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DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING. AUTHORS NOTE: This was rattling around in my head and any updates if they come will be slow in arriving because I have another story that takes priority.
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Sirius Black flew away from Hogwarts with an unsteady heart and a heavy mind. Things didn't sit right with him. He had been listening to the kids when they spoke to him. Dumbledore had ordered them to mess with time. Dumbledore who if Fudge was to be believed was now Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot. Harry was so small. Harry had wanted to live with him, Sirius Orion Black, escaped convict. NOT visit or stay for a while no he'd wanted to move in right away. He'd been running away from home when Sirius had first met him. Obviously something was wrong there. First Sirius would fly Buckbeak to Uncle Alphard's island. No, no that was to far away by hippogriph. Well if Harry wanted to live with him then Sirius would just have to make it happen legal or not, and the girl with all the hair whose name he still couldn't get right had given him the perfect idea. Instead he'd head toward Eduardus's estate, It was closer and that particular Ancestor had been 'disowned' mostly so the family could save face. He had after all been a very successful serial killer. Part of how he'd done it was the use of time turners. Their were still some at his Estate. Eduardus had evented and built several designs of his own that modified the possible uses of a time turner. The entire place had been kept up in secret no one except the head of the family and his heir were ever informed that the place even existed. Sirius aimed Buckbeak for a small town just outside of London. The old house wasn't much just a modest farming home but with a good few acres attached to it. Enough for Buckbeak to be comfortable. Knowing he'd need a disguise and to get heathy he immediately called for all of the Black family elves loyal to himself. He set them to gathering supplies and cleaning as needed. The Ritual rooms needed scrubbed down and set up. Sirius had access to a whole room full of time turners he could go back with Harry before he escaped prison and cross over to another country. The bedrooms and kitchen needed to be sanitized first so they could actually live here. It took two days of intense work but the house was finally livable. Food was gathered from the greenhouses or purchased discretely from magical farms, and stored were appropriate. Books on healing from dementer exposure were found and purchased. Along with texts on healing magical children in abuse cases. Just in case his worse fears were confirmed. After reading the books and giving it a good bit of thought Sirius had the family books brought to him and found someone he thought he could trust if they gave him a vow. Belvina Black a fourth cousin of his was a potions mistress who'd not been a death eater nor did she have any particular love of the law or ministry. Once he'd taken verataserum and answered her questions, She willingly gave him a vow to keep his secretes and to help heal not only him but his godson as well.Belvina was happy to help Sirius, at first for the opportunity to get one over on Narcissa. The snobby bitch had been going on and on for years now how she would be inheriting the Black family vaults and Estates. Her haughty attitude had been grating on Bel's nerves for years of holiday dinners her parents had forced her to attend. However the more she got to know Sirius the more she liked him and wanted help for his sake alone. Still she did have a personal stake in Sirius getting his name cleared. Bel hade been dodging marriage offers, dates, and salacious offers for the last fourteen years. If she could help Sirius and eventually clear his name he might help her stay single for life. She had recently confessed this and after being pressed told him why. She had never in her life experienced any sexual attraction to any person ever. Not even slightly. The thought of getting sweaty and naked with another made her want to hurl. So she happily and dutifully helped Sirius research and prepare for taking charge of his health and life. Sirius scrubbed himself down so many times that he'd turned wrinkly and all his skin was pink. He shaved all the hair off his body and washed two more times, just in case. When he was as clean as he could possibly be he walked naked to the first ritual rooms and began the first of ten purifying rituals he'd chosen to rid himself of the taint of Azkaban. The first ritual had involved bathing in goats milk. It had turned a nasty brownish black by time he was done and he'd had to repeat the ritual two more times before the milk stayed whitish and only then had he been able to move onto the second ritual. Rituals one, three, and seven all had to be repeated for maximum effect. Which Sirius hadn't really anticipated so it took him longer than he thought it would to begin his recovery. In between rituals he ate large meals with medicinal draughts and drank healthy shakes laced with nutrient potions curtesy of Belvina. 0000000000000000000000000000000000Three weeks after Harry and Hermione waved good bye to a man and his hippogriph, a shaggy dog made it's way through empty yards and dark paths towards Private Drive in Surrey. His spiked collar was enchanted to keep him under people's radars. So long as he didn't go around attacking people than anyone he passed would view him as unimportant and would forget about him as soon as they looked away. He would stay around the neighborhood and do some reconnaissance before Harry came home. Padfoot waited in the hedges in number fours back yard until the fattest child his poor eyes had ever seen, snuck in leaving the door open behind him. For his godson Sirius would risk anything. He followed his nose to a small cupboard under the stairs, strange that his scent would be so strong there. Sirius went up to the second floor and hit jackpot. The Hogwarts Express had arrived only that afternoon. Vernon Dursley had left to pick him up and the kid should be home soon. Sure enough a car pulled into the drive and doors could be heard opening and closing from here. Then voices arguing came into the house and closed the door a purple faced Vernon was screaming that there would be changes that they would no longer be so lenient or forgiving of his freakishness not after what he'd done to Vernon's poor traumatized sister. Padfoot sat on top stair and shifted into Sirius canceling the notice me not charm on his collar as the collar itself shifted into a strange spikey necklace. "Well you were partially right their will be changes." He said softly just loud enough that Harry, Vernon, and Petunia heard him. "Who the devil are you!" Vernon shouted. "You've no right to be in my house I'll call the police!" Sirius threw his head back and laughed. "I've already disabled your phone, and my name is Sirius Black." He watched as their eyes widened and they stepped back. Petunia was mouthing the words 'mass murderer'. "Yes, that Sirius Black." Sirius sat down on the stairs stretching his legs out. "Come here Hadrian let me see how my favorite nephew is doing.""Hadrian?" Harry questioned."Nephew?" Petunia squeaked."Yes, Harry your proper name is Hadrian. How did you not know that?" Sirius replied before turning to Petunia. "Yes Petunia, my nephew, Mr. and Mrs. Potter adopted me when I was sixteen, legally only mind you. So while we aren't blood related we are still family." Harry raced up the stairs to give Sirius a hug. The man smiled and gave him a tight squeeze before settling Harry on the stairs beside him tucked neatly into his side. "Now Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, I do believe we have a business arrangement to discuss. You see Dumbledore needs Petunia's blood to help power the security measures he has around the place, so good news for you, I can't kill you." Petunia put her hand over her heart rather dramatically and all but fainted as she sat suddenly on the hall chair. Vernon in a rare moment of intelligence realized that promise didn't include himself and edged his body into the corner and closer to the door."What kind of business deal?" Vernon asked. "We can all be reasonable here.""I'm glad you asked." Sirius told him with a smile. Sirius snapped his fingers signaling his house elves and a with a pop a small table with contract parchment and a fountain pen appeared before the Dursley's. "This is magically binding contract. I'll summarize it real quick then shall I? Just state if you agree after each point."I agree." Vernon nodded relaxing slightly this wasn't so bad Vernon negotiated contracts all the time.Point one: Hadrian needs to 'live' in the house with petunia for a set amount of time to recharge your security features. During that time I will send Hadrian all the food he requires and one of my house elves will keep the house and yard clean and looking good. Don't worry no one will see them or ever know that they are here. ""I agree." again this wasn't so bad, he would see the boy less and wouldn't have to worry about spending any money on him."Point Two, the room you have for him now is too small for a growing boy so you will renovate it into a guest bedroom, and Hadrian will live in the attic. I will work on it so that the attic looks perfectly normal we can use the side space for storage I'll fix it up so its safer. And the rest we can turn into a sitting room and a bedroom. I can bring over a bathroom in a wizard space closet so that neither Hadrian or I will need to use your water supply while here. When Hadrian turns seventeen he'll move out taking all magical items with him and the space will be yours for what ever you want. " Free renovations on the Attic, much less time to see the freak. "I agree""Point Three, While Hadrian needs access to magical things and items for your safety and peace of mind we will agree that neither Hadrian nor myself will use any spells or active visible magic while on your property.""I AGREE!" Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon shouted in tandem with each other."Point four, I will provide Hadrian with all medical needs, school supplies, and clothes mundane (muggle) or magical that he may need. So that at no time will he be a strain on your resources.""I agree" Vernon told him immediately."Point five, the Dursley family as a whole will swear a magical vow via this contract not to tell hint or write to any one about the location of Sirius Orion Black, or any thing overheard by Sirius Orion Black while he is in your home."The agree came a little slower and little shakier this time but come it did. "I agree.""This is great five points and not a single disagreement." Sirius declared happily. "Point six. I want to spend more time with Hadrian in the magical counties and conclaves. So Hadrian will come home every holiday to spend with me. All I need from you for this part is for you to write to Hogwarts administration board request home visitation forms and Fill them out for Hadrian to turn in. I'll pick him up and he'll stay with me you will not actually see him during these times. Every summer including this one; once the wards have charged your family will go on vacation somewhere you can say your taking Hadrian with you to anyone who asks but in reality Hadrian and I will be going our separate ways so you will have your family vacation and we will have ours."He wasn't unhappy with this request and he and Pet had been wanting to visit Majorca again. He supposed being able to brag about his vacations would do their reputations some good. They hadn't been able to have a real summer vacation since the freak had started that freaky school, for fear he'd bring home something odd that any potential baby sitter might find. That and they'd had no way to explain the damn owl. "I agree." Vernon said after a moments pause. "But I want a guarantee that we won't see him. I want you to promise we'll be safe and healthy. That none of your nonsense will harm any of us or infect our Dudley.""Perfectly reasonable requests I agree, I'll even go one further and help Dudley get healthy now. That way his school nurse wont have anything more to gossip or to complain about when he goes back to school and Dudley will be able to eat all he wants.""A vacation every summer will get expensive how do you expect us to pay for it." Petunia asked nasty smirk on her face. "I am not going to reward you for being horrible to my nephew." Sirius roared at her. "You can use the money I know for a fact Dumbledore sends you every month. Money that you have never used on him before." Sirius took a deep breathe to calm himself down which only partially worked. "You need to be alive P'tuney." Sirius' voice took a disturbingly childish quality. "Alive doesn't mean intact. I could carve out your eyes, split your tongue so I never have to hear your shrill voice again. YOU can live with out your limbs. You can LIVE while permanently disfigured because some unnamed person probably me took a knife to your plain assed face!" He ended up yelling at her. Petunia burst into sobs. "I'm trying to be reasonable here. Vernon am I not being reasonable?""You are!" Vernon quickly yelled, while frantically bobbing his head up and down. "You see everything can be worked out if we just keep calm and talk it out." Sirius told them brightly. "Now I'll have final say on all things pertaining to our nephew, and you get to look good because of it." "You two can call your son out from kitchen where he's been listening in and you three can sign the contract full names please, then Hadrian and I will sign it."Vernon drug Dudley out from behind the kitchen door and all three of the Dursley's signed the contract it glowed a soft golden color until Hadrian and then Sirius had signed it too, when it flashed white and then stopped. It looked like any other piece of paper after that. Sirius rolled it up, snapped his fingers, and Harry watched in awe as the document, table, and fountain pen all disappeared as easily and quietly as they'd come. "Come along Harry, We've work to do up stairs then." Sirius told him happily. Harry watched as Padfoot grabbed up Harry's trunk and began whistling as he made his way up to the attic. Sirius paused at the top of the stairs and waved his hand negligently toward the downstairs hall table where the telephone sat. "Your phone should work again" He turned to Harry gave a wink and whispered. "because I never did anything to it to begin with. Wouldn't know how to if I'd wanted so I just bluffed."
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The attic could only be accessed as far as Harry knew by pulling down a rickety old ladder from the ceiling at the end of the hallway there was nothing else down that way but a linen closet that aunt Petunia used to store cleaning supplies in but hadn't bothered using since she'd moved Harry out from under the stairs. Sure enough Sirius who was quite tall already had to jump to grab the chain attached to the attic ladder, which came down with a clang and a clatter that made Harry feel sure the whole lot of it was about to fall apart. The attic itself was filled to the brim with boxes and trunks and bags that had been piled up everywhere. "Some of this stuff is rightfully yours you know." Sirius told him looking around "It's from your grandparents house and should have gone to your mother." Sirius took a deep breathe and told Harry "Your mum and dad were already in hiding so your aunt tried to have the will contested claimed it was an old will and should have all gone to her. Only thing was your grandparents had made changes to the will and refiled just a month before they died. So that sort of blew up in Petunia's face." "Your mum found out about two weeks before she died, she snuck out to her childhood home and made a few changes. When your mum died Petunia tried to claim it all any way and then found your mom had charmed all the boxes against Petunia opening them." Sirius laughed "Guess the cold hearted shrew never realized that all she had to do was let someone else sort through it all! You won't have to worry though Harry part of the contract I conveniently forgot to go through had her relinquish all claims to your mums inheritance.""Sirius?" Harry asked unsurely. "If we can't use magic is it not going to take a long time to clear all this away?" Sirius smiled and gave his godson a wink. "One the actual contract only said you and I wouldn't use magic down stairs without reason. I'm also setting up some wards up here that will stop our using magic from being detected. Two we never promised not to have the house elves use magic." "But the ministry can detect house elf magic and I'll get in trouble!" Harry exclaimed. "No you won't. A house elf can mimic their masters magical signature and I suppose if that master was under age and in a muggle neighbor hood they might get in trouble, for the most part house elf magic is untraceable." Sirius frowned as he lectured. "Why did you think that anyway?"So Harry told his godfather all about Dobby, and that led to his second year which led to Sirius gathering Harry up in arms and promising to wrap him silk lined dragon hide and to never let him out of his sight again. 0o0o0o0o0o0o0
The house elves set up a small wizard tent, while they talked, for them to use tonight. Dinner was delivered to the tents living room. The elves cleared their plates when they were done and left them to their discussions. The elves organized themselves made a schedule and got to work cleaning and sorting they didn't open the boxes belonging to Harry just set them aside for later. They did open all the others, the old toys, and children's clothes were repaired, cleaned, and dropped off at a local orphanage. Soon most of the Dursley's old stuff had been gifted to charities all that was left was seasonal decorations and the unfished side of the attic had been repaired, and only needed flooring. They moved the ward stones and the wood Sirius and Belvina had gathered, shaped and put into bundles the other day to the unfinished side for Master Black to work with in the morning.They had finished earlier than anticipated what with ten of them working together so they'd also cleaned the house until it was sparkling, mowed the lawn, weeded the garden and washed the car and the outside of the house. They got some rest and then started on a breakfast consisting of a large amount of fruits and yogurt and one scotched egg a piece with toast and marmalade.One large pile was set up downstairs for the muggles with a potion in the form of a very healthy green shake from Belvina for Dudley to help turn his fat to nutrients his body could process. The smaller pile was set up in the living room of the tent for their Masters. This one had no special potions yet but they knew that could change. When Sirius finished breakfast the first thing he did was move the boards for the walls and began to separate the attic space into different rooms. He laid down the ward stones were he needed them than moved the pile of boards meant for the flooring; positioning them in pattern he wanted the new flooring to be and used a spell to put them in place. He soon had four distinct rooms in place. The largest room was set off to the left side and shelving was added to store all of the Dursley's left over junk. A sliding barn door separated it from the rooms Harry and Sirius would be using. The room the stairs came up in he set up as a den. He banished the rickety stairs and the hatch door it was attached to. For now at least that meant their was just a giant hole in the floor. The house used to have a fire place the Dursley's had stopped using and boarded up so Sirius just sent cleaning charms up and down the chimney, sent a muffling charm down the shaft and summoned up all the brick which he than used to build a large fireplace for Harry's use. He turned the bricks color varying shades of off white and had fun planting the occasional dark grey brick into the mix. The second room he did was a study/owlrey this room had a small circular window set into it that Sirius enchanted to open and close for mail owls and set up Hedwig's new much more elaborate stand and cage nearby. He placed the boxes from Lily's family in the corner there and placed a large desk they could use for lessons and to sort it all so it could be either used put away until Harry was older or given away or junked depending on what it all was.The last room Sirius turned into a large luxurious bedroom the bed itself was large enough to fit several people an ornate wardrobe sat beside it. Bookshelves were put up and all the books the house elves had found either in storage in Harry's old room and in his trunk were placed on them. One of the broken racing bikes which had been repaired and had its coloring changed was hung on the wall for Harry to use later as he wished. His racing broom was hung up on the other side. With several red and gold banners proclaiming Harry's house with a purple outlined Hogwarts school emblem in the middle of them. A fixed up fish tank was set up to the side and Sirius sent the house elves shopping to purchase some exotic magical fish, their food, preferred water, and some neat decorations for it. The had also saved and repaired several board games that were stored on the shelves. Sirius sent them for some of the things he knew were in his and Regulus's old rooms like the floor length enchanted mirror, some wizarding children's books, and board games, a wizarding wireless Network Radio, and a full set wizard's primer used by parents and home tutors to teach pure-blooded kids before Hogwarts. Sirius made sure the primers were clear and fresh and set them on the desk for Harry to start using today. The House elves delivered to him a load of scrape metal he'd rescued from the junk yard and cleaned up. Sirius walked over towards the hole in the floor where the old stairs and door used to be and pointed his wand at the metal. It began to twist and melt together. Writhing around until it began to take a spiral shape. Sirius gently lowered it to the floor and stuck into place on both ends. He then sent shined up darks stained boards to fit themselves on top of the metal so you were walking on wood not the metal part. He then added some railing around the attic floor so no one would accidently fall down the stairs. This morning Sirius had given Harry an adventure book, the first part of a series James Potter had once adored and told him to read out loud and not to leave the tent. He wanted the changes in the attic to be a surprise for him. Now, Harry stared in awe at his new rooms. It was amazing, awesome, phenomenal, he couldn't find the right words if he tried. He had his own bike! There were clothes in a new wardrobe that; while still hand me downs from Dudley, looked brand new, fit, and Sirius said they would be going shopping for more once Harry had been looked over by Belvina, who, it turned out was a distant relative of Sirius's that he trusted and wasn't a criminal and so could be seen with Harry and padfoot. A dog couldn't take a boy shopping after all.
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They had started early and so the Dursley family were just setting down to breakfast when Sirius and Harry came down. "I had forgot to tell you my dearest lady Belvina Black will be coming by today." Sirius announced "She's traveling by car and is not wanted for any crimes so she shouldn't set any of your neighbors talking, but if that squib from down the street asks tell her she's a distant cousin of yours that came here to reconnect with the family""Squib?" Vernon asked"A person born to a magical family, but whom cannot actively use magic themselves. Sort of like Petunia's sister in reverse." Sirius told him. "The one I think Dumbledore had spying on you has a small army of cats around her.""What's this?" Dudley face scrunched up as he whined. "And Why won't the lid come off my plate?" "That herbal medicine is part of my deal with your parents." Sirius told him. "It's all natural and will slowly start to turn your fat into nutrients good for your growing body, or baring that, bits your body can pass out of it's system. I suspect you will be allowed to eat only after you drink your shake!""Dudley darling just think!" Petunia said quickly "With this you can eat all the sweets and cakes you want without worrying about that stupid diet!""oh." Dudley made a face gagging a little as he downed the shake, before quickly removing the lid from his food and shoveling everything could reach into his mouth not even slowing down to notice it was all healthy. Eventually he came to his scotched egg and took the time to gather some toast to place under it as he ate. Vernon grumbled about the lack of things he would have preferred to eat but noted it was an improvement over Dudley's diet. Vernon clearly didn't want Sirius mad at him and he wasn't about to do anything that might set Black off.0o0o0o0o0o0o0Belvina had never driven a car nor really wanted too before Sirius had come barreling into her life. Learning had been a true pain anyway and not just the driving part or lessons but the getting a car bit. They had to take great care to not arouse suspicion from the Auror office or anyone else and withdrawing then converting the amount of money needed to buy a muggle car would draw attention they couldn't afford. So they'd gone traipsing through muggle garbage heaps for what they needed. An old classic that people wouldn't wonder why they were still driving it let alone keeping it in good shape. A positively ancient Rolls Royce someone had long ago crashed; had been pulled out and Sirius had quickly begun repairing everything broken and restoring it to it's former glory. They'd then modified and charmed all the bits that belonged to its underneath. If anyone went looking it would appear normal. However, the seats were very comfortable, and their car would never need petrol. It would also very easily be able to navigate traffic and most forms of law enforcement would find it hard to spot. They would therefore never need to give the driver a ticket or run the license plate through their records. Which was very good because while she had learned to drive she had also learned that she hated it. So they'd taught one of the house elves to do it for her. Putting strange looking stilts on its feet so it could reach the petals while it sat on a booster seat. A glamour and a few charms and any passing motorist would see a perfectly normal looking man with forgettable features as her chauffer. Sirius did have a muggle bank account that was good and had several thousand pounds in it, in addition to several stashes of money and items he'd made during the war for emergencies. They would use it for clothes for herself, Sirius and most importantly Harry. She had gone shopping with Sirius in muggle London a few days before to gather a handful of fancy outfits for herself. So when she met Harry, and his relatives, she would look the part. They had also raided 12 Grimauld Place for his mothers gaudiest and chunkiest jewelry sets. They systematically dismantled them and melted the gold into ingots. Most of the jewels were sold loose as were the ingots. The rest she remade into elegant bits that the muggles would appreciate. After all why bother to buy muggle jewelry when she could just make it herself from what she already had.Belvina stepped out of the car on Private Drive observing the identical rows of houses, all neatly numbered. Their lawns all trimmed the same length, flower beds in full bloom. New cars parked in the driveways, all similar models in similar colors, of white, gray, and tan. It was disgusting. Belvina suddenly had the strangest urge to pull out her wand and start shooting color changing charms in various random directions. She shuddered violently and made her way quickly up to number four; where she rang the bell.Mrs. Dursley answered the door and had to gape. The woman before her was wearing a black designer skirt suit with pink edging soft pink eight inch Jimmy Choo pumps, a pink Lois Vuitton shoulder bag, and designer sunglasses. The sun glinted off her gold chocker it's beautiful ruby glinted merrily. Her black hair was perfectly coiffed and her eyes a strange violet, Petunia noted faintly, as her pale pink lips stretched into a false smile. Petunia had never owned an outfit that expensive and she had wanted to so badly it burned. She had grown up poor and married up into middle class. Vernon and she had worked hard to gain both wealth and in their neighbor hood at least a certain degree of prestige. A part of her though she feared would always be that little nothing of a girl who'd been so envious of others wealth. "Hello, Mrs. Dursley I presume?" The stranger stated with an upper crust accent "I'm Belvina Black I do believe you should be expecting me?" "Yes, of course." Petunia said mechanically "come in, he's waiting for you upstairs." and because her pride wouldn't let her say musty attic she added "Third floor." as if it had always been as such. Petunia watched as the woman disappeared up the stairs, her husband and son gaping as they too allowed their eyes to follow her as she went her hips swinging and emphasizing her perfect hourglass figure. Petunia hated her, she decided, as much if not more than she'd hated her perfect, pretty freak of sister. 0o0o0o0o0o0o0"You must be Hadrian." Belvina noted as Harry stared at her open mouthed. "But, your pretty!" Harry exclaimed. Belvina laughed. "Made me sound like some ancient ole maid did he?" She asked gesturing towards Sirius who was leaning against the wall and grinning madly. Harry blushed. "Yes, well no not exactly." Harry rushed to explain "He was talking about all your masteries and how smart you are!" Harry gulped and rambled on. "The only people I know with that many masteries are my professors and they're all old and wrinkly, or mean and greasy like Snape." Belvina laughed again. She smiled kindly at Harry and gestured for him to sit beside her. "Well Harry, Sirius told me you were a bit under weight. We also had some concern about your scar." She began gently."When Hagrid took you from Godrics Hollow he gave me the impression that you would be seeing a healer. However it appears that they were so concerned with getting you to a location safe from Death Eaters that they neglected your health other wise." Sirius told him. "We just want to make sure that you really are okay.""I want you to lay back on the couch and I'm going to run some scans over your body using crystals." Belvina told him. "This method will tell me more about your body magic and soul than any other way." Belvina grimaced "Healers don't usually use this method because of all the useless information it brings up as well." She opened her purse began moving out way more than she should have been able to fit. "But in this case your scar is so old and with no previous scans to consult it's the best way to determine what it really is and if anything was left behind that might be negatively affecting your health or environment." Harry laid down so she could get started. In the mean time he told them about his parseltongue ability and where Dumbledore guessed it had come from. Belvina sighed. "Silly old men." She continued. "Parseltongue is a hereditary gift one of your parents must have been able to speak it and the other had to be a carrier at least." Belvina sighed again. "We can probably figure out which was which if we investigate a little." She told him. "Your mother grew up in a muggle city not a lot of snakes there unless she visited the zoo, she wouldn't have known until she was older and encountered the magical kind at Hogwarts by then she might have known better than to talk about having parseltongue or just not known it was important. Your father on the other hand grew up at Potter manner and it's gardens would have been warded against anything dangerous like most snakes. If your father's family spoke it they would have known to keep it quiet and would have emphasized that to James growing up. Our best bet is to simply ask your Aunt Petunia and if she doesn't know we can scan her and see if she has the latent ability. If your mother could speak it than Petunia has to be a carrier at least."She hummed and asked him who had gone over personal hygiene with him and if he'd had the talk his body was a few months away from officially hitting puberty, it'd happen sooner once he finished the potions regime she was going to recommend him. Harry told them no one had and what he knew about cleanliness came from the boys in his dorm. Sirius and Belvina than talked to him about the importance about good hygiene, different types of shampoo, conditioner and soaps, their uses and what might works best for Harry. They then to Harry's absolute horror gave him 'the talk'. Belvina told him the medical terms for his changing body the how's and why's. Sirius concentrated on how it would effect him personally. Sirius covered gender identities and sexual preferences. He had just started on common kinks, when Belvina announced she'd finished the scan and wanted to talk about what she found in his scar. To Harry's immense relief. Their was some nasty residue in Harry's scar it was also partially active and transmitting some of Harry's magical energy to the originator, in this case Voldemort the creepy wraith. The good news is it's not attached to Harry in any permanent way. It also meant the thing was taking up physical space inside Harry and affecting his ability to think. He also had a baby block on his magic no one had thought to remove. A few extra strong cleansing rituals would do the trick, which fortunately they already had experience in. He was going to need to go through a flush though because he had basilisk venom and phoenix tears in his blood stream still that had settled in after his shoddy medical treatment post chamber incident. They'd do the flush first, it shouldn't take more than a day. Then over the next week they'd do the rituals for ridding him of dark and foreign residue. Once that was done He could begin taking potions to increase his appetite one every morning when he wakes up and then nutrient boosters before every lunch and dinner. They'd fix his body of the slight malnutrition he was suffering in two weeks tops at which point he was due another growth spurt. They would buy his new clothes then they decided since their was no point in buying new clothes when he'd outgrow them before he even had time to wear most of them.Their was a potion Belvina had made to cure her own bad eyesight and she thought she could adjust it to help Harry but she wanted him and Sirius to think it over first since their was a slight chance it could make his eyes worse instead. Harry was all for it arguing that his eyes couldn't possibly get much worse. Sirius wasn't so sure and said he'd need time to think it over. They had a light lunch and Belvina asked Harry what he wanted to do that day since they wouldn't start the flush until that night. He probably would be cooped up while that happened and she suggested he enjoy some sunshine while he still could. Harry was reluctant to leave them though but when Sirius guess his problem a solution was quickly reached. Sirius transformed into Padfoot, Belvina put a leash on him, Harry grabbed his new racing bike and they all walked to the park. As it turned out Harry had never been taught to ride a bike so Belvina taught him while Padfoot barked encouragement and chased after him. Harry couldn’t remember ever having a better day. He knew what his new patronus memory would be, and wondered if his mother had lived if she would be a little like Belvina.
