Malfoy Manor, Wiltshire, 12/9/1982
Harry stepped out of the fireplace and waited for his wife, he was still getting used to calling her that.
Apparently, in his absence, Bella and Narcissa had mended fences somewhat.
Harry still felt a bit awkward about the whole situation but decided to put it to the back of his mind and try and forget it had ever happened.
Bellatrix stepped out a second later, she was wearing loose-fitting green robes that helped conceal her baby bump.
Harry had noticed that she was starting to show a bit, her belly had a defined roundness to it now not that he was foolish enough to comment on it.
Harry waved his wand and dusted her off before offering her his arm, "Let's go have another family dinner," Harry said in false cheer as he lead her towards the dining room.
"Yes, let's go see my treacherous sisters," Bella agreed, Harry noticed a familiar glint in her eye that told him she still hadn't let this go.
'Please don't let this turn into a family duel,' Harry thought as they stepped through the door to the dining room.
Narcissa, Draco, Andromeda, and Tonks were seated at the table, three of the four looked up when they entered the room, Draco seemed more interested in coloring than paying attention to the new arrivals.
"Harry, Bella, I am so glad you could make it!" Narcissa exclaimed happily.
"Thank you, it's good to see you again Narcissa," Harry said politely as he pulled Bella's chair out for her and took a seat beside her.
"You as well, Harry, how did things go abroad?" Narcissa asked curiously.
"Not how I expected, though I suppose it all worked out in the end," Harry shrugged.
Before Narcissa could reply Sirius walked in with little Harry walking beside him.
"I'm surprised to see you two here?" Sirius exclaimed when he noticed them seated at the table across from Cissa and Andi who kept glancing at Bellatrix warily.
"So am I," Harry muttered under his breath.
"We are family, Sirius, sometimes these little misunderstandings happen," Bellatrix said magnanimously.
'Great, calculating Bella came to dinner tonight,' Harry thought resignedly.
Sirius seemed to be thinking along those same lines because he made no attempt to antagonize her like he usually would and quickly took a seat on the other side of Andi.
"Hello Auntie Bella," little Harry said when Sirius had secured him in a transfigured high chair.
"Hello Harry, how have you been?" Bella asked the cold edge to her voice disappearing.
"Good, Padfoot took me to the park," little Harry said happily.
"I have some rather exciting news to announce," Sirius said once he had gotten situated in his seat.
"Do share," Narcissa said cheerfully hoping his news would ease the tension in the room.
"I am now entered into a betrothal contract with Amelia Bones," Sirius said proudly.
"You got her pregnant, didn't you?" Harry asked looking amused.
"No you berk, we decided it was time to settle down, and my grandfather wouldn't let up," Sirius retorted.
"Congratulations Sirius," Narcissa said happily.
"Yes, that really is wonderful news," Andromeda added.
"All kidding aside, congratulations mate," Harry said genuinely.
"I will not be the flower girl," Tonks stated flatly.
"Don't worry Nymphadora, she already has a flower girl," Sirius smirked.
"Hope yours is better than ours was," Harry grinned.
"Oi, I wore that awful dress what more did you want?" Tonks protested getting a warning glare from her mother and a snicker from Sirius.
"I'm just kidding Tonks you did a great job as flower girl," Harry grinned.
"So how have you been?" Andromeda asked looking at Bella nervously.
"I've been well, little Harry spent a few days with me while Sirius and Harry went abroad," Bellatrix answered.
"She got me ice cream," Harry exclaimed happily.
"She never gets me ice cream," Tonks pouted.
"You spilt my perfume," Bella said in her little girl voice.
"And I buy you ice cream all the time," Harry added looking at Tonks.
Before Tonks could say any more the food appeared on the table and everyone began to dig in.
"So Harry, have you taken your N.E.W.T's yet?" Narcissa asked after a few minutes of silence.
"I have, the results arrived last week," Harry grinned after swallowing his bite of lemon roasted chicken.
"How did you do?" Sirius asked.
