People seem to have widely differing views on the goblins in the HP world, so I thought I'd explain how I see them in this, and in fact most of my stories, feel free to ignore this if you aren't interested.

The way I see it, the goblins are an ancient, intelligent and methodical culture who make sure that they doesn't forget their history and are working to make those they deal with more friendly and accepting towards to their race. While I agree with the stereotype of them being a warrior race who are quite ready and willing to fight if provoked, they've always been described as 'right clever', so doing anything so stupid as to attack other races who can easily wipe them out without strong provocation isn't something I see them doing. The Wizarding World as a whole treats them with disrespect and disdain though, so I can definitely see them doing anything and everything they can short of provoking outright war to poke the Wizarding World in the eye…. And under the tenets of 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend', I can easily see a clever people like that being quite willing to form mutually beneficial alliances with any other like minded magical or non-magical people to improve their circumstances to the disadvantage of the Wizarding World.

This story also shares the another theme of many of my other stories, in that the Potter family is favoured by the goblins because it has championed the fae people for millennia. They are also the nominal owners of many of the fae peoples' business interests in the human worlds (both magical and non-magical), as I see this as the type of thing clever, methodical people would do toChapter 8 ease their way into getting established in worlds where they are not welcomed or understood. FWIW

Yet another theme I use is that recipients of the Order of Merlin, First Class, are awarded a Baronetcy and their family becomes a Minor House if it is below that to give them a voice in the Wizengamot. The proper form of address for a Baronet is 'Sir'.

BTW: For our 'Merican brethren, sorry if anyone's offended but 'It's Miller Time' was just a handy moniker for the chapter as I never really liked most 'Merican beers I tried. Unless I've gotten them mixed in the last thirty years or so, Miller just tasted like lolly water to me, while Bud tasted like dishwater. Mind you, I don't like too many Aussie beers either, Boag's is generally all I buy and I usually upset drinkers of one of the more popular brands by continually referring to it as Viper's Bile. ;^)

Usual silly disclaimers, no rights to anything from JKR's stories.

The others were relieved to see that Harry and Hermione had apparently sorted out their issues when they came to breakfast….

They had been in the middle of a discussion the night before when Hermione suddenly turned to glare at Harry and demanded. "What period stories?"

Harry's act of confusion when he asked what she was talking about seemed a tad put on to some, but luckily Hermione was too fired up to notice at that point.

"When I introduced you to my parents and you took me to task for not mentioning that Daddy was named for Puck, you said that Riddle had 'read all of Shakespeare's works and many other period stories so that he'd be able to fit into that world better'…. what were the period stories?"

"All sorts of stories from Regency and Victorian times…."

"Like the Jane Austin novels?"

Harry sighed. "Yes, like the Jane Austin novels…."

He didn't have a chance to say anything else because she went off at him. "How could you do that to me? You had me and everyone else convinced that you were trapped in that mindscape for months because I talked you into reading the book!..."

It was Hermione's turn to be cut off. "Hold it right there! For your information, I did read that book because you gave it to me and that was what led me into that mindscape! Sure, all those stories that Riddle read to try and learn how he was expected to behave in Magical Britain fleshed out most of the details which made that world believable but it was your bloody book that took me there! My mind had been associating the people we knew with the characters in the story as I was reading it and when the blocks were stripped away by the dementor I just fell into their world."

With that he whirled about and stormed out of the room, and they heard a 'pop' that said that he'd used one of the portkeys to take him away (unless the one wearing the Shield Holster wished for something or someone else to come with them, the runic portkeys used a variation of the enchantments to create the suits of Goblin Silver armour to limit the air displaced to what was close to their skin, so the noise as they left was generally limited to a 'pop').

Pandemonium broke out in the room and Hermione collapsed in tears as she realised what she'd done. The group got more and more worried when they couldn't find Harry and he wouldn't answer mirror calls, but the more observant ones noted that Hermione had been calming down as Luna whispered in her ear, just before they disappeared as well. Alastor Moody was probably the only one who was watching close enough to note that Alfred, Celeste and Saul were the only ones other than Daphne who didn't appear to be worried about the fact that Harry and two of his betrothed had vanished like that…. Well the others caught the approving and proud look on Celeste's face when Daphne shot down all their demands to know where Harry and her future sister wives had gone to with all the regal aplomb of a Pure-Blood Princess as she haughtily told them that that was family business and no-one outside of their immediate families or the Heads of their Families had any right to demand answers.

What Alfred, Celeste and Saul knew was that both Harry and Luna had somewhere to go where no-one would find them unless they were invited. Saul had at first been furious when he found out that Alfred had been visiting the Department of Mysteries and making use of its facilities whenever he felt like it for the last fifty years, because Albert Corbeau's accesses as a Senior Unspeakable had never been removed from their wards…. Due to the fact that traditional Pure-Bloods couldn't see any reason to go to the effort of removing accesses for a dead man... Once he got past the fact that someone had had almost unlimited access to his department for the last fifty years without his knowledge though, Saul joined in the laughter and agreed that it would be in their best interest for Alfred to keep those accesses.

Lily, Pandora and Celeste had all been brilliant and promising young Unspeakables who enchanted Alfred with their wit, talent and enthusiasm, so he helped them out wherever he could. Among other things, he gave each of them one of his trunks loaded with every security and privacy enhancement he had come up with by then. The trunks were identified by their Unspeakable names, so Lily's was Tigrinium, Pandora's was Pithos and Celeste's was Maat. They did most of their serious research in their trunk spaces and kept everything they wanted to keep safe in there as well, including the magical portraits that they'd secretly had made because they didn't believe that they could trust the people around them to keep their secrets safe from Dumbledore and co.