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Disclaimer: I own nothing.AN: I don’t have a Beta so please bare with me there will be mistakes. Thank you........
Belvina Black sighed as she watched Harry play, she was loath to spoil his fun but they were on a tight schedule today. They had gone to the park in London and Harry had been roped into playing chess with some of the old timers there. He'd had no idea that spending so much time with Ron had improved his game so much. Ron, from what Belvina understood was good enough at eleven to be a chess master. The child just didn't have the drive to exceed in school, despite having the clear ability. She had been talking to Harry about doing better in school and already they had written to the Deputy Headmistress to change his schedule from Divinations to Ancient Runes and Arithmetic, with the promise that he would pass any entrance exams needed to go into the fourth year class. They finally finished the older gentleman had won. "Hadrian darling, it's time to go" She called before any of the other's could talk him into a new game. "Coming!" He called back. He said his goodbyes to the chess players and ran back to Belvina padfoot hot on his heels. Belvina took his hand when they left and guided him round the corner. So far they used non-magical methods just in case any one was following but they were so close to Diagon Ally that his trace wouldn't register any magic as being his. They turned the corner to a side street where there were no camera's or people and disapparated to Eduardus' house. They were heading to the cleansing room first than to the ritual rooms to purify his body of the taint Lord Voldemort had left behind. They had meant to do this yesterday but Harry had still been sick from the flush. Getting all of the stuff out of his body that wasn't supposed to be there had been tough for him. He'd gotten the sweats and shakes and than he'd began to vomit and if that wasn't enough he'd had diarrhea. Sirius and Belvina had stayed with him the whole time sleeping when he slept and getting up with him when he needed it. Rubbing his back when he'd puked and helping him clean up. They had never complained or been grossed out just worried for him. It was the first time in his life someone had hugged him when he'd been sick and promised him it would be ok. Usually with the Dursley's no one cared as long he didn't get them sick too. Now that he was not only better but well rested they were going through with the rest of their plans. Belvina had woken him up early this morning to get ready to catch the train into London. Harry really loved that they were both so willing to walk him through the plans and ask his opinion on things like taking the train because Harry never had. Belvina directed Harry over to the tub with goats milk and Sirius helped him undress and showed him what to do. To Harry's surprise the milk turned black and thick like tar. They had to empty it and do it all over again. The second time the milk turned a little grey but was still identifiable as milk. Harry began to notice his head felt a little heavy as they moved onto a new ritual room. This time the cleansing ritual involved Sirius and Belvina painting runes on his body using oil and two unicorn hair brushes. Harry than laid down as they chanted over him. One of them Harry wasn't sure anymore was casting healing charms on his body to expel anything harmful the other was chanting out an exorcists hex to pull out the bit Riddle left behind.The warm floating feeling that had started at the beginning suddenly came to an abrupt halt as pain lanced through his head. His scar burst open and blackish smoke came pouring out. The open wound on his head bled thick brown puss for a few minutes. Belvina had a special cloth out cleaning his scar with it until all that came out was clean red blood she than poured thick healing paste over it and helped Harry to stand. When he kept swaying Sirius picked him up and walked with him to the next cleansing ritual. He didn't remember that one at all. Harry woke up in a bed that was not his. Huge and round the bed was like nothing he'd ever seen before. It was quickly apparent that he must have fallen asleep on Sirius who'd than tucked him into one of the spare bedrooms to allow him rest.Despite his two hour nap Hadrian was still tired. So Belvina had him eat as much soup as he could and started the journey back to Private Drive. Sirius disguised himself and carried Harry to the train station were he tucked Harry under a blanket with Belvina than found a private place to turn back into a dog. Padfoot joined them in burrowing into the blanket and they napped most of the way back. Harry's head still wrapped in a thick bandage. O0O0O0O0O0O0OMr. Dursley considered himself a nice normal mostly law abiding man. Sure he'd gotten money from the government and the Potter trust to take care of the Freak, but he'd used that money on more important things, though technically illegal on paper; Vernon thought it perfectly justified. For one the freak didn't need it anyway for two he considered it rent for room space. When a tenant paid you rent you didn't turn around and spend the money buying food for your tenant did you? Of course not. So being a normal law abiding citizen it rankled that a mass murderer who was also a freak was living in his attic. He had heard that woman tell Petunia they'd be gone all day he decided right away he'd do something about it. He found the special hotline number to report Black sighting, only to find himself telling the answering officer pig jokes and claiming he'd enjoyed seeing a wild man he thought might be Black rutting one several counties away, before he realized what he was saying exactly and hung up. Petunia Dursley had considered telling her neighbors she'd seen Sirius Black and letting them tell the authorities, but she was afraid what might happen to her if he caught wind of the police before they caught him. It didn't matter in the end because she found that no matter what she tried to say about the Blacks, she couldn't. She couldn't even mention Sirius off handedly. Petunia found much to her frustration that she couldn't even talk bad about the freaky floozy Belva. The more she tried the less sense she made and the more her friends began to give her concerned looks. She realized abruptly that they were beginning to think that she'd cracked. Petunia had excused herself to go rest instead locking herself in her room to cry for the rest of the day. Dudley didn't much care one way or another about telling everyone about Black. He was much to worried about his new food problem. Sirius had said he could eat anything he wanted as long as he drank the new shake. He hadn't lied per say, but Dudley had found that he no longer wanted a lot of things he used to. Chocolate cake now made him sick just by looking at it. He'd gone to the pizza parlor with his friends like usual only to find he had no appetite and couldn't make himself eat.After a large lunch with his mom where he'd eaten seconds and thirds, he'd suddenly had the inexplicable urge to run. Dudley had tried to watch the television only to find himself walking around the couch unable to stop. So Dudley had tried to play on his computer, suddenly he found himself shaking and moving around to much to actually play it. Dudley got up and walked outside not really thinking about what he was doing until he had actually run around the entire neighbor hood and was back at his home panting in exhaustion. He had gone to the kitchen to get himself some soda, and maybe some other snacks only he couldn't. There was no soda, no sugar, nothing. He turned to storm off and found a bowl of raw chopped veggies, apples, and mango's complete with dip, a large glass of cold water sat beside it. He whimpered as he realized the magical version of the health police were watching him. There would be no escape. 0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0Harry woke up when they reached their stop long enough to get into the car. Than again when they reached the house. Belvina gave Vernon the only Dursley still up it seemed a cheery wave on their way to the attic. Sirius turned back as soon as they were up there and coaxed Harry into eating a late super. He told him stories of pranks he'd played with James Potter and Remus Lupin while in Hogwarts. Belvina kept interrupting by asking what spells they'd used and having him teach them the wand movements and correct pronunciations. Harry found all it amusing and was happy to learn the spells his father had known. Belvina and Sirius both told him that those spells could come in handy if he was in a fight. Nothing so distracting as having to stop and shrink your nose so you can see where you are aiming. Hadrian fell asleep against Sirius still talking about Medusa hexes that caused your opponents hair to animate and attack them. Sirius picked him up and tucked him into bed, worried about how light the boy still was. Belvina assured him it was all ok. He would start his potions in the morning and they would help immensely. Sure enough the next morning Harry had two potions waiting for him. His first potion contained nutrients like a vitamin boost they explained. The second potion made him ravenous and for the first time ever he ate his entire breakfast and had a small plate as seconds. The Twenty-first of June found Harry celebrating Litha for the first time in his life. They explained that the Goddess was heavily pregnant and the sun God at His strongest. It was also the time of victory for the Holly King. They burnt little bundles of herbs as offerings and Belvina took him via house-elf travel to pick herbs in her Garden. She told him sweet stories about her religion as they worked. Sirius also told him that his father had been raised on those stories and celebrated them vaguely. His mother hadn't held with such nonsense either way. It would be up to Harry to choose his belief system and Sirius would not care so long as he never looked down on others for theirs. Sirius himself was not overly religious but he did acknowledge the days, mostly out of habit and partly because Beltaine was clearly the most awesome day ever.Sirius caught his attention after breakfast the following day. He had something rather important to talk to him about. A request from Harry's mother. She had wanted Sirius to do a partial blood adoption so that he would be Harry's third parent. They had signed a contract and everything."You see Harry, when Jamie and Lily married," Sirius began looking a little apprehensive. "Your Uncle Charlus and his wife, my aunt Dorea, were still alive and young enough that they fully expected to have more kids. Their first had died in accident.""Why would that matter?" Harry was confused."The Potters are an old family and even have their own vote in the Wizengamot" his godfather told him slowly. "Your uncle was lord and head of the family and his son would have been after him if he'd had one live. Unfortunately for your family he and Dorea got very ill very quickly and passed on. James became the lord and head, however according to our laws for any one to inherit you need to have at least four magical grandparents, or eight magical great grandparents. Which you do not. Your grandfather Fleamont made a lot of money making potions, he's the one who invented Sleekeazy's Hair Care. He sold it at the time of his retirement and all told quadrupled the money he had inherited from his parents. It's that money you have been using so far. You as you are right now cannot inherit your families land, money or votes." Harry was outraged and genuinely upset. It shouldn't matter than his mother was a muggle born. "Blood adoptions are legal, so long as all parents are married." Sirius winced realizing he should have explained that part a little more. "Marriage in the Wizarding states is very different from what you are used to in the muggle countries." Sirius took a breath before he began to explain. Magical Marriages were all about contracts. You can have as few as two people in a marriage and as many as thirteen, though that wasn't recommended and the only people who'd ever tried it had caused a war. James and Lily had a standard contract and a muggle marriage ceremony. The standard contract allowed others to be added but that wasn't really the focus so another contract had to be filled out and added to as an appendix. "Now the law is very prejudiced against the Muggle born." He told Harry"No kidding." Harry said bitterly. "Who inherits if I don't?""That's not important right now because it's not going to happen. You have until you turn seventeen to claim your inheritance before it can be taken away." Sirius sighed and ran his hands through his stubbly hair. "Your mom and I filed all the paperwork needed for an open contract between your parents and me. So technically me blood adopting you now is perfectly legal and you can claim it was done when you were little. We intended to have it done but Dumbledore insisted your parents go into hiding before we had the chance to complete everything and just listen to me now I've gotten off track. Just listen Harry because this is important."The laws were prejudiced against the muggle born and that meant it was geared to try and prevent just what Lily and Sirius had planned on doing. Their was of course a loop hole. You see the law stated that if a muggle born needed blood from a pure blood for whatever reason they would have to exchange something of equal value. The loop whole being that the pure blood had to decide what was equal and argue it to the ministry administrator. Most pure blood's would never consider their own blood equal to a muggle born and there fore would not even try to argue to the administrator let alone succeed. Sirius and Lily however had argued that because the Black blood line was so inbred it was causing insanity and squibs that fresh blood would actually save the line and preserve it for generations to come. Of course Sirius would have find a mother to be the third parent but he'd been threatened with his family arranging a contract for him for so long that he figured that part wouldn't be a problem. The administrator had somewhat agreed with them but Lily had had to give four vials of her own blood infused with her magic and blessing in advanced for just one blood adoption on Sirius's part. "Now I have a big problem, in that, Azkaban has rendered me infertile." Padfoot stood as he was feeling antsy. "It's possible you might inherit the family magic enough to be able to be my heir, but highly unlikely. You are already your fathers heir and have the family magic even if the law prevents you from inheriting with out me adopting you." "So?" Harry asked sort of confused "Why can't you just adopt other kids? I would like siblings it's always been my dream to have a big family." Harry said getting exited about it. "Well I am now a wanted criminal anyone I married now would be arrested for consorting with me and that's only if I could find someone in the first place.""Why don't you marry Bel?" Harry asked. "If your going to be using my mom's blood than her being your what was it again, fourth cousin, won't really matter will it?"Sirius stilled he hadn't thought of that. "No" Sirius shook his head "She would still be in trouble for marrying me now." "What if no one knew it had happened now?" Belvina's voice sounded from behind them. "We have access to the world's best time turners, we were already going to use one to give you more time with Harry to teach him all he needs to know. Why don't I use one to submit a marriage contract between us with the one you filed with Potters? Obviously no one has checked on that file in years. Or else you wouldn't have been sent to Azkaban in first place." "That" Sirius said breathlessly "Is pure brilliance.""If you have such a powerful time turner could you save mom and dad?" Harry asked his voice small. What followed was a full disclosure of what could happen if they messed with time, which led to a lot of crying on Sirius's part and Harry's too. Finally when they were done Harry went to his room to think. Sirius went to his to drink an entire bottle of fire whiskey in an attempt drown himself only to discover he swallowed reflexively and drowning himself was out. On the twenty fourth of June Belvina brought up an interesting question. "Where is all your mail?" Harry hadn't understood he had heard from both Ron and Hermione already, He'd also written back that he was being well cared for thanks to Padfoot and his female cousin in code. Any outsiders reading the letter would assume he was talking about a pair of rather large and ill behaved dogs."You're a celebrity Harry," Bel exclaimed in exasperation. "People send celebrities mail." She'd ended up searching for mail wards and found one that led to a mail service located in a side alley in Diagon. She and Harry wore wizarding robes and went to visit it. With his recent changes and disguised glasses no one recognized him on sight and they were able to get there unmolested. The ministry had ordered the block on his mail. He had to both know the person and expect mail from them in order for it to get through. The company had been checking his mail sending the lists of hexed and poisoned items to DMLE along with anything really nasty that they didn't want to risk opening. Everything else had been put in stasis and stored in mail bags for when ever Harry or his guardians had thought to come get it. The attendant clearly thought it rude that he'd left it so long. No, it had not occurred to them that no one had informed Harry or said guardian. They had asked said attendant who'd gone pink and become much friendlier. Belvina had the house-elves take all six bags home. She told him later in private that they would likely have to set aside time in their up coming trip to go over it all. Three years might not be enough time after all. On June Twenty eighth Harry celebrated the last day of his nutritional potions. He had gained a whole four inches in height and put on two stone. From here on out he'd only have to take regular vitamins and large healthy meals. They did the partial blood adoption on the Thirtieth. Sirius had been right it hadn't changed his magic at all. His hair had grown curly and he'd gained a whole inch in height not including hair. His eye sight was still dreadful and Sirius finally relented and allowed Belvina to fix it for him. The entire experience was awful for three whole days his eyeballs itched and there was nothing he could do about it. On the third day his eyes had started feeling like they would pop right out of his head everything was fuzzy whether he was wearing glasses or not. Worst of all he'd developed a massive head ache and couldn't take any pain reliever for it not even the muggle stuff. On the fourth day he found relief. He had woken up with just a minor headache nothing like it had been and he'd not needed glasses as all to see perfectly. Belvina had told him after she'd examined his eyes that the residual headache would go away that day and by lunch it had.
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Belvina wasn't quite sure how she'd ended up roped into this mess. Yes she wanted to stick it to the family; her snooty mom and that uptight Narcissa especially but this was beyond the pale. Alright so she had agreed to it. The first part had even been her idea but than they'd drug out old newspapers and memories to plot her course safely through time. Realized there was quite a bit more they could do about the money situation only when Harry had asked how they would be able to raise kids on the run. He'd offered to let them use his money, which they had both turned down flat. It was their responsibility to take care of him not the other way around. So she and Sirius had filled out all sorts of forms and letters for both the ministry and Gringotts bank. She and the family waited until the blood wards were completely replenished on July sixth. Than sent the Dursley's on their vacation. The house was empty on the Seventh as Belvina, Sirius, and Harry turned back time three years. Harry had been worried about being older than his friends but he needn't have. The special turner they had used meant he wouldn't age physically until he caught back up to the July seventh date they had left at. The Dursley's were out today and Belvina had no problem disillusioning them so they could sneak out. They found a deserted side maintenance entrance to the park to enlarge the shrunken car. They loaded up and took off. House-elves and all. They parked close the Leaky Cauldron to make it easier on Belvina, who'd not stopped groaning about her dated dress. She got out the car to stand in front of it. "Wish me luck." She winked and disappeared through time. She ended up right when she wanted in October first nineteen eighty one. First she was off to the ministry to file her and Sirius' Marriage contract. The contract in itself was just an extension of the one he had with the Potters. It didn't take as long as she expected the line was moving fairly quick everyone was eager to get home where it was safe. Many of the younger generations were getting married quicker than normal and so the administrated barely looked at her forms before filing them. He barely looked at her just gave her a receipt for the money her copy of the sealed contract and yelled next. Belvina quickly made her way to the Mail office and set up a box for her personal use. She than headed to Gringotts Bank where she filed her marriage contract they made a copy of her copy after they verified the seal. She than turned in the first four pages of applications Sirius had filled out. Starting the next month a certain percentage of interested generated on his personal heirs trust vault was to be sent to a new vault under Belvina's name. Belvina had to file the paperwork to get this done as well. Than she had to sign everything in triplicate. Belvina once done with the bank walked back out to the street where she'd made sure she was alone and turned time one month. She checked her mail, went to Gringotts, filled out the paper work to keep the ministry from the Black Vaults and to set up payment to Azkaban Prison for housing Sirius. Prisoners who didn't pay the fee tended to die quicker. Than preceded to go back to the beginning of the street where she did it all over again except she turned time one year instead of a month. She than took out the Blood vials that belonged to Lily they were in a safe box that kept them preserved and she carefully stored that away in her things. She repeated the process Stopping at Gringotts to make sure the taxes were all filed and paid to the ministry than she emptied her account except for a few sickles turned half of it to muggle money, tucked all away and into a secure pouch. She than repeated the same process twelve more times. The only break in routine she got was when she actually had mail from Gringotts or the ministry in regards to her accounts or marriage to Sirius. The Ministry only ever sent her the automated reports all families of prisoners got and the receipts for paying the Azkaban fee. Twice she got mail from Gringotts demanding she meet with the account manager to settle disputes. Mostly and prominently that Narcissa was not allowed to take out money. Bel knew the woman had tried, Narcissa had once claimed that the ministry had misfiled some of the Black family paperwork which was keeping her from the fortune. If that was what she'd deluded herself into thinking, all the better for Bel. The only other break she got was when she was so exhausted she stopped at the Leaky Cauldron for a large supper and good nights sleep about half way through. The last visit she made before meeting the boys had her dealing with Arcturus Phineas Black's funeral. She'd made all the arrangement's signed off on his burial, assigned the family lawyer as her proxy's and finished her routine. The boys were waiting on her when she walked to her spot. She collapsed into car pulled a snack out the pre packed basket and went to sleep. Sirius had the house-elf drive them while Belvina rested. Harry got Sirius to agree to play several games as they drove along. They'd gone through the chess set, gobstones, checkers, Uno, poker, monopoly, and finally a wizards version of clue, which they both managed to loose much to Sirius consternation. He used to be able to cheat better than that he was sure.
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Once in France they rented a cheap hotel room on the muggle side and happily began going through paperwork look for the perfect orphans to adopt since some the original parent usually gets through the adoption they both agreed, that a child at least somewhat related to them already, would be best. They found their answer in the descendants of the disowned Isla Black. Her great grand daughter and said grand daughters husband had passed away leaving behind four children all in an orphanage in Basque. Sirius would have to use every one of Lily's vials if they got the kids. They couldn't get one with out the other after all. Belvina thought this might be a good thing. Even with a complete adoption there was still the smallest chance an adopted child wouldn't inherit the family magic. Four kids were better odds than one. The youngest girl was a little too young. However Belvina argued that she could always say she had some of Sirius blood for just in case and used a potion to have another child while he was away in Azkaban. IF the kids agreed to the adoption after everything was explained to them, than they would use a slightly modified fidelius to hide the information about the adoption. Every one would assume they had always been Belvina, Sirius, and Lily's children. Part of the first Marriage Contract Sirius had signed with Lily had made her Godmother of any of his kids allowing people the impression that Lily would have known Belvina and met any kids she and Sirius may have had before her death. In the mean time Sirius and Belvina had managed to spend time playing with Harry at various museums, amusement parks, and concerts. He'd had to take Lozenges, that Belvina made him help her prepare, in order to learn French. The Lozenges were not an instantaneous fix rather he slowly learned the language as others spoke it and as Sirius and Belvina read him stories in it over the course of five day's. Once those five days were over he spoke French with the same ability as any one his age who'd grown up speaking it. Sirius drug him off to rock concerts, Belvina to the Ballet, the only arguments occurred when someone suggested Belvina attend the rock concert. She'd said she would the day Sirius admitted the Ballet was the superior form of entertainment. They'd had to agree to disagree and it had not been mentioned since. It took them three weeks of slow travel to make it to Basque. During their travel time Harry was aggravated to have to take more Lozenges to learn Euskera. He did however concede that it made things easier in the long run. As soon as they learnt the language they headed for the muggle orphanage. Once there, they confounded the worker into agreeing to let them speak to the four kids alone. None of the kids spoke English or new about magic, so it took some time to convince them that not only was magic real but so was the offer to adopt them. They had explained it would be a full blood adoption and that their birth parents would no longer be a real part of them. The kids had had separate fathers and hadn't liked their mother much any way so the offer was like hitting the lottery as far as they were concerned. The youngest didn't even remember her mom. None of them even minded that they would be loosing their names. Belvina obliviated the muggle workers tracking down those who had quit or just been off work in addition to the kids to make sure they got every one. Sirius deleted the records and by the time they were done no one would remember the kids. Once they were done they headed to the sea traveling much quicker than they had before. They stopped a few times to stock up on food and than Sirius flew the car to his Uncle Alphard's island. The house was falling down and everything needed fixed, but the old stone ritual room was still in good order and Sirius and Bel had it cleaned and working right in no time flat. They did the Adoption rituals the day after they arrived to give everyone time to stretch their legs a bit. Every one participated in the ritual even Harry who stood in for his Mother. Adding Lily's blood when it was time was an amazing experience for Harry. The vials were full not just of her blood but also her magic. It had swirled around them Sirius had closed his eyes when he'd felt it smiling as he swayed. The magic had all too quickly settled into Harry's new half siblings joined shortly by Siri and Bels magic as well. The transformation this time was far more dramatic than his. The children all looked quite a lot like Sirius with bits of Bel and Lily found here and there in their features the most startling in the youngest boy Hydrus Pyxis Black and oldest girl Carina Vela Black. They both had Lily's brilliant emerald eyes. The youngest girl, Lyra Mensa Black, also had green eyes but hers were a much softer very light green. The oldest boy, Corvus Sirius Black, had inherited Sirius Blacks eyes but for a small ring of dark green that went around the outer edge.
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For Harry and the other children (including Sirius) the island was a dream come true. Alphard Black had planted all the plants on the island growing his favorite fruit tree's and potions ingredients. Random patches of growing veggies could be found here and there. They even had game to hunt in the form of wild boars, chickens, quail, and ponds full of fish, so they would always have fresh meats. The new family built up their home slowly. First was just a shelter which slowly became a tree house looking log cabin. It was designed and shaped carefully to blend in with the surrounding trees and wild life. At first it had only a kitchen, dining room, and living area that doubled as were they slept, but they soon built walkways up into the trees where they built Several small tree houses connected by carefully charmed and braided rope bridges. The little tree houses housed their bedrooms and bath rooms. A Full Bathroom was also built into the downstairs 'main cabin' as the first building became named. While they couldn't stay there forever, Belvina wouldn't let them, all of them agreed that their new home was the most amazing house ever built. They all needed new clothes and for the four new kids wands. So far Bel had been teaching them theory using Harry's old school books and having them use sticks to practice wand movement. She had made more Lozenges and had them learning Latin so they could understand many of the pronunciations. She said they would Learn Ancient Greek and Egyptian to help with that as well much to the children's horror. Sirius created potions that he than distributed so they could prank each other. Belvina made them learn how to brew each potion she caught them with lecturing them on the how's and why's of potion ingredient interactions. They had inadvertently also been learning quite a lot of Herbology along the way. A very unintentional side effect of playing on the island. It was discovered that Gillyweed grew wild in one of the ponds and Sirius quickly talked Belvina into preparing it for them so they could explore the ocean. It was during one of their exploration trips that Sirius got another bright idea for traveling. The car was too cramped to pack all of them up for long trips. While they had debated what to do about it no one had come up with a suitable answer but staring at the magically preserved treasure before him Sirius knew he had the perfect solution. His uncle must of either hidden the thing here or sunk it on accident and not bothered to pull it up again. Before him was a sleek sailing ship complete with sails all rolled up and charmed to keep the water away from them. The charms had failed here and there but for the most part it looked to be in good shape. He had Harry and Bel the only other people with wands come help him raise it up and pull it to shore so he could get a good look at it.
