About a week before his birthday, Harry and Pepper stepped out of the Goblin Market into the long hall that Harry usually used to get home for winter holidays. It was odd to be using it in the summer. He wasn't even sure where it was on Vanaheim, just that it had both a teleportation bonfire and a wall that could open into the Leaky Cauldron. Physical location didn't really matter that much in a society that had a teleportation network.

Presumably whoever owned the place was used to their lot in life as just another node on Vanaheim's magical highway.

"Potters!" a woman's voice drew their attention. "Wotcher!" She looked like she was only a few years older than Harry, and had blond hair that was quickly and obviously changing to pink as she got their attention. "I'm Tonks," she explained, striding over so quickly she almost tripped over one of the benches around a feasting table nearby. "I'm your escort to the trial."

"Tonks?" Pepper asked. "Like the lawyers."

"Exactly. I'm an auror. But since my parents are working on your trial, I had to recuse myself and I figured I could at least help out by getting you to the althing… and, I'm babbling. Sorry!"

"It's not a problem. Pleased to meet you," Pepper said, extending a hand to shake. Harry shook her hand after Pepper, and noticed that her hair was calming back down to blond, but maybe a different shade than she'd started with.

"Thanks so much for what you're doing for cousin Siri," she said, as she walked them over to the teleportation bonfire. "Mum was convinced that something was hinky, but could never prove anything. Since he should be the head of our family…"

"You're a Black!" Pepper realized. "Oh! Andi Tonks is Andromeda Black. I met her a few times when we were little."

"You got it," Tonks nodded. "She married my dad—who's Midgardborn—and got kicked out of the family. But maybe Cousin Siri can reinstate her. Really rub it in the Malfoys' faces."

Harry grinned, "We are all about rubbing things in Malfoy faces. Uh… but not in a gross way?" He bulled through with, "But why would… oh, yeah. Draco's the heir by default because the rest of the family is disowned or locked up." That had been what Harry had worked out that had inspired his dig at the Minister about the Ministry manipulating family inheritance. "They don't really need to get to gobble up any more money."

"Exactly. I don't even want the Black fortune," Tonks said, "but I don't want them to have it either. Anyway, let me just dial in the right location." She waved her wand at the bonfire and said, "We're ready."

They came out of the fire in a large town square in what had to be one of Vanaheim's biggest population centers. It was on a wide hill, and continuing into the distance he could see the standard wooden buildings that he'd seen in Hogsmeade and the hamlet at the train platform. But closer up, the city center was more built of brick and stone, and even featured houses of several stories. It wouldn't make a list of major cities by Earth reckoning, but might have had space for a few hundred thousand citizens.

The north end of the square was dominated by a large castle. Not Hogwarts size, it still clearly served as the keep for the city. It looked like it had been continuously updated, so was as reminiscent of a city hall or judicial building as it was a fortress. Though it could likely still serve as a strong point in an attack, its primary purpose had become administrative.

"Welcome to Diagonalt," Tonks waved to gesture. "That's the town. The castle is just the Ministry at this point."

"This is basically Switzerland," Pepper explained for Harry's benefit. "The Ministry tries to stay neutral between various nations, so it winds up being a good place for althings."

He mused, "So magical people basically count as Swiss, and answer directly to the Ministry, but for everyone else they're the UN?"

"More like NATO, because they also organize against off-world threats," Tonks interjected. "What? My dad's from Midgard. I know stuff."

They'd been walking and talking, as they followed the crowd that was heading into the castle from both multiple bonfires and just other places in the city. Inside the gates, an immense courtyard was dominated by a golden fountain. It featured the various allied races of the Nine Realms. The goblins were most obvious, and the Aesir, Vanir, Light Elves, and Midgardians were mostly distinct by dress. While the pinnacle of the statue was clearly Odin and Frigga, it was interesting that a robed Vanir wizard was only slightly lower than them, and notably higher than everyone else.

"How's the war against the marauders going, anyway?" Harry asked. He hadn't quite gotten grounded for joining in the battle of Hogsmeade, but he was pretty sure Aunt Pepper had cried a bunch about him having to be in a war when she thought he couldn't hear her.

