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Chapter Text

James Potter sat on his couch in the living room of his safe house, reading a newspaper with the most recent atrocities committed by the mad man named Voldemort. Across from him sat his lovely wife, Lily Potter who held their daughter Rose. Rose laughed as her mother floated small animals over her head, her favorite was a large black dog, to the slight annoyance of her father who himself preferred the stag for obvious reasons.

"Obviously Padfoot charmed it so that she would prefer it," mumbled James from behind his newspaper.

Lily looked across the room to her husband, "you and I both know that if any of the objects Rose played with were charmed by anyone other than you or me, we would immediately know."

James just moved the newspaper closer to himself, knowing that arguing further would just make him look bad in front of the two most important women in his life. However, upon hearing Lily sigh, he peeked to see what made his wife upset. Glancing in the same direction as her, he noticed small children trick-or-treating out the living room window, most likely all muggle children as no magical family would be outside where the death eaters could get at them.

"I'm sure its just a matter of time before we can join them, and all of this will just feel like some nightmare."

Lilly turned back to her husband and gave him a small smile, "I'm sure you're right honey. But it just feels…"

"Lily, get Rose and go upstairs," James interrupted as he glared outside.

She turned back to the window and noticed a cloaked figure staring at their house, as if he could see it. As if the fidelis charm was not there. "Peter wouldn't betray us," Lily gasped. And then she felt the anti-apparition field go over her.

"Run Lily, go upstairs and use the emergency portkey, take Rose, I'll hold him off!"

Lily ran upstairs with Rose clinging to her mother, fear in her large brown eyes, feeding off of her parents' fear. James held his wand in a duel stance learned from his short time in the Auror Corps.

The front door of the small Potter Cottage was blasted apart as the cloaked figure climbed over the ruins into their home. James wasted no time as he shot piercing hexes, banishing curses, and other auror standard spells. Voldemort shielded against most and dodged what few got through.

"How did you get Peter to tell us our secret?" yelled James.

Voldemort responded with his own series of spells and jinxes designed to main, hurt, and kill. "Little Wormtail brought me your secret of his own free will."

This shocked James long enough for a bludgeoning jinx to hit his wand arm destroying his bones. "Yes, your friend betrayed you without me even having to ask," continued the Dark Lord, "his only request was to join my ranks. The little coward didn't even ask for protection, power, money, or to be in my inner circle. He simply knew that you were losing, and my side was winning."

James hoped that this little monologue would give Lily enough time to escape, but he could not feel the magic that was supposed to signal the activation of the Portkey.

As if reading his mind, the Dark Lord smirked down at his prey, "Portkeys will not work here I'm afraid. You see, I can't have you running to another little rat nest and start this whole thing over again."

James horrified look only fed the monster in front of him, as he began to laugh, "as a small favor to you, for giving me a small challenge, I shall end your life without pain."

"Lily RUN!" were the last words of James Charles Potter as he was hit with the killing curse. He fell to the ground arm outstretched towards the stairs leading to his wife and daughter.

Voldemort stepped over the now dead body of one of his biggest obstacles, now for that brat, who was supposed to be his equal.

Blasting the door to a room revealed a large master bedroom, but no Lily or Rose. He calmly moved on to the other closed door in the small hall and also blasted it open. As soon as the debris fed from the threshold, a jet of red light flew towards him, giving him only a fraction of a second to dodge it. The cutting curse aimed at his neck, barely made a cut on his right. A small tickle of blood ran down his neck as he continued to shield and dodge more spells from the small room.

"Foolish woman, step aside. You are to be a present to one of my most faithful, do not throw this gift away," Voldemort said as if having a simple conversation, instead of a heated battle.

"I would rather die than become some sex toy for any of your worthless followers," retorted Lily while continuing to send an assortment of spells towards the Dark Lord.

"Come now, Lily, Severus would treat you much better than a sex toy," he responded with a smirk using shock to gain the upper hand, however Lily only screamed and began to double her spells while silent casting them.

"Severus is dead to me, and if I have a choice between death and being his, I chose death, but I am taking you with me!" At this, Lily hit a small stone which lit up a ritual circle under her. Being the master of magic that he was, Voldemort immediately recognized the sacrificial ritual used to take her life along with his. He knew that while in the circle she was protected from him and once completed it would destroy his body, fortunately he had methods of surviving even that.

Knowing he only had seconds he quickly shot the killing curse at Rose who had been crying in her crib this whole time. While not a complete victory, he would at least rid himself of the brat that would one day pose a threat to him.

Lily looked on in horror as the spell flew past her shields and towards her baby. Tears, sadness, rage, all fueled her resolve, and she managed to speed up the ritual, using her life force to destroy the madman that would take the last of the Potters, but the rest of her friends would survive.

As her life force was being drained, she witnessed a miracle, a thread of her soul flew towards her daughter to intercept the killing curse. Voldemort looked in shock as his body began to disintegrate, while his spell collected in front of the child before returning towards himself. He felt as his soul began to tear apart. The pain from his body being destroyed was nothing to the pain of his soul being split yet again, but without the proper preparations he would not receive the benefits of a horcrux, only the downside of having his power considerably drain.

He screamed as his killing curse, the ritual, and the sacrifice shield meshed into a magical explosion, further weakening the Dark Lord, tearing into his mind, and making these last few seconds feel like millennia. He saw countless colors explode across the room, rifts in time and space, the magic in this room had never before been mixed and he was afraid he might be thrown into a different reality where his horcruxes did not exist. But at the last second all he saw was a second child appear in the crib. And memories pelted his own mind, the child was the child of prophecy, Harry James Potter.

~~~IGYB~~~

Sirius black had been looking for Peter all day, he needed to keep him safe from death eaters, else he might share the secret of the Potters, but after failing to find him at the safe house, he decided to go see if the Potters needed help. With Peter lost to the world, it could be a matter of minutes before the He-who-must-not-be-named, attacked his extended family. As he flew his motorcycle in stealth mode towards Godric's Hollow, he suddenly had a mix of memories mesh into his mind, now he remembered not only his godson Harry, but also his goddaughter Rose.

How could this be possible, he knew that both of his godchildren were an only child, and Harry did not have a sister, but Rose did not have a brother, yet they were both the children of his brother in all but blood James, and his best female friend Lily. He doubled his speed, removing stealth mode and headed to his surrogate family. Something horrible must have happened.

A minute or so later he arrived at the Potter's house to see the front door destroyed and little Rose and Harry's room open to the outside world. He ran inside and noticed James sprawled on the floor. Only the thoughts of his godchildren prevented him from mourning his best friend. He ran up the stairs taking three at a time to yet more destruction. Lily's body laid in the middle of a ritual circle while his godchildren cried in their crib.

Sirius felt tears blur his vision but moved towards the children, "I don't know what is going on Harry, Rose, but uncle Padfoot is here, I will protect you with my life. Amelia should be at her house taking care of Susan, no one should expect us there."

He picked up both Potter children and carried them towards his bike, only stopping to pick up the wands of Lily and James, he would return for their bodies at later time.

As he loaded up the children, he saw movement and quickly drew his wand.

"Sirius, its me, Hagrid. Dumbledore sent me ter pick up Harry an' also ter pick up Rose." Came the voice of his favorite half giant. "He said he would take 'em somewhere safe."

Sirius did not put down his wand, "Hagrid, that old fool was to keep them and their parents safe and look at what has happened. In fact, how did you get here so quick, whatever happened just happened moments ago." Sirius shot the most powerful stunner he could manage, rather ask for forgiveness later than put the remaining Potters in further danger.

He quickly started his bike and headed towards Amelia's her house which was under the Fidelis Charm after Edgar and Laura Bones were killed earlier in the summer. Amy would provide them shelter while they sorted everything out.

A bout half an hour later, he arrived at the ward lines of the house, bringing in the children without the secret of the house would disorient them and cause them to be sick, thankfully he had asked his cousin Andromeda to meet him at the Bones residence.

"What is the meaning of this Siri, waking me up at this horrible hour," she glanced at his side-cart on his bike, "Oh my, is that Rose and Harry. I thought my mind was playing tricks on me.."

"Andy, we don't have time, please tell them the location of the Bones residence so I can bring them inside, and I will explain everything."

Andy quickly cast a diagnostic charm on the children to prove to herself that they were indeed the Potter children and then told them the secret.

The front door to the house opened up and a very irate woman walked out with her wand out, "is this some kind of trick, before tonight I only remembered one Potter child, and now I remember two. Explain Sirius!"

Sirius held his hands up, "Amy I promise, it was the same for me, but now I can't remember which one was the original memory, I remember changing both dippers as well as getting slapped by Lily for both letting Harry ride a toy broom, and letting Rose ride a toy broom."

Amelia saw Andy and decided to trust them; however, she kept her wand in hand. "Alright, come inside and explain."

The two exiled Blacks brought in the Potter children inside. Sirius immediately walked to the liquor cabinet for a bottle of fire whiskey.

Once all three were sitting down, Sirius began his story, "I have been looking for Peter all day, he missed his scheduled check-in yesterday, so I feared he had been captured. I figured that if everyone thought that the Potters' secret-keeper was me, he would be left alone."

"Wait, you're not the secret-keeper!?" asked both of t he women at the same time.

"No, it was obvious that I would be the secret-keeper, so Albus convinced Lily to use Peter instead, no one would think he was the secret-keeper. Anyways, as I left the last hideout that Peter might have used with still no clue where he was, I decided to pay James a visit. I was afraid that Peter had either been murdered, or worse, he betrayed James and Lily. On my way there I felt as if two of me suddenly became one, both with the exact same memories, but with one difference."

Amelia interrupted him, "let me guess, one was with Rose, and the other with Harry."

Both Black cousins nodded.

"I did not know what that meant so I sped off to find out what happened to my godchildren, which reminds me, we might have reports of a flying motorcycle to deal with soon," Amelia simply glared at Sirius. "Anyways, once I arrived at the Potter cottage, I feared the worst. The front door of the house was blasted apart, and James. Oh god James. He was on the floor, his right arm twisted, and all life gone from his eyes. And then poor Lily, she was on the ground inside some kind of ritual circle. I didn't know what to do. I grabbed the children and ran, I managed to grab their wands. The kids may want them in the future.

"Hagrid showed up, but I was suspicious of how soon he showed up after what had just happened, so I stunned him and left, before that though, he did say something about Albus sending him for the children. I did not want to trust him with them, besides as their godfather, they should be with me. I sent a Patronus to Andy and now here we are. I was hoping that you would let us stay here for a while Amy. I would mean a lot to us, and I can help you protect this place. Only you and Andy know I am here so no one should come looking for us. I can even create some kind of distraction up towards Scotland, have everyone believe that I'm taking the kids to Hogwarts under the protection of Albus, only the teachers at Hogwarts would know that that was false."

Amelie's glare softened, "of course you three can stay here. Andy, if you want to bring Ted and Nym, we can make sure this secret stays secret, and protect you as well as your family. To keep the Fidelis Charm active, we can simply provide you with a permanent portkey from here to your house so that magic continues to recognize you as not being a resident of this house."

"Thank you Amelia, I will go get them right now," Andy got up from the couch and walked towards the fireplace. She was gone with a flash of green fire.

"So, do you know why they went after the potters?" asked Amelia, trying to get this mystery solved.

"You-know-who must have been there himself, the kids were part of the prophecy, now its impossible to tell which one, however the prophecy told of them being marked as his equal, and both have that nasty scar on their forehead, I guess we will have to wait and find out which one keeps the mark."

~~~IGYB~~~

Albus was not very happy, his plan was going perfectly well. Peter became the secret-keeper, giving him power over someone for once in his cowardly life. He would of course use that to join Tom and his little gang of death eaters. Sirius was the only problem, being the godfather of apparently both of the Potter children, he would get custody of them. He was of course taken care of, a quick compulsion charm set upon the house entrance for him specifically would have him abandon the children and chase down Peter. Either he would get himself killed, or he would kill Peter. A quick word from the leader of the light, and he would be behind bars as a traitor as well as the murderer of Peter Petigrew, or he would be dead and Peter would be the murder slash traitor.