Unfortunately, while Alfred had worked out how to enchant the trunks so that they would go out of phase with the 'real' world and created rings keyed to the same magical signature as the trunks which could be used to change their state, he hadn't mastered the heirloom enchantments well enough for Lily to be able to call the trunk to her in the nursery, or the runic portkeys to let them pop into the trunk, by that fateful Halloween twelve years ago…. Dumbledore had compelled James to loan him the Potter Invisibility Cloak a few days before and Lily knew that she had no chance of sneaking Harry downstairs and past Voldemort to the utility room where she stored the trunk in an out of phase state without it, so she just concentrated on doing what she could to protect Harry before Voldemort got there…. And while Pandora's trunk had been updated to include the ability to call the trunk to her, the events that led to her suspicious death eight years later had happened too fast for her to get away before she died.

They'd all been keeping their true identities secret when Alfred was dealing with them in the Department of Mysteries, so it was only when he asked about their Unspeakable identities that Alfred discovered that Tigrinium and Pithos were actually Harry and Luna's mothers. Once he realised that though, he had Harry and Luna call their mothers' trunks to them as the Heads of the Ifan and Cathbad Clans, and updated the enchantments on them so that they had everything the new trunks did, adding portkey runes in the trunks and on their Shield Holsters to allow them to portkey straight into them. There hadn't been time yet to update the runes on everything else, but the mirror portals inside Tigrinium and Pithos had had the new runes for them added while he was adding the runes to access most of the group's trunks, so the quickest way to get Hermione to Harry was for Luna to use her runic portkey to pop them into Pithos, and then use its mirror portal to pass into Tigrinium.

The others gave up waiting and went 'home' after they didn't turn up for a few hours, so they hadn't seen Harry, Hermione or Luna since Luna and Hermione disappeared. None of them had liked not knowing where they were or whether they'd sorted everything out, but the only elf who had access to Harry's trunk was Dobby, and he wouldn't take anyone there without Master Harry's approval. He also wouldn't say anything more than that Master Harry, Mistress Hermione and Mistress Luna were fine.

(That was another interesting discussion they'd had on Sunday, because Amelia and the others were shocked to hear that Common Elves' proper forms are closer to High Elves than the way they normally look, but unless they're properly accepted into a house with strong family magic by the Head of House, they grew up stunted and malformed like humans whose growth has been effected by severe malnutrition. The big difference between elves and humans though is that even if they are properly accepted into a house with strong family magic as adults, the family magic can correct the deficiencies in time, and the stronger the magic, the faster they improve, which was why Dobby was showing such accelerated improvement.)

When they sat down, Hermione quietly explained that she'd initially been angry at herself, that it had taken over a day for her to realise what Harry was saying when she introduced him to her parents, and she'd taken that out on Harry. She'd realised what she'd done almost straight away, but by that time Harry had stormed off. Luna and Daphne had talked her down from the panic she went into when she realised what she'd done and Daphne agreed to cover for them when Luna told them that she'd seen where Harry had gone to, and she could take Hermione there. They'd sat down and talked it out, with Daphne joining them after the main group broke up, and they'd all spent the night in Tigrinium (while they were primarily set up as research facilities, the Three Musketeers' trunks all had comfortable living spaces as well).

Their friends (and the adults who were linked in via the communicator mirrors) were happy to hear that everything had been resolved, but their discussion was interrupted by the DMLE Patrol Officers who entered the Great Hall and proceeded to the High Table, stopping to place a scroll on the table in front of Dumbledore…. This was the morning's entertainment that they'd been waiting for.

"Albus Percival Dumbledore, of the Dumbledore Wizarding Family, you are hereby summoned to appear before the Emergency Wizengamot Session that has been called for this morning, please come with us."

Dumbledore quickly covered up the flash of fear and anger that crossed his face when he looked at the scroll in front of him, knowing full well that if he touched that scroll he'd be compelled to do as they said, but those who were watching for it caught it. He obviously thought he could get away with the same bullshit as he'd been using for the last sixty or seventy years though as he came back with.

"You should have checked your information before you came here Officers, as that is not my proper name. I am Sir Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, Head of the Minor House of Dumbledore, Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorcerer, Chie…." He stopped himself just in time from claiming the titles of Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot of Magical Britain and Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards, which he'd lost last week. "and Headmaster of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."

This had been how he'd gotten around all the oaths and vows he'd had to make to build up his image over the last half century, he could make any oath they wanted as Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore and cast a subtle non-verbal lumos to fake the effect of the oath being accepted, but nothing was binding as that wasn't his true name. It had been working for over fifty years and nothing would stop…

"Oh I'm sorry Sir Albus, someone back at the Ministry must have made a mistake. If you'll just pick up that Summons scroll in your left hand and make a magical oath on your life and magic that you are indeed Sir Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, Head of the Minor House of Dumbledore, Holder of the Order of Merlin, First Class…. Grand Sorcerer and the Headmaster of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, we will leave you in peace, and I will ensure that you get a formal apology from the Wizengamot for this embarrassing incident."

Lupin leapt to his feet to vent his outrage at the Great Albus Dumbledore being treated like this, but he was covered by a pair of wands before his chair hit the floor. The voice he was being coldly addressed in held none of the false deference or respect that Dumbledore had been addressed with.

"I suggest that you sit down and shut up Right. Now! Professor Lupin. You are no more than a hair's breadth away from being taken away and formally charged with interfering with Officers of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement in the performance of their official duties. We are also aware of your condition, so if we have to take action to stop you, we will be using stronger spells than we would on ordinary wizards."

