Better be Ravenclaw

Chapter 9

Dumbledore had been sent to jail after the second trial. The fact that he'd withheld the things that he had did not bode well for him and he'd been sentenced to five years in Azkaban. The previous sentence had been under the assumption he'd told them everything. The sheer amount of things that he'd kept quiet about, to say nothing of the things that they needed to know like about the stone and the secret in the third floor corridor, had people wanting his head on a pike let alone the things he'd wanted to push Harry into.

The goblins, meanwhile, had taken a big step up in the magical world. The killers of Voldemort and protectors of The-Boy-Who-Lived had not been wizards but been goblins. The fact that the goblins could destroy horcruxes and they'd stopped Voldemort after recognizing that Harry Potter had become a horcrux. Sirius and Adrian had easily pushed through the legislation recognizing them as a sentient species. Only a toadlike woman named Dolores Umbridge and a few others had raised a stink. But they were a small minority and when the toad said something about 'jumped up mudbloods not knowing their place' in reference to Hermione she suddenly found herself turned into a giant toad one day at work. After that people would croak and make 'ribbit' sounds around her. Sirius found it hilarious but Hermione just hugged him and thanked him for looking out for her.

Cornelius Fudge fired the toad and she soon found herself ostracized from British magical society. It was one thing to quietly hate non-humans and muggleborns. It was quite another to actively campaign against them; she'd even wanted the goblins arrested for killing Voldemort.

After the revelations about Ron and Ginny and their mother the Weasley family had fractured. Percy, Fred, and George all were appalled by this behavior and wanted nothing to do with them. Bill, Charlie, and their father saw differently. The oldest Weasley boys believed that Ron and Ginny were merely victims of Dumbledore like Harry or Sirius. The three middle boys knew better. They all understood that Ron was greedy, jealous, and entitled. They believed Ron would be that way no matter what because he'd always been that way. He hadn't been bred to be a git; his attitude had instead drawn Dumbledore to him as a suitable choice. As for Ginny, all three boys knew where her entitlement came from. She was told that she would marry Harry Potter from the time she was in nappies and no one ever said no to Ginny. She always got her way. Their mother fit in the same camp. She always got her way and was as greedy as Ron. It was no wonder where the other two got it from.

Consequently Percy, Fred, and George stopped speaking to their family and hadn't since the trial. Sirius and a few other wealthy families arranged for the three boys to continue their Hogwarts educations and Sirius let them stay at Grimmauld Place after he'd had it cleaned up and all the dark objects removed by the goblins during breaks. The boys had even made extra money by helping Sirius and Dan make repairs to the house and replace furniture and set up the house to use electricity. All three boys were welcome at the Granger home and ate their meals with the large extended family and Percy was even allowed to shadow Adrian Greengrass, Amelia Bones, and Cornelius Fudge when he expressed an interest in working at the Ministry of Magic. Percy ultimately found himself dissatisfied with that prospect and instead went to work on Sirius and Remus' new business, Marauders Inc., as their accountant after he graduated from Hogwarts. Not only did it pay more but Percy felt like he was truly useful and respected in his work at the fledgling company. Sirius and Remus both listened to his ideas about the company and would explain why something wasn't a good idea if one of his ideas was bad. At the ministry there was no such treatment.

Fred and George worked at the company during the past two summers as apprentices. Sirius and Remus let them invent pranks and gave them a cut of any sales of those pranks while the two older men focused on more useful things like fine-tuning the mirrors and working on making Muggle items like televisions and Game Boys capable of function in highly magical situations. And of course lightsabers. Sirius knew that the boys really wanted lightsabers and he found it an interesting challenge.