HP belongs to JKR.

Maximus! Original idea and first 25 chapters written by padfootsrevenger… story adopted by me. I hope to do it justice! Or at least continue making it an interesting read…

They still had a couple of weeks left of the Christmas break. Dorian and Jasmine were ecstatic at the chance to spend the time in the castle. Dorian had become quite attached to Leevi and Jasmine to Christelle—so much so that the twins were pressed to find some time alone to work on their other plans. Dumbledore had put up the Potters, Sirius, and Remus in a set of connected rooms near the Gryffindor tower while the children stayed in their rooms in the tower.

"Leevi."

"Christelle?" Leevi opened his eyes, but the curtains around his bed were still closed. He tugged them open and felt the bed shift as a disillusioned Christelle climbed into the bed beside him. She dropped the charm and put up some silencing charms.

"We need to talk."

"Tempus". Five a.m. Ugh. "Why can't it wait until a more reasonable time?" he grumbled.

"Because we're surrounded by everyone else when it's a reasonable time." Christelle huffed. "We need to reinstate the DA."

"I know, but we've been working on so many things right now—"

"We can't wait. Quirrel is back, Snape's after the stone, and Neville… Neville isn't ready Harry, he doesn't have your drive, he doesn't… he's not a leader. Never was."

Leevi looked at her curiously. "I'm not the Boy Who Lived here Christelle, and I don't want to be. That's Neville's job. I'll help and goodness knows the wizarding world was a mess even without Voldemort, but I don't want to go through all that again."

Christelle's eyes got a far away look. "A Maximus is not a Potter."

"Well—"

"But he's still a Maximus."

He glared at her half-heartedly. "Right. And I'm not going to let Voldie run all over Neville either. We'll get things squared away with the goblins before the term starts and then pick up the pace on the training, okay?"

She nodded. "We need to train too. I've watched your memories of the transfiguration classes with McGonagall. I want to try some. Come on."

"What, now?" Leevi's shoulders slumped. "Aww.."

"Come on, lazy." Christelle smiled at him. "If we go now we'll have a good two hours before anyone else thinks to check on us, and we can sneak in a half hour of dueling."

Leevi's eyes sparkled and he smirked. "I'm gonna getcha sis."

Christelle just laughed and threw a pillow at him. "Hurry up then, you twit."

ooOOoo

The Great Hall was decorated beautifully for the Christmas holidays. While the adults sat together at the head table, the children gathered around a single long table as their numbers were low enough that scattering themselves over the four house tables would have been quite inappropriate to the holiday cheer.

Harry, Leevi, Ron, and Neville walked in together, followed after a few minutes by Christelle and Jasmine. Not long after they started their breakfast, an owl flew in and hopped over to extend a letter to Leevi. He quickly took it off the owl's leg and put it in his robe after seeing the Gringott's seal. Christelle handed the owl some sausage while the owl preened its feathers. It absently took the sausage from her fingers, bobbed its head and left.

"What's that?" Harry asked.

"Nothing important." Christelle answered mildly. "Hey, you guys want to go flying today? I bet Dorian and Jasmine would like a nice visit of the grounds—we haven't even taken them to the lake yet!"

Ron smiled at the idea of flying. "Say yeah! As long as it's not too cold out."

"We'll be fine—remember, we already got all our winter stuff!" Harry added, letter forgotten. After all, his cousins getting mail really wasn't that surprising an occurrence anymore.

Leevi smiled at how easy it was to sidetrack the boys. He'd slip the letter to Christelle later and knowing her, she'd beg off after a while and go somewhere to read and answer it. No one would notice.

But Albus Dumbledore noticed. And Remus Lupin, despite still recovering, noticed him noticing.

ooOOoo

Christelle walked purposefully to the girl's dorm room as she shed her wet gloves. She could still hear the boys whooping and edging each other on as they raced on brooms outside. While Dorian and Jasmine weren't allowed to race, they seemed quite excited to be outside watching. And throwing snowballs that the racers had to dodge. They did seem so much happier here than they were at the Potter's manor.

