11

Chapter 11: Time Marches On

Thanks for all the reviews. They are the only payment I get.

I seem to have to say this every story, I should just put it in the foreword.

Yes, I do proofread my chapters before I post them. I even listen to them. However, I am not a professional English teacher, or editor. I have dyslexia. I make mistakes. I rely on Word to catch most of them, but I do go over them to see what I can catch that it misses.

This is a free story that I give to you with nothing asked in return but reviews. So if you are expecting perfection, please, go buy a book.

That being said, I don't mind when someone points out my mistakes. I really don't. I learn from them. If my hands are feeling fine, I might even go back and fix them. I just don't like the rude people, who accuse me of laziness.

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Sirius did check in on the Longbottoms and found that the hospital was simply feeding them and tending to their needs. They were being given calming draughts during the day, in case they got rowdy, which they never did. It was standard practice. They were given sleeping potions at night even though they had no issues with sleep. All of this was being charged to the Longbottom estate.

He went and talked to Madam Longbottom with Harry and Neville in tow, so Lily could convince the woman to just bring them home and care for them there.

"Madam Longbottom, thanks for seeing us again," Sirius said, showing the boys where to sit when they were shown into the receiving room. It had been a week since they took in Neville. She was looking a bit fragile, but that could be just because she finally didn't have to put up a brave front.

"Neville, I see you are well," Augusta said, nodding in the boy's direction. He looked so robust. Like he had been playing in the sun and fresh air. There was some color to his cheeks that hadn't been there a week ago.

"Yes, Gran. Aunt Lily is really nice to me. We got to go to the zoo for our birthday. It was really fun, and Harry talked to the snakes," Neville said with an air that she had never seen around the child before, making her believe she made the right decision.

"Well, it does sound like you had a good time," she said, ignoring the whole talking to snake thing. Children had wild imaginations after all. Even if the boy could it was none of her business. She didn't think it was a bad or evil thing. It was Lily's problem to deal with.

"We did, Gran," the boy said, still sitting with Harry. He wasn't sure if he should do anything else. His gran was very formal, and she didn't like hugs like his Aunt Lily did. His Aunt Lily hugged him a lot. It was weird but he was getting used to the cool feeling of her hugs. They were starting to feel comfortable.

"Why are you here?" Madam Longbottom asked Sirius, who turned to Harry.

"Lily, if you would," he said to the air. He then waited until she materialized. He knew she wanted to talk to the old woman.

Lily appeared next to Harry. "First of all. I wanted to say I am sorry for screaming at you the last time I was here. I would do it again to protect Neville, but it affected your health, and for that I am sorry," she said, looking remorseful.

"That is fine," Augusta said with pursed lips. It wasn't done to not take an apology so well given.

"Do you have a house elf that can tend to the boys while we talk?" Lily asked the old woman. "Harry only needed to bring me here," she explained, running a hand through her son's hair. "And Neville wanted to see if you were okay," she added, running her other hand down Neville's back.

Both boys looked at her with adoration in their eyes. They were very happy that she was in their lives. She was a great mum, and she gave them hugs and kisses whenever they asked or needed. She read them stories at night and helped them with their words when they didn't know them.

"Bibby," Augusta called out, and an elf appeared. "Take the boys to the nursery and let them play with the remaining toys," she ordered, nodding in the children's direction. There were still some of the large playthings the boys could use. She was going to leave the nursery set up for when Neville was there on the weekends. She only hoped that her in-laws didn't visit often.

"Are you well, Gran?" Neville wanted to know before he went. She looked a bit shaky. Like she couldn't hold a teacup without making it rattle. He had never seen her so weak. She was always the strongest person he knew.

"I am old, that is all," she said, giving him a kind smile. She looked softer when she did that and he smiled back at her and then left the room. Her smile vanished and her face firmed when she turned back to the two adults. "Why are you here?" she asked again. "Wasn't my giving you my grandson enough? Did you want more from me?" she demanded; a bit unkindly. Not that she regretted it, it was much less stress without the child underfoot. However, she still felt guilty over it.

"I went to visit your son and daughter-in-law," Sirius said, noting she was getting angry. "They were my friends. I have a right to see them," he pointed out.

She nodded her head in recognition that he was correct. It was his right to see his friends.

"Anyway," the dogman said, "they are receiving very little medical care there. They are simply being fed, washed and potioned into submission. Something that a house elf with the proper instructions can do here. It would help with your finances if you just brought them home," he finished. He really hoped that she listened.

"That, and a familiar environment might help them come back to themselves," Lily added, not sure if it would, but it couldn't hurt. "Your son grew up here, and he knows you. There he is alone with people he is unfamiliar with. Give him something to cling to by bringing him to his childhood home," she said, hoping to get her to see it might do them some good.

