The Boys Who Lived

CHAPTER 18

Everyone met up on the Saturday before school started to make their school purchases. Specifically the riders did. They all met in the Leaky Cauldron at eight o’clock and had a bit of breakfast then headed out to Diagon Alley. Their first stop was the Luggage shop.

“But Harry, I already have a trunk.” Cedric stated.

“You’re a rider now Cedric. And Riders all need certain things, now come along with us and just smile and agree to everything, it will be alright.” Harry laughed.

Once in the store they went up to the clerk and asked to be shown the seven compartment trunks, he gave them a doubtful look then each of them took their trunk out of their bag and showed it to him and said. “We’re Darcorn Riders, we have four new Riders to equipt.”

“Oh the Riders, oh of course, right this way… right this way, over here, our best models, you have our majesty models. Four new Riders, oh congratulations, congratulations. How wonderful. This is so wonderful. We have never had so many Riders come through our store, I have never had the privilege of meeting a Rider until I met you four. And now four new Riders. Alright let’s see here. Here is our majesty model. It contains seven compartments and an upper level tray for your goodies and easy to reach items. The standards for the trunk are bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, library, study, and then the last two are optional on what you would like.” And the sales clerk looked to Cedric…

“You guys don’t have to do this…”

“Yes we do, it is part of being a Rider. And if you are worried about the money don’t be, it is all coming from the sale of the basilisk so none of it is actually coming from us anyway.” Harry said grinning.

Cedric thought about if for a moment and then sighed, he really, really liked their trunks and it had helped him so much last year with his grades. “Potions lab and training room.” He stated finally.

The sales clerk nodded and filled out the information on his pad and put the note on the appropriate trunk then moved over to the next trunk and looked at Susan, who was looking at it all really thrilled she had been down in their libraries several times and she knew what she wanted, “Potions lab and music room please.” The sales clerk nodded and place the slip of paper on that trunk and went onto the next one.

Fred, who looked almost heart sick. “We can’t mate, Mum would kill us if she ever found out that we had them, she would call it charity and make us give it back.”

“Who says she has to know?” Harry grinned and winked, oh the twins knew he was up to something. And watched him walk over to a hat rack with some bags on it, and picked up four and came back. “These are also part of your welcome to Riders outfits. They are bottomless bags. You can tell her that you put your trunk in here and she will never know, since you can shrink this trunk to the size of a shoe box and stick it in here and never have to worry about carrying around a big heavy trunk again. Just tell her the money all came from selling the basilisk meat and none of it came from anyone’s bank, she might just go along with it.”

“Bottomless bags too? Harry this is way too much!” Cedric scratched his head. Shaking it in disbelief, he couldn’t believe how lucky he was.

“It isn’t too much, just think about it, how are you going to carry around a big trunk and ride on the back of a Darcorn, you can’t. So the bottomless bags are essential, you will have everything you need to survive anywhere you go in your trunk but you have to have a way to take it with you, hence the bag.” Harry stated.

“They’re great when you are in a hurry, just stuff everything down inside of them and run, you can organize it all later and not have to worry about stuff being forgotten or left behind. Or in your two’s cases, found by your mother.” Neville said the magic words.

“Potions room and a storage room, with shelves and all. Lots of space in that room, we will need lots of space, oh and George will need the same thing too.” George grinned and nodded rubbing his hands together as if he couldn’t wait to begin making things in his new trunk.

“Now remember guys if you blow up your lab you just might blow up your trunk so do be careful with what you make in there.” Pavarti said wisely.

Both Fred and George got a small frown on their faces but they still had very calculating looks on, and so Harry suspected that they wouldn’t let something like that stop them, “Uh Sir, can you put up extra wards around that potions room for us, we would really appreciate it?” They said at the same time.

The clerk was playing Weasley ping pong trying to look them both in the eye at the same time but he settled to just look at Harry and nod, “I shall see it is taken care of immediately.”

“So we have four seven compartment trunks one with a potions lab and training room, one with a potions room and music room and two with potions room and storage rooms. Is that correct?” The clerk looked at Harry who nodded.

“Add in the full security package on all of them, and the feather light and auto shrinkage like you did with ours as well. Please.” Harry added.

“Yes sir. That with the four bottomless bag comes too… and he handed him the pad he had been writing on,”

Harry looked at the pad and simply nodded then pressed his ring against the pad to pay for it.

“Well that is done then, they shall be ready in three hours, if you would like to pick them up then, you can take the bags with you now if you wish.”

“We have a lot of shopping to do so we will take the bags with us right now if you don’t mind.” Harry smiled and stated.

“Very good.” The clerk smiled back. Then yelled through the double doors out the back for four other people to come up front to help with the trunks.

“Alright now we need to take you all over to the potions shop, this is a one time thing mind you, after this it is your responsibility to keep your lab in tip top shape, but we want you all to get it fully stocked today, so let’s go.”

Everyone got their regular potions ingredients they needed for the year, and of course Harry checked to see if they had any books they had that he didn’t and he found two and several periodicals. Then Harry helped the new riders figure out what they would need, he just went up to the sales clerk and smiled. “Hi, we have four new Darcorn riders that need to equip their potions lab and they need a little help figuring out what all to get, any suggestions?”

“New riders, oh how wonderful! Mercy, yes…their are several things you will be needing, just get the ingredients for muscle salve, blood replenishers, blood purifiers, muscle relaxant, cold remedy number two, stomach soother, nausea medicine, headache medicine, throat lozenges, burn cream, after burn cream, sunscreen, bone mend, skele-a-grow, germ kill two and three, and bezoars.”

“Okay that sounds about right, can you fix it up where they have enough to make two batches of each one and add some poison solutions as well. Make that up for all four of them if you could and set it to my account.”

“Harry!” Susan shrieked

“Look, this is a one time thing, you have to have a fully stocked potions lab, and your getting one whether you like it or not. Now your potion ingredients for you school work is your own business, I don’t pay for that, I only pay for your Rider equipment. So gather up your stuff you need for school while your waiting on you equipment for your lab.” Harry stated, taking no quarter on this one either.

So everyone did exactly that, and by the time they finished their rider equipment was ready and he signed for it and they each put their bundles in their own personal bottomless bags and they all headed next door to the shoe and boot store.

“Now what, we don’t need new shoes mate.” Fred stated.

“No but you will need new boots for when you are mucking out stalls, working your foals, and eventually riding them, so we are getting you each one pair of boots.” This time it was Neville who stated it.

“That’s right you don’t need to be knee deep in Darcorn droppings wearing runners and have them ruined, nope a pair of boots is a must.” Harry added.

So everyone sat down and were measured for a pair of boots, and within a few minutes they all had their very first pair or Darcorn boots. Not dragon hide yet mind you but one day perhaps.

Then they went over to Flourish and Blotts where everyone picked up their school books for the year, Harry gave Fred and George twenty gold and told them to remember they had a library to furnish remember. Their little eyes just sparkled and they headed off into the store as fast as they could racing after this book and that book. Until they each had a stack of books almost as tall as they were, floating along behind them. Cedric was doing something similar as was Susan, both were going a little wild in the book selections. Not as bad as the twins mind you but close. And again everything got shrunk and place into they bottomless bags.

Next came Madam Malkin’s Robe shop. Everyone got a set of riding robes and all weather robes, then they were free to update their own wardrobe as they saw fit. Harry wanted them to have a full set of battle robes but they needed to be trained before they could qualify to wear them so just standard robes for now. Maybe in a year or so they could look at getting them battle robes.

They then went over to the tackle shop and he bought each on their very own set of brushes and blankets. He got everyone their own bucket, and a special new bottle for each one of them, a bit bigger than their old bottle by about half. They got a hoof care kit and a book on caring for your Darcorns that the gentleman had started to carry with several other books on Darcorns that they could choose from. He let them pick two they wanted and add it to the piles they had on the counter.

While they were there the older riders picked up a new blanket that was soft fleece underneath and soft as velvet on top, oh the Darcorns were going to love them, and they were going to be so comfortable.

Then they headed over to the stationary store and stocked up on stationary, Harry once again reminded everyone that they now had a new office to stock so think about that while you are stocking up. And he gave the twins ten gold to get what they needed, in parchment and quills for their new studies. They then went over and picked up their trunks which were ready to go by that time.

And they then headed out to the Non-Magical side of London. At first Cedric, Susan, Fred and George didn’t know why they were going into the Non-Magical side of London at all. But Harry explained.

“Well there are several things. First, food. You have a completely brand new kitchen down there and it needs to be stocked. This first time I am going to set you up with food, after this first time it is your responsibility to see to it being stocked and restocked with what ever, but the first time we take care of it. It has stasis cold and hot chambers so you can get cold stuff that won’t go bad and hot stuff that won’t have a problem either, it will stay perfect for up to six months. Your dry shelving has an infinite life span so it will never go bad, the place is bug and pest proof you don’t have to worry about those things.

“All you have to do is when you stock your shelves put the fresh stuff in behind the stuff that is already there, and use the stuff that is there first. So that you are always switching out. And always have the freshest stuff.

“Also we are going to go to Harrods which is a huge store, we’re going to get you some jeans, Susan, you can’t muck stalls in a school uniform, a skirt…really. And Cedric, you want to get your uniform dirty with that? I thought not. Everyone gets three pairs of jeans. Anything beyond that is your responsibility. Also I would suggest you get underwear that matches the jeans, not to be crude Susan but lacy undies that ride up on you when your trying to muck a stall or walking Karma, step, pull, step, pull, step, pull…not attractive…no you need something that it meant for hard work. Ouch! Woman!”

“You don’t have to be crude, no matter how true it is, you still don’t have to be crude.” Luna stated.

“I wasn’t being crude, I was being honest. It is better she learn now that the hard way. Underwear that turns into butt floss after twenty minutes of all that bending and walking isn’t comfortable. Ow, quit that! Alright that was crude…sorry Susan. And guys they have a kind of shorts called boxer briefs check them out, you might like them.

Everyone was laughing at the two of them they were acting like an old married couple and didn’t even realize it. But Neville and Pavarti could see it. They just smiled at each other as reached out for each others hands to walk together out of the Leaky Cauldron into Non-Magical London they got a couple of cabs to take them to the closest Sainsbury’s, Harry loved shopping there. Okay he was a little bit of a shopping snob, but the place had everything, and was great about stocking unique items. They always had the hard to find trail mixes and granolas that he loved so much and the dried fruits and veggie sticks that Luna was fond of. Plus they had the most unique array of fruit drinks of anywhere in town. So it was his favorite place to shop. Bar none.

Everyone went in and he told them to just take this card and he went over to an empty register to show them how to work it in the little machine and handed each one of them a little card with their name on it. “They are all linked to the same Basilisk account don’t worry. Now lets go stock up. I know I have got to get a bunch to refill my kitchen.” And soon they were all going up and down isles looking at all that was there, at first Harry was afraid that Fred and George were going to go Manic on him being in a totally new environment and all. But he guessed the whole being a Rider now made all the difference in the world. The way people had treated them all day, as if they were some hero’s or something, something special, someone to look up to, to respect. It gave them a whole new outlook on life somehow. There was a time to play and a time to be serious and now was Rider time.

Fred and George each had picked about half a cart full of granolas and trail mixes then they went over to the prepared meals and got the rest of their cart filled with them. Even a few pizzas, and a bunch of sandwich fixings then of course they got all the staples like sugar, flour, rice, beans, salt, etc. The last things they got were some of the hot foods from the deli they wanted to try, they got a few precooked chickens, and some hogi sandwiches, some wraps and some salads too. All in all they did pretty good.

Susan was more of a fresh fruits and veggie person, she wanted salads and fruit a lot. So that is what she picked. Then she went over to the dried fruit section and went wild, she tried it all, regular and yogurt covered, she even got some that was chocolate covered just to try. She also got all kinds of nuts to go with it and to put on her salads. Oh she was in heaven. She picked several different kinds of bakery breads that looked fresh and a couple of their pitas and tortillas that they has fresh. Then she went down the different teas and fruit juices and picked out several of each, thrilled with the selection. In dairy she had a blast picking out all kinds of cheeses to go on her salads, then she made over to the isle that had the salad dressing and she thought she had died and gone to heaven really, it looked like hundreds of choices right in front of her, never had she seen so many options. He, he, he. Ok six choices of dressing was not excessive now was it?

Cedric walked into the huge store and was at a total loss, he had no idea how to cook or what to pick out. Harry saw his friend’s distress and went over and invited him to shop with him. So first things first. The sandwich stuff. And Cedric knew he could make sandwiches so he was all for that. He picked all kinds of meats and cheeses, all the fixings, the condiments, and breads, everything you could think about, even crisps to go with each kind of sandwich he was planning. Then came the snack isle, Harry liked his granolas and trail mixes so he headed over to that section of the store. And oh sweet Merlin! Bin after bin of these wonderful mixes, some with nuts, some with dried fruit some with little candies some with chocolate covered things in it, some with jellies in it, who in the world came up with chocolate cover coffee beans, then Cedric tried one…WOW! What a jolt… better than an alertness potion. He got a whole pound of that stuff. Harry gave him a weird look and Cedric reached into the bag and handed him one and then the next thing you know Harry is buying a pound himself. And he got a spare bag. He sat aside who knew… then Cedric picked through the dried fruit and jellies and picked out several he liked and finally finished up. Next Harry took him down the isle with the frozen foods. He explained that the kitchens had cold boxes that could keep these things at temperature indefinitely so they were a great buy. He explained how the instructions on the back could be translated into instructions on the oven in the trunk and that he would help him until he got used to it. All he had to do is pick what he wanted to eat. So Cedric started with the Shepherd’s pie, and chicken pot pie, and worked his way down to the pizzas, which he chose a few of. Then Harry took him over to the tinned area, where they had tinned kippers, tuna, beef, sardines, beans, and soups. So Cedric chose several soups and a few of the meats and beans as well. Finally they went over to the deli, where they picked through pre-made sandwiches, chickens, meals ready to eat, and all kinds of neat stuff. About that time Harry ran into Neville and he handed him his bag of coffee beans he had gotten him.

Neville looked at him curiously, but Harry just told him to try one. He did and his eye shot up wide and his eyebrows shot up high, he looked over to Harry and asked what in the world were they. Chocolate covered coffee beans.

“They put our awakefullness potion to shame. We have got to take some of these to Pomfrey and have her test some of these and see if she can use these on students instead of that nasty potion. One of these beans could probably keep one of us going for hours. We need to keep these in stock in our packs at all times.”

“My thinking too. I’m going to see if I can get the address of the distributor off of something and start buying directly from them.” It took him a while but he managed to find a box that hadn’t been opened yet and he just duplicated the label and then walked calmly back over to the rest of the Riders and asked if they needed anything else, he said he had everything that he needed. Hint, hint. They gave him a strange look and just followed him up to the registers, letting him go first, everyone watched how he did it so they would know how to do it when it was their turn. And it all went smooth as glass. They then wheeled their carts to a back alley behind the store and put up a muggle notice-me-not ward thanks to Cedric and took out their trunks and began unloading their carts and filling up their kitchens.

The kitchens came fully stocked with dishes and flatware so thankfully they never had to worry with that unless of coarse they wanted to, which of course Luna had. She had set hers up with those iris motive she had made that first month of school with the iris water goblet she had designed and the iris silver wear that she had designed. She also designed a plate with an iris in the center she had gone to Sirius and he had found the correct transfiguration for her and there she had it a full set of dishes. Just like she wanted them. She picked purple bowls, salad plates, and tea cups to go along with it, until someone could come up with the transfiguration for those as well.

It took almost an hour to get everything unloaded and put up. But by the time they finished they had a pretty good idea of what their kitchen was really like, or at least the new Riders did. The old riders already knew they were just putting stuff up and figuring out what all they had and didn’t have. Harry couldn’t help but think he needed to get more containers for his snack mixes while he was as Harrods. He guessed he went a little over board the trail mixes and granolas but he loved the different kinds that they had, he loved getting so many different ones. He was glad he was going to Harrods though. Last time he was there he got this great set that was snap on lids for freshness forty eight containers for forty eight pounds, not bad after all, they were high quality plastic containers and had the four snap, snap on lids. Yeah that was a good price, he was so going to look for that again. Although some of the containers were so small all you could use them for was ingredients storage they still came in useful, just not in the kitchen.

Now it was Harrods time… everyone put their trunks back into their bags and they looked around carefully to make sure no one was looking and lowered the notice me not ward, then hailed three cabs and headed to Harrods.

