Akira's true parentage (Rewrite)

Wizengamot, November 15th, 2001

Today was the first Wizengamot meeting after the war. Lucius was accompanying Narcissa to the Wizengamot courtroom and introduced her to the chambers, where she would spend an entire day per month making decisions for the wizarding world. Lucius knew that Dumbledore was trying to abolish the aristocracy in the wizarding world and tries to implement the muggle democracy in their world, but it was impossible to do something like this. Albus could try, however he wanted, but this would never work since the aristocratic system can’t be abolished without the approval of one of the three Ancient and Imperial Houses that are represented by the Le Fay, Pendragon and Emrys lines and he knows that Akira under their tutelage would never agree on this. Lucius also found another motive behind Dumbledore’s plan to send Akira to the muggle world. The man wanted control over the poor boy and would have been able to convince Akira to abolish the aristocratic system in their world and reform it to a democracy, but now, this plan would be destroyed without any problems since Akira would be raised the proper way of a noble wizard, but at the same time, he would be raised to know the muggle world. Lucius took his seat in the dark section, whereas Narcissa went to the light section since Sirius moved the Black seats there. It was going to be uncomfortable since most light siders would see it as an insult that a Malfoy is in the light section. When the other members started to appear, Narcissa received many hostile looks from Dumbledore’s followers and sympathisers. Some gave her sympathetic looks like Callidora Longbottom and Muriel Prewett. Narcissa hoped that the session starts soon since the looks are getting on her nerves. Callidora whispered to her: “Many are not going to be happy. I wish you good luck with James Potter since I had heard that the man was furious that Sirius was disowned and left to die in the cold with nothing apart from his clothes on his body. I am not sure, if he was going to make the connection that you had a hand in this.” Narcissa smiled and whispered back: “No, he will believe that my son is the new Heir Black. Potter will be unbearable.” Lady Longbottom nodded in agreement. “I am only waiting that the session starts and that I can reassign the Black seats to the dark section.” Her great aunt answered quietly: “You better.”

Narcissa saw James Potter coming into the Wizengamot. When he had seen her, the man fumed in rage. James couldn’t believe that the old Lord Black would allow that bitch to have control over the seat. She should be in Azkaban with the other death eaters, but there was no proof for her involvement. Advancing towards the light section, he confronted the woman: “What are you doing here, Malfoy?” Narcissa looked quizzical, even though, she wanted to curse the bastard to the next oblivion and back. She answered: “I am sitting on the Black seat since I am surprisingly the new Regent of the House Black since my great uncle disowned Sirius.” James and the rest of Dumbledore’s sheep glared at her. They were furious, what had happened to Sirius. James wanted to say more, but he can’t. He hoped that Lucius Malfoy will end up in Azkaban. James smirked and asked: “Where is your husband?” Narcissa just smiled much to James’ annoyance. “He is sitting on the Malfoy seat on the other side of the room.” James turned around and saw Lucius Malfoy sitting calmly on his seat. James’ face turned red in fury. How is that possible? The man should be sitting in a ministry holding cell until his trial and face justice. Looking back at Narcissa, he saw, how the woman was smiling calmly again. She managed to read his face and answered: “You ask yourself, why isn’t he in the ministry holding cells. Well, the answer is that my poor husband spent an entire week in Gringotts. Especially, in the healing ward since the arresting aurors, Auror Moody and Auror Shacklebolt, found out through an inheritance test that Lucius was loaded with loyalty, compulsion and hate potions by my father-in-law and Voldemort. Additionally, those bastards spelled him with compulsion spells, put him under the imperio curse and they put a leech on his core.” Narcissa lips were in a thin line since she hated to confirm this in front of anyone. The others gasped in shock and flinched, when she said You-Know-Who’s name. James flinched slightly and was angry. He doesn’t believe this, but if it was Alastor and Kingsley, who arrested Lucius, then, there was nothing he can do. And he wasn’t going to cause a goblin war, if he claimed that the inheritance test was a fake. James sat down angrily on his seat and hoped that the session would be good since he had a feeling that the session would end up pretty bad. The session was supposed to start ten minutes ago, but they had to wait for their chief warlock. Narcissa hated Dumbledore for being late since he was displaying, how important he was with his lateness.

When Albus arrived in the chambers, the man took a good look around the Wizengamot and noticed Narcissa on the Black seat. He swallowed hard since he knew that this will not be good. Albus opened the Wizengamot session and the first thing was a request from Lord Crouch and the head of the DMLE to activate a seal of silence since he had an important, but also a secret announcement to make that is forbidden to get out in the public due to safety reasons. It was done before anyone was asked, if they want to reassign their seat in the Wizengamot. With a vote, the request was approved much to Dumbledore’s confusion and agitation. Then, he saw four Orders of Merlin First Class appear on Crouch’s desk. Bartemius cleared his throat and started after he gave the minister a glance, who nodded that he should do this: “Today, I am going to announce four heroes that have helped the DMLE and the ministry of magic during the war to stop the Dark Lord Voldemort and his followers from killing more innocent people by their heroic, but also risky actions. They have risked their lives for our society and did their duties to protect the magical community from this dark lord. I, myself, congratulate those four men for their actions even though they had to kill many people, in order to keep their covers and protect our world from the death eaters.” Everyone knew that Crouch was talking about spies, who had helped during the war. Bartemius took a deep breath and continued: “I applaud for their bravery and also their courage for what they had done. For that reason, Lords and Ladies, I am handing those Orders of Merlin First Class to those four men. The first one to step forward would be Lord Thorfinn Rowle.” The notorious Lord Rowle made his way to the middle of the Wizengamot ignoring everyone apart from Bartemius Crouch. The supporters of Voldemort were furious that there was not only one traitor, but four in their midst. They had known about Evan Rosier since he was revealed by that fool Julius Podmore and they had dealt with him appropriately. But they never thought that there was more than one spy. In the light section, many were annoyed that the man was going to receive the Order of Merlin First Class. They risked their lives, but still received nothing from it. James glared angrily at the man. Who did he think he was? Rowle doesn’t deserve an Order of Merlin First Class, but the supportive looks from the minister and the head of the DMLE would make sure that his protests would be silenced. Minister Bagnold and Bartemius Crouch followed by the other members of the Wizengamot clapped politely and the minister gave him the order. Bartemius continued: “The next person to step forward would be Lord Augustus Rookwood.” Augustus made his way to the middle with an expressionless mask. The darker purebloods vibrated in fury. They should have never trusted Unspeakables. They warned their lord about them, but he didn’t listen to them and now, it is revealed that they were right. Augustus received his order in the same manner like Thorfinn. Bartemius continued after giving Augustus his order: “The next person can’t step forward to take his Order of Merlin First Class since he was found out and killed during the war, but his brother had decided to take the order in honour of his brother. Step forward, Lord Darren Rosier. Your younger brother, Evan Rosier, was a brave man, who had helped us against the Dark Lord Voldemort and his followers.” Darren nodded sadly and made his way to the middle of the Wizengamot. Bartemius gave him the order and bowed out of respect. James hated this meeting. In his opinion, it was an insult to the light that those three death eaters are getting the Orders of Merlin First Class. His son deserves this title since he was the one, who stopped Voldemort and vanquished him, but he had to remain quiet since it needs to be investigated, who should receive the Order of Merlin First Class and Dumbledore said that they can’t allow it since the ministry would ask uncomfortable questions about Harry. For that reason, he remained quiet. Bartemius took the last order in his hands and announced: “And finally, I want Severus Snape to step forward to take his Order of Merlin First Class for his help and his achievements during the war. He had proven his loyalty to us and fought on our side against the death eaters even though he had to make a lot of sacrifices, in order to achieve his goals.” Before Bartemius could give Severus his order, there were loud protests from the light section. Especially from James Potter. The man was absolutely furious, when he had seen, how his school nemesis was rewarded with an order, whereas his son got nothing since they had to keep quiet about Harry. This wasn’t right. First, he is the youngest potion master and now he gets an order. James thundered in pure rage: “YOU CAN’T DO THAT. THAT DEATH EATER DOESN’T DESERVE THIS. HE KILLED MANY INNOCENT PEOPLE AND YOU ARE GIVING HIM AN ORDER! WITH WHAT DID HE BRIBE YOU, SO THAT HE CAN GET ONE!” Narcissa sighed deeply. That man is an idiot. Bartemius snapped at James Potter: “Enough, Lord Potter. This isn’t your decision, who gets an Order of Merlin First Class and who not. Severus Snape is a hero. He chose to risk his life for nearly nothing, in order to protect our community from Voldemort and his followers.” Before Bartemius could continue, one of the aurors snapped at him in pure fury. It was Hestia Jones. “Hero! Hero! You call that monster a hero. He killed Julius.” The woman broke down in tears since she was in love with Julius Podmore and she wanted to marry him, but one night she watched how her love of her life was tortured, mutilated and killed by Snape. She vowed revenge against that bastard and wanted to bring him to justice. Now, her revenge would never be fulfilled since she knows that he will get away with it. Bartemius’ lips thinned into a line. He and the minister didn’t want this to get out, but he will explain why he was killed. Bartemius watched Lord Podmore, who was first pale and then, became red-faced in fury. The man roared in rage: “YOU DID WHAT? YOU KILLED MY SON AND HEIR. I DEMAND HIS ARREST. HE SHOULD BE TRIALED NOT REWARDED!” Only a minority voiced their agreement. The others remained silent since the minister and the head of the DMLE seemed to be involved in the death of Julius Podmore. Milicent Bagnold used her gavel to get silence. “SILENCE!” The booming voice of the minister was heard around the chamber. When the chamber was deathly silent, the minister turned to Bartemius. “Bartemius, can you give us some context why Heir Podmore was killed?” Bartemius nodded and turned to Lord Podmore with a cold, calculating look. “Lord Podmore, your son and heir, Julius Podmore, admitted that he was an accomplice of the murder of Evan Rosier, who was a ministry spy during the war. We investigated your son after Evan’s death and found out that Heir Podmore blackmailed Mr. Rosier into joining the order or he would expose him as a spy. When Evan refused and tried to obliviate him, which failed since he had some protections against the oblivation charm, your son exposed our spy to the death eaters and because of him we have lost a vital member of the DMLE. We charged your son with premeditated murder and treason and found him guilty in a closed session. Your son was sentenced to die. When Julius Podmore found out about Severus Snape, Severus bound him and contacted me, how to deal with him. I arrived at the scene and ordered Severus to kill your son, in order to stop Heir Podmore from exposing Severus too.” Bartemius sat down and everyone started to mutter. Lord Podmore looked betrayed and turned his attention to Dumbledore, who was shocked about this turn of event. He couldn’t believe, how far Crouch went to protect his spies. One of his people died and this was the result. He promised Edward Podmore to find his son’s killer, but now, there was pretty much nothing he can do since Severus was going to be pardoned for his crimes as a death eater. James couldn’t believe, how corruptive the ministry was. He swore, he will fix this corruption and find a way to throw Snivellus into Azkaban. James pitied Hestia. The poor woman was in love with Julius and Snape destroyed everything by killing the man. When there were no disruptions, Bartemius gave Severus the order and announced that all four received full pardons and all of their arrest warrants were dismissed. With that the seal of silence was dissolved. Hestia was furious and was ready to storm from the chambers. Albus and his sheep looked ready to object, but nothing came out of their mouths. They swore to make Crouch pay for this monstrosity.

When this drama was over, Albus turned his attention, if there were new introductions or reassignments. He sighed, when Lucius stood up and introduced Narcissa, who also stood up from the light section. “I introduce my wife, Lady Narcissa Malfoy. She is the new Regent of the Ancient and Noble House of Black.” Many looked happy that Narcissa was the new regent of the House Black. They didn’t like Sirius due to his vulgar behaviour and bad attitude, but Narcissa was a soft and well-mannered woman. In the light section, James and the other Dumbledore followers glared at Narcissa, when she stood up. They couldn’t believe that Arcturus Black chose that woman to be regent. James stood up and tried: “What about Malfoy? Why isn’t he arrested for his crimes as a death eater?” Many felt uncomfortable, when that was brought up. Narcissa was furious. She was going to rip Potter into pieces. Lucius sighed and turned his attention to the head of the DMLE. Bartemius let out a groan and stood up. “Lord Potter, we investigated Lord Malfoy thoroughly and found out that he was loaded with compulsion, loyalty and hatred potions. Furthermore, he had compulsion spells and he was under the imperio. The arresting aurors made an inheritance test in Gringotts and I hope that you are not going to declare a goblin-made inheritance test as fake. We don’t want another goblin war in our hands, because of you and your views.” James clenched his teeth and sat down. He was getting tired, how some death eaters managed to weasel their way out, but he was sure that Albus would bring them to justice one day. James was not going to allow the likes of Malfoy and Snape to run free and do whatever they wanted, but for now, he had to let it go.

Narcissa was still standing and announced, when she managed to get the attention on herself. “I am reassigning the seats to the dark fraction.” With that the seat moved to the other side of the room and she left the light fraction. Narcissa went to the dark fraction to the Black seat and sat down. Many from the light were protesting, but there was nothing that can be done. Albus was angry that things didn’t go as planned, but there was nothing to be done. He banged his gavel and told them to be silent.

When the protests died down, Albus moved on to the attack on Godrics Hollow. James was preening in pride, when Albus mentioned, how John Potter had defeated You-Know-Who and ended the dark times temporarily. The man droned on about the attack and when he asked, if there were any questions. Narcissa was the first: “Chief Warlock, we all are aware of the attack on Godric’s Hollow, but my question goes to Lord Crouch due to his position as the head of the DMLE.” Crouch prepared himself. He somehow knew, what the woman was going to ask and Albus was not going to like it. “Yes, Lady Malfoy.” Lady Malfoy questioned: “Did the DMLE or the Unspeakables investigate the attack on Godric’s Hollow? Because it is important to know, how the killing curse got rebounded. We all know that this particular curse can’t be rebounded by a simple shield charm. So, the question that is burning inside me, how did the curse get rebounded?” Lord Crouch stared at the woman. He didn’t investigate that, but he will open an investigation, if Albus was not going to interfere. Albus quickly interfered. He didn’t want the DMLE or worse the Unspeakables to be involved, but in case, if this happens, he will make sure that one of his people are going to take over the investigation. Why did this woman have to question the attack on Godric’s Hollow like this? But he should have seen this question coming. “There is no need for an investigation. Voldemort was vanquished through the love of Lily Potter towards her children and with that Voldemort was defeated.” Narcissa and Bartemius didn’t look convinced. “Are you sure? Or had Lady Potter done something that would stop Voldemort from killing the Potter boys.” Albus was having a hard time to answer the question. He didn’t want the Wizengamot to think that Lily used a dark ritual to protect the boys. “It was really the love of Lily that had saved both boys. So, you don’t need to worry about anything.” With that, the topic was dropped since Narcissa knew that she can’t push Dumbledore further, but it would be enough to rattle the old fool.

The next question rattled Dumbledore and James again. It came from Lord Greengrass. “I have another question to Lord Potter.” James was ready, what that filthy snake was going to ask. “After the attack, did you let a healer examine both boys? Because after such an attack, there must have been an examination done, in order to see, if something was left by You-Know-Who. The killing curse is a dark magical spell and it leaves black magical residues that could harm the core of your children.” James was red-faced. He didn’t know, what to say. If he lied and said yes, then, a healer’s report would be demanded and if he said no, then, they would demand that Harry and John to be examined. From there on, they would find out that Harry is living with Vernon and Petunia and things would go worse from there. Albus quickly butted in, when he had seen James’ face. “There was no need. I examined both boys and they are fine.” Cyrus narrowed his eyes at Dumbledore. He knew that it was a lie. “Chief Warlock, are you a healer?” Albus was silent. No one ever questioned his words. He swallowed hard. This was a trap question. If he says yes, then, he can see that they would demand his certification as a healer and the report. If he said no, then, everyone would question him further, why he didn’t let a professional healer examine both boys. Albus was getting frustrated with all this questioning. He answered: “It doesn’t matter. I made a quick examination and told that the boys are alright.” Albus didn’t think that people would question him like this and why is no one standing up for him and stopping the dark from questioning him like this. Cyrus was dissatisfied with the answer, but he wasn’t the only one. James and Albus noticed it and knew that things didn’t go as they wanted.

The next order of business was, if there were any nominations. Narcissa glanced at Amelia, who nodded and gave her a slight smile. Amelia stood up and announced loudly: “Chief Warlock, I have a nomination and a request to make.” Albus nodded to Amelia and banged with his gavel to inform the other members that Amelia Bones was chosen firstly. Amelia began, when it was silent and all eyes were on her: “Dear members of the Wizengamot, I have a request to invite Chief Ragnock since the goblin nation managed to calculate the damages done to our world during the war with the Dark Lord V-Voldemort.” Albus wanted to decline the request, but from the supportive looks, he knew he couldn’t say no since they needed to count down, how much damage the dark side and Voldemort had done. With a nod to his side, the Wizengamot voted on the request, and it was approved by the majority of the Wizengamot. Only the darker purebloods voted against the request.

