Sorry, I realised that I'd missed something obvious, so Barty Senior also lost his magic and died at the end of the Second Task and Frank replaced him as Director of the Department of International Magical Cooperation in the previous chapters. Cyrus Greengrass also replaced Seren Zabini as the new Director of the Department of International Magical Cooperation, because Blaise Zabini should have been part of the group from the start if his mother was, and a Wizard was more likely to be accepted to a senior role in a patriarchal society than a Witch.

So perhaps it's time for a quick recap of where we stand at this point… The original Laws of Magic of Magical Britain were written in the days when the ruling class (the Seven Houses that were to become the Most Noble and Most Ancient Houses in the Third Age of Magical Britain which began when the Wizengamot was established) had the power of life and death over everyone else in Magical Britain. The Rule of Magic was tied to those Original Laws, so they could not be revoked, and Arcturus and Harry called on these laws to judge and punish those who acted against the Old Laws. The result of this was….

The two Dork Lords are done and dusted. They are gone for good and they and their minions have lost just about everything to Harry and his Allies.

Control of Hogwarts, the Wizengamot and the Ministry has been taken out of the Pure-Blood Bigots' hands.

And the Human Howler and scores of others have been taken out of the equation by their avarice and hubris.

Refer Chapter 1 for disclaimer.

There were only two major surprises in the casualty list accruing from Magic's judgements… Elphias Doge and Millicent Bagnold.

Elphias was one of Albus Dumbledore's first minions (he considered Albus a friend, but Albus Dumbledore never had any use for friends, just those who would do his bidding), and had always been unfailingly loyal to him. What most failed to realise, however, was that Elphias was much like Arthur Weasley in that his personal integrity would not allow him to knowingly do anything that was, for want of a better descriptor, wrong. What this meant was that, while one of Albus Dumbledore's oldest and staunchest supporters, Elphias Doge did not lose his magic, title or anything else to Magic's judgement. Nor, for that matter, did he lose his title or anything else when Harry slapped down Dumbledore and his allies…. Because he'd been sensible enough to accept that he could not retain his position as the Special Advisor to the Wizengamot on matters of Law if he lost the title he needed to keep his seat as a Member of the Wizengamot, so he terminated his Alliance with the House of Dumbledore before Harry responded to Dumbledore's provocation.

Millicent Bagnold went the other way though. They'd all believed that the ex-Minister would be too clever to allow herself to get caught up in the schemes which resulted in so many of the so-called 'Traditional' Pure-Bloods losing everything, but she wasn't. Millicent lost her life when her magic, titles and considerable fortune were stripped from her by Magic's judgement of her actions leading up to the Third Task.

The fact that half of Fudge's Ministerial-Guard-Aurors died with him for takng part in his actions against Harry made it easy for Frank to permanently dismiss the rest of them from the Ministry and eradicate the role and title altogether… Returning the budget and function to MLE Patrol Officers who were assigned to guard the Minister when required…. Which in turn allowed an increase in the number of MLE Patrol Officers who were generally available to protect the people of Magical Britain.

The excitement of the Third Task didn't effect Harry or the others' ability to sit their NEWT or Mastery exams (Harry, Luna, Daphne and Hermione Jane had fourteen Masteries between them by the end of August), so they were officially done with their magical education, and got much the same results in their NEWTs as they had in their OWLs. Harry and his girls had also completed a number of Mundane Graduate Degrees between them in that time, so they were quite ready to take their places in the Magical and Mundane Worlds. While they were officially Thirteen (Twelve in Luna's case) according to their birth certificates, they were all physically Nineteen because they had continued to train and study in Runic Time Chambers over the two years they spent at Hogwarts.

James Fleamont remained an irritation to the Family, and Harry in particular, but he was a toothless tiger, so he would never amount to anything more than an irritation. The only way James and Hadrian Fleamont could threaten the Houses of Potter, Peverell and Emrys was if Harry produced no Heirs before he died, and Hadrian had children who proved worthy of taking control of their Houses. This was rather unlikely though, because as Hadrian had just turned Thirteen and his betrothed Twelve, they were unlikely to be producing Heirs for years….

But Luna, Daphne and Hermione Jane had once again claimed their right as Harry's senior wives (with the exception of Gabrielle, they had performed the formal wedding rituals after they completed their exams so they were officially Harry's wives now) to bear him Heirs before Fleur did, so the three of them were officially pregnant with their husband's Heirs at Thirteen (Daphne and Hermione Jane) and Twelve (Luna), even though they were all physically Nineteen. Fleur was also physically Nineteen (officially Seventeen) and pregnant, and Harry had obviously inherited the Potter trait for siring twins, because all four girls were carrying twins.

Charlus and his twin brother Fleamont were born in Nineteen Seventeen, and Fleamont's wife Euphemia was carrying twins when she died in the attack on Fleamont and his family by 'Knights of the Greater Good' leading up to World War Two. The Old Families believed that this was an attempt to preemptively stop the Potters bringing Magical Britain into the war, as Charlus and Fleamont's father Henry had been trying to get Magical Britain involved in World War One, but it had the opposite effect. While the so-called 'traditional' Pure-Bloods may have been successful in limiting the British Ministry of Magic's involvement, the Old Families rallied behind Fleamont to avenge his wife and Heirs….

