The underline indicates a line written by J.K. Rowling. I have not ever, do not currently, and will never own her words.

Susan Minerva Pevensie-McGonagall had not stalked the Dursleys all day to just let Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore put her great-nephew with them. She was a queen, and, had she been in the proper world, she would outrank him. As such, she was not willing to surrender him without a fight. Watch the Gentle Queen become the fighter.

"Fancy seeing you here, Professor McGonagall." Forty years ago the look she directed his way would have quelled even Edmund at his most rebellious instantly. Nowadays, it tended to stop even the most determined of pranksters and rulebreakers. Of course, in true Lucy fashion, it rarely worked on James. She wondered if it would work on Harry. Speaking of which…

"How did you know it was me?" She resorted to the most difficult of maneuvers (for her), distracting the target. Lucy and Edmund had excelled at it. Susan had not. Allea, the faun who'd taught them diplomacy had said that she was too blunt and kicked her out of the lessons several times for saying what she thought, and not what others should think she thought. And while bluntness served her well as a teacher of teenagers, it had not as a Queen of Narnia. Now, though, that was neither here nor there. Albus was responding.

"My dear Professor, I've never seen a cat sit so stiffly." She'd been sitting stiffly? She hadn't noticed. As per usual, she gave the first (admittedly rather impertinent) response that flew into her head.

"You'd be stiff if you'd been sittin on a brick wall all day," she replied. Her response clearly surprised Albus.

"All day? When you could have been celebrating? I must have passed a dozen feasts and parties on my way here."

Susan sniffed angrily. Even at the height of their rule, she had never been very fond of the parties she and her siblings threw periodically. Lucy and Edmund, ever the favorites of their people had mingled effortlessly. Peter had kept his dialogue to a minimum, unwittingly encouraging the image of the solemn, stoic High King. Susan… had made forced small talk with the other ladies when she had to, and had escaped to help Mrs. Beaver with accommodations whenever she could. "Oh yes, everyone's celebrating. You'd think they'd be a bit more careful, but no-even the Muggles have noticed something's going on. It was on their news." She jerked her head back at the Dursleys' dark living room. "I heard it. Flocks of owls… shooting stars… Well, they're not completely stupid. They were bound to notice something. Shooting stars down in Kent-I'll bet that was Dedalus Diggle. He never had much sense." Inwardly, she screamed, Peter devoted his life to keeping the Statute of Secrecy intact. They're ruining that in one night! She didn't say it out loud because a strange thing had been happening for the last twelve or so years: the world was forgetting about the Pevensies. Susan wasn't stupid, she knew that this was Aslan's doing, but it worried her. The memorial of her mother in St. Mungo's, their family name in the Sacred Twenty-Nine, Peter's name on the list of all the Aurors who had ever died, Robbie's, Kat's, and Nadia's birth certificates, Lucy's record as the first Hufflepuff Head Girl in three decades in her Seventh Year yearbook; all of it was gone. In a few years, and the only trace that the Pevensies had ever existed would be herself, James, Harry, and an obituary she had framed and kept in her office.

"You can't blame them. We've had precious little the celebrate for eleven years." Dumbledore's gentle chiding brought her back to the present.

"I know that," she replied irritably. Narnia had celebrated for almost three months after the White Witch had been defeated, and she'd been in power for a hundred years. "But that's no reason to lose our heads. People are being downright careless, out on the streets in broad daylight, not even dressed in Muggle clothes, swapping rumors." She looked at Albus, hoping he would add something, but he stayed silent so she continued. "A fine thing it would be if, on the very day You-Know-Who seems to have disappeared at last, the Muggles found out about us all. I suppose he really has gone, Dumbledore?" As a child she had been heavily sarcastic. The Blitz, attending school during Grindelwald's War, and the past thirteen years without Edmund had perfected that sarcasm and added cynicism to it. It was probably a good thing she and Owen had never had kids; they might have dropped dead from the amount of collective attitude in the house.

"It certainly seems so," he responded, reminding her that she had asked a question. "We have much to be thankful for. Would you care for a lemon drop?"

Talk about non sequitur. "A what?"

"A lemon drop. They're a kind of Muggle sweet I'm rather fond of." What was it with Albus and his sweets?

"No thank you," she replied, a bit coldly. She was tired. She had been sitting on a brick wall all day, after all. "As I say, even if You-Know-Who has gone-"

"My dear Professor, surely a sensible person like yourself can call him by his name? All this You-Know-Who nonsense-for eleven years I have been trying to persuade people to call him by his proper name-Voldemort." Susan flinched, but not out of fear. She was a queen, for Aslan's sake-what had she to fear from an upstart murderer? No, Susan flinched because of Albus's choice of name. Tom! she wanted it scream. His name is Tom Riddle! Lucy almost managed to turn him away from the dark path he was going down! My sister Lucy! Remember, dang it! Remember my family! But again she said none of this. It was no use, and she'd rather not be called crazy. "It all gets so confusing if we keep saying 'You-Know-Who'. I have never seen any reason to be frightened of saying Voldemort's name."

