Disclaimer: I do not own the Harry Potter universe J.K. Rowling does. I'm just playing around in her sandbox for my own personal enjoyment and will receive nothing back (except reviews I hope).

Chapter 19: Following Up

Up until this past week Arthur and Molly Weasley had never had any major doubts about how they raised their children. All their children had tried their patience at one time or another, especially the twins, but for the most part they felt that their children were growing into good and decent people and knew how to behave. Then they had received a series of concerning letters from their boys who were still at school. Percy wrote to them of how Ron had insulted, and even threatened, several powerful young heirs, including their own liege lord Harry Potter. This was concerning by itself, but then both Fred and George had written about how they were concerned for their younger brother's welfare should he continue to antagonize the young Lords and Ladies. If Fred and George were concerned they knew it had to be serious. The most concerning letter, however, came from Ron himself. In the letter Ron not only defamed the young Malfoy heir, which was to be expected given the long-standing feud between the two houses, but also attempted to belittle the young Valaris heiress, the young Longbottom heir, the young Zabini heir, and another young girl named Granger. Ron kept ranting about how he was going to teach all of them a lesson for various reasons from refusing to be his friend to hating his pet rat.

They normally waited to give their children any kind of political instruction until after their first year at Hogwarts so that their children could interact with others freely without feeling the need to impress certain people and avoid others. However, it now looks like they should have started Ron's education early in that respect. They could not afford to have Ron pushing their allies away, which is exactly what he was doing. They were just thinking about ways that they could correct Ron's blunders when Albus Dumbledore decided to pay them a visit.

"Not that we aren't happy to see you Albus, but what brings you to the Burrow today? Don't you have to be at the school?" Arthur asked once Dumbledore had taken a seat after being invited in.

"I've come on rather important business concerning Harry Potter." Dumbledore claimed.

"What kind of business?" Molly asked, afraid that Ron had done something irreversibly stupid that could not be fixed.

"I'm sure you have both heard the rumors that Harry has been removed from the home of his Muggle relatives on grounds of abuse and I'm afraid that the rumors are quite true. It's hard to believe, I know. If I had known that they boy was not being cared for I would have removed him from the home long ago, but his relatives wanted no contact with the magical world and I wanted to respect their wishes." Dumbledore told them.

"Oh, that poor child! After what happened to his parents and what he did for all of us!" Molly exclaimed.

"Now of course, the poor young lad has no home and no family. I was hoping that the two of you might be kind enough to become Harry's new guardians. I cannot think of a better home for Harry than here in the Burrow." Dumbledore stated, convinced that they would agree to take the boy.

"As Vassals of House Potter we would be duty bound to ensure that young Harry is looked after, but we have heard that Harry has been having some problems with our Ron. I wouldn't want the poor boy to have to come into our home only to face the same problems that he is facing at school." Arthur said, hoping that Dumbledore would understand where he was coming from.

"I was not aware that the Weasleys were Vassals of House Potter and I'm sure that given time Harry and Ron would be able to work out their differences and become the best of friends." Dumbledore said to try and reassure the Weasleys. He needed them to agree to take the boy.

"Well if you think it is best we can give it a try. After all, every child deserves a good home." Arthur reasoned.

"Excellent, if we head to the Ministry now we should be able to get the matter sorted by the end of the day." Dumbledore said.

Dumbledore and the Weasleys agreed to meet up at the Ministry in one hour to begin the process of becoming Harry's guardians. What Dumbledore didn't realize, however, was that by the time he had convinced the Weasleys to take Harry in, the paperwork to make Ethan Carver Harry's guardian had already been finalized. Dumbledore was quite shocked when he was told that Harry Potter already had a new guardian when he inquired at the Ministry. Arthur and Molly were glad that someone had given the poor boy a home; Dumbledore was not. He had no idea who this Ethan Carver was but he was determined to find out. Who knew, maybe the man would be useful to him.

Dumbledore began to ask around and soon found out that Ethan Carver was the father of the last Valaris, as well as the son of Gretchen McKinnon. His father had been an American Wizard and apparently, the Carver family was rather important in that country. It was looking more and more likely that Carver would make an excellent new pawn in his game. The next move would be to get a meeting with the man. Both himself and Mr. Carver were incredibly busy men, so it would be difficult, but Albus was determined to turn Carver to his side.

Meanwhile, in another part of the Ministry Ethan Carver and Narcissa Malfoy were attempting to get a transcript of Sirius Black's trial. Attempting being the operative word, seeing as the trial records appeared to have been misplaced. At least that is what they were being told. They were both beginning to suspect that such a document didn't exist because there had been no trial. Just as they were beginning to get truly frustrated Magic seemed to show them favor. Amelia Bones, the Head of the Magical Law Enforcement Office, had just come down to drop off some records for filing and Narcissa wasted no time getting the woman's attention.

"Madame Bones, could I have a word if you are not too busy?" Narcissa asked.

"I suppose I have a few minutes. How can I be of service?" Amelia responded.

"Mr. Carver, here, and myself were attempting to get a look at the transcript from my cousin Sirius' trial, but the record seems to have been misplaced. You see Mr. Carver has just become young Harry Potter's guardian and the poor boy had asked about what had happened to his parents. I think the child is seeking closure and it would be hard to give him that without finding out why my cousin did what he did; in his own words. I admit I'm quite curious about what might have been said in that courtroom myself." Narcissa explained.

"They records were probably just misfiled. I can look through the trial records from back then and see if I can't discover what other cases were being tried around the same time. The transcripts might have been filed in with another case. I'll get back to you both with what I find." Amelia said.

"Thank you very much Madame Bones. I'm sure that this will mean the world to Harry." Ethan said in response.

"I only hope that I can help the child get closure of the matter of his parent's deaths. I can tell you that my office has given the evidence we collected concerning his Muggle relations and their treatment of Harry over to our Muggle counterparts. They told us they will be investigating further and that it is likely that they will be bringing up charges against them. So, you can at least give him a little good news." Amelia stated.

"I am personally thrilled to hear it. Those monsters deserve everything that they have coming to them and more for what they did. Anyone who harms a child like that deserves to be punished." Ethan added.

"I think we can all agree on that." Narcissa remarked.

The three adults said their farewells and went on their way. Amelia had to get back to her office for some more work, Narcissa had to get back home before she was missed and Ethan had a meeting he had to get to. Narcissa and Ethan made sure to thank Mother Magic for sending just the right person to them at just the right time. Because if their suspicions were correct and Sirius did not receive the trail that he was entitled to, then you had better believe that Amelia Bones would see to it that he got his day in court.