K.Rowling. I'm just borrowing the characters to play with for a while. This is for pleasure only, no profit is being made, and no copyright infringement is intended.

Author's Note: Big thanks to the guys that help me get these chapters right: IP, Chuck, Jim, Chris, Rob, JJ, Sean, and everyone else I'm forgetting.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Harry wasn't sure what an anxiety attack felt like, but guessed this would be as good a time as any to find out. He looked pleadingly at Dumbledore. "Uhh…"

Albus shook his head negatively at Harry.

Harry uneasily met the shell-shocked gazes of all the Potters in the room and turned back to the Headmaster, silently begging him with wide unblinking eyes.

"No," Albus insisted firmly with a stern expression.

"Uh… uh… uhh…" Harry stuttered before settling on a course of action.

"Harry, no!" Albus said wagging his finger at the younger man.

Harry was trying to come up with ways of interpreting 'no' into meaning 'yes' or at least 'alright, but just this once.'

Severus Snape finally broke the suffocating tension with a loud gasp. "You're the Potter hellspawn in the prophecy!"

Harry knew exactly how to respond to that accusation. "Obliviate!"

Severus deftly parried the memory charm and assumed a defensive position. "How dare you!" He sent back a disarming charm that Harry blocked with little effort. "Headmaster, are you just going to stand there and let him-"

"Obliviate," Albus regrettably cast, just as Severus turned his direction. The Potions Master flashed a shocked look of betrayal just before his eyes glazed over. He fell into a gentle sleep from a swish of Albus' wand. Albus frowned at Harry, showing how distasteful albeit necessary his actions were.

"Thank you, Albus," Harry said, relaxing momentarily with a supremely grateful smile. "But you missed a whole lot of the others." He finished pointing towards everyone else in the room.

"Harry," Albus scolded.

"WHAT THE BLOODY HELL IS GOING ON?" James finally exploded, holding his wand at the ready.

Lily was visibly shaken. She looked to be teetering on the brink of collapsing into tears. "Harry?"

Harry looked at the closest thing to his mum that he'd ever remembered and could find no words. "Blih…ber… bluh…"

"I need some answers," James demanded, swinging his wand arm across the room. "Right fucking now."

Sarah was frowning. "You can't be grandpa if you're a Potter."

"What?" James snapped in confusion.

"Is this about the basilisk?" Jimmy wondered aloud.

"What?" James snapped again.

"How do you know about the basilisk?" Albus jerked in surprise.

"Okay, not the basilisk," Jimmy meekly said.

"Harry?" Lily repeated unable to move.

James suddenly put two and two together. His voice was as quiet this time as it had been loud before. "Sirius?"

"Stop!" Harry shouted, attracting everyone's attention. "Stop! You've all got the wrong idea. Just give me a second here." He held his hand up and took a moment to collect himself.

One second turned into three, and three became five before Albus realized Harry was calculating. "Harry!"

"Sorry," Harry admitted, biting his bottom lip, still hoping to wake up from this emotional nightmare.

Sarah could tell Harry was hesitant to tell them everything and decided to start small. "Just how closely are we related? Because I feel dirty already and if you're just a drifter pretending to be my dead older brother…" Sarah trailed off as everyone looked at her. "What? It could happen."

"He's trying to hide the fact that he's our brother," Jimmy said looking at his sister and trying to remember if she always had that freckle by her eye.

"I'm not your brother. If anything I'm trying to hide the fact that I'm not… your… okay this is getting confusing." Harry said distractedly.

"Just tell them the truth, Harry. They need to hear this from you," Albus urged. "And you must know I will correct any and all falsities in your story."

James turned to the Headmaster hostilely. "You knew about this?"

Albus took a step back at the vehemence suddenly directed his way. "So did Tonks," Albus pointed and sold out the auror subordinate.

"Hey," Tonks whined.

Albus held up his hands in a gentle and calming manner. "And please let Harry explain before you jump to the wrong conclusions."

They all turned to look at Harry, who turned to look at his godfather. "Sirius?"

Sirius had thought it was hilarious to see how rattled his godson had become, especially since it had been Harry and not him who had messed this one up. But the sheer anger James was exhibiting coupled with how scared and fragile Lily looked made the situation a lot less amusing to him.

Sirius opened his mouth to say something and stopped at the sight of his former best friend. He opened his mouth once more, managed to produce a slightly strangled sound before finally just saying, "Good luck, Harry."

Sirius instantaneously popped into his animagus form and burrowed under Harry's hospital bed, letting out sad little warbled barking the whole way.

James' wand fell from his hand the second he saw Sirius' transformation. His entire body deflated in defeat.

"Coward," Harry grumbled at the canine hiding out of sight.

Lily staggered forward and gripped onto Harry's arm franticly. "Please."

Harry's heart never stood a chance at that look and he gave up. "You're right. I'm sorry. You all deserve an explanation. And I'm going to give you one." He took a deep breath and let it out. "Right now." He nodded resolutely. "This very minute."

"Harry!" Albus cried while fighting the urge to strangle the young man.

"Okay, okay," Harry said grabbing a hold of Lily's hand. "This may take a while, so you'll want to sit down."

Lily wasn't going anywhere just yet, and kept a sweaty hold of Harry's hand.

"Right," Harry said as he uncertainly began. "Okay, I was born Harry Potter, son of James and Lily Potter."

Lily gasped, quietly mouthing, "My baby."

James was confused. "My son is a… blood purist?"

"I'm not a blood purist!" Harry pleaded before remembering, "And I'm not your son."

"I think your headache might be contagious," Jimmy said clenching his eyes in discomfort.

"Yeah," Harry quickly agreed. "Maybe we should take a few minutes to relax our Occlumency shields and look towards my wand-"

"Harry!" Albus shouted pointing his wand at the young man.

"How can they be your parents and you not be my brother?" Sarah logically questioned.

"Hang on," Jimmy said thinking deeply. "I know I've heard this riddle."

"They're not my parents-"

"No, that's not it," Jimmy said dismissing Harry's help with the riddle.

Harry was getting irritated and shouted over everyone's questions. "My parents died Halloween, 1981. They gave their lives to save me."

Lily painfully stared at Harry while the other Potters fell back in their respective seats.

Harry continued when he realized they were paying attention. "My godfather, Sirius Black, was sent to Azkaban because people thought he was our secret keeper."

Pathetic whimpering came from under the bed.

"I am not your son," Harry said, pleading with Lily to understand. "And you are not my parents."

Lily felt struck. She was being rejected and this impostor was just trying to hurt her.

"Don't be a dick, Harry," Tonks said with a frown.

Harry saw the way Lily was reacting and exclaimed, "It's nothing to do with you! It's me. Trust me. I-"

"Trust you? Because you've been so honest with us so far?" James bitterly reminded. He picked up his wand and pulled his distraught wife closer. "Who the hell are you?"

Sirius decided he'd had enough and crawled back out from under Harry's bed. He popped right back into place and grabbed a hold of Harry's collar. "I think I've heard all I need to from you."

