Chapter 7 - Timeskip and catching up

-oOo-

Aug 15 1995, somewhere in Diagon Alley

The last few years were not kind to Lucious Malfoy. He could remember the very day it began. It was a Tuesday. He went to his usual appointment for tea to try and sway the minister to lessen import taxes on specific items, items that would benefit his businesses. He found the minister more disheveled than usual but before he could inquire about his state the minister jumped up and greeted him like he was his long lost brother. That was out of the ordinary.

Usually Lucius would have a little power play at the beginning of their meeting during which he would allow the minister to have the upper hand. Tea, cakes and alcoholic refreshments would be served. As the conversation went on he would be guiding the topics to the one he was most interested in all while he watched and encouraged the minister to consume as much alcohol as was polite to do. Finally at the end of their meeting Lucius would suggest a course of action for a specific bill or other ministerial decisions that would benefit him or one of his allies while also mentioning his bribe.

Lucius of course would never be so brazen as to openly offer something to the minister. He was much more subtle than that. Every time the bribe came in a different form. One time he informed the minister he was looking for a specific breed of hippogriff, a breed that the minister just so happened to own and Lucius would buy it for an extraordinary amount. Another time Lucius suggested a new vacation spot for the minister through a travel agent where all expenses were already paid in full.

After the out of the ordinary greetings things just continued to be strange. The minister had Lucius sit in a comfortable-then-usual seat, before he placed a tray full of refreshments in front of him, some of which were very rare and expensive. After which the minister cast his usual privacy securing spells before throwing himself in his chair.

Before Lucius could speak up the minister made his offer.

"40,000 (2,000,000) Galleons. No, wait. Make it 41,000 (2,050,000) just in case."

"WHAT!?" Lucius asked in confusion.

"I said," the minister repeated like he was talking to a child, "41,000 Galleons."

"Whatever for?"

"Whatever you want," the minister stated plainly, "you want Amelia Bones fired, you got it. You want her place? I'll even give you her old uniform. You want a new law so that muggleborns have to shave the left side of their head, you have it. All I want… all I need is 41,000 Galleons in either solid gold or as a Gringotts bank transfer."

Lucius was so stunned by that blatant… he didn't even have words to describe the minister's actions. Prostitution? That he just blurted out his original intent for today. "The elimination of the import tax for flux-weed and moon-dust."

The minister looked off into the distance as if he was actually trying to figure out how to eliminate the import tax. After a minute or two he nodded to himself. The minister stood up, shook Malfoy's hand and guided him out of the office.

Malfoy was still out of it and allowed himself to be pushed out of the office. He didn't know what to do so he went back home. Only after he got home did he wonder if the entire meeting was a set up by Amelia to finally catch him committing an Azkaban worthy crime.

Lucius would spend the next few days calling up his few contacts within the ranks of the DMLE trying to figure out what was going on. It was during such a fire call that IT happened. There was a knocking on the wards. He got up to investigate only to find the minister, still dressed in his Wizengamot issued plumbed colored robe, holding a freshly signed ministry decree. On the decree was what Lucius asked for, flux-weed and moon-dust was now exempt from any and all import tax.

Before Lucius could even comment on it the minister demanded, well demanded as much as a short pudgy person could, the 41,000 Galleons. Lucius' natural instinct wanted him to lower the amount or postpone it for some future date. The decree was law now, the minister couldn't just reverse it if Lucius didn't pay up but there was something in the minister's eyes, some animalistic fear that made Lucius pay the man in full.

-oOo-

A similar thing happened two weeks later. Lucius arrived for his usual meeting, the minister would ask what Lucius wanted and then the minister named a price. Lucius asked for an increase in business taxes for muggleborns and first generation half-bloods. This time Lucius was more comfortable with the situation and started to haggle a bit, nothing too aggressive just to see how the minister would respond. Just a few hundred Galleons off from the minister's price. While the minister wasn't too happy about it, no one would be, in the end he did agree.

