Hi team, Yeah, it's been a long time. But darnit I'm determined to finish this story!
I did some relatively major changes to the tone of the story and to the Tonk-Kai relationship so I'd encourage a re-read but no major plot points have changed so if you don't feel like it that's fine :)
-DB
Last Time on A Shadowed Soul...
You call me a Death Eater, boy, but you know nothing. You think by spouting that bullshit that comes out of your mouth you're fighting the Dark Lord? You want to know what happens to those that are actually fighting Voldemort; you're looking at it! I spent weeks as a prisoner to Voldemort and you see the results. I would have died a hundred times over but they kept me just barely alive. You say I favour Malfoy, but I witnessed him sit there and watch as his father tortured me for hours trying to break me.
Chapter 19: The Winds of Change
Nodding shyly to Dumbledore, Neville stepped through the office's fireplace, calling "Longbottom Manor."
Today was October 12, the day of the 2nd Wizengamot meeting led by Nicholas Gryffindor. Whilst his grandmother usually took his place in the court while he was in school, they both knew today would bring monumental changes in the government. There was no way that he would miss this.
He stepped out of the floo with a grace that would have surprised his classmates. Then again, no one really knew Neville Longbottom. Professor Boudreau might have his suspicions, but that would probably be it.
Just after he turned 11, it came out that Harry Potter was missing, presumed dead. No more than a week had passed before they received a visit from Professor Dumbledore. With the Potter boy dead, that left only one other child that fit the prophecy. Dumbledore wanted Neville to be his replacement Boy-Who-Lived. With a resounding, "I don't bloody think so!" his grandmother had thrown the man out.
Knowing he would be back, they devised a plan. Lady Longbottom was terrified for her grandson. The plan was to make Dumbledore forget about Neville Longbottom as a replacement prophecy child. A very different Neville Longbottom walked through the doors of Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. His grandmother gave him his father's wand to use during the school year and kept his wand at home to use during the summer. The summers were where his grandmother would push him to excel at what he would pretend to fail at during the school year.
The plan worked. Every year Dumbledore appeared less and less interested in his substitute. An unforeseen benefit was Voldemort, once returned, also had no interest in fat, dumb Neville Longbottom. This year, however, was the year he would be free. He was of age, a Lord in his own right. Boudreau's classes would be a perfect way to "come out of his shell" with no one the wiser. He could begin to show his true personality and true abilities.
He had already entered into his role as a Lord in the Wizengamot with his full strength and confidence. They'd see quickly that he was not on be trifled with - Longbottoms never were.
He was excited to meet this Gryffindor character. It wasn't often that his grandmother got excited about something or someone.
Clad in the family robes, Neville and his grandmother apparated to the Ministry of Magic. The tall Longbottom heir carried a briefcase holding the full laws Gryffindor had put forward for changes. Augusta had reviewed them very carefully and had outlined numerous revisions. Augusta would lead the charge today. Her hand on the crook of his elbow, he lead her into the vast courtroom.
Inside the room they parted ways, working different parts of the crowd. This was Neville in his element. He stepped easily into a conversation he was walking by.
"My Lord Meiran, is it not a light wizard's duty to protect the Magical World? Is that not the sworn duty of our brotherhood? "
"Of course! We have to protect our world from being destroyed by magical creatures."
"And how are magical creatures threatening our world Meiran? It is more likely wizards that will destroy it: extinct plants and animals, magics lost and banned..."
"I agree with young Longbottom, Meiran, Werewolves are powerless, the centaurs simply ignore us… " an older man wearing the robes of House Pevara joined in.
"That's dark wizard talk, " snapped the grey haired Lord being scrutinised.
"Meiran, you don't stand amongst cowards who'll be frightened by such an accusation."
All eyes snapped to Neville. Neville was still relatively new to the court so this act of daring was still a shock to them.
Pevara sputtered, "Now Neville, he wasn't trying to frighten us."
"Yes, he was. People fear being labelled dark because the label sticks. People refuse to do business with you, speak ill and wish ill of you. People cower because they do not want to stand out from the crowd. People like Meiran here successfully accuse others of dark wizardry in order to quiet dissenting opinions. Simultaneously we're supposed to believe that dark wizards are hateful people, caring only for themselves AND that only dark wizards care about the well being of magical creatures."
