Chapter 9
Sirius:
The investigation against Dumbledore is moving forward, and while Sirius is not directly involved, Lyra keeps him updated on the proceedings and the evidence being uncovered. He realizes there’s quite a lot to it.
Dumbledore’s negligence shows a systematic pattern, and once that’s noticed, more and more evidence begins to surface. It’s a rather sad realization how much the wizarding world has blindly trusted such a deeply flawed man.
Sirius has no doubt he’s not being told everything about the evidence that will be presented. At first, he thought it was an issue of trust, given his past loyalty to the man, but finding out that almost no one else knew more than he did made him suspicious.
These suspicions were confirmed when he managed to ask Lyra directly what was going on. Her response was both cryptic and ominous:
"Two people can keep a secret if one of them is dead."
Well, that wasn't exactly clarifying. But the message was clear: the fewer people who knew, the less likely the information would leak.
Despite not being directly involved in Dumbledore’s case, Sirius wasn’t idle. He had started looking into the cursed locket Lyra had found among the family jewelry during the move and renovations.
She had warned him that the locket held the same type of magic as what seemed tied to Harry’s scar and that she’d been studying the object to understand what it was and how to fight whatever entity was bound to it. Sirius joined in, hoping to find concrete information for his godson before burdening him with the knowledge that something unknown lurked within his scar. Something they had yet to understand, let alone how to combat.
If Harry could sleep soundly knowing that, he was braver than Sirius, who found himself more on edge with each dark possibility that his research uncovered. Not knowing meant it could be anything, and that was a terrifying thought.
***
Dumbledore’s trial was surprisingly anticlimactic.
Sirius had expected more resistance, but instead, the Headmaster claimed he had been too occupied with his many duties at Hogwarts and the Ministry to check on Harry, which was why he hadn’t noticed the boy’s mistreatment. He concluded his “defense” by reluctantly resigning as Chief Warlock, lamenting that it was “for the best” so he would no longer neglect his duties at Hogwarts.
In the end, he won the crowd’s sympathy with his display of well-meaning remorse and was acquitted of conspiracy and inheritance theft. The manipulation left a bitter taste in Sirius’s mouth, one that grew worse when Remus visited, celebrating that Dumbledore hadn’t been jailed and regretting only that the Headmaster had lost his Wizengamot position but retained his job at the school.
Sirius briefly considered enrolling his children in another wizarding school, but Lyra insisted on dealing with Dumbledore and needed to stay close to him to do so effectively. More than that, she wasn’t about to let that man force her to leave the country as though she were the one at fault.
If anyone was going to flee, it would be Dumbledore, according to Lyra, and Sirius couldn’t find it in himself to tell her she was wrong.
Every day, Lyra’s keen mind both haunted him and left him a bit worried about just how far she’d be willing to go if pushed beyond her limits. Just what was she capable of if it came down to it?
Harry
Harry had been busy ever since moving into his new home with his new-old family. If he thought those first few months were hectic, he soon realized they were just an introduction to the magical world.
Things only got busier, especially once he started studying with Draco. Draco became his best friend, and they did almost everything together. They barely had any free time between activities—Sundays were their only true rest days, and they cherished them.
It got even more intense when Lyra managed to convince Draco's parents and grandparents to let them attend a Muggle school. Harry wasn’t sure what arguments she used, but he knew his sister could be very persuasive when she wanted to be, and the older family members treated her almost like an adult, even though other adults saw her as a normal child.
So, Draco, Harry, and Lyra started going to a Muggle school near Grimmauld Place. They used Floo powder to travel to their London home and then walked to school with Sirius, as Draco's family didn’t want to interact with Muggles. The agreement came with the condition that they had to show good results, and Draco wouldn’t be forced to interact with Muggles if he didn’t want to.
