The following Saturday, Stephen came into the house to have Petunia sign the parchments needed for an uncontested transfer of custody.

She signed with a slightly wistful smile. "I can't say I'm not happy that Harry will be living with his godfather. He deserves to be with someone who loves him," she said. "I… well, I don't resent him anymore, but there were too many years that I did for me to truly feel as though he's a part of my family. I know that sounds awful, and I hate that, but I just… can't feel about him the way I do about my Dudley."

Stephen shook his head. "It's not entirely your fault that you feel that way, though. I mean, he was left here without your consent and with no way for you to even contest the placement."

"I suppose. I do feel badly about it anyway," Petunia said. "Do you think Harry's godfather will allow some contact n the future? I might not care for him like a son, but I have gotten rather fond of him over the last year or so, and while I know he'll most likely end up immersed in the m-magical world, I would like to know that he's doing well. Perhaps even leave the door open to a better relationship as he gets older, if he's able to forgive me for how I treated him all those years."

"I can't speak for Sirius, of course, but I doubt he'd forbid Harry from keeping contact with you, as long as it's something Harry wants to do," Stephen said. "He knows people can change and Harry's certainly spoken of how you've changed for the better in how you treat him. But if I might make a suggestion?"

Petunia looked curious. "Of course," she said.

"I know Harry doesn't speak much of his weekends, as he knows you're still uncomfortable about magic," Stephen said. "So I'm guessing you haven't made the connection. His godfather is the Sirius Black that married Princess Diana back at Easter. When Harry goes to live with Sirius, it'll be at Kensington Palace, so my suggestion is that you have Dudley write a letter to Prince William apologising for that schoolyard incident that brought Harry to the attention of the Royal Family in the first place. Harry can deliver it to Sirius to give to Prince William, so it won't just end up on some secretary's desk."

Petunia dropped into a chair, doing a credible imitation of a landed fish. When she found her voice again, she only managed to produce an eloquent sounding, "What?"

Stephen managed not to laugh. "Well, Dudley's improved quite a lot since he broke his leg. Harry's said that even his friends at school have remarked on it. Admittedly, Prince William probably doesn't recall the incident, but I think I can safely say that Princess Diana would appreciate the gesture – and a connection to the Royal Family, even such a tenuous one as 'my cousin's godfather is also Prince William's stepfather' will almost certainly stand Dudley in good stead in the future. Both Princess Diana and Sirius would be more likely to honour that connection if Dudley showed a little remorse for knocking down a smaller child, you know?"

"That's – the last thing I expected to hear," Petunia admitted. "May I ask why you're telling me all this?"

"Sirius and Princess Diana both agree that you were wronged by having Harry literally dumped on your doorstep, Stephen said. "And they've seen how you've done your best to make up for everything over the last couple of years. There isn't much they can do for you directly, but introductions and business connections for Dudley once he's done at Smeltings, that can be done without causing too many raised eyebrows since he's Harry's cousin. It's just that Sirius in particular, wants to see a little evidence that Dudley's also changed his behaviour and attitude for the better before putting himself out to help at all."

"I suppose I can understand that," Petunia conceded. "I just – hadn't wanted to believe before, that my Dudders could possibly be anything but a perfect angel. But once he and Harry were separated at school, I couldn't blame Harry anymore when I received reports of poor behaviour on Dudley's part. But by that time, I didn't know how to fix things. I actually have to thank you, Mr. Coyner, because I think the real turning point was that lecture you gave him about diabetes after he broke his leg. Dudley started listening, to me and to his teachers, after he recovered enough to go back to school, and things just improved from there. Slowly, perhaps, but they did improve. I'll be sure he writes that letter, if you would be so kind as to take it next week?"