It took Lucius an entire week after that to start to come to grips with the new reality, the minister and the ministry were up for sale, literally. Any law that he could imagine, any decree, it was all his. The best part was that if the minister were to cross the line, the Wizangamet would kick the minister out and Lucius would be left untouched. It was the perfect arrangement. Or at least that was what he thought.

At their 4th meeting Lucius haggled a bit too aggressively, he offered the minister below 40,000 Galleons and was kicked out. Next thing he knew he heard rumors of Nott and Greengrass entertaining the minister and legislation benefiting their families started to be approved. That was when he finally understood everything completely. The minister was for sale, to anyone.

The future historians would refer to the 1992 calendar year as the year where the Bidding War erupted among the ruling elite. Word spread about how easily one could get things done inside the ministry and chaos ensured. The minister of magic Cornelius Fudge literally did not care who asked for what, as long as the person paid his price he would fight for them like a zealot.

Laws preventing muggleborns from owning a wand was passed. Laws enabling muggleborns to be reclassified as first generationals was passed the next session allowing them to bypass the previous law. Amelia Bones was fired. Amelia Bones was rehired, compensated and the previous DMLE sub-head, Corban Yaxley, was sent to Azkaban. It was insane and the ministry and Magical Britain became a madhouse. It all came to an end in December of 1992 where Fudge's body just gave up. One minute he was arguing on the Wizengamot floor. The next he was on the floor dead. Later examinations would prove that Fudge's heart gave up because of all the stress.

After the dust settled and things calmed down Lucius realized that while he managed to get laws passed that benefited him and his political ambitions, he had lost. He lost his mansion, he sold his businesses and lost his fortune. He was so caught up with trying to buy as many laws as the opportunity allowed him that he literally did not look at the cost. Sometime during the year his wife and son also left him.

Years later he was reduced to a nobody, and while he did have enough money to not be a beggar on the street it was a far cry from what he had. But it was alright. He was still Lucius Malfoy and he still had a plan. A plan that involved a locket decorated with a serpent and the littlest Weasley.

-oOo-

Aug 16 1995, No. 12 Grimmauld Place

Things were looking up for Sirius Black. He was released from his illegal incarceration. He was compensated with an absolutely huge amount of Galleons. He became a department head, a position that entailed influence and a steady stream of money.

He also got his revenge on some if not most of the people that were the cause of his stay in Azkaban. He would like to say it was because of him, because of his cunning long term plan that involved his new department - a position that he established for himself for the sole purpose of revenge against the people that were involved in his arrest but no. Before he could even set up his first long term plan the world decided to throw him a bone, pun intended.

Fudge, who at the word of Lucius Malfoy, quashed any investigation related to his imprisonment was dead. Sirius had no idea who did it or why. One day Fudge just went insane, made a mockery of the ministry and politics to such a degree that even other dictators from third world countries seemed sane and reasonable and then just died. He wasn't sure if the cause of death was natural or someone just got tired of him and decided to poison him but in the end it didn't matter. Fudge was dead and his reputation was tarnished to such a degree that the refugees from Grindelwald's war admitted that life under Grindelwald's rule was more stable.

Next was Lucius Malfoy. Sirius knew that Malfoy was a sick bastard who wouldn't blink twice if he had to sell his own mother to get ahead in life. Still, it did surprise him that Lucius' ambition was so great that he would sell everything else. Malfoy put himself in the poor house, no help was needed. This time he did manage to add his own two cents to the chaos by offering Narcissa and Draco sanctuary from the ever erratic monetary decisions of Lucius. In exchange they would have to give up all their ties to the Malfoy family and revert to becoming Blacks, something that they were very willing to do.

Now Lucius didn't have a house nor family. No family means no heir and if Sirius was lucky Lucius would die without siring another heir. Lucius was a pureblood with a prestigious history, but his recent behaviour was so abhorrent and widespread, thanks to Sirius, that Lucius wouldn't be able to find a wife even if he was looking. Not to mention that because of the rules of high society he couldn't just knock up some random witch to obtain an heir, there were a million little rules on how one needs to have a child to be considered an heir and able to inherit.

Of course Sirius could have Lucius thrown in prison for trumped up charges and make sure the Malfoy name was all but extinct but he was having too much fun hearing about Lucius' suffering and occasionally seeing him on the streets.

