Chapter 12: Problems and Solutions

(October 5, 1991)

 (Savrin POV)

 "Oh, Albus. Are you sure this is safe for the students?" McGonagall asked Savrin for what seemed like the hundredth time since he opened the trials that morning.

"Minerva, it's only mid-day and already two hundred students have entered the trials and none of them have been injured. I think you're overreacting." Savrin calmly told her, however internally he was thinking something completely different. 'Stupid woman! If you ask me that again, I'll make you stay a cat for the rest of your wretched life!'

He was running out of patience for this woman, and a large part of him wanted to just end her. Sure, compassion and fear for the student's well being was something every teacher should have, however despite his assurances, and the fact that there had been zero problems so far, it was just needless whining at this point, and the only person she was hurting right now was Savrin.

 "You know, Albus. You still never told me or any of the other teachers what you did with the stone. Is it still here in Hogwarts?" McGonagall whispered so only he could hear.

Both she and Snape had questioned him almost immediately after the Sorting Ceremony about why he changed his plans about them all setting traps to guard the stone, but he had dismissed them outright, but it still didn't stop them from trying to get answers.

Professor Quirrell had also tried to vaguely get answers from him, though he phrased it in a way that made it sound like he wasn't all that interested in it, however Savrin knew that to be a load of shit.

 From his very first encounter with Quirrell, Savrin could tell there was something or someone else attached to Quirrell, and that the turban he was wearing was hiding it. After gently ripping into the man's mind, Savrin knew full well who it was that was leaching off Quirrell, but given how Voldy split his soul, killing him now would do no good in the long run.

Plus with him latched onto Quirrell, Savrin could keep an eye on him until he figured out the best way to track down the soul anchor that had let him survive dying in the first place. 

 "It would be unwise to say anything, Minerva. Someone can't steal something when they have no idea where it is. Being the only one who knows of the stone's location, and how to get past the defenses protecting it, it is highly unlikely that anyone will be able to acquire the stone." Savrin told McGonagall, however she didn't seem all that happy with the answer.

Rather than sit there and listen to the old cow ramble on, Savrin rose from his seat and began to walk the aisles between the tables to see how the students were taking the trials.

 "I got an (E) on the Theoretical trial, can you believe it?! If I can take the trial at least once a day for the rest of the year, I'll bet my O.W.L.'s will be nothing. Plus the rewards for getting as high as I did are bloody awesome!" A Fifth-Year Ravenclaw girl told her friends excitedly as she held up a book, a slip of paper, some candy, and a small pouch.

Evidently she had done very well on the trial, as Savrin noted how there were most likely a few galleons in the pouch, not to mention the paper slip in her hand was no small reward either. It was basically a free school uniform for the following year, though if he managed to pull off everything he wanted to do, the school uniforms coming the following year would be marginally better than the current ones, and this young lady managed to get one of them for free.

The book she was holding was also an advanced copy of the potions book he had written. He had put a hundred of them in trial rewards, but made so only those who were truly intelligent would get them. The fact that she had been rewarded one on her first attempt was no small feat, and Savrin was already making a note of who the young woman was.

 "All I got from the trial was a Chocolate Frog!" Said a Second-Year Slytherin boy. It was apparent by his anger that he didn't do well on the trial, which was fair. Not everyone would be smart enough to do well in them.

"My mother works in the Ministry and is friends with a member of the Governors, and when I tell her about this, she'll have her friend shut this down." Whispered another Slytherin boy, this one a Third-Year.

 Savrin expected this to some degree after finding out about the pureblood movement and all that, but he wasn't worried about them actually being able to shut down the trials. It was entirely optional, and went on to test a student's intellect and magic. Nothing wrong with that. Besides, even if someone did try to shut the trials down, they couldn't.

The trials were being controlled by the school, therefore they would have to fight the school and somehow convince the spirit of Hogwarts, or Elysia as it was now known, to remove the trials, which it had no intention of doing.

