My other fics are stalled at the moment because I can't move them forward. This idea is AU, as per usual. I got the urge to try a Wrong-Boy-Who-Lived story, so that's what it is.

Henry James (Harry) Potter was born in the evening of July 31st 1980 and took after his mother in appearance and ability, while his fraternal twin Hadrian John (Haddy) Potter was born a few hours later in the early hours of August 1st and took after his father, aside from having Lily's green eyes. Sirius is still Harry's Godfather, while Remus is Haddy's. While James and Lily were both knocked out and injured in the attack on Halloween, they survived, but Sirius died trying to stop Voldemort. Pettigrew was still their Secret Keeper but he was severely injured when Voldemort exploded and he was arrested when his Dark Mark was discovered while he was being treated at St Mungo's.

Similarly, while James and Remus believe and do everything Dumbledore tells them, Lily had enough sense to see through his lies, as did Charlus and Dorea Potter and Arcturus Black. Dumbledore used his clout as the Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot of 'Magical Britain' to proclaim James to be Lord Potter and Head of the Most Noble and Most Ancient House of Potter after his father died, but this was no more true than his proclamation that he was Harry's 'Magical Guardian' in canon, because neither the Potter or Peverell Family Magic would ever accept a Head of House who was being controlled by outside parties. Therefore Henry became the Heir Presumptive and Lily was magically accepted as Regent of the Most Noble and Most Ancient Houses of Potter and Peverell when Charlus and Dorea died. James' blind faith in everything Dumbledore says has also made him into an arrogant Pure-Blood bigot.

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

If Lily Potter had her wand, she would have hexed both her husband and Albus Bloody Dumbledore into the next Century. The special edition of the Daily Prophet that came out the morning after they were attacked reported that Hadrian (who for some reason they were calling Harry Potter, even though that was what Henry had been known as ever since he was born) was the Boy-Who-Lived because Voldemort's attempt to kill him had backfired and blown him up. This was apparently because Haddy, who'd been asleep on the floor behind where Harry was standing at the bars of their playpen jabbering away at her when Voldemort appeared in the nursery, had acquired a scar on his forehead where some of the falling debris had cut him.… James and Albus dismissed the fact that Harry's magic being drained in the attack indicated that he was far more likely to be the one who had had anything to do with stopping Voldemort, in fact James actually had the gall to say that the fact that Henry was Squibbed but Hadrian wasn't just showed that Henry was obviously too weak to represent the House of Potter…. On top of that, from the way the story was written, it looked like she had died with Sirius and Harry wasn't even mentioned, but James wasn't doing anything to correct the story or let anyone know the truth of what happened!

The fact that the Longbottoms had also been attacked by Voldemort's minions and Frank and Alice had apparently been cursed out of their minds by the time the Longbottom Elfs fetched the Aurors to capture the Lestranges and Barty Junior in the act made Lily grieve even more than Siri's death, because he at least had gotten the chance to go out the way he would have wanted, rather than wasting away in a hospital bed.

But that wasn't the main reason she wanted to hex her husband's bits off, no that was because he wholeheartedly agreed with Albus when that manipulative old bastard said that Magical Britain couldn't afford to allow itself to be distracted from protecting their saviour, Hadrian, the Boy-Who-Lived…. So for the Greater Good, Harry would have to be sent away to be raised by her sister Petunia out of sight of Magical Britain. There was no way in Hell she was going to allow her bitch of an adopted sister, that fat bastard she married or their beach ball of a son to get anywhere near any child of hers, so Albus, James and anyone else who wanted to suggest that could just shove their stupid bloody ideas up their arses!

James had tuned her out and gone to sleep while she was raging at him about that, so he missed Ra, the Bennu who had served as both familiar and adviser to the Head of the core line of the Potter Family for over two millennia, flashing into their private room in St Mungo's to advise Lily on how best protect and prepare the next rightful Head of the Houses of Potter, Peverell and Black, Lord Henry James (Harry) Potter-Peverell. Lily felt a little better about what was going to happen after Ra's visit, she actually felt secure enough to get some sleep before Dumbledore returned.

It all came to a head that night, when Dumbledore came to collect Harry and take him to Petunia as he and James had agreed.

"Get away from my son you bastard!"

"Now Lily, we discussed this… We all agreed that we need to focus on protecting Hadrian, and that young Henry will be safest in the Muggle world now that he's lost his magic…."

"We didn't agree to anything old man, you just decided that my son was to be tossed aside like last week's garbage and that gutless wonder over there just went along with you, saying 'Yes Sir, Yes Sir, Three Bags full!' But you aren't taking my son anywhere, let alone to that bitch and the pig she married!"

James didn't like that…. "How dare you speak that way to Purebloods of Noble birth like Albus and I woman? I still can't understand what benefit Albus thought something like you could ever bring to the Most Noble and Most Ancient line of Potter….. But whatever it was, you've served that purpose now by producing my Heir and the trouble and aggravation you cause is more than you're worth…. Albus, I think we need to get rid of her as well as her Squib son!"

"Alas, I believe that you are correct James…. I had hoped that with a few….. adjustments…. we would have been able to keep her in line until we were certain that we had no further need for her…. as that would have helped allay the suspicions of anyone who recalled anything about her and the boy... but she apparently remembers more than she should so perhaps we would be better served by having the records show that Lily perished along with Sirius in the attack on Gryffindor Cottage and that Hadrian is the only Heir to the House of Potter…. Actually, if we spread the word that she and Sirius were cuckholding you, the Noble Houses will do the work for us to banish them from memory….."

James grinned at his mentor. "Yes! That will leave the way clear for me to marry Letitia Lestrange and take control of the Lestrange fortune and votes before anyone else can jump in! Getting those will help make up for what my father chose to deny me by refusing to let me take my rightful place as Head of the House of Potter."

Dumbledore nodded sagely. "Yes, that would indeed work to our advantage, but you must remember that you will have to wait until the girl has at least completed her OWLs before she bears you children James…. While the more traditional Houses might accept it, most of Magical Britain would not approve of you having a pregnant Thirteen year old bride and that would negate the benefit we can glean from the perception of you as the cuckolded widower, doing his best to raise his Heir on his own..."