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Harry sat with his siblings watching in amusement as Sirius, their aita, was scolded by the house-elves. He had made a mess earlier in the kitchen, then like a total butt had ordered them to make him roasted boar for dinner that evening. At that the house-elf in question had lost his collected marbles and informed Sirius that he was a chef not a hunter and if he wanted meat tonight he could go catch it himself. A flabbergasted Sirius had sat in stunned silence as the little thing berated him. Their aita turned to them and wagged a finger in their direction. "This all your fault you know," He sighed dramatically "they'll never be properly scared of me again."They laughed. "We're sorry, aita!" they chorused still laughing."Aita?" Sirius asked them, He knew what it meant of course, he had learned the Basque language for them after all. He just wasn't expecting them to call him father especially so soon."Do you not like it?" Little Lyra asked him."Of course I do." Sirius told them softly "I had not expected it so soon is all."Sirius gave them all hugs. "Go get on some play clothes. It looks like I'm going to have to take you all hunting today." Belvina was working in her newly built lab or she might have had something to say about that. As she was not here Sirius wasn't going to tell her until they got back."Alright, aitatxo (daddy)." Lyra gave him another hug and was off. When they had finished changing and made it back down to ground level the kids discovered Sirius had been busy shaping small loose branches into bows. He carefully began to enchant each one explaining what he was doing when he saw them coming. That was something Belvina had gotten him into first with Harry and now the others, they would explain everything they were doing and ask them questions to make sure they understood. It was good for Sirius too it helped him remember things he thought he'd forgotten. "Aitatxo? Does Ama know we are going to kill things?" Lyra asked him. "Carina say's she doesn't want to go.""Your Ama is busy." Sirius told them with a dismissive wave. "She'll understand when I tell her later I'm sure. Any way Carina you have to come, this is something you need to know anyway. What if something happens and your on your own? How will you survive?"The kids all stood watching him attentively. Sirius braced himself and continued. "So I'm going to take this opportunity to take you all through a few necessary survival skills. Both with magic and without. We are going to cover how to find drinking water, north, shelter and build a smokeless fire. You can take turns using my wand for that one, and the other spells I'm going to teach you. I want you three older kids to get the spells done three times in a row, so I know you know it. Lyra is too young to be consistent yet, and Hyd might be too but the rest of you are not. Alright?" He acknowledged their quick agreements and started to hand out the bows and Arrows he had made from sticks and stones and transfigurations. The bows looked very plain but aita told them that as they grew and learned more magic they could add designs and decorate them to make the weapons more their own. For now the Arrows were only enchanted to not harm humans. They would have to learn how shoot straight with out magic. If they wanted the arrows to do more they would have to enchant their own. Considering that was sixth year Hogwarts material, Sirius doubted they would be doing it anytime soon. He had grabbed some plain, already sheaved knives from Alphard's cabin he strapped to the kids legs. They left Belvina a note in case she came looking for them and began to trudge out into the forest.O0O0O0O0O0O0OHarry had made friends with Corvus who was eleven quickly enough they were only a few months apart in age or would be in three years when Harry started to age again. Corvus had been born in the November after Harry, if he had started Hogwarts he would have been in the year below Harry. Hydrus on the other hand was only nine and would be a second year when Harry started his fourth. Lyra, was all of six years old and as troublesome as could be. As Harry was stuck a few weeks away from turning fourteen he was the undisputed oldest, for now. If they wanted to get technical Carina was the oldest Her birthday landed on the twentieth of September so like Hermione she would be among the oldest in Harry's year.However despite the current age differences they got along well and made a true effort to get to know each other, they stayed up late and told stories about their pasts and shared their dreams for the future. Harry's dream had always been to find family and now it had come true. Sure Carina was something of a girly girl. She liked to keep clean and wear pink, but she wasn't hard to get along with and best of all because they had grown up in the muggle world Harry wasn't famous to them he was just their brother. When Sirius had explained the boy-who-lived myth he'd told them it was just pure-blood supremacy non-sense. Lily Potter had done something to defeat the Dark Lord but because she was a muggle born they had given credit to her child for whom she'd given her life.Carina followed along her siblings in quiet thought. She was scared. She new before the adoption she had been a high level squib. Her new parents had explained that to them right away. That the adoption would give them magic only because they already had cores (like a magical heart) and a magical circulatory system but theirs had been under developed and that there would be a slight chance they could stay squibs because of it well except for Corvus and Lyra who had definitely had small bouts of accidental magic.Her new ama had examined them after the adoption and declared them all proper witches and wizards. She hadn't let them do magic right away instead they had spent the first month together learning about each other and the English magical culture and the other magical enclave's her parents had visited. As the blood adoption settled so too had her looks. Sirius told her she looked quite a bit like both of her new mothers. As both of them had been gorgeous, Belvina still was, that was quite the compliment. Both her living parents had really wanted them to feel welcome and apart of the family. They asked them about their opinions and actually listened when she answered. It was great. She really didn't want it to end.They had helped design their own rooms and watched in awe as magic was used to build them a house. Carina desperately wanted to be able to do that. She just wasn't sure she would ever be good enough. What if she were still a squib? What if she didn't have enough magic to do the simple spell aita wanted her to do? He'd said she could but she remained doubtful, for one she hadn't had any sign of accidental magic even after ama had told them their cores had settled normally and that they should start noticing a difference. Just yesterday she had said they could start learning small spells and that they would soon make a trip to get her and Cory a wand. Worst as the oldest Sirius often asked her to do things first. Occasionally he would have Harry do a spell to show them but only if it was a spell they would regularly be using. Sure enough aita stopped in the middle of no where gave them that silly grin of his and announced "We're officially lost!" He let them all gape at him for moment."Carina come here love." Aita pulled her forward and placed the wand in her hand. "Now don't get discouraged if this wand fights you it's a family wand not one suited for you." He told her. "Place the wand on the palm of your hand, that's it, balance in there. Now call out 'point me home' while concentrating on the tree house. Alright? Deep breathe and try it now." So she did.For a moment she thought it hadn't worked than ever so slowly the wand began to move spinning around and landing on her siblings when they moved so it wasn't pointing at them the wand followed. She frowned obviously she'd gotten it wrong somehow and all her fears where coming forward about to explode out, when aita began to clap. "Well done, fantastic job." He beamed at her."It didn't point to our cabins?" She pointed out tearfully."Oh honey, That's my fault." Sirius sighed as he smiled at her. "I told you to think of home and the cabin not realizing that you would see them as two different things. When you think of home you think of family. The wood and beds and roof are just things. That's ok. Next time think carefully about what I'm asking you to do and if this happens again ask me to clarify for you.""Here to prove it I want you to do it again but this time just think about the cabin sitting there empty save for your ama." Sirius ordered.This time when she tried it again it pointed to her side and back a little. She smiled as everyone cheered for her. Her brothers and little sister spread out a little around them and she had fun closing her eyes so she couldn't see them and making the wand spin to their location. Soon she handed the wand over to Corvus so he could try and then to Hydrus who took a little longer to get it to work and the wand wobbled a bit the whole time. Aita said it was because he was so young and ill matched to the wand.Harry laughed as they finished playing and started to pull out their bows and arrows. Sirius Black set up targets for them to aim at so he could teach them to shoot. If they took too long today or were just genuinely that bad, Sirius would simply have to go off and cheat. He could summon an animal to him and kill it. Ten times easier than hunting it down but Sirius had wanted to do something to help him bond with the kids. As it turned out his mischievous little Lyra should probably never again be allowed to shoot pointy objects near her brothers. The little idiots had been laughing at her admittedly amusing attempts to pull back the string. Only to realize with dawning horror that she'd succeed, just as she'd spun around to yell at them for it. She been so startled that she'd let go and the Arrow had flown toward three suddenly diving boys. Sirius had roared with laughter, falling over from where he'd been kneeling to coach his youngest.Lyra had been horrified that she'd almost turned her brothers into shish kabob's but Sirius and been quick to reassure her. The arrows had been charmed and that wouldn't have happened. Still it had taken a bit to calm her back down thankfully the boys had just shrugged it off mostly. He did notice that none of them laughed at her again.The rest of the attempts did much better. Once Lyra relaxed she managed to get the arrows to fly mostly straight she just lacked strength something that would come with time. The kids did do alright enough, he moved on to teaching them how to track the animals and read their environment to know what all might be near by. Corvus caught a quail though Sirius thought that might have been more accident than not. So they stopped for lunch and cooked the quail right there by a near by pond, where they went swimming. Stripping down to their underwear they went diving into the waters and jumping off the rocks splashing each other.Hyd, was Swimming around the water fall when Harry realized he could no longer see the boy. Hyd tended to be curious by nature and could wonder off so harry set off to investigate. Under and behind the waterfall was an amazing cave with small crystals dotting the walls. Hyd stood in the middle looking around. "Hey Guys come look at this!" Harry called. Soon the other kids and Sirius joined him. Harry and Sirius Lit their wands and Sirius set several crystals to glow brightly and passed them off to the four wandless kids. Leaving two large ones at the cave entrance, they set off looking to see where it went more water could be heard further ahead.Sirius warned them they wouldn't have much time but they could have fun exploring for a little while. If nothing else they could make note of the place and come back later. They would have to come back later anyway, Sirius thought as the cave widened into a monstrously huge cavern that housed among other things an underground lake and river. The river must lead back out into the ocean. There was no other explanation for how that got in here. Only himself and Harry had spotted it so far, only because it was tucked further back and up on the ledge of land that ran into that side of the lake. Sirius send several balls of light up into the top most part of the cavern lighting it up for all to see.It's a pirate ship!" Corvus yelled. It was too, black flag high above the crows nest and all."Aita what exactly were the blacks using this island for?" Harry asked "Do you see the name on its side?""I have no idea." Sirius admitted. "I will have to come back another time to make sure it's safe. You kids can explore and play on it than. We don't what kinds of wards or booby traps might be on it right now." He told them forestalling their protests.He led them back out to the water fall where they dried off, dressed, and went back to hunting. He followed a wandering path until they found fresh boar tracks. It took them a while and the boar tried to hunt them before anyone managed a hit. Harry and Corvus both got it. No one was sure whose shot got there first. Sirius praised both boys and wished the other better luck for next time. Since it had gotten so late he used magic to float it back home. Harry handed over his wand to Carina and let her lead the way home. Belvina was waiting on them with her hands on her hips, her mouth twisted into a frown that made padfoot shiver.O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0OThings on Alphard's island began to take on a routine. Belvina set up a loose schedule for classes to teach the kids everything they needed using Regulus's old primers that Sirius had gotten to set up for Harry. Belvina made copies of them and gave them to the kids for them to use as a guideline to what they needed to be learning. The fist bits of the primers were meant for younger kids and therefore easy, however Belvina made them do it any way since they all needed to get used to using quills. Carina's Birthday came and went they held a small party for her. The house-elves made all her favorite foods and cakes. The family all made her presents. Belvina collected charmed bracelets and passed one down to Carina for her twelfth birthday. When twenty-first came around they celebrated Mabon on the island, as a family. It was the first celebration with all of them. As Lughnassadh had occurred while they had been traveling. So they fed milkweed pods to the fairies. Sitting around the table and with Belvina guiding them, the kids strung hazelnuts on red thread while channeling magic to make little protection charms. Dinner was accompanied by beans and squash and served with a red wine. The kids got theirs watered down.Sirius fixed up the sail boat he found and even added to it. When he was done it looked like a woodened sailing yacht. It's cabins and hold were of course much larger than what you'd find on a muggle yacht. They used it to make trips to buy things they couldn't make on the island. Things like ink, milk, milk based foods and clothes. They went somewhere different almost every time. They started by going to Spain. Belvina made them all eat lozenges so they could learn the language. The Lozenges were her own invention and she had made adjustments so it wouldn't be a head ache to use them. Much to Harry's relief. When visiting other places they explored the museums and famous sights. Everyone had fun watching the Flamenco dancers and listening to the drums as they tried local foods. Sirius also took them to quidditch games when ever they found one. Harry had offered to let his siblings use his Firebolt to learn broom riding but Belvina had nipped that idea immediately. She'd threatened to make it disappear for good if she saw the younger ones on it. It went far too high too fast for beginners.Harry reluctantly put his broom up determining that if they couldn't fly he wouldn't.Carina found a wand match on a small magical side street just a few miles from the docks. Belvina had gone to sell some of the potions ingredients she'd collected from the island and spotted the small shop, deciding it couldn't hurt to try and once she'd sold her wares she took the kids over. The shop was new and the wand maker had only been a master for a few years. She was however very good. So the kids had sampled her small stock and Carina had gotten her wand. The others were too happy for her to be overly disappointed in their own bad fortunes. Ama had then pulled them all into a clothing store. She bought formal looking expensive robes that were much to large for them. Explaining once they were back on the yacht that she was going to start giving them lessons in etiquette, proper posture, and dance. She wanted them to get used to the kind of clothes they would wear then. Since the only time the would wear those kinds of clothes now were in her lessons she gotten ones they would be able to wear for years. She'd just shrink them down for them for now. It was much easier she told them to make bigger clothes small rather then attempt to make small clothes big.Once they had settled into a routine Harry inadvertently found the solution to their broom problem had been under their noses the whole time. He had hauled out his old fan mail and enlisted the kids to help him sort it out. Letters requesting things like business deals and Marriage contracts went into one pile to be dealt with later. The letters with well wishes were sorted into one pile and three dict-o-quills were used to address return envelopes for them. They had come up with a letter that explained Harry had only recently gotten his mail and thanking them. Belvina had checked the letter over than made copies of it for the envelopes. The read letters were burnt once they were answered. The thank you letters were put into a bag to be sent out once Harry caught up with his own time line. Many of the fans had also sent him gifts. The first bag they went through had mostly games and things for very little kids but every now and then they would find something over the top and expensive. For example, training brooms. Some were so small no one could use them but two found in the second bag; were just the right size for Lyra and Sirius was quick to steal both the better broom and the six year old. Much to Harry's amusement and the others jealousy until Harry mentioned that there just might be bigger brooms in there and every one was much happier to help him go through the mail. They found the gifts in the third bag where mostly geared toward Lyra's age. The fourth had things Hyd, Corvus, and Carina liked. Books had been found dotted through out all the bags and they were added to the growing library Sirius built them just off the main living room. They did soon find more brooms. Two comet 260's were found and gifted to Hyd and Corvus. Carina got the nimbus someone had sent him the year he'd started Hogwarts. Harry moaned that if he'd known that was in there sooner he could have saved himself loads of trouble last year. Belvina wasn't sure about the Nimbus, as it too was a rather fast racing broom, but Harry successfully argued it's case. He had after all learned on one as an Eleven year old. They found three more brooms that Harry set aside to figure out what to do with later. For the moment Sirius built a broom shed and the stored all the brooms in it theirs and the spares. Harry figured he could always ask Ron if he wanted one later. Sirius claimed one the moment he realized he could.It was a little hard to go through some of the letters, some where from kids who were sick or dying others from people who were down on their luck and looking for help. Dean Thomas had written him just before they'd started Hogwarts to ask him for help finding the father who'd left his mom and him when he'd just been a baby. He'd included a photo asking Harry to return that when he could because it was the only one he had. Belvina took the photo looking bewildered, she made a copy of it and told Harry she hoped to someday figure out why he looked so familiar. Harry wrote Dean a letter personally and pinned it to the wall by the copied photo. Maybe if Bel remembered something it would help Dean out if he even still needed it? Well either way the hardest letters to go through were actually from Remus. Remus sent Harry something for every Wizarding Holiday and muggle one. He sent Harry birthday presents and letters about his parents describing events he'd witnessed between Harry's parents and highlighting just how beautiful and kind Lilly Evans Potter had once been. He sent Harry all sorts of little gifts for every occasion and had kept it up even while Harry had been in school. Harry ended up writing three scrolls worth in an attempt to answer all the mans questions and to reassure his honorary uncle that he had appreciated hearing from him. Sirius promised him they could contact Remus as soon as they caught up with time. They would invite the werewolf to come stay with them.They had fun, every lesson was geared to keep their attention and carefully explained when they needed it. To keep Harry from being bored or so Sirius claimed, Harry taught some of the lessons to Carina and Corvus. Privately Harry thought this was because Sirius preferred chasing Hyd and Lyra around their playground. Belvina didn't like it when Sirius was idle, she claimed being bored gave him bad ideas, so any time she had the kids for lessons Sirius was ordered to add to their home, or make safe designated play area's. So far they four guest bedrooms with there own fully tiled en-suite. Two 'playgrounds' with swing sets, slides, various climbers, climbing walls, balance beams, patter paths, climbing rocks, spider walls, and log rolls. He had gotten bits of metal from muggle garbage yards and used them to make even more stuff. Soon things that made music when you hit it or the wind caught them joined the rest. He'd even started to made slides out the natural rocks surrounding the only inlet in walking distance, he'd already made swimming area's and it looked like he was on his way to turning it into their own personal water park.Twice a week Belvina staged lessons in proper pure-blood behavior. How they walked, talked, and ate. Once a week Sirius talked about the family business (Belvina had gotten all the paperwork for him). He taught them about their own finances and each child had their own allowance. They had to keep their own rooms cleans and do small chores to earn it, then keep track of how they spent it and explain why.Potions with Ama was the best as far as Harry was concerned. She was NOTHING like Snape. For one she showed them how to do each step and made sure they could copy her first. She talked about each ingredient on her table what it was, what it did, and how to store it. They all had to recite the reactions back to her before they were ever allowed to brew anything. Even Lyra had a small desk and a play potions set. Granted the play set had been from Harry's fan mail. Sirius taught them runes, every day he used them as they fixed up the playground equipment adding protective charms and wards to everything and anchoring them to ward schemes.The only classes Belvina and Sirius didn't really cover were history and divinations. Sirius added a projector to the yacht so they could watch movies play on the sails as they lay on the decking. It was during one of these movie moments that Sirius had the best idea to solve their lack in history classes. The next time they went out into civilization Sirius disappeared into the muggle world for some dolls, action figures, bags of toy soldiers and into the wizarding alley's for book stores. Once home he dumped it all into his work room and was noticeably distracted for the next two weeks. When he was finished he had a puppet stage that used the newly animated dolls to play scenes from history.The toy soldiers had their own staging area a flat table with the surface enchanted to show land as though you were looking down on it. They enacted famous battles and recited victory speeches, even told the kids who they are, who they were fighting and why. The action figures were enchanted to look like famous people and would talk about important moments in their lives and how those moments effected the kids lives now. Belvina called him the creepiest genius she'd ever met. The dolls really freaked her out. To the point she avoided that part of house. Sirius had taken to leaving them in places she would find or staging them so they were looking at her right up until she'd hit him with a hex. It left no visible effects and no one would tell kids what did; but Sirius stopped pranking her with the dolls so what ever it was it worked.O0O0O0O0O0O0O0OSamhain came and went, they carved pumpkin's, created prayer pouches to burn in the bonfires and set up elaborate candles that they burnt for the dead. November came and with it first Sirius's birthday and than Corvus'. For Sirius birthday they made him cards and bought him little things from their shopping excursions. For Corvus they gave him home made gifts and as they had for Carina the house-elves made all his favorite foods all day. Harry had bought some sweets the last time they found a small magical street and now gifted some to Corvus. The rest of November and December passed in blurs. The only real difference being the storms became less frequent and Corvus found a wand while they shopped on a small magical island just a little ways away from Portugal. They set up fairy lights and pixie homes around their little tree houses. They all decorated a yule log and then burnt it. Carina proclaimed that a waste of hard work. At least it smelled wonderful even while burning. The wreath they all spent so much time making was stored away. Carina thought that was nice until she realized it was only because they would burn it at different holiday. She spent the rest of the night in a snit.January brought good news in that Sirius declared the Pirate ship safe to explore. The treasure chests were mostly empty just a few bits of gold and silver jewelry and small gems, and those were found hidden in cabins and under loose boards. Sirius made enough repairs on the ship that the kids safely turned it into a club house of sorts. The dead mans planks would make a great diving board. Corvus commented that people used to beg NOT to have to jump off it and here they were begging ama for permission to jump. As January came to a close the household prepared to celebrate Imbolc. Bel had them make wheat dolls and cradles for them. They baked small bread rolls which they buttered and left out for the fairies. The next morning they undressed the dolls and scattered the wheat outside the girls had fun with dolls at least. The boys had more fun burning the yule greens to send winter away. Harry figured this was the religion made for pyromaniacs every holiday it seemed brought them something new to burn.The following weekend Harry finally had all but the sixth bag of mail completely sorted, replies filled out and ready to mail, and the toys in the play rooms. The sixth bag would not allow Harry to open it. He'd had to get Bel and Sirius to help because it had a giant warning symbol on the tag for 'living'. Bel thought someone might have sent him a pet or something. She was kind of right. It didn't contain one pet, but over one hundred and fifty. Each box had it's own stasis charm in addition to protective containment charms. Some one had sent him a pair of baby goats. They were cute and messy. Bel told Sirius his new project was to build them homes and enclosures. The goats weren't even close the craziest. Fish were placed in tanks as were the snakes, frogs, and lizards, next came a baby water buffalo of all things, chickens, and Kneazles were handed off to the other kids, Owls sent to their Owlrey, Harry announced he was keeping the puppies, and the day's old baby house-elf someone had gifted him was quickly handed over to their own house-elves to be cared for.People were crazy Harry decided, looking around all the animals he'd been sent. That was all there was to it. Carina claimed a kneazle and an owlet as her own Sirius placed a little collar around the kittens neck that read Baily belongs to Carina Black. A similar metal tag was added to the owlet's leg. Lyra didn't want a kneazle, she wanted one of the puppies. A small white Maltese climbed into her lap and nipped her on the chin, so she bit him back called him hers and preceded to pull the ribbons and bows out of her own hair to place in his fur no matter how many times Sirius told her that was just mean, he was boy dog. Lyra told him if he wanted to be manly he should have been borne as something bigger and less cute. She consented to picking out an owlet only because all the others would have their own. She chose a little barn owls whose eyes were biggest part of it's whole body. She called it Creeper and would not change her mind.Corvus also picked a puppy a small brown Chow that happily settled on his lap. He told Sirius to pick an owl for him he didn't really care. Hyd picked out his owl begged for a snake, settled for a non poisonous lizard instead. It was bearded dragon and rather cool so he could deal with not getting his way. All of the snakes were poisonous, some were incredibly rare but all were dangerous. Harry could still speak to them and that didn't stop them from trying to bite everyone. So Belvina would be taking them. Harry had a sneaky feeling they'd used in her potions. Sirius picked out two owls for his and Bels use. The rest of the kneazle cats and owls were tagged and slated to be taken with them to be sold the next time they went shopping.The puppies left over were all very cute and varied in breed. A light brown Chihuahua puppy shook as it looked around, a sleek black and white Dalmatian was avoiding every one, a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel was chewing on her oversized ear, the ugliest dog Harry had ever laid eyes on, a powderpuff Chinese Crested according to its tag, was hiding under a chair, better than the Pomeranian who was hiding under Sirius, and though Harry wasn't sure he wanted to admit it, his favorite a small fluffy Shih Tzu with a bow in her head was sitting regally on top her box as she surveyed her inferiors. Bel said he couldn't keep them all but he could pick is top three. "We can sell the Dalmatian and Chihuahua than." Harry told her reluctantly."That still leaves you with four!" Bel said."Nope." Harry disagreed and pointed where Sirius was playing with Pomeranian. "Aita adopted a puppy too.""Fine." Bel sounded just as amused as she did exasperated so Harry figured she wasn't too mad. "But you will all be taking care of your own animals. That means feeding them, cleaning them, and cleaning up after them. You have to get them house trained or they stay outside you got it?""Yes Ama." they agreed. They would all help Lyra with hers until she was older. So that ama wouldn't have to worry about it. Harry couldn't help but wonder though if Aberforth Dumbledore was related to Albus and if so why had the man sent him goats?O0O0O0O0O0O00OFor Ostara on the twenty-first of March Herb packets with celandine, cinquefoil, jasmine, rue, tansy, and violets were made up to be burnt and acorn, crocus, daffodil, dogwood, honeysuckle, iris, lily, and strawberry were gathered up into wreaths, cradles, into bowls, and hung as decorations. Ostara celebrations were about waking up mother earth. So Lyra was given Belvina's wand and walked to the northern most point just a little ways away from where they had all gathered. She tapped the wand to the ground three times and yelled wake up earth. She did it two more times before running back to her parents asking if she'd done it right and would the Earth listen and really wake up? The rest of the time was spent eating light foods and playing around the island. Hydrus celebrated his birthday three days later and they played hide-n-go seek around their home.In April came a round of Nasty surprises for the kids. Belvina had gotten a copy of the standard British ministry education test for their ages and they all had to take it even Harry. It took two whole weeks to get through all the testing. Then Sirius and Belvina had to use the teachers guide to grade it. It was designed to be graded harshly because home schooled students would inevitably miss stuff a real school would cover. The tests were meant to discourage home schooling still, Harry hadn't expected the low results. A's and one EE in his case. It also showed that while they were ahead in several area's they were also lacking in what the department of education called essential basics. Belvina said she was expecting that at least somewhat and just adjusted her and Sirius's curriculum to include it. She had stolen the class guidelines from Durmstrang to help get them back on track and she and Sirius both had them start writing essay's. Carina woke up in a puddle of blood and immediately panicked. Her hysterical screams brought everyone to her room. Sirius once he realized what was wrong simply picked her up and rocked her until she stopped crying. The house-elves took away the bloody blankets and Belvina spelled her clothes clean. Once she was calmed enough Belvina told them she was not in fact dying. What followed was an in depth lecture on the biological workings of the female body. Bel herself had not had this problem until she turned fifteen. She had not therefore, thought to warn Carina. For which, she apologized profusely. Harry thought all of April should be forgotten and never mentioned again.As May first loomed ahead the family prepared to celebrate Beltaine. Almond, ash, cinquefoil, frankincense, marigold, meadowsweet, and woodruff were collected to be burned. The main house smelled wonderful as the days went on and angelica, bluebells, daisy, hawthorn, ivy, lilac, primrose, and rose al began making an appearance in their decorations. They made wreaths out of them and hung them up by the door ways. Sirius made may poles and fused some of the same herbs they would later be burning into an intricate wooden Athame. He worked diligently on it until it was beautiful work of art carvings of battles rolled into the blade. Belvina made a wooden cauldron the same way. Carving delicate flowers and vines into its side.For the ceremony itself the children burnt the herbs and Sirius placed his Athame into Belvina's cauldron they placed it on the wooden alter that soon burnt with the rest turning into a pretty bonfire. Sirius had enchanted some of the bundles meant for burning and every time they added one of the fire turned colors. They had fun jumping over the smaller bonfires and making necklaces out flowers and beads. Those necklaces were infused with magic as they did it and they were later be hung around their beds and walls to bring them luck in love as they aged. Hyd hid his in his wardrobe and told Harry that Carina was all the proof he needed to know girls were gross, he didn't want one.Lyra wanted everyone to dress as princesses for her birthday and they did even the boys. Much to their disgust and Sirius's joy. When questioned Sirius happily told them that he was the one with the camera and therefore all the blackmail material. He was going to deny ever having worn a similar outfit and they wouldn't be able to prove otherwise.Harry thought now that he'd sorted his mail and answered it all he'd have that time free. He was wrong. Sirius led him back to the spare room they'd used to sort his mail only this time where the mail used to be were stacks of boxes."These contain your inheritance from your mom's family and your parents house in Godrics Hollow. You need to go through them, throw away the junk decide what you want to sell and what you want to keep. Bel said she's tired of having to store all the boxes. I'll help when I can. There is a chance I'll know the stories behind some of the stuff. If its magical always ask me first. You remember how to check right?" With that Sirius left him to it.They celebrated Litha by Making amulets (simple charms) of protection out of herbs such as rue and rowan. Harry burnt his old one in the midsummer's fire. They each made a Solar Wheel for their bedroom. Together they made a large one to hang on their main tree outside. A Solar Wheel is a circle of twisted grape vine stems and decorated with feathers, stones, pouches of ashes, and shells with the stems of the vine crossing each other in the otherwise open middle. A candle was added to the large one and charmed so it would burn all year and not catch anything on fire. It was festooned with green and yellow ribbons.In the after noon they made Witch's Ladder's using red, black, and white yarn braided together until it was three feet long. Nine feathers all the same color were added depending on what spell you wanted to twist into the ladder. For instance for luck with money the feathers would be green or if you wanted peace and protection the feathers would be blue. Carina's feathers were black for wisdom. Corvus put white in his for balance (he'd hit a growth spurt recently that left him stumbling everywhere). Belvina's was iridescent for the insight she claimed she needed to keep all six of her kids out of trouble. It took Sirius awhile but he did notice she'd included him in that.After dinner they gathered herbs mostly Vervain, Rosemary, Hyssop, Yarrow and St. John's Wort, out of the garden. Laughing and telling jokes as they did. Many of the herbs would