"I will admit I have thought of this in the past," Augusta said, putting her hands on her lap, and lowering her chin in thought. "I never did because I thought it would be bad for Neville."

"With him with us, you might have a better chance to bring them home," Lily agreed. Though she thought it might help Neville have a bit of closure too. At least they would be home and he could see and talk to them whenever he wanted. Or not, if that was what he wanted.

"Has he been behaving? Neville, I mean," Augusta asked, not wanting for her grandson to make a bad showing of it.

"He is quite the gentleman. You did well by him on that count," Lily said with a brilliant smile. "We are happy to foster him. He has quite a way with plants," she added. "We even bought a greenhouse for him to grow some things," she finished.

"I would like to thank you for taking him. If he turns out to be a squib, then my family will turn him out and I don't know if I am strong enough to fight them," she confessed, twisting the kerchief in her hand. Though, truth be told, she wasn't sure if she would try all that hard. Squibs were not treated well in this society.

"He's not a squib," Lily said firmly. "He's a green wizard," she repeated to the old battleaxe.

"And with the papers you signed, they will have a hard time getting him back, short of his father coming back to himself," Sirius said, wanting to make sure that was understood. "Remember you made us legally responsible for him. We decide happens to him from here on out," he added, knowing that her in-laws weren't going to like that if the boy was magical, which he was.

"I understand," Augusta said, glad that Neville was not her responsibility anymore. If only to protect him from her dead husband's family. She started coughing into the kerchief and took a sip of the warm tea at her side. She put the cup down and wiped her mouth with the kerchief.

"You're still under the weather," Lily said, getting up and putting a cool hand on her shoulder, which made the old woman shiver a bit. "We'll get the boys and go. If you need help getting Frank and Alice home, write to Sirius. He'll bring our lawyer," she said, patting the woman then going back to her chair.

"I have my own lawyer, thank you," Augusta said, primly. She wasn't going to take handouts. She might be struggling, but she was not without resources quite yet. With Neville elsewhere, it would help. Growing boys took a lot of money to raise into gentlemen. If you wanted to do it right. Between the clothes, the tutors, and the other lessons, like dancing, it all added up.

"Call the boys down, and we'll go," Sirius said, looking at the pale face of the elderly woman. She really didn't look well, and they were making it worse by having her sit here. She obviously still needed rest. Hopefully she could recuperate soon. He would be more than happy to stand by her side when she went to get her children. "When you go and get Frank and Alice, write me. I'll come and lend moral support," he offered.

"Thank you. I will do so," Augusta said, turning away for a moment. "Bibby," she called, and then instructed him to bring the boys down. "I will write you," she assured Sirius. She would need his help to persuade the hospital that it was for the best. She couldn't say a ghost told her to. They'd lock her up with her children.

The boys came thundering down the stairs ready to leave the huge house. They preferred the other house, it was cozier.

"Say goodbye, boys," Lily instructed as they stopped at her side, nodding to Augusta. She was going to make sure they were raised little gentlemen, if not quite as strictly as Madam Longbottom would have.

"Bye, Madam Longbottom," Harry said with a wave. He was more than ready to go home.

"Goodbye, Gran," Neville said a bit more quietly. He moved to his grandmother and took her hand and kissed the top of it. "I hope you feel better," he added sincerely. He then turned and went back to his Aunt Lily.

"Thank you, Neville. You be good now," Augusta Longbottom said, once more happy she made the right decision.

"Alright, you two, let's go home," Sirius said, as Lily went back into Harry's head. They were taking the Knight Bus because the boys loved riding it.

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Time moved on and the boys went to school in Little Whinging, and they had a blast now that the bullies couldn't touch them without getting caught. Not even Neville's relatives could hurt him. They couldn't lay their hands on him at all. The amulet wouldn't let them. Still, he was glad his visits were only on the weekends, and the relatives only visited once and a while.

The boys made a ton of friends and learned their math's and English. Not to mention history and other subjects. They were doing so well in school that the adults in their lives were rewarding them with magic lessons. It was great.

They would go to school for non-magical subjects, then go home and do their homework. When they were done and if they did a good job, they learned magic. They mostly learned Potions and Herbology, or Arithmancy and Runes, but sometimes they got to see some Charms and Transfiguration, which they couldn't do, but the theory was explained to them.

Lily and Padfoot told them they could get wands when they were almost eleven. They had to have their core stabilize first. They didn't understand that at first, until Remus explained it to them using a bowl of jelly, which was weird, but he used magic, so it was fine.