Susan had been to Harrods with Amelia once before so she was a little prepared but the twins and Cedric were definitely not. Neville took charge of the twins and Harry took charge of Cedric, and Pavarti took charge of Susan then they headed off. First they looked at jeans, he needed jeans that moved with him and stretched some, not the skin tight, form fitting jeans the sales girls kept trying to get him to try on. Harry explained for the final time that he needed work pants not hot pants and then turned to a male co-worker and asked him to see if the young woman could help someone else. This put a frown on the man’s face and he immediately did so, then came back and helped them. Harry told them that they were to be working in the stables at their private school this semester for extra credit and they needed working jeans not jeans that show your butt off in.

The man just laughed and took them to a different section of jeans and started getting them fit for jeans, apologizing the whole time for the young woman’s behavior. It only took them twenty minutes to find what they needed once they were in the right section. They also picked up some shirts while they were there too, might as well. They went over to a different section of the men’s pants section and found some pants to wear as everyday pants under their cloaks and when they weren’t in classes. So they both picked out a few new dress pants, although Harry really didn’t need to he was still working on some he had gotten for Christmas that they had gotten that would grow with him. But he went ahead and got the Non-Magical kind as well, and then he took Cedric over to the underwear department and showed him the boxer briefs, odd thing is he already wore them, a buddy of his in Hufflepuff turned him onto them years ago and he preferred them to regular boxers now. He just didn’t know they came in so many colors. They each bought four packs and some new socks too. Oh and some swimming trunks. The ones they wore at the party at Amelia’s were getting a little dated for them. He needed to remind Neville to get himself some new trunks too.

Then they headed over to the kitchen section, Harry was serious about getting that canister set. He showed it to Cedric and Cedric bought one too. They also looked at some other things while they were there like knife sets and other utensils, Harry bought a cool knife set. But Cedric refrained for now at least. He said he wasn’t the cooking type so he didn’t see the need to buy a bunch of stuff for the kitchen if he didn’t know how to use it right. He did get a nice spice set for his mother though, she loves to cook and he thought she would adore it. But that was totally on him. Then they headed off to find the others. The girls were still in the underwear department, no surprise there. Harry just rolled his eyes and went over to Luna and hugged her. She squealed and put her hand over his eyes, telling him not to look then escorted him out of the section and back to the shirts and shorts section. Then told them to give them five more minutes and they should be done. Both boys rolled their eyes at that. And found a place to sit down and wait. It was ten minutes but they waited anyway. About that time Neville and the twins came up and joined them waiting. The guys got tired of waiting and went over to the nut shack and got some salted nuts and sodas, and were happily munching away when the girls finally finished and showed up.

“Now its time to head up to bedding.” Harry said.

“Huh?” Cedric didn’t get it.

“Each one of your trunks has a complete bedroom set in it. Bed and all. No bedding. You need a whole new bedroom set for your trunk now.” So to bedding they all went, then to bath works to pick out toiletries and towels.

“I didn’t realize this was going to be like setting myself up with my own little apartment or something.” Cedric said.

“That’s exactly what it is like. And you will love having it, anytime you want to get away, flake out, want some privacy, need a place to study, or are out with us and our Darcorns you will have your own home with you at all times, exactly as you designed it. Always.” Harry grinned.”

“Pure unadulterated safety, can’t beat it. Just have to make sure no one steals your bag, and we have spells for that.” Neville stated.

Luna nodded and smiled. “Lots of them.”

“We even have alarms set up in case someone other than a Rider tries to take it off of you. We will give you a Rider ring and you will press it to the emblem in the middle of the bag and it will come off with out setting off the alarms, but it will let us know that someone is in distress, since that is the only reason that someone else should be taking off your bag. So if Harry is getting frisky with Luna and uses his Key to remove her bag, then he is going to have a whole lot of company before long just to remind him of Rider policy number one, Rider bags are sacrosanct.” Pavarti said much to Harry’s embarrassment.

“What is Rider policy number two?” Fred asked.

“A Riders trunk is sacrosanct.” All current riders said at the same time.

Wow they take being a rider very seriously, Cedric had never been so proud to be a part of something in his whole life. To be part of such a chosen few. Why was he chosen out of so many people? That thought kept running through his mind. He couldn’t help but wonder, but every time he did he kept coming up with the same thing, Luna saying ‘the Darcorns know things that we don’t and can see things that we can’t, we may not understand it right now, but sooner or later we will.’ Was he still going to be able to have a Career? Harry told him not to be stupid of course he would, everyone would. They never knew when their Darcorns would need them or them their Darcorns but they were always going to be their for each other at a moments notice. It would be two to three years before he could even begin to ride Justice anyway. So he would already be working at a job by then surely. He was thinking Auror, he wanted to work right along side of Madam Bones, she really impressed him with her work and dedication to justice and that is what he was looking for. Someone that wasn’t all about politics and the almighty galleon. He wanted to work for someone with integrity, honor and honesty on their side.

She was easy to talk to and a good leader, it made her easy to work with and easy to follow. Harry appreciated all the effort that Cedric put into thinking things through and figuring out just what to get for his new trunk, once he thought of it as an apartment and not just a trunk to hold stuff in. When it was all said and done they spent about two hours in Harrods and another hour at a knife shop getting the new Riders set up on the blades the would need for their new positions.

Cedric chose a bastard sword, due to his height he was capable of swinging it without a problem, although it was one on the shorter size rather than one of the longer more traditional ones. He also got a couple of different daggers and some pocket knives as well. All in all he was thrilled.

The twins chose short swords, like Harry and Neville used. They liked the weight balance better than the broad sword or the rapiers that were available. Although the cutlass was pretty sharp, they gave it a pass, for now. Then they chose a couple daggers, a boot knife and a couple pocket knives. Nothing fancy, more functional than anything else.

Susan admitted to already having a sword and several knives, but picked up a couple new daggers and a new pocket knife just because she liked them.

Then they were ready to head back home. Everyone was exhausted, they ate at Sirius’ pizza place and took a quick tour of the New Age place that everyone loved just down the street from there. They all picked up some new books and found a few new star charts and pieces of jewelry they wanted. Luna found a whole series of dresses she liked, they called them boho chic. What ever that meant. They were cute none the less. They looked cute on her and they didn’t have anything like them in the Magical side, so she bought several. Maybe she could start a new trend. They also had a series of velvet victorian gowns that Padma and Pavarti just went wild over, who knew that Non-Magicals would have Magical’s taste down pat. So they bought several dresses too. So did Susan, although hers were more conservative than the twins styles. Harry and Neville went over to the men’s section and found several shirts that were cool, some t-shirts with dragons or wizards on them, and some that had funny saying on them. They even had some leather pants and vests. While not the quality of the battle gear they had, they were just fine for riding in. So they each got a couple of pair of them. They found some velvet and silk vests as well and got them in different colors as well. Cedric and the twins were looking through them and the twins were curious but passes on the vests put picked up a couple of the t-shirts. Cedric picked up several of the vests both in velvet and in silk, mainly focusing on black and gold…silly Hufflepuff.

Finally they were ready to head back home. So they put all their bags of purchases into their bottomless bag and went back through the Leaky Cauldron, the twins headed home from there as did Susan and Cedric. Everyone else paid Tom some gold for the use of his floo and flooed to Hogwarts, into Sirius rooms and met up with Sirius and Remus there.

Sirius and Remus wanted to hear all about their first independent day out. They had wanted to know all the details, where they went, what they got, did they have any problems, you know the whole nine yards. So Harry began telling them everything. Sirius was so proud of them, taking care of their new charges like they were, he was a little bit leery of Harry having to be in charge of so many people at such a young age but he seems to be not only able to handle it, he seems to have taken to the whole thing like a fish takes to water. He takes his responsibility seriously without letting it go to his head or making him feel like he is some kinda super hero or something. There hasn’t been this number of Darcorn Riders in a concentrated area in such a long time people have forgotten what Darcorn Riders are really about. What they used to do.

It used to be a Darcorn Rider was the only true justice this side of the waters there was. Oh, there was a good King every now and then but mostly the Kings were all about gold or power, but the Darcorn Riders were all about truth, justice, and honor they are what people formed the three musketeers after. Chivalry and all that goes with it. That is what the Darcorn Riders were all about. Normally they were always Wizards, but they occasionally had a Witch in there, they didn’t discriminate, it was just that sometimes they road hard and long, and it took a special person to be a Darcorn Rider and it wasn’t meant for every one. They always encouraged. A good healer to ride with them, or the occasional seer came in handy, but they were hard to find. But true Riders that were female took a special kind of woman to be a Rider indeed.

Now there were ten Darcorn Riders that would be leaving Hogwarts within the next few years and be heading out there into the world to take on all that it was. These kids would have to face it all in their young age and they had to be ready for it, and he wasn’t sure that they were. Oh he was sure that Harry and Neville could lead them. And that with Harry and their ultimate leader they would be just fine but they still need all the help they could get that is why he and Remus has set up Taekwondo classes and sword training classes to be started as soon as they started classes school, they were teaching either beginner or advanced classes. On Saturdays. Two classes two hours each, then he had one special class was coming in he hadn’t told Harry about yet about advanced self defense, weapons and non-weapons. The guy taught everything from kick boxing to street fighting and it didn’t matter which, it was all about survival he was a trained Auror and he was there to train his crew like they were Auror recruits. Maybe without all the degrading verbiage but still, focus on the hard work and sweat. He was to remember their age but not to let their age be a crutch that they could fall back on, since the bad guys wouldn’t care about their age either. He was to teach them everything from knife fighting to standard fist fighting and everything in the middle. Then give them a round of what it would be like to be an Auror as well. Since so many of them want to grow up to be an Auror. The guy said that buy the time they graduated school if they could graduate in his class then they could take the Auror test right then and pass it. Practically guarantee.

Sirius just hoped the guy would remember he is working with a bunch of thirteen through sixteen year olds and take it easy on them. Most of them couldn’t pull the physical part of it off, but hopefully they wouldn’t be too put off by the guy and just quit it all. Hermione is one that he had major doubts about. She was one that he doubted could make it any where except behind a desk really. But we shall see.

Pomona Sprout actually told him an interesting fact he never knew, that their very own Helga Hufflepuff was a Darcorn Rider back in her day but that it was severely frowned upon for a female to be a Darcorn rider that she had to keep it a secret and only go out in disguise when she did go out. The Riders don’t discriminate, but the people out there do. So unfortunately sometimes things had to be worked around. Like when a werewolf was chosen, or a female, or a black man. Anything but a white wizard was frowned upon at some point or other. The people could be rather difficult to work around, and disguises had to be worn by some of the Riders at different times just to be able to do their jobs. It was all kinda sad. They had been chosen Riders, and deserved their spot in history, but were forgotten because they had to hid who they were from a bigoted world.

Thankfully, that was no longer the case and no one had to hide. A Rider was a Rider as far as the world saw it. Oh a lot of people still saw Darcorns as Hell’s steeds and Riders and satan spawn, but normally they were the ones that they were after not the ones that they were there to help. Of course one did look pretty intimidating showing up somewhere on top of a black unicorn with bright red eyes, but then again you try and tell that to a Darcorn and they will just laugh and nod, like they like that factor.

————————————————————

Cedric had a problem, once he got back home he was going through some of his things setting up his trunk and all, his father saw his new trunk and immediately got excited and wanted to look inside.

Then Cedric remembered what Harry had said, their bag and trunk were sacrosanct, and no one should be allowed in to their private place really. Unless it was an emergency or something like that. And his father’s curiosity so he could go tell all his friends and the people that he works with all about it was not considered a proper reason to allow him in. But how could he tell his father, no.

“No father, a Rider’s trunk and bag are sacrosanct and your curiosity so you can go tell all your friends, and half the Wizengamot all about what the Riders are doing for me is not a satisfactory reason to let you see what is inside of here.” Well that explains it all. Oh Merlin how could he have ever said such a thing to his own father.

“Cedric! How could you. I only want what’s best for you. I only talk to people about you because I am proud of you.” Amos said.

“Yes father, but I’m a Rider now. And things are different. You can’t tell people about what I do or where I am going or what I have done. Things like that could put my life in danger. That is what being a Rider means. It is just like being a Auror without the badge. It is about justice and honor and having the courage to do the right thing even if it isn’t always the easiest thing to do. And right now telling you to stay out of my trunk and my bag are not the easiest things to do.” And with that Cedric stopped trying to put stuff away and simply shut his trunk and shrunk it back down and placed it inside his bag and placed his bag on his bed post and headed off to take a shower.

The next thing he knew he heard alarms going off in his head and he turned off his shower and wrapped a towel around himself and ran into the bedroom only to be greeted by his father at sword point of Harry and his father still had his arm in the bottomless bag of his.

“What do you think you are doing?” Cedric demanded. He rushed over to his father.

“Tell this fool to lower his sword! Amos demanded.

“No! No I won’t. I told you my bag was sacrosanct, and my trunk was sacrosanct! You broke my Trust! Remove your hand from my bag!” Cedric shouted at his father, reaching over to a side table and picking up one of the daggers that were laying there, that he had yet to pack.

Amos slowly removed his hand from the bag, still holding the trunk he had been going after.

“Well father you have proven I can no longer trust you, so I will be moving in with the Riders first chance I get. I won’t live under your house any longer.” Cedric stated. As he reached across and took his trunk from his fathers hand and placed it on the side table. Then he grabbed his bag and pulled it out of his fathers reach.

“You can’t do that! You are only fifteen and I do not give my permission to do that! You will give up this stupid Rider idiocy immediately!” Amos looked shocked at his son. His half naked son.

By that time Neville, Luna and Pavarti had joined the call as well. “Eep”

“Um…Harry do you mind covering my father while I get dressed?” Cedric blushed, just now realizing his state of dress.

“No problem, go ahead he’s not going anywhere.” Harry stated.

Cedric turned and quickly rushed back into the bathroom where his fresh clothes were waiting on him and put them on.

“NOW SEE HERE!” Amos blustered.

“No Sir, you see here. You don’t seem to understand. When Cedric said our bags and trunks were sacrosanct that is exactly what they are. You breaking into his bag and attempting to see into his trunk is trespassing at the very least and can easily be proven in a court of law since you still had the proof in your hand when he asked you to remove your hand from his bag. That could lead to breaking and entering.” Harry explained

“There was no such thing, I stuck my hand in his book bag and wanted to take a look at his new trunk that is all. Now quit blowing this out of proportion and making such a big deal out of it.” Amos puffed out his chest as if he was trying to make himself out to be more important than he was.

“He isn’t making it out to be more important than it was, in fact he is lowered the scale back by several notches back I would say, by the way thank you. You see if you had been anyone else, you would already have been bleeding.” Cedric said as he came back into the room fully dressed and toweling down his hair.

“You children are taking all this Rider nonsense much too seriously I demand you stop hanging around these people immediately.” Amos tried, he didn’t like the way these people, these children were leading his son to be more independent. No that must not be allowed. He had to put his foot down and put it down now.

“Just a couple of weeks ago you threw a ball in their honor, and now they are ‘these people’ and you think you have the right to demand that I stay away?”Cedric was beginning to see a part of his father that he really had never seen before and he didn’t like it.

“That’s right, that was before I saw what they are doing to you, now I want them out of my house and out of your life. You will stop seeing them, stop associating with them and you will give it all back , including that horse.” Amos demanded. Looking a little red in the face. He wasn’t used to his son standing up to him.

“No. I won’t. And No you won’t, they will be leaving, but with me and all of my property in tow. Harry do you mind helping me pack my things and I would like to accept your offer to stay there at the school for the rest of the summer. ”

“No you most certainly will not!” Amos shouted, his eyes partially bugging out of his head now, he couldn’t believe his son! How dare he! Showing him complete defiance like that. If he had to pull him from that bloody school he would.

“Mr. Diggory you seem to be holding on to the mistaken idea that you have a choice in this matter. When a Rider is chosen as long as they have reached their fifteenth year they are considered an emancipated minor as ratified by the Wizengamot in nineteen sixty-seven, the Riders become know as the loco families, we now take full responsibility for Cedric’s health and well being. Just as we purchased those things your were trying to pry your way into and investigate. We now pay for his tutors, and special educational needs, his further educational needs, and if you had not already paid it we would be paying for his Hogwarts schooling as well. Also we have offered him a place to stay at Potter mansion which is being going to be the new Rider Hall as soon as we have all graduated. He will have full access to the entire mansion, he will have house elves to look out for his every comfort and need and he can begin his career of choice at his time of choosing. Or continue his Rider training with special tudors that will be of course provided, until the rest of us have graduated and we can all work together. Quite honestly he never has to work another day in his life if he doesn’t wish to, other than being a Rider, now that he has been chosen. Truth, Justice and Honor. That is all he needs to worry about. He mentioned working as an Auror, then wonderful, he can do it, if he wants to be a teacher, he can do that. What ever makes him happy and fulfilled he can do. We will make sure he has the opportunity to reach those goals.”