On top of that, if they went against the school, Godric, Salazar, Rowena, and Helga would probably kill whoever tried, that is, if Savrin didn't kill them first. He already considered the school his property, and the last thing that tried to fight him for property was an Empyrean Dragon, a beast so strong that even a thousand mages banded together wouldn't want to fight it. Savrin now wore its hide for his boots, which went to show how spiteful he could be even after killing something.

 After walking around the tables, Savrin was mostly pleased with the feedback he was getting from the children. There were maybe 15 students who thought the trials were a joke, the loudest of which was a First-Year Slytherin brat named Draco Malfoy, but Savrin didn't care about them.

As far as he was concerned, they could all leave the school, for he saw no benefit to keeping them around. Their upbringing had clouded their minds, and he saw them only as problems to be dealt with in the future. Still, that would be a problem for later.

He couldn't very well get rid of them during the school-year, as that would make other parents not want to send their children to Hogwarts if they could just die. No, he would take care of it some other time.

 As he strode back to the head table between the Hufflepuff and Gryffindor tables, he stopped suddenly beside a group of First-Year boys. Looking down on the table, he saw what appeared to be a rodent, more specifically, a rat, though from the amount of magic he could feel inside of it, he knew it wasn't actually a rat.

"Professor Dumbledore?" A messy-haired boy questioned when he noticed Savrin just standing there. "Mr. Potter. I wonder if I could talk with you tomorrow afternoon?" Savrin asked smoothly to cover for his staring.

Really it wasn't a problem because he still had yet to fully examine the kid in person, and just viewing second-hand memories wasn't enough for what he needed. Still, the rat was a problem, especially since he didn't know why the boy would be keeping a wizard as a pet, nor did he know if the wizard had good or bad intentions.

"You want to talk to me? I-I mean of course, Professor. What time?" Harry said quickly, trying to act calm. "How about tomorrow after lunch? We'll meet out by the Quidditch Pitch, that way we can enjoy some fresh air." Savrin said, earning an "Of course, Sir." from the boy.

 Just as he was walking away from the group of boys, Savrin sent a small burst of magic at the rat and ripped into its mind, not being gentle by any means, but not being as cruel as he could have been. If the wizard/rat had been any sort of Occlumens then he might have realized that he had just been mind-raped, but as he wasn't then it would seem like he had come down with a sudden migraine that would stick with him for a day or two.

It had been only for a second, but it had been enough for Savrin to see enough memories to answer a few of his questions, while also solving a problem he had been putting off for the last while.

 'Well, well, if it isn't Peter Pettigrew. Magic has always been a representation of one's own character, so the fact that he's a slimy rat suits him well. I'll have to inform Arcturus.' Savrin thought happily.

He had actually intended to wait for the solar alignment when magic would be at its most accepting, then use the 'Blessing of Sight' ritual to find Peter, or at the very least his corpse, but never did he think he would just stumble across the little vermin.

'I'll have to sort this out in such a way that it doesn't come back to bite me in the ass.' He concluded as he walked past the table and moved back towards his office.

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 (Arcturus Black POV)

 In 12 Grimmauld Place, Arcturus Black was flipping through a number of documents he had acquired from the Ministry of Magic. Over the last month he had called in favors from a few people to get him files, though because he didn't want anyone to know what he was looking for, he had been very vague about what he was looking for.

His acquaintance in the Hall of Records had given him the files on every Pureblood family in Britain, as well as boxes of information relating to every prisoner sent to Azkaban in the last century, and finally the files of every known follower of Voldemort and their trial records. 

 It took almost two weeks to comb through everything and gather anything relating to Sirius, but it was worth it. Just like Savrin had told him, there was no record of a trial for Sirius, or any evidence whatsoever of him ever being a Death Eater.

Hell, he had read confessions from other convicted Death Eaters claiming certain Pureblood families were followers of Voldemort, but as far as he knew, they hadn't even so much as gotten a letter from the Ministry demanding they defend themselves. No other Death Eater even suggested that Sirius was in league with them, so it was odd that everyone thought he was Voldemort's right-hand man.