"He got eight Newt's and all but two of them were O's," Bellatrix said proudly.
"Which two didn't you get an O in?" Sirius asked.
"I got E's in herbology and Arithmancy," Harry shrugged.
"That's still quite an accomplishment," Andromeda praised.
"What is it you want to do for a career?" Narcissa asked between bites of her chicken.
" I plan on going into a career in magizoology, I always liked animals and it will let me travel the world a bit," Harry explained.
"That is kind of a niche career path," Andromeda pointed out.
"I know, but there are still opportunities in the field especially if I learn the veterinary side of things," Harry said unconcernedly.
"Would you be able to heal Dragons?" Tonks asked curiously.
"I don't know, usually the dragon preserves have their own healers that take care of their dragons," Harry said remembering some of the talks he had with Charlie Weasley in his timeline.
"That's probably for the best, nasty creatures dragons," Sirius said with a shudder.
"They're just animals, Sirius, anyway snakes will be my speciallty," Harry grinned.
"So Andi, I heard you had some problems at home?" Bellatrix asked casually.
"Yes, Ted is still quite upset with me," Andromeda said stiffly.
"Yes, I can't say that I can blame him," Bellatrix said sweetly.
"Calm yourself, Bella," Harry whispered
"I already apologized to you for that," Andi sighed tiredly.
"You did, and I forgive you both but I am still annoyed," Bellatrix shrugged as she took a bite of her asparagus.
"Ugh, I hope this doesn't last much longer," Sirius sighed dramatically.
"What are they fighting about?" Tonks asked curiously.
"We are not fighting, Nymphadora," Andi said distractedly.
The rest of dinner passed smoothly enough, Bella and Andi were a bit frosty to one another but they were polite enough not to get Tonks asking any more questions.
Harry hoped they would work this out on their own, he really would have rather skipped tonight but knew he should be here to support his wife, and if necessary calm her.
After dinner, the two sisters excused themselves to go talk privately while Harry, Sirius and the kids had dessert.
Narcissa pretended like nothing was wrong and chatted with him and Sirius while Andi and Bella talked, Harry, followed her example wishing Bella would hurry up so they could leave.
About twenty minutes later Andi and Bella came back into the room, both seeming to have calmed a lot.
"Everything okay?" Harry asked looking at Bella.
"Yes we're good," Bellatrix said simply.
'Thank god,' Harry thought as he watched Bellatrix tuck into her chocolate gateau.
Not long after this Bella decided they were ready to leave, and after saying their farewells they both stepped into floo both of them happy about how the night had turned out.
D.M.L.E, London, 12/11/1982, 17:34
Rufus Scrimgeour was seated at his desk pondering his new position while sipping from a tumbler filled with Ogden's finest.
The death of his boss had seen him promoted to the top spot in magical law enforcement, at first he had been thrilled about this unexpected windfall.
Now, he was seriously reconsidering that assessment. Not a day after taking the job he had a political grenade dropped into his lap.
Barty Crouch Jr, a man that was thought to have died six months ago inside Azkaban prison, was captured in Albanian by Albus Dumbledore.
If that wasn't bad enough then what was discovered during the man's interrogation was enough to cause a shitstorm of epic proportions when the public finally got wind of it.
This was the fourth time a high-security inmate had escaped Azkaban prison in the last year, he knew he would have to do something about the prison but with this Crouch business, Rufus hadn't had a chance to consider it.
Rufus had been spending the last few days in constant meetings with his counterpart in the Albanian ministry.
As luck would have it, one of the aurors Crouch had killed in his confrontation in the Albanian forest was Albanian Head's niece and he wanted his pound of flesh.
The even worse news was that every decision that Barty Crouch Sr's made as head of the D.M.L.E was being put under a microscope because of this fiasco.
It looked as if everyone Crouch had sentenced in his eighteen months in the position would be having their cases reviewed. Most likely all of them would get a retrial, especially when you considered what happened with Sirius Black.
