Hi everybody, thanks for all your reviews and favouring this short story. This is the last chapter, enjoy.

End of the War

It was Halloween and Sirius was currently watching how his best friend played with his son. Lily and James had invited him and Rose to visit for Halloween. They all had decided to forego costumes, as they wouldn't be able to go out for trick or treating in any way. And Harry was a bit young for it anyway, if it would have been safe for him to go. In a few years though. They had eaten some Halloween themed dinner, which Lily and Rose had prepared, while James and Sirius had watched the baby.

At nine Lily took Harry upstairs to his room, as it was high time for him to go to sleep. The other three adults sat on the couches when the two-way mirror that James had left with Dumbledore went off.

"What could he want?" Rose asked.

"No idea, but you two better stay out of sight. I don't want him to know that you have been given the secret to this place," James told them and Sirius and Rose nodded, going into the kitchen, from where they could hear everything that was spoken on the mirror.

"Professor Dumbledore?" James replied to the mirror.

"James. Thank goodness you are alright," The old wizard exclaimed in relief.

"Yes, nothing happened over here, why? Did anything happen elsewhere?" James asked concerned.

"Sadly yes. James, Voldemort found Alice and Frank. He killed them both before he tried to kill Neville. But somehow he couldn't kill Neville and the boy survived, while there isn't any trace of Voldemort so far. I haven't got over there yet, but, as you and Lily were the second couple the prophecy could have meant, I needed to make sure that you hadn't been targeted by a second group," Dumbledore reported.

"Oh no, what condition is Neville in?" James asked worried.

"I don't know yet. Augusta and Richard reacted to the alarm that Alice and Frank set up and took the baby to St. Mungo's. Augusta wasn't willing to speak to me, she's horribly distraught over the death of Frank and Alice," Dumbledore answered.

"Now I'm all the more relieved that nobody knows where we are," James stated, "That could easily have been us. Didn't Alice and Frank go under the fidelius as well?"

"They did, but the attack happened after their secret keeper went missing two days ago. We were searching for Dorcas, but we couldn't find her," Dumbledore said gravely, "I fear she was caught and forced to tell the secret."

"And that is exactly the reason why I refused to tell anybody who our secret keeper was, Professor. This could easily have been us and Harry," James stated.

"Hindsight is a horrible thing, James. Please stay at home and don't leave. We don't know if there are other groups that will try and go after the other child that the prophecy could have meant. Currently all signs point at Voldemort at least being temporarily gone, but we can't be sure. It might be one of his tricks to give us a false sense of security. I will keep you informed," Dumbledore promised.

"Thank you, Professor," James said and the mirror went back to reflecting his face, "You heard it?"

"Every word. Damn, what prophecy was he talking about?" Rose asked, shocked at the news of the death of the Longbottom couple.

"Sybil Trelawney, the new Divination teacher that Professor Dumbledore hired, made a prophecy about the downfall of You-Know-Who when he held her job interview at the Hog's Head. A Death Eater overheard part of it and told You-Know-Who. I wasn't told the exact wording, as Professor Dumbledore didn't want to risk the whole prophecy getting into You-Know-Who's hands. It tells that a child born as the seventh month dies, to parents that thrice defied him was coming. The child would be the only one that could defeat You-Know-Who. Of course that threat made him decide that he had to eliminate it, which meant that those that could be involved had to go into hiding. I can't tell you how relieved I am that he didn't choose my son. No matter how much it hurts to know that Frank and Alice are dead. I can't help myself but wanting to be selfish and happy that it wasn't my family," James admitted.

"That' understandable, Prongs. It is a tragedy, especially for little Neville. But I agree that I'm too happy that it wasn't you that died to really feel the full brunt of grief," Sirius nodded.

When Lily came down and saw the grave faces of the others, she immediately asked: "What happened?"

James told her what Dumbledore had told him and she had to sit down, shaking in both grief for her close friend Alice, worry about her godson Neville and guilty relief that her baby was now safe, not chosen by the monster for the prophecy. James took her into his arms, knowing too well how she felt and that she needed some reassurance. Not that he didn't feel the same.

"What are we going to do now?" Lily asked after calming down a bit.

"Stay under the fidelius charm for at least another six months and refuse to give up the identity of your secret keeper. Before you can risk anything, wait until the Ministry has rounded up enough of the Death Eaters to not have them attack you. It is known that you two are members of the Order of the Phoenix, which means some idiots could think that you know more about what happened to their master. While you are a little out of contact with people, it's not as if you are forced to constantly stay inside the house anymore, as the fidelius reach has expanded a good deal since the beginning," Rose advised, "Most people will be too relieved that You-Know-Who is gone to really think about his followers still being out there. And until they are captured, it won't be safe for you and Harry to come out of hiding. James can go and find out what's going on from time to time."

