Life at Hogwarts may have been quiet during the weeks between Sirius' arrival and Harry meeting him, but the same could not even remotely be said for the rest of the British wizarding world. Hogwarts was cushioned from much of it, only seeing the end results in the Prophet. There were, though, several people in the castle who found themselves in rather dire straits.

Crouch had been voted out, and then promptly tossed into Azkaban for his part in Sirius' illegal incarceration. Cornelius Fudge won the Minister's chair in the subsequent vote. Bones and several other aurors went to Crouch's house to search for any evidence of other wrongdoings ... and found themselves in a pitched battle with yet another man thought to be long dead (and to have died in Azkaban, no less), Barty Crouch Junior. Fortunately, none of the aurors were killed. Unfortunately, Barty managed to escape. That discovery saw Crouch Sr. being force-fed Veritaserum and questioned closely.

The results were catastrophic. Crouch admitted to accepting bribes and being blackmailed into allowing several (highly guilty) Death Eaters to walk free, the most prominent of which was, of course, Lucius Malfoy. Worse, Crouch had continued to accept bribes and allow himself to be blackmailed into passing laws that had, over the last decade, made life rather ... interesting ... for a lot of people. All of the increasingly punitive laws for werewolves, vampires, centaurs and goblins (to name but a few) over the last decade had been 'suggested' by Malfoy, with backing from the remaining free and loyal Death Eaters. Severus was just grateful that Lucius had not had to bribe Crouch to ensure Harry's guardianship changed hands, just the Head of the Child Welfare Department. If that particular manipulation had come to light, things would have gotten very ugly very fast.

Unfortunately, Lucius, being no one's fool, had fled the country the self-same day that Crouch Jr. escaped, leaving both his wife and son to face the music alone. He was one of the few to evade arrest, as most of the others were caught unawares in the day or two following the battle with Crouch Jr. Within a week, more than three-quarters of the purebloods in Slytherin House had parents in jail. Fudge was under a huge amount of pressure to repeal the laws passed thanks to Malfoy's money and influence. The Wizengamot was gutted, and several departments suffered personnel losses in the purge of Death Eaters. Not all of the losses were Death Eaters in their own right, of course ... many were just people who actively aided and abetted the Death Eaters in either escaping justice or in passing punitive and unjust laws.

Two days after Harry visited Sirius, he found himself being called into a meeting with the Headmaster. When he arrived, he found himself, Severus, an elderly woman with a severe expression that he thought might be Neville's grandmother, Arthur and Molly Weasley.

"I am quite sure you are all curious as to why I've asked you to this meeting." Dumbledore said. "It is a rather important matter. As you all may know, the Wizengamot has been under siege the last few weeks, so much so that they are now all but unable to function, for loss of voting members. Each of you either holds voting rights for a pureblood family, or could attain that status if you wished to do so. With so many of the conservatives and Death Eaters out of the Wizengamot ... "

Severus sneered. "You're hoping to form a voting block of your own."

"Less that, then ensure that those remnants of the undesirable element who have not yet actively committed a crime gain the upper hand." Dumbledore said. "I will not require any of you to vote as I see fit, but I felt I needed to ask, as arrangements must be made. Harry, for instance, is yet too young to vote, and would need to name a proxy, as would you, Severus, if you decided to claim the Prince line, since as a teacher you'd be hard-pressed to make it to all the meetings. I also intend to speak already with Sirius, and see if he would assume the mantle of Head of House Black, but he too will need to name a proxy, at least for a few months, since he's hardly in good enough shape to be running back and forth."

Madame Longbottom nodded. "Dumbledore has asked, and I have agreed, to act as proxy for those of you who are willing to do this."

Molly was already nodding, though she looked a bit teary-eyed. "I'll reinstate the Prewett line, Headmaster." She said, her voice a bit shaky. "Fabian and Gideon would want me to. This is far too important to let things slide."

Arthur wrapped an arm around his wife. "And of course the Weasleys will be more than happy to assist. I'd be happy to act as proxy as well, so that Augusta does not carry the entire burden."

Severus sighed. "I do not know that I would be able to claim the Prince Headship. So far as I know, my mother was disowned and disinherited, which would make me ineligible."

The Headmaster nodded. "True, but assumptions can be wrong. As you know, merely stating that a person is disowned is not enough. Legal action must be taken as well. It would be worth investigation to discover if your mother was truly disowned."

"You make a point." Severus admitted. He had no interest in being the Head of the Prince line, but if it ensured that those sympathetic to Voldemort's cause did not retain their grip on the Wizengamot, he would take up the mantle, if it was possible to do so.