After waiting over an hour for Hagrid with no sign of his old friend, he asked Minerva to continue keeping watch over the Dursley family, Lily's only remaining relatives. He would go see if Hagrid had run into any trouble.

Upon arriving at the destroyed Potter home, he noticed Hagrid out cold in the garden next to tire marks that could only belong to Sirius and his magical bike. Whatever happened here must have removed the compulsion charm he placed for Sirius. A quick enervate and Hagrid was slowly waking up.

"Professor, I'm sorry," began the large man while failing to hold back tears. "Sirius was already 'ere when I got 'ere an' he already 'ad the kids loaded up."

Dumbledore raised a calming hand, "its alright Hagrid, you did what you could, for now let me verify what has happened this night."

Dumbledore walked into the house, noticing first the destruction, followed by the large amount of spell residue in the living room, finally he noticed James' still body on the ground, "strange, I don't see his wand anywhere," he mumbled to himself.

He walked up the stairs and noticed a large ritual circle under the body of Lily Potter. "Ah, I told her to not use this ritual, but she did not listen. Now we seem to have joined timelines where they had both a baby boy and a baby girl. Or perhaps it split them into two different children. Either way, this complicates matters. I can't blame this on Sirius' betrayal, as he has the kids and must have already found someone to confide his secrets to. If I blame him, and people know I convinced the Potters to use Peter instead, enough people might actually believe him to become a problem. No no, I should play this safe and gain their trust. I will see if I can still salvage this situation to put a stop to Voldemort."

Dumbledore quickly destroyed the ritual circle under Lily Potter. It would not do to have her be the hero of this story after all. The kids needed all of the attention. This way he could alienate them from everyone. As he walked out he noticed the sound of apparitions as the aurors finally arrived.

A very irate Bartemius Crouch walked forward, "what in the world is going on here Albus, you have two seconds to explain why you're at the Potters house and why it is destroyed."

Dumbledore held up his hand, "peace, Bartemius, I got an alarm from a ward notifying me that an intruder had come to the Potters household. I am afraid I arrived too late, James and Lily have both died fighting against the Dark Lord." Gasps were heard throughout the gathering crowd, some tears could be seen on what must have been friends of the Potters, and the sound of apparition from what must be someone trying to flee in case of further danger.

"However, the Potter twins have survived this ordeal, not only that but they have somehow vanquished the Dark Lord," said the old headmaster. Many of the people in the crowd looked up with hope clearly in their eyes.

"Yes, as I was investigating the scene, I found traces of the killing course mixed with magic that I have never seen before. This magic must have rebounded the course and killed Voldemort," many people gasped upon hearing the name, some apparated away, others screamed, one or two even fainted. "As you can see, he has not come upon his name being called, proving that he is finally gone."

Bartemius Crouch could not believe his ears. Finally, after so many years, they were finally rid of the monster. "We got to spread the news! We have finally stopped the menace; we need to round up all of the death eaters that we know of. Someone, get me a team. We will be hitting the Lestrange family tonight."

Dumbledore put his hand on Director Crouch's shoulder, "Bartemius, I must add someone to your list."

Quickly turning around and moving away from the so-called leader-of-the-light, "and who would that be."

Dumbledore's twinkle in his eye left for a second, "it appears that Peter Pettigrew, has either been caught by death eaters, or he betrayed the Potters, as he was the secret keeper for this location. I'm hopeful that we can find him and rescue him, or worse, bring him to justice."

Before he received a response, he apparated back to number 4 Privet Dr.

McGonagall turned around to the sound of apparition with the reflexes of a cat, wand in hand, but quickly put it down upon seeing her old mentor, "so where are the kids Albus?"

"It seems that Sirius has them in his custody," responded the old wizard.

McGonagall seemed shocked, "but you said that he had betrayed the Potters and would not be allowed to guard them."

"It seems even I can make mistakes, what I saw as signs of betrayal from Sirius, were actually clever decoys from Peter. Non the less, the Potters were betrayed by one close to them."

Minerva looked towards the house once more, "well I for one am thankful that neither of those children will be stuck with the Dursleys. They are the worst muggle family I have ever had the misfortune to meet. How a kind and gentle soul like Lily could be related to anyone in this family I will never know."

Dumbledore looked at his deputy with clear disappointment in his eyes, "Minerva, surely you don't mean that. The Dursleys would have accepted the Potter twins with open arms and love them as if they were their own."

"Did you refer to them as the twins? Albus?"

"Well, as long as we don't understand how one became two and how we have memories of both Harry James Potter alone with his parents as well as Rose Lily Potter alone with her parents, we must be able to give a reason to the rest of the world. Bartemius apparently did not know the Potters well enough and simply believed what I told them regarding their origin without question."

"Well Albus, I shall return to school, hopefully we have more answers come morning," McGonagall responded before apparating back to the gates of Hogwarts.

Albus looked toward the Dursleys' home and took down the wards that were meant to protect the potter twins from Voldemort while he raised them to fit his needs. The muggles would not need his protection. Quite honestly the world would be best without them. And yet, the others must not know that in case he is able to get the Potter twins under his control and re-homed to the Dursleys.

Chapter Text

25th December 1990

A very loud scream woke up Amelia. It sounded like it came from the twins' room. She immediately flicked her wrist to call her wand to her hand. Quickly getting out of bed and putting on her bath robe, she walked up to her bedroom door only to be tackled by a large black dog.

"Sirius, what the hell are you doing?" asked Amelia, from underneath 180 pounds of panting canine.

"Woof, woof, woof."

A very confused Amelia responded, "Sirius I don't speak dog, change back!"

The large dog morphed into an attractive man in his late thirties, wearing a very festive red robe, a fake white beard and a pointy red hat with a white ball at the tip, "sorry Amy, Rose did not like her wake up call and she's now chasing me down with my own wand!"

Amelia now looked even more confused, "how did you manage to lose your wand to a ten-year-old girl?"

Sirius looked away and mumbled something about small brats with two brains.

"What was that?"

Sirius looked embarrassed but answered a little louder, "I said, Harry jumped on my back and gave Rose the opportunity to disarm me, I swear, they are one person with two brains. OUCH!"

As he finished his explanation, he got a stinging hex to the left butt cheek. "Did you also tell her that you licked our faces to wake us up old man?"

Amelia finally pushed the man-child off of her, "no, he failed to let me know about that small piece of information."

"Aunt Amy, I think he needs to be put in the doghouse again," came the also equally angry voice of Harry Potter from the hall.

Sirius put his best puppy dog eyes, "how come she gets 'aunt Amy' and I get 'old man' its not fair I tell you. Its mutiny!"

"Well, 'old man,' Aunt Amy is always kind to us and doesn't wake us up by licking our faces," responded the small fiery red head.

Footsteps alerted the group of the fifth and sixth members of the household approaching them, "whats going on Aunty?"

"Mom, is dad being mean to cousins Rose and Harry again?" came the small voice of Perseus Black.

Before anyone could respond Sirius got up and walked to his son, "of course not big guy, they just simply can't take a joke, and I was trying to do them a favor as it is Christmas you know?"

At the word 'Christmas' all four children looked at each other and raced downstairs to the Christmas tree. As long as they could remember, Christmas was always a huge event in the Black-Bones manor. Every year without fail, all four children were spoiled rotten by their guardians. It shouldn't be long before the Longbottoms and the Abbots would join along with a few of their other friends and chaos would rain in the household.

Harry's superior reflexes allowed him to arrive first but as always got a present for Perseus to allow him the first opening of Christmas. Perseus gladly took the present and ripped into it, opening up a box that held a slightly smaller box. He opened that one as well to lead to a slightly smaller box, this went on for ten more boxes with Perseus getting more and more frustrated and Sirius quietly giggling in the distance, until the last one. The last one being only large enough to hold a Chocolate Frog, yet it had a secret. Within this box, which held a space expanding charm, there was a large rectangular box, almost the perfect size for a broom.

"NO WAY!" Perseus looked up to the stairs where his dad had the biggest grin on his face. "You got me a broom!"

Immediately Amelia slapped the back of Sirius' head, "he's only eight, how could you get him a broom!"

Rubbing the back of his head he responded, "relax, its only a Nimbus S, it is made specifically for young children to practice on so its a bit smaller. Besides, Harry could ride professional brooms at that age."

Harry tried to look away from the glare of Amelia, "yes, I do seem to recall having to get you and Remus to chase after him after someone," she changed her glare to Sirius, "left his broom on the back porch, unattended, with a dare-devil for a godson."

Sirius walked towards the kids, "so anyways, who's next on opening the presents, and Perseus, we will show you how to ride that later when we have more people able to look out for you."

Rose raised her hand, "its my turn uncle!"

Harry gave her a present from the stack, upon seeing that it was from her brother she immediately tore into it as well. "You got me a necklace?"

"It used to be mom's, I found it while going through their belongings this summer. It is supposed to act as a method of communication between the wearer and the head of house, so if you ever need me, all you have to do is hold it tight and I'll feel that you need me, and what direction you're in," Harry answered her.

Rose gave her brother a huge hug, "thank you, thank you, thank you!"

"You can thank me by letting me breath sis," responded an almost blue Harry.

Rose sheepishly let go of her brother and grabbed a present from under the tree, quickly handing it over to him, "happy Christmas Harry."

Harry opened it more delicately than his sister or cousin, and found a golden snitch, "its supposed to get slightly harder to catch every time you catch it. And if you don't catch it within a certain amount of time, it will get easier to catch, you can also call it back to you once you set a specific phrase to it."

"Thanks sis, I'll definitely take seeker position with a year and a half worth of training ahead of me!" Harry embraced his sister making sure to allow her to breathe.

It was now Susan's turn to open a present, she graved one labeled, 'from Padfoot,' "well let's hope this doesn't explode in my face."

Sirius faked a hurt look, "that was one time, and you opened something that was meant for Harry, so its not my fault."

"Hey!" yelled a slightly distracted Harry who was playing with his new golden snitch.

Susan suddenly ran and hugged Uncle Sirius. Rose looked up, "well what did he get you to make you so happy?"

From Sirius' embrace she responded, "he got me tickets to a muggle play that I've been dying to see!"

And so continued, as all the residents of Black-Bones manor opened their presents, Harry, Rose, and Susan all received wand holsters for their upcoming year in Hogwarts, as well as Ministry approved practice wands, which only allowed a select few spells to be cast, such as a tickling, summoning, and disarming charms. Nothing too difficult, or exhausting, and it would only work in the presence of a specific adult, in this case either Sirius or Amelia. Leo received a one of six mirrors, enchanted by Sirius himself so that they could all communicate with each other by simply saying the person's name whom they wish to speak with. The receiver would feel a slight vibration followed by the mirror warming up.

Susan and Rose received books on spells for witches that Harry looked at for all of two seconds before pretending to puke and vowing to never look at those books again. And they all received a bottomless pouch for school or work. Amelia received a present from Sirius which made her blush very brightly, immediately hide it in her new bottomless pouch, and refuse to tell any of the kids what she received. She then gave Sirius a helmet, which was charmed to cancel out all noise from the wind and motorcycle, as well as a second helmet to let him communicate with anyone in his side cart. It also had an option for receiving muggle radio signals so he could listen to music as he rode.

Eventually other guests started arriving. Hannah Abbott came out of the fireplace running straight into a hug with Susan, with a mumbled hello to the other residents. Her parents, being used to the girls acting in such a way, simply ignored them and walked to Sirius and Amelia.

Allan Abbott gave Sirius a bottle of muggle wine that he had acquired in France recently, while Lisa Abbott gave Amelia a collection of books by a muggle writer named Anne Rice. Amelia discretely hid her new books in her own bottomless pouch as those books would not be available for Rose to read. That child would read anything she came accross.

Followed by the Abbots, a round boy came stumbling out of the fireplace and landed on Rose and Perseus. "Sorry guys, I still can't get the hang of it."