It would take some time until Chief Ragnock would come and for that reason, they turned their attention to Amelia’s nomination. Albus requested: “Amelia, can you continue with your nomination?” The more traditional Lords and Ladies were hostile at the dropped title of Lady Bones, but they had hidden it well. The woman had a brittle smile, but said with a smirk: “I am nominating that all convicted death eaters should pay for the damages that they had done during the war. Their and Voldemort’s assets should be seized for the damages and if the assets are not enough, then, they should work off their debts in the goblin mines. That is the reason why I want Chief Ragnock to be involved in this meeting, in order to discuss this nomination and maybe a new treaty.” Albus didn’t want that nomination to pass, because he had plans for those death eaters. If they spent decades in the goblin mines, then, they would be unreachable for Voldemort to break them out since he knew that even though Tom was insane, he wasn’t insane enough to risk a goblin war. Azkaban would be easy to break the death eaters out since Voldemort was able to control the dementors and there were not many guards. So, it would be easy to get them out. He needed the death eaters, in order to revive Voldemort back and make sure to return the fear back in the UK with a new war. With fear, he had control over the wizarding world. But Amelia’s nomination is threatening his plans. It is bad that he had no counterarguments, but it’s getting worse, when many were agreeing with her. Albus tried: “But Amelia, are you sure that this punishment would be a good idea? The goblin mines are brutal and dangerous.” Amelia just waved him off: “Chief Warlock, I know that the goblin mines are more brutal than Azkaban, but do you think that Azkaban will teach the death eaters that their actions were wrong and they would redeem themselves?” Many shook their heads. “No. They should learn, what it means to suffer painfully, so that they understand that their actions were cruel.” There were a lot of agreements from nearly everyone in the chamber. The darker purebloods were remaining silent since they didn’t want to expose themselves.

Albus put the nomination to vote and much to his dismay, nearly everyone voted for Amelia’s nomination. After that, the chief of the British branch of Gringotts was escorted into the Wizengamot chambers. There were hostile looks from Voldemort’s and Dumbledore’s supporters towards the goblin. Another person, who was furious that a goblin was requested to attend this meeting, was Deloris Jane Umbridge. The woman hated creatures, half-bloods and muggleborns, but she had to remain quiet since the creature was here to calculate the damages in the wizarding world and they needed to know, how much money is needed. The ministry can’t pay the amount of damages and this would be a solution even though most death eaters were coming from pureblood families. Amelia smiled at the goblin and asked him looking down on a sheet of parchment: “Chief Ragnock, the goblin nation managed to count down, how high the damages were and had summed up the amount of money that the death eaters had to repay. You had counted down that the damages are 25 345 234 Galleons 120 345 623 Sickles and 450 765 Knuts altogether.” Everyone stared for a moment. This was a lot of money. Ragnock continued: “I have no problems with seizing the assets from those, who caused these damages, but we need to update the treaty from 1653, where the Wizengamot and the goblin nation discussed the matter regarding thieves and bank robbers and what fate will befall them, if they try to steal or rob the bank. Furthermore, it was discussed, what would happen to frauds and the indebted.” Albus quickly butted in: “But the Wizengamot needs to vote first on this matter.” He didn’t like it one bit, where this conversation is leading to. But Albus didn’t expect someone to question him: “But Chief Warlock, didn’t we vote on this issue already? I mean, we agreed that every convicted death eater would be sent to the mines. Now, we need to work on the upgrade of this treaty.” Albus wanted to curse. The nomination had passed and there was nothing to be done. For the next few hours, the treaty was upgraded. From now on, any war damages done to the goblin nation and the wizarding world by both parties would be punished by seizing the assets and in case, if the assets were not enough, then, the perpetrator or perpetrators should pay it back by working in the mines. Narcissa had noticed that Dumbledore tried to protest some paragraphs, but Amelia was an expert in convincing the other Lords and Ladies to agree on the contract. It was easy to convince the light, the neutral and some from the dark side, who were not loyal to Voldemort, to agree on the newly upgraded treaty. Narcissa knew that Dumbledore underestimated the level of hatred against the death eaters that his side had, and they agreed on the upgrade on the treaty in their own self-righteous way. Albus was angered that his side didn’t understand the bigger picture, but he can’t argue since many of his pawns would question him, why he was not allowing the death eaters to be punished harsh for their actions and he can’t have that. He really hated it, when his followers are letting themselves led by emotions.

The upgrade was finished and ratified by the Wizengamot and by the chieftain of the goblin nation. From this day on, the old treaty was no longer valid, and the new treaty would be valid for the time being until the Wizengamot decided to upgrade the treaty again. The next order of business were the departments. Narcissa found this part extremely boring since it involved the budgeting department and the other departments. She kept her face blank and neutral, but if someone looked closer than everyone would notice the tiredness on her face.

When the Wizengamot came to an end, Narcissa met up with her husband. She rubbed her tired eyes and stretched herself a little. “I thought, I was going to die from boredom, when the financial aspect was discussed. The beginning of the Wizengamot was good. It seems like that Dumbledore didn’t like the nomination and the request from Amelia, but his worst enemy were his own followers, who he wasn’t able to control due to their hatred against anything dark.” Lucius chuckled: “You are right. Albus never thought that he would lose control over his own followers. But his face was priceless, when he watched, how Severus, Augustus, Evan and Thorfinn were given the Orders of Merlin First Class and were hailed as heroes since they did everything in their power to stop Voldemort and his followers. I am happy that Evan’s memory would be respected.” Narcissa just snickered: “Potter’s face was priceless too since he hates it that his nemesis is getting an Order of Merlin and he gets nothing from his so-called war efforts. It must hurt that Sev is getting an order and not him or his son.” Lucius just nodded. Before Narcissa could continue, Lucius and she watched, how Hestia was arguing with Bartemius Crouch Sr. about Sev’s Order of Merlin. Getting nearer, they overheard their conversation. Hestia snarled: “Lord Crouch, how dare you hail that monster as a hero, when you know, what he had done to Julius.” But Bartemius waved her away and snapped: “Enough, Auror Jones. It is already decided and your poor Julius was a killer and a traitor to the ministry. He betrayed a ministry spy and got him killed. We have lost a valuable member of our department, because of him and he has no one then himself to blame.” With that Crouch left before the woman would combust in fury. Hestia looked ready to explode, but remained quiet. Tears started to trail down her cheek until James came to her and comforted his colleague. “Don’t cry, Hestia. We will bring that scum to justice. He will not get away with what he had done.” Hestia just nodded and left the chambers. James’ eyes blazed in fury. He tried to find Snivellus, but he noticed that he had left before he could make sure that he suffered for what he had done.

Albus quickly made his way to James. “Albus? Do you need something?”, James asked his old headmaster dutifully. “Yes, my boy. I already send messages to the other order members that there would be another meeting in Hogwarts in my office.” Albus left and James nodded.

Narcissa and Lucius quickly left before they were noticed and tried to work through everything, what they had learned. Then, Narcissa had a plan, how they would eavesdrop on the order meeting without being there. She explained her plans to her husband, but Lucius asked her: “And how are you going to do that? You know as I do that the order would not accept either of us.” Narcissa just looked at her husband with a glare. How could he be so clueless. “Lucius, we are not going to join the order for Merlin’s sake. Didn’t you hear that the meeting would take place in Hogwarts. I could ask my ancestor Phineas Black to spy on this meeting.” Lucius summed it up perfectly: “Oh. Since when do we have the portrait of Phineas Black?” Narcissa answered: “I was forced to bring the portrait of Phineas with me as a marriage gift that was demanded from Abraxas, when we got married since Voldemort wanted a spy against Dumbledore, but it didn’t go the way, he wanted it to go. Even though, Phineas hated Dumbledore, he didn’t like Voldemort either and just gave him half-truths and half-lies. It drove the mad man up to the wall, how Phineas was playing with him.” Abraxas and Voldemort were furious about the former headmaster’s disrespect for the dark lord. Bella was even more enraged that her ancestor had no respect for her lord and tried to use many blasting curses on the portrait, which failed of course. Phineas made the death eater meetings unbearable since the man disrupted the meetings and made sure to call Voldemort a disgrace, which enraged the already unstable man. Sadly, for Voldemort and Abraxas, the portrait couldn’t be destroyed or even silenced since the Black Family put charms on the portraits to protect the family member from being frozen, silenced or burned, but for Narcissa it was entertaining, how Voldemort was thundering in rage every time the death eater meeting was disrupted by the former headmaster.

Narcissa and Lucius quickly made their way out of the ministry to get Draco and in order to inform Phineas about the order meeting that will take place in a few hours. But before they could continue, they were stopped by Dumbledore and James Potter. “Lord and Lady Malfoy, can I have a word with you?” Narcissa groaned inwardly and Lucius sighed deeply. Turning around, he answered formally: “Yes, what can I do for you, Chief Warlock, Lord Potter?” Albus tried to get some information on the Malfoys, in order to get them on his side. Through his contacts in the ministry, he was able to get a copy of an inheritance test of Lucius Malfoy and knew that he would be able to get the Malfoys on his side with some well-placed compulsions. Albus tried to find some ground and started: “I am just worried about the fact that Bellatrix would serve her punishment in the goblin mines. I mean, she is your sister.” Albus noticed the Lord and Ladyship rings and knew that compulsions wouldn’t work at all. Narcissa answered swiftly: “Chief Warlock, that woman is no longer considered as my sister. Like Andromeda, she turned her back on our family. Lord Longbottom is a relative of mine through my great-aunt, and with this attack on them, she proved to us that she doesn’t care about the Black family and that her lord was more important than her own birth family.” Albus was startled, how the woman spoke. He can admit that even though Narcissa looked docile and kind, but this was a ruse and underneath the docile mask there was a dark, ruthless witch that was trained in the dark arts like Bellatrix. Only the woman remained unknown and let the others underestimate her. James was quiet. He didn’t want to respond to that woman, who was maybe responsible for Sirius’ disownment. When James asked Sirius about Narcissa, the man became furious and was ready to rant that she was evil and that she ruined everything, but nothing came out due to the seal of silence. But James was able to read Sirius’s red face that Narcissa may have had a hand in his disownment. Sadly, he had no proof, but James was sure that when Harry is reintroduced to the wizarding world, then, they would find out, if Narcissa was involved or not and make her pay for what she had done to Sirius, if her involvement was proven.

Albus didn’t have any words left since the woman made her point clear and he didn’t like it one bit that Narcissa doesn’t care about neither Andromeda nor Bellatrix. They were her sisters and she treated them like they never existed and behaved like she was an only child. Lucius asked: “Is there something else you wished to discuss, Chief Warlock?” Albus shook his head and left the chambers with a quiet James. Lucius and Narcissa were a bit curious about Potter being quiet, but they hadn’t had the time. They needed their son to be with them.

Hogwarts, Headmaster’s office

Albus and James flooed directly to the headmaster’s office. James quickly sent a patronus to Remus, Sirius and Lily that there was another order meeting and Albus used his enchanted parchment to call the other order members. They needed to discuss the Wizengamot meeting and the last two weeks. Things didn’t go the way, how they were supposed to go. After some time, the order members arrived. James noticed Lily’s and Mary’s former best friends, Dorcas and Marlene, who didn’t look happy to be called here. He wished, they had died during the war since they betrayed Lily and Mary during their time in school, when Snape spread his lies and venom about Lily and took away her friends. Mary suffered the same, when she tried to defend Lily, which didn’t work and they broke off their friendship like it meant nothing. Mary wanted revenge, but she never got it since she was killed during the war. Behind them, the Tonks family appeared. Andromeda like Sirius hated anything dark, but she was disowned like Sirius, when she married Ted and got pregnant. It was unfair that Andromeda was disowned for falling in love. Why did the Black family think that Evan Rosier was a good match? Maybe they had known that Rosier was a spy and wanted to have the connection with him, when the war ended and it was revealed that he was a spy in the Wizengamot. Andromeda would have got the fame of being the wife and if they had gotten rid of Evan and Darren and his son, Felix, then, they would have been able to acquire the Rosier seat to the light section, but sadly, now it isn’t possible since Andromeda made the decision to marry Ted. Next came Lord Doge, Lord Diggle, Lady Marchbanks, Sturgis Podmore, that waste of space Mundungus Fletcher, Hestia and Arthur. At the end after nearly everyone arrived, Sirius, Remus and Lily filled the gap. The office thankfully expanded with the number of people and Albus summoned for everyone a seat. Everyone was talking at the same time until Albus cleared his throat. First, he looked at Lily, Remus and Sirius. All three knew that the headmaster wants to talk about the attack in Godric’s Hollow. They hope that John will get an Order of Merlin First Class for defeating Voldemort. Lily started: “How did it go at the Wizengamot? Will John receive his Order of Merlin First Class or not?” Albus sighed and shook his head. “No, Lily, since it needs to be investigated and we can’t afford this since everyone would know about Harry and our plans. Leaks could happen and we can’t afford this, but surely, we will manage it, when John defeats Voldemort again.” Lily was not happy that her son would get nothing, but she also flinched at the idea, if someone unknown finds out, what they had done to Harry. Sirius wanted to scream that Narcissa already knew, what they had done to Harry, but couldn’t warn them. He knew that currently, James and Lily are walking into a trap that was set by Narcissa, and he also knew that his former cousin is ready to strike, but she is waiting patiently.

Albus noticed the absence of Molly, but he thinks that Molly is at home and takes care of the children. Unknown to Albus, Arthur discovered their treachery and was a spy against the order. Suddenly, Minerva nudged him and told him: “Albus, you should also inform the rest of us about Algie and Peter, if they are not aware.” Albus nodded in agreement and looked at his followers and asked: “Do many of you know, what Peter had done?” Many nodded and were furious with that bastard. James, Sirius and Remus looked ready to kill. They were his only friends and that was the repayment. Sirius wished he had killed the rat then and there, but he wanted him to suffer and death was too good for him. Albus didn’t need to use legilimency, in order to know that his followers already knew about Peter’s treachery. He went to the next order member, who betrayed the order. “Do you know, what Algie Longbottom had done?” Many nodded. They still couldn’t believe, what Algemon Longbottom had done, but power and money went into the man’s head. The order members didn’t understand, how the man could be so evil, but there was nothing to be done. Their reputation took a hit, because of those two.

The next thing that was discussed was the severed ties with the House Longbottom. Many were furious with Jakob, Josephine and Agnes that they were abandoning them in these hard times. Frank and Alice would have been on their side to the end, but they are now in the Janus Thickey Ward. Well, they lost all ties with House Longbottom. Augusta and Callidora don’t trust them and hated them.

The last order of business was Amelia’s passed nomination. Albus tried not to roll his eyes, when his followers tried to justify themselves that the law was important and that those no-good death eaters should pay dearly for what they had done. Albus was not happy since the newly applied treaty is applied to everyone and not only the death eaters. They doomed the wizarding world with their self-righteous behaviour, but he knew that it could backfire on them and his followers would try everything to block the punishment, which would fail since they agreed on the new treaty and had accepted it. His followers don’t like it one bit, if their own law was used against them and they had to suffer the consequences. He will have to let it go for now.

Sirius really wanted to tell the order about Harry’s disappearance, but he can’t. The seal of silence is blocking him. He was ready to cry. Why did his family do this to him?

Albus started to make new plans for the governors meeting at the end of November and explained: “We need to remove some dark books from the library. There are still a few books that are dark and dangerous and we need to remove them. We also should remove the Veritesarem from the potion curriculum. We also need to stop new nominations from the dark section.” Many bobbled their heads in agreement and accepted their new tasks. Arthur made sure to memorise it and inform Lucius about Dumbledore’s plans for the governors meeting at the end of November.

With that, the order meeting ended.

Weasley Manor/Malfoy Manor

Arthur made his way quickly to the floo and called for Lucius and Narcissa. Lucius’ head appeared in front of him. “Arthur, what can I do for you in this fine evening?” Lucius was not really patient. They wanted to speak with Phineas about the order meeting, but the man didn’t appear in his portrait hole in his home. Arthur knew that Lucius and Narcissa would like to have information, what had been going on in the order meeting and explained: “I have attended today’s order meeting in Hogwarts and I could give you some information.” Lucius stared for a second and groaned. He and Narcissa forgot that Arthur was and is an order member. He quickly mustered himself up and asked: “And what has been discussed in this meeting?” Arthur smirked slightly. “Well, they discussed about Algie’s and Peter’s betrayal. Then, they went on about the loss of House Longbottom and the passed nomination. Let’s just say that they had rehashed everything, what had happened today. But the last order of business was about the governors meeting at the end of November. They want to remove some books from the library and are planning to remove the brewing of Veritesarem from the potion curriculum.” When Arthur was finished, Lucius contemplated, what to do and was planning, how to counter Dumbledore and his chickens.

Lucius said: “Thank you, Arthur. We will discuss this one day before the governors’ meeting, what to do with Dumbledore’s nomination.” Arthur nodded and ended the floo call and went up to see his boys.

