This was not Dumbledore's finest moment. He had called in several political favors and relied on both his own and Harry's names to get seven-year-old Harry a wand four years early. It wasn't from Ollivaders, tailored to him specifically, but it would let Harry start learning magic far before most wizard children are allowed. It was a complete abuse of power and the type of practice Dumbledore had tried to stamp out of decades.

In his defense, he did feel a little bad.

But it was also necessary. Dumbledore hadn't found it in him to explain to a seven-year-old that a prophecy said he would either kill a Dark Lord or die himself, and had instead used some vague excuse about needing to protect himself from any bad guys who were mad that Harry killed Voldemort. Dumbledore decided not to use the term "Death Eater" just then, but his policy with the name "Voldemort" was to raise Harry not to fear it. Harry had been a little scared about the idea of bad guys attacking him, but mostly he was just delighted to be given a (temporary) wand and learn actual magic.

Harry had been a semi-regular sight around the castle for years. During the school year Sirius took Harry whenever possible, but as an Auror Sirius would be given seventy-two to ninety-six hour shifts with several days off in between. So Harry had two rooms; one at Grimmauld Place, which Sirius had inherited two years prior, and one adjacent to Dumbledore's own quarters. He was at his own school during the day and wasn't allowed free roam of the castle d, but he did call Dumbledore "Grandfather," and the staff members were mostly all "aunts" or "uncles." There were already wild speculation that the Boy-Who-Lived was getting special magical training in forbidden magic and was hand-picked to replace Dumbledore. So far none of that was true. Until today.

Term had ended a week prior, and Dumbledore had cleared out the benches in the Great Hall to give a large empty space for Harry to learn. In all his decades of teaching, Dumbledore had never taught somebody this young and didn't actually know how it might work.

Harry had plenty of instances of accidental magic. He'd shattered a few glasses, turned a few heads of hair wild colors, Appareted to a tree branch and gotten stuck. Hopefully, with this early tuition he would get his magic under control by the time most kids were starting Hogwarts.

"Our first spell is called Vermillious," Dumbledore explained. This was a spell of such simplicity that Dumbledore could cast it both wordless and wandless, but he demonstrated the full movement and incantation. A wave of red sparks shot out of his wand.

Harry was practically bouncing in anticipation. "Can I try now?" Dumbledore nodded. Harry waved his wand and shouted "Vermillious!" as loud as he could. His wand movements were overeager and sloppy, his pronunciation rushed. He looked crestfallen as nothing happened.

"This is natural my boy," Dumbledore assured his charge. They spent the next five minutes practicing precise wand movements and how to properly pronounce the incantation. Harry's next attempt sent a weak red flare several feet in the sky. Several more, and he sent a blast halfway to the peak of the ceiling. The seven-year-old boy looked up in wonder.

"Other one!" he shouted. Dumbledore could only smile at the eagerness displayed. It was the little joys that students had which made being a teacher worthwhile. By the end of the day, Harry could shoot off sparks in half a dozen colors.

When they were finally done, Harry got the gleam in his eye that Dumbledore knew meant he had an idea. "Can I go to my room, and set something up outside?"

"Just remember dinner is in an hour," Dumbledore reminded him.

Harry ran out of the Great Hall yelling "I have a surprise for tonight!"

"It can't be past your bedtime," Dumbledore said back. He shook his head. If Harry asked to stay up late that night, Dumbledore knew he would allow it. He knew he was a terrible guardian sometimes. He just found it so hard to deny Harry anything and would often turn to Minerva to tell Harry no, for which she constantly grumbled about.

And so it was that as the sun was setting Dumbledore found himself sitting on a conjured chair out on the Hogwarts grounds next to Hagrid and Filius. Old Sniffer had died recently and Hagrid hadn't yet bought another puppy, so it was a rare occasion where Hagrid was without a dog on the grounds. Set up in front of the trio was a sheet held up by a bar Harry had asked Dumbledore to levitate, and Harry was currently crouched down behind it. His silhouette was clearly outlined by the setting sun.

"It's a fireworks show!" he cried, and started sending sparks up into the hair. Dumbledore, Flitwick, and Hagrid clapped as Harry sent up red, blue, green, and more sparks. Dumbledore especially watched in delight.

Little Harry had even practiced the order and choreography. At one point, he sent up multiple blue sparks in a row, which each got higher and higher until they culminated in one big red explosion. Red and orange sparks were alternated, blue and yellow were mixed frequently. Occasionally Harry miscast, and sometimes the adults could see him coughing to clear his throat after so many incantations, but the "show" was surprisingly well performed. After maybe five minutes it culminated in a grand finale, which consisted of Harry shooting off every color he knew as high as possible in as large an explosion as possible.

The three adults clapped as Harry came out and took a bow grinning ear to ear. "Well done 'arry!" Hagrid boomed. "Well done!"

"When is it that adults lose such joy in simple things?" Dumbledore asked his Charms teacher.

"When we learn the bigger and better," Flitwick answered.

"The children have life so much easier."

