Shamal was heartily glad to see Renato...with a few bewildered extras.
Sirius promptly cuddled with his godson, beyond relieved that Richard had the sense to convince James to have Hadrian delivered to a secure location via the Potter elves if anything happened to him and Lily. Dumbledore had openly admitted he planned to send Harry away to Lily's only living relatives (he cited blood wards, ridiculous) only to rear back when Richard's viper tongue made a reappearance and ripped that idea to shreds.
He could still remember the telling off Richard gave the man.
Two days earlier...
Richard was openly annoyed when Dumbledore accosted him after Snape's brief trial.
Snape was still surprised he cared enough to rip the jury to shreds on his behalf. At this point the Wizangamot had learned that when Richard came to someone's defense, it was easier to cave than be subject to his vicious tongue-lashing.
"Richard," he said evenly.
"It's Steward Potter, to you," said Richard snidely.
"Where is Harry?" demanded Dumbledore.
"Where he belongs. With his family, not with whoever you think is an acceptable guardian," said Richard flatly.
"May I ask how you were able to retrieve him?"
"None of your damn business."
"He needs to live with Petunia."
"Who?" said Richard.
"Lily's older sister. There are specific wards that would keep him safe."
"Like hell! Petunia hated Lily for having magic when she didn't! They got into a row at the wedding, for Loki's sake!" said Sirius pissed.
Richard's eyes grew dark and cold.
"And you want to put my heir with that?" he demanded. "What sort of wards would require leaving Harry with someone who would hate him for something he couldn't control?"
"Lily's sacrifice created blood wards. He needs to stay with Petunia for his protection."
Richard stared at him in disbelief.
"Are you a Hel-be-damned idiot? Blood wards went extinct for a reason centuries ago! Never mind that they are next to useless, they require an active magical to sustain themselves. If Lily's sister is a mundane who hates magic, then the only ones it could draw power from are Harry and possibly her son! Are you really so willing to cripple children for something like Blood wards?!"
"There would be other protections," said Dumbledore quickly.
"No. Harry stays with me and if you're still headmaster when he comes of age to go to school I will have him sent to Beauxbatons, tradition be damned," snapped Richard. "The fact you were so quick to seal James' will without bothering to put it into effect makes me have serious doubts about your competence and your motives in concern to Harry."
Dumbledore was silent, and he was clearly not happy about this turn of events.
Richard and Sirius left the Ministry with Snape.
In Italy
"Thank Loki that's over with. I knew there was a reason I ditched the English enclaves the first chance I had," said Renato with open relief.
"Why did you come to get Sirius and the others?" asked Remus. He had arrived a day before they left, and after being thoroughly chastised by Richard for not staying in contact, had been quick to join them.
"Partly because I had the feeling that someone might try to claim Hadrian for themselves once he was found, but the second I found out about the trials I knew someone had to intervene before a lot of mistakes were made. Good thing too, they would have thrown Sirius and Barry into Azkaban for life if I hadn't."
"How did you retrieve Harry?" asked Remus.
"I know that one. Richard ordered Mipsy to be Harry's personal elf bodyguard. If anything happened to Lily and James, then her only priority was to bring Harry to a prearranged safe location and activate the alert ward that would tell Richard he was there. She could do other duties, but if they died then her orders were absolute," said Sirius. "James was okay with it when he explained why."
"I wasn't about to go traipsing around England to find my son when I could simply have a house elf on standby for the worst," snarked Renato. "And for the last time, my name around here is Renato, not Richard."
"You're still a Dick to me," said Sirius cheekily.
Renato shot him a foul look...before sending a wandless stinging hex to the balls his way. Sirius wasn't quite fast enough to avoid it and squawked loudly.
"Where is Snape?" asked Barry (formerly Barty).
"Told him to go house hunting. I'm not stupid enough to use a registered Potter or Black property until I know damn well what that old bastard's end game is with my son. And since I know you two mutts will likely stick around to act as free babysitters, I plan on buying one with plenty of rooms."
Three months later
Renato inspected the property with the critical eye of someone who spent far too much time breaking into such places to murder the inhabitants.
Snape had overheard a rumor about one of the lesser, newly created famiglias running afoul of the bigger players and being wiped out, leaving their property vacant and thus open for anyone with the money and connections to buy it. The place was sufficiently close enough to a town to get supplies in a reasonable time frame, but secluded enough that they could practice magic and place proper warding around it that the Ministry wouldn't bother them later.
