It didn't taken as long as he thought it would to get to Atlantis, the destination of the world dueling tournament that year. They had ended up taking what seemed to be a Portkey to him, an ordinary object with magic set to take them somewhere else.
However Amelia had explained that it wasn't really that simple in this case as Portkeys had much more limited range, Atlantis however was different, being one of the most magically powerful places on earth, and a place where wizards had dwelt for millenia.
It was the oldest magical city on the planet.
Atlantis was something of an anomaly as it had a huge magical signature and strength. So large in fact that if using the right spell, other objects and people would naturally be attracted to it and be sent directly to its center. Of course the spell was a closely guarded secret by the Atlanteans and they had been lucky for Amelia to have gotten permission to receive an object to take them there.
Now he and the rest of them stood in a large room, the walls totally invisible and open to viewing. He could even see various fish swimming just outside of it.
"How do the walls manage to hold up like that?" He asked, "Glass?"
"No, its a very powerful shield spell, held up by the magic of Atlantis itself." Amelia answered, "You can go touch it if you'd like, it isn't dangerous.
As most of them went to go do just that, he noticed that both Fleur and Gabrielle seemed to be looking rather scared, currently standing close together in the center of the room.
"It really is perfectly safe." Amelia reassured them.
"It's not that, I just don't like being underwater." Gabrielle confessed, still looking worried.
"Veela are creatures of fire and we have a great dislike of being underwater." Fleur explained.
"Are we going to have to be underwater all the time?" Gabrielle asked nervously.
"No, this is just where we ended up getting sent." Amelia explained, "Most of the city is indeed underwater but where the tournament will be held is above ground."
"Can we get going to there then?" Gabrielle begged.
"Of course." Amelia replied.
As they walked out of the room through a door, Harry put his arm around Gabrielle's other side to help make her feel more comfortable.
In the next room, however, they discovered a group of what appeared to be guards currently looking over a couple of African wizards.
The interesting thing was the guards all had totally green skin, possibly a result of having lived underwater for so long or from a special Atlantean diet.
"What are they doing?" asked Susan.
"They're just checking to make sure they are safe from any potentially harmful diseases or haven't brought contraband into the city." Amelia admitted, "It shouldn't take too long."
After the African wizards got checked out and moved on, they stepped forward.
One of them scanned Amelia first along with her bags and declared, "All right, you're good."
He was next, followed by Susan, Su, and Pansy, each of them getting clearance.
Yet when they came to Fleur, the man said, "we can't allow your slave to proceed."
"Why is that?" Amelia demanded.
"Atlantis has a very strict policy against slaves entering the city above, fortunately we do have a holding cell for slaves should you wish to keep them there." The man informed them.
Harry quickly realized that if Fleur was not allowed, so would Gabrielle, and looking at them, they certainly were already feeling terrible about remaining underwater.
He decided that he couldn't do that to them.
"Perhaps we had better have them go back." Harry suggested, "They shouldn't have to be here."
"Not until I've spoken with someone in charge about this." Amelia replied before addressing the Atlantean guard, "Who is in charge here?"
"I'm sorry Madame but I don't make the rules." One of the guards said, "I just have to enforce them. If you would like to speak with a city official I could do that."
"I would appreciate it." Amelia told him, "If you can get Poulti, that would be best, I've worked with him before."
The guard left, while Harry stood still trying to comfort both Gabrielle and Fleur who still looked terrified and no doubt unhappy about being unable to compete in the tournament. Hopefully they would be able to work something out however.
Finally the city official known as Poulti arrived.
Like the other Atlanteans, his skin was totally green, only he had large webbed hands and small gills, suggesting he could be capable of breathing normally in just air as well.
"What seems to be the problem Madame Bones?" Poulti asked.
"I have two girls wishing to compete in the tournament but have been banned from doing so." Amelia told him.
"I am told they are actually slaves are they not?" Poulti asked.
"Technically yes, but we've never actually viewed them as such." Amelia admitted.