Harry just looked at his godfather in confusion as Sirius pulled Harry up and slammed him down on the bed behind him. The cushioning charms ensured it looked worse than it was. "Sirius? What are you-"

Sirius slapped Harry twice across the face and pointed an accusing finger at him. "You know what you-"

Harry didn't give Sirius a chance before he'd tackled him to the ground. Both of them were rolling across the hospital room floor, mere meters from the exit when Albus caught on.

A flick of his wand and the door swung shut with a loud clap. "Don't even think about it," Albus warned.

Sirius and Harry stopped their struggling and looked at the door. In unison they both exclaimed, "Bugger."

Sirius shrugged and said "Sorry, kid. I tried."

"What did you call me?" Harry raged as he picked up and slammed his godfather into the door.

"Oww," Sirius weakly protested.

Harry saw the door hadn't budged and he didn't recognize the locking charm Albus had used. "Damn."

"That is enough!" Albus roared.

"It was worth a shot," Harry mumbled, knowing he'd earned this chastisement. Harry looked at Sirius curiously. "That door wasn't open all along, was it?"

"Naw," Sirius said rubbing his sore shoulder. "I opened it while I was regrouping under the bed."

"Regrouping?" Harry repeated doubtfully.

James' patience was once more at its end. "You think this is funny? You think toying with us is amusing?"

"Well, no," Sirius replied. "That was why we were trying to make a break for it."

"I appreciate the effort," Harry said while carefully maneuvering his godfather to stand in front of him.

"You're welcome," Sirius said, moving over to stand behind Tonks. "But you're still telling them your story. Not me. For the record though? I'd recommend starting with the dimension traveling rather than repeatedly breaking your mum's heart."

Harry's face was covered by his palm as he muttered to himself. "She's not my mum."

"Dimension traveling?" Peter Potter spoke calmly for the first time.

"Yeah, dimension traveling," Harry repeated. "We come from a world where my parents died when I was one. So no brother or sister for me," Harry said nodding towards Jimmy, who'd moved over to sit next to Sarah.

Harry figured he should try and get as many relevant details out as he could before curses started flying. "A little before I turned sixteen, this was about three years after this knucklehead broke out of Azkaban, he got pushed through a dimensional portal of sorts and stuck in limbo. Last April, I started studying the portal and he got spit out into this world after ten years of basically not existing."

Sirius had to be poked three times before he took over and explained, "I woke up in a hospital bed and they asked me who to call. Last I knew, Harry'd walked into a Death Eater trap, and of course, I thought James Potter had been dead for over a decade, so I asked for Remus Lupin."

"Remus knows?" James asked, feeling like the odd man out.

Tonks started chuckling. "He's going to be so upset he missed this."

"You want me to go get him?" Harry offered.

"No!" almost every voice shouted back at Harry.

"Right," Sirius snickered at Harry's pout. "So anyway, that's when I found out it was ten years later and I was in a new world. Remus was helping me, and that meant Tonks got to hear my story. I was excited and frightened to tell it to you," Sirius said nodding towards James. "But that was before I realized you were a prick."

"Padfoot," Harry scolded.

"Maybe I wasn't the most understanding bloke," Sirius admitted with a roll of his eyes. "But come on. You insulted me, you told Jimmy how I was everything wrong, and you lost your bleeding sense of humor."

James just stood there stupidly, while Lily was wrapped around him.

"You gotta admit that Prongs, the teenager who graduated Hogwarts and the only James Potter I ever knew, would have been appalled at what you've turned into."

"Sirius," Harry interrupted. "Stop it."

Sirius shrugged remorselessly but stayed quiet.

"I get why you've never grown up," Harry said, earnestly addressing his godfather. "I really do. And contrary to just about every other adult around, I think it's great. But I also get why this James Potter did grow up. And you need to get it as well."

"I get it… now," Sirius reluctantly admitted. "I might not have at first, but I do."

"Do you?" Harry questioned.

"It's you, you goofy retard," Sirius said as his eyes began to get glossy. "We both lost our best friends. But he lost you too, so he had to change. I still had you, so I had to try and be what I thought he'd want me to be… for you."

A smile began to grow, brighter and wider as Harry stood there listening to his godfather. He was just grinning proudly at him before he realized what was going on. "Oh shit," Harry said wiping his eyes. "My allergies are always flaring up this time of the year."

"Is it the hay fever?" Tonks asked with a grin. "Or maybe the bullshit?"

Sirius was rubbing his sleeve across his face too. "Whatever it is, it brought some bugs with it."

Lily had managed to detach from James and scurried over to Harry, wrapping her arms around him as her tears were flowing freely. "Oh Harry."

"A little help, guys?" Harry pleaded as Lily's body shook with sobs. "She's crying, guys. Like big honking tears. This isn't going to help my allergies." Harry said in between loud sniffles. "Please? Anyone?"

Everyone seemed content to let Harry struggle with the emotionally exhausted Lily Potter.

"There, there," Harry said, inside praying that she would stop crying. He awkwardly patted her back. "There, there."

"Harry?" Albus encouraged. "Perhaps you could continue with your story."

Harry just held on to Lily who had moved around and was now resting her head on his shoulder. He looked at her with suspiciously bright eyes and continued. "Right, okay. Well, about two months after I started working on the portal, I got sucked in it too. So it was around the start of June, that I ended up in this world. I looked up Moony in the muggle phone book and tracked down Sirius. Since then, I've been kinda playing catch up with a new history of the world as I know it and… yeah."

"Thank you, Harry, for such a richly detailed account," Albus blandly retorted. "I suspect the Potters would like to know a little more about your life, your youth, your friends, your accomplishments."

Lily seemed to be getting a hold of herself but still wasn't letting go of Harry.

Peter saw Harry looked uncomfortable. "Anywhere you'd care to start is fine."

"I want to hear about that scar on your head," Sarah suggested.

"If we died, then who saved you?" James inquired. "Who protected you when we couldn't?"

"And if Sirius was in Azkaban," Lily said looking up brightly. "Where'd you grow up?"

Jimmy was scratching his head. "Is anyone else getting a strong feeling of déjà vu?"

"Oh boy," Harry muttered to himself. He was trying to figure out which question would lead to the least unpleasant conversation. "Can we take a break or something?"

"Still have a headache?" Sirius asked.

"What headache?" Harry said before catching himself. "I mean yes."

"You want to release me from my oath?" Tonks asked, knowing a big chunk of Harry's secrets were out in the open now among the Potters. "I can help."

Harry and Sirius nodded at each other. "You're good."

Tonks turned to Sarah, then James, and then Lily in order. "It's from a reflected killing curse. You guys saved him. I think Lily did some sacrificial protection charm thing. And he grew up with the Dursleys." Tonks paused on Jimmy and looked back at Harry. "You did, didn't you?"

Harry had winced at every blunt answer and nodded guiltily to her question.

James frowned and turned inquisitively to Albus.

Albus was having entirely too much fun and explained, "Why do you think I kept checking him for memory charms?"

"Yeah," Harry said moving over towards Jimmy and drawing his wand. "Let me go ahead and undo that."

James jumped forward pointing his wand straight at Harry. "Step away from my son."

Harry just barely glanced over his shoulder, ripped the wand from James' hand, and pinned both of his arms to his sides.

With a gentle tap, Harry broke the memory charm on Jimmy, who was staring cross-eyed at the wand between his eyes.

