I managed to get this done but I'm not sure when the next chapter will be. Hopefully not as long as it took to do this one. Here is the somewhat expected 'Explanations' chapter. Essentially filler but hopefully you find it a good read. I know that I definitely don't have to say this but all rights belong to those who have created, sold, and marketed this property since its inception. Also, this is very AU and will have characters acting and reacting differently than they do in Canon. (Which is the very nature of Fanfiction...for the most part at least)
Azkaban Justice
Chapter 2: Explanations and Exonerations
Bill and Fleur were reading the Daily Prophet in the dining room of Black Manor. Harry and Charlus had brought them here early in the morning after dropping off Neville, Luna and their families at their respective homes. Bill hardly got any sleep due to all the excitement of the final confrontation. The Dark Lord was finally gone and his followers would get what they would deserve thanks to the campaign spear headed by Amelia Bones, according to the quote they took from her:
'No one will be able to buy their way out of this,' She said firmly in the Ministry Atrium. 'We have already questioned several people apprehended last night and confirmed what many have long suspected - those who bear the mark must take it willingly. You cannot be under the Imperious curse when you are marked.'
The article also mentioned that the Death Eaters were considered marked property under the slavery laws in place which stated that no one could own any human being that was of lesser status -in this case muggle, muggle born, and certain half bloods- however, those of equal or greater status were not mentioned and therefore were not exempt from being made into chattel, nor were their family members.
The law itself had been put into place to protect those of lesser birth while not stopping the purebloods from owning non-human servants. There had been outrage by those who were not marked but supported the agenda of the Dark Lord at seeing their brethren 'suffer a great injustice' as they had put it. However, they were now few in number and had very little power to stop what was going on.
POTTER TWINS EXONERATED!
One headline screamed before going into detail about the filing of their pardons by Fudge. No one said it out loud but many felt that this would be his last act as the Minister for Magic unless he made a huge power play. Frankly, no one was sure how he managed to stay in office thus far given the fact that he basically lied about the Dark Lord's return. Sirius's name had been cleared as well since Pettigrew was amongst those caught and his ratty face had been plastered in the paper.
'I truly regret not being able to do this while Mr. Black was still alive,' Amelia was quoted as saying. 'He suffered for twelve years in Azkaban because my predecessor was so obsessed with getting rid of Death Eaters that he ignored his duty to administer justice. I, on the other hand, will not.'
'She may get in trouble with that last remark,' Bill thought. 'Some would see it as speaking ill of the dead though if they met Snape and heard his comments about James Potter, they would think what madam Bones said was rather tame.'
Bill and Fleur looked towards the stairs when they heard footsteps. Walburga Black's portrait was being suspiciously quiet as Harry and Charlus padded their way towards them, both wearing singlets. Harry's was red and he wasn't wearing his glasses anymore. His scar was practically gone now. Charlus wore a Black singlet. Bill and Fleur noticed that both twins had many tattoos that they definitely never had before and that their arms were far more muscular, though not grotesquely so. Their hair was still long but they pulled them back into pony tails.
"Prison ink," Harry supplied, noticing their looks. "We got most of them after every successful mission we had."
Bill and Fleur exchanged frowns before Fleur's eyes widened.
"Eet was you!" She hissed at them in excitement.
"What was us?" Charlus raised an eyebrow before eyeing the paper in Bill's hand, "Anything good?"
"You, Harry, and Sirius have been exonerated," Bill informed them and both twins smirked. Fleur huffed and was about to speak again when she was interrupted.
"Good," Charlus nodded before frowning at them. He sniffed the air and frowned even more, "Neither of you ate anything." He stated.
"Mum finished cooking the last of the food in the pantry yesterday," Bill said slowly, watching the expressions of the twins. Neither of them gave anything away though they did prompt him to continue. "There's no food left. I was going to go pick up a few orders from the Cauldron but I wasn't sure what everyone wanted."
"That's fine," Harry murmured, "Dobby! Winky!" He called and the two house elves popped into the room.
"You called Master Harry," They said, then amended when Harry raised an eyebrow at them, "You called...Harry?" Both made faces that relayed their displeasure of dropping the word master.