"To Atlanteans we view slavery a bit differently." Poulti explained, "The city was built upon the work of slaves and despite some people's efforts to do away with it, myself included, it is simply too important an institution. Also, what with the slave population being as large as it is, we've had to take certain security measures to prevent a slave revolt, including not allowing slaves to enter the upper city."
"Surely there must be something that we can do." Amelia asked.
"I suppose you have a few options, but I'm not sure you'll like any of them." Poulti answered, "Option 1, you take your slaves back immediately. Option 2, you have them put into our slave quarters, or option 3, I suppose we could put inhibitor collars on each of them, which would prevent them from using magic or going anywhere besides your hotel room."
None of those options seemed very desirable.
"I'm sorry." Amelia tried to say gently to both Fleur and Gabrielle.
"It's okay, we know it isn't your fault." Gabrielle tried to say, but her depression slipped through the mask.
"So what do you want to do?" She asked them.
"I'd really like to be able to watch Harry compete." Fleur admitted.
"As well as Su." Gabrielle added before addressing Su, "At least now with me out of the competition you'll be able to compete."
With only one girl allowed for each age bracket from each country, Su and Gabrielle had been forced to duel it out to see who would be competing, to which Gabrielle had won.
"This wasn't how I wanted to be able to compete though." Su pointed out.
"If we could be allowed to watch them compete we could agree to just stay in the hotel room the rest of the time." suggested Fleur.
"I believe that could be arranged." Poulti said thoughtfully, "Although I should probably warn you that they might... be treated rather poorly around any Atlanteans."
"I'd still like to do that if it means I get to at least watch." Gabrielle blurted out.
"Very well," Poulti said, "I can have the guards put collars on you then."
"I'm afraid I'm not authorized to do that." Said the same Atlantean guard they spoke with earlier.
"I'm a city council member and I am authorized to do it." Poulti claimed, getting into the man's face.
Finally the guard nodded and gave orders to his men.
One of the other guards came forward with 2 metal collars that he placed over each of their heads, and after having them around their necks they got magically smaller until they just barely fit around their necks.
The guard then waved his wand, pointing at first Fleur's then Gabrielle's collar and pronounced it done.
"I and one of the guards will need to escort the slaves to your holding cell." Poulti announced.
They followed Poulti past the guards and then continued into the city itself, first the underwater portion and then to the above ground part.
As Harry looked around, he noticed that all the Atlanteans had the same green skin, and many had the tell-tale signs of being slightly fish like, with webbed hands and gills.
"How did they get like that?" Su asked Poulti.
"Several reasons," Poulti explained, "the green skin is caused by living underwater for so long, as well as from eating underwater plants. The gills and webbed hands have come from interbreeding with mermaids. Unfortunately this carries a lot of racism, as all true mermaids are considered slaves by us. Relations between humans and mermaids over the years has created a race of part mermaid, part human species. The ones that are born with a tail or unable to breath air are treated the same as mermaids and forced to work as slaves, while those who can are usually just heavily prejudiced against and are treated as very low class citizens."
"It must be getting better though if someone like you was elected as a city official." Susan pointed out.
Poulti gave a grim smile, "I'm the first one of any mermaid descent to ever be elected as a city official, and that was only to get the International Confederation of Wizards somewhat off our backs so they could claim that we at least had some representation. It's mostly been an empty position so far, the other city council members pretty much ignore me. It's been made pretty clear I'm only there to make the ICW happy."
"You're still making a difference." Amelia answered, "You've already helped me a great deal with my special project and with Fleur and Gabrielle, we couldn't have done it without you."
By special project, Harry assumed that she meant Tonks, a project he was still concerned about, but he trusted Amelia enough to go along with it. It would certainly be interesting though, having to pretend that he had added yet another girl, although having done it five times before he supposed he at least knew how to act.
Poulti finally got them all the way to the hotel room and they entered, putting all of their things down.