 "Oh Sirius…" He whispered sadly as he thought about his grandson. "Master speaks the blood-traitors name." Kreacher said from beside him, though scarcely had he finished the words before he was sent sprawling to the floor from a powerful backhand from Arcturus.

"I warned you, Kreacher! Sirius is my grandson and heir! If serving him is too much for you, I'm more than willing to sever your ties to House Black!" Arcturus growled angrily.

Truly he didn't blame Kreacher for his views on witches and wizards for he had had it beaten into him by Walburga about how the world worked. He had done as he was told and accepted ideals, despite them being the wrong ideals. Still, he wouldn't allow the little elf to speak ill of his blood.

 "Kreacher did not mean to offend Master Arcturus. Kreacher is sorry." The little elf said worriedly, fearing that he would be cast out of the ancient and noble house of Black.

"Walburga was a fool. Orion was a fool. Anyone who believes in slaughtering witches and wizards because they weren't born into the right families are fools. You would do well to remember that." Arcturus stated, then dismissed the little elf.

 Setting Sirius' file to the side, Arcturus picked up a much larger folder, however this one wasn't Ministry related. At the top of the first page, Arcturus could see the sigil the Goblin bank used stamped in gold, and below it there was the sigil of House Black.

The folder contained a list of every House or individual who currently owed a debt to House Black going back to the founding of Gringotts in the year 1474. Annoyingly, many of the debts were for marriages and whatnot, and considering how outdated that sort of thing was in this day and age, he knew it would cause a lot of flack if he tried to call in said marriage debts.

Still, it wouldn't be impossible to try and get Sirius married through one of those, however he doubted it would be easy.

 As he was thinking of a match for Sirius, his eyes wandered to the file sitting on the far right corner of his desk, which changed his line of thinking to Harry Potter. The file itself had taken more than a few favors to get, but it had been worth it for sure. It was the Will for James and Lily Potter, and it confirmed what Arcturus already suspected.

Sirius was in fact the Godfather to Harry Potter, and right at the bottom of the Will, Arcturus saw Sirius' signature, as well as a bloody thumb-print next to it, which confirmed the ritual had not only been magical in nature, but through blood magic as well.

Sirius had essentially bound himself to the Potters and the Potters to him, or at least, he had bound Harry to him, basically making Harry a member of House Black as well as House Potter, and nothing short of death could have relieved him of his oath.

 Arcturus was tempted to march to the Ministry and show them the evidence, however considering the fact that ninety-nine percent of witches and wizards didn't know up from down when it came to rituals, he doubted he would get very far.

Of course he could still push for the trial to clear Sirius' name, however considering it was the Minister of Magic himself and a few other high-ranking individuals who had fucked it all up, he worried they would do something stupid to cover their tracks.

He somewhat suspected that Fudge, being the incompetent man that he was, would have the Dementors suck the soul from Sirius before he ever reached the Ministry, and that would spell the end of everything he was trying to accomplish.

 Shaking his head to rid himself of the dark road his mind was leading him down, he went back to the idea of marriage proposals. If he couldn't get Sirius to marry someone, which would be a miracle in and of itself, perhaps he could do something for Harry.

Flipping open the files relating to Pureblood houses of Britain, Arcturus looked to see which houses had children close to Harry's age. "Abbot, Bones, Bulstrode, Carrow, Greengrass, Parkinson, they all have daughters born in the same year as the boy." Arcturus mused thoughtfully as he moved his eyes to the Gringotts folder.

Of the Noble houses who had a daughter born the same year as Harry, only Houses Abbot and Parkinson had marriage debts to House Black. However, if he really wanted to match Harry with one of the other houses, Bulstrode and Carrow owed more gold to House Black than they could ever afford to pay back in ten life times, so a daughter wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility if he wanted.