"I've told you time and time again to simply wait for the feeling of a small tug at your back and immediately take a step forward," came a very delicate voice from behind Neville.

"Its harder than it sounds you know," responded a red-faced boy, "oh, this is my cousin, Daphne, we share the same grandma, but she's from the Greengrass family. Daphne this is…"

"Yes, I know, hello Harry Potter, Rose Potter, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance," greeted the small blonde girl while curtsying.

"Well, I was going to say, that this is Susan Bones, Hannah Abbott, Perseus Black, and the Potter twins," came the reply from Neville. Daphne looked at the other children in the room and suddenly her face started to become red. She was saved by Alice and Frank Longbottom who came out of the fireplace next, providing a small distraction for Daphne to make her escape.

Neville turned to his best friend, "sorry about her Harry, she was super nervous about meeting the famous Potter twins, please don't hold this against her, she's normally very nice and well behaved."

Harry waved him off, "don't worry about it, we've definitely gotten worse anytime we make an appearance in public. At least she didn't look at our scars. By the way, where are her parents?"

"Uncle Cyrus and Aunt Isabella are currently taking care of Astoria, she's sick and they didn't want Daphne to spend Christmas in such a gloomy environment, so they sent her to us for the day."

Harry looked thoughtful, "well that puts us boys at a disadvantage, its only three of us and four girls, got any male friends or cousins coming?"

"No, what about you, didn't you invite your cousin Draco?" asked Neville.

"We did but purely as a formality," came the answer behind him from Rose, "he is too good for family functions like this in such a 'small house' besides he's not really our cousin, he's Perseus's cousin and only a second cousin at that."

"In fact the second cousin we really care about is Tonks, and she should be here any minute now, but that will just make it even more girls, we'll be completely outnumbered."

Harry suddenly was wrestled to the ground in a barrage of tickles, "you should pay more attention to your surroundings there o' vanquisher of dark lords, I showed up ages ago, and even if it was only Rose, Susan and I, we are more than a match for any amount of boys you three can bring."

Through fits of giggles Harry struggled an "I give, I give."

Tonks finally released the boy, "you know Tonks, just cause you want to be an auror, doesn't mean that you have to practice on little ol' me."

Tonks got a glint in her eye, "well true but you double as a comfortable little pillow, so you're the best to practice with!"

Harry tried to look annoyed, but he loved his cousin too much, so he settled with annoying her a bit, "aww Nymmie, I didn't think you cared that much!"

Tonks made a grab for him but due to her clumsy metamorphmagus genes, Harry's quick reflexes, and a small interruption from Perseus foot, she came tumbling down while the kids ran of to Harry's room to play exploding snap.

Shortly afternoon, everyone had arrived, including the rest of the Tonks, Remus Lupin, and to Harry and Neville's horror, another girl in the form of Lisa, from the Turpin family.

Tonks entertained the kids with stories of Hogwarts, as it was her final year at the moment, and she answered a lot of questions. She told them about the different houses, the different teachers, how to avoid some of the trick steps, but she refused to answer how they were to be sorted. Apparently, it was tradition for it to be a secret, instead she just told them to "practice as many offensive spells as possible."

With the children properly scared senseless about possible duels with the heads of houses, Tonks left to bother her favorite Cousin, Sirius.

Later in the day, it was finally time for Perseus to try out his new broom under the watchful eye of Sirius, Amelia, Frank and Remus, and Neville and Harry would be close by on their own brooms. Honestly, Perseus was more afraid of everyone watching him make a mistake than actually making a mistake. Harry however gave him great tips and soon enough he was flying like a pro, albeit a terribly slow pro who only made it about ten feet off of the ground.

Once he was congratulated by everyone, they started their annual game of Quidditch. The only difference was that this time, they would be including the children.

Lisa Turpin, her mom Allison, and Rose would be chasers, with Alice as goalie, Sirius as beater, and Neville as seeker. The other team was Remus, Frank, and Allen as chasers, Lisa Abbott as goalie, Amelia as beater and Harry as seeker. Daphne managed to get roped in as the referee and scorekeeper even though she loathed to be on a broom. Thankfully the adults played on slower brooms as a handicap to the children, and the bludgers were practice ones so they were made of much softer material than their professional counterparts.

An hour later, Harry's team was losing by sixty points, when he saw a flash of gold behind Sirius' head. Sirius was too concentrated hunting down Remus to notice and Neville was facing the complete wrong way.

Harry slowly crept towards his godfather before increasing his speed as fast as he could. Sirius turned to see his godson trying to kamikaze into him and dodged, "you're going to have to do better than that to get me off my broom."

Harry simply turned and smiled, "is winning the game enough to get you off your broom?" he asked while holding the snitch in hand.

Sirius just stared at harry with an open mouth.

"Um… Harry Potter has caught the Snitch, bringing his team to 230 points while the opposing team remains at 140 points. Harry's team wins," yelled out a nervous Daphne.

Sirius was slapped in the back of the head by all the members of his team minus Neville for allowing Harry to easily get the snitch. Everyone else quickly floated down to congratulate Harry on winning it for the team.

The large group went back inside for Christmas dinner which was, as always, a very large selection of foods prepared by the house elves including turkey, chicken, duck, lobster, apple pie, treacle tart, cauldron cakes, and many other muggle and wizarding foods.

Neville, Perseus and Harry sat on one side talking away about the game they just played, while Rose, Hannah, Susan, Daphne, and Lisa talked about what they were expecting from their Hogwarts classes coming in just over half a year.

Eventually the party died down, as the children were exhausted and would soon be going to sleep, with Tonks as the designated babysitter, while the rest of the adults went on to start their own party with more alcohol involved.

Chapter Text

28th July 1991

"Expelliarmus," came the cry from both duelists. Both practice wands went flying as the twins were knocked down.

"That makes what, five loses each and four draws?" asked Sirius. "Honestly, it's scary how similar you two are. You even improve at the same rate."

Rose was the first to get up, "it wouldn't be such a close match every time if we were allowed to use more than five different spells."

Harry just sat on the ground, "honestly, I'm faster at dodging than her, but she's faster at casting, with more spells available to us one of us would definitely be the better duelist."

Sirius pulled Harry up from the ground, "well you're in luck, you should get your Hogwarts letter soon, and we can get you your actual wands. Of course, you'll still have to wait another month to practice these other spells once you get to Hogwarts."

"Ugh! What is the point of us getting our wands so soon if we can't use them?" asked Harry.

"Yeah, what he said," followed Rose.

Susan, who had been sitting on the other side of the room watching the twins duel looked in horror, "you two are monsters with just those five spells, there is absolutely no way I'll keep dueling either of you once you get actual wands. I already have six loses to each of you, I do not want to continue to lose AND get hurt in the process."

Rose went up to her best friend who may as well be a sister at this point, "Sue! You can't mean that. You need to practice with us so you can get better in case you need to defend yourself."

"And just what should she be defending herself from?" asked Sirius.

Both Harry and Rose looked over to their godfather and responded, "BOYS!"

"Well, if she needs to defend herself from boys, then those boys will need to hide from me."

Susan looked horrified, "uncle, you can't just go around beating up boys that look at me, I saw you glare at that boy that asked me for my name when we got ice-cream."

"In my defense, that boy looked to be about fourteen years old, you were only ten at the time, that's just creepy," responded a serious Sirius.

Susan looked at her honorary-uncle, "its not like I'm interested in boys yet. Especially if they are all like Harry and Neville, always talking about quidditch this, quidditch that. If its not that, they're talking about pranking. They're so immature!"

"Hey, I resemble that remark," came the sonorous screech of one of the ten-year-old boys in question.

"I'll just practice with Hannah and Daphne, maybe even Neville," continued Susan, ignoring Harry, "even he dreads the practice matches with you two."

Rose looked horrified at the thought of Neville fearing her, "that's not fair, he beat me once."

"Yeah, but that was only because he tripped while firing the disarming charm at you causing his aim to go way off. The fact that you were dodging where he was aiming was pure coincidence and even you two can't dodge in mid-air," Sirius explained.

Just then, a small pop sounded in the middle of the three children and their overgrown child that was supposed to be their guardian, "young masters, you must be showering now, breakfast will be in thirty minutes." With that, the little elf popped away again.

Rose and Harry looked at each other and both yelled, "DIBS!" before running off towards the stairs.

Sirius looked on with confusion, "we have like six bathrooms in this house, why are they in such a hurry?"

Susan looked defeated, "yeah but only the one in your room has the jets in the bath."

Sirius took a few moments to think about what she said, "wait, that's my bathroom," and he chased after his charges.

~~~IGYB~~~

"Honestly Sirius, you're worse than both of them combined," came the admonishment from Amelia.

Sirius opened his mouth to defend himself, only for Amelia to put her hand in front of his face, "you're a wizard Sirius! Just lock the damn thing and make it so only you or I can access the bathroom. I would do it for the whole room but with those two, I'm afraid of what may happen in an emergency."

Sirius looked down, a bit embarrassed, "yes dear."

"Good, now replace the door, and meet me downstairs so we can get breakfast started."

Amelia walked downstairs to the dining room; a large room decorated in gothic style. A black marble dining table at the center, surrounded by six black walnut chairs, with red cushions and high backs. A beautiful chandelier with two dozen candles provided light to the entire room. The fireplace roared behind the head of house's spot. Unlike the other two fireplaces in the manor, this one was purely for warmth, and was not connected to the Floo Network.

On top of the fireplace, pictures of Harry, Rose, Susan, and Perseus, could be found in abundance. Harry and Neville flying together, Rose, Hannah, and Susan holding their Christmas presents, Perseus and Harry riding muggle bicycles. But in the center, the largest picture showed the entire family, plus the Tonks, the Longbottoms, and the Abbotts.

The food was already laid out on the table under stasis awaiting the rest of the family. Harry and Perseus on the same side, with Rose opposite of Harry, and Susan next to her opposite Perseus. Amelia set on the end closest to the door, and quickly glared at Harry who avoided her eyes as best he could while squirming in place.

Finally, he looked up, "I'm sorry aunty, I didn't think he would vanish the door and flood the bathroom."

Amelia sighed, "it is alright Harry, he should be more careful of his pranks, however in the future, please ask for permission before using our bathroom. You two have your own, and there are plenty of others if you need to use one while yours is occupied."

"Yes aunty."

She looked at the other three who immediately responded with a "yes aunty," and "yes mom."

Shortly after, Sirius walked down to join the rest of his family. He promptly sat down and waved for them to eat. The children proceeded to eat their food in silence, while constantly looking out the window.

"You know, a watched potion, never brews," came Amelia's voice startling the elder three back from watching the window. "You have been watching the window every morning since July started, and every morning you are disappointed."

Just then, three brown barn owls flew in through the window, and Harry's eyes seemed to sparkle, "you were saying?"

Three sets of hands fumbled trying to be the first to remove the letter from the owls, Harry getting pecked in the head for being a bit too rough. But eventually, all three had their letters of acceptance into Hogwarts, as well as their list of supplies for the year.

Harry looked disappointed, "apparently I'm not allowed to bring my broom to school 'till next year."

Rose immediately shot him a look, "I've told you time and time again that first years haven't been allowed a broom since 1805, if you would read Hogwarts a History, you would know!"

"Well, I knew we weren't allowed one, so I sent Professor McGonagall a letter asking her to please change the rule this year."

Sirius and Perseus just busted out laughing while Harry shot Perseus a venomous look, "you know, if she had listened to me, it would have meant that you would also be able to have your own broom as a firstie in a few years too. I guess, I'll just have to lock away my broom so you can't use it when you come to Hogwarts."

Perseus immediately stopped laughing, "I'm sorry Harry, I won't do it again."

Amelia looked scandalized, "of course, because I won't allow you to fly without adult supervision, I don't care how good Sirius and Remus say Harry is."

"Yes mom," answered Perseus looking down, while crossing his fingers under the table.

"Well, I see you have all finished your food, so you can prepare to go to Diagon Ally in half an hour," said Amelia as she got up to leave.

Susan looked confused for a second, "wait, you normally head to work at this time. WAIT, you knew we would get our letters today didn't you Aunty! That's not fair!"

Rose and Harry looked confused as well, but Rose understood first, "you took the day off Aunty? You couldn't do that in such short notice, why didn't you tell us?"

Amelia looked back at them and cracked a smile, "what, am I not allowed to pull a prank on you kids?"

Everyone but Sirius looked shocked at being on the receiving end of a prank from Madam Black-Bones, the Head of the DMLE, the strictest woman they knew outside of Minerva McGonagall. She just walked away and started to laugh at their open mouths.

"You know kids, she wasn't always as strict as she is now, she did help the marauders pull a few pranks while in school."

In unison all four kids turned to Sirius, but only Rose closed her mouth long enough to say something, "why didn't you tell us these stories?"

"Well, your aunty didn't want you guys to think it was an open invitation to have an all-out prank war, but with that being said, what she just did was very mild. I expect you to behave as you have, maybe at worst prank her with something easily fixed. Trust me, you don't want to get on her bad side," as he said that he shivered with memories resurfacing, and his hands immediately went to his nether region.

"Anyways, go get ready, we will be leaving soon," with that he got up and followed after Amelia.

