HPWW181-190
Chapter 181
"Wait... what?" asked Cuffe. "Potter's not attending
the Yule Ball?"
"Well, his not attending is just one example, of
course," he replied. "With the School Board having
already sent most of the students home, there will be
a great many who won't be attending, won't there?
"No; I fear―"
"Are you sure about Potter not attending?" demanded
Cuffe, again cutting in.
"Well, as sure as I need to be," he replied. "Now, as I
was saying―"
"No, no!" interrupted Cuffe, suddenly standing up.
"I'm afraid something very urgent has come up. Sorry,
Albus... if that is who you really are... but, I must be
going."
"Oh, dear," he replied. "Well, needs must, I suppose. I
shall leave you to it."
Withdrawing his head from the flames, Dumbledore
climbed back to his feet with a smirk fixed on his face.
Satisfied with a job well done, he returned to his desk
to continue with his developing plans to regain all that
he had lost - and more.
_‗_
―==(oIo)==―
ˇ
While Dumbledore was busy in his office with his
manipulative shenanigans, another meeting was
taking place in the Headmistress's office. She had
called Professors Sprout, Babbling, Sinistra and
Vector to her presence by the simple expedience of
sending a house elf with a note to each.
As they each arrived, she greeted them, gestured to a
chair before her desk and asked them to wait until the
last one arrived. The last to arrive, Sprout, was just
asked to take a seat.
As soon as Sprout sat she saw who else was present
and knew her new 'boss' had made her decision
regarding Headships of the Houses.
"Thank you for joining me, Professors," said
Marchbanks. "If you do not know why I have asked
you four to join me then you are undeserving of the
positions you are being offered.
"Straight up I'm informing you all, with the exception
of Pomona, that your application for the acting
positions as Heads of your respective Hogwarts
Houses is accepted. I am going to announce those
appointments at dinner, even if it is to a nearly vacant
Great Hall. Your appointments will become effective
as of that announcement.
"Of course, they will be Professor Babbling as Acting
Head of Gryffindor, Professor Sinistra as Acting Head
of Ravenclaw and Professor Vector as Acting Head of
Slytherin. If either of you three... or even you,
Pomona... want to withdraw, let me know now;
otherwise I'll be going ahead with those
announcements, this evening."
When no one seemed anything but pleased it was a
moment before Babbling asked, "Headmistress...
about the Deputy Head slot?"
"Still being discussed, dear," replied Marchbanks.
"That's one post I will not fill without discussing the
matter with the Board. After all, I could drop dead at
any moment." And smiled back.
Babbling couldn't help but smile along with her. She
nodded and replied, "Thank you."
_‗_
―==(oIo)==―
ˇ
After going through records relating to share holdings
in the wizarding world, with Hermione and he
switching out with taking extensive notes, they
decided to call a long break. It was nearly lunch time
and Harry was yet again hungry.
Rising from the chair and taking a few long stretches,
he said, "Well, I feel like making lunch. How about I
prepare something that'll―"
"Uh-hmm," he heard a little verbalised throat clear
from the end of the kitchen counter.
Turning it was to see Dobby standing there, arms
crossed, one foot tapping and scowling back.
Hermione gave a snort of amusement.
"Dobby?" asked Harry.
"Master Harry be workings hard on wizard things, he
does," snipped Dobby. "Master Harry be doings Lordy
works. Now Master Harry be wantings to be takings
house elveses, Dobby's, works again. Master Harry
not be takings Dobby's work. It be being unfair!"
Raising one hand to push his glasses higher up his
face and massage the bridge of his nose with his
thumb and fingertips, Harry developed a pained look.
"Master Harry and Miss-tress Herm'nee be tellings
Dobby what theys wants and Dobby be gettings it for
them," declared the little elf.
When Harry turned a hopeful look on Hermione she
laughed and said, "Oh, no! He's your elf. You have to
tell him if you're going to deny him the chance to
work."
"Hermione―" he whined.
"Nope!"
With a sigh, he turned back to Dobby and sulked,
"Fiiiine!"
Dobby's scowl instantly turned to a satisfied smile as
his arms dropped away and he shifted to stand evenly
on both feet.
"We need some brain food, Dobby. That is, something
that won't sit heavy in the stomach. Fish... salad... I
know!"
Turning to look at Hermione he asked, "How does a
fish burger sound?"
"No, but a salad roll with a couple of kippers on the
side sounds good," she replied.
"Sounds good to me , too," he smiled.
Turning back to the house elf he said, "Dobby..."
With a look of glee on its face, the little elf chirped,
"Right away, Master Harry, Miss-tress Herm'nee." And
ducked back into the kitchen.
She missed it the first time, but she caught it that
time.
"Mistress Herm'nee?" she asked, confused.
"Oh, yeah," he replied. "I forgot about that. Since
you're now my betrothed, the elves will treat you as
the Lady Presumptive of my House. That means, to
Dobby and all other house elves, you're now also part
of the House of Potter. To Dobby, you're no longer
Miss Granger, but Mistress Hermione."
"Are there any more little surprises, like that, included
in what being your betrothed means?" she asked.
"Probably," he replied. "If I knew or remembered what
they were I'd have already told you, though."
_‗_
―==(oIo)==―
ˇ
After eating lunch and taking a short walk out and
about the backyard talking about friends and
acquaintances, what they might be up to, the weather,
and other things, the two teens returned inside and to
the parchment work. So far, they'd not even gotten
about a third of the way through it. It was back to it,
they headed.
The afternoon was quiet, with the two working steadily
through the documents of the House Ted seemed to
think Harry needed to know about.
With a sigh, Harry finally sat back and asked, "If this is
what Ted thought was important enough to send now;
what is the rest of it going to look like?"
Hermione chuckled and asked back, "You're asking
me?"
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------
Chapter 182
He took a look at the clock on the wall above the
dinette and said, "Dang it! We've been at this all day. I
say it's time to give it up for the day and come back to
it at another time."
"Me, too," sighed Hermione. "It's all very interesting,
but... Well, there's just so much of something you can
learn or study about in one hit before it switches from
being interesting to becoming annoying or boring."
"Right," he decided. "Time to pack it up."
_‗_
―==(oIo)==―
ˇ
Dobby suddenly popped by Harry's side holding
Harry's communication mirror. It was buzzing.
Reaching for it, Harry said, "Thank you, Dobby."
The elf gave a nod and popped away again.
"Padfoot."
When the image faded in to Sirius's face, Harry was
about to say something when Sirius spoke first. "I've
just received an owl from Moony."
"He finally decided to contact you, did he?" he asked.
"Uh-huh," replied Sirius. "He's sent it from Italy, of all
places. He's letting me know he's on his way back."
"He's in Italy?" he frowned.
"That's where he says he was," shrugged his
godfather. "Obviously, he found work there."