Lord Maximus and Lady Aranea,

I am pleased to inform you that a few buildings have become available in Wales for a secondary location for your enterprise. Details are below. Raxiel will be available to guide you whenever you choose to see them. Primary location has been outfitted as requested. The following members on your list are the only ones that we have not been able to locate. I await your presence on January 3rd

May your business be profitable,

Lord Rianak

Christelle read the descriptions of the three buildings Rianak had managed to find. They all seemed suitable for their purposes, although one that was previously an orphanage and had easy access to a nice forest behind it could be exceedingly helpful. She quickly wrote a reply and sent it off with Hedwig. They would need a plan to leave for most of the day to see the locations and once again on the 3rd for the interviews. It was time to put their plan into action. Her smile only faded when she looked at the list of people the goblins had not been able to locate. The Lovegoods were on that list.

ooOOoo

The next day was Christmas and everyone cheerfully exchanged gifts by the grand tree in the Great Hall. Lily looked at the children who were, for the most part, gleefully bunching up the wrapping paper and throwing them at each other. For the most part. Her heart gave a little lurch as she watched the two newest members of her family. Leevi looked all right, if a bit subdued but Christelle—Christelle didn't seem to be fully there today and her brother hung over her protectively.

"James, look at them. They should be laughing with the kids…"

"I wonder what's bothering them." James said thoughtfully, as he latched the clasp of the bracelet he had bought his wife around her delicate wrist. She smiled and gave him a little peck on the cheek. "They seemed quite all right yesterday."

"Well, I'm going to join in!" Sirius said smiling, raining a bunch of confetti on the children as he moved towards them from the head table.

Remus shook his head and gave a little smile. "He's just like them, isn't he?" The Potters smiled at him knowingly until his smile faded. "You know, this might be their first Christmas without their parents." Lilly clutched James's arm and looked worriedly at the children, but Sirius seemed to have taken care of the problem temporarily, as he had made sure to target both of the Maximus children with silly string and a tickling charm.

After the adults finally decided to intervene and banish the mess in the Great Hall, they all adjourned to the Gryffindor Common Room where Lilly and Sirius took turns reading stories to the children as was tradition in the Potter home.

"Hey, you okay?" Leevi whispered.

Christelle nodded, absently petting Damon and then reaching over to tickle Melton under the chin where he was wound on Leevi's arm. The snake hissed appreciatively.

"It's not just an act, is it?" He asked quietly. She shook her head, and he silently put an arm comfortingly around her shoulders as she leaned in. "I'm here, and I'll always be here for you." She nodded.

Neville scooted over and sat silently to her other side, not understanding but wanting to offer comfort. Ron and Harry were quite oblivious, being completely engrossed in the story. Dorien and Jasmine giggled and gasped and clapped accordingly as Sirius made faces and Lilly read.

Christelle sighed. It was just too much coincidence really, that the anniversary of her mother's accident and her father's death at the hand of Death Eaters were within a week of each other and had happened during the holidays. She hadn't dwelt on her father's passing much before, mostly because of the war and in the excitement of finding a new family and Rianak's letter, hadn't been prepared for the backlash of sorrow. Well, at least it coincided with their need to travel to Gringotts the next day.

"Can I take a nap in your room?" she asked Leevi.

"Are you all right, Christille?" Neville asked softly, laying a hand on the small of her back softly. She gave him a smile and nodded, as Leevi helped her up from the floor.

"You want me to stay with you?" he asked softly. She nodded and looked into his eyes. Her friend. He was the only one who knew the possible reason why she was feeling such melancholy and yet—he was here with a surrogate version of his family.

Sirius looked up as the Leevi and Christille moved off. His eyes riveted to Neville, who moved forward to join the other children. "They wanted to rest before dinner." He explained softly. Lilly and Sirius gave each other a look before he softly continued the story and she walked up the stairs after the twins.

Lilly found them sitting on Leevi's bed, Christelle's eyes closed and head against his shoulder.

"Leevi? Christelle?"