Susan cracks a bit then. "Of course you haven't! You're Albus Dumbledore! He fears you! But we aren't all you, you know! I'm not afraid of his name!" He could be called Miraz of Telmar and I wouldn't fear him! I'm afraid of what he's done without Lucy's influence to calm the rage inside!

Albus looked at her a little funnily. "Minerva, are you alright?"

Oh, had she said that last bit out loud? She manages a smile for him. "Quite. And besides, the owls are nothingnext to the rumors that are flying around. You know what everyone's saying? About why he disappeared? About what finally stopped him?" Ah, now she had reached the point she'd been most anxious about.

She fixed Albus with her best piercing stare; the one that had stopped Peter when he was in a reckless state of mind, dragged Edmund out of a slump and kept Lucy from running onto a battlefield to heal soldiers when the fight was still going on. Albus would know the truth of it. He always knew the truth of it. "What they're sayingis that last night Voldemort turned up in Godric's Hollow. He went to find the Potters. The rumor is that Lily and James Potter are-are-that they're-dead." Please, Aslan, don't let it be true, she begged silently. Don't take my nephew from me. He's all I have left, him and Harry. Lucy was your favorite. Please don't take her son yet. She waited for Albus to assuage her fears, but he just bowed his head and stayed silent.

"Lily and James… I can't believe it… I didn't want to believe it… Oh, Albus…"

The object of her plea patted her shoulder.

"I know… I know…"

Susan struggled to regain her composure. It was hard. Her voice trembled as she continued. "That's not all. They say he tried to kill the Potters' son, Harry. But-he couldn't. He couldn't kill that little boy. No one knows why or how-" except you, most likely "-but they're saying that when he couldn't kill Harry Potter, Voldemort's power somehow broke-and that's how he's gone."

Albus nodded and Susan's world turned on its axis for the second time in the past few minutes. "It's-it's true? After all he's done… all the people he's killed… he couldn't kill a little boy? It's just astounding… of all the things to stop him… but how in the name of heaven did Harry survive?" It wasn't the defeat that really surprised her, now that she thought about it. She and Peter had dispatched many an enemy with weapons, and Lucy and Edmund many more with wit and charm, but that was when they were adults in their minds (if not their bodies). Harry was fifteen months old.

"We can only guess. We may never know."

Susan pulled out a handkerchief from a pocket in her robe and dabbed at her eyes, finally letting the tears fall. Albus gave a sniff himself, but pulled out his watch instead of succumbing to crying as she had. "Hagrid's late. I suppose it was he who told you I'd be here, by the way."

"No," Susan said, "anyone who knows you as well as I, knows that you would try to place Harry with Lily's only remaining family to protect him, because of the possible blood protection." Albus sent her a surprised look, but Susan was on a roll. "There's no need to be surprised, Albus. The only reason I wasn't a Ravenclaw was because the Hat decided I was a Gryffindor before I could protest. But I won't let you put Harry with these people, Albus."

"Petunia Dursley is Lily's sister. There is no reason why she wouldn't willingly take her nephew." Albus protested.

Amateur move, Albus, Susan thought, sending him a disappointed look. "Albus, you clearly have no idea how the minds of sisters work. Any amateur listener to the Hogwarts gossip mill between '71 and '78 knows that Lily and Petunia haven't got on since Lily first boarded the Hogwarts Express. As Lily's former Head of House, I can assure you that she held grudges formidably. If Petunia is anything like her sister, she will view Harry as nothing more than a-pardon my wording-a freak. So, I'm sorry to crush your hopes, but no, Petunia Dursley will most likely not happily raise Harry. "

Albus regarded her for a long moment. "Assuming you are correct-which you may or may not be-where does Harry live now? Petunia and her son are Lily's only remaining family, and the blood protection only works with Lily's side. There are no orphanages in our world, Hagrid is already bringing the boy here, and if we send him to a Wizarding family he is more likely to grow up big-headed than not."

"What about Sirius Black? Or Alice Longbottom? They are his godparents, Albus." Susan suggested.

Albus shook his head. "He wouldn't have the blood protection, Minerva."

"What's more important, Albus? The blood protection or Harry's life and sanity?"

"His life and sanity, certainly, but-"

"Then it's simple. Explain the circumstances to Wizarding Family Services, and let them make the decision. That's their job, Albus."

Albus was silent. "Ah. I suppose I should have thought about that," he said weakly after a moment.

Susan patted him on the shoulder. "We'll wait until Hagrid gets here, and then we'll take a trip to London, yes?" Albus's creative thinking and out-of-the-box suggestions had the ability to aggravate most of the magical world, but he, like her, was a logical person at heart. When pushed and prodded enough, he would acquiesce to the solution that made the most sense. He's rather like Peter in that sense, Susan realized, finally coming up with the answer to the question of why she tolerated him.

Hello guys, I know it's been a very long time since I last updated. This is the chapter I have been working on since the last one was published. I hope you enjoyed! Let me know who you guys want to be Harry's guardians. Hopefully the next chapter will come more quickly.

~swanglade37