"Does he also explain why he's not bothered to
contact one of us before now?" he asked.
"He was in the muggle world," replied Sirius. "He only
re-entered the wizarding world there for the night of
the full moon.
"Recovering from that he managed to pick up a copy
of L'Annunciatore, magical Italy's wizarding
newspaper. That's when he found out about all the
happenings going on over here since that day.
"He sent an owl that same afternoon and it's taken two
days to get here. In it he states he was immediately
making his best time to get back to wizarding Britain."
"Uh-huh," he muttered.
Sirius frowned and said, "You don't seem too happy to
hear that, pup."
Harry shrugged and replied, "When he finally turns up
and you go to meet him, ask him why he never told me
anything about my place in the world or anything
more than things like... 'You have your father's sense
of humour', 'Your mother was pretty good at potions',
'You have your mother's eyes', things like that. He
never once said things like, 'You are the Heir Apparent
of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Potter', 'You
don't need to live with the Dursleys because you own
quite a few of your own homes', or how about, 'You
don't need to accept the way Professor Snape treats
you because the man owes you a frigging life debt'.
You know, those sort of things."
"He never told you anything?" asked a very shocked
godfather.
"Nothing of importance, no," he replied. "That's why I
haven't cared the man hasn't contacted either one of
us before now. It was clear to me, almost right from
the start once I figured out who he was sometime
within the first couple of months of third year,
Dumbledore told him to keep me in the dark about my
heritage and that's exactly what he did.
"I have no problem with you renewing a relationship
with him, Sirius. Just don't expect me to. He's your
friend; he's definitely not mine."
"Yeah," mused Sirius. "I can see that. I guess him and
I have a lot of talking to do. If he doesn't have an
excuse beyond 'Dumbledore told me not to', then
we're through, too."
_‗_
―==(oIo)==―
ˇ
After the two had managed to get everything packed
up and Harry asked Dobby to move the lot up to sit on
the floor next to his desk, Harry cleaned the dinette
table of teacup rings and other manifestations
showing the surface had recently seen some hard
use. He felt he should do it because Dobby had
already made them lunch when he wanted to do it. As
far as he was concerned, if the elf didn't want him
cleaning, then the elf should let him cook when he
wanted to.
Once cleaned he placed the cleaner and cloth on the
counter and decided to take another walk in the
garden before making a start on dinner. Unknown to
him, Dobby went ahead and cleaned the dinette table
top clean again, anyway; and polished it.
Harry'd already thought about what to cook for dinner
and decided on cooking a pork-based Chinese dish
for that night and probably a traditional fish dish the
next, Friday.
While Hogwarts had plenty of good and nutritious
food with plenty of choices when one sat down to a
meal, with the exception of the sort of dishes that had
been added because of the two visiting schools, the
selections were entirely 'English' in nature. They
didn't even include traditional Scottish or Irish dishes.
Though he'd not cooked Chinese before, he'd read
plenty of books on it. He once tried to prepare a
French dish for the Dursleys and received a beating
for it.
"We don't eat Froggy food!" he was told. "You wasted
all that good food turning it into muck!"
So he restricted himself to preparing food that had all
the appearance of plain English fare, but he'd greatly
improved on the standards by the use of cooking
techniques, herbs and subtle spices.
Here, though, he knew he could cook what he wanted
so long as he was very sparing on the sugar. And
never used processed sugar. 'Sweeteners' weren't
allowed either. "Harry, saccharin has been found to
produce cancer in rats. If you're going to use a
sweetener, use raw sugar or sweet fruits."
Looking through the cookbooks Monica had on a high
shelf above the microwave 'nook', he found what he
was looking for.
A quick shopping list jotted down on a handy notepad
with string-attached pen and he went in search of the
aurors. He needed to take a trip to the shops.
Besides, it gave him the excuse to restock the
Grangers' pantry, fridge and freezer. He felt, he'd been
eating enough for almost three since he started on his
potions; and that didn't include all the guests, such as
Sirius and the Tonkses, that had been dropping by for
dinner or other meals over the past near-week. As a
result, he believed it was his job and responsibility to
replace all the food.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------
Chapter 183
Grabbing his muggle wallet, as opposed to his
wizarding purse - it was easier to keep the two
currencies separated that way - he found one of the
aurors down on the lower ground floor and let him
know his plans.
"It's just a short walk," he told the auror. "It should
take thirty minutes, there and back, tops. And most of
that is going to be actual shopping."
Not waiting for the auror to respond, he then went
looking for Hermione. He met her coming down the
stairs as he was going up.
"Shopping trip!" he declared.
"Pardon?" she asked.
"Shopping trip!" he replied. "Wanna come with? I have
to pick up groceries. With the amount of food I'm
eating... plus, all the guests... we're getting a little
low."
"Oh, grocery shopping," she smiled. "Harry; when
talking to a female, you need to be more explicit."
He just waved it off as a nothing and asked,
"Coming?"
"Alright," she replied. "Let me get my purse."
"No need. I'm got plenty!" he declared.
"Then let me at least get my coat," she said. "You
should probably put one on, too. It's getting quite
chilly out there."
"Okay," he chirped, before dashing the rest of the way
up the stairs they were standing on to go to his room.
The young female auror, who had turned up at the
base of the stairs while they were talking, said, "He is
as excited about shopping for groceries as you or I
would be about clothes."
Hermione just smirked back and wryly said, "I
noticed."
With her having further to travel, Harry was waiting in
the entrance foyer with the auror when Hermione
came back down from her room. It appeared he was
arguing with her.
"What's going on?" she asked.
"Auror Cassidy, here," he replied, "Is of the opinion
she needs to accompany us."
"Then let her," shrugged Hermione.
"Aren't you getting a little sick of the constant overwatch the aurors are putting on us?" he asked.
"No, not really," she replied. "It's nice to have
someone around my age - even if the aurors are at
least four years older than us - to talk 'girl talk' with."
He sighed and said, "Fiiiine."
While he was helping Hermione to don her coat, she'd
carried it down with her rather than donning it
upstairs, Cassidy changed into mugglewear by the
simple expedience of pulling her auror robes off over
her head. Underneath, she was wearing a hood-less
well-worn windcheater, jeans and trainers.
Plucking a 'scrunchie' that matched the windcheater
out of the fob pocket of her jeans, she used it to tie
her shoulder-blade length hair back into a ponytail.
Then she transfigured her auror robes into a plain
brown calf-length duster coat and donned it without
buttoning it up. It was cold out, but not that cold.
After helping Hermione don her coat, a similar style to
the auror's transfigured one, he asked the auror, "Do
all the aurors wear casual muggle clothes under their
robes?"
"Nope," she replied. "Just most of us on this detail.
Most wear wizarding casuals."