"Hi Aunt Lilly." Christelle opened her eyes. Lilly's brow furrowed at the almost glazed look in the girl's eyes.

"I understand this may be a hard time for you two," she said as she sat at the edge of the bed, one hand reaching out to squeeze the young girl's hands. She looked over at Leevi who matched her gaze directly. "But I wanted you to know that we're very happy to have you as part of our family and would do anything for you to be happy, especially during the holidays." Leevi nodded, and she smiled. "Let us know if you need anything." She stood up to leave, feeling that the twins needed their time together.

"Aunt Lilly?"

"Yes?" she turned around to see Christelle's eyes opened again. "Do you think Leevi and I could make a trip to Gringott's tomorrow? To look at some of the things our parents left for us in the vault?"

Lilly smiled softly and felt as if someone had a hand clenched around her heart. The poor dears. "Of course. One of us will accompany you, at least to Gringotts." Probably herself. The guys might not want to leave the children by themselves in the vault, but they would need to privacy. Well, maybe Remus would, but he really needed to keep resting.

Christelle nodded and put her head back on Leevi's shoulder. He, in turn smiled at Lilly and thanked her softly.

"Christelle?" he asked softly after his mom had left the room. He put up some silencing wards. "Luna?"

"I miss him."

"I know."

Silence.

"We don't have to do it tomorrow, you know." He said softly.

"I want to. I'll be doing something for them, in a way." She paused. "I just wish I could find them here, or at least know what happened."

Leevi just hugged her hard, putting his chin over her bowed head. They hadn't had time to mourn for individuals, the massacre of the war had been so immense. He realized that he'd been overlooking her with all the plans they had made, but vowed to never do that again. After all, they were bound by more than even the blood from the ritual. They were the only ones here from their world.

ooOOoo

"My dear boy, are you sure you can handle the DADA class? Poppy says there will most probably be repercussions from the Christmas Charity Party incident and I don't want to add teaching to your troubles." Albus frowned.

"Albus, I appreciate your concern but truly, I should be fine by the time classes start. I'll modify some of the upper years's curricula so they are a little less strenuous on me and both James and Sirius have offered to help. It'll be good for them to see some Aurors at work anyhow." Remus smiled and answered easily. Something was bothering the twins and he wasn't going to budge.

"Well, Quirinus here can also help once in a while—I'm sure he has some tales from Romania that would be acceptable for the DADA curriculum."

"Ye-ss, uh, st-tt-ories th-th-that wo-ould d-dd-definitely be of-f the r-right-t ca-c-caliber."

"And of course, you are welcome to stay as long as you wish." Albus said kindly.

"Thank you." Remus said, getting to his feet. He held out his hand to shake Quirinus's. The other man's firm grip wasn't quite in line with his mannerism, but Remus put it out of his mind as he turned to Albus. "I'll be in my rooms then."

ooOOoo

"Lord Maximus, Lady Aranea, welcome to Gringotts." Raxiel smiled widely at the siblings as they walked up the counter. "May your gold flow and the stars smile upon you."

"Likewise, dear Raxiel." Christelle answered, smiling. Leevi turned around to see Lilly and James leaving the bank.

"This way, please." Raxiel didn't waste time to lead them to a back room where Lord Rianak was already waiting.

"Lord Rianak, may your business be most profitable." Leevi greeted courteously.

The elder goblin nodded and smiled. "Likewise, young Lord Maximus. I have here a few things that may be of your interest."

"Vanishing cabinets!" Christelle whispered excitedly, walking up and putting a reverent hand on them. "You actually found some!"

"Yes," Rianak said smugly. "Raxiel had a lot to do with it as a young goblin with many friends. He has offered to place them in the locations of your enterprise."

"That is quite wonderful." Christelle answered, nodding at Raxiel appreciatively. The young goblin straightened his shoulders and nodded gravely.

