By December, Harry was in the air once more. His father had told him he would not get another broom for a year. Marvolo, however, took pity on the boy and showed both him and Tommy how to make their own brooms.  It took Harry three months to make a decent broom that could fly. He loved this broom more than the last because he had made it himself. Reginald could not understand it; the broom was not as pretty and could not go as high or as fast as the last broom, but Harry loved it.

Tommy was determined to make his own as well. Severus knew it would probably take him all year. The boy had a stubborn streak that Severus was happy was channelled into something creative.

Sarah was now a regular at the castle (though she did not stay the night), and Marvolo now had a cottage on the grounds. The parselmouth Chamber was now Marvolo's project. He still had his business going, but he also worked on the chamber. The first change was building a staircase going down to the main chamber. They had braved opening the iron snake door and found a large passageway leading about a mile down which opened into a large room with a raised platform, a river running through and wild vines with strange vegetation all along the walls. The ceiling had a strange blue-green tint, which Severus said meant it was under the lake. Thankfully, there was no Basilisk.

They believed the site to once be Salazar Slytherin's castle. This chamber was probably meant to be the Basilisk's new home, but Salazar never got the chance to transfer her from Hogwarts, which in reality was less than fifteen miles away. 

To the left of the snake gateway, there were two other rooms. They believe that they were once a library and a potions lab. The rooms were black and there was evidence of a fire. Flint said that most likely the fire was fiendfyre, which had most likely destroyed the original castle.

At the beginning of December, the Minister in his glorious wisdom, told Fisher that the animals in the Department had in its menagerie of confiscated animals could stay no longer than three months in the room.  Fisher was ordered to get rid of them.  Marvolo asked Severus if they could take all of the snakes.  Severus agreed (Marvolo never asked for anything), and Marvolo converted what was previously the library area into a large serpentarium. It took him three weeks of constant work to design and build. Like the Basilisk area, he had it heated, put lots of vegetation and (with Flint's help) an artificial river running through.  They transferred all of the snakes before the first snow fell, just in time for Christmas.

For Christmas, Severus gave Marvolo the light magic Slytherin books they had brought from the future (he did not tell him where he had gotten them). Severus was at first hesitant, as the books really belonged to Harry. He thought, however, that Harry would not mind and Harry, before he de-aged told him he could have the books, but Severus never considered them his.  He was glad he did. The books were on various aspects of parselmagic (all light areas), such as defence, potions, herbology and how to take care of snakes. There was an entire book on the Basilisk.  Marvolo began to study them with the intention of teaching Tommy and Harry. The old potions lab was converted into a study and training room.

At the Malfoy Winter Ball, Elizabeth Potter, who was now four months pregnant, fell.  She slipped on a patch of ice as she got out of their carriage. Sarah examined her and told them that Elizabeth was losing the baby; her womb was collapsing.  There was nothing they could do. Elizabeth started crying uncontrollably.

Severus had read in one of the Potter books,  that Elizabeth had lost her first baby early 1934, which was three days away, but the book had not specified how. He had, however, been working on various potions. He quickly asked Harold and Elizabeth if they would be willing to try an experimental potion that he had been working on.

Harold was not sure, but Elizabeth nodded.  Severus went to his lab at Reiner Manor. It took him two hours, but he made it and returned to Malfoy Manor. He was taken by Ian to an upstairs bedroom. He quickly handed John the paperwork and John signed it, sealed it and stamped it. Gadolin was also called and he too signed and sealed it. Edgar also put his signature on it. They needed to certify the potion before it could be given to Elizabeth or he could lose his licence as a potions master.

They gave Elizabeth the potion. For the first few minutes, it looked as if the potion failed. Then Elizabeth screamed in pain. Sarah examined her and smiled and said Elizabeth was experiencing pain as the muscles of her womb were tightening. Elizabeth experienced severe pain for over ten minutes, but then Sarah said she and her baby girl were fine.

Severus' potion ended up being more popular than even the wolfsbane which they now produced free of charge. Severus had to adapt the formula a bit and hundreds of women who had damaged their womb, either magically in labour or because of incidences in the last war, came to try his potion. Severus would have not have charged, but Gadolin insisted and their private lab received a lot of money for research.