later be used in a purification ritual to rid the house of old and dark magic's so as not to attract nasty creatures like doxy's.That night they built a midsummers eve fire and burned last years Yule wreath. The kids soaked thyme in olive oil and dabbed their eyelids with mixture. It was an old potion used to allow a person to see magic for a short time. They tied a bundle of fennel with red ribbons and hung it over the door of the main house for long life and protection. Bel said the cabin was really started to feel like a true home. Harry wasn't sure what she thought it had been the rest of the year but he knew when he finally had to leave for Hogwarts he'd miss the place.It's funny for three years Hogwarts was home. Almost a year on an island full of idiots and everything had changed. He wouldn't trade them for anything not even Hydrus who kept stealing his firebolt and going for joy rides when he thought Harry too busy to notice. His sisters routinely braided his hair or slipped ribbons in it. Corvus was mouthy and often thought he was right even when he wasn't and Sirius was more likely to help them get into trouble than keep them out of it. He also tended to let them take the fall if he accidently pranked Belvina. Not that Harry was perfect he was well aware that he had habits that drove his siblings spare.When Lughnassadh came around they spent their morning after breakfast picking blackberries. It had rained in the early morning and Sirius had excitedly collected buckets full of the rain water. He'd barely taken the time to tell them it was an essential ingredient in something he wanted to enchant before he was off. When they got back to the house they baked the blackberries into a pie decorated with the Solar Cross. They made a witches bottle out of a large glass jar and buried under the heart of their tree house. The pie and cornbread and other food related odds and ends were packed up into the pic nick baskets and they went down to the beach. Where they usually built sand castles today they built sand candles and played among the waves. Belvina told them that making these memories together as a family was something they could always cherish, she wished she'd had siblings to do these things with. Her biggest hope as far as her kids go was that they'd always stick together.Sirius had gotten bored again. They had the biggest tree house ever the main house now consisted of a kitchen the house elf quarters, a dining room, living room, den, library toilet and an upstairs with two bedrooms both with walk in closets and an en-suite. Each kid had their own bedroom with en-suite. Plus ten guest bedrooms dotted here and there among the trees never too far away from the main cluster. Three play grounds packed with everything a playground could have, a quidditch pitch and a massive water park. Belvina thought that was quite enough but didn't know what else to make him do. She struck inspiration during one of their shopping strips. They were in Italy walking around when she caught Sirius staring at a car. It was sleek and just by looking she could tell it was fast. The people next to them were talking about it too apparently someone they knew had bought one and wrecked it a week later. It had been irreparable and had to be junked. Junked, like with their Rolls? Mentioning to Sirius that he could go steal broken things out of muggle garbage heaps to fix made his day. Sirius did just as she suggested. A new sports car here, a few racing motor bikes there. Soon, he was starting his own collection. He decided he would keep a few on the yacht to use while they were off island, so that he could actually get some use out them.Sirius called the kids together by the beach one bright and early morning smiling excitedly. "Bel's birthday is coming up." He told them. "I want to do something special for her and you kids are going to help." He pulled out his wand "First I need to show you a few spells. Don't worry Hyd, Lyra your going to be able to help too."The spell he showed them would make certain claims glow. They were going to gather the glowing clams only he stressed. Their Aita then passed out satchels to everyone and Gillyweed. They spent an entire week collecting glowing clams. When aita decided they had collected enough he gathered them into their pirate ship club house and showed them what to do. The clams had glowed because they had pearls in them. They made Belvina a necklace made of a long string of pearls. Padfoot even made her earring's using some of the melted pirate jewelry and a bracelet with an elegant clasp. The clasp only took him four tries but he got it right eventually. They had so many pearls left over that Sirius went ahead and made Carina and Lyra small pearl necklaces to match their mothers.The biggest problem Sirius had right now was his mind. He wasn't right and he knew it. He just wasn't sure how to fix it. The kids all helped. Harry was of course his reason for living. The boy was so much like James it hurt. Then if that wasn't bad enough he'd be joking with the boy and messing around and BAM there was Lily glaring at him all righteous indignation because he'd done something cruel. Sirius had loved them. He had loved lily as much as he'd ever loved a woman and he'd loved James even more. Sirius was as straight as could be but if he was given Verataserum and asked if he'd ever been in love he'd say yes and mean James. Prongs had been charismatic and funny. He'd been kind and known just what to do to make a person laugh. Most importantly he'd seen Sirius through his the best and worst and loved him anyway. His Parents, brother, cousins they all hated him because they thought he was too light, they were wrong of course. James had seen Sirius's dark parts the ones so much scarier than everyone else's and had stood by him, not merely unafraid, but willing to help him hide whatever was left of the bodies and to wash the blood off and get rid of the evidence before anyone could come for him.Lily on the other hand accepted his darker parts and gave him rules. She'd made an honest to the Goddess list for him. She'd titled it General guidelines for blending in. It had listed stuff like what not to laugh at. When a prank becomes attempted murder. Things Sirius often had trouble with. Lily had been willing to not only share Harry with him but had volunteered to carry for him if wanted kids later. Oh she'd given her blood to adopt any kids and be their godmother but at the time neither of them had honestly thought he'd willingly marry someone else to have kids. Then he'd lost them and awoken in Azkaban all alone just him and his dark parts.His kids were a miracle. Carina was so much like Lily it made him feel warm. Looking at her, Hydrus, Lyra and Corvus was wonderful like he had for the first time in his life done something so right. Corvus at times was more like him. It scared him that the boy might lead a similar life than he looked at the other's and how Harry protected and guided him. He knew then that so long as Harry lived Corvus would have a better more stable life. They were good together so much better than Sirius and Regulus. The way they might have been had Walburga not been a complete bitch that had enjoyed pitting her sons against each other.Belvina had been telling him that she wanted the kids to make memories together to do activities that bonded them together. It was why she put so much effort and emphasis on the holidays instead of just a general acknowledgement as they went on with their days. So Sirius planned activities on their excursions off island and on it. Playing with the kids helped him to, it was easier to concentrate on the good bits when James was smiling at him from his littlest girls face. Lyra was a ball of mischief, pulling pranks on everyone, hiding things from her brothers and pointing the blame at the others. She was a bright ray of sunshine even on his darker days when all he wanted to do was drink himself into oblivion or go on a murder spree. It was with her in mind that he took the kids their first ever amusement park. Belvina didn't necessarily like the park but she took pictures and smiled for the kids anyway. He visited library's with the kids looking up places, events, and things to build.He built what others called a mountain coaster on the island. Since the island wasn't a mountain there wasn't enough downward momentum to make it go its own. Sirius used runes and charms to make it run. He added loop de loops and random dives along the cliff sides. He turned one of the caves into a car garage making a stone drive way from the house to the cave long enough that he could teach the kids how to drive on it. Everywhere they went Sirius found something to take back with them to fix up later. He found and repaired boats, motorcycles, jet ski's, and more. The kids loved learning how to use all of it. They took lessons surfing and folk dancing. Explored more of the world. They sailed to Chile to hike in the mountains and took pictures of magnificent views. They went skiing in Norway, swimming in the deep Oceans with whales, Orca's, and more. Belvina took them to museums, orchestra's, and the ballet.They bought and traded for books, sculptures, masks and paintings at flea markets, estate sells, and little bazaars to take home in order to decorate the houses with bits of where they had been. Some places didn't use money as Harry had always known it but instead traded their wares for others. They picked up fabrics and cloths from all over, made jewelry and bits some to keep some to sell. Bel sold and traded potions every where they went.In an art exhibit on the magical side of New York city Harry saw something familiar. He had not understood of course why the image of the man had made Harry stop until he read the mans name and biography. It was a with a sinking feeling that he called Belvina over and asked her to take a look, as he read the small Biography plaque.'Z. Shafiq pure blood British born wizard with a Native American mother and a famous artist had been murdered in January nineteen eighty-one. When the wizard extremist known only as Voldemort tried to recruit him to exploit magical portraits in the hopes of using them to create a spy network. Mr. Shafiq told Voldemort he would rather die and Voldemort had taken that as literal…' "well," Belvina started as she looked at the display. "At least I now know why he looked so familiar. He was one of my favorites as a child I own one of his landscapes. It's hanging in the living room of my house in Wales. I'll show it to you when we can finally visit there.""Look." Cori pointed to a table beside the display. "It says it has pictures of all his known work in addition to being his biography. They negotiated the right to produce it with the estate keeper at Gringotts where his personal wealth is being managed until his son claims."Carina took over. "No one has actually met his son or even knows the child's name, but in nineteen eighty he released his final work entitled 'oh, How I Love Thee my son' It was a large portrait of a new born wrapped in a blue blanket. He changed his vault information at the bank to include said child and made arrangements with the Goblins. If the goblins know the child's name they've never said.""Holey crap they want twenty Galleons for that book." Hydrus chocked. "It's a limited print and they will never make any more of them."Harry hesitated and looked towards Belvina. "Ama I don't know what to do.""We get it." Belvina said firmly. "We have it. Sirius and I used some loose pearly to make earrings and bracelets we sold just yesterday for a small fortune. We can buy a book for a child who deserves to know his father loved him.""He thought his father abandoned them." Harry explained to his siblings. "He's always thought he was a muggle born, I don't think the Goblins knew how to contact him. He has also been using his step fathers last name so they might not have realized who he was when he visited them." They bought the book and when they got home they placed it with Deans reply letter."That's not exactly something you should read in a letter. We'll visit him when we get back and tell him person." Harry turned and grinned at his ama."That sounds right, you're the greatest ama in the world you know?" Harry told her.The time passed as it always did; in a flurry of holidays, birthdays, schooling and tests. Soon, and all too soon at that, as far as Sirius was concerned. Time caught up with them and the July seventh that would mean soon sending the kids to Hogwart's next was fast approaching them. Carina would turn fifteen in the castle where they couldn't be. At least Lyra would be here with them well with him. Belvina would have to go to England to get things set up and to keep up with her normal appearances. She did after all have a life before him and their family. She had a job and business contracts to keep.Bel would also be meeting with lawyers to try and sue the ministry in an attempt to get him off. He'd never had a trial so he was betting on some loop hole some where that would get him off. Now that time had caught up to them Belvina could also take control of all the Black family money's she even had a ready made excuse as to why she hadn't touched in until now. With Harry 'missing' Sirius wrongfully imprisoned and their kids so young, there was always the chance someone could have used Sirius against them or had him kissed, or used the kids against one or both of them to get some unscrupulous person access to the money. Bel could claim that now that he was away from the corrupt ministry and kids were older she could finally act to right all the old wrongs.Sirius was fairly certain that Dumbledore wasn't a bad man per say just very old, busy and arrogant. He along with everyone else had been so sure that they knew everything, that none of them had bothered to check if they actually had the facts right. He was going to try to contact the man and talk to him reasonably. He would tell him the story he and Bell would use in general that she had been pressured to marry by her parents and that Sirius had been in the same mess. They had regarded each other as they best of a bad situation and Lily had known and helped them. He would tell him about the time travel to get more time with his kids and wife but not the rest.He would make an agreement with Dumbledore. If Dumbledore was willing to sign over custody of Harry as Petunia already had, than he and Bel would return to Private drive for a couple weeks it would take to recharge the wards and not a moment more. Harry would spend the rest of the time at home with them. Belvina was going to fill out her own set of the paperwork she'd already had the Dursley submit to the board of governors requiring the kids to come home every holiday and on certain weekend's.They were also going to allow Corvus, Carina, and Harry to take the OWL's for DADA, Potions, History, and Muggle studies before they went to Hogwarts for Harry's fourth year. It would free up time for the kids allowing Harry and Carina to tutor Hydrus in the first three subjects. Hogwarts didn't exactly have the best reputation in recent years concerning those classes. Every one of the DADA professors had tried to kill Harry even Remus who couldn't love Harry more if the child was his own son. Sirius had taught all of his kids Occlumency and had seen the way Snape treated Harry, while the man had protected Harry that didn't mean it was forgivable to bully him the rest of the time.
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Disclaimer I own nothing. AN: Dear Guest reviewer I cannot reply to your inquiries if you don't leave your name. Thank you . I would also like to thank those who have continued to show support and constructive criticism's. ...........
Sirius had been acting funny until Belvina had slipped him some truth serum. When he'd confessed his fears of her no longer wanting or needing him around she'd wacked him with a dainty hand, before making it very clear that he would not be getting rid of her that easily. With a great deal of consideration Sirius and Bel had decided that they would use Grimauld Place. Number twelve was heavily warded and hadn't been used in years and the muggle neighborhood around it was generally in disrepair. They would purchase number eleven to fix up for if they had visitors, while number twelve would have the fidelius charm added to it for extra security. The Aurors would no doubt come search number eleven when it was discovered they were living there. While they distracted the aurors Sirius would be safe inside number twelve. It was the best solution they could come up with. Bel had already sent house-elves to clear up her home in Wales which she would be selling soon. Selling the house in Wales would add to their own savings and allow them to buy many of the supplies they'd need to renovate two houses from locale recourses. When money had gotten very tight even with bartering and selling potions and certain island grown ingredients, Sirius had found himself a job of sorts. Being who he was legal honest employment wasn't really an option. That left illegal work that wouldn't disappoint his kids if they found out.His first job had fallen into his lap quite literally. He'd been sitting on the bank by the docks when the biggest nerd he'd ever met had fallen into his lap. The muggle had been looking for someone to smuggle him out of the country with a little statue he'd made off with. You could argue that he'd stolen it, but then again it had been stolen from his family first. The small statue had belonged to the muggles grandparents and been stolen from them during World War 2. The man explained that he hadn't originally been trying to steal it he'd approached the current holders of the statue hoping to speak to them about it and they'd blown him off and laughed at him and he gone to leave and it had been right there. So he'd swiped it and not really thought about what he was doing until he was already out the door. Sirius had volunteered to help by smuggling the little thing back to his home country for him and the man had agreed, offering to pay Sirius two hundred pounds for it. It was all the man had. Sirius had agreed and that had been that. He'd begun smuggling little things here and there and even been hired by a group who kidnapped already kidnapped kids and smuggled them back to their rightful birth parents. Sirius figured the smuggling wasn't so bad as far as dishonest jobs went and helping return kids and stolen bits evened things out, allowing him to do more good than bad. He'd managed to make a good living for his family and he'd even made decent friends with the former soldiers actually in charge of recovering the kidnap victims. Not that smuggling was his only job. He had found himself quite good with his hand and shaping wood into objects such as tables, chairs, dressers, coffins and various other house hold things. The problem being they were often in places were those didn't sell well or if they did it was only one or two pieces. This was more difficult than they had first imagined it would be. Since They were getting ready to go to England they were preparing their trunks with everything the kids would want to take to school with them. Sirius and Belvina were packing trunks for the London Town house they would live in. It turns out that they amount of junk seven people accumulated over three years was nearly astronomical. They got rid of their torn and stained clothes, broken toys, and broken pet stuff. Little things that they had picked up here and there but never used were tossed all the toys were neatly packed into the play room the only exceptions being those that Lyra would be taking with her, for her new toy room. Carina had managed to somehow accumulate a vast wardrobe the majority of which she'd outgrown just this past month. When she'd developed curves much to Sirius' horror. Belvina had packed up all the clothes still in good condition that they'd outgrown to either sell or give away once they were in England. Sirius had made each of their trunks out of exotic woods and other plants that they had picked up on their adventures. He had been working on them for a while only presenting them to the kids now. Harry admired his with a critical eye looking for anything that might be inappropriate or pranked. It was carved with animals most prominently lions and plants, with a beautiful red gloss finish. The flat lid had a plank on the top where the word Gryffindor was neatly carved and bottom read HJBP spelled out in onyx and crystals. Carina's was white, her plank was blank, the crystals were pink and the carvings were mostly of flowers with a few birds. Likewise Cory's trunk was dark brown the plants were tree's and the animals were all predators of the four legged mammal variety. Hyd's trunk was greenish white; rocks, shrubs, and cacti were carved into it along with lizards and the occasional snake. There was otherwise no real differences in the trunks appearances. As they investigated more they discovered hidey holes and hidden compartments dotted through out all in different places in each trunk giving each one a unique character. The main compartments were for clothes sorted by season, books which were sorted based on their own preferences, a plain trunk space meant for miscellaneous items like games they might want, and last was designed to hold cases, for brooms, potions, telescopes and the like. The clothes compartment had drawers and shoe cubbies and a place to hang their uniforms when they got them. Harry fingered the necklace Sirius had gifted him with just last year. It was a plain leather rope with four crystals dangling from the end. Each crystal held a magical signature. Sirius and Belvina's magic had been easy to obtain they'd just held a crystal and poured some in. However James and Lily's magic had been a little more complicated. Harry hadn't even known his school work carried magical signatures like that. In going through his parents stuff he'd found their school trunks. Sirius had been very excited about finding their graded bits of homework and tests. It turns out that the little corner on the top left bit of the official school parchments all students were required to buy had a special feature. The first thing the professors had instructed them to do was write their names class year and subject on that spot of all their papers. This was because of that special corner it siphoned and stored a bit of magic so that teachers always knew you'd done your own work. Sirius had used those old homework papers and freshly dug out crystals to syphon the magic out of the paper and into the crystals, there by preserving the signature for any one to feel. Sirius had made some for all the kids. For himself and Belvina he'd made wedding rings. He'd ground up a crystal carrying James' signature mixed it into melted gold than using some enchanted tools had twisted the molten gold into a ring, He'd done that three more times until he'd had all their magical signatures than twisted the four rings together to create a braided rope look, he'd added a pearl surrounded by small diamonds to Bel's.As the kids prepared for their transition into school, the adults planed for how they'd pay for the cost of public schooling and living in London, Sirius could and probably would continue to work while the kids were in school but that wouldn’t be enough. They decided they would have to use the family money. Which while legally theirs could still prove problematic. While the ministry couldn't confiscate the Black family vaults and property, they could place a freeze order on it for as few as thirty days and as many as ninety. They could also renew the freeze order only twelve hours after the last had ended if they had probable cause. The only reason they hadn't yet was because Narcissa had given everyone the impression that those vaults were now hers. Once Bel accessed the vaults as Lady Black, the goblins would be obligated to report it to the ministry there was a good chance they would freeze the vaults as soon they got the info. Bel's idea was for her and the older kids to go and gather as much as they could out of the main vaults before a freeze could be put in effect. They would meet with the accounts manager first and see what vaults were available to them. They needed enough money to pay for the kids education. Hogwarts cost one thousand two hundred galleons a year. She needed it for four kids for the next few years. Plus enough to buy the equipment, clothes, and pay for lawyers. She planed to sue the ministry for Sirius's undue incarceration, the misappropriation of Votes and artifacts (Which had been handed over to Narcissa), attempted line theft, and the slander of her Most Ancient and Most Noble elder house. One or more of them were bound to stick as Sirius hadn't had a trial he'd been considered guilty because Crouch hadn't liked his last name.
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Harry, Sirius and Belvina spent the seventh in absolute misery. While they hadn't aged in three years they had sun bathed, done all sorts of activities, and exercises that were now catching up to them. While they still wouldn’t age the experiences of the last three years had still left an impact. They all finally got that tan living in the Caribbean should have given them. Both Harry and Sirius put on a lot of muscles. Belvina's potions help them get accustomed to the changes quicker than they would have on their own and to be honest Harry really liked his new look. He was no longer so pale, scrawny or short. His curly hair hung fairly long and he had to put a clasp in it to hold it in a ponytail, his eyes were fixed, and his health much improved. He loved it. Sirius wrote to Remus and Dumbledore requesting a meeting in Spain on the eighth. He hinted to them both that he had someone they should meet and that Dumbledore should bring the forms and testing papers for transfer students. Belvina got in touch with a realty agent that would broker the deal for number eleven, and to sale her house in Wales. They would sign the paperwork paying in cash when they arrived on the tenth. When they got to port in Spain Remus was waiting for them at the docks. He came running as soon as the Marauder docked. "Sirius you idiot what have you done now." His smile though took the sting out of any negativity his words might have otherwise conveyed. Harry ran up and hugged him glad to see the man especially after reading all his letters. Remus hugged him back. "Harry? Holey crap! Just look as you two." Indeed Sirius was dressed in a white shirt with loose sleeves and an open front, tight leather trousers his right ear was pierced with a hoop earring. Harry was dressed somewhat similarly only Harry's earring wasn’t as large a hoop. Sirius happily told Mooney about his wife Belvina His marriage to Lily and James, and then introduced the kids. "When I introduced Harry to his step-mum, she had an interesting question about his mail. Turns out the Ministry was rerouting it to a mail office. The mail office thought the Ministry had already told Harry and his family and the Ministry thought the mail office would inform them. So it had just been sitting their pilling up. We went through it this summer." Sirius concluded."How what about the blood wards?" Remus asked. "Oh, We recharged those first." Sirius answered, "We than used a bit of magic to give ourselves some extra time. So both me and Harry could get reacquainted with the rest of the family. A chance to make up some the time Azkaban stole from us." "Look Remus, Harry has a long letter he wrote you," Sirius began looking distractedly out at the piers end. "Why don't you let him show you around and you can look at it. I need to have a long talk with Dumbledore." Sirius drew a long breathe and began to walk out to meet his old headmaster and to allow the man on board. "Come on uncle Remus this way." Harry drug the man toward the door to the yachts interior where his siblings were already gathered and spying on them. Harry quickly pointed out who was who and Lyra all of eight demanded he hold her and tell her if he was really a werewolf like aitatxo said or if he'd been pranking her again. Remus did pick her up and admit to being a werewolf. "What is an aitatxo?" Remus asked. "It's Euskera," Lyra told him. "It means daddy" "Dare I ask what Euskera is and how you speak it?" Remus asked looking confused."It's the official language of Basque, ama, that means mom, hid us there for a while to be safe, from the ministry and scheming blood relatives who want the family resources for themselves." Cory told him. "We still speak it a lot when we are talking to each other especially." Carina added."It will be difficult going to Hogwarts and only speaking English." Hyd complained. "My English isn't as good as the others, my own fault cause I don't practice it often I know. "Well you have time to get some practice in I'm sure you'll be fine by September." Remus reassured him. The kids drug Remus all around the ships interiors the 'captains quarters' were their parents slept had two hidden bedrooms but looking in from the door all you could see was a spacious living room with a prominent radio in the corner. Each kid had their own small bedrooms the Kitchen was huge and connected to an equally large dining room. They had three guest rooms on the yacht one of which they told Remus he should claim for his own. "I'm not sure I'll be here long enough to need a place to sleep." he told them gently. Then shifted uncomfortably at the looks Harry and Carina gave him. They both looked like they were channeling Lily at that moment. It made Remus wish to simultaneously run and surrender. "Of course you're staying. There is a room already prepared for you, in the Cargo hold for if you need to transform and you've missed all of our birthdays, Yules, and all the important holiday's" Carina argued. "Harry at least got a story and a card for all of the ones you missed. We deserve the same you know." She placed her hands on her hips they way Belvina did just as she won an argument. "Well, when you put it that way." Remus smiled. Looking genuinely touched. "Oh wait until you see aitas part of the cargo hold." Cory yelled as grabbed Remus's hand and took off for the floor below them. "It's where he stores his favorites. We have a garage full of them at home, but since we're heading to England next dad packed up a larger selection than usual."Remus allowed the kids to guide him along, amused at their enthusiasm. He had to admit that they were right, it was quite the sight. The hold was full of trunks with the stuff they were taking to their new house and certain sections were divided up. They passed an enclosed Metal room that had a wolf's head carved into the door, before reaching what was clearly their main destination. Cars and motorcycles lined the walls and filled the rows in between. Remus could make out the models from here. He didn't know how Sirius could have possibly collected even one of them let alone so many. He spotted an Aston Martin, BMW, Ferrari, and Ducati motorbike right off the bat. The others took a second longer but he soon recognized them as well. Looking out of place was not one but two limousines. One of the vehicles was painted for Formula one racing. Remus just hoped it was replica and that Sirius hadn't stolen the real thing from somewhere.
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Dumbledore made his way up to the ship he had been asked to meet Sirius at. He owed the man. He had after all bollixed things up quite completely in regards to his relation ship with the young man. What had he been thinking all those years ago when he'd not insisted on a trial? He hadn't obviously or he'd have ignored Crouch's whining about wasting resources they didn't have and the ministers speeches about putting it all behind them. Now a young man once loyal to him had spent over a decade in one of the worst prisons the world had to offer. When he had opened the letter signed by Lord and Lady Black he'd recognized Sirius' hand writing. This he thought could go a long way to rebuilding bridges. It also lessoned the Malfoy's influence if their was a Lady Black than Narcissa Malfoy had never had any right to the family resources she and her husband had been using. Dumbledore looked forward to informing Lucius Malfoy that he was no longer welcome at the Board of Governors meeting. While after the chamber fiasco Lucius had been stripped of his title as head of the board and asked to step down, Lucius had pointed out that he was sitting the Black seat and they couldn't actually dismiss him. Now Dumbledore was looking forward to the look on Mr. Malfoy's face when he realized they could in fact ask him to leave. Albus saw Remus going downstairs with a young man, must be one of the mysterious transfer children. Ah, Sirius was waiting for him already, it took him by surprise he must admit the man looked fantastic. Just goes to show how powerful love was if his wife could work such miracles so quickly.Sirius brought Dumbledore to the dining room where Belvina was already waiting for them. They sat out snacks and offered Dumbledore a sweet lemon tea, Sirius was sure the man would love. They sat Dumbledore down on one side and they sat on the other. They lay their hands on table in front of them Belvina's fingers automatically curled into his. They had perfected looking in love. While they had learned to love each other, it was purely a platonic sibling kind of love. However they had discovered that if they looked each other in the eye's once in a while, held hands, kissed each other on the cheek just close to the lips, that others automatically assumed they were sexually involved with one another. Dumbledore certainly bought the act. They fed him their 'official' story, only admitting to the time travel that allowed Sirius to heal and get reacquainted with his kids, well in Lyra's case meet his kid. She had been born using samples that Belvina had kept from Sirius and Lily. Belvina claimed that she had always wanted more children and had hoped one more might help fill the hole that appeared after that catastrophic Halloween when she'd lost her wife, both husbands, and her step son. Two of those loses had been permanent and she'd not known if she'd ever see Sirius or Hadrian again. Dumbledore was both sympathetic to her plight and willing to help with everything they might need including making sure she got official custody of Harry. To no one's surprise Dumbledore had at first tried to stress the importance of the blood wards only giving in when they assured him that they would work with the Dursley's to keep the blood protections active. Dumbledore than met with all the children including Harry who would be taking placement tests for Runes, Arithmancy, and muggle studies. Sirius and Bel had already told Dumbledore of their plan to have Harry, Carina, and Cory test out of DADA, Potions, and History by taking the OWL's early. They were only adding Muggle Studies because they knew the kids could all pass it. So they would self study in that class and take the NEWT's with their classmates Carina and Harry both tested into fifth year Runes, and Arithmancy they could probably test into the sixth year class but that would mean having to take the OWL's early and Everyone thought would be to many NEWT classes for them at this time. Corvus tested into fifth year transfigurations and the Fourth year classes otherwise. Hydrus would be in the Second year regular glasses because his core was not big enough to handle the higher classes. He would however be taking runes and Care of magical creatures with the third years. A child's core grew steadily from ages eleven to seventeen. They had a growth spurt at thirteen and another at seventeen, after which it than slowed its growth until a person was on average twenty five when it stopped growing all to gather. Belvina signed the paperwork taking them out of DADA and Potions regardless of their OWL score she would be providing Tutors for those subjects. They also had to fill out paperwork to have the kids floo home every Wiccan holiday to celebrate with family. Providing they kept an EE average that was allowed. Dumbledore approved of course because he thought it would be cruel to deprive her of her children, when it was clear she was still afraid of losing them. Dumbledore lamented that he could have eased her suffering sooner if only he had checked the ministry records before placing Harry with his aunt As Harry's siblings shared Lily's blood and could have easily replaced Petunia in the wards, alas it was too late now.No matter Dumbledore could help them now. It was even better Dumbledore upon seeing the children had inquired about the famous boy-who-lives missing scar only to be told they'd cleansed the dark magic out of it and purified the wound completely healing Harry. Indeed the Horcrux was gone as far Dumbledore could tell. It eased his mind immensely. He even promised to go visit the Weasleys and explain the situation so that Mrs. Weasley might consider allowing Ron to visit with the Blacks sometime during the summer vacation. He left them carrying a package including a letter for the Weasleys and a box of packaged lemon tea for himself the stuff was a true delight. He took himself straight to the lane leading towards the Burrow contemplating what he would say as he walked its length. Mrs. Weasley greeted him as he came closer. "What ever the twins did I'll promise we'll fix the damage." Mrs. Weasley swore as she saw him.
