The next morning, everyone in the Great Hall sat waiting for the Headmaster to arrive and announce that the Sorting Hat had been fixed and that the First years would be placed in their proper houses. Dumbledore did indeed arrive, but the announcement he gave had not been the one everyone expected.

"After spending the night consulting with the older portraits and studying notes left by the Founders and the headmasters that immediately succeeded them, I have learned that the young Mr. Black accidentally removed a curse that had been placed on the Sorting Hat centuries ago by an ancestor of his who had grown rather tired of the hat's rather...uh... caustic nature. As the hat was acting of its own volition during the Sorting, I am forced to acknowledge its decisions however poorly worded they were. That means for the First years, the house you were placed in last night will be your house for the rest of your schooling as there will be no resorting." said a rather tired looking Albus Dumbledore who obviously hadn't gotten any sleep the night before. His kindly mask was still in place, but if you looked at his eyes you could tell that he was furious that he had no power over the situation.

Tom had completely ignored the speech as he already knew that the Sorting would have to stand. The rules regarding the Sorting Hat were that any decision it makes is final, no ifs, ands, or buts about it. He was more concerned as to how to get Pettigrew to pay for his crimes. Remembering that Fudge wasn't the Great Idiot he came to be later in his term, that he didn't have a personal or political stake in Sirius Black yet as he hadn't yet escaped, and that the former member of the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophies would quite likely love to see the man who turned a certain muggle street into a crater in 1981 swing, he realized that turning Pettigrew in this early in the game would be much easier as Fudge would be more likely to listen. After breakfast, he would ask Harry to write the Minister.

Many of the first years, including Ron, Draco, Crabbe, Goyle, and a Gryffindor Hermione were quite unhappy with the situation. Ron looked over at his older brothers who were too stunned by Dumbledore's proclamation to say anything. Draco tried to make himself invisible as he imagined his father's response to this outrage as his father would undoubtedly blame him. Crabbe and Goyle scooted as far away from Harry as they could get since there would be no escaping him by going to Slytherin. Hermione stared longingly at the table that contained her brothers and sisters in the pursuit of knowledge as well as the Boy-Who-Lived. Many of the First-years spent the rest of their breakfast staring longingly at the tables they believed they would have gone to if the hat hadn't been "freed" by Black. Some however were content with where they were placed despite the way the hat had phrased why they belonged.

Alastor Moody hadn't been inactive in the years since he had heard a rather fantastic but true tale from the young Black heir. He immediately figured that Black had put the orphanage he was staying at with Harry under Fidelius when he couldn't find it again. Every time the boys left the wards though, he discreetly followed them, listing the hours in the logbook under the heading of a fictitious investigation. Since most Aurors did that to get extra break time, he was reasonably certain that he wouldn't be caught out.

Harry seemed to be such a normal boy when he saw him. The child would laugh and play with the other children when they were brought to the park. He would stare in wonder at the animals at the zoo. He would grow bored when the tour-guide droned on and on about whatever landmark the orphanage was visiting on their field trip and look as if he wanted to explore on his own. There weren't any of the signs of the madness that would consume him later on.

Black, who was aware of the scrutiny would often flash him the sign that meant "All is well." in the coded language Aurors used when they were undercover. Moody always wondered where he had learned it.

Every time he had been tempted to kill Harry to stop the threat from becoming a reality, he reminded himself that the Harry that destroyed the world had been an abused boy who had never known love and had been lied to his entire life about where he came from. The child's mother and great-grandmother had been heroes. The child himself had become a hero despite all odds before the hard life he had lived and the realization that he had been pushed onto the path that had led to him killing his own grandfather (who had been tricked into killing his own daughter and son-in-law rather than a "light-sided" family) by a man he had trusted completely. This Harry could be different.

Each time Moody's hand itched for his wand, he would turn away and find something else to do away from the child. Most frequently he would try to figure out what other factors could have contributed to the fall of Harry Potter. Over the course of about four years he had studied the texts on hereditary mental disorders and their treatments in case the problem had been one of nature as well as nurture. None of the disorders matched the few symptoms that Black had hinted at. Considering the possibility of a potion or a slow acting poison similar to what Black had been given, as the other Harry had learned to hide when he was in pain (how else would his friends not notice any problems the few times they visited him), he began to study every potions text and essay he came across.

Unbeknownst to Moody who like Tom believed that this was the only time they were going through the whole saving the world thing, he had lasted far longer than most of his counterparts had in History's prior efforts at correcting itself. Many a time, he had given in to an urge, or uttered a wrong word to Dumbledore despite his Constant Vigilance. When the world turned to flame and ash after Voldemort had risen unchallenged as Tom told him he would, Moody had always taken it as divine punishment for killing an innocent. Time knew that there was always hope that they would get it right next time though. The fact that Harry made it to Hogwarts was a good sign, even if they had to tread carefully around Dumbledore.

Tom had been pissed to discover that Ron had let Scabbers out of his cage so he could play with him (the Slytherins blamed all of the pranks Pettigrew pulled on the Weasley twins giving their reputations quite the boost) but quite relieved when an hour's searching found him in Blaise Zabini's trunk nibbling through the boy's stack of sweets (which Tom agreed to replace as he was currently the rat's owner). Tom gave Ron one hell of a talking to (yelling at) about messing with other people's property, but calmed down when he realized that Ron was lonely, hadn't meant any harm, and had wanted to be near something familiar. Ron had nearly ruined everything though, and he himself would ruin everything if he kept yelling in earshot of the rat.

Fudge came to visit Harry - who had innocently written that he'd never met a Minister of Magic before and would like to meet one (which he actually would as he couldn't believe such power-hungry idiots could exist in real life) - two days later. He left two hours later with a "Rat who turned into a man and abused two of the Weasley boys who had kept it a secret because they believed he would kill the rest of their family". It was the best story Tom could think up on short notice, and Harry's delivery was perfect.

The next day the Daily Prophet's headlines were all about the crimes Peter Pettigrew had committed and admitted to under Veritaserum which actually included the abuse of the poor innocent Percy Weasley while he was asleep. The day after that, the headlines were all about the newly freed Sirius Black who had been framed by the Villain Pettigrew. On the third day, the headlines were about Fudge's tireless pursuit in justice and Harry Potter's heroic actions that led to the discovery of a Death Eater who had wormed his way into the home of an innocent family in the guise of a household pet that had somehow gotten loose. The headlines at the end of the week were of how Pettigrew had been executed in a manner no wizard had for several centuries.

It seemed that Fudge really did want the one responsible for the disaster on November 2nd 1981 to swing.