"That's true. In your position I would also actually consider staying here at Potter's Keep for longer. The place is out of reach from anybody and I can tell that the next three years at least will bring a lot of changes and fights with Death Eaters that will try to escape persecution. And we don't know all their identities yet. Go shopping mostly in the muggle world, except for things like potion ingredients and spell books," Sirius added to his wife's advice.

"We will in any case stay under the wards for the next six months. What we do after that, we can discuss when the time has come," Lily decided, "But I wish we had some more people around here. It gets a bit lonely. I mean, we haven't even seen Moony or Wormy for a while, except for Order meetings."

"We can deal with that until it is safe again. We still have no idea about the identity of the spy," James sighed.

"Have you thought about checking for the dark mark?" Sirius asked, "I mean, all the idiots that ambushed me and which I sent to the DMLE for trials, had it on their left forearm."

"No. Why didn't we take such a basic precaution?" James cursed.

"I didn't even know about them having it on their arms. Professor Dumbledore certainly never mentioned it during the meetings," Lily agreed, annoyed as well.

"He has to be a lousy general," Rose commented, "I mean, it was one of the first things Siri told me after he found out. And I know that he also informed Barty Crouch, simply to have a full check of all Ministry employees done to not have the spies continue their work."

"The more I learn about how simple things weren't done in this war, the more I'm convinced that not accepting the invitation into the Order was a great idea. I mean, really? Why not do something that simple? It wouldn't be illegal and not an invasion of privacy, which was the constant argument against veritaserum being used," Sirius shook his head in disbelief.

James and Lily didn't look happy either. They fully agreed with their friends. Had that just been done, Frank and Alice would probably still be alive and who knew what had happened to Dorcas.

Dumbledore was miffed that James and Lily still refused to tell anybody the identity of their secret keeper or have him or her pass on the secret of their hiding place. They argued that had Frank and Alice just done the same, they would still be alive and Neville wouldn't be an orphan. It was hard to argue with that, especially as he had convinced the couple to go with a secret keeper among the Order members. They by now knew, thanks to the goblins informing the beneficiaries of her last will, that she had been killed after the secret had been extracted from her. And, sadly, that wasn't too difficult. Veritaserum or legilimency could do it.

The general public was celebrating the fall of the dark lord and praised the Boy-Who-Lived, Neville Longbottom, for freeing them. He didn't have any access to see Neville, to check what had happened, as Augusta and Richard isolated their grandchild from anybody and had locked down their manor for anybody that wasn't keyed into the wards. And that list was very short. He was frustrated by that, as he was used to being listened to, both as headmaster and a politician. People respected his opinion and generally followed his advice. But the Longbottoms were stubborn and, as much as he wanted to have Neville raised by people that supported his agenda, or even better, far away from the fame that was heaped on his little shoulders, he wasn't in any position to make that decision.

Two people had that influence. Neville's godparents. But Lily Potter had already had a talk with Augusta Longbottom, after asking to see her godson to make sure he was alright after the horrible event, and had agreed to let Neville's grandparents raise him, as long as she could come to visit whenever she wanted to. Augusta had agreed to that stipulation, knowing that magical godparents automatically got first rights to raising a child. Neville's godfather was Fabian Prewett, but he had died in the war, leaving his brother an emotional wreck for a while, as Fabian, with his last power, turned a stick into a portkey when they were ambushed and horribly outnumbered and threw it at his brother, sending him away before two killing curses could hit Gideon.

Gideon had arrived at St. Mungo's with severe injuries, but the healers had saved his life. The worst part was his state of mind, blaming himself for not being strong enough to also save Fabian. No matter how badly he had been injured. It would take lots of time to let him deal with that loss. His sister, Molly Weasley, had taken to regularly set him up as a babysitter for her children, as, with seven of them, she was glad for every hand and additional pair of eyes she could get. It helped him to distract himself for a few hours each day, which was good, according to the healers. And the innocence of the children worked wonders not thinking about the horrors of the war.

