The last Will and Testament of James and Lily Potter

Getting the Potters' will turned out to be harder than getting approval for Tonks to go back into Hogwarts. Jane had gone to the ministry the day after Halloween asking for the Will and was quickly denied.

"You are not the Potters' next of kin." A ministry official scoffed.

"What?" Jane said. "That's not right. I should be. It was the last time it was read."

"Yes and that was when Sara Potter was underage." The man said. "Now that she's of age only she has access to it. You'll need her permission for a copy of it."

Jane had left the Advocates for the Wizarding World office and immediately owled Sara. But before doing so she also asked for Sirius's Will. Which was almost as impossible. It had not been read as he was still alive and the ministry had detained many of his belongings for examination when Jane had asked to enact the Will several years ago. Which she found ridiculous since they wouldn't even give him a trial in the first place. But she was head of investigations within the DMLE now. Which meant anything of his was now turned over to her much to the ministry officials' reluctance and only after threatening to be fired.

That had been little over a week before Harry's first Quidditch match. Hardly a week since the match Jane was sitting in her office at the ministry shifting through the regular reports Tonks had written up from her Hogwarts visits when a knock interrupted her.

"Nice new office," a young woman's voice remarked in french. "I like what you've done with the place. Much nicer than when Dedworth had it."

Jane looked up to find her younger cousin followed by a tall man with flaming red hair pulled into a long ponytail.

"Sara!" Jane stood up and hugged her. "I didn't know you were back already. I thought you said you might need some time before you could come."

"It's alright I had a friend take over for me," Sara said. "This seemed more important anyways. By the way, you remember my friend, Bill Weasley?"

She pointed to the man she had brought with her. Jane nodded and shook Bill's hand in welcome. She hadn't seen him in a couple of years. But he had come over a few times while Sara was at Hogwarts. They were in the same year and even were head boy and girl together. Jane also knew how much Bill had supported Sara in their first year when James and Lily had died.

(She knew that they had dated at some point but had thought that they had broken it off).

"I thought you were in Egypt, was it?" Jane asked him. She was confused as to what he was doing here but she hid it well. "It's nice to see you again."

"Yes," Bill nodded. "Well Sara mentioned that she was having trouble with getting a Will?"

"Sara. You weren't supposed to get other people involved." Jane said disapprovingly. She turned her attention to Bill. "I'm so sorry to get you in the middle of this. I don't want to be wasting your time."

"Too late," Sara chirped. "He's already involved. He works for Gringotts and I needed a bit of help getting it. Tell her, Bill."

At that direction, Bill crossed the room to Jane's desk. Sara motioned for Jane to follow. He pulled from his cloak one carefully packaged roll of parchment. He lay it gently across the table. Jane watched curiously.

"Sara mentioned that you wanted to read the Potters' will again. She went to the Advocate's office and they weren't the ones in possession of it, not really anyway. Gringotts was."

"What?" Jane said. "But I thought the records were transferred over to the ministry once they died? The ministry even said that they confiscated and reviewed it as some sort of evidence to their death and Voldemort's."

Much to her surprise Bill Weasley did not flinch at the name like many others did.

"Yes but that was for only 30 days and it wasn't even the right Will." Bill replied. "Or at least the complete one. This one was the one I retrieved from Gringotts."

He pointed to the rolled out piece of parchment in front of them. Jane could read at a glance the basics: witness, who they wanted to have execute the Will (Jane Morgana Black Le Fay Née Potter was written very clearly in that section.), She can see where it lists her and Sirius as Guardians to Harry and Avalon, listing her as the head of the Potter house until Sara (then Harry) was of age, etc. To Jane everything seemed to be in order and she said as much to Bill.

"Yes," Bill said. "Although there are some odd things that stick out. For starters, where it lists the executor of the Will it only lists you and no one else, not even your husband which is very unusual because often people would list a spare in case something were to happen to you and this was written during a war."

"It's like they knew they would die before me," she whispered.

"But that's not all," Bill continued. "It explicitly states that you are the sole person to review and carry out the complete Will. Meaning that the ministry should not have been able to confiscate any assets listed or even the Will itself. Even with the law that allows them to seize almost any will for 30 days. "

He pointed to the executor sections and Jane read the full thing. The one that he had shown was Lily's Will.

I ,Lily Evans Potter, hereby declare Jane Morgana Black Le Fay Nee Potter Of the ancient and Royal House of Le Fay the sole executor of this Last Will and Testament.

I declare that Jane Morgana Black be the only person to review this Last Will to its fullest extent. I grant the executor full Power to deal with any and every asset and Property under my name and the Potter name (if my Husband, the Head of the Potter House predeceases me.)

If any asset or Property is subject to review by the Ministry of Magic, I require Jane Morgana Black Le Fay to be in attendance and review each asset herself.