“You can’t do this! You are my son! I demand you respect me and do as you are told!” Amos practically shouting now. He did not like hearing all of this. They were offering Cedric the world and he was lapping it up, he was about to loose his only son and he knew it…well not if he could help it. “I will have you charged with kidnapping!”

“To kidnap the person must be taken against their will. I am leaving here willingly, and knowingly. There is no shred of falseness in his statement, he intends to do exactly as he says he is going to do and the adults around him are going to support him.” Cedric stated.

Harry lowered his swords and sheathed it, then turned to the others in the room. “Guys why don’t you help Cedric start getting packed?”

“Oh no…I bought every thing in here, every piece of clothing that boy has ever wore, every book that boy has ever read, everything I bought him. Everything, it is all mine.” Amos figured that Cedric wouldn’t want to leave all his things behind.

Cedric paused for a moment then gave Harry a teary eyed nod and reached into his desk and took out some photo albums and photos and put them in his bag then headed into the bathroom with his bag and trunk. When he came back he had changed into one of the outfits that the Riders had bought him. He then placed the one he had been wearing on the bed. Turned to Harry, Neville and the gang.

Amos watched in disbelief as they headed out the door, as they reached the door Cedric turned and stared at the man he had once called father, “And to think I once thought you were a better man Amos.” Was the last words he said to his father as he left the room. His father didn’t see the tears as he somehow managed to make it through the floo and to their destination without letting them fall. But once he got there he broke down. The closest person to him was Luna and she wrapped her arms around him and shushed him as he cried.

How could his father do this to him? The father that he had respected and looked up to his entire life, just because he wouldn’t let him nose around in his private belongings turned on him. Over something so simple. Was his love really that shallow? Was his love really that meaningless? Was he really that worthless?

“Don’t think about it. It will only make it worse.” Harry said. Somehow Harry knew what he was thinking and nipped it in the bud. “Remember until you told your father no, he was all for you becoming a Rider. What the problem was, was he wanted a trophy son and his trophy just talked back to him and he couldn’t tolerate that. So he didn’t want to play anymore. Well his wife is going to be a little bit upset with him. She adores you, she worships you and everything about you. We will make sure she has complete access to you at all time. And if necessary we will help you publicly divorce your father and go with your mother’s maiden name. I am sure that she wouldn’t mind. By that point I am sure that she would join you. Him forcing her to lose her son, yeah I think that he would lose a wife too. But good thing is…there are a lot of rooms out there at Potter Mansion and I would gladly invite her to live out there as well. Now let’s do something productive, let’s go get you a new wardrobe while one of the others stay here and tell the others what happened, that way you there won’t be a thousand questions later.

They had flooed over to Sirius’ room, who was thankfully still at a teachers meeting, so Harry fixed him up a note and let him know where he would be and that hopefully he would be back by noon, if not by two. And that Neville would explain it all. Since both the girls wanted to help with the clothing shopping and Neville really didn’t he stayed behind to inform the adults about what had happened. So Harry, Luna, Pavarti, and Cedric headed back though there floo after Cedric had fixed himself up a little bit. It took him a minute to realize that yeah his father had really only wanted a trophy son, and he had been that trophy all those years, the perfect son, always perfect. Always, getting to be made prefect, getting perfect grades, the perfect gentleman, the perfect host, the perfect dancer, the perfect musician, the perfect singer, the perfect son, and for what. To be forced to leave at the first ’no’. How many times had Cedric asked his father to respect his privacy before and trusted him, and not found out that he had violated that trust. That was the real question that was rolling through his head right now.

Well this was the last time he was going to think about it. His father had made his choice and he had made his choice. He couldn’t live with a man he couldn’t trust. And right nor he didn’t trust hid father. Sweet Merlin he never thought he would even think those words.

Ok they had stopped walking, why had they stopped walking? Oh They were in front of Madam Malkin’s Robe Shop and Harry was asking if he preferred here of Twillfit and Tattings?

“Here actually, not as pretentious as Twillfit’s place is. But a definite step up from Buttons and Bobs. Madam Malkin’s is perfect Harry. It should have everything, if not most everything I need.“

With that the girls started from the ground up, replacing socks then slacks, underwear, sleep pants, yeah he had just purchased some of each, but that was mainly for work. He needed some for causal, dress, formal, and special occasion as well. Then came shirts, jackets, vests and robes. Formal robes, and all weather robes. Then came school wardrobe. Pants, shirts, robes, gloves, scarf and hat, all done up in Hufflepuff as appropriate.

Then they went by the book store and he got a copy of all the books he had collected as his favorites over the years and had wanted to put in his library and just hadn’t had a chance yet. He even got a few more at Harry’s insistence.

Next he went over to the cobbler and picked up shoes and boots to replace all his shoes and boots that he no longer had, all he had were his that he had on and the ones that Harry had already bought him, so Harry insisted on three pair of casual shoes, two pair of boots, and due to his age he allowed him to get one pair of dragon hide boots, he knew he probably would have gotten a pair on his birthday from his father anyway, but this way he would have them still, a pair of house slippers and a pair of dress shoes. Cedric felt kind of foolish trying all of those shoes at once but when the man gave him a funny look Harry just smiled and said it’s a Rider thing. And the man just smiled real big and nodded more than happy to help then. I guess he though he was getting Cedric duplicates of everything he already had for some reason or other and it had to do with being a Rider. Being a Rider was such a mysterious thing to most people that they just smiled and agreed with everything you said. Happy to help, happy to serve the Riders in any way they could, it was all kinda strange and wonderful in a way.

After they went over to the Gentleman’s shop and he got replacements for all of his toiletries and colognes they were ready to head into Non-Magical London again. Once again to Harrods, this time for a bigger round. They managed to squeeze into one cab with Luna sitting on Harry’s lap. But neither seemed to mind much.

And it was another round of dress up the Cedric doll game. Courtesy of Luna and Pavarti. They went through shirts and jumpers, then jackets and coats. Even a nice trench coat that Luna just insisted he had to have. What was it with this girl and trench coats.

Harry opened up his trench that he had just so happen to grab when the alarms in his head went off, basically this morning he was eating breakfast…the alarms went off, he grabbed his trench off the hat rack next to the fireplace throw it on and dove through to the Diggory’s place in a matter of a minute or so. By the time he reached Cedric’s bedroom he had his sword out of it’s scabbard in his trench and in his hand and he had the blade at Amos’s throat before he knew what was happening. All before Cedric who was in the next room over could throw a towel around his dripping wet self and run out to see who had broke into his bags.

Neville had gotten a floo call from the twins on what to do, he told them to hold tight and wait. They would take care of it. He then flooed Padma and Hermione as well and told them to hold off until he checks things out, but be on standby just in case.Then he flood Susan and told her the same thing just as she was about to floo over, she was a little bit upset but understood she isn’t fully trained after all. Then he, Luna, and Pavarti who had all raced to Harry’s room to see what to do, used Harry’s floo and showed up about three minutes after Harry did. Long enough that Cedric was out of he shower, but not long enough for him to get some clothes on. Which the girls found out as soon as they rushed into Cedric’s room with their daggers drawn. It would have been a humorous site if it hadn’t been for the fact that they thought maybe someone had decided to kill a new, inexperienced Rider to claim their goodies for their own. It being such a huge mystery what a Rider caries in the bag and all. And the fact that a trained Rider can survive just about anything if not win in any situation they face is well known. The fact that isn’t known is how. It is one of the greatest mysteries in the magical world, and something that has been romanticized in novels and speculated in many a books throughout time, but no one knows for sure exactly how they manage to accomplish such feats of strength, bravery and valor to prevail. Truth, Justice and Honor above all.

They went to a few more side shops to gather a few more things that Harry thought Cedric would enjoy having even if he didn’t necessarily need them right this minute, this was his new home after all. Things like a bean bag chair and throw pillows in one shop. Picture frames for his photographs that he had picked up at that last minute so he could hang them up here and there and stuff to decorate with. He chose mini statues of armor and mini swords and shields that the Non-Magicals made, they were well done and meaningful, really tasteful too. He even got a few life sized one on the swords and shields sets. Although they were not fighting quality they were still well made. It was all knights in shinning armor style. And Harry thought that was kinda what Cedric was going for there in his study. He got mini book ends with little knights, shields, head pieces or swords on it, and a desk set that looked like it was made by Leonardo Da Vinci, all scientific and mysterious, with eight pieces that
Harry had no clue about what they did or why, but he got himself the same set because it looked cool and he couldn’t wait to figure out what the pieces did.

Harry decided he was going to do his study in Leonardo Da Vinci, the guy was a genius way before his time so Harry got everything from the flying machine to a couple of really neat clocks and a dozen or so outstanding books on the man himself. He was a Wizard that was transfixed with helping the Non-Magical world and he did, immensely. In paintings alone he did that. Harry got a couple outstanding paintings for his study. Including one called the Vitruvian Man, He loved it all, he was dying to read the Magical history on the man as soon as he got back to Hogwarts. He thought he would go by Flourish and Blotts and order everything they had on the man and see what they may have on the shelves, if anything, about the man on the way home. In the magical world he wasn’t really smiled upon because he spent so much time trying to bring the two worlds together or to bring invent things to help the Non-Magical world, he helped the Magical world a lot as well. So his artwork and many of his inventions were still revered today.

And Harry guessed that Cedric was a true Hufflepuff at heart because he was decorating in black, gold and cream through out his entire trunk.

Harry was a Gryffindor but was a bit of them all he guessed, because he primarily decorated in rust and dark Green with gold and cream to blend it all together. He had a bathroom done in dark green and gold though simply because the motive that he liked that was the only color that he had liked the rest had been to effeminate or two pastel. And there was one thing he definitely wasn’t was pastel. He liked deep, rich tones that had meaning, They seemed to be the ones that were the most bold, the most alive in his mind.

By now it was time to head home, so they packed up the last of their purchases and made to head home. Cedric was totally thrilled with his new place, practically forgotten about his father and what had happened, he had decided if he had too he could live in the stables at Hogwarts with Justice in his trunk now that it was all fixed up. And be perfectly happy about it too. Harry told him they would find him somewhere in the school to stay, and that he would ask Sirius if he could stay with them, he offered to let him stay in his room with him, hell putting his trunk over in a corner of his room wouldn’t take up much space at all. And that is exactly what he had told Cedric when he had worried about being a bother. So Cedric tentatively accepted the offer and thanked him. For everything.

————————————————————

Emily Diggory came home and to say the least she was not happy. “What do you mean he is gone?” She asked again.

“Just what I said, gone.”

“Gone for the moment, or gone for good?” She desperately needed clarity here, it couldn’t be what she thought he was saying.

“Gone for good. He left and I say good riddings to him to.” Amos walked over and sat down at the table to make himself a spot of tea, as if he were talking about Sunday brunch or something, not about kicking his fifteen year old son out of the house.

“Amos Mathew Diggory what did you do?” Emily’s voice got low and deep, she took on that tone she does when ever she is about to get serious on your ass. Ah oh…

“Why do you think it was me? Why couldn’t it have been something that boy had done?” Amos almost shouted.

“I know our son and I.know.you…. So what did you do?” Emily glared at her husband waiting for an answer. It only took a couple of minutes with that glare and he broke.

“I only wanted to see what was in his trunk and it got blown way out of proportion. He left with his friend, that Potter boy.” He finally caved.

“You only wanted to see what was in his trunk, or you tried to get into his trunk, which is it? Amos?” She stood there with her hands on her hips waiting.

“It was too much about nothing, While Cedric was in the shower I put my hand in his bag to find his trunk so I could look inside it, The next thing I know there was a sword at my throat and there was Cedric standing there in a towel, dripping wet and yelling at me with a dagger in his hand ordering at me to get my hand out of his bag. I pull my hand out and forgot I still hand the damn trunk in my hand and he saw it. He was furious. He stated I had broke his trust that the riders bag and trust was sacrosanct and that no one that is not a Rider is allow to enter. I stated that I am his father and only wanted what was best for him. He said my going down there nosing around and then telling half the Wizengamot and the Ministry what I found down there could very well put his life in danger, as if.”

“He’s right you know, who knows what is down there. Tools, weapons, inventions, medicine, secrets lost to most Magicals over the ages and only shared to the Riders. Who knows, even the Department of Mysteries can’t get a Search warrant to search a Riders trunk or bag, it must be handed over directly to another Rider in the event of the Death of a Rider.” Emily stated.

“That’s why I wanted to see what was down there, this was my chance to share with the world what was really down inside a Rider’s trunk and I would have only taken a peek mind you. I wouldn’t have gone through any of his personal things.” Amos tried.

“Did you just hear yourself. You would have shared it with the world. That could have gotten our son killed. If our son went out on a Rider mission and they already knew what he had, or worse wanted what he had, he was as good as dead. At it would have been you that killed him. I am glad you didn’t succeed in your plot to murder our son.”

“Now see here…” Amos fluffed up, throwing his chest out and standing tall.

“That is exactly what it would have been Amos Mathew Diggory. Murder! If some fool, decided they wanted what was hidden in that trunk of his and it didn’t matter the cost then our son would have been dead and you would have been responsible. I would have seen to it you would have been charged with murder if it was the last thing I would have done on this Earth!” Emily practically shouted. “Sacrosanct for a very good reason, their very lives depend on it. And you would have killed our son for your curiosity. And need to brag. I hope our son put you in your place.”

“…”

“I get that he left but why are all his things here?”

“I told him that since I paid for it all, that it all belonged to me, and that he wasn’t allowed to take any of it.” He said it in such a matter of fact way you would think he actually believed it.

“Dragon dung! When we got together you hadn’t gotten your inheritance yet. And your mother refused to give us a Knut, So everything in that room came from me. It is all mine. And mine to do with what I please. Topsy!”

“What are you doing?” Amos asked, curiously.?

“What you should have done.” Emily turned and addressed the little house elf that popped into the room. “Topsy, I want you to go through Cedric’s room and pack everything neatly and carefully for Master Cedric. Through the bathroom as well. In fact anything in the whole house that belongs to Master Cedric take and pack if for him and get it ready to send to him. Make sure to shrink his mattresses and get them ready as well, he loved them so. Thank you. Now I have to find a house elf belonging to Harry Potter Black.” And she headed into the parlor to the floo.

She got down so she could speak into the floo and made the call, “Is Harry Potter Black available please, if not is his house elf available?”

“Someone called for Jeeves?” Jeeves asked as he popped into the room.

“You are Harry Potter Black’s house elf?” Emily asked.

“Yes Madam this is true.

“I have some things that belong to my son, who is with your Master, I would like my son to have them. Can you come get them. I am Emily Diggory at Majestic Elms Manor near London.”

“I can do that Madam, I shall be there shortly, Thank you Madam.”

“Thank you Jeeves.”

And with that she pulled her head out of the floo and stood up, straitening her gown, then turned and looked down and there was Jeeves standing beside her. Well that was quick. “Jeeves, thank you for coming. Topsy is packing Cedric’s things for me and I want him to have them, she should be done by now if you could check please and help her, I would appreciate it.”

“You realize I don’t approve of what you are doing, don’t you.” Amos came over and flopped down into one of the oversized chairs in the parlor where she was still standing.

“You realize I didn’t ask your permission to do it, didn’t you.” She responded as she left the room and him utterly alone. Heading for her sitting rooms. She had had every intention of leaving him alone for a while now, the only thing stopping her for a while had been their son and now she had no excuse. She didn’t like his high handed way, or his constant pressure he put on her son, Cedric was perfect, he had always been perfect, without his father pressuring him into it or forcing him to make one choice or another. Amos was a selfish creature, he always had been, he wanted to be the most popular boy at school when they were going to school, he wanted to date her because she was the most popular girl, but she was popular because she was smart, friendly and helpful to everyone. He was just about appearances and what others saw. Now he had thrown away her only son for nothing, he had put his son’s life in danger over nothing, was willing to give his son up for nothing. And now that is what he was going to have left, nothing. Well he would have an empty house, and eventually that would be signed over to Cedric since it belonged to her and not Amos, another little fallacy that Amos never cleared up. She would leave tonight after dinner and have Topsy pack her things for her, hopefully she could go stay where ever Cedric was for a few days, or she would go stay at the Leaky Cauldron if necessary. At least until she found a new place. Then she would give him six months to find a new place, at that time the house would be closed to him and she would either return to it or use it as a summer home. She didn’t know which. She would have to talk to Cedric about this. This had been brewing for a very, very long time. And tonight it had finally boiled over. Put my son’s life in danger indeed. Throw my son out will he. Let’s see how he likes it. Since most of what he has my mother’s money bought he can't rightfully claim it as his own. In fact very little could he claim as his own. Probably no more than he could put an a few boxes at most. But that is neither here nor there. She would have Topsy sort through things and divide it up, elves were scrupulous about things like that, they instinctively knew what belonged to whom and made sure it made it back to its original owner.