"Truly," Flitwick answered simply.

"Now you really must get ready for bed," Dumbledore told his charge. Harry's face fell a little but he didn't put up a fight and started back to the castle. Hagrid took his leave of the others and went back to his hut on the grounds.

Flitwick fell in alongside Dumbledore as the pair followed Harry up the path to the castle. "You know I've always trusted and supported you Albus," he started.

"I'm sensing a 'but' emerging," Dumbledore said. "And I imagine it has something to do with my training of Harry."

"You've never done anything like this before. I get that this is a special case but you must admit-"

"You know the prophecy as well as I," Dumbledore insisted patiently.

Flitwick cast a muffling charm on him and Dumbldore and grabbed the taller wizard's robes to stop him. "You're training a living weapon," Flitwick said furiously. "A child soldier."

Dumbledore's eyes stopped twinkling so much. "You know how much I value your advice Filius," he said. "But this is out of line. To suggest that I of all people would-"

"Then what are you doing Albus?" Flitwick demanded.

"I'm saving his life!" Dumbledore thundered. Even with the muffling charms cast, Harry turned around to see what happened. Dumbledore waved him on towards the castle doors. Times were so few and far between that Dumbledore needed to use anything other than his reputation that most people often forgot what he was when mad. Flitwick found himself trapped in suddenly hostile magic. It felt like he was moving through molasses. Dumbledore took a deep breath and the sensation faded away. "James and Lily died," he continued in a much calmer voice, resuming his walk towards the castle. "Harry will not."

"Are you sure this is the right way?" Flitwick asked more cautiously.

The old Headmaster shrugged. "I am a teacher. I teach. And I suppose… perhaps an eager student to pass hard earned knowledge and wisdom on to is not such a bad idea."

"You really do mean for the boy to be your protege," Flitwick said.

"I never meant to take one. But why waste the opportunity while we are here?" At this point, they were at the front doors of the castle and Harry had disappeared inside. "Allow me to make sure Harry brushed his teeth," Dumbledore said. "And we can go over that proposal for a Summoner's Court set you made."

Later that night

Harry was reading by the light of his wand well past when he should be asleep. Dumbledore had never taught him lumos, but he knew the incantation and had seen the wand movement practiced a thousand times in his life. It wasn't that difficult to figure out.

The book he was reading was the Potter family grimoire. Sirius had been happy to allow him to take the book to Hogwarts whenever he wasn't staying with his godfather. It was fascinating; from his family's start as Anglo germanics to their conquest and settlement of England to the modern day as an old pureblood house. Well, technically not anymore since Harry was a halfblood and the only Potter left. His favorite part of the book was the bit with pictures of his parents and grandparents. Everyone said he looked just like his father, so when Harry imagined himself grown up he just imagined his dad with green eyes.

A lot of it was really confusing, like the bits about wars and all the names were difficult to keep track of. Sometimes it seemed like his ancestors were the bad guys, which didn't make any sense at all. And he barely even comprehended what half of the family spells did.

But the spells that he could understand made him want to practice magic day and night until he could do them. The most exciting was a variant of a spell called fiendfyre. The spell essentially allowed the caster to create a fire golem in the shape of any creature that he or she wished. But the book said that it required years of practice to control. Harry didn't want to wait years, that was too long.

Harry traced the Potter crest and motto in the corner of the cage. He asked Sirius one time what the weird words were and his godfather said that they were latin. Hic stamus. Here we stand. "Here I stand," Harry said to himself.

His pajamas were black and crimson, the family colors with the crest on the chest. Sirius had commissioned them when Harry asked. Sirius was always happy when Harry took interest in his family history. Harry had spent hours at a time on his godfather's lap while Siriu told him stories about his parents. Harry didn't really understand everything about what it meant to be the last Potter, but he did know that his parents and grandparents and everyone before them had done something special. Harry wanted to do something special too.

He daydreamed about being a hero. Maybe he could become an Auror like Sirius or his dad. Or join the muggle military and fight somewhere like his grandfather. He was only seven years old but already had a wand and training from Dumbledore. Anything was possible.

Harry fell asleep hours late with the wand still in his hand and the grimoire open on the bed, dreaming of glory.

Later that week

Sometimes the Wizengamot exhausted Dumbledore. Sometimes he actively hated the institution. Well, it wasn't really the institution that Dumbledore hated and more so the people in it. There were a few times when Dumbledore almost regretted his policy of mercy on former Death Eaters. This was one of them.

Augusta Longbottom, one of Dumbledore's staunchest supporters in the Wizengamot, was currently debating for a bill that would reduce tariffs on muggle-imported goods. The idea was that more competition and supply would lower prices on certain goods, while of course the prices of magical items and materials would remain unchanged. But of course two pureblood parties; one led by Lucius Malfoy focused on pureblood supremacy and another led by Cyprus Greengrass focused on the free wizarding market, were pushing back against anything that increased muggle influence on the wizarding world. It had been pointed out time and again that the bill would only affect fringe markets and that all muggle imports were managed by wizards anyways, but that didn't stop Lucius from taking the stand to rail against the degradation of wizarding society.