"Oh," Jimmy said blinking away a split second of confusion. "Okay."

Harry took a step back and his magical arms released their hold of James Potter.

James was incensed at how easily he'd been dismissed as a threat but a part of him felt awfully proud thinking of the kind of wizard his first son would have become. He felt the vice like grip on his arms dissipate and plucked his floating wand out of the air. He strode over to his youngest. "You okay?"

Jimmy nodded. "I saw the name Harry Potter on the-" Jimmy stopped suddenly. "Umm… thing."

"I know you have the map," James assured him. "I told Remus to give it to you."

"You did?" Jimmy asked in surprise. "Why didn't you just give it to me?"

"I didn't want to set a bad example," James sheepishly admitted. "And I don't always like remembering those days."

Jimmy knew his older brother and dad's best friend were difficult topics for his dad. "Harry told me about his world and then I told him to memory charm me." He was scratching his head. "Though that night is still a bit fuzzy."

"That's the alcohol," Harry explained. "Not a charm."

Sarah stuck her arm into the air, waiting to be called on.

"Sarah?" James asked.

"Can we back it up a second? Because I could have sworn Tonks said reflected killing curse."

"That's my girl!" came the muffled exclamation from Madam Pomfrey's office.

Everyone stopped and turned to the cracked open door at the end of the wing. They all remained silent and looked at the Headmaster. Albus tiredly nodded and walked towards the office.

"I said that too loud, didn't I?" the question came clearly from the office.

"Poppy," Albus greeted as he found her holding a cup up to her ear.

"Headmaster," Poppy said, still holding the cup.

"You understand what I have to do?"

Madam Pomfrey pulled the cup down and stated. "I have another option. I'll swear an oath. I just want to stay here and listen."

Albus looked at the matron silently.

"Professional curiosity," she explained.

Albus tilted his head, indicating she should try again.

Madam Pomfrey gave up the act and quietly confided, "This is better than my soaps on the Wizamundo Wireless. Please don't take this from me."

Albus looked at Harry and saw no significant objection. "Let's figure out the wording for your oath." Albus stepped in the office and pulled the door closed behind him.

James watched Harry as he asked, "Did you survive a killing curse?"

"It was my mum's shield mostly, but yeah."

"Marked as an equal," Sirius ominously said eliciting several gasps around the room.

"Oh, thank you, Sirius," Harry sarcastically chided. "I always love when the conversation inevitably gets to my preordained trip down murdering lane."

"You… beat him?" James asked, suddenly remembering the very public duel. "Of course you did."

Sarah was again hung up on the words. "Murdering is just a figure of speech, right?"

"He's being a drama queen," Sirius replied with a nod.

Harry was about to poke Sirius in the eye when he got a better idea. "Since you seem so eager to answer questions, it's your turn, Padfoot." Harry picked his godfather up with invisible arms and plopped him right in the middle of the room.

Sirius gulped at being thrust into the limelight but stood there waiting patiently.

"How did he beat Voldemort?" James asked.

Sirius shifted his weight to the other foot. "That's a complicated-"

"No," Harry interrupted with a whine. "Ask him questions about him. This guy comes from a whole different world. Aren't you curious?"

Everyone remained silent until James shrugged and answered. "I knew a Sirius Black pretty well. I have only unfulfilled dreams for Harry Potter."

Harry's jaw snapped shut with an audible click.

"Thing is," Sirius said, pondering a diplomatic answer. "Harry's not real big on talking about this kind of stuff. If it was anything that could help here, I know he'd be doing something about it. I haven't even heard all the details."

"But," James was desperate. "If you did it once, you can do it again."

"No," Harry said glancing at Lily Potter. "I can't."

"You broke his neck," James pleaded. "He was paralyzed and if he hadn't had a portkey, he was done."

"It's not that simple," Harry said. "And don't underestimate Voldemort. That was a lot of luck because we had a lot of surprise on our side."

Peter cleared his throat and sounded almost cold for the first time. "I think you'll find we all know how seriously to take Voldemort."

Harry spoke apologetically. "I'm sorry, but I'm not your savior. I did what it took to beat my Dark Lord. And the closest thing to solace I have is the knowledge that I can't ever do that again. It's not an option."

"But the prophecy…" James begged.

"Is about someone else," Harry finished for him.

Peter was able to see the larger picture more clearly than the other Potters. "It would have been nice if Voldemort was as certain as you are."

Harry flinched and stayed quiet.

"What do you mean?" James asked his uncle.

Peter was watching Harry as he explained. "Have you not wondered just why Voldemort chose to attack Potters this morning? It wasn't because of any widely known Potters."

They all turned to Harry looking for an explanation.

Peter felt a bit guilty but continued. "He obviously made the connection and targeted us for that reason. I doubt it's coincidence that tomorrow the Blacks are auctioning his ancestor's locket either."

"Shit," Harry said turning to Sirius. "We've got to prepare for the auction."

"Oh no, you don't," Lily said moving forward to grab onto Harry's arm. "We won't keep you all night, but we're not done talking yet."

Harry looked to Sirius for help. Sirius just grinned and scolded, "Be nice to your mother."

"She's not my m- You're not my mother," Harry repeated.

"Maybe not," Lily strained to agree. "But you and I need to have a private conversation before you leave."

"I need to have one with both of you as well," James said in determination to Harry and Sirius.

"Oh joy," Sirius said with a forced smile.

Albus had quietly emerged from the matron's office and made his presence known. "You are still going through with the auction? After today's events, you know it's going to be even worse tomorrow."

"Relax, Albus," Harry assured. "We are prepared for almost any eventuality. Even if the Dark Lord makes the mistake of dropping by."

"Will you at least then permit me to judge your preparations myself and assist you?" Albus inquired.

"See there's this thing called plausible deniability."

"Harry," Albus said, as was becoming habit.

Harry thought it over and suggested, "You may just want to stay away altogether."

"I'm going to be there," Albus retorted with certainty. "Whether it's to help or keep an eye on you."

Sirius grinned. "How much did you pay for your invitation?"

Albus smiled thinly.

"The goblins know there's no chance we're going to accept any of the supposed offers," Harry explained. "Their cut is all of the bribe money they can get for invitations."

"You might as well tell them," Peter advised the Headmaster. "I probably overpaid at 250 galleons for mine."

"Lord Potter?" Harry looked at the Peter curiously.

"I told you to call me PJ," Peter warmly reminded. "And I figured anything you two were neck deep in would be worth being ringside for."

"PJ," a contrite Harry said. "I thought you'd be angrier over the whole… endangering-all-Potters thing."

"I am upset," Peter stoically assured. "But as it turns out you're a Potter by birth. And you both reacted immediately and effectively once you realized your mistake."

"So we've got 250," Sirius said looking at the Headmaster. "Do I hear higher? Lower?"

Peter glanced at Albus and answered. "He's not embarrassed enough. He didn't pay anything."

Albus nodded at Lord Potter's powers of deduction. "I convinced Bloodthrust that I was working with you. And I had the magic of a brotherhood charm to prove it."

"Cheater," Sirius grumbled.