~~~IGYB~~~

Four overly excited children ran into Diagon Alley after Amelia opened the path for them. They had been here plenty of times before, but now it was solely for them that they were here. They would be purchasing their books, potions ingredients, astronomy tools, and various other objects. But more important than all of that, they would be getting their own wands.

"Harry!" "Rose, Susan!"

Twin shouts came from the front of the apothecary. Harry rushed to talk with Neville, while Rose and Susan rushed to a three-way hug with Hannah.

"Hey Neville, where is Daphne?" asked Harry, while looking around.

"Crushing on my cousin there, Potter?" asked Neville while giving him a glare.

"What? Me? No no no, I was just wandering I promise," answered Harry.

Neville tried, he really did but he had to start laughing, its not often he could scare Harry, "mate, it's alright, I know you don't have a crush on her, I was just messing with you. No, her mom took her and Astoria shopping at the beginning of the month, apparently, Cyrus being in the board of Governors gives them an inside source as to what is going to be on the list."

Harry regained his composure under the pitiful excuse for occlumency shields that he had managed to get after two years working with Sirius, "well her loss, she doesn't get to hang out with the coolest firsties this year."

All three girls just rolled their eyes. Hannah seemed to just remember something, "come on, Lisa is waiting for us at Ollivander's! We need to get going!"

The kids turned to run as one to Ollivander's when a loud whistle stopped them in their tracks. "Thank you, Tonks," Amelia then turned to the kids, "you will be escorted to Ollivander's by Allen, Lisa, and Tonks, while the rest of us buy the rest of your supplies. After that we will meet midway at Florean Fortescue's for some Ice Cream at noon, which gives you kids two hours to get your wands and explore, at no time should you be without an adult,"

Harry could not resist and had to interrupt, "Nymmie isn't an adult!"

Nymphadora's hair exploded in a sunburst of yellows, reds, and oranges, "listen here rugrat, I am an adult and as such am allowed to use magic, so unless you want to be used as a balloon for your dear sister Rose, I recommend you zip it."

Amelia rolled her eyes slightly so that only the other mothers in the group would notice, "moving on, if you want to go anywhere you must make sure that you are accompanied by one of the adults. More than likely Harry and Neville will be with Allen, while the girls go with Lisa and Tonks."

"Yes Aunty," chorused all five children.

"What about me mom?" asked Perseus.

"You will get to go with Sirius and keep him out of trouble," responded his mom.

Sirius grasped at his chest, "how could you say that Amy, it should be me keeping him out of trouble," at which point most everyone chuckled.

Amelia ignored her husband, "alright, everyone break."

~~~IGYB~~~

"Take your time why don't you," said Lisa Turpin while glaring at the group coming her way, but they all knew she was just joking. Rose and Susan ran at her and apologized anyways while giving her similar three-way hug like they gave Hannah.

Allen waited until they all greeted each other until he got their attention, "alright kids, lets get you all your wands." All children's eyes lit up and walked into the shop. It was a bit packed, but the children didn't care too much. After everyone squeezed in Allen and Tonks decided that they did care and would wait outside.

While all the children were looking around, a skeletal man walked out from between two shelves of wands, his skin seemed to have wrinkles on top of wrinkles and his eyes seemed to have lost their sight long ago. His hands did not seem to be very steady and once he talked, his voiced sounded very raspy, "hello young wizards and witches, it is a pleasure to have you all come to my shop.

"I seem to recognize young Miss Lisa Bletchley, or should I say Lady Lisa Abbott," he turned his two white orbs towards the only adult in the room and immediately she regretted letting her husband go outside before she could, "nine and a quarter, ebony with unicorn hair, very solid, I hope it has been a great partner all these years?"

She seemed to struggle to regain her composure, "um… yes thank you."

"Lets see here, Lisa Turpin, Hannah Abbott, Susan Bones, Neville Longbottom, and ah yes, the Potter Twins, I have been looking forward to having you two here." The other children wanted to feel ignored, but they were used all attention going to the Potter twins, and after a while, rather than envy they felt pity.

Harry ignored the comment, "its nice to meet you sir, Lisa was here first, so if you can do the honors Lisa?"

Lisa walked forward toward the old man and waited for him to look back at her. Once he did he quickly brought a magic tape that started measuring every distance possible, pinky toe of left foot to middle toe of right foot, armpit to ear, second knuckle of her left ring finger to the third line on her palm, on and on it went while he looked through hundreds of boxes.

After a few minutes he returned with a shorter box than most, "give this a wave, six-inch, ash and unicorn hair."

Lisa waved it and caused her own hair to stand on end as if electrically charged, "guess not, how about this, seven inches ebony and unicorn hair."

Again, she waved it and caused a small gust of wind to push wands from shelves, she went through four more wands before red sparks shot from the last one given to her, "six and three quarters, ebony with dragon-heart string, my my, I knew you were stronger than you looked. Congratulations Miss Turpin."

As Lisa received her wand, she paid and walked out to wait with Allen and Tonks, "Miss Bones, please as Miss Turpin did just a moment ago, your wand arm out." And so it went, Susan got it in three wands, Hannah in eight, Neville almost cried when it took him twenty-one wands to find his.

Finally it was the two potters, Lisa Abbott, and Ollivander himself, "which of you would prefer to go first?"

Harry turned to Rose and waved her forward however she shook her head and pushed him first.

"Alright Mr. Potter, you know the drill, wand arm out."

As Harry received the same treatment as the rest of his friends Ollivander gather about fifteen boxes, leaving them open on his counter. Finally, he brought the first one, "eleven inches holly and dragon-heart string," he said while handing him a wand.

Harry flicked the wand and cracked the glass on the counter, "I suppose not, here, twelve inches, cedar, and unicorn hair."

Harry would much have preferred Neville's experience, they were going on twenty-five wands and still no match, when Ollivander seemed to look defeated Harry's world came crumbling down, what if he was a squib and the practice wands were just a fluke, would he be kicked out of Hogwarts when he could only cast five spells? Did all his magic come from Rose and only she was magical? This and many more fears crept up into his mind while Ollivander walked into his backroom.

Shooting a worried glance at this sister, he asked her what she though using only small gestures and his eyes. Using the twin telepathy that twins are supposed to be known for, they had a quick conversation where she reassured him that they would find a wand for him and maybe they would just have to travel to a different county to find better wands.

A moment latter Ollivander walked out with a glass case containing a wand box inside, "I feared that this may be the case, you see Young Mr. Potter, almost nine years ago, something very strange happened."

The three customers in the shop looked slightly worried, remembering the most significant event that happened almost nine years ago.

"On that dreadful Halloween night, I recalled making not one, but two of a very specific wand. Somehow, I remember making the same wand at two slightly different times and when I checked the box containing one of these wands, I found two of them. The next day I had heard what happened in Godric's Hollow, and putting two and two together, I feared the worst. Well, I am getting ahead of myself, let us see if these wands are even a match for you at all."

Ollivander pulled a wand from thin air and waved it over the box; a series of colors flashed releasing wards from the case as it popped open. He pulled the box from the case and opened it. Sure enough, two identical wands were nestled inside the box. He gave one to Harry and immediately he felt complete for the first time, as if something had been missing his entire life, yet he did not know what it was. However, something was pulling him from the other wand, and before he could reach for it, Ollivander pulled it out and handed it to Rose, "Miss Potter, if you could please."

Upon grabbing the wand, Rose felt like a puzzle had been completed after ten years of looking for the last piece. She felt incredibly happy, but when she looked up, she saw worry in the old man's face.

"I was afraid this would be the case, you see Mr. and Miss Potter, this wand, or wands, were created from the same tail feather of a phoenix. This phoenix gave only two feathers, and yet three wands hold his feathers. The third wand I am ashamed to say was used to bring terrible tragedies upon the wizarding world, and even the muggle world. The last tragedy that that wand caused gave the pair of you that scar," the twins looked down at their wands in unison, afraid of their wands but content at the same time. They both were confused, on one hand they finally felt complete, on the other they felt dirty holding the wand that shared something with the wand that caused their parents' death.

"I understand how you must feel young ones, however I feel the need to remind you, a wand is a tool which can be used for both good and evil, a sword used by the enemy to cause pain, can also be used to stop others from harming people, it is up to the one who wields the sword weather or not he will do good or evil. Now I recommend keeping that information between us and possibly Mr. Black and Ms. Black-Bones as they would know how to help you, Lady Abbott, I trust you would be kind enough to keep this information to yourself?"

The twins looked lost when they realized that Lisa Abbott was still with them, tears falling down her face, "of course, I will take them to their guardians as soon as possible to discuss this further."

"Please take these wands free of charge, I feel that they were meant for you two, I just hope that they give you the means to overcome any challenges that may come your way."

"Thank you, sir," the twins said shakily yet even then they did it as one. They proceeded to leave the shop and noticed that the rest had left. It really was not much of a surprise as they did take a very long time with Harry, so Lisa walked them towards Florean Fortescue's and towards the comfort of their family.

AN: Please review, let me know of any mistakes you can find, I will go back and change them, big thanks to the reviewer that noticed that I used the wrong year in the last chapter, I have fixed it and should be updated by now.

Chapter Text

Harry, Rose, and Lisa walked in silence towards Florean Fortescue's, Rose and Harry looking very somber, while Lisa looked downright ghostly. She still remembered that night, feeling as if she suddenly had a migraine. Remembering both meeting Harry and playing peek-a-boo with him as well as doing the exact same thing with Rose, yet she never saw them together before. How could one remember two vastly different pasts, full of visiting the three Potters, but the memories climbed over each other, always remembering one of the twins but never both together. And now Ollivander also had a memory lapse at the same time? Sirius and Amelia had somewhat spoken to her about it, stating that they were in the same boat, however they had accepted it and would never in a million years think of separating the twins, to them they were one-hundred percent family, even if they were a bit creeped out at how they became two.

Before she knew it, they had arrived and were being welcomed by Sirius and Perseus, however upon seeing their faces Sirius looked around worried and rushed them inside, his wand at the ready. He quickly put up all the auror level privacy spells he could think of which immediately worried Amelia.

"Sirius, what's going on?" she asked him.

"I don't know but we're about to find out, Harry, Rose, please sit down, Lisa you as well."

As they all set Amelia ordered some tea, which surprisingly enough the ice-cream shop did sell, thank the Queen! After handing each of them some tea to calm them down she began her interrogation, "Lisa could you please tell me what has you so spooked?"

Lisa took a long sip of her tea before she answered, "I'm sorry Amelia but it may be better for us to talk without the twins listening."

This immediately got a reaction from them as they shouted in unison, "that's not fair!"

Lisa put up a hand to stop further outcries, "I am not saying you will not know; however, I have some important things to discuss with your guardians that we think you should not know until your occlumency barriers are much stronger."

"List pup, flower, you know we don't like hiding things from you, however there are some especially important secrets in our family that you two absolutely need to know but can't be shared with just anyone. As important as you two are, being the last Potters, under protection from the Black family and the Bones family, there are many people who would perform mind reading or legilimancy on you two to get to those secrets. Please understand that we are not trying to hide this from you but from others and use this as a reason to improve your shields as quickly as possible," said Sirius.

Both twins were a bit startled by this, Sirius rarely went into head of house mode which made them rethink their response. Sure, they could complain about it, but they knew that plenty of followers from Voldemort's little group were still around and would use any means to be rid of the Potters.

Rose answered for them, "yes uncle, we understand."

"Please go see Frank and Alice, they will not let anything happen while we have our little talk, and then I promise that we will talk about this more," Amelia said while escorting them to Neville's parents.

"Frank, Alice, please watch over these two, there is apparently something that has them very spooked and Lisa is requesting a very private conversation," she told them as they approached.

Frank immediately popped to attention, "yes ma'am."

While Alice chuckled, "of course Amelia, leave them to us."

Once Amelia returned, Sirius turned back to Lisa, "ok please tell us what has you as white as a ghost."

She waited for Amelia to sit down before starting, "the twins just received their wands, but even Ollivander was spooked at just which wands they received."

Both guardians looked confused so they waved her on, "he said that he was dreading that this would be the case as he distinctly recalls only making the wand that they both have once, but he remembers doing it at two different times. Sounds familiar?"

Both looked shocked but their years of practice in the DMLE had them immediately regain a neutral expression.

"Please continue," said Sirius.

"Well, he said that a phoenix gave him two feathers, and those two feathers currently resided in three different wands. One of them was in both of their wands, while the other was Voldemort's wand," at this point even with their Occlumency being as good as they were, an expression of fear could be seen on both of the adults' face. "Somehow, the day that both twins suddenly separated or joined the same dimension, or whatever the hell happened, at the same time one wand became two. And those wands chose them, and it was only a split second, but I saw Harry's hand reaching for the second wand, as if it were calling for him. I know we always joke about how similar those two are, but both being able to use the exact same wand is downright insane. And even worse, those wands are brothers to the wand that killed their parents."

At this point a tear slid down Sirius's face, "how did they react to that information?"

"They seemed disgusted at first, but Ollivander informed them that no wand was evil as no sword was evil, and the actions of the tool's master was what mattered. They seemed to accept that, but they are still spooked. And with good reason. Do you think we should tell them that they're not actually twins?"

Amelia was the first to answer, "absolutely not, they don't need to know about that yet."

Lisa appeared frustrated but relented, "you're right, they can't keep secrets from Snape, even though I'm sure Dumbledore has told him by now. Thankfully, anyone that knows has at least become an expert in Occlumency if not a master at it."

Sirius responded now, "and once they are at that level, we can begin telling them more about all of this, however we still do not know what that prophecy said, Albus refuses to tell us, and Amy can't use her position to force it out of him as we do not know who can be trusted at the ministry."

"At first, when Sirius told me about the prophecy, I figured that it was completed when Voldemort died that day, however when I asked Albus, he refused to tell me anything about it, and now this wand business has me believing that this is only the beginning."

Sirius suddenly slammed his fist on the table making both women jump, at this point Amelia had given up using her occlumency, "that old baster had to know about the wands, him and Ollivander have always been awfully close. He continues to hide things from us and is probably just waiting for the kids to get to Hogwarts to get his wrinkly hands on them."

"Settle down Sirius," responded Amelia while placing a calming hand on his shoulder, "I don't like this either, but we can talk to the twins before they get to Hogwarts. Have them understand that they are to never be alone with Albus. If he calls them to his office they must go to Pomona, Minerva, or Filius first, who will then get one of us to accompany them."

Lisa finally spoke up again, "I think that we need to speak with all of our children, I am sure he will use an excuse of you two being unavailable to get them alone. And I do not trust him with Hannah either. So, we talk to all of our kids and their friends, and then talk to the heads of houses except for Snape and have them contact one of us for all of the children. There is absolutely no way for them to find a time when the Blacks, Turpins, Longbottoms, Abbots, Tonkses, and in drastic measures the Greengrasses are all indisposed."

Amelia looked down for a second, "you're right, it was selfish of me to only think of our charges. All our children are family, and we will need to have each other's backs. We will need to have a discussion with every adult and most of the professors."

Sirius seemed to brighten up a bit, "lets go and get those twins before they get even more worried, we can just move this party to them, there is no reason for Frank and Alice not to hear this."

As they all got, Sirius canceled his privacy spells and started casting new ones around the twins and his best friends, "thanks you two for taking care of them while we talked."

Amelia reached down and hugged Harry, while Sirius hugged Rose, "listen you two we have come to an understanding, those wands will be useful for you two and will try to figure out just what all of this is about. As we will be having Rose's, Neville's, and Harry's party on Friday the thirty-first, we can all sit down and have a nice long conversation about this. This will be important for all the adults and all of the children so we have to wait to get everyone involved and have them come in early, as I would rather have this conversation only once."

"Yes Aunty," both responded.

Sirius let go of Rose and turned her around, "cheer up flower, I promise we will talk more about this and answer a lot of your questions, however we will once again have to have a private conversation as none of you have yet mastered occlumency. For now, just know that we have a plan."