Harry would much have rathered Severus act as his proxy, but he decided that if Severus couldn't do it, he'd ask Mr. Weasley. Not that he didn't trust Neville's gran, but he didn't know her, at all. He'd at least got to know Mr. Weasley, a bit, thanks to hearing about him from the twins and Ron. Neville didn't really talk about his family at all. Harry was pretty sure there was a reason behind that, but he wasn't going to push if Neville wasn't ready to talk about it.

The meeting broke up quickly after that, and Harry followed Severus down to his ... their ... quarters (sometimes, Harry still had trouble thinking of it as his, too, despite having his own room down there.). Once they'd settled, Severus in one of the chairs by the fire and Harry, as had become his habit, on a cushion on the floor , Harry looked up.

"Severus, what was all that about reclaiming lines?"

Severus gave him an amused look. "It is possible ... and has been done in the past, that when a particular bloodline loses all the direct, patrilineal heirs, for either a cousin, if such is closely related enough, a daughter, or daughter's child, to lay claim to the bloodline. The blood relationship has to be a fairly close one, though, for the claim to work. First cousin or daughter's child at the worst, and the claimant can't have a stronger claim to another bloodline. So, for instance, William Weasley, the oldest of Arthur and Molly's children, couldn't claim the Prewett line, as he's first in line for the Weasleys, and is only a daughter's child, where Molly is the daughter of the line."

"So ... what happens after that? Will the line die out again or what?" Harry wanted to know.

"In Molly's case, highly unlikely. She could name any of her younger sons, or her daughter, as her heir to the Prewett line. In my case, as I am highly unlikely to sire children, yes, the line would die out again."

Harry frowned slightly, then shrugged. Personally, he thought Severus would make a good dad, but Severus seemed to not be at all interested in being more than Harry's guardian. Some part of Harry was pitifully grateful for that, as he worried that a kid of his own would see Harry shoved, once again, into the (metaphorical this time, he hoped) broom cupboard.

"You could adopt someone, maybe?" He offered.

Severus shook his head. "Has to be related by blood." He said. "Or it won't work, and in this case, a blood adoption wouldn't be enough."

"Why?" Harry wanted to know.

"Becoming Head of House is about more than just being in charge of some votes." Severus explained. "There is magic involved. Being Head of House is a binding magical contract ... the Head must protect and succor all of the line, and act in the line's best interest. If the magic bound into the Head of House signet ring perceives the Head to be acting contrary to those tenets, it will choose another Head, simply disappearing from the hand of the original Head and appearing on the hand of the next in line. That's happened a few times in the past, but not for centuries. Due to that, a blood adoption, which gives a child material inheritance rights, isn't enough to declare them 'of the line' enough to act as Head."

"Kind of loose guidelines, thought." Harry pointed out. "Considering Malfoy didn't get stripped of Headship for doing what he's done over the last decade."

Severus nodded. "Indeed, they are very loose guidelines, and meant to be so, as when the magic was first invoked, those doing the invoking rightly realized that 'what is best' would change over time, and locking themselves and their heirs into particular roles and decisions might well spell disaster."

Harry thought of something. "Wait ... if the Head has to protect ... how can anyone get disowned?" He wanted to know.

Severus smiled a little, pleased that Harry picked up on that. "Because they have done something against the line's best interests, and refuse to recant that decision. Thus, in order to protect the line and act in its interests ... "

"They can be disowned. And that explains why it's harder to do than just saying 'you're disowned'. There must be some sort of contract or something that has to be signed." Harry guessed.

"Quite so." Severus agreed. "So both Black and I will be ascertaining whether or not we are eligible for Headship."

HPHPHP

It turned out that both Sirius and Severus were eligible for Headship, though in Severus' case, that wasn't saying all that much. The Prince line hadn't been all that old, had never had all that many members, and the family House, the only asset Family Prince possessed other than gold, was in severe disrepair after almost four decades of neglect, asno one had stepped foot in the place since about a month after Severus had been born, which is when his grandmother died, his grandfather having died the previous winter. As a result, Severus had almost nothing to do except claim the family signet ring and call it a day.