Arcturus Black the Third, Heir to the Most Noble and Most Ancient House of Black, took up the fight with other members of the House of Black who held to the old ways, rather than the blood purity nonsense that many of the family had fallen for since the beginning of the Nineteenth Century. (Arcturus' father Sirius Black the Second, who was Head of the House of Black at the time, was one of the Blacks who swallowed all the blood purity shite, but the Blacks were smarter than most of the 'traditional' Pure-Bloods, and they ensured that the lesson of what happened to the Macmillans was never forgotten…. So while he was furious that his son and Heir refused to follow in his footsteps, Sirius wasn't stupid enough to try and disown him and risk the House of Black losing its magic.)

The Potters had always tried to allow their sons and daughters to find their own true mates, and Charlus and their father Henry had allowed themselves to be lulled into a sense of false security, believing that their line was safe because Fleamont had found his true mate and they were expecting their Heirs (or Heiresses, the Potters were quite happy to allow daughters to carry on their line)…. But that fallacy came crashing down around their ears when Euphemia and the Heirs were killed, and then Fleamont was also killed in Forty Four.

Charlus had grown quite close to the brilliant and fiery teenage widow Dorea Danforth-Dupre nee Black since she followed her older Cousin Arcturus into the fight against the Knights of the Greater Good after her first husband died in a 'tragic accident'.

(While her father Cygnus and Grandfather Sirius were furious that Dorea had had the gall to kill the husband they chose for her, just because he tried to force her to do her duty and bear him Heirs in a hurry... They had to grudgingly admit that they were impressed with how she'd been clever enough to ensure that his death could never be pinned on her and brought two Ancient Baronies... one of them an actual Noble title... and the fortunes associated with them into the House of Black.)

With Henry's (as Head of the House of Potter) and Arcturus' (as the next Head of the House of Black) blessing and support, Charlus and Dorea were formally married soon after Fleamont was killed. Dorea's Grandfather Sirius had been holding off on formally claiming the titles and fortunes she had brought to the House of Black, hoping that she'd get herself killed and they would just default to the House of Black, so they all went to the House of Potter. Out of spite, Sirius cast Dorea out of the House of Black, but Arcturus reinstated her as a Favoured Daughter of the House of Black as soon as he became Lord Black in Nineteen Fifty Two. While it wasn't discussed outside the immediate family, formally bringing her back into the House of Black as a Favoured Daughter had actually made Dorea part of the primary line of succession of the House of Black, rather than the cadet line she'd been born into, so her children would be next in line after Arcturus' own children Orion and Lucretia's children to inherit the title of Head of the House of Black.

Unlike the 'traditional' Pure-Bloods, Charlus and Dorea didn't ignore the wealth of knowledge that existed in the Mundane World, so when Dorea was having trouble getting pregnant, they enlisted help from both worlds to look into the problem. What they found was that, while they hadn't been consciously trying to keep to powerful magical bloodlines, the bloodlines of the Old Families had been intersecting for millennia, and the Blacks had been purposely following the blood purity nonsense for over a century by the time Dorea was born, so she had medical problems to overcome. On top of this, Dorea's mother and Charlus' maternal grandmother had both been daughters of the House of Bulstrode, so the two of them were closer related than they probably should be. Even with everything Charlus and Dorea tried, it took Dorea nearly seventeen years to manage to carry a pregnancy to term, so James and his twin brother Hardwin weren't born until Nineteen Sixty.

Then in the early-Sixties, when James and Hardwin were toddlers and the family were living in Godric's Hollow (Henry was still residing in Potter Manor as Lord Potter and things had been fairly quiet in Magical Britain since Grindelwald's War ended, so they'd stayed on in Gryffindor Cottage to have their own space as a family)... They were attacked by Dark Wizards (most likely Tom Riddle's minions) and Hardwin was hit with a Dark Curse in the scuffle which killed him.

They never knew for certain what effect losing his twin brother like that (or the inadvertent inbreeding) had had on James, but he had never been quite what they expected of a Son and Heir of the House of Potter. For a start, he was far too willing to swallow all the shite the so-called 'traditional' Pure-Blood families were peddling about how proper Witches and Wizards only came from families who 'stayed true to their magical roots'... As if those upstarts whose families were only a few Centuries old had any right to talk about tradition or magical roots when some of the Old Families like the Potters, Peverells and Blacks had been extant for three or four Millennia.

Charlus, Dorea and Arcturus had discussed all this with Lily after she resigned herself to the fact that she'd have to marry into the accepted Nobility of Magical Britain if she ever wanted to be accepted in Magical Britain, and also explained that this was how they thought Albus Bloody Dumbledore had gotten his hooks into James. Pettigrew and Lupin had been conditioned to do anything and everything Dumbledore told them to by they time they started at Hogwarts, and he'd used the Elder Wand to ensure that the Heirs of the Most Noble and Most Ancient Houses of Potter and Black were placed in the same Gryffindor dormitory as his two minions.

What James couldn't tell Dumbledore, because it was a family secret, was that he hadn't been accepted as Heir to the House of Potter, because he hadn't yet shown the qualities that the Potter Family Magic required of those who led the House of Potter. Sirius Black was a horse of a different colour, he had been accepted as the Heir by the Black Family Magics as meeting what they required of the future leaders of the House, but he was saddled with a further two generations of inbreeding over what Dorea had been, and that was exasperated by his whore of a mother intentionally seducing and getting pregnant to her own cousin in her drive to rule the Most Noble and Most Ancient House of Black as Lady Black.

While that would have played into Dumbledore's hands though, the ingrained Black paranoia certainly didn't. The Blacks were trained from birth never to trust anyone who wasn't a Black, so Sirius always questioned the reasons for everything Dumbledore suggested to him or tried to convince him of.

