[A/N: several people caught the reference to Lockhart being in Mungos, though he was never a professor at Hogwarts nor did CoS happen. That was an error. I removed that reference now. It's not pertinent to the overall plot so no harm done. Thank you to the kind folks who caught it!]

Sep 15, 1992

Even if it were not often true that "the enemy of my enemy is my friend", Dumbledore had never considered Snape anything but one. A friend, that is.

It was a testament to how short-sighted he was, or how blind to his own faults, that he never realised Snape did not think of him as a friend. Even if someone like Snape were capable of having friends any more, he still would have thought of Dumbledore as another "master", albeit without the crucios. Of course, he knew very well that Albus considered him a friend, and that he would not have attempted a mass obliviate for anyone else, but even that was not enough to buy Snape's loyalty.

Anyhow, sitting in the Malfoy's lavish dining room, sipping some after-dinner drink, Snape was not surprised to get another owl from Dumbledore.

He knew, of course, that Dumbledore had been looking for him most of the previous academic year, after he, and a few days later Dumbledore himself, had been turfed out of Hogwarts. He had purposely not responded to the first few owls - let the old man sweat a bit - and finally relented and met with him in Albus's brother's bar in Hogsmeade, during which he had told him where he was living and what he was doing.

As the godfather of Draco Malfoy, he had a certain "in" with the rich and influential Malfoy family. Even the fact that it was Snape's asking for veritaserum to be given to Potter that had backfired during the investigation into Draco's potions mishap, did not affect this; they all realised that Snape had taken a gamble that had simply not paid off.

As such, he had used the Malfoy's potions labs, library, and dueling room, to rapidly and intensely gain back as much knowledge as he could. Curiously, he found that potions knowledge would not come as easily, but his knowledge of the dark arts, magic, and spells, was coming back much easier.

(No one would ever know this, but when Sirius was using the "skillkill" curse created by his wonderful new wand, he had been thinking more about Snape's potions knowledge, and much less about his other skills. As such, the obliviate on his non-potions knowledge was rapidly wearing off, though the potions knowledge would remain blocked for the foreseeable future - not only did the knowledge not come back as quickly, the curse actively resisted his attempts to re-learn!)

Since that first meeting back in October of last year, they had exchanged owls a few times, with nothing of any real consequence being said. Dumbledore had been confident that Snape was still acting as a "spy", and making the best of a bad business, by staying at the Malfoys, so he had not pressured him in any way.

Of course, much more had happened since he had started living at the Malfoy's, which he would never tell Dumbledore.

This latest owl, however, insisted that they meet urgently at "the same place". The timing was intriguing, coming as it did just a few days after the highly publicised trial of the Crouches.

Curious, Snape decided to floo to the Hogs Head Inn right away. He was a wee bit inebriated, just enough not to attempt apparation, but he did not feel it was much of a problem.

"It's so nice to see you my boy!", enthused Dumbledore, as soon as he caught sight of Snape stepping out of the floo. He waved him over to a chair at his table, and then waved to his brother's helper - an old man with the grandiose name of Septimus Septimus Gelbharn, as seedy and drab as the inn itself - to get a drink for his guest.

Snape sat down with a mumbled greeting to his old boss, then neither said a word until Septimus Septimus Gelbharn had brought the drink, placed it on the table, and gone back to the bar.

The firewhiskey was surprisingly good - the place had to be good for something after all - and Snape was soon enjoying it just as much as he had ever done. Firewhiskey was not a big thing at Malfoy Manor; it was considered too low-brow, and the Malfoy's favoured more expensive wines, ports of various vintages, and - gasp! - muggle Scotch. Of course that did not stop Snape from enjoying those too, as he had indeed been doing just before he got the owl that brought him here.

"I know where Voldemort is", said Dumbledore calmly, as if he were saying "it's gonna rain tomorrow".

