Harry Potter and The Fate We Make

Chapter 11: Laws and Leverage

A/N: Disclaimer's in the first chapter.

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July 10, 1995

Neville joined them the day after the Death Eater attack. Augusta Longbottom was no one's fool. Harry managed to prevail on Remus for a second visit to his heirloom vault, where they spent two hours rummaging around until they found James and Lily's wills, the Potter family business records, and, interestingly, a box with the label 'evidence'. Intrigued, Harry had glanced inside, to discover a whole bunch of parchment with names, dates, and notes that made no sense to him whatever ... at least until he spotted the name Malfoy. At that point, he supposed these scraps of parchment were what evidence James and Lily (and possibly his grandparents as well) had been able to amass as to Death Eater activities ... useful, if it proved to be true. He'd also found the names of the family barrister and business manager, both of whom, by some miracle, were alive and well. Harry sent them both letters. The barrister had returned his straight away, setting up an appointment for the next day.

The morning did not start well. Hermione corralled him just after breakfast, an armful of Prophets in hand. "Harry, I think you may have a problem." She told him.

"What do you mean?" Harry asked.

"You better read some of these articles." Hermione said.

Harry did ... and didn't see what the problem was, other than Fudge hiding his head in the sand. He looked at Hermione. "So Fudge is being an idiot. I knew that already."

Hermione shook her head. "That's not the problem, Harry. It's pretty subtle ... I almost missed it myself. Look more closely at some of the smaller articles."

So Harry did ... and finally caught it. Subtle, snarky comments clearly aimed at him and his state of sanity or supposed lack thereof, even if they never came out and said 'Harry Potter is crazy', that was the definite tone of the comments, but they were done so offhandedly, you didn't really take much notice of it. Harry's sole comfort was that Dumbledore was being painted in as bad a light, and a bit more openly.

"Damn. You mind if I bring these with me to my lawyer?" Harry asked. Hermione was only too willing to hand them over. "Looks like I have even more to talk over with him than I thought." Harry said with a sigh.

To make matters worse, Dumbledore himself showed up just after breakfast. When he spotted the newspapers at Harry's elbow, he sighed.

"I see you have discovered Fudge's response to the truth." He said.

"Yeah. Though I'm willing to bet that Rita Skeeter has had a hand in it, too." Harry only belatedly realized that not one of the articles seemed to have been penned by Skeeter, which he found odd, considering how much she'd relished dragging his name through the mud during the school year. As he was focused on Dumbledore, he missed Hermione's positively evil smug grin.

Things became very quiet and very tense for a few moments. Harry finally gave it up as a bad job and gathered everything together, heading towards the door, and the floo in the parlour. He didn't quite get to the kitchen door before there was a muffled BOOM that shook the house, followed, seconds later, by Sirius and two redheads crowding through the door that led to the basement and slamming it shut. Sirius gasped out a 'colloportus!', and then all three of them sagged against the wall, trying to catch their breaths. Harry blinked at them.

"Do I even want to know?" He asked.

Sirius just grinned at him. "Ah, nothing much. Just a potions mishap. I'm thinking we added too much ground gryphon talon." That last comment was more to the twins than Harry. The twins considered this, then nodded agreement.

Harry just shook his head and fought the urge to grin. It had, after all, been inevitable. Harry was, frankly, surprised that this hadn't started days ago. The Marauders. The Twins. Collaborating. Once again, Harry wondered if that had been his brightest idea. And again, he contemplated the sheer, unadulterated mayhem that ungodly collaboration was liable to unleash on the death eaters and Voldemort, and decided that it had, indeed, been a very good idea ... and he hoped someone had a camera to capture Voldemort's reaction for posterity when the first prank bomb (whatever the Marauders and the twins came up with!) hit him. It ought to be highly entertaining ... especially if there were only Death Eaters around. Maybe they could get Snape ...

Snape. Helping ... Harry blinked. He did not just think that. There was more likelihood of Voldemort turning over a new leaf and becoming a good guy than there was of Snape working with the Marauders.

Dumbledore seemed to be as entertained as Harry was by the mishap, if the twinkling in his eyes was any indication. Harry gave a last shake of his head. "Well, now you're up here, Remus hasn't left yet, has he?"

