HARRY POTTER :flash forward.

"With us, it was the rat," Sirius said quietly. "He had the record for them all. It was about the only thing he was good at."

To get past the uncomfortable silence, Harry said, "Well, I learned tonight that Daphne appreciates good fart humour. It surprised the Hell out of me, to learn that."

"Then the evening wasn't a complete loss," smirked Sirius.

With both of them laughing, Sirius led Harry into the parlour where the two fathers were quietly conversing over a glass of some alcoholic beverage. "What's so funny?" asked Ant, looking up as they walked in.

"Harry learned tonight that Daphne appreciates the subtle nuances and rules of the fart competition," replied a chuckling dogfather.

"Oh, yes," said Matthias, smirking back. "Her humour has always been of the more ribald variety."

"Anyway," said Ant. "Did you have a good evening? But, more importantly, did both girls have a good evening?"

"Yes to both," replied Harry, sinking onto a couch with a sigh. "I made sure both ladies had plenty of dances; and they enjoyed showing their engagement rings to all and sundry. I think they also enjoyed some of the jealous looks some of the other girls were throwing their way.

"Their outfits were a hit, their hairstyles were a hit, their jewellery was a hit, the news of our engagements was generally a hit, and both utterly loved it."

"Good," said Matthias. "Now that you've experience in attending balls, expect to receive invites for the summer months. Society will want to meet you and the two future Missus Potters. Besides that you're quite famous in your own right, there'll be many who want to see your unique relationship in action for themselves."

"Yeah," breathed Harry. "I'll get Daphne to take care of those sorts of things."

"As you should," nodded Matthias. "The social aspect of running a House is the responsibility of the lady of the House. That'll be Daphne and Hermione."

Nodding, Harry said, "I kinda figured that." Sitting forward again, he sighed and said, "Anyway, this is way beyond my usual bed time. So, if you'll excuse me, I'm heading for bed. Good night."

"Good night," the other three replied as Harry headed for the stairs.

Two days later, Matthias took them into Knockturn Alley under heavy glamour. They had gone to get their second wands.

The store was, as per most stores in that particular alley, quite non-descript. However, inside it was clearly a place that had done quite a bit of business. They were met inside by a kindly looking man who immediately led them through to a workshop behind the counter.

Unlike with Ollivander, where their wands were pre-made from a narrow selection of core materials, their new wands came from a wider variety. Eventually, Harry came away with a wand that contained basilisk eyestring in an elder wood. It was pretty close to being a match for length with his holly and phoenix feather wand. "A true combat wand, that one is, young Sir," the wandmaker said.

Daphne came away with a mahogany and thestral hair wand - good for combat, defence and transfiguration. And Hermione picked up a spruce and gryffin mane hair wand - whippy, good for charms and enchanting.

When they returned to the Farm, Harry and both girls immediately donned their second wand holsters and fitted them to their left wrists. It was Hermione who first mastered the skill of shooting both wands into her hands at the same time.

Using the room of requirement over the past few months, all three had already developed some skill with casting with their 'off' hand. They now looked forward to practicing casting with a wand in each hand. Thankfully, Greengrass Farm had a well-provisioned practice range in the basement; and all three spent quite a bit of time under instruction and receiving advice from Matthias on how to maximise the use of two wands in fighting.

"Very few can master it," he said. "It requires you to be able to think extremely quickly. At times, you'll need to hold, for example, a shield in place, while you cast an attack with the other wand. It means you'll need to maintain, and pump magic through, two different spells. "However, even if you can't reach that feat, being able to cast through two wands means you can rapidly shift from one spell to the next switching from one hand to the other and back again. That's the first stage you need to master before moving on to simultaneous casting."

While spending a lot of time practicing with their new wands, the three also spent time just being themselves. Outings included trips to the cinema, to some of the wizarding sights, and also to Godric's Hollow. This time, Harry didn't have the horcrux hunt hanging over his head while visiting the graves of his parents. They took along the parents and, with effort, convinced Sirius to accompany them.

That night, after Sirius was able to compose himself after a delayed reaction and breaking down at the gravesite, he told them some wonderful anecdotes of Harry's parents. Harry always enjoyed hearing stories about his parents.

A couple days later, Remus returned to visit the Farm and asked for a private chat between him, Sirius and Harry.

Matthias loaned them the use of his 'business meeting' table in his private study.

Entering and without putting up any anti-eavesdropping charms or wards, the three went to the table and sat around it.

Remus, looking quite agitated, took a few moments before he began to speak. "Dumbledore sent me an owl to come and talk to him," he explained. "His note said it had to do with something 'of mutual importance', I think, was the actual phrase.

"Anyway, when I arrived in his office at Hogwarts he wanted to know if I'd been talking to you, Harry. When I said I had... and that I'd visited you, here, on Christmas Day... he asked what we'd talked about."

Both Harry and Sirius remained silent, letting Remus tell it his way.

"That got my hackles up," he explained. "So, I told him it was only about what we'd both been up to, recently. So, he then wanted to know what you'd told me. I told him it was a private discussion between the two of us and I didn't feel comfortable discussing it with him."