Snape's occlumency was almost back to full force since his obliviation, but this was a bit too far out for him; he promptly choked on his firewhiskey, ending up sputtering and coughing while Dumbledore looked on with a smug smirk (which did not endear him any more to the former potions master, though he would remain blissfully unaware of this!)

After he had settled down, and returned Dumbledore's smirk with a glare, he responded. "Alright, I'll bite; where is he?"

Snape was a little worried that Dumbledore would ask to see his arm. Dumbledore could be trusted to remember the exact shade it was the last time they both were in Hogwarts, and would certainly become very suspicious if he realised that it was much darker now. However, because they were in a public place (however disreputable the place may be), he also knew Dumbledore would probably not ask.

"The defence professor at Hogwarts", said Dumbledore simply.

Snape felt his occlumency shields lurch again.

Lord Voldemort - though no one had known it at the time - had, like all the other staff members, been watching Harry's testimony after Draco Malfoy had been hit by that potions accident. From his arch-enemy's words, he had realised that Snape had been faithful to him, in his own way, and inwardly approved. Consequently, when, a couple of months later he himself had been kicked out of Hogwarts, he had engineered an escape from the DMLE holding cells and tracked down and summoned Snape using his dark mark. He then ordered him to take them (Lord Voldemort and his host) to Malfoy Manor, since Quirrell would not be able to get past the wards otherwise.

"You are saying Black is the Dark Lord?", said Snape, trying to get a bead on where exactly Dumbledore was going with this.

"Of course not!" said Dumbledore indignantly. "But I am positive he has been possessed by Lord Voldemort".

Snape, uncharacteristically, had a momentary impulse to needle the old man by asking if he was positive he could recognise the signs of possession. The only thing that stopped him was, if Dumbledore stopped to think, he might realise the truth, and refocus his attention to the correct place. Chances were low, considering how angry he was with Black, but even so, there was nothing to be gained by risking it.

"What is it you would like me to do?"

"Keep an eye out for Malfoy trying to make contact, or indeed any of the death-eaters that escaped Azkaban in 1981. Let me know who tries to, whether they be part of the Malfoy household or someone else in the former inner circle".

"I know Lucius has not had occasion to get in touch with Black, and I can certainly keep an eye out for that, but you have to understand I can't follow him around or shadow him. As for the other death-eaters, I have even less visibility into their movements. You'll have to find a new spy within Hogwarts", said Snape, unfeelingly.

"Which only tells me how very valuable you were to my plans, my boy", sighed Dumbledore. He turned introspective, his gaze unfocused. "Oh I had such plans, and there is still so much to do!"

Snape affected his usual sneer. "Plans for the Potter brat, I suppose".

"He is not a brat, Severus. He is the unfortunate victim of fate."

"What were your plans for him?"

Dumbledire sighed. "It does not matter, Severus, let us not speak of it".

"Albus", wheedled Snape. "As long as you and I were both at Hogwarts, I never minded you keeping so many secrets from me. You were always there, and you would always be there, to handle things as needed."

He paused for a sip from his drink.

"But now, when we rarely meet, and the fortunes of this country may turn on a knut if something happens, that kind of secrecy could cost us. By the time I safely get in touch with you and ask my question, the situation may have become unfixable. I suggest, if you really think we are partners, you tell me whatever you know. I am now living with the enemy; I cannot afford to be blindfolded by you."

Dumbledore thought about that for a long minute. Severus, clearly, wanted only to know about Harry. At the moment there was no need to tell him he suspected there were other horcruxes, but the one in Harry was safe enough to talk about. And he was certain that, even with his hatred of Harry, his even bigger hatred of Voldemort would give Severus some pause, and he would do the right thing eventually.

"Alas", he intoned gravely after a few more seconds. "Young Harry is destined to die at the hand of evil so that the evil may then be defeated."

He did not expect to see a momentary flash of glee on Snape's face. Nodding politely, while hiding his disappointment at Snape's attitude change, he wondered if he could still trust the former death-eater.

Snape, for his part, pulled up his occlumency almost immediately, but he knew he had slipped and the slip had been noticed.

