-Chapter One-

A soft torch light encompassed the entire room. It was a primarily barren room, the only furniture being a wooden table with a chair on either side and a large fireplace at the end of the room. Two men were currently seated at the table, a piece of parchment laid between them.

"Are you sure Lil won't go mental that we're doing this Prongsy?"

"I doubt that she will, we have to make sure that Harry's looked after even when we're gone Padfoot."

"Alright then, let's get started."

"So, who goes first? I've never really been privvy to one of these before," James asked Sirius.

"The younger of the two families usually, which in this case is mine. The Potters are linked to the Peverells' who are one of the original magical lines after the founders."

The longer-haired man took a deep, steadying breath. His wand drawing through the air to slice the skin on the underside of his finger open, "I, Sirius Orion Black hereby pledge my bloodline and heritage to house Potter through marriage between the next most suitable heir to the line and the sisters three upon the event of the death of the Lord Potter. The group must be wed upon the date of the eligible heir's sixteenth birthday or the usual rules shall come to be, on my magic so mote it be."

Sirius flexed his finger downward, allowing for a droplet of blood to fall from his flesh, soar downward and collide with the parchment beneath them on the table.

"It's that simple?"

"James! HURRY UP BEFORE THE TIMER RUNS OUT, WE'RE ON A SCHEDULE BEFORE I LOSE MY MAGIC!"

Panicking, James quickly used the spell to make an incision in his finger as well, "I, James Hadrian Potter hereby pledge my bloodline and heritage to house Black through marriage between the sisters three and the next most suitable heir to my line upon the event of my death. The group must be wed upon the date of the eligible heir's sixteenth birthday or the usual rules shall come to be, on my magic so mote it be."

James dropped his blood onto the parchment as well, causing the artefact to begin shimmering with bright, translucent golden light.

"Say James?" Sirius said as the parchment was doing its thing.

"Yeah?"

"I wasn't going to lose my magic if you took your time, I was just messing."

"I'm going to bloody murder you, Sirius."

Still smirking, Sirius crooked his head toward James, "the important thing is that the four of them will have a place in the world once it's all said and done."

"Why them though? I'm sure there is plenty of eligible candidates through Britain and even the rest of the world that will be better options for such a thing closer to Harry's age."

"They all live in secret unhappiness, the three of them…it is my hope that we can free them from it."

"But…Narcissa is married with a child?"

"I know this, but…they will accept it in time, the marriage between Lucius and Narcissa is one without love, it is my hope that this will fix that…unless ultimately they divorce before that point. Hopefully, we will have a chance to prepare them for this, especially Harry."

"The best situation that we can hope for is that we survive through this and it never becomes reality. As powerful as those witches are, the do have a certain lure towards the dark side."

"It's a risk we have to take for Harry's protection, Prongsy."

"I hope you know what you're doing, Padfoot."

x-x-x-x-x

"We'll hold him off Harry, but we can only hold him off for a few moments, you must return to the Portkey."

Harry had reacted quicker than he thought possible, the fourteen year old rushed across the cemetery, clutched the whimpering Peter Pettigrew, before pointing his wand, "Accio Cedric! Accio Cup!"

Somehow, he'd managed to capture both the fallen boy who had given his life tonight and the criminal who'd fed his parents to Voldemort when he was merely an infant.

"Harry!" Dumbledore exclaimed, rushing down the steps, with Professor Mcgonnagall and Cornelius Fudge in close pursuit.

"Voldemort…Voldemort's back," Harry choked out through harsh sobs, "Cedric…asked for me to return his body."

"THAT'S MY BOY!" Amos roared, charging down through the steps and onto the grass to clutch his son's body.

"Harry, you have been through a great ordeal tonight but this is not the time nor the place to discuss it. Wait…Harry, is that?"

Harry rose to his feet, tossing the whimpering form of Pettigrew at Fudge's feet, "This is Peter Pettigrew, you'll find the other parts of him not in the box sent to his mother here. Pettigrew framed Sirius Black for the death of the thirteen muggles and my parents thirteen years ago."

Two emerald orbs snapped open, it'd seemed like months since Harry had dropped the body of Peter Pettigrew at the feet of the minister, Sirius Black had been invited for a full trial in the following days, but for some reason, Harry'd not heard anything regarding the result of the trial in question just yet. To be quite honest…Harry hadn't really been told much of anything from anyone, not even Ron or Hermione. It was concerning on a multitude of levels…levels that Harry wasn't sure he was comfortable with even being the first one to broach. For now, the only thing he could do was to bite his tongue…and hope to Merlin that someone came to collect him from the Dursleys and soon.