The press hadn't got wind of this fiasco yet, but it was inevitable that they would.
The minister was likely to get the sack over this and Rufus couldn't think of anyone that would volunteer to take the reigns, this kind of corruption at the highest levels of the ministry would cause riots in the streets!.
Rufus was pulled from his musings when a knock sounded on the other side of his door and called out," Enter."
Alastor Moody stomped in looking Grim, he took a seat across from his boss and got right to it, "The investigation into Barty Senior is over with, if he was alive he would be sharing a cell with his murderous son."
"How bad, Alastor?" Rufus asked offering his long time colleague a shot of whiskey which Moody gratefully accepted.
"Bad, we exhumed the remains from Azkaban and confirmed that it was the late Marriane Crouch we buried in May, there were high concentrations of boomslang skin and bicorn horn in her stomach indicative of polyjuice," Moody started out taking a sip of whiskey.
"And the boy?" Rufus asked.
"He was kept under the imperius since his father snuck him out of Azkaban, he somehow broke the curse and killed his father and the elf before travelling to Albania," Moody continued.
"We already knew that, did you learn anything new?" Rufus asked impatiently.
"Yes, the wand he killed his father and the elf with he left in the house before going to Albania, we recovered it this morning during our search of the house. It... it belonged to Alice Longbottom," Moody said knocking the rest of his drink back and slamming the glass onto the desk.
"That bastard, there is no way I am letting the Albanians get their hands on him now!" Rufus muttered memories of little Alice Vaisey in his class at the auror academy coming to the front of his mind.
"I know he confessed to torturing her to make her husband talk," Moody growled angrily.
"Why wasn't he questioned under veritaserum when he was arrested?" Rufus asked.
"Crouch said it wasn't necessary," Moody shrugged.
"Fucking Barty, I always hated that uptight bastard," Rufus muttered.
"Dumbledore is in talks with the Albanians trying to convince them to let us deal with him, seeing as how he committed the majority of his crimes here," Moody said
"Fucking politics, I never should have agreed to take this post," Rufus cursed.
"You were always suited to politics Rufus," Moody smirked.
"Hows that, Mad-eye?" Rufus asked.
"You've always had a talent for talking out of yer arse," Moody chuckled.
"Well Alastor, I was trying to find a way to tell you this gently, but now that you're acting like a right wanker I'll go ahead and tell you that you're being pulled from field duty," Rufus smirked enjoying the shock on the other man's face.
"What, why?!" Moody demanded.
"Because I am promoting you to head to the Auror department. I'll also need your pick your replacement as captain," Rufus said looking at Moody expectantly.
"Bones," Moody grunted out not sure how he felt about being saddled with a desk.
"Are you sure? She's pretty young, not to mention she's just getting off of probation," Rufus said in surprise.
"I know, but she's one of the best aurors I've got, minus that fuck up on the island, she's as by the book as they come," Moody shrugged.
"Do you think she can lead her own squadron?" Rufus pressed.
"Easily, just give her a chance Rufus, she won't disappoint you," Alastor assured him.
"Fine, but if she cocks this up, it's on you," Rufus shrugged as he swatted at a beetle that was sitting on his desk away from his tumbler.
"Good, I'll let her know," Moody said standing up.
"Good luck Head Auror Moody," Rufus smirked as Alastor left his office to pass on the word to Bones.
Peverell Beach House, Cornwall, 12/11/1982, 08:23
Harry and Bellatrix sat at the table reading an article written by a rookie journalist who had just started writing for the paper a year ago, it was a piece about deep corruption in the ministry that ultimately led to the death of Bartemius Crouch and five Albanian aurors.
Then there was a follow up piece about the battle going on between the Albanian ministry and the British ministry over the perpatrator of all six of these murders.
Finally, there was a long piece about the failing standards of Azkaban prison and the fact that four high-security inmates had managed to escape the prison in the last six months, when everyone believed it was impossible to escape Azkaban.
"This woman is absolutely delightful," Bellatrix giggled as she re-read the articles between bites of her french toast.