Lucius went to the parlour to speak with Narcissa. Seeing Cissy, he called for her: “Cissy. Stop watching the portrait. Arthur floo-called me and told me about the order meeting.” Narcissa sighed and answered: “I look like a fool. I temporarily forgot that Arthur is an order member.” Lucius chuckled and joked: “Me too. You are not the only one, who had forgotten it.” Narcissa returned to her seat and sat down sipping her tea. Looking at Lucius, she asked: “And what was discussed at the order meeting?” Lucius sat down and explained, what Dumbledore was planning at the next governor’s meeting. Narcissa wrote Dumbledore’s plans down on pen and paper and the woman had to admit that this was much easier to handle than quill and parchment. Mostly, the pen was not smearing and paper was easier to handle than parchment. “I can’t believe, how much easier it is to use pen and paper. I mean, pens mostly do not smear and the paper is not rolling down like the parchment.” Lucius agreed. He found using pen and paper so much easier than quill and parchment. This was one point for the muggle world for making things easier.

Narcissa pondered about Dumbledore’s nomination and had the perfect idea. “We will stop Dumbledore’s nominations and lay a big rock in front of him, so that his focus is not on Hogwarts, but our primary school. It would drive Dumbledore up the wall, when we are building a new school for children from the age of six to eleven.” Lucius suddenly remembered something and it was about Voldemort’s horcruxes. “Cissy, have you told your great-uncle about the horcrux in Bellatrix’s vault?” Narcissa’s eyes rose in shock. She forgot about the cup in Bella’s vault. Narcissa went to get another paper and wrote a letter to her great-uncle about the horcrux in Bella’s vault. Unknown to her the goblins already destroyed the horcrux in the cup and returned the cup in the Hufflepuff Vaults. Beforehand they informed Lord Arcturus Black about the cup and the horcrux in it and the man ordered the horcrux to be destroyed. With that another horcrux was gone and Arcturus allowed the cup to be returned. So, Narcissa would have to worry about nothing.

Shortly, Narcissa received a curt letter from her great uncle that the Hufflepuff cup was purged and destroyed by the goblins. She also received a message that he was surprised that the letter was sent on a piece paper and not on a parchment and wanted to know, why she wrote it the mundane way. Narcissa explained in her letter that pen and paper are easier to handle than quill and parchment and that he should try it out. Apart from that paper was cheaper and didn’t cost a lot of money.

She sent the letter and received a response that he would start buying pen and paper in his home office. Maybe it would make his life easier since quill and parchment was more expensive and difficult to handle. Narcissa just chuckled. Her great uncle was maybe not a friend of muggles, but their inventions were something that he would like to use and profit from, but it also opened another field, where Narcissa and Lucius could profit from.

Kurusu residence, Inaba, Japan, November 16th, 2001

Aika and Toisho Kurusu were happy that the nursery was finished and that Akira had a room to sleep. There were also many toys, where the boy could play and the room was painted in a light green colour. It really matches his eyes. They are also sure that their little boy would love his room and be comfortable. They watched their son play for a while until they had to shower themselves since it had taken a lot of sweat and hours to make Akira’s new bedroom liveable and appropriate for a child.

Akira was playing with his toys unbothered and unknown to him, he would bring doom to his biological parents, his former godfathers, his twin and the headmaster. Lady Magic was sure that now everything is going according to plan and the path that Akira is going will save magic in the future and bring everyone down, who dared to commit plights against her.

Fate and Destiny liked the interference. At first, they wanted to stop Lady Magic from interfering, but when Pandora Lovegood gave up a prophecy during the birth of Luna Lovegood indicating that a seer was born, they knew that they had no other choice, then, to let Lady Magic interfere in the mortal world, in order to make sure that the prophecy is fulfilled. It was a prophecy about them, if they wanted to allow their sister to interfere, in order to save magic, or if they refuse and allow magic to die. None of them would have wanted that and at the end, they allowed their sister to interfere in Akira’s life. Rarely, a prophecy referred to them, but sometimes it did. The last two times, it was during the Fall of Atlantis and Pompeii. Fate and Destiny didn’t allow Lady Magic to interfere in both instances, which was a mistake and it costed many witches and wizards their lives. And many magical families were extincted. This was the third instance and this time, they learned from their mistakes and allowed Lady Magic to interfere to not make the same mistakes like before. They didn’t want magic to die in the UK and Dumbledore would be leading the magical world to extinction.

Now, all three watched the sweet toddler playing with his toys and laughing happily. He was still too young to understand, what was going on, but later, he would be leading and making everyone pay, who tries to go against him or to control him. All those, who are going to try to control him, are going to suffer painfully and cruelly. They only had to wait for the right time.

Malfoy Manor, November 19th, 2001

Severus was confused, when he stepped out of the floo in Malfoy Manor. Narcissa and Lucius wanted to speak with him about something important and he wasn’t really sure, what they wanted from him. Being led to the meeting room by an house elf, Severus saw Lucius and Narcissa waiting for him patiently. When tea was served, the discussion began. “Cissy, Lucius, what can I do for you?” Narcissa smiled brittle and said: “Take a seat, Severus. There is something that we need to discuss.” Severus sighed and sat down. Narcissa was thinking, how to approach the subject. “Severus, Slughorn is planning to retire and there would be an open slot in Hogwarts. We thought that you would be perfect for the position of being potion master in Hogwarts and would be able to be the head of Slytherin house.” Severus was thoughtful of that since he knew that Slughorn was already thinking of retirement and about a replacement. Sadly, in the UK, he was the only potion master and that was embarrassing. Severus could use the position to his advantage. He would make sure that most Slytherins do not join Voldemort and his followers.

“I could take the position of potion master, but what about the head of house position? It can only be given after five years of experience with children and youths.” Narcissa was conflicted. At one side, she would be able to install Severus as potion master and make sure that the diadem of Rowena Ravenclaw could be retrieved without Dumbledore’s knowledge, but the head of house position was another story. Narcissa wanted to diminish Voldemort’s influence over Slytherin house and Severus would be perfect for this. Seeing the thoughtful look on their faces, Severus, then, had an idea. “I know that you two want me to be the head of the house Slytherin, but how about, if Aurora and I become co-heads. Aurora has five years of experience with children and would be capable of dealing with the students and their problems, whereas I will learn from her, how to handle the position as co-head.” Narcissa had to admit that it would be a great idea. “This is great.”

Lucius and Narcissa looked at each other indicating that there was something else to discuss. Severus sighed. There must be something else that is of great importance. The Malfoy couple asked Severus for a vow of silence, which the man did confusedly. When he gave them the go-ahead, Narcissa started: “Sev, there is something else that you have to do for us and the wizarding world as a whole.” Severus nodded to her to continue. “As background I will tell you that Voldemort created horcruxes. He committed cold-blooded murders and split his soul into six pieces. One of those soul pieces is in Hogwarts and for that reason, we need your help to track the horcrux down. But you don’t need to worry about the other soul pieces. Four of the six have been dealt with and the fifth needs to be retrieved, when Akira claims the Gaunt heirship since we currently have no access to the Gaunt Shack.” Severus was first horrified, what the dark lord had done, but nodded in understanding to this plan. He would be able to retrieve it, but the question that formed in his head was where is the horcrux. Severus questioned: “Where exactly is the horcrux, Cissy? Hogwarts is a big castle and there are many passages.” Narcissa gave Lucius a slight glance and answered: “The horcrux is in the Room of Requirement.” Now Severus was confused. “The what? The Room of Requirement? What kind of room is that and where is it?” Narcissa was rubbing her temple now. She forgot to ask Lady Magic, where the Room of Requirement is. For a while, there was no response making the men sour since it seems like Narcissa forgot to ask Lady Magic about the whereabouts. Suddenly, she remembered that the Grey Lady knows, where the diadem is. She answered: “I don’t know the whereabouts of the Room of Requirement, but I know someone, who could help you find it. You both know the Grey Lady, the house ghost of Ravenclaw.” Both men nodded, but didn’t understand, what she had to do with the diadem. Narcissa smiled. Those two are clueless. “The Grey Lady is Rowena Ravenclaw’s only daughter, Helena Ravenclaw, and she knows surely, where the diadem is since she is connected to the Ravenclaw family magics and the diadem doesn’t only have the horcrux, but also the Family Magics.” Both men were shocked and relieved that the whereabouts of the fifth horcrux are revealed and could be easily found. Severus hopes it is easy, but soon, he would realise that the horcrux would be harder to find and be taken than he would have anticipated.

But first, he needs to get the job. Narcissa suggested: “Severus, please apply through the board and not the headmaster. I am not sure what Dumbledore would do to you, if you apply directly to him. The man wanted to control you back then during your time in school. I believe, he planned to recruit you as his spy, but failed, when you got away. He would be unbearable and would try to have some control over you.” Severus nodded in agreement and countered: “I know Narcissa, but he can’t do anything against me since I am a ministry spy and was given a full pardon. Furthermore, I was given the Order of Merlin First Class as an insult to injury. The man is still mad that I was a spy and killed many members of his order.” Narcissa chuckled. Severus was right. The man would be in a sour mood, if Snape was standing in front of him, but he can’t control him due to his position in the ministry.

After the important part was finished, Severus spent some time with his godson and told them that he would speak with Horace about the post of the potion master. Severus would also speak with Aurora and Horace on Saturday about the head of house position.

When Severus returned back to Prince Manor, he wrote two letters to Aurora and Horace informing that he wanted to speak with them on a Hogsmeade weekend about the current development. He needed to make sure to become potion master and co-head of house, but with the arguments he had, it would be easy to convince them.

Severus couldn’t wait to see Dumbledore’s face, when Horace announces his retirement and him as his replacement. The man would try to gain control over him, but Severus wasn’t going to allow that man anywhere near him and make sure to have protections. It would also benefit the students in Hogwarts. He knew, how negligent Horace could be and how dangerous the potion classes were since he wasn’t able to pay the proper amount of attention. Severus also knew that Horace had failed the Slytherin House during his tenure as Head of the House and started to fix things at the end of his fifth year, when Sirius sent him that note about how Lily wanted to forgive him and wanted to talk to him at the Shrieking Shack. Severus knew that it must have been Sirius since the idiot was clueless, how the friendship between him and Lily had ended and it seemed like that Lily didn’t tell him that he was the one, who ended the friendship. But back to the point, Severus was going to make major changes in the Slytherin House and make sure that the dark lord’s influence in the house is diminished. That would help him to stop Voldemort and Dumbledore from using his old house as a scapegoat for their schemes.

After preparing himself for sleep, Severus went to bed and was thinking about the weekend and how he was going to approach Horace and Aurora.

Hogsmeade, November 24th, 2001

Severus was making his way through the village towards the Three Broomsticks, where he had a meeting with Aurora and Horace. He received a message from both of them and wanted to meet him at the Three Broomsticks during a Hogsmeade weekend, where they would discuss about Severus’ employment. Horace seemed excited that he was going to replace him, and Aurora was relieved that she was not going to deal with the Slytherins alone and would gladly help Severus to diminish the control of Voldemort over the house. Severus could tell that Horace was getting too old to deal with the Slytherins and their disrespect towards him. He could tell that no one took Horace seriously and that was the reason why the Slytherin House was so bad towards the other houses and was so prejudiced towards squibborns and halfbloods. Thankfully, he had some friends in Slytherin apart from Lucius and Narcissa and he also made friends in Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and even Gryffindor after exposing Lily for what she had done to him.

Lost in thought, Severus didn’t notice the Potters, Lupin and Auror Jones approaching him. They looked furious. Oh joy, this would be funny. He tried to ignore them, but when Potter started to yell: “Look, who has come here. One of the worst death eaters that managed to weasel his way out of Azkaban and got rewarded for killing innocent people. Go away, Snivellus, my son is getting fussy, when you are around.” Hestia glared at him with pure hatred in her eyes. She hated that bastard for killing her fiancé and ruining her life. Hestia would have liked to throw a killing curse at the man, but it wasn’t worth it since she would end up in Azkaban with the other death eaters. Severus just smirked. “Potter, it seems like that you don’t have any decorum, but it isn’t worth it. I have a meeting with Horace and Aurora at the Three Broomsticks.” Severus tried to continue his way until Hestia stepped in front of him with an angry look and pointed her wand at Severus’ throat. “You will pay for what you have done. This time, you got away, but the next time, I will make sure that you end up in Azkaban and Julius’ death would be avenged. I will make sure that justice is served.” The woman had tears streaming down her face, but Severus just looked unbothered and smiled regardless. He whispered: “He deserved it, for what he had done to Evan. I enjoyed, how he had screamed that I should stop, I enjoyed his screams of pain and agony and I enjoyed it, how he had died painfully and slowly.” Hestia let out a scream of rage and tried to curse him, but was restrained by James and Sirius, who glared at Severus in pure rage. James snapped furiously, but quietly due to the seal of silence since he had overheard, what they were talking about. “You sick bastard. You took great pleasure in killing Julius, but one thing for sure, I will help her get justice for what you have done to him. Under my watch, no dark wizard or witch will get away with their crimes.” Severus just laughed at James’ self-righteousness. “You think that you can do anything against me, Potter. When Podmore was tortured and killed, Lord Crouch was there and watched the entire scene and made sure to help me to cover his murder up as a death eater attack. He also made sure to sweep the case under the rug and closed the case with the seal of the DMLE, which would make it impossible to reopen the case.” James was furious and felt powerless. There was nothing he could do. Oh, how Crouch will suffer for what he had done.

Hestia broke even more and felt dirty that she had worked for a man that was indirectly responsible for her love’s death. She felt sick. Hestia couldn’t believe, how evil and corruptive the ministry could be. James looked ready to kill someone. It is sick to be an employee under a man, who may have ordered all those deaths. No wonder Crouch jr. was a filthy death eater. Sr. was nothing better than his criminal son and it can be seen clearly at his actions during the war.

Furiously James left the village. He can’t explain, what was happening since everything was done under the seal of silence and he can’t tell Sirius, Remus and Lily about Snape’s ‘heroic actions’ or the mass murder he had committed. He can’t waste his time, but he was curious about the meeting between him, his old potion master and Aurora. What is happening in this meeting? He knew that it had nothing to do with death eaters since both were not associated with Voldemort even though both are Slytherins much to his chagrin. He didn’t like Aurora since her allegiances were unknown to the order. Horace was someone, who he had liked at the beginning, but later in his third year, he became his most hated teacher since the man made sure to punish him every time, when he tried to teach Snivellus a lesson. He remembered that Slughorn became his worst enemy and a teacher, he wanted to avoid as much as possible. He shook his head. Whatever this meeting was about, James was not interested since there were many things to do before he can deal with any of those slimy snakes.

Hestia just watched, how Severus made his way to the Three Broomsticks without a care in the world and disappeared inside. She will make that man pay for everything, what he had done. He may have weaselled his way out this time, but the next time, she will make sure that he will spend the rest of his life in Azkaban. ‘Just wait Snape, one day, you will pay for Julius’ death.’ The group left Hogsmeade.

Severus entered the Three Broomsticks and made his way to Madam Rosmerta. “Rosmerta, I have a meeting with Horace and Aurora from Hogwarts.” The woman quickly noticed Snape and moved away from her counter and whispered into his ear: “Horace and Aurora are in Room 5. I wish you good luck, Severus, and from what I have heard from Slughorn, I hope, you can better educate this generation in potions and make sure that no one dies in your class.” Madam Rosmerta was aware of how dangerous the class was. She herself may have been qualified under Horace’s expectations in potions, but she dropped the class since she knew that her skills in potions were adequate for simple household potions and she wasn’t an expert in that field. Severus just rolled his eyes. It seems like that Slughorn loves to brag about him and his success, but he had also to agree with Madam Rosmerta. The students need someone, who would make sure to show the students the seriousness of potions and how dangerous the class was.

Making his way upstairs, he found the room and entered. Inside the room, there were Horace Slughorn and Aurora Sinistra waiting for him. They were talking for some time and stopped, when he entered the room. Aurora stood up from her seat and greeted Severus: “Hello, Severus. You are on time. I hope, you hadn’t had a bad trip.” Aurora said the last part a little bit insecure since from the window, she saw the confrontation between Severus, the Potters, Remus Lupin and Hestia Jones and she can tell that that confrontation was not comfortable. Severus knew that Aurora may have seen the confrontation from the window. He assured: “It wasn’t that bad. I had to deal with Potter and his band of fools, Lily and Jones, but they retreated. It was about my time as a ministry spy and they can’t accept it that I got away with my crimes.” Aurora and Horace were aware that Severus did a very dangerous job during the war. Those fools had no right to judge Severus for his actions. Horace huffed: “They don’t have any idea, in what kind of danger you were during your time as a ministry spy. Potter only knows, how to hide. He rarely went to battle since he was a junior auror until he went into hiding. How he managed to get promoted as an auror is beyond me, but I believe that Albus had a hand in this.” Aurora agreed and Horace shook Severus’ hand, when all three sat down.