Harry noted the air had a 'calm after the storm' feel to it. After a few seconds of silence he asked, "So what now?"

"Now, let's talk," Lily said jumping up and beginning to pull Harry with her.

"Harry," Albus said attracting the young man's attention. He gave him a significant look and nodded.

Harry knew what Albus was intimating, but couldn't help himself. "You think I should?"

Albus nodded. "I think you need this."

"Alright," Harry agreed. "I'll memory charm this one while you take care of the rest."

"Harry!"

"Kidding," Harry defended. "Geez, take it easy, Albus. You're not that young anymore."

Harry let Lily pull him down to her private quarters where she quickly established privacy charms.

"Why Mrs. Potter, are you trying to seduce-" Harry stopped and agreed with the look on her face. "Yeah, creepy."

"The shield," Lily said turning to face Harry. "The shield that protected you. That's why I'm drawn to you?"

"Kind of," Harry reluctantly answered. "But not really."

"Because it sounds like an idea I had." Lily was watching Harry closely. "That involved sacrificing my magic and tricking the attacker into sealing a new blood bond tying my soul into an eternal protection from that attacker specifically."

Harry nodded woefully. "My mum didn't exactly leave me her spell notes, but that sounds about right."

"I knew it would be strong, but…" Lily shook her head in astonishment. "Reflecting a killing curse?"

Harry smiled weakly. "When he possessed a wizard my mere touch burned them. It was stronger than any protection I've ever heard of."

Lily sat up in understanding. "So when you came into this world, the bond got transferred?"

"Not exactly," Harry replied.

Lily thought she had figured out the affect Harry had on her. "Why not? How do you know?"

"I know because the bond is gone. And it has been for a while."

Lily frowned.

"And actually the protection it offered has been gone even longer."

"I don't understand."

Harry knew he couldn't keep putting this off. "When I was fourteen, he used my blood in a rebirthing ritual that gave him a body again. With my blood running through his veins, it negated the protection."

Lily was running through her theory. "It shouldn't have negated the protection. What probably happened was that it protected him from the adverse effects of the protection."

Harry nodded slowly, adding this piece of information to his understanding. "That actually makes a lot of sense and explains a few things."

"Like what?" Lily was curious.

"Like why Albus was so insistent that I keep the blood wards active at Privet Drive after Voldemort's rebirth. And like my scar," Harry said tapping his forehead. "We all assumed it was the direct result of the killing curse. But all the curse did was to forge a link between my mind and Voldemort's."

"Oh no," Lily realized. "The protection fought the link, didn't it?"

Harry winced in agreement. "Any time Voldemort was close or using the link, my scar burned. A few times it'd split open and bleed. Until now, I never even considered that it was the protection that was hurting me, fighting Voldemort."

"I'm sorry," Lily said earnestly.

"You didn't do anything," Harry assured her. "And it did save my life in the face of impossible odds."

Lily nodded, frowning at the pain she knew Harry must have endured.

"On the plus side it made it real hard for him to sneak up on me," Harry said trying to lighten the mood.

Lily bit her lip. She softly suggested, "I could do it again."

"What? No," Harry snapped angrily that this woman would even consider such a thing.

"This Voldemort would never see it coming. He'd-"

"You don't get it," Harry yelled, cutting her off. "You're not my mother. It wouldn't work."

Lily frowned. "Maybe Jimmy could-"

"Stop, just shut up," Harry shouted. "If you knew what it would do to Jimmy, you'd never even consider it. You're not that cruel. Just… forget it."

Lily quickly ascertained there was more going on than she knew. She could tell Harry wasn't going to be terribly forthcoming on the details without some careful prompting. She gave him a moment to collect himself before switching gears. "Since you didn't know it was the protection hurting you, then why did you break the bond?"

Harry closed his eyes and avoided meeting Lily's gaze.

Lily gasped. "He broke it, didn't he? Just to hurt you."

"No." Harry looked up, as his eyes glistened. "Although now that you mention it, he probably knew full well what the protection was doing to me. He practically got off on the way his mere presence debilitated me."

"So you broke the bond?" Lily questioned warily.

Harry sniffled a little as he took a deep breath and stared at his feet. "I didn't break the bond." His voice was just over a whisper. "I… I used it."

Lily blinked in surprise. "You used it? What could you have used it… oh." Lily looked at Harry frightfully. "Oh."

Harry leaned back, his eyes shining as he stared up at the ceiling, unable to even look at Lily. "I destroyed my mother's soul so that I could destroy Voldemort's." Harry let out a shuddering breath. "I would've given my own in a second. I would've given almost anyone else's. But it doesn't work that way. He used my blood. Blood my mother was bonded to."

Lily honestly wasn't sure how she felt about Harry's actions but she could tell when he needed a hug more than she needed to make up her mind. She quickly moved across the room and held him tightly. "You know she never would have blamed you, Harry."

"Yeah, well, I made sure she never could."

Lily finally realized just why Harry was so vehement in his insistence that she wasn't his mother. His mother sacrificed herself to save him and he sacrificed her to save everyone else. Pretending that Lily was his mother dishonored her memory and also made Harry vulnerable again. "I think it's safe to say I know how she would feel better than anyone else. And she would have been so proud of you, Harry."

She hugged him tighter, urging him to believe her. "She would have been proud of your strength. So proud," Lily said unable to hold back her own tears.

Harry didn't even care that his allergies were making water stream from his eyes. "I like to think so," Harry agreed, feeling like the load on his shoulders was getting just a little lighter.

"She would be," Lily said again. "She would be."

"Okay, I get it," Harry said, hugging Lily back. "And I think I've figured out which side of the family my overdramatic streak comes from."

Lily snorted in between her sniffles. "I'm not your mother, Harry. We both know that. But I just want you to know, that if you want to call me Mum, no one would blame you, least of all her."

Harry patted Lily gently on the back. "Let's not go crazy just yet."

Lily groaned and squeezed Harry one last time as she pulled away. "Why do you have to be like that? We were having a moment there. We were connecting. Kind of like long lost mother-son but not really. And you ruined it."

Harry stepped back and pointed a finger. "You were trying to guilt me into it!"

Lily had the decency to blush.

"Unbelievable," Harry said with a shake of his head. "I'm opening up to you. I'm vulnerable."

Lily arched an eyebrow as she hooked an arm around Harry's elbow and proceeded to escort him back to the hospital wing. "And just how far do you think your apple's fallen from this tree?"

Harry's mouth twitched in agreement. "True enough. I sometimes make Sirius feel guilty for not getting me Christmas presents when he was in Azkaban."

"Wow," Lily said looking at Harry appraisingly. "That's low."

"Ahem," Harry mockingly cleared his throat.

"That was entirely different," Lily said attempting to end the discussion. "So you grew up with Petunia?"

Harry nodded.

"Was that as bad as I'm afraid it was?"

"It wasn't awful." Harry shrugged. "Roof over my head, secret blood protection I didn't know about, unfair split of household chores, enough second hand clothes and food to get by. The way I see it, it would've been about the same at an orphanage, only without the secret blood protection."

Lily frowned and offered, "If you want we could go curse my sister sometime."

Harry bit back a snort. "I think I'd like that… Mum."

