Chapter 14

Seems that unlike what I could have assumed from my past knowledge of canon, albus dumbledore was actually a good guy. As evidenced by his beaming at Sirius with the twinkly eyes and all.

"Sirius, my boy I am so happy to know that I was wrong when I assumed that you had indeed betrayed the potters. I must confess to feeling guilty for never checking up on your trial but as you were and have always been heir black I assumed proper procedure had been followed and that I wasn't informed due to my personal association with you. Please sit you too lord black, Mrs malfoy, Mr malfoy."

We all take a seat and dumbledore goes, "before we start Sirius are you willing to trust the people here with all the knowledge about little iris?"

"In all honesty I don't know much about Alexander here to be sure but grandfather and narcissa can be trusted. Well as far as any black can be including me I suppose. As for Alexander I'm told he's more of a black than a malfoy and he seems ambivalent towards the whole blood purity thing and is also seven so go ahead." Sirius says.

"Very well, I assume you wish to know where iris is and I shall make you a portkey to her once this meeting is completed in a satisfactory manner. But before that I need to tell you a few things. Chief among which is how I believe that iris survived the killing curse in the first place." Dumbledore says seriously, steepling his fingers and looking well pensive.

"I assume the Evans girl did some kind of a ritual that protected her child?" Arcturus intercedes, "always did say that it was a pity she wasn't born a pureblood. The knowledge she'd have access to then, she could have been greater than she already was."

"Yes, Lord Black it was indeed a ritual. I do believe she used a variation of the ancient Indian protection ritual called the shield of the sun, the lives to two people to protect the one they loved. But as the lives needed to be willingly given without resistance they didn't actually fire of a single spell in the cottage once Voldemort arrived at least as far as I can tell based on tests I performed."

"The ritual itself is deceptively simple, a few runes on the body of the one you wish to protect, a few runes on the bodies of the ones willing to sacrifice. The issue however is the fact that if there is a sliver of doubt in the individual who is sacrificing his live on whether or not they wish to die protecting someone the entire ritual falls apart."

"When lily placed the fidelius she also placed an alert ward that's would let me know if anyone with I'll intentions towrads the potters stepped foot in it."

"I assume that is why hagrid was there, and the reason you weren't there was that you were defending diagon from the diversion attack Voldemort planned for you." Sirius asked.

"That is true I sent Severus and hagrid as neither could fight openly against voldemort. Severus was first on scene as the fidelius fell the minute the caster died. When he got there he found the potters dead and a rune scar on iris's head and a lot of dark residue in the room itself. When he heard you he decided to leave as well, you know your history better than any I suppose. Then hagrid took iris from you because as far as he knew you were the ones who betrayed the potters. After that he brought her to me when I examined the child I found the ritual used and concluded that as long as iris lived with her blood relatives Muggle or magical, nobody could harm her. Hence I placed her with lily's sister as she was the only living relative close enough for the protection to activate. I had planned on leaving her there for a week or so, and hand her over to her godmother when the magical world settled down and the deatheaters were imprisoned."

"I assume the godmother was incapacitated in some shape or form before that time was over thereby leaving you no choice but to keep her where she was?"mother asked for the first time joining the conversation.

"Very correct Mrs malfoy, indeed. Alice longbottom neé fawley was the god mother but a mere four days after I placed iris with the dursleys she was attacked and tortured into insanity by the lestranges and crouch junior." He answered.

"And as the next closest magical relatives to iris potter would be the blacks either arcturus or me you placed the child in care of the muggles rather than let Lucius get his hands on her. Wise." Mother replies.

"I assume you need something from us before you hand over her location?" Arcturus asked.

"Yes the protection shall only sta active iris stays with a hood relation at least as close as petunia is to iris that is an uncle or aunt at most."

"I assume you want Sirius to blood adopt iris into the black family. Given her own grandmother was a black, a blood adoption will make it so that iris had three parents, one of whom will be Sirius therefore making the protections actually stronger. Especially due to the fact that Sirius is actually an oathsworn godfather which in the eyes of magic makes him her second father regardless of blood?" I asked interjecting my own thoughts.

"Very true mister malfoy, as ms potter had black blood within two generations adding more black blood will make sirius and iris as closely related as you are to your own mother. I know it is much to ask for but considering that Sirius has spent over five years at azkaban it is unlikely he shall ever have children of his own so I feel better asking this as there will not be any future issues within the black family either."

"I understand the necessity of these precautions because in all honesty the ministry has done a terrible job of cleaning up the voldemort's mess in the first place also her protections will improve upon the already existing black manor wards which if I do say so myself are as good if not better than those at Hogwarts already. Keep in mind though dumbledore once we do this she shall be black in name as well as blood. But we shall not do this without and informed consent from the child itself." Arcturus says.

"Very well,I shall now take you to the home of the dursleys, as it is in a Muggle neighborhood do I have permission to transfigure your Robes into Muggle appropriate attire?"

Seeing nods from us he turns out clothes into a well let's call it a parody of normal clothing. The men were wearing suits that looked like it belonged in Hawaii and well I hate to say it I looked ridiculous as well. Mother was actually the most normal looking on of us. Wearing a black full length dress. At this I pinched my nose and told, "if I may, this is not era appropriate Muggle clothing, these went out of fashion over three decades ago, headmaster if you would, make the jackets and pants be coloured either black or navy blue or charcoal grey please. And transfigure mine into a blue shirt and black pants as well." He does so and we leave the room heading for the apoaration point within the ministry building.

He pulls out a quill as turns into a portkey. Grabbing on to it we all disappear in a swirl of blue lights. I have to be honest it was very trippy.

We appear on a street with about forty houses in all. The kicker each house looked like it was a perfect replica of the previous one. God it's like someone built the same house over and over again.wve the gardens and the like we're creepily similar.

Dumbledore leads us to number four, I assume the potter child is at school and dursley senior is at his job.we knock on the door and it open shortly. Petunia looks at dumbledore and immediately goes "why are you here, I told you all those years ago that I didn't want any contact with you till the little freak turns eleven." At this point mother Sirius and arcturus look incredibly murderous and in all honesty I can feel Their magic coming out in waves.

Sirius says, "well, these freaks are the legal guardians of the little freak as you called her. I suggest you shut you mouth and produce iris right now if you wish to continue living a healthy life with your family."

She sniffs her nose and says "iris is at school right now she'll be here in a hour or so I hope that when she's here you shall take her with you permanently."

" Don't worry we will, she shall step foot into this dismally small house only over our cooling corpses. Arcturus states coldly.

We turn to leave and on our way to the spot we appeared in dumbledore speaks up, "I must confess I had hoped what animosity petunia felt towards lily would have dissipated by now, and that she would treat young iris well. It seems like so many occasions in the past my hopes were for nought. I must take the time once the child has settled in well I will make a personal apology for placing her with the dursleys. While I had good reasons the end result is still that she hasn't had a very happy childhood."

After leaving little whinging we go to a restaurant in diagon to wait for an hour and wait for iris to return home. Dumbledore left us after the dursleys home to go back to other wizengamot meetings.

In the restaurant mother and Sirius discuss various things ,but the talks mostly centered on me and what had been going on since my seventh birthday. He was surprised that I was already learning potions, occlumency and runes. And close to being adequate at them as Snape and my mother put it. He probably wanted to apprentice me in the most noble art of pranking and chaos. In all honesty I was far more excited about that then I'd have though I would be. I can imagine what the job would be like novice chaos maker, novice prankster. One level per person pranked.

In an hour we all apparate to the dursleys under a notice me not. I have to say though wizard homes l, mostly the smaller ones look ridiculous they are much more entertaining than the copy pasted buildings here. We go to the dursleys home and wait for the reveal of iris potter.

The door is opened by a waif like redhead with what has gotta be the greenest an eye could possibly get. I gotta say both Snape and James potter had great taste in women if how adorable this girl looks is anything to go by. I mean I had to physically restrain myself from glomping her and treating her like one would a cat. Either way creepy pedophilic sounding thoughts out of the mind Alexander. She's a seven year old girl so let the godfather handle it you are after all ill equipped to handle women of any age shape size or form.

So when everyone was busy staring at the girl I hold out my hand and say "Ms. Potter may I introduce your godfather who until recently was falsely imprisoned, Sirius Orion Black III, he is here to legally adopt you into his family and as such would like to speak to you in private. Sirius cast a silencing ward and discuss whatever you need to, mother I believe it will be helpful if you were there to keep his exuberance in check. Grandfather shall we?" And turn and walk a little ways of.

Arcturus follows clearly understanding what I was doing. We stop a few feet away and he looks as me and says, "well done boy, very well done indeed." We turn back and see that they have not begun talking yet and all three of them are starting at me. Sirius give me a betrayed look which I find extremely amusing before mom pulls out her wand and starts off said discussion.