House Bones had actually settled their debt to house Black almost twenty years ago now, so they were out, and honestly, Arcturus didn't want anything to do with antagonizing Amelia Bones, the current matriarch of that house. She was unpleasant to be around on a good day, and downright terrifying on a bad one. As for House Greengrass, well… they did owe some gold, but considering they could easily pay the debt with their now vast fortunes, that was probably out as well.

 Arcturus was broken out of his musings when a hand landed on his shoulder, damn near scaring the life out of him. "Good evening, Lord Black." Savrin Kincade's voice sounded in his ear, driving his terror through the roof.

"H-How did you-" Arcturus tried to ask, however he was cut off when Savrin disappeared from behind him and reappeared in the chair opposite him. "How I found you and got past your wards isn't important. What is important however, is the fact that I've found Peter Pettigrew." Savrin said.

Arcturus very much wanted to argue how it was important that Savrin found him and got past his wards, though those thoughts were put on hold when he registered What Savrin had told him.

 "You found him? Where is he?!" He asked quickly as he stood abruptly from his chair. "Calm yourself down a bit." Savrin instructed him, and after taking a deep breath, Arcturus sat back down in his chair.

He knew there was no point in arguing with Savrin, for he knew how powerful the man was. He had only glimpsed his power when the man healed him, but the bit that he did see, he knew he stood no chance whatsoever in stopping him.

 "Pettigrew is what you would call an Animagus, an unregistered one at that. He has been hiding out in his animal form for the last ten years as a family pet to a group of wizards. Currently, he is at Hogwarts as the pet rat of one Ronald Weasley." Savrin said, however despite how simple the words were, it took a good few minutes to digest them.

To think a wizard would stoop so low as to become the pet of some little boy, he just couldn't fathom it.

 "So what will you do?" Arcturus couldn't help but ask. "I'll have Pettigrew in your hands by the end of next week, however before that, I want to know what progress you've made in getting yourself on the Board of Governors." Savrin said seriously, and Arcturus could only sigh.

"To be honest, I haven't put all that much effort into it. However, I did mention my interest in the position to a friend of mine currently on the Board, and he did say that he would step down for me if I so wished." Arcturus answered.

In the last month he hadn't really thought much of the Board of Governors, but about two weeks ago he had run into one of the Board members, Cylus Edgings, a man who not only owed him more than one favor, but was actually somewhat of an old friend of his. Arcturus had briefly mentioned his interest in the board, and for some reason Cylus seemed more than willing to give up the position to him. He said he would think about it, then left the man so he could keep up his research on Sirius.

 "Get yourself on the Board, then look into other candidates who you think would be good Board members. Find at least three more people who would be good for the positions, but no one from the Pureblood faction. I don't care if they are purebloods themselves, but I don't want anyone who discriminates between blood status. That's already the problem I'm dealing with." Savrin said, which sounded more like an order to Arcturus. Still, he wasn't going to argue the matter.

"When will you bring me Pettigrew?" Arcturus asked, finding it difficult to want to play politics when he knew that his grandson was rotting away in Azkaban. "Give me until Friday, and I'll not only guarantee his capture, but I will guarantee your grandson's release into your custody." "Deal!"

Scarcely had Savrin finished speaking when Arcturus shouted agreement, which just went to show how desperate he was. It didn't matter to him how desperate he sounded because he only wanted one thing right now, and the man in front of him was the one person he knew that could get it done.

 "Very well then, Lord Black. I'll contact you Friday evening, and the day after you will have your grandson." Savrin said, then seemingly disappeared as though he had never been there in the first place. Arcturus wondered how Savrin once again got through the wards on the building, but after realizing that he would get nowhere on that line of thinking, he grabbed a piece of paper and a quill before he began to write a letter to Cylus.

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 (Savrin POV)

 The next morning after breakfast, Savrin called Godric and the other three mini-founders into his office. "I called you all here to get your advice on a potential problem. You see…" Savrin went on to explain all about Pettigrew and how he was Ron Weasley's pet rat hiding out from the rest of the world. Like he expected, everyone had their own reaction.

"HAHAHAHA! You're telling me that stupid little cunt has been sleeping with a grown ass man for more than a month? That's hilarious!" Godric laughed, finding it to be quite amusing. "That's disgusting! We should kill both of them and make it look like an accident." Salazar suggested. He didn't like the Weasley kid, and based on what he had heard about Peter Pettigrew, the world would be better off without either of them.

"We most certainly will not! Just because Ronald is a prat, doesn't give you the right to kill him!" Helga rebutted angrily. ""Yes it does."" Both Salazar and Godric answered at the same time. "Let us not forget how many people think you are a prat, Godric. If that's all it takes, we should have strung you up a millennia ago." Helga argued again, getting a nod of agreement from Salazar.

 "We can't let the vile worm keep staying in Gryffindor Tower with the rest of the children! We need to get him out of the school!" Rowena stated, her first priority being the children. "You heard her Godric. You must leave the school." Salazar said seriously as he pointed towards the door.

Just when Godric was about to punch Salazar in the throat, Savrin waved his hand and they all turned into statues. "As amusing as this is, I actually called you here for a reason." Savrin said before he turned them all back to normal, then had them sit down in chairs opposite his own.

 "There are many different ways I could go about this, but I'm not sure which is the best option. On one hand, I could simply take Pettigrew without anyone's knowledge, but when he gets interrogated at the trial, and I can guarantee he will be interrogated, they will find out where he has been hiding out for the last decade, and I don't want them to question how he was taken from Hogwarts." Savrin explained, then stopped suddenly as he stared off into space.

"Then again, with how stupid the mages are in this world, who's to say they'd even ask?" The question wasn't asked towards anyone specifically, but Godric took it upon himself to answer. "Eighty-seven percent chance that it won't come up."

 Ignoring Godric, Savrin continued. "I could inform Arthur Weasley about Pettigrew and let the stones fall where they may, but that could cause more of a fuss than I would typically want. It could very well end up scaring the children, especially Ron considering he sleeps with the damn thing." Savrin didn't know it, but by saying that, he had Godric fully on board with that idea.

"Why not just buy the rat off the kid? He'd probably jump at a hundred Galleons, then once we have him, we make it seem like we found out he was a wizard pretending to be a rat and turn him over to the Aurors." Rowena suggested, drawing all eyes to her.

"That… that is actually a pretty good idea. Let's do that." Savrin agreed, finding it to be perfectly logical. Considering the financial situation of the Weasleys, Savrin bet that Ron would agree in a heartbeat.

 "The question now is, which of you is going to buy the rat?" Savrin asked, getting four pairs of blank stares in return. "What are you talking about? Why do we have to buy it?" Salazar asked, finding the idea of even speaking to the red-headed twit to be a terrible idea.

"I'm Albus goddamned Dumbledore! I can't go buy a student's pet!" Savrin stated, making a fairly good point. "Besides, think of it this way. Whoever buys the rat, gets to lord it over the little urchin's head for the rest of his life. Think of how horrible it would be if the rest of the school found out he was sleeping with a grown ass man. Why, I believe he even kisses it and gives it a bath."

 "To get that poor man out of Azkaban, I'll do it." Godric said matter-of-factly with a wide wolfish grin on his face. "Why are you encouraging this?! Godric's bad enough without your help!" Helga growled, finding it completely unbecoming of Savrin to tell Godric that.

"Believe it or not, I get bored too. And dealing with those idiots in the Ministry and the ICW is getting on my nerves. In fact, I'm not so sure Dumbledore will make it through the year." Savrin said coldly, then dismissed them. "Get me the rat as soon as possible. I want to ask him some questions of my own before we turn him over to the Ministry." Savrin called after them, sending a sudden chill down their backs.

 "I'll need twenty-five galleons from each of you." Godric said to his two friends and Salazar, who looked at him like he was an idiot. "Don't be stingy bastards, just give me the money." He said again when they made no move to reach into their pockets.