Besides Lucius and Fudge there were other people that he took revenge on, but they were so insignificant that he didn't wish to spare the brainpower to remember, except… Dumbledore.

Sirius needed to hold back from greeting his teeth in anger, it was bad for his teeth, his healer told him so.

After he came out of Azkaban things changed. It was like he was blind all his life and now he could see the world in a new, clear light. How he never noticed Dumbledore for the manipulative bastard he was he will never know; and while Dumbledore was someone even he, the Great Sirius Black, didn't know if he could take down there was another reason he didn't act against him.

Harry was alive. Or well, he wasn't dead. Or maybe he was dead but not really. It was complicated and even he didn't understand fully. All Sirius knew was that Harry's place on the Black Family tapestry, a place he got because he was his blood adopted heir and godson, wasn't greyed out. It didn't say Harry Potter either but "Victor Riddle-Tom Riddle". Sirius didn't understand how the names changed, or why there were two names but the important part was that Harry's name wasn't greyed out - something that signifies a person's death.

Sirius had no idea if this was another overly complicated Dumbledore plot where he lied to everyone in Magical Britain about Harry's death and made Harry go to Hogwarts under a permanent glamor disguised as another student for whatever crazy Dumbledore reason; or if Harry actually managed to give the old man the slip.

All Sirius knew that the best chance he had to find Harry was at Hogwarts as the next year's DADA professor and in order to get there he had to leave the old man alone for now. He had to leave his cronies that looted the Potter fortune alone for now. But the moment he has Harry he will have his vengeance and it will be black.

-oOo-

Aug 20 1995, Salem

Draco shivered as he climbed into his cold bed. He lied down and did a few occlumency exercises to clear his mind. The last few years had made Draco very good at this.

Life started good, he was the heir of a rich and influential noble house. His schooling also started well enough. People of lesser station gave him the deference he was expecting and classes were easy enough.

Then 1992 started and his father went absolutely mad. It started subtly. First his father mentioned that he was investing more gold into the ministry but it was more than worth it. A few months later his mother started to complain about the gold levels in our vault, something that Draco never even imagined would be a problem, and his father dismissed her concern out of hand. Finally in the last few months he found more and more people from different trades in the manor to appraise specific jewelry, painting and furniture. The day when Draco himself realized how bad the situation was the day when he went home for the Yule Holidays to find the manor house almost completely empty.

Salvation arrived in the form of his uncle, he offered to rescue his mother and himself from the madness infecting his father and they took the chance with both arms. To his surprise the real benefactor was his grandfather, Abraxis Malfoy, the real lord of house Malfoy. Draco and Narcissa were both shocked thinking the man was dead.

It turned out that years ago his father tried to murder his grandfather. The setup was so pathetic that instead of revenge his grandfather just left for the Americas. He did this knowing that one day Lucius would screw up so badly that it would serve as a fitting revenge. Years later he was proven right.

His uncle, Sirius Black was intense. He was the type of man his father wishes he was. Refined, well educated, and someone who thought of three different ways to murder someone before breakfast. Draco sometimes felt uneasy around him, like he didn't belong.

Luckily for everyone his grandfather wanted to meet him and mother so they moved to America. He enrolled in Salem and it was very refreshing to not be looked at as "the kid whose father lost everything" or have to be a death eater's kid. At Hogwarts the teasing and rumors had gotten so bad that sometimes he would have preferred to be a Weasley. At Salem he made new friends and even found a new lover in the form of Wednesday Addams. A lot of people were creeped out by her. Draco didn't understand why, he found her to be a pleasant and lovely girl, and when she spoke French it did something to him.

-oOo-

Aug 30 1995, somewhere in Little Hangleton

Lord Voldemort stared out of his slitted eyes, or well the slitted eyes of the serpent he was possessing, as he gazed into the abandoned living room of the decrepit house he was inhabiting. Years ago he told himself that "luck" was something that other people believed in and he, The Great and Powerful Voldemort, didn't need such a thing. He was too smart to ever need to rely on such a wishy-washy concept.

