Here is the next chapter. Please read and review thank you love Hermione xxx
The lessons Ted Tonks was giving the children varied greatly. For instance with Neville and Zacharias who knew much more then the others he was merely teaching spells and wand control as well as wandless magical spells. Hermione was learning the basics of etiquette, wand use and spell casting as well as the laws of their world. Dudley and Damian knew a lot of that now and their lessons which were more then the others focused on being a true Lord and how to deal with that new role. Hermione had wanted more classes or lessons then the rest of them but her parents had apologised and told her to calm down. She was a bit of a live wire and Damian and Dudley seriously didn't like her overbearing and pushy personality. If she continued to be so controlling she'd have no friends which they even tried telling her to little avail.
She would need to work on that and Ted told her that repeatedly. It would eventually sink in. Neville had been a shy and anxious boy when they'd first met him many months ago however he was now super confident. He could ably defend himself where necessary. Even Augusta couldn't get away with sniping at him now as he called her on it every time. Uncle Algie was told he either shaped up or he'd find himself in Azkaban sharpish. He was terrified of that and all that Neville had become so he rarely saw the boy any more as a result of it. Zacharias Smith had thought himself the most important person there and had quickly pissed everyone off including Ted Tonks. He was firmly put in his place and became fast friends with Hermione after it. Damian and Neville were soon the best of friends with Dudley doing everything together and going everywhere as a trio.
They had introduced him to muggle things such as amusement parks, the cinema, the zoo and live theatre. He loved it all. Augusta had attended some of them and while she found it highly frightening at first she did grow to love it very much. Once she had met with Ted Tonks to study the etiquette of the muggle world she was a regular at Leicester Square in London. She would go to the Palladium and many other great theatres like that. She was all in all a year later a changed person. Damian had slipped some phoenix tears into her mouth as she napped on a couch one day unnoticed. It dissolved on her tongue and she did look much younger afterwards. She'd always had some knee pains which were now gone too. He didn't have access to much of the serum though so had only used a couple of drops.
Hermione and Zacharias were more then happy to come together to discuss things of importance about the school but otherwise preferred to be on their own together as best friends. He had hated that she was muggleborn initially but then grew to seriously admire her courage, drive for knowledge and overall loyalty to what she believed in. She wasn't afraid of hard toil either, something he could see endearring her to him a great deal. As time went on they learned more and more about the sacred 28 and why Harry Potter's family were not in it and so on. Damian was very angry now. Why did he need to bother with a blasted quill? He hated them. They always made his writing so nasty.
"But Ted it always looks like chicken scrawl. It's just not fair. Surely there is something else I could use!" he complained pointing to his ruined parchment piece which had dots of ink splotches all over it. It was their tenth piece today. Ted was annoyed himself but not for the same reasons. He could quite plainly see Damian was trying hard with the quill but nothing seemed to be working. Dudley wasn't much better however it wasn't getting to him the same as it was to Damian. It would seem it was just something he would never get. Smirking to himself Ted thought of something oddly muggle which could help out.
"Ok Damian I have a different type of quill which I would like you to try writing with. This quill is different as the ink is already inside you just write with it!" he instructed an angry Damian took the divine silver tipped quill fountain pen and began to write. He was writing seamlessly in one hour and had even managed some calligraphy to Ted's shock. Well at least this looked like a quill. He would buy him a never ending supply of cartridges to take to school in his trunk. He had used magic to get a few thousand of them before one time for his wifes medical healer's practice and his own lawyer firm. He ran the firm when he wasn't busy teaching the boys of course. He wasn't really needed there much these days anyway and enjoyed having someone fresh to teach. He loved getting to be the one to explain the rules and laws of their world to them. Damian decided he liked the quill fountain pen so much he went out and bought a luxurious one inscribed with his name using some of his birthday money from Aunt Marge.
Hermione had also found using a quill quite difficult but refused to cheat like Damian was doing in her own opinion. She would persevere with a quill no matter how long it took her or how many assignments she mucked up. It did take the bones of two years but eventually she had mastered it. She hadn't given up like she felt Damian had. Ted had told her it was not cheating as he used one himself and she cried at the thought of havinng ever been wrong about anything. That in her mind was a failure and unacceptable. He comforted her and warned her against believing wholeheartedly everything you ever read in books too. He was in essence dashing her dreams but it needed to be done so she could grow into the Lady she would need to be in the future.