"Hunh!" he softly exclaimed. "And your bosses don't
get upset?"
"On this detail it's encouraged," she replied.
Now ready, the three made their way out and to the
shops, with Hermione immediately taking Harry's
hand. Auror Cassidy held right back to give them
privacy. But remained close enough to be 'there' if
something unexpected happened.
_‗_
―==(oIo)==―
ˇ
After a floo-call from Ted, Sirius flooed to his office.
"What've you discovered?" he immediately asked.
"The goblins got back to me with the information on
the suspected Malfoy child," Ted immediately replied.
"They've hit a dead end."
Sirius immediately frowned and asked, "The child's
dead?"
"No, no," Ted was quick to correct. "I meant... they
reached a point where they couldn't find any more
leads - the trail died."
"What do they have, then?" he asked.
With the investigation file open before him on his
desk, Ted quickly checked his overview notes and
replied, "There was certainly a child born. Her name
is, or was, Corina Cephei Malfoy; born the tenth of
August 1982; at home at Malfoy Manor. The midwife
and her assistant have been Obliviated of all
knowledge of it. All official records have been
'disappeared'; including all records of the child from
Saint Mungo's archives."
"10th of August 1982?" asked Sirius, grinning. "It
sounds like old Lucy was celebrating being free of
Voldemonkey by bonking his wife and it got her
pregnant."
"Yes, there were quite a few births around that time,"
smirked Ted. "It may very well be the reason the
Malfoys chose a home birth.
"Anyways, continuing," he said, "The goblins,
however, have their own records regarding the births
and deaths of the Heirs of the Houses. Their records
show she disappeared at about two months of age.
This is confirmed by Lucius Malfoy informing the
Gringotts Account Manager of the Magical House of
Malfoy that they were to destroy the life-stone for the
girl. The account manager informed him it would be
done, as he didn't want to lose the account. However,
as you probably know, they never do such a thing.
"The goblins, having not destroyed the stone, have
informed us she is still alive - it still glows. It is for that
reason they accepted the challenge and efforts to find
her.
"They know she should be of age to have received an
invitation to attend Hogwarts in 1993, yet one was
never sent. Therefore, it stands to reason she is no
longer within the Hogwarts catchment area.
"They sent their requests for assistance out to the
other Gringotts offices across the world, yet have not
received any hint she may have been picked up by her
coming in for an inheritance test or the like."
"Damn," snarled Sirius.
Ted then leaned forward with a wide grin on his face.
"Now, this is where what I've done since comes in. I
took the information the goblins gave me and started
my own search. This time, in the muggle world off the
back of their search in the magical world. I contracted
a muggle organisation that specialises in finding
'missing persons'. They focussed on countries where
English is the dominant language, first. They also
focussed on going to a country as far away from
England as they could get. They started in New
Zealand and worked west.
"A girl of her approximate age and what she might
look like currently attends a school in Perth,
Australia."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------
Chapter 184
Sirius suddenly sat forward in anticipation. "I take it
she's a close resemblance?"
Ted handed him a candid photograph taken from
some distance away. It was a head and shoulders
shot.
The young girl looked approximately twelve years old,
had the black hair of the Blacks and a mix of the facial
features of the Malfoys and Blacks combined. He
couldn't quite pick up her eye colour but it appeared
to be the pale blue that often arose in the Malfoys,
with the cheek structure of the Blacks. She appeared
to be smiling at someone.
"She looks happy," mused Sirius.
"From all reports, she is," replied Ted. "Her current
name is Charlotte Claire Wilkins. Her first two names
are as a result of the initials found on the baby blanket
in which she was wrapped. She was raised with the
nickname 'Charlie', but prefers 'CeeCee' because of
the initials. Her adoptive parents... yes, her record
shows she was adopted by a muggle couple... have
kept both the clothes she was wearing when found
and the blanket and apparently have shown her the
initials, which were embroidered into the blanket.
"Her parents adopted her through the Department for
Child Protection - DCP - of the Western Australian
muggle state government. Their reports have the child
being found abandoned just inside the main doors of
the... Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception of the
Blessed Virgin Mary, also known as Saint Mary's
Cathedral, in the city of Perth.
"The date ties in with what we know of the
disappearance of the Malfoy girl-child.
"Her foundling name was 'Mary', named after the
cathedral in which she was found, and months of
frantic searching for the baby's parents were
undertaken by the muggle authorities. It was a very
public media story of the time, which helps to explain
how the organisation I contracted to find her
apparently did so as quick as they did. She still has a
case number with the Western Australian Police -
muggle aurors - as such cases are never closed
unless the birth mother, at least, is found or her
whereabouts are known.
"The Wilkins came by her as they were listed with the
DCP as emergency foster parents for infants with
special needs. They are: Stephen Anthony Wilkins, a
senior office worker within their Department of
Transport; and Dorothy Anna Wilkins née Grimes, a
housewife who was also once a paediatric nurse. Both
muggles, of course.
"After two years of her being in their care, they
applied for and were granted permanent foster care of
her. After five years, they applied for and were granted
adoption.
"The Wilkins already had two other children at the
time. A boy, Patrick Harold, now nineteen and
studying engineering at the University of Western
Australia; and another girl, now seventeen and in her
final weeks of muggle high school. She has plans on
attending university, like her older brother, but
studying nursing, like her mother."
"Wait... wait..." said Sirius. "If she's healthy, has magic
and obviously appears to be of both Malfoy and Black
blood... why, in Merlin's name, did Malfoy dump her
halfway around the world?"
"That's what confused us and made us think she
wasn't the one... until we saw the muggle medical
records," replied Tonks. "She was found to have been
born with cataracts in both eyes, rendering her almost
completely blind, and was also discovered to be
almost completely deaf. Both were genetic defects, so
wizarding healers couldn't do anything for her.
"However, the muggles could. As a result of the
muggle public campaign to find her parents they also
let it be known she had cataracts that rendered her
blind and that she had a hearing defect in both ears.
From that a massive... outpouring... of sympathy was
directed towards the infant girl from the local muggle
community; even across the country. A lot of people
sent in financial donations towards her care.
"At that time, muggle Australia had just re-entered
into a universal health care scheme called Medicare.
That meant all muggle Australians were now eligible
for free basic health care.
"However, that would not have been enough. So, in
stepped a... consortium, if you like... of highly
qualified specialist healers. An eye-specialist, who
was one of the country's leading experts on corrective
eye surgery, travelled over from the other side of the
country to lend his expertise. He quickly determined
the problem and, within hours, she was operated upon
at their Royal Perth Hospital. The operation was
successful in that the cataracts were removed. She's
apparently never had a problem with her sight since,
except for the need to wear prescription sunglasses in
bright light.
