A small baby lay in a basket in a tiny cupboard under the stairs in a quaint little house in an unassuming neighborhood in Little Whinging, Surrey. His name was Harry Potter and he had ebony black hair, vibrant green eyes and a disfiguring scar on his forehead in the shape of a bolt of lightning that was just beginning to show signs of healing. Unbeknownst to him, across the country in an underground and magically hidden courtroom the entire world he had just left was prepared to shake itself to its roots.

"Order, I will have order," Dumbledore shouted as he tried to quiet down the members of the Wizengamot. "If you will not be silent you will be removed," he threatened. This worked to bring the cacophonic noise to a tolerable level. "Thank you," Dumbledore said as he cleared his throat. "Now, let me read the docket. For Lord Sirius Orion Black the Third, the charges are most heinous. Twelve counts if murdering muggles, twelve counts of breaking the Statute of Secrecy, One count of murder of a pureblooded wizard. And lastly," Dumbledore paused as he composed himself, this charge being one that held the gravest weight to it. "One count of Treason for aiding the Dark Lord know as Voldemort, as his right-hand man, how do you plead," Dumbledore asked, hoping beyond hope that something had been mixed up and the bright young man who was seen by all as the late Potter's best friend was innocent.

"It's all my fault," Sirius muttered to a silent audience. "Died because of me," he wept as tears streamed down his face.

"See he admits his guilt, he weeps for his fallen master," a member of the Wizengamot shouted. This outburst caused everyone to erupt into roars of anger and demands of punishment.

"Please Sirius, tell us it's all a misunderstanding," Dumbledore begged as he stared down at the accused chained to the chair in the center of the room.

"Just kill me already," Sirius moaned. "It's what I deserve, it was all for nothing."

He had wished it could be different, but with Sirius all but admitting his guilt and requesting death. Nothing would stop the Wizengamot from extracting their pound of flesh. All Dumbledore could do was sigh and call for a vote. "All in favor of sentencing Lord Sirius Orion Black, to death, raise your wands now," the aged wizard solemnly requested. Even without his own Dumbledore could see every wand raised. "All opposed?" he asked following proper procedure, knowing that his own vote would mean nothing but to show his staunch opposition to execution. "And so it passes," Dumbledore declared to the room. "Let the record show that at 9:15am on November 12th, 1981. Lord Sirius Orion Black is to be sentenced to execution by the Veil of Death."

The next day, a conspicuous Friday the thirteenth, Lucius Malfoy called a meeting of the Wizengamot. "Lord Malfoy, you have the floor," Dumbledore addressed Lucius to state his business.

"Thank you, Chief Warlock, as Lord Black has been executed," Lucius started before the seated members of the Wizengamot and associated press assembled began to grumble. "Yes, however, as the last remaining member of the Black family and it's presiding lord. The last will and testament must be read."

Lucius had it all planned out upon Sirius' capture. As one of Voldemort's inner circle he knew that Sirius Black was not a member, let alone his right-hand man, but he did know that coward Peter Pettigrew was a marked Death Eater. Now that Sirius had died, that left very few people alive that had claim to the Black family fortune or it's seats on the Wizengamot. Something he had been expecting to claim as his own. As the only remaining members of the family were Bellatrix Lestrange, who was barred due to her lifetime incarceration in Azkaban. Andromeda Tonks, who was exempt by virtue of being disowned by previous Lord Black before his passing and the title falling to Sirius. And lastly his own wife, who while had Black blood, was a woman and could not take up the mantle of the House of Black, but his year-old son Draco, could.

Lucius held out the rolled parchment he had gotten from the Wizengamot Administration Services. Dumbledore verified the scroll was legitimate and the seal unbroken, nodding he cut the seal with a special knife that was designed for this purpose. Clearing his throat, he quickly glanced at the sheet once more to verify authenticity. "It all seems well and good now. Let us begin the reading," Dumbledore said the assembled spectators.

For Lucius this day had started out amazing, but it quickly turned sour as he listened to his machinations crumble to dust before him.

"I Sirius Orion Black the Third, being of soundish mind and mostly sober, so do declare this to be my Last Will and Testament, I hearby revoke any and all wills and codicils.

Let's get right to the point then. I leave all my worldly possessions and titles, to my godson Harry James Potter, yes Lil's that includes the motorcycle and those stacks of Playwitch, wait where are you going, no don't burn those. James stop her, she's destroying your son's inheritance, those are going to be worth a fortune when he's older."

The outburst from everyone in the room was deafening. Each trying to shout down others about how this must be a forgery and that Voldemort's right-hand man would never have left everything to Harry Potter.

