Harry's head was spinning. The revelation about Mister Dark, and then Aunt Petunia offering to allow him to live with them? Padfoot and his family. It was overwhelming to the 11 year old boy as he found himself going down into the crawlspace to continue digging to clear his head.

After some time passed, Harry heard some movement at the crawlspace door. The small door hadn't been widened yet, but after a moment a familiar black dog popped through, moving to Harry and jumping up, licking his face.

"Ackpth! Padfoot!" Harry giggled, wiping off his face. "You mangy dog. What're you doing down here?" The dog's big black eyes stared at Harry as the boy laughed. "Alright, you can stay a bit. I was just trying to clear my head."

Harry resumed digging as Padfoot moved to dig with him. While he worked, Harry found himself talking about how excited he was, but also how apprehensive all of the events made him. He spoke of his excitement for the coming year, and now the eagerness to have him in the same house.

"I don't know, Sirius. I want to do something to help you, but I don't know what. It's not like I have as much pull as Lord Malfoy." Harry ended the long conversation, shaking his head as he tossed a shovelful of dirt into a nearby wheelbarrow.

Sirius shifted back into his human form, moving to help carry a few more bricks to the side. "Harry, I didn't come to you for help. I came to you to make sure you were safe and happy. You weren't happy when I found you, but now? It feels like you have a family here."

Harry nodded, wiping some sweat from his brow. "I know, Sirius. But I still want to help you somehow." Sirius considered, stroking his goatee. After a second, he nodded and spoke up, "Well, Pup. You are a Lord once you turn seventeen. If I can last until then, you could—"

Harry's face blossomed into a smile, quickly interrupting his godfather, "That's it, Padfoot! I can get my Uncle to put forward a motion on the Wizengamot! I may not be old enough to take my Lordship title, but my Uncle can, as Regent of House Potter!"

Sirius looked surprised. "Your Uncle. A muggle? They wouldn't let him anywhere near the Wizengamot chambers."

Harry froze, and then frowned. "Really? Even if one is acting on behalf of a Lord Apparent?"

"Well, the Wizengamot is the site of the old Wizard's Council. There's never been a muggle within its circle. Ever." Sirius shook his head. "Your Uncle may be your guardian, but that won't get him very far in the wizarding world unless he has magic that we don't know of."

Harry thought about what Sirius said, digging a bit more dirt. As his eyes fell onto his drill, Harry had an idea. A devilishly wicked idea. "Then I'll just have to find a way to give Uncle Vernon magic."

Sirius looked at Harry's face, a whimper escaping his lips. He had seen that face before on James. Every time he had seen it, the Marauders had done one of their greatest pranks and the few times they were caught they received some of the harshest punishments.

Something told Sirius that this wouldn't end well for the Wizarding World.

A day after his conversation with Sirius, Harry heard his Uncle's voice from the entrance of the half-renovated crawlspace. "Lad, you have a letter. Owl left as soon as I took it for you."

Harry set down the drill and hurried out, stepping over the cot that Uncle Vernon had helped him set up temporarily. Amber, who had taken a spot underneath it, poked her head out and then retreated to the shadows. All of the digging had annoyed her, so Harry had made her a nest under the cot until the main room was finished. Uncle Vernon had offered to let Harry sleep in the living room until the basement was complete, but Harry enjoyed seeing the in-progress construction when he awoke in the morning.

Reaching the door of the crawlspace, Harry reached up and took the letter. "Thanks, Uncle Vernon." The boy opened the letter, wiping away the dirt on his fingers onto the work clothes Petunia had recently bought for him.

"Lord Apparent Harry James Potter,

Gringotts Bank wishes to notify you that the audit on the Potter estates has been completed. A second owl with all of the information will be sent shortly after this letter and will arrive within an hour of the first.

This second owl will contain two-hundred-thirty-seven (237) pages of information on the estates of the Most Noble and Ancient House of Potter, as well as the three (3) estates that merged with the Potter House upon the ending of their lines as per the Wizengamot Primacy Laws of 1242.

The owl with the information will not give the information to anyone other than yourself, Lord Apparent, so please be prepared to receive the owl. It has been trained to fight back with lethal force if required to protect its valuable information.