"Take this pouch and buy enough food for the week," Harry retrieved a golden pouch that was nearly bursting at the seams with Galleons. "and be sure to get several packs of bacon and raw steak for Hedwig and Odysseus. If you can, please get some already made breakfast, if not we'll make it here. Oh, and please get some coffee for Jacob and Charlotte." He added as an after thought.
"Yes Harry," Dobby took the pouch and bowed alongside Winky. "It will be done."
"I promise that we'll explain more Fleur," Charlus told the girl. "but over breakfast and when everyone's awake."
Fleur nodded with a sigh and began to tap her foot impatiently.
"What's wrong?" Bill muttered to her.
"Eet was zem," Fleur murmured. "All those people zat were saved by mysterious figures - it was ze twins doing ze saving."
Bill's eyes widened slightly before he looked over to the twins who nodded.
"Long story," Harry said before walking to one of the cupboards and opened it. He knocked through a false wall and pulled out two large bottles of Butterbeer.
"You two want any?" He asked Bill and Fleur over his shoulder. They both responded in the negative, saying the juice they had was fine. Harry walked over to his brother after closing the cupboard and handed him a bottle. They both snapped the caps off the bottles and took a long pull each.
Both of the twins sighed after they finished.
"Been too long since we had one of those, huh Chuck?" Harry muttered to Charlus who nodded but said nothing. He did break the somewhat comfortable silence after a moment and another pull.
"So, you planning on changing your name as well?" He asked Bill with a raised eyebrow before taking a sip of his drink. "We know that the twins have done so, and that Charlie is now Lord Prewett." He added when Bill opened his mouth to ask.
Bill sat back, a thoughtful expression on his face. In all honesty, the idea of giving up his family name along with any other claim to family was very appealing. It would give him a chance to start over. The problem with that was that he and Fleur would have no protection from or against the Ministry as they would be considered a new family with no connections what so ever.
The twins had been doing alright as they had business contracts with the Ministry for some of their products to be used in the war effort. Obviously the contacts were no longer valid as the war had been finished but they still made money from their shop.
The Prewett family, while not as old as some of the others, were fairly powerful both in public and politically. Bill couldn't get the lordship and all it entailed as he was supposed to inherit the Weasley title. Charlie was always set to be the next Lord Prewett if he wanted it, as he and his brothers were the only male descendants through their mother and was the second oldest. However, he never had a reason to take it before last night, and was willing to give it to either of his brothers, or his great aunt Muriel.
"Its tempting," Bill told Charlus. "very tempting, but risky as well."
"True," Charlus nodded. "Unless you have someone to watch your back." He gave them a rather pointed look. Harry did as well.
"You mean-"
"We want to give you support," Harry said as Bill stopped. Harry placed his bottle on the table and so did Charlus. "For the old arses like Dumbledore, you and Fleur would either be part of a new vassal house for house Potter or house Black. That would be the official title at least, but really all you would have to do was what you have been doing without fail - watch our backs. Although, we may give you a house or cottage as a wedding present."
Both Harry and Charlus grinned at the idea.
"You mean it?" Bill had taken Fleur's hand for support. Both were extremely touched at the gesture.
"Of course," The grins the young lords had were now soft smiles as Harry spoke again. "Its the least we could for you since you gave us your support when you didn't need too."
"It was the right thing to do," Bill gave a firm nod and so did Fleur.
"You still didn't have to do it," Charlus shrugged. "Look at this way, given everything that has happened since our imprisonment, we all need to look after each other. If you want to do that without the vassal deal that is perfectly fine with us. But think it through and talk it over."
Bill and Fleur nodded their agreement, they would talk when they had a moment to themselves.
"You plan on giving the twins the same deal?" Bill asked them.
"I will," Charlus said softly. "Sirius and Remus were happy to be their mentors, even if it was for a short time. They would have been extremely touched that Fred and George changed their names to something that was in tribute to them. My offering them a place as a vassal of house Black is what Sirius and Remus would have wanted. They'll have to talk it over with Angelina and Alicia though," He peered at the grandfather clock on the other side of the room. "who should be here soon."
"You invited them over?"
"Yeah, we invited them and Katie as well. We figured that they would want to see Fred and George and the rest of us." The twins shrugged. "But don't worry about Dumbledore's Order, they're banned from the manor from here on out."
"How?" Fleur raised an eyebrow at them. She had a pretty good idea as to the how but she wanted to be sure.
