OK, struggling with Tuney again…. No doesn't sound right... I'm struggling with progressing the story Tuney and the Tots again…. Yes, that's better…. and another short story idea wouldn't get out of my head until I laid down a few chapters.

What happens when Harry gives in and reads one of Hermione's favourite novels over the summer holiday and then gets stuck in Austinland in his head after the Dementor sucks out Tom instead of him on the Hogwarts Express because Remus is too worried about doing anything the Headmaster might not like to move quickly? Hermione and the other witches who have read the story are trying not to laugh at the image it presents while Harry has to live with the images in his head, but he's gotten more than a little of use from the experience.

Usual disclaimers, no rights to anything from JKR or Jane Austin's stories.

Hermione Granger was anxiously sitting at the bedside of her her best and only true friend, Harry Potter, in Hogwarts' Infirmary, much as he'd done the previous school year after she was petrified by the basilisk that had been unleashed on the school by the possessed Ginny Weasley. She wasn't a particularly religious girl, so she was shocked and overjoyed when her prayers were answered as Harry groaned and opened his eyes after laying there in a magical coma for three days.

Madam Pomfrey's instructions about being careful with him because he would be in a fragile state when he came out of the coma were forgotten as Hermione joyously leapt on Harry and hugged the stuffing out of him, but she froze as she heard what he was whispering in her ear. "Believe me, I'm happy to see you too, but do you think you could possibly ease off enough for me to survive the experience and spend the rest of my life with you love?" Hermione was mortified and tried to pull back but Harry grabbed hold to keep her there as he continued whispering in her ear.

"No! Wait! I need to tell you something and this is the best way to do that without anyone else hearing! Now don't take this the wrong way, because where I've been I've had a lot of time to think about what's important to me, and nothing else in this world compares to you when it comes to that, but I need you to get Susan Bones in here to talk to me as soon as possible because I need her Aunt Amelia Bones, the head of the DMLE, to help me before Dumbledore, the Death Eaters and their minions manage to kill me!"

Hermione did pull back this time. "Harry! What are you saying? Prof…. Mmmph!"

Harry managed to shut her up by the simple mechanism of pulling her in again to snog her senseless. Hermione was shocked into inactivity at first, but that quickly turned into being a very willing participant in the activity. Poppy Pomfrey was shocked at first by the scene that met her as she came out of her office to check on her newly awake patient, but then she couldn't help smiling at the evidence that these two must have finally worked out what they meant to each other over the summer holidays. She was both heart warmed by the budding romance and laughing to herself about the fact that she'd just won fifty galleons off Minerva….

'Miss Granger is much too dedicated to her studies to engage in that type of activity indeed!'

Minerva should have remembered the fact that Lily Evans had been just as 'dedicated to her studies' up until she succumbed to James Potter's charms in Seventh Year. Apparently James' son's charms were more irresistible than his though, because he'd managed to win over his witch four years earlier. She'd have to do something nice for young Harry actually, because the terms of the bet she'd made with Minerva last year were that the prize went down by ten galleons each year, so Harry beating James by four years meant another forty galleons for her.

When they finally broke the kiss, Harry looked Hermione in the eye and softly asked… "Please?"

Hermione worried her lip, still having trouble accepting that Professor Dumbledore would do something like that, but after that kiss she'd do just about anything Harry asked, so she nodded, leaning into peck him on the lips again. "Of course Harry, but we will be talking about this when we have the chance!"

Harry snorted. "Yeah, along with the fact that thanks to that wonderful book you convinced me to take home and read over the summer holidays, I've spent the last God knows how many months stuck in Regency era Britain as Fitzwilliam Henry Darcy, trying to woo the utterly incredible but rather opinionated and pig headed Miss Elizabeth Hermione Bennett while simultaneously trying to protect my good friend Charles Bingley from the gold digging machinations of Miss Bennett's mother and help Elizabeth stop her wilfully stupid little sister Lydia ruining both herself and the family's good name by running off to elope with the dastardly George Wickham..."

Hermione put her hand to her mouth in an attempt to stifle the giggle that that image invoked. "Oh Nooo? Was it just us, or were the rest of the characters people we know too?"

"Oh Yes! And the main characters were all people we know. Neville was Charles Bingley, Pansy Parkinson was his sister Caroline, Professor Flitwick and Missus Weasley were Mister and Missus Bennett, Lavender Brown, Pavarti Patil and Susan Bones were Lydia, Kitty and Jane Bennett…. Daphne Greengrass was Mary Bennett, Ron was Wickham….. Missus Weasley was also Lady Catherine de Bourgh and Ginny was her daughter Anne. Both Professor Flitwick and Neville also had two roles as Professor Flitwick was also Missus Bennett's brother, Edward Gardiner, with Professor Sprout as Missus Gardiner, and Neville was also Colonel Fitzwilliam. Percy was Mister Collins, Penny Clearwater was Charlotte Lucas and strangely enough, my beloved little sister Georgina was that blonde Ravenclaw girl in the year below us Luna Lovegood…. She, Daphne and Penny Clearwater were the only notable characters we haven't had much to do with. Penny wasn't too hard to work out with the way Percy's sniffing around her all the time, but it took me a while to work out why my mind linked me to Luna and Daphne like that….. Now, while I would love to spend more time with you My Love…. I can see that the Mistress of Pain over there is impatient to start poking and prodding at me again, so I expect that I will have to grin and bear her ministrations..."