Dumbledore couldn't afford to lose the only person in the Castle he could depend on to do as he said, so he jumped in. "Don't worry Remus, this will all be resolved peacefully so just take a seat…. As for you, Officers, you can be assured that I will be speaking with your superiors about your treating something as potentially dangerous as a magical oath so frivolously. Oaths are not something to be played around with..."

The Senior Officer wasn't in the mood to pander to this old charlatan any more, he'd been shown the file to date to ensure that he and his partner would be prepared for what they may come up against here… That was why they'd been keeping an eye on Lupin, as he was the only strong ally Dumbledore had in the castle. "The only thing frivolous in this matter Mister Dumbledore is the way you are treating a formal summons to appear before the Wizengamot! As I stated to both you and the Professor, we have formally served you with the summons to appear, and the only two options here are that you come with us right now, or you swear a magical oath on your life and magic that you are in fact who you have said you are. Either way, I am now formally ordering you to pick up the summons I have just served you with. If you are who you say you are, nothing will happen, but that and your magical oath as to your true identity are the only things which will be accepted by the Wizengamot as valid reasons for your failure to appear before them…."

"What are you waiting for Mister Dumbledore? Pick up that summons now!"

Albus was still trying to work out a way to get out of this. If that thrice damned Phoenix hadn't disappeared he could have called it to take him out of here and he could hold off on appearing before the Wizengamot until he'd made all the proper arrangements to ensure that everything would go his way, but it had deserted him…. If he touched that scroll he'd be proven a liar, but there was no way that damned Patrol Officer was going to let him get out of doing that. He could see that the only way to avoid that was going to be fighting his way out, but the way those Patrol Officers were holding their wands said that they were itching for a fight. For that matter he could see out the corner of his eye that McGonagall and half of the ones at the High Table had their hands on their wands, as did Potter and the other students associated with him. He tried to get out of this with a little dignity intact and stood up.

"Very well Officer, I will go with you and speak to the Wizengamot, but rest assured that I will be requiring a formal apology from the Department of Magical Law Enforcement as well as the Wizengamot when we have cleared this matter up due to your behaviour here!"

The Senior Patrol Officer was unrepentant as he pointed his wand at the Summons scroll. "You have apparently forgotten something Mister Dumbledore. Please pick up the Summons you have been served with as ordered."

If looks could kill for humans like they did for basilisks, he would have dropped dead, then and there, but the furious glare Albus sent his way had no effect on him. When Albus didn't move to take up the scroll, he looked at the other officer and at the man's nod, they both raised their wands to point at him and the Senior Officer held up his off hand in a fist. Albus realised that he was counting down by the time he'd raised his thumb and two fingers on that hand and hurriedly snatched up the Summons when he raised the third finger, because it was obvious that they'd start firing stunners at him (well he hoped they'd be stunners) the moment that last finger was raised.

Those who were watching closely (which was well over half of those in the Great Hall by that point) saw him react when he took up the Summons and the compulsions keyed to Albus Percival Dumbledore, of the Dumbledore Wizarding Family, took effect knew that he'd been lying about his true name, which meant that as soon as he was escorted out by the Patrol Officers there would be a mass exodus to the owlery as students notified their parents and guardians of what had happened this morning.

The rush to the owlery played right into their hands, actually, because Harry was popped down to the antechamber for Chamber of Secrets by Dobby, and once he opened the chamber and set a few portkey locator crystals down inside for Minerva, Filius, Pomona and Severus used the runic portkeys on their Shield Holsters to pop down. Saul, Celeste and Alfred did the same, but they shuttled down the ones who'd been petrified by the basilisk, along with Percy and Ginny (Percy was there to look after Ginny). Saul, Celeste and Alfred were wearing their Unspeakable robes so that the runic portkeys could be passed off as something the Department of Mysteries had come up with (which was true to a point, seeing as Alfred had done much of the work to develop them there). There were more than a few screams when they saw the basilisk, and Justin and Ginny fainted. Once they'd been given a chance to face up to their fears and reassure themselves the monster that petrified them was truly dead, they were taken back and the rest of the ones in their group (students and adults) came down to see the basilisk before the team of goblins began rendering it down.

Harry also called Myrtle down to the chamber so that she could get some closure in regard to the creature that killed her before it was rendered down, and that caused quite a bit of excitement, because he'd had to open the doors to the chamber again so she could come in via the tunnels (there appeared to be wards on the walls, floor and ceiling of the Chamber which prevented wizard, goblin and elf apparation, wizard and goblin portkeys and ghosts from passing through, presumably to keep everyone but Parselmouths out of the Chamber), and the goblins discovered that the massive doors were at least eighteen inches thick and made of solid goblin silver. In the thousand years since the Chamber was built, the world's resources of the rare ore that was needed to create goblin silver had become more and more scarce. This had made the rare metal become over a hundred times more valuable than gold, so in today's world that much pure goblin silver represented an incredible fortune. It wasn't too difficult for Gringott to convince Harry to agree to have the doors and fittings removed and the wall sealed up so that the chamber could only be accessed by Alfred's runic portkeys and mirror portals, because he'd already asked for the tunnels between Hogwarts and the Chamber to be filled in.

They had already agreed that Ginny Weasley and all of the basilisk's victims would be receiving shares of the proceeds of the sale of its parts, along with Hogwarts, but when the subject of the goblin silver from the Chamber doors and anything else they found in the Chamber came up, Minerva put her foot down and said that that belonged to Harry alone as the magically accepted Head of House of Slytherin.