Severus sighed and changed the topic. “Let’s not talk about fools. I don’t want my supply of headache potions to decrease.” Everyone chuckled. Horace agreed since his personal supply of headache cures was more important than to think about James, Lily, Remus, Sirius and Hestia. He once considered Lily and Remus as one of his favourite students, but after some nasty revelations about Lily’s and Remus’ involvement in his friends’ bullying antics, Horace didn’t like them and managed to remove them from their perfect positions with the help of his friends and the board since both were clearly failing in their positions with their prejudices. He also stopped James and Lily from becoming head boy and head girl, which was supported widely by the entire staff apart from Minerva. Horace threatened Albus and Minerva with the board and his friends, if they were insisting with their idea that James and Lily should be head boy and head girl. Let’s say, it was dirty, but Dumbledore gave up and Minerva just glared at him with pure hatred, when the staff voted and Severus and Marlene became head boy and girl. It was the first time, he made the right decision.

Severus started: “I called you here, because Horace I know, how much you want to retire, and I am willing to replace you even though teaching is not my strong suit. And Aurora, I called you here to discuss with you about the head of house position.” Both nodded and Horace answered: “Thank you, Severus. I am getting too old for this, and I can’t pay proper attention anymore to the students due to my age. I would be happy to retire and I would also be happy that you and Aurora take over as head of Slytherin house.” Aurora looked unsure about that since there would be a lot of work to be done and she wouldn’t manage it on her own. Severus had seen the insecurity in Aurora and asked: “Aurora, you seem to be unsure about this. What seems to be the problem?” Aurora snapped to attention and answered: “I am not sure Severus, if I would be the right person for the head position. I mean, there is a lot of responsibility and a lot of work of being a head of house.” Severus had known that Aurora would be insecure about this and answered: “Then, we can become co-heads of Slytherin house. Normally, a head of house needs five years of experience. You have that since you started to teach in my sixth year, Aurora. Co-heads are a bit different since the first co-head is required to have at least five years of experience with students, while the second isn’t even required to have those conditions, but the other co-head can become head of house after three years of being co-head since in that period the second co-head is supposed to know, what is expected to be the head of house. That’s what Dumbledore used to make McGonagall head of house earlier than expected and we can use the same method. And if it is too much for you, you can give up the post after three years to me.” Aurora found the idea extremely good. She wouldn’t be alone in her position and Severus would help her to the best of his abilities. Horace agreed with Severus and thought that both Aurora and Severus would be able to help to curb the blood supremacy issue in the house. Horace failed to do that and many half-bloods and squibborns like Severus and Aurora were mistreated in the house.

‘There would be changes coming, I can feel it in my bones that House Slytherin would improve under the authority of Severus and Aurora’, Horace thought and saluted for the future of Hogwarts.

Lestrange Manor, November 26th, 2001

The meeting before the school board meeting took place in Lestrange Manor. Augustinus wanted to introduce Penelope to his close allies and explain to the Malfoys the girl’s relation to them. But the old man would be surprised, who her soulmate would be and how much it would piss off an old goat. Augustinus already prepared, what would happen to Penelope in case of his death. The Malfoys should have the magical guardianship over his cousin in case of his premature death. He also had her parents here, who were taking care of their daughter. The old Lestrange Lord offered them some financial support, but both denied it since they don’t need anymore money and had enough to care for their daughter, but he managed to convince them that the girl should have a trust vault, where the girl’s school tuition and school supplies for Hogwarts would be paid since it was his responsibility to take care of her magical education. He also had plans for next year that when she is attending a muggle primary school, Penelope would have some etiquette lessons and lessons about the wizarding world, so that the girl was prepared, what was going to come. Augustinus covered everything up, so that Penelope would be the perfect future Lady Lestrange. After some time, his personal house elf popped in front of him and informed him that his newly gained allies from Gringotts had arrived.

When Lucius, Narcissa and the others came in the meeting room. They were surprised that Augustinus had visitors especially there was a little girl in the manor. Narcissa greeted him: “Lord Lestrange, it is nice meeting you and if my eyes are not deceiving me, you have visitors. Would you like to introduce them to us?” Augustinus smiled and answered: “I will, but first please take a seat since it would be surprising.” Everyone sat down. Even the Clearwaters since Augustinus wanted to involve them in this meeting. He explained them beforehand that the wizarding world is lacking a primary school and he needed their help to create one. Both agreed to help, but they explained him that they only could help on the non-magical aspect and not the magical. Augustinus assured them that he and his allies would deal with the magical aspect. After everyone had a seat, everyone turned their attention towards Augustinus, who still should explain, who the family is that would be attending the meeting. The old Lestrange Lord started to explain: “After I disowned Rodulphus and that woman, the goblins managed to help me to find out, if there were any relatives from my family, who could take the heirship after my death. I found out that I had a squib aunt, who lived in the muggle world and got married. It was later revealed that one of her descendants had a magical child with another squib and well, here they are.” Augustinus restrained himself to call Bellatrix a bitch around his relatives since there were little ears in the manor that should not learn the bad words. Lady Longbottom rose her eyebrows in shock. “So, she is the new heiress Lestrange?” Augustinus answered her: “Yes, but there is something else to discuss and it is about the magical guardianship in case, I die before she graduates Hogwarts.” The old Lestrange Lord turned his attention to Lucius and Narcissa. “Lucius, Narcissa, would you two as her closest living relatives be ready to be the magical guardians over my relative in case I die?” Lucius and Narcissa looked confused. Lucius asked: “Why us? And how are we close relatives to your heiress?” Augustinus smiled and answered his question: “Because according to the background check, Mrs. Clearwater is descending from the Malfoy line. That is the reason why I am asking you two.” Lucius and Narcissa were a little bit shocked, but smiled. Narcissa answered with delight: “We would love to do that. Draco also would have someone, who he could trust.” Augustinus was happy that Narcissa and Lucius agreed.

Suddenly, he noticed the shell-shocked look on Arthur’s face and the man stared at his relative like she is from another world. Augustinus was curious to know, what had shocked the man. He turned his attention to Arthur and asked: “Arthur, is something the matter?” Arthur took a shaking breath and gulped. How is he going to explain to one of the most dangerous wizards that one of his sons is her soulmate? Augustinus will not harm his son, but if Percy does something that would lead to a broken heart, there would be hell to pay. “Arthur. Earth on Arthur.” Arthur was interrupted in his thoughts, when Pandora was shaking him. Everyone was looking at him with worry in their eyes. Arthur swallowed hard and used his courage to explain some things: “So, this is Penelope Clearwater?” Augustinus nodded and answered: “Yes.” The old war veteran was confused about Arthur’s behaviour. After some time, Arthur got it out. “She is Percy’s soulmate.”

“WHAT!”, everyone exclaimed as one.

Augustinus was shocked. He never checked up the soulmate section, but if it was true, then, it means that his heiress was going to have a consort. He also would like to see Dumbledore’s face, when Percy is marrying a dark witch and an heiress of a well-known dark house. It would destroy so many plans before anything can start. And Molly would throw the biggest fit in the century, if she finds out that one of her sons is marrying a dark witch.

They still discussed Percy and Penelope until Augustinus had enough and said that they should speak about the school board meeting tomorrow. Arthur explained everything, what had happened during the order meeting in Hogwarts. They made sure to be prepared, what Dumbledore and his sheep were going to do. Dumbledore may be the Head Governor since he is Chief Warlock, but he can lose that position if he loses the Chief Warlock position. Apart from that the headmaster will not be able to sway the board any longer like the Wizengamot. They have the majority votes. The Veritesarem was easy to discuss since the potion was important in the auror department in interrogations. It was rarely used, but many, who were really innocent, used the potion to get out and not waste time with the interrogation. Apart from that, the potion is taught in the NEWTs and is essential. Every auror should know how to brew Veritesarem and the truth potion and not depend on the potion masters in the ministry. They also made sure to stop the books from being removed since they wanted to make it clear that a school is meant to educate and not limit the knowledge. That would be the easiest way to stop Dumbledore and his sheep from removing the books.

Narcissa had an idea, how to make changes in Hogwarts, but to make sure that the changes are not affecting Dumbledore’s plans. “I have an idea, how to make some changes that would improve the quality of the school. We will make little changes in Hogwarts like installing a bathroom sink in front of the entrance of the great hall and the staff entrance. Or to split the deputy-headmaster position in two. Or replacing the tables in the castle with new ones that have a better quality. It would distract him a lot and he would have a difficult time to deny these changes since they are needed. Our biggest change would be a primary school. We all know that he would fight tooth and nail to stop a primary school and those little changes would make sure that Dumbledore is too distracted with the primary school.” Everyone agreed.

The meeting tomorrow would be funny.

Gringotts

Bartemius Crouch Sr. made his way to the bank quickly. The entire month was a complete and utter nightmare. He had to do mountains of paperwork and not to mention his wife. Wilma still believed that Barty was innocent and that he didn’t do anything wrong. He really wanted to curse the woman for accusing him that Barty became a death eater, because of him. Dear Merlin, the woman didn’t know that Barty had problems since he was finished with his fourth year. His son had been fascinated by torture and death, when he was fourteen. It first started with animal abuse, then, it continued with torturing and later killing animals. That was the reason why he refused to buy Barty any pets since he knew that the pet would not survive a month under his care. His backyard was a pet cemetery and his wife ignored his bad behaviour.

Bartemius tried to help his son with a mind healer, but Wilma refused to have their son checked and thought that nothing was wrong. But Bartemius still allowed the mind healer to examine his son and she found plenty of problems. He was horrified that his son had all the symptoms of a psychopath, and it would be advisable to start the treatment now. Bartemius tried to convince his wife that their son needs a mind healer, but the woman became defensive. Even the mind healer didn’t manage to convince the woman that Barty needs treatment. It was like talking to a wall. When his wife accused him that Barty was like this, because of his neglect, the healer countered that neglect alone would not be enough to make her son a psychopath and that the mental damage was coming from outside influences like the friends Barty was hanging around and the fact that she was spoiling him so much and letting him get away with nearly everything. But his wife refused to listen to reason and demanded that she leave. Her ire didn’t decrease, when she yelled at him that he had no right to allow a mind healer to examine her son and that there was nothing wrong with him. Wilma thundered that he was the reason why Barty was like this and for the first time in his marriage, he struck his wife. Bartemius threatened with divorce and remarriage and that he would leave nothing to her and her son. With that threat the woman remained silent, but the look of fury was obvious. Now, things looked really bad. His son was going to be convicted and he can’t stop it. Maybe he would be able to declare his son to be incapable of guilt for his actions and commit him in a mental ward in St. Mungos. It would be possible and the mind healer he once assigned would be able to testify for his son’s behalf. She would be able to examine his son again and make sure that his son gets the treatment he needed. Bartemius wasn’t stupid since he knew that his son would be worse, if he ends up in Azkaban. Now, he needs an heir since his son would be unmarriable and no woman would want him. Now, he had some free time to find out, if there were any squibborns in his family line.

Entering the bank, Bartemius made his way to one of the open tellers and greeted him in a stoic tone. The goblin looked away from his paperwork and greeted the wizard. The teller asked: “What can Gringotts do for you today, Lord Crouch?” Bartemius took a deep breath and said: “I want to know, if there is a squibborn in my family line since I am in need of an heir. My current heir, Bartemius Crouch Jr., will not be able to continue the Crouch family line since he is unmarriable due to his crimes and his arrest. For that reason, I want to meet with my account manager.” The teller nodded and requested a younger goblin to lead him to his account manager’s office.

When they arrived and went in, Bartemius greeted his account manager politely and after the goblin greeted him back, Bartemius laid out, why he was here: “Garnuk, I am here about the future of the House Crouch. My son and heir has been arrested and I know that he would be convicted since he had been caught in the act.” The goblin listened carefully and nodded in understanding. He knew, why the man is here. He is here to see, if there is a squibborn from the squib line. Fortunately, there is a squibborn that is already working in the ministry and is successful despite the bigotry in the ministry. Bartemius continued: “And I am here to see, if there is a squibborn in the family?” The goblin nodded and looked at the Crouch Lord with a neutral expression. “Lord Crouch, I know that the reason you are here is that the Crouch line is seemingly coming to an end with your son and I can assure that this would not happen. According to the file that I have collected and family tree, there is a squibborn in the magical world that is already married and has an infant son.” Bartemius was stunned. He has a relative, who is already married and has a child. This is good. “And who is it, Garnuk?” The goblin looked through the files and answered: “It is Dirk Cresswell. He is working for the Goblin Liaison Office and is well-known in the goblin nation since he speaks our noble language fluently.” Bartemius was proud and he knew that he would be the perfect Lord Crouch. He can retire as Lord Crouch, when it is going to be much for him. The goblin interrupted his thoughts, when he continued: “I can call him here since the office had the direct approach in the goblin nation.” Bartemius nodded since he wanted to meet the man. The goblin left telling Crouch to wait patiently.

The account manager was making his way to the Wizard Liaison Office in Gringotts, in order to summon Dirk Cresswell. Looking at the floos, he saw that the bell was still bright meaning that the man was still in the ministry. He rang the bell and immediately, the floo flared. Dirk looked at the account manager and greeted him traditionally, which was returned in kind. Dirk asked: “What seems to be a problem? Did another wizard try to steal from the bank again?” The goblin shook his head much to Dirk’s confusion. Then, why was he called? The goblin took a deep breath and started: “Mr. Cresswell, I need you to follow me to my office.” The man nodded confused and followed the goblin from the office and made their way to the account manager’s office, where a surprise would wait for him.

Entering the office, Dirk met Lord Crouch, the head of the DMLE. Why was he here? He also noticed that he was in an account manager’s office. It meant business with a noble family, but what did Lord Crouch want with him? Both barely spoke with each other and the conversation was only official, if there was a cross between the DMLE and the goblin nation. The goblin interrupted his thoughts. “Mr. Cresswell, please take a seat. I need to prepare a potion for the genealogy test.” Dirk sat down confused. The young man turned to the head of the DMLE. “Lord Crouch, what is going on here?” The older man gave him a rare smile and answered: “Wait and see. You will be surprised, what you will find out.” Dirk was even more confused and it was weird to see Crouch smiling. What made the normally stoic man smiling.

After some time, the goblin was finished with the potion for the genealogy test and cleared his throat, when the parchment was soaked in the potion. “Mr. Cresswell, please put seven drops of your blood on the parchment.” Dirk sighed, but did it regardless without any questions. After some time, words started to appear on the parchment and the goblin took it. He was surprised at the results.

Dirk was a little bit irritated and was ready to snap, but that would be a bad idea to do in front of a goblin. Garnuck examined the wizard in front of him and said: “Mr. Cresswell, there is a theory that muggleborns are actually squibborns and are descending from some magical families.” Dirk nodded and was stunned. Could it be that he is descending from one of the magical families? Well, he suspected that he is descending from the Crouch line, but what about his mother’s side of the family since both of his parents must be squibs, so that a magical child could come out. Dirk took over. “And let me guess Account Manager Gornuk. I am descending from the Crouch line.” The goblin nodded much to Bartemius’ glee. So, it is true that squibborns are descending from magical families. That is good. Now he had a fool-proof back-up plan. He can disown Barty from the Crouch family line and make him a NoName and humiliate him with a squibborn. It would make sure that Barty knows that he will not give a damn about him and will show him that a squibborn is more important than him. The goblin continued regardless of Bartemius’ plans: “From your mother’s side, you are descending from the House Kingston.” Bartemius and Dirk were staring at the goblin open-mouthed. The Kingston family was supposed to be extinct for nearly two centuries ago. If that were true, then, Dirk is not only the future Lord Crouch, but also the next Lord Kingston. For Bartemius, this day was mind-blowing. He found someone, who could continue the Crouch line and additionally, the person was next in line of the Kingston Lordship. This was perfect.

The account manager asked the ministry worker, if he should call the Kingston account manager. Dirk agreed since things are going to change for him. Garnuk left the account manager’s office with the inheritance test, in order to show his colleague that the Kingston family is back and that there is someone, who is able to claim the lordship. Dirk and Bartemius were discussing all these revelations and were thinking, what to do.

Garnuk knocked on the door of the Kingston account manager’s office. When he heard a “Come-in”, the Crouch account manager entered the office and took a seat greeting his colleague. Karkstone, was surprised to meet the Crouch account manager. “Garnuk, what can I do for you? Don’t you have work to do?” Garnuk gave his colleague a toothy grin and said: “Yes, I have still some work to do, but I am here about an important matter. You know the theory about the muggleborns being squibborns?” Karkstone nodded, but he wasn’t sure, if there was any truth to that theory. Garnuk continued: “Well, today, my client, Lord Crouch came to my office and wanted to find out, if there were any squibborns from his family. According to the family tree and the files, I managed to track down that there was still a squibborn that was married and had an infant son.” Karkstone must admit that the theory could be true, but why is his colleague here telling him this? Before he could interrupt, Garnuk told him something that would make his job a little bit exciting. “The individual that is descending from the Crouch line is also the next in line of the Kingston lordship.” Karkstone stared for a moment. The next Lord Kingston is sitting in Garnuk’s office. Karkstone said quickly: “Then, bring him here. There are still some things that I need to discuss with the next Lord Kingston. I can restart the businesses of the Kingston family and continue with the investments.” Garnuk nodded in understanding since it is about a magical family that had been thought to be extinct for centuries. Karkstone needs to restart the businesses and the investments. “I will escort him here after he has claimed his heirship of the Crouch family.” Karkstone nodded and prepared himself for the meeting with the next Lord Kingston.