Between the Potter fortune and his connections, Renato had deemed it sufficient for his purpose. And with a little creative spell work, no one would be aware that "Renato Sinclair" had bought the property, since the name on record was his birth name.
The second the deed was confirmed under his name, the men (minus Remus) went in a swept the place for anything they planned to keep, toss, or ignore.
Renato kept anything connected to the mafia (the family had been too new to have anything interesting, let alone a single Flame user), and after a moment inspected the paintings and artwork before marking several to be sold via the goblins.
If he was going to hang something, he wanted it to be tasteful. Even if it was a replica. And the vases were all so tacky he privately marked them for target practice when he was bored or in a bad mood...it wasn't like magic couldn't fix them later anyway.
Once the place was swept clean...the house was new enough not to have any decent secret passages...the goblin warding teams came in. Renato had it fully warded as if it was one of the older properties, complete with ward stone in the center. Add on top of that the mundane security features that were all heavily shielded from the effects of magic, and the place was practically a fortress.
When Renato settled into a place, he took his security very seriously. Especially since he now had Harry to look after, as he couldn't trust the "idiots" to do it properly.
Snape was just thrilled that he wouldn't be stuck as a teacher. If he had to rely on Dumbledore's testimony then it was an almost guarantee he'd have to train the same snot-nosed bastards he hated so much. He loathed children, and barely tolerated Harry because Renato had proven that the boy was his son and not James.
(Ironically it seemed Hadrian would inherit Renato's bizarre sideburns, which no one had ever been able to fully explain. Made it easier to believe that he was the older Potter's son though.)
"Hmph. Acceptable."
"I swear you would have been a Slytherin," snorted Sirius.
"If I had been I would have ripped several egos to shreds and barely gotten any. At least in Beauxbatons the ladies were much more inclined to my advances without trying to get into my vaults," deadpanned Renato. "Should have seen mother's face when I used the same tricks I learned at school on her. Father was laughing so hard and James insisted I teach him... he was never any good at it though."
"Oh Loki, that was you?" said Sirius laughing. "I wondered where he got all those ridiculous lines... Lily almost hexed his balls off for them."
Renato smirked.
"Well clearly I inherited all the charm, brains and good looks from the family, whereas James got all Gryffindor traits," said Renato smugly.
Sirius and Remus snorted.
"How would you feel about a second Marauder's Map?"
"A what?"
"Marauder's Map. It's something we made sixth year to see where the teachers were and allowed Filch to confiscate to inspire the next generation of hooligans who thought to swipe it. It's password protected and has all the sentience of a magical portrait," elaborated Sirius.
Renato gave the two long hard looks.
"You two are going to help me make one for the house and we are going to make copies. I will not hesitate to drag Snape into this to make it even more effective. Something like that is far too useful not to use," said Renato flatly.
Sirius made a face but didn't complain. At least Snape didn't have to live with them and stayed in the discreet tower Renato purchased for him to practice potions in. It was well within the boundaries of the wards so he was close by, but not so close that he risked having to be around the two Marauders for any period of time.
From what he overheard after a conversation between Richard and Snape, the former Slytherin was loving the muggle methods of avoiding fumes which still kept the humidity right. His hair was looking far less greasy with proper ventilation.
A year and a half later...
Renato was suspicious of the job offer, but considering it was a monthly thing he could safely do one a month and not be bothered once it was over until the next meeting.
But that creep in the iron hat gave him a very bad vibe and it really didn't help that he could feel the amount of magic that bastard had.
Nothing good came from over-powered magical beings offering rewards without elaborating beyond a time and place.
"Barry, I need you to do something for me. I want you to go into the Black and Potter Archives and anything else you can get your hands on and research something about 'the strongest seven' with a connection to soul fire or anything that fits that description. If need be I can set up a research budget," said Renato, pulling out his two-way mirror that was charmed to look like a mobile phone. "If you find references to books that can't be obtained through normal means that look genuinely useful let me know and I'll see about acquiring them or a copy."
He was not about to walk into a trap blind, and considering the 'man' had addressed him by his mafia persona rather than his birth name despite being magical, it was clear he had no idea Renato was a fully trained wizard who simply preferred the mafia.
To be fair, the only people who knew he had magic and had mafia connections were Shamal (who was Hadrian's doctor and had been fascinated with the werewolf curse which was basically the equivalent of the HIV virus) and Fon, who could sense it on him.
The only reason Renato knew the Storm was even aware was the fact the man had openly called him out on it by asking which school he attended. Apparently some of his clan went to Hogwarts.