Sirius shook his head. "No, not until after lunch. He's probably still packing."

Harry nodded. "Good. I wanted to make sure I said goodbye to him before I headed out."

And there went the tension again. Dumbledore regarded Harry with a frown. "I am afraid." He said. "That for you to leave the house would be most unwise, Harry."

Harry glowered at him. "Actually, it's not, Headmaster. I'm not intending to prance around in public, and even if I was ... well, I doubt anyone would recognize me."

"Glamours can be easily cancelled." Dumbledore pointed out.

"Exactly. Which is why my disguise has nothing to do with magic whatever." Harry pointed out. He turned and headed upstairs. He'd not intended on going 'in disguise', given that he'd planned on flooing directly to his lawyers and back again, but he'd best make this point to Dumbledore now.

First, though, he knocked on Remus' door, hugged him goodbye and wished him luck. Then he went into his own room and switched to the colored contacts, then applied the concealer. A seriously healthy dollop of Muggle haircare products slicked his hair down ... and made him wonder how Snape could tolerate his hair ... Harry's was greasy and limp enough with the weight of the stuff needed to hold it down and camouflage its tendency to stick up at all angles. Despite doing it deliberately, he had to restrain the urge to go wash his hair immediately. But between the brown eyes, apparent lack of scar, neater hair and better clothes, no one would have the faintest idea he was Harry Potter.

He walked downstairs and had the pleasure of seeing Dumbledore gobsmacked. Doubly so after Dumbledore tried a 'finite' and nothing changed. "Impressive, Harry. Quite impressive. Might I inquire as to how you have managed the feat?"

Harry grinned. "I took advantage of readily available Muggle products." He said. Which would make it none too clear to Dumbledore, but so much the better. Sirius, who hadn't seen Harry's disguise accoutrements, even if he had heard about them, was grinning hugely.

"Way to go, pup. Even I'd look straight past you, if I didn't know about all this and saw you in the street." He admitted. "You thought of a name, in case someone asks that you don't want knowing who you are?"

Whoops. Harry hadn't, actually, and it was definitely something he'd need to consider. He didn't want to give Neville's name again! "John Smith." He said after a few moments. Simple and easy to remember. He hoped.

Neither Dumbledore nor Sirius seemed to find fault with this, and Harry gathered up the stuff he'd planned on bringing with him and headed for the floo. From the expression on his face, Dumbledore clearly wanted to ask where Harry was going, but, for once, was bright enough to realize asking was a bad idea.

Harry was sent to his lawyer's office almost as soon as he arrived, the secretary only taking long enough to ensure he wasn't in a meeting with someone first. The office surprised Harry a bit. It was actually fairly small. Three of the walls were covered in bookshelves that groaned under the weight of innumerable tomes. The desk was a modest-looking affair ... as was the man who sat behind the desk. Jeremiah Fangler looked to be as old as Dumbledore. He was almost entirely bald, with only a thin rim of white hair. His face was wrinkled and lined with age, and he was dressed in plain-looking robes. He also gave off an air quite similar to Arthur Weasley ... that of a quiet, inoffensive, good-humored man who was difficult to rile. This was his family lawyer? Malfoy would eat him alive!

Jeremiah started to chuckle, making Harry frown. After a few moments, Jeremiah sobered. "I do apologize, Lord Potter, but you are hardly the first to be, shall we say, put out on first meeting me. I assure you I am far more formidable than I appear. I have simply found that being approachable makes meetings such as today's go more smoothly than they would otherwise."

And over the next half hour, Harry had to agree with that sentiment. Jeremiah proved to be very easy to talk to, letting the conversation go where it willed for quite some time before finally bringing the conversation back to why Harry had sought him out.

"Now, young sir, I do believe you feel you have several issues that need be addressed?" Jeremiah finally asked.

Harry nodded. "There's a lot going on." He admitted. The next hour was spent giving Jeremiah the lowdown on everything Harry knew in regards to his life and Dumbledore's parts in it. Jeremiah listened with a grave expression on his face, and took copious notes. The only thing Harry didn't bring up right off the bat was the whole Sirius/Pettigrew situation.

"Well." He said when Harry finally wound down. "That is quite the tale. Our first step shall be examining the will. You said you brought it with you?