They were now ten and they were far into their magical education. As far as they could be without a wand, and they knew a few wandless tricks, like levitation, and pushing things. Harry could jump really high, like three meters, without aid. Neville could make flowers grow from a seed, in the palm of his hand.

Right now, the adults were discussing what they were going to do about their magical schooling, and they got to sit in on it. Which was weird, usually the adults would make them leave. However, they were both happy to be able to voice their opinion, since it was their future that was being discussed.

"We can't send them to Hogwarts," Lily said, stamping her foot to no avail. It didn't make any noise. "Dumbledore is there," she said, completely miffed over that.

"It is not our fault that the entire government is corrupt," Sirius said, folding his arms over his chest. "We won our lawsuits, but they wouldn't press charges against anyone. They didn't want the ministry to look bad. Like paying out hundreds of thousands of galleons didn't do that," he huffed.

Yes, they were now much richer than before, and Dumbledore and the Ministry was hurting. Well, more so Dumbledore. The ministry had a large revenue to fall back on. Dumbledore only had his headmaster pay. The ICW was not impressed that it's Supreme Mugwump got sued, twice, and lost. So he lost that position, and the Chief Warlock was ceremonial, which means it held prestige, but no pay.

The authors of the books also lost bigtime. Harry had to be a witness in that trial. He told them he had never been anywhere and that he didn't know dragons or nandu existed. So they had to pay out the arse to him to use his image and classify the books as fiction. They had tried to get them pulled off the shelves, but the publishers persuaded them to take a cut of the profits instead.

There was an article in the paper that denounced them as fact, and it told the real story of Harry Potter up until he was six. Then it was left that his godfather claimed him and that was that.

They couldn't pin this one on Dumbledore, the authors were tightlipped on who gave them the idea. They would rather pay then spill.

They had tried to sue Snape, but like Preston said, it was all hearsay and the man ducked out of the suit without a mar on his record. It was beyond frustrating for Lily, and she had a good mind to go and 'haunt' him again. It would stretch her thin, but she could do it.

"Not the entire government," Remus said, looking to the boys who were hanging on every word. "Madam Bones did make the arrests, and she almost had them to trial. Then she was told to let them go by the Minister and the Wizengamot," he reminded them. They were sure there was a lot of money paid to get those charges dropped. They were glad that the Wizengamot didn't listen to civil cases. Those were done by a group of judges, that were independent of the ministry.

"That still doesn't make me feel better," Sirius said, pouting like he always did when the subject was brought up. To him it was injustice that he had spent years in prison and those people only had to pay a fine. Sure, it was a big fine, but it was still just money. Harry was the only one benefiting from this.

"What are you suggesting for schooling, Lily?" Remus asked, bringing them back to the first subject. He always was the voice of reason. He was quite content with the status quo.

He had taken Lily's advice and gotten a repair shop opened. He could fix anything, even electronics, it seemed. He just took it in the back and used magic on it and waited the appropriate amount of time to call the customer up to come and get it. He did declare himself a Wiccan and even hooked up with a coven for a while to see what it was all about.

After a few months, he claimed that he was a solitary practitioner and used the religion as an excuse to close the shop for the full moon and the day after. He still kept in touch with the friends he had made in the coven, they were nice people.

"We could go on like we have been," she said, looking at the boys, who were healthy and looked like they were willing to do just that. They didn't see the need to change.

"They won't make friends if we do," Sirius pointed out, he too glancing at the children.

"We have friends," Harry said as forcefully as a ten-year-old could. Sirius was a bit on the bias side when it came to the non-magicals. He didn't even seem to notice it. He would just make these mean comments about how they didn't have any friends.

"I meant wizarding friends," Sirius said, placatingly, holding his hands out in a calming gesture.

"There is nothing wrong with the friends we have now. You told us we can't do magic at home anyway. So what difference does it make if they are like us or not?" Harry snapped; it was a big deal between them. They had argued over it many times.

"Sirius didn't mean anything by that, Harry," Remus said, glaring at his friend, who was letting his prejudice show again. He couldn't help it, it was the way he was raised. Even after years of living here in the muggle world, Sirius still thought that he was better than those without magic.

"Fine," Harry said, backing off for now. He too knew it was a futile argument. "I just want to say, I don't want be by Dumbarse," he said, ready for the scolding he was going to get for calling the man that. His mum didn't like it when he used older people words. To him it was worth it. She would yell at him and maybe he might not get dessert.

"Harry Potter," Lily said, though not too firmly. She agreed with him.

"Me neither," Neville said, putting his hand on his foster brother's shoulder in a show of comradery. "I think he's like us too much. Remember how creepy he was during the trial? I don't like him," he finished, he did a full body shudder. The old man weirded him out.