Draco was cautious at first, but soon he and Harry made a few friends among the Muggles, gaining popularity as the friends of a “genius” older student (Lyra). With these new friends, they explored the Muggle world, and Draco’s eyes sparkled with curiosity every time he saw a new piece of technology.
Saturdays were their favorite days, with flying lessons and Quidditch practice with Uncle Sirius, along with wandless magic training in the afternoons. It was exhausting but the most fun Harry had ever had.
He’d fall asleep almost as soon as he lay down, but this exhaustion was entirely different from what he felt with the Dursleys. Back then, he was constantly worn out due to lack of food, water, and basic care. This time, he was getting tired from mental challenges and activities that pushed his body in a healthy way. He was learning two new languages (French and German) at Muggle school, along with Latin at home, and studying literature, geography, history, math, biology, and physical education each morning. Afternoons were packed with politics, economics, magical history, potions, etiquette, and wandless magic at home. They then returned to London for music classes on Fridays and karate twice a week, plus conditioning exercises at home twice a week. Those conditioning sessions quickly turned into additional combat training.
Lyra believed in starting early so they wouldn’t develop bad habits. Harry didn’t fully understand her explanations, but she assured him that it would all make sense in time.
Sometimes—especially on the most exhausting days—it was tempting to just give up and go to bed, but Harry knew enough from talking to Sirius and Lyra to understand that there were people who might want to hurt him. He needed to learn how to defend himself until help could arrive.
Combat training was harder for Draco, who had been so accustomed to people doing everything for him that his physical conditioning was poor. He tried to quit at first, but Lyra spoke directly with Lucius and convinced him to make Draco continue.
Even if Draco didn’t want to learn, it was knowledge he needed given who his father was. Harry knew Mr. Malfoy had once been a Death Eater, and that could impact Draco’s life—someone might try to take revenge on him for his father’s actions.
Sirius also said that Lyra had defeated Lucius in a duel without using magic, just a Muggle fighting style—that’s how she convinced him of the importance of learning to fight. Sirius had seemed proud of her for defeating an adult.
After almost a year with Sirius, who treated him like a son, Harry started thinking of him as a father, though it felt wrong to say it aloud when his father, James Potter, had died protecting him. It felt like a betrayal.
One day, after Harry let something slip, Lyra talked to him, pointing out that people could have more than one father or mother. There was no limit to how many people you could love, she argued, and nothing stopped someone from loving multiple people similarly. After all, a parent was more than just the person who shared your genes; it was about feeling.
Plus, she reminded him, his parents had chosen Sirius to be his godfather—to fill that role if anything happened to them.
When Harry finally called him “Dad” without hesitation, Sirius was so moved that he hugged him and called him “son,” bringing both of them to tears.
Saturdays and Sundays also included the Weasleys in their routine, along with Draco. With more people involved, they could play full Quidditch matches and try new plays. At first, things were tense between the Weasleys and Draco, but soon enough, bad behavior was curbed by the threat of missing the games.
Not being able to voice their prejudices, the Weasley kids eventually forgot their father’s views on the Malfoys and focused on their matches and training. Draco, though he’d heard unkind things about Muggles from his father, had made Muggle friends and realized his father wasn’t always right. It had been shocking at first, but he’d already made peace with it by the time he met the Weasleys.
When the Weasleys found out about the wandless magic lessons, Lyra imposed the same conditions on them in order to participate: history of magic lessons with her. They agreed, although they pouted – especially the younger ones – at having to take extra lessons during the holidays. Lyra's history lessons were much better than the history lessons he used to have at his old Muggle school and even at his current Muggle school. She told historical facts and people from the past as if they were recent, making grand gestures as she explained and transforming historical figures into characters in the narrative, explaining feelings and reasoning that led to certain decisions and events. It was engaging.
Then there was the lie in the middle of the explanation.
The Weasleys were shocked that Lyra had lied during the lesson, given false information on purpose and issued the challenge for them to figure out which was the lie and which was the truth. He and Draco, who were already used to it, wanted to laugh at the others' expressions, but Harry could see how the older ones (Bill, Charlie and Percy) were interested in his unorthodox teaching methods.