~~~IGYB~~~

31st July 1991

Rose and Harry were up and alert, looking around as they both tried to move without making a sound. The manor had been too quiet, and enemies could be hidden anywhere. Neville had spent the night and the twins were on a mission to find him before it was too late. He should be staying in the room at the end of the hall.

The hall had never looked darker or longer, every corner, every decoration, a place for enemies to hide, every sound gave both Harry and Rose a near heart attack. They were reaching for the door when they heard Neville scream. Harry quickly pulled out his wand as Rose threw open the door. They, as silently and quickly as possible, ran into the room only to find it empty. They had been too late, Neville was gone. Knowing that someone must still be in the room but going backwards would be suicide, they decided to run out and jump out the window. Quickly Harry opened the window and ushered Rose outside.

As Rose held her hand out for her brother to help him out, she noticed the wand digging into his neck. His eyes shot open and silently urged her to run. As she turned and sprinted on the roof of the second story, she noticed a bright red light coming from behind her. She gave it her all, her legs on fire from the quick sprint. While it was still very dark, she knew exactly what she was doing and jumped right at the edge of the roof, landing on the branch that had aided her and Harry's night-time-escapades with practiced ease.

For a moment she could have been confused for a squirrel animagus, as she gracefully climbed down the tree. Finally, it would just be a short sprint to the safe point, only twenty meters. Ten meters more. Five meters. Two meters. But that is as far as she would get, as she was tackled to the ground by a large beast. Pinned under its weight, she couldn't move. She struggled while the beast looked hungrily down at her. Finally, she managed to pull out her wand and using the tickling charm, she managed to distract the beast long enough to get up and run the last two meters.

As she crossed the large circle on the floor she dropped to the ground and let her exhaustion catch up to her.

"Good job Rose," came Amelia's voice as lights started to come on around them, "that's the first time any of you manage to get to the safe point without a single prank. Unfortunately for them," she waved towards Neville and Harry who were wearing a two-piece swimsuit over their clothes, with very long ash-colored hair, blue skin, and very long noses, "they seemed to have gotten caught."

Frank and Alice were walking towards them while holding each other, seemingly laughing their butts off, "Sirius, how does a small girl beat you with a tickling charm?"

Sirius turned back into a human which showed the rose tint on his cheeks, "that thing is no child, she's too smart, too fast, and too good at magic. Also, iforgotshehadawand."

Alice being a master at understanding their quick speech immediately understood, "how could you forget that she had a wand, you're the one that gave them their practice wands!"

"To be honest, I figured they would have stopped carrying them around after they got their real ones," he shook off his embarrassment and turned back to the kids, "well as promised Rose, you reached the safe zone so no pranks for you on your birthday, speaking of which."

Sirius waved his wand and what seemed like three cannons went off spewing confetti everywhere, "happy-birthday you three!"

Susan and Perseus popped up from behind Alice and Frank, and along with everyone, wished the three a happy birthday.

Sirius turned Harry and Neville back to normal, after taking a few pictures of course, and started walking everyone to the back inside. Towards the large dining room used only for large parties. This room could easily hold six table for eight people each. It was currently set up with two large tables parallel to each other, and a third much smaller table with three chairs on the opposite end. It seemed that the elves were very busy last night as decorations were thrown everywhere.

There were the normal "happy-birthday" signs hanging everywhere, balloons in the shape of tons of animal, both magical and mundane, and streamers hanging off of everything and anything. A large stag, wolf, grim, and falcon surrounded doe and cat which were all constantly looking at Harry, Rose, and Neville and wishing them a happy birthday or telling them how proud they were. The animals of course represented the animagus forms of James, Sirius, Frank, and Alice, Lilly's patronus, and Remus' furry little problem.

Everyone went to sit on one of the larger tables as the party would not start for another few hours. At the moment, they were waiting for the first batch of guests to arrive to have a private conversation.

At precisely seven, the floo was heard and the Abbott came into the large dinning hall. Hannah as always ran to Rose and Susan with only a quick hello to the boys. Shortly after, the Turpin family also arrived with a similar reaction from Lisa. And finally, the Tonks showed up, without Tonks herself.

Harry had a bad feeling about that and decided to be on the alert. He heard her before he saw her and ducked immediately which caused her to trip over his chair and land unceremoniously on the table, "dang it you little rugrat, how did you manage to see me?"

Harry popped out on the other side of the table, "actually I heard you, you should probably be more careful how loud you walk."

"Noted," she responded while glaring at her escaped target.

Amelia raised from her seat and the rest of the crowd fell silent, "we will first be having a conversation with everyone here, after which, the children, and Tonks, will need to leave for the second part of the conversation."

Tonks made to protest but Sirius stopped her, "your shields are almost perfect but I can still catch glimpses sometimes, as I am not a master ligilimens that means that you still have a bit to learn, I'm sorry Tonks but you will have to stick with the kids for now," Harry and Neville started to giggle wish caused Sirius to have an idea, "besides, Harry and Neville did not reach the safe zone again and are free range if you need to prank them."

Neville and Harry immediately stopped giggling and Tonks looked predatory, "I guess I can settle with pranking their pants off,' causing both eleven-year olds to gulp.

Amelia once again got the attention of the room, "first we will start by talking about this coming school-year. Lisa, Susan, Hannah, Neville, Rose, and Harry will be attending Hogwarts for the first time," she had to wait as the children cheered. "Yes, we are all excited for you. However, we need to speak about something of importance that you must remember. As much as you two hate the twins-who-lived name," both potters groaned at the hated nick name, "it marks you as important, which means that you have to be on your guard. Susan is the niece of the head of the DMLE, Neville is the son of two infamous aurors, at least infamous to criminals and their family. Lisa's parents are lawyers, which have also caused much grief with the darker families, and finally the Abbotts are a very rich family that control a vast majority of exports of potions ingredients with only the Malfoys being close.

"All of you must be extremely careful while at school. The castle is extremely large with many unused classrooms, we do not mean to scare you, but the teachers, prefects, and headmaster will not be able to always protect you. Therefore, Sirius and Remus have created a set of mirrors which will allow you to communicate in an emergency with anyone in this room. These mirrors are to remain secret; they cannot be used just to talk to your friends. It is possible that if they are found out, they may be confiscated or stolen. So again, to prevent that, only use them for an extreme emergency."

As the mirrors were being handed out to everyone, Neville thought of a question, "Aunty Amy, what about my cousin Daphne? Shouldn't she be here for this?"

Amelia seemed to deflate at this question, "I am glad you always want to look out for family Neville, unfortunately we discussed this at great lengths. The Greengrass family has almost always fallen into Slytherin, and while we do not believe that everyone is evil in that house, we have learned to be careful with them," she held up a hand to prevent Neville from disagreeing, "I know Daphne is not evil and neither are her parents, however being so close to Professor Snape, who is a master ligilimens, and surrounded by children of death eaters, it will be important to be careful with what she knows.