Lily jerked her head to look at Harry in surprise.

Harry broke into a grin. "I'm just fucking with you, Lily."

"Cruel, callous bastard," Lily calmly said. "Just remember you got that from my side of the family too."

Harry kept an eye on the devious woman walking next to him. "You know you can't tell anyone any of this, right?"

Lily kept pace with Harry and just stayed quiet.

"I'll snap," Harry warned. "I'm not kidding. I'll go dark. I'll kill everybody. I'm damn good at it."

Lily just patted Harry gently on the arm.

"Please? Lily?" Harry begged. "Mum?"

They arrived back at the hospital wing and stopped at the door. Lily leaned forward onto the tips of her toes and kissed Harry gently on his cheek. "Just because I'm not your mother, Harry, doesn't mean you can stop me from acting like it."

Harry smiled back at Lily, figuring if nothing else, he could spend time with her under the guide of apprenticing in emotional manipulation.

They opened the door and walked in, finding the hospital wing lively with conversation.

"Hey Harry," Sirius beckoned. "Who else knows about us? I know there's Gin."

"Gin Weasley?" Lily asked curiously. "She knows about you?"

Harry nodded. "She's under oath not to say anything."

Lily chuckled. "She told me she thought you were a woman in disguise."

"She what?" Harry said in a higher voice than planned.

A ghost popped into existence right next to Harry. "I told you that bitch was crazy."

"Oh boy," Harry grumbled.

Jimmy couldn't help himself. "Who is the hottie?"

"Oh dear god," Harry complained to no one in particular.

"Hello," the ghostly Ginny said with a flirtatious wave. "You must be James, junior."

Harry saw the ghost and his almost little brother were both smiling shyly. He resisted the urge to bang his head against the wall. "Everyone who's been gaping at me stupidly throughout the day and/or is still harboring doubts, this is the Ginny Weasley of our old world. She died. And she haunts me. Ginny, this is everyone."

Lily saw the tired look of resignation on Harry's face and started to laugh at the absurdity of it all. "I'm sorry," Lily said in between her giggling. "It's nice to meet you, Ginny." She just laughed louder, intermittently pointing at Harry.

"You know Ginny is Harry's soul mate," Sirius helpfully supplied, much to the amusement of Lily. "And how does Lily get Harry so easily? It usually takes people time before they realize Harry exists to entertain us."

"She's not my soul mate," Harry insisted in a manner eerily similar to his claims that Lily wasn't his mother. He turned to his traitorous godfather. "And you're about a half step away from a midget detention, buddy."

Ginny floated over next to the highly amused Lily. "Harry's still not sure how to accept my love, Mum. You don't mind if I call you Mum, do you?"

"Not at all," Lily said, her wide grin shining. "I think you and I will get along famously."

"Ginny, go," Harry pleaded as he was metaphysically pushing her away.

Ginny could tell she was about to disappear and shook her finger at Harry. "I told you that bitch was crazy," she reiterated just before disappearing with a pop.

"Wow," Jimmy said with a grin. "I mean… wow."

Harry looked over at Sirius. "We really need to get to work on the rest of the preparations."

James shook his head and stepped forward. "Not yet. We need to talk." James Potter, family man, disappeared and was replaced with James Potter, Assistant Director of the DMLE. He strode out the door, confidently expecting the Lord Blacks to follow him.

Sirius and Harry exchanged a few uneasy looks as they were led into an empty classroom.

James sealed the door shut behind them and sent out several auror-level security spells.

Harry looked over at Sirius, and they reached an unspoken agreement to wait on James.

James was standing uncomfortably, occasionally pacing and stopping. He looked up at them and began, "I'm in something of a quandary."

"Can we help?" Harry asked.

"Yes," James asserted. "You can. Let me explain my quandary. Hypothetically, let's say I'm investigating some robberies."

Harry and Sirius stood there, not responding in the slightest.

"And hypothetically, I made a huge break in the case. But the problem is I only caught the lead, because I observed a man's surprisingly competent actions as he was saving my life and rescuing me from torture."

"That's quite a quandary," Harry said while Sirius was fidgeting and swatting.

"Oww," Sirius as he buckled away from a sharp poke in the side. "Stop it, Harry."

"It is," James agreed. "And it's even more complicated by the relationship between myself and my… leads."

Harry let up on his invisible assault of Sirius and replied. "So how can we help you with your quandary?"

"Hypothetically," James carefully pondered, "my job would be easier if there weren't any new cases to investigate. No further clues to follow up on."

Harry was swatting Sirius' hands, as he tried to poke Harry back. "You know, it's entirely possible the target of your hypothetical investigation has already retired."

"Really?" James said breaking from his cautious and careful wording.

Harry and Sirius nodded.

"No more new cases at all?" James slowly inquired. "Not even a little one?"

Harry and Sirius exchanged smiles and looked at James.

"Hypothetically," Sirius jumped in. "Is there any particular place you regret not investigating?"

James knew getting captured and tortured earlier left him feeling more vindictive than usual but didn't let that stop him. "Thing is," James explained. "These cases, they've been targeting Death Eaters. And I arrested this guy named Travers."

"Peter or Michael?" Harry questioned. He saw James looked surprised. "Both are."

"I meant Peter," James answered. "Peter's twice managed to buy his freedom with an Imperius defense, a couple names, and carefully placed donations. If ever there were a Death Eater who should be separated from his money, it'd be Peter. I didn't know about Michael."

"And this will help you with your quandary?" Sirius clarified.

"No," James said, not wanting them to think he was blackmailing them. "My quandary's been resolved. This would just make me happy."

"Retirements can be flexible," Harry replied before looking at the older man curiously. "What gave it away?"

James smiled and utilized the fine art of the back-handed compliment. "The least likely trait you'd expect from Sirius Black: he was smarter than he acted in public."

Harry snickered at Sirius' conflicted feelings.

James added, "He also managed to break into Malfoy Manor with a bit too much ease. He knew to avoid magic on Lucius, he wore specially charmed boots, a chameleon cloak, and carried illusory pins in his pocket."

Harry shook his head sadly at his godfather. "I knew you'd blow this for us."

"Says you," Sirius retorted hotly. "Mr. 'look at me, I'm Harry Potter.' Oops."

"At least my way, we were able to control the situation," Harry said, clearly not remembering the last hour very well. "Your way we wouldn't have ever even known you'd blown it for us. And who knows what would've happened then. I probably saved our asses."

Sirius listened to Harry's rationalization with a smile. "A thousand galleons says you don't believe that."

Harry pouted quietly.

James took down his privacy charms and led them back towards the hospital wing.

"I was groggy," Harry argued the earlier point. "You should have warned me."

"Didn't you see? I was flashing you the 'hey, Harry, don't forget we're in an alternate universe' sign."

James watched the two banter and bicker, and felt pangs of jealousy. He wished he'd had this rapport with Harry, but felt grateful that Harry at least had Sirius.

They arrived back to find Tonks and Jimmy regaling the others with stories of Harry's adventures at Hogwarts.

"I just remembered," James said turning to Sirius. "I've got a wand you could use."

Sirius stiffened and looked at Harry.

"It was the other Sirius Black's. Driftwood, twelve inches, I think?"