Garnuk arrived back at his office informing Dirk that he is expected to the Kingston’s account manager’s office. The younger man sighed knowing that today would be a long day. But first, he needed the heirship ring from Bartemius Crouch Jr. The older man almost forgot that his son was still wearing the heirship ring. Bartemius called the family magic to disinherit his son from the heirship and summoned the ring back in the account manager’s office. Unknown to the occupants in the office, Barty noticed the missing heir ring and started raging in fury that his father had no right to do that, but sadly, he couldn’t stop it since his father is the head of the House Crouch.

Garnuk told him to put the ring on his ring finger and Dirk did as he was told and put the ring on his left ring finger. The man felt the family magic test him and accepted him as the new Heir Crouch. Bartemius was overjoyed that Dirk passed the heir test and was the new Heir Crouch. Now, the Crouch family can continue without any problems. Unknown to Bartemius and Dirk, the family magics are also strengthening the magical blood in the veins and also making sure that some traits from the Crouch family are more visible than before. The same thing will happen to Dirk’s infant son. The boy’s traits from the Crouch family would be slightly more visible than before, but no one would notice it.

With that finished, Bartemius went back home. He dreaded to return home since his wife is surely waiting for him there. He didn’t invite Dirk and his family to his manor since his wife is living there and she would be furious, if she found out that he made him heir. Dirk understood that since Bartemius told him everything, what had been going on at home. “How about, if you come to our home, when it is unbearable for you to be in the near vicinity of your wife.” Bartemius took the offer immediately. He really needed to escape somewhere, if his wife was going to nag him. “Thank you, but I don’t want to invade your home, because of my wife.” Dirk just shook his head. “It’s alright, Bartemius. In case of a time-out from your wife, you can spend some time with us and calm yourself down, but I would really suggest to divorce her.” Bartemius sighed deeply. This marriage seems to be over since Wilma and him were fighting non-stop and couldn’t agree on anything. He will maybe speak with his lawyer about a divorce. Wilma is already driving him up to the wall with her overbearing behaviour. Before they went their separate ways, Bartemius told him that he would think about the divorce, but first, he needs to arrange some things, before he could divorce his wife.

Dirk followed Garnuk to Karkstone’s office and there he discussed the continuation of the businesses and investments from the Kingston family and he also claimed the Lordship of the Kingstons. Now Dirk is Lord Kingston and his claim would be undeniable. Not even that skunk Umbridge would be able to do something against him. Dirk loathed the woman since she was making many digs against him due to his status as a muggleborn. Now, he had back-up from Crouch and his being as Lord Kingston.

School board, November 27th, 2001

Today was Narcissa’s first school board meeting. She had many plans. First, they need to stop Dumbledore’s motions of removing the Veritesarem from the curriculum and making sure that the books remain in the library and make their first change in the school. Narcissa has planned that there should be a sign in front of the platform. The sign should be invisible to muggles, but the squibborns and their parents should be able to see the sign, when they want to enter the platform and get to the train. It would benefit the squibborns and Dumbledore wouldn’t be able to deny that since he would have a hard time to dismiss the change. She knew that they would discuss the nomination behind privacy wards and it would be better since Dumbledore would be too distracted. She couldn’t wait. Then, they would nominate to open a primary school and make sure to tell Dumbledore at the end that the second nomination was finished and that they were going to vote on the nominations. The man and his sheep were going to be flustered to know, what is going on since the nominations would be named by those, who had nominated it, and Dumbledore wouldn’t know what the nomination was about since he would have been too busy with his followers.

When everyone entered the Wizengamot chambers and took their seat, many waited for the Head Governor, Albus Dumbledore. Narcissa wanted to roll her eyes. Dumbledore is again late, but it doesn’t matter for now. The man would later realise that being late would make sure that he would miss a lot of things in the future. When Dumbledore finally arrived, the meeting started with the opening of the new session. The next order of business was a summary from the last session, which indicated that the governors had been talking in circles as usual and managed to do nothing. The next thing were the nominations. Elphias Doge started with the first motion to remove the Veritesarem from the potion curriculum. The man was dragging his reasoning for an entire hour and Narcissa was ready to fall asleep. Could that man make it easy and not drag the entire thing for so long? At the end of the nomination, it was discussed, if the Veritesarem should remain in the curriculum or not. Many from the dark, the neutral and some from the light didn’t look supportive of this nomination, but they managed to hide it behind occlumency shields. The next nomination came from James Potter himself, who had ranted for nearly half an hour, how some dark books needed to be removed, so that his son didn’t become corrupted. Many rolled their eyes and discussed the nomination. They wished the vote would come, but every nomination needs to be heard. When the discussion ended, Amelia had raised her hand to be the one, who would do their nomination for Hogwarts. Albus sighed. “Amelia, you have a nomination.” Amelia was unconcerned about her dropped title and began: “Yes, Head Governor. My nomination would be for first timers, who are muggleborn or muggle-raised. I nominate that in front of the muggle entrance to the platform, there should be a sign, how to enter the platform, so that the muggleborns or muggle-raised are not standing there cluelessly and asking muggle train conductors, how to get to the platform since it would endanger the Statute of Secrecy. The sign should only be visible to anyone magical.” Everyone was a little startled about that nomination. Albus didn’t know, what he was going to do. He knew that this nomination would be hard to fight off and his followers were looking confused. Albus sighed. He needs to discuss this with his followers. This nomination would be trouble, but he couldn’t deny it that some muggle train conductors were ready to launch an investigation about the claims of the Platform 9 ¾ and this would have led to the violations of the Statute of Secrecy. The investigations were stopped, when the train conductors were obliviated by the ministry. Albus announced that he was going to discuss this nomination with the light section and turned his attention away from the rest of the board. Narcissa smirked. Albus expected only three nominations in today’s session, but in the school board, it is allowed to make more nominations than in the schedule and the head governor didn’t need to be informed about them. The best thing was that Dumbledore didn’t know that they were allowed to do any nominations as long as the discussion was going on since he believed that no one would make and pass a nomination without him and what is even better, they can vote on the issue since Dumbledore’s vice took over and can push for a vote, when Dumbledore and his sheep are discussing. Callidora, Pandora, Muriel and some others, who were not blindly alleged to Dumbledore, managed to exclude themselves from the discussion. The vice was Lady Acton and the woman may be from the light side, but she doesn’t trust Dumbledore and his followers.

The woman started: “Are there any other nominations?” Narcissa raised from her seat. “Lady Malfoy?” The woman was confused, but she knew deep down that something big will happen today. Narcissa cleared her throat and started: “Dear Lords and Ladies, I am nominating to open a primary school here in our world. I have seen that the muggles, who many of us see them as inferior, start their education at the age of six in a school.” Everyone was muttering. Many were shocked about these revelations and some were embarrassed that the wizarding world doesn’t have the same thing. One of the members asked: “But what would be different for our children in our world, if they have a primary school? I mean, we have homeschooled our children for centuries and they turned out fine.” Narcissa couldn’t have asked for a better set-up. “Well, Lord Gibbon. I will give you an example. Think about the differences between the muggleborns and muggle-raised now and the 17th century. In the 17th century, many muggleborns and muggle-raised that attended their first year in Hogwarts were not able to read, write and do Math. Furthermore, their etiquette was lacking and they had no decorum and it was our responsibility to teach them all that at once.” Lord Gibbon nodded in agreement. Lady Malfoy was right. The muggleborns and muggle-raised back then needed to be taught first, what is expected of being a wizard or witch. Narcissa continued: “And if we compare them with the muggleborns and muggle-raised now, you will see major differences. Firstly, they already can read, write and do Math and their etiquette and decorum are not that lacking as before, because they have for example decent table manners.” Everyone agreed. Now, every muggleborn and muggle-raised is more educated than before since the muggles had evolved, but Lady Travers questioned: “But why would a primary school be better than homeschooling the children, Lady Malfoy?” Narcissa just smirked slightly and answered: “In a primary school, the children are taught by professionals, who have a teaching license, and do know, how to deal with the children in a pedagogical way. Apart from that the children would start with their socialisation earlier and be prepared for school life in Hogwarts. Furthermore, when I say, the children are taught by professionals, I also want to mention that the children are receiving a full education, where the children would be taught everything, and children, who have difficulties in a subject or have disabilities, can be helped properly, how to manage the school material.” Lady Travers was satisfied with the argument and thought that a primary school would be a great idea. Many were discussing the primary school even the vice and there was nothing negative about the idea, but the big question would be the money issue. A primary school needs money. Narcissa had an idea. If she could track down the Ravenclaw heir, he/she would be able to make an audit of the Hogwarts money and they would be able to use the money for the new primary school. And as an insult to injury, Dumbledore would lose control over the Hogwarts Vaults and he wouldn’t be able to use the money, however he wanted. It means that Dumbledore would lose a great area of control. “I have a solution for that. I know that Lord Dumbledore would not authorise the financial aspect of the primary school since he is in control over the Hogwarts Vaults, but the remaining heirs of Hogwarts would be able to supersede Dumbledore and take control. It is still unknown, who the Ravenclaw heir is, but with the help of the goblins, we would be able to track him/her down.” Many agreed, but Pandora asked concerned: “I know that the Ravenclaw heir is still unknown, but what about the Hufflepuff heirship? The Smith family has been claiming to be the Hufflepuff heirs for centuries.” Narcissa had a thoughtful look on her face, but she knew, what can be done. “We demand proof, where Lord Smith should do an inheritance test since blood never lies, and present his claim here in front of the board.” Many had supportive faces. This is good and Dumbledore wouldn’t be able to do anything. At first, Narcissa wanted to put pressure on Lord Smith, but she knew that it was too early and she knew that the man was too cowardly to claim the Hufflepuff heirship.

They didn’t vote since there was another thing to discuss and it was the application of Severus Snape-Prince as the new potion master. Severus did apply for the position as potion master, but he sent the application to Lady Acton and not Dumbledore since the man didn’t trust the current headmaster. Furthermore, she had a request from Horace Slughorn to retire and his recommendation that Severus should take over the potion class. “The next order of business is a request from Horace Slughorn for retirement and a recommendation of his replacement.” Lady Acton was sure that no one would be able to protest the motion for Slughorn’s retirement since his classes were getting more and more dangerous and the older Slughorn got, the lesser he was able to pay attention to the students. Severus would be an exceptional replacement. The governors were looking at the application of Severus Snape-Prince and had to admit that someone like him would be great in teaching the potion class. But there was another question that was nagging them and Cyrus was the one to ask the question: “But what about the head of house position? Horace had served in that position since Dippet was headmaster and Severus doesn’t have the five years of experience with students, in order to become head of house.” Many nodded in agreement, but Narcissa had already planned for this and requested: “Then, we make Severus co-head of Slytherin house. There is another staff member, who is a former Slytherin and has five years of experience with teaching and dealing with students, and she would be able to take over as co-head of house. Severus could become a full head of house after three years of being co-head according to the Hogwarts guidelines.” Many were surprised that they forgot about Aurora Sinistra, who was a Slytherin and had been teaching in the school for nearly five years, but were supportive that this would work. The nomination was discussed, but Narcissa didn’t need to be a seer that the nomination would pass.

When the discussions were over, Lady Acton moved over to the vote. The first nomination with the primary school passed with a unanimous vote excluding Dumbledore and his sheep, who have still two days to vote onto the issue. Lady Acton created the paperwork to request the goblin nation to track down the Ravenclaw heir since the headmaster can’t be trusted. The woman was sure that Dumbledore wouldn’t bother to read the paperwork since she made sure that the part with the Ravenclaw heir is hidden in the long transcript. Legally, she can do that since she is currently the Head Governor and Dumbledore stepped down, which gives her an advantage. Apart from that, Lady Acton knows that Dumbledore and his sheep never bother to read the transcripts and will never know that there was a legal request for the goblin nation to track down the Ravenclaw heir. The next three nominations with Horace’s replacement and retirement. The remaining board members voted for the retirement of Horace Slughorn and that the replacement should be Severus Snape-Prince. Furthermore, they voted that Aurora Sinistra and Severus Snape-Prince should become co-heads of Slytherin house since Professor Sinistra had the needed five years of experience. It was unanimously with the requests. Dumbledore and his sheep would be updated, what had been discussed with Lady Acton and would have the chance to vote on the nominations for two days, but Narcissa believed that even though Dumbledore and his sheep would have voted against the nominations, they would still have a margin, but Narcissa and Arthur are going to make sure that the Potter and Weasley votes would be nullified. Any belated votes would be invalid.

When Dumbledore and his sheep were finished discussing deciding to vote for the sign, Lady Acton turned her attention to the Head Governor and explained: “Ah, Lord Dumbledore, we had four additional nominations that were voted onto.” Albus was a little bit startled, but he hoped that they didn’t pass. Lady Acton started with the first nomination. “The first nomination was from Lady Narcissa Malfoy. She nominated to open a primary school in the wizarding world with a professional staff and everything, what the school needs. The vote was unanimous, if we include the exclusion.” ‘Apart from that, we are going to request from the goblins to track down the Ravenclaw heir, so that we can prepare the new school,’ Lady Acton thought the last part. Dumbledore nearly suffered a heart attack. This couldn’t be. How dare those fools allow this to happen. He didn’t need a primary school that would destroy so many plans in one row, but there was nothing to be done. No matter, if he and his followers were going to vote against the nomination, it still wouldn’t be enough to sway the vote. The primary school would pass, but he would be able to stop it since the board needed his authorisation of financing the primary school. The only one, who could overpower him, would be the founders’ heirs. Albus knew that he has control over the Gryffindor and seemingly the Hufflepuff heirs. He also knows that Voldemort is the Slytherin heir and is vanquished for the time being. So, he wouldn’t destroy his plans, but the one that worries him the most is the Ravenclaw heir since Albus doesn’t know, who would inherit this line and this one founder would be able to take away his power and money from Hogwarts. But Albus doesn’t realise that the Ravenclaw heir is going to make his appearance sooner than expected.

James seethed. He wished, he could help Albus, but he can’t since he was skipped as the Gryffindor heir. James was still furious that he couldn’t claim the regency of the Houses Peverell and Gryffindor and he made himself a fool, when his claim was denied by the seats, but there was nothing he could do. He assured himself that when Harry claims the Gryffindor and Peverell heirship rings that his eldest announces him regent, but he had to wait some time for that.

Albus managed to collect himself and voted against the primary school with his followers, but their votes were not enough and the vote passed officially with the majority for the primary school. This was Albus’ first set-back and the old headmaster has a plan that was going to fail spectacularly. He was still furious about the outcome, but he thinks, he had control that he will lose.

Lady Acton continued interrupting Albus’ thoughts for a few minutes. “The next nomination was the retirement of Horace Slughorn. Professor Slughorn wrote a request for retirement since he wasn’t able to pay the proper amount of attention to the students and his classes are getting more and more dangerous, Lord Dumbledore. The request was approved by the majority of the board. He already recommended his replacement.” Albus sighed. He knew that Horace wanted to retire, but he couldn’t find a potion master that he was able to control and do the brewing that the school needs. Albus voted for the request with his followers. He suspected that the recommendation is Severus and Albus liked the idea of having the man in his school, in order to gain control over him, but it would be really hard to get the man on his side. Maybe some compulsions would make the man more agreeable, but he isn’t sure, if they would work since he heard that Severus is studying for his mastery in DADA and would be able to notice the spells on him and fight them off. With this Slughorn would be teaching until the end of the term and after the Yule break his replacement would take over.

The vice continued with the third nomination: “Professor Slughorn’s recommendation is that Master Severus Snape should take over the post as potion master and co-head of Slytherin house. Master Snape is the youngest and best qualified potion master in the UK and had worked in the ministry as a spy during the war. I believe that he is the only qualified and younger replacement to the post.” Albus needed to discuss this with his followers first before they vote. “I request again the privacy and silencing wards since I need to discuss this nomination with the light section.” Lady Acton nodded and privacy and silencing wards were put around the light section. Only some, who were not blindly loyal to Dumbledore, remained out of the discussion.