May your riches flow and enemies fear you,

Accounts Manager Stonebreaker, Gringotts Bank and Mountainholme"

Harry looked surprised at the letter before folding it up and putting it on his bed. Climbing from the crawlspace, Harry looked at his Uncle. "There's a secure package coming within an hour, Uncle Vernon. The bird it's sent with will protect it from anyone who isn't me, so I'd better wait for it."

Vernon nodded, saying, "Good plan, lad. Your Aunt's working on dinner, and Dudley is out weeding the garden for his share of the chores. You have sweeping and mopping tonight. Sirius offered to show Dudley some ways to make weeding easier, and I believe they're outside making a mess of your aunt's roses." From the kitchen, Aunt Petunia sighed in quiet resignation.

Harry nodded. Chores had gotten far easier as he and Dudley were now splitting them between the two of them each day. Harry had expected to be handling most of it himself, and was pleasantly surprised when Dudley offered to help. After a bit of discussion, Dudley had insisted on taking over more than half of the chores around the house; he had gotten to work as the evening air had begun to cool.

Harry used the time waiting to sweep and mop the floor, with Petunia mostly focused on cooking. She seemed to enjoy it much more than when Harry had been a kid; it was strange, seeing such a jarring change in a woman that had hated him for so long.

As Harry finished up the mopping of the pantry tiles, there was a screech as a massive eagle owl with pitch black feathers swooped into the kitchen. It was too large for the window, so it soared through the door Dudley had left open. It landed on the living room table a massive parcel on its back as it looked directly at Harry.

Petunia moved to take the parcel, prompting Harry to quickly speak up, "It's a Gringotts owl, Aunt Petunia. It'll attack you if you get it. Allow me." Petunia's hand quickly shot away from the owl, which had slowly been raising its hackles.

Harry made his way to the owl and carefully unfastened its parcel. Once relieved of its burden, the massive owl screeched again and spreading its wings. With a gust of wind, it swooped out of the house. The entire interaction had taken scant moments; and Harry now held a rather hefty parcel.

Seeing his Aunt's curious gaze, Harry shook his head. "It's the Potter account audits. Supposedly some other estates merged into ours due to some old laws."

"Primacy Laws?" Harry asked curiously, making Petunia nod.

"Those are quite common in nobility. Primacy essentially means the older family has rights and authority over smaller families that marry in. Things like keeping the older family's name, and things like that." Petunia explained, gesturing with her hand.

"Oh, I didn't know that. Thanks, Aunt Petunia." Harry grinned, happy to hear something more on nobility. Aunt Petunia seemed a bit proud, as she returned the smile. "Of course, Harry. And if you need any help looking it over, just ask myself or Vernon. We had to go through similar when your grandmother passed. Estates can be tricky business."

Harry nodded with surprise on his face. He hadn't considered that Aunt Petunia would have an estate to look over with his grandmother's passing; it made sense, however. "How do you know all this about nobility, Aunt Petunia?"

"Well, after your mother went off to Hogwarts, I grew interested in how the nobility worked way back when. She always explained to me about—." Harry saw Aunt Petunia wince, rubbing her head.

"That's strange. I can't remember fully… but I do remember that I took interest in noble etiquette and traditions. I even took a history class on it in college." Aunt Petunia looked confused, shaking her head. "This shoddy memory of mine. I can't remember exactly what Lily said to me that made me so interested."

Harry frowned a bit as she said that. Could that be magically related? Maybe he was being too paranoid; why would someone remove Aunt Petunia's memories of his mother? "Thank you anyways, Aunt Petunia!" Harry smiled, as Petunia gave him a hug, allowing him to head to the dining room.

Placing the parcel on the dining room table, Harry turned on the light. Scooting the chair up to the table, he began to examine the letter.

"Lord-Incumbent Harry James Potter

The current liquid wealth of the House of Potter is a total of 1,247,364 Galleons, totaling a net value of 6,236,820 British Pound Sterlingthrough direct currency transfer, or 4,170,960,690.48 British Pound Sterling through selling the raw bullion at current market prices. As always, Gringotts recommends against selling the raw bullion on the market in anything larger than 1,000 galleon increments due to possible loss of value and market crash.