Which meant, for his trouble of having some influence in how Neville would be raised, he didn't have much to work with now. Lily was stubborn, James supported her in being stubborn, and he would bet that Sirius Black was somehow involved in that stance as well. He had once thought that he could influence the highly talented wizard to his way of thinking, but Sirius Black was a wild card. While he had thankfully never joined Voldemort, he shuddered thinking what he could have done with such a talented follower in his ranks, he also absolutely refused to follow Dumbledore and join his Order. Instead, Sirius had managed to win favours with Barty Crouch, simply for handing the caught Death Eaters over for them to try.

And Barty didn't mind the state the prisoners were in when they arrived at all. As long as he had some Death Eaters that he could convict and show his stance against the Dark Arts, he was content. And they hadn't won the war yet. Only Voldemort was gone for now after all, not his followers and many of them were nearly as dangerous as Voldemort had been.

Sirius waited outside the room in which the test of his wife was taking place. Rose had finally got the appointment for her dual mastery exams after having studied under her master for five years. The time after the fall of Voldemort had been an up and down of news. Good, many people broke out of being controlled by the imperius curse. Bad, the extreme followers of Voldemort were out to find out what had happened to their master and had gone after Crouch, with his son opening them the path into the house, inviting them inside. Nobody had suspected that Barty Crouch junior was a Death Eater, but he had been a fanatic.

The older Crouch had been tortured to insanity by the Death Eaters, which were convinced that he, as head of the DMLE, had to know where their master was now. The new head, Alastor Moody, even while being a member of the Order of the Phoenix, continued cleaning house. He took no nonsense, ignored polite customs, and set up a fool proof system to rat out the undetected spies at the Ministry. He found five the first day alone. He took to Sirius' way of forcing them to show their lower arms, where the dark mark was located. Anybody carrying it was stunned, bound and sent to the holding cells.

Moody was very much a believer in first securing your immediate back before going after the enemy that sent the public into a panic. Constant Vigilance! Sirius actually liked that attitude, even if Moody sometimes drifted into paranoia. Then again, it wasn't paranoia if they were really out to get you. And contrary to Crouch, who wanted the top job, Moody was perfectly content where he was, catching all the bastards that had supported Voldemort. Once caught, Moody dosed every Death Eater with veritaserum, no exception. He told everybody that protested his methods that they had allowed that the aurors used the unforgivable curses against Death Eaters, therefore letting him use some truth potion really wasn't as if they would sell their souls. They had already done that with the previous rights that aurors had been given.

Nobody liked it, especially the top politicians, but it worked. He found the spies. He got more names and sent the aurors after them, not bothering to get warrants for each of them individually. He got one that allowed him to bring in anybody named as a Death Eater in interrogations of those found with the dark mark and those strongly suspected of being Death Eaters by previous investigations. It was the reason why Lucius Malfoy now sat in a holding cell, not understanding why his plot with bribing Minister Bagnold and some high-ranking Wizengamot members had failed like that. Bribery had always opened doors for him before. Well, too bad for him that Moody wasn't buyable.

Now that things were safer, a lot of tests for mastery exams that had been postponed were done. The guilds felt safe enough again, as Voldemort had targeted a number of their best members, which he considered a threat to his plans, if they didn't agree to support him. But as masters they knew a lot of tricks to not be caught and except for a few unfortunate ones that got into raids that didn't target them directly and were surprised, they all got through the war fairly well. Had it lasted longer, it might be a different story, but especially the new warding system, offered by Greengrass Enterprises, prevented a lot of attacks from being successful. And if anybody could afford them, it were masters of any subject. They were wanted by companies for their skills, as it took a lot of skill and intelligence to achieve a mastery in a subject. Sirius' three years of finishing his Warding mastery was unseen before. Rose's five years were already a short time in a normal mastery study, but for two subjects at once, it was also without many precedencies.

There had been two others over the last four hundred years that could say the same. One witch from Norway in 1841 that managed to get her masteries in Ancient Runes and Enchanting in that period and one wizard from Italy that got his masteries in Arithmancy and Charms in 1620. All related subjects. He himself was loosely added to the list by now, as he had just yesterday got his mastery in Ancient Runes next to his already existing one in Warding. He considered adding a third one for Curse Breaking, as it was also related and he got a lot of experience during the war. He would have to talk about it with Escalon. But, as he hadn't really studied his two subjects at the same time and sat the exams at the same time, it wasn't a true double mastery, just similar.

He was sure that Rose would pass. She knew her stuff and he knew that she wanted to have the masteries secured before they started another project.

