2 Family History

With a sigh Harry closed the book he had just finished reading and dropped it on the table. He had been at this for almost 4 hours straight and his eyes were starting to strain, and while he was sure Hermione was enjoying herself, the frustration was certainly sinking in for the 14-year-old boy.

Between the two of them they had found many spells that could be very helpful, of varying difficulties, some which Harry thought that we would be able to cast after only a couple of attempts, and others which he was convinced would take him months to get the hang of. His attitude certainly wasn't helped by the decision to skip lunch.

Maybe I'm going about this wrong, there might not be a single brilliant combat spell that I can use. I need to broaden my search, look at other subjects that I can use to catch people out. With his mind made up, the young Gryffindor headed back into the Restricted Section to look for any books that caught his attention.

Row upon row of ancient, at times rare, tomes covering every branch of magic imaginable. Transfiguration to healing, alchemy to potions, and everything in between. Pulling out any book that caught his attention, Harry started his return journey with his arms laden with knowledge.

Out of the corner of his eye a book caught his attention. It was the gold writing on a plum coloured material that had drawn his eye, and the title only further intrigued the young Triwizard Champion. It wasn't the sort of book that usually interested Harry, but 'The Families of the Magical World in Britain' seemed to be calling out to him.

Harry knew a surprising little amount about his parents, having grown up with his magic-hating relatives, and knew even less about the Potter family and saw this as a great opportunity to feel closer to his dad and his ancestors. Balancing the 6 tomes he already had in his hands, Harry was able to reach out and take the unique coloured book off the shelf.

Arriving at the table that the best friends had been using as their base of operations he dumped the books he was carrying, before sitting in the comfortable chair that he had claimed for himself earlier, looking at the 15-year-old girl with a grin.

"I thought that we were being too narrow minded about this and so grabbed some books on different subjects." Moving the book on families to the side, he sorted through the books, picking out the one on healing magic he wanted to start with.

"I'm going to look through this one, as I'm sure I'll get injured at some point and a minor healing spell might help, but what would you like to read? One on transfiguration? Or how about "Spells for Everyday Use"? I know its quite a bit different to what we have been reading, but the others all grew up with magic so they will know these sorts of spells and I need to negate any advantages that they have." Pointing at the books as he mentioned them, he waited for his friend to make up her mind as her eyes lit up with all the possibilities.

"What about that one? What's it on?" Hermione had seen Harry put a book to the side, and was instantly intrigued.

In a library, surrounded by books, Hermione was in her element and wanted to make sure she was best utilising her time by reading the most relevant books first and then supplementing that knowledge with whatever time remained.

"Huh?" Harry grunted while looking up from the chapter list of the healing book he had chosen. "Oh it's nothing. Just a book I picked out for some personal reading later, its not relevant for now as I doubt there is anything in it that will help."

Looking back down at the book in his hands, Harry flipped to the chapter on mending cuts, tears and visible damage. With his record he was sure to need to use a healing spell on himself sooner rather than later. It pays to be prepared after all.

"Harry, we have been at this for awhile, you need a break. I will continue looking for, and copying out, any helpful spells I find. You should take some time to yourself. Read from the book that you picked out for personal reading, that way, when you return to studying you will feel refreshed. Go on, I insist." Harry knew better than to argue with his friend, so sent a smile her way before shifting his attention to the book that may be able to give him greater insight into his father's side of the family.

'For thousands of years society has been ruled by the elite, and nowhere is this more true than in the magical world in Britain.' Harry couldn't help but scoff at the first sentence and it's blatant propaganda, so instead of reading the rest of the introduction he started flipping through pages, looking at the names of families. Some he knew, such as Abbott and Bones, and according to the book others had died out centuries ago.

What is the point of including them if they don't even still exist? He couldn't help but wonder. Sometimes the old bloods make no sense. The page on the Emrys family caught Harry's attention, and he read through what they had on the legendary Merlin.

It was actually surprisingly little, given how important he is to magical Britain, mainly consisting of his feats and held very little about the actual Emrys family. Unknown origin, father unknown, and no children were all it had in regards to info not about Merlin himself.

This pattern continued, with the young Gryffindor flipping through the pages reading the name at the top, and only stopping to read more when he recognised the name, until he reached page 526 and the name he had been searching for. Potter.

The first line read 'The most-Ancient and most-Noble house of Potter...' Which made no sense to Harry. Most-Ancient? Most-Noble? What in the blazes was that supposed to mean? Remembering that at the start there was a section on 'Titles and Magical Families' he figured that would be the best place to get answers.

'Old houses are any that can trace their magical lineage back 8 generations, or 9 with one generation of dormancy. Ancient houses are those that can trace their magical lineage back 16 generations with no more than one generation of dormancy. Most-Ancient houses are those that can trace their magical lineage back to the founding of Hogwarts, as defined by the 'Ancient Houses Bill' passed by the Ministry of Magic in its first year (1707).' Harry couldn't believe it.

The Potters had been magical for a thousand years! Most likely there had been more than 30 generations of Potters who had roamed these halls before him, getting into trouble, having hospital beds reserved for them, learning about magic. At that moment Harry felt more connected with his ancestors than he ever had been before, even over when he found out that he was to attend Hogwarts, the same school his parents had gone to.

He was part of a legacy that was centuries old. He was a Potter. Skimming through the next paragraph, which was all about the changes to the labelling system over the years, our hero reached the other part he was interested in.

