Gobstones

Sirius was back at Hogwarts, trying to make sense of the past week. Professor Fawkes married my cousin, my father tried to have us all killed, now I'm the next Lord Black and Professor Fawkes is Regent. Grandfather trusted him enough to make him the guide for the family until I turn seventeen. Why? What does Professor Fawkes know that is so critical to our family?

James and Remus were playing Gobstones in the Courtyard. James was concentrating on winning, but Remus was distracted. He continued to glance over to his other best friend. Something is wrong with Sirius, but he won't tell us. All we got out of him is that Professor Fawkes is a member of his family now... He had other things bothering him at the moment as well.

A fifth-year girl had came up to him over the weekend while Sirius was away. Jane Thornton had asked him, a second year, to help her with coming up with a study guide for Charms. It didn't make any sense to the young werewolf. James had been no help either, his response of "She probably just thinks you're cute..." was not what Remus had wanted to hear. Still though...Remus as he thought about the preliminary guide he'd made to show her, It is nice that someone like her could possibly think I'm 'cute'...

Jane, was quite possibly, the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen. Well he thought so. She was on the Hufflepuff Quidditch team, she had the slim build of a Seeker. She had dark brown hair that she preferred to keep cut short, very nearly a boys cut in fact. But the most beautiful thing was her eyes, they were a warm honey brown color.

It was a nice thought, but there was no way she could be attracted to me... Remus thought sadly, Besides that, I'm a werewolf...it's too risky. Best she sticks with her friend Cuthbert... Remus didn't trust himself with a relationship. No one wants a monster...

Peter Pettigrew sat apart from the others thinking about what Professor Fawkes had told him. He'd thought about it a lot actually. Would I spend the rest of my life looking for the best terms I can find? He didn't want to think so. He wanted to think that his friendship with his fellow Marauders was better than that. But was it? If we didn't have Snape to prank, would I still be their friend? Or would I be seen as another person to prank? He definitely didn't want to believe that. These were the three people who trusted him the most. They would never prank him. But do they respect me? Or am I just the pity friend?

He didn't know and he was scared to try and find out.

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Bellatrix Fawkes, the Lady Slytherin...Bellatrix smiled as she looked at herself in the mirror. She'd been the Lady Slytherin for nearly two weeks now. She loved it. Mostly she loved Harry, but she also enjoyed the look of naked envy on her mothers face whenever she saw the Slytherin Ladies ring. The Rosiers, a family nearly as old as the Blacks, but not as well connected, had long touted their connections to the older Houses.

Try getting older than Slytherin... She thought proudly as she inspected her naked form. Tonight was a special night. Tonight she wasn't going to cast the contraception charm. She hadn't told Harry about it yet. She wanted to surprise him. They had discussed children off and on. Mostly off, but that's because I was still a Lestrange...She thought with a small frown. Harry will be a great father when the time comes...

She believed that. She'd seen him with his students, even the idiots. She'd even teased him about some of the witches having a crush on him. Perhaps some of the wizards, I saw how that Flopheart kid was staring. He either wants to kill my husband or propose to him. Of course, given that he was a memory charm loving probable rapist when Harry was a boy, I'm betting that it was killing Harry not cuddling him. I'm the one who does the cuddling of Harry Potter around here.

She looked down at her stomach with a tiny smile. I can't believe I'm actually looking forward to this...to starting a family. It was not the life Bellatrix had expected at all. She had made it very clear to Rodolphus after their failure of a wedding night that she would never give birth to a child of his. Harry though, she wanted those black-haired children.

She sighed and sat down on the edge of the bed. She supposed she should dress. After all, Harry would not be home for some hours yet. But some part of her didn't want to dress. She leaned back on the sheets, enjoying the feel of the silk touching her skin. She knew that there was a war brewing between her family and her former master. Brewing isn't the word. The wards have been updated and strengthened. Harry refuses to let anything like our wedding happen again. The war is here. It's just a matter of when they attack us again.

That idea annoyed her. She didn't want to fight a defensive war. She wanted to go back to the- Damn it. He's put it under a fidelius charm, I can't remember where he was. That was a setback and she did not like setbacks. If we'd have moved faster on the...

"Gah!" She slapped her hand on the bed in annoyance. It made sense. Voldemort was many things, but he wasn't a fool. He'd just lost a lot of soldiers in one battle. He would draw back, recover his numbers and strike again later.

We'll just have to be ready for anything then...She thought as she rose from the bed to dress. When Harry arrived they would have to have a discussion about what to do regarding Voldemort before anything else happened.