Tonks frowned and admitted, "They're split up to the point that they're hard to track down, but not so small they're easy for any of our forces to take out. Especially now that it's nice out, they can live in the forests until they raid towns. And we still don't know if more are coming in from various night roads."

"A bunch of them seemed like aliens from way off the Realms," Harry suggested. "They may be dropping in out of orbit. It wouldn't be the first time."

"Huh. Maybe," she allowed, making a mental note. It wasn't like that was really her job, but it might earn her some career points to suggest it. "We go right for the security line for magicals. You have your wand?"

Harry showed it, and they entered an antechamber that seemed set up not that dissimilarly from an Earth airport security check. They walked through a rune-blazed archway and Harry felt his cloak twitch and got the sense it was avoiding detection. "Wands?" the wizard sitting in a warded booth asked, gesturing at a rune-etched marble slab on the counter in front of him.

Harry placed his, and various arithmantic text floated above it, the guard making notes. It was backwards to him, but Harry was pretty sure it was listing both its components and recent spells it had cast.

"Name?"

"Harry Potter," he answered, which actually got the guard's full attention.

"Oh, yeah? Good to meet you! Had a cousin at Hogsmeade for the battle."

Harry retrieved his wand and made yes-I'm-a-celebrity noises until the guard turned to Pepper, who explained, "I'm a squib, just accompanying my nephew. Virginia Potter."

He glanced at Tonks and explained, "Just this once. Since you have an auror escort. But you probably should use the other entrance normally."

"Noted," she gritted out, having been on the planet for a record ten minutes before being reminded she was a second class citizen.

"Thanks, Nigel," Tonks said to the guard, ushering them into the castle proper. "Sorry about that."

"I'm used to it," Pepper admitted. "Just haven't had to be for a long time."

"Right," Tonks nodded, offput by never really having to deal much with the squibs of prominent magical families in her daily life. The Blacks had driven theirs far out of the spotlight even more than the Potters had. It was a little jarring dealing with someone that should have had a seat on the wizards' council, and was clearly used to having political power on Earth, but was a complete nonentity due to accident of genetics. "Anyway, the althing is in the great hall. It's right this way. They don't expect to need you to testify, so we're in the gallery."

They took some stairs up and came out on the right side of an immense room, similarly sized to Hogwarts' great hall but with the galleries and packed seating making room for upwards of a thousand, compared to the few hundred Hogwarts students at each meal. Instead of a professor's table, the raised back section of the room was set up with heavy, padded chairs fit for a few dozen major landholders, themselves facing a small stage at the very apex of the room. On Earth, it would likely have stained glass above it, but they'd gone in for simple plate glass that gave an expensive view of the fields and forests of Vanaheim rolling into the distance.

Before too long, the high seats began to fill up with the clearly-wealthy. Heavily-embroidered fabrics, exotic furs, and bulky jewelry were the order of the day. Harry recognized Neville's grandmother, a few other parents he'd seen on the train platform, and, sadly, Lucius Malfoy. "It's only about a third wizards," Aunt Pepper explained quietly. "Though that's still a lot since wizards make up such a small fraction of the population."

"Could you have made the Potter seat a non-magical one, if you wanted to stay?" Harry asked.

She shook her head, "My father held his seat mostly out of inertia and being good at Ministry politics. We're nowhere near as rich as most of the people up there. Not anymore."

"But Siri could claim a seat," Tonks added. "The Blacks still own a lot, for all that it's been mostly laying idle the last decade."

Dumbledore shuffled in as the crowd seating had mostly filled up. There were still some gaps, even among the high seats, but the room was pretty full. The headmaster was wearing as gaudy a set of robes as ever, though he'd accessorized with some clashing jewelry as well, since it was the done thing. He spoke, his voice magically augmented enough to be easily heard throughout the large room, beginning, "I'd like to thank you all for coming. We will, of course, devote much of today's proceedings to discussions about what can be done to quell the marauding forces throughout the countryside. But first, there is the business of the trial."