"That was written by Rita Skeeter, she is very skilled at finding dirt and an illegal animagus to boot," Harry said never having liked Skeeter very much but enjoying it when the article wasn't aimed at him.
"Yes, Bagnold isn't going to stay in office very long after this gets out," Bellatrix exclaimed gleefully.
"I'm kind of worried about who will take her place," Harry admitted before taking a bite of his porridge.
"I wouldn't worry too much about that, the dark faction is on the back foot at the moment so the Wizengamot will probably lean towards light candidates," Bellatrix predicted.
"As long as it's not one of Dumbledore's yes men," Harry pointed out.
"Agreed, it would be nice if the neutrals put forth a descent candidate," Bella said thoughtfully.
"Who though?" Harry asked knowing very little about politics.
"I don't know, you would have to talk to Cissa or Andi," Bellatrix shrugged getting bored with the topic.
Taking the hint Harry changed the subject, "what do you want to do today?"
"We need to set up a nursery before I'm to fat to help," Bellatrix said rubbing her belly absentmindedly.
"Alright, there is the bedroom beside ours, I could knock a hole in the wall between them and put in a door," Harry offered not knowing what to say to the other comment.
"You just want to destroy something," Bella smirked.
"I do, now that you mention it," Harry agreed with a grin.
'Woosh'
Harry turned to see Tonks tumble out of the fireplace and onto the sitting room floor, getting to her feet she looked over at them with a grin.
"Tonks, what are you doing here?" Harry asked looking over at his niece.
"Wotcher Uncle Harry, Mum and da wanted to talk, they told me to come over here," Tonks shrugged.
"Are they fighting?" Bellatrix asked a bit too eagerly.
"No, they were kissing a lot and mum said she needed to go pick up a potion, and da told me to go visit my aunt for a bit," Tonks said looking confused.
'Great, they got rid of Tonks to have makeup sex,' Harry thought in exasperation.
"Well it's good you came, we were just going to set up the nursery today, do you know how to paint?" Harry asked as Tonks took a seat at the table.
"I love to paint, what colour is the room going to be?" Tonks asked excitedly.
"Green, with little snakes," Bellatrix said firmly.
"What, I never agreed to that" Harry protested.
"Oh yes you did, do you remember the night Auntie Bella had you-
" Green walls with little snakes it is," Harry agreed quickly cutting her off before she could say anything else.
"Good, but first you need to make a doorway to the babies new nursery" Bellatrix said smugly.
"Alright, finish your breakfast and I'l get started on that," Harry said as he got up from the table.
It turned out making the hole was the easy part all he had to do was draw an outline of the door and cut it with a sawing charm.
The hard part was rearranging the framing so that the doorway was framed properly that way it was strong enought to hold the door he would be putting in the opening.
Once he had it properly framed with a bit of Transfiguration, he transfigured the material he had cut out of the wall into an oak door with a set of brass hinges that he placed in the new doorway with a permanentstickong charm. A little more Transfiguration later and the door looked like it had been part of the house all along.
"Very well done," Bellatrix praised coming into the room through the new doorway followed by Tonks.
"Thanks, could you enchant the Transfiguration to be permenant?" Harry asked looking at her hopefully.
"Sure, then we can put Andi's brat to work," Bella said happily as she began waving her wand over the doorway.
"I'm not a brat!" Tonks protested.
"Of course you're not, if you do a good job I'll get you an ice cream," Harry placated shooting Bella an exasperated look.
"We have to go to the alley to get the paint first," Bella pointed out as she finished enchanting the door.
"And the snake stencils," Harry pointed out.
"What color are the snakes going to be?" Tonks asked.
'Please don't say silver,' Harry thought desperately.
"Pink and blue," Bellatrix said with a grin as she led them downstairs.
Diagon Alley, London, 12/11/1982, 13:46
Harry, Tonks and Bellatrix made their way out of The Magical Home, it was a store that sold all sorts of stuff for the magical households as the name suggested.