Rose was terribly jealous of Lily at times and was more than eager to finally have a child of her own. Being twenty-four years old, she felt ready for that step. But she had been firm in first getting her two masteries to have something to show once she wanted to start working again after the child was old enough to be left alone for a while with a caregiver. Potions and Herbology would allow her to work from home, sending her finished potions off to the customers, or apothecaries that agreed to work with her. But without the masteries, she wouldn't have been taken serious enough by business contacts. For the common potions that she had sold while being in her apprenticeship, it had been okay, but the ones that sold for more gold, could only be sold by masters. Otherwise the ones buying them wouldn't trust the quality and therefore not buy them.

Sirius knew that a lot of talented witches had ended in jobs that didn't match their talent and abilities, but they had become pregnant too early on and couldn't finish traineeships or apprenticeships. And when the children were old enough to let them work again, mostly when they went to Hogwarts, those witches had to take any position that was open. Mostly being secretaries or shop assistants, instead of going up the ladder and having a career of their own. Or they never managed and had to depend on their husbands to bring in enough money to care for their families. Rose, being a Ravenclaw, had known about this from very early on. Older girls had talked about it and discussed strategies how to avoid that fate, while still adhering to their family's wishes for them to catch a good husband.

He was alerted from his thoughts when the door opened and his wife exited, looking a bit nervous, but not as if she had messed something up.

"And, how did it go?" Sirius asked.

"I think it went fairly well, love," She replied and snuggled against his chest, his arms automatically embracing her, "But it was harder than I expected it to be. They tested my knowledge and skill in both subjects at the same time and I think one of the examiners is against women gaining masteries in his subject."

"Probably one of the old fools that are still convinced of the overcome role models. Don't worry, just one voice in the group won't make up the decisions and I know that nobody can be dismissed for a mastery because of gender. They have to give oaths before testing candidates for masteries that they will judge fairly and only based on the set requirements of their craft. Simply because there were prejudices against those from poor or less acknowledged families in the past and it was taken offence to when the number of masters was at an all-time low and the country in dire need of more masters. The Ministry at the time decreed that the examiners of each mastery test have to swear to judge as objectively as they can and there are lists of benchmarks that have to be met," Sirius assured her.

"Theoretically I know that, but I' still nervous, Siri," She admitted.

"I think I know of a way to distract you," Sirius replied grinning.

"Oh, and what did you think up?" She asked interested.

"I thought about some practice for the project after giving you the full body massage," He whispered into her ear, "You certainly deserve some pampering."

"I love you your mind works," She smiled back and let him take her away to the apparition point.

The results would only come out in about a week anyway.

Anastasia Rose Black was born one year after her mother has passed her double masteries with flying colours. And, like many baby girls before her, she had soon wrapped her father around her little finger without ever truly trying. Sirius adored his daughter and was incredibly happy to be a father. He named James Potter her godfather and Rose decided to have Annabel Prewett be her godmother. Annabel was the witch that had dragged Gideon Prewett out of his depression over his twin brother's sacrifice and worked as a mind healer at St. Mungo's. She had been a Ravenclaw in Rose's and Sirius' year at Hogwarts and had been a good friend of Rose for a long time.

She had stayed neutral in the war, like the Black couple, and had concentrated on healing people instead of fighting. Even the Death Eaters had never attacked the hospital. No matter what, there were lines that the extremists would never cross and attacking a place of healing was among those. After all, you never knew when you needed the services of the healers there yourself. And specialists that worked independently were rare to find in Great Britain. Even Voldemort had accepted that and declared any kind of magical hospital a safe zone.

The Prewetts had been married for a year now and Annabel was showing signs of pregnancy herself. She was four months along and very excited over having a baby of her own. She had already decided to return the trust Rose had shown her by making her the godmother of the baby, no matter if it would be a boy or a girl. Secretly she hoped for a girl, as then the two girls could play together regularly and perhaps also be close friends, like their mothers were.

Sirius had been promoted to leading a series of projects all over Great Britain for Greengrass Enterprises. After the war, the company had got fewer jobs for immediate warding work, instead many people asked for coordinated building projects, as new houses that were imbibed with warding procedures, were just safer than normal ones that were warded the classic way. Sirius was the one to instruct and oversee the workers that placed the stones with the runes for the wards. He also made sure that the new mortar that was used on the walls, mixed with tiny warding crystals that charged the runes on the stones from within the walls continuously, was spread evenly to have the maximum effect for protection.

A warded house cost about a third more than a normal house that the company of Escalon's brother Mortimer built, but after seeing the horrors of the war, nearly everybody was willing to invest that gold to have peace of mind in concerns of the family's safety.