Hermione swatted him on the shoulder distractedly, as her mind was churning over what who he had associated with each Pride and Prejudice character was saying, and the disturbing accuracy of most of them was making her question what that was saying about the true nature of the others, especially Ron and Mrs Weasley. She could see that the only reason Harry was willing to say this in front of Madam Pomfrey was that he was confident that she wouldn't know the Muggle story the characters came from. "Harry! Behave!… I will bring our friends up to see you as soon as I can."

With that she leant in to give him another quick kiss, because kissing Harry was something she was quickly becoming addicted to… not that that was too surprising, considering how much time she'd spent fantasising about that very thing over summer ever since she remembered how he spent most nights sitting at her bedside talking to her while she was petrified, and the kisses on the cheek and forehead he'd given her…. and the lips that one time, which he then apologised for and said that he had to try and see whether a sleeping beauty style true love's kiss would manage to bring her back. She turned to Madam Pomfrey and smiled shyly. "I will leave him to your tender mercies then Madam Pomfrey… Is it alright if I come back later with some of Harry's other friends who have been worried about him?"

Poppy smiled at her. "Of course Dear, no more than one or two at a time though as we don't want to wear him out, that could hinder his recovery."

Hermione nodded. "No, of course not. Thank you Madam Pomfrey!" and with that she dashed out.

Poppy was happy with what the diagnostic scans were telling her, until Harry started telling her in a strained and worried voice…. "Madam Pomfrey, I didn't want to say anything while Hermione was here but I'm afraid…. I can tell that there's something really wrong with me, I'm fading in and out all the time and I can feel that something's missing inside me… I can't see properly either! I don't believe that I will last much longer….."

"Don't worry Mister Potter, I'll get Professor Dumbledore, he will know what to do…."

"That's your answer? I tell you there's something wrong with me and I think I'm dying but rather than get me to healers who may be able to save me, all you want to do is go have a chat with the Headmaster? Snape and the Slytherins were right, I am an idiot, why else would I believe that anyone in this world would ever do anything to try and help me? Well if you won't do anything to try and save me, at least tell Hermione that I truly did love her…." With that, Harry rolled over so that he was facing away from Poppy and started crying.

He didn't like playing her like this, but if she wasn't Dumbledore's willing pawn, the old bastard had obviously screwed with her head too much to be able to depend on her to do the right thing unless she was pushed to the edge. His plan worked, because triggering her need to honour her healer oaths and do what she could to save a patient managed to overcome the compulsion Dumbledore had put on her to not do anything with Harry without his express permission, and less than five minutes after Harry turned his back on her, he heard her on the Floo to St Mungo's.

The healers who came though from St Mungo's turned to angrily demand to know why Poppy hadn't reported the damage, compulsion and confundus charms, memory and willpower blocks, bindings and potions their scans were showing on Harry Potter, but Poppy's expression made them cast diagnostic scans on her, and then stun her so they could take her with them when they transferred Harry to St Mungo's for treatment. When Hermione and Susan Bones arrived in the Infirmary, finding it empty, Hermione fell apart. She was so much of a mess that Susan actually slapped her to break her out of it. Susan then held her until she had managed to pull herself together again, and had her stand beside her before she took off the necklace she was wearing under her robes and spoke into the pendant attached to it.

"Emergency! I need help!"

The necklace disappeared, but her Aunt appeared in front of them about ten minutes later, holding onto the necklace along with half a dozen battle hardened senior Aurors. That necklace was in fact quite a clever piece of wizarding technology, as when the 'Emergency! I need help!' trigger was spoken into it, it would flash off to a predetermined location and replay what had been said into it, then return to a point just in front of where it had been sent from with whoever was holding onto it when the appropriate response was spoken into it. They had found that this could get around most wards set up to block incoming portkeys, as the portkey was returning to its original location rather than originating externally.

It didn't take long for the girls to explain what they were worried about, and for Hermione to tell Susan's Aunt what Harry had said about why he needed her help. The Aurors quickly determined that the only magic used in the Infirmary recently other than multiple diagnostic scans cast by Poppy Pomfrey and two or three other witches or wizards was a single stunner that was cast after the diagnostic scans by one of the other witches or wizards. The Floo which was located the Infirmary proper had been used several times though, which Amelia Bones believed explained why the Infirmary was empty, because that particular Floo was not connected to the Floo Network at all, it had been set up as a dedicated connection to the Emergency Treatment ward at St Mungo's.

After what Hermione had just told her, Amelia wasn't inclined to let Dumbledore or anyone else at Hogwarts know what they were doing, or even that they were there, so she just took the girls to St Mungo's with them. They soon found Harry Potter and Poppy Pomfrey, along with a gaggle of quite angry healers working on them when they arrived at St Mungo's, and one of the healers was delegated to fill the DMLE in on what they'd found.

Basically, what it came down to was that Harry Potter, The-Boy-Who-Lived, the Saviour of Magical Britain, if not Magical Europe, had had a piece of Lord Voldemort's foul… for want of a better term… 'soul' embedded in the famous scar on his forehead for nearly twelve years. What's more, just after the attack that left his parents dead and him marked with that scar, someone.. apparently Albus Dumbledore according to what Mr Potter had told them… had bound his magical essence to the point where he was lucky to be alive and blocked all of his memories up to that point and most of his willpower, they also cast multiple compulsion and confundus charms on him to control how he behaved and how he reacted to the muggle relatives he was left with…. The healer angrily summarised the matter at this point.

