Chapter 12

Tuesday 6 August 1991

Then suddenly, the doors flew open and a man screamed, "Stop this at once!"

Before anyone could react, the signed papers dissolved into nothingness and the desk was cleared. Harry looked at the two men behind the one who had shouted and saw that they had their wands drawn. The man who had shouted stormed forward to the desk where Harry and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley stood. "Amelia, what is the meaning of this?" the man shouted to Madam President.

Harry found that the man was a little stout, but well-dressed; he was wearing a lime green bowler hat, a pinstriped suit with a cloak over it and a green tie. His face was purplish-red from anger that Harry knew all too well from Uncle Vernon and Harry stood a little more behind Mr. Weasley.

"Minister, Chief-Warlock Dumbledore asked us for a quick verdict, he believed that this needed to be done in Mr. Potter's best interest. You were contacted immediately, like the law mandates."

"We were contacted too late! We had no time to stop it!"

"Minister, I'm afraid the adoption process has already been completed. We have followed strict protocol and I fail to see why one would want to prevent this young boy from being adopted by these adequate people here," Amelia Bones said unbiased while pointing to Mr. and Mrs. Weasley.

The man who Amelia Bones had called Minister, looked at Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, then to Harry and then back to her.

The man was clearly so angry that he was ready to punch someone and then he turned to Professor Dumbledore.

"Dumbledore, why didn't you inform me of this?"

"I did my dear Cornelius, I sent you an owl 20 minutes ago."

"You know it will take a while for it to go through security! You have planned it like this! I can strip you from your Chief-Warlock title, you do know that, Dumbledore?! And we need that boy to testify against his family if he is abused," the man names Cornelius said venomously.

"He will," Dumbledore paused for a second before continuing, "In a safe environment and not in front of over fifty people gawking at him."

"He needs to be protected!" the man replied indignant and his face looked appalled.

"He will be very safe and very well protected. I promise you that you will have a hard time finding a safer or more suitable place than at the Weasley home or Hogwarts. Now, I believe introductions are in order, Cornelius, this is Harry James Potter. Harry, this is the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Oswald Fudge. He is in charge of the 'magical government' of the United Kingdom."

Harry looked at Professor Dumbledore and then looked to the man who hadn't done anything but shout at people.

Mr. Fudge walked over to Harry and extended his hand. Harry felt Mrs. Weasley's hand on his shoulder, who urged him forward, away from Mr. Weasley's back. Harry extended his hand because he knew that was expected of him, and he shook his hand.

"Nice to meet you, Harry. I am Cornelius Fudge. I will promise that you will be kept safe from harm from now on. No one is going to fail anymore. Will you help me bring bad people to justice, Harry?" His voice had sounded a lot softer and kinder but Harry could still feel the anger pour out of the man's pores.

Harry nodded and replied softly, "Nice to meet you, Mr. Fudge."

"It's time for us to go home, we have the other kids at home as well. Thank you, Madam President. Goodbye, Minister," Mrs. Weasley said quickly while ushering Harry to the door. Mr. Weasley followed quickly and the other people in the room watched the three walk away.

Mrs. Weasley extended her hand to Harry which he didn't flinch at but took without hesitation. He was glad to be going back to the Burrow, because he felt more and more uncomfortable in that Wizengamot Interrogation room.

Mr. Weasley crouched down in a private corner of the building and gestured Harry to come to him. He held both of Harry's hands and looked straight into the bright green eyes of the young boy. Mrs. Weasley could only observe and what her husband was going to do.

"Dear Harry, I want to welcome you officially into the Weasley family. No matter what happens, you can always count on us to be there for you and if you want to talk about something we are here for you. Maybe it seems like this is just a legal arrangement that needed to be done for the sake of paperwork, but for Molly and I," he extended his hand to his wife which she took immediately, "are very happy to welcome you into our family and hope you will grow to love it just as much as we do."

Mr. Weasley stopped and took a quick second to look at his wife, who had tears streaming down her cheeks and smiling broadly. Then he turned right back to Harry and said, "It makes us very happy to see Ron so excited to go to Hogwarts now, and Percy talking to you about interesting books and Fred and George trying to play nice with Percy. You bring something into the family Harry. You are now a part of it." Mr. Weasley slowly came forward and Harry anticipated that he wanted to hug him, so he leaned forward as well and softly hugged Mr. Weasley back.

Harry was completely overwhelmed by everything that had happened, but he also truly felt happy, loved even.

Then Mr. Weasley let go of Harry and got up to his feet all the while Harry was looking at him. Mr Weasley kissed his wife and ruffled Harry's hair before quickly marching to his department to start his work. Before Harry knew it, Mrs. Weasley and he were back in the Atrium and headed to the fireplace that could take them back. Harry stepped into the fireplace with Mrs. Weasley and they flooed back to the Burrow.

When they stepped out of the fireplace, Harry smiled awkwardly to Percy who was the only one in the living room. Mrs. Weasley quickly called for everyone to come to the living room and immediately Fred and George stormed in from the kitchen, followed by Ginny, Charlie and Ron.

Fred and George threw themselves on the couch and the others were quickly behind.

"And? Are you adopted, Harry?" George asked.

"Tell us, Harry!" Ginny pushed.

"Do we need to call you brother, brother?" Fred asked while shoving Harry's shoulder playfully.