Severus formally proposed to Sarah on Valentines and they planned a romantic wedding in early June. Things were going well for Severus.  At home, Tommy was growing into a well-adjusted, happy seven -year old. He and Harry were developing their mental link and Severus had to teach them basic occlumency.  A few wizard businesses were following Marvolo and had started doing trade (in small amounts) with the muggle world.  In Germany, Hindenburg was still the muggle President. In the original time line, Hindenburg had died in August the previous year and Hitler had taken over as there was no one else.  In this time, Hindenburg was encouraged to take a new, ‘experimental' medication that healed his ailing body and mind.  Severus estimated he would live until the next presidential election.

John, Gadolin, and several British and German Wizarding Lords were secretly backing the half-blood wizard William Heinzer to be Hindenburg's heir. Heinzer's father was from a very old German wizarding family.  His mother was a muggle but was from royalty; she was a niece of the last German Emperor. William was accepted in both worlds. Severus hoped he would challenge both Hitler and Grindelwald (who was secretly backing Hitler).

In March, however, there were a series of attacks on prominent German magical families. It was rumoured that a powerful Dark Lord who was parselmouth was gaining power in Germany. Marvolo knew it had to be Morfin. Severus knew that it really hurt Marvolo. Marvolo went to Gringotts and formally named Tommy as his heir. He made sure to legally put things in place so that if he died, Severus would get everything in trust until Tommy was of age. He left certain things for Harry, but Tommy was his heir.

Severus considered that in the first time line, Morfin was in Azkaban at this time; the man died when Tom Riddle was seventeen, which actually coincided with the end of the muggle world war. It was obvious that Grindelwald was using Morfin as his front man, in the same manor that Dumbledore had used Voldemort.

-----

Right before the Easter Break in April, Severus received a letter inviting him and Sarah to attend a meeting at Hogwarts.  They both dressed in casual, yet elegant, robes and went to Hogwarts.

There were four other couples there; Cygnus Black and his wife Violetta, Harold Potter and Elizabeth, Harfang Longbottom and his wife Callidora, and Tiberius Prince and his wife Miriam.

Severus kept looking at his grandfather Tiberius. The man was currently younger than him, but looked very much like he did when Severus had first met him. Severus was twelve and it had been at his mother's funeral. He tried not to show his hatred for the man.

Cygnus greeted Sarah and Severus. "Sarah, so good to see you; Severus, I am hearing great things indeed, from your company."

"Yes, things are going well," Severus said with a smile, holding Sarah's hand.

"Wait, you are the foreigner Elladora Black has been warning us against?" Harfang Longbottom asked.

Severus looked at him in shock. Cygnus shook his head. "My great-aunt. I told her some of what you told us last year and she has taken great offence. I am sorry, it is my fault."

"Elladora came and told us not to invite you to our Spring Ball because you were inciting an anti-wizard campaign," Harfang said.

Severus looked at Harfang and said, "All I suggested was the idea that purebloods need to move away from what was done in the past and look to improving themselves, the way muggles have done." Harfang look at him strangely.

"Yes, well we hope to institute one of your ideas today." Dumbledore came in with Armando Dippet, the Headmaster. A pleasant looking witch in bright yellow robes came in behind Albus and was introduced as Professor Galatea Merrythought; Professor Slughorn came in and to Severus' delight, Filius Flitwick.

Severus immediately realised they were the four Heads of Houses, with Albus being Head of Gryffindor.

The Headmaster welcomed them all before turning the proceedings over to Albus.

Albus stood and spoke. "At the Potter's Summer Ball last year, I had the pleasure of sitting near to a remarkable wizard, Mr. Severus Reiner, who threw out some ideas to those of us present; Harold, Elizabeth, Cygnus were there as well. One of the ideas was an orientation programme where a wizarding couple assist a muggle born or two for the two months prior to the opening of school, and introduce them to the wizarding world, so that when they enter school they would be well adjusted."

Harfang looked thoughtfully at Severus.

"We have asked the four families here because we want to try this idea, first with a small group and sort of fine tune it, before it is considered a Hogwarts regulation as it were. The idea is to house the students and possibly their families, for the first weekend and answer any questions they may have and help them adjust to the idea of having a magical child, or in some cases children, as they may have younger siblings. The child stays with you for the two months and learns everything from wizarding etiquette to writing with a quill; basically anything you think the child needs to know before coming to school."