"So they blocked his memories of who he and his family were, set him up to react in ways that would cause his muggle relatives to attack him and bound his magic to the point where he would be unable to protect or heal himself when they attacked him. We want to begin treatment to remove all the residual damage and stunted growth caused by malnutrition and continued chronic physical abuse from his relatives but he insisted on talking to you before we did Madam Bones. Our scans show that Mister Potter's magic had grown to the point where he broke some of the bindings by the time he was four or five, which undoubtedly was what kept him alive, but the compulsion and confundus charms and memory and willpower blocks apparently stayed in place until that dementor tried to suck his soul out on the Hogwarts Express on the way to Hogsmeade three days ago. It would appear that Voldemort's soul fragment wasn't anchored to Mister Potter as well as his own soul was because it was mostly the soul fragment that the dementor sucked out before a teacher who was on the Express managed to scare it off. From what we have determined, the dementor removed something like seven eighths of Voldemort's soul fragment and a thirty second of Mister Potter's own soul, there is a gap there but it is a tiny amount. We have removed the last traces of Voldemort's soul fragment, along with the remnants of the bindings on his magic, memory and willpower blocks and compulsion and confundus charms, and are currently flushing the rest of the loyalty and compulsion potions from his system."

"Whatever protections had been placed on Mister Potter via the protection rune which had apparently been painted or inscribed on his forehead were strong enough to prevent Mister Potter being possessed by Voldemort's soul fragment, but the magic of the soul fragment was so powerful that a significant portion of his magical energy has been taken up in keeping it contained to protect him from it since Halloween Nineteen Eighty One. Since the event on the Hogwarts Express, from what we observed, Mister Potter's growing magical energy and possibly the fact that the part they were anchored to was sucked out has broken the memory and willpower blocks. Mister Potter's memories now reach pretty much all the way back to his birth, but he also has most of Lord Voldemort's…. or more accurately Tom Marvolo Riddle's…. memories and knowledge, because those memories stayed with him when Riddle's soul fragment was sucked out. Mister Potter and Tom Riddle's memories paint a very different picture of Albus Dumbledore to what we're used to being told about the Leader of the Light. From what Mister Potter has told us, much of the three days he spent in a magical coma was spent getting these memories into some sort of order…." He snorted. "Though I dare say that that was complicated by the fact that he was apparently stuck in a fantasy world modelled on the Muggle romance novel Pride and Prejudice, which Miss Granger loaned him to read over the Summer Holidays….."

"And then there's Healer Pomfrey… We were all set to have all her memories of the healing arts removed and quite possibly send her to Azkaban for failing to report or attempt to heal the very obvious damage and interference showing on Mister Potter, but then we realised that something was very wrong with her because she wasn't showing any sign of being at all worried about the fact that she'd breached her oaths so badly, so we scanned her and found that she had been interfered with to a criminal degree as well. Madam Pomfrey was stunned and brought back here with Mister Potter to be treated…. We've removed most of the compulsion and confundus charms and memory and willpower blocks from her and are currently trying to stop her harming herself, now that she's aware of how badly she breached her healer's oaths…. The magical signature on the manipulations done on Healer Pomfrey match the ones on Mister Potter so there is no doubt that they were done by the same wizard, and they've both told us enough to be certain that that wizard was Albus Dumbledore."

Amelia decided that it would be best to have this talk with Harry Potter, so he would let the healers start the healing he needed, with that they headed across to his bed. Most of the adults were shocked when Harry ignored Madam Bones and grabbed Hermione's hand to pull her in for a loving but rather less than chaste kiss, then continued to hold her hand when he turned to the Director of the DMLE. "Greetings Madam Bones, I must say that you look rather more careworn than you did the last time I saw you, I take it that trying to get people to do the right thing in this world has been rather a trial for you?"

Amelia cocked her head at him, trying to remember when she had met Harry Potter since he returned to their world, but he explained. "You came to Saint Mungo's to congratulate my parents on the birth of their first born and heir to the House of Potter and almost hexed my magically accepted and blood bound Godfather Sirius Black when he suggested that with the way you were cooing over me, you were bound to be having a baby of your own soon."

Amelia stared at him in shock, because now that he said it, she remembered that was exactly what had happened. But he hadn't been more than a couple of days old at that point, how could be remember….. At that something he said struck her. Harry nodded when he saw that she'd gotten the point.

"Yes, with my parents' full agreement, Sirius Orion Black performed the formal rituals to be magically accepted as my Godfather, become my father's blood brother and blood adopt me as his official heir when I was about a fortnight old. From his discussions with my parents, he'd been rendered irreversibly sterile by a particularly virulent magical strain of the pox he had caught when he was catting about with some of the less chaste Pureblood girls at Hogwarts who were doing their best to take Molly Prewett's title of the Harlot of Hogwarts off her and he wanted to ensure that his Black relatives never got their hands on the legacy his Uncle Alphard had left him, so he decided that formally making me his heir and leaving everything to me would be the best way to do that. The blood brother and blood adoption rituals were because other than his fiancé and one disowned cousin, he regarded me and my parents as the last family he had left and he wanted to make those ties official. From what Dad and Uncle Siri were saying about you Madam Bones, you understand the old ways well enough to know that having those rituals magically accepted means that Sirius Black would not be alive if he had betrayed my family to Lord Voldemort in the manner that all the official stories have it. I can also assure you that Uncle Siri was not the secret keeper for Gryffindor Cottage in Godric's Hollow, the secret keeper was in fact the Rat, Peter Pettigrew…. Which leads us to something else… Does the DMLE have a pensieve that can be brought here Madam Bones? I have some memories that I need to show you."