Meiran mouth gaped at the school boy, "You dare speak to me that way boy?! "
"I am not a boy Lord Meiran, I am Lord Longbottom. If you try and insult me then I can speak to you however I want. Do you not want to be at the forefront of the greatest movement for change and prosperity since the establishment of the British Wizarding world?"
"Change? Why must we change? Around here we respect traditions and history. There is no point in change for the sake of change. We are not like those in the West who mess around with magics like children in a game of snap, hoping their card won't be the one that explodes," another Lord stepped forward to stand by Meiran.
The Lords around him nodded in agreement.
"And why is it that tradition is superior to exploration and change? Times change, people change, shall we go back to the tradition of being burned at the stake?" Neville almost jumped when a deep, almost rough voice spoke from behind him. When he turned he laid eyes on the man who was undoubtedly Nicholas Gryffindor.
Tall and broad, he had short golden hair and closely trimmed beard. Neville pegged him around 35 years old.
The other men stiffened at his appearance, another young man trying to tell them what to do.
"Our traditions do not harm others. Ours are about respecting magic and history. "
"How can you respect magic when you ban half of it for foolish reasons? When you never learn from your mistakes?" he nodded towards Neville, "A pleasure to meet you Lord Longbottom, I look forward to seeing you in the court. Pardon me gentlemen, I have a session to open."
As quickly as he came, he went, long red robes flaring out behind him.
Neville watched him disappear around the turn with wide eyes.
One of the other Lords coughed, startling them all out of staring, "Maybe we should take our seats, it is 3 minutes to the hour."
Feet shifted as everyone slowly dispersed, shooting sideways glances at the targets of Gryffindor's comments.
Neville worked his way towards the center of the seating (symbolic of his neutral views on magic) until he spotted a familiar face: Blaise Zabini.
He'd never seen Zabini here before, though he knew he was the heir to the Zabini seat in the Wizengamot, usually presided over by his uncle. Zabini probably begged off school for the same reasons at him.
Pulling together some Gryffindor courage, he took a seat next to the Slytherin, using his wand to link into the microphone and voting system.
"Longbottom," a subtle smirk settled onto the boy's face, "it's good to see a bit of what's going on under that mask."
Neville only smirked casually in response. He should have known that Blaise would be on to him already.
"I'm surprised a girl as smart as Hermione hasn't seen through you yet."
Neville shrugged, trying to come off as cool and amused as the Italian, "Hermione sometimes only sees what she wants to see and she wanted to see me as the character I portrayed."
"True," the other boy mused.
Neville saw the boy's eyes soften when talking about his closest friend. He smirked, what an interesting romance that would be.
"She speaks fondly of you Blaise, I think you should spend more time together," the still chubby boy pushed to keep the laughter out of his voice when he saw the Slytherin's face lose composure momentarily.
The boy coughed, "A Gryffindor spending time with a Slytherin? The lion pride would rip her to shreds." Blaise laughed, but under that Neville could see real concern.
"Hermione? Nah. She's a different woman this year. Feisty. Did you hear that she punched Weasley? Kai has been a good influence on her," Neville laughed, "So unless you're scared of Malfoy and the Slytherins, I think you should just ask the girl out already."
Neville held back a second laugh as Blaise actually sputtered for a second, looking shocked, "What makes you think I want to do that?"
Neville just smirked at him and turned to watch Gryffindor speaking amongst the council.
"Have you met Gryffindor yet?" Blake changed the subject.
"Not officially, we were in the same conversation moments ago."
"It's easy to see how he and Professor Boudreau are allies."
Now that was an interesting tidbit, "I didn't know that. But yes, he does remind me a lot of Boudreau. Hard in a different way though."
"Ladies and Gentlemen, can you take your seats?" the now familiar baritone called out across the courtroom.
When all members had be seat, Gryffindor spoke again, "Welcome everyone to the 2514th meeting of the British Wizengamot. The addenda for the day is in front of you now. I'd like to open the floor to additions to today's addenda."