"Sounds, sounds about right," Sirius stumbled through the words.

Harry carefully stated, "In the interests of full disclosure, I should mention we kind of… already… got that wand."

"You what?" the auror side of James asked dangerously.

"We're sorry," Sirius yelped. "But it's my wand. And it was just sitting there in your safe. And you were about to give it to me anyway."

James' stern face softened to a smirk. "I know." He turned and asked the others, "Where'd Albus go?"

Sirius just stared at James' back perplexed.

Harry elbowed his godfather. "Padfoot? You just got skunked by bizarro Prongs."

"I am going to break that little man," Sirius declared as Albus came up behind him.

"You know the muggles have a pill for that now," Albus commented as he brushed past. He lifted his pensieve into the air. "Found it."

"What's going on?" Harry asked as they joined the larger group.

"Seeing as you need to work on your preparations for the auction, I thought perhaps you could leave behind a number of memories, so that we all may get to know you better."

Harry glanced at Sirius worriedly before looking at all the others in the room. "That's a surprisingly good idea. How'd one of you come up with that?"

Lily, James, and Albus all began to defend themselves, but a voice from the matron's office could be heard clearly. "It was my idea."

"Got it," Harry said in understanding. He turned to Sirius. "So what highlights should we give them?"

"Stuff like your birth," Sirius answered, "could easily be the exact same here, in which case it's just a painful reminder. I'm thinking we should give them both our perspectives of that night at the end of your third year."

"You think that's a good idea?" Harry wondered. "I mean you bit Ron's leg hard enough to break it. And Moony bitch-slapped you right after he transformed into Captain Wolf-and-whine."

"It's a great night," Sirius argued thinking of its importance to him.

"And you were out of it for most of those dementors," Harry added. "There were a fuckload there. It was bad."

"Even still," Sirius insisted. "Are you going to show when they captured you?"

"Which one?" Harry said. "If you mean the second time, hell no. The first though? Where I was a main ingredient in the Voldemort rebirth soup? That one's not too bad. Cedric died and I got crucioed a few times, but it was alright."

James saw the other Potters were as horrified as he was. "What the-"

"Fuck," Sarah finished for her father.

Sirius smiled brightly as they all got a glimpse of Harry's crap-ass life. "Are you going to show them the basilisk?"

Harry frowned at the looks on the Potters' faces. "That one seems to make people really nervous. I thought instead I'd show the end of first year, when I killed my first defense professor. That one's always a crowd-pleaser."

Peter wanted them to stop adding to his anxiety. "Why don't you just surprise us?"

"Surprise you," Sirius nodded eagerly. "I think we can do that."

Harry and Sirius took the pensieve over to a corner and proceeded to fill it with several memories, many of them triggered to play in a set order. It took them twenty minutes, but they had deposited several hours' worth of memories to peruse.

"You asked for a surprise, so the first few memories are queued up in order," Harry explained handing Peter the pensieve. "After that it's pick and choose."

Right away, Jimmy, Sarah, Tonks, Peter, James, and Lily lined up around each other and plunged into the memories.

Albus held back as he watched Harry and Sirius. "You're going to be gone before they even come out, aren't you?"

Harry nodded, slightly elated to have dodged the goodbye bullet. "We gotta do this thing."

"Oh god. Oh god. Oh God." Tonks frightened shouts startled Harry.

He saw she was still in the pensieve. "Can people talk from inside a memory?"

"In cases of extreme emotion, yes, but it is rare," Albus explained with a nod. He paused in reflection. "Just what memory did you show them?"

Sirius smiled innocently. "Well, it starts with Tonks pregnant…"

"Really?" Albus said intrigued. "Who's the lucky man?"

Harry shook his finger negatively. "We don't want to ruin the surprise."

Five loud shouts of outrage and shock came from the group at the pensieve.

Albus stumbled momentarily and began to look at the pensieve and memories contained warily. "I'm not going to like this, am I?"

"There may be a few special highlight reels," Harry meekly admitted.

"We looped your 'I trust Severus Snape with my life' with Snape's 'Avada Kedavra' like twenty, thirty times in a row," Sirius explained. "And there's even a 'Sirius, we both know it's more important that he be alive than happy.' That one really got my goat."

"Oh dear," Albus mumbled, wondering how he'd not seen this coming.

"Come on," Harry said motioning with his head. "We've got a lot of work to do tonight. Albus, perhaps we'll see you tomorrow."

"I will be there," Albus assured.

Harry and Sirius walked out of Hogwarts and down to the edge of the wards.

"You sure you're up for this?" Sirius asked. "We can postpone. It's been a long day."

Harry shook his head. "Naw, I'm ready. I'm juiced. These wards are going to take some work, but I've built up a lot of nervous energy just waiting for an outlet."

Sirius nodded in agreement.

"And I want to find out who this fucker is."

Harry patiently sat cross-legged on the floor of the small converted chapel within a clear cylindrical tube. The top was smoothly curved and it stretched all the way into the floor below, giving the tube an appearance that made Sirius giggle. He claimed it was the irony of the similarity to the After Dark Mark, but Harry wasn't convinced.

Floating behind Harry, at about eye level from his seated position, was a large shiny mirror laying parallel to the ground. A transparent film was being pulled and stretched from the surface of the mirror encompassing a crystalline display case. In the display case behind Harry's head were the three lots they were required by goblin law to present.

Enlisting the assistance and authority of the goblins to manage this auction meant a few extra risks but it was well worth the effort of earning the goblin stamp of approval, so all parties involved would know there was legitimate bait in the trap.

There were four rows of seats, four seats on each side of the aisle splitting the room in half, and every one of the seats was filled. Thirty-two middle-aged and older uninvited wizards and witches were all exchanging wary looks and inspecting the seemingly innocent meeting room.

"Welcome, welcome," Sirius cheered emerging from a side door. "I see we have quite the packed house here."

Bloodthrust was the only goblin in the room. The pleasantly vicious creature nodded to Harry and Sirius and stood off to the side near the door Sirius had used. He was eagerly anticipating the results of this auction.

"It looks like everyone coming is already here, so let's seal the doors and see if we can't avoid interruptions." Sirius looked over the podium and touched his wand on a button that in actuality did nothing other than give the appearance of a control console. Heavy duty solid metal doors appeared with the sound of creaking and stressing. Suddenly, all the sets of doors slammed shut, blocking all the windows, both side doors and the door in the back blanketing the room in darkness.

The interior lights gradually brightened, while everyone in the seats was getting a little restless.

"Oh don't fret," Sirius chided the nervous people. "Make sure you hang on to your invitations. You'll need them if we alter the customized Fidelius on the fly. Treat them like your safety blanket as it appears we may have a few uninvited guests."

"First things first," Sirius continued. "We certainly want to ensure the safety of all of our properly invited guests, and there were many protestations that it would be rude and way too easy on us to make you surrender your wands. So we found a middle ground. Harry?"

Harry turned his hands flat onto the stone floor and pushed down hard, feeding extra power into the wards.

With only a whoosh sound for warning, every guest's seat was surrounded with a clear cylindrical tube very similar to Harry's. Shouts of outrage and worry began to spread and a few attempts to portkey away failed.