One thing she needed to make sure she took with her when she left was Topsy. Topsy had been her elf when she was young and had been Cedric’s when he was young, she adored Cedric and he adored her. But she was still young in house elf years, house elves live to be over three hundred years so her little Topsy is just a youngster still as far as they were concerned. She wasn’t even past her first hundred year mark yet, so she had many, many good years in front of her and she would be in the family for generations to come.

Jeeves had served Harry’s great grandfather, grandfather, father and now himself, and looked to serve many more generation himself as well. Being only one hundred and forty one years old is just barely middle aged for an elf, although Sirius preferred to call them the more dignified years than middle aged, he said that somehow made it sound like you were half dead already and just siting around waiting to die. At least if you called it dignified you had a plan and it looked cool.

———————————————————

They stopped by The Leaky Cauldron and got a bite to eat and Cedric sat there for a while looking at Harry as if he had something he wanted to say, “If you say it already it might help Cedric.”

“Okay. I know our trunks are sacrosanct right?” Cedric asked.

Harry nodded waiting for Cedric to continue, he thought he knew where this was going but he would wait till Cedric said something.

“And this whole mess with my father was all because of that, right?” Cedric continued.

Again Harry nodded.

“Then how come you let me into your and Neville’s trunks before I was a Rider? Cedric asked.

Harry took a deep breath and said “That one you can blame on our dearest Luna.”

“Luna? How so?” Cedric was confused even more now.

“Luna informed us about a dream she had had where you, Susan, Fred, and George were the foals new riders. And we began to notice the mares behaviors around you guys. It was like the foals had picked you all from the womb. And the mares were watching you and welcoming you the whole time. So when finals came around it just felt natural to open it up to you, it just felt like the… right thing to do. So we did it. It may not have been kosher mind you, and a little premature. But rule three with us is simple, always trust Luna’s visions.” Harry said.

“Rule three huh?” Cedric grinned.

“Yup” Harry stressed the ‘p’ when he said it.

“When do you get a rule?” Cedric grinned.

“Rule five. “Always listen to your the boss.”

“What’s rule four?”Cedric looked confused.

“Always carry a blade.”

“How many of these rules are there?” Cedric nodded, understanding that one all too well. Now he wanted to know them all.

“Ok let’s see…

Rule one is a Rider’s bag is sacrosanct.

Rule two is a Rider’s trunk is sacrosanct.”

Rule three is Always trust Luna’s visions.”

Rule four is Always carry a blade.”

Rule five is listen to your boss, it may save your life some time, or someone else’s life.

Rule six is Your Darcorn is your life, treat it like it.

Rule seven is Your body is a weapon to sharpen, strengthen, and hone, and have ready to use at all times.

Rule eight is be aware of your surroundings, never be caught unaware.

Rule nine is Rules are only important if they don’t interfere with your job.

Rule ten is Don’t fuck with an Englishman’s tea.

“…But that is it so far. I am sure there will be more as time goes on but that is as far as we have gotten so far. “

Cedric couldn’t help but burst out laughing with that last one, but he nodded right along with the rest of them, he hated it when someone messed with his tea. Milk and two sugars… not hard to understand, not whipped cream, not cream at all, milk, simple milk, no non dairy crap either, he wanted real mooo milk type milk, no chemical concoction, or half-n-half, nothing fancy just a damn dollop of milk people is that too hard to understand. Jeez. And don’t get him started on all the bloody sweeteners they tried to force feed him instead of sugar. If he wanted a cup of flavored chemicals he would have asked for it, he asked for tea. So take the order, leave some milk and sugar and him alone. End it there please. He actually would love a tea shirt with that on it, “Never fuck with an Englishman’s tea”. Maybe then they would listen too him. Maybe not but it might make him feel better. Okay so he was a little anal about his tea.

Luna spoke up with that last one was mentioned. “Harry is a beast if someone messes with his tea, he absolutely hates it, he goes from being a sweety to being a bear in just a minute flat if you try and mess with his tea. Three sugars, no milk. Easy to understand, you would be surprised how many times people get it wrong.”

“Same here I’m afraid. Milk, two sugars, and I am forever having to send it back or buy a whole new cup of tea. Because they messed that one up so bad you just can’t drink it.” Cedric stated.

Luna nodded, “Harry does the same thing, he will try twice then he orders a soda or juice. Something that they can’t mess up.” She giggled.

“Well I just don’t like my tea fucked with, so sue me, I hate it when they get it all screwed around and ignore what I ordered. Half the time I order it black and just ask for the sugars later. Just to keep them from putting milk in it to start with. Or those fools that think you have to drink tea with lemon, who the hell drinks tea with lemon. Its tea for gods sake. That’s out and out nasty.” Harry stated.

“Right!”Cedric came back

“Hell, I have flicked I don’t know how many little spears of lemon across the room in restaurants when they put them on my saucer.” Harry admitted.

“Harry! That’s not polite!” Luna gasped.

Pavarti chuckled under her breath at it, she could just see him doing it too. She could also imagine the waitresses ducking the flying lemon wedges that were flying threw the air as they retreated from the table too. That is like some people liked cool water with lemon to drink instead of just a glass of ice water. People were strange some times and fads got around. Those places sold to the Non-Magicals primarily so it had to be a Non-Magical thing. Just put the wedge on a napkin and put it over to the side, don’t try and get it caught in the waitress’s hairdo for Merlin’s sake.

Cedric shook his head as he was apparently imagining something similar and just kept his mouth shut and looked at the menu.

——————————————————

Minerva didn’t expect to be seeing this crowd in her office again, but after speaking with Molly after a long, in-depth discussion with her, she decided to give Ronald Weasley another shot. It wasn’t like he was getting resorted at all anyway. She was going to treat him as if he was a transfer student and any deserved the right to be properly sorted into Hogwarts upon their transfer. The only difference was that they were going to do a private sorting incase he did indeed resort back into Slytherin for some bizarre reason that they could not fathom at this point, they would simply not have him presented at all. If he sorted into one of the other houses though then they would simply state that he had had a private sorting when he was transferred over from Durmstrang and just have him already sitting with his house anyway. If questions were asked they would simply state he had had a private sorting and leave it at that.

And while Molly hoped for Gryffindor, she would accept anything but Slytherin at this point, anything to help get her old son back to her. If that was even possible at this point, or at lease a compromise of her old son and this new one that he had become. He was so…perfect that he made her twitchy. Perfect manners, perfect speech, perfect habits, everything perfect… it just wasn’t natural. Even Percy had his quicks. Had he finished his school work, yes. Had he studied his school books, yes. Had he cleaned his room, yes. Had he degnomed the garden, yes. Had he helped clean up for dinner, yes. Had he gotten his laundry gathered, yes. Had he taken a shower and washed his hair, yes. It was always yes and always done and done well. Never half way, or barely enough to get by, but a thorough job, enough to pass an inspection of any form she would wager. And when he didn’t have anything to do he sat quietly at the foot of his bed staring at the wall, and he would do that for hours it seems, it was terrifying. No running around playing quidditch or playing chess, no reading those worthless quidditch magazines, no flying, nothing. If it wasn’t productive it was sitting there staring.

Hopefully this worked, Molly Wesley thought as Minerva lowered the Hat onto Ron’s head.

“Hmm. Seems like I’ve seen you before, but you’ve changed quite a bit, oh yes quite a bit. My, my. Let’s see here. Well, I see. You have been though a lot. Oh my, they really did that. That must have been so frightening. You must have been so brave to stand up to them like that. Hmm. Well then there is only one place to put you at this point, GRYFFINDOR!” The hat shouted.

Molly jumped up and was clamping her hands, happy tears running down her face. Arthur had a proud smile on his face. Although he was thinking privately that both Ginny and Ronald would be in the same year at Hogwarts and he wondered how that would go over. Hopefully it wouldn’t be too bad. Ginny was doing so much better since Mr. Croaker had given her those Diaries and allowed her to keep in contact with her Mum any time she needed her. And thankfully those incidents were getting less and less frequent too. Oh she wrote everyday just to tell her about her day, but she didn’t have the crisis’s like she used to. In fact with the exception of the final exam worries it had been a month since there had been a major ordeal and that was just when a boy had tried to kiss her and she didn’t know what to do about it, so she punched him, and broke his nose. Now they are friends but the whole broken nose incident is just a little awkward still.

“Mr. Weasley congratulations, you have successfully been sorted into Gryffindor house, at the first of the semester, ride the chariots up with the rest of the older students and take your seat with your family in Gryffindor, I will announce we have a transfer student, your name and that you were sorted into Gryffindor upon your transfer. Then we introduce the new students, you then follow your prefects which will be Cormac McLaggen and Katy Bell, your brother Percy is Head Boy this year so you will definitely be seeing him around as well.” The Headmistress explained everything to Ron and handed Molly a second year book list for Ron to have, even though they probably still had Ginny’s.

“You should be getting his official letters in a few days, but here is his book list today, in case you want to go ahead and get that taken care of. I have also provided you with a list of the second year summer work that was requested for the start of the year, that way he could have that taken care of as well. If he doesn’t have time to get it all done that is all right it is understood he has gotten the information a little late, and it won’t be counted against him. But he should try and get as much done as possible.

“Yes Ma’am” Was all Ron said.

He didn’t make a comment about being in Gryffindor house now, he didn’t seem excited about it at all. He just seemed rather blasé about the whole thing. Which McGonagall hadn’t expected at all. Now she was beginning to see what Molly had meant, Ron had changed a lot. Some of it was rather startling too. Considering this was the boy with the most fiery temper of anyone she had ever met. Now was practically a shell of his former self. Nothing left but the shell. Perhaps she should see about getting him set up on some form of counseling with Madam Pomfrey once school started. This behavior was not natural, especially for him.

“Well let’s get you to Flourish and Blotts and get you some new books shall we. I want you to get started on your summer work as soon as we get home Ronald.” Molly stated.

“I have to get back to the Ministry, lunch should be almost over with and so my time is almost up. I will try to be home early if I can.” Arthur gave his wife a peck on the cheek and headed through the floo.

Then Molly and Ron both headed through as well.

The Headmistress couldn’t help but wonder if the new Ronald was better or worse than the old Ronald, more polite and less mouthy definitely, but somehow less…alive if you will. He just seemed so blah, in there. No real emotions to be found, no healthy show of emotion or excitement, in fact no show of emotion at all. Definitely not what you would expect from a thirteen year old, unless there was something wrong with them.

———————————————————————————

Fred and George decided to set their trunks up rather logically, Fred’s trunk was going to be set up for standard school work and Rider work. And George’s was going to be set up for their prank work and future joke shop. This way they wouldn’t run the risk of blowing both potion labs up. Plus the things they were inventing for the Rider work were very different from the things they were working on for their joke shop.

They had made sure they had finished all their summer homework and were currently working on things for the Riders when Molly had confronted them.

“You need to focus on your school work not on that silly Rider stuff right now boys.” Molly said.

“Nothing to do with the Riders is ’silly’ Mum. Well if you don’t include Mischief and Mayhem on that, that is. What we do for the Riders is very serious work, and we take it very seriously. It’s an honor to be a Rider, not some game or foolish joke or something. This is life mum. Truth, Justice, and Honor above all. And we take that very serious. You may not understand it but we do.” Fred stated.

“You boys just turned fifteen, you don’t have a clue what all that means. So put up your games and get out your school work. I want you to have that finished before you start your semester for once.” Molly continued.

“It’s already finished. Without a good education we can’t expect to get very far, a Rider needs every advantage they can get, and a strong education is one of them.” George stated as he flipped through a book looking for something.

“Now see here, I told you to get to your school work, I want you to stop this tom foolery right this minute!” Her voice was beginning to rise.

“And we told you that out school work is complete.” The boys began to hand over parchment scrolls to Molly. One right after the other, until she tossed them all down on Fred’s bed.

“What is all this?” Molly questioned.

Fred reached into the pile and picked up a scroll and opened it, “This is my Defense Against the Dark Arts paper.”

George grabbed one and opened it up, “And this one is my Potions essay.”

George grabbed a different one, “Here’s Fred’s History of Magic Questions and Answers.”

Fred grabbed one. “Here’s George’s Care of Magical Creatures Essay.”

“They are all here for you to look at, each and every one of them. They are all ready to hand in.” Both boys began to gather up the scrolls and put them in a nice neat little pile once again.

“I want you to redo them all, none of that worthless chicken scratch that you normally do, I want it readable and I want to see it before you hand it in. No excuses. So get busy you have a lot of work to do. No more messing with this foolishness.” Molly tried again.

Fred reached into the pile and lifted the top one of the pile, it was his Potions essay, and opened it up and turned it around for her. She couldn’t believe it. The writing was neater than she had ever seen either of them ever do before. It was practically calligraphy. No smudges or smears anywhere. Just perfect penmanship and eloquent writing.

“What is all this?” Molly asked confused.

“As we said, a good strong education is an advantage a Rider can’t afford to mess around with. They need it to take advantage of it when the opportunity arises. Oh we have switched Divination and Muggle Studies to Runes and Arithmancy. We have already gotten in touch with McGonagall and she has okayed it. And we bought the books the other day. She gave us the homework for it and we completed that as well. We have been studying up on those two classes quite a bit since then so when we go into the classes we shouldn’t be behind at all. In fact I think we should be a little bit ahead, with the new books we got.”

“You are most certainly not switching classes! You need Muggle Studies if you are going to go to work for your father at the Ministry. So you write her right back and tell her you changed your mind.” Molly was steamed.

“No. We won’t be working for the Ministry under father. If we work for the Ministry it will be as an Auror or in the Department of Mysteries. But not as a paper pusher in the Department for the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts.” Fred stated.

“You most certainly will, you are my sons and you will be doing what I say, and that means you will be working in with your father in his department at the Ministry and that is that.” Molly stated. Crossing her arms across her voluptuous chest.

George looked at her and shook his head. “You seem to think that son and slave are interchangeable nouns. They are not. Just because we are your son does not make us your slave. We do not have to live our life based on what you deem as worthy or appropriate for us to do. Our choices are our own. And we have chosen to be a Rider first and foremost and to open up a joke and prank shop second to that. We want to invent different jokes and prank products and sell them in our own shop and compete against Zonko’s, we think it is about time someone did.”

“This is just plain idiocy. You will graduate Hogwarts with what ever grades you boys can scrape by with, then go to work for your father at the Muggle Artifacts office, I will hear no more about a joke shop at all. And this Rider foolishness is getting to be a little ridiculous as well, it was cute for a while but you boys are taking this way too seriously and I demand you give those Darcorns back and focus on your school work. Write to the Headmistress you want your old classes back and quit playing these fools games.” Her voice was getting more irritated and more high pitches as she spoke.

Fred had had enough, so he went downstairs and made a floo call all right, but not the one she expected. Shortly he came back with Harry and Neville, and escorted them into his and Gorge’s room where George and his mother were still arguing.

“We will not!” George stated quite bluntly. Tired of his mother’s hard handed ways.

“What did you just say to me?” Not used to her children talking back to her.

“I stated we will not be giving our Darcorns back, we will not be changing out classes, we will not be giving up on having a joke shop, we will not be going to work for dad at the Muggle Artifacts Department. Take your pick, we will not be doing any of it.” George stated quite bluntly.

“What seems to be the problem here guys?” Harry asked.

“Mum is upset that we are now taking our schooling seriously because we take being a Rider seriously. And that we have changed Divination and Muggle studies classes over to Runes and Arithmancy. She wants us to take Muggle Studies because that will help us get the job working for our father at the Department for the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts, and we have never wanted to work there. That is where she wants us to work. We want to be a Rider first and foremost and own and work at a joke and prank shop second. She wants us to give back the Darcorns and ‘give up these fools games’, and do as we are told.” George glared at his mother. He was a hairs breath away from raising his voice to her, but that wouldn’t be the proper thing to do and he was trying to remain the adult in this situation.

