Raising Harry
The various trials and arrests kept the Prophet full for the next six months. Quietly the Unspeakables cleaned the Ministry of Dark Mark carriers. New Head of the DMLE Amelia Bones was cleaning House. She campaigned for and got an end to Wizengamot, or Ministerial Privilege. Her oversight now came from those Law Lords in the know about Magical Britain.
The various trinkets of Riddles were rounded up, Lily knew Bellatrix had been storing one, and it was found in her vault. The diary was found during the search of Malfoy Manor, Lucius was arrested and as a result of bearing the dark mark, was passed through the veil. The diary revealed Voldemort’s identity and led them to the Gaunt Shack, Minerva tasked the Hogwarts elves with searching the Castle and the Diadem was found. The last piece to be found was the locket, Sirius accompanied his Grandfather and a team of Aurors and unspeakables to search Grimmauld place, the family elf handing the locket over. With the pieces collected the Unspeakables carried out an ancient ritual and pulled the soul pieces together prior to banishing them through the veil. The recombined soul fought and it took them almost twenty minutes to force the entity from this plane of existence. Once it was gone they discovered that it had drawn the magic from all his remaining marked followers and they died.
Sirius reconciled with his grandfather and was confirmed as the heir to the Black family, he had Andromeda reinstated and Nymphadora welcomed into the family. The next year flew by. Lily accepted Minerva’s invitation to understudy Horace Slughorn as Potion’s Professor, taking the OWL students, with a view to replacing him once he retired. She in turn convinced Sirius to teach DADA and Remus took on History. Minerva recruited a few more new faces to cover other subjects and life rolled on.
As Yule approached in 1985, Sirius and Lily slipped back to Potter Manor from Hogwarts where they were living in term time, the kids, especially five year old Harry were excited for the upcoming festivities. They bundled the kids to bed on Christmas Eve, early. The one night of the year so far that little Harry was happy to go to bed early.