By the time they reached their Sixth Year, Dumbledore had written Black off as a lost cause and was trying to find a way to get rid of him, because his constant questioning of everything was interfering with the blind obedience he would otherwise be getting from James Potter. Even having Pettigrew and Lupin let Black have sex with them anytime he felt like it (legilimency probes had revealed his orientation by their Fourth Year) and nudging Lupin to get into starting a relationship with him when he showed a preference for the Werewolf hadn't been enough to break the constant questioning, so he had to go.

That was why he engineered the situation for Black to tell the Half-Blood Snape how to get into where the Werewolf supposedly locked himself away on the full moon, then set it up for Potter to rescue Snape before the Werewolf could get him. If Potter was too late and Snape was turned or killed, he could use Potter's shame over his failure to control him. If Potter got there in time to save Snape, he would ensure that the Life-Debt was imposed on Snape and use that to acquire another valuable minion, because Snape was actually quite impressive for someone of his background. Either way, it would drive a wedge between Black and the rest of the group and allow him to get total control of Potter.

Well that was how it was supposed to work anyway…. Bloody Potter's obsession for the Evans Mudblood had made him consider the logic in her argument that Black hadn't deliberately tried to get Snape killed, he was just being childish and stupid like they'd all been the whole way through their time at Hogwarts. So Black hadn't been cast out of the group, there was a bit more distance between him and Potter but his gratitude to Evans had made him grow up enough to make a serious effort with his studies, so he did far better through his NEWT years than he had in his OWLs, better than Potter actually, so Potter started working harder to try and catch up to him. That had followed through to Auror training and Black had gotten through the compressed wartime course faster than Potter, so he was making a name for himself in the Auror Office.

At least Potter's jealousy about being shown up like that made it easier to make him accept all the whispered concerns about Black showing his true colours because he maimed and killed his opponents, rather than only stunning them as he was supposed to be doing. By the time Potter's Heirs were born, Potter was turning to Lupin rather than Black most of the time, so it wasn't too hard to convince him that while his parents and his wife were determined that Black would be the best Godfather for the Potter Heirs, because he would protect the boys, it would be better if the second son had Lupin as his Godfather, so that he wouldn't be neglected in favour of the First-Born. Lord and Lady Potter and the Mudblood hadn't liked that argument, but they gave in to keep the peace.

Charlus, Dorea and Lily hadn't been at all comfortable with the way James believed anything and everything Dumbledore said, so when he refused to be involved in what Albus told him were 'dark rituals of a dark House' (It had been agreed that Sirius would blood adopt Harry to officially make him his Heir…. He wouldn't be making an Heir the normal way by choice and he'd never find a Witch who could give him a better Heir than Harry anyway, so with Arcturus' and Charlus' agreement and approval, they would go through the rituals to ensure that Harry would be Heir to the Houses of both Potter and Black)…. They took the Heir ritual a step further.

Dorea was the Department of Mysteries' ultimate authority on Arcane Rituals, and being accepted at a high level by the Black and Potter Family Magics and Clan Gringott, she had access to some of the oldest rituals known to Man and Fae, dating back to the days when the Aos Sith boosted Man's magic with their own blood to begin the first Magical Families. With Lily, Pan and Celeste's help, she used this knowledge to craft what they described as a Hope ritual, to imbue the Hope of the Aos Sith with all the magical abilities and protections they could give him. Seven gifted their blood, magic and love to Harry in this ritual… Lily, Pandora and Celeste giving the love and protection of the mother, Sirius giving the love and protection of the father (being Harry's Godfather made this allowable) and Charlus, Dorea and Arcturus giving the love and protection of the Elders.

The Hope ritual was repeated with minor differences three more times.

Sirius was replaced by Xeno as the father and Arcturus was replaced by Countess Griselda Marchbanks as one of the Elders for Luna to blood adopt her as Heiress to the Most Noble and Ancient House of Marchbanks and Noble and Ancient House of McLachlan.

Cyrus took the father's role and Baroness Minerva McGonagall took Arcturus' place as one of the Elders for Daphne to blood adopt her as Heiress to the Noble and Most Ancient House of Ross.

Luna and Daphne's rituals were done at around the same time as Harry's ritual.

Then when Hermione Jane joined the family in Nineteen Eighty Six, Baron Alastor Callum Moody stood in as the father figure to blood adopt her as Heiress to Noble and Ancient House of Moody, and Earl Wulfram Morgan Vargr Le Fay stood with Arcturus as an Elder to blood adopt her as Heiress to the Most Ancient and Most Noble House of Le Fay and Noble and Most Ancient House of Vargr, as did Baron Saul Moses Croaker to blood adopt her as Heiress to the Noble and Ancient House of Croaker.

The purpose of swapping the ones who participated in the Hope rituals was in part to stop the Houses of the Old Families without Heirs or Heiresses from dying out with their last members…. But more to the point, most of the magic and knowledge of those who participated in the Hope rituals passed to the subject of the ritual when they died in the Human realm, and as this would be split between the subjects of the rituals they participated in, it was agreed that it would be better to spread it over more participants.

It was the magic of Sirius, Charlus and Dorea which powered the protections around Harry when Voldemort blasted Lily out of the way and then cast a killing curse at what he believed to be the first of his nemeses. Activating those protections had taken most of Harry's magic too, but given that it saved him from a killing curse and he was back to normal infant levels within a day, that was a small price to pay.

The fact that James Fleamont still believed everything Albus Dumbledore had told him when he was alive was part of the reason that he remained an irritant who tried to oppose the Old Families. He lacked the power and influence to be a serious problem for them, but the way he kept pushing made him a constant irritation.

