Chapter thirteen

Sirius and Harry removed their disguises before they left Grimmauld place. They arrived at the gates of Longbottom manor, a small, female house elf instantly appeared before them. The first thing Harry noticed about the elf was she looked healthy and well cared for, she was also smiling, which told Harry she had a good life with the Longbottom's.

She led the way inside and into a large conservatory where they saw Neville sitting with his parent's. The moment he saw Harry, he jumped up and hugged him making Harry laugh. Alice hugged Sirius before Frank did.

'We were both shocked, but extremely happy when Bill told us about you two,' Sirius said the moment he sat down.

'Yeah, we're both standing there with our jaws on the floor of Gringotts,' Harry said.

'Everyone was shocked when we spoke to them,' Frank said.

'Yes, healers rushed into the room and began examining us. I think I saw more healers in that hour than I have in my whole life,' Alice said.

'I planned to write to let you know Harry, but I haven't really wanted to leave my parent's side.'

'I get that Neville, I wouldn't have either,' Harry gave his friend a smile.

'You two would have been raised together if things were different,' Alice said kindly as she gave her son and Harry a smile.

'It would have been nice.'

'Why don't you two go talk while we do the same. All of us have some catching up to do,' Frank suggested.

'Come on Harry, I'll show you around and leave the oldies to chat.'

Harry chuckled then laughed loudly at the look on Sirius' face. Alice and Frank were also laughing as the two boys left the room.

'It's good to see Harry happy, even if I want to prank your son for the oldies comment.'

'Neville has told us about some of the situations Harry found himself in at Hogwarts. Albus should be ashamed,' Alice fumed.

'Snape was his biggest mistake. But Harry found out only yesterday that his so called best friend wasn't really a friend at all. Their meeting was set up and eventually they planned to use love potions on him to get Harry to marry Ginny Weasley. She likes Harry but she doesn't love him. She was hoping to use his fame to get a try out for the Holyhead Harpies. Molly planned all this as she wanted the boy who lived as her son in law, but Ron and Ginny were right with her. We haven't told the other Weasley's what we found out, but they already know those three must have done something serious for them to still be without their magic.'

'Neville did tell us about Ron Weasley. He never said much about Ginny, only that he took her to the yule ball as she couldn't go otherwise and he didn't think anyone would want to go with him,' Alice said.

'I still want to throttle my mother for their treatment of Neville,' Frank growled.

'Yeah, Harry told me what Neville said they did to him. We all know that a kids magic will show itself at difference ages. I was six, my brother was eight and James was five. Harry wasn't even a year old when he first did magic.'

'Neville did magic as well when he was a baby. He often summoned the plants from around the house to him,' Alice said.

'We believe he was traumatised because of what took place that night. Alice was on top of Neville, protecting him.'

'His subconscious remembered the pain you both went through, which was caused by magic. He would have seen magic as bad and painful,' Sirius said.

'That's what we believe, and what I told my mother, before I kicked her out of the house,' Frank said with a growl.

Outside Harry just finished telling Neville what they found out about Ron, Ginny and Molly.

'I used to wonder why he pretended to be your friend when he said some terrible things about you when you weren't around. He always said disgusting things about Hermione as well.'

'Yeah, he doesn't really like muggleborns, neither does Molly, Ginny doesn't care either way about them. What I would like to know is if anyone knew what they planned or if it was just them. I know none of the other Weasley's were involved.'

'You think Dumbledore might have known?'

'Yeah, I do. First they had to know for sure that I was going to Hogwarts. Think about it Neville, I might have been left with the Dursley's, but there was no guarantee they would have kept me, or they might have moved away. They could have even moved overseas. I heard Petunia often talk about moving to Spain if they could afford it, and they often told me they were going to dump me at an orphanage. Or even if they knew I was kept by the Dursley's, they could not force me to go to Hogwarts if the Dursley's tried to stop it. They would not take me to Kings Cross, or pick me up, so even if someone from our world had to pick me up, I would be stranded in London.'

'Maybe Dumbledore did tell them and that's when they put their plans together. The first was making sure you didn't know how to get onto platform nine and three quarters. All muggleborns, or raised are given a pamphlet with extra information, like the barrier and the night bus, St Mungo's, that type of stuff, yet you weren't.'

'I think you're right Neville. I had no idea about the barrier, the night bus, St Mungo's, none of it. When I was thirteen and overheard a couple of muggleborn girls talking about how they should be told sooner and how they weren't sure if they trusted walking into a brick wall just because the information they got said that was how they access the platform. I realised Hagrid forgot to tell me. I actually asked them who gave them their letters.'

'McGonagall,' Neville nodded, 'It's the deputy head's job to visit muggleborns.'