Stephen smiled. "Of course, Mrs. Dursley. I'd be happy to." He picked up the stack of signed parchments and tucked them into his briefcase. "Just to let you know, Harry is going to need a minor medical procedure in the immediate future, as soon as we can get an appointment. He'll most likely stay over with me for a day or two, just in case of complications. We're going to try an experimental treatment to finally let that scar heal properly, so that he hopefully won't be quite so recognisable."

Petunia nodded. "I did ask about having something like that done, when he started school, so that he'd look more normal," she said. "Only it would have needed to be laser surgery and NHS said we'd have to pay for it ourselves, as removing that scar would be strictly cosmetic, and we didn't have that sort of money to spend on something so minor."

"The sad part is, it isn't just cosmetic, although I don't know if a non-magical procedure would accomplish what we're hoping to do. It isn't unusual for scars from particularly nasty curses to not heal properly, and while it's not given him trouble, we also don't want to risk that it might have an adverse effect once he's at school and using magic regularly. Or that it might leave him vulnerable to certain kinds of magic, for that matter. Dumbledore should have taken Harry to a healer before dropping him here," Stephen said. "If anyone is to blame, it's him."

Harry came running down the stairs just then, his hair wet. "Sorry I'm late, Stephen, I was practising my quill writing, but I managed to snap the tip somehow and when it broke, it managed to hit me in the head. I had to shower again because the ink got in my hair and everything." He turned to his aunt and added, "I'm pretty sure the ink only hit me and my desk, Aunt Petunia, I made sure to check the wall and the floor and I didn't see any spatters. I'm glad I was wearing an old shirt, though, because it got pretty well splotched. I rinsed it out as quickly as I could but I think it's going to end up as a dustcloth now."

Petunia shook her head with a faint laugh. "It's all right, Harry, it happens. Your mother broke a fair few quills when she first started at Hogwarts too. Thank you for checking that you didn't get ink all over your room. Have a good time today."

"I will," Harry said, "and you have a good day, too." He gave a little wave and headed for the door, followed more sedately by Stephen.

Once in the car and on the road, Harry asked, "So what are the plans for today?"

Stephen smiled. "Well, your aunt signed the parchments needed to transfer your custody to Sirius. He'll file those as soon as you've been to the Department of Mysteries so we can take care of your scar. He was supposed to talk to someone there this week, to find out when we could bring you in for that, so I imagine that will be discussed today. We're also going to plan an outing to Diagon Alley for your school supplies after the scar's been dealt with. Other than that, we'll be going to Malfoy Manor so you can go flying with Draco."

"Brilliant! It's been ages since we got to fly together," Harry said with a happy bounce.

"It's been a month," Stephen said, laughing.

"Like I said, ages," Harry retorted. "It's too bad we can't bring our brooms to Hogwarts with us as first years."

Stephen shrugged a bit. "Well, I can see the sense in it, at least for the first term of the year. The muggleborn won't have flown before, and honestly, even some wizarding-raised kids might not have flown. You'll have flying lessons during first term, and the instructor has to sign off that you're competent before you can sign up to take out a school broom for an hour or so. If you brought your own broom, there'd be no way to prevent you from flying on it before you've been deemed competent – and no way to prevent you from loaning it to a friend who maybe hasn't ever flown before. They're trying to prevent accidents."

"Oh, I hadn't thought of that," Harry conceded. "That makes sense, though. Just because I had an easy time learning to fly, not everyone will. Like how my old classmate Toby is brilliant at footie but my other old classmate George nearly always misses when he tries to kick the ball. And half the time, loses his balance and lands on his bum."

"Exactly," Stephen agreed. "Now that all being said, I would think that once you've passed the flying class, you ought to be able to have your own broom. But, I'm not the one making the rules. If you'd like them changed, you might consider a petition or something. Write down all your arguments for allowing firsties to have brooms once they've passed flying class and get as many signatures as you can. Upper years as well as firsties. Then when you've got the signatures, make a few copies of the petition and bring it to… hm. Probably to Professor McGonagall, she's the deputy headmistress, but also give copies to the board of governors. Lucius is on the board, so get them to him and he'll pass them along to the others. Mind, you still might not get the rule changed, or if you do, it might be too late for your year group anyway. But it's worth a try."