The Potters had decided to keep living at Potter's Keep. They still hadn't told Dumbledore where they were, simply because Lily was too annoyed with his behaviour over trying to force her to give him access to her godson Neville. Lily absolutely refused and she and James had told the old headmaster to leave them and their family alone, as he clearly didn't know what he was doing. It had been a very harsh row and Sirius had only been told about it afterwards. But currently the name Dumbledore wasn't popular with the Potter family. Which had also grown. Lily had given birth to a second boy two and a half years after the end of the war and was again pregnant, but she and James didn't want to know which gender the baby would be. They liked it best to be surprised when the baby was born.

Jonas Potter was made Remus' godson and the werewolf had been incredibly touched to be trusted enough to be made godfather of any child. And Jonas loved his uncles. Sirius privately wondered how many children the two wanted to have. He himself had talked about it with his wife and they had decided that three would be a great number, if they were lucky to get that far. A number of families couldn't have more than one child, others didn't want to have more, and again others didn't have a choice, as one parent was imprisoned at Azkaban. Moody had made sure that all the scum that had followed Voldemort was ratted out.

It had come as a huge shock to the group that Peter had been among those that had been found to be a Death Eater. The spy inside the Order of the Phoenix that hadn't been found out before. Sirius really didn't know why Peter would do that. He wasn't a fanatic. His reasons had been fear of being killed, as it seemed that Voldemort was taking over everywhere, and joining the side that seemed to win, would give him protection. Well, his crimes were punished and Peter resided in a cell that was warded against animagus transformations.

Thank goodness that Rose had known that the fidelius charm could hide the secret inside the soul of a person that lived under it. Otherwise, it might have happened that Peter was made their secret keeper.

The birth of the daughter of Sirius Black was discussed a lot, as Sirius had made a name for himself. Several families that had sons around that age, pondered if they would be able to gain a marriage contract with the Blacks for the girl in the future, as the influence of the family was still very large. They had taken more than a few hits, what with several members being found out as Death Eaters, but, thanks to the main heir being clearly opposed to the dark side, their standing was still high. And their fortune was too large to ever ignore. Arcturus, the ageing head of the family, had been happy to be introduced to his great granddaughter. Walburga, who disliked her son and his decisions, was more than miffed that it wasn't a proper heir that had been born, but a girl.

Sirius and Rose didn't care. They didn't have any mentionable ties with Walburga. They ignored her demands with practiced ease and only appeared at those family events that they couldn't avoid going to. With a baby, they had an even better excuse of being too busy.

Time Skip

Sirius, Rose and Lyra, their two years old daughter, sat in Arcturus Black's lounge, looking at the frail-looking old man. They had left their older daughter Anastasia at the Prewetts to play with her best friend Angela, who was just a few months younger than her. But Lyra was currently in a phase where she started crying as soon as her mother was away and therefore she had accompanied her parents.

"Sirius, I can feel my time coming," Arcturus told his remaining grandson, as steadily as he could.

"I see," Sirius simply replied, "How long?"

"At most half a year, I fear. I want you to officially take over the headship of the House of Black. In the end, you, the one that openly refused to conform to all of our beliefs, were the only one that kept a good reputation in public," Arcturus admitted.

"I can't say that I didn't expect those following Voldemort to fall. It was unavoidable. Had this madness spread far beyond Britain, the ICW would have interfered after all. And you know the reputation of the regulators. After the mess Grindelwald made, they would never let some dark wizard's madness spread beyond the borders of one country," Sirius pointed out, "Not to mention that anybody with a sliver of sense would see that killing innocents would never be seen as anything but a horrible crime. Blood status can't excuse coldblooded murder, and it was nothing but that."

"You have always had strong convictions, Sirius. I'm glad we could hold you in the family, even if we had to allow for compromises with you. It seems that the previous ideology of the Blacks nearly ruined our once proud house. Look at the mess we have made. And I will admit, as old age made me see clearer, that the old generation is much at fault for this. Bellatrix in prison for following a dark lord, together with her husband and brother-in-law. Andromeda disinherited for bringing shame upon our house for marrying a muggleborn. Narcissa in disgrace over marrying another Death Eater, only spared because she didn't take the mark herself. Then your brother, also killed in service of that dark lord. We lost many to poisoning and illness. Now there are only Cassiopeia and me left of the older generation. From the generation of your father only your mother and aunt Irma remain.

"No, if the Blacks are to ever return to true power, they need to follow your path. One of mediated pride in our heritage as purebloods with some more common sense and sense for right and wrong inside of them. We made the mistake of supporting somebody that said that he was for pureblood supremacy and bringing us back to our rightful place in society," Arcturus commented.