James spat back angrily. "It wasn't me who raped Bellatrix Black and got her pregnant when she was Fourteen, then left her mind and body broken because they botched up trying to make sure the Blacks didn't find out how she got in that state, that was Amos Diggory! You covered that up for him and you will cover for me too if you know what's good for you Albus. I already have an Heir anyway so I can afford to wait a few years for more... Just make sure that Pomfrey keeps force feeding her the same contraceptive and forgetfulness draughts as she does the rest of the playthings at Hogwarts, and that the little bint rejects any and all advances from anyone but me….. I won't have my wife sleeping or carrying on with anyone else!"

Lily couldn't believe that they would discuss the plan to kill her off and replace her with a Thirteen year old girl, not to mention what was done to Bellatrix Black, so openly while she was right there in the room, it was as if their deciding to kill her off meant that she was already dead….. Unfortunately Dumbledore realised his mistake at that point and his wand appeared in his hand as he turned towards her, but a wandless Expelliarmus ensured that his wand was safely in her hand when she shouted "Sanctuary!" to have the hidden Elfs pop her and Harry away to Potter Manor.

After the Potter and Peverell Family Magics refused to accept James as Heir, but did accept Lily for the role of Regent for the Houses of Potter and Peverell, Charlus had formally written that into his will. This meant that she still had access to the official residences and the Potter and Peverell Elfs and vaults when the Family Magics locked everyone else out upon Charlus and Dorea's deaths and on Ra's advice she put the official residences (except for Gryffindor Cottage, which was traditionally made available for the use of unaccepted Heirs) under Fidelius charms to hide their existence from everyone but herself, the Potter and Peverell Elfs and Clan Gringott of the Goblin Nations, who were trusted to maintain them.

She didn't want to leave her other son behind, but taking Hadrian with them would have made James and Albus' focus on them, because they had already decided that Hadrian was to be the Potter Heir and the 'Boy-Who-Lived', but Lily and Harry were inconsequential to their future plans so once they were safe inside the wards of Ynyscoed, the unplottable wooded island off the Cumbrian coast where Potter Manor and the fortified port which preceded the Manor as the ancestral seat of the Potter line were located, a specific Fidelius charm was enough to make anyone who wasn't genuinely concerned about them write them off as dead and buried and forget about them. A clause in their betrothal/marriage contract which was breached by James' plan to kill Lily off had automatically annulled their marriage, so Lily returned to her maiden name. This meant that Lily Potter effectively ceased to exist and so long as they remained on the Potter and Peverell Estates or the sovereign soil of the Goblin Nation, they would be safe.

One thing that James had been too self-absorbed to notice was that for much of their time at and after Hogwarts, Lily had had more interaction with his parents and the Potter and Peverell Account Managers at Gringotts than he did. James' obsession with the supposedly Muggle-Born Lily Jasmine Evans had become obvious to everyone by the time they were halfway through their Second Year at Hogwarts, so given how important the Potter Family was to the Fae, the Potter Account Manager had Lily Evans and her family investigated. The results of those investigations were interesting, because not only were both her parents confirmed to be high level Squib (as they were designated in Magical Britain) descendants of the core lines of significant Old Families of Magical Britain…. Lily's father Rhys Evans' engineering business was well positioned in the rapidly expanding electronics industries that the Fae and Old Families of Magical Britain were trying to get into.

Charlus and Dorea Potter-Peverell (emphasising the Peverell part of the name because Lily couldn't stand James Potter at that point), Arcturus Black, Head of the Most Noble and Most Ancient House of Black and Jareth Gringott, Clan Chief of Clan Gringott, Director of the Gringotts Banks around the world and Overlord of the Fae residing in the Humans' Realm, met with Ryhs and Jasmine Evans several times in early 1973 to map out their making a significant investment into Evans Industries, with the view of it becoming a joint venture with the Magical People of Britain. When Lily came home for Easter, she was magically accepted as Head of the revived Noble and most Ancient Houses of MacAfee and Rhys (When the invading Wizarding Nobility used the titles of the Mercenary Wizards bribed with Hereditary Knighthoods and Feudal Baronies to come to Britain in the Norman Invasion and other wars to try and wrest control of Magical Britain from the native Witches and Wizards of Britain by getting the Muggle Court to pressure the Kings into forcing the change from the Thirteen person High Wizards Council and regional Wizard Councils of Magical Britain to the Wizengamot with up to a Hundred and Fifty Nine seats and Ten Officers in total in the early Sixteenth Century (almost One Percent of the Witches and Wizards in Britain at the time), the Kings of Britain made a deal with the Druid Clans and Houses of Magical Britain in return for their support against the Muggle Earls and Barons, creating what would later be referred to as Scottish Prescriptive Baronies for the ancestral homes of the Clan Chiefs of all the Druid Clans to get them seats in the Wizengamot and strengthen their voting power. While they were shocked to find that the 'Druid Lords' were able to match their voting power, the newer 'Wizard Lords' didn't challenge their titles.), then signed in-depth magically binding contracts which sealed the agreements between the Houses of MacAfee and Rhys, Clan Gringott and the Houses of Potter, Peverell and Black. These agreements gave the Fae and the Old Families the foothold they were after in the technology segments of the Mundane World and catapulted the Evans family and Evans Industries into a period of exceptional growth and prosperity.

In late 1974, Lily's fourth cousin Patricia Rakepick took over responsibility for most of the Fae's interfaces with Evans Industries because her blood ties to the House of Rhys came out after she was accepted as an Apprentice Curse Breaker at Gringotts, which meant that she was magically bound to uphold the agreements made by the Head of her House. While Patty wasn't happy about being compelled to obey the wishes of a witch four years younger than her, she had met and liked Lily Evans when she was at Hogwarts and she was bright enough to know that being linked to Lily and a significant operation like what they were doing with Evans Industries would open up more opportunities for her that most Humans could ever hope for in Gringotts, so the two witches had developed a good relationship over the years.