"How is the collar?" Pansy asked Gabrielle gently.
"It stinks." She muttered, obviously annoyed, "I can feel it pressing around my neck every time I breath, not really constricting or painful, but still a constant reminder."
"At least we're above ground now." Fleur pointed out, "I hated being underwater."
"So did I." Gabrielle said, shuddering even as she said it, "I don't ever want to be underwater again."
"Poulti is nice for a part merman though." Fleur admitted, "Usually Veela and Merpeople don't get along. When I first saw him I guessed what he was and I thought we were seriously in trouble, a full Merperson finding a Veela in the water would most likely kill them."
"I think Poulti understands discrimination towards another race well enough." Amelia said reasonably, "He was instrumental in getting the papers necessary for Tonks to assume a new identity as an Atlantean."
"Where is Tonks anyway?" Su wondered.
"She should be bumping into us shortly." Amelia replied, "Our cover story is that Harry saved the life of a wealthy Atlantean and as a reward he offered his daughter in exchange."
Judging from what little he had already learned about Atlantis, Harry supposed it wouldn't be too much of a stretch for an Atlantean to so willingly give away his daughter like that. Evidently Atlanteans seemed to have a rather low opinion of human life.
"Come on let's go exploring!" Su suggested.
"Fleur and Gabrielle can't go anywhere though." Susan reminded the shorter girl.
"Oh...right." Su said dejectedly.
"Don't worry about us, go have a good time." Fleur recommended.
"Well if you're sure you'll be all right..." Su answered, obviously still concerned for them, but also wanting to go exploring.
"I think I'll just stay here." Pansy announced.
"I'd better come with you Su and make sure you are still squared away as a competitor with Gabrielle now out." Amelia said.
Deciding that he really needed to go as well, and make sure he was totally straightened out too, Harry accompanied them, leaving Pansy, Fleur, and Gabrielle behind.
When they got to registration, he was quickly cleared away, yet Su ended up taking a bit longer as Amelia had to remove Gabrielle and put in Su as the alternate.
While waiting a distance apart from them with Susan, a Chinese boy who looked to be about his age approached him.
"So you must be the great Harry Potter himself." The boy said sarcastically.
"I'm Harry Potter, but I wouldn't consider myself great." Harry answered.
"Good, because I wouldn't consider you great either." the boy answered with a sneer, "If you don't know who I am you must have had your head stuck in the sand."
As Harry looked at the boy, he realized that he did look familiar.
It finally clicked, this was Lao Tzu, the current world champion duelist in their age group, the duelist that he would have faced in the finals had he not forfeited in order to save Gabrielle and Fleur back when they were kidnapped.
"I know who you are." He replied simply.
"Good," Lao answered, "you caused a lot of controversy by forfeiting last year, nobody seems to know exactly why. I heard for example that you were simply too afraid to fight me and knew you couldn't win."
Harry wanted to roll his eyes at this development; yet another stupid bully. While they could not say the real reason for his forfeiting it didn't mean that he could just take that accusation. "You looked like you could use the win." He told the boy, adopting a mock expression of pity.
Lao's eyes narrowed. Harry felt that wasn't too huge of an insult but evidently it was to Lao.
"I don't need your pathetic pity!" Lao answered, "I've won every single duel tournament I've been in, world champion 2 years running, and come from a very long line of undefeated world champions, my father, uncle, grandfather, great-grandfather for the last 150 years have been champions.
Susan whistled, "Sounds like quite a legacy."
He was about to say something himself back to Lao, but then Amelia and Su came back. When Lao saw Su, he shifted targets, "I heard you weren't competing this year." He told her.
"You thought wrong Lao," Su replied scathingly, "I'll be coming for you." Evidently Su seemed to know Lao from the way she was looking at him.
"You can try, personally I'm rather tired of having no real competition." Lao claimed, "I was just talking to your boy-toy here to see if he might actually be worth my time or not."
"Harry could beat you with one hand tied behind his back." Su claimed.