Neville and Blaise relaxed back into their seats as the meeting progressed through the formalities. They quietly discussed the intelligence of the progression: starting with the easy changes that no one could vote against and slowly working into the more difficult things. Not all of the changes that Neville and his grandmother reviewed were up for discussion in this meeting; there was no need to overwhelm the members.
The werewolf hospital restrictions were the first to go. There was some token resistance from some stringent light wizards and a few Voldemort sympathizers. Voldemort can a lot to gain from werewolf restrictions. The next were job restrictions for magical creatures. This would likely only impact werewolves as vampire and centaurs preferred to keep their society separate from humans.
As the meeting came closer to ending, everyone was surprised when Gryffindor was cut off mid sentence by a small scroll popping into existence in front of Gryffindor's face. He looked startled by managed to catch the scroll with magic before it dropped to the podium. Everyone watched with bated breath as he unrolled it.
"Incoming?" they heard him whisper curiously, voice still amplified by the amplification charm.
A large pop was followed by a bang as a mesh cage popped out of nowhere and crashed onto the floor between two of the sections in the courtroom. Neville stood and craned his neck to see what was in the cage.
Gryffindor was in action immediately, casting various charms and shields around the cage in case something dangerous was inside. Inside the cage was an unconscious man. He was a large man and looked filthy. Blaise spotted a note attached to the cage and pointed it out to Neville. Gryffindor approached and read the note to himself.
"Damnit Shadow," they heard in Gryffindor's rumbling tone. The boys noticed a few heads start at that name. Curious.
"According to this, this man is called Peter Pettigrew. I assume that's important?" Lord Gryffindor spoke to the room.
The room descended into chaos. People shouting and yelling at each other in disbelief. Neville was rocked back into his seat. The famous martyr of the Potter group? The aurors had claimed he was dead….
"QUIET!" a voice boomed into the din. Everyone froze, looking towards the head.
"Better. Lady Bones, it seems that everyone knows someone with this name, can you elaborate?"
The Bones Matriarch stood, smoothing her robes as a way to hide her settling herself, "Peter Pettigrew was a friend of James Potter. When Sirius Black betrayed the Potters to You-Know-Who, then Pettigrew confronted him. Pettigrew was killed by Black along with a large group of muggles in an explosion."
Nicholas gave her a concerned look, "So this is apparently a dead man. Can we confirm his identity? He appears to be unconscious but if we have some veritaserum we can easily resolve this."
The tall thick man turned to the cage and waved his wand, jolting the imprisoned man awake. Beady eyes flashed open as the man came awake with a start. Laying eyes on Gryffindor he squeaked and transformed into a rat, clawing at the mesh.
"Well that explains the mesh," Gryffindor mused.
Another effortless wand wave and the man was human again. The audience hid their surprise at such an easy display of transfiguration skill.
An auror stepped forward with a vial of veritaserum. The Wizengamot head dragged the man to the front of the cage, locking him there while the auror administered the dose.
"Please state your name for the court."
The man twitched against the serum before droning out, "Peter Pettigrew."
The courtroom burst into noise again; the occupants stunned.
"Mr. Pettigrew, this court believed you had been murdered by Mr. Black. How did you survive the attack by Sirius Black?"
"Sirius Black did not attack me."
"22 non magical residents England died in an attack where you disappeared, who was responsible for that attack."
"I was. I initiated an explosion as a distraction. I cut off my finger and transformed to escape."
"Why were you running from Sirius Black?"
"Black knew that I was the Potter's secret keeper and that I betrayed them."
Gryffindor's eyebrows raised, "Now isn't that interesting. So Sirius Black, a man this ministry locked up for 12 years, murdered neither you nor the muggles, and was not responsible for betraying the Potters to Voldemort?"
"That is correct."
A wave of his hand stunned the man, "I think that's enough for now. I'll leave the rest of the investigation for the Aurors. Suffice to say that the Kiss on Sight order for Sirius Black needs to be revoked, immediately. And I want to see the trial transcripts for his trial; I want to know how this slipped through."