In the weeks after Lily and Harry disappeared from St Mungo's, the Fae Healers worked to heal them of their injuries from Halloween and remove all of the charms, blocks and potions that were discovered when they were being scanned. While they were doing that, the Potter and Peverell Elfs recovered all of Lily's possessions, the Potter and Peverell Heirlooms and everything else rightfully belonging to their Houses that hadn't been explicitly gifted to James by Charlus and Dorea.

Lord Arcturus Black the Third, Head of the Most Noble and Most Ancient House of Black, stated that he had heard of someone boasting about crimes committed against a daughter of the House of Black and had Amos Diggory, Head of the wealthy and influential Minor House of Diggory and Director of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, dragged down to the Stone of Truth. Arcturus used the Stone to rip the truth about what he had done to Bellatrix out of his head and ensure that everyone in the Wizengamot Chamber heard every sordid detail, then invoked the old laws to ensure that no-one could contest Diggory's sentence and the reparations demanded.

With the Blacks' reputation, most in the Wizengamot were shocked about how lenient Arcturus was with Diggory's wife and infant son, as he left the Minor House of Diggory itself intact and ensured that they had a cottage and enough gold to live a comfortable if modest life. Everything else the House of Diggory had was forfeited to the House of Black in reparation for the crimes committed against a daughter of the House of Black, and recompense for the greatly increased dowry they'd been forced to pay to compensate for the fact that Bellatrix was damaged and therefore less value than she had been when the contracts for her betrothal to the Heir of the Noble and Ancient House of Lestrange were signed. The Wizengamot was quick to comply with Arcturus' demand that Newton Scamander be formally appointed to the vacated position of Director of the Department of Magical Creatures, because even if he hadn't been able to use the old laws to force the issue, everyone knew that Newt Scamander was the best Wizard for that job.

The only one who tried to argue against the severity of Arcturus' sentence on Diggory, that the Stone of Truth would be used to subject him to what he did to Bellatrix to break her body and mind and then kill him by stripping all his magic from him, was Albus Dumbledore, but Dumbledore shut up when Arcturus brought up the fact that Diggory's memories had shown that he had knowingly covered up what Diggory did to his Great Niece and then proceeded to force him to pay reparations for his part in Diggory's crimes. It was quiet in the Chamber after they watch Diggory being punished and killed by the Stone of Truth, because most of them couldn't work out which had been worst, having to watch a man being killed for his crimes or being so graphically reminded that the Stone of Truth was a physical instrument of the Laws of Magic of Magical Britain.

Once Diggory's corpse was removed from the Chamber, Arcturus began casting everyone who had willingly served the common Muggle-Born orphan bastard who had falsely claimed the title of Lord Voldemort, Tom Marvolo Riddle, out of the House of Black. Arcturus got quite a bit of vindictive pleasure from taunting the Pure-Blood bigots about their master having been sired by the wastrel son of a wealthy common Muggle who cast his mother aside and had their marriage annulled when he discovered that he had been trapped with love potions. So Lord Voldemort had been born out of wedlock to Merope Gaunt, the inbred Squib daughter of a dirt poor Pure-Blood family who didn't have enough magic to qualify as a witch. His mother died in childbirth so Tom Riddle was raised in a Muggle orphanage until Albus Dumbledore brought him his acceptance letter to Hogwarts, and he returned there each summer until he completed his Hogwarts education in the Mid-Nineteen Forties.

The pandemonium in the Wizengamot Chamber at that news was so overwhelming that Arcturus had called for the dissolution of the marriages of Bellatrix Lestrange (while it wasn't entirely her fault that she was the way she was, she had still shamed the House of Black by serving the pretender) and Narcissa Malfoy, reclaimed any and all titles, dowries and everything else gifted to them by the House of Black with interest and formally cast them out of the House of Black before anyone realised what he was doing. Try as they might, no-one could stop him as he then proceeded to strip titles, votes and fortunes from many of the established Pure-Blood families because the magical laws he was using to do this underpinned the very structure of the laws of magic of Magical Britain.

While the voting power and prestige of many of the 'Traditional' Pure-Blood Houses took a hit as a result of Arcturus' actions, it was their fortunes that were the hardest hit, because the Blacks were one of the richest families in Magical Britain so many Houses had pursued links with their family to try and get a bite out of the Black fortune. The thing was, while the family as a whole had lowered its standards over the last Century, the Blacks were more politically and economically astute than most and they had always ensured that they got something of value in return for what they offered with their children. These trades were all locked in with magically binding contracts which were not linked to the terms of their marriage contracts, so cancelling the marriages and reclaiming what belonged to the House of Black did not effect them and everyone who believed that they had gotten one over the high and mighty Blacks was learning how wrong they were.

The turmoil Arcturus caused made it easier for Dumbledore to get the requisite approvals for the Thirteen year old Heiress to the Noble and Ancient House of Lestrange to be married off to the Twenty One year old Head of the Minor House of Fleamont (James' Uncle Fleamont had been killed in Grindelwald's War before he begot an Heir and the Fleamont Family Magic was the only one which accepted him as its Heir and Head) slipped through. Arcturus noted it because he had been warned by Lily that this move was coming but he decided to let it go though, as he'd already taken away much of the power and fortune of the House of Lestrange and unfortunately this was bound to happen, the poor child was just too juicy a morsel to be left alone... And if there was no way she could avoid being married off and used for her power, money and body, while he didn't like what Charlus and Dorea's son had become, the girl would almost certainly be better off with him than with one of those Death Eater animals.

He was more worried about the fact that they'd had to do a deal with Dumbledore's faction to have James made Amelia Bones' replacement as Head of the Auror Operations Office when Barty Crouch was dethroned as Director of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement out of the blue and the Old Families got her voted in as its new Director. It had happened too fast for them to have a suitable candidate ready and the only other viable option, Rufus Scrimgeour, was no better than James, so they traded off James getting the Head of the Auror Operations Office position for the votes they needed to ensure that Amelia became Director of the DMLE.

