TW mentions of suspected suicide

They landed in the headmaster's office looking around warily. Severus eyed them back.

"Sir?" Ophelia ventured.

"Sit down. Your parents will be here momentarily."

None of them commented as they did as they were told, all of them terrified that nothing had changed. The wait seemed to last hours until eventually, several adults burst into the room.

"You couldn't knock?" Severus demanded. Ignoring him, all of the students found themselves wrapped in their parent's arms. "Apparently not," Severus muttered, eying the scene in front of him. He'd deny it if ever asked but a small quirk of a smile twitched his lips.

"Mum?" Ophelia breathed, her eyes scanning her mother. She looked…healthier than she'd ever seen her as an adult, behind her, stood Theo.

Hermione smiled gently, running a hand over her head, "My brave girl."

"Mum!" Launching herself at her mother, trusting that she knew what she was doing, that she was now safe. It hit her how much she had missed this version of the woman. Shifting her sobbing daughter to one side, Hermione held out her other arm to her son, bracing herself for impact, glad that Theo stood at her back or she'd have toppled. "Hush now," she murmured, squeezing them tightly.

"I missed you so much," Alex whispered into her neck. "I'm so sorry. I'm sorry."

"Hush." Hermione commanded again, "Come and sit down, we're on a bit of a time constraint and I'm sure you have questions."

Sniffing, they both nodded but didn't move. "Come on." Hermione released them, taking their hands to tug them into a seat.

"Who's going to start?" Draco muttered, his eyes glassy and his grip on his son tight.

"What happened with Lucius?" Cassius started, his hand clasped tightly in his mother's.

Harry smirked. "It was rather clever actually."

"I'll say," Sirius beamed as he strode through the door, dragging Remus with him. "My acting was superb."

Severus groaned, "I was not aware you were invited," he bit out.

"Of course, I was invited!" Sirius protested, settling himself in a seat, ignoring the way Severus' eye twitched. "You love us really. Now, where were we? Oh…old Lucy. Well, Remus and I began by polyjucing ourselves as Thoros at regular intervals. Popping up in places, planting some seeds that he wasn't entirely…sane or sober. We also might have made some pointed comments about some of that blackmail material Lucy had. Which was fun. People were understandably furious, thinking Lucius had told him things he shouldn't."

Scorpius gaped at him, "Never mind people, Grandfather must have been furious."

Remus snorted, "Oh that's one word for it. People started refusing to back him in the Wizengamot which did not go down well. Eventually, we had Thoros show up at the Hogshead, seemingly drunk out of his mind, spewing all Lucius' secrets, including his plan for controlling his daughter-in-law."

Scorpius sucked in a breath at his pointed look, twisting to look at his father "He was potioning her?"

"Yes, well…certainly based on some research we found in his study, he was planning on it. We assume that in your time he did. He wanted to make sure the continuation of the Malfoy line happened exactly as he wanted.

"Ah," Scorpius murmured, looking sick as Draco smiled sadly at him.

Sirius waved him off, "We fixed it, don't worry."

"How?"

A slow smile travelled over Sirius' face. "Fred and George came up with a poison based off of muggle antifreeze. With the help of Hermione, obviously. Undetectable, painful, with no cure. We broke into Nott Manor with Snape. Remus was polyjuiced as Lucius and managed to be…overheard admitting he had a meeting with Thoros that night. We had a confession admitting to the murder of his wife, complete with how he did it and where to look for proof in Lucius' diary, but we found another one in Thoros' study under similar wards to old Lucy's, which was nice, made things simpler anyway, especially as it mentioned that Lucius had helped cover things up, amongst some other delightfully incriminating information. Apparently, he decided he needed a bargaining chip should Lucius ever decide to reveal his secrets. Lucius was taken in for questioning when Thoros' body was found the day after. It went to trial but he was let off, he knew too many secrets unfortunately and at the time we assumed he'd blackmailed half the Wizengmaot. It was a very public trial though and it not only dented his appeal, people began watching him much more closely. A month later, a house elf found him dead in his bed. The official ruling is suicide by poisoning following the dramatic drop in his influence and the Goblins providing evidence that he was bribing officials. Of course, it also helped that some of the diary content leaked, alongside some of his other secrets. Did you know he was bribing the DOM to kidnap muggles and muggleborns even back then? He wanted to see if he could pinpoint the differences. It was horrific if I'm honest, but it meant that we could use the horror to our advantage."

"So you actually did it?" Alex breathed.

"Complete peace for years," Sirius confirmed. "Your mums spent those years shaping the wizarding world to our vision. We helped of course, but she's terrifying and unstoppable and didn't really need us, so there's now a wizarding culture class, decent muggle studies and a wizarding primary or ten so muggleborns are integrated early. The goblins helped move some money around for reparations. My slightly irritating cousin, your irritating father and my delightful godson have revamped the Wizengamot."

"And forced you to help," Hermione murmured, looking amused.

"Yes," Sirius pouted, "I've still not forgiven them."

"So it's safe to stay?" Scorpius checked.

Draco nodded, "Yes, your mother would very much like you home." he paused, "So would Altair and Cassiopeia."

"Who?"

Draco fished a photograph from his pocket. "You have siblings."

Ophelia turned sharply to look at her mother who met her glare with an amused look, "Three."

Ophelia's jaw dropped, "What?"

"Nathaniel and Sebastian are three years younger than you. Viola was a bit of a surprise, she's only three."

Alex swivelled to look at Theo, "You're actually a dad this time then?" he demanded.

Theo winced, "I know you don't remember now, but yes."

"What will happen?" James asked suddenly, "Will we remember this?"

"We don't think so," Hermione replied gently. "Which is probably best."

"Five minutes," Severus cautioned.

"Are Uncle Fred and George still…"

"Uncle Fred and George?" Hermione asked with a laugh. "Yes. We made sure of it."

There were several sharp intakes of breath as a gadget on Snape's desk chimed and the teenagers were assaulted with memories they had no recollection of before blackness overtook them.

"Mum?" Ophelia frowned looking up at her mother whose eyes were scanning her face with concern. "Dad? What's going on?"

Theo smiled, pulling her into a tight hug, allowing the relief to ground him, "Nothing, Princess. Just a small potions accident."

Across the room Draco snorted but wisely kept his mouth shut as he fussed over his son.