For all the excitement in the Chamber of Secrets, they were done down there quick enough that the ones who would be staying at Hogwarts that day were back in time for the first classes which started forty minutes after Dobby popped Harry down to the antechamber. Harry would be missing at least part of another day's lessons though, as he would be in the Wizengamot session where Albus Dumbledore and others would be finding out that they were no longer the favoured children of fate. He felt guilty about leaving Hermione to face all of Ron Weasley's inevitable whining and abuse about the fact that he hadn't been included in the party who were taken to see the basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets, but he knew that Neville would be there to support her, and the others too as much as their schedules permitted.

Harry got into the Wizengamot chamber before most people began to arrive, the magic of the chamber accepted his right to be there as the Head of the Most Noble and Most Ancient House of Potter and Its Associated Houses and Clans, and it had no eyes so the fact that he was under the Peverell Invisibility Cloak didn't register to it. Picking an out of the way spot to sit, he cast a minor aversion charm around it to prevent his being exposed by someone trying to sit on him. He'd also come in via the trunk Saul had in his office, so no-one outside their group had any idea he was in the Ministry building at all.

Dumbledore, Albert Finney and Ex-Minister Millicent Bagnold were sitting on a bench behind the defendant's chair and they didn't look happy, well Dumbledore and Bagnold were looking worried and Finney looked like he was shitting himself. None of them looked overly confident about the representative of the International Magical Office of Law who was talking to them either, but that was understandable because Harry could hear the pompous buffoon going on about the very idea of anyone suing the Ministry being Preposterous! If he'd bothered asking anyone who had been active in legal proceedings in Magical Britain in the last fifteen years, they would have told him that that was a stupid position to take when he was going up against Andi and Ted Tonks, as they were the most accomplished Barrister/Solicitor team in Magical Britain and one of the best legal teams in Magical Europe.

They hadn't even gotten past reading the charges being presented before the Ministry's legal representative had to be slapped down by the Presiding Panel for interrupting the reading of the charges. That made Bagnold join Finney in looking like she was shitting herself, because the ex-Ravenclaw was bright enough to know that they were screwed, even if the other two weren't, but Dumbledore wasn't really paying attention after the item that had been introduced before they began the main event.

When it was announced, many Wizengamot members tried to argue that this wasn't the time or place for something like that, so the Presiding Panel had the Clerk of the Court read out the particulars of the ancient right to call for family magic to judge whether someone was fit to lead the family, specifically the fact that family members had the right to challenge the current head at any time, but it had to be done via the Stone of Truth in a formal Wizengamot session. It was also pointed out that if the family magic judged the challenge to be spurious, the challenger could be stripped of everything they owned and formally cast out of the family.

Albus' heart was in his mouth as his brother Aberforth approached the Stone of Truth, because he knew full well that Aberforth had retained memories of more than enough to destroy him here, as he'd gained enough of the Dumbledore Family Magic to protect his mind from most of the methods Albus used to remove evidence of his wrong doings from others' minds and compel them to follow his orders. He knew he was sunk when Aberforth spoke, and the Stone ensured that everyone in the chamber heard his words.

"I, Aberforth Llewellyn Dumbledore, of the Wizarding Family of Dumbledore, challenge Albus Percival Dumbledore's fitness to lead the Wizarding Family of Dumbledore, on the grounds that he has brought shame on the family by causing the deaths of the Baron and Baroness Warg in Eighteen Ninety Nine and framing their son, Randolph Mordred Warg, to be blamed for his crime, as well as causing the deaths of our mother, Kendra Mary Dumbledore nee Miller, and sister, Ariana Kendra Dumbledore in Eighteen Ninety Nine. Albus Percival Dumbledore also willingly colluded with his lover, Gellert Grindlewald, on their shared plan to gain mastery over the Wizarding World up until Nineteen Forty Five, at which point he betrayed Grindelwald and caused him to be imprisoned in Nurmengard in order to gain acclaim for 'defeating' the Dark Lord. He also framed myself, Alberforth Llewellyn Dumbledore, for his own crimes of using unnatural charms and actions regarding goats and caused me to be imprisoned in Azkaban in Nineteen Forty Three to take attention off the young boy he was grooming to replace his lover Gellert Grindelwald as the Dark Lord to be held up to frighten the masses, Tom Marvolo Riddle. He then went on to facilitate Riddle's rise as the so called Dark Lord Voldemort and was responsible for the deaths of the Duke and Duchess apparent of Potter and Peverell, James and Lily Potter, in Nineteen Eighty One, along with the imprisonment of Earl Sirius Black, Heir to Duke Black, in Azkaban on false charges and without the trial he was legally required to be given, and the ongoing abuse of the current magically accepted Duke Potter Peverell, Henry James Potter, by illegally placing him with Lily Potter's estranged sister and her husband to be mistreated, illegally sealing the Potters' wills and falsely claiming himself to be Harry Potter's appointed guardian. Albus Percival Dumbledore is directly or indirectly responsible for the deaths of thousands of Wizards, Witches, Squibs and Muggles as a result of his collusion with Gellert Grindelwald and Tom Riddle, AKA Lord Voldemort. Among those who died were Dukes Henry and Charlus Potter Peverell, Duchess Dorea Potter Peverell nee Black and numerous other Heads of Noble, Ancient and Most Ancient Houses and Clans. As such, Albus Percival Dumbledore has brought great shame on the Wizarding Family of Dumbledore and Magical Britain and is therefore unfit to lead the Wizarding Family of Dumbledore and I call upon the Family Magic of the Wizarding Family of Dumbledore to judge him for his actions and strip the Leadership of the Dumbledore family from him!"

The Stone of Truth glowed brightly as it searched Aberforth's memories and then 'spoke', channelling the Dumbledore Family Magic.

"Albus Percival Dumbledore, of the Wizarding Family of Dumbledore, present yourself to be judged by the Dumbledore Family Magic!"