Now though? Now he realized how much luck played in his rise to power. If he wasn't the descendent of a powerful bloodline he wouldn't have been a powerful wizard. If he wasn't the descendant of one of the founders of the school he wouldn't have been able to sway the blood fanatical students of his generation. If the children of the current crop of elites weren't blood fanatics and inbred he would have never had the resources to start his rise to power.

In recent years he realized what happened when he didn't have any luck.

First he was blown up by a toddler to spend a decade as a wraith. While being a spirit he became an emotionally driven feral entity unable to think coherently. While he was a spirit he kept on trying to possess other living beings. As time passed he gradually increased his strength until he finally possessed mammals that allowed him to think clearly.

The moment when he "woke up" from his feral state was one of the scariest moments of his life and he vowed to never be in the same situation again.

When he did have enough clarity to plan he was stupid, or desperate, enough to believe that Albus Dumbledore would hide the Philosopher's Stone in a school full of children. That adventure ended with him cursed in the back as he entered the stone's alleged hiding spot.

This time though he was prepared, he had with him a small magical snake that he managed to possess before he lost control. That small amount of planning did save him another decade of being a feral spirit but didn't help him with what to do next. He was so self assured that he would be able to obtain the stone that the only reason he brought with himself the snake was the sheer and utter terror that he felt whenever he thought back to his lost decade.

The following years were spent on trying to find loyal death eaters that would help him return to a humanoid form. Something easier said than done. It took him months if not a year just to travel from Hogwarts to where Lucius Malfoy lived only to find out that he was evicted and the mansion had a new lord ruling over it. He didn't know what the most shocking part was, that he wasted almost another year or that Lucius Malfoy managed to somehow become destitute.

It took him years but in the summer of 1995 luck, and he will start praying to the god of luck and fortune after he gets his hands back, finally started to shine on him. He somehow ended up in the same field as the Quidditch World Cup and during the afterparty one of his most loyal and fanatical death eaters, Barty Crouch Jr., found and recognized him.

In an ideal universe he and Barty would have fled back to a mansion, or at worst the remnants of the Riddle estate, and capture a Hogwarts teacher. Barty would then infiltrate the school to gain Harry Potter's trust only to then kidnap him for a ritual. At the end of the ritual, when he returned to full power, he would duel Potter in front of his followers showing everyone that the Boy-Who-Lived was just a story book character.

He was not in an ideal universe, there were no mansions where they could retreat to and his father's estate was unplottable, something that stank of Albus Bloody Dumbledore's meddling. He did not want to risk Barty to try and capture a teacher and even if they did he didn't trust Barty to fool the Hogwarts staff for long.

Finally there was no Harry Potter to capture, and wasn't that a shock to his system when he found that out. If Dumbledore was to be believed, and he sure as Hell wasn't going to, the brat died from complications over the botched killing curse. While Lord Voldemort didn't know what the reality of the situation was, most likely one of his death eaters managed to find Potter and kill the kid, he was still left without Potter. That necessitated him needing to find the next best thing, Neville Longbottom.

Voldemort didn't know anything about the second candidate to the prophecy but he wasn't going to take any chances. He will have Barty sneak into Hogwarts as a Durmstrang student, slip Longbottom's name into the Goblet of Fire, and wasn't it lucky for him that it was postponed from 1994 because of budgetary issues, and kidnap him after the third task. He didn't know anything about the tournament; he just assumed that the tasks would go from easiest to hardest and hoped to mother magic that by the time the boy finished the third task he would be tired enough to be cursed in the back. He didn't need Longbottom to be whole or healthy; he just needed him to be alive enough to survive a 15 minute ritual. After the ritual he wouldn't wait, he wouldn't gloat, he wouldn't summon his loyal followers, he would sprint out of the cauldron and bash his head open with a rock. If it worked for the cavemen it would work for him.

-oOo-

On the first of September no one noticed four teens flying over England to Scotland following an all too familiar pair of train tracks. No one noticed as they entered Hogwarts castle and no one noticed as they opened the Chamber of Secrets.