"As for her hearing, another birth defect and yet
another surgical procedure rectified that. It was
something to do with her ear drums being
underdeveloped; as in, they hadn't formed properly
while she was still a foetus. She underwent a... Tympano-plasty... to repair both ear drums. Something
about a graft being used to repair them. Later tests
have shown she has about ninety-five percent of her
hearing back."
"Damn!" said Sirius. "The muggles have gotten that
good?"
"That was over ten years ago, Sirius," replied Ted.
"They've gotten even better since."
Sirius distractedly nodded. "If she was born blind and
somewhat deaf, and our Healers couldn't fix it, then
it's no wonder Malfoy would want to get rid of her."
"Plus, it adds to the likelihood this young girl is the
missing Malfoy Heir Secondary," added Ted. "Now, we
just have to prove it."
"And we have to decide what to do with this
information, once it's confirmed," said Sirius. "I really
don't want Malfoy finding out about it. There's no
telling what he'd do."
"An almost as big problem is what to tell Andi," said
Ted. "This girl, if we're right, is her biological niece. If
she finds out about her, there's a strong likelihood
she'll immediately head down there to get her."
"You're not permitted to tell her," Sirius immediately
stated. "Only you and I are to know anything about
this until I deem it right for her to be made known to
anyone else."
"Thank you," said a relieved Ted. "The client
confidentiality clauses will now protect me from her
finding out from me. But, I certainly hope you're not
even going to think about doing that until at least one
of us talks to the girl and her parents, first."
"No," said Sirius. He thought for a few moments
longer and asked, "You firmly believe she's happy
where she is?"
"Yes," Ted instantly replied. "However, I still wish to
go ahead with confirming her true identity. All we need
is a drop of her blood."
"And, how are you going to get that?" asked Sirius.
"That I'm leaving up to the experts," he replied.
"So long as these experts don't also learn who she is,
I've got no problem with that," said Sirius.
_‗_
―==(oIo)==―
ˇ
With shopping complete - and Hermione stunned with
the amount of food Harry bought - the two teens were
walking back from the shop while talking between
them.
Cassidy had even used the opportunity to purchase
some items for herself.
"Harry, I want to speak with you about how much
you're spending on groceries," said Hermione.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------
Chapter 185
"Your parents are providing house-room for me and
this... coterie of aurors, who're apparently determined
to keep an eye on me," he said. "While I'd probably
shrug it off if it was just me, it's unfair for your parents
to pay for the food.
"If your parents say anything about it, I'll tell them the
same thing. So, don't worry about it, alright?"
"Alright, Harry," she said. "And, I can understand your
argument. I just thought... since I invited you to come
and stay―"
"To come and stay," he emphasised. "Not eat you and
your parents out of house and home."
"Alright," she sighed. "I won't argue. But you're not
eating us out of house and home, as you put it. The
Grangers might not be in the same leagues as the
Potters or the Blacks; but, we're well-off enough."
"Thank you," he gratefully replied.
_‗_
―==(oIo)==―
ˇ
Scimitar had just received the daily briefing from the
watchers. Looking to the team he said, "Nothing
unusual from the young knight's watchers. The knight
and the Bookworm went out grocery shopping."
"That, in itself, makes it unusual," smirked one of the
cursebreakers.
"Hardy-har-har," said Scimitar. "However, we have
news from elsewhere."
That had the team listening.
"The Black Healer, Tonks, tried to get into
Grimmauld," he said.
"Any idea why?"
"None," he replied. "However, she is not considered a
threat. It may simply be because it's the home in
which she grew up."
"She's also the Healer-of-Record, at the moment, for
the dog, the knight and the Bookworm," added
another. "She's watched, because of that."
_‗_
―==(oIo)==―
ˇ
Harry's 'make-do' Chinese that night was wellreceived by those who ate it. It might not have
contained nothing but traditional meats and
vegetables, but it definitely had a Chinese flair to it. He
eventually decided to call it 'Chinglish Fusion'.
Sitting for dinner that night were the Grangers, Harry
and two aurors. It was earlier he found out the aurors
played a wizarding version of rock/paper/scissors to
see who would miss out. The loser missed out. So,
Harry quietly had Dobby set aside a serving of both
the dinner and the dessert put under stasis for the
unlucky auror who missed the 'Harry Potter Dining
Experience'. But, Dobby was already doing just that.
As it made his master happy to think he came up with
the idea, he didn't say a thing.
Well, at least with word getting out that 'Lord Potter'
wasn't as much into proving everyone to be a 'daft
moron' at the moment, those in the auror department
who had once begged off watching over him were now
begging to get back in again. So said Auror Cassidy,
while they were in the supermarket and purchasing
groceries.
For dessert he went 'Australian' and made an
Australian multi-layered tropical fruit 'trifle'. However
he left out the alcohol and, instead, just used rum
essence. So the adults wouldn't be concerned, he
made sure to tell them in advance the background
rum flavouring was just that, flavouring brought on by
the essence - no alcoholic content.
"How'd you get the jelly to do that?" asked Monica.
"I baked the sponge and made the jelly yesterday," he
said. "Today, I pulled the jelly out and crumbled it -
that's the secret - then stirred in the strained tinned
fruit. With the cake I trimmed the edges off where it
was in the pan - one of those little 'cheffy' things -
sliced it, soaked it in the juice from the tins together
with the essence and just layered as I went - cake,
jelly, custard, cake, jelly, custard, cake and
unsweetened cream topping mixed with block
chocolate crumbled to an almost powder. Then just
garnished it with sliced fresh fruit and sprinkled some
of the powdered chocolate over it. Simple."
"Simple, for you," she smiled.
When she saw Harry blush a little she didn't comment
again.
"However you did it, it was simply divine," said
Hermione.
_‗_
―==(oIo)==―
ˇ
When Marchbanks stood to make her announcements
regarding filling the vacant Heads of House roles, the
only one who wasn't happy for them was Dumbledore.
While on the outside he was showing he was pleased
for them, inside he was scowling in hate at
Marchbanks as she invited the three new Heads of
House to stand.
Her announcement proved he was now even further
away from recovering the position of headmaster of
'his' school. If she was successful in appointing a
Deputy Head that wasn't he, there'd be four people
between he and his beloved Headmaster's office -
Professor, to Head of House, to Deputy Head, to Head.
Intolerable!
_‗_
―==(oIo)==―
ˇ
That evening, while Andi was back on shift at Saint
Mungo's, Sirius went to the Black Townhouse on
Grimmauld Place. She'd let him know she couldn't get
in, which Sirius knew she couldn't as he'd locked it
back down again after he and the Unspeakables had
been through the place. That was his plan.
Walking in, he remembered yet again he was going to
purchase at least one new house elf to get the place
cleaned again. When he'd had to kill Kreacher that
meant that what little work was being done was no
longer being done. Or, maybe he'd ask his godson if
Dobby might want to do it in his spare time as a
'reward'.