They ended up buying wallpaper instead of paint, the wallpaper was a soothing green with little green and blue cartoonish snakes that slithered over it's surface hissing cutely, the best part was there was a simple spell that basically made it put itself on the wall
They also bought a set of cribs, a changing station, mobiles, a soft carpet that matched the wallpaper, and a nice rocking chair.
"So I don't get to paint?" Tonks pouted sadly.
"No, but I will still get you some ice cream after lunch," Harry offered.
"Okay, what are we eating for lunch?" Tonks asked curiously.
"Italian, you and I will share a pizza so your aunt can have some alfredo," Harry said not noticing the smile Bella threw his way.
After leaving the restaurant the three of them made their way to the ice cream shop, seeing as how it was winter the place wasn't doing a lot of business but there were a few families there.
Once they had placed their orders Harry let Bella and Tonks go pick a table while he waited for their ice cream to be ready, absentmindedly Harry noticed that Floren kept shooting glances at Bella and Tonks but paid it no mind as his order was placed on the counter in front of him.
"So what else do we need?" Harry asked after he had passed out the ice cream
"Toys," Tonks said through a mouthful of ice cream.
"Looks like you can still help after all," Harry grinned.
"I get to pick out toys?" Tonks asked excitedly.
"For the babies, not for you," Harry clarified.
"Well at least I still get to look," Tobks shrugged.
'This day is turning out pretty good,' Harry thought as he enjoyed his hot fudge sundae.
Peverell Beach House, Cornwall, 12/12/1982, 08:23
Harry sat at the table reading the morning edition of the paper, the ministry was in pandemonium at the moment and people were protesting in the ministry atrium.
Harry couldn't feel sympathy for the ministry, time and time again they had done him wrong in the future.
His thoughts were interrupted by what Harry recognized as an augury flying through the window, he had charmed to allow owls to pass through but keep the cold out, the large green bird flew over him with a scroll clutched in its talons, it flew over his head singing an eerie tune before dropping the scroll and flying back out through the window.
Tentatively Harry unrolled the scroll.
Dear Mr Peverell,
I appreciate you contacting me with your request, there are not enough people going into the field of magizoology and I would be pleased to put you in touch with some of my contacts.
As to your second request, I am very intrigued as I have never seen a basilisk of the age you described. I have already reached out to Albus Dumbledore and arranged to enter the chamber on the twenty-second of this month.
I would appreciate it if you would meet with my wife and me on the twenty-first at 'The Three Broomsticks' for dinner at five o'clock to go over some of the procedures for entering the chamber.
Please send word to confirm this appointment, and again thank you for contacting me about this.
Regards ,
Newt Scamander
Hogwarts Head's Office, Scotland, 12/13/1982, 14:27
Sirius took a seat across from his old headmaster confused about why the man had asked to meet with him.
"Ah, you're right on time my boy," Dumbledore said in a cheerful tone.
"Yes, but I'm confused about what this is all about," Sirius said getting to the point.
"Well, I received some worrying news from an old friend about young Mr Potter about a week ago," Dumbledore said before popping a lemon drop in his mouth.
"Really?" Sirius asked completely lost as to where this was going.
"Where is young Harry anyway?" Albus asked curiously changing topics.
"Staying with Harry Peverell and my cousin," Sirius shrugged
"You would trust them to watch over young Harry?" Dumbledore asked in surprise.
"I would, Harry is very good with kids and I trust him with my life," Sirius said firmly.
"I see, do you trust your cousin Bellatrix with your life? Or with young Harry's life for that matter?" Dumbledore asked pointedly.
"I do," Sirius said simply.
"Even after her actions in the last war?" Dumbledore pressed.
"She was found innocent on all of those charges," Sirius pointed out.
"Sirius, you know as well as I do the imperius defence is, to put it bluntly, complete poppycock," Dumbledore sighed tiredly.
"I guess, but explain her lack of a dark mark," Sirius pointed out.