"If you don't, I'll go and tell Savrin you're holding up his plans." Reluctantly, Helga and Rowena reached into their bags before withdrawing small pouches of galleons. Salazar on the other hand still made no move to fork over the money.

"Who's to say he's even going to sell his rat to you? He doesn't even like you, so why should I give you my money?" Salazar asked, making a fairly good point. "Sally, I give you my word that if I can't get the rat off of him, I'll return your money in full. With interest even." Godric said confidently, to which Salazar finally nodded in agreement.

An ass he may be, but Godric was a man of his word. 

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 After dismissing Godric and the others, Savrin leaned back in his chair as he thought about his upcoming meeting with Harry Potter. He knew from Dumbledore's memories that something was off about Harry, but the fact that Dumbledore himself didn't know the full story meant that neither did Savrin. To fix that, he hoped he could probe around in the kid's mind for a bit, and hopefully see what was what.

 Time seemed to fly by fairly quickly, and soon enough Savrin found himself walking out towards the Quidditch pitch. It annoyed him that the old bastard he was impersonating wore robes all the freaking time, but he consoled himself with the fact that he had already killed the guy, and in just nine short months he could kill him off to the rest of the world and get his own body back. At least the body that he had created for himself.

 When he arrived at the Quidditch pitch, Savrin found the spectacled boy already waiting for him, which was funny considering lunch hadn't quite ended just yet. "Mr. Potter. I do hope I haven't kept you waiting too long." Savrin said as kindly as he could.

"Not long at all Professor. I actually just arrived a minute ago." Harry said honestly. "That's good to hear. Please walk with me." Savrin said as he began to walk into the Quidditch grounds, Harry was only a half step behind him.

 "You might be wondering why I wanted to speak with you, well the answer is quite simple. I merely wanted to ask you how you are doing?" Savrin said, earning a quizzical look from Harry. "Sir?" The boy asked, not understanding.

"It is my understanding that until you got your letter, you've never known anything about the magical world. Given how you come from a rich noble family, it stands to reason you would be taking this harder than the average muggle-born."

That was partially true, and combined with the fact that Harry learned about his parents murder and that some dark wizard had tried to kill him when he was a baby, it stood to reason that this might all be quite a lot to take in in only a month. Not to mention there was a teacher that was basically a bully that he couldn't retaliate against, and said teacher had it in for him specifically.

 Looking at Harry's surface thoughts, Savrin could see the justifiable anger towards Snape, and it was only then he really saw some of the shit that the Potions master did or said to Harry, and he had to wonder if the man belonged in a cell in Azkaban or if he just needed killed.

"It is quite a lot to take in, Sir, but I'm loving it." Harry finally said, hoping that was the answer Dumbledore was looking for. Savrin didn't need to read the kid's mind to know that he was nervous and that he didn't want to say anything that would let him down.

 "I wanted to ask you about your Aunt and Uncle. Hagrid tells me they don't approve of our kind. Is that true?" Savrin asked, even though he already knew the answer. He had seen it when he looked through Hagrid's mind when he came to give him the Philosopher's stone.

"Not approving of witches and wizards is putting it nicely, Sir. They don't really like anyone who isn't ordinary." Harry admitted truthfully. "I see. Well, that is something to consider." Savrin said off-handedly. "What do you mean, Professor?" Harry asked, wondering what Savrin was considering.

 "All young witches and wizards need a space where they can use their magic on a daily basis. To be forced to not use magic for the summer holidays, well… I think it would be very bad on a growing wizard, wouldn't you agree?" Savrin said, earning a genuine smile from Harry. "Yes Sir. It would be a real shame to not get to do magic." Harry agreed.

"For the last few weeks I've been playing with the idea of creating a way for the students who live amongst the muggles to be able to use magic freely on a day-to-day basis, however I've yet to figure out a way to help everyone. Maybe you could discuss the idea with your fellow classmates, and maybe one of you might come up with a solution to this problem." Savrin said happily.