Harry nodded and handed it over. Jeremiah read it over carefully, and sighed heavily. "Well, we can definitely take him to task on who you were raised by." He turned the parchment so Harry could see. "Your parents made out quite the list of people with whom you were to be left."

Jeremiah wasn't kidding. It started with Sirius and went from there. Even Augusta and Professor McGonagall were listed. In fact, the only person NOT listed was Remus, and there was a note saying he would have been listed if the law allowed werewolves to be in sole custody of children. Clear down at the bottom was a note saying he was not to go to the Dursleys no matter what.

Unfortunately, there was nothing in the will about Pettigrew. Either the will had been made out prior to them going into hiding or they hadn't been able to reveal that Pettigrew was there Secret Keeper for some reason (or simply hadn't thought to do so, believing they would not be betrayed by a friend).

Harry took a breath. "There's one more thing I need to tell you about. And it's ... really important. It's about Sirius Black."

Jeremiah's expression went deadly intent. "What about him?"

"He's innocent. I know, I know, people say that all the time. But I've seen the proof. I've seen Peter Pettigrew. I've talked to him. I've touched him. I've seen the Dark Mark on his arm! And I'm not the only one who knows about him. Hermione Granger and Ronald Weasley saw him too. Heard him confess. It was at the end of the school year, when Sirius escaped. We tried to tell Fudge, but he wouldn't listen, and Professor Snape didn't help. He claimed we were confounded. I told Fudge about him again at the end of the TriWiz, and again, he completely ignored me. Worse, since third year, I found out Sirius wasn't even given a trial! They just threw him in Azkaban and forgot about him, on the strength of it being blatantly obvious he was the Secret Keeper, because who else would my dad choose? That and some comments Pettigrew made when Sirius cornered and confronted him."

Jeremiah looked pole-axed. "No trial? Did they not even question the man?"

Harry shook his head. "I don't think so. Or at least, if they did, they didn't use Veritaserum. Otherwise he'd never have been thrown in Azkaban."

Jeremiah gave a sharp nod. "Right. I shall have to see if I can get my hands on the records pertaining to his capture and subsequent events ... if such even exists. If they do not ... well, it will be all the more damning. If Fudge is being so obstructionist, I shall have to be quite on my mettle to get at them, as he may attempt to keep them out of the public's hands by any number of means. But rest assured, Mr. Potter. I shall do all in my not inconsiderable power to clear your godfather's name."

Harry let out a relieved whoosh. "Thank you so much, sir."

Jeremiah gave him a sharp look, and Harry had the uncomfortable feeling that Jeremiah knew he'd interacted with Sirius, but wasn't going to ask. They discussed options as regarded Dumbledore for a while, with Harry eventually, somewhat reluctantly, opting to simply put Dumbledore on notice, legally, that any further shenanigans would not be tolerated. The man had been a menace in his life, but the public at large still viewed him as a leader of unassailable integrity, and trying to shake that was not a task Harry was willing to take on, for more than one reason. While unseating Dumbledore would be satisfying on a personal level, to do so would weaken and divide the wizarding world at a time that such could be ill afforded. Yes, dealing more firmly with Dumbledore would have to wait.

They moved on, then, to the bits of parchment. Harry's guess proved correct ... these were, evidently, a list of names, dates, and actions taken. In many cases, if the notes were proven correct, Jeremiah said, they would blow many a person's claim of being Imperioused. Unfortunately, none of them could be acted on immediately, as they needed to be confirmed. Jeremiah promised to look into all of them.

"At the very least, Mr. Potter, if these prove true, you have at your fingertips a way to hamstring the political power and influence of certain families for generations. At worst, you can get quite a few people lifetime stays at Azkaban."

That was going to be something Harry would have to think about.

He returned to the manor to find it, again, a beehive of activity. It was Sirius, looking pale and grim-faced, that told Harry what was going on.

"The dementors have left Azkaban." He told Harry.

Harry immediately understood why Sirius looked so bad. After more than a decade in Azkaban, Sirius was rather painfully aware of just how much damage the things could do without resorting to sucking out your soul ... and on top of that, Harry would be rather surprised if Sirius could still produce a patronus, which meant Sirius would be doubly defenseless against the creatures.

"Looks like we need to practice." Harry said.