While he didn't have the power and influence to be a serious problem for them though, they had more than enough to make serious problems for him, and one of the tools Harry loved to use to slap his father down when he pissed him off was the Daily Prophet and Wizarding Wireless Network. James never seemed able to remember that the media of Magical Britain now had the mandate to report the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, and that there was nearly always someone around to hear him talking shite about Harry and the family.

Harry didn't have him fined every Knut he owned (as he had every right to do), because he was still looking out for Hadrian for his Mum's sake, and he didn't think his Stepmother deserved to be out on the street because of his stupid father's big mouth either…. So the reporters of Harry's media enterprises in Magical Britain had a standing order, every time James Fleamont opens his mouth to change feet and says something else stupid and insulting, write it up! The editors would check with Harry or someone in the family to see whether or not they had the go-ahead to publish or broadcast whatever the reporters had come up with, but it was very rare for them to be told to scrap it, or even hold it back for a bit, because hardly a day went past without James Fleamont pissing off someone in the family.

In a way, Frank had suggested the perfect role for James, because Ludo Bagman had been far from the first Director of the Department of Magical Games and Sports who was the laughing stock of the Ministry. It was generally considered the perfect role for over the hill Quidditch players who have taken too many bludgers to the head and were incapable of handling a real job, so they or their family or sponsors would purchase the position for them. This way they could pretend to be Wizards of substance when they were in fact being put out to pasture. So the fact that James accepted the role at face value rather than taking it as an insult was rather telling.

Hadrian wasn't a happy boy by the end of the '92-93 school year. First, Henry had (in his eyes) stolen his chance of glory from him by taking the place in the Tournament that was obviously meant for him… The fact that Blind Freddie could see that Hadrian didn't have a snowball's hope in Hell of surviving the Tournament was immaterial, in his mind he was the Boy-Who-Lived, and therefore could beat Henry Bloody Potter any day of the week…. Then at the end of February, Henry had somehow tricked Magic into killing off Professor Dumbledore, Mister Crouch and many others, which made his life go to Hell.

Professor Dumbledore had always understood that there were too many demands on his time as the Boy-Who-Lived to worry about completing all of the homework and assignments and had given him dispensations for prior knowledge in all of the subjects because he was ahead of the ordinary students…. But after he was killed, Professor Bloody McGonagall threw all of that out, and had the gall to tell him that if he didn't complete his assignments and do well in his exams, he'd be held back! She actually had the nerve to say that having the made up title of the Boy-Who-Lived meant nothing in the real world, and if he couldn't prove that he knew all the material properly, she'd have to make him keep repeating the year until he got it right! She was denying the fact that he'd proved that he was far better than ordinary Wizards by destroying Voldemort when he was just fifteen months old, while she was giving his thrice damned brother anything and everything he wanted! It just wasn't fair!

He hadn't paid any attention to McGonagall's threats, sure that she'd be dismissed and everything would go back to the way it was supposed to be quick smart, but Bloody Henry had tricked Magic again at the end of June, killing off Minister Fudge and even more proper Witches and Wizards than he had in February... Which robbed Father of his hard earned position as Undersecretary to the Minister and robbed him of the satisfaction of seeing McGonagall and those other fools put in their place.

This resulted in their whole family (him, Father, Stepmother and Ginny), and Ginny's father being summoned to McGonagall's office for a meeting with her, her Deputies and the Gryffindor House Mistress at the end of the school year…. For that thrice damned bitch to tell Father that he hadn't made any effort at all to improve after he was warned that he was in danger of having to repeat the year, and as he had failed every single subject, that was exactly what would be happening.

Then McGonagall twisted the knife when Ginny's father asked whether Ginny would be held back as well. "No Lord Weasley, while Miss Weasley hasn't been putting in the effort we would have liked to see from her, she has shown enough aptitude for learning that she has passed all her subjects well enough that there is no reason or excuse to hold her back."

Father had tried to make her see reason. "It's not right to separate Hadrian from his betrothed! If you refuse to allow Hadrian to advance to the next year as he should, I demand that Ginevra be held back with him! Otherwise I will be withdrawing both of them from Hogwarts immediately!"

But Ginny's father had taken exception to that. "How dare you? I agreed to allow my daughter to live with your family on the breaks because she had her heart set on marrying your son, but that does not give you any right to make decisions on her behalf that may well ruin her life! As her father, I do not give permission for Ginevra to be held back Headmistress McGonagall, and I request that her records here at Hogwarts be amended to show that she will be living with her proper family in Sherwood House from this point forward… Because I, Baron Arthurus Septimus Weasley, Head of the Noble and Ancient House of Weasley, am hereby exercising my right as Head of the superior House to summarily terminate the betrothal contract in place between Ginevra Molly Weasley of the Noble and Ancient House of Weasley and Hadrian John Fleamont of the Minor House of Fleamont and reclaiming Ginevra Molly Weasley's dowry in full, effective immediately! This betrothal contract is being terminated for cause as James Charlus Fleamont, Head of the Minor House of Fleamont, has attempted to claim rights over my daughter, Ginevra Molly Weasley, before she is married into the House of Fleamont, in order to make decisions on her behalf which could seriously disadvantage her. So mote it be!"