"We'll just see about that won't we?" Lao answered, as he turned around and left, leaving a very angry looking Su.
"Judging from how you were acting, I'd say you and him have a history together." Susan commented to Su.
"Lao was also part of my aunt's fighting school." Su answered, "Him and his entire family were practically worshiped there for their fighting skills. Unfortunately while Lao likes to talk big, he can actually back it up. I was always forced to spar with him as the 2nd best for our age group, and I never, ever won no matter how hard I tried, and he continued to rub it in my face. I've been trying to beat him for as long as I can remember."
"Sounds like quite the rivalry." Amelia commented, "Well let's hope you beat him then this year."
"I hope so." Su said, her eyes glinting with cold malice.
"Well I'm going to get back to the hotel room, but you three are free to go check out the practice rooms or the dueling arena." Amelia announced.
After deciding to go check things out like Amelia had suggested, he couldn't help but notice the disparity between the full humans and the part Merpeople, as the humans were evidently quite wealthy and wearing fine clothes while the part humans worked as servants or performed other menial tasks.
"There is just so much injustice in the world..." Susan commented, noticing it for herself, "When does it ever end?"
"Unfortunately it should seem almost natural to view it by now." He said cynically.
"What have we seen so far?" Susan asked, "Forced marriages where children are treated as bargaining chips, child abuse, child endangerment, slavery and human trafficking, prostitution, corrupt governments, the list just goes on and on."
"The Magical World I would say is even worse off than the Muggle one." Su answered, "We've always been somewhat behind the times."
"I'm going to change all that, at least in Britain." Susan said vehemently, "I'll do whatever it takes to get things changed."
"You can count on us to help you." Harry said, resting a hand on her shoulder for support.
"Thanks Harry," Susan said, "it will be awhile, but I'm already trying to get a feel for politics from my aunt and hopefully I can really make a difference when I come of age."
"What happens when you come of age?" Su asked.
"I'll be taking over for my aunt in the Wizengamot as our family seats were actually inherited by my father and then passed to me. My Aunt Amelia has been handling them until I come of age and can do it myself."
Harry nodded, "Your Aunt told me that Dumbledore has been doing the same thing for me."
"It doesn't appear to have done us much good." Susan replied, referring to what they had heard Amelia say about Dumbledore and how he was trying to manipulate her.
"You better just grow up then and steal it back from him." Su said.
"We're hoping sooner than that if we can nail that fossil." Susan said.
Usually Susan was much nicer, except for when she felt very strongly about something, and injustice and threats on her family happened to be the two biggest things that set her off.
He was about to reply, when suddenly someone bumped into him.
"Hello Harry." The person said.
He immediately recognized the person as an Atlantean, with her green skin. She also appeared to be about his age, and had long blonde hair that went just below her butt.
"Do I know you?" He asked.
"What, you don't recognize me?" She asked, trying to look like she was upset but instead had a huge grin on her face.
"Tonks?" Su asked.
"The one and only!" She answered brightly, "Aren't you going to give me a kiss, oh husband of mine?"
This left him feeling a bit awkward, unsure what to do, as while he had been kissed by the girls many times, he had never kissed Tonks, especially when she looked like an Atlantean girl.
Fortunately Su answered for him, "None of us are actually married to Harry yet."
"In Atlantis we could get married right now if we wanted." Tonks revealed, "So how about it Harry?"
If anything he felt even more awkward until he suddenly realized Tonks was messing with him. Well two could play at that game.
"I quite agree, why wait?" He announced, "We'll have to hurry if we want time to consummate the marriage afterwards."
Such a comment left Susan sputtering and gasping, and Tonks to start laughing.
"You seem awfully eager Harry," Tonks replied with a grin, "but I suppose I can do that, provided you get me a ring and a dress first."
"Do you really have to tease like this?" Susan demanded.
"Alright, I'll let you and Harry off the hook." Tonks said, feigning disappointment, "Although we do need to sell the new couple thing. We should be okay here but we'll still want some practice."