Albus looked at them as if waiting for questions, and when none were posed, he continued. "Unfortunately, we cannot afford to give you an allowance for keeping the child or children; which is partly why we chose you all; because, to put it bluntly, you are rich enough to keep the children for the two months. The parents would be responsible for the school books and robes and general school things. You would only be responsible for the child for the two months, no longer."

Harfang raised his hand and Albus gave him the floor. "You said our wealth was a partial reason why we were chosen; what were the other reasons?"

"Well, to be honest, we chose people who we thought would not abuse the children or teach them that they are inferior because of their parents. We were concerned about Harold and Elizabeth, considering that Elizabeth is pregnant and is due within the next six weeks, but I had initial talks with them and they agreed to the idea."

"We actually want people who will not take advantage of the situation and who would actually teach the children what they need to know," Dippet said.

Sarah raised her hand. "How many muggleborn children are there?"

"We have forty muggleborn coming in first year, but we are starting this programme with fifteen children. We are hoping you would take two children each, and the other five children would be taken by members of staff who have volunteered, like Filius here."

"Yes, my wife and I look forward to having another little one to join our brood," Filius said with a smile.

Severus looked at Filius and sighed.  He knew Filius' wife and two of his sons died in the war against Grindelwald. He hoped that this time they would be saved.

There were a few more questions and clarifications about what was expected and then they were assigned their students.

"Since it was your idea, we would like you to choose first Mr. Reiner," Albus said, passing Severus the parchments with the information on the various children. On the second parchment, Severus saw a familiar name and laughed.

Minerva McGonagall.

--------

June came soon enough, and Severus and Sarah had a very ‘quiet' wedding, with only two-hundred of their friends and family. Severus had rolled his eyes when Sarah told him it was very small compared to her last wedding, when over seven hundred people had attended. She looked at him as if he was crazy when he said that his idea of large was twenty people.

He stood in his formal black and gold robes and looked at himself in the mirror. He was now forty-four, but because of the youth formula that he had developed based on the one he had made and Albus used, (it was not for sale and no one knew of it except John, Gadolin and Sarah) and used a month after he de-aged Harry, he looked like thirty-four. He had fixed his teeth and nose, and he had to admit he looked good.

He had invited Albus, Filius and the other Hogwarts Professors he had met. He only really wanted Filius there, but couldn't invite him without the others. He actually wanted to postpone the wedding so Minerva could have been there. He really wanted her to be there and had even considered starting the orientation early, but it was not practical to do so. Part of him knew if he postponed it, something would happen and he would not get married, so he did not want to jinx it.

Harry and Tommy came in with Marvolo. Harry had on green robes and Tommy had blue robes which matched their eyes. Severus smiled at them both. He looked at Harry; had the boy been his true age, he would have been his best man.  Had the boy not been de-aged however, he suspected he would have already been married to Sarah, as Harry would not have allowed him to wait four years before asking her out.  John was his best man and he was happy; the man had been a true friend for many years now.

The wedding was being held at Willow Castle, which was now totally complete. It was being held outdoors and Severus felt the Gods were smiling at him as the day was perfect. Most of the guests had never been to the castle and were astounded by its beauty. Severus, however, saw Albus looking uncomfortable.

Severus stood by the ceremonial table and looked out at the crowd. To his surprise, Tiberius Prince, Miriam and the almost one year old Eileen were there. He had invited them but did not think they would come. Severus just stared at the little girl who was his mother.  Eileen looked at him and giggled. Tiberius and Miriam looked at their daughter in shock as she did not take to others. Severus smiled; he was glad she was there. If not Minerva, well, his real mother would do.

Another surprise was Harold and the very pregnant Elizabeth. Elizabeth was actually two weeks past her due date and Sarah had told her to stay home and rest. However, the woman had Harry's determined nature and insisted on coming.

The person Severus was most happy to see make it, was Thomas Riddle. Thomas had finished his last exam two days ago and if he passed, he would be a doctor. He still needed to specialise and was thinking of becoming a Pediatrician.  He saw a few people looking at Thomas strangely. He saw Galatea Merrythought, however, looking at him with definite interest.