The Potter Estates currently contain—"

Harry continued to read over the different properties and estates of the Potter family, seeing the list continue on over dozens of pages. Harry couldn't help but give a low whistle. "That's a lot of property. Mostly empty right now, but it seems like they also have some older investments. Nothing muggle but it looks like they have quite a bit of magical companies giving them dividends." Harry explained, before moving to grab a book from his trunk.

Returning with the book, Harry set it on the table. "Estate Management For the Young Heir: Knowing What to Look For". He flipped through, reading it alongside the parchment as he took out a quill. As he read, he wrote down things he thought that he should ask about.

It wasn't long before the sun began to set outside. "Whatcha up to, pup?" Sirius asked, walking in from the back yard. Dudley followed, absolutely caked in mud.

"What happened to Dudley?" Harry asked, as Aunt Petunia began to shout at the boy trailing mud into the kitchen. Dudley grumbled a bit and went outside to wash off with thehose as Sirius smirked.

"He thought he could get one over on me, so I managed to get him back. Ended up falling head-first into the freshly-watered flowerbed. Luckily, it was an empty one that was seeding, so no plants were harmed."

Harry rolled his eyes. "And I assume that he wasn't the one who started it?" Harry gave a knowing smile to the Marauder, causing Sirius to return it with an evil, malicious grin. "I may have said how he looked like a potato poking from the dirt while we were doing roses."

Harry laughed, feeling a bit guilty that he found that so funny. "You're a git, Padfoot."

"You know it." Sirius snipped back. "But stop changing the subject. What do you have here?" Sirius asked, gesturing at all the papers.

"The Potter estate audit. Lots of work, and I need to ask the Goblins about a few things. For instance, look here. Turns out a small family named the Keatons died off four years ago, and I am the closest relative. So the estates got folded in due to the Primacy laws."

Sirius nodded. "Pretty simple, pup. But what about those?" Sirius gestured at a second list that Harry had made, Harry picking it up and handing it to his godfather. "Those are investments that haven't been doing well. The Goblins want to shut them down, but one name caught my eye."

Sirius leaned over, looking at the paper. "Emmet Remsworth's Trinkets?"

Harry nodded. "If they have anything on Runes to add to my book collection, I'll have the Goblins renew their contract. It may give me more information on Runes and what to do with them." Harry's serious look made Sirius laugh, "You're an even worse bookworm than Moony ever was, Pup. Wait until you meet him. You'll get along swimmingly."

Harry giggled as Sirius reached down and tickled his hips, batting at his godfather. "Hey, you mangy mutt! Cut it out!" Giggling more, Harry finally managed to wriggle away as Sirius smirked. "Now, how about we put away the boring work for a bit and go do some digging, eh? At least until dinner is ready. You always look happy when digging." As he finished his question, his tickle-attacks tripled in viciousness.

Harry laughed loudly and wiggled under Sirius' tickles, gasping for breath as the man finally let him go. "That's because it's something the Fantastic Mister Fox would do!" Sirius rolled his eyes with another smirk. "You and that book. Alright, pup. Let's get this put away."

Sirius and Harry put away the papers, heading back down into the crawlspace to return to an activity the two had begun to enjoy.

Another week passed as Harry had begun to spend more of his time with his reformed family. It was everything he wanted; Sirius as something of a crazy uncle, Dudley as his rough but kind brother, and Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon as the parents.

During one evening, Sirius had taken Harry and Dudley to the park, empty due to the clouds on the horizon. The three of them had played with Dudley's action figures, with Sirius enchanting them to come alive. The three had so much fun that they didn't realize the time, and had gotten chewed out by Aunt Petunia when they came back after sunset.

Harry found himself relaxing even more than when he had first met Mister Dark; his life felt wonderful. With every day that passed the crawlspace looked more and more like a proper room, expanded and growing with every bit of time Harry, Uncle Vernon, and Sirius put into it. Dudley and Aunt Petunia helped as well, with Dudley seeming to enjoy showing off how strong he was when he carted out wheelbarrows full of what dirt wasn't turned into stone blocks.