"The manor has a logbook of every person who has passed through the wards in place." Charlus began. "Logbooks are pretty common with the old families and are quite handy to keep in place because it records the magical signature of everyone that comes into the property. Of course, you need permission from the head of the family or you get rejected or you have bring the wards down to get in." He snorted at the thought of anyone being able to bring down the Black family wards, as did everyone else before he started again, "In the case of the Order being here when it was started again, it was Sirius who invited them. However, as I am the head of the family now, I have denied them entry and the wards will make sure that they don't get in."
"Speaking of-" Bill was interrupted by the door bell ringing. He and Fleur braced themselves for the screaming session from Mrs. Black but when nothing happened, they looked confused. The twins smirked and made their way to the door. Bill and Fleur hurried after them.
"Hello ladies," They heard as they rounded the corner and saw George's girlfriend, Angelina Johnson, Fred's girlfriend, Alicia Spinnet, and their friend Katie Bell. "Do come in," Charlus prompted them to step forward. They did so, hesitantly at first before they rushed forward, each trying to grab a hold of the twins.
All three girls had started crying in relief at seeing two people that had considered to be their brothers. None of them believed that Harry and Charlus were capable of killing anyone let alone an entire neighborhood. After hearing what happened on the wireless, all three tried to contact the two and were very happy to receive a note from the twins, telling them to come over.
"Hey now, what's with the tears?" The twins squirmed in the awkward group hug. Charlus quipped with, "I know my brother and I are drop dead gorgeous, but please, we have girlfriends whom we love very much!"
"Prat!" Katie grinned as she smacked him the shoulder.
"You wound me Katie bear," Charlus mock pouted at her and Katie punched him in the stomach. "No need to be violent." He chided her, not really feeling the force of her punch though he used to.
"Don't call me that." Katie glared at him and Charlus opened his mouth to retort. Harry's hand shot up and covered his brother's mouth.
"Don't even think about it." Harry warned him, still squirming. "Besides, we're not alone."
"I know," Charlus muttered after Harry removed his hand. "Hello everyone." He craned his neck to look at the stairs though he was still somewhat trapped.
"Hello love," Susan murmured before quipping, "If I didn't know any better I might have been jealous."
"I can't help it if the women folk find me irresistible," Charlus shrugged and all three girls smacked him repeatedly. "See? They can barely keep their hands off of me." Charlus barked out a laugh as the girls squawked with indignation. Harry chuckled slightly as did a few others. Hermione and Susan rolled their eyes.
"Alright," Harry tried to make his way to the stairs while avoiding the flying fists of his former team mates. "That's enough excitement for now." He had made it to the stairs to give Hermione a kiss on the cheek. "Morning," He murmured to her before nodding to her parents who nodded back.
"Morning," She murmured back while stifling a yawn.
"How come the old bat hasn't been screaming her head off?" Fred asked from atop the stairs. He and his brother were deeply amused by what they were seeing. Charlie, not one to be a morning person, was still rubbing the sleep from his eyes and yawning profusely.
"Oh she's not there anymore," Charlus said casually as he finally fought off the girls. "Love," He pulled Susan into a kiss before placing his forehead on hers.
"You're holding up the line," George coughed after a moment and Charlus gave him a two fingered salute.
"Piss off," Charlus and Harry paused, then looked towards the ceiling and smiled. "On second thought, come along."
Harry grabbed Hermione's hand, Charlus grabbed Susan's, and lead them to the dining room. They eached cleared the table with their free hands and had their girlfriends sit down. They invited the others to join them.
"We'll be back in a moment." They said together before flaming out. The three girls gaped in surprise.
"Since when can they do that," Angelina blurted out. The dark skinned beauty stared at the spot where they disappeared and noticed that there was no burn marks. "And how did they do that?"
"It reminds me of phoenix fire," Bill commented. "but the colour is different. As for how long they've been able to do that..." He trailed off and raised an eyebrow at Hermione and Susan. They both shrugged.
"Don't look at us," Hermione said. "We don't know the answer."
"They didn't tell you?"
"We reserved that for now," Harry and Charlus came in holding a few items in each. "Here you go Jacob; Emma." Harry placed a large Vacuum Flask on the table followed by a smaller one. "Some coffee and cream." He placed a few sugar packets on the table.
Charlus had placed a few platters on the table and said, "Dig in." He summoned some plates and utensils and handed them out.