Neither man happy now, they parted on that somewhat less than amicable note.

Severus Snape walked through the floo in Malfoy Manor, and headed straight for the North Wing, which the Dark Lord, in Quirrell's body, had commandeered. His occlumency was nowhere near good enough yet, though it was rapidly getting better, so he did not even bother to hide the glee in his smile and his voice as he bowed to Lord Voldemort, which is to say, to Quirrell's back.

"Something clearly amuses you, Severus. Care to share?"

"But of course, my lord", said Snape. "As you know, Dumbledore called me in for a meeting some hours ago. I am just coming from meeting him. It appears that he thinks" - and here Snape had to visibly struggle to contain his mirth - "that Sirius Black is whom you have favoured with your presence!"

Voldemort considered this briefly. While Dumbledore's faith in his own infallibility was well known, as was his penchant for throwing his own people's lives away in foolish gestures of taking the high road and giving second chances, he had never imagined he would basically accuse someone who had been proven to have the Potter boy's best interests at heart.

"Does he think an unwilling subject can be possessed?", he asked somewhat rhetorically.

Snape kept his mouth shut. He did not really know, but clearly Quirrell had been shown to be more loyal than he had thought possible. Of course that was a form of loyalty that had no possible reward, ending as it would in the death of the host when the possessing spirit left for another host, so it was rather a Hufflepuffian loyalty.

And no one - not even the Dark Lord - would ever accuse Snape of having any Hufflepuff tendencies!

"No matter", said Voldemort, cutting into Snape's thoughts. "It is still impossible that my curse should have been broken."

He turned to Malfoy, with the usual awkwardness that comes with someone who was living on the back of his host's face.

"Severus cannot, of course, go to Hogwarts now. Therefore I would like you to go, and quietly take a look. I placed the curse on a small candle holder, the third from right on top of the blackboard. It is of course masked so that a routine scan would not activate it, but any who bear my mark will be able to see it."

"Of course my Lord", said Malfoy. He would need to manufacture some excuse to enter the school, and then something more to enter Black's classroom, but that would not be too hard. After all, he had a son in the school, and if what he had heard of Black last year were true, Black had been visiting his godson almost every day, before he became the defence professor.

(He knew, in his heart, that his current predicament - namely, that of the Dark Lord being a guest at his home - must be somehow Black and Potter's fault. However, he could not prove it, not without asking his Lord, which in turn had the possibility of being interpreted as a "why the hell did I get saddled with you" question. More than his life was worth, he decided, and dropped that line of thought!)

Sep 16, 1992, St Mungos

A proper lady never runs, nor even rushes, and Narcissa was nothing if not a proper lady. If there had been any actual love between her and her husband, she might have rushed a bit, but as it was, he was barely more than a business partner. Marriage was, of course, a matter of business for most purebloods.

Besides, having suffered several minutes of the cruciatus curse at the wand of the Dark Lord, for reasons entirely unknown to her, but which were almost certain to be her husband's fault, she was not feeling kindly towards said husband.

She had woken up as usual in the morning, performed her morning ablutions, and come down for breakfast. Instead of the usual fare, she was treated to a selection of curses - both the verbal and the magical kind - from her second house guest, currently occupying the back of Quirrell's head.

Not content with looting the Malfoy fortune purchasing expensive wild life on the black market (one unicorn every three months for the last year and a bit, and since hunting unicorns was outright illegal, it was expensive as hell!), the Dark Lord had taken over one wing of Malfoy Manor, as well as all conversation and social interaction at the dining table.

Caught by surprise, and not knowing what the hell had happened, she had suffered through the cursing until he had let up, then slowly stood and, in her most deferential tone, asked what she had done to anger her lord and how she could repair the situation.

The dark lord had thrown a malevolent glare at her, and said "Lucius is in St Mungos and the healers require his next of kin to approve some treatment. You are to go and make sure he survives, then come back for instructions."

"At once, my lord", she had said, bowing herself out.