Dumbledore fired loud blasts of sound from his wand, he had tears stinging his eyes as he tried to piece together what was happened. "All of you will be silent or I will have the aurors remove you. Mr. Thickness would you please go to the Goblin Liaison office to have a representative of Gringotts here to verify authenticity."

A short while later a goblin walked into the packed room. "I am Representative Goldtooth of Gringotts, what document do you wish verified."

"If you would please, this will is in contention," Dumbledore said as he passed the parchment to the goblin.

Goldtooth ran his finger down the side of the paper. "Yes this was written by Lord Sirius Orion Black and is authentic," the goblin stated to the dismay of the crowd.

"Thank you for your time, Representative Goldtooth," Dumbledore said with a slight bow to the goblin who was leaving the ministry as quickly as it could. "As you can see this is neither a forgery nor a trick," Dumbledore addressed the Wizengamot. "Now I will continue reading."

"As for the rest of my family, unfortunately, the only one I liked was Andromeda, who while disowned, she is still married to her husband and such I am unable to bring her back into the family, so I leave to her, the ancestral home of the Blacks, may she do whatever she want with it. Burn it down, blow it up or turn it into a muggle-based theme park.

To Bellatrix, I wished you had never met Rodolphus Lestrange, he changed you as a person. If you managed to free yourself from his clutches and came back to the light, then I leave to you one hundred thousand galleons, with the contingency that you give up this Death Eater nonsense.

For Narcissa, a similar offer is made. Leave that posh shithead Lucius, take the one hundred thousand galleons, divorce him and settle down with a man that looks less flamboyant than those atrocious albino peacocks he has."

Dumbledore finished reading the will to a stunned audience, it went further into disbursement of funds to friends and those he likes while taking jabs at those he didn't. For a moment the courtroom was silent, many expectations of what the will would entail were shattered.

"I put forth a motion for the Potter Will's to be read," Lucius declared in haste. "Something is wrong here, why would the Dark Lord's right-hand man leave everything to the boy who killed him. We're being confounded."

Sighing to himself Dumbledore raised his wand. "Does anyone second the motion," he asked, already knowing what the answer would be as dozens of wands shot up in unison. "Very well motion passes."

A short while later a ministry clerk nervously stepped into the chamber. "I have the Potter's will Chief Warlock."

"Thank you, Ms. Mint," Dumbledore kindly said with a twinkle in his eye. "Ahem, now if you are all ready," he addressed the assembled body.

"We James and Lily Potter, being of soundish mind.

James take this seriously.

Sorry Lils.

No, James, it's still writing all of this.

It's okay Lily we'll get the Goblins to cut this part out.

We the Potters so declare this to be our Last Will and Testament, we hearby revoke any and all wills and codicils.

If this is being read far in the future, we hope that Harry grew up to be a fine young man. If as we suspect, it is being read after our deaths at the hand of Voldemort. Then damn you Pettigrew.

James, stop it.

No Lily, if we died under the fidelius then only Peter could have given us up as the Secret Keeper."

Dumbledore stopped reading the will when the witches and wizards listening started ranting and raving. "EVERYBODY SILENCE," Dumbledore yelled over them all. "As it stands, we, the Wizengamot have committed a most grave injustice. Yesterday we put to death a lord of a noble and ancient house. But even more, we took the life of an innocent man."

The will further stated to whom Harry was supposed to be sent to as his caretakers. The first name on the list was Sirius Black, his godfather and dogfather, something that did confuse most of the assembled members but they had simply assumed that this was some inside joke shared among friends. From there it named Alice Longbottom, as his godmother. When Augusta stood up to assert that she could take care of the young Potter heir Dumbledore had to stop her.

"Unfortunately this is not possible, for one, Young Alice is not able to take custody of him, in her current state," Dumbledore said sadly, knowing that both Frank and Alice were laying in a bed at Saint Mungos.

"Posh, a technicality Albus," Augusta fluffed herself up. "I am certain that none here, would object to skipping Alice's signature in this rare case."

"I would be more than happy to Augusta alas it is not possible," Dumbledore stated.

"What do you mean Albus, why is it not possible," Amelia, Regent of House Bones said from her seat in the chamber.

"When Voldemort," Dumbledore started pausing as many members flinched at the name. "Fell that fateful night not two weeks ago, I knew that young Harry would be in danger. As many of his followers were still free to follow their master. So I sent him away somewhere the Death Eaters would never be able to get to him," he admitted.

"Then you can just go get him," Undersecretary Cornelius Fudge ordered.

"No I cannot," Dumbledore shouted. "The protections I have placed on him will prevent anyone from the magical community from contacting him."

"How dare you Chief Warlock," Minister Crouch shouted back.