"So what was that about?" Susan asked him while pointing up wards.
"Buckbeak is on the roof," Charlus answered her before smirking. "He's been trying to chat Hedwig up and he asked Harry for permission to court her. Its actually kind of cute right, brother?" Harry rolled his eyes at Charlus as he started to put things away.
"Beaky's back?" Fred and George asked excitedly. Their girlfriends raised their eyebrows at them but said nothing.
"Yep, he's back." Harry nodded.
"Where did he go?"
"Padfoot let him out around Christmas time during my fifth year, remember?" Harry said softly. "Said he didn't want him cooped up in here though his company was enjoyed. Hedwig told me that he joined a Hippogriff herd but would come to check on the house periodically. The second he saw Hedwig and Odysseus he flew down to greet them. They talked for a bit and Dobby and Winky stopped by to give them some food. We went to help them."
"You're not talking about the Hippogriff that almost killed Malfoy, are you?" Alicia queried, speaking for the first time since arriving.
"That's the fella," Charlus said after placing a plate near Harry's seat. "Don't," He shooed a lot of them away when they attempted to help. "All of you are guest in my house, and guest don't lift a finger."
He wasn't very successful as Susan snatched a few plates out of his hand and finished passing them out. She raised her eyebrows at him in challenge when he opened his mouth to protest. He closed his mouth and took his seat around the same time Harry did.
They gestured for the others to start eating while they each grabbed a slice of toast and began to chew on them. Both twins closed their eyes and relished the feeling of eating fresh food even if it was toast. The gruel on Azkaban island was hardly substantial but they never wanted to eat anything from the outside world until after they had gotten out for fear of becoming complacent. Wizarding Britain had grown complacent after the end of the first Blood war with Voldemort and had grown weak because of it. Both Harry and Charlus vowed to never be weak like that ever again.
They all lapped into silence though the anticipation began to build as they made their plates or began to eat.
"I suppose you want to hear a story," Harry began, grabbing a sausage and biting into it. Everyone looked to him as his brother took a helping of baked beans. Harry swallowed his bite, and continued when the others nodded. "Well, hopefully this doesn't put you off your meals, but the story on how we got our powers begins on the day we woke up in our cells..."
"I hope you enjoy your stay here boys," An oily voice murmured to the twins who stirred. They opened their eyes and blinked as they took in their surroundings. They panicked slightly and struggled to get to their feet which were chained.
"Don't bother boys, you'll be staying here for a long, long time." The warden of Azkaban gave a hearty chuckle, his yellow teeth bared as he played with the pouch of galleons he received from Delores Umbridge to let in a Dementor into their cell. "And I made sure to get you some company."
A intense feeling of coldness washed over the area. Both the twins started to breath hard, trying to prepare for what was to come next, but without their wands and without enough time to think of something happy, they knew that this could be the end.
Both of them slumped against the wall, shivering from the cold and having to relive the darkest memory they had, which was the memory of their mother dying.
"Don't kiss them but don't make them feel comfortable," The warden told the Dementor who began to glide into the cell. The warden wasn't affected by the Dementor due to a specialized necklace that was given to him by the Ministry. Only a handful were made for those on the island and were never commissioned for the public because the Dementors rarely left the island.
The Dementor had been told that there were two people prior to going there but it sensed something more. It wasn't a full soul but it was a soul none the less. It had been told not to kiss the two prisoners but they said nothing of harming a third. It flew towards the third soul which was attached to Harry's scar though it didn't know that as it didn't have eyes.
Charlus tried to get in the way but was too weak and started to lose consciousness though he kept fighting. Harry had already passed out but he woke up screaming as the Demeotor's lips latched onto his scar.
"What the hell are you doing?!" The warden shouted while drawing his wand. The Dementor paid him no heed as it continued to drain the soul inside Harry's scar. "I need him alive!" Before the warden could shoot off a spell, the Dementor's head reared back and a terrible sound erupted out of its throat as its body began to convulse. The soul it attempted to ingest was starting to fight back.
Harry' scar was throbbing and bleeding a tar like substance profusely before his own blood started to seep through. The Dementor began clawing at its throat as the tar began to spill out of its mouth. It gave a few hacking coughs before it exploded in a shower of black liquid.
