AN – omg…. Sorry for the long wait… I had part of this typed up and I was so excited to start writing for Nano… and then I had an accident. I can't blame it on the snow and ice, but I fell, and literally dented my skull on the asphalt and gave myself a concussion….. still doing a bit of healing, and words aren't coming as quick…. But I am gonna try my best to get this rolling again. Though it is going to be slow, I have some memory issues from it, but that will get better…. On the plus side of this I am sure I looked comical as I went down, since my shoes went flying off in different direction…. Also I must say since this is my 1st time ever needing to go to the ER for myself, and I am 38… we will call this a win :) I will continue to stay as positive about it as I can, and thanks for all the reviews as I was unable to write, really made me keep trying.

Next chapter will end the prologue of the 'game' and the whole thing will hopefully move itself along as I write. Yes there will be more game stuff after the prologue is done. Let's be honest most game prologues are all about the controls and the story setup, so now the real fun can start! So next chapter will be the train and the trails starting, and if I don't get too wordy and such it should have the sorting and feast as well….. but I am not going to push myself too much, still have some healing to do.

Thanks for hanging in there with me!

August 31st 1991

4:00pm Ministry holding cells, secure wing

"Just so, we will run a full check on each of them," Healer Clara said looking at the stern Amelia Bones. "Dezzi and I must be back to the school before the students arrive since we have taken up the post in their hospital wing."

"I understand," the monocled woman nodded as she looked out at the skin and bones that were once people, and now heavily sedated, but still chained to their cots.

"Also, you should know that the two of us have now taken the beginnings of the muggle classes on spotting child abuse. The Grangers got us into a class this past month on short notice. So expect reports from us fairly regularly. It may also behoove you, after all of this is over, of course, to try and see if we can get some of your more trusted Aurors trained in dealing with abused children." She glanced out at the people who would need care before the trials began in the morning, "I will get you that paperwork in a few weeks. I think we might have some fallout after this. No one really cares what happens to those in the maximum security wing, but I think once they see it in the paper, there may be a new outcry about how we treat our own."

"I know, and I am expecting that, but the minister is not. I sugar coated everything else I could think of, but once the guilty is passed no one cares anymore, and if it turns out that an innocent man had been sent there to suffer in this way," she looked at the woman beside her, "there will be an outcry. How could a pure-blood be sent without a trial, how could anyone let this happen, on and on it will go. I'm very interested in how well our dear minister is going to follow the dance instructions I gave him. True it will make him look good, but it will mean my teams will also get more funding as I will bring up how strapped for people we are and that may be one reason reports were filed so poorly back then. Also that better training may help ensure this as well, oh yes that budget meeting will be in my pocket this year," she smiled grimly as she looked out once more and her eyes landed on Bellatrix Lestrange.

The two woman stood and watched as Dezzi was carefully watching the health history of the mad woman.

"Clara! Amy! We have a BIG problem!" she called out, even though the quill was still writing the young woman could not believe what she was reading on the scroll before her. The two older women looked at one another and then raced towards the girl to see what might cause the younger woman to almost panic.

Meanwhile at the Granger home:

"Mom! What did you do with my Latin Primer?" Hermione called from the second floor landing.

"Check under your pillow!" Her mother called back from the kitchen chuckling.

"Is she like this before holiday as well?" Dudley asked from his seat at the dining table.

"Always," Emma said with a big grin. "This is her last minute panic packing, a Granger tradition that she gets from her father. Once she has her dinner, she will go back upstairs, unpack everything and go over her checklist once more as she repacks the entire thing. Then she will lock it up and bring it down next to the two of yours, and that will be the end of it."

"So that's why you had us do a checklist yesterday? So that she could start this and run herself out before bed?" Harry questioned.

"Right in one. She did the check then, but she is always worried that she will leave something important behind. Even though we can always ask Amelia to get it to the three of you if you did, Hermione is a stickler for trying to make sure she doesn't have to ask. I think she said it best last year to me when she called it her, 'learning to be independent-thing.' In other words she is practicing now for being a responsible adult, and I have not got the heart to break it to her that even the best of us forget things and act foolish at times."

"Ah, okay then," Harry said and then looked at the cover of his cousin's book. "Anything interesting in that book. Magical Beasts and Where to Find Them?"

"Yeah! I never knew that these things were all around me, and all over the globe. Not sure what I want to be when I get out of school now. I think I might work with magical creatures, seems really fun, and sometimes dangerous." Dudley was barely able to contain his excitement at the prospect.

"It would be really neat to see some of them up close," Harry said wondering if he had gotten close to any in the previous go. With a shiver he felt all the hairs on his neck and arms raise up.