“Mrs. Weasley the other day, when you celebrated here at the Burrow you definitely didn’t think being a Rider was some ‘foolish game’” Harry began. “You were quite proud that your twins had been chosen to be Riders. What changed?”

“They did, they are working hard on their school work, they have changed their classes without asking me, they are up here all hours of the day and night working on something when they should be outside playing quidditch or something, they should be being boys, not some foolish fantasy thing about being a Rider. That is for adults and they are most certainly not adults.” Molly stated in a huff. She didn’t like explaining herself to a barely thirteen year old little boy any more than she did explaining herself to her own children.

“In other words they decided to grow up, and didn’t ask your permission.” Harry tried.

“That is not what I am saying,” Molly practically shrieked at that.

“But that is what you implied. Your boys are growing up, plain and simple. They are making choices for themselves that will effect their lives for the rest of their lives. Why can’t they open a joke and prank shop? What is the harm in it? If that is their heart’s desire why not let them?”

“Because it is a foolish idea, they need security and a steady job, not some fools idea of a shop. How dare they change their classes without asking my permission to do so. I am going down there right now and change them back.” Molly started to turn and Fred stated.

“We won’t be going to the classes that you want us too Molly.” Fred said.

“That’s right Molly, we will be taking Runes and Arithmancy.” George agreed.

“If you change us back, we merely won’t show up for the classes, and go the ones that we arranged anyway.” Fred continued.

“As long as we can make the grade, we have the right to choose our classes. If we can pass the entry class for the proper year we can get into those classes. You can’t do anything about it. It’s our choice.” George stated.

“Our choice, not yours.” Fred agreed.

“As too the Darcorn, we won’t be giving them back, they are ours for life.” George changed the subject.

“They are our life now, our partner, our future.” Fred stated.

“We are their Rider, their protector, their partner, their trainer, their everything.” George came back with.

“We will never give them up.” Fred stated. The thought alone almost made him sick to his stomach.

“I would rather die first.” George whispered.

“We would rather give you up first, than give up our Darcorns.” Fred barely whispered.

“What was that? What do you mean you would rather give me up? What does that mean?” Molly asked loudly.

“It means don’t make us choose…”Fred stated.

“…because you would loose.” George finished.

“From what it sounds like to me you are wanting slaves, not sons Molly, and your sons are refusing the position. They wish to be your son if you will accept it, but only on their terms. They want to be a Darcorn Rider first and to have a joke shop second. They want to take Arithmancy and Runes class in school to help them do better in their chosen field that they want to be in. And they want to work hard at it and take things seriously from now on. While enjoying Quidditch as a enjoyable break now and then, it isn’t mandatory or even necessary to their chosen lifestyle any longer. So it comes much further down their list, although the skills they have learned from quidditch is something they should indeed hone as well, such as the better flying skills and the better hand, eye coordination they they have thanks to it. If if comes down to a choice between being a Rider and quidditch they would of course choose to be a Rider.” Harry said.

“That’s right Molly, so don’t issue us an ultimatum…” Fred started.

“…because you won’t like the results.” George finished.

“Now see here here… Molly started

“No you see she here…” Harry started “Both of Fred and George are emancipated minors as ratified by the Wizengamot in nineteen sixty-seven, and the Riders become are known as the loco families, if they wish us to act as such. So by law they have the rights to leave here if they feel their desires and or requests are not being listened to. I would rather it be a last resort but Mrs. Weasley it is still a resort allowed to them. If you try and demand that they leave the Riders and make the changes that you have requested then they have the right to seek out asylum with us and they will be welcome there, since they are fifteen years old.” Harry stated and Neville nodded although he remained silent.

Neville hated this, this is the second family that all of the sudden decided that they had a problem with their child being a Rider. Mr. Diggory allowed his curiosity and need to brag to get the best of him. And now Mrs. Weasley was trying to strong arm Fred and George into taking classes that were useless, working in a dead end job that they didn’t want to work at and being miserable for the rest of their lives just because she said so. Rather that taking productive classes and seeking out productive jobs that could give them a real shot at making a name for themselves and using their talents. He knew they wouldn’t have any of these problems from Amelia Bones but really two out of three of the families was heart wrenching.

They had barely set down their things from going and taking Cedric out shopping and Neville stopped by to check on them, they started to talk and before they could talk, Jeeves popped in with a box, but before he could show it to Harry the fireplace flared and it was Fred. Things were getting a little monotonous right now and it wasn’t even the school year yet. Maybe that’s the reason that they were a little out of control, is because it was the summer months. Who knew? Home work, foals, parties, then this with Diggory, shopping, and now this with Mrs Weasley.

“Well Mrs. Weasley what is it to be, will you compromise and allow them to take classes that are productive for the life they wish to live and allow them to have the careers they dream of or not?” Harry laid it all on the table in one simple little sentence…was it really that simple.

“I will not be given an ultimatum by a thirteen year old. You just head back to to the school where you belong, I intend to call Sirius and have a nice long discussion about his level of discipline with you young man. And you too Mr. Longbottom. Your parents won’t be happy either I can tell, you this much.”

“So you think that can threaten us with going to bed early when we are trying to protect our Riders Mrs. Weasley? We will protect them with our lives Ma’am. Your threats mean nothing to us. Make your calls, you will find the people that support us, support us one hundred percent, they love us no matter what. No matter what job we have, no mater what class we take, no mater whether we let them see into the trunks or not, no matter what. Our parents love us for who and what we are, and nothing you say or do can change that love, but good luck trying. Oh and just for your information, what you just did is called issuing terroristic threats to a minor, its illegal, Since I am still twelve years old that is Ma’am. Fred, George, what would you like to do?”

Both Fred and George gathered up their scrolls and books and put them back into their bags, then closed up their trunks and put them away into their bags.

“Good, I am glad you two are finally seeing reason.” Molly said. Crossing her arms across her chest and nodding approvingly.

“Sure have, ready when ever you are Harry,” Fred said.

“WHAT!” Molly Shrieked. “Oh no you don’t”

Fred and George dove around their mother and raced down the hallway to the stairs with her firing stinging hexes at them right and left. As they neared the stairs Harry called out to Molly to stop but she just kept on chasing and firing and before you knew it she hit George with a stinging hex in the hip and it caused him to fall down the stairs and land in a heap at the bottom. Harry and Neville raced around the frozen Molly. Molly stared down to the bottom of the stairs at her son in a tangle of limbs.

Harry raced over to where George had landed and checked for a pulse, thank Merlin he was alive. “Jeeves!”

“Master called Jeeves.” Jeeves said as he popped in.

“Yes Jeeves, I need you to take George to Madam Pomfrey immediately, we will be there shortly to tell her what happened.” Harry stated. And the little house elf popped away with George. Fred was shaking, his brother, no his twin was hurt…and hurt badly.

“Come on Fred, you go through the floo to Sirius’ room then head immediately to the Medi-Ward, we will be there shortly.” Which is exactly what he did, without so much as a blink of an eye.

“Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Amelia Bones office please.” After a few moments Amelia came on the floo.”

“What seemed to be the problem Harry? Where are you?”

“Neville and I are over at the Burrow, the Weasley’s place. We just sent George Weasley to the Medi-Ward with a broken right arm, a broken left leg, a broken left hip, a broken right leg and a fractured skull. Molly was chasing Fred and George down the hallway and subsequent stairs using overpowered stinging hexes, he tripped on the stairs and fell down them. We hope we got him help in time. It is that fractured skull I am most worried about.”

“Oh sweet Merlin, move aside, we’re coming through.” Amelia, Shackelbolt and Mad-Eye, who just happen to be having lunch with Amelia in her office with her, came through immediately, meals forgotten.

Harry stepped out of the way and the three adults came through, Amelia took charge of the site immediately. Shackelbolt confiscated Molly’s wand from her loose hand and escorted her to the bottom of the stairs and into a living room chair.

While they were doing this Harry was calling Arthur and explaining what was going on, a very brief explanation mind you but it was still an explanation. Arthur turned a ghostly white when he heard George’s injuries and Arthur rushed over to the floo and flooed home immediately.

Arthur couldn’t help but see the puddle of blood at the base of the stairs, it seemed to be so big. That was his son’s blood. Oh sweet Merlin, how could his son survive loosing that much blood.

Arthur didn’t realize that head wounds bleed a lot, and that a tiny wound can amount to a lot of blood very quickly. They had gotten him to Pomfrey quickly so his chances of a full recovery, if that head wound wasn’t too bad, was a very good thing. But that head wound might be a problem. It would be a concussion at best, brain dead at worst. And any degree of horrible in between.

Now the only thing they could do is take care of Fred and the loose ends on this end of the situation and be there for George for when he wakes up, if he wakes up.

Harry spent the next several minutes giving Arthur a more in-depth over view of what happened and what had triggered it all and to be honest Arthur was furious.

“You what! You chased and attacked our sons because they wished to switch classes and get better grades? You practically kill one of my sons because they wanted to take better classes than what you wanted them to take? Are you sick in the head woman? They would never have been happy working with me at my job. They told me that years ago. We both knew it. Why couldn’t you just accept it? Why did you have to almost kill my son just to prove you are in charge around here? Well news flash woman, you’re not in charge. I am. This is still a patriarchal household and I am still in charge around here. When ever Amelia is finished with you, I am filing a restraining order against you for myself and the children. You are not to come within one hundred feet of any of the children under the age of twenty-one. If they approach you, that is their business, but you are not allowed to approach them. Also your name is not on this property, you are hereby banned from entering the property known as the Burrows until such time that the ban is lifted by myself at a much later date, if ever. As to their schooling and occupation, you have no say or right to say anything what so ever. That is between me and my children.” Then Arthur turned to Amelia and stated. “I want the fullest extent of the law brought down on her, that is my son’s blood over there, I intend to see that Justice is served here and that she face her what she has done here. She will get no help from this side of the family, but she does have some of her dowery left I am sure, hidden away somewhere for a barrister for herself. I wash my hands of her. If you need me I will be at Hogwarts with my son who actually needs me right now.” Arthur looked to Amelia for permission to leave and at her nod he left via floo.

Shackelbolt took Harry and then Neville off to the side and got their side of the story and allowed them to leave as well. This left Amelia, Shackelbolt and Mad-Eye with Molly.

“Molly Weasley, tell us in your own words what happened just a few moments ago.” Amelia requested.

“George fell,” Looking down at the puddle of blood.

“George didn’t fall Mrs. Weasley, you tripped him, with a severely overpowered stinging hex, according to your wand.” Amelia now held Molly’s wand in hand. And a scroll of ever increasing in strength stinging hexes. The last couple were strong enough to bring blood if they landed, which no one noticed due to everyone focused on George’s head wound and other injuries right now. In effect it would have felt like a whip hit on his hip, it would have been that painful. Only it would have been down into the muscle and nerves rather than just at surface level like a regular whip hit. In other words, extremely painful. Causing him to go to his knees mid step and miss a step on the stairs, resulting in him falling the rest of the ways down the stairs from the very top of the stairs.

“What you did was hit him with an extremely powerful, in fact over powered stinging hex, causing him to fall down two flights of stairs resulting in catastrophic injuries to his person. Do you deny it?” Amelia asked.

“They were running away from me, it was just stinging hexes. Maybe I was a little upset, and put a little bit too much power into them but it was still just a stinging hex.” Molly tried.

“That you hit your son with, at the top of two flights of stairs causing him to fall down those same stairs, leading to a broken arm, two broken legs, a broken hip, and a fractured skull. Do you deny it? Amelia asked again.

“He shouldn’t have been running, he should have done what he was told, if he had done what he was told none of this would have happened. He and his brother alike, I want Fred here, I want to go see George. He needs to be here at home so I can keep an eye on him. Take care of him.” Molly said still half in her daze.

“Didn’t you hear what Mr. Weasley stated. He is filing a restraining order against you, you aren’t allowed within a hundred feet of any of the children from this day forward. So no, Fred will not be coming home, while you are still here, and George is in the Medi-Ward because of your actions, he will not be coming home anytime soon I would say, and definitely not while you are here. I suggest you come with us now Mrs. Weasley, we will be escorting you down to the Department of Magical Law Enforcement for booking and holding until you can manage to get a barrister for yourself, to arrange bail and release.”

“Where am I suppose to get the money for a Barrister from, we don’t have that kind of money, Arthur barely makes enough to keep us all fed as it is.” Molly asked worriedly.

“No Ma’am you seem to misunderstand, Mr. Weasley stated that he is refusing to assist you in this. That you will get no financial assistance from him what so ever when it comes to this case. So you on on your own as far as finding a barrister. And I would say good luck with that, child abuse cases are hard to find a barrister that want to defend them.”

“Child abuse! What child abuse! I merely used a stinging hex on him, nothing more. I didn’t raise my hand to my son, I would never abuse my children.” Molly shrieked, apparently that kicked her out of her half trance like state.

“You used a stinging hex on him hard enough that it resulted in further injuries, multiple grievous injuries, and possible fatal injuries. So what you did is not a simple child abuse case it is First Degree Aggravated Assault which is when basic assault (When a person intentionally, knowingly or recklessly causes bodily injury to another.) is present with additional elements, such as using a deadly weapon and causing serious bodily injury to a family member. Your wand is a deadly weapon, you did discharge said weapon at the claimant, you intentionally, knowingly or recklessly caused bodily injury to the claimant, and the claimant is indeed a family member. This crime is punishable with a sentence of anywhere from five to ninety-nine years in Azkaban, with a fine of up to but not to exceed ten thousand gold.” Amelia recited the statute to Molly was beginning to get irritated.

“It was a stinging hex. A blasted stinging hex, I am not going to Azkaban over a bloody stinging hex.” Molly started to get up and head into the kitchen, she needed to clean up that blood, she had seen enough of it now, it was beginning to mar her good wood floor.

“Please sit back down Mrs. Weasley. And that stinging hex led to your son George having a broken right arm, a broken left leg, a broken left hip, a broken right leg and a fractured skull. Does none of that matter to you or are you only concerned with your own pettiness right now?” Amelia asked.

“Of course I am concerned, but he shouldn’t have ran, he should have done what he was told. He and Fred both should have listened to me and done what they were told. They should have canceled those classes, which reminds me I need to do right now.” And she started to get up again and was pushed back in her chair by Shackelbolt.

“Madam you are not canceling any of their classes or arranging any different classes for them. They are Riders now, and they are fifteen which means they are emancipated minors. They can choose what classes they wish to take, without your input or permission. So you don’t have to worry about that at all.”

“They can’t take those classes, they need to take Muggle Studies to work at the Ministry and that is where they will be working once they graduate from Hogwarts, they will be working in the Department for the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts right along with their father, and I don’t want to hear anything else about it. Now let me up from this chair so I can go make that floo call. I have things to do and you have no business keeping me here. It was a stinging hex no more.”

“It appears we are at an impasse here folks,” Mad Eye said, “and arguing here is getting us no where, let’s head down to headquarters. Maybe a few hours in a holding cell will allow her to see that it wasn’t ‘just a stinging hex and no more’. As she puts it. So help Mrs. Weasley up Shackelbolt, put the cuffs on her and lets get out of here. Oh and “Scourgify” Moody cleaned up the blood stain that was on the floor so no one could gather up the blood and use it for anything nefarious. Never can be too careful now can you.

“Let’s go Mrs. Weasley, quietly if you please.” And Shackelbolt attempted to help her up from the chair and put the cuffs on her and that is when she blew up.

“You will do not such thing! I will not go with you! It was a stinging hex I tell you! Nothing but a stinging hex! I demand to see my husband! I am going no where! You cannot force me to leave my home! This is my home! You are making a mistake and I will sue the Ministry and all three of you if you so much as touch me again! Don’t you dare!” Each sentence was getting louder and more shrill until it was practically a howler in the room with them. Finally Amelia had had enough and silenced her. Then Shackelbolt managed to get the cuffs on her but it wasn’t easy, “Well we can add Resisting Arrest to First Degree Aggravated Assault. And if she kicks me in the knees one more time we can add Assaulting an Officer to that too. Okay add that one to the list, my shins are going to be black and blue from this one. Geeez.”

With that they took a very flustered Molly Louise Weasley nee Prewitt down to questioning and booking to finish up what they started here.