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Dumbledore had gathered all the Weasleys into the Kitchen, even the older children were there having saved up vacation days to come home. "No, None of you kids are in trouble. Rather, I am here to talk about one of my mistakes, mine and the ministry's." Dumbledore began. "You see, at the end of the last war, we allowed hubris to get the better of us. We believed we knew everything there was to know. James and Lily were Potters and had been married and Sirius was a Black and Blacks are dark. In our hubris we believed that was all there was to know. We never bothered to get out the files and check." Dumbledore's tone took a sorrowful edge. "We should have. In my hubris I thought I knew the whole story, why waste time combing thought the archives to confirm it.""I hate to interrupt headmaster. It sounds like something awful happened, but how does that effect us?" Arthur asked,"Oh, I'm afraid it does, I am so sorry to say, that because of my mistake an innocent man went to Azkaban. The real murderer a death eater than hid himself using his illegal animagus form, that of a rat, with the first magical family he could find." Dumbledore paused. "Your family." He waited for the outrage and talking to die down before he continued. "While, Sirius had enough presence of mind to recognize the traitor he knew no one would listen and that your family was in danger. So he escaped prison and set out to save you himself." Dumbledore kept with the story and even Ron began to talk to fill in things from his point of view, for the first time ever all the family's attention was on him. He wasn't quite sure he liked it for one his mother was about to brake his ribs if she squeezed any tighter. "So as soon as Sirius was away from the dementer's he began to recover his mind more, and with some dread realized that he had inadvertently caused poor Ronald harm emotionally and physically." Dumbledore concluded that. "Naturally he wished to make it up any way he can and to that end contacted his only living spouse who encouraged him to contact me to help." "For Ronald as an apology he sends you these one for you personal use the other for your family." Dumbledore took the cover off the cage sitting in the middle of the table to reveal a money bag, two regal looking Eagle Owls, and a box full of owl treat bags was sitting beside it. While owls fed themselves mostly post owls still needed the treats as vitamin supplements. The vitamin supplements were expansive and part of the reason the Weasley's had not yet replaced Errol. Their looked to be enough in that box to feed all three of their owls for the next two years."They have also invited you and any of your family who wish to accompany you to come sailing with them. Keeping in mind of course that young Harry is already there and quite wishes for you to meet his siblings." Dumbledore told them handing over a thick letter to Ron from Harry and one to Mrs. Weasley form Mrs. Black. "Why the money?" Arthur asked. "Why to replace the uniform and other cloths that were no doubt ruined in the altercation. It's hardly fair to expect you pick up the cost when someone else caused all the damage." Dumbledore told them with a smile. In truth the money was Harry's contribution, he'd been carrying roughly thirty galleons on him when Sirius and Belvina had gone to get him. They had refused to use his money insisting that as the adults it was their duty to pay for essential things. With that Dumbledore dismissed himself and headed back to Hogwarts he had paperwork to submit after all.
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Bright early on the tenth of July the family docked in a small port in England and left straight to Grimauld place. Sirius let them into number twelve and they all curled their lips in disgust. Belvina had used a spell she'd found on her travels for deep cleaning and lifted everything out of the small den to the side of where they had entered. Once all the furniture had been shrunk and put up on the shelf she banished the old moldy carpet hit it with a few more cleaning charms and laid down a thick rug she'd brought with her. The rug was part of a play pen set for Lyra. Several toys were put on it for Lyra to play with. Since she was still quite young only eight she would have to stay in here while they surveyed the rest of the house. The portrait of Sirius's mom would have to go. Belvina tried every spell, hex, curse, and charm she could think of and Sirius tried the same when they both failed Belvina tried to take out the wall it didn't work. They decided they'd have better luck with some muggle tools namely a chainsaw and some turpentine. So it would have to wait until they had some more money. The sale of Belvina's house was being used to buy number eleven and while they would have some money left over it would all be needed. Remus stayed in the house to deal with Sirius and watch over Lyra while Belvina and the older kids all went out to greet the realty agent. Once the paper work was signed they made their way in and Belvina knocked out part of the wall on the fifth floor which was technically the attic. They turned the hole into a door attached to the attic in number twelve than placed number twelve extra door and all under the fidelius with Belvina as the Secret keeper. They ate breakfast out of a pic nick basket before getting cleaned up and heading to the bank. All the surprises today were good ones. Harry claimed his heir ring and the vaults for the Potter family. He wouldn't be able to vote until he was seventeen but he had been Lord Potter since his father died at least according their paperwork that said he'd been blood adopted before Sirius was sent to prison. For the Black side of the family the news was just as good as it turns out there were several high security vaults that they could empty if they wished. Corvus as the official heir could access his own heirs vault and was owed an allowance out of the main family vault. While only Sirius as head and Lord of the family could access the majority of the family wealth the other vaults weren't nearly so restrictive. These vaults had been set up for others to use. For instance one vault had only Narcissa Malfoy on the access list. The vault itself and therefore all its contents belonged to the head of the Family. She'd merely been granted access to it at one point and that access never denied. Cassiopeia's vault hadn't been touched since she died in nineteen eighty and ownership had gone to Arcturus who'd left everything to Sirius. The Goblins were happy to tell them that they only had to inform the ministry thirty minutes after the heirs vault had been accessed. So Belvina offered to compensate them for say the twenty nine minutes of work they'd be missing out on because she was being such a difficult customer. They happily agreed and she and the kids got to work she went to empty Narcissa's vault herself, Corvus the heirs vault, Hyde took Cassiopeia's, Carina took a vault only Bellatrix had previously had access too, and Hadrian emptied out the deceased Pollux's vault. They stood out side of the vault and used certain safe spells to pull everything out the vaults and into the trunks and bags they'd brought with them. As soon as Belvina had emptied the vault she made her way to the accountings offices and found the ones in charge of Hogwarts. She showed the children's acceptance and placement letters signed by Dumbledore and paid for the rest of their education in full a sum of twenty one thousand six hundred galleons. The rules said you could place a child's name down as having accepted admissions as soon as they were born but just incase they raised the price (or the child was a squib) you couldn't pay in full until your child was actually attending, hence why she'd only paid in full for four of her kids. Keeping in mind that three of them were going into their fourth year and the other was a second year. Harry's trust vault had been paying his yearly fee's until this year when Belvina stopped it.Belvina exchanged a bag of gold into muggle currency and they left the building just minutes before the aurors arrived with a freeze order. Her first stop was after was to the Once home Bel sent Remus to purchase the muggle supplies they needed as she, Sirius and the other got to work on number eleven first. Cleaning, vanishing and repairing everything as they went.
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Dean was bored, he lay on his bed bouncing a ball off the ceiling and catching it as it fell back down. His step dad was outside with his sisters putting together a play house and his mom was in the kitchen. Dean had gotten into a fight with his parents again. He had been investigating his birth father in the magical world not that he'd found much beyond Shafiq being a pureblood name. His step father had been furious when he'd found the paperwork. They both thought Dean should just forget about the Shafiq's. If he had any family on that side they didn't want him. His father had certainly not cared enough to come check on him any time in the last twelve years not even when he'd gotten his Hogwarts letter. If the man had been a Wizard you'd think he'd at least be curious to know if son got his letter. Dean liked his step father to an extent. He didn't resent the man for marrying his mom or anything he just wanted to know where he came from. It was a like a part of him was missing and he didn't know how to find it. Watching his mom, step dad, and his normal non magical little sisters was sometimes like standing outside a window and looking in as if he didn't belong there. He gave the ball a toss it was about to hit the ceiling when a tapping sounded on his window. He looked over to see a familiar Snowy owl glaring at him. He'd forgotten about the ball as gravity took course and it hit him on the eye. "OW, Shit!" He rubbed the spot and got up to let the owl in. Why was Harry writing him? TO Dean. The summer before we started Hogwarts you wrote to me likely having just heard all the redikkulus hype surrounding my name. Up until a few weeks ago a mix up with the ministry and post office meant all my letters ended up in storage I only just got them. I read your letter and showed it to my step mother as it happens she did recognize your father. I have gathered many things I think you should see, however, I am not sure how to say what's needed in a letter so I would like to meet you at the Leaky Cauldron on the Eleventh at noon. Thank you Harry.
Harry's hand writing had improved but like always his people skill could use a little developing. Dean sighed there was no way his mom would let him see Harry if she knew why the other boy wanted to meet. Dean had almost forgotten he'd even written Harry. When he'd first gotten to school and realized Harry was just another child and had no idea that Dean had written him he'd lamented the loss of his fathers photo and given up that line of inquiry. Now though Harry might have real information for him. He had to see it. He just had too. "Hey mom" he yelled "I'm going over to see some friends for school shopping tomorrow" He'd convince her this was the best way; the twins had ballet and mom had already been complaining that she didn't have time for trip to London. Dean would convince her to let him take the trip using the knight bus with the understanding that his friends step mom would be their to greet him. They hadn't gotten their supply lists yet but Dean argued that with the exception of one or two books he knew what would be on the list already and books were easy to owl order. In the end she caved and Dean took the knight bus bright and early on the next morning. He couldn't wait to see what Harry had found. But, the longer he waited the more his stomach twisted into knots. What if his dad was married to some witch with a hoard of kids and didn't want him after all?
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Harry, Belvina and the rest of the kids arrived at the Leaky Cauldron at eight o'clock the next morning to get some shopping done before his meeting with Dean later. They already had Telescopes and state of the art potions kit far better than anything usually sold for Hogwarts students but they needed a full wardrobe and uniform sets. The list Hogwarts sent was a guideline that trusted Parents would know they meant three different types of uniform the regular set the Herbology set, and the Potions set. It also trusted parents to know kids needed things like summer and winter clothes and that other things like underwear, shoes and gloves would also be needed. Harry had been very underprepared his first and second year. His third year he had learned somewhat and had bought himself a scarf and winter cloak. Now he would have a full wardrobe plus some if Belvina and Carina were to be believed. They had made a plan for shopping that had made Harry think they were planning for war. First they bought their backpacks or the Satchel bangs the Wizarding schools used at least. They bought the ones with several sections all expanded to hold more than normal.Belvina had her own purse with its expansion charms on it already with her. They went clothes shopping next making sure every one had everything they might need. Lyra and Sirius would need clothes too and Belvina was discretely putting in the orders for their clothes with the measurements she had already taken of them. Four clothing stores, three shoe places, and a little place that sold enchanted gloves, hats, and scarfs later they were all tired of shopping. The clothes were done and put away as they headed back into the Alley for quidditch gear Harry had broken his playing with the others and so they usually played with out safety gear however playing at Hogwarts meant full gear the kids did this themselves wile Belvina went to the Bank. She inquired about the Shafiq accounts to see if they would have anything new she might be able to tell Dean about. They handed her the same information filed at the ministry along with a letter spelled so that only the Shafiq heir could read it. Her next stop was to a lawyers office where she handed over payment, took their oaths, and handed over all the files paper work and personal statements from Sirius. She directed them to immediately begin filing suit against the ministry and daily prophet for slander among the other charges. They all met up at the Leaky Cauldron at eleven so they could get lunch before the meeting but Dean was already there and waiting so Harry flagged him down and waved him over to the private room Belvina was renting them. Dean looked momentarily confused before he met Harry's eyes. Dean watched as some bloke waved at him. At first he'd thought there might be someone behind him but after checking he looked back at the now amused boy and met Harry's green eyes. No one else that Dean had ever met had had eyes like that. "Bloody Hell, mate what did you do?" Dean gaped at him. Harry threw his head back and laughed. "My step mom got custody of me and got me all healthy. It turns out that scar on my head should never have been there but no one thought to take me to a professional healer to get it cleaned and healed, go figure. She's also a potions mistress and patented a potion that heals eye's among others. So now I don't need glasses either.""Hello Dean dear, My name is Lady Belvina Black since my little Hadrian hasn't seen fit to introduce me." Belvina cut in. Prompting Harry to blush."Yeah sorry about that, Dean this my Step mother Lady Black, my half sister miss Carina Black, my half brother Heir Corvus Black, and my youngest half brother Hydrus Black. My littlest sister Lyra is only eight so she's at home right now." Harry told him. "But you can just call them Cary, Cory, and Hyd, I do." "Hi, nice to meet you all." Dean said a little awkwardly. "Hello" They chorused. "Well Dean we were about to order lunch go ahead and give your order while I pull out some stuff I have here for you." Belvina told him. "Umm, How do we order without a waiter?" Dean asked, feeling foolish."Oh I'll show you just copy me but ask for whatever you want to eat instead." Cary told him as she picked up a menu. She held it in front of her for moment before speaking clearly at it. "I would like the shrimp salad a glass of pumpkin juice and side of buttered bread, please." The menu disappeared with a pop. Not more than two minutes later her meal popped up in front of her. Dean and the other's all copied her. Belvina had pulled out a stack of things which she sat beside her while they ate. She ordered a large cheesecake for after's and only once they were done and the table cleared did she pull out the stack and place it in front of her. Cary grabbed Cory and Hyd and left to explore the main room she claimed leaving him alone with Mrs. Black and Harry. "Dean, It's not easy to say this so let me start by telling you that if at any time you needed a moment to just let me know." Belvina started. "Yes, ma'am, I mean Mrs. Black.""You can call me Bel dear." She told him smiling. "What do you know about your father first off.""He went out on January fourth saying he had some work to do and never came back." Dean told her. "I looked up his name at school but didn't find it, just his last name is shared by a pureblood family. My mom said he used to draw her pictures and paintings, but didn't know if ever sold anything. That's all I really know that and." Dean said looking ashamed. "The courts said he didn't exist so mom was free to remarry.""Well, you wouldn't have found him in the muggle world or at Hogwarts. While your grandfather was a British Pureblood your grandmother was a pureblood witch from America she was a type of Native American called the Ojibwa or sometimes the Chippewa I didn't really understand that part. If you choose to meet her you will have to ask. She and your grandfather fell in love while they were both in Portugal for business. They signed a marriage contract to be married right away so that your father would be legitimate and preformed the ceremonies later." Dean found himself blushing. Ewe, more than he'd needed to know right there. "Your grandmother is still alive and knows that you exist, however, she was never informed of your name or address or how to find you. To this day she has posted an award for a significant amount out of money. It is to be rewarded to whomever can tell her information that would lead to her meeting you."She let Dean process this. "Does that mean that my dad is, is what exactly?" "On January fourth that same day your dad went out to work, he was killed. I'm sure you've read some of the more recent history books about the blood war? Things were hectic back then. They probably all thought someone would inform your mom and you, and so didn't bother to themselves. I'm so sorry Dean." Belvina reached for the stack pulling out a an old newspaper article about his dads murder. She than pulled out a file she handed over with information about his grandmother and how to contact her. "This is something we picked up for you from your father exhibit in New York City." She passed over the book to sit it in front of him. "Exhibit?" Dean asked still crying. "Your father was one of the most brilliant artist the world has ever been graced with." Belvina told him. "The book contains his biography and a picture every known art piece he's ever done. I my self own several paintings and you are welcome at Eleven Grimauld Place anytime you want to see one.""Thank you," Dean mumbled as he was looking down at the book he'd opened. "I will give you a moment to collect yourself and then we can walk to Gringotts. There is a Goblin account manager whom would really like to talk to you. He was a expecting a Dean Z. Shafiq to show up to exchange money for school and was quite thrown when he never did." "My mom decided to change my name to my step-dads when she remarried." Dean told her bitterly he hadn't wanted to but his mom had been determined to erase all evidence of the man who'd left her. "Well that might have worked in the muggle world but here your name is still Shafiq and you should use it. Be proud of it. Your name has a long and great history full of good and bad people who did amazing things and who should all be remembered even if you don't like them." Bel told him softly. He nodded his head as she patted his hand and left to find her other kids. Harry stayed there sitting next to him, waiting for him to speak. An hour later Dean followed Harry out into the Alley until they found his mom and siblings. Bel kept her promise and walked him to the bank, where she introduced him to a Goblin named Hardfist. Hardfist had him hold a stone that drew out some of his blood and magic and tested it to see if he was who he said he was. Once it confirmed his identity the Goblin got excited and was happy to tell him all about his accounts and how his mother was a squib. So Dean could inherit the Shafiq votes and family vault but he had to sign a few forms for his vaults to assign the votes to a family member to act as proxy until he was seventeen. Harry's proxy was by law his step mother. Dean didn't know his magical family very well but his closest relatives were his fathers mother who wasn't a British citizen and therefor not qualified and Blaise Zabini who was his age and his mothers half brother. They shared the same father. Belvina advised against asking his step grandmother for help because Angelica Monforte was well known for her string of husbands who'd all died mysterious deaths after leaving her large sums of money. Out of all her husbands only Deans grandfather had had vaults that were blood locked and required a blood heir to inherit them, he was also the only one she'd had a child with. Dean had his fathers personal vaults and everything he had patented as well and he could assume control of them right now. Belvina advised that he claim them but allow the Goblins who'd been managing things so far to continue their jobs. Since Dean had no idea how to manage an estate he happily agreed. Considering his family conditions they would petition for the right to use a Lawyer as Deans proxy, it was allowed for Orphans but the Goblins thought the way the actual law was worded might work for Dean too. Last but not least. "Will you contact your paternal grandmother?" Hardfist asked. "She came here the summer you would have gotten your letter and waited for you. When we told her no one by the name of Shafiq had come she was, well, I believe distraught might not be strong enough a word for it. She never gave up hope though that you were out there somewhere." "I, Yes, I will contact her. Mrs. Black got me her information and I'll write her right away." Dean told him looking resolute."If you don't mind we can send her word that you've been found today using our methods word would reach her within forty-eight hours and she could be on a port key here as soon as the fourteenth." "Yes, that sounds best." Dean agreed. The Goblins had him sign to pay for this years Hogwarts tuition than escorted him to his vault to collect enough money to buy his school supplies. So he wouldn't have to use his step-dads money after all. Belvina took him to get his clothes not just his school uniforms but an entire wardrobe full of wizarding wear including a set of formal robes and even showed him how to use it and where to put his wand as many of the robes and cloaks had built in pockets for them. She than took him to get a new school satchel to put everything in and they met up with Harry and the others at the book store. Belvina had met with the Headmaster already and so had this years book lists. She even had him buy a few for reference material that would help him in his classes especially potions. They got his Potions kit, by buying everything individually at three different apothecary's because Belvina was a potions mistress and insisted on the only the best ingredients. They also replaced his old telescope after he'd been tricked into telling her what he'd gotten before. They wondered the Alley until diner time, goofing off eating ice cream and just generally getting to know the other kids. They took him home afterwards instead of letting him take the knight bus. Their car was a small limousine that fit them all and their purchases with room to spare. Dean got a kick out their driver being a house-elf he thought the stilts the little thing needed were hilarious. Harry confessed that all the kids could drive. Bell could too, she just didn't like to and didn't trust the kids not to wreck them or do something reckless that could bring the muggles attention to them. At Deans house the lights were all on and they could see Mrs. Finnegan in there talking to Mrs. Thomas. So they walked Dean to the door to say goodbye. Dean opened the door to an argument between his mom and Mrs. Finnegan. Seamus was sitting on the couch with his sisters. His mom wanted to call the police because he'd clearly run away. "What?" Dean asked out loud. Every one turned to look at him though his mom looked relieved she was also mad. "Where have you been?" She asked him putting a hand on her hip and waiting. "What are you on about we talked about this last night?" Dean asked her not understanding. "You said Mrs. Finnegan was taking you kids shopping today!" His mother exploded "Clearly you lied to me. Now you won't even admit it? You are grounded." "I did NOT." Dean yelled furious. "I never said anything about Mrs. Finnegan or Seamus!" "What?" His mother was looking confused now. "Of course you did. You said you were going shopping with your friend and that his parents would be there.""I have more than one friend." Dean told her. "I was talking about Harry, and I said his step-mother would be there and she was, she even brought me back." "Hello," Belvina called out form behind Dean. Dean moved into the house proper and beckoned them in behind him. They followed him Hyd closing the door behind him. "Woah, Harry mate where have you been this summer and next time take me." Seamus exclaimed. Harry laughed and told him he'd tell him about it later. He did however introduce Deans rather cross still parents to his step mother. "May I introduce you to Lady Belvina Black, my step mom.""Dean?" His step dad started, his voice patronizing. "You knew when you asked your mom to go that she would think you were with the Finnegan's.""No I didn't. I specifically told her it was my friends STEP MOM who would be there." Dean argued back "How does that in any way describe Seamus's family?""Dean you purposely didn't tell us who'd be with" His mom interjected "and I for one would like to know why?""I didn't purposely mislead you, I wanted to see Harry because his step mom knew my dad." Dean told her. "I knew if you found out you'd stop me from seeing her." "HOW COULD YOU!" Mrs. Thomas yelled. "YOU KNOW I WANT NO MENTION OF THAT GOOD FOR NOTHING JACK ASS IN MY HOUSE!" "We've spoken of this Dean." his step father started. "We aren't hashing out this argument again." "WHY CAN'T YOU JUST BE GRATEFUL FOR THE FATHER YOU HAVE?" Mrs. Thomas asked. "My father was a good man." Dean told his mother, "If you would stop being unreasonable and listen you'd know that already""UNREASABLE!" She yelled "YOU’RE THE ONE WHO WON'T DROP THE SUBJECT AND LET IT REST ALWAYS BRINGING HIM UP, PRETENDING HE LOVED YOU" She took a deep breath. "WELL GUESS WHAT HE DOESN'T AND NEVER DID, YOU WERE NOTHING TO HIM, NOTH…" Whatever she might have said next was cut off as she suddenly lost the ability to be heard. Both Belvina and Mrs. Finnegan had their wands out and pointed in her direction."That" said Mrs. Finnegan, "Is quite enough of that." She stormed over to Mrs. Thomas until she was standing in front of her. "You never ever say something so grotesque to your own child. I don't care the circumstances." "My father was murdered when he went to work in Diagon Alley during the war." Dean spoke up. "No one at the ministry told us. Moms a squib so the DMLE should have told us but they probably thought she was just a muggle and left it to the muggle liaison office who wouldn't have any record of her and therefore thought the DMLE would do it. Mom thought he'd abandoned her. I began looking into it and mom didn't approve." Dean told her. "Like I said though. He didn't leave us he was murdered."Mrs. Finnegan took the spell off of Mrs. Thomas. "Get out of my house." She said softly. "All of you, and take that ungrateful brat with you." She said pointed at her son much to everyone's shock even her husbands. Belvina and Mrs. Finnegan summoned all of Dean's stuff and began to pack it into his case. "Mum?" Dean asked quietly. "Why""I won't have you in my house telling lies and trying undermine Rich and I." She told him not looking in his direction. "Of course you can stay if you apologize admit you were lying and swear to drop all this nonsense about the bastard who sired you." "I'm not lying mum. He died." Dean tried. "STOP IT, just stop." She said crying as looked away. "You can leave at any time now." Mrs. Finnegan took Deans hand and led him out of the house with Seamus, Harry, the Black children, and finally Belvina following behind. Belvina offered to let Dean stay with them until his Grandmother arrived in a few days time and he gratefully accepted. Mrs. Finnegan would have been happy to have him normally she told them but she had three kids under eleven and her sister n law and her four kids were in from the continent and staying with her. Seamus asked if would be allowed to visit and Belvina gave him the floo address she'd set up at number Eleven yesturday. She figured with that many small children running about he could probably use some peace. They headed first to the yacht because they hadn't fixed up enough of the houses to live in yet. Only the bedroom Sirius was using a play room for Lyra and the Kitchen had been done with they'd left this morning. It was hard to tell how much would be done by now with only Remus and Sirius working on it while also watching Lyra.Once they were on the yacht Harry took Dean to one of the spare bedrooms. Bell sent a message to the guys letting them know Dean was with them and that Diner was ready. They soon came over Lyra running up to hug her and ask about her day. Sirius wanted to know how they'd ended up with a spare boy. Belvina told them about the confrontation with Mrs. Thomas as she directed the house-elves cooking for them to make extra. They sat at the tables talking while the kids were showing Dean around. She figured being muggle raised he'd like Sirius's little collection. Soon the hungry hoard descended on the table all talking and laughing as they did, though Dean was slightly subdued and perhaps a wee bit in shock. Supper was an interesting mix of exotic foods and drinks. Dean looked in wonder as it was brought out. Carina was happy to tell him a little bit about each dish and she and her siblings ended up telling Dean stories about the first time they'd tried each one. With supper over and feeling full Dean thought they'd be dismissed to bed only to find that they had desert prepared. The evenings in the Black household, Dean discovered, were reserved for family activities. Tonight was trivia night each person picked a Category when it was their turn and they all tried to stump each other with tricky questions from it. Occasionally someone had to be stopped and reminded that Dean only spoke English and that they should too while he was there.In the morning they let Dean sleep in while the rest of them got to work fixing up the combined homes on Grimauld Place. Belvina placed a ward on his door to let her know when he left it and a note for him on the dining room table. She sent harry to fetch him with the ward charm pinged her. Dean was served yogurt and various fruits for breakfast by a house elf while wondering where every one was up and gone to by nine in the morning. Yes he'd read the note he just didn't understand why anyone would get up so early if they had a choice otherwise. In the mean time he wondered if he could beg some eggs and bacon out the little elf. Harry came and got him just as he was finishing his second breakfast, turns out you could beg the house elf out of more food. They went to Grimauld and Bel told him to help out Harry and Corvus upstairs. Dean was more than a little surprised to find that he was allowed to use magic here. Harry explained. "The ministry sensors can only tell if magic is happening around an underage person, but can't tell if that person is the one doing the magic or if a nearby adult is responsible. Not that it matter's here the security wards stop ministry sensors from working." The Blacks were quite paranoid on principle and always put up their own version of a sane persons standard security package up around the house before they moved into it. The wards would be expanded and modified later as well. So they spent the morning vanishing anything moldy, rotten, or just too old to keep. They broke for a hearty lunch lots of water and juice and started again putting up new replacements for everything they had just vanished. Every now and then Dean would here odd screams and a chainsaw and didn't know whether or not Harry was joking or if he should be afraid when other boy told him it was just his dad in a hidden part of the house. Harry figured it was good thing Dean didn't know that his dad was Sirius Black. Dean had known professor Lupin of course, and vaguely recognized Harry's dad but he put that down to having spent the day with the mans kids. All of whom looked as least a little like him. Mr. Black had shaken his hand told him he was always welcome and to call him Padfoot. Professor Lupin who told him his name was Moony now that he no longer worked for the school had than asked Mr. Padfoot about the new