She immediately rushed upstairs to her room, and called Dobby.

"Dobby, do you have any idea why the dark lord is angry, and what has happened to Lucius?" she asked him.

Shivering in fear, Dobby had said, "Mistress, Dobby does nots know. Dobby only knows potionses master bes telling Darkie Lordie something, then Darkie Lordie dids call Master and told him to go to Hogwarts to check on some 'curse'".

Now she was in St Mungos, having been told that her husband had fallen afoul of some lethal wards at Hogwarts, and could only be saved by a very rare course of treatment that required someone of his blood to donate some to him. They had owled her to ask if she would be willing to go to Hogwarts and get her son to the hospital, and to allow her son's blood to be used to save his father. (Of course, the Dark Lord had intercepted the owl, as he always did, but the hospital did not know that.)

She did not even ask if Draco would suffer any bad effects from this. She did not care.

"How did Hogwarts allow lethal wards to be erected? Is that not illegal?", she had asked.

"I have spoken to Lord Black over the floo. As the current defense professor, he represents Hogwarts security. Prof Flitwick was also with him. They both maintain that the wards start off with only warning level responses, and someone has to wilfully ignore several levels of such warnings before something like this happens. They said they have proof of how their wards were constructed, and if someone chooses to ignore all those warnings, then, well, on their head be the consequences."

"I wonder what the Wizen-"

"You could try", interrupted the healer with barely concealed glee. "I'll say that neither Lord Black nor Professor Flitwick appeared to be very sympathetic to Lord Malfoy's plight, and in fact indicated that if he were to survive, Hogwarts would sue him for putting the children in danger, though it is not clear to me how that could be proved. Lord Black also threatened to have him put under veritaserum and asked about the truth of his imperius defense back in '81. With who the minister is currently, that would be almost trivial for them to manage."

"Careful healer, your joy at my husband's predicament might conflict with your healer oath", sneered Narcissa, clearly angered by the man's attitude.

"Madam Malfoy, healer's oaths have quite a bit of leeway. We may not spout the phrase 'the greater good' like Dumbledore does, but we in the healer profession know the truth about the imperius defence, and that your husband, and all his friends, are essentially murderers and rapists. I do not feel even a tingle in my fingertips thinking negatively about such people, so I am sure my healer oath is not at risk. But feel free to go to the Wizengamot if that is what you think best".

Narcissa shuddered. If they investigated Lucius under veritaserum, all the other death-eaters would be similarly questioned under truth serum. She did not care two hoots about them, but their children would make Draco's life miserable in Hogwarts. Or worse.

It took Narcissa no more than a few seconds to realise that this was a golden opportunity. Her beautiful manor was lost to her already, it seemed. With every unicorn that was brought to the manor and killed to keep the dark lord alive, the manor was growing darker and darker. The wing which the dark lord had taken over was already very visibly and literally darker than it was before the dark lord had moved in, anyway, and the rest of the mansion was sure to follow soon enough.

The Malfoy fortune was vast, but she would not care to guess how long it would last with the extreme demands being made on it by the dark lord. Not just the black market unicorns, but he was also paying for expensive potions ingredients, and - since Severus had lost his potions skills - they were also paying, through the nose, so to speak, for a potions master from the continent.

"I refuse to allow my son to be dragged into this", she said. "Lucius knew what he was getting into, and he would have thought of the repercussions before he did this, and I am sure he would agree with me. He loves Draco as much as I do".

"But madam, this will not harm your son in any way", said the healer, puzzled about this unexpected turn of events. Just a few minutes ago she was going to storm the Wizengamot for her husband, and now this!

"I am sure you are right from a medical point of view, but there are other factors at play here, which I am afraid I cannot reveal to you. My decision stands".

"So you would like us to care for him forever, like the Longbottoms? Of course, the Malfoy wealth is more than enough for that".

"Doesn't the hospital pay for care?" Narcissa truly had no clue.

"I'm afraid you will have to speak to the hospital administrator for that; I am merely a healer".