—————————————————

“What is this?” Madam Pomfrey as she heard the alarms in her office go off, stating an emergency patient. She came rushing into the room and saw George on the floor with Jeeves standing right next to him. “What’s going on Jeeves?”

“Master Harry said to bring young Master to you, so I did.” Jeeves looked around just as Fred rushed into the room.

“How is he? He fell down two flights of stairs, Molly hit him with an over powered stinging hex at the top of the stairs and caused him to fall down the stairs. What do you need me to do?” Fred huffed and puffed, immediately offered to help any way he could seeing his brother’s limbs twisted at odd angles made him want to heave but he kept it together for his brother. He had to.

“Help me get him onto a bet, that one is closest. It is undoubtedly going to hurt but I think he is unconscious so he shouldn’t feel anything,” Madam Pomfrey and Fred floated him and gently moved George over to the bed as quickly as possible, then she grabbed a couple of blood replenishers and magicked them into his stomach. He was loosing too much blood, they didn’t want him going into shock, she also grabbed a pain reliever and a dreamless sleep as well. And magicked them into his stomach as well. While you don’t get the full effect sometimes as if they swallow it, it is the fastest way to get it into their system. And unfortunately the only way to get it into the system of an unconscious victim.

About that time here comes Neville Longbottom breathing hard, he had ran all the way from the Stables carrying Mayhem, with Fulgura and Storm right beside him. He had Mayhem wrapped around his neck so he rested the foals weight on his shoulders and his legs were braced against his chest where Neville could wrap his arms around them, he had seen it in one of the movies he had watched with Andy and Tonks a while back it was called a fireman’s carry he thought but he wasn’t sure, it was some American thing but it sure worked.

“Here, Fulgura can fix it, Mayhem is too young, but Fulgura can fix him right up. Stand back everyone. Just show her the wound and let her work, Start with the head wound.” Neville said as he lowered the foal onto the floor.

Fulgura took one look at George and whinnied, shaking her head back and forth, Mayhem put his front hooves on the side of the bed where George was and let out a low painful whinny. Then looked at his mother pleadingly. She nodded and walked up to the bed and pressed her horn to the center of Georges forehead and a golden glow encased his head and it took a minute or so the glow faded and Fulgura nodded and whinnied. Then she touched her horn to his right arm, and with a audible snap the break was repaired, she then moved to the right leg, again you could hear it when it mended…snap… and it was done, his left leg Fred straitened it as much as he dared and she pressed her horn to the break and …snap… it was as good as new… now all that was left was that hip. Fulgura leaned down and focused on that left hip. It didn’t take as long as the fractured scull but it did take longer that the other breaks…snap… and it was done. With that Fulgura wavered back away from the bed and knelt down on the floor, Storm went over to her and pressed his horn against hers and a golden glow encompasses his mare, after a minute or so she was back up on her feet nodding her head and whinnying.

Madam Pomfrey quickly did her scans and then closed her eyes and sighed, it was as if the injuries had never happened. No swelling in the brain, no bruising in the brain, bleeding in the brain, noting his blood levels were back to normal everything looked good. In fact he should wake up any…”Groan”

“George!” Fred whispered loudly

“Shhh. My head.” Groaned George. “Did anyone get the name of that hippogryph that mowed me down?”

Fred chuckled softly. “It’s name was Molly. And you don’t have to worry about that one ever again if you don’t want to.”

“What happened? One minute I was running down the hallway to the stairs the next minute I am here feeling as if a dragon used a beaters bat on my head.” George groaned again.

Madam Pomfrey handed George another pain relieving potion and he sighed as the potion took effect almost immediately.

“Molly hit you with an overpowered stinging hex at the top of the stairs and you tripped and fell down all two flights. You ended up with a broken right arm, a broken left leg, a broken left hip, a broken right leg and a fractured skull. Harry had Jeeves bring you over to Pomfrey immediately, and Neville brought in Fulgura, Storm and Mayhem. Fulgura healed you, but it took a lot out of her, so Storm healed her and now everyone is just fine. You’re healed and Fulgura is fine, Mayhem is worried sick though, but other than that, things are doing great right now.” Fred stated a little teary eyed, just as his father showed up in the room to hear the whole thing.

Arthur couldn’t believe it, those magnificent beast may have just saved his son’s life. Who knows what would have happened to George if Fulgura hadn’t healed him. Thank Merlin for him being a Rider. He had thanked the lucky stars that his son’s had been chosen to be Riders every night since it had happened. And tonight he would get down on his knees and do so once again.

Harry came into the Medi-Ward and smiled when he saw Fulgura, Storm and Mayhem. “I see someone had the same idea I had. I just came from the stables to get the three of them and bring them here. And you already have them. How’s he doing?”

“He’s right here and he’s doing fine now, a little sore here and there but fine. A day or so of rest and I will be back up and running with my little man here in no time. Right Mayhem? That’s my big boy…” George laughed at Mayhems attempts to get up on the bed with him.

“Well you boys won’t have to worry about Molly anytime soon. I filling and pressing full charges against her. Plus I am filling a Restraining Order against her as soon as we get to court. And that is for all of you kids not just you two. She won’t be allowed within one hundred feet of you all. No writing, flooing, trying to come see you nothing. If she does she is breaking the law and she could be in serious trouble. I also informed her that I am still head of the house and I forbid her to see you all until further notice, So there is that as well, I need to get a hold of William and Charlie and talk to them before I go any further with it but we shall see.” Arthur said.

Fred gave his father a curious look, “…further than that?”

“A divorce; I haven’t decided yet, but to be honest it has been coming for a while now. I love her to death. I just don’t like a lot of what she does, and this is the final straw. She has been doing wrong with you kids for a while now and it has just been getting worse for ages. She was so controlling that she forced William to take a job in Egypt to get away from her and Charlie a job in Romania to get away from her. They went as far away from her as possible as fast as possible and now look at what she has done to you. Well no more. And look at poor Ron? He got sorted into Gryffindor but at what price, will he ever be Ron again? Ginny is so bashful she barely has any friends. Eleven years old and almost too bashful to go to school on her own. No, what she has done to you children is a crime… laying it all out like that I think I have made my decision. I want that divorce. I hate it, but I can’t stay married to a woman who treats my children like objects for her to control and order about.” Arthur took a huge breath and continued.

“Fred, George, I know you would never be happy working for me at the Muggle Artifacts Office, while I would be proud to have you there, I realize the truth of it, you boys need to be allowed your freedom. You are Riders now. That comes first. And I know you have talked about a joke shop for ages as well. If you are serious about a joke shop and if you do it right, give it your all and do your best at it, then you have my blessing. I want you to be who ever it is in you to be, as long as it makes you happy.” Arthur was practically bowled over by his boys. Well boy and a half, George could only reach up and grab his dad, Fred raced around the bed and gave his dad a hug.

“We will make you proud of us don’t you worry about that dad, Weasley Wizarding Wheezes will go down in history right next to Zonko’s. We will make so much money that you will be able to quick working and just enjoy being at home if you want to be. Or maybe travel some, you have always wanted to travel and never gotten to because of us kids, well maybe with us all grown up now, and the Wheezes doing good you will be able to travel. And go to see Egypt and Will, and Romania and Charlie.”

“That sounds beautiful boys, just beautiful.” He hugged both his boys and nodded, a tear fell from his eye at the thought that they would worry about taking care of him at a time like this. When they should be worried about taking care of themselves.

It was easy to see that Molly loved her kids, but she loved them to the point of being controlling and domineering. At that point she sent up red flags and she became a danger to the kids when as she got to be more and more controlling and more domineering. Finally it had gotten to be too much. Her need for control was now an obsession. And that obsession had finally proven dangerous, he was drawing the line.

———————————————————

Harry had it all organized Fred, George and Cedric were all going to put their trunks in his room and stay there with him. They argued at first about he might need privacy or something and then he took out his trunk and sat it down and said ‘done’ and they shut up it about then.

So the guys put their trunks on one side of the the room and Harry put his trunk on the other side of his room. Harry even went down and asked Neville if he wanted to spend the last two weeks they had of the semester hanging out with the rest of them in his room and he asked his folks if he could and grabbed his bag and joined in immediately. So Harry and Neville were on one side of the room, Fred, George, and Cedric were on the other side of the room and everyone was having a blast. They all respected each others privacy by closing the lids to their trunks so no noise got out when they were in there, If Harry was cooking he always made enough for everyone, and if anyone needed help with something there was always someone there to lend a hand.

Harry wondered if this is what it would be like when they were out on the road with their Darcorns, rent one room and all camp out in it. The girls all rent one room and do the same. With Luna and Pavarti on one side and Padma, Hermione and Susan on the other side though.

Harry so loved his trunk. The bedroom was big enough for a small sitting area in it and a fire place so he could sit and read if he wanted to before going to bed, or maybe listen to music on the Wireless.

The bathroom was huge. The tub was as big as the one in the prefects bathroom according to Cedric. Harry had to trust him on that one. But it had a four man shower that was to die for, and a two sink set up as if was expecting Harry to have a guest or something, and this huge mirror that went across half the damn room. The toilet was hidden away in its own little room by itself for privacy and even it was big, about four foot by six foot.

The kitchen was done in modern day features although most of it was magical it was all top of the line. It had a huge cold box, and freezer. And a warming box, with all the modern accessories, time, temperature, buzzer, broil, or bake, all that. There was a magical blender, and a magical toaster, a magical coffee pot, or tea pot as it were. There was a stove top with four burners that lit up with merely a wands touch. The kitchen had all the counter top space and cabinets and drawers you could ever need, for those long stays away from home and having to pack for months long trips. On top of all of that it still had a pantry to put more stuff in for the shelf stable stuff, like beans, rice and flour or sugar.

The potions lab came fully equip as well, racks of empty jars and boxes, all lined one wall. They went from gallon sized down to a couple of inches tall. Each with a bright white label just waiting to find out what was inside. Harry had only filled about half of his so far but he was working on it. And another set of racks for finished potions with bottles and salve tubs ready for that. There seemed to be hundreds of bottles in the stasis section of the potions lab. Maybe thousands. That whole section was under a stasis charm of some form. From what Harry could tell it was a strong one too. There were blast shields around all the glass ware so that if there was an accident in the lab none of the ingredients or the finished products would be affected. Then there was a three burner station for potions, and a prep area. The prep area had a marble base, or a steel base, your choice. Above the burner station was this huge vent that led to who knows where, but at least it was well ventilated.

Harry’s study had a huge desk off to one side, it was solid oak, he had thought about getting cherry wood since it was the prettiest but being out on the road for months on end covered in who knows what and sitting down behind a desk to do what ever, does not sound like you need something pretty, it sounds like you need something durable and easy to clean. And that is what he got. Oh now don’t get me wrong here, the desk and chairs combo that he picked out are gorgeous without a doubt, they’re just not ‘pretty’. Along the wall on two sides were book cases and Harry decided he would put some of those inventions that belonged to Leonardo da Vinci on those shelves, he had also bought a series of compass and sextants that looked beautiful with they desk magnifier and magnifying glass and microscope that he bought. He wanted to get a bunch of scientific equipment to help with solving crimes but he was limited on what he could get due to the fact that most of it wouldn’t work around magic. He would just have to look around and see what he could find. Eventually he should be able to find things. He had gone to a hunting and fishing place and got a nice set of nighttime binoculars, and some nighttime cameras he could set up on trees and hopefully catch the criminal in the act, or if Luna was right a crumple horned snorkrack…what ever that was. He also got a portable, solar powered weather radio to tell him if bad weather was coming, it was Non-Magical but he hoped it would work, he was willing to take the risk and see if it would since it was solar powered and all. On the other side of the desk was two comfy couches and a couple of over stuffed chairs right in front of the fireplace. Harry could easily see this room becoming his favorite room. He had plenty of space for books and periodicals, a place to do all his studying, and a place to relax, yeah this would be his favorite room alright.

The library was shelf, after shelf, after shelf, some were huge tall shelves, and some were about four inches tall but there were shelves for books of every shape and size. Rows of them, down the middle of the room even. Then there was a library table at one end of the room with a couple of chairs around it so you could sit and do your research without being disturbed. Every shelf in the place had stasis charms on them, so ancient old books or rare books that he found would not be damaged and he could still take them with him. Which reminded him he and Sirius needed to take a trip down to Gringotts soon and he needed Sirius to help him gather all of the books and scrolls from the vaults and put them in his library. Even with all the books he and Neville found in the Lost room, the library looked bare. So he wanted the Potter books that were in the vaults brought into his trunk as well, since they would be under stasis charms there too. He supposed that someday he would have enough books to fill his library but right now he couldn’t imagine it, right now it seemed like a pipe dream.

Merlin he loved his trunk, Harry thought as he hung up another pair of trousers in his closet. He was almost finished with his new purchases when there was a bell rang through the trunk, he went over to the wall near the door to his bedroom and pushed a button.

“Yeah, what’s up?” He asked.

“We were just getting ready to head over to lunch and wanted to know if you wanted to come with us?” Neville’s voice came though the little box by the door.

“Sure, be right there,” Then harry switched off the button and went to grab his bag and headed back out of the trunk. Once outside of the trunk he turned around shut the lid and shrunk it down to shoe box size and put it into his bag. And turned to the others who had all done the same a few moments ago when they had gotten out of their trunks.

It had been decided by all that if they weren’t in their trunks then their trunks were to be shrunk and in their bags, no excuses. Failure to do so called for an immediate reprimand. And no one wanted one of those on their record. Only very, very bad things got an official reprimand, things like drunk on duty, and failure to load your trunk into your bag was almost seen as dereliction of duty, that is how bad it was viewed.

He had a special surprise for everyone today and he couldn’t wait to show it too them. They chatted as they walked down the hallway and met up with the girls as they were coming out of Luna’s place, together they all walked down to lunch. After everyone had gotten what they wanted to eat Harry cleared his throat and got all the Riders attentions.

“There has been something I have been talking about and have just not gotten around to doing it. Well thankfully Sirius had the opportunity to get it taken care of for me and I would like to pass it out today. If everyone could take one out of the bag and pass it around to the next person I would appreciate it. Harry took out one little soft box out of the bag and handed it to Neville to pass around, which he did after getting one of the little soft boxed for himself. Since Harry hadn’t opened his box no one else did either. Once everyone had a box Harry opened his and took out the ring that was inside and placed it on his right wedding finger, and everyone else did the same thing, some had to adjust other rings but they did so without question. The ring adjusted to fit their finger of course. Then they looked at Harry.

“This is the Rider signet ring we will use. The large Infinity symbol stands for the fact that we are eternal, no matter what, Truth is eternal. Within the Infinity symbol there is on top a set of crossed swords, this is a symbol of Justice. In the lower section of the Infinity symbol there is a set of crosses wands, this is a symbol of Honor. Truth, Justice and Honor above all. This is our mantra, This is us, we are this symbol. This is the key to who we are and what we do. This ring will let you open another Riders’ bag or Trunk but only if they have keyed you into it prior. I think that in case of emergencies both Neville and myself have that access, but that is entirely up to you. We will respect your wishes on this. So even if it is dangerous to do so we will allow you that privacy. Your bag and your trunk are your reality, your world. You have to protect it, as it protects you.

Now who you choose to share or not to share your trunk with is entirely up to you. All you have to do is both of you must be on the outside of the trunk, you place one drop of blood on the new Rider insignias that appeared on your trunk latches, the person you want to allow entry must place three drops of blood on that same latch then press their Rider insignia ring on the latch and it will open to you. In the future you just need to press your ring to the latch and it will let you in. The same with the bags. Place one drop of blood on the insignia and the person you want to allow access to your bag puts three drops of blood, and then they press their ring to the bag. As you can guess no one without a ring can open a bag or trunk. Now that doesn’t mean you can’t bring someone down with you, but you must be present at all times someone else is there.

“Something else I was wanting to discuss with you guys, I want us to kind of adopt an orphanage. I don’t care which magical orphanage it is. As long as it is one in need. If it needs a new roof I want us to fix the roof, if it need new plumbing I want us to supply it, if it need more space I want us to build on to their place or buy them a whole new building. If they can’t pay their rent I want us to buy out their building and get rid of that bill for them. If the kids need medical care, I want us to hire a medi-witch or wizard to work there full time. If they need teachers I want us to supply them. I want us to take care of the place like these are our own children and show them the love and family that they deserve.” Harry stated. And immediately everyone cheered at that. They were all excited about helping the orphans.