There was a flash as Arthur's decree was accepted and Ginny and Hadrian felt the link between them being severed. Arthur put his arms around Ginny when she wailed and he had to raise his voice to be heard over her sobs, so the others in the Headmistress' office heard what he said. "I'm sorry Ginny, I won't try to stop you marrying Hadrian if that's still your wish once you're of age, but I couldn't let that pompous, arrogant fool ruin your life by dragging you down to his idiot son's level out of spite. You can hate me if you want but I hope in time that you will see that I did this for you my darling girl…."

There was a suspicious teary sparkle in Minerva's eye (and Leta's, Pomona Sprout's and Rolanda Hooch's for that matter) when she turned back to James. "Well Mister Fleamont, while Miss Weasley is no longer your son's betrothed, she will most definitely not be held back with your son as you have demanded… So is it still your decision to withdraw your son from Hogwarts immediately?"

James was dumbstruck, he'd been expecting McGonagall to buckle at that threat and allow Hadrian to advance to the next year with Ginny… He'd completely forgotten that Weasley was in the room because he'd always dismissed him as what Albus and Molly said he was, an inconsequential milksop, so it had been a shock to see him leap to his feet in a rage and use the attempt to make McGonagall back down as an excuse to summarily terminate the betrothal. He was trying to work out how to get out of this without losing too much face. His biggest problem was that the Burrow was already in the process of being torn down and rebuilt into Fleamont Manor, so that they'd have something suitable to serve as the seat of the N… House of Fleamont, so he had to find some way of getting Weasley to sell it to him cheap before he saw the state it was in, otherwise he'd have to pay big penalties… But that meant that he couldn't really afford to send Hadrian to Durmstrang or Beauxbatons. He'd most likely fail there anyway, but they were the only schools that were considered acceptable by Magical Britain's aristocracy….

When he heard Hadrian whining about wanting to leave because it had been terrible at Hogwarts since Professor Dumbledore was killed though, he made a decision. There was no way that Durmstrang would accept a student of Hadrian's standard but Letitia could spend the summer getting his French up to par and he was sure he could make the Goblins pay for his tuition at Beauxbatons. If Hadrian had to go back a year there they could pass it off as being the differences between the schools. He wasn't happy that a Half-Breed was running Beauxbatons, but Hogwarts had a Half-Breed as one of its Deputies now so it wasn't that much better….

"Yes it is! And I expect Hadrian's prepaid tuition to be refunded immediately too!"

The bitch laughed at him! "The only ones who were ever stupid enough to try and prepay the full seven years of tuition in advance were those idiots who believed Albus Dumbledore's lies that that was the 'proper' way to do it Mister Fleamont, and the extra gold to cover any increases in fees over the years was still being taken from their Gringotts vaults, just as the full tuition was taken from the other students' vaults each year…. And in case your memory of Dumbledore's spiel is faulty Mister Fleamont, he always stipulated that it was non refundable, in hope that he would be able to hang onto the extra gold if he somehow managed to get the students out of Hogwarts in less than seven years. Your father was no fool Mister Fleamont, Henry and Hadrian's Hogwarts tuition was set up to be withdrawn from their trust vaults each year, just as yours was when you attended Hogwarts… So there is no prepaid tuition to be refunded, your son's trust vault has been charged for no more than the last two years' tuition….."

"Very well. James Charlus Fleamont, as per your verbal instruction to me, Headmistress Minerva McGonagall, on this day, the Thirtieth of June Nineteen Ninety Three… With Deputy Headmistress Pomona Sprout, Deputy Headmaster Filius Flitwick, Gryffindor House Mistress Rolanda Hooch, Baron Arthurus Weasley and Missus Letitia Fleamont as witnesses…. Your son, Hadrian John Fleamont, is hereby removed from the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry..."

"Hogwarts will forward the requisite transcripts of Master Fleamont's school records to you as soon as they are available so that you may make arrangements for his ongoing education with an accredited school or tutors. I am duty bound to remind you that if you have not formally lodged the information with the Department of Magical Education to show that Hadrian Fleamont is enrolled to continue his education with an accredited school or tutors before the First of September this year, they will be required by law to snap his wand, bind his magic and remove all memory of the Wizarding World from him, and he will be sent into the Muggle World to be prepared for a life as a Muggle. As you were informed at the start of this meeting, it has been recorded and a copy of this recording is legally required to be supplied to the Department of Magical Education…."

"I believe that Miss Weasley will be going home with Lord Weasley?" Arthur nodded tersely. "So I will bid you goodbye Mister Fleamont, Missus Fleamont and Master Fleamont, and I wish you well in your ongoing education endeavours Master Fleamont. I will have Master Fleamont's belongings packed and sent to your home. Good Day."

James brusquely nodded as he surged from his chair and stormed to the floo, snapping "Come!" at Leta and Hadrian as he did so. Leta rose with more decorum and curtsied to Arthur, Ginny, Minerva and her staff before urging Hadrian to get up and hurried him after James, because James was angrier than she'd seen him in the time they'd been married.

After a whispered discussion with Ginny, Arthur turned to Minerva. "Headmistress, Ginny doesn't feel up to trying to explain this to their friends and the other students. Would it be alright if I took her home and got someone to pack her things and bring them home?"

Minerva nodded. "Of course Lord Weasley, I will get the Elfs to pack up Ginny's things and send them to Sherwood House when I have Hadrian's things packed and sent to the Fleamont Townhouse… And Ginny?"