open layout they had wanted to put into a property they were redoing and the man had barely said more than a thrown out good night to Dean after.To Deans surprise things were coming along quite nicely in the renovations at least in the parts of the house he could see. They had turned the first floor into one large open living room with the largest fire place Dean had ever seen. The adults had put in huge support beams the day before so that they could clear all the walls today. The new ceiling was quite tall with gorgeous red wood beams running across it. They put up a bookcase that hade delicate runes carved all over its surface front, back, on the shelves, under the shelves and all the sides. That book case covered an entire wall. Dean was temporarily confused; because the wall they hid with it was also the one with the stair case leading to the bedrooms, up until Harry pushed a section of the case in and it slid back creating a doorway just large enough for everyone to go through if they went one at a time. It was not the first false wall or even false doorway that they put in today. Dean loved it. He thought the secrete passages were the neatest thing ever. He knew of course that Hogwarts had all sorts of them, he even used a few on a regular basis and Harry promised to show him more. The Blacks were doing it this way now though because Belvina would now be running her potions business out the house. Her customers would be allowed to use this area while still being cut off from the rest of the house and Bel's children.Belvina called them all together for lunch on the second floor, where the renovated kitchen and dinning rooms were located. The basement was being turned into a potions lab for Belvina to work out of. While the new front door opened into a small hallway with a door leading right and the stair case leading down and hooks to hang your coats. The rest of the house was quite open. That doorway to the right led into the sitting room which was opened to the dinning room which in turn opened into the kitchen. Each was large and spacious and had huge archways instead of walls and doors separating the rooms. The only thing left to do was finish the bedrooms and roof. Bel told them the adults could handle that in no time at all and she had some shopping in Hogsmead for things she'd like them to pick up for her. She sent all the kids out with instructions for them to keep an eye on Lyra and not to eat too many sweets at Honeydukes. They were off after that Flooing to the Three Broom Sticks. They had a blast goofing off and telling stories as they wondered through the shops finding odds and ends they liked while picking up their ama's stuff, including more Floo powder as they were apparently running low. Lyra kept hold of Harry's hand most the time. Only sometimes running off, she was however very aware of them and never actually left their sights, always slowing down to let someone catch up to her and take her hand again. They made it back in time for supper and at the house this time instead of the yacht. After diner Mr. and Mrs. Black showed them the newly renovated bedrooms one for each of them had been finished including one for Dean. They had even moved their stuff from their rooms on the yacht over. They had copied their children's bedroom furniture from what they had had in their tree house so they would still feel at home.On the Thirteenth Dean finally met Impress, Harry's Shih Tzu who woke him up by deciding she wanted to sleep where he was laying. Lupin, Sirius and Lyra had been taking care of the pets on the other side while they redecorated the public side. Now though things were beginning to settle into a semi-normal routine they would be taking care of their own pets again. Dean had to laugh when he met them all. Mr. Black was the proud owner of a light apricot colored Pomeranian comically named Mrs. Knickers after her favorite things to chew. Harry owned not one but three itty bitty ribbon toting ankle biters the other two named Grace, and Lady, one of which was so ugly Dean felt bad for it. Cory's Chocolate Chow had sat on Dean and demanded some of his bacon as a bribe to get off of him again. Lyra's ankle biter was a boy dog actually named Biter. They were both adorable. Cary was the proud owner of Tiggy, the meanest kneazle in existence outside of Mrs. Norris. Strangest of all was the pet Bearded Dragon Lizard who sat up on Hyd's head and whom Hyd snuck his veggie's when his mom wasn't looking. They heard on the fourteenth news from Dean's grandmother who would be arriving via international port key the following day. She knew where Shafiq manor was and could let Dean into the wards. He would soon have his grandmother and his own place to stay for future holidays. Shafiq manor hadn't been used in a long while though so Dean would be staying with them for the whole summer, while his grandmother saw to the manor. After breakfast the floo chimed surprising everyone because it'd only been on the public network for last day. Belvina answered it as Sirius made his way to the hidden home, just in case. Mrs. Weasley's face came through."I'm so sorry to bother you dear, you wouldn't happen to be Harry's step mother would you?" Mrs. Weasley began. "Yes," Belvina said cautiously studying the face in her giant fireplace. "May I ask who's asking?" "Of course dear, I'm Molly Weasley." "Oh of course your Ron's mother than, come on through no need to sit on your knee's that can't be comfortable." Belvina gushed. "I'll just call Harry down." Bell turned and cast a mild sonorous charm. "Harry honey Mrs. Weasley is in the floo come say hi." This served a second purpose as it alerted both houses that it was safe. "Oh but their isn't any one to watch the kids…""Just bring them on through I know Harry will be happy to see Ron he's been dying to tell him about his siblings and all the changes." Belvina barely took a breath and began again "Did you know they never took him to a healer after the attack in eighty one? That scar should have never been there I healed him up after I got him of course. I'll stand back so you can come on in shall I?" Bel opened the Floo and walked off before Mrs. Weasley could get a work in edge wise. She had a plan to see through. Harry had confessed to her his fears of Ron's jealousy and if their was one thing she and Sirius had mastered in the last three years it was being creative enough to do a lot with very little. She had a good idea why the Weasley's hadn't done what Sirius had and just made their own stuff. Mrs. Weasley was a great potions brewer but she'd never gotten a mastery, and Mr. Weasley spent a lot of time at work to make ends meet. It had probably never occurred to him that he could do so much on his own if he only had the time.Soon teenagers started popping through first a set of twins who introduced themselves as Gred and Forge much to her delight. She had that niggling feeling she got when Sirius was planning a prank the moment they smiled at her and the one on her left took her right hand and vice versa until hands were crossed and she was turning to keep up with them. She laughed as she took her hands back threatened to bend both over her knee's if they did permanent damage to anything and directed them to the Kitchens where her boys were. Next through was a younger girl probably a around the same age as Hyd. After her came one she assumed must be Ron a tall gangly boy Harry and Cory's age he came through covered in floo powder she hit both of them with a vanishing spell and sent them to the kitchen with the others. Mrs. Weasley came through next and Belvina greeted her with a smile. "Have you eaten?" Molly said she had so Belvina gestured her over to one of the more comfortable sofa's. "What were you wanting to talk about?"Mrs. Weasley wanted to return the money it was way too much for just one outfit. "Oh I know, but I thought it would be cruel to get one child new clothes and none of the others I know how jealous mine get if one of the others gets something new and they don't."Molly and Belvina got into the cost of clothes in Diagon Alley. Molly admitting she usually just bought muggle clothes because it was cheaper. Belvina mentioned her sewing machine, Molly had never seen one and they got into how easy it was to make your own clothes with one. It was also much cheaper to buy the fabrics and make it your self most of Carina and Lyra's prettier clothes were hand made. Molly mentioned how hard it was to get girl clothes for Ginny, she was growing and that meant she needed more. Molly felt bad she wouldn't be able to get Ginny certain things without shorting the boys. After all everything the boys wore were hand me downs several times over. Ginny being the only girl that wasn't an option for her clothes many times. Though Molly confessed that she sometimes just modified the smaller boy clothes for Ginny anyway. It meant Ginny often looked more like a tom boy than a girl. "Well I might be able to fix that!" Belvina told her. "Carina, bless her, never throws anything out. This last summer especially Carina developed her curves and we had replace most of her clothes. I was just going to drop them off at a give away but if you don't mind I think Ginny might like it more." Mrs. Weasley tentatively agreed. They called Ginny up from where the kids had set up board games in the dinning room and Belvina summoned some of the trunks she'd stored clothes in and started pulling some of Carina's old clothes out. She conjured a screen and told Ginny to change behind it they'd adjust anything she liked, to her size so she could take them home with her. The moms had a grand time dressing Ginny up and occasionally charming her hair into different styles. Any objections Molly might have had died the first time she saw Ginny in one of the frilly lace covered dresses. The only problem Bel could find was that they were all summer and spring clothes. Where were the fall and winter? She summoned and sent off several detection spells. Nothing. "You should really get some of the winter clothes, you know that child of mine didn't even wear most of those? Carina hates the snow. Work would take us to Norway or Sweden or Russia and she'd insist on new warm outfits for the trip than she'd spend one maybe two days outside and the rest she'd find an excuse to stay in by the fire. Now if only I could find them.""Harry?! Come here a moment honey?" Feet thundered up the stairs as the boys came up."Woah, Gin, Gin." one of the twins whistled. Ginny was currently in an outfit of Spanish design it was a long sleeved off the shoulders number with a flared out skirt."Hush now, no embarrassing your sister, Fred." Mrs. Weasley said. "She does look so lovely doesn't she?" "She does" Bel agreed. "Harry dear I can't find any of the old winter clothes and I know I packed them can you floo the docks and see if they are still on the boat?""Sure ama, not a problem can Ron come with me?" Harry asked, he and Ron hadn't had much time to talk alone and Harry was having trouble gaging the other boys response to everything. "If its okay with his mum he may." Bel said, "Just remember that you are not going to goof off just grab the trunks and be back.""It's not too far is it?" Molly asked."Oh no just at the dock off the Thames. We're in London now. Taking the Floo means avoiding the thirty minute walk, is all." "Well if your sure it's safe." The boys didn't wait for more Harry grabbed the floo powder off the mantle one of the small bottles so he could take it with him for the return trip. The docks had a public floo but you had to pay for using the floo powder on the other side so it was cheaper and easier to just think ahead and use your own. He and Ron took the floo together and Harry led the way to their boat. He and Ron spoke along the way. Harry telling him about the time travel and living on the boat and at the tree house. Ron asked how Dean had come to live with him. He'd wanted to ask earlier but Dean had changed the subject."His mum threw him out." Harry told him. "His dad was killed by Voldemort only no one told his mum that. So she's spent all this time thinking he abandoned her. We tried to tell her otherwise but she has spent so long being mad at a dead man that she doesn't know how to be anything else to him. Got real mad when she found out Dean was investigating his father. Threw him out of her house when he wouldn't agree that his father had been a good for nothing who didn't love him.""Really she told him that?" Ron asked shocked. "That his dad hadn't loved him." At Harry's confirmation nod Ron shook his head "Blimey, can't imagine that. This your boat?"It's also our house a good bit of the time, but yeah, Aita, that means dad," Harry answered the unasked question as it was written all over Ron's face. "Aitas mind is real scattered from, you know where, building stuff really helps him. He built this out of junk and drift wood we found.""Wow." Ron said giving the sail boat another look. "I know you said you had some extra time but how much exactly?" He asked looking at the size of the yacht. "Three years." Harry told him. "I missed you and Hermione like crazy though. I must of told the others so much about you they got sick of hearing me talk." Ron took everything else rather well from Harry's point of view. He'd been a little stand offish around his brothers and Carina, who hadn't helped by being stand offish around the Weasley's but Harry just told them she was shy and to ignore it. They soon located the trunks in the cargo hold hidden behind one of the larger cars. "Figures." Together the boys moved the three trunks together toward the floo. "So," Huffed Ron, "How did your aita get all those muggle cars?" "He dug them out of muggle junk yards." Harry told him as they made it to the floo line. "Turns out muggles mess them up and throw them away all the time." They huffed as they pushed the trunks through floo to the living room. Ron took a moment to ponder that. It must of really been a tough few years if they'd resorted to routing around in muggle trash. Ron who'd grown up in the Burrow couldn't imagine living in such a small place like that boat. With no quidditch either so as not to risk the muggles seeing you. Sure Harry said they went swimming a lot but Ron didn't particularly like the water and couldn't imagine having only that to do all day. Harry spoke of the tree house as if it was magnificent which was something else Ron just couldn't see. Then again Harry had lived in a cupboard for ten years anything had to be better than that. He supposed with magic the elder Blacks could have made things better but then again his dad and mum had used magic to make the Burrow and it was small cramped and leaning so far left the twins often made jokes outside their mums hearing, about it finally going limp. "These what you wanted ama?" Bel wasted no time in pulling out the winter dresses and fur lined cloaks that she thought would fit Ginny. Soon Ginny was taking the clothes back with her along with one of the larger trunks. It was a sturdy thing larger inside than school trunks usually were but Ginny had admitted her old trunk was falling apart. Molly said they couldn't afford more and was going to turn down the offer take this one for Ginny until Bel stopped her by saying they hadn't bought them either. At the questioning looks Bel told them. "My husband's real handy and he likes having things to do to take his mind off the nightmares he made all these trunks and the kids school trunks as well didn't cost us a single knut." Molly agreed to take it for Ginny since neither Bel nor Sirius would mind. "Sirius likes making them I have dozens, trust me I'm not going to run out anytime soon. Say didn't you say you had an apple orchard and some woods on your property?" They did. "Well why don't you pick out some trees you won't miss shrink them down, bring them here, and Sirius can make some trunks for your other kids too that way they all have their own." After a small bit of arguing Bel got her way and Molly agreed to not only send Arthur over with several trees the following day but to go shopping for fabrics and her own sewing machine with Belvina. Molly wasn't sure how it happened exactly. She thought as Ginny lugged a brand new trunk filled with clothes already, up the stairs to her room. She had gone over to the Black home to return money. She'd come back with the money, clothes a new trunk, and a promise of more new trunks for the rest of her kids. She felt she'd just been to battle and lost before she even realized the fight had begun.The following day came with Deans grandmother a short old lady with soft leathery brown skin and long braided silver hair, wearing a long dress with intricate beaded designs sewn into it. Beaded bracelets decorated the wrist that knocked on their door. She introduced herself as Suleta Shafiq one of the Anishinaabe, the first men. When they introduced her to Dean she tackle hugged him never mind he was a good foot taller than her already. She was so happy to see him she was crying one wrinkled hand holding onto his own hand and the other reached up to cup his cheeks. "You look like your father." She told him with a smile. Belvina showed her to a small den tucked away in a secret passage on the first floor. "You two can talk in peace in here if you want. Dean we'll be in the living room if you need us. Alright?" she asked. He nodded. "Good." Bel nodded her head to her guest and left the to get acquainted with one another.While Dean's grandmother took him to Shafiq manor, Belvina headed out to meet Mrs. Weasley on a shopping excursion. Lupin was watching both sets of children today. She had dug through her old stuff and found an extra sewing machine, one of the ones Sirius had gotten her last year before he had perfected the design he had constructed for her. It didn't make all the patterns her new one did but it still worked just fine. So she left the boxed up machine on Molly's side table and they'd gone off to magical craft stores to look at fabrics. Belvina brought her notebook and fountain pen with her to take notes. She got Molly to tell her which magically treated fabrics she liked most. Some they bought from the stores but most they simply took note of left. Much to molly's consternation. Than they traded some of their galleons for muggle money and went to muggle stores finding much of muggle fabrics to be considerably cheaper. They sorted through until they found the right colors and bought tons more fabric than molly had ever bought in premade clothing. She was sure it was more than the kids could possibly wear. Belvina than asked her about certain potions ingredients which she had in her own home already and those she could easily gather. The ones not on those lists they purchased. Once back at the Burrow Molly sat the fabrics in the laundry room. They gathered the potions ingredients from the first two lists and met back up in the kitchen. Belvina than showed her how to brew the potions they infused into the magical fabrics casting the charms was easy you just had to know when. Which was just before the potions dried into the cloth. After the fabric had been enchanted they got out the old sewing machine Molly quickly got the hang of it and Belvina had brought her patterns with it. Molly quickly took the boys measurements and applied them to the patterns. Before she knew it she had several new trousers and sweaters and formal buttoned shirts for all three boys still in school it had cost her half what she usually spent on their cloths and she still had more galleons left over to buy them their school uniforms. If she shopped smart she could buy several pairs more than usual each without any enchantments and just enchant them at home. The kids had never had so many new clothes in such good condition before. They made all of them Formal robes next though Molly didn't know why the kids would need them. Lastly they made the cloaks, light cloaks enchanted for the summer and spring, heavy cloaks for fall; and some old fur's Bel had insisted they buy at a second hand shop were cut up and turned into lining for the winter cloaks. They even made Molly herself a new dress. She loved this new machine. It made it so easy to make the kids clothes she just wished she'd had one ages ago. With the work done Belvina convinced Molly to make up a few potions for her bath and beauty routine. Molly was quite young for a witch really. She'd graduated from Hogwarts already pregnant with her first and had been so busy with kids she'd let herself go. Bel thought she'd be happier if she actually looked her age. Belvina didn't know it but she had also inspired Sirius to get a somewhat knew job. She'd convinced him to make trunks for the Weasley kids nothing as fancy or complicated as what he'd made his own, but new and sturdy and large enough hold anything they might need to smuggle into Hogwarts. Or away from their mother in the case of the twins. Little miscreants after his own heart those two were, if only they'd quit making eyes at Carina, Sirius was sure he'd like them.It had given him a string of thoughts that quickly formed into a brilliant idea if he did say so himself. One Remus needed a new job and had been grumbling about them carrying his wait. Two Sirius could make furniture but couldn't sell it out here in London where too many people were looking for him. Three his family curtesy of the late great Cassiopeia Black owned an old store here in London. The place was vacant now and run down had been for years. That was an easy fix though. His third thought was that Arthur when he'd brought the tree's over to make the trunks with had told him the trees had grown up pretty thick in places and really needed to be thinned out anyway. The Weasleys needed money and Sirius was going to need those tree's it was win, win there. He convinced Remus to help him clean up the outside of the store and fix it's roof and foundation everything else could wait. They took off the muggle notice-me-not's, clouded the windows to temporarily stop people from looking in so they could get to work fixing the outside. It had to be a legitimate muggle business so they had Arthur introduce Remus to his accountant cousin so they could get the muggle side and taxes in order. Sure they used magic to speed things along but soon enough they had all the paperwork and permits needed. It took two day's to get the legal side in order and in that time they fixed up the store complete with a workshop for Sirius to make things in. He convinced Arthur that his tree's really were worth the ten galleons a piece he paid the man for them. In all honesty they were probably worth more but that was all Arthur would take. He had been overwhelmed at the price anyway considering Sirius had bought twenty tree's from the man. By the seventeenth Sirius had filled the store with all the wooden furniture one could possibly want. A large sign in the side glass that would appear to muggles as an intricate design was in reality a advertisement for school trunks for the young witch's and Wizards who had outgrown the standard size sold on Diagon Alley. Those would be kept in a charmed door to the back where muggles couldn't wonder in or see.
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Disclaimer: I own nothing. As usual I would like to take the time to thank those who have been so supportive I really do appreciate your constructive criticisms and look forward to the reviews. ........
....Sirius Black looked around his new store in pride he had sat the place up and designed every piece with his own hands and magic. On one side were the bedframes some more elaborate than others. His far wall contained Grandfather clocks, cabinets and shelving. In the center were tables with matching chairs, and the occasional benches scattered here and there. The very back wall displayed fine work desks for the discerning business folks, and smaller student desks for the hopeful parents. The front window was all muggle except for one small part. The sign in the corner of the Window was charmed to look like a tree to muggles and an advertisement for specialty school and travel trunks to magical's. They were keeping the trunks in a back room locked with a charm to keep muggles from seeing them. All the furniture pieces had price tags enchanted to show both muggle and magical currency depending on who was looking. The cash register was an antique so old it deserved a place in a museum. Sirius had found and fixed it up ages ago intending to sell it sometime, but never had. Now it was modified to hold both types of currency and carefully warded against theft. Arthurs accountant cousin had come in more than slightly handy. He helped make sure every bit of paperwork was properly filed and all the taxes would continue to be paid on time. He was officially on the pay roll for The Hand Crafted for your Family Home Store. Much to his joy he'd convinced Remus to run the place and take a pay check. Sirius had shamelessly used the kids and the fact that Remus like to take them places even if only for the day to get Remus to cave. Moony was actually looking forward to having a job where he wouldn't have to worry about being fired after a few months. They'd offer the boys both Sirius's three and Arthurs hoard some spending money in exchange for helping out around the place for the rest of the summer. Belvina attended her first meeting for the Board of Governors on the seventeenth of July. Dumbledore called the emergency meeting and simply did not inform Lucius Malfoy. Normally when a meeting is called he need only tap on a master list. This time he invited every one, one person at a time.Around the nineteenth of July Arthur hurried over to the Black family home and asked for Sirius to disguise himself and come quick he had a work emergency that also happened to be a great opportunity. Arthur grabbed Sirius's arm apparated them to a campsite in the middle of only Arthur knew where. They rushed over to a wooded area as Arthur explained. Ludo Bagman had lost a bunch of money gambling unfortunately he had paid that debt by using money his department had allocated for the building of the stadium where England would host the Quidditch World Cup. Bagman had thought he'd have time to make up the money but hadn't and now the deadline was sneaking up on him and he didn't know what to do. While the International Quidditch Association was organizing the event itself Bagman was supposed to have the venue ready. He'd certainly been sending in reports saying everything was running smoothly. As far as the IQA, and the ICWQC were concerned they'd finished this stadium already to regulation standard, after a tirelessly working ministry task force had spent a year constructing it. The ICWQC had already chosen the location and paid for it, they and Bagman had sold several license rights for companies and groups to set up stalls. They had made reservations with the muggle man who owned the campsite next to it for the week leading up to the big event and the week after. Two problems remained the first being that the stadium still wasn't built and the World Cup was barely over a month away. Bagman had approached Arthur with his problem because he knew Arthur had built his own home. His second problem was finding a way to build toilets. The usual tents used just for this purpose had disappeared somewhere after a disastrous bit of spell damage just last month. Bagman was looking into renting the ones used in the smaller stadiums around England. So Sirius took stock of the natural land around them and asked about seeing the recourses available to them. Arthur said he didn't know what he meant and so Sirius explained. Every government everywhere has a room/warehouse or more full of junk they no longer use but have yet to throw away either because some beaurocrate somewhere made the paperwork too hard and no one wants to do it. Or just as likely because they've forgotten they put it there in the first place. They just had to find that 'room'. Arthur hadn't thought there would be anything usable in there anyway but Sirius countered that they'd packed up the stadium from the last time they'd hosted the World cup and could salvage some of it. He knew they still had it because everyone had made a big deal about the rumor the ministry would be auctioning it off just before the war with Voldemort had been announced back in Sixty nine, and the auction had been canceled. Arthur asked the ministry elves and janitorial staff what they knew about it which led him to a building just down the street from the ministry where Arthur found that Sirius was right and the ministry hadn't thrown anything away in so long Arthur wanted to cry looking at all the mess. He and Sirius used searching and summoning spells to locate what they needed and Sirius found loads of stuff he could repurpose. Arthur wouldn't let him just walk away with it so Sirius sent the other man to find the right forms to have two department head sign off on the sale. Arthur was a department head and so he would do for the first signature they used bagman for the second mostly because the man was too relieved that Arthur had found a way to fix everything, to care about what he signing. Bagman had passed over the number of seating and general layout that had been worked out with the Bulgarian and British ministries so they had a place to begin. Bagman stressed that the latest memo from the ICWQC had claimed that both ministries were asking for more seating. They used the tree's already in the area to build onto the old stadium and used the old design as a rough blue print cutting it up into fourths leaving large spaces between each piece to widen the play area and the seating arrangements. It took them two weeks working nearly non stop with Arthur still working his regular hours to set up the massive stadium foundation and put the stands up. After that they traveled to poorer parts and towns where were-wolves and the very poor tended to shop or live asking for volunteers to put up the rest of the seating in exchange for what was left of the stadium fund and for a couple cheaper seats for themselves. The old canvas' meant to cover the stadium were in disrepair and couldn't be fixed since they didn't have the money to buy new ones Arthur got the idea to sell advertising space around the pitch and using projectors, time on the canvas itself. His idea paid off and they had managed to buy a truly massive enchanted canvas. The ICWQC had also been selling special parchments along the tickets to several specific sections that would reflect images from special cameras broadcasting live from around the stadium. Now they just had to figure out the toilet problem. Remus thought he might have a solution to that and had Sirius buy some more stuff from the ministry junk room. Specifically old desks, lamps, toilets, and sinks that had been removed during a renovation the ministry had undergone when Bagnold had first become minister. They built the outside of the port-a-potty's out of wood from the old desks. They looked like wide, thin, extra long trunks that had been stood on their ends. Each one had three stalls and three basic sinks. They used four rune arrays on them one to dispose of waste, one to keep the air fresh, the third and largest to hold and clean water, and the last to guarantee privacy. They used five galleons worth of material and sold them back to Bagman for fifteen galleons a piece. He bought up the three hundred galleons worth he'd been given by the ministry to replace the old ones. Bagman was so happy that he told Arthur to make sure they took all the tickets they needed and insisted they be from the top ministry box. Sirius and Arthur both thought if they took that many tickets someone would throw a fit, they fixed it my going back and adding onto the top box until they had another thirty extra seats. They would be taking nineteen of those for their combined family plus Hermione, Dean, and Dean's grandmother. Sirius thought it might just be too risky for him to show up all things considered but that didn't mean the rest of the family couldn't enjoy themselves. Sirius would just have to content himself with watching via pensive memory. It turned out to be a good thing they'd managed to add to the seating. The original agreement had been for seventy five thousand regular seats plus ten thousand box seats and thirty exclusive ministry seats for the top box. However everyone in both ministries kept arguing and claiming they needed more seats for this reason and that. Arthur had neglected to tell anyone that his plans would make the stadium much larger than the original plans intended, so when the ministry finally gave them the final number they were plus a hundred seats off in each section. Remus had the idea to reinforce the foundations in case they wanted more later. They all agreed with him and happily got to it adding a few more meters in height until they were pressing up against the ICWQC regulations. The finished Stadium would hold one hundred twenty tree thousand seven hundred seventy seven people. They were advertising for ten different companies and Remus had finagled a license under the company name for a stall in the makeshift bazaar the ministry was setting up. With every one working together now the stadium was finished by August the eleventh. Bagman had been stalling any inspections to cover up the fact that the stadium wasn't finished yet. They had barely put up the last finishing touches on the area to get the camp site sectioned up when the officials invaded. They had clearly been suspecting everything to be in disarray and were pleasantly surprised to find everything set up neatly and to regulation. Not a single safety violation could be found which made Bagman smile smugly the whole inspection time.