'So Dumbledore probably worked it for Hagrid. At first I thought he was sent because he would scar the muggles. The Dursley's tried to outrun the letters yet they kept finding me. It makes sense to send someone that would scare them, but McGonagall could scare anyone when she wanted to. The trouble with Hagrid was he lost his temper and gave my cousin a pig's tail. The following weeks was terrible, but they were scared other freaks would turn up so they never did anything to me. The following holidays is when they decided I needed to be punished for what Hagrid did. I sometimes wish this curse could somehow effect muggles like the Dursley's.'

'Mum said if someone does something bad, sooner or later they will get caught or punished.'

'What goes around comes around,' Harry nodded.

Back inside Sirius told Frank and Alice what they had found out about Voldemort and his horcruxes. He also explained about Harry and worked out that Albus planned Harry's terrible life so he would be willing to give it up, at the right time.

'Since we…woke up, we've been doing a lot of talking about the time we were in hiding. But what surprised us was when we realised we listened to Albus when he said it was safe. It was only a day later we were cursed,' Frank said.

'There were many death eaters still running around, even now, though they aren't dangerous anymore, without magic. I didn't hear about you until months later. When Bellatrix and Crouch ended up in Azkaban, they would yell out to each other, telling their story. They got off on it.'

'I know what Lestrange was like so it doesn't surprise me to hear that. So you and Harry are planning to return to Australia?'

'Yes, both of us went through a lot here and no one was here for us. We both feel betrayed and just can't forgive most about that. Even Minerva or Mad-eye. They were in the order, they worked beside me, they knew how much I hated Voldemort, and the dark arts, yet they never bothered to find out if I was guilty or not. But it's more what Harry went through, with the muggles and at Hogwarts. Again I can't forgive people like Minerva for allowing all that to happen. He could have died three times in his first year alone. Hogwarts used to be the safest place in the country. I wouldn't trust it with a flubberworm.'

'Yes, Neville has filled us in on what he knows about the danger at Hogwarts.'

Harry gave Neville a permission note to get through the fidelius charm. Neville instantly said he would keep it a secret. Harry said he trusted Neville, but he could tell his parent's since Sirius trusted them. They went inside, Harry got to speak with Neville's parent's, and they did ask many questions about how Neville was treated.

Again Frank and Alice ended up furious at people like Dumbledore and McGonagall. Minerva was supposed to be there for her students, but she was never there for these two young boys sitting together. Even though they would never say it out loud, they were glad that Albus was dying. They had heard how long it took for Minerva to have magic returned, and how she began to question everything she did. They believed she finally realised what she had done and decided to change her ways. She felt remorse, and that's when magic was returned.

Just before Sirius and Harry left, Frank, Alice and Neville said they would see them in a few months. They would plan to stay for a couple of weeks. It would be the first real holiday the Longbottom family took together, and they wanted to spend it with some good friends.

Harry and Sirius arrived back at Grimmauld place. Remus and Tonks were not there, they figured Tonks was at work, they weren't sure where Remus was. But they did find a note left for them. It said Molly had written, she wants Harry to take a few minutes to visit. She even went on about how she allowed him to stay before his second year at Hogwarts. She also wrote Harry only got to go to the quidditch world cup because of them. She believed Harry owed them some time.

'Trying to guilt me into visiting them will not work. It wouldn't work even if I didn't find out what they were planning. Nope, they are going to be out of luck. They will hear that we've left, and they have no idea where we are. Since they don't have magic, nor will it be returned because of their belief, and they still believe they have done nothing wrong. They will find it too difficult to try to find us without magic.'

'They won't have any luck Harry. We leave tonight, after we've spoken with Remus and Tonks. But Remus and Tonks will visit when Tonks gets some time off, and we know the Longbottom's will visit.'

'Yes, they will, it's lucky our home is big enough to take a lot of extra guests. After all this, I really hope to hear that the old man has finally passed over and it happens soon. He was the cause of so much pain, and the cause of so many families being destroyed. But I really do hope he meets up with mum and dad.'

'Oh, he will Harry, Albus too many names Dumbledore is not going to have a very peaceful afterlife. Now come on, let's work on dinner before those love birds return.'

Harry grinned before he began to help his godfather cook dinner. His life might have been terrible, but from the time he left, everything has changed. He was happy the curse got rid of all the dark and evil people in the magical world. No one will ever know it was Harry and Sirius, but both of them knew something drastic had to be done or there would be hardly anyone with magic left in England, only dark and evil people would be left.

Harry thought again of his mother, and sent a silent thanks to her for her work on the curse. Now everyone will have a safe life. It's up to everyone what they do with this good life they have been given. Many were like Harry, they were not going to waste one minute of their life. Many believe that now was the time to expand the magical world, which means expand the population. With the threat of all the dark witches and wizards now gone, it was time to begin to have babies, lot's of babies. Even Harry was thinking of the future, one with a great girl beside him and maybe one day, his own kids. He could even see Padfoot settling down one day.

The end: