l

Harry awoke slowly, he found himself lying on a couch in the drawing room. Sitting across from the couch were two chairs, one of which contained Remus, sleeping awkwardly. Harry grinned, Remus was probably not going to leave his side until he awoke, but Sirius, having gone through the ritual himself, most likely was sleeping in his own bed. Harry reached for his wand, having seen it on the end table, and cast a caterwauling charm. The charm designed to alert someone to an attack, emitted a very loud noise, like a muggle bomb siren.

Remus's reaction to the charm was different than what Harry expected. The teen was hoping for some theatrics as Remus's head shot up, maybe he would fall out of his chair, or tip it backwards. Instead, Remus clutched his wand, shot up from his sitting position, and surveyed the room, looking for attackers.

Harry had never seen him like this, it wasn't Moony, the marauder, nor was this his uncle. The man that stood before Harry was different, in charge, powerful. Remus's eyes fell on Harry and his wand at last, and the man smiled and chuckled.

"You scared me cub. I didn't know you knew that variant of the charm."

Sirius came barreling in through the doorframe, shirtless, and with his wand held out. He also was scanning for attackers, and not finding any he looked to Remus.

"The cub learned the charm, from the grimoire, I'd imagine. Lily never did put what the charm was used for exactly in the book."

Sirius let out a sigh of relief, confusing Harry. The raven haired teen blinked owlishly, he simply thought that it was a charm to make noise.

"Harry, that was a charm that Lily made for an emergency siren. The point is that if Death Eaters attacked, a witch or wizard would play the siren. It cuts through a great number of wards and the sound is picked up by the DMLE. A team of Aurors is then dispatched to the location it was played at. It won't make it through the wards here, so don't worry."

"After Hogwarts, I trained as a specialist in the DMLE. I wanted to be able to use my knowledge of the dark arts to help people. It's an ironic statement I know, but I was able to do a lot of good even during training. Lily was a spellcrafter, she made spells like that one to help the common person escape the death eaters. Prongs trained alongside me to be a specialist, and Mad-Eye Moody trained Moony. He knew what Moony was, but he said, and I quote, 'Regulations be damned, you're exactly what the Aurors need. Now, get your arse back on the track, you ran it a minute faster yesterday.'"

Remus laughed and pulled up the side of his shirt, revealing a purplish scar just above his left hip. "You don't make it out of training with Mad-Eye without any scars. He gave me this one in one of the craziest fights I've ever been in. He declared that I passed muster after I survived the fight."

Sirius's gaze darkened as he took in the scar on his friend's side. "In the two and a half years that Moony trained, the war raged. But he got out of training with Moody, and it was as if he was a man possessed. When Moody trains a person, he often doesn't teach how to take prisoners. It's a kill or be killed world in war, and we learned to kill."

The haunted expression in his godfather's face hurt Harry. The man was seeing the faces of the people he had killed, the faces of teenagers that bought into delusions of grandure. Sirius saw his brother's face on every death eater that was younger than he was, and they all haunted him.

"Pup, you have to realize, it looked like Voldemort would win for a long time. The only people who would attack him were the dwindling auror force, or the Order of the Phoenix, Dumbledore's private war brigade. We all were a part of it, all the marauders." Sirius hung his head, "Those were terrifying times. Men, women and children feared for their lives."

Remus put a hand on his friend's shoulder. "Come on, let's not talk about this now, we have to get Harry ready to make his gram, and we need to celebrate his successful ritual."

The following days found the marauders, including Harry, did very little actual work. Sirius had finally convinced the honorable werewolf to accept the fact that he wasn't going to get a decent job, and to live on the island with the others. Much of the day was spent on the beach, the boy and his uncles simply soaking up the sun's rays. They would spend time running on the beach, swimming, and simply living a life that was ripped from them as children.

Harry had finally sat down, to write a letter to Blaise, three days after receiving the Italian's reply.

Blaise Zabini

Firstly, thank you for simply responding to my letter. To address your first question, I mention Anthony Kingsdale because the man that killed him is currently sitting in Azkaban, directly across from the cell my godfather once inhabited. Sirius apparently had a friend in Azkaban, without even knowing it. Someone moved the killer next to Sirius, without any kind of orders or pretense.

I am grateful for the offer to buy tickets to the Quidditch World Cup, but I was already planning on going with the Weasleys.

Sirius is doing quite well, for a man that was in hell on Earth for over a decade. He is not fully healthy by any stretch, but he is not in any medical danger. I would be most grateful for any potions you could send to Remus, they would certainly be better than what we are brewing here.

What electives do you take in Hogwarts? I am planning on switching mine to Arithmacy and Runes, and I don't think that I've never seen you in Care or Divination. If you are in one or both of the ones I'm going into, could you tell me about how much you have studied? I don't want to think that I've gotten caught up and am only halfway through what you have done.

Since you asked about my Godfather, I feel it is only appropriate that I get to ask about your Mother. How is she? Sirius wants to know if she still takes two cubes of sugar in her tea. (Is that some sort of code? As odd as the man can be, that's a weird question to ask someone you haven't heard from in a decade and a half.)

I would appreciate it if you could tell me a thing or two about Daphne Greengrass. You were correct in your assumption that I reached out to you on the advice of Sirius, he also recommended her. When I wrote to you I could think of a couple ways to make us seem like equals, to be able to relate to you. I know nothing about Greengrass, or Davis for that matter. Any advice you could give would be incredibly welcome.

If you'd like, please just call me Harry.

Sincerely

Harry

P.S. If you send your owl to Remus he can add him to the wards. I would not recommend sending things like portkeys or enchanted items, the wards will cause them to detonate violently, but he could bring me letters instead of you having to use Hedwig.

Satisfied with his letter, Harry sent it out with Hedwig, along with a note to Molly Weasley to expect Harry on the twenty third.

Why aren't Hermione and Ron sending me letters? He thought as the white bird flew into the distance.

Blaise was sitting on his couch, although he was only fourteen and his mother technically owned all the furniture in the house, this one couch was his. It was a deep black color and soft enough that a person's body would sink down into it, but firm enough that they could get out easily. Its armrests and back were inlaid with gold and silver, the cushions were made of Acromantula silk, and the feet were ebony. It was a beautiful couch, and Blaise was the only person who ever sat on it. The couch was on the roof of their Venetian townhouse, a patio had been made on the peak. It was covered by a fine silk canopy, and provided shade to Blaise, while allowing the gentle breezes to pass through undeterred. It was on this couch that most of Blaise's decisions were made, and where he was allowed to think the most freely.

Harry Potter had written to Blaise again. Blaise wasn't sure why he was surprised; after all, Potter had been the one to write in the first place. Blaise was loathe to leave his couch with such a nice breeze, but he went to ask his mother about her tea anyway. The young Italian knew for a fact that his mother used one cube of sugar and a good amount of honey, but Potter, no, Harry, was right. The question seemed like a code. His mother was sitting on the deck once again, in broad view of the eastern hemisphere. Blaise had seen her there two hours previous when he had woken up, he assumed that she had watched the sunrise, and fallen back asleep. After gently shaking his mother awake, Blaise took a step back, and retrieved the Daily Prophet for her.

"Mama, Harry Potter wants to know if you still take your tea with two cubes of sugar."

Isabella looked confused for an instant, then realization dawned on her. "No, he doesn't. Sirius wants to know if I still take my tea that way. Back when we were dating, he would make my tea with sugar and honey first, then I would hex him, then he would make it with two cubes." Isabella smiled in fond remembrance. "To be honest, I started to like the way he made it just before your father took me from him. I've always made it with honey since. Sirius is asking to attempt to rebuild a relationship, in his own slightly infuriating way. It's what he does, he has an uncanny knack for remembering where you were in a conversation that happened months ago."

"What do you want me to say to him Mama?"

"Nothing. I'm going to write to him myself." Isabella Zabini smiled again, it reached her light golden eyes. Blaise found himself smiling right alongside his mother, if Sirius Black could make her this happy as a wanted fugitive, Blaise could just imagine how she would be if the two were truly together once again.

Blaise sat down at his desk, it was plain wood, like everything else in his room. And began to write, he tried to write several different things and ways, before he finally settled on simply writing as to a friend.

Harry

It was good to hear from you again, even if your letter pulled me from my favorite sitting spot. I am not sure why exactly, but I feel as though I can trust you. I'm going to get through the most difficult part first, Daphne Greengrass. Daphne is a very powerful, very cold person. I don't know what the politics of the Gryffindor house are, but in Slytherin, you put on a mask of cold indifference, or you lose credibility. Daphne is such a master of this mask she is called the Ice Queen. I don't know if it is taught to all purebloods, but many of us have a basic understanding of the mind arts. Daphne is possibly a true master, I'm not sure if I've ever seen her display an intense emotion in public. In private is a different matter. I've known her since I was six years old, she is probably my closest friend.

Daphne is a curious person, her emotions are relatively unstable and she will rarely listen to an explanation before asking questions. Unfortunately, she is a member of the Death Eater circle, her father parades her around like a prized jewel, and intends for her to marry someone of her station. This causes her to put on the air of a perfect Slytherin, exactly what her father wants. I fear that without more friends and confidants, she will succumb to what she is trying not to be.

Victor Greengrass is an arrogant fool, who doesn't know the first thing about his daughter. Daphne is wholly against the pureblood regime that her father supports. She sees the philosophies that he spouts as detrimental to our society and the health of magic that will come in future generations. If you can befriend her, you would have an immensely powerful and intelligent witch on your side.

As to the World Cup, I understand wanting to go with the Weasleys. The bad reputation they have is completely ridiculous. You could even find many Slytherins that highly respect that family. Arthur Weasley is an overworked, underpaid man. The only complaint that people have against him is that he supports Muggle rights.

William Weasley is a name I've heard many times here in Italy. I think his family calls him Bill. He is one of Gringott's top curse breakers, they have him deep inside some of the most dangerous tombs in Egypt. I think the only reason the rest of his family is poor is their pride will not allow them to take his money. That being said, could you get ask what kind of OWLS and NEWTS Bill got? I think I would enjoy being a curse breaker.

Charlie Weasley is just as famous in some circles. He got an Echo Class handling license in record time, and is one of the top dragon handlers in one of the most dangerous preserves in the world.

My Mother is doing quite well, and is writing a letter to Sirius as we speak. I doubt the poor man will be able to escape her clutches at all. (He'd be a fool to try.) It seems that asking about the sugar was not quite a simple code, but it was not an innocent question either.

I actually take both Runes and Arithmacy, the homework on those two can often take as long as all my other homework combined. I've been told that the more you know about occulmency, the easier it is to study, something about your mind being organized. I will attach my notes, for you to look through. (By my notes I mean Daphne's notes that I stole and copied.)

I'll send the potions to Professor Lupin when I'm able to get them.

Blaise

P.S. My owl's name is Gilgamesh, and he will eat anything near him, please don't let him get any beans.

Blaise found the notes on Arithmacy and Runes, and set a scribing quill to copy each set on a new piece of parchment for Harry.

Walking into his mother's bedroom, Blaise saw her hunched over a piece of parchment, sucking on her quill. Around her feet were a dozen crumpled pieces of paper, each with only a few lines of script.

"Mama, he loved you right? You said you had found the engagement ring." Isabella's face had faint tracks of tears. "Just talk to him, ask him to meet. You don't need to compose an epic. He's a man, you're a woman." Blaise turned to walk out of her room. He heard her quietly sobbing. "Mama," He waited for her to look up. "I love you. If everyone in the world stopped, I would still love you."

Isabella choked back a sob, and stood to clutch her son in a firm embrace. "Blaise… He's the only man that I know truly loved me as me. I can't imagine what he might be like now, after thirteen years in Azkaban."

"If you believe what Harry says, he's the same man that went in."

"Azkaban would change anyone Blaise. Harry didn't know him before, I did."

Blaise extracted himself from his mother's hug, and held her at arm's length. "Mama, you won't know what he's like now until you meet him. Harry said that he was doing well, but he needs happiness in life just as much as you do."

Isabella pulled her son in for another quick hug, and walked to the desk with her head held slightly higher than before.

"Merlin's bloody underpants!" Remus cursed as the gold wire he was walking with exploded in his hands. "Prongsson, could you please deactivate the containment sphere?"

Harry looked up from his work, he was interlacing runic strips of pure iron over an iridium core. "Moony, the gold will interfere."

For the past few days Harry had been solely focused on the Gram he was making, memorizing the arithmetic formulae that made the intricate device work, and manipulating them. He had gotten to the point where he was working with 'Fabric Iron', it was a sheet of pure iron hammered and magicked into being as malleable as fabric. Each time that he made a fold of the iron over the small ovular iridium disk, he would take the Inscriber and place complex runes on the now exposed surface. There was twenty square feet of the iron fabric, Harry had used the majority of it. Iron was essentially the most plentiful magical conductor, and supposedly toxic to Fae, this made it the most accessible material for gram creation.

Remus looked at Sirius in exasperation, but the convict just raised an eyebrow and returned to his paper.

"Moony, he knows more about what he's doing than we do."

Remus shook his head and put his hands to his temples. "How? You made one of these things yourself."

"The creation of a gram is highly specialized magic. He is very in tune with it, if he says gold will interfere, gold will interfere." Sirius saw Harry waving for him to come over. "What do you need Prongsson?"

Harry gestured to all of the implements on his table, from ink and quills to three separate rune transcribers. "I've hit the high point. I'm at the spot where this marker will make or break the entire gram, and none of these are the right tool."

Sirius picked up each of the inscribers, carefully holding and judging them. "I'll get the wellspring of Eaterna."

Harry's face registered confusion.

"It's the transcriber you used in the animagus ritual. There are twenty four wellsprings in the world. A wellspring is simply a transciber that is exceptionally powerful. Hold tight as I fetch it."

Harry chuckled at the word fetch, and Sirius grinned while shifting fluidly into Padfoot.

"Moony, why didn't you have a gram too?"

Remus chuckled, he had wondered when Harry would ask. "I can't see auras like Sirius and James could, and extremely few people know how to use Malfeasance. So really it's not as great a tool as it seems."

"OK Moony that makes sense. But could you help me? I have an idea as to what this rune should look like, but it's not what the diagram says."

Remus looked at the diagram that was shown in the grimoire, both Sirius and James had used the same rune for this step of the procedure. On a piece of parchment next to the book lay a rune that was wholly dissimilar, but Remus remembered it from old piano lessons his mum forced him to take.

"Weird…"

Sirius had chosen that moment to make his reappearance. "What's weird?"

"Look."

Sirius picked up the parchment that Harry had drawn his rune on, and set it back on the table. "Bah, It's resonance, it's in everything. It's usage here implies that the gram is going to be taking Harry's magic and making it resonate within itself. That isn't rare but it's not standard procedure." Sirius handed Harry the Wellspring, and told him to be careful.

Harry held the wellspring like a pen, meticulously etching the treble clef into the underside of the iron wrapped iridium disk. The blue energy shot from one end of the rod and onto the iron, where it turned a grisly red. Small sparks flew from the disk, and Sirius readied himself to tackle Harry to the floor in case the iron was not pure enough to handle as much magic as was being put through it. The etching created a high pitched whistling sound that seemed to float in the air.

The rune glowed a brilliant red color for a couple of seconds, before changing to an equally brilliant green. As some more time passed, and the three watchers stood in silence, the light that was trying to escape the rune became trapped in a vortex. The vortex swirled around the gram and Fabric Iron, before it finally stilled and the iron absorbed it.

Sirius was the first to break the silence. "The first time I tried that, it exploded."

Remus and Harry laughed at Sirius's expense, and Harry handed the wellspring back to Sirius, who was standing outside of the containment sphere. "No one is allowed to go near the iron or iridium disk. It has accepted my magic, so the hard part is over." Harry looked at the two men, who were somewhat confused. "I don't know how I know, but if you go too near it, your magic will interact with the magic now nestled in the gram." Harry smirked and made an explosion gesture with his hands.

Over the next three hours, Harry worked tirelessly to finish the portion of the gram that required the Iron. He folded and etched dozens of times and dozens of runes, and had many pieces of parchment strewn about, with drawings of each rune before he attempted it on the iron itself. A single mistake could force him to redo the entire procedure, and Fabric Iron was not cheap.