In the light section, there was a heated argument going on. James, Lord Podmore and Lord Jones were protesting Severus’ employment in Hogwarts. James nearly screamed: “Albus, you can’t allow Snivellus to be a teacher in Hogwarts. It is already bad enough that he got away with his crimes, but that he is going to teach is even worse. I don’t want my children to have him as their potion teacher.” Edward Podmore and Herbert Jones bobbled their heads in agreement since the man destroyed two lives. But the others weren’t that sure. Maybe Albus would be able to gain control over Snape under his employment and make sure that the man did, what the headmaster said, but that was a difficult task since the man couldn’t be bribed or blackmailed. It would be harder with the pardon and the Order of Merlin. Albus answered calmly: “James, Edward, Herbert, my boys, I know, but this would be our opportunity to gain control over Snape and make him regret his actions. Apart from that, we all agreed that Horace should retire and I am wondering, who would replace him since beside Horace Severus is the only one, who is young and has a potion mastery in this country.” The three grumbled in agreement. They hated that no one from the light managed to get a potion mastery, but Snape was the only option since they stupidly voted for the retirement of Slughorn. When the privacy bubble was dropped, Dumbledore and his followers voted for the request.

Lady Acton smiled and continued with the last request: “The last request is to announce Aurora Sinistra and Severus Snape as co-heads. It is true that Severus Snape should have five years of experience to become head of house, but with co-heads it is easier handled. One of the co-heads is required to have five years of experience and since Aurora had been teaching at Hogwarts for five years, Master Snape could apprentice under Professor Sinistra and could become the full head of Slytherin House after three years.” Many thought that this would work. Albus found it genuine since he used the same rule for Minerva, in order to make her the head of house earlier than expected and the same thing, he used for the deputy-headmaster position. Without any issues, Dumbledore and his followers voted for the nomination, but much to his dismay, the board of governors decided on the contract and Lady Acton would be the one to ‘interview’ Severus and ‘hire’ him. Albus knew that the job interview is only a formality and that Severus would be a member of the staff after the Christmas holidays. Lady Acton will explain his responsibilities as teacher and co-head of house. For now, he has a competent potion master, but Severus could make changes in his class and the curriculum. Albus only hoped that Severus doesn’t use the ICW curriculum in potions, because it would make things harder for his pawns in Hogwarts. Unknown to him Severus will contact the ICW for their curriculum at Narcissa’s recommendation and Dumbledore would have a hard time with his pawns since many of Dumbledore pawns in Hogwarts were not going to pass the expectations under Severus’ strict policies. Severus was also going to make sure that some students will not continue in his potion class and that would anger many students, but this discussion would be in the Yule meeting, when Severus will announce his teaching schedule. It would annoy Dumbledore to no end and he wouldn’t be able to do anything since the curriculum is from the ICW. It would be another hurdle that would stay in the headmaster’s way.

When the last nomination was finished, Dumbledore retook his seat as the Head Governor and proceeded with the vote of Elphias Doge’s nomination. The vote was called and the majority of the school governors voted against the nomination, which made Dumbledore frown in disappointment. Well, it was a try, but maybe next time, he was going to win.

The next nomination was from James and he hoped that he had more votes than previously. The vote was held and again, it was a set-back. Dumbledore wasn’t happy about the outcome. James’ face reddened in outrage. Why didn’t they vote for his nomination? His sons needed to be protected and the board didn’t seem to care. Maybe the public pressure would overturn the vote, but James knew that a revote can only be done in a year and he must make a request to put an old nomination to revote, but that would be difficult since there is a long process and it would take another six months to get the nomination passed. James let the topic drop and the next nomination was called about the sign.

When the vote came to Amelia’s nomination, it passed unanimously. No one dared to vote against it since the Statute of Secrecy was more important than anything else. With that the board meeting came to an official end. Albus needed to discuss with his followers about the primary school and Severus. He had many plans, how to gain control over the man.

Everyone left the Wizengamot and went home.

Hogwarts

Albus led his followers back into his office and sat down behind his desk. The meeting didn’t go, how it was supposed to go. The two nominations that he wanted to be passed, didn’t pass. Albus blamed Arcturus Black for this mess. If he had the Black seat, he would have been able to sway the vote to his side, but now, Sirius is disowned and Narcissa is the regent of the House Black. Albus knows that the woman was never going to agree with him and her husband is the same. When all of his followers took their seats, Albus was smoothing his hand down his beard and had a thoughtful look. James started: “Albus.”

Albus shook his head and said: “I am sorry, my boy. I was distracted by today’s board meeting.” Many nodded in understanding. Today, things didn’t go the way, how they were supposed to go and they blamed mostly Arcturus Black. The two nominations didn’t pass. The nomination with the sign was a distraction to Albus. He didn’t want the sign to be placed, but he had no other choice since Amelia is an expert in law and law enforcement and he couldn’t argue that first timers like muggleborns and the muggle raised are unknowingly violating the Statute of Secrecy. He had to vote for the nomination since many were supporting the idea with the sign and peer pressure was something that he couldn’t deal with.

Albus’ main concerns are Severus and the primary school. He needs to find a way to regain control over Severus that he had lost after Antonius Prince took him away from him and ruined him. Lily and Mary lost all of their friends because of the man. He had seen, how Dorcas and Marlene were barely tolerating both women and there was a clear rift in his order that he couldn’t fix. The next issue was the primary school. He didn’t need that, but it passed and there was nothing he could do to stop it. The only aspect, where the primary school can be stopped, is the financial aspect since the school needed money and he himself has the control over the Hogwarts Vaults. He also has control over the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff heirs and the Slytherin heir is vanquished for now, where he wouldn’t cause any trouble for him. But what was worrying him was the Ravenclaw heir since he/she was in the unknown. Albus hoped that the Ravenclaw heir would never be found, but unknown to him, this was going to happen earlier than expected.

Many order members were not happy about the outcome of the board meeting. James was not happy that Snivellus was going to teach potions, but sadly, there was no one more qualified than Snape and he is the only one with a potion mastery. He has to accept it for now. He hoped there was something incriminating against Snape, in order to arrest him, but that would be harder since the war ended. Marlene and Dorcas were happy that Severus was going to teach potions since he is younger and can pay proper attention. They remembered the potion class with Slughorn and they can tell that the class was very dangerous. Thankfully, Severus showed them some tricks in potions, so that they can brew perfectly and safer and make outstanding potions. Both managed to get an O in the potion OWL thanks to Severus. They also knew that Lily’s grades started to decline slightly after Sev broke of his friendship with Lily and she had more EEs than before. What they don’t know, is that Lily did very bad at her OWLs and shouldn’t have continued in some classes, but Dumbledore interfered and altered her OWLs and NEWTs, in order to make her the brightest witch of her generation. Albus did the same with James’ and Sirius’ results, in order to make sure that both become aurors. But soon this would be overturned.

For now, he dismissed his pawns and had a quiet evening, where he was left in his thoughts. He hoped that the next meeting was going to be less bothersome, but fate had other plans and Albus was going to suffer more losses.

Horace Slughorn was ready to celebrate since he received a letter that his retirement and his recommendation have been approved and that he would receive a pension for his long duties in Hogwarts as potion teacher. He planned to throw a retirement party with his friends, his Slug club and the other staff members after Yule, but he had to be patient until then since there are still two weeks until he would officially retire from his post.

These were wonderful news, but he also knew that many of his snakes are not going to like his retirement and his replacements. And he shouldn’t forget that many students, who managed to get an EE in their OWLs are going to be furious that they wouldn’t be able to continue their NEWTs under Snape’s new policy. Slughorn is sure that many careers were going to be ruined by the man, but he didn’t care. This should have been done decades ago, but Dumbledore refused and allowed to dumb down an entire generation.

Lying down on his bed, Horace waited that soon he wouldn’t have to worry about any potion accidents and deaths in his classroom. He had to wait until the Yule holidays and he would be gone. Horace will never step a foot in Hogwarts again and he would never have to worry about troublesome students in the school. The best thing would be that he would never have to deal with tantrums of parents and their children, if a student didn’t pass his expectations. No longer late nights to correct and mark assignments, doing rounds and taking care of detentions. This was going to be the life he wanted and he would never give up this life for any gold in this world.

Horace fell asleep dreaming of his retirement.

Prince Manor

Severus received an offer of employment from the board and sighed. He knew that he would deal with dunderheads, but at least, he was going to change the potion class as he sees fit. He wasn’t going to allow anyone, who hasn’t an O in the OWLs. Severus knew it was harsh, but according to the ICW potion curriculum, the NEWTs were demanding an O in the potion OWL exam, so that anyone can continue in the NEWT potion class since the potion ingredients in the NEWT class were more volatile and any accidents could result to death in the worst-case scenario. Furthermore, Severus doesn’t want a high death toll in his classroom like Horace. So, only the outstandings would attend his NEWT potion class. Taking out pen and paper, he wrote two letters. One to the ICW, where he requested from Lady Apolline Delacour, the head of the Department of Education on the international stage, the ICW potion curriculum, in order to make sure that the board knows, that even the whole wizarding world is using this curriculum. The other letter was his acceptance. Another aspect that he was going to take care is the influence Voldemort had on the Slytherin house. He remembered that Aurora and he had a hard time in Slytherin. At least, Aurora had friends like Cyrus and Daniella Greengrass, Sophia Zabini and the more neutral leaning Slytherins, who didn’t give two shits about blood status, but were coming from very powerful families. He had a hard time in his first three years until he was taken in by his grandfather. There things changed for the better and he had more friends than before, but his closest were Narcissa, Lucius, Regulus and Evan since he had known them since his first and second year. Severus was not going to allow the Slytherins to go the path of the death eaters.

He also has to focus on finding the horcrux in the castle since Voldemort is still a threat and he needed to find that thing, but he had to be careful since Dumbledore and McGonagall are going to keep a close watch on him and this would be annoying. He also knows that Poppy and that hack Trelawney are also blind followers of Dumbledore. Severus knew that Poppy hadn’t done any health scans as it should have been done by a medi-witch in Hogwarts. Severus will make sure to make the health scans himself. In case of squibborns and the muggle-raised, he will make two health scans. One will be sent to the child services in the ministry. Severus knew that it would be fruitless since the child services in the magical world would just send him a lame excuse that he was exaggerating and that the parents loved them, but he would use that, when Narcissa was going to tear the child services into pieces and make sure that Dumbledore’s pawns are going to suffer for their stupidity for trusting Dumbledore and following his ideas. The other health scan would be sent to his contacts in the muggle welfare office. Severus knew that the muggle welfare office has been taken over by squibs, who are aware of the magical world and Dumbledore’s view about child abuse, squibborns and muggle-raised, who couldn’t get a job in the magical world, and even some wizard-raised, who didn’t like the child services in the magical world and left the wizarding world, in order to work in the muggle world, so that they could help the children from there. Severus was sure that the child service workers in the muggle world were going to help as much as they could.

With abused wizard-raised children, Severus would talk with the heads of house or give the health scan to his colleague Amelia Bones and make sure to publicly shame and arrest them. Severus knew that Amelia isn’t someone that cannot be bribed and the punishment would be sever with Crouch being the head of the DMLE. Well, there were going to be slight changes and the best thing is that Dumbledore will never find out.

The one person, he needed to stop from interfering is Poppy and the only way would be to put the seal of silence on the woman, in order to make sure that she isn’t talking and blackmail her with her actions, so that she doesn’t try anything to circumvent the seal. With the seal, she would be unable to tell Dumbledore anything and even though Dumbledore was a Master Legilimens, the old fool will meet an impenetrable wall in Poppy’s mind due to the seal of silence. Severus was sure that Dumbledore will lose control over the students fast, but the man wouldn’t notice it until it is too late. Additionally, he would take control over the hospital wing and make sure that Poppy had barely any control. The woman will only watch, but she wouldn’t be able to do anything. Minerva will keep an eye on him for some time, but she is going to lose interest in him and that hack Trelawney is too drunk to notice anything, what was happening.

Severus had a grin. This would be perfect.

Potter Manor/Jones Manor/Podmore Manor

James was in a foul mood, when he came back home. He still couldn’t believe that Snape is employed to be a teacher. His sons are going to be miserable in his class, but there was nothing to be done. There is also the fact that the man was a mass murderer, who killed many order members, in order to keep his cover. He still couldn’t believe that Crouch would go over dead bodies to protect his spies. One day, James vowed to make Crouch pay and suffer for what he had done. Lily came down to the floo room, in order to greet her husband. “Hello, James, how was the board meeting?” James just huffed: “It was terrible. Snivellus is now teaching potions in Hogwarts. Slughorn wants to retire and recommended Snape and Sinistra to become his replacements. Snivellus should become potion master and Snape and Sinistra should be co-heads of Slytherin. Sadly, Albus couldn’t find a better replacement since there weren’t enough potion masters in the UK. Let’s just say that Snape was the only potion master in the UK available.” Lily knew that her husband hated Sev since he was the brightest wizard in his generation and is the youngest potion master ever since no one managed to get the potion mastery in less than two years. She also heard that he also started his DADA mastery and Lily knew that he was going to be finished soon with it too. Lily was jealous that Sev was doing better than her. She still is working on her charms mastery and it seems like that it would take another two or three years until she is finished. “I know James, but you have to accept it. Sev is the only one, who has a potion mastery and Horace allowed too many accidents. I don’t want both of my boys to die, because of a potion accident.” James sighed. Lily was right. He knew that Slughorn was worse than Snape since the man was negligent and wouldn’t be able to pay proper attention and he really didn’t want to lose either of his sons due to a potion accident.

They went to the living room and James explained them, what had happened during the board meeting. Sirius snapped furiously: “WHAT?! What was the board thinking about hiring Snivellus as a teacher?! We need to stop this, James? You can’t allow Snivellus to make John’s and Harry’s lives in Hogwarts miserable.” James sighed that Sirius’ reaction would be volatile and explained: “I know, Sirius, but Slughorn isn’t any better. Let’s just say that Snape is the lesser of the two evils. Slughorn can’t pay any proper attention in the potion class and I don’t want my sons to die early, because of a potion accident.” Sirius gritted his teeth. James was right. He didn’t know, who was worse Slughorn or Snape. Sirius knew that Slughorn is getting too old and can’t pay the proper attention anymore. His pups could die, because of Slughorn’s negligence. Snape is the same age as them and would be able to pay attention to not allow any students to die in his potion class. The former Black heir sighed. There was no other choice than to accept Snape as potion master and Sirius also knows that the man would be hard to fire since he is the only one, who has a potion mastery.

Remus shook his head. But there was nothing much that can be done. Snape is the only one, who would be able to teach the potion class and no one else.

In Jones Manor the reaction was explosive. Hestia let out a roar of rage. “HOW COULD YOU ALLOW THIS, UNCLE HERBERT?! HE KILLED JULIUS AND YOU ARE OFFERING HIM A JOB AT HOGWARTS!” Herbert sighed. He knew that Hestia was going to react like this and he also was aware that his niece wants revenge against Snape. The man understood that Snape needed to be brought to justice for the death of his niece’s fiancé, but how is he going to do that since Snape got a full pardon and was given an order? But he knew that Albus had plans prepared for Snape and to gain control over that bastard.

Herbert explained to his angry niece: “Hestia, we hadn’t had a choice. Horace wanted to retire and this time, he presented us with a replacement and pointed out that his potion class was getting more and more dangerous since he can’t pay the proper attention. You shouldn’t forget that Horace has a high death toll in his potion class and had caused many deaths especially in his NEWT class.” Hestia hated to admit that her uncle was right and she can tell that since that bastard is the youngest potion master in the UK, he would be hired immediately and no one would make a fuss about this. Why did this have to happen? Why is each day getting from bad to worse? She wished, there was a way to arrest that monster, but without proof, it is going to be difficult and the end of the war is making things even harder. Herbert knew that his niece was thinking about Julius, but nothing was going to bring him back. He also knows that they were soulmates since an inheritance test proved that Julius and Hestia were meant to be, but Snape destroyed the soul bond by killing Julius and sentenced his niece into an unhappy life, where she would feel emptiness and apathy. Herbert knew that she was never going to recover from this. He wished, he could go back in time and kill Snape, for what he had done to his niece.

Unknown to him, Lady Magic nudged Bartemius Crouch Sr. to order the death of Julius Podmore since the man destroyed another soulmate couple with no remorse and for that he needed to pay. She looked at the sobbing man, who couldn’t believe that he was killed and his murderer got away with his death. Why was fate so cruel to him and Hestia? Julius looked at Lady Magic and exclaimed: “I need to fix this. Hestia and I deserve justice. You need to bring me back, so that everything would be alright.” Lady Magic ignored his rudeness and said in an imperious voice: “You will remain here and watch your soulmate suffer. You hadn’t had any remorse by betraying Evan Rosier-Black and destroying a soulmate couple with your actions and now, you are going to learn the pain, you have inflicted towards Regulus Rosier-Black by watching your soulmate suffer.” Julius glared. He couldn’t believe that Rosier’s death was going to bite him so hard. He watches day after day, how his sweet fiancé was suffering and turning apathetic. He knew that if you lose your soulmate due to a murder, you lose all of your emotions and revenge takes over the heart. Lady Magic said in a neutral voice: “I know that a witch or wizard turn emotionless and revenge-addicted in case of a murdered soulmate. But your soulmate will turn into a dark and evil witch, if she continues the path of revenge since your killer got away, received a full pardon for his crimes and as an insult to injury, he was honoured with an Order of Merlin First Class.”