Harry nodded as they went into Stephen's house to floo to Grimmauld Place to collect his broom before heading to Malfoy Manor. "Oh, I should ask if Sirius will let me keep Suliss here until I'm done at Hogwarts," Harry said as he came back down the stairs carrying his broom. "The letter did say only one pet, and that had to be an owl, cat, or toad. If I can't look after her myself, I'd rather Dobby look after her for me than leave her to some random servants at Kensington Palace. Dobby knows how to handle her and isn't scared of her. Wills wrote me that a couple of the servants have requested reassignment since he got his snake, so they won't have to be around him."

"When did Prince William get a snake?" Stephen asked.

"Just a few weeks ago. He's wanted one for a while and asked me to bring Suliss when I stayed at Balmoral last summer so I could teach him how to handle her," Harry said. "But with one thing and another, he didn't get one until just recently. His is male, a butter, he said, and he named him Clyde."

"Clyde?" Stephen laughed. "Where did that come from?"

Harry laughed as well. "From Pac-Man," he explained. "Wills thinks the markings on his snake are just about the shape and colour of the Pac-Man ghost known as Clyde."

"Kids," Stephen chuckled. "I should have known."

They flooed straight to Malfoy Manor; after an obligatory peek at Aurora, Draco and Harry begged permission to go out flying. Less than a minute later, the boys climbed the marble balustrade surrounding the dining terrace and leapt on their brooms, soaring across the lawns with happy whoops.

Narcissa laughed. "I'm never quite sure which of those two is the bad influence on the other one," she commented.

"Hey! I thought I was the bad influence around here," Sirius said with a theatrical pout as he strode out and dropped into a seat. "Sorry I'm late. Wills got a new bicycle for his birthday and handed his old one down to Little Harry, who's been rather demanding of my time in helping him learn to ride it."

Stephen shrugged. "Part and parcel of being a parent, or so my parents would say."

"What's a bicycle?" Narcissa asked. "Is it that thing I've seen pictures of, with the huge front wheel and a small back wheel?"

Sirius grinned. "Well, that's a very, very old style of bicycle," he said. "The modern ones have both wheels the same size so they're easier to ride. It's sort of like a lightweight version of my motorbike, only without the motor. It's got pedals instead, with a chain connecting the hub the pedals are attached to with the axle of the rear wheel. The rider works the pedals with his feet and that propels the bicycle. Since they've only got two wheels, though, the trick for a new rider is getting up to speed quickly enough to keep from tipping over to the side."

"It sounds dangerous," Narcissa said.

"Not really," Stephen said. "Sure, it's possible for a rider to take a spill and get bruised up some, but nowadays they usually wear a helmet to guard against head injuries. It's actually the kids who can ride well that are more likely to get really hurt on a bicycle, because they're the ones who are more likely to do something stupid in the name of impressing their friends." He laughed a bit, adding, "Pretty much like wizarding kids on brooms. The ones who aren't very good flyers mostly stay low and fairly slow because they're scared of getting hurt, while the ones who fly well tend to push themselves and their brooms to the limit."

Narcissa passed Aurora off to a nanny-elf as it was approaching the baby's naptime. "Thank you so much, you two, telling me all this while Draco and Harry are out flying," she half-joked. "Can we change the subject?"

"Sure," Sirius said. He turned to Stephen. "We've got an appointment at the Department of Mysteries Saturday next, at 9:00. I also requested Healer Abbott be there, in case anything goes wrong, as he's the one you said checked Harry over back when you first got assigned as his tutor. As soon as we're done there, I'll file for custody." He grinned and added, "And isn't it convenient that the annual ICW council meeting starts on Wednesday and ends a week later? Would the Monday after the DoM visit work for the boys' school shopping?"