He looked away from the Aurors and back towards the audience, "This appears to be a good place to stop. I'll adjourn this meeting until 1 months time. Good evening all."
Gryffindor waved towards the council to follow him and swept out of the hall, the aurors behind him floating the cage.
"Why do I feel like that was actually a performance? That Kai didn't just drop that man onto Gryffindor without letting him know?" Blaise whispered quietly to Neville.
"Wait, how do you know that Mr. Boudreau did that? And why? Am I missing something?"
Blaise's eyes went wide before quickly hiding his concern, "Nothing. Just that's the kind of prank Kai would play."
Neville nodded, still suspicious, "I can't believe that Sirius Black, who parents told horror stories about, is actually an innocent man. This is going to cause some massive waves in the community."
"I wonder how the government is going to spin this? This is nuts."
"Never a boring day in your Courtroom Nicolas," the smirking reporter lounged on his desk once more, her crisp pant suit always standing out amongst the robes.
"I keep my promises, Melissa, and I promised never to be boring," Nicholas barked a laugh as he slid into his chair. "Now, what do you need from me for the next string of stories?"
"Well, I have a human interest story featuring the werewolf legislation changes. Think you could send me some names of individuals I could interview? Young families would be best," she said, looking down at her notepad.
"That will be easy," he replied, grabbing a piece of parchment and scratching out a handful of names.
"You know a lot more about this Sirius Black issue then you're letting on, don't you?" she gave him a sly smile, bright red lipstick glimmering.
"Of course not," he winked. "Earnestly I had my suspicions but didn't know anything about what would occur today. I was as surprised as everyone else."
She nodded, believing his honest tone, "I'd appreciate any details you could send me as this unravels; this could be the story of my career."
"It will certainly create a stir, but I will have one for you in a few weeks…if you're brave enough to accept the challenge," he needed to find a reporter willing to release the information about Voldemort's bloodlines.
Manicured eyes raised high, "Brave? My that does sound interesting."
"I'll let you know when I have the information and we'll see how you feel."
After that he dismissed his reporter ally, pleased with their arrangement. She was already receiving attention for the detailed and accurate reporting she was able to do and that was motivating more cooperation for his plans.
Blaize and Neville flooed back to the school together. After passing through the headmaster's office, they strode quickly towards the great hall for dinner.
"I'd appreciate it if you kept my little deception to yourself. I have my reasons for it and they're still important until I graduate," Neville gave Blaise a serious look. If Dumbledore got word…
"I certainly won't give up the goose. I'll just enjoy the look on everyone's face when they realise how they've been played. I look forward to having a stronger ally than I expected," Blaise offered a hand.
Shaking it, Neville nodded solemnly. The Longbottoms would do well to become allies with the Zabinis. His grandmother would be pleased.
The two settled into a less friendly stance as they approached the hall, slipping back into their house rolls. However, as they walked through the doors, the dark-haired Italian seemed to make a decision.
"Mind if I join you for dinner?"
Neville managed to keep the smirk off of his face. He always sat next to Hermione at dinner. "I'd be delighted. As long as you aren't worried about your snakey roommates?"
Blaise laughed quietly, "They never have concerned me."
The two, still dressed in their Wizengamot robes, headed to the Gryffindor table. All eyes were on the unlikely pair, whispering. Neville sat across the table from Hermione, leaving Blaise to sit next to her.
"You're back! How did it go? Did the werewolf amendments pass? What about workers rights?" Hermione smiled brightly as they sat down, ignoring the stares of her housemates as a Slytherin sat at their table.
Neville just smirked and started pulling food onto his plate. Seeing his as a dead end, she spun to quiz the Slytherin.
"So?!"
He laughed at her, causing her to blush, "It went well. We approved amendments 1 to 17. The rest were left for the next meeting. I'm sure Professor Lupin will be happy."
He watched her process that. It wasn't common knowledge that Lupin was a werewolf. She was clearly considering what he meant. Then her eyes lit up.
"You're kidding?"
"No, I'm not."
"Wow. How did he keep that secret?"
"Practice, I imagine."