Lord Potter moved into Lestrange Manor immediately after he was married to Leticia. She was magically accepted as Heiress Apparent by the Lestrange Family Magic and the Victorian (if not Regency) equivalent property laws of Magical Britain gave her husband control of everything she owned, so he just packed up everything left in Gryffindor Cottage, sold the cottage to the Ministry as is for Twenty Thousand Galleons to use as a war memorial (He had no right to do this as he only had use of the cottage, but Charlus and the other Lords' portraits in Potter Manor agreed with Lily that confronting him at that time would quite likely put Harry at risk, so they'd let it go for now and reclaim it later, and bankrupt James, Dumbledore and the Ministry if they'd done anything to prevent the ancestral home of Godric Gryffindor being restored to its proper state.) and moved into the Manor.

The Twenty Thousand from the Ministry had gone straight into James' personal vault like his Auror's pay did but Lily, Arcturus and many members of the Old Families and Clan Gringotts had a pool going on how long it would take him to work out that that his vault would not be topped up from the main Potter vaults unless there was less than Five Thousand Galleons in it on his birthday…. Given the way he was doing things like spending over Three and a Half Thousand Galleons redecorating his office to ensure that it presented 'the proper image' after he became Head of the Auror Operations Office though, very few were betting on it being anything over two years.

James had picked up the 'Traditional' Pure-Bloods' views on many things at Hogwarts, so he regarded Goblins as inferior beings like House Elfs, and as such in his mind their purpose in life was to serve Wizards so he never wasted his time going down to his vault to get money out, he just demanded that the Goblins at the counters in the Banking Chamber give it to him (either ignoring of ignorant of the fact that he was being charged for this service, he would be charged to be taken to his vault too of course but Junior Account Managers were much higher status and higher paid than Vault Runners so they charged the maximum allowable fee for the insult, and if he was unlucky enough to catch one of the Senior Account Managers at a counter in the banking chamber it would have made a significant dent in his gold). This arrogance extended to the point of his cutting off the Junior Account Manager assigned to handle his accounts when he reached his age of majority and walking out while he was trying to explain to him that now that he was responsible for his own finances he would need to be more careful with his gold, because his vault was still only being topped up to Five Thousand Galleons from the main Potter vaults on his birthday each year…

James never suspected that his wife was working for the Department of Mysteries as an Unspeakable, because the term 'Unspeakable' had its roots in the modified form of a Fidelius charm they used to hide the fact that they worked for the DoM and prevent anyone saying anything about it if they uncovered that information. Lily's Mother-In-Law Dorea Potter had been an Unspeakable too and it was her who had recruited Lily and her two brilliant friends Pandora Lovegood and Celeste Fawley before they were halfway through Hogwarts, organising for them to get the assistance they needed to complete their first couple of Masteries before they left Hogwarts so that they would be ready to start working for the DoM straight away. After they left Hogwarts, they were set up with cover professions and all their husbands could remember about their real jobs was that they were working in things for the Ministry from time to time…. Except for Pandora, because her husband 'Xenophilius' was also an Unspeakable.

With the exception of the Old Families allied to the Houses of Potter, Peverell and Black, Wizarding Britain had forgotten about the existence of Lily and Henry Potter, they also ignored the House of Longbottom until Lord Francis Longbottom suddenly appeared, quite hale and hearty, to retake the Longbottom seat in the Wizengamot at the Spring Solstice Session in 1982. Only then did people remember that he and Lady Longbottom had disappeared without a trace in the middle of the night from St Mungo's, a few weeks after they were attacked on Halloween 1981.

After the session, Frank and his mother were talking to Amelia and other well wishers when Albus Dumbledore and James Potter walked up and cut into the conversation as if everyone else didn't exist.

"Frank My Boy! It's so good to see you back… Where have you been? We were quite concerned when you disappeared…."

Albus knew that something was wrong when he saw the look Frank turned on him….

"Why? Are you that desperate to finish what you started last Samhain Albus?"

"What are you saying My Boy?"

"That since we were using the Secret Keeper you forced us to accept and you wouldn't allow him to give the secret to anyone but my mother and members of your Order of the Phoenix, the only way those Death Eaters could have found us was if your man gave us up to them! We probably would have all died that night if Mum hadn't thought to send our Elfs to fetch the Aurors! For that matter Pettigrew was your man too, how the hell could you miss the fact that he was a marked Death Eater until after he led Voldemort into the Potters' Cottage that night?..."

James cut in. "Frank, what are you saying? You can't mean that!"

The cold look Frank turned on him made him step back. "I only give my friends and family leave to address me in such a familiar manner Mister Potter, and as long as you serve your and my families' betrayer you are no friend of the Most Noble and Most Ancient House of Longbottom. You do not have leave to address me as anything but Lord Longbottom!"

That public a slap in the face stung James' pride and he angrily replied… "Very well Lord Longbottom! However if you insist on being addressed by your title, so do I! You will address me as Lord Potter from this point on!"

While James missed the fact that Frank was far from the only one who snorted derisively at that, Dumbledore didn't, and he didn't miss the fact that the loud argument they were having in the Wizengamot Chamber was drawing a lot of attention either. He tried to pull James away before more information he wanted to keep quiet came out but James mulishly refused to move, and everyone in earshot was hanging on Frank's words as he replied.

"Have you forgotten everything your father taught you Mister Potter? Addressing the untitled consort of a Lady who holds a Noble title as Lord is a courtesy, not a requirement! And given that your child bride is not yet old enough to claim her title as Baroness Lestrange, it is questionable whether you even qualify for that courtesy…. In case you have forgotten, the Family Magics of the Noble Houses that make up the Potter Family all refused to accept you as their rightful Heir, let alone Head of House, so while you remain a Potter at this point, you are Mister James Potter, not Lord…. You may qualify to be addressed as 'Sir James' as you have reportedly been accepted as Head of the Minor House of Fleamont, but once again, it is not required to address you as such."

"How dare you publicly shame the House of Longbottom's strongest allies like this!"