Said hospital administrator had, on hearing that Narcissa Malfoy was in the building, just walked up, so he spoke.

"We used to. Unfortunately, it was your husband who forced that to change; he argued in the Wizengamot that this was fine for short term care, but long term hospitalisation would not be paid by the hospital. He did this pretty soon after the Longbottoms were admitted actually. Very ironic, I think".

Narcissa sneered at the man. He was a pureblood, she recalled, but apparently the wrong kind.

Her sneer was rewarded with a very brief smirk, which disappeared almost the instant she saw it. "Madam, your death-eater husband did not gain anything by that law, he just made it to make life more difficult for the Longbottoms."

Huffing in anger, Narcissa turned about and left, without saying anything about payment for Lucius's long term care.

By that evening, Draco Malfoy (recently returned to the school, and back in first year) had been pulled out of Hogwarts. No one knew where he went, but Durmstrang was what everyone was guessing. Mother and son then went to Gringotts, where they called their house elves Dobby and Nolly, giving them instructions to go to the Malfoy safehouse in Spain and await instructions, and forbade them from ever coming back to Malfoy Manor in Britain.

They then instructed the goblins to transfer all the Malfoy vaults to Gringotts in Spain.

The goblins did not feel obligated to tell the witch that neither Abraxus nor Lucius trusted the goblins, and had kept only a paltry few hundred thousand galleons with them; most of the rest - millions - were in Malfoy Manor. By the time Narcissa discovered this, it would be too late.

Narcissa Malfoy made only one more visit before leaving Britain; to an old enemy of her husband.

The hospital took care of Lucius for about a week, but they had no defined procedures for this; it was rare for a family, even a poor one, to just leave the body with them. Once it was confirmed that Narcissa had essentially abandoned her husband, they gave him a huge dose of draught of living death and stuffed him in a drawer in a section of the morgue; this seemed the safest course, since it was easily reversible if anything happened in the future in terms of funding for his care.

Meanwhile, the Dark Lord's anger at this turn of events was a sight to behold. The only available victim was Snape, and he paid a heavy price. He suffered a stroke in the middle of the fifth round of crucios, but the Dark Lord did not realise this until a few more crucios were handed out.

When he eventually realised that Snape was drooling far more than could be explained by the cruciatus curses, he sent him to St Mungos via the floo, being careful to keep himself out of view (since Quirrell was still wanted by the aurors).

The healers at St Mungos managed to save Snape's life, but his mind was gone.

The only person who cared enough to visit him was Dumbledore.

"Mr Dumbledore", began the hospital administrator. He did not have a lot of respect for what he considered a meddlesome fool who had far too high an opinion of himself for anyone's good, and even less for a death-eater. Still, this was a hospital, and he was used to tempering himself.

"Mr. Dumbledore", he repeated, having not gained the man's attention the first time. "We have checked with Gringotts, and it appears that Mr Snape does not have much in his vault, certainly nowhere near enough for us to provide continued care for him, essentially forever."

Dumbledore looked around. The Longbottoms were wealthy enough; no doubt Augusta was paying, and they could afford to pay for years, even decades more.

"Is there any chance of a cure? He is the most brilliant potions master I have seen this century you know."

"We continue to work on and experiment with various potions, but we have not had any success. But we have little hope of a breakthrough."

Dumbledore bemoaned the fact that one more of his associates had now abandoned him. He had first lost his wand, then his positions, and now it seemed his friends too were going.

"I have no suggestion to offer in regards to his care. My finances do not stretch so far that, friend though he is, I would be able to pay for his care. Especially considering I am 80 years older than him. Do with him what you will", he said, and walked away.

So, unknown to either of them, the two friends - Malfoy and Snape - ended up in adjoining drawers in the morgue, dosed with draught of living death.

Sep 17, 1992, DMLE head's office

Amelia Bones was not expecting the wife of her worst enemy in the Wizengamot to come to her for anything at all. While that was shocking enough, it paled in comparison to the information she was given. She was so incredulous she demanded, and got, an oath from the woman.

