"Dumbledore first came to me in the summer of 1980. He told me about Lily's new baby, I don't remember what Harry's name is supposed to be, but it was rather long. I had no idea who Dumbledore was talking about half of the time, because he kept muttering odd phrases to himself. I recognized your names in his mutterings, a Severus here, or a Sirius there, and an occasional Malfoy thrown in. He told me that he was going to make sure that my sister and James Potter would be dead by the end of the next year." Petunia paused to sip her tea. It was quite obvious to both Sirius and Severus that Petunia had been waiting for years to tell someone this story, but hadn't had the opportunity. "He put several spells on me; I think one of them was a type of negativity spell or something. I would never have been as nasty to Harry as I was. He was the only thing I had left of my mother, because he was part of Lily, and Lily was so much like our mother."

"Is there anything else you know about Dumbledore? We need to know as much as possible." Severus was having trouble staying calm, though he knew it was essential that he do so.

"I told him, right after he mentioned putting Harry, who was only a few hours old at the time, in my care, that he would be much better off with one of his magical relatives. Vernon never did like my sister, and I knew that any child of hers wouldn't be welcomed either. It was then that he muttered something about the three of you needing to be taken care of because you were much too powerful together."

"No kidding. Was one of the spells he put on us a forced animosity spell, Snape?"

Severus nodded. "Yes. We broke through it earlier today. Petunia, can you tell us anything about tonight? Harry's life is in extreme danger at the moment."

"It was around eleven… I was just getting ready for bed when I heard rustling in the hall. I knew it wouldn't have been Dudley, because he's spending the night at a friend's house, in London. Harry had gone to bed several hours earlier because he apparently wasn't feeling well. I didn't want to draw attention to myself, because if it was someone magical, I wouldn't have a chance. The bedroom door was open a bit, and I could see a tall man with silvery blond hair." Petunia looked suspiciously at Gawain.

"It wasn't me. My brother, Harry's uncle, is a very nasty person, who would not have hesitated to kill you had he known where you were. I'm quite surprised that he didn't look."

"I heard him mention that he was blood related to Harry, as were the two women he brought with him. I couldn't see them, but I believe they called each other Bella and Cissy. Lily had cousins named that didn't she? If I remember, Bella was dark and sort of pretty and liked to pull legs off of spiders and step on ants."

"That's them. She's moved from killing bugs to killing people these days. She just escaped from prison."

"They went quietly into Harry's room and must have cursed him or something, because he started screaming. That's it." Petunia folded her hands and looked expectantly at Severus.

"Thank you, Petunia. We're going to take Harry's things, and as soon as we're settled at Headquarters, we'll send someone over here to put up stronger protection spells so that you don't get anymore unwanted magical guests."

"Where are we going, Sirius?" Severus whispered as Sirius led them down several different streets.

"I never thought I'd ever hear you call me by my first name, Snape."

"Well, you are Lily's brother. You must have at least one redeeming quality."

Gawain smiled at the exchange. "Lily brought out the best in everyone."

Sirius suddenly stopped and pulled the other two into a dark alley. "We were being followed, but I think we've lost them."

Severus looked at Gawain. "How are you at Defensive spells, Malfoy? If I recall, you excelled at them in school."

"I'm head of Aurors for the French Ministry of Magic."

"So you're competent, then." Severus stuck out his non-wand arm. "Take my arm. You don't know where we're apparating to, and Sirius has had patchy apparition skills since he got out of Azkaban."

"I'll have you know…"

"Save it, please. We need to get back to Harry."

When Minerva met them at the door, the three men knew something was seriously wrong with Harry. Her usually perfect, well-kept hair was flying in all different directions from helping Poppy, and her eyes were red from crying. "She says that there is a distinct possibility that…" She couldn't continue, and that was enough for them to know what was going on. Severus and Sirius practically flew toward the sitting room. Minerva took Gawain by the arm. "I'm glad they found you, Gawain. I hope that you'll get a chance to get to know him. He's a wonderful boy."

There wasn't a dry eye in the sitting room. Arthur had his arms around an inconsolable Molly, and the twins each had an arm around Ginny. The most heart-wrenching scene, however, was that of Ron and Hermione. Ron was sitting on the floor, next to the couch, his head in his hands. Hermione's arms were wrapped around his shaking shoulders, and she was trying desperately not to cry. Poppy looked up at Harry's godfathers. "I'm sorry. There were so many charms on him, blocking his natural magic. Remus, Minerva, and I managed to remove them all. There was a glamour charm on him, as you can tell. It seems he takes after his father's side." That much was obvious, since the boy who could once have passed for James Potter's identical twin now had ice blond hair, was much taller, and had the traditional 

Malfoy features. Poppy's eyes met Severus' angry ones. "Do you know what the worst of it was though? There was a spell magnification charm on him. That…"
"…Multiplies the effect of any spell with malicious intent by ten. Was that another Dumbledore spell?" The anger in Severus' voice was enough to send shivers down Poppy's spine. At that moment, she was very glad that she was fighting with him and not against him.

"Most of them were from Dumbledore, Severus. The four Crucios, two burn hexes, three bruising hexes and one especially nasty curse to his leg that made it necessary for me to vanish the bone and give him Skele-grow were the only ones not cast by Dumbledore. We checked his records."

Severus stalked about the room, while Sirius plunked down next to Remus. "Do you want to know what else we found out, Moony?"