"Send in the prisoner!" boomed a middle-aged woman with short, iron-gray hair and a clearly-magical monocle clenched in her right eye socket. Harry had seen her dropping off Susan Bones at the train, and vaguely understood that it was Susan's aunt rather than her mother. So they had that in common, at least, for all that Pepper didn't ever wear a monocle.

Wearing plain, undyed linen clothing with binding runes stitched into it in black thread, Peter Pettigrew was led from a side room to the center of the upper dais by a pair of red-robed aurors. Harry thought most of the runes looked like they were fairly standard enchanting that sapped magic and could be activated to paralyze the wearer, and he wondered if any had been specifically added to keep him from transforming into a rat. Nobody seemed concerned that he would, at least, but Harry wasn't completely confident about that.

The woman that Harry assumed must be called Madam Bones unless she was Susan's maternal aunt recounted, "Peter Pettigrew has been accused of betraying the Potter family, murdering his housemates, faking his death, framing Sirius Black for all these crimes, being an unregistered animagus, and serving as a double-agent for You-Know-Who in the war."

"Very well," Dumbledore agreed. "I understand that there is evidence to be presented, but would anyone like to move for summary judgment?"

Malfoy spoke up, suggesting, "If he's been hiding for the last decade, that means he wasn't bewitched." The "like I claimed to be" remained unspoken: if "Voldemort" had been using the stone Harry had encountered in the book on people he controlled during the war, that wouldn't have persisted a month, much less for years. "I say throw him into Azkaban and let's move on."

Several other thanes dressed in both wizarding and martial styles (the difference was obvious, with them all clustered together) grunted various noises of agreement. "Opposed?" Dumbledore checked.

Madam Longbottom said, "I'd like to hear at least some of the particulars. If he was in hiding for so long, could there be other partisans still waiting for an opportunity to cause unrest? Perhaps providing aid to these marauders?"

That got a renewed round of agreement, from others and even some of the same that had supported Malfoy. Maybe Harry's parents were old news, and Malfoy wanted to keep people from thinking his master was moving again, but the marauders were a clear and current threat. Harry's estimation of Neville's grandmother went up.

"Very well," the headmaster nodded. "I believe that independent speakers have been retained to pursue the topic?"

"We have, chief warlock," a middle-aged man with brown hair agreed, standing from the front rows just before the dais. "Edward Tonks, speaking against the accused." That was clearly Tonks' father, so the darker-haired woman beside him must be her mother.

Vanaheim's tradition of justice turned out to not be as formalized as most of Earth's. They'd at least let go of trial by combat, but justice was still grievance-based rather than the state having the sole right and responsibility to prosecute crimes. Or, essentially, all trials were civil, but civil suits could lead to prison or even death. And the jury and judge was generally the local lord (or, in this case, lords).

It was prone to a different kind of corruption than Earth courts.

Mr. Tonks was a good speaker. He recounted the public knowledge about the deaths leading to Sirius' imprisonment. He described how spying and double-agents had been rampant at the time. He revisited how the only identifiable piece of Pettigrew from the exploded and burned down lodging house he'd lived in was a single index finger, even though the majority of the other bodies had been recovered. He explained how Pettigrew had been completely trusted not just by the Potters, but by Black as well, granting him ample access to Black's residence to steal his wand and plant evidence. He described how the fidelius wards would only drop on the death or betrayal of the secret keeper.

And Pettigrew was clearly still alive. "Please show the lords his hand," Mr. Tonks asked the aurors. With only token resistance, Peter was forced to show his missing finger (where Scabbers had been missing a toe: a piece of evidence from the papers that Harry had largely forgotten since it seemed so random).

"But Black was given a trial!" the Minister finally piped up, from his seat near Dumbledore. "He was judged fairly."

"With the evidence and urgency of the time, perhaps," Mr. Tonks rebutted. "But the records show it was a summary judgment, and Black was not required to speak, due to the seeming preponderance of evidence. He might have been too traumatized to speak."

Dumbledore agreed, "As I recall, we had many to try, so speed was at issue. That emergency althing went for an entire week as it was."