"Fucking hell," The warden exclaimed before he paled when a dark cloud began to form in mid air. The cloud roared and charged at the warden. The warden stumbled back, tripping over his feet and hitting his head against the wall behind him, knocking himself out.
Bright red fire exploded into the room suddenly, followed by a loud screech. Fawkes the Phoenix fanned his fire towards the cloud with his wings, causing it to burn up.
'Curse you!' The spirit howled but Fawkes just shrieked and continued his assault until the fire burnt the cloud away. Fawkes landed on to the dirty floor of the prison cell, folding his wings in. His talons clicked and clacked against the stone floor as he looked at the twins.
"F-Fawkes?" They gasped before they lost consciousness. Fawkes looked at them with the avian equivalent of a mournful expression, before flaming out.
Harry and Charlus resumed eating while everyone else stared at them in silence. A few stared with blank expressions; others with horror.
"Well," Bill swallowed. "That's one way to get rid of a soul anchor." His words could have been said in a joking tone but his voice shook.
Harry and Charlus swallowed their food, "Indeed," They murmured. Harry looked around and grimaced, "Sorry everyone. I know that wasn't pleasant but that's how it starts. The horcrux was removed from my scar, and Fawkes showed up."
"He put all the human guards to sleep and put them in the main office which was warded against Dementors," Charlus added, picking up the story. "Fawkes was there briefly and because of that they didn't come near us."
"Still doesn't explain how you got the powers of a Phoenix," Charlie commented as he bit a piece of bacon. He continued with a thoughtful expression after he swallowed his bite, "A Phoenix can live for an indefinite period of time and there is no known method of killing them for good or sapping their power. Not that anyone could."
He paused, recalling the knowledge he had gained about the powerful creature. Much like Bill, he was passionate about what interested him which was magical creatures. The Dragon preserve that he worked at had a large library filled with books on all sorts of creatures including Phoenix's.
"Since they are long lived, presumably they have gathered knowledge by observing others," He went on. "humans included. I take it that he shared some knowledge with you? Or gave you a specialized rune?" He added, eyeing their tattoos. It wasn't uncommon for people to mark themselves with magical tattoos or even runes they learned in school but Charlie couldn't think of any rune or mark that gave someone Phoenix-like abilities.
"Its actually much more drastic than that," Harry said flatly but his eyes showed great emotion and his hands shook. Charlus stared blankly at nothing but his eyes began to fill with tears and his lips trembled. "Fawkes sacrificed himself and gave us his powers."
Charlie's jaw dropped - the others had matching expressions.
"W-What? That shouldn't - I mean-"
"I know that it sounds insane," Charlus interrupted Charlie. "But its what happened..."
Fawkes stared down at the young Potter twins. What he was hoping to do now to help them was highly unorthodox not to mention extremely dangerous. Using his power over the mind, he brought the twins into his consciousness.
'Hello Harry, Charlus,' He said to the boys who woke up and blinked at what they saw. They appeared to be in forest filled with orange grass and black trees with red leaves. The sky seemed to be burning and the river that streamed nearby was made of lava. Despite being in a place that should have been unbearable, both felt comfortable. 'Or do you prefer, Lord Potter and Lord Black.' Fawkes continued.
That got the attention of the twins.
'How did you know?' Harry demanded.
'And where are we?' Charlus asked with narrowed eyes.
'In my mindscape,' Fawkes said simply. 'I thought that since you two detested others going into your minds, you would like to come into mine.'
'Your mind?' Harry's tone was still demanding as he looked around. 'Not your master's?'
'Dumbledore is not my master,' Fawkes countered sharply. 'At best he is my companion despite what he may imply to those who follow him. My loyalty rests with Hogwarts and its students.'
'Your loyalty is to the school and its students but not one person?' Charlus asked him slowly, warily. 'They why do you stay in the old mans office?'
'Though I am not bonded to him and though I am loathed to admit it, Dumbledore is a magically and politically powerful individual,' Fawkes stated with avian equivalent of a snort before continuing, 'at least to wizarding Britain. To the rest of the world he is viewed as a senile old man with delusions of adequacy.'
The twins snickered but Fawkes continued on.
'This community takes one look at us and sees power - even those who despise Dumbledore and everything that he stands for.' The phoenix stated. 'I despise being lumped in with him and being used merely as a symbol. But for those who are outside of Riddle and Dumbledore's influence, it gives them hope so I take comfort in that.