This also explained how Quirrel had escaped the DMLE holding cells a few months ago - if he was being possessed by the disembodied spirit of the dark lord, he may lack in raw power but magical knowledge would not be lacking.

That the dark mark could not be taken under imperious, while not a surprise, was still a welcome confirmation. Unfortunately, she could not prevail upon the woman to stay and be a prosecution witness - she was clearly in fear for her and her son's lives so she let her go. It was the least she could do, because the woman had disabled her manor's wards and swore on her magic that no auror would be harmed by the wards at least.

She called all her operatives, put the DMLE into lockdown, and started the planning session, beginning with oaths from all the participants (luckily there were no Dawlishes in the group so they all passed). Actually planning the operation took most of the day, so then they decided to rest, sleep, etc., till 3am, then move out.

By 4am, the dark lord, or, rather, Quirrell, was given a draught of living death and quietly pushed through the veil. The primary spirit being gone, the horcruxes became inert. The goblins had been looking for them, using the residue from Harry's scar (obtained shortly after his 7th birthday when his godfather had brought him in). But this residue shrivelled up and died, which was also an indication to the goblins that the other pieces also were probably inert now. They quietly gave up their hunt, though they added some more sensors to the already powerful front doors of Gringotts.

Somewhere in Islington, a demented house-elf danced with macabre joy, then set about cleaning with more gusto than ever in the past dozen or so years.

The DMLE never announced anything about any of this. They turned over Malfoy Manor to the unspeakables, who were better equipped to deal with the vast quantities of dark objects than the normal aurors.

Closing A/N and tying up loose strings

I have to apologise for the lack of Harmony time in my fics. It seems my objective of fixing things without Harry himself getting involved - as would happen if the magical world had normal adults, instead of what Rowling appears to think are adults - inherently makes it difficult to give Harry and Hermione any screen time unless the fic is very long. Sorry!

Now let's tie up some loose strings…

Pettigrew

Peter had been hearing rumours about his lord being back in the reckoning, ever since Sirius Black had taken the DADA position. Eventually, he had sought out Snape, and found that the dark lord was at Malfoy Manor. However, for his own reasons, Snape had not seen fit to take him to Malfoy Manor himself, promising instead to inform the dark lord and be guided by him.

This put the fear of Voldemort into Peter - it would be quite in character for the dark lord to consider he (Peter) was the cause of all his troubles and kill him. Outright, if he was lucky, but more likely after several hours of torture.

He lay low in various wizarding homes and townships for some months. Living as a rat, his dark mark was not visible, but one day late in September he turned back briefly in order to steal and eat some human food, when he suddenly realised that his dark mark was gone.

Stunned, but also relieved, he decided to risk a visit to Malfoy Manor. Unfortunately, by this time the Manor had been stripped of all its wealth (especially the millions of galleons that Malfoy had, which were later distributed between St Mungos, the DMLE, and the DOM), and the unspeakables were just about done. They had deemed the darkness from the murdered unicorns impossible to fix; fiendfyre was the only option.

Peter apparated in to the foyer just as the fiendfyre reached it from two sides. Slightly disoriented by the apparation, Peter could not disapparate in time. Within a couple of seconds, even his ashes were burnt and blown away.

Umbridge

Umbridge's star had fallen with Fudge's death - she had made enemies of pretty much everyone else in the ministry and soon found herself out on the street.

She knew exactly who was to blame for this: Harry Potter. It was visiting his muggle home that had killed Fudge - somehow that bastard had managed to setup lethal wards on a location where it was illegal to setup wards. Sure the Wizengamot blamed Dumbledore, and she had no love for him either, and maybe she would get him also later. But he was a much more difficult target, and she would bide her time. A young lad living in a muggle house should be easier.

So, as soon as school let out for Christmas, she lay in wait near Privet Drive, having obtained the address from someone still loyal to (or fearful of) her in the Ministry.