"And this is a trial for Pettigrew," Malfoy interjected. "Again, I see no reason not to throw him into Azkaban and move on."

"If it please your lordships…" Mr. Tonks corrected, "with this new evidence, we would like to revisit the Black trial."

"There it is!" Fudge blustered. Clearly, in front of an audience, Harry couldn't trust him to keep his word in private. Or maybe he was playing up his disagreement, so his allies like Malfoy wouldn't know he'd already agreed to allow a trial? Politicians were annoying. "An escaped convict flouting our laws, without even the courage to present himself."

"I'm inclined to agree with the Minister," Malfoy drawled, though if his tell was the same as his son's, Harry suspected that meant he was anything but calm. "Perhaps if he agreed to present himself…"

"If assured the ability to be heard, he'll be in presently," Mr. Tonks agreed.

That stopped Fudge and Malfoy cold, leaving Dumbledore space to say, "Given that he may only be guilty of the offense of being an unregistered animagus, which alone features much less of a sentence than he's already served, I think it behooves this body to grant safe passage and a new trial."

There was general assent among the lords, and Harry noticed Tonks' mother speaking quietly into a small device in her hand. A few seconds later, a guard at the door announced, "Sirius Black, presenting himself for trial."

"Lead him in," Dumbledore ordered.

And there was Sirius, looking significantly closer to the well-groomed noble he'd been before twelve years landed on him at once. He narrowly restrained himself from waving at Harry when he spotted him, but did grin. It was a grin that turned into a snarl when he spotted Pettigrew, who cowered away and flickered slightly, before a pop of paralytic magic washed over him and he toppled to the floor.

Harry guessed there was a solution to him turning into a rat after all.

"Let the court observe those were the anti-animagus runes on the prisoner," the headmaster explained. "We had previously been unable to prove he was an illegal animagus, as it is a voluntary transformation."

"Mr. Black," Tonks the lawyer asked, "can you please recount your experience of the night of the deaths of James and Lily Potter."

His voice more composed than Harry had experienced yet, Sirius managed, "It was pretty simple. That man," he couldn't bring himself up say Pettigrew's name but did point at his prone form, "came to visit earlier in the evening to celebrate Dísablót. He left me quite drunk. But late that night I suddenly realized I could remember where the Potter residence was. I portalled over, found the place wrecked, and… found James and Lily's bodies…" He had to pause for a moment, clearly remembering the trauma.

In some ways, his pain was more real than Harry's: he had lost parents, yes, but could barely remember them. To Sirius, they had been inseparable for over a decade. Harry choked up a little himself, stuck by the reflected tragedy of someone who had gotten to know them that well. Aunt Pepper gave his hand a squeeze, clearly feeling it herself.

"Baby Harry was alive, though the room around him was wrecked. I picked him up, and by the time I'd gotten him settled and outside, Hagrid had arrived."

"Rubeus Hagrid," Mr. Tonks clarified. "Then keeper of the grounds and keys at Hogwarts. Now also professor of husbandry."

"And also a friend of ours, and of the headmaster," Sirius continued. "He must have remembered the location as well. I handed over Harry, so I could go check on… him. At the time, I assumed he must have been killed."

"I can clarify," Dumbledore announced. "I had also remembered the location of the Potter cottage, but was in the middle of a conflict elsewhere, likely, in hindsight, a distraction. I sent Hagrid through a portal to observe what had happened. He has corroborated his part in Mr. Black's statement. I believe you also told him about a skiff?"

"Right! I wasn't sure how Hagrid was going to get a baby back to… well, I'd assumed Hogwarts. So I told him where I knew an Asgardian skiff was stored. Figured old Hogun wouldn't mind lending it briefly."

Mr. Tonks summed up, "So you and Mr. Hagrid can attest that you had ample opportunity to harm the boy and instead willingly gave him up and provided means to send him to safety."

"I would never harm Harry!" Sirius yelled, a bit of his madness shining through. "He's my godson! James and Lily were all but family." He reined himself in, then said, "Yes. I then portalled to the rat's home. I saw his building destroyed and the aurors, and I thought certainly he'd died… but then I found my own wand in the grass right near where I usually came in. I'd no sooner picked it up than the aurors were blaming me!"