"I admit that did surprise me but I still don't believe she was coerced into Lord Voldemort's service," Dumbledore admitted before taking another lemon drop.
"Fair enough, but what business is it of yours?" Sirius asked as politely as possible.
"If it were any other child I probably wouldn't try to interfere but you know Harry's circumstances, surely you know of the prophecy?" Dumbledore asked.
"Yes, James told me all about it and I believe it has already been fulfilled," Sirius pointed out.
"On the contrary, the prophecy only came into play after the curse rebounded upon Voldemort last Halloween, the prophecy is by no means fulfilled," Dumbledore corrected.
"So you want me to prepare Harry to fight ?" Sirius asked.
"No, I want the boy to have a safe happy childhood which is why I am concerned about him being exposed to the dark lord's right-hand death eater" Albus corrected.
"I am sorry you feel that way but Bellatrix is a member of the house of Black, she is my family and I will not have you dictate who my godson can spend time with," Sirius said flatly the old rebellious teenager coming out again.
"You must see reason, she could very well corrupt the boy, she still refers to muggleborns as mudbloods does she not?" Dumbledore tried to reason.
"Well yeah, but she says that mostly so Harry will spank her," Sirius said casually enjoying the look of shock that crossed Albus' face.
"Spank her?" Dumbledore exclaimed.
"Yeah, Harry hates the word and threatened to spank her if she said it again, turns out my cousin likes being spanked," Sirius shrugged.
"Indeed, well, be that as it may, I would prefer if she isn't alone with young Harry," Dumbledore said moving off of that topic.
"I'm sorry professor, but what goes on in house Black is none of your concern," Sirius said.
"I do wish you would be reasonable about this, the fate of the wizarding world rests on the boy's shoulders, the last thing we need is for him to be taken in by pureblood supremacy," Dumbledore sighed realizing this conversation wasn't going the way he wished it to.
"I appreciate your concern but I see no issues, if that is all I do have a wedding to begin planning," Sirius said wanting to end this conversation.
"You're getting married?" Dumbledore asked.
"I am, I recently entered into a betrothal contract with Amelia Bones," Sirius said looking quite pleased about this.
"Then congratulations are in order, Amelia is a fine woman, I wish the two of you all the happiness in the world," Dumbledore said genuinely pleased to hear this news.
"Thank you, the wedding will most likely be in the spring after Easter, you can expect an invitation, " Sirius said as he rose to his feet.
"Take care, Sirius," Dumbledore said jovially as Sirius left his office.
The meeting hadn't gone as he hoped, Sirius was not swayed by his argument but truthfully, he had not really expected him to be, Sirius always had a problem with authority in his youth.
Perhaps it was time to reach out to Mr Peverell and get to know the man better, he had clearly earned Sirius' trust and from what Sirius had hinted he wasn't prejudiced about blood status like his wife.
He also knew that Peverell was good with kids, he had been sighted multiple times with Andromeda's daughter by his contacts in the alley mainly Florean.
And just yesterday he had received a letter from an old friend, he would have an opportunity to get to know the Harry Peverell better during the Christmas holidays. It was because of this letter that every student would be sent home for the holidays next week.
His old friend Newt Scamander had requested permission to enter the school to remove a class XXXXX creature hidden somewhere in the bowels of the school.
Newt also informed him that he would be in the company of Mr Harry Peverell, who had a theory on how to enter the fabled chamber of secrets where the creature was located.
Albus was sceptical about this, the chamber had been sought out since Salazar Slytherin left the school in 1066 and as far as he knew Harry Peverell had never entered this school.
Still, he had sent Newt his acceptance and made it mandatory for the students to return home for Christmas in case they really did open the chamber, it was better to be safe than sorry.
Albus was conflicted as far Peverell was concerned, the man was a mystery to him. The man could either be a good ally or a very formidable enemy, though at the moment he didn't have enough information to make a decision either way.
'I need to think about retirement when this prophecy nonsense is over with,' Albus thought tiredly as he popped another lemon drop in his mouth.