The sun had set, and its rays were but memories when Harry looked up from the last fold of iron. With each fold and etched rune, the gram never gained width or height. It stayed the same size throughout the procedure; Harry absently noted that the lack of logic would infuriate Hermione.

Putting away his supplies quickly, Harry jotted down a note for Remus to pick up some more gold wire, since he blew up the only supply on the island. Harry quickly retreated to his bedroom, exhaustion creeping into his core.

Harry awoke the next day with the sun far beyond its apex in the sky. After quickly getting ready for the day, Harry walked to the kitchen hoping for breakfast. Instead, he saw Remus floating upside down, eating a ham sandwich. Sirius seemed to be stuck in his Animagus form, eating his own sandwich from a plate on the floor.

As soon as Harry fully walked into the room, gravity seemed to falter, then break. Harry was floating aimlessly through the room. He growled, it was deep and menacing, and felt as if it reverberated through the entire room. The marauders felt a deep shiver of fear in their spines as the noise found them. Harry looked apologetically at the two men, but Remus was concentrating and Sirius was beaming as well as a large dog could. Remus's animagus ward fell, and Sirius transformed back into a man.

"Pup, that was amazing!" The smile hadn't left his face. "We caught you so off guard, your instincts kicked in and you let us know you didn't appreciate it. Combine that with Remus's ward that kept me locked as Padfoot, and you released magic from your animal form."

Remus conjured small gusts of wind to right himself and Harry, before Sirius dropped his own anti-gravity charm. "Padfoot, was that the concentrated fear magic in the growl?"

Sirius nodded, "Aye, it's somewhat common from most large predators. It's the primal sound inducing fear, and things like lions, tigers, bears, and wolves, all use it, if they're magical. You make it yourself on the full moon, just not while you're on wolfsbane." Sirius looked at Harry, "Moony didn't take Care, he thought it was bad enough he had to learn about werewolves in defense."

Remus looked sheepish as he shrugged. "I thought that Arithmacy and Runes would be more profitable. They're needed in a larger amount of jobs, which means that people might have overlooked my monthly habits. After the war, there were harsher regulations on werewolves, so it really didn't matter." Remus looked to Sirius. "Any idea what Harry's growl was?"

Sirius grinned. "It was canine, I know that, and it was big. From something small, you might get something like a tingle on your sense to be wary. But fear you can feel in your bones? That's an apex predator, like a wolf." Sirius looked up into his godson's eyes from his position on the floor. "Given your loyalty to your friends, your sense of honor, and your ability to survive… Really wolf is the only thing I can think of, considering the canine family is small, and domestic dogs are just muggle wolves that have been tamed and inter-bred."

Harry grinned at Sirius, "Maybe it's a Grim?"

From his position on the floor, Sirius shrugged. "Possible, but unlikely. I may be a grim if I work for it, take the transformation further than I already have. But the characteristics of a grim really don't suit you."

"They're tortured beasts, they don't force death, they foretell it. In giving warnings of the end of times, they are seen as monsters. They're hated for doing the right thing. But they're rare, I highly doubt you'll be a grim, you've always wanted a family, and I've always been afraid of one. That's the main difference between whatever you'll turn into and a grim. I fully believe that whatever you turn into, it will be a pack creature."

The three Gryffindors sat around the lunch table, now prank free, eating and talking. For over an hour there was nothing but tales of the Marauders, and a few other students.

Soon after lunch, Harry found himself sitting at the table holding his gram, with the containment sphere lowered enough as not to interfere with the gold wire for the second to last step in the construction. Harry drew, and redrew the gram in the air with a scribing tool Remus had provided. He needed to position the gold wire in such a way as not to overpower the iron, but make it strong enough to hold the enchantment permanently. After an hour of drawing and modifying, Harry felt confident enough to begin the delicate process. He first made the gold wrap the ovular disk in the direct middle. After he wrapped the wire around fully, he pulled it to the right and made it go off at a forty-five degree angle, then wrapped it again. He repeated the procedure on the other side of the gram. In the end, there was a diamond shape on both sides, creating the magical bond to fully seal the magic in the iron. The next step of the process was the simplest, Harry cut himself on a dagger forged from the purest iron, and let thirty-five drops of blood drip on the gram.