'And while I cannot be everywhere at once, I do try to offer assistance to those in and out of the school to the best of my abilities.'
Both Harry and Charlus stared at him, trying to decide whether or not to believe him. So far, they thought this to be a dream or even some ploy by the headmaster who did nothing but play god with their lives and the lives of many. However, they would play along for now to see what would happen and find a way out.
'That still doesn't explain how you know about our Lordships.' Harry pointed out.
'The Hogwarts roll's records the names of all magical children in the British Isles or if they were born to those that went to Hogwarts when they were children. It even records those that transfers in. It is a self updating book that changes the status of each student if they go through such a change as getting married or even gaining a title.'
Harry and Charlus shared a look, neither Sirius nor Remus had mentioned that bit of information.
'Of course, the only way for that information to be known, is if the people involved want it to be known,' Fawkes added to his explanation and the twins relaxed slightly. 'otherwise the old girl keeps it to herself. The only reason I know is because she thought that I could help.'
'Help with what?' Both twins asked suspiciously. 'And are you saying that Hogwarts is alive?'
'With training you,' Fawkes told them. 'As for Hogwarts being alive, sentient is the more appropriate word. She has absorbed the residual magic from spell use for the last millennia, thus giving her the ability to feel. She has no physical body yet but I do believe that even just one of the founders heirs would be able to help her in that regard.'
Charlus and Harry blinked, then shook their heads as one.
'That's-'
'Impossible? Insane?' Fawkes peered at them with amusement. 'There are many things that have been declared impossible like a human being surviving a curse that cannot be blocked or a disembodied spirit gaining a body and yet here we are.'
'Isn't it a little late to begin training?' Harry all but hissed at the phoenix. 'Thanks to the old man, we have no knowledge to fight back and thanks to the Minister we have no tools to fight back.'
'Too late to train? Certainly not,' Fawkes retorted. 'I have a method to give you years worth of knowledge and power to fight against Riddle.'
'What's the catch?' Charlus growled at the phoenix, immediately suspicious.
'For you? Nothing. For me? Everything.' Fawkes answered calmly. 'What I am about to offer is not something miniscule, it is something that will change your lives for the better. All I ask is that you listen to what I have to say.'
"...so we listened to his plan," Harry and Charlus were openly crying. Only Harry had enough strength to speak as Charlus put his head into his hands and his shoulders shook. Hermione gripped Harry's hand and Susan did her best to hug Charlus. "He said that he would give up his power and transfer it into the two of us. He told us that this had been attempted before but the recipient had died because her body couldn't handle the power. Fawkes said that it was widely accepted that one body cannot contain the magic but two or more should do the trick."
He paused to take a shuddering breath.
"It was still a risk and even though we didn't trust him at the time, we didn't want him dead," He continued. "We told him that if he wanted to help, he could just break us out and help us watch out for any death eater activity. He was willing to do that, but he pointed out that the first method worked faster and that while things could go wrong, we could die in battle and he couldn't bring us back from the dead if we used the second."
"So you went along with it," Bill stated after the twins slumped forward and cried some more. The twins just nodded, unable to speak. The others, especially Charlie, had thought about asking about the process but stayed silent.
"It was fairly simple," Charlus croaked after awhile. "The process was almost similar to a power draining ritual except in reverse. Fawkes willed his magic to bond with us and his body began to die while ours began to flourish. A cynic would have called his end of the process anticlimactic.
"Before he became ash his last words were 'Use it wisely'." He pulled Susan into his lap and hugged her to him. "He saved my mum you know." He murmured to her though the others could hear him. "He saved her from McNair when she was in her fourth year; he was a seventh year. Even back then he had a fetish for killing animals. He considered my mum one and well, you can guess the rest." He growled out before sighing.
"If you're wondering if we went through a phoenix rebirth, we did," He continued. "Our bodies burnt up but instead of turning into babies, our new bodies," He gestured to himself then to Harry. "were in place though we had to find new clothes. And because of the familiar bond we have with Odysseus and Hedwig, their bodies changed as well."
"It took awhile for us to get our bearings," Harry had calmed down some so he spoke again. "but the first thing we did after doing so was establish contact with those that were brought to the island. Sorry lads," He smiled apologetically at the red heads in the room. "we didn't trust ourselves to not murder your brother or your mother for that matter. We also weren't sure if you were being watched by the old codger or his pet grease bat."