Some of the people were testing the strength and knocking on the inside walls and top of their tubes, surprised to find it made no sound, but they could hear just fine.

"We've got crashers," Harry warned Sirius.

"Excellent," Sirius explained to his literally captive audience. "It appears some people are intent on getting in the way of this auction. Let's hear their grievances and see if we can't resolve this peacefully." Another faked motion of touching his wand to the podium and the front door slid open, revealing two dozen masked Death Eaters. "Is there a problem, gentlemen?"

The Death Eaters stormed into the room shouting war cries and thinking they'd overcome the wards. Many had stopped to look around the room curiously. Other than one goblin and Sirius, all the others were sitting down looking like a giant upside down rack of test tubes.

The man in the lead hesitated for only a moment before shouting "Die!" and launching a devastating blasting curse straight at Harry in his tube.

Harry didn't even blink as the bluish-purple spell zipped towards him. The magic slowed to a crawl as it neared the reflective glass and could only slide across the curved surface of the giant tube. The spell completed its circuit of the tube, picking up speed at the end, and rocketed off right back at the surprised caster.

The force of the spell had been magnified and the Death Eater's body was like a leaf in front of a cannon. The man was blown clear out of the building leaving only a pair of smoking boots behind. The thick metal doors slammed closed, crushing many thoughts of escape.

"This is so freaking cool," Harry commented from inside his tube. "It's like I could feel the magic in here. It tickles."

The more knowledgeable uninvited guests swore upon realization of the protective measures the Lord Blacks had taken.

The other Death Eaters had heard more than a few rumors about what happened yesterday, and it was no secret that a lot of their mates did not return from their missions. They had a fair idea of their Lord's expectations for success.

They watched the mission commander get roasted by a calmly seated Lord Black who was clearly more enamored to feel a tickling than he was bothered by the violent death. They spotted their inside men all looked nervous as hell and were making no motions to assist them.

The next Death Eater in line glanced over his shoulder before asking uncertainly, "Die?"

Harry's tube flickered and flashed with magic as he narrowed his eyes at the masked men. He sensed their hesitancy and calmly asserted, "I will break you."

"Oops!" the lead Death Eater said tossing his wand to the ground. "You got me."

"Coward!" a voice in the back of the group shouted.

Several more wands clattered to the ground and voices emerged. "Oops."

"Aww shucks."

"Clumsy me."

"Curses, foiled again!"

They all turned to the area from which the 'coward' exclamation had come. The lone Death Eater still holding his wand tossed it backwards over his shoulder. "Damn peer pressure."

"Smart move," Sirius commented as he walked over to a glistening anchor stone on the ground. His swished his wand over an edge of the stone and it rotated slightly. A purple beam of magic bled out the stone and connected with another glistening shaped rock. The line of magic streamed between the stones as they rose from the floor and stopped at the ceiling. Left in purple magic's wake was a solid black nothingness. "Why don't you guys walk on through there so that we can get on with our auction?"

The freshly wandless Death Eaters all looked at the mysterious darkness and then back towards the Lord Blacks. "We'll just stand, if that's okay."

Harry stared down the lead man until he swallowed the lump in his throat. He turned towards the other Death Eaters and nodded, "Excuse me, gentlemen." He calmly walked straight into the black wall and disappeared.

"You can go," Sirius nodded towards the wall, while keeping his wand ready. "Or we can make you."

"Works for me," was the response as the lemmings began to follow each other into the black wall. A couple of them hesitated, caught Harry's eye, and then changed their minds, jumping to the front of the line leading towards the unknown.

"I'm off."

"Goodbye."

"Good luck, Uncle Andre."

The last was directed to Andre Romanov, who was suddenly fidgeting inside his giant test tube, unconsciously rubbing the tattoo he was really beginning to regret.

"What have you done to them?" Albus inquired from within his own transparent penis-shaped prison.

"Nothing yet," Harry explained. He still hadn't stood up or made any ambulatory movement. "Why don't we give the Ministry workers here on undercover missions something to do?"

Sirius watched the last of the Death Eaters disappear, and saw on the quickie map he'd charmed that all twenty-three of them were accounted for and not moving. "That sounds excellent. Now I can see some of you have recognized our little protections around here and for those of you that haven't feel free to interpret your neighbor's look of fear and uncertainty as I explain this. We are on a Black property and here, for the next few hours, we've enacted some living wards. Only those genuinely invited are exempt from the negative effects of the wards, and most of those effects are currently being restrained by our unconventional use of a sentient anchor."

"I see the looks of doubt from those of you with only a passing familiarity with the law, but living wards are only illegal if they're anchored to a property. Anchoring them to a person is a perfectly acceptable alternative, since then the wards do not develop their own personality or become uncontrollably dangerous. Now that we're clear on that point, let's just see who the Ministry chose to invite without our consent."

Again Harry placed his palms flat on the ground and pushed.

Slowly, most of the seats, clear arched tube, stone floor, and all, lowered about a meter into the ground. Ten of the tubes remained firmly in place. The guests now seated with just their heads above the floor, all looked up at the people separated from them.

Without warning one of the tubes still even with the ground, shattered and the wizard within sent three quick spells towards the magical display case.

Harry and Sirius both watched impassively as the case and all its contents disappeared with a pop.

"I do believe we have an Unspeakable in the house," Sirius announced calmly as he saw the portkey on the case had worked exactly as planned. He mimicked pushing a button, and a solid wave of light magic erupted from the east wall. It slowly passed through everyone in the tubes without incident, but forcibly pushed the loose Unspeakable into the inky black wall on the other side.

Sirius smiled at how effective the living wards were. "That was rude of him."

"You attacked him!" another of the heavily cloaked individuals exclaimed.

"He was uninvited and in an ancient Lord's home. I think it's safe to say the law is on our side in this one. Not to mention we now have a legitimate threat to our property from which we must protect." Sirius explained as he walked to the floating mirror and cast a spell at it. The surface of the mirror rippled like liquid and the crystalline display case floated up and out of the mirror. The same slight veil of magic covered it as before. "Now how many of the rest of you are aurors on the clock?"

One hand went up, subtly glancing towards all the others.

Sirius shook his head. "The least you could have remembered is that you always work in pairs. Now, I should point out, aurors on the clock get to walk out the door and not pushed into the wall."

Six hands went up among the remaining nine tubes at normal height. Twenty-two tubes were still submerged, guests stuck to their seats, with barely their head above ground.

"Excellent," Sirius cheered. "Because everyone going through that wall is getting splashed with a draught of living death and encased in solid rock."

The six tubes all shattered at once and the aurors immediately took the opportunity to rise from their seats.

"You all still have your so-called invitations?" Sirius reminded, once he was sure they weren't going to attack him. "Read them."

The aurors discovered another Fidelius secret that said simply, The shed door is around back.

As soon as they were done reading, the invitations burnt themselves until even the ash was gone.

"Help yourself to anyone out there," Sirius said as the front doors spun sideways one turn and the metal doors slid up and down rather than side to side. "The Death Eaters, the highly irritated Unspeakable, and any of the rest of these dangerous trespassers we send through the wall. Bit of advice? If I were you, I'd check their arms for tattoos before administering the antidote."