Despite how disciplined Lyra was, she ended up becoming friends with the Weasley twins, Fred and George, who were always up to something. She pointed out that she liked their creativity in finding unconventional solutions to their problems. This, of course, delighted the twins and Mrs. Weasley, especially when Lyra allowed the boys to use her workshop to work on their projects. The three of them ended up spending much of their free time together in that workshop working and laughing.
Bill became interested in the workings of magic and spent a lot of time studying a wide variety of books from the Black library in secret from his parents who would not approve of the study of dark magic. He was mainly interested in counter-curses and the like, but he still learned how to cast the curse itself.
Charlie spent much of his time getting to know the wildlife that surrounded Dubh Castle, including the merpeople who lived in the lake and the wild centaurs that passed through from time to time. Both species had agreements with the Black family that one would not harm the other if they crossed paths. There was even a magical treaty (recently drawn up) signed between the two tribes and the Black family to ensure that everyone could live in the territory without conflict. The Castle grounds were much larger than just the building; the entire forest that surrounded it was still part of the property and rarely visited. The tribes' relationship with the family had become quite good in the years since the Blacks had moved to the Castle, as the natives realized that they would not be forced to leave their area, nor would they face reprimands. It got to the point where, when Harry got lost in the forest one day, the centaurs led him back while talking to him so he wouldn't get scared.
Percy was absolutely delighted with the recent political developments of the Blacks and spent all his time chasing Arthurus (he was too old to continue going to the Ministry so Sirius took over his duties while Lyra was still under age) in search of lessons. The old man reluctantly ended up teaching the boy a bit of politics while he tutored Lyra, Harry and Draco once a week. Percy's mind, previously so black and white, was becoming more complex in its thoughts and trying to find more political solutions instead of the imposition he had previously tried with his younger and more chaotic brothers. His change in methods of dealing with crises certainly made living with his family much smoother and allowed the brothers to get closer, preventing Percy from becoming a constant victim of his younger brothers' pranks.
Ron became friends with Harry and Draco quickly since they were the same age and had similar interests, even if their personalities were quite different. He managed to convince his parents to let him go to Muggle school with them, and he ended up taking the twins and Ginny along after Lyra argued that the Blacks could help with the costs since they were technically related to both the Weasleys and the Prewetts, making them all very distant cousins.
The older children, who were already at Hogwarts, received summer classes at a Muggle camp that would help them understand the content, although they wouldn't learn everything in such depth unless they dedicated themselves to studying independently throughout the year with books that Sirius could send to them by owl.
Ginny, for her part, was happy to go to Muggle school so she could make friends her own age. It wasn't as if she never met other girls her own age in the wizarding world, but they were few and far between. At school she had a variety of friends.
It was while going to school that Harry, Draco and Ron met Hermione Granger. She was a top-notch girl, the teachers' favorite. The opposite of the twins, for example, who were always getting detention.
They had no reason to pay attention to her until the day there was an accidental magic in the classroom when, during a test, no one was silent. The children who spoke had their mouths forcibly closed and were unable to speak. Of course, the teacher thought it was a joke, but Ron was one of those people so they knew it was magic. What's more, they knew it hadn't been any of them because their cases of accidental magic had become incredibly rare since they started learning wandless magic.
After that, they spoke to Lyra who found a way to locate the magical person in the school. It was anticlimactic how quickly they found the girl with the bushy hair.
Lyra took it upon herself to approach Hermione and invite her to study with them. With the older girl helping the Muggle-born interact with other children, smoothing out rough edges and acting as a mediator in fights, she was soon always present during breaks between classes. Lyra argued that it would be better if they were close by to help in case there was another case of accidental magic to protect the girl from hurting herself or someone else. They still fought from time to time (all of them), but they always managed to make up.