Harry laughed at the idea that he could figure out a solution to the problem when even someone like Dumbledore couldn't figure it out, but little did he know that Savrin was being quite serious.

 He had come to learn early on that someone whose mind was not tainted with backward ass thinking could come up with ideas that would be so simple that others would miss. Savrin continued to ask Harry certain questions that would focus his mind on areas that he wanted answers to.

Of course he could have ripped into his mind, but he felt as though that was a needless breach of trust, and he honestly didn't think it would look good peering into a child's mind without going through the proper vows. There was also the risk of turning the boy into a vegetable if he wasn't gentle enough. That was why he mostly did it to people he was going to kill, as it didn't matter if they lost all brain activity.

 After almost an hour of questioning and just talking to the boy, Savrin dismissed him, stating that they would share words again in the coming weeks. Once he returned to his office, Savrin shook his head before he let out a long drawn out sigh, then suddenly the shelf full of books behind him exploded like shattering glass.

In his time speaking with Harry, he had felt two different magics latched onto him, one struggling to help him, while the other struggled to feed off his magic. After finding out that Voldy's spirit was latched onto Quirrell, Savrin knew there had to be an anchor somewhere, but he didn't think it would be attached to Harry.

'But this doesn't make sense...' Savrin thought as he tried to piece together the events from October 31st, 1981. He was trying to look at it from Voldemort's point of view, where he would sneak into the Potter's cottage, then kill the parents. With the piece of soul protecting Harry, Savrin concluded that it was must be either his mother or father, but he was banking more on it being the mother. The whole situation read better with it being her. 

There were a number of things that didn't make sense, but one stood out more than the rest. 'Why would Voldy bind his soul to Harry's?' Savrin wondered, not understanding that piece of the puzzle. Still, it was a problem for another day, though he would have to look into it sooner than later. For now he turned his attention back onto Harry. 

To learn that the boy had been unknowingly fighting for his life all this time had been a real shock to say the least. Had it not been for the fragment of soul fighting to protect the boy's own soul, Savrin was sure Harry should have died years ago.

Combine that with the abuse and the environment in which he had been raised, Savrin was shocked that Harry was even alive right now. By all accounts he should have developed an Obscurus and died years ago.

 'Even magic hasn't given up on him, therefore I'll at least try to save his life.' Savrin concluded as he repaired the broken shelf behind him. It wouldn't be too hard to remove the soul shard from Harry's mind, though the process would take time, and it would be mildly painful. However, if Harry pulled through, he would probably be a lot stronger than before, so it's not like he wouldn't be able to convince him of it.

Plus it's not like he had a whole lot of options. Either endure a lot of pain for a short time to get rid of the dark wizard who had killed his parents or die. Quite simple when put like that. 'Let's hope he sees it that way too.' Savrin thought darkly.

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 (Godric POV)

 Later that evening when the students had all returned to their House common rooms, Godric spied Ron talking to Harry Potter over by the fire, and nestled in Ron's lap was the rat he was looking for. Calmly and confidently, Godric strode over to the fire and turned his back to it to make it look as though he was trying to warm himself. He heard Harry whispering something to Ron about visiting with the headmaster, but it really didn't seem all that important.

"Hey Harry. Snape was a real prat the other day, wasn't he?" Godric said, getting an immediate bout of agreement from everyone near enough to have heard him. "I think he has it in for me." Harry said, getting a laugh from Godric.

"That's the understatement of the year. If I didn't know any better, I'd say he and Malfoy were meeting up to plan new ways to try and get at you. I mean it's almost as if they can't focus on anyone but you." Godric said jokingly, though part of him wondered if that was actually true or not.

 To put the two kids more at ease, Godric pulled out the bag of candy he had won in the trial, and after pulling out a few pieces of chocolate for himself, he tossed the bag to both Ron and Harry, letting them help themselves. Ron looked suspicious at first, but after seeing Harry eat a piece and nothing happened, he helped himself too.