She waited until Ginny looked up at her. "None of this is your fault! Like you, Hadrian could have easily passed all his subjects if he'd made the slightest effort, but he allowed his fame as the so called Boy Who Lived to go to his head and believed that he should just be given good grades because of the fantasy put in his head by his father and others that he was a hero and therefore above working for what he wanted in life. A large part of the blame for that lies with his father, the late Professor Dumbledore, Remus Lupin and the other adults who constantly fed him those fanciful stories but it was Hadrian who allowed himself to become as lazy and prideful as he is. He and his father are the ones who put Hogwarts in the position where I had no choice but to make him repeat the year because it would not be fair to you or the other students to have him holding you back in class next year. So None. Of. This. Is. Your. Fault!..."

"I understand that you are upset with your father at the moment Ginny, but he truly did do this for you. You have the ability to do every bit as well as your brothers Bill, Fred and George and shine as an exceptional Witch, but if your father had allowed you to be held back and made to dumb yourself down to the level Hadrian Fleamont was content to stay at, I believe that you would have been miserable when you later realised what you had given up to stay with Hadrian. Your father has promised you that he will allow you to marry Hadrian Fleamont if you still wish to do so once you are of age Ginny, so if it was meant to be, that may still happen. Who knows, perhaps this will be the wake up call that Hadrian needs to become the Wizard he can be, rather than the disappointment he is currently heading towards being…."

"If you want an idea of what Hadrian could have been like though, think about his twin brother Henry. Henry has worked hard nearly his whole life to meet his expectations of himself. He and those closest to him have lived half their lives twice over to get enough time to learn everything they felt they needed to. They've already completed their NEWTs, getting some of the highest scores on record, and most of them have completed a number of Masteries as well. If Hadrian had made an effort I'm sure he could have been one of our top students as Henry and their parents were, but instead he failed every subject, and he would have failed last year as well if Professor Dumbledore hadn't abused his authority as the Headmaster and forced the teachers to pass him. That is the fate your father was trying to protect you from. Please do not be too wroth with your father Ginny, he is only trying to do what is right for his beloved daughter and I hope that in time, when you take a step back and look at this with calmer eyes, you will come to see that yourself."

Ginny was still sniffling, but they could see that she was thinking about what Minerva had said, and Arthur gave Minerva a grateful smile over her head. With that, they said their goodbyes and left via the Floo.

Minerva was pissed off with James Bloody Fleamont and his arrogant brat, so she announced at the Leaving Feast that Hadrian Fleamont would not be returning to Hogwarts, because his father believed that another school would be better for him. She added that Ginevra Weasley would be returning in September to start her Third Year, but her father had taken her home because witnessing the disagreement about Hadrian Fleamont's future at Hogwarts in the Headmistress' office had upset her quite a bit.

James sent a smug message to Minerva when Hadrian had no trouble being accepted into the Third Year classes at Beauxbatons on the basis of the aptitude tests he sat, but she just laughed when she read it…. Because she, Griselda, Lily, Filius, Pomona and some of the other staff were working hard to get the same expanded magical education tiers as they were using at Beauxbatons, some of the American schools and other schools of magic around the world implemented at Hogwarts in time for the next school year, using the new Taigh a' Filidhean (House of the Scholars) in Hogsmeade for the younger students.

Under the expanded education tiers, magical children began studying the Magical and Mundane foundation subjects as day students as they transitioned into their second stage of development at Eight years old (when the majority of them started displaying accidental magic) to ensure that they had had the opportunity to master the foundations of what they needed to know before they began more serious Magical and Mundane Education.

What this meant was that Hadrian would actually be going into the Third Year of a Ten year Magical Education with Ten year old classmates, and going over the equivalent of First Year magic at Hogwarts again. To put it more simply, Hadrian wasn't being advanced to the equivalent of Third Year to Hogwarts as James believed, he was being thrown back to the equivalent of the First Year at Hogwarts, because that's the level his aptitude tests showed he was at… And woe betide him if he tried to use the fact that he was so much bigger than the other students in his year to throw his weight around. That was another thing that they were looking forward to James Fleamont finding out about actually, that there was new magical school about to officially open in Hogsmeade that offered equivalent classes to what he was sending Hadrian to France for.

The Hogs Head in Hogsmeade had been rebuilt and merged with the Bee House behind it... The Bee House was the house that Albus Dumbledore bought and had made into something more suitable for someone of his importance after he became 'Professor Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, Order of Merlin, FIRST Class, Grand Sorcerer, Headmaster of The Prestigious Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot of Magical Britain and Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards' in the mid Forties, proclaiming it to be the 'Ancestral home of the House of Dumbledore', even though it was common knowledge that he'd bought it recently... To create a large house called Taigh a' Filidhean that could be used as a private school after the family took them off the Dumbledores fifteen months before, because there was an age old magical secret passage between the Hogs Head and Hogwarts. The secret passage made it workable to teach the younger children in Taigh a' Filidhean, away from the sometimes dangerous environment of Hogwarts, while maintaining easy access between the two… But they couldn't do anything about integrating Taigh a' Filidhean into the Magical Education System until after they got rid of Albus Dumbledore, the 'Traditional' members of the Hogwarts Board and the 'old school' Pure-Bloods running the Department of Magical Education.)

Lily had discovered a secret passage to the Hogs Head when she was at Hogwarts and told the others about it when they were debating what to do with Aberforth Dumbledore… So they rebuilt the Hogs Head and Bee House into one large house in March Ninety Two, registered it in the Mundane Education System as small selective school and then used it as a private school to provide Mundane (and Magical) Education for children of the Old Families for the next year... And as soon as Albus Jones was out of the way, they linked Taigh a' Filidhean to Hogwarts.