Amelia was by now intrigued and confused, so she sent one of her Aurors off to collect the pensieve that was kept for trials in the Wizengamot, and the records of Sirius Black's trial while he was at it, and bring them to the hospital as quick as he could, but she had other questions. "Presuming that what you are saying is true Mister Potter, why would Professor Dumbledore have told everyone that Sirius Black was your parents' Secret Keeper?"

"Because he needed Uncle Siri out of the way so Uncle Siri couldn't interfere with his plans for me. I was there when Dumbledore and Uncle Siri witnessed my parents' last wills and now that all the blocks and confundus charms Dumbledore put on me have been removed, I have my photographic memory back. I originally had two magically accepted godfathers and three magically accepted godmothers, but Uncle Siri's fiancé Marlene McKinnon and her family were killed a few weeks before we were attacked in July Nineteen Eighty One and I'm told that the Aurors Frank and Alice Longbottom are both here somewhere at Saint Mungos in a long term care ward and Pandora Lovegood died in a suspicious accident four or five years ago. Uncle Siri and Auntie Marlene were my parents' first named choice to get custody of me in the event of their death, Uncle Frank and Auntie Alice were their second choice and Auntie Pan and her husband were the third. There were several other people on the list of possible guardians but one thing Mum was adamant about and Dad agreed with was that I wasn't to go anywhere near her sister, my Muggle Aunt Petunia Dursley, because she hated anything to do with magic and would be bound to take that out on me. Dad added that Aunt Petunia's husband, Vernon Dursley, was the worst kind of Muggle and vowed that if anyone ever gave that pig access to his son, he'd find some way to make them pay from beyond the grave if he had to. So I presume that Dumbledore lied about Uncle Siri being the Secret Keeper to make sure that he would be arrested and obviously prevented him testifying at his trial to keep him out of the way because I'm told that Uncle Siri was sent to Azkaban for life…. You see by that stage, Dumbledore had already quite literally dumped me on Aunt Petunia's doorstep in the middle of the night… In the middle of the night in November, mind you… with a note to say that my parents were dead so they would have to take me in, but it urged them not to spare the rod when I needed discipline because I must be made to behave when the time came for me to take my place in this world…. So he couldn't afford to have Uncle Siri being able to claim custody of me under the terms of the will. If Uncle Frank and Auntie Alice are in here, I can understand why they couldn't get custody of me, but why didn't Auntie Pan or anyone else on the list claim custody of me?"

Amelia was swearing and the Aurors and Healers who had heard what Harry had said were shocked, because they just couldn't believe that the great Albus Dumbledore would do what the boy said, but the swearing was coming from a different direction when Amelia answered Harry's question though.

"No one who was named in the will as your potential guardians would have known about their right to claim custody of you Mister Potter, because Albus Dumbledore used his position as Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot to have your parents' wills sealed and have himself named as your Magical Guardian the day after they were killed, which means that only he, Sirius Black and you know what was in their wills…. But even if he wasn't their secret keeper Mister Potter, Sirius Black is still guilty of killing Peter Pettigrew and thirteen Muggles when he caught up with Pettigrew a few days later…."

Harry cut her off. "No, he isn't… well I can't say for sure about the Muggles but I seriously doubt that he was responsible for their deaths, and I can state categorically that he did not kill Peter Pettigrew, because the Rat is still alive, and I can tell you where to find him! That's what I need the pensieve for."

That demanded answers, so Harry went on to explain that his father, Uncle Siri and Peter Pettigrew were all officially unregistered animagi, though he'd heard his parents and Uncle Siri talking about that once and apparently the details of his father and Uncle Siri's animagus forms were in fact recorded in a sealed section of their Auror records.

"My father's animagus form was a stag, which was called Prongs. Uncle Siri's form is a black Irish Wolfhound that fits the description of a Grim and is called Padfoot…. I actually saw Uncle Siri as Padfoot when I was running away from the Dursleys' after I turned Marge the Barge into a weather balloon and while he didn't show himself to me as Uncle Siri, he made no attempt to harm me in any way so all that shite about him supposedly breaking out of Azkaban just to kill me is ridiculous! And Pettigrew's form is a fat garden rat called Wormtail…. it's also been called Scabbers for the last eleven or twelve years as he's been Percy Weasley and now Ron Weasley's pet rat for that long!"

He stopped and turned to Hermione with a smile. "And while Crookshanks is undoubtedly brilliant Hermione, he already knew what Scabbers really was because he joined the Potter family as a kitten just before I was born. I expect he's been scaring off anyone who showed any interest in him while he was waiting for me to appear at the Magical Menagerie so he could claim me again, but when he saw the link between us and that I wasn't recognising him he obviously decided to claim you so that he could protect the both of us while he found some way to make me open his eyes….. Mum always said that the way Crookshanks reacted to Pettigrew proved that there was something wrong with him, because he's half kneazle and they can sense untrustworthy characters far better than we can."

Amelia was looking thoughtful. "Do you have any way of proving this Mister Potter?"

"Well Dad and Uncle Siri always said that they were vulnerable to the Animagus revealing spell in their animal forms so I expect that's the best way of proving it, but from what the witch running the Magical Menagerie said, Scabbers has lived at least three or four times as long as he should have if he was a natural rat, even a magical one…. If you get a pensieve here I can show you what Wormtail and Scabbers look like, and does anyone know what finger Pettigrew left behind when Uncle Siri supposedly blew him up, and how much of it was left?"