Setting his thoughts aside he moved through to the
library to begin his research.
"Mind magics... curses of the mind..." he muttered.
He might not like the place, but this was for his
godson and his godson's friend.
Two hours later, after nearly magically exhausting
himself getting past various magical booby traps,
curses, protections and the like. He thought he
might've finally found the book he needed. This would
be the fourth time he'd had the thought, though.
After checking it for even more traps, he stood back
and magically pulled it from the shelf using a simple
Accio. The book yanked out off the shelf and flew
towards him. A quick sidestep to avoid it and the book
bounced off the wall behind him before falling to the
floor, where the cover flipped open.
'No curses or the like,' he thought. 'We're good, so far.'
More scans showed no other magics on the book
other than a simple preservation charm and a Bookplate charm that would have the book return to the
shelf if left out of it for more than twenty four hours.
As the Rightful Lord of the House he was able to strip
that second one away. He saw no harm in the first one
remaining.
Picking it up with his off hand, just in case, he flipped
through it. He already had a very good idea what he
was looking for. Now all he had to do was find it.
Ten minutes later he was reading through the
definition of a particular curse, his smile slowly
widening as he read.
'Counter-curse?' he thought. A quick check, 'Yes!'
He'd do a jig if he didn't think there just might be a
curse waiting to go off for 'dancing in the library'.
Snapping the book shut with his off hand, he dropped
it into a left hand pocket of his robes - one he'd
already layered in protections - and made his way to
the floo.
Just before he left he checked to make sure the floo
pot wasn't charmed - it was - stripped the hex away
and dashed some powder into the fireplace.
"Tonks House," he firmly called.
When the flames turned green from a successful
connection he checked to make sure it, too, wasn't
cursed - it wasn't - then put the residence into lockdown again, with the lock-down timed to activate five
seconds after the floo shut off. And stepped into the
flames.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------
Chapter 186
The next morning's Daily Prophet carried as its lead
story, 'Lord Potter Thumbs Nose at Traditions'. And
went on to say how an 'unidentified informant' inside
Hogwarts reported that the new Lord Potter stated he
would not be attending the traditional Yule Ball held
for the Tri-Wizard Tournament. A tradition that dated
back over five hundred years.
After reading it, he passed it on to Hermione to read
and said, "So, Dumbledore's made his next play."
"Besides the obvious, what makes you think it's
Dumbledore?" asked Wendell.
"I haven't sent my letter to Headmistress Lady
Marchbanks, yet; where I'll be telling her I'm not
attending," he replied. "Therefore, the only one
besides us and Sirius who know, is him. And he's the
only one at Hogwarts."
Wendell asked, "What about the aurors?"
"They wouldn't tell," said Hermione. "They know that,
if they let slip something like that, Harry'll get you to
throw them out.
"Which means, they'll be stuck to guarding him
outside... in the cold... in the wet and snow... outside
the property boundary."
She shook her head and added, "No, they won't risk
that happening. The comfort they get for being
indoors is too good a perk to pass up."
"Dobby," Harry suddenly called.
When the little elf popped in he asked, "Yes, Master
Harry?"
"Can you get me my communication mirror, please?"
"Right away, Master Harry." And he was gone again.
A moment later the mirror appeared on the table in
front of him.
"Thank you, Dobby," he called into the air.
Picking it up he was about to call his godfather when
he realised what the time was. "Ummm..." he uttered.
"I think I should wait for a bit. Sirius is a late riser and
there's not much he can do, at the moment, anyway."
Then changed his mind. "No. I should tell him before
Ted leaves for work for the day. He'll want Ted to get
onto this, right away.
"Padfoot."
When the mirror cleared Sirius was already up. "I've
read it," he immediately said, before Harry even had a
chance to let him know.
"Ted woke me and we've been discussing it."
"The plan?" he asked.
"Ted's going straight from here to his office to look up
the relevant wizarding law statutes, then heading over
to the Prophet offices to, as he puts it, 'ream 'em all a
new one'," replied Sirius. "He'll be there within the
hour."
That made Harry feel all warm and fuzzy.
"Thank you, Sirius," he said. "And thank Ted for me,
too. He has my blessing to act as Law-wizard of
Record for the House of Potter. If he wants to he can
tell them Lord Potter will forgive them if Cuffe and
Skeeter are either both publicly sacked with the
reason printed in tomorrow's paper, or a full and
unequivocal retraction that does the same."
Sirius gave a bark of laughter and said, "He heard. He
seems to be relishing the legal 'bloody nose' he's
about to give them."
After a quick look off to the side, Sirius barked with
laughter again and said, "Yeah, he is."
_‗_
―==(oIo)==―
ˇ
Not having to worry about the remarks in the Daily
Prophet this time around, Harry relegated it to the
back of his mind. He knew he'd get updated reports
on what was being done either directly from Ted or
from Sirius.
That left him able to concentrate his thoughts on
filling his stomach. The potions seemed to be making
his hunger worse. However, he realised it was
because his stomach was growing, whether normally
or magically, to allow him to take more food in.
As he shovelled more food into his mouth he thought,
'Is this what Ron is always going through? No wonder
no one can get his attention while he's eating.'
"How long do those potions have to run, Harry?"
asked Monica, watching him.
"No idea," he replied, when next his mouth was empty.
"But I hope the hunger ones end soon. This is
embarrassing, having to eat this much."
"Well, you're definitely filling out," she said. "You're
also growing upwards. Any idea how much taller you
are now?"
"No," he replied between mouthfuls. "But, I know my
father was about five foot eleven and my mum was
about five foot ten. I think I was about five foot...
four?... when I arrived here."
Hermione gave herself a nod and said, "Stand up,
Harry" And rose to her feet, herself.
When Harry immediately followed suit, breakfast bedamned, she stood close and looked him in the eye.
With a frown she said, "Yeah, you'd have been about
five four to five five. I remember I slightly looked down
to look you in the eyes. Now I have to look slightly up.
Soooo, I'd guess you'd now be about... five... eight?"
"Three plus inches already?" he asked. "You sure?"
"Edge of the door, dear," her mother said to her.
With a look of surprise, Hermione said, "Of course!"
Then she grabbed Harry by the arm and dragged him
over to the door leading from the dinette to the back
hallway.
Pulling it shut a little she maneuvered him until he
stood with his back to the edge of the door. "Stand up
straight," she ordered.
Harry did as he was told, placing the back of his head
against the edge of the door as he did.
Hermione took careful note of where he would come
to on the frame and said, "Alright, Harry. You can step
away now."
As he did and turned around to look, he could see the
edge of the door had inch-separated marks on it.
Hermione was holding her finger at a point about a
third of the way up between five foot eight and five
foot nine.