The red heads nodded in understanding though Bill had a question.
"How did you know about all the attacks though?" He asked the twins.
"My scar," Harry said. "The horcrux wasn't the link, it just amplified it. I was able to pull information from Tom's mind without him knowing. Thankfully he didn't lead any of those attacks otherwise we would have needed to confront him sooner. We couldn't do that until we got rid of the other soul anchors."
There were many nods, that made sense.
"How did you cleanse them?" Charlie asked curiously.
"The goblins," Charlus smirked. "They offered to remove the anchor in Harry's scar after it was discovered that he had one. For a fee of course. We sent them information on their being one in the Lestrange vault and I gave them permission to enter as Lord Black."
"How does that work?" Alicia asked him and his smirk became a grin.
"The house of Black is senior to the house of Lestrange - there was no way they would allow a lesser pure blood house access to their vaults without having the same power," He explained. "Of course, they made sure to leave that in the fine print along with a few other stipulations in the marriage contract drawn up between the two houses. For instance, if they fail to sire a child or take the mark of another magical being, they are considered traitors of the house and I have the right to seize complete control of the Lestrange title and fortune. Its the same for the house of Malfoy."
"Oh!" Harry snapped a finger. "That's what I forgot, we have to Gringotts later and claim a few things."
"One thing," Charlus corrected. "After that we will own everything else."
"How do you mean?" Susan asked, leaning away to look at him.
"When the death munchers pledged their allegiances to Riddle, they inadvertently gave him control of their houses."
"The slave laws," Fred breathed, looking at them in awe. George was too stunned to speak. "The second they took the mark, they gave up any right to their fortunes."
"Yep," Harry said cheerfully. "Technically speaking, I've owned their fortunes and properties since I was a baby but I couldn't claim them until I was of age and Riddle was still around. The solution to the first problem was provided by the ministry, headmaster Dumb arse, Highmaster weak chin, and Madam Maxime."
"The tournament." Hermione supplied with a nod. "Is that why you two and...Padfoot and Moony would disappear from time to time." She remembered them sneaking about the house and would be gone for indefinite periods of time during the summer after fourth year.
"Yeah," Harry nodded softly. "We were planning to spring Sirius loose the first chance we had and stick it to the old man but..." He trailed off and closed his eyes as he remembered his godfathers smiling face as he went through the veil. He had accepted that he wasn't entirely to blame for what happened that night but he still felt awful about it.
"Dobby?" Charlus called and the elf appeared. "Could you please bring me some parchment, a pen, and a candle?" The elf snapped his fingers and the items requested appeared on the table. "Hold on one second." He gently put Susan back in her seat and started to write two separate notes. One was addressed to Amelia Bones, the other was addressed to their contact in Gringotts, account manager Bloodfang. He folded the notes over and lit the candle with a wave of his hand.
He waited a bit for the melted wax to pool before he lifted the candle and poured it over each note and pressed his signet ring into the wax.
"Take these to their recipients and wait for a reply," He handed the notes to Dobby. "You can come back after that. Thank you." He nodded to the elf as he disappeared.
"What was that for?" Katie inquired as Harry sent a small but grateful smile to his brother.
"I was inviting Amelia to join us at Gringotts and I was letting one of my account mangers know that we would be arriving at noon." He cast a quick tempus charm with his hand and it was only nine o'clock. "Plenty of time so let's eat up." He nodded to everyone else before tucking back into his food.
Harry and Charlus looked at one another and grinned slightly as everyone began to eat again. After all these years of pain, things were finally looking up. They actually hoped that the old man and his order would interfere while they were in the bank. They wouldn't kill them or wish them death, because after all, they weren't Snape the grease bat. They would, however, make sure that those arseholes knew their place in the new world order - at the bottom of the barrel with the rest of the sheep. With those vicious thoughts in mind, they ate with gusto and wicked smiles on their faces.
Not much left to say other than Happy New Year! I hope all of you had wonderful holidays and will continue to have good times throughout 2014! Next chapter will cover Gringotts. Then there should be a few more chapters long after that including an epilogue. Like I said, this story will be short but hopefully you all enjoy it regardless.
- Capt. Hazard