"Again, you forget yourself Mister Potter, the House of Longbottom is indeed proudly allied to the Most Noble and Most Ancient Houses of Potter and Peverell and their Associated Houses, but you do not represent either of those esteemed Houses! It is possible that your son Hadrian may one day be recognised as the Heir, or even Head of the Houses of Potter and Peverell… If that happens you may qualify as an ally of the House of Longbottom again due to your ties to him, but at this point you most certainly do not!"

James couldn't let it go at that, and Albus cringed as many in the crowd that surrounded them laughed out loud at his next sally. "Very well Lord Longbottom, I had been holding your and your wife's Auror positions open for you, in hope that you would recover and return to your jobs, but I will no longer be doing that!"

To stop Frank saying the wrong thing and possibly losing some of the mileage he'd made so far in this…. discussion... Amelia stepped in at that point.

"Is that so Mister Potter? I have not seen any record of Lord and Lady Longbottom's positions being held open… Are you saying, in front of all these witnesses, that you have been hiding the fact that you are intentionally keeping the Auror Operations Office short staffed from the Director of the DMLE?…. And for that matter, how, pray tell, have you been holding Lady Longbottom's position open for her, given that she was transferred to the Auror Investigations Office when she returned to work after giving birth to the Longbottom Heir? Has the Auror Investigations Office been put under the control of the Head of the Auror Operations Office without my knowledge or approval? I will certainly be looking into how that could have happened because the Investigations Office has always been the leading Auror Office, with its trusted and experienced Senior Aurors taking charge of all major investigations and the operations arising from them... That is why Master Auror Moody is Head of the Investigations Office while I was running the Operations Office….. If there's any chance that things like that are being done in the DMLE without my knowledge I need to go through the Department with a fine toothed comb so that I can get my house in order…."

She smiled to herself as she realised that Potter's overblown pride had given her the opportunity to do just that, she could use the implication that people in the DMLE were hiding important information from its Director to question everyone in the Department and make them take oaths to force their loyalty to the DMLE, rather than outside parties… That would help her root out the ones who had served Voldemort, Dumbledore and others, yes, this could work out quite well.

James realised just how much he'd put his foot in it and tried to backtrack. "No, of course I didn't mean that Director Bones! I was just trying to assure Lord and Lady Longbottom that they would be welcomed back as Aurors, given that we're still trying to replace the ones we lost in the War..."

"So you're saying that they would be given their positions as Aurors back, no questions asked, after they have been hospitalised for extended periods due to their injuries and torture? Thankfully at least Lord and Lady Longbottom have the sense to understand that if they choose to return to the DMLE, they will first have to pass extensive tests and then re qualify for their positions as Aurors. We agreed all this at the Yule festivities of the Albion Alliance and they are still deliberating on whether they want to return."

"The Alliance's Yule Festivities? Why wasn't I…."

"I believe that I will have to look into whether you are fit to hold such a critical role as Head of the Auror Operations Office Mister Potter…. Given that Lord Longbottom explained to you not ten minutes ago that at this time you do not represent any Houses who are part of the Alliance… On top of that, many members of the Alliance expressed concerns about the idea of you being around their daughters after you forced a marriage with a vulnerable child to take control of the assets of her House and the Yule Festivities are a family event, so we did what would make the members of the Alliance comfortable."

Both James and Albus went white at that, because that last point was not something they wanted anyone thinking about, especially members of influential houses with teenage daughters. They didn't want her investigating James' fitness to remain as Head of the Auror Operations Office either, because Albus had been having him ensure that the Aurors under him used minimal force and suppressed charges and 'lost' evidence against Albus' supporters and those he was courting for the Greater Good. It was well known where Amelia stood on that sort of thing and they knew she would be like a dog with a bone if she found any evidence of what was going on.

Albus made hasty goodbyes and dragged James out of the Wizengamot Chamber before he could cause any more trouble. James' big mouth had already caused more than enough damage to their plans, Bones had all but said that she was going to be investigating James and the rest of the DMLE…. And he didn't like the sound of that 'putting her house in order' comment…. The argument with Longbottom had caused members of the Wizengamot to start questioning both him and James, and Bones' comments about daughters had made quite a few of them look at James... and him... rather suspiciously. He wished that they'd left the Chamber without saying a word to Longbottom, but he'd been so sure that Longbottom would still be a loyal Order of the Phoenix member and wanted to start making use of the resources of the House of Longbottom again as soon as possible. That, he had to admit, had been a mistake.

Frank, Amelia and the others had quite the opposite view of how their altercation with James Potter and Albus Dumbledore had gone…. In fact Amelia had to stop herself kissing Frank for setting them up so well for her to get a few telling hits in…. She didn't think Alice would mind once she heard how it went, but they didn't want to show their cards before she made use of what they'd set up.

They would have to see how things played out but they were confident that more than a few Houses would be jumping ship from Dumbledore's faction after what came out in the Chamber… And if some of them joined the Albion Alliance or Neutral factions rather than the so-called 'Light' or 'Dark' factions, that could help swing the balance of power in the Wizengamot in their favour.

Dumbledore's faction did lose nine Houses as a result of the doubts brought up by the altercation in the Wizengamot Chamber, three of those Houses joined other 'Light' factions, two joined 'Dark' Factions, one joined a Neutral faction and three joined the Albion Alliance. That was a lot better result than they'd been expecting so the Old Families celebrated that as a win.

There were more celebrations after Amelia, Newt and Saul Croaker interrogated everyone in the DMLE, DoMC and DoM respectively. Unfortunately James had had enough time to get rid of all the evidence against him before they started and he wasn't doing anything outright illegal for Albus anymore but between them they arrested thirty Death Eaters and Voldemort supporters, convicting twenty five and permanently dismissing the other five from the Ministry. They also arrested twenty Dumbledore supporters and fifteen others who were performing illegal acts for the Minister and others, and while they could only convict fifteen of them, the other ten were permanently dismissed from the Ministry. They caught over fifty more miscreants, but they couldn't get enough evidence to press charges or dismiss them from the Ministry so all they could do was kick them out of their departments.

The only reason they got away with doing this was that between them, the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures and Department of Mysteries controlled most of the important functions of the Ministry of Magic, so their Directors were appointed by and directly answerable to the Wizengamot, rather than the Minister for Magic like the lesser Departments of the Ministry of Magic.