"And you mean us to believe you hadn't noticed your wand missing?" Malfoy pushed.

"I know you've never loved anyone enough to panic that they might be in danger, Lucius," Sirius snapped back, "but I think the arresting officers might recall that I'd barely remembered to put on pants." There was a bit of shocked laughter at that pronouncement. "I assumed that it had rolled under the furniture and there wasn't time to find it."

"I can corroborate the noted lack of proper clothing from the arrest report," Madam Bones said.

Mr. Tonks added, "And can you support that none of the supposed evidence in his home was placed in plain view?"

She nodded, "It all seemed fairly well hidden, which befits evidence of criminal conspiracy."

The lawyer corrected, "Or that it was hidden by a supposed friend while visiting, and not meant to be uncovered by Mr. Black."

"I can't support or deny that statement," she shrugged. "Circumstantial evidence is, by its nature, colored by other circumstances."

"All we've established is that Sirius Black had no interest in killing a baby," Malfoy drawled. "The simplest explanation remains that they both conspired and fell out when the… when You-Know-Who's power was broken. I say, throw them both in Azkaban."

"I was not under the impression that this body was in the habit of throwing its members in prison out of expedience," Dumbledore raised an eyebrow.

"Especially when me going back means his boy stands to inherit," Sirius stressed. "What happens when Lucius finds some way to put himself in the rest of your seats?"

"This body will not stand for that kind of fear mongering," the Minister chided.

"Then let us not give them any reason to believe it," the headmaster shrugged. "I believe we have enough evidence to vote."

It turned out, this involved a lot of shouting, as the landed gentry that had been forced to not hear their own voices for several minutes decided to rectify that. But Madam Longbottom was, it turned out, quite loud, and gradually anchored a decisive sound of agreement on her repeated proposal to free Sirius and have Pettigrew take his place.

Red in the face but without the votes, Malfoy and Fudge eventually gave in.

"Please, take the prisoner away," Dumbledore finally declared, "and we should invite the head of the Black family to take his seat."

Unfortunately, it was not the seat Lucius was in, since the Malfoys were quite rich in their own right. Instead, a minor lord that was apparently just wealthy enough to have a seat was bumped, and Sirius settled in.

And then it was a lot of talking about marauders and how Asgard still had no luck on repairing Bifrost to come help. Hours of it.

Harry was finally able to slip out when they took a short break for snack delivery, with Pepper shooting him a "be careful" look. Then he ran right into one of the last people he'd expected just next to the gallery stairs. "Harry!" the thin blond woman said in excitement, immediately invading his personal space. "Big day for you and your family. Care to comment?"

It took him a moment to place her wearing robes before he finally realized, "Christine Everhart?"

She shushed him. "Remember, I go by Rita Skeeter here."

"Oh. Because of the war. Because," he lowered his voice, "you're Midgardborn."

"Yes. The old man got quite fanciful with his code names by the end," she agreed. "I take it you've met some other Earth students from my class?"

"Maybe. Let's just say that Jones isn't my mother's maiden name." He'd thought for a second about telling her who Remus Lupin really was, but he realized that had more downside than upside. "I thought you just did correspondence reporting?"

She shrugged, "I'm negotiating a new anchor deal, and the local papers had more contacts Earth-side than I expected. And they needed a writer for a… limited engagement this year. So you may be seeing more of me."

"You know, if I was Tony, that would be flirty, but it just came off ominous," he grinned.

She actually cracked a smile back and said, "You don't need to grow up to be Tony Stark. And my readers here wouldn't know what that meant anyway."

"I don't know. You don't want to tell them that the Boy-Who-Lived's aunt is dating the greatest hero of Midgard, whose fortune is so big that it makes the Malfoys look poor by comparison?"

She blinked. "You make a really good point. But right now, do you want to comment on the trial?"

"Justice was done. Eventually," he shrugged. "We're glad to have Sirius no longer getting chased by Mindless Ones. Though they did accidentally help when he heroically showed up at the battle of Hogsmeade."

