A/N: I'm not making any money from this. This is J.K's world, I'm just playing in it.
Alexandra decided to go back to Mungo's to sit with Harry while she wrote to his friend's parents and she made herself comfortable at the desk in his room to think. She wanted to form a group of sorts for Harry that would include Draco, Neville, Hermione and anyone else she thought could be trusted. The sooner Dumbledore was out of the school the better, but she would leave him there for a couple of months while she set up the alliance and arranged a formal case against him. It would be brought before the Wizengamot in October.
"Jigs!" she called and transfigured a leaf from a plant on the windowsill into a cushion to support her back. The house elf arrived and smiled.
"Mistress called?" he asked and she nodded.
"Yes, could you bring me the House Seals from my study as well as a piece of parchment, an envelope, a quill and ink please? I will also require Ancient and Noble Houses: the Basics from the library and Sirius, please."
"Of course, Mistress." The little elf popped away and returned with what she asked for, including Sirius who hooted and landed on her shoulder, pecking her ear. He wasn't a fan of magical transportation, and elf apparition was no exception.
"Also, Jigs- Harry is unconscious at the moment, but when he wakes up, could you bring him anything he asks for- books or newspapers, whatever he likes- and if he doesn't ask for anything could you just take a couple of books from the library for him?"
Jigs nodded, and with a worried glance at Harry, he popped away, and Alexandra settled herself back into the seat, picking up the quill and dipping it in ink. Chewing on the end thoughtfully, she thought about what she would write and then put quill to parchment.
Dear Mr and Mrs Granger,
My name is Alexandra Potter-Black, and I am Harry's cousin. I'm sure that Hermione will have mentioned him once or twice. I would like to invite your daughter to attend training at our manor for the rest of the summer- I intend to teach both her and Harry, plus two others, things that will not be on the syllabus at Hogwarts but I believe they will be essential to their education. If you wouldn't mind, I would like to meet with you and your daughter to discuss this, as from what Harry's told me about her, she is an extremely intelligent girl and I believe she would benefit from what I can teach her. If it is acceptable to you, if you would provide me with your address I will visit you tomorrow morning at say, 11 o'clock?
I have included a book for Hermione that I think she will enjoy, and explain a lot about my situation.
Yours,
Lady Potter-Black
Reading the letter again, she folded it up and slid it into the envelope, and with a tap of her wand to each of the seals, she pressed them to the envelope. They left black imprints of the griffin and cobra of her Houses, and she quickly addressed it to Hermione's parents.
"Think you could take this to Mr and Mrs Granger, Sirius?" Alexandra asked the owl, who puffed out his chest and hooted. With another tap of her wand, she attached the book securely to the envelope with a mild sticking charm that Hermione would be able to remove, despite the fact that she couldn't use a wand.
Sirius scooped up the package and soared out of the window and into the London skies. Sighing, Alexandra stood again and kissed Harry's forehead, who was still sleeping. Let's see about those 'wards' on Privet Drive.
Rushing down to the reception, it wasn't long before she had landed on the corner of Privet Drive and was heading towards Number 4. Drawing her wand, she discreetly set up a strong notice-me-not charm around the house and tapped her head with her wand to turn herself invisible.
The lawn outside the house was well-kept and the building was neat, but Alexandra was looking for something else. Lifting her wand and closing her eyes, she reached out with her magic, searching for the blood wards that were claimed to be there. The first thing she reached was a monitoring charm, keyed to Albus Dumbledore that would alert him of any magical violence within the house. Second was a ward that would alert him to any Death Eaters entering the house, but the power behind it was strong.
That was it. Two wards that wouldn't even protect Harry- only let Dumbledore know what was happening. Thank Merlin there wasn't anything that monitored Harry, otherwise he'd know that he left the house.
Opening her eyes again, she glared at the house and cursed under her breath, removing the disillusionment charm and walking up to the front door and knocking for the second time. Again, Petunia answered the door and turned pale when she saw who was knocking.
"Hello Petunia. I think we both know why I'm here." she said with a deceivingly sweet smile, before pushing the Muggle aside violently and entering the house walking through the hall and finding Vernon and Dudley in the sitting room. Her anger only grew when she saw the bastard who had beaten her cousin and she growled quietly at the pig.
"Vernon, get up." she snapped, and the fat man lurched to his feet, and she drew her wand quickly, pointing it at his eyes and glaring at him with fury in her gaze.
"How dare you." Hissed Alexandra, narrowing her eyes and letting her magic bubble beneath her skin, allowing her eyes to glow slightly and she wrinkled her nose as she smelt urine on the man's trousers.
"How dare you lay a finger on Harry, how dare you even touch him. You are lower than shit on the bottom of my shoe, the garbage is too good a place for a monster like you. I am more powerful then you will ever be and I will crush you and your wife and your fat pig of a son until you are dust under my feet and no-one will remember your names. This I promise you." she snarled, withdrawing her wand and turning to Petunia and Dudley.
Alexandra's lips pursed and she reached out and slapped Petunia across the face with all the power she could muster and she sent the woman flying across the room, landing against the wall with a red handprint on her face. Dudley shrieked and ran to his mother, but she let him go, not wanting to stoop to the level of these animals. Vernon still stood, breathing heavily and the smell of urine was stronger than ever.
With a final growl, she pulled back her fist and sent it flying at the fat man's nose, breaking his nose and pushing him back into his chair, blood running down his face and she spat on him before turning and storming out of the house, leaving the front door open.
Glancing around her, she saw that the street was empty so she sprinted down the pavement to the concealed corner where she always arrived and disapparated with a loud crack, sending her body to Potter Manor.