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Arthur, Sirius, and Remus had worked through both Harry's birthday and Lughnassadh but made sure to spend a few hours with him and had promised Harry that it would be worth it and that he and the other kids would like the surprise he would soon be getting. For Lughnassadh Belvina followed the family traditions with a few modifications. That morning they had set out buckets to collect rain water then went to the Burrow bright and early when most of the Weasleys had still been asleep. Mrs. Weasley greeted them at the Floo and informed them that dinner wasn't for another hour but to feel free to join them when ever they were done. To the kids confusion their Ama then had then led them off out of the Burrow and past the Apple orchard to the deeper woods. There the kids found some lush berry bushes and did their best to pick them dry. They shared a basket with Mrs. Weasley when they joined her brood for breakfast. They helped clean up and after went home where they made pies. They may have also eaten a good deal of raw berry's along the way. Sirius had came home for lunch and helped them decorate the pies with the solar cross. While the pies cooled off they made a mess in living room putting together a witches bottle to bury in the cellar. They still pic-nicked for diner but this time it was just out in the gardens. Belvina and Molly both wrote to Dr. and Dr. Granger to see if Hermione could visit and stay with them during the World Cup. Dr. and Dr. Granger weren't entirely sure about it. They did have work that would be taking them out of the country around time for school to start and so having someone else to watch over Hermione and see that she caught the train on time did appeal to them. The facts were though that Mrs. Weasley had six sons and Mrs. Black had three. One of each was extremely close to their daughter, igniting their imaginations, stirring their fears, and giving her father in particular nightmares about teen pregnancy's. Hermione pointed out that they had no one else to watch over her, much to her parents displeasure. Sirius understood the dilemma very well. Carina was the same age as Hermione. She was also every bit as gorgeous as both her mothers. The recent need to upgrade Carina's wardrobe due to developing curves had driven Sirius to look up chastity curses and wards designed specifically towards guarding a young ladies virtue. He may or may not have put a few on Carina's, clothes, bedsheets, floor, walls, ceiling, and door. He would never be admitting it, at least as long as Belvina could restrain herself from slipping him more truth serum. He still wasn't over that and had picked up the habit of checking over everything before he ate, drank, or applied it to his body. His kids had started to copy him much to Belvina's amusement. As Dr. Granger had his deepest sympathies he wrote, in secret, to the man (as Lord Black, not giving his full name) sharing several ways in which a 'magical security system' could be used to protect his little girl with the understanding that he would happily apply them to Hermione as he had with his own.Hermione had been surprised and suspicious when father had told her she'd be staying with Harry's family for the last two weeks before school. She'd been suspicious not because he'd given in, that part had been inevitable, but because he'd been happy as he'd told her so. Not sulking because he'd lost. He really should have been sulking. Even her mom was baffled and had gone looking for answers. So when her mother had found a letter clearly from a magical person in her husband desk she'd done something she'd never done before and snooped. She didn't know whether to be happy or enraged at what she'd found. Her husband had not been bewitched to change his mind, but he was going to have his new friend bewitch their daughter's stuff to keep her 'pure'. They had the largest row ever about it but in the end agreed that some of those 'security' options were safe and a good precaution to have. Ones she wished she'd had available to her even now. With that in mind they wrote back to Lord Black to specify which kinds of security wards they wanted for their child. He'd written back an acceptance of their choice and a promise to treat their child as he would his own as for the short time she'd be staying with them. He knew his oldest son already saw her as a sister and it was his happy wish that the others would see her the same.Everyone in both the Weasley and Black house holds were happily surprised when Hermione's father gave in and allowed her to stay with her friends for the last two weeks before school. While every one wondered what had made the man change his mind Belvina had caught Sirius looking a little too smug for her liking. The poor man had been dodging his wife ever since. She lamented his new propensity to check everything for potions or she'd have successfully slipped him something by now. Hermione's parents sat her down on the seventeenth, the day before they were meant to meet Harry and his step mom (She still didn't quite understand that part) and informed her of their deal with Harry's 'father'. Whom Hermione suspected was really his godfather. She wasn't sure how she felt about it. On one hand her parents just wanted to protect her, on the other they didn't trust her not to turn into some kind of harlot the moment she was in a room full of boys. She was more indignant than mad. After a logical and heated debate which her parents won, Hermione resigned herself to their wishes and promised to allow Lord Black to add safety precautions to her clothing and a few pieces of jewelry. They met at the London eye. Harry had written her with parking instructions and they would rendezvous there. Harry Potter was nigh unrecognizable as the boy who'd left the train station at the beginning of the summer, and yet it was him. He was sans glasses, scar, and scruffy clothes. Instead the boy that was smiling at her now was taller, tanner, his green eyes shown with nothing covering them. He looked healthy, she realized with a sad start that she couldn't remember a time when he looked as happy and healthy as he did now. "I know it's quite the change but mum had me all healed up when she got custody of me from the Dursley's and we've spent the last few weeks in the Caribbean's so we tanned up nicely yeah?" He smiled as shook hands with her parents and turned to introduce his step mum. "This is my step mother the amazing Lady Belvina Black." "Amazing?" Hermione asked with an amused smile. She turned to look at one of the most beautiful women she'd ever seen outside a magazine cover. Harry knew Hermione was more likely to respect her intelligence than anything else so started there."She speaks forty three human languages, four non-human, Goblin, (whatever you do don't call it gobbledygook where they can here you), Mermish, Fairy, and Siren." Harry started giving Hermione time to digest that before continuing. "She's a first class Potion's mistress, having invented lots of new and vital potions for all sorts of stuff from healing to communications. She's also a Medic-witch." "You can quit flattering me now, love." Belvina cut in. "If you would like you can follow me to our house here in London?" she added looking at the Grangers. "We'd love to have you over for lunch before you have to go.""No thanks," Dr./Mrs. Granger answered. "We've really got to get going if we are going make our flight. We had to schedule early or risk loosing our reservations at the hotel." They parted ways then with Hermione following Harry back to Belvina's limo. Hermione wasn't too sure when they turned into Grimauld Place the neighbor hood looked fairly rundown after all. However they turned into the driveway for number eleven and pulled into a small garage that hardly looked able to stand on its own. Her eye's widened at she saw the inside looked much more sound and was full of all sorts of muggle vehicle's.It had a door leading into the house and Belvina led the way. Sirius Black was lounging on a chaise in the den, and smiled when he saw her. They explained how they had made it safe for him to be here. Than introduced her to the rest of the family including Dean Thomas whose last name apparently was really Shafiq, his oddly foreign grandmother, and a small hoard of pets. Hermione would be rooming with Carina who owned a full kneazle not a half kneazle like Crookshanks. Hermione's mother had given her money to convert for school shopping guessing for the price of dress robes but not enough to buy the magical wardrobe the women thought she might need given all that was happening. So Belvina used a modified muggle copy machine to make copies of kids school books and included a few essential books from their own library, which Hermione loved. They used the money they saved to buy her robes for the ball at Twilfitt and Tattings, and fabrics to make her several formal and causal outfits for the wizarding world. Hermione like Carina had recently developed curves and needed a few other things as well like corsets. Both Molly and Belvina were adamant that her muggle underthings would not do. They were too hard to enchant for one and didn't offer any protection either from magical accidents or attacks. Hermione had blushed at the conversation but she did understand where they were coming from and agreed to learn how to operate the blasted things. In truth once she'd learned how to use them, they were not anywhere near as uncomfortable as she'd feared. Hermione and Carina did not get along as Harry had hoped. Instead they agreed to disagree on several topics for the sake of peace and otherwise ignored each other. Hermione had called Carina a smarter Lavender and hadn't meant it as a compliment. Carina thought Hermione was a rude, nosey, stuck up, know it all who should have her mouth sewn shut for the sake of humanity. Ron found this endlessly amusing as he wasn't the one who had to deal with both of them. Privately he told Harry, he didn't know why they were fighting when they were both right. Harry had snorted out loud but inwardly made a note to make sure neither girl ever found out. Dean was of the same opinion and often disappeared if it looked like both girls would be the same room. It took Harry and Ron several hours to tell Hermione about Harry's summer because she kept interrupting to ask questions and argue the morality of a multi-person marriage. Harry had told both of them the same story that the family had told Dumbledore. He didn't feel right telling family secrets to them no matter how much he'd missed them.Belvina passed out lozenges for everyone to learn Bulgarian. It was much easier for her own children as they already spoke other Slavic languages. She told them that Arthur and Sirius had a surprise for everyone and they needed to learn the language to properly appreciate it. They were, she told the kids, going camping. No one got why that was so exciting. Molly had told her kids the same thing. They packed up the kids best robes minus those set aside for the ball, and a few of their better casual clothes as well as something for them to play quidditch in. The kids had only been instructed to pack up a book for reading, some playing cards, their pocket money, and their brooms. They congregated at the Weasleys where even Bill and Charlie looked confused but happy and took a port key to their final destination. "Welcome." Arthur Weasley told them as they arrived. "To the Four hundred and twenty second World cup." He held his hand up in the air as though in triumph then pointed out to where they could see tents going up everywhere. They chatted excitedly as Mr. Weasley paid the muggle in charge of the campsite and got them a map. "We helped Bagman out with a little problem and he gave us top box ministry tickets in exchange! Remus even got a license for a stall. So he's already been here for the last three days." They followed Mr. Weasley to the camp site where they unpacked the three tents and began to set them up. They found Remus only after a few minutes searching. He was selling among a multitude of things, Jar's of Mrs. Weasley's jam the labels decorated with the Stadium in the background and the date on the front, Quidditch themed trunks some decorated for the Bulgarian team some for the Irish, miniature wooden quidditch stadiums, fluffy toy balls enchanted to act like the real quidditch balls, and best of all small wooden models of the teams enchanted to actually fly albeit only a couple feet off the ground or whatever surface they were activated on. They were perfectly detailed too even down to the small model firebolt's they were flying. Remus had paid Dean to paint them to look like the actual players though Dean hadn't known what he was painting them for only that every part of them even the paint itself had been spelled for some special task. Remus had paid him twenty galleons five sickles for the work. Dean had been so excited he'd not cared what the man wanted wooden dolls for. Now though they were being sold for ten galleons per set of seven. Dean had painted eighty sets. Remus admitted he'd already sold twelve of the Irish set and only five of the Bulgarian. So he'd more than made up the money.They rotated working with Remus for more pocket money and walking around shopping or playing with other kids also camping. The wait would have been torturous but so many people from all over the world had came and brought fascinating things with them. The tents themselves were occasionally a sight to behold. Arthur was still technically working and brought an official auror notebook and records pads with him in order to give out tickets to every one breaking the law. They were still in the British territories after all. Which meant no flying carpets, no three story tents, and the need to have a license for all the obviously magical pets. Of course they couldn't just send the pets back home or replace the tents so Arthur took that into account and fined them double and notified them they'd need to pay before being allowed to port key out. The revenue office was going to love him when this was all through. Ron whistled as he looked around the stalls. He had earned a good deal of pocket money this summer after Harry had introduced him to the idea of working 'odd jobs' for the muggles. Indeed Ron had then mowed lawns walked pets, run errands and painted fences saving up as much money as he could. He'd exchanged the muggle money he'd earned for galleons at the new store Remus ran in London. Ron and his brothers worked shifts there for a galleon three sickles and thirteen knuts per hour or six pounds muggle money. When his mom had told him to count out his pocket money and put some away for Hogsmead visits and to bring the rest with him, he'd been astounded to realize just how much money he now had. He was more than happy to divide his money in half for whatever special occasion his mom had been talking about. She and Dad had even given them all a bit more money from there allowances to take with them as well. Now Ron was relieved to realize he could walk around and buy souvenirs and other bits of merchandise with no problems. A man selling omnioculars shouted "Only ten galleons, a bargain!" as he waved his wares around. Ron wanted a pair and for the first time ever could afford one. He and Harry both went up to the stall Ron bought one for himself but Harry bought his own plus one for Hermione than used his mirror to send out a message to see if any of his siblings wanted one they did and soon everyone had met back up at the stalls and were talking about what they'd seen as they exchanged things they'd purchased for each other and showed off the ones they'd found for themselves.
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Disclaimer, I do not own nor profit from any of the Harry Potter character's, places, or plots.
AURTHOR'S NOTE: I need to apologize for the long wait and to thank the many people who have left me words of encouragement.
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Aug. 22 Meanwhile in a normal little house on Private Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey; Dudley Dursley had finally reached his breaking point. He'd drank healthy sludge even a rabbit wouldn't want every day three times a day for the last two months, he'd exorcised against his will. While at home that meant running, at the vacation house in Majorca it meant going swimming. Dudley had not been a strong swimmer up until this summer when he'd suddenly felt the need to get better. When he'd ended up at a donut shop earlier he'd been thrilled to not only buy a large box but had eaten half on the way home; for the first time in his life eating his fill had made him sick. Worse his mom had found him throwing up with the half eaten box sitting beside him. She'd freaked out accused the donut company of giving him food poisoning and tried to throw out the donut's when he'd denied that and took the box back she'd become convinced he was bulimic and needed help. She'd taken his donuts anyway and thrown them away. Dudley had lost his mind and by the time he'd come too chest heaving and tears staining his cheeks he'd thrown his play station out the window stomped on his games and put the end table through the Television. Not that any of it mattered his mother was still calling the Dr. to make sure he wasn't bulimic, and the sludge still appeared for dinner. Dimly he wondered if anyone had ever had a more miserable summer.
0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0Aug. 23 Peter Pettigrew once affectionately known as Wormtail scurried through an old dusty manor house. His master was waiting impatiently for him to bring the fresh ingredients they would need to add to the Dark Lords baby bottle. Not that Peter was able to refer to it as such, not out loud at least. No the revered and feared Dark Lord was taking a strengthening tonic. One that just happened to contain, in addition to Nagini's milk, breast milk from the muggle down the lane. Two hours later as he was dragging Frank Bryce's body out to his miserable little hut, he wondered if anyone else was having as bad a week as he was.
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Aug. 24 Sirius sighed as he sat aside more furniture. He'd made and enchanted quite a bit the last two days the rest of the family had been 'camping'. He only somewhat regretted the decision to let them go for a few extra days so that the kids could shop and play. As the Weasleys hadn't gone any where but to visit family here in England for their summer vacation Arthur, had thought having a mini vacation that wouldn't actually cost them anything a capital idea. Sirius had agreed and even though he was bored to tears he still thought it had been a good idea. Right now he'd gotten ahead of their inventory and even created some enchanted pieces to sell via owl order to the magical's. The World Cup was tomorrow and Sirius had put the finishing touches on the trunks for the Weasley kids and Dean just that morning. Now he didn't know what he was supposed to do. He reckoned he could pull out a few toys and things to tinker on. He did have a list of things to try that he'd been putting off for later, vaguely Sirius hoped someone was having a worse week than he was.
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Aug. 25 Harry followed the Weasley's as they made their way up to the top ministry box. Everyone was looking around in delight at the beautiful stadium. Several forms of wood had been used and twisted to make the place as aesthetically pleasing as it was functional. Of course most of the decoration was also disguising the fact that they'd used the old stadium and built on. They had just reached the first entrance to the private top boxes when they met with the Malfoys. Draco's loud bragging drawl of "How far up are we father?" carried over to their group and beyond several people turned to look at the ponce as he held his nose up in the air swelling with pride at his mother's suddenly upturned mouth. Lucius threw his head back and replied equally as loud as Draco."Well put it this way son, if it rains we'll be the first to know." The elder Malfoy laughed obnoxiously at his own joke, little Draco chuckling along with his father. Narcissa Malfoy did not laugh, instead she smirked as she surveilled the surrounding crowd. She had spotted the Weasley's but so far managed to miss Belvina. "Hardly!" Arthur called out pleasantly. "The charms and enchantments are so thorough that unless the players call it, I doubt we'd notice a hurricane from our seats." The Malfoys turned as one to sneer and had to do a double take. Arthur was wearing a well done suit in black and red, his ministry badge gifted to the heads of all the departments was hanging off of a thick golden chain, borrowed from Sirius for the occasion. Sirius had argued that many officials from their ministry and others would be there judging them and that Arthur should at least make a good impression when they'd all be meeting the blundering idiot that was their minister. Molly for the occasion was also wearing a new silk dress. With her new beauty routine, and clothes Molly was looking younger and prettier than ever, something she was quite proud of. All of the children were dressed nicely for once. Although none were dressed as well as Ginny. As the only girl and one to break the curse at that, the whole family tended to adore her on some level. Now wearing Carina's old clothes with her hair done up prettily, Ginny looked for once as though she truly came from one of the ancient families. While both the Weasley's and the Prewitt's were old pureblood lines, the Prewitt's were down to a handful of elderly upper middle class witches and the Weasley family, though vast, hadn't had enough money to be considered well off in ages. Both elder Malfoys looked deeply confused, before trying to recover. Draco flushed and glared at them. He opened his mouth to no doubt spout off some obscenity or another, but before he could utter a word his father placed a hand on his shoulder and steered Draco off. "Don't pay any attention to the riff raff son, we need to get to our seats." Lucius called out. "That's right we're in the ministers box." Draco responded."He acts like we're not all going to the same place!" Bill replied. Causing the Malfoy's to pause and flush a little before pointedly moving forward, doing their level best to now ignore the Weasley's and consequently the Potter/Black's as well. Something Narcissa would later regret. The Malfoys entered the top box first greeting the minister like old friends. The minister of course replied in kind before spotting Arthur Weasley and Harry Potter. While the Bulgarian minister hadn't uttered a word of English this whole time; Fudge was sure the man would recognize the boy-who-lived, and therefore be somewhat more impressed with the people with whom he'd be sharing the top box. "Arthur!" Fudge called loudly moving toward the man the Bulgarian minister in tow. "How are you my good man." He leaned forward to Arthur and complained quietly "Have you seen Crouch? The man was supposed to be here to translate for me and is nowhere to be found!" He took a deep breath turning to smile at his foreign counterpart. "This is the Architect behind the stadium design." Fudge said loudly gesturing from the stadium to Arthur in a wild motion as though he thought he were playing charades. "Surprised the heck out of me when Bagman confessed that little tidbit." he added quietly."Allow me minister, at least until Crouch gets here." Arthur volunteered, much to Fudges initial confusion. Arthur than turned to the so far quiet man beside Fudge, and introduced himself and his family in a slightly uneasy Bulgarian. He was grateful Belvina had made them all learn the language but still wasn't quite used to being able to speak anything but the Queen's English. Both ministers looked gob smacked before Fudge started grinning like a loon. "Oh thank the stars!" Fudge called just as the Bulgarian minister admitted that he spoke English. Fudge was a bit put out with the prank but Belvina stepped in to sooth his frayed nerves and to distract him by introducing her children from oldest (Harry) to youngest adding of course that Lyra was potion bottle baby. What with her wife dead and her husband illegally imprisoned. "Of course Minister, you should know I don't blame any of that mess on you!" Belvina told him still speaking quietly but firmly. "I wanted you to know that I think the blame lay's firmly with old Bagnold, and perhaps on Crouch, who can't seem to do his job right even now!" Fudge agreed with her on the last part but didn't speak about her husband, while he'd been briefed on her law suit and Amelia Bones the new head of the DMLE had admitted that their was no trial transcript for Black they had all still thought the man guilty. If what he was learning now though was true and Black had been married to the Potter's than it was increasingly unlikely that he betrayed them. It still didn't absolve him of the guilt from killing all the poor muggles who'd gotten between him and Pettigrew. However here was not the time and place for such heavy discussions and so Fudge thanked Lady Black for her time and support and wished her luck on uncovering the truth of the matter. By that time Arthur had already had the Bulgarians in stitches over stories of pranks his boys had played, had introduced them to other English and Irish officials and celebrities around them. By the time Fudge rejoined them the Bulgarians little prank was forgotten and everyone found other things to talk about Arthur and his oldest boys playing translator when needed. Consequently they had entirely by accident excluded the Malfoys. "Hadrian?" Belvina called softly. "Put in your head phones and tell your brothers to do the same. At least while the Veela are showing off." Harry did as she asked and nudged Ron and the twins to do the same. Hermione for once looked quite confused up until the Veela started to dance and all the men went nuts. The Weasley's youngest boys were in addition to plugging their ears, pointedly looking up and away from the Veela but the older ones were watching with interest. Most of the witches around them looked quite put out with their own men. Some of whom had jumped up and began to flex their muscles in an attempt to impress the strange blonds. The head phones they had filtered out the Veela magic allowing only small increments to get through. It allowed them to get accustomed to the magic with out over whelming them. Belvina thought they should know how to fight through it, and Sirius was of the firm belief that everyone should feel sex magic at least once in their lifetimes. Consequently he'd also encouraged them to find a pretty Veela willing to give them a more private performance, much to the boys embarrassment. Harry, Cori, and Hyd, were making sure to record everything they could through the omnioculars knowing their Aita would want to see it all later. They planned to take the recordings and superimpose the images over each other into one movie that could than be projected onto a screen. Knowing Sirius he'd find a way to make money off of it. The leprechaun's did their run over the stadium to everyone's delight but Carina's who complained loudly about them raining hard pieces of metal on top of her head with out even having the decency to make it real gold. Hermione rolled her eyes and told her get over it only to have Carina laugh as one of the round lumps of fools gold to hit her in the eye. Poor Remus was stuck between the two girls trying to maintain peace. Harry and Ron had wisely maneuvered themselves closer to the twins. With the adults networking as much as they were watching the match it was perhaps inevitable that Narcissa spotted Belvina. "What a pleasant surprise!" A strained smile stretched across Narcissa's face. "What are you doing here Belvina?" Narcissa's eyes swept a long the children and adults whom Belvina was with. "And in such company?" "I know isn't it great. I have my whole family with me again. Well minus Sirius of course, but then I am working on proving his innocence." "You are? Why?" Narcissa sounded so appalled. "What family?""OH, did you not hear?" Belvina gave her a wide smile. "I've met with Dumbledore and he's apologized for the misunderstanding and turned over custody of my oldest child to me. With Sirius on the run I figured now was the perfect time to bring my other kids out of hiding. It's not like their still small babies after all." Belvina gave a small twittering laugh. "I might have also come to the realization that I couldn't hide them away forever no matter how much I wanted to protect them.""What children?" Narcissa asked bewildered. "Well, mine and Sirius's, Of course." Belvina told her trying not to sound to smug or triumphant. "I think you've met our oldest, he is only my step son but that hardly makes a difference. Lord Potter come say Hello to my cousin Narcissa." Belvina Waved her hands to beckon him over the other kids following. "This is Lord Hadrian; Sirius, James, and Lily's son" Belvina told her. "Hello, Madam Malfoy." Harry said as he executed a shallow bow. "This one here is mine and Sirius' boy, Corvus the Heir Black," Belvina ignored Narcissa's outraged gasp and continued on. "Our oldest girl, Carina, beside her is my youngest Lyra. She's a potion bottle baby if you couldn't tell by her age. Then behind me is Hydrus the youngest boy. I was still pregnant with him when Sirius was taken to Azkaban."The children gave their politest most formal greetings. "Good evening Madam Malfoy, may magic be with you." Narcissa might have been able to hold her tongue barely but poor Draco was not. "That's nothing but filthy lies," Draco shouted his cheeks pink. "My mother is Regent Black and someday I'll be Lord Black. Everyone knows that the ministry handed over the Black rings to my mom." Belvina's eyes narrowed as she took in Draco's sneering face. She answered him speaking slowly and clearly so that not only did Draco hear her but so did several others around them. "Your mother allegedly told the, at the time, interim head of the archives, one Cadamere Malfoy, that she was Sirius Blacks closest of kin, and officially only signed the paperwork to claim the items and clothes that the ministry had removed from him at the time of his arrest including his family rings, in order to place them in the vaults where they belonged." Belvina told Draco. "Therefore the ministry did not hand over the rings to her, they were merely in the box of personal items which was illegally removed from the archives. Narcissa than allegedly used said ring to fool others into believing she had a right to certain other Black family artifacts. However, dear Narcissa's mere belief that she has a right to usurp the title and money's from the rightful heir, does not mean she actually has said right." Belvina gave Draco a look of pity. "My darling boy, even had Corvus and Hydrus not inherited the family magic's and been in line to inherit the title; Marius Black had three sons, a multitude of grandsons, all of which possess magic and the correct lineage to inherit the title despite the family currently living in Australia. You were never going to be Lord Black." Narcissa was flushed and breathing hard. Lucius's sneer had deepened and an angry red flush was spreading across his face. However Belvina was done talking to the Malfoys and Harry gave her an excuse to turn back to the game. "Look at Krum, he's feinting." All around them people were climbing to their feet yelling and cheering. "Lynch isn't going to make it." Sure enough Krum pulled up and Lynch crashed. All too soon as far the fans were concerned, the game was over and everyone was clearing out of the stadium, the Malfoys had fled as soon as the winner was announced not even waiting for the Irish team to come shake hands with the various ministers and officials in their box. "Is that true ama that with out me their would still be other heirs?" Corvus asked later that night as they settled into their tents. "Yes and no, baby, Marius is a squib and so is his wife." Belvina wondered how to put this delicately while remaining honest. "Marius was disowned and so was his wife. So most of the purebloods will not like them. While your aita and I still recognize him as family and we have written to him with a letter stating as such his wife's family has still not acknowledged her. Most of their children married other half bloods and all of them were born out of England. It is therefore not likely that the ministry would consider them legitimate candidates and if it came to a trial the Wizengamot would likely have sided with the Malfoys due the strange wording of the laws and most of all their own prejudices. Never underestimate the power of ones own bigotry. It colors all we see." They were too wired to go to bed so Charlie and Bill ended up exchanging humorous work stories with themselves and there father, while the kids listened in and played a few board games Bel had thought to pack. When Mrs. Weasley had thought to protest Harry, Ron and Carina managed to talk her into joining them for 'just one round' that quite by incident turned several. Finally however she put her foot down, with Belvina's help and sent them all, even her husband and the oldest kids to bed. After all they had an early port-key scheduled for tomorrow. If Molly thought she was going to get a good nights sleep she was sadly mistaken. She was woken up shortly after one in the morning to a hideous racket. If anyone thought it was appropriate to make that much noise at this hour they were sorely mistaken. She hauled herself out of bed curlers in her hair purple cream slathered on her face, stuck her nose up and marched out of the tent to give someone a loud piece of her mind. Her confused husband following behind her. Her eldest two sons met her at the tents living room and went to follow their mother outside only for her to come to a screeching halt. "Arthur," She whispered even quiet her voice was full of steel. "Wake up Bell, Remus, and the other children. Have Bell get them out of here." Molly than pulled out her and marched outside. The others where left gaping after her.Bell was thankfully already awake and having heard Molly's orders did not wait for the boys to get over their shock, instead jumped straight to action. Remus grabbed his own wand and sword of all things before pushing the Weasley men out of his way as he followed after Molly. He had lived through one war that never really left him, for all that he had not exactly been training for most of those years of 'peace' he'd not been idle either. In fact when he'd thought Harry was in danger from Sirius he'd taken the time while teaching DADA to get some dueling practice in. The last few months spent with his pseudo family had been full of dueling albeit mostly pranks. So while Molly busied herself defending the tents and people around them Remus trusted those war honed instincts and went on a counter offence staying with-in Molly's range so that he wouldn't get cornered alone. Moments later Bill and Charlie joined him as Arthur began to help his wife. Belvina sent several nasty low powered hexes toward the death eaters as soon as she exited the tent the men all winced as her wicked aim made it clear she was aiming for her enemies privates. "nothing so terrible as mucus and other fluids painfully taring its way out of your what not and then attacking you." she told them almost cheerfully Ginny followed suit with a similar spell her signature bat bogey hex. Fred and George took inspiration from Sirius' summer prank wars and sent a distracting miasma of spells that way as well. Percy ever the proper one, sent stunners and spells meant to alert the aurors to problems. It might have been a good idea had most of the aurors not been either drunk from the celebrations or already engaged elsewhere. Corvus, Carina, and Hadrian joined in as well. Sirius had devoted a large amount of time these past few years making sure his children knew how to fight with each other and separately. They trusted one another and keeping Hyde who was casting low level shields around the area, and Lyra behind them and near their mother, joined the fight as well. Careful not to leave the area or become separated from the adults. The chaos being created both by the death eaters and by the innocent bystander just trying to run away made it too dangerous for them to try running for safety.They successfully took out several of death eaters inadvertently creating a distraction allowing the few aurors to successfully recover the muggles that the middle group of death eaters had been hovering up in the air. After which the aurors flung much more powerful spells and the death eaters were forced to stop their advance in order to defend themselves by this time others had joined the defenders and the D.E.'s were looking a little more worse for the wear as time went on. Suddenly several people including some of the death eaters began screaming pointing up into the air. Unable to help themselves everyone looked up to see the dark mark floating in the sky. The shocking sight forced a pause in the fighting and those death eaters still capable of doing so took the opportunity to escape. Leaving only four behind to be arrested. Seeing this Molly turned to her husband and hissed "Arthur you’re the senior ministry official on the scene!""What? Oh right, Yes." Arthur ordered the aurors to secure them and store them in Azkaban, where they couldn't get away, for the rest of the night. Arthur then ordered his family to pack up their tents and to take the first available portkey home. He himself then popped out to see who if anyone had died and what could be done about it. They would in the morning claim it all drunken prank in very poor taste, clearly not well thought out. Only a few would truly believe them. With the battle over, aurors cleaning up and a steady trickle of people coming back in from the woods. Arthur was careful to loudly proclaim all the well in hand the moment the reporters appeared. He praised the few aurors he'd seen actually working by name and assured everyone that the ministry was on top of things. He directed those with complaints to the archives and the Magical law section of the DMLE. Finally he made it to the crime scene only to find a bunch officials standing around watching Barty Crouch free his house elf. "What are you all doing?" Arthur asked appalled. "Crouch here found his house elf holding the wand that did it." Auror Dawlish pointed to the dark mark. �"They why aren't you questioning it? Who does the wand belong to? Surely a house elf would not know how to make that." Arthur asked. "I have already questioned her, she knows nothing." Crouch told him angrily."You shouldn't be doing anything regarding the mark and you know it." Arthur yelled frustrated. "I am a senior official." Crouch screamed. "With several decades of experience.""Experience where you sent an AUROR to Azkaban with no proof of guilt or trial, if you recall. Which has you under investigation at this very moment." Arthur yelled back. Making the other aurors and ministry spectators gasp in outrage. "And further more speaking of your job as a senior ministry official, where the hell have you been all day. I've had to cover for you when you didn't show up ALL DAY!""I'll have you know." Crouch began but what he wanted them to know was forgotten as a loud crack signaling someone disapperating away was heard. "SEE." Arthur exclaimed, "While we were all subjected to your incompetence the real criminal was getting away AGAIN." Arthur turned the Aurors still watching them yell and started barking orders. "You who here is the better tracker? Find them and get on that see if you can figure out where they went and if any ones license was activated in this area. Everyone else spread out and see if they left anything behind." Turning around again this time to tell a gaping Crouch. "Get your elf straight to the DMLE detainment office so someone competent can question her.""I can't." Crouch said looking a little sheepish. "I already sealed her." Sealing implied she would no longer be able to answer questions about anything that occurred while she was in Crouches service so she could never give away her masters secrets. Which meant as a witness she was now useless. This was not something automatically done when presented with clothes instead it was a set of orders and a spell done before the elf was officially free. "I'll uh take my leave then." Crouch said before doing just that taking the house elf with him. "Merlin save us all from morons." Amelia Bones said. Arthur spun around in shock to greet her."By Merlin woman, make a little noise would you." Arthur exclaimed. "I'm glad you’re here though I was at my whit's end wondering what to do now.""I've got it now Arthur you go on to be with your family, I'll expect your official report and filed complaint against Crouch in the morning." Amelia said as she dismissed him.