They did manage to pull off another coup while the Wizengamot members were reeling from the sickening evidence presented about the crimes of the Death Eaters and others. There was copious evidence that the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes and Floo Network Authority had worked for and with the Death Eaters in the War, so they got the Wizengamot to rule that those two bodies would be absorbed into the Department of Magical Law Enforcement to prevent further criminal misuse. This led to another twenty convictions, fifteen permanent dismissals from the Ministry and ten kicked out of the Department.

Needless to say, Minister Bagnold and the 'Traditional' Pure-Bloods were not at all happy with these developments because Magical Accidents had been cleaning up their messes for a long time, but it would not be doing that now that Bones was in charge. They also had to find jobs for the hundred who had been dismissed from the Ministry or kicked out of the DMLE, DoMC and DoM, and worry about the fact that three quarters of the Ministry was likely to refuse orders from the Minister for Magic if they could show justification for doing so.

Millicent Bagnold was no fool, she knew that while Bones, Scamander and Croaker could be forced to carry out her orders by the Wizengamot, she would most likely fail and lose face if she tried to force the issue, because she would have prove that her orders were justified. On top of that, Black had changed the balance of power in the Wizengamot when he used the Stone of Truth to reclaim the Black titles, votes and monies when he called for the dissolution of the marriages of the ones he cast out of the House of Black for supporting He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named…. While it hadn't been a major change, betweeen that and the votes they'd lost due to Potter's mouth, the Pure-Blood Houses could no longer guarantee that what they wanted would be pushed through, and those bastards in the Albion Alliance knew the rules too well for Albus to brush their arguments aside when they demanded answers….

She snorted when she thought about the fact that one of the main driving forces behind the Pure-Blood agendas was a Half-Blood. She doubted that Albus even admitted to himself that his mother was a Muggle-Born nowadays, or that his family didn't become a Minor House until he got the Baronetcy with his Order of Merlin in Forty Five. For all the humble scholar bullshite he came out with, Albus was every bit as arrogant as Malfoy and his ilk and she didn't need to be a seer to predict that that Muggle saying Pride goeth before the fall was quite likely to be part of Albus' epitaph.

While all this was going on in 'Magical Britain' (Wizarding Britain would have been a far more accurate term because Witches and Wizards of Human Magical descent were the only beings accepted as having any place in it by most of that society), Henry Potter was growing up with an eclectic mix of Human and Fae children and adults on Ynyscoed, Ilha Preta in the Azores, Isla Negra in the Caymans, Clan MacAfee's Rocabarra in the Hebrides and half a dozen other unplottable island estates of the Old Families around the world. Many of these islands were old pirate hideaways belonging to the Potter and Black families (a notable portion of their fortunes had come from viking and pirate plunder), but a few of the other families had warded islands as well. Not many of these warded islands had survived the test of time, because the wards wouldn't stay strong unless there was a ley line or something else to keep them charged. Losing everything they had at their retreat in the Dutch East Indies when the island of Krakatoa exploded with more force than anything seen before or since in the late Nineteenth Century had taught the Potters that the energy around volcanoes making strong wards possible didn't necessarily make it a good idea to build there, luckily it was just being used as a stopover site at the time and all they lost was a few buildings and the docks.

While Harry and the other children were having fun growing up playing in the sun, they were training their bodies, minds and magic from before most of them began to walk, learning the ways and lore of the Humans and the Fae. This was the way of the Fae, Human lore about battles with the Fae told of their warriors being far stronger and faster than Human warriors, but they weren't born that way, they trained their whole lives to get there. Those who could afford it used potions to optimise the benefits of the training, potions to stimulate frame and muscle growth, boost the metabolism to increase muscle density and simulate altitude training to increase the body's ability to metabolise oxygen. The result of this was that the kids were bigger and heavier than they would have been otherwise but lithe and wiry, and they were notably stronger and faster, with far greater aerobic and anaerobic stamina. Between their far greater physical fitness increasing their magical reserves and working and building their magic since they were toddlers, and the magical boosts most them had received when some of the ones who had performed the protection rituals over them died, they were magically as well as physically powerful… And they had been learning the customs, languages, lore and magic of the Humans and Fae, both Magical and Mundane, since before they could talk so they were regarded as smarter than most too.

Most Witches and Wizards would have considered their upbringing cruel and pointless, but while they'd been working since they were infants, it had been a happy life for them. Most of their training was structured as play and games when they were small, and it became second nature for them, so much so that in their minds it was still a fun activity when they grew older. The physical training was mostly a daytime activity, and runic time chambers allowed the 'indoor' activities and rest to be fitted into their nights so they grew up well rounded….. Fit, healthy, polite, charming and surprisingly intelligent and knowledgeable for children their age in most Magical and Mundane societies around the world.

Of course, one Magical society that they avoided until their Eleventh birthdays was 'Magical' Britain. As Regent, Lily could assign the voting proxies for Harry's Houses to other members of the Albion Alliance and try as they might, Albus Dumbledore and James Potter couldn't do anything about it, as the Magic of the Wizengamot enforced the wishes of those who had been magically accepted by the Family Magics of the Houses….

And they had had no more luck trying to sway the Goblins than they had the Wizengamot. James had found out the true state of his vault about a year after the Potters were attacked at Gryffindor Cottage when he tried to transfer Ten Thousand Galleons to the Order of the Phoenix's vault, but he was told that he didn't have enough gold in his vault to make the transfer. The Albion Alliance let Dumbledore's proposal that the Goblins be ordered to give James Potter access to the Potter fortune go though, but spoke against it, saying that it couldn't be enforced without breaking the core treaties between Magical Britain and the Goblin Nation.