In the chaos of all that had been going on the past few months James and Lily's portraits had lain forgotten but not this afternoon. Remus was here and reanimated them as Damian and Petunia watched closely. Lily was the first to wake.
"Oh Moony it's good to see you. Tell me where is Sirius?" she asked as his expression grew dark and hers grew worried.
"That traitorous bastard in jail!" he snapped as she went to respond but James who had just woken up got there before her.
"Why? I mean what could he ever possibly do to land himself in jail? Did he kill his mother?" he asked sounding perplexed.
"No he didn't although that would have made sense given how awful she was to him his whole life. He killed Peter Pettigrew and fifteen muggles after he sold you all out to the Dark Lord!" he snapped as Lily took a deep breath and shuddered.
"Remus I am most disappointed in you. I have never felt so let down. Give me a moment to calm down because I don't want to scream at you in front of Petunia although you would deserve it. I need you to cast a spell for me now. It will not make sense at first but trust me and call out Accio Wormtail with your wand! Just do it and stop always looking so shocked about everything" she said as Remus cried huge tears of disappointment shocked when Pettigrew arrived there and summarily was stunned by Damian who had acted so fast Peter had, had no chance to escape.
"Explain yourselves at once!" he thundered at them both.
"We told you and everyone else that Sirius was our secret keeper because we knew there was a mole in the order. We didn't know who it was but we didn't trust anyone so we lied. We said it was Sirius when in fact it was Peter. I just seriously can't believe you'd ever have thought sirius capable of doing that. He was your best friend Remus and you were mine. You've really let me down by thinking it could have been him. I know what we did but I do feel you should have known Sirius better than that. Peter probably has a dark mark on his left arm and everything! Where is Harry? Did he live?" she asked sobbing as he looked at the now unconscious Peter feeling very sick indeed. He shredded his sleeves and there it was the dark mark. Unable to control himself he vomited all over the carpet some of it getting Peter himself.
"I am sorry but I thought Sirius was the mole myself! It doesn't excuse me thinking it was him and you are right I should have known him better than that. I only hope he can forgive me eventually" he muttered as Damian stood up.
"I am here although for reasons I cannot get into now I go by Damian Dursley Black the twin of Dudley Dursley Black. Please don't ask me to explain but Dumbledore screwed up and it was necessary for me to do this in order to properly protect. I almost died because of him and I don't truly know much more then that although do I really need to know anymore then that?" he asked as she wept and cradled James close to her side. Peter was fed some of that emergency truth serum as they weren't sure whether or not he'd be given any at the ministry and was taken there by Remus Lupin. People were horrified to find him alive again kind of thing. In a quick emergency meeting of the Wizengamot he confessed to everything and even boasted about his dark mark. Sirius was pardoned completely and watched in glee as he was given the pleasurable task of sending Peter through the veil himself. It was done publicly in the main atrium of the Ministry which was packed to bursting to see this traitor get what he deserved.
Albus Dumbledore was horrified at this turn of events. I mean Peter had been so useless and mousy pardon the pun. He'd never done or said much to anyone hence I guess being the perfect mole. He felt severely cheated by that! He decided to use Sirius to find Harry Potter. He would state he couldn't find the boy and Sirius being the boys godfather would look high and low for him and spare him the effort. He could have had no idea of course that shortly after being released Sirius gave the same unbreakable vow Remus had and was joyfully reunited with his friend and godsons. He was more then willing to be made Dudley's godfather officially as well. He was honoured by it actually. He eventually did learn to forgive Remus although it took time and he was unhappy with Lily over what she'd told Remus but did get over it. He had taken a whole year to recover and much of that was spent either in hospital seeing mind healers or talking with the portraits. He had resigned himself to the fact that Harry was now and always would be Damian. He was very saddened by it but knew it was the right thing to do. He visited Dumbledore at his request and entred via floo.
''Come in old friend. Please sit down. Would you like a lemon drop?" Dumbledore asked as Sirius entered smiling. In reality he hated Albus for almost killing Harry but was told to play along to find out what he really wanted by Damian. He was instructed to be as kind as possible to get the best result.