The Aurors were looking at each other until one spoke up. "It was his left ring finger, cleanly taken off at the knuckle, why?"

Harry shook his head. "Cleanly taken off at the knuckle? And no one ever questioned that? No wonder Uncle Siri ended up in Azkaban! Anyway, the reason I asked is that by some remarkable coincidence, Scabbers is missing two thirds of that toe on his left front paw!"

The Auror was pissed off at being taken the Mickey of like that, but Amelia snapped at him. "Quiet! He's absolutely correct, the fact that no one ever questioned something that obvious is inexcusable and highly suspicious. We'll look at the images of this rat when the pensieve gets here and then we are going back to Hogwarts to see what happens to Mister Weasley's pet rat when we cast the Animagus revealing spell on it. This whole business stinks to high heaven, I just wish we had enough proof to arrest Albus Dumbledore, but we don't…." She looked around the group, Aurors, Healers and teenagers alike. "No one is to say a word about any of this until I have enough to take the matter before the Wizengamot, in fact I will have oaths of secrecy from everyone before we leave here!"

A chill went up her spine when Harry piped up at that. "While I have no problem giving an oath of secrecy Madam Bones and I can draw on Tom Riddle's Occlumency knowledge to protect myself, that will not help Hermione, Susan or Madam Pomfrey when Dumbledore or his pet Death Eater Snape use Legilimency on them, which they do to me and the other students and staff of Hogwarts quite often.… Might I suggest that, with Hermione, Susan and Madam Pomfrey's permission, secrecy charms be used to block knowledge of what we have been discussing here being taken from them with Legilimency?"

Hermione could see from everyone else's expressions that they knew what Harry was talking about, and that they were worried, so she asked for someone to explain. Amelia had a curious expression as she motioned for Harry to do so and he smirked as he nodded and started talking, picking up on the fact that she wanted to get an idea of just how much he had learned from Tom Riddle's memories. By the time he finished, she was looking both impressed and worried, because he'd explained more than she'd ever known about the subjects of Legilimency and Occlumency and it was obvious that he was just scratching the surface of what he knew. He also proved that he was able to use his knowledge of Occlumency to protect his own mind and with the girls' and Poppy Pomfrey's permission, applied secrecy charms to them that none of the Aurors could break, so not even Albus Dumbledore should be able to do so without exposing the methods he was using to try and find out what they knew, but they retained an understanding of the subjects and risks associated with them.

The Auror had returned with the pensieve and file that showed that Sirius Black had never received a trial, nor was the matter investigated in accordance to the legal requirements. He had been sent to Azkaban for life on the basis of an executive order signed by Millicent Bagnold, then Minister for Magic, Albus Dumbledore, Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, and Bartemius Crouch Senior, then Director of the Department of Magical Law enforcement and now Director of the Department of International Magical Cooperation. As for the so-called evidence he was charged on, there was Albus Dumbledore's statement that he was the Potter's secret keeper and had betrayed them to be killed by Lord Voldemort, and a written statement by then Junior Minister for the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes and now Minister for Magic, Cornelius Fudge that the witnesses had all stated that Sirius Black had blown up Peter Pettigrew and thirteen Muggles before they were obliviated. This was corroborated by the written statement of Auror John Dawlish, who had held a grudge against Sirius back then because he'd been promoted over him and who was now the Minister's personal bodyguard and henchman. Sirius's wand hadn't been tested for spells cast either, or if it had nothing had been recorded because the results didn't fit in with their stories.

This was bad, because Dumbledore, Fudge and Crouch were all too powerful in Magical Britain to go after and Amelia knew that she wouldn't be allowed to break Dawlish to get the truth from him either, but the memories that Harry and Hermione had shown them supported what he was saying about Ron Weasley's rat's appearance and age, so they were going back to Hogwarts to confirm whether or not he was in fact Peter Pettigrew in animagus form. The only twist was that now they were going to have to try and slip in and out quietly without Dumbledore knowing if they could, in the hope of keeping it quiet until they had a chance to get Sirius and the rat proper trials in front of the Wizengamot.

There was something else that had been done while they were waiting, Harry called for Dobby, bonding with him so that Dobby could get Sirius' magical signature from his mind and sending him out to find his Godfather in either human or animagus form and bring him back as quick as he could. Dobby soon popped back into the ward with Sirius as Padfoot, struggling and trying to bite him until he saw Harry and froze, changing back and asking "Harry?" in a cracked voice that had hardly been used for the last twelve years.

When Sirius finally released him from the desperate hug he'd folded him into, Harry convinced him to let the Healers see to him and flooed to Hogwarts with Amelia and half of the Aurors to capture a rat traitor. The girls stayed at St Mungo's with Poppy, Sirius and the other half of the Aurors.

Harry used Riddle's knowledge of the secret passages of Hogwarts to get them past everyone and into the Gryffindor common room without being seen. The other boys in his dorm room were all in class at that point, so once Harry slipped in and confirmed that the rat was sleeping (like Ron, it would do nothing but eat and sleep if it could), he called the others in and they cast the Animagus revealing spell on it, stunning Pettigrew as soon as he returned to his human form and securing him with magic suppressing shackles clamped around his wrists, ankles, waist and neck.