"Which anybody that didn't have tunnel vision could have told you was a convenient lie to charm more followers to his side," Rose now spoke up, "He has killed more purebloods than anything in the past managed to do. Anybody not agreeing with his methods was branded a blood traitor and persecuted by him and his Death Eaters. I mean, look at what happened to Barty Crouch. He was from one of the oldest pureblood lines in our country and certainly not very pro-muggleborn. He definitely preferred the old lines when he hired aurors and other workers for the DMLE. And he was tortured to insanity by his own son, next to Bellatrix and Rabastan. And he was just doing his job."

"Yes, I can see that now. I will announce your ascension to head of the family during the next Wizengamot session, Sirius. I leave any kind of decisions about the course of the family to you. I'm too old and weak to do anything mentionable anymore. And if your mother acts out, well, there are some useful aspects about being family head. Like locking her up at Grimmauld Place if she tries to harm you and your family," Arcturus pointed out.

"I understand, grandfather. I will accept the position, but I surely will change the way things are done. Only then the Blacks will be able to survive," Sirius stated.

Arcturus nodded, took off the ring that showed his position as head of the family and Lord Black and handed it over to Sirius. He looked at it for a moment, then slipped it onto his right middle finger, where the ring quickly resized to fit him perfectly. A small flash later and Rose had a matching ring on her right middle finger, declaring her Lady Black. The same ring that had previously been on the hand of the recently late Melania Black.

The ascension of Sirius Black to Lord Black was talked about a lot. Those knowing the young man better, knew that the way the house of Black was acting would radically change. Contrary to most members of his family, Sirius was firmly neutral, neither supporting any extreme side in the last war. He was a respected master of Warding and Ancient Runes, with skills in many other areas as well, next to being a registered animagus. And he had been one of the youngest ever to master that difficult ability.

Some of his starting actions made it very clear that he wouldn't let his house continue down the path of self-destruction. He chose to offer Andromeda Tonks nee Black the old option of returning into the family fold by proving that her going against the wishes of the previous pater familias had been to the advantage of the house. It wasn't hard for her to do just that, pointing out that her halfblood daughter had inherited the thought lost metamorphmagus ability that the Blacks had once been famous for. Reactivating such a valuable ability in a halfblood child was reason enough for Sirius to bring Andromeda and her family back into the house of Black, and nobody, no matter how much Walburga ranted about it shaming the proud Blacks, could argue about Sirius having the right to do so.

Many others even praised him for the clever move, as inherited magical abilities were highly valued. And just the marriage to a muggleborn, who was easily convinced to accept Sirius as head of the family and to aid him like all members of the family were duty bound with the pater familias, could be overlooked if it brought back something like the metamorphmagus ability. Andromeda was given the custom dowry for a daughter of house Black into her and Ted's vault and Nymphadora got a trust vault like all daughters of the house of Black were entitled to.

Narcissa, who had to decide what she wanted to do, proved to be a true Slytherin and promised to follow the direction her cousin was choosing for the Blacks, as she had nothing to win by keeping to the Malfoy name. Thanks to Lucius being caught and imprisoned as a Death Eater, she was disgraced as Narcissa Malfoy. Returning to being Narcissa Black, and having her marriage officially dissolved, would at least give her and her son more protection. And, not being stupid at all, even if she hadn't been the best student during her time at Hogwarts, she had raised Draco more neutrally than she would normally have done.

He was taught to value the traditions of wizarding society, but not to dislike those not being purebloods. He was proud to be born a pureblood, but he knew that he should never underestimate those not being from purely magical lines, as that was detrimental to success in his plans. Narcissa had decided that making sure that her son knew not to insult others for being below his standing would be the only way to secure a future for him. She had known for years that Sirius would one day take over the Black Lordship, as the only male descendent left that could, and, while she still held onto the pureblood supremacy beliefs of her parents, she knew too well that you had to sacrifice things if you wanted to survive in this world. And as a mother, she would always put the well-being of her child before her personal pride.

After having got an audience with Sirius and Rose, where she introduced Draco to the new head of the Black family, Sirius agreed to dissolve her marriage with Lucius based on his imprisonment and let her and Draco take on the Black name. He also made it clear that Draco wasn't in line to inherit the Black title in any case, but Narcissa was too glad to have the backing of a powerful family name again to care. Draco still inherited the Malfoy fortune, as he was the biological child of Lucius, but he would only be hindered by the name. The Malfoy name would always be associated with being Death Eaters, even if more Black family members had supported the cause, but the Black name was associated with the star of Sirius, who was known to have assisted in protecting their people with his work and sending any caught Death Eaters to the DMLE, to be judged for their actions by the Wizengamot.