There was a tinkling sound of glass-breaking and suddenly a wave of force swept through the room. Harry and Sirius were unaffected, but everyone else in the room felt like they were being squeezed and compressed, tighter and tighter.

"Oh, you are good," Harry said looking towards the would-be-thief fading into view frozen in place. The room darkened and one of the three remaining tubes at normal height lost an illusory field and revealed a jagged hole and empty tube.

Sirius walked over to the completely immobile wizard whose face was reddening and peered in the display case. "He got through the first wave but missed the muted collapsing." Sirius walked back over and tapped his wand to the podium.

"I'm impressed," Harry said nodding with respect to the man he expected was another Unspeakable. A ripple of white magic crossed the room, pushing the frozen wizard into the black wall.

As the white curtain of magic passed through the people, they felt the pressure of their tubes lessen and their bodies relax.

Harry stared at the other two Ministry workers, measuring their worth. The two tubes shattered allowing them to stand from their seats.

"You can go out that door," Harry nodded towards the aurors who were leaving. "Or that one," he said with a motion towards the black wall.

The man and the woman hurried out the front door and it sealed shut behind them.

Sirius began again. "Now I know some of you may wonder why you work for the Ministry but are still here. The answer to that I'm afraid lies in the tattoo on your arm." He made a show of tapping his wand three times on the podium.

Thirteen more tubes began to grow up from the ground leaving nine people neck deep staring at the Death Eaters carted up to their fate. Three of the men began banging and punching the walls of their tubes. Spells reflected right back on them. One older woman was begging for sympathy.

"Yeah, we don't care," Sirius said, as another white wave of magic swept from the east wall. "Tell it to the aurors."

This time, tubes and all were pushed across the room, breaking against the black wall and sending all the people in them away.

"And then there were nine," Sirius pushed a button and then all the rest of the people still seated partly underground were raised back up to the proper height.

Two tubes shattered as Harry greeted, "Albus, PJ. I don't recall your names on the guest list but I believe you may be able to help us out here."

The two older men moved over to stand next to Harry.

A portly gentlemen looked at the other six people sitting by him before asking, "Out of curiosity, just who was on the guest list?"

"Just one name," Harry happily informed them nodding his head towards the goblin. "Bloodthrust."

The goblin standing off to the side smiled grotesquely looking much like his picture.

"Now I want to know," Harry asked, still seated on the floor facing towards them, "just who would turn themselves into uninvited trespassers of an Ancient and Noble Lord's home."

There was some noticeable shifting from the people realizing what they'd managed to walk into.

"Albus? PJ?" Harry asked. "Do either of you recognize these people?"

"David Monroe," Albus said nodding to one of the two gentlemen in the back left row.

David inclined his head. "It's been a while, Albus."

"Master Monroe," Albus explained, "is a world renowned mental healer and he's been in charge of Frank Longbottom's care. I do not know why he'd be interested in this auction."

"That's Lord Charles Marbury," Peter Potter said pointing to a graying man with a shiny nose. "He's an alcoholic."

Harry looked at Peter curiously.

Peter shrugged. "I don't know what kind of details will help you."

"Harry," Sirius called out in warning. He was looking through a charmed pair of omnioculars. "Harry, you might want to take a look at this."

Sirius walked over towards Harry and reached right through Harry's tube, handing him the omnioculars.

Harry canceled the charm on his eyes and looked through the omnioculars. His first thought was to wonder why the hell Sirius had turned on the clothes-less feature in a room of old men. His next thoughts were all about the man sitting next to David Monroe with a very familiar tattoo on his arm.

"Huh," Harry said, handing the omnioculars back to Sirius. He cast another magical sight spell on his eyes and recognized a line of magic around the Death Eater's neck. Both the man and David Monroe next to him were wearing necklaces that fooled magical sight. It was only because Harry had used the same thing when he traded for Dobby that he recognized the slight but unique effect.

Harry glanced over making sure Sirius was still alert and ready. He cocked his head staring at the two men. "How the hell did you manage to sneak a Dark Mark through there?"

David Monroe stood up calmly from his seat and walked straight through the tube surrounding him. "I'm afraid that was my doing."

The man with the Dark Mark also left his tube and moved to stand protectively at David Monroe's back.

Albus stiffened and drew his wand while Peter took a step away from everyone.

All the remaining tubes shattered and the front doors opened. Harry just stared at David Monroe waiting for him to move. "I must humbly ask that everyone not invited to please leave now while I'm giving you a choice."

Albus watched the others hurry out the front door and leaned over, "You don't mean me, do you, Harry?"

Harry saw David Monroe give a slight shake of his head and answered, "I'll catch up with you later, Albus."

Albus frowned. "I'm afraid I'm going to-" He stopped suddenly as a wave of white magic crested out from the right wall.

Proving just how spry he still was, Albus galloped three brisk steps and dove headfirst out the front door, rather than allow the wave to push him through the black wall. The doors sealed shut behind him and Albus was stuck outside looking in. "Bugger."

Peter just laughed at him.

Inside the building remained only the two Lord Blacks, two necklace-charmed protected identities, and one bored looking goblin.

Harry turned to the goblin. "I don't mean to be rude, Bloodthrust, but would you-?"

"Bah," Bloodthrust grumbled as he turned to stalk out the front door. "I expected more from you, wizard. One measly death? Bah."

As soon as Bloodthrust was gone, two more tubes appeared boxing in the two unknown men.

"Who are you?" Harry said to the one with the Dark Mark while keeping an eye on the other. "I recognize the magic of your necklaces. I know those aren't your true faces. So I'm asking you, who are you?"

The man with the Dark Mark was about to remove his necklace when the glass tube around David Monroe shattered.

"Alan, wait," the supposed healer said.

Harry immediately realized he was right in that it wasn't coincidence that Alan Weston had been in possession of a horcrux.

"It'll be easier if I tell you my story," David Monroe explained, drawing Harry and Sirius' attention his way.

"You can start by removing that necklace," Harry said wanting to see this guy's face.

David Monroe frowned. "I think it may be easier-"

"Humor me," Harry urged strongly.

"Very well," David Monroe agreed. He tilted his head down and pulled the charmed-necklace over the top of his head.

Dark, messy hair was the first thing Harry could see. As the man lifted the necklace down his face, brilliant green eyes were staring back at Harry. The man's complexion got lighter and clearer. He was younger than David Monroe looked but it wasn't until the effect reached the superior smirk on his face that Harry recognized him.

Harry's brain processed it but his gearshift was stuck in neutral. He just stood there staring in shock. There were a million different things running through his mind. Each sudden insight led to another moment of clarity as another mystery unraveled.

"Fuck," Harry swore in realization. "Neville's really gone, isn't he?"

The man's pupils dilating were the only sign of surprise he showed. He had been startled at how quickly Harry reached that conclusion. "That's one way to put it."

"How else would you put it?" Harry snapped angrily.

The man nearly looked humble. "Sometimes I prefer to think he lives on through me."

"Harry?" Sirius said jumped in, staring at the man in confusion. "Did Voldemort have a kid and never tell anyone?"

"No," Harry replied, watching the man's every move. "But he did have a diary."