The MLE Patrol Officers serving as Officers of the Court had to drag Dumbledore to his feet and across the floor to the Stone of Truth, forcibly placing his hands on the surface of the crystal. The crystal brightened when his hands touched its surface and try as he might, he couldn't remove them. The light was blinding as the Dumbledore Family Magic ripped through his head, looking for evidence of the events that it had seen in Aberforth's head and any other memories that supported his claim that Albus was unfit to lead the Dumbledore Family. The light dimmed after about ten minutes and the Stone 'spoke' again.

"The Dumbledore Family Magic has found Aberforth Llewellyn Dumbledore's challenge to Albus Percival Dumbledore's right to lead the Wizarding Family of Dumbledore on the grounds of each of Albus Percival Dumbledore's stipulated actions having brought great shame on the Wizarding Family of Dumbledore to be justified and Albus Percival Dumbledore is hereby removed as Head of the Wizarding Family of Dumbledore. Furthermore, the Dumbledore Family Magic calls upon the new Head of the Wizarding Family of Dumbledore, Aberforth Llewellyn Dumbledore, to cast Albus Percival Dumbledore from the Wizarding Family of Dumbledore, to remove this blight on the Dumbledore Family's honour."

Aberforth eagerly stepped forward to do as he was bid, but his brother shouted at him to stop. While he was obviously frightened about what was happening, there was a smugness about him that said he had something up his sleeve.

"Any actions which lead to me no longer being accepted as Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, will cause the ruination of Magical Britain!"

The look that Griselda Marchbanks fixed him with as she hissed "Explain!" just about made him wet himself, because that witch had always terrified him, but he believed that he had them over a barrel so his smugness didn't go away.

"If you read the penalties written into the magical contracts for the upcoming TriWizard Tournament that Minister Fudge officially accepted on behalf of Magical Britain last month, you will find that if Magical Britain, France or the Nordic Congress pull out of the agreement before the TriWizard Tournament finishes naturally, the defaulting party will lose its status as an independent country and the other two parties in the contract will divvy up its resources between them. The contract also stipulates that I, Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, must lead the TriWizard Tournament Committee, so casting me out of the Dumbledore Family so I lose my name or dismissing me from my position as Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry will cause the ruin of Magical Britain."

Griselda turned her ire on Fudge at that point. "Is this true Minister Fudge?"

"I… I don't know…. I mean I signed the contracts for the TriWizard Tournament of course but no one told me about any penalties like that…."

"Didn't you have these contracts reviewed by the International Magical Office of Law or the Wizengamot's Legal Advisors before you signed them?"

"Why would I be expected to do that? Albus Dumbledore, the Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot and Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards told me that everything was in order and Delores agreed, there was no higher authority to consult!"

Griselda growled and ordered that someone have either certified copies of those contracts, or the originals if they couldn't be copied properly, brought to the Wizengamot chamber immediately!

Albus Dumbledore was too smug for this to be a lie, so the ones who knew the old laws best spent the time while the contracts were being retrieved under privacy charms, debating how they could comply with the Dumbledore Family Magic's demand to get rid of him without falling foul of the penalties of those contacts. Aberforth was quite happy to go along with the solution that they came up because it would allow him and the Family to be shut of Albus without bringing ruin down on the country.

It didn't take long to confirm that the penalties Dumbledore told them about were indeed written into the TriWizard Tournament Contracts, and that they'd been magically accepted by the leaders of the three participating countries, so Aberforth stepped up to the Stone of Truth and placed his hands on it.

"I, Aberforth Llewellyn Dumbledore, Accepted Head of the Wizarding Family of Dumbledore, charge that the honour of the name Dumbledore has been irreversibly stained by the actions of Albus Percival Dumbledore. Therefore I petition the Dumbledore Family Magic to grant me leave to hereby change the family name from Dumbledore to Miller, the maiden name of the last Consort of the Head of the Wizarding Family of Dumbledore, my mother, Kendra Mary Dumbledore nee Miller…."

There was a flash and the Stone 'spoke'. "The Dumbledore Family Magic is in agreement with the proposal of Aberforth Llewellyn Dumbledore, Head of the Wizarding Family of Dumbledore. To free itself of the shame brought on the family name by Albus Percival Dumbledore, the Dumbledore Family will henceforth be the Wizarding Family of Miller, with Aberforth Llewellyn Miller as its head…."

Aberforth respectfully bowed his head and said. "I thank you for granting me this boon so that I may cleanse the family of its shame and hereby cast Albus Percival Miller from the Wizarding Family of Miller for bringing great shame on the family through his reprehensible actions. Any and all ties between Albus Percival Miller and the Wizarding Family of Miller are hereby forever severed and he is henceforth to be known by his birth name of Albus Percival Dumbledore!"

The stone flashed again and spoke. "Albus Percival Miller has hereby been cast from the Wizarding Family of Miller. He will henceforth be known as Albus Percival Dumbledore and have no ties of any nature with the Wizarding Family of Miller!"

The Officers of the Court were now pretty much supporting all of Dumbledore's weight, he'd slumped when he lost the position of Head of the Dumbledore Family, and most of the Dumbledore Family Magic with it, but when he was cast out of the family and lost the rest of the family magic he just about fainted, and Aberforth wasn't done yet.

"Due to the actions of the previous Head of the Family, the Wizarding Family of Miller has now been reduced to myself, Aberforth Llewellyn Miller. Therefore, to avoid the family magic and knowledge of the Wizarding Family of Miller being lost, I hereby name Duke Henry James Potter as Heir to the Wizarding Family of Miller!"

The Stone flashed and spoke again, as the Miller Family Magic accepted his decree. "Henry James Potter is hereby accepted as Heir to the Wizarding Family of Miller!"