Over the years Moody succeeded with cleaning house and brought Wizarding Britain back onto a healthy course. His actions got rid of the worst bigots inside the Ministry and other influential positions. Bribery didn't work anymore, as he always caught the ones attempting it. Five years after the fall of Voldemort he had got a number of laws passed that gave the aurors the right to independently investigate anybody associated with any kind of terrorist group, with all means that weren't dark arts. Meaning he was free to feed them veritaserum if he had clear proof or at least very strong clues that hinted at the involvement of the person with such an organisation.

It certainly helped with people thinking twice about going back to the extreme pureblood ways. Other laws dealt with punishment of bribery inside the government. He had tried to also deal with bribery in economy, but so far he didn't have the lobby for that. But at least he could make sure that political decisions couldn't be simply bought anymore. Those being caught, and he always did so, were sent to the low security wing of Azkaban for two years. And no matter what, some advantages weren't worth that, as a sentence at Azkaban also terminated your chances for holding any kind of political position in Wizarding Britain for life. People actually had to convince others of their political goals and the ability to give good speeches and making compromises became much more valuable to people.

The best part for many politicians that didn't want a repeat of the terror that Voldemort and the Death Eaters had spread was that Moody had absolutely no political ambitions. He was a law enforcer at heart and being able to finally assure that the DMLE got the job done the way it should be, without rich slime balls being able to buy their way out of prison, was all he ever wanted. Moody's course was supported by the light and neutral factions of the Wizengamot and it showed in people on the streets being much happier with the way the government got back onto its feet after the war.

Albus Dumbledore wasn't a happy camper. He had tried, again and again, to win a measure of influence in the life of Neville Longbottom, but his grandparents, after the death of Richard Longbottom only his grandmother Augusta, refused to let him have any voice in how the boy was to be raised. And any excesses, for example Algernon Croaker's attempts to make Neville show magic early on, were met by a furious redhead in the form of Lily Potter, who threatened to take Neville away from the Longbottoms, with free visitation rights for Augusta, if they didn't cease their idiocy at once, or she would show them exactly how she had managed to make the Death Eater idiots fear her in battle. Augusta had quickly agreed and while her brother may have grumbled about it, everybody knew that Lily wasn't joking. And as the remaining godparent she had that power.

Neville was, as far as he could determine during the few appearances that the boy had in public, a normal little wizard, who was good friends with Harry Potter. And Harry seemed to be like his mother, always protecting his friend when the public got too rowdy, wanting to be close to the Boy-Who-Lived. Not to mention that he had got his father's mischievous streak and talent to place pranks on the people that really annoyed him and had managed to make Neville his accomplice in them. But it was clear that he was also greatly influenced by his godfather, Sirius Black, who made sure that the boys didn't go too far, explaining the difference between pranking and bullying others to them.

Together with the fact that Neville was given a support base of adults that were generally considered great role-models, Dumbledore didn't have a chance to position himself into the boy's life. Instead the boy was taught to not take Dumbledore's words, which was an insult in itself, as gospel. HE was the leader of the light. He really didn't like being doubted like that. But he had no power over the situation. The political stage had greatly changed in the house cleaning that Alastor had performed. It certainly was for the better in general, but it also required him to change his methods. He had known for decades how to work around or with the older members of the Wizengamot to get what he wanted. Now, as the bigots were nearly all imprisoned at Azkaban, the composition of the Wizengamot had changed. Sirius had also pushed through a new law to refill the empty seats that couldn't be filled with replacements for the families that had held the seats before. Be it because all members were now prisoners at Azkaban, or died out.

Those seats with underage heirs were held in trust until the heir would turn twenty. The Wizengamot required the seat holder to have graduated school and to make it easier for everybody, it had been decided to simply go with a minimum age of twenty years to be allowed to fill a seat. The normally two years after graduation until reaching that age were to be used to study the laws that the Wizengamot had to uphold. Now, for the seats that were forfeit for a family, an election process was created. The available seats would all be the same, no matter what rank the previous holders had had. One vote per seat. The other seats were also changed to that, which made votes more transparent. It had taken some convincing, but in the end the remaining delegates agreed to the change, as it didn't really reduce their influence. The most they were losing were two votes, but with having it pointed out that it was unfair and had allowed the old, darker families to assist Voldemort, it was a strong vote for the change.