Leevi and Christelle followed Raxiel through the first set of doors into the first of three places. After looking at the different locations, they decided on the orphanage with access to the woods as Christelle had predicted. As she ventured into the forest itself, Leevi returned to Gringotts to speak with Rianak about the heads of departments to interview, as some of them had been able to answer the summons early. He was most interested in setting up the potions department as soon as possible and have them making wolfsbane before the weeks end.

Meanwhile, Christelle walked quietly into the woods. It was quite different from the Forbidden Forest on the Hogwarts grounds, but there was something else she had been looking for. She picked some flowers and transfigured them into small translucent beads. She held them in her hands and whispered to the empty forest.

"They have kept you away. And we're here to bring these two strands together. Feel free to spread the word." Slowly, the beads in her hands began to disappear. Some of them reappeared to glitter in her hair, but most of them zipped through the air to different parts of the forest and jumped to other areas as invisible beings gave them wings. Christelle smiled as she took the last three and let them float along the current of a small brook. They had ignored the possibility of help from the friends that only a few could see in the last war, but not in this one. She'd noticed that they had been banished from London when they'd arrived, even from Hogwarts although that hadn't been the case last time. This patch of woods was the last refuge where she'd found them in one of the last struggles of the war. This time, they would be recruited to their side.

ooOOoo

The new term had started without a hitch. Griffin Inceptum, the new research and development facility, had opened its doors the first week of January, one location in London staffed with potion masters, researchers and developers of charms, counter curses, and hexes, while a second location in Wales was slowly being staffed with select potion and charm masters interested in studying with vampires and werewolves, finding ways for the different species to interact. These were handpicked by the goblins and interviewed directly with Leevi under the disguise of Altair Roderick, and were the basis for cooperative relations between the different societies. Interestingly, the muggles that were recruited were also positioned here while the wizards in the London facility provided services to the wizarding community and a façade for the Ministry of Magic.

Christelle brought some first year Hufflepuffs to join their morning work outs and lamented the Ravenclaws who would not give up time from their studies, but their group was growing slowly.

"I don't know what we'd do without the Room of Requirements." Leevi panted as he ducked a stunner from Christelle. They had asked for an old classroom setting to practice their dueling this time. He retaliated with a cutting curse which Christelle avoided by jumping up onto a desk and slammed on a shield as she sent a blasting curse his way as she dove off in search of a less vulnerable area.

"It is quite helpful to have an area for ourselves." She answered softly as she rolled behind another desk. A timer went off.

"Aww, but this is so much more fun than transfiguration." Leevi groused as he stepped out and the room began to change to a nice open space.

Christelle ignored his whining, she'd heard it plenty of times since they had set up a schedule for their own training. "I think we should try to transfigure our hands into one of our animagus parts."

"Really?" Leevi's head perked up. "Do you think we're ready?"

"We're certainly past transfiguring other things." She said as she plopped down on some pillows the room had kindly offered her. She stared at her left hand as she went through the steps in her head.

"Do you think Remus took the Wolfsbane?" she asked softly as Leevi settled down to do the same.

"I don't know, Snape seemed really interested in those vials yesterday morning."

"I know, I just hope Uncle Remus is smart enough to not hand them over to him for testing."

"I hadn't thought of that." Leevi frowned. "You think they still use the Shrieking Shack?"

"Maybe. At least we know the werewolves at the Griffin Inceptum are taking it and can gauge our success at reformulating the potion." Christelle said, pouting.

"Yeah, but we won't hear from them until next week." Leevi sighed, then waved a furry paw at Christelle. "Look! I got it!"

"Hmmph." Christelle looked at her left hand which was still definitely a hand. "I think I've been concentrating on the wrong area."

"Huh?"

Christelle shifted her position on the pillows to give him a better look. A reddish brown tail thumped happily on the floor as Leevi clutched his stomach in laughter, his paw once more a hand.

ooOOoo

"They're dark creatures, Dumbledore. I don't want them having the ability to think and plan their attacks on the good citizens under the protection of the British Ministry of Magic!" Fudge sputtered.

"But my dear Minister Fudge," the elderly wizard soothingly replied. "If they have the ability to think, we can give them incentives to not attack anyone."