"We encourage you all to actively keep an eye out for her and if she ends up in a different house, we will immediately give her her own mirror. When she masters occlumency she will also receive her own mirror, however that will not be for some time.

"Now, on to something else we must discuss. The headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, has been keeping a few secrets from us and in return we are keeping a few secrets from him. As such, none of you are to have a private meeting with him, if he ever requests a one-on-one with any of you without an adult, please immediately speak with one of your heads-of-house, with the exception of Professor Snape, to contact any person in this room. Cyrus and Isabella Greengrass will also be added to that list. I will be having a discussion with them at a later time.

"If for any reason, you are denied the opportunity to reach one of us, use your mirror and call out "stronghold" at which point all of the mirrors that we adults have will receive the call and any of us will be able to answer. Let us know what the situation is as quickly as possible and one of us will do whatever we can to reach you.

"Now with all that being said, we want you to know that this does not give you the right to disrespect the teachers or the headmaster. Now any questions?"

Tonks raised her hand, "Amy, how will I know if they are calling me directly or if it's a "stronghold" call?"

Sirius pulled his mirror out and called, "Tonks" which caused her mirror to vibrate slightly and heat up. He then said, "end call" and the mirror stopped vibrating. He then said "stronghold" and every adult heard a loud ringing and the mirrors they each held started vibrating with more force than Tonks' originally had. "End call"

Lisa Abbott was the first to ask the question on many of their minds, "I understand that it would be an emergency, but isn't there a way to not notify the people around us?"

Sirius turned to the kids, "did you guys hear anything?" to which they all shook their heads. "See, only you heard your own mirror, had you all head every mirror in this room, your ears would probably be bleeding by now."

Frank looked down at this mirror, "this is absolutely brilliant! Madam Black-Bones, why do we not have these at the ministry for all the aurors?"

Both Sirius and Amelia looked truly angry for a moment, but Amelia answered, "Fudge with his incredible knowledge decided that it was unnecessary, expensive, and would cause more distractions."

Sirius continued, "he stated that he did not need his aurors wasting time chatting with each other while on duty or having a distraction during stakeouts. Basically, he admitted that a lot of our aurors lacked discipline while denying us more tools to better do our jobs. We are however working on a smaller version that can be used as an earing with a permanent notice-me-not charm so that at least those we trust can have ease of communication. Any other questions?"

Nymphadora looking a little embarrassed asked, "um…how hard to break are these? Not that I would try to mind you, just… you know… accidents do happen."

Sirius busted out laughing receiving a glare from his favorite cousin, while Remus hid a chuckle behind a cough before answering, "we thought of that possibility with the children of course rough-housing," getting a thankful smile from Tonks for diverting the conversation from her clumsiness to the children, "so we made sure that short of a direct bombarda these mirrors should not break."

Amelia waited to see if anyone else would ask something else before speaking, "if there are no more questions, we request that the children as well as Tonks leave the area while we continue our discussion."

As no one asked anything else, the children got up to leave with Tonks following them out the door.

"Now what we must discuss is very important which will require a magical binding oath of secrecy from you to be part of, anyone opposed to this may leave."

Chapter Text

Amelia looked around the room, waiting for anyone to get up and leave, or complain about having to perform an oath. She was surprised to see all the adults remain seated with their wands in front of them ready for the words to the oath they would be performing.

"Thank you all, that really means a lot to us," she said a bit chocked up on how trusting they all were.

Frank snorted, "if we can't trust the head of the DMLE, which happens to be my boss, then we have bigger issues."

"Thank you, Frank," she continued, "now I will ask for you to swear to never reveal the information we are about to disclose to anyone, under any circumstances, without the express permission of myself, Sirius, Frank, or Alice."

Everyone made the appropriate oath one by one, so that each one could be verified by the rest of the room.

Amelia once again called for attention, "now that that is over with, I would like to apologize to you all for keeping this from you, as well as lying to a few of you. Please hold your questions while I explain myself.

"Before Harry or Rose were born, Dumbledore heard a prophecy, this prophecy was then told to Lily, James, Frank, and Alice. It told of their children becoming targets of the mad man called Lord Voldemort," she was grateful that no one in the room flinched at the name, "because of this, they all went into hiding. The thing is, the prophecy spoke of a child 'born as the seventh month dies' to parents 'who had thrice defied him' which could have meant Rose, Harry, or Neville, as they were all born at the end of July. The next part however confuses us even now. 'and the Dark Lord will mark the child as his equal' which we assumed was the scar that the twins have.

"Let me go over the entire thing first before I continue. 'The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches… born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies… and the dark Lord will mark the child as his equal, but shall have a power the Dark Lord knows not… and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives… the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies…' We assumed, or hoped, that that prophecy had been completed that Halloween nine years ago. And ask the Potters were marked, it would remove Neville from being one of the targets, but with the Dark Lord gone even the Potters would be safe.

"We discussed about the possibility that the prophecy had not yet been completed and so we have been giving them extra training so they can have every opportunity to excel if the need arises. Unfortunately, Lisa Abbott brought me news that Ollivander had a similar memory overlap as the rest of us that night. The difference is his involved one wand becoming two. That would have been fine if those twin wands didn't now belong to our beloved twins. That leads us to believe that the prophecy is not yet complete and those two will have many challenges ahead of them."

Sirius picked up from there, "like she said, we apologize for keeping this from you, but we hoped against hope that those two would be able to lead happy lives and the worst was behind them. But we have to plan for the worst just in case. No body was ever found at the scene, and even his wand was missing. No ashes could be found, a bone, blood, nothing. Its as if he completely disappeared. Thankfully, we could not detect any apparition residue in the house, so we believe that at least his body was completely destroyed and is now at best a spirit roaming the world." Everyone kept their eyes on Sirius, hoping for good news, "when we spoke to Dumbledore, he refused to tell us how the Dark Lord knew of this prophecy, or how much he knew of it. He hinted at only part of the prophecy being revealed to him."

Sirius looked over to the Longbottoms, "unfortunately that may mean that the Dark Lord did not know the portion about the child being marked which would, yet again, put Neville as a target," Alice started tearing up while Frank's eyes lit up with anger.

"What we know is that Albus had a spy in Voldemort's ranks, we know that he was very adamant about keeping Snape from Azkaban, and we assume that the prophecy is still active. With some guess work, we believe that Snape is the one who gave the Dark Lord the partial prophecy, which is why we have been very adamant about the children learning Occlumency, as well as avoiding him as much as possible. It is entirely possible that we are wrong, which is why we haven't gone all out against him, in the hopes that he was always under Dumbledore as his spy. But with the whole wand fiasco, we can't be too careful.

"To that end, we ask that you all help us in keeping all of our children safe, keeping them away from Albus and Snape, as they are both master ligilimens, and Albus likes to control people without ever telling them much in return. Do you have any questions?"

Allen spoke up first, "what are the chances of Voldemort returning?"

Amelia answered quickly, "minimal, however we all know that that bastard threw himself at the dark arts and performed many dark rituals. We cannot allow us to grow complacent when the possibility of his return exists. I have applied for a tutor's license to cover this house. Which means that the children once they complete the first year of Hogwarts, will be able to practice magic here."

Andromeda was the next to ask a question, "so they will be free to use magic whenever they want without alerting the Ministry?"

Sirius smiled causing Amelia and Alice to sigh, "unfortunately that is the case, however we will be telling all the children that just like their practice wands, their regular wands were charmed to not notify the ministry while an adult was present. We will tell them that every adult here, and possibly Tonks, has been keyed into those charms so that they may practice while under the supervision of any one of us. This way, they will all be able to practice, while still being careful to not use magic without supervision. We can probably convince them that only the training room will allow the use of magic at home.

"Is anyone opposed to their children being able to practice while at our home, under the supervision of one of us?" she asked to the room.

Everyone remained silent, "Very well, any other questions?"

Allison Turpin had a question, "what about the children they make friends with? I'm sure our children would want to extend the opportunity to learn to their new friends."

"We will be speaking with the children as the year progresses. Whenever they make new friends, we will look into their families for any sign of trouble, such as political opposition, imperioused death eaters, Voldemort sympathizers, etc. etc. If we find them to be safe, we will ask whoever they are friends with to offer them the chance to learn along our children. We will also speak with their parents to ask them permission. If everyone agrees, then we can simply tell our children that we have added the charm to their wands as well."

Sirius spoke up, "we have already offered this to the Greengrass family, as Daphne is Neville's cousin. We obviously kept most of what we just talked about from them, only explaining that we wanted our children to have the best chance when it came to their education. Isabella even offered to help with potions as she is a potions master that was something we could not refuse. We have plenty of people able to teach DADA, and at least for the first few years we should be able to handle most any question about transfiguration and charms."

Phillipe Turpin spoke up for the first time in ages, "to keep up appearances that this is to keep their grades up, I can offer assistance with herbology and astronomy, as those were, and still are my favorite subjects."

"And if that dreadful Professor Binns has not been exorcised yet, I can give them an actual history lesson that does not involve goblins," said Andromeda, "and as a mediwitch, I can offer them knowledge on basic healing, such as healing small cuts, and some pain relief spells. Nothing that can be dangerous mind you, but if those twins are anything like the marauders, they may need some healing from time to time."

Sirius looked embarrassed, "I don't know what you're talking about Andy, however I'm very thankful for your help."

"I'm sure you don't know Siri, its not like you patched you up on your first year. Just be glad I was in walking back from the library and found you," she responded, "you never did tell me what caused that large knot on your head?"

"Ah, well you see, Lucy decided to call Lily names, and James overheard that so of course he had to charge in and make him apologize," he said while scratching the back of his head where he remembered that knot to be at all those years ago, "well Snivellus decided to help out Lucy, probably hoping that he would be accepted by the older Slytherin. Anyways, when I saw James was outnumbered, I jumped in to help, and well we got our asses handed to us."

Amelia looked at her husband, "really Padfoot, calling names after all these years."

Most everyone chuckled at the over-grown man-child. He decided to change the topic, "well anyways, do we have any more questions? Or should we go make sure the kids haven't gone full Lord of the Fly on Tonks?"

"What about the new DADA teacher?" asked Frank, "do we have any info on him or her?"

Everyone shook their head.