Having the Dark Mark on his arm and Voldemort's wand on his person (along with his own and a few more that they didn't doubt were stolen from Death Eaters' victims) put paid to any questions anyone could have had about Pettigrew's guilt, so with the rat properly secured, they used the secret passages to return to the Infirmary and flooed back to the Emergency Treatment Ward at St Mungo's. They had to hold Sirius back long enough for the Black rage at the sight of the one who had betrayed them all to abate enough to get him to listen to them, but he finally grudgingly agreed that they needed the rat alive to stand trial if he was to have any chance of clearing his name.

Amelia flooed away to talk to someone about a place to hide Sirius and Pettigrew until they could set up a trial got them, and she had a grim smile on her face when she returned. Pettigrew was sent off to the Department of Mysteries with two of the Aurors, once again trussed up like a turkey in the magic suppressing shackles that they'd taken off just long enough for the healers to confirm that there was no medical reason for him not to live long enough to stand trial. Both Lily Potter and Pandora Lovegood had been exceptional Unspeakables and Saul Croaker, the Head of the Department of Mysteries, had thought of the two brilliant young witches like favourite nieces, as well as having high hopes for what they would achieve in the future, so he took the fact that he was convinced that they'd both been killed to prevent them interfering with the plans of one Albus Dumbledore quite personally. This meant that he was quite happy to provide secure holding cells for both Pettigrew and Sirius and keep them hidden from everyone until a trial could be arranged for them, but they had something else to do before Sirius went back into hiding.

As Director of the Department of Mysteries, it was Saul's business to know everyone's secrets, so he knew that while Orion and Walburga Black had done their best to have their eldest son Sirius the Third disowned and cast out of the House of Black, the actual Head of the Most Noble and Most Ancient House of Black, Duke Arcturus Black the Third, had never done so. In fact Arcturus had replaced his son Orion with Sirius as his heir after Orion and Walburga pushed Sirius to the point of running away from home at Sixteen, to block their attempts to give any more of the Black fortune to Lord Voldemort.

Saul also knew that Sirius had never been formally convicted, because he had remained the Heir Apparent of the House of Black up until his Grandfather's death, and from that point all that was required for him to be formally accepted as Duke Black, Head of the Most Noble and Most Ancient House of Black was for him to be accepted by the family magic of the House of Black at Gringotts. While there was no legal requirement for wizarding witnesses to the acceptance as Head of the House of Black and its Associated Houses and Families, in view of Sirius' current official legal status in Magical Britain, it was agreed that having Countess Griselda Marchbanks, Head of the Noble and Ancient House of Marchbanks, Director of the Wizarding Examination Authority of Magical Britain and one of the most senior members of the Wizengamot of Magical Britain, and Baron Saul Croaker, Head of the Noble and Ancient House of Croaker and Department of Mysteries in the Ministry of Magic of Magical Britain present to bear witness and attest to what occurred would be a good idea. They would also have the Heir Apparent and Regent of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Bones there, because when the Regent of the House of Bones was the Director of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement in the Ministry of Magic of Magical Britain it added weight to the proof, and she could quite legitimately state that she was 'escorting her prisoner'.

While they were stacking the deck, Saul had also supplied Amelia with his copies of the Potters' wills, which stated that Harry legally had the right to claim all his titles and take control of every aspect of his houses upon his Eleventh birthday (yet another thing that Dumbledore had unlawfully withheld from him), so it was agreed that they would witness Harry accepting his titles as Duke Potter-Peverell, Head of the Most Noble and Most Ancient Houses of Potter and Peverell and their Associated Houses and Clans and having Griselda accepted as his Regent and Legal Guardian in Magical Britain first, then they'd all witness Sirius accepting his titles.

Hermione had gone to Gringotts with them, as she, Harry and Susan would all be going back to Hogwarts with Poppy once their business at Gringotts was done, and Gringott the Sixth, Head Goblin of Gringotts had been looking at her through the proceedings (the Houses of Potter and Black were the two oldest, richest and highest ranking houses of Magical Britain, but more to the point, the Head Goblin of Gringotts always managed the House of Potter's affairs personally as the House of Potter was very important to Gringotts and the Goblin Nations). Once Harry and Sirius had been accepted by their family magics and had taken up their titles, including Harry being accepted as Heir Apparent to the House of Black, Griselda was accepted as Regent and Legal Guardian for Harry and Saul was accepted as Steward for the House of Black and its Associated Houses and Families, Gringott started asking Hermione questions about her family. After about half an hour of asking questions and doing computer searches (which Hermione was excitedly explaining to the others because she was the only person in the room other than Gringott who really knew what a computer was), Gringott used the intercom to call for something to be brought up from a vault. Amelia, Griselda and Saul looked at each other when he said the vault numbers, because they were definitely pre-Wizengamot vault numbers, which would make the Houses they belonged to at least Ancient.

When a goblin delivered three small boxes to Gringott, he opened them and then pushed them across his desk towards Hermione. "Try these on Miss Granger, I believe you will find this quite interesting..."

Hermione just looked at the rings, obviously afraid so he expanded on what he'd said. "Do not be afraid, if I am wrong, nothing will happen and we will just return the rings to their vaults, but if I am correct, you will be accepted as Baroness Granger, Head of the Noble and Ancient House of Dagworth Granger and its Associated Houses and Families, and owner of all their rights and assets. The last time there was a Head of the House of Dagworth Granger was over two hundred years ago. I was only a child then, but I can see many similarities between yourself and the last Baron Dagworth Granger and I am confident that you will be accepted by the Dagworth Granger family magic... And from what I discovered when I was tracing your lineage back, I believe that you may also be accepted as Head of the Noble and Most Ancient Houses of Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff."