"In what way?" He asked.
"You can start by giving me that kiss." She said.
Somewhat reluctantly, he quickly gave her a kiss on the cheek.
She grinned widely, "I meant more like this." Grabbing him she pulled him into a searing kiss on the lips.
"There, that wasn't so bad now was it Harry?" Tonks asked teasingly.
Susan rolled her eyes at that, "I doubt he's too upset."
"You want to go hang out with us Tonks?" Su asked.
"I think that would be a good idea," Tonks said, "but you need to start calling me Aqua."
"Did you pick the name?" Su asked.
"Yes, what's wrong with it?" Aqua or Tonks asked back.
"Well I suppose it's better than Nymphadora." Su quipped.
"Isn't that the truth..." The green girl grumbled.
"All right Aqua-Tonks, let's go." Su said as they headed over to check out the practice area.
When they got there, the duelists that had been training gradually began to notice them and started pointing as they whispered among themselves.
"What did I tell you girls?" Harry said, pulling Su and Susan together with both arms, "It looks like you're too attractive for your own good, look how much they keep staring at you."
"I think they're staring more at you." Aqua admitted, "Though I had no idea you were that famous."
"I think it's more because of what happened last year." Su said, "All everyone knows is that after your duel with Gabrielle, you just up and disappeared. Lao ended up winning by forfeit, which is probably one reason why he went after you earlier, he absolutely hates it when people refuse to fight him."
"Why would anyone not want to fight a pipsqueak kid?" Tonks asked.
"You would have had to have been there last year." Su relied, "I managed to catch a few of his matches, he's downright scary with how he duels."
"He's going to be the favorite to win." Harry remarked.
"Not the competitor's favorite though." Su said, "Every competitor here would love to see him lose. I doubt if he's ever lost against anyone that wasn't a relative. His grandfather is a national legend, having won more world tournaments than any other wizard ever and he's still competing. The rest of his family seem to be well on the way to catching up to him."
"You actually going to be brave enough to fight Lao this year?" A German wizard called out to them.
"Lao is going down this year, count on it!" Su called out loudly to him.
"Somebody had better beat him or I'm going to have a conniption." An Australian witch whined.
Harry wasn't really sure just what a conniption was, but it didn't sound good. "When will we be facing Lao?" He asked.
"Not until almost the finals, it will be awhile before then." Su replied.
He admired Su's confidence but that was still a long ways off.
"Well we'd better get you ready then." Susan said.
DUELDUELDUEL
Meanwhile back at the hotel room, Pansy, Gabrielle, and Fleur all sat together on the bed, playing a game of cards.
"This stinks..." Gabrielle remarked.
"It sure does," Fleur agreed with a small smile. "Pansy keeps winning."
"You know that wasn't what I meant." Gabrielle replied.
"I know," Fleur said, her smile dropping to a glum expression, "I wish that our father was here at least."
"Why couldn't he come again?" Pansy asked.
"Couldn't get the time off work." The oldest Delacour answered, "Now it looks like we'll just have to sit here bored most of the time."
"At least you'll get to watch all the duels take place." Pansy said, trying to cheer them both up a bit.
"I'd rather not risk being out too much in case we're recognized with slave collars on us." Fleur said, "I was nervous enough coming here with them on."
"We could put some Glamours on you?" Pansy suggested.
"Glamours don't work on Veela," Fleur answered, "otherwise I would have started using them a long time ago."
Pansy's face however brightened as she said, "We could have you use Harry's invisibility cloak!"
"Did he bring it with him?" Gabrielle asked.
"He sure did," Pansy replied happily, "I watched him pack it, probably wanted it just in case something like what happened last year happens again."
"I still hate that." Gabrielle said fiercely, "If that didn't happen we'd both still be able to compete."
Nobody said anything about that, all knowing just how much it stunk.
Fortunately Amelia came back then. "Is everyone all right?" She asked.