"I invited Minerva, Filius, and Pamona, to have a little chat too so we can ask them. They should be here at ten, which is in," Amelia cast a quick tempus "a little over half an-hour. Let's go check on the kids while we wait."

~~~IGYB~~~

Tonks was wondering how it all went so wrong. She remembered chasing after Neville and Harry, she remembered losing them on the second floor when she tripped over the last step, which she was sure was not there a second ago. Then Rose had caught up to her and told her that they had climbed out a window and would be outside. She quickly followed the girl downstairs and out the back door.

Rose had then pointed at a shed in the back, told her that Harry liked to hide in the back behind Sirius's motorcycle. But as soon as she walked through the door a small hand that had to be Rose pushed her forward knocking her off balance. Before she could catch herself, her two targets jumped down from either side of the door with a blanket in between them. Now she was sat on a bucket in the shed, a bedsheet tied around her, and Harry was twirling HER wand while smirking.

"Rose, how could you betray your favorite cousin like that!" She yelled at the girl she knew was behind her.

Harry decided to answer before Rose, "to be fair you're our only cousin, as Draco does not count, and Sue and Percy are more like siblings."

Her hair turned red, "that's besides the point, how could you betray me Rose."

"Well, they did help me this morning to make sure I didn't get pranked," she said in a small voice, "and I honestly thought you would be able to get out of this by now."

As she said that Harry and Neville ran out of the shed.

"Well, I could if you helped me a bit," she retorted.

Rose was quiet for a moment before she answered, "sorry Tonks, I figured you would use your metamorphmagus abilities to change your body to get out of there by now."

Tonks grew very still, her hair turning a very bright pink, along with her cheeks, "If you don't tell anyone about this, I promise to not prank you back for this deal?"

Rose nodded before remembering that she was behind Tonks and would not be seen, "deal."

As she started to change form to slip out of the rope and blanket, she heard a laugh that froze her, and a flash that terrified.

Sirius walked in, "I'm glad I never made that promise, and that I know to always carry this camera everywhere I go."

Tonks was red, not just her face, not just her hair, but all of Tonks. She looked up to her once favorite cousin, "just kill me now, please."

"If I did that, who could I blackmail with this picture? No, I think I will keep you around," He waved his wand and banished the blanket and ropes. He then put his camera in a pouch inside his robes. "I found them, they were taking a look at my bike," he said as he winked at them.

Tonks got up and retrieved her wand that Harry had thankfully left on the counter near the door before he ran away, "what do you want in return for your silence?" she whispered.

"I have to think about this," he responded, "its too good to let it go to waste on a spur of the moment idea."

Tonks had never wanted to hex someone so bad before, but knew that if she did, the picture would end up in some magazine or newspaper. She had to find something to blackmail him right back as soon as possible. For now, she would hold her tongue and her wand.

As they walked back towards the manor, she noticed the rest of the kids were playing exploding snap on a picnic table as if nothing had happened. She glared at Harry, obviously he was the mastermind behind the whole thing.

Sirius looked back and smiled, "hey Tonks, we are just waiting for some of the professors from school for another chat, do you think you can watch the kids a bit longer?"

She looked back towards Harry with a predatory smile, "with pleasure."

Harry shot up from the table, throwing his cards down and in the process made most of them explode. He quickly ran up to Sirius, "hey dad, can I ride my broom until you guys are finished?"

Sirius looked really happy for a moment before remembering how sneaky his godson could be, "you only call me dad when you are trying to get away with something, but I suppose since it is your birthday, I'll allow it."

"Thanks, da…"

"Under the condition that Tonks is to supervise you using my new Nimbus 2000," Sirius interrupted him.

Harry paled while Tonks ran up to hug him, "of course I'll watch over him, and make sure he doesn't hurt himself too much. By the way, I heard he is planning on becoming a seeker someday, do you happen to have some proper bludgers and a beater's bat handy to help him train?"

Harry's face could almost be confused with Draco's as he grew even more pale, "sure thing Tonks, they're back in that shed, behind my bike where you were just at. Help yourself."

The rest of the crowd simply wandered what was going on as they watched the horror that came over Harry's face while Tonks lit up with glee.

"Alright, kids, there are plenty of Cleansweep brooms available if you want to fly around a bit, just please be careful, and don't fly too high, Remus should be here in a bit and I can send him out to help watch you. Now for the rest of us lets go head back inside, they should be arriving in a few minutes."

~~~IGYB~~~

As the adults went back inside to the dining hall, Sirius sent Remus to help Tonks watch the kids. And to make sure she didn't hurt Harry too bad.

He soon arrived back at the dining hall where everyone was sat having idle conversation while they waited for him.

"Thank you for coming Professors," he said once he took his seat.

"Of course, Sirius, now if you can please inform us of what is so important that we had to come in two hours early for the birthday party?" asked Minerva.

Amelia answered the question, "we have an important matter to discuss with you three before school starts and figured this would be the best time to do so."

"Very well, what may we help you with Amelia?"

"Before we continue, we will need an oath of secrecy from you three," started Amelia but was interrupted by Minerva.

"Now listen here, we came at your request to discuss something important, we will not be subjected to secrecy oath if it could deal with the safety of the students."

"Peace Minerva, it has to do with the Prophecy," responded Amelia before she could anger the Scottish professor anymore.

"Oh," was all Minerva could say.

Filius, who was sitting on a chair that had been transfigured to be taller, continued for his shocked colleague, "well if it has to do with that, I guess we can swear an oath of secrecy."

After the appropriate oaths were given by the three professors Amelia continued, "everyone here has also sworn an oath, so they all know as much as what we will be telling you. What you need to know is that the twins have gotten their wands. Unfortunately, that is where the trouble starts."

Amelia, Sirius, and Lisa retold everything from the night that the children were rescued to up until they were given their twin wands.

Amelia continued, "and now we have talked to our children about being especially careful at school this year."

Pamona was the first to answer, "of course you can count on us to look after your children, I am sure Albus will keep Severus handled. We can understand your concern the way he acts, he favors his Slytherin's and punishes anyone else. Its almost as if he is screaming, 'look at me, I favor the family of death eaters.' I'm surprised he still has his job."

"Thank you Pamona, but we also need to talk about who the new DADA teacher will be this year. Do you three have any idea who it is?" asked Sirius.

Minerva answered for him, "that would be Professor Quirrell. He used to be such a meek young boy, always had his nose in a book, Filius you should know more about him, he was in your house after all."

The diminutive professor was thoughtful for a moment before answering, "yes I do recall young Quirrell, he went to Hogwarts shortly after you graduated Sirius. He was a very smart young man, however that only translated to theory, when it came to actual casting, he was average. He was more focused in charms, I'm not sure why he took the DADA position as he only received an Acceptable on his DADA NEWT."

Frank got the professor's attention, "Filius, did he side with the pureblood dogma? Was he close to any of the known death eaters? Anything that could point to him having ulterior motives for taking the DADA position this year?"

Filius once again seemed to think back, "no, I cannot think of anything, he was very quiet and kept to himself. Before this, the last I had heard of him was that he was going to travel the world in search of something that would be his calling. Now he returns from Albania with a stutter and a fear of vampires if the stench of garlic is anything to go by."

"Can you keep an eye on him, just in case?" asked Amelia.

Minerva answered first, "Albus screened him, however I can understand you wanting to be especially careful. I will keep an eye out for him."

Pamona spoke up next, "if he does anything shifty, I'll be sure to let you know Amelia."

Filius finished up for the trio, "I'll be sure to keep him in my sights, I'll see if anything rings any warning bells, as I am the one that knows him best."

Lisa then brought the group to the next topic, "now the last thing that we wanted to talk about you is a sensitive subject that I would please ask you to hear us out before commenting." She waited for the three professors to nod before continuing, "while we all trust that Albus is trying to do his best with everything going on, we cannot help but be cautious around him. He has been keeping information from us that pertain to our children, especially Neville, Rose, and Harry. We understand that he may have his reasons, however we do not like it one bit. To make us all feel better, we ask that under no circumstances is he to be alone with any of our charges."

Minerva started to open her mouth before Filius grabbed her arm to hold her back.

"What we mean by that, is that we would like for one of you three to contact anyone of us in this room, to accompany whichever child or children have to go before the Headmaster. We all give every adult in this room approval to be witness to whatever conversation he has with any of our children. We would also like to ask as a favor if detentions with Professor Snape can be transferred to any of you, as we do not trust that man."

"While I trust Albus with my life, it is within your rights as parents to request to be present if a child goes before the headmaster. We will notify one of you immediately and wait for your arrival before he will see them. As for Severus, we will do our best to keep him from being alone with your children. Even we do not fully trust him. We only tolerate him due to Albus's trust in the man," responded Minerva.

"Thank you, Minerva. We thank all of you for your time and understanding, and as a show of good faith, we have a small donation to give to the school," said Amelia while waving towards Sirius.

He smiled, "from the Black family we offer you, fifty of the newest Cleansweep racing brooms to replace those god-awful sticks you call broom at the school."

For Minerva Christmas had come early, "thank you, we have been trying to get new brooms for the past fifteen years, and the board continues to say they are outside of our budget."

Filius and Pamona were excited as it meant that their poorer students finally had a decent broom that they could practice in, which could lead to better players in the coming years. No longer would Gryffindor and Slytherin be the only two fighting for the championship.

Sirius got up from his seat, "if no one has anything else to discuss, we have a party to get started."

Chapter Text

Amelia looked around the room, waiting for anyone to get up and leave, or complain about having to perform an oath. She was surprised to see all the adults remain seated with their wands in front of them ready for the words to the oath they would be performing.

"Thank you all, that really means a lot to us," she said a bit chocked up on how trusting they all were.

Frank snorted, "if we can't trust the head of the DMLE, which happens to be my boss, then we have bigger issues."

"Thank you, Frank," she continued, "now I will ask for you to swear to never reveal the information we are about to disclose to anyone, under any circumstances, without the express permission of myself, Sirius, Frank, or Alice."

Everyone made the appropriate oath one by one, so that each one could be verified by the rest of the room.

Amelia once again called for attention, "now that that is over with, I would like to apologize to you all for keeping this from you, as well as lying to a few of you. Please hold your questions while I explain myself.

"Before Harry or Rose were born, Dumbledore heard a prophecy, this prophecy was then told to Lily, James, Frank, and Alice. It told of their children becoming targets of the mad man called Lord Voldemort," she was grateful that no one in the room flinched at the name, "because of this, they all went into hiding. The thing is, the prophecy spoke of a child 'born as the seventh month dies' to parents 'who had thrice defied him' which could have meant Rose, Harry, or Neville, as they were all born at the end of July. The next part however confuses us even now. 'and the Dark Lord will mark the child as his equal' which we assumed was the scar that the twins have.

"Let me go over the entire thing first before I continue. 'The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches… born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies… and the dark Lord will mark the child as his equal, but shall have a power the Dark Lord knows not… and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives… the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies…' We assumed, or hoped, that that prophecy had been completed that Halloween nine years ago. And ask the Potters were marked, it would remove Neville from being one of the targets, but with the Dark Lord gone even the Potters would be safe.

"We discussed about the possibility that the prophecy had not yet been completed and so we have been giving them extra training so they can have every opportunity to excel if the need arises. Unfortunately, Lisa Abbott brought me news that Ollivander had a similar memory overlap as the rest of us that night. The difference is his involved one wand becoming two. That would have been fine if those twin wands didn't now belong to our beloved twins. That leads us to believe that the prophecy is not yet complete and those two will have many challenges ahead of them."

Sirius picked up from there, "like she said, we apologize for keeping this from you, but we hoped against hope that those two would be able to lead happy lives and the worst was behind them. But we have to plan for the worst just in case. No body was ever found at the scene, and even his wand was missing. No ashes could be found, a bone, blood, nothing. Its as if he completely disappeared. Thankfully, we could not detect any apparition residue in the house, so we believe that at least his body was completely destroyed and is now at best a spirit roaming the world." Everyone kept their eyes on Sirius, hoping for good news, "when we spoke to Dumbledore, he refused to tell us how the Dark Lord knew of this prophecy, or how much he knew of it. He hinted at only part of the prophecy being revealed to him."

Sirius looked over to the Longbottoms, "unfortunately that may mean that the Dark Lord did not know the portion about the child being marked which would, yet again, put Neville as a target," Alice started tearing up while Frank's eyes lit up with anger.

"What we know is that Albus had a spy in Voldemort's ranks, we know that he was very adamant about keeping Snape from Azkaban, and we assume that the prophecy is still active. With some guess work, we believe that Snape is the one who gave the Dark Lord the partial prophecy, which is why we have been very adamant about the children learning Occlumency, as well as avoiding him as much as possible. It is entirely possible that we are wrong, which is why we haven't gone all out against him, in the hopes that he was always under Dumbledore as his spy. But with the whole wand fiasco, we can't be too careful.

"To that end, we ask that you all help us in keeping all of our children safe, keeping them away from Albus and Snape, as they are both master ligilimens, and Albus likes to control people without ever telling them much in return. Do you have any questions?"

Allen spoke up first, "what are the chances of Voldemort returning?"

Amelia answered quickly, "minimal, however we all know that that bastard threw himself at the dark arts and performed many dark rituals. We cannot allow us to grow complacent when the possibility of his return exists. I have applied for a tutor's license to cover this house. Which means that the children once they complete the first year of Hogwarts, will be able to practice magic here."

Andromeda was the next to ask a question, "so they will be free to use magic whenever they want without alerting the Ministry?"

Sirius smiled causing Amelia and Alice to sigh, "unfortunately that is the case, however we will be telling all the children that just like their practice wands, their regular wands were charmed to not notify the ministry while an adult was present. We will tell them that every adult here, and possibly Tonks, has been keyed into those charms so that they may practice while under the supervision of any one of us. This way, they will all be able to practice, while still being careful to not use magic without supervision. We can probably convince them that only the training room will allow the use of magic at home.