Scene Break

Amelia watched as Alastor circled Lucius Malfoy. She smiled, hidden behind the paperwork as her mentor stood behind the glaring blonde teenager. "Your father is dead. You are looking at life in Azkaban for what you were a party to boy. Murder of Lord Black, attempted murder of Regent Black and the family of Lord Black. Attempted murder of Albus Dumbledore, not to mention our own Auror Bones here. Do you have anything you'd like to say?"

Lucius rolled his eyes, "I am a pureblood. Even if you were to put me in Azkaban, the Dark Lord will free me." He stated proudly even as he strained against the enchanted ropes that held him, "He will bring horrors to you, Alastor Moody and to the Bones family for this indignity."

Moody looked to Amelia, "Leave us for a minute, take that report and file it. The lad and I need to have some words. I want the name of his Lord, and he looks like just the sort to give it to me." Amelia knew what her mentor was planning. She did as he asked, leaving the room and the two wizards.

Crack! Lucius' head snapped forward as Moody struck him, nearly throwing him and the chair to the floor. "Give me a name." It wasn't a question, it was a demand. Moody cuffed the younger wizard on the side of the head, "I have nowhere to be but here knocking you down a peg boy. Unless you like me hitting you, I'd start talking."

"Fuck off!" Lucius spat at the Auror, pinkish saliva spraying from his mouth. Gone was the Scion of an old and powerful House. In its place sat a furious and unless Moody missed his guess, terrified teenager.

Moody smiled, "You haven't learned how this works yet I see. Let me repeat myself. I'm going to ask you his name and then I'm going to hit you. Unless you enjoy being hit, you're going to answer me with a name." He saw Lucius prepare to spit at him again and punched the younger man in the temple.

Lucius Malfoy saw stars from the blow, "You can't do this you bastard, I will have you in Azkaban for hitting me." He sneered, his teeth stained red, "You'll be out of a job and in the cell beside mine. But where I'll walk out a free man, you'll wither and rot."

Another blow struck Lucius, then a second and a third one. The little bastard is bleeding all over my good interrogating table...Moody thought with a frown. He flicked his wand at the prisoner, simultaneously closing his wounds and cleaning the blood from his table. "Now let's start this over again..." He said as he began the interrogation again.

Amelia came back to the room and found Moody reapplying the healing charms he'd cast. "The boy can't say anything...my guess is a loyalty charm. Can't break it without breaking him." He shrugged, "Not that the idea doesn't have appeal. But I want him on the stand with a gallon of veritaserum in him." He then stunned Lucius, "Always remember this Bones: you can do things the legal way, or the effective way. When it comes to these animals, go with the effective way if you can avoid getting caught." Moody tapped his wand to the temple of Lucius, removing his memories of being beaten and replacing them with merely being interrogated.

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Harry was ready for the Slytherin/Hufflepuff students. He already knew what would happen, Tate and Thornton will wipe the floor with whomever they get put against. Those two are insane for just fifth years. He liked it though, in a way they reminded him of Fred and George. Thankfully, they are better behaved.

There were other students that stood out, ones he remembered from his time. Mafalda Hopkirk, a sixth year Ravenclaw for example. She was timid for the most part in class, rarely speaking unless called upon and never volunteering to assist in demonstrations. But when it came time to actually duel, she had the best reaction time of all of my years. Maybe it's because she's so nervous all the time. He smirked as he thought about the Mafalda he'd met once after the Ministry had been destroyed by Voldemort, She certainly grew out of those nerves by the time I was sixteen. She took Crabbe's head off with a cutting charm without blinking.

Narcissa made her way into the classroom, pausing Harry's daydreaming. He smiled and rose, greeting his fiancee with a kiss that she eagerly returned, "Mother sent me an owl this morning. Evan Rosier wants to have dinner with her to discuss me." Narcissa wrinkled her nose in disgust, "He's older than Mother by at least fifteen years."

"Really? Did he miss the part where I killed Rodolphus Lestrange in the last duel I had for your hand?" Harry asked puzzled, "I don't understand why he thinks it would go differently this time."

She sighed softly and rested against him, "I'm not sure. After all, it would have to be approved by Lord Black, or in this case Regent Black. Maybe it's not a challenge to our impending marriage? Perhaps he wishes to enter into the Alliance between Houses Peverell and Black?"

Harry thought for a moment, "I doubt it. I killed his son Phillip three years before I got sent here." He looked into her eyes, "We could just elope. Run off to Gringotts and make you my wife without letting them see it."

She shook her head, "Is it so much to ask that I get a wedding as Bellatrix did? I mean, I don't want another full scale skirmish but I would at least like a proper handfasting." She looked down from his gaze to their hands, "I am not ashamed to be yours, and I would be yours in the face of Rosier trying to marry me. I don't want our marriage to be something we hid from the world." She looked back up to him, "I love you. You risked your life for me." She looked away, "I want our marriage to be something I can tell our children about. Getting married at Gringotts, because we feared my mother would try and allow another to challenge you for my hand isn't the story I want to tell them."