Sirius, on the other hand, had his hands full from the moment he claimed the ring. The Blacks were one of the richest wizarding families, with properties all over the world. They also, unfortunately, had ten tons of Dark magical objects, books, and other non-Dark sundries that Sirius wanted no part of, and which would take a considerable amount of time to be rid of safely. He was also having to deal with his cousins. In one case, Andromeda Tonks, this wasn't a problem, and Sirius gleefully reinstated her (she'd been officially disowned)and her daughter into Family Black, while summarily disowning another, Bellatrix LeStrange. The tricky one was, ironically enough (for Harry, when he found out), Narcissa Malfoy. Sirius didn't trust her as far as he could throw her, and wasn't at all certain about her loyalties. He was seriously considering requiring a Wizard's Oath from her, or better, an Unbreakable Vow that she'd never lift a finger (magically or otherwise) to aid Voldemort, nor assist Malfoy in his attempts to corrupt the Ministry and Wizengamot. Since she'd already borne Malfoy an heir, Sirius couldn't annul their marriage (Only Malfoy could do that, thus disinheriting Draco), so this would be the next best thing. If she refused them, both she and her son would be disowned from Family Black, but that hadn't been dealt with just yet, as Sirius wasn't up to a face-to-face meeting with her.

Harry, thankfully, didn't have much to do, though there was more to deal with than for Severus, to be certain. The Potter estate was in fairly good shape, all things considered. Unlike the Blacks, the Potters had not invested in real estate ... they had, instead, invested in businesses, both wizarding and muggle. These earned the Potters quite a lot of money, and didn't need Harry looking after them personally. All he had to do was make sure there was a competent investor in charge of them. Apart from the Manor, the only property Harry owned was the largely destroyed cottage in Godric's Hollow. And to be completely honest, if Harry never saw the place, he'd be a happy, happy person. It would be entirely too painful.

It made for a very odd time. Arthur had quite happily agreed to being Harry's proxy, and Augusta was serving as Severus and Sirius', a situation that amused Harry no end, given that the two men could only just barely be in the same room without verbally tearing strips out of each other. They had more success at it when Remus was there, as his calm, quiet personality dampened the worst of the hostility.

Much to Harry's relief, the Slytherins, most especially Draco, had gone quiet, no longer antagonizing anyone and everyone they possibly could. Draco in particular looked more than a little shell-shocked at the situation he found himself in, as scion to a deeply disgraced and shamed Family. As for the rest, between the ... discussion ... Severus had had with them about Voldemort and them suddenly finding their parents incarcerated for illegal activities, well, they were doing a lot of thinking. Severus did not go so far as to think that all of them would suddenly become muggle-lovers, but if they decided to remain neutral when Voldemort inevitably returned, Severus would count it a victory.

Scholastically, by mid-May, Harry was doing incredibly well, managing to keep up with Hermione (though he didn't surpass her, he wasn't far behind her). By far his worst subjects was History of Magic, as he'd finally (with assistance from Neville, who was incredibly good at the subject) caught his feet in Herbology. He still did best when it came to spell-casting. Any spell-casting, provided he was given a detailed explanation of what needed to be done. Unlike Hermione, Harry didn't much care how a spell worked, or why it worked, or why its limitations were what they were. Interestingly, as the year had progressed, and they were introduced to more and more spells, Harry began to, intuitively, understand, in general, vague terms, the hows, wheres, and whyfores of the spells, though actually articulating that understanding proved to be troublesome. Harry just ... 'got it'. He was also, much to his chagrin, proving to have half-again the power of his agemates, able to consistently cast spells that were described as 'difficult' for someone his age. There'd been more than one accident where Harry overpowered a spell.

By the end of May, with finals looming, Harry had also finally finished growing. He'd shot up fully half a foot, much to his pleasure. He was still shorter than Ron by a couple inches, but at least he was no longer looking his best male friend in the sternum, and was nowhere near being shortest in his year anymore.

Unbeknownst to Harry, Severus, aware of Harry's particular strengths, had been talking quietly with Filius, to see if the man would be willing to tutor Harry over the summer. The more styles of fighting and spellcasting Harry was exposed to, the better. Filius, who'd seen just what Harry was capable of in his class, had readily agreed, as had Minerva. Harry was going to have a busy summer.

And then finals were over, and everyone was packing up, and trudging to the Express. Harry had been somewhat surprised to discover he'd be taking the Express, but Severus had just given him an amused look and said that, after all, Harry did still have a few things at the Dursleys that needed fetching, didn't he? And it would only be polite to inform them face-to-face that he would no longer be their concern.

Harry, who was no one's fool, was more than a little worried for what Severus would do to the Dursleys. He was just grateful that neither Remus nor Sirius would be joining Severus ... the thought of that triad ganging up on anyone was enough to give Harry the chills.