Pinky Promise || Wolfstar

Chapter 3

Remus rubbed his eyes and stretched, pushing his chair away from his desk. A quick tempus revealed the time to be 2 AM—he'd better get to sleep if he was going to be able to function as anything more than an inferius during his classes.

Three sleepless nights, and he had virtually nothing to show for it. Dumbledore was Harry's Magical Authority. Without his support, the only way to transfer custody would be to get Harry emancipated. That definitely wouldn't work—to be emancipated, the minor had to prove they were better off without a legal guardian. Sure, Harry clearly was better off without the Dursleys, but it'd be impossible to prove that Harry's better off without Dumbledore. Harry grew up in the muggle world, after all; he certainly couldn't act as his own Magical Authority.

Remus closed the tome he'd been rifling through for the past hour. Despite being a detailed review of Wizarding Custody Laws, it hadn't given him any answers. Maybe I should just find a solicitor. He sighed internally; no, that might attract too much attention. The last thing Harry needs is more publicity.

He shoved the tome to the side and reached for another one—a thin, leatherbound book he'd borrowed from the Ministry's library. Remus had quickly found, to his dismay, that Hogwarts didn't have a very large collection of legal texts, and had had to turn to external sources. He frowned as he scanned the table of contents; he didn't recognize many of the titles from the previous books. One chapter caught his eye: The Role of Godparents in Wizarding Britain.

Right, that makes sense, Remus thought, in the muggle world, godparents are purely religious, but to wizards, they're important enough to be added to family trees... He quickly flipped to the page and squinted, struggling to read the tiny text.

Section 54.L.08 of the Wizarding Custody Jurisdiction Act enables the chosen godparents to gain custody of a child if their Wizarding blood-relatives have passed or are otherwise incapacited. In cases where the child has a third-party Magical Authority, the child and godparent(s) must petition for a transfer of custody.

Damn, Remus thought, if only Sirius wasn't—

His eyes widened. Godparents, plural. The custom was to appoint only one godparent to each child, which meant... the second godparent was by marriage.

And Sirius and Remus were married. Remus was Harry's godfather by marriage.

That was the answer, then. He quickly copied down the details—he'd have to contact the Lineage division of the Ministry to get the required forms and set up a court date. He debated sending an owl right then and there, but—no, I should ask Harry first. Even though he was certain Harry would say yes, it was important that Remus didn't act behind his back.

And then there was the issue of—shit, his condition would certainly affect his chances of getting custody... would the Ministry actually transfer custody of The Boy Who Lived to that of a werewolf?

It was highly unlikely, but he'd have to try. For Harry, he would try.

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"Harry, could you—" Remus tried to catch Harry after class, but the boy had sat as close to the door as possible, and slipped out of the classroom as soon as the students were dismissed. Remus frowned as he watched the rest of the third years filter out of the room—he didn't want to follow Harry through the hallways, so he'd just have to watch the Map to see where he went.

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good," Remus tapped the Map with his wand and smiled wistfully as the familiar handwritings appeared across the parchment. Defense was taught on the third floor, so Harry must be... yes, there he was. Surprisingly, he wasn't heading to the Gryffindor tower for his free period; instead, he was already walking through the quad, probably to sit by the Great Lake.