There was a contingent of goblins who came and they sat in a special section in the back. Magnus, the Head of Gringotts,  had a special seat in front. Many people looked at Magnus in shock. He was in rich, formal robes and had a gold band around his head. Those who knew him were even more shocked as the Head of Gringotts was never seen outside of the bank.

The entire orchestra of violinist began playing the wedding march and Severus saw Sarah walking towards him, accompanied by her brother Ian. She had on the most remarkable silver and blue gown, making her look like the fairy queen. She was the most beautiful thing Severus had ever seen. He kept looking at her as if enchanted and barely remembered saying his vows or even taking the ring from Tommy. He felt like he was under a spell and he couldn't think properly. He did, however, hear the minister telling him he could kiss his bride. And kiss her he did. It was magical.

As he turned to show his new bride to everyone, he saw a dark robe figure, like a dementor, standing in the very back. The figure gave him a nod and disappeared.  Severus smiled and pulled his new wife into his arms and kissed her again.

The guests were invited inside the castle and into the dining room. The place was a beautiful mixture of marble and wood; a lot of people, even Tiberius, looked around and marvelled at its beauty. The food was exquisite and in his speech, Severus mentioned that the quail and fish that were served were caught on the land itself. Everyone nodded in approval.

During dinner, two things happened that changed everything. Galatea Merrythought was talking to Thomas and then shouted out loudly, "You're a muggle!"

The room became quiet;  everyone turned and looked at the muggle before starting to ask him all sorts of questions. Most, like Cygnus, asked him questions that tested his knowledge. Severus didn't know whether Cygnus wanted to laugh or cry when Thomas answered all of his questions intelligently, while very subtly insulting Cygnus. Albus just kept looking at Thomas and Marvolo. Severus knew the man had figured out who Severus' son Tommy was, but he kept quiet.

The second thing that happened was that Elizabeth Potter went into labour right before dessert was served. There were four other healers in the room, but in the end, the bride and Thomas had to help the woman. Severus' potion worked too well, and Elizabeth could not seem to deliver the baby normally. Thomas mentioned doing a caesarean which was a concept the wizards knew nothing about. With Sarah's help and all of the other healers looking on, Thomas performed the caesarean and the beautiful baby girl was delivered. Thomas then directed Sarah who cleaned Elizabeth magically and then healed her magically. Thomas shook his head when he saw the woman's body without any scar or what looked like any side effects.

For his role in helping deliver the baby, Thomas was granted the honour of naming her. Thomas smiled and named her Megan. Elizabeth then asked Sarah and Severus to give her a middle name and before Severus could say anything, Sarah said Lily. Severus looked at her and smiled. Sarah and Severus were asked to be godparents for Megan Lily Potter.

Severus looked at the beautiful black haired baby with hazel eyes. For him, she was the symbol of new life and of his and Harry's really changing the world for better.

Megan's presentation ceremony took place at the end of June after Severus and Sarah had returned from their two week honeymoon in the Canary Islands.  On behalf of the Reiner family, Harry presented the baby with what looked to everyone, like a beautiful tiara. Only Severus knew that it was Rowena Ravenclaw's diadem, though he suspected Filius knew as well as he gasped.

-----

Two days after Megan's presentation, Sarah and Severus went with Professor Galatea Merrythought to a farm on the outskirts of a small village outside of Edinburgh, where the McGonagall family lived. It turned out to be a nice farm with a few sheep, some cattle and two horses.

Sionn McGonagall was a big man, taller than Severus and looked to be over 300 pounds of pure muscle. Margaret ‘Maggie' McGonagall was also tall, but had a pleasant look; she had on rough clothes and was working on the farm alongside her husband. They complemented each other. They had five children, Minerva being the eldest.

Galatea told them who they were and why they were there.  Sionn looked at his wife briefly and then told them that Maggie's grandmother was said to have the ‘eye', and told them that the people of the village would burn their farm if they thought Minerva was a witch.

Severus realised that the couple had no problem with Minerva being a witch, but were more concerned about their safety.

"Minerva is a good girl, and is really smart and brave.  She goes to the Catholic school in the village and the priest says she is his best student," Sionn said.

Severus suggested telling the villagers that Minerva got a scholarship for a private high school.

Sionn nodded and asked several questions about Sarah and Severus, what they did, and what they had planned for Minerva.  When Sarah invited the entire family to come and spend a week with them to experience it for themselves, Sionn turned to his wife and said it sounded like a good option.