"Is anyone opposed to their children being able to practice while at our home, under the supervision of one of us?" she asked to the room.

Everyone remained silent, "Very well, any other questions?"

Allison Turpin had a question, "what about the children they make friends with? I'm sure our children would want to extend the opportunity to learn to their new friends."

"We will be speaking with the children as the year progresses. Whenever they make new friends, we will look into their families for any sign of trouble, such as political opposition, imperioused death eaters, Voldemort sympathizers, etc. etc. If we find them to be safe, we will ask whoever they are friends with to offer them the chance to learn along our children. We will also speak with their parents to ask them permission. If everyone agrees, then we can simply tell our children that we have added the charm to their wands as well."

Sirius spoke up, "we have already offered this to the Greengrass family, as Daphne is Neville's cousin. We obviously kept most of what we just talked about from them, only explaining that we wanted our children to have the best chance when it came to their education. Isabella even offered to help with potions as she is a potions master that was something we could not refuse. We have plenty of people able to teach DADA, and at least for the first few years we should be able to handle most any question about transfiguration and charms."

Phillipe Turpin spoke up for the first time in ages, "to keep up appearances that this is to keep their grades up, I can offer assistance with herbology and astronomy, as those were, and still are my favorite subjects."

"And if that dreadful Professor Binns has not been exorcised yet, I can give them an actual history lesson that does not involve goblins," said Andromeda, "and as a mediwitch, I can offer them knowledge on basic healing, such as healing small cuts, and some pain relief spells. Nothing that can be dangerous mind you, but if those twins are anything like the marauders, they may need some healing from time to time."

Sirius looked embarrassed, "I don't know what you're talking about Andy, however I'm very thankful for your help."

"I'm sure you don't know Siri, its not like you patched you up on your first year. Just be glad I was in walking back from the library and found you," she responded, "you never did tell me what caused that large knot on your head?"

"Ah, well you see, Lucy decided to call Lily names, and James overheard that so of course he had to charge in and make him apologize," he said while scratching the back of his head where he remembered that knot to be at all those years ago, "well Snivellus decided to help out Lucy, probably hoping that he would be accepted by the older Slytherin. Anyways, when I saw James was outnumbered, I jumped in to help, and well we got our asses handed to us."

Amelia looked at her husband, "really Padfoot, calling names after all these years."

Most everyone chuckled at the over-grown man-child. He decided to change the topic, "well anyways, do we have any more questions? Or should we go make sure the kids haven't gone full Lord of the Fly on Tonks?"

"What about the new DADA teacher?" asked Frank, "do we have any info on him or her?"

Everyone shook their head.

"I invited Minerva, Filius, and Pamona, to have a little chat too so we can ask them. They should be here at ten, which is in," Amelia cast a quick tempus "a little over half an-hour. Let's go check on the kids while we wait."

~~~IGYB~~~

Tonks was wondering how it all went so wrong. She remembered chasing after Neville and Harry, she remembered losing them on the second floor when she tripped over the last step, which she was sure was not there a second ago. Then Rose had caught up to her and told her that they had climbed out a window and would be outside. She quickly followed the girl downstairs and out the back door.

Rose had then pointed at a shed in the back, told her that Harry liked to hide in the back behind Sirius's motorcycle. But as soon as she walked through the door a small hand that had to be Rose pushed her forward knocking her off balance. Before she could catch herself, her two targets jumped down from either side of the door with a blanket in between them. Now she was sat on a bucket in the shed, a bedsheet tied around her, and Harry was twirling HER wand while smirking.

"Rose, how could you betray your favorite cousin like that!" She yelled at the girl she knew was behind her.

Harry decided to answer before Rose, "to be fair you're our only cousin, as Draco does not count, and Sue and Percy are more like siblings."

Her hair turned red, "that's besides the point, how could you betray me Rose."

"Well, they did help me this morning to make sure I didn't get pranked," she said in a small voice, "and I honestly thought you would be able to get out of this by now."

As she said that Harry and Neville ran out of the shed.

"Well, I could if you helped me a bit," she retorted.

Rose was quiet for a moment before she answered, "sorry Tonks, I figured you would use your metamorphmagus abilities to change your body to get out of there by now."

Tonks grew very still, her hair turning a very bright pink, along with her cheeks, "If you don't tell anyone about this, I promise to not prank you back for this deal?"

Rose nodded before remembering that she was behind Tonks and would not be seen, "deal."

As she started to change form to slip out of the rope and blanket, she heard a laugh that froze her, and a flash that terrified.

Sirius walked in, "I'm glad I never made that promise, and that I know to always carry this camera everywhere I go."

Tonks was red, not just her face, not just her hair, but all of Tonks. She looked up to her once favorite cousin, "just kill me now, please."

"If I did that, who could I blackmail with this picture? No, I think I will keep you around," He waved his wand and banished the blanket and ropes. He then put his camera in a pouch inside his robes. "I found them, they were taking a look at my bike," he said as he winked at them.

Tonks got up and retrieved her wand that Harry had thankfully left on the counter near the door before he ran away, "what do you want in return for your silence?" she whispered.

"I have to think about this," he responded, "its too good to let it go to waste on a spur of the moment idea."

Tonks had never wanted to hex someone so bad before, but knew that if she did, the picture would end up in some magazine or newspaper. She had to find something to blackmail him right back as soon as possible. For now, she would hold her tongue and her wand.

As they walked back towards the manor, she noticed the rest of the kids were playing exploding snap on a picnic table as if nothing had happened. She glared at Harry, obviously he was the mastermind behind the whole thing.

Sirius looked back and smiled, "hey Tonks, we are just waiting for some of the professors from school for another chat, do you think you can watch the kids a bit longer?"

She looked back towards Harry with a predatory smile, "with pleasure."

Harry shot up from the table, throwing his cards down and in the process made most of them explode. He quickly ran up to Sirius, "hey dad, can I ride my broom until you guys are finished?"

Sirius looked really happy for a moment before remembering how sneaky his godson could be, "you only call me dad when you are trying to get away with something, but I suppose since it is your birthday, I'll allow it."

"Thanks, da…"

"Under the condition that Tonks is to supervise you using my new Nimbus 2000," Sirius interrupted him.

Harry paled while Tonks ran up to hug him, "of course I'll watch over him, and make sure he doesn't hurt himself too much. By the way, I heard he is planning on becoming a seeker someday, do you happen to have some proper bludgers and a beater's bat handy to help him train?"

Harry's face could almost be confused with Draco's as he grew even more pale, "sure thing Tonks, they're back in that shed, behind my bike where you were just at. Help yourself."

The rest of the crowd simply wandered what was going on as they watched the horror that came over Harry's face while Tonks lit up with glee.

"Alright, kids, there are plenty of Cleansweep brooms available if you want to fly around a bit, just please be careful, and don't fly too high, Remus should be here in a bit and I can send him out to help watch you. Now for the rest of us lets go head back inside, they should be arriving in a few minutes."

~~~IGYB~~~

As the adults went back inside to the dining hall, Sirius sent Remus to help Tonks watch the kids. And to make sure she didn't hurt Harry too bad.

He soon arrived back at the dining hall where everyone was sat having idle conversation while they waited for him.

"Thank you for coming Professors," he said once he took his seat.

"Of course, Sirius, now if you can please inform us of what is so important that we had to come in two hours early for the birthday party?" asked Minerva.

Amelia answered the question, "we have an important matter to discuss with you three before school starts and figured this would be the best time to do so."

"Very well, what may we help you with Amelia?"

"Before we continue, we will need an oath of secrecy from you three," started Amelia but was interrupted by Minerva.

"Now listen here, we came at your request to discuss something important, we will not be subjected to secrecy oath if it could deal with the safety of the students."

"Peace Minerva, it has to do with the Prophecy," responded Amelia before she could anger the Scottish professor anymore.

"Oh," was all Minerva could say.

Filius, who was sitting on a chair that had been transfigured to be taller, continued for his shocked colleague, "well if it has to do with that, I guess we can swear an oath of secrecy."

After the appropriate oaths were given by the three professors Amelia continued, "everyone here has also sworn an oath, so they all know as much as what we will be telling you. What you need to know is that the twins have gotten their wands. Unfortunately, that is where the trouble starts."

Amelia, Sirius, and Lisa retold everything from the night that the children were rescued to up until they were given their twin wands.

Amelia continued, "and now we have talked to our children about being especially careful at school this year."

Pamona was the first to answer, "of course you can count on us to look after your children, I am sure Albus will keep Severus handled. We can understand your concern the way he acts, he favors his Slytherin's and punishes anyone else. Its almost as if he is screaming, 'look at me, I favor the family of death eaters.' I'm surprised he still has his job."

"Thank you Pamona, but we also need to talk about who the new DADA teacher will be this year. Do you three have any idea who it is?" asked Sirius.

Minerva answered for him, "that would be Professor Quirrell. He used to be such a meek young boy, always had his nose in a book, Filius you should know more about him, he was in your house after all."

The diminutive professor was thoughtful for a moment before answering, "yes I do recall young Quirrell, he went to Hogwarts shortly after you graduated Sirius. He was a very smart young man, however that only translated to theory, when it came to actual casting, he was average. He was more focused in charms, I'm not sure why he took the DADA position as he only received an Acceptable on his DADA NEWT."

Frank got the professor's attention, "Filius, did he side with the pureblood dogma? Was he close to any of the known death eaters? Anything that could point to him having ulterior motives for taking the DADA position this year?"

Filius once again seemed to think back, "no, I cannot think of anything, he was very quiet and kept to himself. Before this, the last I had heard of him was that he was going to travel the world in search of something that would be his calling. Now he returns from Albania with a stutter and a fear of vampires if the stench of garlic is anything to go by."

"Can you keep an eye on him, just in case?" asked Amelia.

Minerva answered first, "Albus screened him, however I can understand you wanting to be especially careful. I will keep an eye out for him."

Pamona spoke up next, "if he does anything shifty, I'll be sure to let you know Amelia."

Filius finished up for the trio, "I'll be sure to keep him in my sights, I'll see if anything rings any warning bells, as I am the one that knows him best."

Lisa then brought the group to the next topic, "now the last thing that we wanted to talk about you is a sensitive subject that I would please ask you to hear us out before commenting." She waited for the three professors to nod before continuing, "while we all trust that Albus is trying to do his best with everything going on, we cannot help but be cautious around him. He has been keeping information from us that pertain to our children, especially Neville, Rose, and Harry. We understand that he may have his reasons, however we do not like it one bit. To make us all feel better, we ask that under no circumstances is he to be alone with any of our charges."

Minerva started to open her mouth before Filius grabbed her arm to hold her back.

"What we mean by that, is that we would like for one of you three to contact anyone of us in this room, to accompany whichever child or children have to go before the Headmaster. We all give every adult in this room approval to be witness to whatever conversation he has with any of our children. We would also like to ask as a favor if detentions with Professor Snape can be transferred to any of you, as we do not trust that man."

"While I trust Albus with my life, it is within your rights as parents to request to be present if a child goes before the headmaster. We will notify one of you immediately and wait for your arrival before he will see them. As for Severus, we will do our best to keep him from being alone with your children. Even we do not fully trust him. We only tolerate him due to Albus's trust in the man," responded Minerva.

"Thank you, Minerva. We thank all of you for your time and understanding, and as a show of good faith, we have a small donation to give to the school," said Amelia while waving towards Sirius.

He smiled, "from the Black family we offer you, fifty of the newest Cleansweep racing brooms to replace those god-awful sticks you call broom at the school."

For Minerva Christmas had come early, "thank you, we have been trying to get new brooms for the past fifteen years, and the board continues to say they are outside of our budget."

Filius and Pamona were excited as it meant that their poorer students finally had a decent broom that they could practice in, which could lead to better players in the coming years. No longer would Gryffindor and Slytherin be the only two fighting for the championship.

Sirius got up from his seat, "if no one has anything else to discuss, we have a party to get started."