Harry squeezed her hand comfortingly and she gave him a look, asking whether she should do this, but he just indicated that it was her choice to make. Feeling bold, she pulled him in for a kiss and then picked up the Dagworth-Granger box, holding it out to Harry. He got the message and took the ring out of the box, slipping it onto the ring finger of the slightly shaky hand she extended to him. When the jolt of magic and the rush of knowledge into her head subsided, she stopped clinging to him and swatted him on the arm. "You could have warned me Harry!"

Everyone else in the room was laughing, but Sirius decided to help Harry out, because he could already see that this girl meant a lot to him. "No one ever truly knows what will happen when someone is accepted by their family magic Hermione, because every House is different, but if it makes you feel any better, I'm pretty sure that you didn't get anything like the jolt that Harry and I got when we did, because our Houses are over two and a half thousand years old."

Amelia spoke up then. "Be that as it may Sirius, Miss Granger would have still gotten a fair jolt because going by its vault number, her house is at least five or six hundred years old."

Gringott chuckled. "The House of Dagworth Granger has been Noble via the first Baron Dagworth for nearly six hundred and fifty years now, but the family goes back over eight hundred years via the original Grangier Clan line, as they came across from Brittany soon after the Norman Conquest…. I apologise Baroness Granger, it was I who should have warned you that your House has over eight hundred years of family magic and knowledge and therefore there would have been an impact of some sort. You just reminded me so much of Baron Dagworth Granger and I was excited about welcoming the new Duke Potter Peverell and his mate into our world….."

The office was filled with a mixture of shrill "What?"s from the teenagers and laughter from the adults, but when they settled down, Amelia decided to have some fun with Harry. "I was under the impression that you were a wizard of honour and nobility Duke Potter Peverell. Am I to understand that you have merely been leading this poor witch on, taking your enjoyment from her without intending to do the honourable thing?"

They were all rather surprised as they were reminded of what he had in his head now when he snapped at her in a voice that belied his age. "Do not imply that! You know damned well that I have no intention of leading Hermione on! When I woke up a couple of hours ago after living in another time and place for what felt like months in my head, the first thing I saw was the sight I most wanted to see in this world, Hermione, so I kissed her. I'm hoping that me kissing her and her kissing me back like that means we're now boyfriend and girlfriend, but I'm pretty sure that that's all either of us are ready for at this point. We're only thirteen for God's sake, we're not old enough to be mates!"

Hermione hugged him and buried her face in his chest, so they could hardly hear what she was saying. "Yes Harry, I care about you too and I do want us to be boyfriend and girlfriend, but I'm not ready to be known as your mate yet…. My parents would lock me in my room and never let me out if they heard anyone calling me that!"

While they were standing there, holding each other, Sirius, Amelia, Griselda, Saul and Gringott were carrying on a silent conversation. When the two faced the others again, Amelia spoke. "Harry, Hermione, I'm sorry, the two of you are so grown up we honestly forget that you are just thirteen, well nearly fourteen in Hermione's case, and you don't know that much about this world except for the knowledge that Harry has acquired from Tom Riddle. But your ignorance of this world presents a very real danger, especially for you Hermione, because there are all too many people who would jump at the chance to prey on you while you're vulnerable like this. I would like to offer to become Regent and Legal Guardian in Magical Britain for you Hermione, just as Griselda has for Harry, to protect you from those who wish to take advantage of you…."

Hermione said "Yes Please" quietly, so they went through the steps for Amelia to become her Regent and Guardian, then Amelia spoke again.

"I'd also like you to think about another thing that will give you more protection. I don't need an answer here and now, but I do ask that you both give it careful consideration and tell me what you decide as soon as you do. Something that is quite common between the wealthier and more powerful houses of the Magical World, which you two have just become, is betrothal contracts. When they are set up between ethical houses, they are primarily a way of preventing less ethical houses trapping their sons and daughters into marriages by underhanded means. Susan and Neville Longbottom were entered into betrothal contracts with each other by their parents when they were barely toddlers. To the best of my knowledge they are no more than friends and if and when either of them finds someone else they wish to marry, the Houses of Bones and Longbottom will cancel their betrothal contracts so that they may do so. What I would like you to think about, Hermione and Harry, is giving Griselda and I permission to enter the two of you into the same type of betrothal contracts with each other so that you will be protected until if and when you find someone else you'd like to marry…."

Sirius piped up then to remind them that they would need to factor Harry's titles as the Heir Apparent of the House of Black into those betrothal contracts as well.

Harry and Hermione looked at each other, because when Amelia put it like that it made a lot of sense, and Tom Riddle's memories were telling Harry about many young witches and more than a few young wizards who's houses had been milked dry that way through the war, and far worse than that had happened to many of the witches involved. Harry held his hand out to Hermione and they went off to a corner by themselves, he used Riddle's knowledge to wandlessly erect a privacy ward around them and they talked for fifteen or twenty minutes about what he knew, then he cancelled the ward and they came back to ask Amelia and Griselda to set up the betrothal contracts. Before that could be done, they had to test Gringott's supposition that she was also Baroness Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff, but none of them were surprised to see that he was, Amelia became Hermione's Regent for those houses as well. While they were at Gringotts, Gringott sent runners to their vaults to get their Houses' betrothal rings. Like their House rings and Harry's Heir's ring, they'd normally be kept out of phase with their world, but they could be called into being at any time if needed.