Minerva shouted from upstairs that she did not want them coming.

Sarah, Severus and Galetta had seen Minerva for only a minute. As soon as they came, the children were sent upstairs, but obviously the eleven year old was listening in.

Severus told them that they would give them time to discuss it as a family and they would come back in two days. They assured the McGonagall family that Minerva would still go to Hogwarts if they opted not to have her do the two months orientation.

Two days later, they accepted the offer; the entire family would come for a few days and Maggie would stay the two months with Minerva during the orientation. Minerva's only sister, Heather, would also be staying with them. Sarah said the five-year old would be most welcome. The only person who did not seem pleased was Minerva.

-------

Convincing Marcus Shacklebolt's father was much more difficult.  Marcus Shacklebolt was Kingsley Shacklebolt's grandfather, and was the next student that Severus and Sarah had agreed to take in for the summer. The grandson of a slave, Marcus' father, Shacklebolt, (he only had one name) was a chimney sweep, who spoke rather well.  Shacklebolt said his boy needed to work and education was wasted on the likes of him. He was not going to any school; he was not going anywhere.

After twenty minutes of arguing, Shacklebolt said, "Listen, when I was small, I was invited to go to a school run by a group who said they wanted to educate my kind. My father sent me, and you know what I got? I was the servant boy for the white boys. I was beaten and made to clean, wash clothes, sweep chimneys, and scrub the floors. The man running the school said that was all a black boy like me could learn. I picked up a few things here and there, but what I learned best was that there is a structure in our world, and we blacks are at the very bottom. I taught my boy all he needs to know. This is his life. He is black; he will never amount to anything but a chimney sweep so thank you, but no."

Sarah sighed and they left. Five minutes later, the little boy came running after them and said, "Tells me where I needs to go. I wants to go to school. Me g'anpap tells me I is special, me da hides the things he could do. Tells me and I will be there."

Severus looked at him. "You would run away?"

"Yeah; me da is good man but ‘e is wrong.  I is no wants to be sweep. I wants to go to school. I wants to speak good like him and I wants to read and write."

Severus put up a silencing ward and spoke to Sarah. "You know, he probably ran away in my original time as well; Kingsley told me about his grandfather who worked as a clerk in the Ministry."

"Yes, I know but I don't like the idea of basically kidnapping a child," Sarah said.

"Listen. I have an idea," Severus replied.

Twenty minutes later, Marcus found the Leaky Cauldron and joined Severus, Sarah, Galetta and Fisher in a private room. Severus had spoken to Fisher and told him that in the original timeline, Marcus had gone to Hogwarts.

As Marcus came into the Leaky Cauldron on his own, they officially registered him as a runaway and Severus and Sarah were made his magical guardian.  The first thing they did was to take the boy for new clothes and some toys... the boy was not accustomed to non-homemade toys and was excited with the choice of getting real toys.

They took him to the DoM Offices where Sarah gave him a proper examination.  The life of a sweep had not been good on the boy's lungs. Sarah said that without his magic, the boy would have been dying because of the damage to his lungs. He was malnourished and underdeveloped; he had several badly healed broken bones and there were badly healed bruises on his skin.

Marcus explained that as a sweep he sometimes had to climb on the inside of the chimney which caused the bruises and the injuries. Severus told Sarah the boy was not lying.

After speaking with Severus, Sarah recommended several potions and a programme to clear his lungs and develop the boy's body. She also recommended removing several of the boy's bones and re-growing them.

Marcus could not imagine he would ever live in a house like the one in Manchester.  Sarah and Severus had to tell him over and over that he was there as their ward and not as a servant.  Harry welcomed the boy, but Tommy was jealous at first and Severus had to have a stern talk with him before he warmed up to Marcus.

At the end of the week, they moved to the castle. Marcus felt he was living in a dream.  Severus and Marvolo took Marcus and the two boys on a camping trip for the weekend (still on Willow Castle grounds). They went swimming, fished and hunted quail. 

The biggest problem was the fact that Marcus was really freaked out about the snakes and screamed hysterically when they showed him the serpentarium.  Tommy got a sound spanking that night when he started scaring Marcus by speaking in parseltongue.