"Wow," he said. "That's well over three inches in...
how long?"
"A little over five days," said Hermione. "Sunday
morning would make it a week."
Monica said, "At that estimation of your original
height at that time, I'd estimate you'd probably be at
about five inches in a week. You're growing like a
weed!
"No wonder you're eating so much, the calories
needed for the body to do that sort of growth must be
above the mid thousands. I think you need to consider
increasing your intake of soluble fats and
unprocessed sugar."
"I'm already eating five meals a day and often coming
back downstairs in the early evening to make myself a
snack!" he almost whined.
"Andromeda said if you're hungry, you're to eat," she
firmly retorted. "So, do so!"
Harry sighed and softly said, "Yes, Ma'a... err...
Monica."
"Now, come back and finish your breakfast," she said.
"And, if you're still hungry, eat some more.
"And don't think I haven't noticed you've restocked
the pantry, fridge and freezer again," she scowled.
"You don't need to do that."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------
Chapter 187
"On that subject I must respectfully disagree," he
firmly said back, sitting down at the table again.
"Harry―" she tried.
"No, Monica," he just as firmly replied. "This is my
contribution to the efforts you and Wendell have gone
to, to let me and my unwanted auror followers into
your home. Please don't fight me on this."
Her and Wendell exchanged some micro-expressions
between them and she turned back to Harry. "Fine.
But I didn't expect you to do any of that when we
invited you."
"It's my contribution and, since you weren't expecting
it, gift," he replied, more relaxed.
_‗_
―==(oIo)==―
ˇ
In Hogwarts, Dumbledore was sitting at the staff table
gleefully reading through the article on the front page
of the Prophet. Of course, that glee was masked
behind a look of concern he was projecting for others
to see.
His problem was there was one person at the head
table, that morning, who knew that expression was a
lie. And, after reading the article herself, wasn't happy.
Leaning to look around Babbling and Sinistra, who
were now sitting in their respective Heads of House
seats, she used her wand to hit Dumbledore in the
side with a very mild localised banishing charm. In
effect it was a rude 'poke', used when you wanted
someone's attention and weren't being polite about it.
She had gotten very good at it when she was still a
professor, herself, and a student wasn't paying the
attention to her they should have at the time.
When he flicked his head around to stare at her in
surprise, quickly morphing into a frown, she crooked
a finger at him in the recognisable sign of 'Come
here'; which was also considered impolite.
Rising and frowning even more at her behaviour, he
approached her behind the chairs. "Really, Griselda,"
he scolded.
Looking back she simply said, "As soon as you have
finished your breakfast, you are to go to my office and
wait for me there. And it's Headmistress Marchbanks
to you... Al-bie!"
Shocked, Dumbledore was, for a moment, speechless.
Finally, he said, "As you wish." Before turning his
back on her and returning to his breakfast."
'Albie?' he thought. 'She's never... Potter!'
_‗_
―==(oIo)==―
ˇ
A little over an hour later, Ted was striding up Diagon
Alley on his way to the offices of the Daily Prophet
organisation. Not even hesitating he walked in and
straight up to the reception desk.
"Good morning," he said to the young witch behind
the counter-desk. "Please inform Mister Cuffe that
Edward Tonks, Law-wizard, is here to see him."
"Mister Cuffe is a busy man. You'll need to make an
appointment," she said, as if by rote.
She hadn't even looked at him.
"Inform Mister Cuffe he talks to me, or I go see the
Board of Directors and talk to them, instead," he shot
back. "They, at least, will not refuse to speak with me."
She finally looked directly at him for the first time,
hesitated a moment and said, "Please wait here."
Without waiting for Ted to say anything back, she rose
from her chair and walked out through a door in the
back wall behind her desk.
Five minutes later, she was back. "Please follow me,"
she said in an almost bored drawl.
Walking behind her through the door, she led him
through and almost directly up a flight of stairs. She
then turned and walked through a set of cubicles that
were obviously for reporters, as some were there. He
even recognised some of them.
Finally, she came to an office at the front of the
building that obviously overlooked the Alley, knocked
thrice and stepped through.
When it appeared she was going to close the door
behind herself, he neatly stepped through behind her
and to the side.
He was in Cuffe's expansive office. The man was
sitting behind his desk trying to look important.
As soon as Tonks saw him he turned to the young
witch and said, "Thank you, you can leave." And just
stared at her.
The witch stared back for a moment before turning to
Cuffe. Though he didn't see it, he knew Cuffe had
silently dismissed her, too, as she turned back to him,
scowled and walk out. She quietly closed the door
behind her.
Turning back to Cuffe, he then noticed Skeeter was
also in the room sitting in a chair off to the side. Her
Quik-quotes quill primed and ready to go.
He stared at her for half a moment with an
Occlumency-flattened expression and quietly
snapped, "Get out."
Skeeter looked to Cuffe, who then said, "Now, Ted... I
can call you Ted, can't I? Miss Skeeter is―"
After first noticing him as stepped into the office, Ted
hadn't turned his attention to Cuffe at all. He
continued to stare at Skeeter. Calmly, he drew his
wand and held it pointing out and away from his body.
It was that movement that suddenly shut Cuffe up.
Still staring at Skeeter, Ted said, "I said... get out."
That was enough for Skeeter. She snatched her lime
green quill out of the air and bolted for and out the
door. Without the Quik-quotes quill magic holding it in
place, the parchment the quill was poised over
fluttered to the floor.
Now turning his eyes to Cuffe, Ted reached across
and shut the door closed Skeeter had left open in her
haste to leave.
He then stood staring at Cuffe for a good ten seconds,
waiting for the man to appear to be on the verge of
speaking.
As soon as he saw the man draw a breath and begin
to open his mouth, he quietly said, "You're an idiot."
"W-what?" spluttered Cuffe.
"Are you deaf as well as stupid?" he asked. "I said,
you're an idiot."
"Now, see here!" spluttered the portly editor.
"You, you idiot, have upset not one, but two Lords of
Noble and Most Ancient Houses," said Ted, still using
that flattened and soft voice. "You have upset two of
the Seven. One of them is also close friends with two
of the rest of the Seven. Four of seven makes a
majority."
He then remained silent until it looked like Cuffe was
going to speak again and again jumped in first. "I've
been doing some checking, Barny. Those four,
between them, own more than fifty percent of this
organisation."
Pulling a set of documents out of an inside robe
pocket, Ted looked down at them for a moment and
said, "Yes. More than fifty percent."
Cuffe was now pale and shaky.
"I also have here the written authorisation to decide
what to do with you," he quietly said. "What do you
think I should do with you... Barny?"
Cuffe spluttered and seemed to come up with an idea.
"I-I-I... claim freedom of the press!" It was a bad one.