The blood coalesced into the shape of a wolf's snarling visage. The perspective was from the side, and Harry could see a single eye, a single ear, and the sharp teeth of the predator. Sirius told Harry that his own showed a padded pawprint, and James's had shown the antlers of a stag. This symbol was the blood sigil of Harry Potter, the lines and size of the corners were completely unique to him. Harry sealed the cut on his palm with magic, and picked up the gram in his clean hand.

"Padfoot! I finished the gram! I want to test it!" Harry's voice cracked comically halfway through his statement, and Sirius walked around the corner laughing like a maniac. Harry glared at him.

"Pup, most people would never in a thousand years ask for someone to perform malfeasence on them. Now here you are, your voice cracking, and yelling for me to perform illegal magic? It's hilarious."

"Illegal? I know it's combat magic, but why is it illegal?"

"Because of all the things you can do with it. If I got some of your blood, and a lock of your hair, I could set you on fire from the other side of the world. There is no way to trace Malfeasence or Sympathetic Magic. The things a fully trained sympathist can do are terrifying. I've never heard of someone being a master of the art, not for hundreds of years anyway, but I made the gram for other purposes. You made it with the intention of impressing your teachers, with it and the tutoring Remus and I have given you, I'm sure you'll be in the Arithmacy and Runes classes." Sirius walked over to Harry and plucked loose strand of hair from his head.

"Now, I'm going to burn this piece of hair, and your body will feel hot. With only one piece of hair, it won't hurt, but you will feel it." Sirius pulled a muggle cigarette lighter from his pocket, acquired no doubt by Remus, like all of their other purchases. "Magical fire won't work for this. As amusing as it is, muggles have made the best items for sympathy. Now, I want you to put down the gram, so you can see what just one hair can do to you."

Sirius struck the lighter, and the flame danced to life. Sirius closed his eyes in deep concentration, when he opened them, they were glassy. He moved the hair to the lighter, and it quickly ignited.

Harry felt the heat. It was as if he was standing in the sunlight of the peak of summer, even though it was quite cool in the house. The hair flared under the fire, and the smoldering section of hair grew hotter, and so too did Harry's body. He could feel the burn deep in his body. The hair was completely consumed by the slow embers, and Harry marveled at what kind of reaction it provoked from his body.

Sirius curled his fist around the hair, extinguishing any heat, and closed the link between the hair and Harry. "Now you see the dangers presented by Malfeasence. I will say again, most people have never heard of it, and those who have most likely don't know how to create the link necessary."

"The Malfoys however, teach sympathy to all of their heirs. It's a tradition that dates back to when they were still in France I believe. Now, pick up your gram and I'll do it again."

Harry retrieved his gram from the table he had placed it on, and Sirius grabbed another hair. Sirius lit the second hair, and the gram became ice cold in Harry's hand. The teen could feel the magic trying to force itself on him, but being prevented. Sirius let the hair burn itself out and become cold.

"The cold feeling is artificially created, can you tell me how?"

Harry grinned at the simple way his godfather questioned him. "The third series of runes in the iron cause it to become cold when repelling attacks, intentional or not. If I were to not want it to become cold from unintentional attacks, I could omit the twenty-third to twenty-fifth runes."

Sirius grinned and clapped Harry on the back. "Fifty points to Gryffindor for the successful creation of a class four enchanted item!" Harry smiled and walked back to his room, the creation process was quite draining.

Shortly after Harry had retired to his bedroom, Sirius and Remus found themselves sitting in the drawing room.

"Remus I need to ask you to do something you won't want to do. Something you won't feel comfortable doing."

Remus looked Sirius in the eye, and judged the man's intent. For his whole life, Sirius Black had expressive eyes, and his friends learned to read them. Now, Remus found the light of insanity that always came before a great prank, and at the same time a grave foreboding.

Remus poured himself some of the firewhiskey sitting on a table near him.

"What do you have in mind?"

Sirius smiled, it was grim and feral. "I need you to call in some favors. I need access to the Potter family tree, and it's kept very secret in their vault. James was going to show it to me November fifth, but he died before he could. Whatever is I need to know to teach Harry, I think the tree can show me. The Potters were very secretive about it."