There were grim smiles on the faces of the Officers of the Court as they dragged Dumbledore back to the defendants' bench and dumped him there, as the old bastard had just lost much of what he'd sacrificed generations of Witches, Wizards and Squibs of Magical Britain to get.

Where he was sitting in the gallery, Harry was reeling, because while he wouldn't get the full Heir's share of the family magic until and unless he was blood adopted into the Miller Family, he now knew that the Dumbledore Family Legacy had been that of the pre-eminent beast masters of Magical Britain and Europe, using their proprietary family mind magic and communications abilities to control magical creatures, and that Dumbledore had twisted these abilities to let him control humans and other magical beings. But Dumbledore didn't have access to the Miller Family Magic any more, so his ability to control people had been largely cut off, which would make it very hard for him to get this session to work in his favour. Harry didn't bother trying to hold back his grin at that thought, because he was hidden under the invisibility cloak.

As far as Harry was concerned, this session had already succeeded in one of their primary goals, because while they'd always known that the sheeple of Magical Britain would prevent Dumbledore getting his just deserts in the Wizengamot, they couldn't question the judgement of his family magic on his crimes, and the fact that Aberforth's charges against had all been found to be justified on the basis of evidence in his own head proved him to be guilty of nearly a century of heinous crimes. With most Wizengamot members present and much of the public gallery filled for this session, there was no way of covering up what had been exposed here, and in the eyes of most who made up the Wizarding World, there was nothing so damning as being rejected by your own family magic.

When Andi started going through the case that they had against the Ministry, the pompous fool that the Ministry had representing them kept interrupting her, and it didn't take long for Harry to grow tired of his empty posturing, which seemed centred around loudly proclaiming that just about everything Auntie Andi said was "Preposterous!". After about twenty minutes of this, Harry silently flew down to the chamber floor (flying without a broom was one of Voldemort's more useful tricks) and took off his invisibility cloak.

"I apologise for this interruption, My Ladies and Lord of the Presiding Panel and Baroness Tonks, but may I have your leave to have a few matters clarified?"

Tiberius looked confused, but Griselda and Amelia were trying to cover their grins as they nodded their acquiescence to his request, saying "Of course, Duke Potter Peverell." because they could tell that he was going to humiliate this fool. Andi just nodded when Harry looked at her, as she had a good idea of what was going to happen as well.

With that, Harry turned to the Ministry official. "Mister Abernathy, did you complete your OWLs and NEWTs at Hogwarts?"

"What's that got to do with anything?"

Harry shot a pained look at the Presiding Panel in exasperation and Griselda piped up. "He got four rather mediocre OWLs and barely scraped through to get two NEWTs from Hogwarts Duke Potter."

"May I ask which subjects he got his NEWTs in Baroness Marchbanks?"

"He got As in History of Magic and Astronomy."

"Thank you, so I would presume that he should be familiar with Baron Godric Gryffindor's importance in the History of Magical Britain?"

"I would certainly hope so!"

Harry nodded his thanks and turned back to Abernathy. "Were you present in Gryffindor Cottage in Godric's Hollow on the night of the Thirty First of October Nineteen Eighty One Mister Abernathy?"

"What are you going on about boy?"

"You will address me as Duke Potter or Duke Potter Peverell Mister Abernathy! Now answer the question please…. Were you present in Gryffindor Cottage on the night of Halloween Nineteen Eighty One?"

"No!"

"Thank you. One last question. What are your legal qualifications and experience Mister Abernathy?"

"What..." He stopped when he saw he was going to get the same reaction and puffed his chest out. "I have held a position in the International Magical Office of Law in the Department of International Magical Cooperation since August Nineteen Fifty Seven!"

They somehow all heard Harry muttering to himself. "Is he deaf, or just can't understand my questions? Maybe someone should check the Law Office for Confundus enchantments….?"

He turned to where Hector Fawley was sitting beside Fudge. "Sir Hector, you were employed in the International Magical Law Office before you became Minister Fudge's Senior Undersecretary, were you not?"

Hector nodded. "Yes Duke Potter, I was..."

"Would you happen to know enough about Mister Abernathy's background to be able to answer the question that he does not appear to be able to understand?"

Hector nodded again. "Yes, actually, I do Duke Potter. Mister Abernathy joined the Law Office soon after he got his NEWT results and it had been confirmed that he'd gained an Acceptable NEWT in History of Magic, which was the only qualification needed to be employed in the Law Office…."

He cut off the question he saw Harry was about to ask. "And to the best of my knowledge, Mister Abernathy has never taken a leave of absence to intern with any of Magical Britain's legal firms or complete legal studies at any accredited magical or non-magical educational institutions outside of Magical Britain… there are no institutions in Magical Britain accredited to provide legal education…. And I have never seen any indication that Mister Abernathy has done any independent studies of the laws of Magical Britain or any other legal matters. It is my understanding the Noble House of Rosier sponsored Mister Abernathy's Grandfather's purchase of the position he now holds in an attempt to progress a trade agreement they were on the process of negotiating some fifty or so years ago."

Harry bowed to him. "Thank you Sir Hector, I was beginning the wonder whether I was being too obtuse with my questions…. And the fact that it is a purchased position that Mister Abernathy holds does explain quite a bit…. Just as a matter of interest, would it be too presumptuous to inquire as to your own legal qualifications, and what you know of Baroness Tonks, the Presiding Panel and the Clerk of the Court's?"