"How lovely," Ted sneered. "I counter it with freedom
of the shareholders. That is, the freedom of the
shareholders to fire your arse. Got anything else?"
"The information I received was rock solid!" he tried.
"I have a responsibility to the people of wizarding
Britain to report―"
That Ted immediately barked a short, sneering,
mocking laughter shut the man up again.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------
Chapter 188
"You have a responsibility to the people of wizarding
Britain?" he sneered. "Puh-lease... you know damned
well I know that's a cauldron full of shit. Your
responsibility is to the shareholders; no one else. You
know I know that.
"As for your first point, your rock solid information?
Your own... sorry... my client's own newspaper, which
you're the editor for... for the moment... reported indepth the crap, lies and manipulations Dumbledore
was doing. How you could sit there and tell me you're
information is 'rock solid', as you put it, when you
know the man is a lying, manipulative old toss-pot, is
beyond me."
When Cuffe appeared he didn't know what to say next,
Ted sneered, "Well?"
Cuffe was frantically trying to come up with
something that would get him out of what was now
clearly a mess and couldn't think of anything.
When he saw Cuffe sigh and deflate, Ted knew he had
him.
Cuffe quietly said, "What do I need to do?"
Ted smirked and said, "Pull out a quill and parchment
and takes notes of what I'm about to tell you. Those
notes will then form the basis of how you're going to
handle this to the satisfaction of your shareholders.
"If you do not do exactly what I'm about to tell you to
do, I'm going to go through every back copy of the
Prophet until I find at least one hundred people who
would have the legal right to sue you and your
journalists for slander and libel. I'm sure it will not
take me long to find one hundred witches and wizards
who could not afford to go after you and would now
relish the opportunity to do so.
"I will then represent them in a class action suit
against you and each individual journalist who was
involved in writing those slanderous and libellous
remarks about them. You'll also notice I did not
mention they would be going after the Daily Prophet
media organisation; just you and your journalists.
"If I make that public, then Lord Potter will own the
Daily Prophet media organisation almost outright
within hours," he all but snarled. "I cannot see your
other stockholders tolerating that. They will either
dump the stock in fear of the value dropping, fire your
bum, or both.
"Lord Potter will then buy up all the shares, thereby
gaining majority shareholder-ship on his own, then he
will fire your arse if it hasn't already been fired. Then
he will print the retraction.
"Either way, that retraction is going to be printed."
Cuffe stared back in not a little fear.
"The question you need to decide for yourself is... do
you want to remain Editor or not? And the only way
for that to occur is for you to print the retraction first."
"Now, are you ready to take notes?"
Shaking and trying hard not to, lest he cause his quill
to leak ink all over the parchment before him, Cuffe
replied, "Y-yes."
"Good. First, you are going to print the retraction
about your story that slandered Lord Potter in this
morning's paper. As part of that retraction you are
going to write you made assumptions based on the
information provided you from a manipulative, lying
old man. You will not specifically name him. After all,
we don't want to see you sued for slander by him, do
we?"
"Second, you are..."
When Ted walked out twenty minutes later, he was
internally smirking. He never actually said he had the
authorisation of the majority of shareholders, just that
the Houses were 'friends', which was true enough.
He also knew Harry and Sirius both would not hesitate
to make a swift move on purchasing any shares that
hit the market because of the information the Editor
and journalists were going to be sued, got out. He
would even be the one getting it out.
'Oh, it's good to be me,' he thought. 'Hot and
successful in her own right wife, successful and
powerful daughter already making her rise in the auror
corps, a successful business of my own that now has
two of the Seven as House clients with two more
Noble and Ancient Houses as clients as well. It's all
good.'
_‗_
―==(oIo)==―
ˇ
Still not having been informed of the password to his
old office, Dumbledore was forced to wait for over ten
minutes after he arrived at the gargoyle before
Marchbanks turned up, slowly hobbling along the
passageway towards him.
As soon as she was close enough, he asked, "Really,
Griselda. Was it absolutely necessary to force me to
wait for quite so long?"
"Unless you have a cure for old age, Albus; yes," she
snapped back. "I'm not as spry as I used to be, you
know."
Of course, Dumbledore knew that, no matter what he
said in response to that, he'd be on defence; so he
wisely kept silent.
As the Headmistress, Marchbanks did not need to use
the password to gain entrance. She just looked at the
gargoyle and it hopped aside for her.
When Dumbledore looked like he was going to stride
forward and onto the stairs, Marchbanks whacked him
on the closest shin with her cane.
As Dumbledore reactively gave a yelp and jumped
back, she firmly said, "Ladies first, Albus."
Now wanting to hop on one foot and massage his shin
where she'd struck him, he suppressed that desire
and scowled at her back as she began to ascend. He
followed her a few seconds later.
Once inside and behind her desk, she made
Dumbledore stand before it like a naughty school
child while she settled herself.
Once ready she turned her attention to him and said,
"I'm adding yet another black mark to your record,
Albus. Did you think me that stupid I would not work
out it was you who gave that report about Lord Potter
not choosing to attend the Yule Ball to the Prophet?"
"I'm sure I don't know what you mean," he indignantly
shot back.
"Really," she drawled. "So you deny you both knew it
was going to be Lord Potter's intent not to attend, or
that you are the so-called staff member of Hogwarts
who informed the Daily Prophet of this?"
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------
Chapter 189
"How the Daily Prophet find the information they do is
no longer my concern," he huffed.
"I notice you didn't deny either of those points,
Albus," she said. "Try again."
"I will neither deny nor admit, Griselda," he snapped.
"I am not on trial, here."
"Trial? No," she agreed. "You are, however, being
asked by your employer if you had any role to play in
the Daily Prophet getting wind of Lord Potter's desire
not to attend the upcoming Yule Ball. The Yule Ball, I
might add, which will likely not be going ahead,
anyway.
"And you are to address me directly as 'Headmistress
Marchbanks' or simply 'Headmistress'. I have not
given you leave to address me as anything else.
"Now, answer the question I put to you; do you deny
you both knew it was going to be Lord Potter's intent
not to attend, or that you are the so-called staff
member of Hogwarts who informed the Daily Prophet
of this?
"If you do not give me a direct answer to that
question, then I will accept it as being both you being
blatantly disrespectful of senior authority and a
negative response in both cases."
Dumbledore stood there, frustrated. Eventually he
replied, "No."
Marchbanks sat there staring back for a long moment
before she said, "An honest answer. Just so you
know, Albus. I'm fully aware Lord Potter informed you
of his intent not to attend the Ball. I'm also fully aware
that, until that article appeared in this morning's Daily
Prophet, no other member of my staff was so aware
other than myself.
"As I know I did not inform the Daily Prophet of Lord
Potter's intent, that left only you."
"As such, Albus, you have yet again brought
disrepute onto this school. As you know, that's one of
the clauses by which I can terminate your tenure.