They hadn't been expecting to be able to get the Magical Preparatory Schools in Britain established in time for the '93-94 school year back when Minerva took over from Dumbledore in early March, but after Harry gutted the power base of the 'traditional' Pure-Blood Houses with those two Magical judgements, the Old Families ended up controlling twelve of the thirteen seats on the Hogwarts Board of Governors…. Their seven Most Noble and Most Ancient Houses, three Most Noble and Ancient Houses and two of their more powerful Noble and Most Ancient Houses all qualified for seats, while the 'Traditionals' only had one Most Noble and Ancient House which managed to get a seat on the Board…. The balance of power in the Wizengamot and the Department of Magical Education, so there was no-one to block them any more.

While they were over a year behind Taigh a' Filidhean, a dozen other Magical Schools around the British Isles were being created to provide the Magical and Mundane Preparatory School function and more advanced classes where needed for the so-called Muggle-Born and Muggle-Raised children…. And now that Griselda was in charge of the British Department of Magical Education, as well as being registered in the Mundane Education System as small selective schools like Taigh a' Filidhean, they would hopefully all be registered in the Magical Education System as Magical Preparatory and Overflow schools, and ready to go by the time the '93-94 school year started so that magical children in Britain would no longer have to find some way to cover up a seven year hole in their education if they wanted to rejoin the Mundane World after they finished their Magical education.

James thought he'd managed to pull the wool over Arthur Weasley's eyes when he engaged Elphias Doge to purchase the Burrow 'for Hadrian and Ginevra when they're of age and get married', because he thought that getting a titled holding for Nine Thousand Galleons was a steal. Of course, he was unaware that there was no title attached to the holding or that Nine Thousand was several times what Arthur had invested in the Burrow over the years and Arthur would have been quite ready to take Fifteen Hundred to cover his losses and put that episode of his life behind him… But Emma had made sure that Arthur got Ted Tonks to do the negotiations for him and Ted ensured that James paid top price for what he was getting. The fact that James had instructed Elphias to make no mention of titles in the negotiations so he could trick Weasley into selling it cheap meant that he had no comeback when the deal was done and it turned out that he'd bought nothing more than a parcel of rural land with a rickety house on it for that Nine Thousand.

Hadrian Fleamont had decided that Nineteen Ninety Three was the worst year ever! First he had to put up with McGonagall threatening to make him repeat a year, then Ginny's father terminated their betrothal contract just when it was starting to be fun and he was looking forward to getting to do some of those things Dean and Seamus talked about with her over summer… Then that bitch McGonagall threw him out of Hogwarts and Father told him that he had to learn French from Stepmother over the summer because he was going to be going to Beauxbatons in September and he had to do a pile of stupid tests, but at least he was going into Third Year like he was supposed to… But whenever he tried to call or floo over to Sherwood House to talk to or see Ginny, they either told him she wasn't there, or the floo was locked down so tight that nothing could get through.

Father and Stepmother didn't let him have any time to go flying or anything else either, they made him study all the time and Stepmother wouldn't let him speak anything but French, saying that he needed all the practice he could get if he was going to school in France in September. Even the books were in French and she hit him with stinging hexes if he complained.

It got worse when Father took him to France to start school at the beginning of September, because they discovered that his classmates weren't Thirteen like they were supposed to be, they were Ten! That Half-Breed Giant bitch just shrugged and told Father that he should have asked questions about what level the Third Year classes were or looked it up if he didn't know when he demanded to know why he wasn't told about this.

It didn't help that the fathers and brothers of some older students that Father had tried to convince to have dalliances with arrived and demanded to know where he was, calling him out for honour duels... Because Father just abandoned him to the tender mercies of the Headmistress and took a portkey back to Britain before they found him.

James thought that his luck was finally changing when he was called to the Minister's office a few days later, but it wasn't, because articles from European newspapers about what happened when he was at Beauxbatons were spread across his desk and a French Wizard (whom he soon discovered was the French Ambassador to Magical Britain) was standing there glowering at him. He knew that he wasn't on good terms with Longbottom, but he expected that he'd at least support him with the Frogs, so it was a shock when his invective was more scathing than the French Ambassador's when he went off at him about attempting to seduce French Witches who were school students, in some cases minors, while at Beauxbatons, and then running off like a coward as soon as their fathers and brothers tried to challenge him to honour duels for his actions. When he wound down he looked at him in disgust and said.

"You are a disgrace Fleamont, the only reason that you are not being permanently dismissed from the Ministry is that I have been petitioned for leniency on the basis that you have a son to support and against my better judgement I have agreed. However the French Ministry refuses to have anything whatsoever to do with you, so you will have to petition the Department of International Magical Cooperation to handle any negotiations with the French in regard to sporting events on behalf of the Department of Magical Games and Sports, and your Department will be covering any and all costs, including wages, for them to do that for you. You have also been permanently banned from both Magical and Mundane France, so if you ever set foot in France, you will be arrested and charged with the crimes you committed at Beauxbatons. My agreement to allow you to stay on at the Ministry here will not hold any sway with the French, so stay the hell away from France and French citizens…."

James didn't like the smile that came over Longbottom's face then at all. "I also have the duty to advise you that your wife, Missus Letitia Fleamont nee Lestrange, has petitioned the Most Noble and Most Ancient Houses to give her sanctuary and annul her marriage to you with cause, citing your actions at Beauxbatons. The Most Noble and Most Ancient Houses have accepted her petition and it is scheduled to be heard at the Autumn Equinox Session of the Full Wizengamot in two and a half weeks, so I would suggest that you engage a Law Wizard to represent you in that session. As Missus Fleamont has expressed fear that you will attempt to retaliate against her for this, you are banned from entering the Fleamont Townhouse in Diagon Alley or having any contact with Missus Fleamont until after this matter has been resolved, and if you make any attempt to enter the residence or approach Missus Fleamont, you will be arrested and charged by the DMLE. All of your belongings have been moved to..." He snorted as he read the information in front of him. "Fleamont Manor, as that is the only other Fleamont residence on record. That is all Mister Fleamont, get out of my sight!"