When James presented the writ at Gringotts and demanded that he be given access to 'what was rightfully his', everyone else in Gringotts' Banking Chamber (which included Dumbledore who thought that his presence would help push the matter through, a squad of Aurors James had brought along to try and intimidate the Goblins, reporters and photographers from the Daily Prophet and others who were eager to see the Goblins put in their place and notable members of the Albion Alliance whose primary purpose was to remind the Sheeple of Magical Britain that they had been told that this wouldn't work and trying to force the issue on the sovereign soil of the Goblin Nation would just cause another so-called 'Goblin Rebellion'… They also had official representatives of the International Confederation of Wizards there to serve as impartial witnesses to what happened, because the Goblin Nations were recognised by the ICW so they had the authority to step in and adjudicate on any altercations) was treated to a show.

The fact that James didn't recognise Jareth when he strode into the Banking Chamber in his ceremonial armour, surrounded by his personal guard, indicated that he must have lost or buried many of his childhood memories as Dumbledore was moulding him into the tool he was to become, because those who were close to the Potters knew that he'd been in Jareth's office with his parents fairly often when he was little, not as often as Harry perhaps, but enough that he shouldn't have forgotten the Goblin King without external interference. The attitudes ingrained into him showed when James sneered derisively at all the Witches and Wizards who were bowing respectfully to Jareth when he entered the Chamber, as being so dismissive of the fact that this was obviously someone important who should be treated with respect was an act of Pure-Blood arrogance.

Much like it had with Frank, James' arrogance just kept digging him deeper into the shite.

"I presume from this posturing that you're here to represent Gringotts. I have neither the time nor patience to play games with you so I will get straight to the point…. This is a writ from the Wizengamot of Magical Britain ordering Gringotts to give me full access to what is rightfully mine, the Potter Vaults, and I demand that you do so immediately!"

Jareth put a hand up to stay his guards, half of whom were surging forward to chop this pig into bite sized chunks for the dragons and other beasts for daring to speak to the Overlord like that.

"I would say that you are brave to make such demands of the Director of Gringotts on the sovereign soil of the Goblin Nation James Potter, but that would be untrue, as it is not brave, just foolish…."

He cut off James' angry retort and went on.

"I know for a fact that it was explained to you at the reading of your father, Lord Charlus Potter's will that as the Potter Family Magic has not accepted you as the rightful Heir or Head of the House of Potter, you are forbidden access to any Potter vaults or assets other than your own personal vault, your son Hadrian's trust vault under the terms set by Lord Potter for his care and Gryffindor Cottage in Godrics Hollow, which you were granted use of as an unaccepted Heir of the House of Potter… I also know that you were taught about the rules of Family Magic which control all rights related to the Magical Houses... And I have it on good authority that you and your…. adviser…. were informed that coming onto the sovereign soil of the Goblin Nation and attempting to force us to bow to your demands like this would be a breach of the core treaties between Wizarding Britain and the Goblin Nation…. and that we would be well within our rights to treat this as an act of war and respond accordingly, by starting what you Wizards choose to call a Goblin Rebellion…. Which is in and of itself another insult, because a war between two sovereign nations is a war, not a rebellion... A war which you Wizards wilfully incited by your actions."

Dumbledore stepped forward, trying to take charge of the situation. "My good man…."

"I am not your anything Albus Dumbledore! Address me as Director or be silent!"

Dumbledore's temper flared at being cut off and spoken to like that, but he reminded himself that he needed to defuse the situation if they were going to get what they wanted here….

"Very well Director... I was hoping to ward off unnecessary unpleasantness by correcting your misapprehension about this being sovereign soil… You see Gringotts is still part of Magical Britain, it is merely called the Goblin Nation because the Goblins are allowed self rule within the boundaries of the bank…."

His temper spiked again when this shiny armour wearing popinjay started laughing uproariously at him.

Jareth shared a smile with his guards and others in the chamber who were keeping a close eye on the situation then turned back to Dumbledore.

"Charlus told me that you regarded anything BA… Before Albus…. as unimportant Dumbledore, but this is ridiculous… You claim to be a wizarding scholar, but it appears that you have never looked beyond the woefully inadequate British History of Magic texts. If you check with any true wizarding scholars or historians you will learn that the Goblin Nations around the world have been recognised by the established wizarding nations for over a millennia, as they represent the Fae who remained in the Human Realm when our brethren went below. By the Fifteenth Century, the uncultured barbarians who had came to Britain as Mercenary Wizards were attacking non-wizarding magical people with impunity. Gringotts was already well established here as the Goblins' main house of business with Human kind so we had it officially recognised as sovereign soil of the Goblin Nation so that it could serve as a sanctuary for the Fae people…"

"So you see Albus Dumbledore, it is you who are wrong about the sovereignty of the Goblin Nation and the fact that you are currently standing on our sovereign soil… And do not think for a moment that you have managed to fool me about why you are really here, as I know full well that you are here to try and compel us to give your minion James Potter access to the House of Potter's vaults. I suggest that you give up on that vain hope and leave before the situation escalates because as I have already told Mister Potter, Gringotts will not give him access to anything that the Potter Family Magic has refused him, and attempting to force the issue will lead to war."

Dumbledore knew that most of what this Director had said was true, but he wasn't prepared to give up on getting access to the Potter fortune without a fight.

"Whatever you think is the truth Director, I am the Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards and I can assure you that the Wizarding World will not allow Goblins starting a war with Wizards to go unpunished. The word of Goblins and their minions would never be taken over that of proper Wizards so I strongly suggest that you stop this nonsense and give Mister Potter his rightful access to the Potter vaults as ordered by the writ he presented before the situation gets ugly."

Jareth snorted and shook his head at the old fool.

"What about official representatives of your ICW old man? Will their word be taken over your 'proper' Wizards?"

He looked around. "Have you heard enough Ladies and Gentlemen?"

A distinguished looking Wizard threw back his cloak to reveal official ICW robes and stepped forward. "We have indeed Director. With your leave we will take statements from the Witches, Wizards and Goblins here in the Chamber and we will be requesting that yourself and others attend as witnesses when the matter goes to trial at the ICW."

Jareth nodded. "As you wish Good Sir…. You may want to get copies of the notes and pictures of the press over there for evidence as well. The majority of them represent the British Wizarding rag the Daily Prophet, which if you ever read it you would know has a very loose association with the truth, but if they have been taking their notes verbatim they may be useful, and the pictures should be useful to identify who was here."