This time Remus sighed. "Dumbledore then tried those things you said he would, Harry. He raised how he was disappointed in me, raised how he'd allowed me to go to school there and make friends, and then tried the Greater Good angle.

"I was shocked," he continued, getting a little angry. "Partly, because you'd covered exactly what he'd try, and did. And partly that he actually did it."

Harry reached over and gave the old wolf's forearm a gentle squeeze with a face of sorrowed understanding.

"I got angry, then," Remus continued. "That's when I began to shout at him and accuse him of heinous and immoral acts, that I didn't care one whit about his much vaunted Greater Good, and that I thought him a bastard for trying that on me."

"That's when he accused you of going dark, didn't he?" asked Sirius. Surprised by how accurate both Sirius and Harry had read the situation, and of what had likely occurred straight after, an upset Remus simply bowed his head and nodded.

"What do you do when the man you most look up to and admire, is proven by his own words and actions to be nothing but a manipulative old goat... molester?" he near-plaintively asked.

"You promise yourself never to fall for his silver-tongued bullshit ever again, and move on with your life," Sirius firmly stated.

"I tossed him my old Order of the Phoenix medallion, hitting him in the chest with it, and stormed out," said Remus.

Turning to fully face Harry, he gave his throat a little clear and held himself up. "I let you down, Harry. Even up to today, I thought what I'd read and heard about that old bastard was either misrepresented or a lie. I now know I was wrong."

"Now that you've seen the error of your ways, you're forgiven," Harry firmly replied. "It might have taken you a decade and a half to figure out Dumbledore is not the Leader of the Light he portrays himself to be, but you've reached there in the end."

"Thank you, Cub," Remus softly said back. "And, I promise to do better from now on."

"That's all I can ask," said Harry.

It wasn't too long before the three were packed and ready to return to the castle the night before catching the train. Sirius also picked that moment to bring Harry the locket horcrux. He also had the Cup.

Surprised, Harry asked, "How'd you get the Cup?"

"That took some creative legal manoeuvring," Sirius replied with a sigh. "I asked for it from the Potter account keeper, Senior Sharpclaw? He handed it to me when I asked for it. They still recognise I'm your guardian, even though you no longer need one being emancipated and all.

"I also used the opportunity to announce the dissolution of the marriage between Bellatrix and her idiot of a husband for cause. It was part of the marriage contract that she was to produce two heirs within five years. It's been triple that without heirs, so I cancelled the marriage and claimed back the dowry. "Next, I kicked her out of the family for transferring her allegiance from the family to Riddle; and used that to claim any and all heirlooms from the remainder of the Lestrange vaults, plus backdated her familial allowance as a Black back to when it was known she had become a Death Eater, and claimed all payments back.

"While I was at it, I offered Narcissa the chance to get rid of that idiot, Malfoy. I haven't heard back from her with her decision, yet. However, I've also informed her that if I discover she's taken the mark, she too will be kicked from the family for giving her allegiance to Riddle.

"I've also blocked Malfoy Junior from ever becoming an Heir of Black by proving Malfoy Senior had taken the mark, and the sins of the father pass to the son. "Finally, I've brought the Tonkses back into the family and made Andromeda next in line after you to inherit if anything, Merlin forbid, happens to you."

Smirking back, Harry said, "You've been holding out on us, Sirius. You've been busy."

"Well, I've been working with the goblins and that Stewart Ackerman of yours to make sure everything is legal and tight. Plus, while we've been here, I've also had a team of goblin-controlled curse breakers and then a team of renovators and the like going through the Black London House at Grimmauld Place and cleaning it up.

"Gone will be the dreary wallpaper, doxie-infested curtains, elf-heads mounted on the wall and dark items. I'm having the whole thing redone with enlarged windows, polished floors, light and cheery paint on the walls and new furniture."

"A complete makeover," said Daphne. "It sounds as if it'll be really nice."

"And I'm hoping you'd do this old dog the honour of spending at least a few days with me during summer," said Sirius, clearly very hopeful. "Maybe, a day over Easter?"

"That, too, sounds nice," Daphne smoothly replied. To which Sirius gave a huge beaming grin.

Once away from Sirius, Harry quietly said to Daphne, "Thank you, for what you said to Sirius. He really wants to be a good godfather, and feels he has twelve years to make up for."

"That was my impression, as well," replied Daphne. "Plus, it would be nice to spend a couple of days with him."

"He's a lot less... psycho, now," said Hermione. "I suspect he'll be even better by Easter."

"Hermione Jean, what a horrible thing to say!" Daphne softly exclaimed.

"No less true, though," muttered Harry. "I just hope Remus can get over his shattered Dumbledore hero-worship soon, so he can spend more time with him. Beyond anything else, I think what Sirius needs is the company of friends, both old and new."

With both horcruxes, current and goblin-stripped, wrapped separately in heavy silk, and then stored in the bottom of Harry's trunk in his new secret compartment, the three went to bed for their final night of Christmas break at Greengrass Farm.

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