Sarah started teaching Marcus how to read and write and some basic magic development exercises.

During the second week of July, the McGonagall family came. They were taken aback by the size of the castle.  Sionn, however, loved the land, the river, the lake, and the forest.  Sionn and Severus spent a lot of time talking about the greenhouse Severus had built and about the land itself. Harry, Tommy, Marcus and the three McGonagall boys immediately took to one another and spent most of their time fishing and hunting.

Monday evening, Thomas Riddle came to spend some time at the castle and Sionn was comforted knowing that Sarah and Severus had muggle friends. John, Emily and Reginald came over and all of the men stayed long into the night drinking beer and talking about everything.

Tuesday, they went to Diagon Alley; Minerva and Marcus got their wands and Minerva got several robes.  They bought a number of books on basic magic, two books for muggle parents with magical children and a copy of Hogwarts: A History.  Sarah and Severus bought Marcus and Minerva two new brooms with a promise to teach them to fly.

Sarah, Marvolo and Thomas took the McGonagall boys, Harry and Tommy to the toy store and to the ice cream shop while Severus took the others to Gringotts.

Severus had organised for Magnus to speak with Sionn, Margaret (and Heather), Minerva and Marcus.  Sarah had given Marcus 10 galleons to open a vault of his own.  Sionn gave Minerva the equivalent of 15 galleons to open her own vault. Sionn told her he had started saving the money for her when she was born and had hoped it would continue to grow for her dowry when she was ready to marry, but he felt that this was more important. Minerva started to cry and hugged her dad and mom.

On Wednesday, Sionn, Severus, Thomas and John went to a magical horse farm.  The farm had magical and non-magical horses. Sionn marvelled at the magnificent winged horses.  In the end, Severus bought ten horses. The owner said he would bring them over on the weekend.

The goblin, Flint, and his men were hired to build an appropriate stable for the horses. Sionn helped in the design and supervised the goblins who only took two days to build the elaborate stables, including proper heating for winter. Sionn seemed to get along with the feisty goblins and even spent the evening drinking goblin ale. Severus laughed and called him a brave man.

Severus and John took Sionn to the magical district of Kent, to a house-elf auction. Severus had to hold onto Sionn to get him through the barrier. The man was appalled at the treatment of the elves, some were naked and were in chains; he had gotten accustomed to the magical creatures at Willow Castle and was shocked to see how they were treated by other wizards. Sionn interviewed several of the elves who had experience with horses and advised Severus on the three he eventually bought.

When Sionn and the boys went back to their farm Sunday morning, Sarah said he did not know who was going to miss them more; Minerva or Severus. 

Minerva took to the magic easily and it was no surprise to Severus that she took to transfiguration quickly. Thomas took over Marcus' tutoring in reading and writing while Severus taught him practical magic.  Minerva followed Sarah everywhere. After a week, Maggie decided that Minerva would be fine and she and Heather went back to the farm.

By the end of summer, Marcus still was not year one high school level in reading and writing, but was almost there. He was a fast learner, highly intelligent and most importantly, he was determined to do well.  Filius promised to continue tutoring the boy until he was on the level of someone his age.

Minerva on the other hand, reminded Severus of Hermione; she was smart as a whip and was more than ready to challenge everyone. She was, however, more sophisticated than Hermione and had a feline grace that Severus knew was natural to her. She also was well taught by Sarah, and Severus doubted that any of the purebloods would recognise her as a muggleborn unless she told them.

At the end of August, they all spent the weekend in London. Thomas' parents had bought him a townhouse in London as a graduation present and they all stayed at his place. They all made one last trip to Diagon Alley and Severus bought the two students familiars. He laughed when Minerva chose a tabby cat. Marcus did not want to go into the menagerie because of the snakes, so Severus took him to the Owl Emporium and he got an owl.

Severus, Sarah, Harry and Tommy accompanied Minerva and Marcus to platform 9 ¾ on September 1st. Severus looked on proudly as the two students got onto the train, levitating their trunks behind them, carrying their familiars in their hands.

Sarah whispered to Severus and said, "You know, next year it will be Harry's turn. Do you think you are ready?"

Severus looked at the boy who was happily waving his new friends off. He smiled and wondered if Hogwarts was ready for Henri Severus James Reiner.