"Probably not." Sirius signaled for Severus to tell him.

"Dumbledore, not Voldemort is the one that wanted to make sure James and Lily died. Petunia told us that he came to her right after Harry was born and said as much."

Gawain took this opportunity to fill in the blanks in what he knew. "Severus, I realize this isn't the best time, but could you, or someone else if you'd rather, tell me exactly what's going on here?"

"Sit down. It's a long story, Malfoy. Several things came to light earlier this week. It all started with a meeting of the Order of the Phoenix. You should recall what that is, since you were a member during the first war. Dumbledore told us that your brother had just put in a request to the Ministry for custody of Harry. Then the headmaster proceeded to tell us that he was going to let it go through because it would be a good thing for Harry to be around family."

"…who happen to be a bunch of Voldemort-loving lunatics," Sirius and Gawain muttered at the same time. "Why?"

"That's what we wanted to know, so we had a few of our trusted Auror friends do some research for us. They found more than forty-five pages of illegal spells that Dumbledore performed on several members of Harry's extended family, starting with Lily's parents. That's where the real story starts."

Minerva took over for Severus. "He blocked the natural abilities of my sister, Severus' mother, Sirius and Lily's father, and several of my students in order to manipulate us all into his master plan. Albus is a Seer you know, and he saw that Harry would eventually be the one to defeat Voldemort once and for all. So instead of letting things happen he organized everything himself." The fact that Minerva was still quite angry at Albus' manipulation of her family was obvious in the way that her Scottish upbringing was making itself evident in her voice.

Remus chimed in. "That man spelled almost every Gryffindor in our year, plus you," he looked at Gawain, "and Severus. The only difference between us and the people Minerva talked about is that we broke through the spells. That's why you ended up with Lily, despite all of Dumbledore's efforts to get 

her to really marry James. She loved him, but not like that. Dumbledore still managed to keep you away, though, didn't he?"

Gawain nodded. "Every time I tried to visit Lily and Harry, that man sent me somewhere on some pointless mission. Thankfully, Minerva kept me updated. She always made sure to tell me about something cute Harry did, milestones he passed, and always kept me well supplied with pictures. Those visits from her were the only thing that kept me focused on staying alive."

"Do you even know what happened after Lily died or did he," Sirius didn't need to specify who "he" was because everyone knew "he" was Albus, "make sure you knew nothing?"

"I didn't even know she died until 1985. Dumbledore sent me to a completely muggle village in northern Canada, and Minerva's mail didn't get through to me until then. All I know is that Voldemort killed her, but couldn't kill Harry."

"I've never told anyone the exact details of what I saw then. However, I think you all need to hear the truth." Severus sat down near Harry. "That night, Voldemort took just two people with him. One of them had strong connections to Lily, me, and the other, strong connections with James. Had you not been recovering from a nasty case of dragon pox, Malfoy, my guess is that you would have been there instead of me. I'm glad you weren't. If I would have known what was going to happen, I would have run. Pettigrew, since he was the secret keeper, led the way there. The second we stepped foot on the property, Voldemort stunned me." Severus paused. "Here, I am going to tell you all something that only two other people know, that is, if Voldemort and Pettigrew still count as people after what they've done. James wasn't killed by Voldemort. Peter killed him first. Before he died, James tried to reverse the stunners I was under, but Voldemort wouldn't let him." It took Severus, Remus, Minerva, and Ron to keep Sirius from charging out the door and seeking out Peter. "Then Voldemort levitated me up the stairs and forced me to watch him kill the best friend I ever had. As soon as I could I apparated to Sirius' apartment and told him what happened. I knew Harry was still alive, but there was no way I could apparate both him and myself to Sirius' place. I just made sure he was wrapped in a warm blanket and set him in the remains of his crib."

"As soon as Severus arrived at my flat, I sped off on my motorbike with every intention of taking my nephew home with me. All I wanted was to make sure he was safe. Hagrid was there when I arrived, though I, to this day, have no idea how he got there so fast. He wouldn't give Harry to me; told me Harry would be better off going to Hogwarts. I didn't argue with that, I figured Hagrid was going to give him to Minerva. Then I went after Peter. When I finally cornered him, he shouted that I'd betrayed Lily and James, cut off his finger and transformed into his animagus form. He ran off into the sewer, while I got carted off to Azkaban."

Ron looked up at Gawain. "He was our pet rat for thirteen years. If I would've known, I would have let Hermione's cat eat him. He slept in my bed!"

"Once I found out that Albus was going to put Harry with Petunia, I watched there family all day. My pleas to give Harry to me, that he'd be better off with magical relatives, went unheeded by Albus." Minerva shook her head.

Gawain had tears streaming down his face even before Hermione, Ron, the twins and Ginny told him how Harry lived at the Dursleys and about all of the challenges of his Hogwarts years. After hours of talk, the children were hoarse, and everyone jumped when they heard a knock at the door.

Minerva got up to see who it was. It had to be an Order member. "Sirius, Severus, Gawain, it's Amelia Bones. Take her to the kitchen, and get everything straightened out so that Harry can have a proper family when he wakes up."

No one corrected her when she said when, because they all sincerely hoped that Harry was going to make it. He had to.

Author's Note: This chapter will probably be the last chapter for at least a week, because school starts on Tuesday, and that's going to eat up a significant chunk of my free time. On the upside, this is a very long chapter for me, and I have a lot of the story written already.