In many ways, the Wizengamot was a relic of the past. It had been founded solely with a hereditary seat for each pureblood family in England. The seats changed a bit as pureblood families died out, and Welsh, Scottish, and Irish families all eventually won the right to be represented. The last hereditary seat to be changed was when the Gaunts were declared extinct. While elected seats had slowly been added into the body, the hereditary seats had stayed. For the hereditary seats to be removed, the people holding those seats would need to vote on the law, and nobody votes themselves out of power. By the 1800's a status quo had been established at a fifty-fifty split. If a hereditary seat is added, a voted seat is added. If a family is declared extinct, a voting seat is taken away.

There had actually been some talk six years prior of removing the Potter seat because the last pureblood in the line had died, but that had been killed early. The Potters had too many supporters.

Most of the hereditary seats weren't actually occupied by the Head of House in most meetings. Most, like Sirius, paid a stand in to take his place so every member could be declared present at the start of the meeting. The job of stand ins were only to vote as directed by the House they represented or more often abstain. There were also rare cases where a Head of House would run for elected office and win, giving him or her two seats for the duration of their term. Dumbledore was currently in a similar situation, controlling one vote as Chief Warlock and another as the legal Regent of House Potter.

Dumbledore led a wide coalition of several parties, one consisting of pureblood families like the Potters, Longbottoms, Bones, and recently Blacks, and two more parties of voted members. One was primarily merchants led by Tom McLaggen, the other activists led by Jen Grishem. They had a majority of the Wizengamot, but were two votes short of the forty-three needed for a supermajority. The hope was that two more seats could be picked up in the election cycle the following year.

During the lunch break before the vote was to be taken, Dumbledore "accidently" ran into Cyprus Greengrass in the corridors. "Dumbledore," Greengrass bowed his head respectfully. He had of course been a student of Dumbledore's at Hogwarts.

"The vote will be closer than we anticipated," Dumbledore said as the two fell in alongside each other.

"I assure you, none of mine plan to break ranks tomorrow," Greengrass promises.

"A week ago, that would have gladdened me. I would not have thought you would resist this bill so much."

"I see no benefit for me," Greengrass answered simply. "My family deals in magical-only goods. And as I have always stood against greater muggle involvement in our own society… well I see no reason to support this."

"So you would rather support Lucius Malfoy," Dumbledore said.

"I'm not supporting Lucius. We just happen to agree on this issue."

"You seem to agree with Lucius more and more recently."

"It's a shame he's so… dramatic," Greengrass agreed. "He cares about the right topics, but his time Imperioused must have shook out some of his common sense."

"I remember Lucius as an eleven-year-old child, as I remember almost everyone in this building," Dumbledore said. "But I also remember him as a Death Eater. Lucius is above all a man filled with hate. I trust you have not forgotten what that hate did to us all."

"Lucius was cleared of any wrongdoing in a fair trial," Greengrass said mildly.

"He was." Dumbledore saw no need to point out the obvious truth.

"This is my office," Greengrass said, stopping at a door with his name on a plaque.

"A stagnated economy is a dead economy Cyprus," Dumbledore said. "The same goes to a stagnated society." Cyprus Greengrass didn't respond.

Several hours later the bill passed with an overwhelming majority.

Sorry that all of these chapters have been pretty short. I've been wanting to get segments out so I'm posting these earlier chapters shorter and more frequently. Maybe later I'll take content equal to both chapters 2 and 3 and post it all together. We'll see what I feel like.

I used the second half of this as an opportunity to explain how the government works a little bit. In the books the Wizengamot is just an equivalent to the Supreme Court, but in collective fanfiction fanon it's the entire government so it's that way in this fic too. The Wizengamot here is more like the House of Commons or Senate. In the books Lucius isn't even a member of the Wizengamot, but again I'm following collective fanon.

The Wizengamot consists of 64 seats, 32 of them hereditary and 32 of them held by members voted in for four year terms. The Chief Warlock gets another vote for a total of 65. The parties go as follows (I need to think of names)

Lucius Malfoy - Dark, pureblood supremacists

Cyprus Greengrass - Economically focused purebloods with supremacist tendencies

Amelia Bones - Progressive pureblood party, part of Dumbledore's coalition

Tom McLaggen - Merchant party, part of Dumbledore's coalition

Jen Grishem - Activist party focused on muggleborn and creature rights, part of Dumbledore's coalition

Amir Patil - Foreign born members and other marginalized individuals trying to achieve more recognition in British society

Another thing to note is that the country is the Magical United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Ireland isn't independent in this world. I doubt that'll ever have an actual impact on the story, but I suppose it's something to note. If you're an Irish nationalist reading this I'm sorry, I'm just trying to find some believable ways for the political landscape of the magical world to be a little different from the muggle world.

If you have any suggestions or ideas, feel free to comment. Feedback motivates me and I'll use ideas that would make sense.