Harry looked at all their expecting faces and then to Mrs. Weasley, who nodded him to go ahead. Harry took a big breath in and smiled broad, feeling really happy and nervous about the news he had to share. He saw everyone wait in anticipation and Percy had even pushed his glasses better onto his nose so he could see everything clearly.

"I am adopted," Harry said smiling broadly.

Just like Harry had dared to hope, all the Weasley kids smiled and cheered and Ron walked forward and hugged him first. "It's going to be great, mate!"

"Welcome to the Weasley family Harry," Fred and George said simultaneously.

Ginny and Charlie welcomed Harry too and Percy got up from his seat and put his hand on Harry's shoulder also, "Good to have you here, Harry."

"Thanks, everyone."

Mrs. Weasley had sat down, enjoying her wonderful kids interacting and decided that she could use a strong cup of tea and made some wand movements to set the kettle on. Everyone but Charlie and Percy were making plans of how to celebrate, when Percy turned to his mother and asked, "So how did it go? Was Dumbledore there?"

Mrs. Weasley looked at all her children who now became quiet and looked at her in anticipation.

"The head of the department did have some other issues. I am sure that you, Harry, have more questions about this and I will do my best to explain as well as I can."

Harry nodded because he indeed wanted to know about the man named Sirius Black who had been in prison apparently but he was also Harry's godfather.

"Normally, I wouldn't explain such important information without Arthur present, but because everyone will need time to process all of this and I do not know how long we will have before the trial begins, I will tell you all you need to know and no more. Your father, James Potter was best friends with Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew."

With no one noticing, Charlie narrowed his eyes at the last name mentioned by his mother but kept his mouth shut and she continued.

"During the war, your parents fought against He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named as we have told you already. But your parents were afraid that if anything happened to them, they would leave you behind uncared for. So your father chose his best, best friend Sirius Black to be your godfather. Sirius was supposed to take care of you when they died but he went to prison because the Ministry thought he had done something terrible. However, since this weekend, your godfather has been released from Azkaban, the wizarding prison because it seems that he has been wrongfully convicted. That means that whatever crime or bad thing the Ministry thought he did, he didn't do. Do you understand, Harry? He was in prison while he didn't have to be. He is innocent."

The other Weasley children looked just as shocked as Harry did, but he nodded nonetheless.

"Legally, Sirius Black is your official caretaker and guardian and he is allowed to make all the important decisions for you. However, since he is just released from prison, the Ministry will have him do some tests to make sure he is healthy enough to take care of you. Until he proves he can take care of you, you will live here with us."

"How long does that take, mum?" Ron asked frowning.

"I really don't know. It could be a few years, maybe a few months," Mrs. Weasley replied thinking.

Everyone was thinking when Harry opened his mouth, "But I don't want to go to someone I don't know. Can't I just stay here with you?"

"Once the time is right, we will all sit down and have a conversation about what is best for you Harry. We would love to have you here for all of your Hogwarts years, but before we are going to make promises and plans about that we are going to enjoy the time that you are here with us."

Harry and the other kids nodded before Mrs. Weasley continued.

"Both of your father's friends would love to see you. Two days ago, you have met Remus Lupin and you will be seeing a lot more of him, as he is very interested in getting to know you better just like Sirius is. They are very friendly and they will have much more stories to tell about your parents than Arthur and I do."

Harry wasn't quite sure how he felt about seeing them, he did want to know more about his parents, but he didn't want to leave the Weasley home as he finally started to feel more comfortable there.

"Okay, but what about the other friend? Peter?" Harry asked.

"Peter Pettigrew passed away."

Ron furrowed his brows and said, "Okay, but I did hear his name before. Isn't he famous?"

Molly sent Charlie a look that said it all. Charlie nodded to his mother and said, "Why don't we continue this conversation later, I think it's time to see how well the Quidditch practise is going. What do you say?"

All the Weasley children cheered except for Percy and Harry felt that he knew enough for now. He was just very happy that all of the Weasleys had reacted so genuinely nice about his adoption. Still, Harry would keep in mind that once he would meet with Mr. Black, and Mr. Lupin again, he would ask them about their other friend, that was for sure.

Meanwhile at the Ministry

Arthur stepped into the office and walked over to his colleague Maurice Thompson. Maurice opened his mouth and before Arthur could get any words out of his mouth, he was overloaded with information.

"Arthur, there you are! I was starting to get worried when you didn't show up at your usual time. But before I ask you about it, I need to tell you about something shocking information that has come to my attention."

Arthur nodded and waited for his colleague to continue. Quickly, Maurice swished his wand and a silence shield appeared around them. He covered his mouth with his robes and started talking, "As you know I am good friends with one of the office boys working for the largest newspaper in the country. He heard that tonight an article will be published in the Evening Prophet about your new houseguest. I don't know exactly what they will print but what he told me sounded like it was far beyond the normal boundaries of privacy. I was about to search for information into making them stopping that article from getting out, but I'm afraid I have very little help to offer you."

Arthur took a second to take it all in.

Then, he thanked Maurice with a simple "Thank you," and adamantly walked to the fireplace to contact Minerva McGonagall and if they couldn't help, he would go straight to Professor Dumbledore. Arthur knew they had been working on a gag order and he was going to need it sooner rather than later.

Hi everyone,

Like promised another chapter! I hope you have enjoyed it :)

Love,

Aimee