"How would I? It's not easy getting legal access the family vaults, and damn near impossible to break in."

"It'll take time, but I need you to talk to Lady Longbottom, Lord Kent, and Lord Barrion. Each of them are powerful members of the Wizengamot, Ezekiel Kent owes me for saving his ancestral home in the first part of the war. Rafael Barrion owes me for getting him out of a foul marriage contract. I need you to get them to promise me their aid."

"Rafael Barrion is an evil man Padfoot, while the prejudice against you stems from hatred of your family, that man is as vile as the come." Remus refilled and drained his firewhiskey.

"Exactly, he won't want to owe me anymore, he'll help me clear my name so he won't have to help me directly in the war. If you can get me the aid of all three of those people, it'll go a long way to clearing my name." Sirius walked over to the large chair he had claimed at the start of summer. "Besides, Augusta Longbottom and Ezekiel Kent will keep Barrion in line."

Remus sighed, he had always wanted to stay as far away from politics as possible. "Padfoot, Lord Barrion won't allow me anywhere near him. He has no children in Hogwarts, but he certainly knows what I am. How do you expect me to get near enough to him to deliver that message?"

"You're a dark creature, and the Blacks are a dark family. You will wear the sigil of the House of Black, and he will listen."

The convict placed his hands on his face and kept them there for a time. "Moony, I don't want this. I don't want to be a Lord, and I'm not in any position to raise Harry. Merlin, I'm still basically raising myself. Lords are cold Moony, I don't want to be cold. I want people to be able to walk up to me on the street and introduce themselves, I want the freedom of the commoners."

Remus sat on a chair opposite to Sirius's, and put his elbows on his knees. "Padfoot, get over yourself."

Sirius looked up at Remus.

"You are a Lord now. You are Lord Black, and until you teach Harry you are the Proxy Lord Potter. I don't want to be a werewolf, but I am. You don't want to be a Lord? Tough. We're in this, for better or worse. Now you get to put into motion some of those plans you concocted with James." Remus's unfaltering gaze locked with Sirius's nearly defeated eyes. "I know that you have seen what happens to Lord Blacks, I know Padfoot. But you can be a better Lord than your family, Charlus was a Lord and highly respected."

"That's just it Moony, respect. Any that I earn, people will want to use to get the knowledge that my family has kept secret. I always wanted to stay out of those forms of magic, I didn't want to know some of those spells. Now I'll have to learn, to keep Harry safe and happy." Sirius looked at the ceiling, the drawing room was directly below Harry's bedroom. "Then the real problem shows itself Moony. Harry will need to know this magic. He will need to know it's inner workings if he's going to have any chance of surviving Voldemorts' vendetta."

Remus followed Sirius's gaze to the heavens. "Well, we'll just teach him how to use the power properly. We can show him what the spells do and how to control them."

"Just spells won't cut it Moony. Harry needs to know how to cast and modify spells on the fly, he needs to be as skilled as Voldemort, and he doesn't have the fifty years that bastard had. Harry has probably less than five."

"I know Padfoot. We need to figure out a way to get Harry up to at the very least, the level of the inner circle in two years."

"Yes, and they took over a decade of training and hard work." Sirius's eyes darkened and his countenance changed once again. "The only thing I can think of would be for us to study the ancient rituals. I know there are hundreds, if not thousands, that don't require sacrifice. We need to see the Potter family library, and when Harry is in school, we need to get into the Raven Borough library."

Remus's jaw slackened, and his eyes turned huge. "But, I thought the entrance was destroyed!"

Sirius smiled. "No, my grandfather said that to make my family believe that. He told me in his will that it was locked to all but the family head." Sirius lifted his right hand, showing the ornate silver and onyx signet ring.

"And that's you." Remus finished.

"Aye, that's me. This year we're going to eat, sleep, and dream in that library." Sirius grinned maliciously. "Voldemort would give his left arm to be allowed in that library. We're going to make sure that not being granted access is what killed him," Sirius waved his hand for Remus to finish the sentence.

"And save Harry." Finished Remus

"Aye, saving Harry is the endgame. I will not allow his life to be cut short like James'. He will live as long as Dumbledore, and see his Great-Grandkids graduate Hogwarts. I swear it on my bones