O0o0o0o0o0o0o
Sirius had listened to the game being broadcast over the radio earlier in the evening. He'd gotten back to work while leaving the radio on and fallen asleep laying across his work bench, radio still playing on. Which was why when the emergency news interrupted with a squeal and several beeps Sirius was startled awake falling on to his arse and hitting his back on one of the trunks in the process. He stood up cursing the fates and making sure no one saw that. Only then did he become aware of what the Radio was actually announcing. Sirius jumped over his chair as he raced to the radio to turn it up. 'We were camping out celebrating our win. Suddenly people came running by screaming out "Eat it, Eat it." It took us a moment to realize they meant death eaters. Men and women were dressed up in black robes, silver death masks covered their faces masking their identities as they through spell after spell. That wasn't the worse though. When we could still here screaming coming from their direction we couldn't see who was screaming until we looked up and there they were. A small family a father, mother, and two small kids. It was the muggle who owned the lot we rented for camping and his family. The smallest kids head was just bobbing from side to side I couldn't tell from where we were but she didn't look alive anymore. ' Sirius summoned his mirror and immediately tried to contact Bell. It was Lyra though who answered him her eyes tear stained as she told him their family and the Weasleys were alright. However the muggle family the bad guys had been 'mean' too weren't okay. Ama had given them several potions and the little boy would be okay in time and so would his mom. But she'd heard her ama talking to the healers from St. mungo's and the Nice mans head had been hurt by all the memory charms that he'd undergone in the last weak and the bad men had tortured him and made the hurt permanent. He was going to live all his life in a hospital now. His daughter who was a few years younger than Lyra was dead. The death eaters had shaken her all around in the air and had hurt her brain and neck. Mrs. Weasley was talking to the officer in charge of port keys and helping get everyone in line and off to where they need to be. So that they could all get out of here sometime soon. Sirius had her put Carina on and ordered his eldest daughter to tell Mrs. Weasley that he wanted them to use their emergency port keys to come straight home. Carina Sent Corvus and Hadrian with the message as she tried to comfort Lyra. Mrs. Weasley was happy to have all the kids somewhere safe and immediately got all of the kids together and after talking on the mirrors to make sure it was safe to send so many off on the portkeys (It wasn't really) she gave her blessing and bustled off to help others. Instead of everyone taking one portkey Charlie picked up lyra, while her portkey was used to take himself, Lyra, Ginny, and Hermione to Grimmauld place. Hadrian grabbed Dean and his Grandmother. Ron and George went with Corvus, Bill with Hyde, Percy, Fred and finally Carina and Remus followed. Sirius greeted each group as they came in checking over Hermione, Dean and his own kids before moving on the Weasleys and finally Remus. When he was sure they were all unharmed he breathed in a sigh of relief. He gathered Lyra up into his arms and cuddled her tight for a moment. Then he gestured for Hermione to follow him. He led her and the curious lot of other who'd followed as well to a nook in the hallway an antique phone sat on an old fashioned table and desk. Sirius picked up the phone and called Hermione's parents. Handing her the phone when it started to ring much to Hermione's horror. "Its better you tell them what happened and that your okay before they hear about it through the prophet or worse form one of the other muggle parents they routinely talk to. Arthur, Molly, and Bell arrived together two hours later to find all the kids Sirius, Remus, Bill, and Charlie included had made a fort of blankets and mattresses in the family room of the fidelius covered number twelve. They were all spread out Ginny sleeping between Bill and Charlie the twins were huddled together with Percy and Ron sprawled out on one side. Lyra was laying on top of Sirius and Hadrian, Corvus, and Carina were all tangled into a ball of limbs. Bell sank into the long couch and joined them in sleep. Molly and Arthur quietly made their way to a spare room they knew of and slept there. In the morning they would go their separate ways. The Blacks would spend the day together safe at home counseling the kids theirs and not to make sure they understood that their was nothing they could have done to save the muggles. That nightmares are normal and that they are safe now. The days leading up to their return to Hogwarts were spent with Sirius passing out new trunks to the Weasleys, Hermione, and Dean, as well as going over Belvina's checklists. She made sure they had packed up crystal balls, tarot cards, rune kits, clothes, brooms, cauldrons, potion ingredients, parchment, quills, books, finished all their homework, had packed up all the miscellaneous things kids usually forget at home and promising to send anything that she may have by some divine intervention missed. Lyra placed one of her stuffed bunny's into Harry's trunk so that it could keep him company. She was worried her siblings might forget about her while they were away at school. Sirius assured her that they would not and that she could use the mirrors whenever she wanted to see them. Harry promised to talk to her twice a week at least and to write as well. Hyde said he'd try to write but planned to have to much fun to bother missing anyone. Sirius had barked out a laugh then with deathly serious expression swore to track him down and do unspeakable horrors to him if he didn't write at least twice a month.
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Disclaimer: I own a house, half a car and crappy vacation package, I do not however own this. Thank you.
Chapter seven. September 1.The Black clan had commandeered the largest end compartment they could find and still had to use charms to enlarge it so that everyone could fit. Dean went to look for Seamus and promised to send Fay, Parvati and Lavender his way if he saw them. While Fay was a bit more sporty, she got along good with everyone and Harry was hoping Carina might favor her over Lavender and Parvati but wasn't going to hold his breathe for it. Still she would need friends outside of them and Harry hoped she might find it with the Gryffindor girls. True she might be sorted else where but until the ceremony was done Harry was going to push for his own house. It had not truly dawned on him until recently that they may be separated by the housing system. If they were Harry resolved to find ways to spend time with them anyway. Fred and George moved off to find their own friends and so too did Ginny. Everyone else stayed together. Harry pulled out a few games and they got started playing as they discussed the up coming term and the new schedules for Harry and his siblings. Ron was jealous that they would no longer be taking potions but didn't envy them having to take several O.W.L's early to get out of it. Hadrian, Carina, and Corvus were scheduled to take those OWL's their first week back and had been studying what felt like non stop for the last week to review for it. Hermione was more stressed than any of them and she wasn't even one of the ones taking it. That had not stopped her though from making them flash cards and randomly quizzing them on every subject she new they were testing and several related subjects Harry was pretty sure wouldn't be on the tests. Her motto of better prepared simply made them all sigh in frustration. Harry had urged Hermione to take at least some of the OWL's ahead so that she could at least get a feel for them. After all if she failed the worst that would happen is a retesting at the end of their fifth year. Hermione had agreed to ask Dumbledore about testing for muggle studies, history, and perhaps potions. Hermione would first have to take an assessment test in those subjects just like the Black's had before Dumbledore would consider allowing her to test ahead. It was the same for any student wishing to test ahead and often the assessments were so brutal that most didn't bother. They had almost made it to the Hogsmead station when they got their yearly visit from Malfoy and his tagalongs. Draco threw open the compartment door and sneered inside. His cheeks were flushed slightly and his robes a little rumpled. It seemed he'd had an eventful trip so far. "You!" Draco sneered at Corvus. "How dare you show your face here. Squibs aren't allowed at Hogwarts no matter what impression Longbottom might have given you." "I'm not a squib!" Corvus told him indignant but slightly amused. "Of course you are, Why else would you have not attended Hogwarts until now!" Draco exclaimed looking momentarily triumphant. "My genius mother chose to homeschool all of us." Corvus told Draco calmly. "Some of us have parents that actually want us around" "Obviously your parents couldn't wait to get rid of you." Hyd commented smugly. "I saw your mother practically shoving you out of the fire grate earlier.""With a face like that I'm not surprised." Carina said not even looking up from her magazine. "Can you imagine the shame of giving birth to that." "My mother thinks I'm perfectly handsome!" Draco shouted. "I look like my father." Draco said smug. "That’s not exactly a strong argument there." Harry said softly. "Your mother was forced into a contract with your father after Andromeda ran away, it wasn't a love match."Corvus laughed, "Can you imagine, if your mother was the only one to ever tell you your Handsome?" "I didn't say that!" Draco exclaimed. "But you did say your 'mother thinks you perfectly handsome." Carina said logically, "Not your girlfriend, friends, or admirers, no you only mentioned your mother.""What admirers?" Ron asked finally looking up from his chess board."His mother, didn't you hear him?" Carina answered. "Poor Narcissa having to lie like that." Ron replied. "MY MOTHER DIDN'T LIE, I LOOK GREAT! MUCH BETTER THAN YOU WEASEL!" Draco yelled. "Well this is a change isn't it." Hermione said, "It's been a full ten minutes and he hasn't once screamed that he was going to tattle to his daddy." Ron and Harry both snorted. �"Yes, I suppose we should congratulate dear Draco on his personal growth." Corvus told her smirking. "Shall we give him a hand?" he asked. before pulling his hands together mockingly, for three quiet claps. "Oh yes we're just so proud of you dearest cousin." Hyd piped up."Yes, of course Congratulations Draco well done." Carina quipped. "but is it really considered growth to go from being a daddy's boy to a mummy's?"Draco gave a rather inarticulate scream of rage as he stormed off back the way he came laughter following him all the way. "That was very satisfying." Harry told them. "Every time he annoys me from now on I'm going to think of his face just now and laugh."Hyd had to follow Hagrid with the little firsties. Harry pitied him greatly as did Ron. "Imagine have to cross the lake in that weather!" Ron exclaimed. Indeed it was storming something fierce and the water on the lake had began to produce large waves. If Harry didn't already know that because of living on the island and the yacht, Hydrus was a strong swimmer and capable of several charms that would help, he might be tempted to smuggle Hyd up in the carriages. The oldest two however were going to be sorted as soon as they entered the school McGonagall was already waiting for them as she chased Peeves away. "If I ever find out who gave you water balloons they'll be scrubbing toilets with their own toothbrushes until their children graduate!" They were sorted quickly in a side office by the hall. Carina was able to talk the hat into putting her in Gryffindor rather than Slytherin mostly because of her age. The hat fully believed that every child over the age of thirteen turned into a sneaky, hormonal little shit and should be sorted into Slytherin. Carina convinced him that underneath all that she was quite brave and at least by blood 'noble' therefore should be sorted into Gryffindor. While Carina managed to convince the hat in five minutes Corvus took nine and in the end had to resort into threatening to end it's existence if it didn't put him with his siblings. The hat rather loudly told him that he and all his siblings should be in Slytherin, but in the end did put him in Gryffindor. They finally made it into the great hall where Professor McGonagall placed the hat on its normal stool and professor Flitwick led in the first years. Hyd was the tallest of the lot and semi-stood out as he was neither nervous, nor looking around. If anything he looked bored. Behind him stood a mousey little boy hiding under a large blanket that upon closer inspection appeared to be Hagrid's coat. Black, Hydrus caused a great deal of murmuring amongst the student body. The hat got as far as 'Sly' before Hyde yanked it off his head gave it a shake and glared at it. "Mr. Black!" McGonagall said appalled. The hat was placed back on his head and this time when it finally spoke it yelled "Gryffindor" Hydrus happily made his way over to his cheering family. McGonagall moved on to Blake, Anita and Harry tuned out most of the rest of the sorting politely cheering for the new Gryffindor's and at Hydrus's urging giving a good wolf whistle and cheer for poor little Dennis Creevey who had to have fallen into the lake on the way over, as he was the one hiding under Hagrid's coat.By the time Professor Dumbledore Stood to give the announcements Harry was ready to lock both Creevey brothers away somewhere and to hex Hyd who found it amusing to egg the two on. Harry was sure his entire face had turned pink. He'd sternly told both boys that no he would not pose semi nude for a photo shoot. Somehow he just knew his siblings had been responsible for planting that idea in Colin's creepy little stalker brain. "A few words before we go off to bed. This year I'm sorry to say, that due to a very special event being held here, we will have to cancel our inner house quidditch cup." Dumbledore began. Only to be interrupted twice. First by the protesting students and then by said students brand new professor. Who just as lightening streaked across the enchanted ceiling, threw open the doors, making his rather dramatic entrance. "Ladies and gentlemen may I introduce your new defense against the dark arts professor, famed former Auror Alastor Moody. Now as I was saying this year we have the privilege of playing host to the revived Tri-Wizard Tournament." This time Dumbledore laughed as the noise level in the Hall raised. He held up his arms and gestured for them all to be quiet. "You have to be joking?" Fred Weasley shouted. "I assure you I'm not, Though I did hear one over the summer about a" At that moment though Professor McGonagall loudly cleared her throat "Oh yes right, moving on, For those of you who already know this bare with me. The Triwizard Tournament used to be held every four years between Europe's most prestigious schools, Durmstrang, Beaubaton's, and of course Hogwarts school of witch craft and Wizardry. It was canceled when a particularly blood thirsty second task saw the three contestants two of the judges and some forty spectators killed. A council of school and ministry officials have been negotiating for several months now and believe they have put together enough safety features to stop the blood shed and ensure the safety of all our spectators. Among those safety precautions all contestants must be seventeen by thirty-first October." He had to talk louder to speak over all the booing. "WHEN THE DRAWING FOR CONTESTANTS WILL COMMENCE. The competitor's will compete in three tasks the winner will receive a thousand galleons prize money, and eternal glory. THANK YOU, FOR YOUR PATIENCE HAVE A GOOD NIGHT!" Dumbledore sat back down with a sigh as several professors leaned over to speak to him. At the Gryffindor table kids were all talking and gossiping about the tournament, while the fifth year prefects grudgingly gathered up the first years to show them to the common room. Harry happily gathered up his siblings to take them up a quicker route as Hermione had already gotten the current password off an older prefect. He said goodnight to Carina and Hermione when they had to head to the girls dorms and continued to lead his brothers to the boys section, dropping Hyd off with the other second years and pulling Corvus up to the fourth year dorms with himself. Normally Cory would need to stay in one of the other fourth year boy dorm rooms but Harry quickly spoke to the elf in charge of the dorms and had his bed removed and Cory's stuff brought in. In lieu of his bed he took a large box out of his pocket and enlarged it into the space his four poster bed used to be. The box had a sliding door on the front just large enough for the boys to enter if they ducked their heads inside was a library/office/common space and two stairs leading to two separate lofts one for each of them and a private Shower/tub and toilet. Both Carina and Hyd had one of their own such boxes as well. They weren't commonly used anymore in Gryffindor but used to be required and still were recommended for Slytherin dorms. Sirius had wanted his kids in Gryffindor but knew his kids well enough to know it was a long shot. Even Harry was only in red and gold because he'd argued the hat into it. Luckily his siblings had successfully done the same and their were no rules against using the bedroom boxes in other dorms.Dean, Seamus, and Neville came in a few minutes later and joined them in the box for a couple of minutes before they all said goodnight and found their own beds. It took the boys awhile to fall asleep it was a strange feeling knowing that their parents wouldn't be there when they woke and neither would Lyra. At least they had most of their pets with them. The Owls would come and go as they wished but Hyd had brought his lizard, Corvus his Chow, Carina her Kneazle and Harry had brought Impress, forced to choose only one, he'd had to leave the other two ankle biters with Remus. When his parents had said they wouldn't be the ones looking after them they'd meant it. Luckily Impress was sweet and got along well with the Kneazles if not the toads. Two weeks into school and Harry had had to write home and ask for an unbreakable aquarium for Neville's toad Trevor. Neville was a good sport about it, he like the other boys, thought Impress was adorable and Trevor had proven himself quite clever when it came to avoiding her.School started up with a vengeance. Teachers were piling on homework, demanding on average three feet long essays. Their fifth year runes class started out with Professor Babbling giving out a pop quiz, being disappointed that no one scored higher than an eighty five. The Professor than lamented at how much they had either not learned or forgotten from previous years. She lectured them about the importance of upcoming OWL's and then mournfully told them they were sure to fail. She passed out a workbook to be due the week before Samhain. It was one hundred and sixty five pages long, some questions demanded just a single rune answer others however required a full foot essay styled explanation and ten of them required a two foot essay plus structured rune clusters. Harry stared at the homework in horror. "I think the OWL's might be easier and less time consuming!" Harry told Carina who was staring at her workbook just as horrified as he was. Their Arythmancy class was nearly as bad. Professor Vector was no nonsense man who lectured his fifth year class about the importance of their upcoming OWLS's before assigning them a large package to complete as a 'review' of previous years. It was due by the next class and no extensions would be granted. You either turned it in, accepting whatever incomplete grade you earned or got a zero. Corvus complained endlessly about the three and half feet of homework McGonagall had assigned in his fifth year transfigurations class right up until he saw their runes homework. He shut up about his own homework but soon began to worry about his own up coming runes classes. Meer days into school and the deputy headmistress took them aside their first Saturday for their Potions OWL. Three hours later wrists hurting from writing, cutting, stirring and chopping they made their way back to the common rooms in satisfied exhaustion. They relaxed for a bit and made their way to lunch. Hermione quizzed them endlessly about the test and worked herself into a panic on their behalves. Finally Ron managed to distract her and the three made a get away. They finished desert out by the lake and finally at ten to one they made their way up to the History rooms to take the History OWL. This time they avoided Hermione after by just going straight to the kitchens and then to bed. The Muggle studies and DADA OWL'S were taken the next day leaving them all feeling a little wrung out. Harry and Carina had taken to filling out their Arythmancy homework bit by bit between classes at lunch before breakfast, just any time where they had two minutes to spare in the hopes that they may manage to finish it in time. They dedicated and hour a day to filling out the runes homework working through the easy questions first skipping the hard ones and the essays for now. Any more than that and their other classes would suffer. Once their next weekend came up and they had more time they did the smaller essays and collected research for the bigger questions. That Saturday was also Hyd's first tutoring session to make sure he was keeping up with his own homework. Some of his new friends tagged along to 'help' and spent time attempting to quiz them on their family. Carina finally hexed them all silent unless they were asking school related questions. They managed to finish and turn in their Arythmancy package but it was honestly a close thing and Harry dreaded what might come next. He was right to dread it but breathed a sigh of relief to realize that it wouldn't be do until the last class before Yule. During their few corresponding free periods the siblings got together to study for their independent subjects, Potions, DADA, and History. Snape was in a snit when he discovered that Harry, who Snape had been failing these past three years had not only tested out of his classes but taken his OWL's a full year early and scored an Outstanding with distinction. He ranted and raved about the boy cheating only for Marchbank's to take him to task. Dumbledore gently informed Snape that he was letting his bias against all things Potter get to him and that all of the children also had Lily as a mother. Surprisingly the only other teacher to complain was Moody who thought Potter was being irresponsible by not taking the class with his peers and therefore missing out on vital training. Harry made his siblings keep to Sirius's training schedule when it came to Dueling and they often mirror called the man and peppered him with DADA questions. If Sirius didn't know them Remus would and so they always had an experienced teacher to go to for help. Likewise Carina took over for Potions and routinely mirrored their Ama. For History Sirius had sent them some of his previous 'teaching tools' and the kids would watch one play and read aloud two corresponding chapters of an advanced History book before discussing the events and assigning themselves a half a foot essay on the topic. They had classes on Carina's birthday so this year she got cards and well wishes in the morning but no party or presents as they would be going home soon and she had chosen to wait until their parents were with them before she opened anything.On the Twentieth of September Teachers passed out workbooks for those students going home for Mabon rather than assign them homework. Harry was thrilled to be going home much to his own shock. For the first time in his life he was home sick and knowing he would be spending the holiday with the rest of his family was the only thing that made school worth it. At the same time he knew his siblings were going through the same thing and he had been corralling them into pick up quidditch games and joined a few clubs to keep them busy, entertained, and to help them make friends in their house and out. The kids going home lined up outside Professor McGonagall's office and floo'd home one at a time. The moment Harry stepped through his families massive fire place Lyra careened into his legs refusing to let go. Harry did eventually manage to pick her up and carry her to one of the couches. His Ama came and gave them each a hug and kiss. Sirius did the same after they made their way over the number twelve. Sirius gave them all a long hug ruffled their hair and teased Corvus for his crush on Fay Dunbar. Something all of his school age siblings had written home about. "I'm just glad we get to skip Herbology this week." Carina told him. "Can you imagine how filthy I'd get after helping fertilize an entire green house?" Sirius snorted amused. "Compared to here where you only have to feed wine to the willows?" Sirius asked gently teasing her. They threw her a mini Birthday party with a cookie cake and ice cream for lunch. She happily opened her presents after proclaiming them all to have been well worth the wait. They spent the next day making protection charms with hazelnuts and enchanted red thread. Dinner was squash casseroles, bean dishes and strong red wine. This year fifteen year old Carina was allowed to drink hers with out first watering it down, but Ama restricted her to two glasses only. That night her brothers snickered as she swayed while trying to feed milkweed pods to the fairies who were gently swaying with her as they followed the yummy food. Sirius finally took pity on them and helped her out before sending her off to bed. They trekked into the kitchen for breakfast late the next morning and happily dug into breakfast. After the kids pulled out the workbooks they would need to turn in, in exchange for missing their classes and started working on them. Soft chatter filled the kitchen as they discussed their work and debated the answers they didn't know while looking them up to see who was right. They spoke softly to Remus as well, listening to his stories of the shop and his lament that with school being back their was no one there to help out. Sirius refused to hire some stranger and risk being seen. Dean's grandmother was now living at the Shafiq manor overseeing it's restoration for her beloved grandson. However she had joined them for lunch the previous day and had given them a package to deliver to Dean for her. It was shrunken as much as it could be and still too large to send via post owl. Hermione disapproved of them skipping classes no matter the reason, but was pleasantly surprised to learn they'd finished all of their homework and the workbooks. Dean unshrunk his package with wide eyes, the rest of them were slightly jealous. Mrs. Shafiq had sent him baked goods and extra sweets mostly. She had also sent him some extra sweaters and a Mabon gift in the form a huge multi-squashed dish. Harry had had to explain what Mabon was though as neither Seamus or Neville celebrated the 'old ways'. Neither did Mrs. Shafiq but her husband and son had so she figured she'd honor them with a slice of their traditions. Harry was surprised to discover that Malfoy hadn't gone home for Mabon. For all the Malfoys paid lip service to their 'proud' heritage they didn't do anything to honor their religion beyond hosting a public party for the big four and Samhain. The big four being Yule, Ostara, Litha, and Mabon. Several of their class mates were asking a new question. Why pay lip service at all if you weren't going to use the benefits? Some of the other students who'd heard about the confrontation between the Blacks and Malfoy on the train began taunting Malfoy about this being proof that his parents didn’t want him. While Harry didn't approve of anyone being bullied but couldn't help remember his first year when Malfoy had similarly taunted Harry about not being wanted at home. This he figured was Karma. School other wise preceded as normal, with the kids getting back into the swing of classes and homework. Harry made an effort to spend more time with his friends and family by organizing pick-up quidditch games. Harry found himself in the unique position of being ahead of his peers in classes. He was often competing with Hermione and Carina to answer questions and was nearly always first to get a spell right. He finally felt like he belonged here instead of like an outsider always struggling to catch up. While normally the school would let them go home again for three days during Halloween, this year Dumbledore tried to stop it because of the tournament. The board was trying to pressure him into making sure the whole school was there for the opening ceremony. The parents compromised. Students stayed to welcome the visiting schools and the see the reveal of the Goblet of Fire but went home late that night via Floo.