Chapter 3 Safe Haven

November 6, 1981

"Ice Mice."

The gargoyle guarding the staircase that led to the Head's office hopped aside to allow Professor Minerva McGonagall passage. The headmaster himself met her at the top of the stairs.

"Ah, Minerva. Care to join me for a stroll?"

McGonagall shook her head. "If you intend this stroll to turn into another snowball fight with the students, then no thank you. Honestly, Albus, you're much too old for such foolishness."

"I find a man is only as old as he feels."

McGonagall's rebuttal was cut short when a soft golden light shone from the thick leather tome on a shelf in Dumbledore's office. The two professors rushed to see which family's newest addition had just shown their first bit of magic just in time to see it glow a second time.

"Twins, perhaps?" said McGonagall.

"No, how curious…it seems young Neville Longbottom has had a change of status."

"What sort of change of status?"

"That I do not know."

It was a lie, but Dumbledore felt no need to apply his Occlumency shields against McGonagall like he might have in other circumstances. Minerva was no Severus Snape. After all, a change of status could mean many things. Frank and Alice could've simply decided it was safe enough to come out of hiding, in which case they would've surely moved back to Frank's ancestral home.

But Minerva was trying to get his attention. "…Albus, what about the other child?" She seemed annoyed, as though she had asked multiple times.

"Ah, yes. A boy named Dudley Dursley."

"What's so curious about a new Muggle-born?" McGonagall wanted to know.

"The boy's mother in particular," Dumbledore answered. "She very much wanted to attend Hogwarts herself, and I regretted having to turn her away. As I recall, her sister confided in me that she married a man named Dursley."

"Who is his mother?" McGonagall asked.

"Petunia Evans. She'll be delighted."

"Albus, focus, I think a trip to Longbottom Manor is in order to find out what exactly is going on."

"BARNABUS!"

Barnabus Cuffe, editor-in-chief of The Daily Prophet, lookedup from his desk as crossword writer Lily Potter stormed into his office. The fact that she had a small child on her hip did nothing to diminish the fury snapping in her emerald eyes, which were as hard as the gems they resembled. In fact, the Silencing Charm she enacted after sitting Harry down in the corner made Barnabus even more fearful of the redhead's famous temper.

"L—Lily, what c—can I do f—for you?" he stuttered. "And may I say your public support of Sirius Black is stirring quite a controversy. The letters I've been getting—"

"I know," said Lily, with poisonous sweetness. "I've read them in the opinion section. But I didn't come to talk about that. I only came to tell you that dear Rita went home for the day. Poor thing came off on the wrong side of a Stinging Jinx."

"Oh dear."

"Yes, it's a true tragedy, similar to the one that will befall you if I find out that you're the one who set Rita and her Quick-Quotes Quill on me! She seems to think the reason I'm so anxious to get Sirius freed is not because he is, in fact, innocent of any wrongdoing, but because Harry is Sirius's biological son and we've conspired to make him look like James using a very strong Glamour Charm. She's calling me 'The Black Widow!'"

"Well, there's a headline for you."

"It's not funny, Barnabus!"

All traces of sweetness were gone from her voice now. Harry was watching the scene with toddler curiosity. Mummy appeared to be yelling, but no sound was coming out of her mouth. He mimicked his mother's facial expressions, drawing a laugh from Dumbledore who had just Apparated into their midst.

"Harry disagrees."

The adults turned to him, and he frowned. "I have some less amusing news, I'm afraid. Frank and Alice Longbottom were attacked today."

"Attacked?" Lily repeated dumbly, a knot forming in her stomach.

Dumbledore nodded. "Tortured by a group of disenfranchised Death Eaters."

"Which Death Eaters?" Cuffe asked, his quill hovering over a fresh piece of parchment. Lily snatched it out of the air. "This. Is. Not. An. Exclusive," she said, punctuating each word by smacking him upside the head.

"How's Neville?" she asked when she was finished.

"Not to worry, dear girl. He was on a playdate with the youngest Weasley boy at the time."

"Oh, thank Merlin."

"Indeed." Dumbledore inclined his head. "Augusta Longbottom has taken custody of Neville until his parents are out of St. Mungo's."

"Oh good. Neville is very important to me, but I think I can only handle one little boy at a time right now."

"Understood, understood. I have some assistance to offer on that score. Professor Binns has been ousted by the school governors after one too many parents complained about the students' O.W.L. grades."

"And Hogwarts is the safest place for us to be if the Death Eaters come calling," Lily added.

"A safe haven, I assure you."

"On one condition, you have to help me free Sirius."