24 Chapter - 24 : Schemes

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"Thank you, Dobby. That will be all."

Harry smiled, already turning as the grateful house elf disappeared, popping out from behind him. Binding Dobby to his service was one of the best things he'd ever done, and Dobby had already paid for all of the headaches of last year a dozen times over.

It was the end of his third time through the day, and Harry had been going after projects the entire time. Sometimes he was in the library looking up information and copying books, others he was off to Sprout's greenhouses collecting ingredients, or sometimes off to Hagrid's pens doing the same.

All of this frenzy of effort was greatly facilitated by two things: having his father's invisibility cloak, so people didn't see him all over the place all at once (otherwise he'd have been forced to spend most of his extra time in a private room, like Hermione was), and Dobby. The little house elf had been almost pathetically grateful to be Harry's own elf, and with him popping in and out to collect things Harry'd gathered, taking them back to his room and bringing him out tools, the work had gone much more swiftly.

Harry also had an elf that could keep his secrets cleaning his rooms and looking after him. Since the rest of the castle staff of elves all reported to Dumbledore, having the work done by his private elf was another way to blind the Headmaster's agents and keep secrets.

Besides, he liked Dobby. He considered the elf a friend, if a trifle batty.

Then again, who wasn't? This was the wizarding world, after all. Sanity was the rarest sort of magic of all among them.

Under his cloak, Harry passed below the windows of the Hospital Wing, where vast tumult was currently going on. It was highly doubtful Dumbledore would actually die, being both in the hospital wing and in front of Poppy at the time his injury, not to mention having his own pet phoenix on tap. No, against those forces the drop of basilisk venom on the tip of that needle sharp bone would prove ineffectual, he was sure.

However, the special herbs and spices smeared over the shaft near the tip ought to confuse them. The basilisk venom was only a drop, and right on the point at that. It would literally vanish into any injury. It would take a miracle for that to kill him, considering where he was and the resources Albus had to draw on there. However, they would have a pretty time wondering over how a bunch of seasonings and flavorings caused shock and symptoms like venom from the most dangerous snake known.

Also, Albus would be mustering considerable resources to look for a muggle by the name of Colonel Sanders, and anything diverting time and attention away from examining Harry under a microscope was a good thing.

Of course, it remained to be seen if the subtle dark curse on that bone would do its job or not.

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"Harry, may I have a word with you in private?" Luna asked as she found him on his way to breakfast, having waited just outside the Great Hall on what was for everyone (except him and Hermione) the second day of classes.

"Sure Luna," Harry agreed, stopping his advance. "What is it?"

"Well." Luna quietly drew him aside, down a hallway, into an unused classroom which she then proceeded to magically lock and place privacy charms around, some fairly advanced ones, Harry noted.

"You've put me in something of a bind," she admitted, once she was sure they were secure.

Harry cleaned off a dusty desk with a wand flick to have something to sit on, then sat on it, looking at her soberly.

"I'm afraid I don't know what you mean," he declared, before offering, "Why don't you start at the beginning?"

"I think I'd better," she agreed. "But first, I was wondering if you'd be interested in significantly weakening Voldemort's forces?"

"How?" the boy probed, carefully. Most people viewed the Dark Lord as no longer a threat, so her offer of help against him was unexpected to say the least - though not unwelcome.

"As many as three murders and as few as one," Luna frankly replied, not bothering to conceal a thing. "Depending on your godfather."

"Why don't you explain?" Harry said, it was not a request.

"You know how important Lucius Malfoy is to to Voldemort don't you?" Luna asked intently. "Wars are won by gold after all..."

"And Malfoy has a lot of gold," Harry sighed. That was one of his problems. The Potter fortunes, while generous for his own use, were wholly inadequate to serve as a war chest. "So you're saying we should kill him?"

"At a minimum," Luna agreed. "Unless you can find a way to neutralize Narcissa and Draco without killing them then they will have to go as well."

"I take it that you have a way to do that, don't you?" Harry asked calmly, Luna had dropped her mask and Harry figured that it was only polite to do the same.

"Your godfather Sirius is the head of the Black family," Luna explained. "If he were to die on his attempt to murder you, then you, as his heir, would have the power to dissolve Lucius's marriage to Narcissa."

Harry leaned back on his desk. "It might interest you to know that Sirius Black is entirely innocent on all charges placed against him. He was never even given a trial. Here," Harry reached down into his bookbag, pulling out a sheaf of notes, which he then offered to her. "After Peter Pettigrew was captured alive and proven to be a Death Eater, I insisted on being present for the questioning, which took place immediately, and I had an auto-notes quill running. I was going to offer them to you for a third exclusive article, but you haven't done anything yet on the last set of notes I gave you."

"There is a reason for that, and I'm coming to it," Luna admitted. "If Sirius Black could be cleared, he can do it. Otherwise you might want to ask him to relinquish his position to you. But it doesn't matter who does it, the Head of the Black family must dissolve Narcissa's marriage."

"Why?" Harry's tone came clear as a knife.

"Once Lucius Malfoy dies, someone is going to inherit the estate. Normally that would be his wife or child, who would answer Voldemort's call as quickly as he would, funding him with their money. But if the marriage were to be dissolved, they couldn't touch the fortunes. It was a political match to enhance the power of both families, the Malfoy is a rich and upcoming house while the Black family is on the decline. Lucius could, of course, remarry Narcissa or adopt Draco into his family unless..."

"He was dead," Harry nodded.

"The timing would be the tricky part," Luna mused. "It would all have to be done in the same day... in the same hour if possible."

"What would happen to the Malfoy fortune then?" Harry inquired with a raised eyebrow.

"It would go to the closest blood relative, Lucius Malfoy's niece... me." Luna admitted.

"You?" Harry was surprised. From Voldemort's memories, he'd known Lucius had a sister, but...

"Lucius was my mother's older brother," Luna said with a cold smile. "I won't miss him."

"I see." And, in point of fact, Harry did.

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