The available seats were then published in the Daily Prophet and all those that were interested in taking part in the creation of laws in their country and occasionally being called upon for trials, were given a period of three months to hand in their application and pass a competency test, which included proving that they knew the general laws of Wizarding Britain. After that the ones that managed to pass the test would be presented to the public in a special edition of the Prophet, with a summary of their experience, profession and so on. They got guidelines on how to set the introduction up and then could work on it themselves.

After that the witches and wizards of Great Britain got to elect five candidates each. There were about twenty seats available, therefore the twenty candidates that managed to get the most voices would be filling the seats. All seats were given out for five years, after that new elections would take place. It was a revolutionary system for the wizarding world, but it was agreed upon easily. It was a trial run for the currently empty seats. If it proved workable, the older seats that had once been part of the Wizengamot, would be reactivated in the same manner. After all, currently there were only twenty-three inherited seats left, a record low number. At the beginning, when the Wizengamot was founded, there had been seventy-eight families that got a voice in how their country should be led.

While Dumbledore certainly believed that bringing the numbers back to that level was desirable, he wasn't sure about the elected members part. It took after all time to get an idea of how certain people would vote and that period could be too short to have a reliable idea. While some might get further periods to hold the seat, it wasn't a given and the composition of the Wizengamot would change constantly. He wasn't really sure if he liked that. He couldn't reliably predict how votes would go in that situation, and that was how he had managed to keep his influence for all those years.

He would have had more support for sure, had he been given access to Neville, who held a special place in the hearts of the people. He really hated that he had lost control so badly.

Sirius looked at the small bundle in his arms. After eight hours of labour, he got to hold his first son, Aries. After two girls, Anastasia and Lyra, he now had a little boy as well. He was incredibly happy about this. While he loved his children equally, he also knew that having a male heir to continue the name was important for his standing in society. And he and Rose didn't plan to stop at three children. Rose was determined to have five. He didn't mind at all. They had more than enough money and he loved children. James sometimes joked that he was determined to rebuild the wizarding world with a strong influx of Blacks, well, Sirius decided, as long as they followed his opinions, there could be worse things than having a lot of Blacks running around again. He just had to make sure that Rose and he raised their children with their values, not the old ones that drove his family close to extinction.

"I'm so happy, my love," He told Rose, who was drenched in sweat and really tired after the long labour.

"Me too," Rose replied.

"I love you so much. Our little Aries will fit wonderfully into our family," Sirius stated.

"His big sisters will certainly be really happy. They wanted to have a little brother for a change," Rose weakly chuckled.

"Sleep, love. You more than deserve a nice, long sleep. I'm going to present Aries to his big sisters and the extended family," Sirius told her.

"Okay," Rose agreed and closed her eyes, the midwife giving Sirius assurance that everything was okay and she only needed rest.

Sirius left the room and walked into the waiting room, where his two daughters were watched over by James, Lily and Gideon Prewett. Anabelle was also close to giving birth and there had been fake contractions before, thus the healers had decided to keep her at the hospital to be ready when it really happened. The children were currently also here, as they had heard about a new Black baby being born and had wanted to see it. As there were many other children to play with, Gideon didn't see any problem with it, as he didn't have to find a babysitter for them, even if his sister never minded having them over to play with her children.

"Padfoot, how did it go?" James was the first to ask.

"Everything went well. Rose is asleep right now. It was exhausting for her. I want you all to meet my son, Aries Sirius Black," Sirius announced.

The first one to look at the new baby was Lily, who cooed over the infant. Then his daughters got to see their little brother, while Sirius sat down on a chair, so that they could see him better.

"He's tiny," Anastasia stated.

"An' red," Lyra added.

"His skin will turn a normal colour in some hours. All babies are a bit red after they are born," Sirius explained to his children.

The other children and the two men also had a good look at the new baby.

"Welcome Aries," Anastasia said and gave her little brother a short kiss on the cheek, which Lyra then copied, under the smiling watch of Sirius.

After fifteen minutes Sirius took Aries back, while James and Lily took the girls back with them to Potter's Keep, where they were staying until Rose could go home with Aries. They had always arranged that the children stayed at the home of one of the other families to give the parents a little time to recover from the long time that the labour simply took. And as all children loved their aunts and uncles and cousins, it was easy to arrange.

While not everything was good in their world, many things were turning into the right direction. Sirius Black certainly believed that he had made the right decision all those years ago, which made him meet his wife and set him onto the path of not just following others, but making his own way in life.

And that's another story finished. Till the next one.