"It's fine for me," Stephen said. "I'm done with uni and it's time to start looking for work. Fortunately, I've had the Heads of a couple of Ministry Departments express interest since you and Lucius introduced me around, so I expect I'll have found a position in the next few weeks at most."

"Where is Lucius anyway?" Sirius wanted to know. "I expected him to be here by now."

Narcissa shook her head with a rueful smile. "There was a Hogwarts Board of Governors meeting this morning – apparently Dumbledore is trying to eliminate the Wizarding Culture course – and he sent a message that after the meeting, he'd gotten dragged off to lunch with several of my friends' husbands who want to know a bit more about the 'muggle expectant-mother healer' we saw in order to have Aurora. They waited until they were sure Aurora had magic, just in case the muggle healing techniques had an effect, but they've all seen her summoning her plushies when they're out of reach, so now they're a bit more open to the idea, especially Cordelia Greengrass and Violet Parkinson, as they don't have sons."

Sirius laughed. "Where do they think muggleborns come from, if muggle healing techniques damaged a baby's magic?"

Stephen shook his head. "When I was still at Hogwarts, a few of the more, erm, extreme-minded individuals voiced the opinion that muggleborns somehow stole magic from proper wizards and that's why squibs happen. Never mind that they can't ever seem to find an instance of when a child born to wizarding parents has any contact with a child of muggles and only afterwards is discovered to be a squib rather than simply a late bloomer. In their minds, it's obvious that the muggleborn stole magic from someone and they're not willing to learn why they're wrong. One of my mates at uni called beliefs of that sort a classic example of fallacious thought and said that corelation does not indicate causation."

Narcissa and Sirius both looked confused. "Can you explain that in a little more detail?" Sirius requested.

"I can try," Stephen said with a grin. "Okay, say you try a new food for the first time, let's say it's your first time eating pizza. An hour after the meal, you get a headache. Is the pizza the cause of your headache?"

"Of course not," Sirius said. "Why would anyone get a headache from food?"

"Ah, but you developed the headache shortly after you ate the pizza, therefore, the pizza must have caused it," Stephen said. "That's the sort of logic used by the people who claim muggleborns stole magic from someone who turned out to be a squib. The squib is born to people with magic, and so ought to also be magic. The muggleborn is born to muggles, and so ought not have magic – and since he does when he shouldn't, and the squib doesn't have it when he should, the muggleborn must have stolen the magic from the squib."

Sirius looked enlightened. "Oh, I see what you mean now! I think that's the sort of reasoning that James used sometimes when he joked that since a cat is furry and has four legs and a tail, Padfoot was really just an overgrown cat since he also is furry and has four legs and a tail."

Narcissa giggled. "Padfoot drools too much to be a cat," she said as Harry and Draco landed on the terrace.

Harry looked at Draco. "Do you get the feeling we just missed something?"

"Yes," Draco agreed. "Hopefully not lunch, though."

All three adults started laughing and Narcissa summoned an elf to bring lunch out for everyone.

The conversation turned towards Hogwarts preparations as they ate. Draco asked, "Will we do our school shopping together? It might be fun to go with a friend."

"As much as I'd love to say yes, Draco, it's probably better if you don't go together," Stephen said. "Remember, we don't want Dumbledore knowing that Harry has known of the wizarding world for a couple of years now. At best, we want him to think Harry's aunt told him just enough that he wasn't surprised by his letter, and that she remembers how to get to Diagon Alley from when her sister went to Hogwarts."

"Even I won't go shopping with them," Sirius put in, "just in case word gets out that I've put in for custody – which will happen next week – because even if he's glamoured, if people know about that, they'll assume any child with me is Harry."

Harry sighed, but nodded. "I wish we could shop together, that would be brilliant. But if we did, and if Sirius was there or if we saw any of your other friends, they'd all want to know who I was and then everyone would find out. If I go just with Stephen, though, we can pass that off as I'm a muggleborn that his family knows somehow and he offered to take me for my school things as a favour or something like that. He's not well-known the way your family is, so probably no one will think twice about him taking some random kid school shopping."