Amber mostly kept to herself, all of the activity making her nervous and reminding her of her zoo days. However, after Sirius was introduced the man seemed to enjoy being around the large snake.

"The Black Family has a snake on its coat of arms, you know." Sirius had said as he stroked Amber's head gently. "I'm normally not a fan of snakes, but this snake of yours is gorgeous, Harry."

Harry beamed. "Yeah, Draco had me get a grooming set for her. She loves it when I brush her scales."

"And you say she can understand you?" Sirius asked, making Harry nod quickly. "Yeah, I think she's my familiar."

"Well, it makes sense why you're in Slytherin at least. Please tell me they don't give you a hard time?" Sirius looked a bit nervous, but the nervousness disappeared as Harry laughed. "They did at first, but now I managed to get a few favors and show how strong I am. I'm not really a prime target anymore."

"Slytherin always was about a hierarchy, my brother mentioned before we drifted apart." Sirius nodded sagely before the sound of flapping wings could be heard at the window.

"I wonder who that could be from?" Harry asked, walking up to the owl and taking the letter. It was stamped with the Malfoy seal, as Sirius peered over his shoulder and grimaced. "Oh great. The Malfoys."

"Oh shove it, Pads. You and your dislike of Lord Malfoy," Harry teased as he ripped open the letter.

"But he's a git! And not the fun type! He's always so serious and has a stick up his bum." Sirius crossed his arms as Harry gave a giggle and started reading.

"Heir Harry Potter,

We would like to extend a formal invitation to spend the next month within our manor. Your guardians are welcome to visit whenever they wish, as well as invitations being sent to each of your friends. This includes Ronald Weasley, Hermione Granger, Neville Longbottom, Gregory Goyle, and Vincent Crabbe.

Please return your acceptance or declination to this invitation using our owl. Young Draco is quite eager to have you over once more after such a stellar visit during Easter.

We have also been contacted by one Nicholas Flamel on your behalf about the tutoring he wishes to give you and all of your companions. Our Manor would fit the requirements quite easily, and thus we volunteered for our Manor to be used during the tutoring.

Should you accept, we will be by on July 3rd at promptly 2 O'clock in the Afternoon.

We wish to hear back from you as soon as possible,

Lord Lucius Abraxas Malfoy"

Harry grinned, as he hurried to grab some parchment and quill. Sirius snorted, shaking his head. "While you go and get all tutored up, pup, I'll be here with your Aunt and Uncle. By the time you're back, we should have the crawlspace turned into a proper room."

Harry smiled happily. "You will? Thank you so much, Padfoot!" Harry hurried and hugged the man, who grinned right back and returned the embrace.

It didn't take too long for Harry to have a response for the owl, as it flapped away. His mind immediately began swimming, his hand moving up to the necklace and tugging on it.

He was finally going to be learning about the Philosopher's Stone. He could feel it, the warmth in his fingers as he took a deep breath.

Would Nicholas Flamel be angry? He could just give it back. However when he thought of that, the stone suddenly gave him a jolt of what felt like electricity, making Harry's hand recoil.

"Ow! Ow! Okay, okay. Sheesh." Harry muttered, as the necklace glowed a bit almost with mirth.

Heading to his half-finished room, Harry started to pack up, before heading upstairs for a shower. If there was one thing that he was happy for, it was his Aunt finally allowing him to take showers in the bathroom whenever he desired.

-Author's Notes-

JK Rowling making 1 Galleon worth 5 GBP always astounded me. I couldn't understand how a solid gold coin the size shown in both the books and the movies would be worth so little. I know there's a lot of discussion on how the Galleon might not be pure gold, but I changed it a little. Gringotts offers immediate currency exchange, or they allow you to sell the galleons on the global gold market. Selling too many can cause a crash, so Gringotts recommends otherwise. The "Recommendation" is more of a statement of "Don't do this or we're going to impose fines".

If you're interested in helping to proofread or even something as simple as making sure I don't make mistakes with continuity, let me know! More eyes makes things easier.

There will NOT be a Thursday chapter this week.

Harry Potter is owned by JK Rowling, not me.