"Not at all Duke Potter, I studied at an ICW accredited institution to gain my qualifications in International Magical Law and interned with Rhys, Fleamont and Du for two years, where I was required to make in depth studies of the laws of Magical Britain and the ICW and practised magical law for about eight years before I joined the International Magical Law Office. Mister Fawcett, the Clerk of the Court, did much the same, though he interned with the firm of Burke and Wills and has practised magical law for around twenty years or so. Baroness Tonks studied law at the Muggle Oxford University and interned with what has since become Rhys, Fleamont, Du and Tonks because she and Lord Tonks are now partners in the firm, so she was required to make the same in depth studies of the laws of Magical Britain and the ICW and has practised law in Magical Britain and Europe for around fifteen years. To the best of my knowledge, Baroness Marchbanks, Director Bones and Earl Ogden have not interned with any legal firms in Magical Britain, completed any formal legal studies or practised magical law beyond Director Bones prosecuting criminal cases in the Wizengamot, but I am aware that they had all done extensive research into the laws of Magical Britain at least, and to some extent the ICW as well."

"Thank you again Sir Hector, so to summarise, yourself, the Clerk of the Court and Baroness Tonks all have formal legal qualifications and experience and you and the Presiding Panel have all made in depth studies in the laws of Magical Britain… but Mister Abernathy has no formal legal qualifications or experience and has not to your knowledge made any extensive studies of the laws of Magical Britain…. Would that be an accurate summary of what you have told us Sir Hector?"

Hector was careful to keep a shit eating grin from showing in his face, this boy was vicious! "Yes Duke Potter, that would be an accurate summary of the information, to the best of my knowledge."

Harry bowed his head to the man, saying "Yet again, thank you Sir Hector." before he turned back to Abernathy.

"While that may explain your ignorance of the facts in this matter Mister Abernathy, it does not excuse your inappropriate responses to my kinswoman Baroness Tonks, and if you do not temper your responses you will feel the wrath of the House of Potter..."

He was interrupted by Sirius calling out "And Black!" from his box in the upper tier and nodded.

"And Black… Now…. the reason I was asking for these clarifications is that you appear to be ignorant of the magnitude of the crimes of the people who represented the Ministry in this matter. Most everyone in this chamber will agree that Baron Godric Gryffindor was a significant figure in the history of Magical Britain..."

He waited until the people shouting 'of course he is!' had quietened down.

"And as Baroness Tonks has noted, Gryffindor Cottage, which the Ministry stole from the House of Potter, then desecrated and allowed unknown parties to strip it of countless heirlooms and precious mementos belonging to the Potter Family through failing to erect any protections at all over the building, was in fact the ancestral home of Godric Gryffindor and home of the Heir to the Most Noble and Most Ancient House of Potter for over eight centuries. If you had bothered to study the laws of Magical Britain before you came into this session, you would have known that the Noble and Most Ancient House of Gryffindor and Most Noble and Most Ancient House of Potter have the right to demand proper restitution from the Ministry for its losses and this insult…. And as for my question as to whether you were present at Gryffindor Cottage on the night of Halloween Nineteen Eighty One…. My Ladies and Lord of the Presiding Panel, do I have your leave to share memories which relate to this with the members of the Wizengamot and the witnesses present?"

He indicated who the 'witnesses' were by waving at the public gallery.

Griselda, Amelia and Tiberius had to fight as hard as Hector to hide their smirks as they nodded and Tiberius responded. "Please do Duke Potter Peverell, I have the feeling that this will be quite enlightening."

They brought in the chamber pensieve and set it up in front of the Presiding Panel. Most of the chamber would be able to see what was displayed but they and the ones around them would have the best view. When Harry dropped his memories into the pensieve and the Clerk of the Court touched the runes to project the image and begin showing it. They first saw images of life in the cottage, the Potter family and the treasures and memories that they were surrounded with, but Harry had the Clerk of the Court freeze the memory after they watched Dumbledore casting the Fidelius Charm with Pettigrew as the Secret Keeper.

"The significance of this, for those who don't know how the Fidelius Charm works, is that if both the Caster and Secret Keeper are alive, it cannot be dispelled without both their agreement. As the Wizengamot members who were present at his trial saw, Peter Pettigrew was very much alive a few days ago, so Albus Dumbledore knew damned well that my godfather Duke Black wasn't the Secret Keeper when he told the DMLE that, and signed the order to send him to Azkaban without a trial. He also had to be in contact with Pettigrew in order to be able to remove the Fidelius and make it possible for anyone and everyone in the Magical World to enter my property and strip it bare after Duke Black was sent to Azkaban!"

He nodded to the Clerk of the Court to allow the memory to proceed, but had him freeze it again after they watched the scene where his mother refused to stand aside and Voldemort killed her, then tried to kill Harry and was thrown across the room.

"Please note, this was where Voldemort tried to kill me, and contrary to those stories everyone was told, there was no massive explosion which blasted holes in the walls and roof!"

He nodded to the Clerk of the Court again and the memory proceeded, showing Voldemort writhing on the floor as his body burned up and turned to ash. Harry hadn't wanted to include the next part but he needed the Wizarding World to know the truth about Sirius and the Rat, so he'd shown Peter Pettigrew arriving, wailing about his master's destruction and groping his dead mother's breasts etc as he stole jewellery from her, only to transform into a rat and scurry out of the room when he heard someone downstairs. The next figure they saw arrive with tears streaming down his face was Sirius Black, who dropped to his knees beside Lily Potter's body and tried to rearrange her clothes to respect her decency as he apologised to her. "I'm so sorry Lils, if I hadn't had that stupid idea of making the Rat the secret keeper and telling everyone it was me so Voldemort and his bastards wouldn't be able to find him this wouldn't have happened, but you're all dead because of me!"

At that point, little Harry cried out behind Sirius. "Unca Pafoo? Why Mummy lay down?"