 "Malfoy I can deal with, but Snape is getting on my nerves." Harry said, sounding as though he was tired at just the thought of Potions. "Yeah, I- Hey, cool looking rat! Does he do any tricks?" Godric started, then turned his attention to the rat, pretending like this was the first time he had seen one.

"Scabbers? No, he doesn't do any tricks. Kind of useless actually." Ron admitted sheepishly. Godric could tell the candy had done the trick of making Ron more amicable towards him because by now Ron should have been yelling at him to leave them alone.

 "How old is he?" Godric asked, hoping to find some excuse to keep feigning interest. "I'm not too sure how old he is, but he's been in the family for ten years now." Ron admitted, giving Godric the perfect excuse. "Seriously? That's impressive. Most rats only live for about three years at the most. Have you ever put him through an obstacle course?" Godric asked.

"Percy tried a few years ago, but after a time he just lays down." Ron said, not all that impressed with his own pet.

"I have some friends who do these events every now and then. They take rats just like yours and put them in front of this big group of people, and then the rat is given a potion that helps him comply with the crowd. I bet they'd love to test Scabbers." Godric said, not quite lying, though certainly not giving all the details.

Afterall, the Wizengamot was a group, and they could be friends if Godric ever bothered to meet them, and they would no doubt give Pettigrew a vial of Veritaserum once he was brought before them to ensure he spoke nothing but the truth. 

 "A potion? Is it painful?" Harry asked curiously as he remembered some of the potions Snape had told them about. "Not one bit painful. In fact, I think it makes someone so relaxed, they can't help but answer anything anyone asks of them." Again he was playing with his words, but he still had yet to actually lie to the two boys.

"What happens after they perform in front of the crowd?" Ron asked curiously. "If they don't excite the crowd they are simply released, however if they do excite the crowd, a robed seductress will come and give them a kiss. I don't know why they do it, but it's tradition." Godric explained, sounding as though he himself didn't understand the full story behind the event he was talking about.

'I never thought I'd be describing a Dementor as a robed seductress.' Godric mused in his mind after relaying his tale.

 "That sounds mental. Why would anyone ever want to kiss a rat?" Ron asked as he held up Scabbers. "I don't know, but I bet they'd be willing to pay you for him. How about I give you thirty galleons for him?" Godric said, earning surprised looks from both Harry and Ron.

"Why would you want to buy Scabbers if you're not even a part of the events?" Harry asked curiously. "Truthfully, I've never watched one of the events, but maybe if I bring a cool rat like Scabbers then they would let me attend. And even if they don't, maybe I can at least sell it to them." Godric answered.

"You'd pay thirty galleons for that rat? You could buy more than a dozen of them for that price at the Magical Menagerie in Diagon Alley." Dean Thomas said from behind the couch that Ron and Harry were sitting on.

 "Those ones have all been trained, and I don't think the event uses trained rats very often." Godric lied. "Thirty galleons? Take it, Ron!" Fred Weasley started, having heard what Dean had said, and had come over to investigate. "Come on, Ron! Think of the stuff you could buy for thirty galleons!" George Weasley pressed on, also having come to investigate like his twin.

By now most of the common room had heard the commotion and were now telling Ron to accept, while some of them were telling Godric to take it back before Ron agreed. Despite everyone pressuring him into making the deal, Ron still looked very unsure about accepting, however when Godric added an additional ten galleons to the pot, making it forty, Ron seemed to lose all the fight in him and accepted.

 "I do hope these events are worth it, otherwise I'm out forty galleons." Godric said, sounding somewhat defeated as he strode towards the portrait of the fat lady with his new pet in hand.

Considering Salazar and the others had given him seventy-five galleons and he only had to pay forty of them to Ron, Godric had made thirty-five galleons, and didn't have to spend a Knut of his own. Sure he did have to give up some of his candy, and he did have to talk with Ron, but he felt as though he got the best in this deal.

 As soon as the portrait closed behind him, he looked down to the rat clutched firmly in his grasp, then smiled before saying. "Come along, Peter. Savrin's just itching to see you."