"How dare I," Dumbledore roared, as he turned to stare at the assembled mass of angry witches and wizards. "How dare I? You presume too much. Had the Potter will been read and followed, every free Death Eater that we had yet to capture would be hunting down Sirius Black and Harry Potter."

"They wouldn't try," Augusta sneered.

"Oh I am certain they would," Dumbledore glared over his half-moon glasses. "Had Sirius been unable to take Harry at the time then he would have been placed with Frank and Alice, long before the LeStranges got to them, and I have no doubts that they would have been more ferocious during their assault and with far more numbers." The Headmasters point struck home as Augusta could not try to deny that had Harry been placed with Alice that the LeStranges would not have done considerably more damage to their home. As it was, they had chosen to spend time torturing her son and daughter in law for far longer, giving her time to secret away Neville. She was a stubborn and set in her way's woman, but she understood that they would have killed instead had Harry been placed in her home.

"Then why didn't you take the Potter child to Hogwarts, if you were so worried about his safety. Even the Dark Lord was never able to breach the wards," Lord Nott said from his side of the aisle.

Albus sighed. "Truthfully, I could not trust, not my staff, student, or even myself to keep him safe," He admitted. "With my positions comes many responsibilities, of the Headmaster, it is to the students, all of them. Dividing my attention to Harry would have been unfair to them." Not able to admit that he suspected many of the students already to have taken the Dark Mark or held extremely sympathetic views towards Tom Riddle and while Hogwarts might have protected Harry from outside threats, unfortunately he would not be safe from any dangers already in the school.

"Then what are we to do," Amelia sighed. "This child is heir to both the Potter and Black Lordships, when exactly will he be able to rejoin our world."

"When his Hogwarts letter is sent out, then limited contact will be possible," Dumbledore stated.

The next few hours were made up of constant arguing from the Wizengamot about details of the wills that were read. The headlines, international and domestic were running rampant for weeks.

Harry Potter-Black?

The-Boy-Who-Doesn't-Know

Harry Potter What Will He Look Like

Some authors attempted to write up fantastical stories about adventures that the famous Boy-Who-Lived went on, but as everyone knew that Harry was simply living in the muggle world and most had very low opinions of it to begin with. It was widely accepted that those books were simply fictional, even if they had decent sales with young witches and wizards for the use of a child aged protagonist.

Over the many years a sense of peace had settled in the magical world and for a time it felt as if everything would be normal again. But underneath that brewed something nefarious, it wasn't necessarily evil minded, but it certainly didn't want to be brought into the light. Many families planned as it neared the day the Hogwarts letters were sent out, July 31st. For even families firmly in the light saw this as an opportunity. Harry Potter-Black, heir to two Lordships, a vast wealth that dwarfed most other houses and untold political power. So they wanted to ensure that their family was there to guide the young child who knew nothing of their world.

As it would happen it was a calm morning that Friday and for many the day had yet to start, but in a castle deep in the Scottish Highlands, in a well-furnished office, surrounding a book were many adults. "Albus, I don't particularly enjoy having this many people in my office," Minerva said as she looked at all who had shown up this morning. The now current Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge and his Lapdog Dolores Umbridge. Lucius Malfoy, which she suspected was present because Fudge couldn't tie his shoes without consulting the other man. Madame Amelia Bones, who she had fond memories teaching and was here in her official capacity as Director of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.

A voice drew her attention. "When will this start," Ms. Skeeter said from the back. Ms. Rita Skeeter, or as McGonagall and Dumbledore knew her Tina Simmons, a half-blood Ravenclaw who graduated in 68' and they were disappointed that she used her talents for near slanderous articles.

"In a moment," Minerve shushed the woman as blank sheets of paper began to fly over to the large tome. Ink began to form on the parchment as the letters were written by the ancient book. They then neatly folded themselves into a pile ready to be sorted.

"Huh, I always did wonder how that was done," Fudge said, many in agreement, not that the process was a secret, but that many just never bothered to ask about it. To see it firsthand was a strange novelty.

"And now we have Mr. Potter's letter," Minerva said as she dug through the stack.

Mr. H. Potter-Black,

The Cupboard under the Stairs,

4, Privet Drive.

Little Whinging,

Surrey

Internally Malfoy groaned, for years he had been trying to prove that his son was the true heir to the Black Lordship. But this paper showed everyone present that it just wasn't true.

"Why is the home named the Cupboard under the stairs," Madame Bones questioned.

"Well we will find out shortly won't we," Fudge said matter of factly.

"Yes, we shall," Dumbledore said as he drew his wand and a conjured a length of rope and turned it into a portkey. The aged headmaster was not holding out the best of hope of what was to come as they were all whisked away by the magic.