He quickly contacted Elphias again, because he was the only competent Law Wizard who would have anything to do with him, but he knew that Elphias' moral compass pointed a lot closer to true north than his did, so he glossed over what had happened at Beauxbatons, just telling him that he had a disagreement with some French Witches and Wizards and Letitia was using that as an excuse to try and get out of their marriage.

James hadn't learned from Albus' mistakes and withholding information to try and cover up the true facts of the matter quickly came back to bite him in the arse in the Autumn Equinox Session of the Wizengamot. He was right on one point though, Elphias was disgusted when he discovered just what James had done at Beauxbatons, so while he couldn't get out of representing him or making an effort on his behalf at that point, he didn't fight Andy Tonks' arguments about what Leta took away from the marriage too hard. The marriage was annulled, Leta returned to her birth name of Letitia Manon Lestrange, and was magically accepted as Head of the British Lestrange Family. She got the apartment in Diagon Alley (which was renamed to the Lestrange Townhouse), any remaining Lestrange Heirlooms and all the gold left in the Fleamont vaults was transferred into her personal vault, which no-one but her had access to. What wasn't advertised was that she also got herself a job teaching Wizarding etiquette, French and some magical subjects at the new Magical Prep school in London, which she found quite rewarding.

All in all, Leta was set for a comfortable life, which was far better than the situation James Fleamont was in. James was now living in Fleamont Manor, because that was the only residence he had, but the Manor was in fact a half finished building site and he had no gold to complete the work. There was very little left of his wages and the Hundred Galleons a month from Hadrian's trust vault after all his and Hadrian's bills were paid, and the Potter Account manager just laughed at him when he asked to withdraw more than the annual limit from Hadrian's vault.

And on top of that, everyone knew what had happened at Beauxbatons now and it was just as bad as it had been in the early Eighties, with everyone who had daughters telling him to stay the hell away from their family or they'd hex him into next Century…. The owners and manager of the Holyhead Harpies did too (they just replaced 'family' with 'team'), which made managing the British Quidditch League rather difficult, and McGonagall told him to stay the hell away from Hogwarts for the same reason, going so far as to set the wards to attack him if he tried to enter. No, James wasn't having a very good time at all.

Compared to the trials of the Fleamont family, Harry and his family were having a great time. Harry's kids were all born in the second quarter of Ninety Four, Luna and Fleur had mixed fraternal twins (which was the only way male children were naturally born to Veela) and Daphne and Hermione Jane both had male fraternal twins. All the children were healthy, happy and beautiful, so needless to say the parents, grandparents and Gabrielle were ecstatic. Gabi was still upset that she had another two or three years before she'd get her chance to be married and start having children herself, but she accepted the reasoning behind it.

While they were continuing their studies (both Magical Masteries and Mundane Post-Graduate Degrees), this wasn't something that tied them to any specific locations… So they were constantly wandering around the Magical and Mundane Worlds as they managed their business interests and showed their kids the world (by the time Gabi had her twins, Luna, Daphne, Hermione and Fleur had all had their second set of twins and they agreed to wait until the kids were older before they started thinking about having any more). It was obviously easier to move about in the Magical World, but the Potters and Blacks both had Multi-Billion Dollar/Pound business empires in the Mundane World which been around for over six hundred years (the Fae's business dealings in the Mundane World needed a Human face, and they were mostly under the Potter and Black names), so they were definitely classed as part of the Mega-rich. This, combined with the fact that the families had several Mundane Noble titles around Britain and the Continent (the majority at the Earl/Count level), meant that no-one turned a hair when they were seen travelling the world on what appeared to be Mega-Yachts and Corporate Jets.

The Metamorphmagus talent that Harry had inherited from his Black bloodlines made it a relatively simple matter for him to look like different men when he was out in public with the girls or his 'Cousin' Lily Evans (Lily hadn't spent as much time in Runic Time Chambers as the kids had, so as she didn't look more than fifteen or sixteen years older than Harry, calling her his 'Cousin' worked better than 'Mum')... The Enchanted Armour's runic glamours could change his appearance more easily but public appearances in the Mundane World often required contact with the people you are interacting with, and there was always the risk of someone being perceptive enough to work out that something wasn't right…. Which could lead to more attention than they liked being paid to them.

Magical Britain still had a long way to go, but they'd been yanked a long way into the Twentieth Century in the last few years, and with the Old Families' guiding hand they might even have a chance of moving into the Twenty First Century with the Mundane World and the more progressive half of the Wizarding World.

That's all, folks!

A/N: This, for those of you who have had the misfortune of watching my stories get bogged down and be left hanging time after time, is that rare event called the end of the story. A few ideas may not be tied up in a pretty bow yet but IMHO there's nothing that can't be envisioned as either winding down or moving onward and upward from here on their own so I believe it's better to leave it at that rather than go on.

NB: While I haven't seen the 'Knights of the Greater Good' mentioned before, all of the 'true believers' seem to feel the need for catchy titles. I don't see Gellert's followers being any different, so for the rest of this Chapter/Story (and maybe my other HP related stories), that's what they'll be.