Barry was far more suited to being a librarian. He adored books and it was a miracle he hadn't been sorted straight into Ravenclaw with how intelligent he was. He had simply fallen into a bad crowd thanks to crappy teenage decisions and peer pressure.
Removing the tacky tattoo the forearms of Snape and Barry had been a complete chore, but thankfully it wasn't designed to work against Storm and Sun Flames, which disintegrated the spell work in the tattoo itself while the Sun Flames healed any external damage. The rest was simply tattoo removal, even if it left an ugly blotch on their arms.
Or in the case of Barry, proudly wore the Potter Coat of Arms on the spot where the Dark Mark formerly resided to cover it up.
Considering Renato saved Barry from an almost literal death sentence at the hands of the foulest creatures on the planet and was offering him up an interesting paid research project, the former Death Eater happily dove into the stacks with fervor.
Somehow he had the feeling this was going to be a complete pain in the ass.
Renato nodded to Fon in the room, only for the Storm to make a beeline his way and throw up a discreet charm to deter listeners with a few twitches of his fingers.
"So, Richard Potter?" he said amused.
"I take it you heard about my performance then?" said Renato smirking.
"Oh I not only heard about it, I paid for pensieve memories," said Fon gleefully. "You have no idea how popular seeing someone cut the English fools down to size, particularly Dumbledore, is outside of Europe. Anyone who's in the know eagerly pays for third, even second hand copies of the expression on his face when you showed up and ripped their farce of a legal system to shreds with logic and common sense."
"...Want the first hand memories?" asked Renato highly amused by this.
Seeing Fon perk up at that, Renato smirked.
"So what's the opinion on this whole 'boy-who-lived' tripe?"
"While surviving that curse is noteworthy, people are more interested in his scar."
"All I know is that the damn thing is infested with malevolent magic, but we haven't found any reference on how to remove it without accidentally killing him in the process," said Renato sourly. "Oh, and the Dark Mark is easily removed with Storm Flames, so long as you have a properly trained Sun handy to heal the damage. The rest was simple tattoo removal."
"Good to know. Some of my countrymen will be relieved to hear..." started Fon, before he stared at him. "Are you telling me you have Harry Potter?"
"His name is Hadrian, actually, and the mutts are currently babysitting. I ordered one of the Potter elves to deliver him to an arranged spot if anything happened to my idiot younger brother and his wife. A good thing too. Dumbledore was planning to rely on Blood Wards of all things, and a woman who reportedly hates magic because her sister had it and she didn't."
Fon openly winced at the idea alone.
"Doesn't he realize that would either cripple the child at best, or create an obscurial at worst?"
"I doubt he cares. From what Sirius told me, there was a prophecy that lead to them going into hiding. I refuse to let my son become another Oedipus case," scowled Renato.
Fon and Renato cut their discussion short when they realized the Sky was attempting to get their attention. Likely to start the meeting.
Afterwards Fon waited until the next meeting before saying "My clan would like to offer their support in removing the dark magic from Harry's scar, and a possible alliance. Any son of yours will have a massive impact on the global enclaves, and we have access to the Chinese Archives...though if you want to read anything in there you had better brush up on the older Chinese scripts. It's nearly impossible to find anything in English, Italian or Latin."
"Barry will be thrilled then. All I have to do is tell him he gets to dive into stacks of forgotten and ancient tomes of magic in a script people have long forgotten and he'll have learned it in a few months, if not a week," said Renato. Seeing Fon's questioning look, he elaborated. "Barry Potter is my cousin on my mother's side from the Black family. His original name was Barty Crouch Jr, but after his father almost sentenced him to Azkaban without bothering to confirm the facts he disowned himself from that family and joined mine."
"Ah. I take it he was one of the people whom you tested the Dark Mark Removal on?"
"He was the first test subject, while Snape helped them to perfect it. He damn near kissed me when he found out that if I hadn't saved him from being sent to Azkaban that Dumbledore would have had him teaching potions. He loathes children and barely tolerates Hadrian."
"Can I meet your son?" asked Fon.
"I think we can arrange a discreet place to share the latest rumors. So long as no one knows he exists," said Renato.
"I know a few quiet places to drink tea and coffee in the Italian enclaves that offer privacy that have a few play areas monitored by the brownie spirits your enclave are so fond of," offered Fon.
(Renato would gleefully make multiple copies of Fon taking one look at his son and cooing at him. Who knew the Storm was a total sucker for kids?)