The Wizard nodded "Indeed Director, that is a good point." with that he signalled some of the ICW observers to grab the press' notes and cameras.

James managed to keep his position as Head of the Auror Operations Office, but he was put on probation for twelve months for abusing his authority and taking Aurors with him in an attempt to intimidate the Goblins, and he had to live off his Auror wage and Lestrange gold for six months after that because the fines imposed for what he did had emptied his vault. He also discovered that he couldn't draw more than a Hundred Galleons a month from Hadrian's vault for his care and that any larger amounts had to be submittted to and authorised by the Potter Account Manager on a case by case basis… James was due for a nasty surprise on his birthday in 1985 too, because he had walked out before his Account Manager could tell him that his vault was only being topped up from the main Potter vaults for seven more years once he reached his majority as the Potters expected their children to be self reliant by the time they reached their mid-Twenties, so that financial assistance would stop after his Twenty Fourth birthday.

The stunt at Gringotts had actually cost Dumbledore more than it did James. The ruling of the ICW court was that he had wilfully abused his authority as both Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot of Magical Britain and the Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards in an attempt to fraudulently force Gringotts to give James Potter access to the Potter vaults so he was fined Fifty Thousand Galleons and dismissed and permanently banned from holding the position of Supreme Mugwump or any other influential positions in the ICW. When that ruling came down Minister Bagnold decided to watch her own back and stopped supporting him, so Dumbledore had a lot harder time when people challenged him in the Wizengamot or Ministry after that.

Being repeatedly taunted with that Director's crack about 'Before Albus' was something that made him want to hex all and sundry, but he couldn't afford the damage that would do to his image so he was forced to grin and bear it. On top of that, with James' reduced financial circumstances he had to loan him gold to ensure that the Boy-Who-Lived was outfitted and displayed as the icon they were holding him up to be, on the understanding that it would be repaid as soon as Hadrian was accepted as Lord Potter and gained control of the Potter vaults on his Eleventh Birthday.

A/N: As you no doubt worked out, Letitia Lestrange is an OC. For this fic she's the younger sister of Rodolphus and Rabastan Lestrange and the only Lestrange left with any claim to the titles, votes and vaults of the House of Lestrange after Rodolphus, Bellatrix and Rabastan were convicted and sentenced to Azkaban. Dumbledore used the clout of his position as Chief Warlock and his minions, I mean supporters, in the Wizengamot to 'legitimise' James' marrying Letitia to get control of everything the Lestranges have. Needless to say, James Potter isn't portrayed in a very good light in this fic, it's the first time I've really played with this angle and I have to say I'm enjoying it so far.

NB: I've always found the stated exchange rate of 5 Pounds to the Galleon to be unrealistic, because the gold value of the large coins would be far more than that. Therefore, for this fic the regulated exchange rate is around 3 Pounds to the Sickle, which equates to around 51 Pounds to the Galleon and 10P per Knut.

Over the last two or three decades, a lot of banks in the 'real' world have been refusing to change money, cash cheques, make out bank cheques etc for people unless they have an account with them, and in the case of cashing cheques they generally require them to deposit it into their account and then draw out the cash so they have a record of what was done in case of fraud etc. I believe it's well established that Goblins are careful *cough* paranoid *cough* beings, so they're quite likely to want to keep track of what they do for whom. Requiring the Muggle-Born and their parents to open accounts linked to Post Office Box or Safety Deposit Box sized vaults (which the Goblins could probably create in their hundreds, if not thousands quite easily) located on the first few levels beneath Gringotts' Banking Chamber to make it easier to keep a record of their transactions when they exchange Muggle Money for Magical, pay their Hogwarts tuition etc is something I see as being quite likely as in this world Goblins dealing with customers all have an Account Management role in the Bank.

In this world, Junior Account Managers are the entry level for managing customer business at Gringotts. They are assigned customer portfolios with a total value of at least a Hundred Thousand Galleons to manage, and their portfolios have to have been worth over a Million Galleons for at least a year before they are promoted to Senior Account Managers. If the average value of a Junior Account Manager's customers' accounts is Five Hundred Galleons, this means that they are expected to manage at least two hundred accounts, but this can be pruned down to twenty accounts if the average value is at least Five Thousand for three months or more and so on.

Low value accounts are generally fobbed off on the newest Account Managers, but it doesn't take ambitious Goblins long to work out that handling a lot of low value accounts is far more work and less profitable than managing a smaller number of high value customers, so they are motivated to help their more promising customers grow the value of their holdings where they can. Dormant accounts aren't generally retained unless they hold enough gold to shore up their average account values. A dormant account worth Twenty Thousand Galleons won't grow your portfolio but it doesn't take much to maintain it, which frees up time to work on the accounts that can grow. There's always a chance that someone will claim the dormant line and you can work with them to grow their wealth, but generally the dormant accounts are passed on to family members or allies when they start holding back the growth of the Manager's portfolio. Account Managers generally try to ensure that all their valued customers' accounts are managed by members of their own family because customers like the Potters and Blacks can make the entire family prosperous, but the accounts for ones like James Potter tend to be allocated to the ones who have let the family down as punishment.

Minor change, I've decided to classify Earldoms as Most Noble Houses and Baronies as Noble Houses. The way I see it, the Pure-Bloods are very status conscious so they'd want to take every chance to rub people's noses in the fact that they had a higher title.

I realise that there is no such thing as the Auror Operations Office in canon, but I'm seeing Auror Operations serving as the equivalent of Hostage Rescue/Bomb Squad/plain clothes officers in 'regular' Police forces and Auror Investigations as Homicide etc Detectives. To me, this fits in with their having Magical Law Enforcement Patrol Officers and Hit Wizards as uniform and SWAT officers etc.…

The Albion (old term for Great Britain) Alliance is made up of the Old (Ancient and Most Ancient) Druid Families and other Houses who agree with what they want for Magical Britain. It's basically a Neutral Alliance that doesn't agree with the Pure-Blood Bigots' agendas and refuses to capitulate to Dark Lords like Voldemort or Dumbledore.