"Hello Albus. It's good to see you Professor. You are still looking as well as you did those years ago. I can see you still have the sweet tooth. No thank you although I will take some tea please!" he said as Albus asked a school elf to bring some tea to them.
As he poured the tea and served the accompanying biscuits with it he eyed Sirius seriously. "Sirius it is wonderful to see you again. I am so delighted that Peter met his fate. Believe me he deserved that and than some. I know before that I was all about everyone deserving a second chance but we all learned the hard way recently that those who kill or betray to death do not deserve a second chance. It is wishful thinking for me to think this and I see that very clearly now. I wanted to ask you how Harry is?" he said as Sirius smirked to himself. At last now they were getting to the real reason he was even here in the first place. He knew one way or another it would come down to Harry in some way.
"Actually I wouldn't know that to be honest. I did ask Hagrid how he was but I think he was being a smart arse with me. I think he pranked me and it wasn't cool. Although him being able to prank anyone at all is a miracle. Lord knows I pranked him enough in my day so I guess I did deserve it. Number Four Privet Drive my arse!" he said sounding angry as Dumbledore looked at him utterly horrified.
"But that should be where he is. Who was there instead? Does his family not live there any longer?" he asked really fearing the answer he'd receive.
"Well Mr Montego a Rastafarian man from the Caribbean lives there! I mean I guess Hagrid thought he was being hilarious or something. I looked like a right fool although he did tell me I was not the first person to ask him that question although I didn't know that until he said it to me. Before you ask me he didn't know who the other guy or girl was because when I asked him that he told me this" he said very seriously as Albus paled considerably.
"Do you know the true location of the Dursley family now though?" he asked to which Sirius smiled.
"Of course I do. They live in central London. I am the godfather to their twins. I became great friends with them through Lily and they made me the godfather to their twin boys before the shit hit the fan and I ended up in jail. Actually I've just come from their home. I asked them about Harry and they didn't even know who he was. To say I was shocked to hear that was understatement for sure. Albus I have no idea what happened to Harry but they certainly knew nothing about him. They didn't even know his name until I told them what it was!" he said seriously as Albus gasped rushing over to a filing cabinet which he opened and looked through at a very quick pace. Eventually he pulled out a pulsing globe which showed that Harry Potter wasn't dead. But if he wasn't with them then where the hell was he?
He aparated to the Dursley residence while the boys were over at Neville's house for a sleepover and asked about Harry.
"Petunia, Vernon how are you both? My name is Albus Dumbledore and I was a dear friend to Lily your sister. I was wondering if you knew anything about Harry Potter?" he asked placing a wandless compulsion for the truth on them.
"Look we told Sirius Black when he asked us that we don't know who this Harry Potter guy is. One would assume he's related to John Potter that guy Lily married or whatever his name was. I don't know why people keep asking us about it. Let's just say you're not the first!" she answered truthfully as he paled severely.
"Did you live in Number Four Privet Drive in nineteen eighty one?" he asked as she blinked rapidly.
"Yes we did but we moved here soon after to be closer to Vernon's job here in London!"
"Did you find a baby on your doorstep?" he asked her very seriously looking quite angry. While he was forcing the truth out of them he was unaware that he was getting their version of the truth via protection the goblins had given them against things like this.
"No we didn't. Why would there have been a baby on my doorstep? I'm telling you now I'm a good mother and I would never leave my children on the doorstep in the freezing cold! What kind of monster do you think I am!? I assure you my kids are well loved and I have never done such cruel things to them!" she answered angrily as he looked shocked. They were obviously telling him the truth.
"I am sorry Petunia I meant no offence. Harry Potter is your nephew and Lily and James Potter's son. If he was taken it means you wouldn't know a thing about him. He is technically missing which isn't good for our world. If he doesn't come to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry he will lose his magic and could even die. I must find him at once!" he said stunning them both and removing some of their blood suddenly. He revived them and had them believe he'd never called by. He failed to notice the security camera watching his every move. They checked it as soon as he was gone and asked Kreacher to quickly switch out their blood with that of a skunk. Kreacher could be very cunning when he wanted to and did just that as Albus was looking for supplies in the back room of his office. No one noticed the blood was skunks blood and he was horrified at the results as they showed them to have absolutely no relation to Harry Potter whatsoever. What had he done? Oh Minerva would have his neck for this!