The adults did remember. They all agreed with that assessment. Dumbledore had stared at both boys the whole time they were at the trial. They had only been there once, and only for a day, but every time someone looked in the headmaster's direction, his twinkly eyes were on Harry and Neville. The headmaster of Hogwarts had a weird fixation on the boys. He had tried to get custody away from Sirius and Remus more than once and lost every time. But the bastard kept trying.

"And remember what he tried to do to your parents," Harry said, remembering the time that Dumbledore tried to claim custody of Neville's parents from his grandmother. He said that she wasn't taking care of them fully. He lost because the mediwitch that checked on them once a day. It was something that St. Mungo's insisted said had to happen so they could go home. Since the mediwitch only cost less money, Neville's gran agreed.

"We never did get a reason for that," Sirius said, rubbing his beard. He had dropped the goatee, and decided a nice clean beard was now the thing to do. He was still quite the lady's man. Though he never brought his conquest home. Lily would have his guts for garters if he did. He still hadn't found anyone to settle with, but most witches that wanted to settle with him were Boy-Who-Lived fans, or gold-diggers. He wasn't biting.

"I think, he thought he could cure them," Lily said, wondering if the man thought that, then why didn't he just do it? She didn't like the implications of that.

"Do you think he can?" Neville asked, hope in his voice. He loved his parents, especially now that he got to see them more at his grans house. When he visited on weekends, most of that time was spent telling them about his week and he felt connected to them. His mum loved to listen to his voice, and she still gave him bits of paper with scribbles on them. They never said anything, but they were treasured.

"If he can, then he's a meanie for not doing it," Harry pointed out. He really didn't like the old man.

"To right," Sirius and Remus agreed.

"Back to the topic," Lily said, before it got to far off course. It was one thing they all agreed on anyway.

"We can continue what we're doing, but Sirius is right, they won't know any magicals their age," Remus said, holding his hands up. "You both have seats on the Wizengamot, that Sirius and your gran are holding for you right now. You need to network," he said, using the word he learned from the people in his coven group.

"What is network?" Harry asked, not sure about the word. It sounded like something to do with computers.

"Socializing for business or politics," Remus explained succinctly.

"Can't we just hold parties for that?" Neville said, thinking that is what his gran did. She held grand parties when she needed a law passed or wanted to raise funds for something or other.

"That's not a bad idea," Lily said, thinking it might work to get the boys introduced to many of the children they needed to know. And they could invite the muggleborn and half-bloods too. It would be a coming out party. Coming out of hiding that is.

"Dumbledore might crash," Sirius warned, knowing the man did that to many of his mother's parties. The man has the audacity to just go where he pleased, like he was a god or something.

"Oh, I hope he does," Lily said, more than ready to lay into that man. "Be that as it may, and I am getting warm and fuzzy just thinking about it, they are not going to Hogwarts," she said, with finality.

"What about going to another country?" Remus asked, getting glares from everyone there. "France isn't that far," he said, holding up his hands in supplication.

"I don't want to give up math's and science," Neville said, knowing that he would have to if he went to any wizarding school. He used the science in his Herbology and was learning how to make new plants.

"Me either," Harry said, folding his arms defiantly. He wanted to be a doctor, or an astronaut.

"I agree. Harry wants to be a doctor. He's come far in his parselmagic, thanks to the books you got, Sirius. He can't learn muggle medicine in any magical school," Lily said, pointing to her son who looked smug. "He needs to finish his non-magical education if he's to go to college," she added, also folding her arms.

"Fine, fine, I give up. I'll arrange the party. Do you want to invite the entire first years of every house?" he asked, knowing the answer already. "We'll schedule it for the Yule break of what would have been their first year," he added, thinking he could get the list from McGonagall. Maybe, he might have to get it from the ministry. He'd figure it out. He really wished he still had the map.

"Yes," Lily said, going over what they would need to buy for the boys to wear. "And some from other years. Those that have family on the Wizengamot," she added. Go big or go home. "That sounds like a good time for a coming out party. We'll have to find a venue. Do you think Madam Longbottom will let us use the manor?"

"It can't hurt to ask," Remus said, taking a piece of paper out and jotting down some notes.

"Nothing fancy," Harry started protesting, this was getting out of control already. "I don't want to dress up. I like my slacks and button ups," he said, before they got even more out of control. Right now, he was picturing himself dressed as a penguin and dancing with ugly girls. He wasn't going to have it if he could help it.

"Don't worry, Harry, I'm sure they're not going to put you in a tux," Neville said, he was just glad the whole school issue was settled. He just hoped his gran agreed.