Sirius spun around and snatched Harry up out of his cot, crying his eyes out and apologising again. Harry cut off the memories of that night there, not wanting Hagrid to be attacked for the role he was compelled to play in this, so the next memory was the day that he went to Godric's Hollow with Hermione and Minerva, to find the home that had been intact and full of memories the night of the attack stripped bare inside, with great holes blasted in the roof and walls upstairs. From there an angry Harry was led to the cemetery to view his parents' graves, to find their memory twisted into propaganda that supported Dumbledore's agenda and the traitor being glorified as their equal and closest friend. The devastating blasting curse that reduced the offending headstone to a spray of stone chips no bigger than a fingernail disturbed many watching, because the power needed to do that much damage was beyond anything they could imagine.

Once the memories had played out, Harry began talking again. "As you have all seen, while my parents and I were living in Gryffindor Cottage, and even on the night we were attacked in Nineteen Eighty One, it was full of family heirlooms and other mementos of our lives. When I visited the cottage yesterday however, it had been stripped bare and had obviously been left open to the elements for a number of years, so the Ministry stole my property and then made no attempt to protect what was inside from theft or damage. Then to add insult to injury, they desecrated the memory of my parents and deified that traitorous servant of Tom Riddle as their closest friend and equal. The Most Noble and Most Ancient House of Potter and Noble and Most Ancient House of Gryffindor will be getting proper restitution for this…. And furthermore! The Ministry has openly insulted my houses by assigning that..."

He spun around and stabbed a finger at Abernathy.

"to belittle our loss and mock us. This insult will not go unanswered! Baroness Tonks, the percentage of our original claim that we are prepared to consider accepting as the baseline for the restitution is hereby raised by one half, and each and every time the Ministry's representative mocks us or attempts to interfere with you presenting our case by interrupting you and loudly proclaiming that it is 'Preposterous!', you will raise that baseline by one percent more! I also reserve the right to challenge Mister Abernathy to an honour duel for the insult he has offered my houses and kinswoman if he continues to offend me, and Minister Fudge as well for allowing him to offer this insult!"

The blast of sound he set off when they all started shouting at him that he couldn't do that was strong enough to knock out a significant number of people in the chamber and be felt throughout the Ministry Building.

"I can't? Watch me! Gryffindor Cottage is the last remaining ancestral home of the Four Founders of Hogwarts and the Wizengamot supported the Ministry in its attempt to steal a key part of my Houses' heritage from us, after that old goat molester half destroyed this priceless piece of Magical Britain's heritage to give credence to his fantastic stories about what happened that night, and no one made any attempt at all to stop anyone else stealing the heirlooms and priceless mementos of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Gryffindor and Most Noble and Most Ancient House of Potter! One way or another the Wizengamot and Ministry will make suitable restitution to my houses!…. And if anyone questions the Ministry's position on this matter, just look at what they have chosen to represent them, a nobody with no real legal qualifications or experience who is ignorant of or wilfully ignores the significance of my houses' contributions to Magical Britain, which date back to its very origins, and who obviously believes that if he shouts 'Preposterous!' often and loud enough, the Houses of Potter and Gryffindor will just give up, bow to these insults and go home….."

He looked balefully at the Abernathy, Dumbledore, Bagnold, Finney and Fudge. "That. Will. Not. Happen!"

Abernathy leapt to his feet. "Who do you think you are boy?..."

Harry cut him off by turning to Andi and clearly stating. "That will be one percent more Baroness Tonks!"

Andi bowed her head to him. "As you wish Duke Potter Peverell."

Abernathy's spluttering was suddenly cut off and a glance in his direction confirmed that he'd been silenced, so Harry's eyes quickly scanned the Wizengamot members' benches. He fought down his smile when he saw the furious head of one of the most powerful 'Pure-Blood' houses left in the Wizengamot with his wand in his hand. That man was obviously worth watching, because he appeared to be one of the first to have worked out that he would be one of the ones who would have to pay these penalties, which Abernathy's mouth had just increased by yet another Quarter of a Million Galleons.

They left Abernathy silenced for the rest of the session as it was accepted that he was more than a hindrance than a help in resolving the matter at hand. The amount of restitution was eventually settled on as Eight Million Galleons, along with the Ministry's formal promises that it would never again attempt to claim the property of any of the Most Noble and Most Ancient Houses of Potter, Peverell or Black or their Associated Houses and Clans. With the Head of the Wizarding Family of Miller's agreement, so long as his own personal holdings were excluded, Albus Dumbledore, Millicent Bagnold and Cornelius Fudge were made to pay as much of those penalties as possible (Albert Finney and the Minor House of Abernathy as well, but they didn't have much to offer), but that still left over over Five and a Half Million Galleons for the Ministry's 'sponsors' to come up with. Fudge lost nearly everything he had because his supporters held him responsible for having that idiot represent the Ministry instead of a properly qualified Barrister, and that decision alone had cost them nearly Three Million Galleons.

It wasn't lost on most in the Wizengamot that most of the blame for this could be squarely laid at Albus Dumbledore's feet, so while the majority of the sheeple of Magical Britain may still hold to the belief that he made rainbows appear from his nether regions, most of his erstwhile supporters would now rather kill than embrace him. The only thing that saved him from their wrath at this point was that they accepted that they needed to keep him alive until this TriWizard Tournament was finished to save Magical Britain from destruction, and the betting pools had already started on how many minutes he'd live past that.

Harry talked to the 'family' members present after the Wizengamot Session finished and then headed back to Hogwarts. While they had won a lot from the Pure-Bloods in both political and financial terms, the experience had left him utterly drained and he just wanted to be held. Luckily the girls had felt this and were waiting for him when he returned to Wargholm.