"You… are just a gold mine of stories, aren't you? What say I buy you and your aunt dinner the next time you're in LA and you let me pick that famous brain."

Harry shrugged, thinking about it. With Aunt Pepper's deal, her coverage of both of them the previous summer had been fair, and she'd even gone a little easy on Tony. "Let me talk to my aunt, but that might work."

"Delightful! I'll email you to set up a time," she said, sliding off with a couple of quotes before Harry changed his mind.

"Careful with that one," a gruff voice told him, as the man that owned it clomped up on a wooden leg. He was dressed more like a warrior than a wizard, but the rapidly-spinning artificial eye was clearly magical, and he had a brace of potions on a bandolier around his chest. "Heard she's a muckraker."

"Thank you, sir, but I've dealt with her before. She likes my stories enough to be fair."

"You think that, but no good ever came talking to the press. Isn't Tonks supposed to be with you?" he demanded.

Harry shot him a look and prepared to bolt if he needed to. "Sounds like something someone trying to kidnap me would ask."

"Hah! Constant Vigilance!" the strange man chortled. "I'm Moody. Auror. I trained the girl. She should know not to leave her charge."

"She's protecting my aunt," he admitted, the guy's story making enough sense to extend some trust. "From boring politics, mostly."

"Maybe, but you should head back up," the man suggested. "Lot more than a reporter around here that would like a piece of you. I don't imagine it will last much longer. The lords start to get sleepy after they've had their snacks."

"Sure," Harry nodded at the creepily-intense man and headed back up to the gallery. "Met your boss, Moody," he whispered to Tonks.

"Oh no!" she told him. "He's a lot, right? I'm kind of going to miss him, though. He's retiring at the end of the month."

"Wait. He's only a few days from retirement?" Harry's eyes widened, and he glanced around, expecting that the universe would use that pronouncement to cause another crisis. The guy had been weird, but Harry didn't want him to die suddenly in a giant battle.

But, contrary to Harry's genre savviness, the althing wound down without any sudden attacks. As Moody had predicted, the shouting grew less as everyone felt the hour and the calories, and eventually Dumbledore called it to resume at a later date. "There's a side room where we can meet Siri and my parents," Tonks informed them, leading them to a different stairway out of the gallery than the one they'd come in on.

The three of them descended into a small room that was set up for side-discussions, with several comfy chairs, a fireplace, and a closed-up antique bar. "Pup!" Sirius announced, already in residence with the elder Tonkses. He hesitated, arms raising for a hug but not knowing if that was allowed.

Harry shrugged and let him. He hadn't had a ton of physical affection in his life, with no extended family and growing up in the Stark Industries offices (tech nerds were not renowned huggers). But it wasn't like he was unfamiliar with the gesture, and it seemed to mean a lot to Sirius. And maybe to him, somewhere deep down and starved for those very familial gestures, if he was honest. "Glad it worked out!"

"All thanks to you," Sirius said, not seeming interested in abandoning the hug immediately, but adding, "and the estimable Tonks clan. And Miss Virginia, for helping organize the whole thing. Oh, this is Andromeda and Edward."

"Andi and Ted," Tonks' mother introduced herself. "And you've already met my daughter, Nymphadora."

"Mother!" Apparently-Nymphadora nearly shrieked. Harry guessed he got why she went by her last name.

"It's bad enough you try to go by your last name in general, but among family it's confusing," Andi smirked, winning a battle in a long war. "Now. Plans?"

"I could come visit?" Sirius asked, slightly anxiously about whether that offer would be accepted.

"Fine with me," he looked at Pepper for confirmation.

"Does he have papers?" she asked Ted. "And do you know how to be on Midgard without being obvious?"

"Sure!" Sirius grinned. "I went to London with James and Lily once! And she used to tell me all about it."

"A ringing endorsement, I'm sure," Ted smirked, well aware of the cultural disconnect with Vanir on Earth. "He does not have an official identity on Earth yet, but at least getting permission to travel should be expedited by taking the Black family seat."