"I don't like it—giving them too much freedom, too much power, I say. How can we protect ourselves from them?"

"I am more interested in learning more about those that have made this discovery."

"The Griffin Inceptum? Dumbledore, all their paperwork is in order. Some chap from the Americas came by and wanted to expand his branch of business here. Got everything filed—everything—and you know how many forms we require. There's nothing out of place, we have no plausible reason to investigate them."

"No wrongdoings in the administrative part, but is their business really good for our good citizens?" Dumbledore asked subtly. "Is the research they are fostering the right kind of research?"

"Hmm." Fudge didn't notice Dumbledore's sudden change of stance. The old wizard's questions stroke a cord with his own qualms for they were helping dark creatures after all! "I'm sure a small visit by some aurors would not go amiss."

Dumbledore left the minister's office after a few more minutes of light conversation and tea. He needed to know what might influence these loyalties and in which way. Voldemort wasn't going to stay quiet forever, and an unknown factor had arisen where there had been none before. The Light side might need the brute strength of werewolves when the final battle came, and he needed to be able to direct that force. The Wolfsbane was a godsend, but still a new power that needed someone to direct it.

ooOOoo

The weeks went by. Remus had spoken with Sirius, James, and Lilly about the experimental potion from the new company in London, but had decided to take it without alerting the headmaster or Snape.

"It just seems like breaking the company's confidences, it's their product after all." He'd said.

Lilly was worried about potential side effects, but they'd made a deal so she would be waiting in sight of the Whomping Willow. If there were problems and needed Poppy, James would run out in his animagus form and she would go in and get the mediwitch—otherwise, James and Sirius would stay with Remus as they always had been.

They'd sat together at the Shrieking Shack, Prongs wandering outside to make sure no one was nearby while Padfoot kept Remus company as the moon came up.

Petting his friend's head, Remus whispered softly. "I really hope this works." Padfoot whined in tandem.

The moon rose, and the transformation began. It was faster than any previous ones and Padfoot cautiously sniffed Moony. The scent was distinctly that of the wolf, but the traces of Remus were far stronger than they'd ever been. Usually this was when things got a little violent until they got outside and ran in the Forbidden forest. This time, Moony simply licked his nose, walked sedately to the door and pawed it open. Soon, Prongs joined them and they ran briskly into the forest.

Sitting in the infirmary after the moon descended, he spoke softly to his fellow Marauders.

"That potion is one of the best things that has happened to me."

Sirius smiled at his friend. "You were much more fun to have around too, Moony."

"Moony was a lot more accepting of me this time around also." Remus said contemplatively. I wonder if it was due to the Wolfsbane or to our interactions last time when we got poisoned?

"I'm glad it all worked out. And we don't have to tell Snivellus about it!" James yawned. "okay, don't know about you guys but I got an early morning tomorrow… meeting with Bones. Apparently the minister wants us to check out this new Griffin Inceptum since all its paperwork is in order. I don't think he likes the products they're coming out with."

Remus frowned. "Well, I'm certainly going to support this Wolfsbane." The others nodded.

"I think the Black family might donate some to their efforts." Sirius smiled crookedly. "I haven't had that much fun running with you in years."

"Yeah, I'll try to figure out what's got the minister all tied up in knots. Maybe Albus'll know something too."

"Ever find out anything else about that adoption he wanted to do?" Remus asked.

"Nope. He's apparently dropped it since before the winter holidays. I don't know what he was thinking but at least he's leaving the kids alone now." James frowned. "He's been visiting the minister an awful lot though."

"Hmm." Remus muttered as Sirius yawned. Poppy walked in briskly, shaking her head at them.

"All right young men, we know Mr. Lupin is fine and all of you need rest, so scoot! Out of my infirmary!"

Remus sighed as he looked at the potion vials he had just received. The full moon was a couple of weeks away again, and he was glad to have these to help him. He wondered if he was going to be able to afford it after it moved from the experimental trials into the market. He sure hoped so.

ooOOoo

AN: What do you think? Please review! Would love to hear your thoughts.