Let's Try Again

Chapter 8: Wizengamot and Waking Up

 Potter Manor, Hadrian's Room - April 14, 1996

The last two weeks had been hectic to say the least. James and Sirius had been cleared to leave by the healers, though they were still on restrictions, which led to 4 very sexually frustrated males, due to malnutrition and weekend muscles that needed to heal naturally.

They had then moved them all to Potter Manor. Hadrian was brought along even though he was still in the coma. This led to the men spending most of their time in his room. There were papers and memories all over the place from the mens research and planning.

Severus was also having a hard time of it. He had classes, head of house duties, brewing for the hospital wing, rounds, and now his tutoring sessions with Bill Weasley. He was exhausted but still tried to get home as often as he could just to spend a few hours with his husband and son before he had to leave again. As it was he hadn't been able to get away today so they had one of the mirrors propped up so that he could see them and Hadrian.

Right now they were all trying to help prepare James for his entrance into the Wizengamot which was scheduled for the next day. James had never gone to the court before, stupidly trusting Dumbledore to do what was best, he was kicking himself for that now.

They had decided that they needed to do something that would get people to sit up and take notice. They just needed to make sure that whatever they did couldn't be misconstrued by the public.

They had rented two dedicated mail boxes from Gringotts that allowed them to send documents and small objects back and fourth in the blink of an eye, it had the added benefit that the goblin magic made it untraceable, unstoppable, and completely safe. As they were working Severus noticed that Remus was staring at him. "Is there something I can help you with Remus?"

"I was just thinking. You should come and work for Gringotts with us."

Severus didn't even bother to try and stop himself from rolling his eyes. "Oh yes, like thats going to happen. I am under contract with Hogwarts. The only one that can break the contract for me is Dumbledore, and he'll never let me go."

"I think there might be a way." Remus mused. "As soon as James walks into the Wizengamot Albus is going to want to know everything he can about him right?" They all agreed. "But he wont be able to find anything because we just made him up. Who better to gather information than his favourite spy. A spy that he still thinks is completely loyal to him. If James mentions that our curse breaking team needs a potions master than he might just be willing to let you go."

"He might." Severus was a little unsure. He would love to get away but he didn't want to get his hopes up. "The problem is that he made me sign an exclusivity contract that isn't up for another 10 years."

Now it was Sirius's turn to come up with an idea. "We use the goblins contracts. The reason it took me so long to sign up to work for them was the contract negotiations. One of the few things that I learned from my paranoid family was that you have to read every line of a magical contract, especially if it is with the goblins. Goblin contracts supersede almost everything and they don't leave loopholes. My grandfather always told me that Dumbledore was a fool because he never bothered to read the contracts he signed, he always thought that no one was brave enough to try and cheat him, and for the most part he has been right. If we hand him a contract and tell him that its just a standard contract he won't bother to read it. We just need to make sure that it includes clauses that will nullify any other contracts you are under. I even used mine to make James the proxy for the Black seats. We know from the voting records that he is using the Prince seat, so we could use it as another way to mess with him."

"It could work." James was starting to get excited, he might just be able to save his husband from that old man. "Even if it doesn't, what do we have to lose, it cant get much worse."