"They didn't let me do that," Jane said. "They told me they didn't care who I was but I had ties to the person responsible for their deaths."

"Which they shouldn't have done but that wasn't even the Will they had." Sara said grimly. She pulled something out of her own bag that was hung over her shoulders. "This is the one they gave me."

She opened the roll of parchment and showed it to Jane. It was nearly identical. Except for a few things that were cut out.

I, Lily Evans Potter, hereby declare Jane Morgana Black Le Fay Nee Potter Of the ancient and Royal House of Le Fay the sole executor of this Last Will and Testament.

I grant the executor full Power to deal with any and every asset and Property under my name and the Potter name (if my Husband, the Head of the Potter House predeceases me.)

"That was almost half of it!" Jane exclaimed.

Bill and Sara nodded together.

"We're pretty sure that all of it is like that but once we saw that this one from Gringotts said that you were to be the only one to review it. We, respectfully, didn't read the whole thing." Sara said. "They gave me that other incomplete Will. I know I shouldn't have looked over it without you but I was curious. And I don't know, it seemed off. I mean to be honest what tipped me off was that it listed only you as an executor and that's not even the part that was changed. James's is similar."

"But who would have cut it?" Jane muttered. She picked up both Wills and glanced between them thoughtfully.

"I could look into it if you like?" Bill offered. "I'm a curse breaker with Gringotts, shouldn't be too hard."

Jane looked up and smiled gratefully at him.

"You don't have to do that," she said. "Sara wasn't supposed to get you involved anyway and I'm sure you have a lot of work you need to be doing in Egypt."

"I'll be here anyways. I took until after the Holidays off. My family will be going to visit my brother in Romania over Christmas. I'll be going with them. Didn't think it was worth it to go back and forth." Bill shrugged. "Besides, I don't mind picking up a couple of shifts at the Bank to snoop around. Sara didn't tell me what's going on but for there to be this much of a mix up in the Potters' Wills seems pretty important to me."

"I don't know if you'd really want to be involved if you knew what I am trying to do." Jane said sheepishly.

"You don't have to tell me, really," Bill rushed to reassure. "Honestly if you tell me not to I'll probably look into it anyways. It's a pretty serious problem for someone to have gone around switching Will's."

"Alright, fine," Jane sighed. "You can look. But I think it might be better for your interests if I wait to tell you what I'm doing all this for. Like I said, I really don't want you to be caught in the middle unless absolutely necessary."

"That's fine, Mrs. Jane," Bill said with a grin.

The full moon shined brightly against Jane's office at the Cameliard estate. Remus had assured her that she could go ahead and start looking through the Wills without him. So there she sat underneath the moonlight and a single everlasting candle looking over James's Will. To her surprise the copy from Gringotts that Bill had retrieved seemed to be exactly the same as the one From the ministry. The only thing that she had seen changed so far was much like the change Bill and Sara had shown her at the ministry. The part that listed her as the executor and that the ministry was to not exclude from any review of the Will whatsoever.

But as she poured carefully over James's she started to notice a pattern. In one Will, the one from Gringotts, Peter Pettigrew wasn't listed as a beneficiary to anything from James. It was odd. All two of the other self-proclaimed marauders were listed in the Will, including Sirius. As well as various other friends and acquaintances of James.

(Lily was actually first listed to inherit most of the things in James's Will. Jane tried not to think about the fact James had been confident that no matter what his wife would succeed him.)

Where it listed the distribution of the many Potter estates, the many properties were split mostly between his children and his sister, Sara. The majority being evenly split by Harry and Avalon since James's parents had already left Sara with a large number of Potter properties. James had left a couple to Properties that were out of the way and far from population for Remus to use if he ever needed to during full moons or to otherwise live comfortably. (The reason wasn't explicitly said but Jane and Remus had both understood.) Jane knew that Remus had sold the cottage he had previously been living in before that fateful night and had opted to move into one of those houses that were closer to the Cameliard Estate. (But still not near enough to population.)

Sirius was also left with quite a few properties. James had known that Sirius would likely be left with nothing from his own family as he had been disowned. While James's parents had left some things for Sirius, James clearly felt the need to leave him with more.

Much of the Potter Gold and wealth was distributed the same way. Even in Death he wanted to look after his friends.

Except for Peter Pettigrew.

He was not listed anywhere on the real official document. Was it because he was the secret keeper? And if James and Lily were to die then that would mean Peter would have died first? At least as far as James knew, his friend would rather die than betray them. Or was perhaps because he had suspected Peter?

No. That couldn't be it. James would never risk his family if he had even a molecular sized doubt that Peter was the traitor. No. James likely hadn't even thought of the possibility of Peter being a suspect. So why was he left out of James's Will?

Jane had checked to see if perhaps there was something written that she couldn't see. She performed multiple spells and charms to see if perhaps there was something hidden in the writing. Jane knew that James loved his puzzles. But she couldn't find anything.