Neville shot Blaise a "get to it" look, startling him. Should he? He liked her, quite a lot actually. What would Kai do?
Make fun of you about it like he has been for weeks…
After finishing some of the spaghetti dinner, he stole some Gryffindor courage from Neville.
"Hey Hermione, I'm going to the library after dinner to work on the potions essay. Would you like to join me?"
Okay so inviting her to the library was a cop out… but it was a start.
Speaking of starting, Hermione looked obviously startled, "Uh, sure, that'd be great." she stammered out, eyes wide.
"Great, I'll see you there," he gave her a broad smile as he got up and headed towards Slytherin.
The dark haired boy passed Kai and Tonks on his way by, laughing and joking. He hoped that someday he and Hermione could look like that!
Kai waved at Blaise as they passed him. Tonks grinned and shot a hair change spell at his back. It was a pink haired Blaise that continued to the dungeons.
"So what do we need to see Remus about?" she asked, curious.
"You'll see," he smiled as he knocked on the door.
A huge black dog greeted then, Remus pet. She could never get over how much that dog looked like a grimm. The dog pounced on Kai, bowling him over and licking his face repeatedly.
"Oh my gods Padfoot you are so gross!" Kai yelled, pushing the dog off. "Get in there," he pointed inside the door where she could here Remus laughing.
"Tonks!" Remus smiled, "So good to see you. It's been an exciting day for us. "
And suddenly she understood. The two of them were Sirius' friends and family. They needed to hand together to find him.
"Yes it was. I knew about Sirius' innocence before this through Kai, so it is wonderful to see him now exonerated. Do we know where we can start looking to find him? Is he even still alive?"
"Oh, I don't suspect he'll be hard to find," Remus had a cheeky look on his face. What was that about?
Suddenly the dog on the couch next to her transformed. She reacted instinctively, casting rapid stunning and incarceration spells at the now man.
Kai fell off the couch he was laughing so hard.
"See! It's not just me!"
Kai and Remus weren't acting like this was worrisome at all. What the heck? She looked closer at the unconscious man.
…. SIRIUS? He had been here the whole time?
…. And Kai had known?
She whacked Kai on the back of the head, "You bastard he's been here the whole time?"
Kai tossed an enerviate in at Sirius, releasing him from his bonds.
"I've known for a few months, yes. They asked me to keep it secret until we could get Sirius exonerated. Honestly, I only knew because I can sense animagi by touch," he raised his hands defensively.
"Oi!" Sirius grumped as he crawled back onto the couch, "It's good to see you again too Nymmy. Can see why you're dating such a young fella with an attitude like that!"
"Hey now!" Kai protested.
"What does that mean, eh? Actually….how old are you Kai?"
He looked at her sheepishly, "What is age really?..."
"Kai…."
He coughed, "17," he glared at Sirius.
She looked at him with big eyes, "Well I didn't expect that. Ewwww, I'm a cougar."
She paused, "You're the same age as the 7th years HAHAAHHA. Oh my god if they knew."
"Yeah, if we could avoid that…."
Kai wished he could erase that knowledge. His age was another link to his Potter past. Another risk.
Kai and the inner circle of the Order sat around a large wooden table.
"These are the coordinates of the Death Eater club," Kai passed the coordinates over to Dumbledore.
"As you can see, the club is approximately 1200 square feet with the front door at one end and the floo at the other," he was 3D projecting memories of the club.
"Were you able to gain floo access?" Kingsley asked.
"No, the extraction was via the front l door. I pulled memories of the club from Nott's mind in order to correctly act the part of Nott."
"Dangerous. Best we could do with that is get one or two members inside before the main raid started," Moody gruffed.
"Even someone who could shut down floo access. It would be easy for them to escape via floo. Unfortunately there are no anti-floo wards that I could put in place for you outside the club. "
The group leaned back in their chairs, watching the room model spin. Dumbledore had easily recognized that it must have been Shadow that had captured Pettigrew. When Kai had elaborated some on the plot Dumbledore saw the opportunity for a larger raid.
"I have an idea…," Moody smiled devilishly.
Let me know what you think! How many of my original readers are still around I wonder!