Lying atop the loose floorboard in Harry's bedroom lay a crumpled copy of the daily prophet but the front page was still barely visible:

THE RETURN OF HE WHO MUST NOT BE NAMED:

June 24th 1995 was to be the final task of the Tri-Wizard tournament, for one wizard to rise above three other champions to claim their eternal glory. The four champions: Cedric Diggory, Fleur Delacour, Acclaimed Bulgarian Seeker Viktor Krum and The-boy-who-lived Harry Potter all entered the maze, which was to be the final task of the tournament. During the process of the task champions Cedric Diggory and Harry Potter were transported via Portkey into the Cemetery of the village of Little Hangleton where Cedric Diggory was murdered by the long thought deceased Peter Pettigrew and Voldemort was subsequently returned to life.

Harry Potter managed to escape the graveyard with his life, the body of Cedric Diggory and Peter Pettigrew. This came as a shock to Ministry officials since Pettigrew was deemed to have been killed thirteen years ago by one Sirius Black along with thirteen muggles on the same street. Under questioning by Veritaserum, Pettigrew revealed that it'd been he and not, in fact, Sirius Black who had been the Potters secret keeper that night when He-who-must-not-be-named raided the Potter home on Halloween night of 1981.

Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge has since reached out to Mr. Black and offered him a real trial, which Sirius Black was actually denied thirteen years ago from the word of Bartemius Crouch, the former head of the Department of Law Enforcement, who was demoted to the Head of International Magical Co-Operation due to some unforeseen circumstances.

No word yet on whether Mr. Black has responded to the Minister's offer.

A soft screeching sound suddenly caressed Harry's eardrum, he turned his attention to the metallic cage rested atop his drawers which contained his second friend in the entire magical world, his snowy owl, Hedwig.

"I'm sorry," he beseeched her, looking at the pitiful food that she'd been given, "I'd give you better food if I could, but it's too risky to let you outside during the day, if Uncle Vernon gets wind of what I'm doing it won't be pretty."

A much softer hoot escaped the owl's beak and Harry was able to breathe a sigh of relief. The last thing he wanted was for her to have to eat such meagre meals, but since it was mainly smaller portions of his already small dividend, he didn't really have much choice in the matter.

x-x-x-x

"To hell with that, Albus. He's told me on multiple occasions how those people treat him and now that I'm a free man, blood wards or not. Harry's not staying with them any longer. Grimmauld Place, albeit a bit more medieval than the kind of setting he'd be used to in Muggle London is a far better place for Harry. At least I can guarantee that he won't be treated horribly around me! Especially considering that in four years of being his Education Provider that you haven't noticed how bloody malnourished the kid is!"

"Despite…"

"I don't want to hear the excuses Albus, I'm going to collect Harry from that god-forsaken house if it is the last thing that I do. What better place for Harry than under the watchful guidance of the Order? I mean that was going to be the base for it, wasn't it?"

"It was, but I've managed to find somewhere more secluded that we can operate more as an Order…rather than a business. No offense, Sirius."

"None taken, the house does have that feel. I hate it, but if it's the safest place for my godson, then I'm willing to look past all of that. It's fidelius charm is ancient, it only passed to me since I'm the last living male heir of the Black Family. Please."

"Sirius," Dumbledore sighed, "Alright, you can take him…but not alone. I'll send Alastor and Kingsley with you just in case anything untoward happens."

"Thanks but it won't be necessary, I'll be able to move less obviously on my own, even if it takes me a little longer."

Dumbledore sighed again, "We can't be too careful."

"I know, trust me."

x-x-x-x

"My…My dark mark is gone?" Bellatrix looked down at her wrist in shock, the dishevelled woman rose up to her full height, slowly traipsing her bony fingertips down the surface of the pole in her prison cell as if it were something out of some horrific dream that she would never be able to wake up from, "Azkaban…did he really control me that much…?"

"Mrs Lestrange?"

"It's Ms. Black," Bellatrix answered haughtily, "I was wed under the imperious curse, it no longer applies to me."

"I hoped you'd say that," the voice said, the air of it was so familiar to Bellatrix, it was one voice that before everything had gone downhill that she'd adored hearing, before the Imperious curse, Bella and Sirius had been extremely close.

"What're you doing here, Siri?"

"I've come to take you away from this godforsaken place, don't worry your release and divorce papers have been settled with the Minister, which didn't take much since trying to marry someone while they're under influence of the imperious curse is actually illegal. I didn't know this up until recently either."

"Why are you bailing me out?"

"Because, I have reason to believe that it's time the Blacks returned to power along with the last remaining Potter. Harry is far below the power level that someone of his blood should be at his age and its all because of the abuse that he's been suffering through."

"The Potter boy didn't grow up as a pampered little brat?"

"I feel as though Dumbledore is trying to manipulate his situation so that Harry has nothing to live for except defeating Voldemort when the time comes."

"And this involves me…how?"

"Well, James and I actually foresaw Dumbledore turning into a manipulative old bastard…well even more of one than he was at the times that we all knew him best. We couldn't trust him to not try and completely take control of Harry's life so we did up a betrothal contract between him and three witches that we knew would be able to prepare him for war, while also making sure that he was protected from Dumbledore's manipulation."