“If you want we can go and look at some of the orphanages today and see which one needs the most work and help then get this project started. I want the Riders to be known for all the do in this world, not just for Truth, Justice and Honor. But for the fact that we represent what people should strive to be like, should hope to be, to be a Rider is a huge honor, let’s deserve that honor and earn it.” Harry continued. Again a cheer.

“Alright then, there are five orphanages that are out there, we should be able to cover all five in one day if we start now.” Harry started to rise up.

“What if we find more than one orphanage that needs help and want to do more than that?” Luna asked.

“Well we may end up biting off more than we can chew but we can try, we will just have to see. I want this done right and I want to help as many of them as possible. So we may be able to do more than one or only fix the roof on this one but get this one a whole new set up, who knows. Let’s go and see what we can do.” Harry got up and headed over to the main table and talked to Sirius and Remus for a minute then came back with them. “Here is our transportation folks, they are going to side along transport us to the different orphanages and we are going to have a look around. Pavarti, Luna you two are in charge of taking notes and pictures of what ever you see that needs fixing. Susan, you and Padma, and Cedric, I want you all to find out how these kids are being treated there, are they loved or mistreated. I’m not just talking about does a child have a teddy or not. I am talking about beatings, bruises, neglect, starvation, things like that. I want to know about it and where it comes from. Twins I want you to entertain the kids, give them the time of their life, make them happy. What ever you have to do to put a smile on a little ones face I want to see it. If it is just sitting down and reading a story to them then by all means do so, if it means a tumbling act and juggling each other then go for it. I don’t care as long as they are happy and you two aren’t doing anything illegal or dangerous. Remember these are innocent orphans and when we leave they will still be innocent orphans. So don’t make promises you can’t keep. Don’t get their hopes up just to squash them later. Don’t tell them that they are going to get to go to Hogwarts because maybe their magic isn’t strong enough to get them there. If it is the orphanage we choose, I intend to see every orphan gets a chance to go to Hogwarts free of charge…or rather we will pay for it, but that is only at the orphanage that we choose. So be careful how you word things. And don’t tell anyone that you want to take them home unless you have a home to take them too already agreed upon with your parents or you have it set up yourself. Okay folks I think that is everything, Let’s go.” Harry checked things off in his head and nodded as he finished. Yeah that is everything he wanted to say.

Sirius and Remus, Frank and Alice, Persephone and Xenophilius followed the kids out to the gates of Hogwarts, that was a little more people than he expected but the more people going the faster they got to the orphanage and got to have a look around.

There were five. Sunnyvale Regional Orphanage, Twin Oaks Orphanage, Tiny Tots Care Center, The Great Lady’s Orphanage, and Easter Wales Boys Home. So they started with the one closest to them which was Easter Wales Boys Home.

The place looked like an old castle or something, although there were a bunch of the windows had boards over them instead of glass anymore, which made Harry sad right off the start, they all walked up to the doors and found them locked. Sirius knocked and a little boy about five answered the door and Sirius asked if there was an adult around that he could speak to, a young woman in her early thirties perhaps came up to the door came up and opened the door wider and asked what she could do for them.

“We were hoping to speak to whoever is in charge for a few moments if that is possible.” Harry stated.

“Well that is me, Amanda Faithright at your service, what can I do for you?” She asked.

“Miss Faithright, we are the Riders and we would like to check out your orphanage to see if there is anything we could do to help out, or assist you with.”

“That’s not funny young man, to tease people like that can be very hurtful. You shouldn’t do it.” She got an incredibly sad look on her face. And started to close the door.

Just then Harry raised his hand and showed her his ring, “We are the Riders Ma’am, this is no joke. We are here to help, if we can.”

She took one look at their raised rings and gasped, while the insignia was new the meaning wasn’t, Truth, Justice and Honor, everyone knew it. She opened the door and apologized, looking shocked as she led them all into the closest office to the right. “This is my office, we can talk in here.”

“Is it all right if my companions have a look around?” Harry asked.

“Of course, that’s fine.” Everyone but Neville, Sirius and Remus went off into the orphanage to explore and meet the kids or follow Harry’s instructions.

Harry sat down in a chair opposite Miss Faithright and stated, “I apologize I didn’t introduce myself I am Harry Potter Black and this is Neville Longbottom, we are the spokespeople for the Riders and we are the ones that see that things get done. Now we saw that there are some windows boarded up outside, what other structural problems do you have going on here?” Harry asked.

“We need a new roof badly, right now it is like the kids have to all sleep in the cafeteria on a stormy night in sleeping bags in order not to get rained on in their sleep.” Miss Faithright stated sadly.

“Is there anything else,” Neville asked.

“The plumbing all needs to be updated and the toilets need to be replaced but that is way down on our todo list, the roof is first. And the cheapest company that we have gotten an estimate from is wanting twelve thousand in gold to do it. We don’t get that kind of money in three years let alone one.” She looked so hopeless her shoulders slumped and she sighed.

“What about the windows, have you gotten a quote on the windows yet?” Harry asked,

“Yeah, it is a lot of windows to replace, the old section of the castle that we can’t use right now because a storm took out all the windows, lost thirty three windows. If we had that old section opened back up we wouldn’t be over crowded any more and the kids would have the old play room back again. But they quoted me five thousand eight hundred just on that job, again an impossibility.”

“It sounds like that storm did a lot of damage, didn’t you have any Wards in place?” Asked Sirius.

“Wards who can afford to buy Wards when you can’t afford to feed the kids behind them. I haven’t even gotten a quote on Wards as of yet. I am almost afraid too. I struggle from month to month on donations just finding enough money to feed the kids and occasionally get them new clothes or shoes. They get toys donated occasionally and that is about the best that it gets around here. I pray every Christmas that people remember that we are here so that the boys get something for Christmas, but too frequently they end up having to share toys or one of them doesn’t get anything and I end up taking my paycheck to go buy stuff and get them candy or some small plushie. Anything is better than nothing.” She sighed with a faraway look in her eyes.

About that time Cedric, Padma, and Susan all came back into the room and Cedric gave Harry a small smile and a nod.

Harry turned to Miss Faithright and said. “All right Miss Faithright, this is what we would like to do. We would like to get your roof repaired, as well as your windows and the plumbing, but we are setting up some damn good wards, we are not doing all this hard work just to have a summer storm knock down a tree into your new roof now are we. Also we are going to set you up with a Yule fund for each of the children of no less that twenty gold each, that that can go for clothes, plushies, games, candy, books, or a combination of it all. All we need is the numbers. The money you normally get as donations get them necessities like blankets and pillows, sheets, things like thats. Which reminds me, I want a count of each child, I want to get each child a new mattress and bedding set with what we are doing today. Blanket, pillow, and sheets included. If they want to keep their old one that is up to them but the new one belongs to them, they can even put their names on it somewhere. Oh and make sure all the mattresses have waterproof protectors just in case. Now all the donations you get in and the money assistance you have coming in can go to feed and clothe the kids better and easier.” Harry stated.

Miss Faithright’s eyes were getting bigger with every sentence he spoke, by the time he was done she was sitting there with her mouth open and looking like she was going to faint.

“What about inoculations and having a Medi-Witch on hand?” Neville asked.

“We have a Medi-Witch that comes by every other month to inoculate those that need it, but we don’t have anyone on staff.” She admitted.

“Then hire yourself someone. We will make arrangements for the individual’s salary to be paid directly from the Riders, we want these children taken care of. And one person’s salary we can handle.” Harry announced.

“You’re kidding right?… Your serious?…He’s serious… a medi-witch on staff, do you know how long we have needed one. How many cold or flu seasons we have suffered through with children suffering needlessly. We can get the worse cases in to the muggle medical centers if we have to, but we have to be careful that the children don’t do accidental magic when they are sick. So we end up taking them to St. Mungos instead and we can only afford to take so many at one time, even with our orphanage discount. When you have forty kids sick and can only take twenty five which twenty five do you pick, the sickest or the youngest or draw lots to see, so it is fair. It is never fair to them. They all just suffer, Oh thank sweet Morgana that you came to our door today.” She was openly crying now, not even trying to hold back the tears she reached for a tissue and dabbed at her eyes.

“Well if we can do something to help out here then we are doing our job Ma’am.” Cedric stated and every Rider in the room nodded along with him. “That’s right Miss Faithright, we are here to serve any way we can, and today is your day for us to serve. Now let’s go look at some of those little people and then we can head over to Gringotts and set you up with the funds you need.” Harry stated.

For the next two hours he went around meeting kids and getting to know them, most of them were all smiles and asking all kinds of questions of what it was like being a Rider, everything. By the time they were ready to leave Harry was sure he had made a good decision here this place treated the kids right, the kids were basically happy and the people that worked here wanted to be here because they loved kids.

At Gringotts it all became a little too real for Miss Faithright and she broke down crying on Sirius who gave Remus a helpless look, but he just shrugged his shoulder and smiled and waved his hand to him. As if to say you're the galant, handsome one, I’m just the quiet, intelligent side kick who sticks to the shadows, remember. Sirius glared at him and continued to pat Miss Faithright on the back and sooth her until she stopped sobbing.

“I am so so sorry, this is the happiest I have been in nearly twenty years, I came to Eastern Wales Boys Home to help the boys find a mother that they never had, and be that person they could turn to when they needed someone, to take care of them and love them. And as soon as I got here I was swallowed in red tape and regulations that made it impossible to form any kind of real relationship with the children. Then the regulations changed and it left us hanging there with no experience in what to do or how to handle things and no money to do the things they said we could now do. Then a huge storm comes along and destroys a third of our building, we end up with injured boys, packing some of our boys off to other orphanages, and those that we couldn’t we were stacking them in here like firewood. Now you come along and save the day. You have given us a whole new building practically. Fixing things that have needed fixing for twenty years, getting us wards put up and a medi-witch. And at a fair salary to boot. Gods bless the Riders, all I can say is gods bless the Riders.” Then she went around and hugged each Rider in turn and when she got back to Harry she hugged him extra hard and then let him go.

He reached into his pocket and took out a necklace that had the very same emblem on it that was on their rings, and gave it to her. “If for any reason you need us, just put a drop of blood on the back and press your thumb against the back of the emblem and we will be here.”

With a trembling hand she took the necklace and put it on, then Harry took out his knife and had her put a drop of blood on the front of the emblem, “Now no one can ever take it off by force or accident.”

“Oh my…” She looked like she was about to faint, but Sirius held ahold of her elbow and steadied her for a moment. “You’re really are Riders, I’m not dreaming this. It is all real. The Riders are real. Oh my…”

“Lets get you somewhere closer to the ground.” So they found her a place to sit down and let her take a few deep breaths and got Jeeves get her a spot of tea. Soon her nerves were settled and she was able to think clearly now.

“So are you going to all the orphanages or was ours the only one that gets your attention?” Miss Faithright asked.

“We are going to visit them all but your’s is the first one we came too.” Neville stated.

“Don’t bother with Tiny Tots. It’s the one that all the rich, and famous people send their money too. It has everything. They usually have four Medi-Witches on staff at all times, they have a contract with St. Mongos to send all their pre-med nurses and pre-med doctors there for their practicals, so they get their on the job training working with newborns to three year old babies instead of accident victims or what ever they see in the Emergency room these days. Then they have to keep the place so clean and sterile in order to pass inspection at all times that a loose floorboard isn’t going to allow them to pass let alone a broken window. And wards, oh yeah. The baby nabbers tried to break in there a couple of years ago to grab some babies and got frozen in their wards, it held them there for forty minutes till the Aurors got there. They have incredible wards. So Tiny Tots is pretty much the Golden Goose of the orphanages and doesn’t really fit in with those of use that have to pinch every Knut and Sickle.” Miss Faithright actually frowned at that.

“Now one that needs the help is Twin Oaks Orphanage. It has been around for ever, it is set up in an old mansion that is falling apart and needs lots of help. if you want to really help out a place it should be them.” She sighed.

“Don’t worry we should be able to cover both of the orphanages. We have gotten your place taken care of, so we are going to go look at what needs to be done at Twin Oaks Orphanage. You keep us up to date on how things are doing over at Easter Wales, write to me at Hogwarts, and I will make sure the letters get around to everyone, and let us know if you have any new need or problem tell us, that’s what we are here for.” Harry smiled and helped Miss Faithright to her feet.

“It has been a pleasure Ma’am.” And good byes went all around then Sirius and the rest grabbed onto their individuals and apparated them over to Twin Oaks Orphanage. Harry’s first look at the place and he didn’t like it. It was an old mansion and it had a ten foot chain link fence around it that was definitely meant to keep the kids in as much as it was to keep people out. The building was brick with stucco on the outside and the stucco was falling down in some places and you could see the red brick underneath shining through. The stucco Harry assumed was suppose to be white at one time was a dingy grey maybe now and looked more dead than alive look to it. The windows were all bared and shuttered tight. The trees had no leaves on them so they looked like giant skeletons waving in the wind. The cobblestone path leading up to a great rod iron gate was dirty and grey, Sirius lifted the weighted iron bar on the gate and opened it slowly it squeaked eerily as he pushed it open.

“This place is an orphanage, it looks like a nightmare, not an orphanage.” Hermione stated.

Harry had to agree, this was just like some of those scary movies he had seen with Ted and Tonks.

They all walked up to the great manner door and knocked with the ancient gargoyle door knockers. Soon a short, fat man answered the door. The man was in his late forties maybe, with thinning grey hair and an over indulgent stomach and multiple chins. He grumbled as he opened the door, and glared at them until Sirius introduced them and he allowed them in, still grumbling under his breath, he led them along a long gloomy hallway to a room on the west side of the building. The inside of the room was decorated immaculately with an expensive couch, and expensive throw pillows, and an expensive tea set on an expensive coffee table in front of a marble fireplace that had a fancy mantle with expensive nicknacks all across at. In the middle of the room was a very expensive desk with a very expensive throne like chair the rather disturbing looking woman in the room was seated. She was dressed in bright red. Which clashed with her bleached blond hair horribly. And made her dark eyebrows stick out even more. She had on bright red lipstick that matched her dress that moved with her lips as she read, apparently the gossip section of the Prophet. She had on bright blue eye shadow that clashed with everything that she wore that went from her eyes to her eyebrows and it was that sickly baby blue color too. The cleavage she had way too much showing of was practically spilling onto the page of the Newspaper that she was reading, Sirius couldn’t help but wonder if she didn’t have to wipe the newsprint off he chest at night. Her waist she tried to squeeze into a size ten definitely look like it was meant for a fourteen, and those hips could have done with a sixteen. She looked to be all of five foot three and had on four inch heals so she was going for what five seven maybe five eight. But her hair is what set Harry to snickering, it was done up in a beehive, a high beehive, so that five seven or eight went straight up to six foot five or six, with that hairdo.

The woman heard Harry snickering and looked up from her newspaper and her head snapped up and she glared at him.

“I told you, I don’t do intake in my office. I can’t stand their little germs and filth getting all over my office. Get them out of here. Then we can talk about how much you all will pay me to get rid of your little problems here.”

“Problems?” Sirius asked.

“Yes these are either second and third in line of succession, mistresses’ kids, or squibs, and I don’t care which I just want to know how much you intend to give me per kid to make sure they disappear?” She said in a sickly sweet tone.

Harry looked over to Neville and said “Purple?”

“Purple,” he stated back, and together the lopped two purple light balls into the air, one at the lady, one at the man. The man hit the floor like a bag of wet cement but no one tried to stop him, they were more focused on the woman.

Neville got out his wand and pointed it at the woman and stated “Tell the truth” and a golden ring showed up around her neck and she tried to clear her throat but couldn’t.

“Now we have some questions for you. First how many of these children have you ’taken care of’ or ‘gotten rid of’?

“Fifty eight.”

“I’m calling Amelia,” was all that Alice said as she sent off her Patronus for Amelia. It took about six minutes for someone to knock at the door and Cedric to let her in and direct her to the office where everyone else was waiting.

“What seems to be going on here?” Amelia asked.

“This woman gets paid by rich Wizards to get rid of their unwanted kids, we asked how many she has taken care or or gotten rid of and she admitted to fifty eight. Then I called you and the questions stopped.”

“Truth spell still active?” Amelia looked at Neville who nodded.

Then she looked disgusted at the woman and asked “What happened to those fifty eight children?”

“Some are gone, some we are waiting on them to leave.” She answered although it was hard for her.

“What do you mean by that, waiting for them to leave how, where are they?” Amelia asked quickly.

“They are in the holding cells, they haven’t died yet. Down the hall to the right through three doors and down the stairs, through the double doors but you can’t get in, its not feeding time yet.” She said.