That's yet another entry for my file on you I can
present to the School Board to show why I have done
so, when I do so.
"You are dismissed. Get out."
Dumbledore glared back for a moment before he spun
about in fury and stormed out.
This time Marchbanks almost, but not quite, slammed
the door into his back as he stormed through the
doorway.
"Idiot," she muttered.
_‗_
―==(oIo)==―
ˇ
After breakfast and the Granger adults had left for the
day, Harry had just called Dobby to bring down the
stack of House documents Ted had delivered when
Sirius mirror-called him. This morning, he had his
mirror on him when he came down for breakfast.
"Padfoot," he said to the mirror.
When it cleared Sirius immediately said, "You were
right. I found it in the Black library."
"Counter-curse?" Harry immediately asked back.
"Yep," grinned his godfather now waving the book in
front of him.
"What about the two portkeys?" he asked.
"Being organised."
"Then all that's left to do is have them delivered and
activated," said Harry.
Switching to a worried expression Sirius asked, "Are
you sure you don't want to wait until Longbottom
inducts her brother into the Longbottom Seat as
Proxy?"
Harry thought about that for a moment and instead of
making a decision he asked, "Heard anything about
when your trial is likely to be?"
"Yep. Tuesday morning immediately prior to the
Wizengamot General Meeting," he replied.
"In that case, we'll see if the goblins of Gringotts are
willing to allow the use of their time chamber for this,"
suggested Harry. "If they are, then yes. I don't want
that man in the Longbottom Seat for long if she
successfully gets him into it.
"Mind you, I don't think getting him into the Seat is her
play."
"Why not?" asked Sirius.
"Because I think her play is to try to get him into the
Seat and not succeed," he replied. "I think she wants
me to successfully block it, so she can then claim she
needs more time to find a better, more suitable
candidate.
"The problem for her is, I know that's her play and I
also want it to succeed. That way she thinks she's
won against me.
"Oh, and I'm going to have to let Madam Bones know
I'll be taking my Seat immediately after your trial for
the beginning of the day; and why.
"'Uncle Algie' is going to find himself being arrested
instead of inducted.
"Toss my god-brother off a bloody pier and drop him
out a window, will he? Let's see how he likes two
charges of 'Attempted murder of an Heir Apparent of a
Noble and Most Ancient House' rammed down his
throat."
"Ah!" said Sirius. "Now I understand why."
Harry nodded.
"If you're done?"
"Yep," he replied.
"Then let me talk to my magical ward," said Sirius.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------
Chapter 190
Harry passed Hermione the mirror. Then, as she talked
with Sirius, he pulled parchment, ink and quills to
himself.
'We need to replenish our stationery supplies,' he
thought. 'We're getting far too low. And isn't that a
surprise, considering we'd be using a fair bit in our
classes at Hogwarts during this break if school was
still on.'
He started to get to work on writing a letter to Madam
Bones. That one he'd have delivered by one of the
aurors.
_‗_
―==(oIo)==―
ˇ
Procrastinating about the work of the House of Potter
sent to him by Ted, Harry then started to draft a letter
to Neville. He needed to make sure Neville thought he
was being a friend and not just being a git by having
his 'Uncle Algie' arrested.
In the workout draft he laid out some paragraphs to
use. One on why he felt someone who would do what
his 'Uncle Algie' did to him needs to face justice for
doing it. A second on how, no matter what happens,
he considered Neville his god-brother
~ # ~
I have some great news I wish to share with you.
You're one of the very first outside of the Potter and
Granger households to be informed of this. Hermione
and I are now betrothed through a formal wizarding
Betrothal Agreement. Yay!
If you're wondering why her parents, muggles, would
go along with something like this when the muggle
world hasn't had such agreements for over two
hundred years, the next will put it into context.
Fundamentally, the BA was drafted to protect
Hermione from harm. During an examination by a
Master Healer, it was discovered someone with white
hair had dosed her with a loyalty enhancement potion
back in, by the looks of it, our first year. It scared her
when she found out and freaked her parents out a bit.
The BA was drafted by my new Law-wizard of Record,
Ted Tonks (you may remember him as Lord Black's
Law-wizard at his trial). To make it legal, Lord Black
first became Hermione's magical guardian with the
blessing of her parents. Then the BA was signed, with
even Hermione's father co-signing it. That way, no one
can quibble over it.
Even though the BA was conceived to protect
Hermione, I want you to be the first of our friends to
know that I've finally woken up and realised I love her
with all my heart. And she's now confessed she's
loved me for even longer. Damn, that's soppy - but it's
true!
Next issue: You may find me soon doing some things
you don't agree with, Neville; or that might upset you.
But I beg you to always keep in the forefront of your
mind, when you think I'm working against you, things
are not always as they seem.
If you haven't had a chance to yet, I want you to read
the Potter-Longbottom Alliance Charter. It lays out
how the alliance Houses will aid each other. It also
states in what situations the other Houses are to
provide that aid. It is very important to what will soon
be going on. It will help you to understand what I'm
doing is for you, not against you.
I know you're going to worry. And I'm deeply sorry for
that. But our Houses are greater than us as
individuals and, therefore, I must do what I must.
You will understand within a few days. At first you
may want to kill me - however, I promise you with all
my magic, by the end of it you won't.
~ # ~
After he finished that part of the body of the letter he'd
send Neville, he passed it on to Hermione to read. She
had already disconnected her call with Sirius.
"You know that's going to make him worry even more,
don't you?" she asked.
"Yeah," he sighed. "But I'm hopeful that the longer
time of worry will make the shorter time that's to come
less stressful for him."
"Maybe," she said. "But your apology at the end of it
better be long and heartfelt. When do you plan to send
it to him?"
"As soon as our plans are set and I have confirmation
from the goblins," he replied. "But there's more I need
to add, yet. I just don't know what."
_‗_
―==(oIo)==―
ˇ
The two finally moved on to the pile of documents
from Ted and were working through it right up to
lunch. Of course, Harry stopped twice to refill his
growling stomach, each time Hermione heard it. He
was prepared to ignore it, but she wasn't.
"Eat, Harry," she urged him. "The sooner you're up to
correct health, the sooner you're through the potions
and the sooner you won't have to worry about them
any more"
She then turned to the side a little and called for
Dobby.
"Yes, Miss-tress Herm'nee?" he asked.
"Something for Harry to eat, please," she said.
"Something he can hold in his off hand to eat while he
goes through the documents."
"Yes, Miss-tress Herm'nee," replied the eager little elf.
"At once!"
"I could have made something myself, you know," he
grumbled.
"Not without stopping going through these
documents, you couldn't," she retorted. "However, if
it's a break you wanted, you don't need the excuse of
wanting to cook to take it."
----------------------------------------