He nodded, "I just want you to be safe." He did, she could see it in his eyes, could feel it in his touch, in his kisses. But it didn't help matters when she still felt the niggling doubt that he was only with her because he had seen no other way to save her. He squeezed her hands gently, causing her to look back at him, "I do love you Narcissa. I cannot imagine my life without you in it."

As usual, words of love from Harry made everything better. She smiled and kissed him, her hand sliding down as she distracted him, "If you ever," She whispered as she squeezed him firmly, "I mean ever, try and elope with me instead of giving me a proper wedding, I will make sure that Bellatrix is a very disappointed witch for the rest of her life. Do you understand me?"

Harry's strangled cry of "Yes dear," brought a smile to Narcissa's lips.

Scene Break

Minerva watched as Harry came down the stairs for dinner. At his side was Narcissa, talking quietly with her fiancee. They paused at the entrance to the Great Hall, Harry pressed a quick kiss to her lips as they parted.

When he sat down beside Minerva, she spoke quietly, "Kissing a student, even one you are going to marry in a few weeks, is frowned upon at Hogwarts." She looked to him, "Besides that, I'm certain those who attacked us have friends still here. You make her a target by kissing her in public."

Harry, filling his plate didn't respond right away, instead, he looked to Minerva and then back down the line of tables where she sat at the Gryffindor table with Sirius, "She's already a target. That's why she eats with her cousin when she doesn't eat with me back at Pounds House." He cut into a piece of sausage on his plate. "I'm tired of her thinking I don't want to be married to her. I've been treating her like just another student here at Hogwarts and that's going to end."

Minerva frowned before sipping from her goblet, "How, precisely, will you put an end to it?" Plenty of possibilities raced through her mind, none of which she liked. One, in particular, Harry taking his fiancee to bed while they were at school horrified her. Mostly due to the impropriety of it, but also that jealousy she'd been thus far, unable to shrug off.

Rolanda had given her an idea during one of their weekly get-togethers. Just ask him for a consort contract. Be Minerva McGonagall, consort of House Peverell and shag him cross-eyed. Minerva didn't like the idea of being a consort. Still, thoughts of being with Harry were appealing. Too appealing...She thought sadly.

Harry noticed his friend's mood deteriorate, "What's wrong?" He asked her, his hand going to hers to gain her attention.

She blinked from her thoughts and looked to him, "I'm sorry, I just had something on my mind. That's all." I'm not about to tell him anything regarding my conversation with Rolanda...

Rolanda Hooch, sitting beside him on his other side, however, smirked, "She was probably thinking about the consort contract I told her she needs to get you to sign." She grinned and winked at Harry, "You've got two wives, a Veela, and two other ladies living in your house...why not add Minerva to it?"

"I can think of a few reasons Hooch," Harry said holding up a finger, "One is that Minerva deserves more than just being a consort to someone," he held another finger up, "secondly, Bella would kill me," a third finger came up, "next, Narcissa would kill me just in case Bella didn't finish the job," a fourth finger came up, "finally, two wives are plenty for any man. I mean you're decent looking when you aren't acting like a prat, but you've never seen me try to sneak you into the showers."

"Oh, have you thought much about that?" Rolanda asked teasing him.

Minerva glared at her friend, "Rolanda Jane Hooch. I will thank you to leave my private life out of your mouth when we are in the Great Hall. In fact, I will amend that to thanking you to keep my private life out of your mouth whenever there are students near us." She looked over to Harry, "I'm sorry about that. In truth, I was planning on never bringing up her suggestion, but she had to open her entirely too large mouth."

Rolanda laughed at that, "Just take her into a closet and give her a seeing to," Rolanda looked over to the rapidly paling face of Minerva, "It'll do her some good. She's been pining ever since you married Lestrange."

There are moments in one's life where one can reasonably feel as if the universe has decided to use you as their target. Being trapped between two witches, one who has admitted feelings for you, and the other who thinks it's both fun and a good idea to tease the two of you would be one of those moments. Harry closed his eyes and took in a deep breath, "Rolanda, if you keep this up, I promise you I will get a dose of love potion put one of Pringle's hairs into it and then force it down your throat."

That idea caused Rolanda to stop smiling, "That's a low blow, Fawkes. Minerva, get your wife and tell him to behave."

Minerva looked over at Harry and winked before looking back at Rolanda, "I don't know Harry. Perhaps she'd prefer Ogg instead of Pringle." The look of horror on the face of Rolanda Hooch was enough to make both Harry and Minerva laugh loud enough to gain the attention of nearly everyone.