"Yep, just playing cards." Fleur said.
"You mind if I join in?" She asked them.
After agreeing, they allowed her to come in, which she quickly proved to be insanely good at, schooling all of them.
"So that's where Susan got her skills from." Pansy observed.
Amelia grinned, "I've taught her everything she knows, but not everything I know."
She happily put down a royal flush, to each of their annoyance.
DUELDUELDUEL
It had taken him weeks but he had finally managed to make it all the way back to his former home at 12 Grimmauld Place.
He would be safe here, no one knew where it was or even knew it existed, it was a closely guarded family secret. There were other Black homes and properties of course but this was the one that he should be safe in.
Even if the Ministry did know about it, they would never be able to get inside what with all the security spells on it. They could sit right outside his front door for years and never get in.
Stepping into the entryway he finally allowed himself to breath a sigh of relief, something he had not done in 12 long years ever since his incarceration.
The place was filthy and caked with dust, meaning their old family house elf Kreacher was either dead or at a different property. To this he was actually grateful as he had always hated that house elf.
Searching through the pantry to see if perhaps there might still be some edible food, he located some magically preserved potato chips and dug in, hungrily eating, most of his meals while being on the run having come out of garbage cans.
Just as he was starting to relax a bit, a voice said from behind him, "Hello Sirius."
Turning around in absolute horror, he realized in that split second that perhaps he was not as safe as he thought.
It was still dark and he had not bothered to turn on a light so he couldn't really tell who they were as he strained to see who it was.
Finally they stepped closer and turned a light on.
"Surprised to see me?" Said the face of his cousin Narcissa.
She looked different from when he had last seen her, she had obviously taken a great deal of beauty enhancement potions as she had a terrific figure that she could not have achieved naturally.
"How did you find me?" Sirius managed to croak out, still unused to speaking.
"I knew you would come here cousin." She answered, "The only place that you could be assured you would be safe. It's fortunate for me that your mother gave me a key to it before she passed and gave me the location."
"You here to capture me again, put me back in Azkaban and collect the reward money?" Sirius asked.
"I don't need any reward money," Narcissa answered, which he realized was true, it wasn't like her husband was a pauper, "and besides, there won't be going back for you, the Minister has already ordered that you be given the Dementor's kiss immediately upon capture."
He blanched with fear, being given the kiss had always been one of his greatest fears. He had been lucky to escape it 12 years ago.
"Why are you here then?" Sirius asked.
"I'm here to help you Sirius." Narcissa replied simply.
"Why would you want to help me after everything I put you through?" Sirius queried.
"I still love you Sirius, even if you did rip out my heart." She said, "We could have had many beautiful children together if you hadn't gone off and run away."
"We were cousins, it just wouldn't have been right." He told her in his defense.
Narcissa and he indeed had a history together. As children, both sets of their parents had decided that the best way to preserve their family blood purity was by having him and his cousin Narcissa be betrothed to each other.
Growing up, they had spent a great deal of time together as a result. This led to a rather close relationship between them, causing Narcissa to actually fall in love with him, while he never could see her as anything more than his cousin.
Eventually that was one of the reasons he had run away from home and went to go live with James. He cared for Narcissa deeply, just not in the same way.
When he had left and had his name burned off of the family tree, her parents quickly formed a marriage contract with her and Lucius Malfoy, someone she had always despised, but forced to hide that loathing from anyone else besides him. He still felt guilty for leaving her out to dry like that, even if he couldn't have known who she would be forced to marry instead.
"I'm truly sorry Narcissa, for everything that I put you through." He tried to say.
"I know, you did what you had to do, and so did I." She answered, "Not that it did either of us any good. You spent 12 years in Azkaban, and I've spent 14 with Lucius. It's still pretty close who got off worse, I'd say. I still can't help but think of how things might have been different had we ended up together though."
He could think of nothing to say to that.
"I'm going to help you Sirius, even get you exonerated if I can." She announced.