'Before the signing of the statute of secrecy many magical persons earned titles from British monarchs, and for those who received hereditary titles they are remembered today through the Noble family title. The Most-Noble label is strictly for only the families descended from the original 10 members of the Wizengamot, and alongside the label they have the only heredity seats on the Wizengamot today.' This completely blew Harry away.

Not just could his family trace their lineage to the founding of Hogwarts, but a Potter had been on the original Wizengamot! Harry knew very little about the Wizengamot, only that it was like the wizarding high court, so resolved to research it later, after he had read the page on the Potter family of course.

Turning back to page 526 Harry started to read about his heritage.

/

Hermione was worried about her friend. For more than ten straight minutes Harry had been reading the same page, and while he had never been as fast a reader as she was, he was faster than that.

She also couldn't read the expression on his face, which was unusual because she knew him so well. She prided herself on how well she understood Harry, and was used to knowing what was going through his head, sometimes without even having to look at him, but this was most off-putting.

What was on that page that had Harry so entranced? Was he even reading the page, or simple staring blankly at it? As much as she wanted to ask him what was going on, she knew that it was something Harry had to work through on his own.

When he wanted to talk, she would be available and willing to listen. Looking back at all the notes she had taken over the day, she reflected once again on how much easier it would have been in the non-magical world. She would have had different notebooks for each topic, and the spells would have all been on their own separate page for ease of reading. Plus it is so much easier to write with a biro than a quill.

While she was impressed with the dedication to his study that Harry had shown today, better than the previous three years that she had known him, she was concerned that it had taken a deadly tournament to bring it out. The study had also given her an escape from the worry that she had been feeling since Harry's name was spat out by the Goblet of Fire.

As much as she tried to persuade herself that Harry would be fine, she didn't know what she would do if he wasn't. The entire thing was further complicated at the end of the previous year, flying through the night sky with her arms wrapped around Harry, when she realised she was falling for him.

She had told herself that it was just because of who he was, she had heard all the other girls talking about him, and it was a stupid idea. Add on top off that the amount of time they spend together on a daily basis and it was bound to happen. Yet she was just his friend, like a sister to him.

And besides, she was no where near as good looking as some of the other girls here at Hogwarts, and when Harry started to notice girls he would be easily able to find a girlfriend amongst them while she slid into the background. She looked back across at him, and realised that he was still looking at the same page.

He was obviously too distracted to get any further study done, so it fell to her to find anything that can save Harry in this stupid tournament. She had to, for both their sakes.

/

Harry couldn't believe it! The Potter family were magical before Merlin was born! In fact one of his ancestors, Cadhaearn Potter knew the great sorcerer himself, and was one of the original ten members of the Wizengamot that had been installed by Merlin and King Arthur as a magical counterpart to the Round Table.

When you add to the heredity Potter vote on the Wizengamot the fact that one of the other original families, the Peverell's, had given their heredity vote to the Potter's when the last Peverell, a woman, married the Potter heir, the head of the Potter family was the only person in existence who was allowed more than one seat, and vote, on the Wizengamot.

Unfortunately the book was only about the magical families, and had very little about the Wizengamot itself, bar the roles that individual family members have held within the illustrious body, and the original 10 families existence. Another amazing fact about the Potter family was that it had 2 children in the original Hogwarts student body, the daughter and second son of then Head of house Eadgar, who had been quoted as believing that the idea of a magical school was brilliant and had been one of the first people to enrol children.

That son, Rydael, went on to become Hogwarts second ever headmaster, a role that came into existence after the Founders era, and was the first of two Potter's to have held that title, alongside one Headmistress, in the subsequent centuries. While the names were not recorded, there had been 11 other Potters to have held teaching positions at Hogwarts, and even one who had taught at Beauxbatons, showing a proud history in the academic world.

In the political domain, a Potter had held the office of Minister of Magic, as well as an exorbitant number of Chief Warlock's as it was the one position that a sitting Wizengamot member could hold. It was this restriction on Wizengamot members that had caused problems for the Potter's in the past, as heir's had had to resign from many high ranking positions in the ministry due to the Head's death or ailing health, in order to take up the family's seat.

It was why only one Potter, a third son, had become the Minister of Magic, and there hadn't been a Potter Hogwarts Headmaster in over 200 years. Luckily a single Potter could hold both the Potter and Perevell seats, otherwise even those limited number of significant positions held by the Potters would have probably never happened, at least that's what the book seemed to imply to Harry.

Harry was more than a little unsettled by the spectacular history of the Potters, and while he was grateful to now know it, he was unsure about how he would live up to it. It didn't help that he knew almost nothing about the Wizengamot, and what holding two seats on it would entail.

That's what I must research next. He decided as he stood up, and headed off to look for Madam Pince, leaving a startled Hermione behind.

/

With two books in hand, 'The History of the Wizengamot' and 'Wizarding Politics in Britain', Harry returned to Hermione with a grin on his face, singing Madam Pince's praises to himself. Harry sat down, and could tell that his friend was almost bursting from holding her tongue.

Looking at his watch, and seeing that it was now after 3:30, and that he had only two hours before dinner he made a choice. "I know that not knowing is probably killing you right now, but I'm only starting to wrap my head around this all. After dinner, by when I'm sure that I will have a better grip on it, I will try my best to explain it to you. I'm sorry 'Mione, but it's the best I can do."

With an apologetic smile, Harry devoted his attention to the book on the history of Wizengamot, and the secrets that it would unveil. Hermione returned to her own studies with a scowl on her face, promising that she would get all the information she wanted out of Harry straight after dinner.