"But that also means that he needs to be here for the next couple of sessions," Andi stressed. "Also, there's the matter of the Dark Dimension."

"They haven't attacked here yet," Harry realized, finally gracefully extricating himself from the hug. "Do you think I scared them off for good?"

Andi shook her head, "More that not even they are fool enough to attack the seat of their contract with this world. We may need to make certain that the exchange of Pettigrew for Siri has been accepted before planning any trips to other populated areas."

"So… give it about a month?" Sirius checked. All three Tonkses nodded that it seemed reasonable to them.

"He could join us in Slovakia!" Harry realized, checking visually with Pepper.

"Just introduce him to Tony first thing?" she widened her eyes, but saw that Harry was excited about it so tacitly relented. "I guess there's not another good time next month before you go back to school."

"What's in Sokovia?" Sirius checked.

"Slovakia," Harry corrected. "Different countries. Next door. Very confusing. Tony would not be going to Sokovia… for reasons. But anyway, there's a European amateur racing championship there about a week and a half before school goes back."

"Car… racing?" Sirius checked. Harry nodded so he grinned, "I always wanted to see racing cars. I was trying to enchant a motorcycle once, but we just couldn't get it working here."

"You are responsible for making sure he won't give the game away instantly," Pepper cautioned Harry.

"I can send Hedwig with letters," he nodded.

"Actually, if Andi's done with it, I might have a better solution," Sirius suggested. His cousin nodded and handed over what she must have been talking into earlier: a small, handheld mirror with intricate runework on the back. "This was another of your father's and my senior runes projects. Works on some of the same principles as the map." He handed it to Harry and said, "Say my name to activate it."

"Sirius Black," Harry checked, and as Sirius withdrew a matching mirror, Harry's resolved into basically a video chat view from the other mirror's viewpoint. "Woah, does this have audio?" There was an echo from Sirius' mirror, so he said, "Guess so. What's the range on these?"

"I guess we'll find out if it's interplanetary," Sirius shrugged. "The runework makes them think they're each other, so it should work at any distance."

"Lavender is going to lose her mind that this is possible," Harry boggled. "She's been jealous of Earth communication tech since she heard about cell phones."

Sirius grinned, pleased that his godson was impressed. "Yeah. We were going to do more work on them but… well… then everything happened. You think people would like them?"

The kid was aghast at the possibilities. "I think you would sell them to everyone at Hogwarts. Probably multiple if you can't make them talk to more than one mirror."

Pepper nodded, "Seems like it could be revolutionary. I take it this is a Potter/Black shared invention?"

"We'll get to work on the ownership contracts, shall we?" Ted grinned.

"After we discuss reinstatement?" Andi raised an eyebrow.

"Right," Sirius nodded. "Does everyone have time for dinner?"

There were general nods from everyone as Harry mentioned, "Oh, right. Aunt Pepper. I told Christine Everhart we'd have dinner with her and let her pick my brain about stuff. She's going to be reporting here this year, so I figured it would help to keep her happy with me?"

Pepper groaned, "I let you out of my sight for ten minutes…"

And that's Year 3. Year 4 starts with chapter 47. This is an excellent time to review and let me know what you liked about this year and what plotlines you'd like to see more of.

Year 3 fought me. It's kind of amazing how much Prisoner of Azkaban hangs on the three mysteries: how is Black getting in, what's going on with Lupin, and why is Hermione acting all shifty? And those are kind of obvious if you've read the books, so nobody wants to just rehash them as if they're still mysterious. The normal solution is to drastically change what happens in Year 3 if Harry knows Sirius is innocent. But I also knew from the beginning I wanted to end on the time loop, so I couldn't break continuity so much that couldn't happen. Hopefully everyone enjoyed what I came up with.

Year 4 has fewer things that just immediately lose tension if anyone shares information, so I'm hopeful that it will fight me less. I was able to use November to successfully put a NaNoWriMo's worth of words into year 4, so there's 50k words in the buffer... which only actually gets us to the second task, because Goblet of Fire defies being written short. Nonetheless, it's rolling along and... Avengers is coming.

See everyone next week!