Gringott raised another point when they went to set up the betrothal contracts between Harry and Hermione, the fact that Harry already had legitimate betrothal contracts in place with Luna and Daphne Greengrass (plus one that Dumbledore and Molly Weasley had tried to organise between Harry and Ginny Weasley, but that had never been accepted because Dumbledore never had any right to accept anything for the House of Potter and the then Head of the House of Weasley, Arthur's Uncle, had been under the imperius curse when he accepted it so the Weasley Family Magic wouldn't accept it). Harry, Luna and Daphe's mothers had been best friends at Hogwarts and they'd all gone into the Department of Mysteries together, so when their children were born it was only natural for betrothal contracts to be made between them to protect their houses, especially with Harry being Heir to two Duchies. It was agreed that the Greengrasses would not have ignored their responsibilities to Harry unless they'd had all memory of them removed, and were probably under compulsions to ignore any mention of a link between their houses, so Gringott summoned Lord and Lady Greengrass to Gringotts immediately. While the Pure-Blood Lords believed themselves to be above acknowledging lesser creatures like Goblins, those who had originated in the age old Druid Houses and Families who had guided Magical Britain from its inception knew the true worth of the People, so Cyrus and Celeste Greengrass appeared before the Head Goblin as soon as they could make themselves presentable. They agreed to be scanned by Gringotts' healers, and half an hour later they were furious, itching to get to Hogwarts and tear that old bastard limb from limb, but they were masters of Noble House politics and agreed to bide their time until the best chance to spring the traps they were advised of arose. They had no problem with amending the betrothal contracts between Harry and Daphne to refer to the House of Black, rather than the House of Potter, which left Griselda and Amelia free to accept betrothal contracts between Hermione and Harry for the Houses of Potter, Gryffindor and Slytherin.

Harry had shared some information about what members of the House of Black had been doing for Lord Voldemort, so Sirius decided to use his power as the new Head of the House of Black to start levelling the playing field, calling for the disillusion of the marriages of Voldemort's followers, with the return to the House of Black of absolutely everything that was part of their dowry or wedding gifts or earned from that…. and added penalties enacted for bringing shame on the House of Black, retroactively if they were dead….. and then cast every member of the House of Black who had ever served Lord Voldemort, calling back everything that rightly belonged to the House of Black from them or their heirs.

Of course, his first two targets were his dear cousins Narcissa Malfoy and Bellatrix Lestrange, and he rubbed salt into the wound by giving their sister Andromeda (who had never been cast out as most of the House of Black believed) the titles he took from them. The beauty of this was that, while they may not know who the new Head of the House of Black was yet, most of them would know what had happened when they lost their family magic and any of them who understood the rules of their world would know that there was absolutely nothing that they could do about it.

Watching Sirius cackling as he did what he could to destroy any of Voldemorts' followers who were associated with the House of Black in any way reminded Harry of something else he'd seen in Voldemort's memories, and he gave Gringott all the details needed to empty the vaults of everyone who had been a Death Eater, whether they had been marked or not, or key supporter of Voldemort. One of the things Voldemort had demanded of his followers was unlimited access to all their vaults and assets, and Harry had everything he needed to make use of that in his head.

While he was at it, he gave Amelia details of every one of Voldemort's followers who were part of the Ministry of Magic, starting with those in the DMLE and Department of Mysteries, so she was going to be having a busy day as she looked for ways to disappear as many of them as possible into the Department of Mysteries' holding cells.

With that, Harry and Sirius were sent off to one of the goblins' runic time chambers to get all the damage to their bodies corrected and then Harry used a glamour to make himself look like he had previously before they thanked Gringott for his time and returned to St Mungo's, where they split up. Harry, Hermione, Susan and Poppy Pomfrey returned to Hogwarts' Infirmary while Saul and Sirius went to the Department of Mysteries, with a detour to the Wizengamot chamber to use the Stone of Truth (a large crystal that the magic of the Druids Council and subsequent Wizards Council and Wizengamot were anchored to, it allowed the magic of the Wizengamot to interface with the family magic of those touching it to determine their standing and voting rights in the Wizengamot) to cancel any and all voting rights for the House of Black and its Associated Houses and Families and assigning all voting proxies to its new Steward Baron Saul Croaker, Head of the Noble and Ancient House of Croaker. Griselda and went with them and while they were there, Griselda used her authority as Regent for the Houses of Potter and Peverell and Head of the House of Marchbanks and their Associated Houses and Families to do the same with their voting rights, but she kept all their voting rights herself. Amelia did the same with the Houses of Bones, Dagworth-Granger, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff and their Associated Houses and Families and Saul did the same with the House of Croaker and its Associated Houses and Families (as far as they knew, the Houses of Marchbanks, Bones and Croaker were properly locked down but after what they'd heard about Dumbledore's machinations they decided to make sure). They also sent out word to their trusted friends and associates, advising them to come in and do the same as they'd just done to ensure that they knew who held the voting rights for their houses.

The holders of voting proxies were not advised when those the votes belonged to changed their proxies, so Dumbledore and the Dark factions didn't realise how many votes they were losing as Heads and Regents of Houses quietly visited the Wizengamot chamber to purge all existing voting rights for their houses, then reset them as required. In most cases the compulsions, imperiouses and intimidation that were used to gain their voting proxies had been long forgotten, quite often with the assistance of memory charms, so they hadn't realised that they had only been casting a fraction of the votes that belonged to their Houses while someone else was using their votes for agendas that they quite often did not support. With this new practice of cancelling all voting rights and then assigning them to those they trusted to hold voting rights for their Houses, they were reclaiming the power of their houses.