She approached very warily, not wanting to fall afoul of the wards that were the subject of so much discussion during the trial of Dumbledore. But there did not seem to be any, and she went all the way upto the door of number 4.

(Of course there weren't any wards, because as soon as Sirius was declared innocent, Harry had left Privet Drive, never to return! But Umbridge did not know that, because Sirius and Harry did not publicise this fact, even if it was logical.)

Eventually, she knocked on the door.

By this time, Vernon had grown increasingly wary of visitors. Despite Black and Potter saying they would never come back, he did not really believe it - he knew those freaks would not leave him alone. However, since Potter had left, they had no reason to come.

He peeked through the view-hole in the door, and found a strangely dressed woman. Clearly a freak - no one would wear that kind of dress, nor that shade of pink all over. Separately, he may have given the benefit of doubt, but the combination? Not a chance that this was someone "normal".

Still, he hesitated.

Annoyed at the delay, Umbridge drew her wand and held it in front of her, pointing at the door lock. Due to her height, or rather lack of height, this was about the level of her face.

As soon as he saw the wand, Vernon reacted like lightning. He readied in his right hand the frying pan that Petunia had so often been tempted to use on Black and Potter, swiftly opened the door with his left, and smashed the womans face with all his strength.

Bits of wand pierced her eyes as well as mixed with bits of her nose, and concussion from the massively powerful blow - her brain had been severely rattled around inside the brain cage - ensured that Umbridge collapsed; she would not have been able to handle the pain if she were conscious anyway.

Vernon did not know any of this, because the woman disappeared as soon as she was hit, giving Vernon the proof that this was indeed a freak. He quietly hosed down the few drops of blood that had fountained from the woman's nose being completely flattened, and moved on with life. (He was lucky; if she had not disappeared he would have had no clue how to get rid of the body!)

Meanwhile, Umbridge's emergency portkey had taken her to her "safe place". Long ago, she and Fudge had set up emergency portkeys to each others places, set to take them there in case of any injury that was severe enough to disable them.

Her unconscious body landed in Fudge's living room. But Fudge was of course dead, and he had not written a will so for a mandated three years, the goblins would not declare who the house belonged to or should go to. It would be kept in stasis and left alone.

Umbridge slowly struggled to consciousness after several hours, but the pain was intense, and she had a lot of difficulty staying awake. Her wand was not to be found, she was blind, and she was disoriented. She slowly moved to what she thought would be the kitchen, in order to get some water, but did not make it. She died in pain, hungry, thirsty, and bleeding all over the floor.

The stasis charm was broken as soon as she had portkeyed in - it was not designed to work if disturbed in such a severe fashion, being only useful to prevent slow decay, mildew/mould/dust, and such slow-time damage.

As such, three years later when the goblins opened up the place for auction, they found a badly decomposed body, the whole house stinking to high heaven, and infested with all manner of both mundane and magical pests.

Snape and Malfoy

Unfortunately, these two were exceptions to any and all known processes in Mungos - and record keeping was not perfect.

No one remembered these two unworthies when, in 2020, the City of London, like the rest of the world, was hit by a pandemic. Unlike most "muggle" diseases, this one did not spare the magical world. St Mungos suddenly became too small to hold the influx of magical-covid-19 patients, so a new, much larger, hospital was built in Hogsmeade. By 2022, covid cases had reduced enough that they did not need both hospitals, and everyone liked the new one much better. The Wizengamot decided to raze the old St Mungos and return the block of land to muggle London.

Only the goblins knew that the last two death-eaters technically alive by that point in time, died that day.

Dumbledore

Dumbledore never found out any of what happened. He had already been sidelined, and the only admirers he had left were relative non-entities like Molly Weasley and Dedalus Diggle, so they became some kind of an echo chamber for his ego. He used that ego to constantly hammer at Sirius and Harry, who promptly reported him to the Wizengamot. The Wizengamot invited him back for a "special session", and Dumbledore went, all puffed up in pride, as sure as the sun rises in the east that they would apologise and give him his positions back.