Her study was undisturbed and Alexandra took a seat on the floor by the empty fireplace, sitting Indian style and closing her eyes. Every day she spent a half hour filing away her memories and organising her mind and an hour meditating on her Animagus form. She was making good progress- she already knew that her form was four-legged and feline and she was getting closer and closer to discovering what it was. Only then could she brew the necessary potion and make the transformation.
Delving inside her mind, she saw a small, stone room with multiple trunks inside, which each held different categories of memories: Muggle, Dispater, Hogwarts, Childhood, Goblins, Curse-Breaking, Negative Memories, New Life and Useful. Each time she visited her memory room, she noticed the Muggle trunk getting smaller and smaller, until it stopped shrinking at the size of a book. This time, she gathered up her memories of her confrontation with Albus and out it in Useful. This contained all the memories that pertained to her task of helping Harry kill Voldemort and taking down Dumbledore.
The memories of McGonagall and Flitwick plus Harry's Healer appointment went in New Life and then left the room to build up the walls around her mind a little higher. Dumbledore was a powerful Legilimency and while she had a good defence, she knew she couldn't rely on the family magic to boost her strength if it happened again, which she doubted it would now that she had threatened him with criminal charges.
Once she emerged from her mind, she had calmed down enough to return to her desk and pull out the journals again. After a few suggestions from Flitwick, she realised that she needed to charm the books with a modified Gemini Charm combined with Aparecium to bind the books together. Snatching up a quill in her excitement, she scrawled her name on her book and laughed as it appeared in Harry's. Alexandra quickly wrote Harry's full name on the inside cover of Harry's journal in the leather using her wand and did the same to hers. The next few minutes she spent placing security and concealment jinxes on the books- locking them against everyone but the two of them and charming them to look like old notebooks long discarded.
She left her study and the journals and headed to the kitchen, where Missy made her a late lunch of sandwiches and soup and she sat at the table with her meal, staring into the bowl of soup, lost in her thoughts.
Narcissa and Draco were occupying themselves somewhere in the Manor, and Augusta and Neville were at home, so she sent him a letter detailing an investigation she wanted him to do into an antidote for the Draught of Sleeping Death. Having finished her lunch she stood and wandered into the formal sitting room, taking a seat on an ornate sofa.
"Jigs!" she called, settling back into the sofa.
The house elf appeared for the second time that day and swept a shallow bow. "Yes, Mistress?
"Jigs, I would like your help. I need to hire some more elves to take care of my other properties- do you know where I can find any?" she asked, raising an eyebrow and Jigs nodded his head violently.
"Yes, Mistress, Jigs can call other unemployed elves to the Manor if Mistress wishes? How many houses are there being?" he asked, bouncing up and down on the balls of his toes.
"There are eight, and one of them I am giving to Narcissa and Draco to live in, so the house-elves there will be cooking and cleaning and basically doing what you do- the other houses will only need a few elves to clean like you did when no one was living here, and also house elves who will do gardening and maintain the grounds of each property. Five of them are in different countries." Explained Alexandra, smiling at the little elf, who nodded and closed his eyes in concentration, and suddenly thirty six house elves popped into her sitting room and she jumped back in surprise.
"Umm, good morning? My name is Alexandra Potter-Black, I'm the Head of House Black and House Potter, and I need some house elves to look after my properties. This is Jigs, my head elf of the Potter properties. All of you will answer to him until I can choose a Black head elf. Would you like to work for me?" she said, meeting the eyes of all the house elves, who varied in height and age.
They all nodded frantically, and so she reached out her right hand and held it over the group. "I, Lady Alexandra Potter-Black, accept all these house elves in front of me into my household. So I say, so mote it be."
"So mote it be." Echoed the elves and a flash of light lit up the room.
"Okay. I have eight properties and they will all need different numbers of elves. So, please group yourselves into two groups of five, five groups of four and one pair." she asked, standing up and watching the elves separate themselves quickly.
"Do any of you have any preference as to which family you want to work for, or where you want to live? When my Heir, Harry Potter, is seventeen, he will become Lord Potter and I will be Head of only House Black. I have properties in France, Switzerland, Spain, Russia, Cornwall, London and the West Country."
One by one, the groups of elves were allocated to each house and stood smiling happily up at her, clutching the uniforms that Alexandra had duplicated and modified to show either the Potter or Black crest.
"Before you go, I want you all to know that when you get too old to work, or physically unable to do manual labour, you can still live in your respective homes and we will support your families. Each of you will have two days off every month, and you will earn a wage that you can spend on anything you like."
The elves' mouths dropped open and a female elf stepped forward. "Mistress is too kind to Nessy and other elves. We is not deserving this. Thank you Mistress!" she cried, tears slipping out from her tennis ball sized eyes.
"That's alright Nessy. You do deserve it! You can all go and settle into your new homes if you like." she replied, and one by one the groups of elves popped away until only one remained. The male elf stepped forward, clutching his new uniform and looking up at her timidly.
"Mistress, I is being Dobby, and Master Harry Potter freed Dobby a few weeks ago. Dobby would be honoured to work for Master Harry Potter here, if Mistress pleases?" Dobby the house elf looked up at her with huge pleading eyes and she laughed.
"Of course, Dobby, I would be more than happy for you to join the Manor staff, if Jigs and the others don't mind?" she replied turning to the other elf, who looked Dobby up and down and then turned to his Mistress.
"Missy can train Dobby to cook, if it pleases Mistress, so Missy can retire soon?" he offered, and Alexandra nodded.
"That's a wonderful idea, Jigs. Dobby, welcome to the family."