Intuition Alert – Danger Harry Potter! Danger! - You have in fact have been close up with a great many in your last life. Not all of the situations were good. This has been a triggered message from trying to recall something you have not yet viewed but have lived through. Your Intuition skill has raised a point! Congrats!

'Well that is a good thing,' he thought to himself. 'So I have been around them, which means Hermione and Dudley will as well. I already know about the troll, but with luck we have caused enough of a ripple that it wont happen at all.'

Soon enough Hermione came down chewing her bottom lip as if trying so hard to remember if she had missed anything in her tenth time packing.

"I think, this time, I have everything," she said as she slumped into her chair at the table.

"Food, because now it is time for dinner, and you last round of potions," Emma said as she brought the plates to the table for the kids.

"Where's Dad?"

"Oh he had to make a stop on his way home from the office," she told her daughter. "You three take your potions and eat up. I'm going to wait to eat."

"I can't believe I am actually excited about school," Dudley said as he began to cut the pork chop on his plate.

"This is all going to be so different for the three of you, but I am very glad that all three of you are excited. Just remember to look out and help one another. I'd hate for Amelia to have to show up there because the three of you got into some kind of trouble," Emma stated seriously to them. Thankfully all three swore that they would do their best at helping each other and try to keep all trouble to a minimum.

Later that night one the kids had gone to bed, Dan and Emma retired to the study and closed the door.

"Well?" she asked nervously.

"Well," Dan echoed as he sat in a chair, "I got the information. We have good news, and bad news. So stop pacing and sit down love."

"Sorry it's just the fact that we have been waiting for their hearing for so long it seems," she sat on the chair opposite her husband and leaned forwards. "Now spill, so I can get rid of my anxiety about all of this."

"Right," he cleared his throat. "Vernon is going to jail for quite the long time. Seems when his lawyer went there to get a character witness for him several people came to the police and filed charges against him. So that ended all paternal rights on Dudley, and it seems neither of them had any papers filed in order to have legal custody of Harry. That however gets even better news, but first Petunia." He paused and took a deep breath obviously choosing his words carefully. "Here is the somewhat bad news, she is not serving jail time."

"What?" Emma was aghast.

"I know, I had a fit when I found out as well, however she turned over evidence against her husband and against Marge, his sister. That got her off with probation, and a hefty set of rules to follow. She will be having counseling, anger management, job training, and will have to take the classes we did for fostering, however she will be doing them with a separate group of women who all want to get their children back. Seems they are trying a new approach to try and get the women to see that not only they can have hope, but even change themselves to be a better parent for their child.

"Now dependent on how she does while the kids are away at school she might have supervised visitation with Dudley, but not Harry. That time will have one of us, and the caseworker there, but again that is only if she manages to get through everything. There is also the fact that Amelia will have to go talk to her about her son being a wizard, and how she might react to that and just give up her rights."

"So when should we tell the kids?"

"Frankly I know we don't like hiding things, but I would rather wait this one out. Let her get back to the house and settled, and see what happens when Amelia talks to her. If we tell Dud that there is hope for his mum only to have her give up her rights, well," he let the end hang there unsaid.

"Yeah, that is a good point. Frankly I hope she does give up her rights to him, since he has been with us he seems to have come out of his shell, and shed that weight. In fact both he and Harry barely look like the two kids we brought home. Even Hermione has changed a bit, and she almost glows when she talks about magic and school," she smiled happily. "I will miss the three of them when they are gone, but at least we will the holiday together."

"That we will love, that we will. Now onto other great news," he said with a grin. "Seems that Lily Potter decided that they should keep a written version of their will, all the formal stuff that is, in the non-magical world. When it was brought up in court they had someone run to find the solicitor for the Potter and Evans families, and lo and behold were able to find the will.

"Now when I said I was the foster father for Harry, they started talking to me about how we would have to give the boy up to his legal guardian, when they fine one of them. I gave them the number of the squib caseworker who we have been dealing with, and that is what took so long. I called her after I left and I knew they were done talking with her. Harry will stay with us, and the cover is that they are going to hunt down each of the people on the list and interview them with foster standards since he has been through so much trauma already. So he will be staying with us, and Dudley as well unless that harpy of his mother can get herself straightened out and not see her own son as a, well, you know," he said with a shake of his head.

"Well then I will plan on all three of them home for Christmas," she nodded. "If that woman wants time with him, then I will go, with Amelia to do the supervised visit."

"Amelia is going to have to talk to Mrs. Dursley within the next week or two. I know she has something big happening tomorrow, but she has been keeping it very hush hush."

"Yes, well we best get some sleep, the train leaves at eleven sharp, but she wants to get the kids there about nine. We can stay and linger for a while, but as there are sure to be other students showing up early we shouldn't stay too long, leave the kids to make new friends and find a good spot on the train."