Julius exploded in fury. “WHAT? SNAPE GOT AN ORDER FOR MY DEATH?!” Lady Magic gave him a curt nod and continued to watch the woman to suffer. Julius was beyond furious. That bastard Snape should suffer pure hell for what he had done to Hestia and him and not be rewarded for his crimes. But he also was terrified. His poor fiancé will turn dark and evil, because of the revenge that is driving her into madness. There must be a way to fix this. Hestia is innocent. She didn’t deserve this fate, but sadly, fate had other things in mind.

They further watched, how Hestia left the room in a huff knowing that it was fruitless. Julius was already plotting his revenge against Snape, but sadly, retribution will never come to them.

In Podmore Manor, many members of the family were glaring at their head in pure rage. They were furious that Snape was a teacher now. Annabell Podmore was enraged that her husband allowed her son’s killer to get a job in Hogwarts. She broke into pieces, when her son was tortured, mutilated and killed, and those pieces were crushed, when Snape, who was responsible for the monstrosity, was given a full pardon and as an insult to injury, he was rewarded with an Order of Merlin First Class. Annabell screamed and cried about the unfairness, when her husband returned back from the Wizengamot and informed her about the session. She was able to know about the full contents from the session since she was a member herself, but she had to take the seal of silence, so that she cannot betray the secrets. She wished, she didn’t take the seal, but she wanted to know, who killed her son and when it was revealed to be Snape, Annabell thought that Snape was going to be punished severely for killing an heir of a light family, but her husband revealed her that Snape got away with a full pardon and was given an Order of Merlin. Annabell let out a wail that could be heard around the entire Manor.

She tried to understand, why the man got away, but her husband revealed that Snape was a ministry spy and Crouch hailed him as a hero for his so-called heroic acts. Annabell had been ready to kill that bastard. Her son died and the man was hailing the killer as a hero since he worked for the ministry and was spying on You-Know-Who. She deserves justice, but she would never get it from the ministry since they were catering after the man and swept it under the rug. Why did they do this?

Edward was surrounded by his angry family, who were demanding answers, why he voted for the hiring of Severus Snape as potion master. “SILENCE!”, Edward thundered. When everyone quieted down and he started: “I know that all of you are very angry that Snape is the new potion master, but who should have replaced Slughorn since the UK is lacking a potion master. Apart from that, Horace requested his retirement and announced Snape as his replacement. We hadn’t had a choice and we lacked the time too. So, there was no other choice, then to allow Snape to take over the post as potion master in Hogwarts. But I believe that Albus had plans already in place to teach that bastard his place and make him suffer for the plight against our family.” The last part was said in a determined voice. Edward was sure that Albus would make sure that Snape knows his place and teach him, what it means to defy the headmaster and go against the light side like this. Unknown to him, this will never happen and Severus would start to destroy lives in the light side with his changes.

Gringotts, November 28th, 2001

Lucius and Narcissa made their way into the bank with their son, in order to discuss the Ravenclaw heir or heiress. Normally, they wouldn’t be able to interfere with the Ravenclaw heirship since it is a family matter, but the board decided to open the primary school and they needed the funds for the school. The problem, they were facing with the financial part, is Dumbledore and his control over the Hogwarts money. They can’t allow Dumbledore to have any control over the vaults and make sure that the Ravenclaw heir has absolute control over the Hogwarts Vaults. It would annoy Dumbledore to no end and the man wouldn’t be able to do anything against the Ravenclaw heir or heiress since she or he is basically owning a quarter of Hogwarts and the owners of the castle have more power than the headmaster himself. The vaults would be audited by the Ravenclaw heir or heiress and Albus needed permission from the Ravenclaw heir or heiress, if he wanted to take out money from the Hogwarts Vaults. Narcissa couldn’t wait to see Dumbledore’s face, when he realises, how much power he was going to lose, because of one founder’s heir. Both were not worried about the Gryffindor and Slytherin heir since Akira is safe and the Hufflepuff heir is also not that worrisome since Narcissa doesn’t believe that the Smiths were the rightful heirs of the Hufflepuff title. Her gut feeling tells her that their claim is wrong and someone else is the Hufflepuff heir, but she doesn’t know who.

When it was their turn, they greeted the teller politely and requested an audience with King Ragnock. The teller immediately sent them to their account manager since he had a closer connection to their leader than him and the teller told them so. The Malfoy family made their way to their account manager’s office, where they were led in and the account manager was informed about the odd request. Gornuk wrote a petition to the Chieftain since his clients requested an audience. He still is waiting for the response. The account manager asked them: “What is the reason for the audience with our dear leader?” Narcissa glanced at Lucius, who gave her the go-ahead. She explained: “We want to fund a primary school, but sadly, Dumbledore has control over the Hogwarts Vaults as the headmaster and we need to track down the Ravenclaw heir. Lucius and I are aware about the Gryffindor and Slytherin heir, but it would reveal that Akira is not with his relatives and Dumbledore and his followers would try everything to track him down. We would needlessly endanger Lady Magic’s champion.” Gornuck had to agree with Lady Malfoy. It would endanger the boy needlessly. So, the Gryffindor and Slytherin heir is out. Gornuck questioned: “What about the Hufflepuff heir?” Narcissa looked a bit irritated, when she thought about the claimant of the Hufflepuff heirship. She answered to the goblin: “The situation with the Hufflepuff heir is complicated since there is a certain family that is claiming that they are the Hufflepuff heirs and they are also in Dumbledore’s pocket.” Gornuck wanted to growl. He knew, what family is claiming to be the Hufflepuff heirs and never did the inheritance test to prove their claim. It is the Smith family and he wished to force those fools to make an inheritance test. He knows that those fools are not the Hufflepuff heirs and he also believes that they were aware of that fact. Gornuck understands, why Lady Malfoy wants to know, who the Ravenclaw heir is since there was no claimant of the Ravenclaw inheritance and the old fool doesn’t know, where the Ravenclaw line is going.

The account manager came to the conclusion that the Ravenclaw heir is the only one, who could help them with their plans. After some time, he received a message from his chieftain that Lord and Lady Malfoy should come to his office, in order to discuss their request. He looked at the couple and answered: “Lord and Lady Malfoy, your request had been approved. Please follow me to the Chieftain’s office.” Both nodded and were relieved that the Chieftain didn’t reject their request. The couple followed their account manager out of the office and made their way into the office of the Chieftain.

Chief Ragnock was sitting behind his desk doing his paperwork. There were some discrepancies with some account managers, but he dealt with them accordingly. Thankfully, there were no executions since some, simple, but annoying mistakes happened. When he heard a knock on his office door, the Chieftain knew that it must be Lord and Lady Malfoy. He said with a neutral tone: “Come in.” Gornuck opened the door and Lord and Lady Malfoy walked in. They allowed Gornuck to stand at the front and all three greeted the Chieftain politely. Ragnock was happy that the Malfoys were respectful and he summoned them seats and ordered tea and biscuits.

Lucius sat at the right seat, whereas Narcissa sat left. Gornuck swallowed hard, when he had to sit in the middle. Ragnock also smiled at the seating arrangements since it showed that the couple trusted their account manager in this situation. Ragnock looked at them critically and started: “Let’s get to the point. Lord and Lady Malfoy, why did you request an audience with me?” Lucius and Narcissa looked at each other and Narcissa was the one, who would explain: “Chief Ragnock, we came here to track down the Ravenclaw heir or heiress. I know that we cannot interfere with the Ravenclaw inheritance, but we need to know, who the Ravenclaw heir is, so that we can fund our primary school. The problem is that the current headmaster has control over the Hogwarts Vaults and the only one, who would supersede the control of the headmaster over the Hogwarts Vaults would be one of the founders’ heirs or heiresses. We also explained to our account manager, why we are focusing on the Ravenclaw heir since the Gryffindor and Slytherin heir would needlessly be endangered by Dumbledore, Voldemort and their followers.” She showed the goblin the inheritance test of Akira. Ragnock looked at the test and was shocked, what had been done to the Gryffindor and the new Slytherin heir and he knew that two of the four founders’ heir was out. The Chieftain allowed her to continue: “And the Hufflepuff heirship has its own claimants. I believe that you aware about the Smith family.” Ragnock looked sour. He knew the Smith family and they had claimed to be the Hufflepuff heirs for generations. So, he can conclude that the Hufflepuff heir was out too due to the Smith family and their stubbornness and the fact that they were following Dumbledore. Ragnock came to the conclusion that the Ravenclaw heir was the only one, who could help. Ragnock knew that he isn’t allow to interfere into the Ravenclaw inheritance, but legally he can track the heir or heiress down, if there was a request by the board of governors.

Ragnock asked: “Is there a request by the board of governors? I can’t do the tracking down without cause.” Narcissa smiled sweetly and Lucius took out the formal request from his suitcase. Ragnock read the request and had seen that Lady Vera Acton signed the request as the head governor since Dumbledore stepped down. This was a grave mistake on Dumbledore’s part since he legally stepped down as head governor and allowed Lady Acton full authority, which makes the request legal and above board. The Chieftain gave them a toothy grin and explained: “Well, your request will be approved, but it will take two weeks to track down the Ravenclaw heir. When is the next governors meeting?”

Lucius took out his calendar and opened it. At the right pages, Lucius answered: “In December the meetings would be irregular since on December 15th and 16th there would be the Wizengamot trials. On December 18th is the next governors meeting and on December 20th is the Yule Wizengamot meeting.” Narcissa wanted to groan in actual pain. There wouldn’t be enough time for Yule shopping since she would be sitting in the Wizengamot. Lucius had seen the face of his unimpressed wife. He can tell that his wife was going to hate these meetings since she will miss Yule shopping, but he knew that she was going to reschedule the Yule shopping and he will suffer at the end. This wouldn’t be funny at all.

Ragnock nodded and said: “Good, until then, the Ravenclaw heir would be ready to attend the meetings in the Wizengamot and the school board.” Narcissa and Lucius smirked in victory. This is good. They only hoped that the Ravenclaw heir is neither a follower of Dumbledore nor of Voldemort since it would make things worse, but Narcissa had a gut feeling that the Ravenclaw heir is someone in their circle of their newly gained allies.

Wizengamot, November 30th, 2001

Lucius and Narcissa made their way to the Wizengamot courtroom. Today the trials will start. The trials will be conducted in an alphabetic order. This meant that there was going to be a lot of time before Narcissa had to prepare herself for the trial of her former sister, Rodulphus NoName, Rabastan NoName and Bartemius Crouch Jr. She heard that the trial of the four would be at the end after dinner since Crouch had to step down since his son is one of the accused. She had seen that Crouch looked more stressed than usual, but she can understand it since his own son was going to face trial for torture, murder, terrorism etc. If her own son would be in the same situation, Narcissa was sure that she wouldn’t be sitting calmly in the Wizengamot. She also noticed that a goblin contingent was here to escort the death eaters to their goblin mines.

Bartemius Crouch Sr. was nervous, but he had decided, what to do with his son. He will disown him after he is found guilty and wash his hands from him. He knew that Wilma was going to throw a fit, but the update of the goblin treaty will cost him a lot of money. Apart from that, the mind healer examined Barty again and found out that even though, he is a psychopath, his son wouldn’t be recognised by the court as mentally insane, which would be a one way ticket to the goblin mines and later Azkaban. His son’s trust vault would be seized to pay the damages additionally and he was not going to lose his fortune, because of his imbecilic son’s action. There was no other choice.

The trials started with some petty thieves and some followers of Voldemort until it was time for lunch. All the convicted death eaters were sent to the goblin mines, where hell was awaiting them. Many protested and begged against the sentence in the goblin mines since they knew, how brutal they were, but it fell on deaf ears and they were sent there to suffer. The death eaters knew that the dark lord’s torture was nothing compared to the goblin mines since they were going to suffer pure hell and the worst thing was that they had lost access to their fortune due to the new treaty. Additionally, every convicted death eater from a noble or wealthy family will lose their entire fortune leaving their children with only their trust vault. And those, who tried to bribe their way out, were caught by the goblins and were thrown in ministry holding cells, where they would await trial. They also lost access to their fortune and were charged with aiding and abetting, corruption, conspiracy, treason etc. Narcissa knew that those families are going to lose everything even their nobility. After lunch the trials continued and one trial made Narcissa pay attention closer. It was the trial of Peter William Pettigrew, who was sitting chained on the accused chair. Crouch started to read out the charges. “Peter William Pettigrew, you stand accused of attempted murder, treason, conspiracy, murder, terrorism and torture. How do you plead?”

Narcissa noticed the cowardly man flinch at the charges. He yelped: “Not guilty.”

She looked a bit around, how the other Wizengamot members are reacting and could see that James looked ready to kill. The light side gave him looks of disgust and hostility. When Bartemius requested veritesarem, there was a unanimous vote.

The veritesarem was administered immediately and Pettigrew was in a trance-like state. Crouch started with the test questions.

“What is your name?”

“Peter William Pettigrew.”

“When were you born?”

“November 12th, 1979.

“What house were you sorted in?”

“Gryffindor.”

Many in the light section intensified their glare towards Pettigrew since the man threw mud at the noble house of Gryffindor with his actions. James was enraged that the bastard would be known as a death eater, when everyone would write about John’s fame, but he should have accounted that John’s fame had his downsides.

Crouch nodded to the members that the potion has taken its effect and with a curt nod from the members, he started to interrogate Pettigrew.

“Did you betray the Potter family to the Dark Lord V-Voldemort and why?”

“Yes, I did, because my lord would have rewarded me with their deaths.”

“What was the reward?”

“A place in his Inner Circle and he spared my life with my servitude.” James wanted to go down and torture the man to death, but he restrained himself. Wormtail will suffer in the goblin mines and after his debt is paid in Azkaban.

“Did you join him willingly and if yes, why?”

“Yes, because I wanted to be on the winning side.” The light side snarled at the pathetic response and James couldn’t believe that the man was so cowardly, but he remembered that Peter always ran to them, if he pranked the wrong people. They always defended him and made sure that he was protected. James realised that Pettigrew always was with them, when there was trouble. Why didn’t he realise that the man was a coward from the beginning and that he wasn’t to be trusted.

“What have you done after the attack in Godric’s Hollow and the defeat of V-Voldemort?”

“When I heard the scream and then, the silence, I went in, in order to see, what had happened. I stumbled first over the corpse of James and then, Lily. There I found the remains of the dark lord and his wand. I knew that one of the boys did it, but I didn’t have the time to deal with them since I knew that Dumbledore was going to find out, what had happened. So, I took my master’s wand and escaped, but Sirius was there and he hunted me down until he cornered me in a muggle village. I tried to make a distraction and frame Sirius, but the bastard stunned and restrained me.” James smirked. Good that it had failed.

Crouch showed him Voldemort’s wand. “You mean this wand that we have recovered from your robes. What were your plans with it?”

“I knew that my lord wasn’t dead since the mark would have disappeared. So, I saved the wand for his return.” The minister and many members of the Wizengamot were in shock. That monster wasn’t gone. How was that possible? No one can cheat death. Narcissa let out a shuddering breath. She knew that Voldemort isn’t gone and is still alive, but wherever he is, he is outside of the country and is not a threat temporarily. Albus knew that Voldemort was still alive, but he wanted to keep the information to himself, in order to prepare his pawns in the wizarding world. Now things would be harder, because the minister and the Wizengamot are informed about Voldemort’s status.

The next half an hour was spent asking Pettigrew about his crimes. James was ready to kill, when he found out that he was responsible for the death of Mary McDonald and fifteen order members, who have trusted Pettigrew. Many from the light side were furious about Pettigrew and his actions. So much for trusting the man with their secrets.

When the veritesarem wore off, there was a unanimous vote of conviction that made Peter cry since his life was over. The sentence was a lengthy debate and it was decided, when Crouch took the podium as the head of the DMLE: “Peter William Pettigrew, you are found guilty by this esteemed court. Your assets will be seized and you are sentenced to the goblin mines, where you will have to pay the damages that you as a death eater have caused. Furthermore, after you have finished paying back your debts, you will spent the rest of your life behind bars in Azkaban.” Peter paled in fear. The goblin mines are worse than anything else. He looked at the members, but he received hostile looks from the light section, disgusted looks from the neutral fraction and sneers from the dark section. The ratty man realised that he had no allies and no one, who would help him. He wished, he was dead. The goblin put the cuffs on him and led him away to his fate.

After some time, it was time for dinner and the last trial against the former Lestrange trio and Bartemius Crouch Jr. will take place after dinner. Narcissa hoped that this trial would finally be over since he she didn’t want to deal with her former sister.

But Narcissa wasn’t the only one, who was stressed. Bartemius Crouch Sr. was ready to snap and curse anyone, who dared to disturb him. He knew that his plan was going to be fool-proof, but the backlash from his wife would be big and not to mention, how the public would react. Bartemius told Dirk to wait some time to reveal himself as the Crouch heir. He will reveal that he is the proxy of the Kingston seats at the next Wizengamot session, but the new heir of the Crouch family would remain hidden. Dirk already decided to arrange the seat in the neutral section, where the Crouch seat is.