The door to her office creaked open interrupting Jane's thoughts and investigation. She looked up to see light stream in from the Hallway and quickly covered the Wills strewn across her desk.

"Hi, sweetheart," Jane said as she hugged a tired Avalon that came around her desk. "You should be in bed."

"So should you," Avalon huffed back. She leaned against Jane who still had one armed wrapped around her.

"I suppose you're right," Jane laughed quietly. "I was just working."

"Uncle Moony told me to make sure you didn't work too hard while he was dealing with his 'furry little problem'," Avalon said.

"Oh did he now?" Jane replied thoughtfully. "And is that why you stayed up? To make sure I wasn't working too much?"

"No, I just couldn't sleep," the 10 year old replied.

"Why not?" Jane asked.

"Thinking about a lot of things." Avalon said.

"Oh, care to share?"

"Well I was thinking…. Why does Hogwarts start at 11 and not earlier like muggle school? And why don't students go home after classes instead of staying the night?" Avalon started to ramble on. "What's it like for Uncle Moony to be a werewolf? Why do werewolves only transform during the full moon and not every single night? If you have to get bit by a werewolf to become one how did the first werewolf come around? Same with a vampire, how did the first vampire become a vampire? Why do you go to work and then come home and work some more? Why are some people magic and others muggles? How are muggles created and where does their magic come from if it's usually inherited?"

"Ok my little philosopher, I think it's time we put that mind to bed," Jane interrupted as she stood up. A hand on Avalon's shoulder to guide her back to her room. "Do you want some dreamless sleep potion? It helps keep the thoughts away."

"That's ok," Avalon said. "I wanna know what you're working so late on."

"Well," Jane said hesitantly. She bit her lip unsure on what to tell her. Could she say that she had finally decided to look more carefully over her parents' things? Would she be ok with that? Obviously she couldn't tell her why. "I thought about what we talked about when we visited your parents."

"About the sign? Or about their stuff? Or about the stories you told us?" Avalon asked.

They had reached Avalon's room. The lights were still out so the room was dark and covered in shadows from the glow of the moon. Jane guided the girl to the bed and began to tuck her in.

"About going through their stuff," Jane said. She sat down in an armchair beside the girl.

"Are you going through it now?" She asked curiously.

"I'm thinking about it," Jane answered. "I'm going through their Will's now. Is that ok with you?"

Avalon nodded. "I think they'd like it if you kept their stuff safe. Can I go with you? To look at their stuff?"

"Do you want to?" Jane asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes!" Avalon exclaimed, sitting back upright.

"Not now! Stay in bed," Jane laughed as she pulled the girl back down. "We'll see if you can. I'll have to make sure it's safe first, ok?"

Avalon nodded eagerly. "Could we go during Christmas? Maybe Harry can come too!"

"We can try. I'll ask if he wants to join us." Jane stood up and kissed her on the forehead. "Now go to sleep."

"Are you going to sleep?" The girl said skeptically.

"Yes," Jane said. "Goodnight, love you!"

She shut the door after hearing a tired 'love you!'. She went back to her office. She wasn't lying to Avalon; she just needed to make sure she cleared her desk in case her or the boys tried to snoop through her stuff like they often liked to do.

As she gathered up the two copies of James's Will, she caught a glimpse of the name written on the one from the ministry.

Peter Pettigrew.

It was the supposedly altered Will from the ministry of magic.

Peter Pettigrew, currently of Pettigrew Hole, 11 Ebon Lane, with the following property:

Nolore Arratisje

Located in Albania

If Peter Pettigrew is predeceased by me or otherwise unable to inherit the beneficiary of the above property will be Remus John Lupin.

Jane quickly looked through the Will from Gringotts in search of the property listed in this one. The beneficiary had a different name.

Remus John Lupin, currently of Moony's Den, Yorkshire, with the following property:

Nolore Arratisje

Located in Albania

Whoever had altered the Will's had given Pettigrew a property he should not have. Jane did not even recognize the place. She had never been to Albania. But given that it was to Remus she was sure that the property could be found in the middle of the woods.

She quickly searched through the altered Will to see if someone had given Pettigrew anything. And there she found him being listed as a Beneficiary of 100,000 galleons.

After scanning the Will from Gringotts she found that Pettigrew wasn't supposed to get so much as a knut. She still didn't quite understand why Pettigrew would be left with nothing. But that didn't matter at that moment.

Someone had changed the Will's. Was this supposed to be Pettigrew's escape plan? Had Pettigrew somehow changed the Will? Or was there someone else who knew he was the Secret Keeper and switched the Wills amidst the chaos of the Potters' deaths and Voldemort's downhill to assist him?

An: disclaimer: I do not claim to know a thing about law and writing Wills. The language and such is all Google.