What he got instead was a censure and a civil lawsuit, and a promise of a criminal lawsuit if he approached Harry any time before he came of age.

Of course, that didn't stop him from accosting the Minister, so Amelia became a frequent recipient of owls from this has-been. She even agreed to meet him a couple of times, in the hope of fixing the problem for good, but he was not to be swayed. Eventually she had enough, and she called him for one last meeting before he would be barred from contacting her.

She started off by telling him Voldemort was gone, for good this time. He wasn't, of course, having it.

"I beg to differ, Amelia, I know he will come back, and we need Harry to work with me so that our world is not once again thrown into darkness."

She was so tempted to tell him what the goblins had done, and had concluded, but he had built his entire career on keeping secrets, so he was way way overdue some payback.

"Albus, there are state secrets in play here, and you are no longer a part of the government. All I will tell you is that everything you think will happen, has been taken care of. And Harry has no role to play in any of this. Absolutely none - his part is done."

"Even if I am not a part of the government, Amelia, I have held many more secrets for many more decades than you. I need to know what you have learnt and have done. Certain premature actions may even make matters worse!"

She was, once again, tempted to tell him Harry no longer had a scar - something which he should have noticed during the blessedly short time that Harry spent under his headmastership, but he had not. Again, she resisted the temptation.

"Albus, give me a few minutes", she said. Calling her secretary in, she said to her, "please ask Arthur Weasley to come see me right away, and also Diggle, and Podmore."

If Albus was puzzled that she was inviting his supporters to the meeting, he did not show it, maintaining a beatific smile instead.

Once those three gentlemen had come in, Amelia started off.

"Dedalus, after this meeting is concluded, you will please convey what we discuss, to your friend Elphias Doge, since he is not an employee of the Ministry I could not invite him in at short notice."

"You are all here", she continued, "not only to bear witness to my warning to Albus here, but also because you are directly impacted by what I am about to say."

Before the affronted old wizard could say anything, she continued. "Albus has some strange ideas about Voldemort, and claims that Harry needs to fight him or something. Worse, only he, Dumbledore, can guide Harry in this".

Holding up a hand and glaring at Dumbledore to make him shut up, she addressed him directly.

"If you had played fair by Harry and Sirius back in '81, we almost certainly would have taken you into confidence. But you knew Pettigrew was the secret-keeper, and yet you made sure Sirius did not have a trial, while getting your death-eater buddy Snape off on just your say-so. This disparity is coming back to bite you. Sirius and Harry could not be happier at the fate that has befallen Snape, and leave it at that. If you continue to pursue this, however, they are prepared to declare you anathema, and anyone who is friendly with you - such as the Weasleys, Doge, Diggle, and Podmore" - she swept an arm around the room - "will also pay the price for your hubris and arrogance, and, frankly, criminal behaviour in 1981".

"You three, and Doge, of course, have to decide how you want to continue. Would you risk being anathema to most of wizardkind because you believe this old man? Your call".

With that, Dumbledore losts his last few friends. Having the courage of your convictions is generally considered a good thing, but this time it cost him. He was declared anathema, and anyone who dealt with him in any capacity was treated the same. His brother - being older and thus the head of the family - escaped by the simple expedient of throwing Albus out of the family, and also coming clean about how Albus and his boyfriend Grindelwal had, between them, killed their sister Ariana.

Albus died a sad, lonely man. Fawkes had abandoned him long ago, and he lived alone for the last year or so of his life in a cottage near Godric's Hollow. He had enough money saved up from his long teaching career, but he had to convert it to muggle money and shop in the muggle world, because no wizarding establishment would serve him for fear of Black and Potter. Eventually he was arrested for violations of the secrecy statute, probably unintentional (he did not know there was such a thing as CCTV), and sentenced to six months in Azkaban.

He did not last three months. But even on his last day, it never occurred to him that he had subjected Sirius to basically years, or decades, of this, if he had not managed to escape.