Now, he had to survive his son’s trial with the former Lestrange trio.

When they returned back in the Wizengamot courtroom, Bartemius stepped formally back and allowed Amelia Bones to take over the prosecution. Amelia announced: “Bring in, Rodulphus NoName, Bellatrix NoName, Rabastan NoName and Bartemius Crouch Jr.”

The former Lestrange trio and the former Crouch heir entered the courtroom. They looked like shit and in the case of the former Lestrange trio, the disownments were not kind to them. They were forced on the seats and the chains wrapped around them making sure that they couldn’t escape. “Rodulphus NoName, Bellatrix NoName, Rabastan NoName, Bartemius Crouch Jr., you four stand accused of murder, attempted murder, torture, terrorism, aiding and abetting criminals, conspiracy and treason. How do you plead?”

Rodulphus said: “I plead for no one here. We did everything for our lord.” Amelia knew that the man pleaded guilty since he admitted everything. She looked at Rabastan NoName and the man answered the same.

When the woman turned her attention to Bellatrix, the mad woman started to cackle: “I plead for no one, you stupid blood traitors and filthy half-bloods. We did everything for the dark lord and his great plans to get rid of every filth in this world like you. The dark lord will return and will make you all pay for what you are doing to proper witches and wizards like us.” Amelia shook her head. That woman is completely insane. She hoped that her time in the goblin mines would teach her, how wrong she was. Amelia had consulted with a mind healer about Bellatrix NoName and the man came to the conclusion that even though she is insane, Bellatrix is aware of her actions, but doesn’t care about the consequences.

Amelia looked at Bartemius Crouch Jr. and asked: “What about you, Mr. Crouch? How do you plead?” Wilma was sitting tensely in the view area. She hoped that everything would be fine with her son and he can come home.

Barty sneered at the woman and answered: “The dark lord will make you all pay for this plight. He will make sure that you will tremble before him, when he is going to rule the wizarding world and make sure to eradicate every blood-traitor, half-breed and mudblood. Mark my words, you all will pay for this.” Amelia looked like she swallowed a lemon. Glancing at her boss, she could see that Bartemius is shaking his head in sadness and knew that the man was severely disappointed in his son. Wilma couldn’t believe that her son is admitting his guilt like this. She will never see him, if her sweet son is admitting his guilt. She hoped that this was a bad dream.

Amelia acknowledged that all of the defendant had pleaded guilty and was ready to go to the sentencing part. She asked: “Has someone something to add to this trial?” Looking around, she saw her boss raise his wand. “Lord Crouch?” Bartemius took a deep breath and said: “I want to add my part before my son is going to be sentenced.” Amelia nodded and allowed Crouch to continue: “Barty, I am very disappointed in you. I thought that you would realise your mistake, but it seems like that it was a fool’s dream of mine. I am not going to be sorry for what I am going to do to you.” Bartemius took out his wand, which alerted the aurors, and started to chant: “I, Bartemius Casper Crouch, call upon the family magics. I disown Bartemius Cornelius Crouch from the Crouch line. May the family magics judge his actions and the motivations behind them. If found unworthy, may the family magics be stripped from him. May he be barred from ever besmirching the family’s good name. So, mote it be.” Bartemius Crouch Jr. started to scream in pain, fury and agony, when the family magics started to examine him and then, they ripped themselves from him. He was going to make his f- ex-father pay for what he had done. The former Crouch was breathing hard and looked at his former father in pure hatred.

Bartemius had a cold and uncaring look on his face. He also wasn’t sorry, for what he had done, and that angered the former Crouch.

Wilma was absolutely furious. Why did her husband do this? What right did he have to disown his own flesh and blood from the family line? She tried to scream, but her voice abandoned her. She couldn’t believe that the man, she loved and respected was so cruel to their own son. Bartemius was going to suffer for this. Just wait, when he gets home. He will not hear the last from her. And she will also have some choice words with Albus. Her old headmaster promised her that Bartemius wasn’t going to do anything against their son since he is his only heir, but it seemed that she was wrong and now her baby boy has been removed from the family and she was sure that she was going to never see him again.

The members of the Wizengamot were shocked about the disownment that took place. Albus was shocked and furious. That man destroyed so many plans in one row. Why did he do that? Albus thought that Bartemius wouldn’t be brave enough to do the disownment since his son is the only heir, but it seemed that he was wrong. He had seen Wilma’s face and the woman looked ready to kill. Albus made a promise to Wilma that her son will be safe and he will make sure that Bartemius wasn’t going to do something stupid. Now he was going to deal with her fury too since he made that promise. He wished that he had placed some compulsions on Bartemius, but the Lord rings would be blocking the spells.

Since all four somehow pleaded guilty, Amelia went over to the vote of conviction. Everyone voted for conviction, even Albus and the dark section had to. Then, the sentence was discussed. After a long and dreadful debate, it was decided that all four would be sentenced to life in Azkaban, but before they could start that sentence, they had to work in the goblin mines to pay back their debts since they were members of a terrorist group that had caused a lot of damages in their world, they were going to work hard for that.

After they were escorted, the trials of the Wizengamot have ended. Bartemius made his way out of the building and unfortunately for him, he ran into his enraged wife, who started to hiss at him: “Bartemius, how dare you disown our son from the family line? Why would you do this? Do you have any idea, what you have done? How is he going to survive without our help now?” Bartemius raised his hand before she could continue with her rant. “Enough, Wilma. The decision is final. That bastard is no son of mine. He is a disgrace to our family and had caused many deaths. I am man enough to admit that I have made many mistakes, when he was young, but there was no excuse to join a terrorist organisation and to cause death and destruction to our society. Do you have any idea, how much damage the death eaters had done in the wizarding world and how much they had to repay back? Not to forget, how many people died, because of Barty and his ‘friends’. And then, there is you. You are making non-stop excuses for his bad behaviour and blaming others for his current situation. Has it never crossed your mind that his mind healer back then made concerns about the fact that he is becoming a psychopath? No, you dismissed the woman’s concern and throw a fit like a toddler that there was nothing wrong with Barty. I wished, I was more forceful, when she suggested the needed mind healer sessions, then, we wouldn’t be in this mess. I have enough, Wilma. This marriage is over. I want you to pack your stuff and leave Crouch Manor since I am filing for divorce.” Wilma was paling in fear. Divorce. He can’t do that. “YOU CAN’T DO THAT!”, the woman thundered in rage. Tears started to form in her eyes. This couldn’t be happening. It was getting worse and worse from his perspective.

The members of the Wizengamot weren’t really surprised that there was a rift between Lord and Lady Crouch, but they were shocked that the man was planning to divorce his wife. Albus stared at Crouch. This was unexpected and a problem to his plans. Wilma was one of his more dedicated followers and now the woman was going to be thrown through the mud and will lose her standing as Lady Crouch. That wasn’t supposed to happen. He hoped that Crouch only made empty threats, but sadly, Albus will realise that the man is serious about the divorce.

Bartemius left the Wizengamot courtroom not even bothering to hide his anger and made his way to his floo in his office and flooed back home, where dinner was ready. Finally, he was getting rid of the woman and he will make sure that she gets nothing after the divorce.

Wilma was livid. This couldn’t be happening. Bartemius can’t divorce her. She looked at Albus with pure rage on her face. There was hell to pay. Albus realised that the woman would let out her fury on him. He groaned, this was going to be long and painful since the woman was a smaller and older version of Molly. He used the enchanted parchment to write to his followers that there would be an order meeting since he didn’t want to be with Wilma alone and to make plans to stop Bartemius from divorcing his wife. He needed the woman tied to Crouch since he had plans for their son. Many groaned since they were going to suffer Wilma’s rant about Crouch and his plans. Albus quickly left the Wizengamot courtroom and flooed from the Chief Warlock’s office to his office in Hogwarts. He really dreaded this order meeting with Wilma.

Narcissa and Lucius were surprised. “Well, that was shocking.” Lucius agreed. “I never thought that Bartemius would do this, but all these revelations about his wife and his former son were not painting them in a good light. It only made things worse. Many were shocked about the revelations. At least, Bartemius cared for his son, but his wife made it worse and turned him into a murdering psychopath. There was a lot of whispering, where they blamed Wilma for Barty’s path to become a death eater. Wilma was ready to cry, when she heard that she was to blame for Barty’s actions. She left the Wizengamot since she was banned from seeing her son and the next visitation is in the middle of December, where she was going to be watched by the goblins. Wilma went to the next floo and flooed to the headmaster’s office.

Headmaster’s office

Albus was furious. The meeting with Wilma Crouch will be explosive and he knew that things looked really bad. He didn’t care about Wilma and her brat since he was the one, who led the boy to the path of darkness, in order to make Crouch pay for not joining the order and stop him from rising to power. But now, everything was for naught. These revelations weren’t supposed to happen. It should have been the other way around. Bartemius should be blamed for his son’s actions, in order to stop Bartemius’ rise to power. Many would see the man as incompetent since he wasn’t able to take care of his family and they would believe that he wouldn’t be able to take care of their community. Now, things went to the opposite direction. Wilma was seen as incompetent and is blamed for Barty’s path to darkness. How is he going to fix that and make Bartemius look bad? He knew that the man will receive a small hit to his reputation, but Wilma would face the ire of the public. His followers arrived at his office and he could read the dread on their faces. Albus knew that none of his followers wanted to listen to Wilma’s rant, but he didn’t want to be alone with her. He needed to think, how to stop Bartemius from divorcing his wife since he needed his son for the return of Voldemort.

Albus was interrupted in his thoughts, when the floo flared green and Wilma stepped out. He wanted to groan, when she advanced to him and started screaming in pure fury. His followers were holding their ears. Albus had developed a thick over his left and the vein looked ready to explode. He tried to calm her down. “Wilma, my girl, I understand your distress, but I will find a way to fix this. Bartemius will not divorce you and you can return back to Crouch Manor. Maybe you could try to use compulsion spells and potion that couldn’t be detected by his lord rings. We can’t afford to lose control like that.” Albus just can’t lose control over Bartemius Crouch like that. He needed that man under his control and dependant on him. With him on his side, he would have control over the DMLE. Now his control over the DMLE is weaker. Albus still had many aurors and some head aurors on his side and had many acquaintances, but without the head of the DMLE on his side, he will lose control over half of the acquaintances and this wasn’t good. He needed to regain control over Crouch, but the question was how?

Another point that had rattled him was the disownment of Barty. The man will suffer pure hell under the hands of the goblins and without a name, Barty will have no support from anyone since a NoName would be avoided at all cost.

James had enough of Wilma’s rant and said: “Enough, Mrs. Crouch. Your son is a filthy death eater and he had chosen his path of war and destruction. So, he would be punished. I have had enough of you whining to us about your son. He should be punished and the goblin mines are sounding perfect, where he would pay dearly for all the pain, he had caused. Accept it and do not waste our time.” Wilma screamed at James in pure fury and ranted at him for some time. Then, the first curses were thrown at James, who had to avoid the incoming spells and flee the office. Albus quickly stunned the woman and spelled her calming draughts. It had taken five calming draughts to calm her even down. When James returned, the woman still glared at him in pure fury.

Wilma forced down her fury and in a very dangerous voice, she said: “How dare you James Potter? How dare you! You will regret this one day. Mark my words James Potter, you will suffer for your comment. One day, you will suffer the same fate like me.” Lady Magic smiled. Wilma Crouch is right that James will suffer painfully, because of his oldest and he will remember Wilma’s words, when it is too late. With that Wilma went to the floo and flooed to the Leaky Cauldron since she was locked from flooing to Crouch Manor.

Albus was not happy and gave James a disappointed look, which made sure to make James guilty for his words and tactlessness. “James, we can’t afford to lose Wilma due to her position as Lady Crouch. Barty’s disownment didn’t do us any favours since it threw a wrench to have Bartemius on our side. Do you understand that now Crouch will never listen to us?” James nodded and understood the situation, they were in.

Afterwards, they celebrated the success of the trials and there would be more trials were more of Voldemort’s supporters were going to be tried. Albus on the other hand was worried with the low numbers of supporters Voldemort does have. He knew that the only families that managed to escape the arrests were the Crabbes, Goyles, Parkinsons, Bulstrodes, Jugsons, Carrows, McNairs, Mulcibers, Selwyns, Yaxleys and Avery. But it was a lot harder since the goblins were involved and bribing officials was nearly impossible. He had to pull some strings since he needed them to make sure that the Malfoys and the other dark, but neutral families remain in Voldemort’s camp, but that would be harder. Albus can’t afford any dark families get away from Voldemort’s influence. He was furious that Voldemort failed to recruit some dark families and he won’t accept another setback. This time, he had many plans to make a clearer rift between the dark, neutral and light families. Unknown to him, Albus will fail horribly since many dark, neutral and light families would work together to ruin his plans.

Albus made some plans with his followers for the next month and hoped that things would be better. Sadly for him, things would get worse.

Crouch Manor/Cresswell Household

Bartemius arrived back home and thought about the events today. His former son is on the way to the goblin mines, where he would work his debts off. He isn’t sorry about his disownment and his punishment since he had it coming, but now he had other plans. He is going to divorce his wife and kick her out since she is the cause of this mess. He knew that the woman worsened Barty’s psychopathic tendencies with her spoiling and giving him everything that he wanted. Furthermore, she made non-stop excuses for his bad behaviour. Bartemius sent Dirk a message to come since he needed to inform him that Barty is disowned.

He hoped that his heir was going to represent his family better than Barty had done.

Dirk was eating his dinner, when the message from Bartemius had come and told his wife about the message. Lena said knowing about the meeting in Gringotts since her husband explained, what had happened: “Then, let’s get going, Dirk. I mean today his son had been punished for his actions.” Her husband nodded and finished his food. Dirk quickly cleaned himself up and he, his wife and his infant son flooed to Crouch Manor.

Arriving at Crouch Manor, Winky greeted them and showed them the way to the formal meeting room. Bartemius smiled brittlely. He still had his heir on his side. “Come in. Take a seat.”

Dirk and his wife nodded and sat down. His wife made sure that their son is safe on her chest. When both were comfortable enough, Dirk looked at Crouch with curiosity. “You called us, Bartemius.”

Bartemius nodded and answered: “I called you here, because my son Barty is from this day on disowned from the Crouch family.” Dirk was shocked and Lena stared at the man in disbelief. That was unexpected, but both admitted that Crouch Jr. didn’t deserve any better. The old Lord Crouch continued nonetheless: “Furthermore, I plan to divorce Wilma. She is the reason why Barty became a mass murderer and terrorist.” Bartemius explained the couple, what had happened during Barty’s youth and the mind healer’s examination. Both were furious that the woman didn’t notice the clear signs of psychopathic tendencies on the former Crouch and worsened his mental state.

Dirk growled: “The woman had known about Barty’s mental state and she did nothing to help him and now, she had the audacity to act as a caring mother and blames you for Barty’s path as a death eater. I believe, the woman needs to see a mind healer too and see if she has some mental issues.” Lena agreed. She couldn’t believe, how toxic Wilma Crouch is.

Bartemius nodded sadly and said: “Yes, I should have done that, but I made too many mistakes and now, they are biting me back. I hope that she would realise her mistake.”

With that finished, Bartemius spoke with Dirk about the future of House Crouch and what is expected from him.

Goblin mines

The goblins were leading the new prisoners to the mines, where they were going to work their debts off. They also know that new prisoners are going to come to help them and they couldn’t wait to bring them here. The overseer saw them coming and took out the shackles. “Good, you brought new prisoners.” The goblins nodded and the overseer continued looking at the convicted death eaters: “Welcome dear prisoners. Your stay will be temporarily, but you will learn why our mines are worse than Azkaban. Your magic will be bound until your debt is paid and the only magic you will feel is ours to keep you alive. Now to the shackles.” The overseer and some of his helpers put shackles on the death eaters’ hands and feet. “Now toss them in their assigned cells. It’s time to suffer pure hell.” The goblins tossed them in their cells and there they suffered pure hell.

Barty screamed in pure agony and fury. He noticed that the cells had runes that inflict pain and agony and he also felt a surge of power in them, which intensifies the pain tenfold, but he wasn’t the only one, who was suffering. Bellatrix, Rodulphus, Rabastan and the other death eaters were screaming their throat sore and were trying to ignore the pain in their bodies. It was unbearable. If they thought that their lord’s crucio was bad, then, this was worse. They wished, it would stop, but it was pure hell. The overseer came and informed them: “Your first workday will start tomorrow morning. You will work sixteen hours and have only two meal breaks and during the nights, you will suffer the pain and torment that you have caused your victims during the war. Have a good night’s sleep.” The last part was said sarcastically since he knew that the nights would be horrifying.

The overseer left the prisoners to their pain and agony and headed to his office. Those fools would regret the day ever siding with that dark lord and things would look worse and worse for them.