"How do you know I'm innocent?" He asked.
"I know you Sirius, you would never have done something like that." Narcissa said simply, "Besides, I've heard Lucius talk about it."
"That sounds awfully risky of you to try and help a convicted criminal." He commented.
"Well I'm not exactly doing it for free." She answered.
He wasn't surprised by this, Narcissa was the most cunning person he knew, she always got something from everything she did.
However the only thing that he could currently think of that he could offer her was sex, which if he had to choose between the Dementor's kiss and having his soul ripped out or doing his admittedly now very attractive cousin, he'd have an easy answer to that. This was not what she had in mind however.
"You left me in quite a predicament." She began, "I kept my hatred of Lucius a secret, of course, but he still has treated me even worse than I had ever imagined. I may be able to buy anything I want with his money, have the nicest clothes, buy the perfect body, whatever it is I want, but it still has not bought me happiness. Outwardly I must act like a cold, socialite wife who dotes upon him and fulfills his every whim while I know that he commits heinous and unspeakable acts behind locked doors."
"I was grateful when he stopped touching me after Draco was born. He instead turned to captured muggles that he always Obliviated in order to satiate his appetites, the price I suppose for not having to share his bed."
"Draco, my son, my only real reason to even put up with it has become more and more like his father now, so cold and callous and bloodthirsty, I hardly recognize him anymore. I am ashamed of what he is now as his mother."
"I have been looking for a way out of my marriage ever since I was betrothed to him."
"I'm sorry you had to go through that Cissy." He said, going and giving her a hug, yet now suddenly aware that he must smell terrible.
She didn't seem to mind though at that moment and returned the hug, even if it probably did stink up her nice clothes.
"I wish I could go back and fix it." He said glumly.
"We can't change the past, but we can change the future." She said, "I never could discuss it with you while you were in prison in case Lucius found out I went to go see you but now that you are out we have a chance."
"If you were exonerated of your crimes, you would be able to take over as head of the Black family, which would allow you to annul my marriage to Lucius."
"Only if he was convicted of a crime." Sirius pointed out.
"Which is why I'm going to get him convicted of one." She said, "Lucius has been very careful of not leaving any evidence around or letting me in on his schemes, but I'm still hopeful I can get something on him. I can then take half of everything from him, all of his money, property, Wizengamot seats, half of everything he owns. The other half would go to Draco, who as his mother I would be able to take control of until he came of age."
Sirius allowed himself to grin and say, "You know I would be happy to get Lucius in prison and rob him of at least half of everything he owns."
"It won't be easy to pull all of that off, but I think we can do it." She informed him confidently, "Now I need to get to my other part of the plan. You are still Harry Potter's godfather, but since you were in prison, Dumbledore managed to get magical guardianship over him. I only just learned that Dumbledore apparently placed him with Lily's Muggle sister and her husband."
"He put him with the Dursleys?!" Sirius asked incredulously, "That scumbag! The one place Lily clearly stated she did not want her son to grow up in if anything ever happened to her and what does Dumbledore go and do?"
"At least he isn't there anymore." She commented, "I don't know where he is now, even Lucius hasn't been able to find that out as far as I can tell, just that the Dursleys were arrested for child abuse and are now serving 7 years in Azkaban."
Still upset by this new information, he almost didn't hear what she said next. "Lucius has been trying to kill Harry."
"I know, he told me while I was in the same cell as him awhile back during his night in prison." Sirius answered, "That's one reason why I broke out, so that I could protect him from Lucius."
"I've got a plan for that too, if all goes well it will keep Lucius from trying to kill Harry, get you exonerated, and also reinstated as Harry's magical guardian."
Such a plan seemed too good to be true, and as the saying went if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
"What's the catch?" He asked.
She now looked very nervous, something totally unusual for her, and said hesitantly, "You aren't going to like it."
"What is it?" He asked.
"I'd like to adopt Harry." She told him.
He promptly fainted.