"I guess your right," Draco also sighed. "Well, maybe we can manage to 'meet' each other at Madam Malkin's or Ollivander's or something, and 'make friends' so we can at least have ice creams at Fortescue's together. Maybe even invite some other muggleborn kids, too, if we see any while we're out. I bet they'll be as impressed with Fortescue's as I was with the Mr. Whippy van!" he exclaimed to more laughter from the adults.

Sirius, Narcissa, and Stephen exchanged glances. "I think we might be able to do that," Narcissa said. "What day are you planning on shopping, anyway?"

"Well, we're having his scar looked at next Saturday," Stephen said. "Perhaps the following Monday? Is that convenient for you?"

"I think so, let me check my planner," Narcissa said. "Kreacher?"

"Yes, Mistress?" the old elf popped in. He gave Sirius a dirty look but refrained from calling him any names.

"I need my planner," Narcissa told him.

Kreacher popped out and popped back in with the planner. He then stepped back so that he wasn't in Narcissa's line of sight before giving Sirius the two-finger salute and popping out once more.

Sirius just stared incredulously after the elf for a moment before laughing along with Stephen and the boys. "I see Kreacher still hates me," he snickered.

Narcissa looked up from her planner as everyone else laughed. "What happened?" she asked, which just made Sirius laugh harder.

Draco calmed down enough to explain, "Just before Kreacher left, he made a very rude gesture to Sirius – who apparently thinks it's funny that he did."

"Hey, my mother's portrait obviously did a number on Kreacher's sanity," Sirius defended himself. "I could hate him as much as he hates me, or I can get over it and be amused by it. I choose to be amused. I mean, he's a lot happier here, with other elves and living people to serve. He's healthy again. He's done well by you, right, 'Cissa?"

"He has," she agreed. "I'll speak to him all the same. The last thing I need is him teaching Draco and Aurora new vocabulary words that aren't fit for polite company. And that includes gestures, Draco," she added, turning to her son. "I don't ever want to hear reports of you using foul language or rude gestures."

"Yes, Mother," Draco said.

She glanced back down at the planner and smiled. "That Monday is clear. Shall we try to run into one another at Madam Malkin's around noon, then?"

"Sounds good to me," Stephen said. "And if we're done with the planning for the moment, how about a game or two before we have to leave?"

"Definitely!" Draco exclaimed. "I got Cluedo for my birthday, shall we try it?"

"Definitely!" Sirius echoed his younger cousin. "Go grab it!"

Draco hurried off, returning quickly with the game. It took longer than they expected, so after Stephen finally determined that Colonel Mustard did it in the library with the lead pipe, he declared that they needed to go.

"I'll meet you at your place, bright and early next Saturday," Sirius said. "I'd prefer to get to the Ministry as early as possible, so as to avoid crowds if we can."

"I'll be up no later than seven," Stephen said, "so you're welcome anytime after that."

"In that case, I'll see you about half past," Sirius told him. He turned to Harry and gave his godson a hug. "You take care of yourself this week, Pup, and I'll see you by eight next Saturday, okay?"

Harry hugged back tightly. "I can't wait," he said. "Say hi to everyone at Kensington for me." He and Stephen stepped into the floo, going back to Stephen's house. As they got into the car for the short trip to Privet Drive, Harry looked up at Stephen. "Do you think everything will be all right next week?" he asked nervously.

"We're taking every precaution we can think of to make sure it does," Stephen said. "We want this over and done with, so you can live your life the way you should be living."

"I'm scared," Harry said.

"I know. I won't tell you there's no risk, because I'd be lying. But we're going to fix this somehow, I promise you that."

Harry smiled. "Thanks, Stephen," he said softly before getting out of the car and heading into his aunt's house.