“Watch me,” Harry turned and smacked Neville on the arm shouted “Riders!” And all the riders followed along behind them as they stormed out of the room. Following the woman’s instructions on which way to go.

“Follow them!” Amelia told Shackelbolt and Mad-Eye, keeping Tonks there to witness the interview. She began to get a complete list of every Wizard that dropped off a child, when, how much they paid, what they wanted to happen to the child and why they were getting rid of the child if it was known. The list was stunning, even Minister Fudge had a son here, apparently. Although he may not have realized he did, since the boy was brought here by none other than the Senior Under Secretary Deloris Umbridge herself. Made Amelia wonder if Fudge and the secretary were up to no good a long time ago and didn’t tell anyone. The thought made Amelia slightly nauseous so she went back to work and focused on the questions she was asking.

“That’s two doors should only be one more set of double doors left and then the “Vault room”. And the headed down the stairs to the last set of double doors and sure enough there was a sealed door that looked to be a foot thick. Neville and Harry aimed their wands at it and shouted “OPEN!” And the door groaned and creaked and soon he could hear it clicking deep inside it. One, two, three, four, five clicks and the door burst open and a horrendous smell assaulted their senses. They rushed into the room and began to throw balls of light everywhere they could so they could see better. The frail little bodies on the cots began to move and jerk away from the light, The girls began to sooth the children and Cedric went up to the ones that weren’t moving and checked for a pulse. Good still with us but barely. Neville and Harry began to tell the kids to get to the back of their cells and then blast their cell doors open. Neville took the left side and Harry took the right side. The twins and Cedric took any kids that weren’t moving up the stairs and into the hallway right outside the main room for triage. The girls were checking each child as it came out of the cell then telling them to follow the boys up the stairs carefully, and slowly so as not to hurt themselves. And soon they had them all out of the cells. Harry grabbed the hands of the last two little ones, they looked like a pair of twins about four years old, and helped them climb the stairs. Neville wanted to blast the room to pieces but Harry said they may need it for evidence on the deaths of the other children or something so they left everything exactly as it was. They got up to the main floor and called Jeeves. He found the little twins he was helping up the stairs to a sleeping bag where they could sit together and turned to call Jeeves.

“What may Jeeeeeeves, oh Master…..” He started crying when he saw the little children and the state they were in.

“That is why I called, do you know any house elves that need something to do, that could help us here for a few hours, we could really use the help right now.” And before Harry could finish the sentence twenty house elves showed up all had tears in there eyes.

“Just grab a little one and start cleaning them up, try and get them to eat some chicken broth and bread slowly, they may not be used to good food any more. Get them some clear water too. And clean them up while your at it, see if you can find them any clean pajamas or clothes if you have to. Jeeves use my accounts all you need to.”

Soon all the dingy little faces and hair were clean and fresh smelling. Their hair were now clean and somewhat shiny, Jeeves had gotten everyone a pallet and sleeping bag with a pillow to sleep on until they could figure out what was going on here.

Then Harry went out into the yard and gathered a pocket full of pebbles and rushed back inside and began handing out plushies. “Calculus-Villosum-Ludibrum” and pop a cute stuffed calico kitten appeared in the little girls hands.

On to the next, “Calculus-Villosum-Ludibrum”, and a beautiful tan Teddie with a bright pink nose popped up for the next little boy.

Neville reached out for a handful of pebbles and began to go down the other side of the hallway doing the same thing. “Calculus-Villosum-Ludibrum”, a purple unicorn, her favorite! She squealed and hugged it so hard, how did he know. Probably from the tattered purple unicorn on her t-shirt she was still wearing, but she didn’t need to know that.

Down the row he went and more plushies burst to life and more children cuddled with them with full bellies and a soft plushie to hold onto they fell into a peaceful sleep for the first time in days, weeks, maybe even months.

There were three kids that Harry had Jeeves and two other elves pop over to Madam Pomfrey with a small note from Susan, that basically said they would be there soon to explain.

Out of fifty eight children that had been sent there to ‘get rid of’, forty one had survived or were there in that hallway sleeping right now from Harry’s count. That meant that seventeen children were ‘missing’ or ‘gone’. With that idea in mind he stormed into the woman’s office and leaned heavily on her desk, pushing Amelia out of the way.

“Of the seventeen children that are no longer here, how many of them died?” Harry demanded.

“Four.” She answered.

“Where are the other children?” He ground out between his teeth.

“Pretty Boy Floyde took them. He likes young boys best, but he will occasionally take a girl if her looks are right.” She said.

Harry reached behind himself without even looking and a pad of paper filled his hand with a quill too, He nodded his thanks and poised the quill to write, “And where can I find this Pretty Boy Floyde, and he wrote down the address she gave him and then turned and marched out to the hallway. “Neville, Luna, Pavarti, you are coming with me, the rest of you watch these children and guard them, see to their every need. Cooperate with Amelia any way she needs it and if medical attention is needed... let her know immediately. You have your posts.”

“Sirius, Remus do you think you can take all four of us or do we need Frank and Alice as well?” Harry asked Sirius.

“I think realistically we should take Frank and Alice as back up, let Persephone and Xenophilius take charge of the orphanage here while we are absent. If we need further back up we can always call it in.” Sirius stated.

“Alright thank you.” Harry looked over to Frank and Alice and they nodded, with that they all headed out the door.

Amelia shouted for Mad-Eye to go with them and he was clomping along cussing the whole way. They made it to the gates of the orphanage and then Sirius and Remus started the apparition, then it was Frank and Alice and finally Mad-Eye. The place was a dive from what Harry could tell, it was shady from the word go. Dingy and dirty and practically filthy everywhere, but the door to the address itself. That was the only clean thing Harry could see for a block around. He went up to the door and did a small black orb to blow the lock on the door. Then led everyone inside quietly. Inside was a grand stairway up and a hallway, Sirius motioned to the stairway and so Harry, Neville, Luna and Pavarti took the stairs and headed upward while the adults took the rooms downstairs. Moody went with the kids just to be on the safe side. Harry took the door on the left while Neville took the door on the right, small black orbs were thrown at the locks and the door was opened, Harry’s just had a man wanking to a little boy sucking on a lollipop. Neville’s had a man that had a nude little girl about six years old dancing for him while he was wanking. They did a body bind on both men while the girls brought the kids into the hallway gave them robes and the boys went onto the next room. Most of the rooms the men were just watching the little kids do something like bathing, eating, combing their hair, putting on make up or the favorite, dancing, sometimes nude, sometimes in a little costume. There was one room the man was spanking the boy and Harry almost lost it but he managed to just body bind him, and take the eight year old little boy out to the hallway and get him a robe, and allow him to sit down and cry for a while on his shoulder, since that was the last room. Down stairs the adults weren’t so lucky, the rooms they encountered had slightly older children maybe ten to fifteen years old and they were being forced to do a variety of different sexual acts with an adult. Most of it was oral sex but some was worse, more than once Sirius had to hold back the Wolf and stupefy the person quickly to keep Remus from killing them. Alice and Remus took the kids into the hallways and got them some pajamas and robes to wear and wait until help got there.

Finally they managed to find the office. Harry was fuming by then and Neville was on a slow burn, waiting to explode. They opened that door and there was this Pretty Boy Floyde with a seven year old little boy sitting in his lap while the man played with his hair. Disgusted, Harry body bound the man and Neville helped the little boy down and out of the room.

“What!…What’s going on here? Who do you think you are? You can’t come in here, where’s your search warrant?” He shouted.

“We don’t need a search warrant, we’re the Riders.” Harry stated low and with a growl.

“Oh shit.” Floyde gasped out.

“That’s right, and now that we are here we are going to notify the proper authorities of what we have found here and get these children out of here to safety. Oh and by the way all proceeds found on property are going to be donated to the local orphanages as of this moment. And with that Harry went over to the wall safe that he saw behind the desk in the room, he was joined by Neville and together they blew the safe and gold coins came tumbling out of the safe.

“Hey! You can’t do that! That is my money!” Floyde shouted.

“How much was in there when we got here? Do you really want to admit to making all that money off those children. That would look pretty bad for you in court you know. We intend to hand this money over to the orphanages that need it out there. So you have a choice, keep your money and explain how you made all that money off of selling little children, or hand over seventy percent of it to the orphanages and then tell them that you made that amount of off the little children. Which is it to be?” Harry asked with a gleam in his eyes.

Floyde growled but said “Take it.” And turned away from the manipulative kid. Mad eye looked at Harry with new appreciation, who knew he could be so devious.

Harry divided the gold up by weight and left the guy with thirty percent of his original money. Then put the rest of the money in his bag in pillowcases. It was quite a bit after all.

“And now for the stuff that you don’t have there, where is it?” Harry asked.

“I don’t know what your talking about. That is all I have and you have seventy percent of it. Leave me be why don’t you.” Floyde practically shrieked.

“Neville…” Harry held out his hand and stepped aside for Neville to do his work now.

“Tell the truth!” And a gold glittery band appeared around Floyde’s neck. “Where is the rest of it?”

“AHHhhhh….” He screamed fighting the spell. “It’s in the foot cushion by the sofa.”

Harry went over to the foot cushion and sure enough it had a flip lid and inside was a large metal box, that Harry pulled out and asked for the key, which apparently was in the desk drawer. Thank you Floyde. Harry opened it up and inside was jewelry and jewels of all kinds, from pearl necklaces to heirloom rings, broaches, even wedding rings. Some of this looked to be Goblin made if he wasn’t mistaken. They would be thrilled to have the opportunity to purchase it back at a fair price mind you. He put the metal box in his bag and turned back to Floyde.

“Is that everything?” Harry asked one last time.

There was a pause then a ground out “yes” came out of Floyde’s mouth. Wow, Floyde wasn’t happy right now. So sad, too bad. With that Harry handed the questioning over to Moody and he and Neville went to check on the kids. We need to get these kids over to where the other kids are so they can get medical attention if need be, and something to eat too.” Harry told Sirius.

“Jeeves!”

‘Jeeves popped in with his hand over his eyes, but lowered it slowly. And breathed a sigh of relief. “Master is needing Jeeves?”

“Yes Jeeves, you and the other elves, if you could help me get these children over to the other orphanage with the other children so we can see if they need medical help and get them something to eat and a place to sleep.”

Jeeves nodded and all the other elves popped in and started introducing themselves to children and taking them back over to the other orphanage. Some of the kids were frightened to be back there but Susan and Padma calmed them down with hot cocoa and a plushie. They found the kids a sleeping bag and a pillow and had most of the kids asleep by the time Harry and his crew got back from the horrible place.

Harry still went around and gave each one of the new kids a plushie and kissed them on the forehead, and seeing this, Neville went and did the same, each kid was put to bed proper even the ones older than they were got a plushie and a kiss before they actually fell asleep.

One kid asked “Who are you people?”

“We are the Riders, we make sure that stuff like this doesn’t happen when we can, and when we find out about it, we fix it. Now get some sleep someone will be here to watch over you.”

“What’s your name?” The boy asked.

“Harry, just Harry.” He said with a smile.

“Harry, I’m Jordon.” The boy smiled back.

———————————————————

“Fifty eight kids, four died, that left fifty four, we got forty one kids from the cages, that left thirteen unaccounted for. We come back with thirty four children that means that we have twenty one kids from unknown locations. Whether he bought the kids, or kidnapped them I want the information and I want it now. I want names, I want dates and I want amounts if there is any. I want each child that was found at the sex shop to have a pink arm ban on while those in the dungeons get a tan arm ban on. At least until after their medical exams. This will allow the medical team to search for different medical problems that might arise with their circumstances. I also want all the orphans through out this orphanage to get a blue ban until they also have a medical exam.” Harry started.

“I want the children that were in the sex shop to be given counseling, I don’t care if all they did was wash their hair while a guy wanked over to the side, it was still sexual contact of some form and I want them to get counseling. Male or female it doesn’t matter, age doesn’t matter, squib or wizard doesn’t matter, if it’s a child I want it to happen.

“I want all children above the age of eleven checked for magic, any that are able to go to Hogwarts we're going to kit them out and set them up to go to school this year. They will be Rider students since they won’t have parents we will sponsor them. We will use the money from the sex shop to sponsor any and all kids into Hogwarts that have magic but don’t have the money to go or don’t have parents to sponsor them. The Riders will sponsor them, in joint with their orphanage or without.

“I want a new matron and staff assigned to Twin Oaks, contact Miss Faithright for recommendations. Sell all that crap in the matron’s office and find out what else she did with the money she received from the sale of those children and use that money to pay for the new staff. I want a Medi-witch on staff at all times here as well. I want ten house elves here working full time until this place gets up to par, after that we can cut back if needed. But I doubt there will be a shortage of work for them to do.

“I want to see this place up and running at peak by summer, I want to see that yard well maintained and play ground equipment out there, I want these kids out there playing in the sun and getting some exercise. I want new clothes all around, no more of those dingy gray uniforms, I want bright, pretty colors and skirts for the girls and jeans for the boys, I want these kids to be someone that a parent would be proud to take home with them. I want to see some educational toys, some stuffies and some toys for the older kids too. Sports equipment, what ever they need I want to see it here by summer. When I come back here in June I want this place to be filled with laughter, and smiles and I want it to be filled with color and happiness. I don’t want to see a single gray wall any where.” Finally he ran out of ideas. And Neville was patting him on the back telling him it was time to cool down now. Harry took a deep breath and people were taking notes all around him nodding their heads and writing as fast as they could.

Harry didn’t know what he had started here but he knew it was something good. This is what the Riders was for. They had saved all those innocent children in the sex shop, and who knows how many in the vault. Or crypt if you want to call it anything really. Three of them they didn’t know if they were going to make it, but they had sent them over to St. Mongos, Madam Pomfrey thought they were that bad off. They all three had pneumonia and were severely dehydrated and malnourished, so who knows if they will survive. The youngest was only seven years old.

Harry nodded to Neville and asked around if anyone else had any ideas, Hermione also mentioned to have her parents come by and do a dental check on the kids, it would have to be in stages because there were so many kids but they could start next week end and do maybe ten a week or so, maybe more, and maybe have a magical dentist if there is such a thing (she wasn’t sure) come by and do the same thing as well.

Amelia mentioned Cambridge Cornelius Fudge, apparently the Minister for Magics seven year old son, who the mother was they didn’t know yet, they only knew that Deloris Umbridge was the one that brought the boy into the orphanage and paid to have him ‘gotten rid of’, that was the little boy that was sitting there in the sex shop with the lollipop, Harry found out later. Amelia was furious when she found out and contacted Fudge immediately. He was beside himself. They did a basic paternity test between the two of them and it showed positive, that Fudge was indeed the little boy’s father. Thankfully, Cornelius stated he never slept with or even thought to sleep with Deloris, that the only indiscretion he had during his thirty year marriage was about eight years ago and it was a one time thing, with his secretary at the time. But she had never mentioned getting pregnant or a child, she simply left due to a family emergency. Well apparently this was the family in question. They made contact with the mother of the child and from what she could tell them through her tears was that her son had gone missing three weeks ago, from his playground at school. She had never told the Minister due to the fact that he was married and she didn’t want to break up his marriage, but she still gave her son his name for inheritance sake. She knew that it might cause him problems later on, but she was going to let him choose to use her last name once he got his Hogwarts letter if he wanted to. Filagree, her name was Natalee Filagree and she was so happy to see her son again she was crying her eyes out. Susan took her over to the side and gave her a brief history of how they found Cambridge and what little history they had about how he got to be where he was, and the mother was sobbing on Susan’s shoulders by the time she finished. Her poor son had been through so much. Then the woman came rushing across the room and damn near tackled Harry, murmuring “Thank you, thank you, thank you.” Over and over again. As she sobbed on his shoulder.

Harry managed to disengage Miss Filagree and hand her back off to Susan with a little help from Luna. Harry didn’t mind helping someone, but the hysterical females were another thing, he had no clue how to deal with that. He would let the girls deal with the highly emotional women and he would stick with blowing shit up. He was good with that. Yeah. That sounded good to him.

Fudge issued a warrant for Delores Jane Umbridge arrest for attempted line theft, child slavery, kidnapping and attempted murder. And Amelia was happy to send out a couple of her people after the former Under Secretary.
Then the Minister got a good look at his son and began to get choked up, he and his wife had tried to have a child for years with no success. They found out that his wife was barren and that children were not in their future. But to be looking into the bright curious eyes of his son now he couldn’t be happier, he knew that he had made a mistake, but this small child before him was no mistake, this child was a miracle.