Well people seem to like this one more, so let's play with it shall we? ;^)
I'm part way through the next chapter of Heritage, but this one flowed better and was done first.
I made a few minor amendments in the first chapter, primarily that Harry and Sirius are now Dukes, rather than Lords, because the lines of Potter and Black were the original Magical Noble Families and were instrumental in the formation of Magical Britain. Also, the Head Goblin is of a different race from the common goblins, he is what's being called a goblin noble, a cross between the high goblins and the common goblins.
Usual disclaimers, no rights to any characters portrayed, and this is neither the real world nor a Disney princess tale.
It was very much a family affair at Potter Manor, because with only fifty noble families in Magical Britain, many connections had been made between them over the past eight hundred years. The primary focal point for the familial connections at Potter Manor had been Harry's Grandmother, Dorea Potter (nee Black). Through his mother Dorea, James had been a third cousin of Sirius, Andromeda, Narcissa, and Amelia and her brothers, but he had also been a third cousin of Frank through his father Charlus.
This meant that Harry was a cousin to Nev, Susie, Draco and Dora (Andromeda's daughter Nymphadora who was seven years older than the other four.), and all of the adults were regarded as Aunts or Uncles. So the kids grew up saying Unca Sirrie, Unca Frank, Unca Remmie, Unca Sev, Unca Ted, Unca Fillie and Unca Gringo (The Head Goblin was a regular visitor to Potter Manor as he was heavily involved with the House of Potter. He was in the process of reconnecting with the House of Black through Sirius, the first worthy Head of the House of Black in more than two hundred years and, like many goblins, he loved children.), and Auntie Angie, Auntie Allie, Auntie Amie, Auntie Andie, Auntie Minnie, Auntie Poppy, Auntie Poma and Auntie Cissa. Augusta was just 'Gran' to all of the kids as she was the only grandparent that any of them had left alive.
It was hardly more than a month after Cissa and Draco joined the family that Sirius's life suddenly took a turn for the better, because Peter Pettigrew had been arrested while trying to rob someone in his human form. Amelia Bones had given her Aurors a standing notice to notify her, and only her, of anything to do with Pettigrew immediately, so he was quickly hidden away in an unmarked holding cell with any record of his arrest scrubbed before anyone really had a chance to notice.
They knew that they'd have to be very careful in how they handled this, because Dumbledore had the power to squash any trial proposed to clear Sirius, so they had to somehow get him out of the way and slip the item into the agenda of a full Wizengamot session that someone else was presiding over.
They'd been wracking their brains over this for more than a week before Andi suddenly saw the answer, the Hogwarts School Board. They indirectly organised a special meeting of the school board to be convened on the same day as the next full session of the Wizengamot to investigate some serious irregularities that had been discovered in the Hogwarts finances. (Severus had told them about how Dumbledore had been stealing from the school for years, if not decades.)
There was no way that Dumbledore would allow that meeting to proceed without him and his strongest supporters there to cover things up and get the matter squashed quickly. Meanwhile, Amelia would have a trial for a wanted fugitive added into the agenda for the Wizengamot session at the last minute, because once the session had started with the acting Chief Warlock presiding, Dumbledore couldn't take it over.
Dumbledore fell for it hook, line and sinker, and as per usual, the acting Chief Warlock was Tiberius Haverstock, who was a stickler for the proper processes. With him in the chair, once Pettigrew had been brought in for questioning under Veritaserum, there was no way the case would be released without a resolution. A planted question from a lesser known supporter gave Amelia the opening needed to advise the Wizengamot that Sirius Black had somehow heard of Pettigrew's capture and surrendered himself for trial, given that Pettigrew had committed the crimes he was accused of, so he was brought in as soon as Pettigrew's guilt had been determined.
There was nothing that Dumbledore, Minister Bagnold or their supporters could do except watch and raise questions, and those questions were limited to matters which directly pertained to the trial at hand. Dumbledore and Bagnold were dragged into answering questions themselves about why Ministry resources had been wasted on the hunt for Sirius Black for over four years when the evidence of James and Lily Potter's wills had proven that he was innocent of at least half of the charges, which had obviously brought the rest of the charges into question.
The result of the trials was that Pettigrew was sentenced to be put through the Veil of Death for his crimes and Sirius was cleared of all charges, receiving a formal apology and reparations from Dumbledore, Bagnold and the Pettigrew family, as well as being officially confirmed as Duke Black and Head of the Most Noble and Most Ancient House of Black. He took that opportunity to officially bestow Baronies on both Narcissa and Andromeda and reaffirm Cissa as Steward of the House of Black. Dumbledore and the Ministry had come out of it very badly, but the family had come out quite well, just like in the session where Angela had been confirmed as Harry's official guardian.
Dumbledore was on rather shaky ground after that, given that he'd now gone after both of the oldest and most powerful houses in Magical Britain in the past four years, for no good reason in either case. The fact that the two Most Noble and Most Ancient Houses of Magical Britain were obviously closely aligned again for the first time in hundreds of years made many in the Wizengamot nervous, especially as two of the more powerful and respected Noble and Ancient Houses were also formally aligned to them now. The fact that Sirius married Angela as soon as he was officially cleared, so it was Duchess Black who was Duke Potter's guardian and Regent showed just how close the bonds between the two premier houses of Magical Britain were. Such a powerful alliance had not existed in the Wizengamot in living memory.
The outcome of his trial meant that Sirius was now free to come and go from the Manor at will, but he still stayed there with Remus, Severus and the kids most of the time. With the exception of Dora, who was at Hogwarts and almost a teenager now, the kids didn't understand the import of what had happened, so aside from formally bowing or curtsying to Sirius and addressing him as 'Duke Black' with a giggle (And getting bows and being addressed as 'Duke Potter', 'Heir Longbottom', 'Heiress Bones', 'Heir Black' and 'Heiress Tonks' in return, resulting in more giggles.), their focus was on studying and playing with the elf, goblin, centaur and sometimes merpeople children.
Most in the wizarding world had no idea that it was not Gringotts, but Bran Holm (The island castle inside the wards of Potter Manor which had been the ancestral home of what became the House of Potter before Potter Manor was built.) and Castle Du (The ancestral home of the House of Black that the goblins had claimed and hidden from the wizarding world in the goblin rebellions of the eighteenth century as punishment for the House of Black's betrayal of the goblin people.) that were home to the largest groups of goblins in Britain, including the dozen goblin noble families, so most of the children's training with the goblins was done in Bran Holm.
The children were usually popped back and forth between Potter Manor and Bran Holm using the elf or goblin versions of apparation, but if the weather was good and they'd been behaving themselves, they were allowed to fly, because they did love to get on their brooms and go shooting off all over the estate. Sirius was usually the one who flew with them when they did this, because he loved to fly just as much as they did.
With the innocence of little children, the unicorns accepted the boys as readily as Susie and Dora, and wizarding pictures of them riding unicorns adorned all of their rooms. The adults wept over the fact that Harry could see the thestrals because he'd seen his mother killed by Voldemort, but the thestrals seemed to sense something special in him and took him on rides around the estate.
They had been shocked to discover Harry's ability to talk to snakes, dragons and other reptiles, as being a parselmouth was a talent that hadn't been recorded before in Magical Britain for anyone outside of the line of Slytherin. Gringott and the Goblins of Britain were delighted about though, because they hadn't had anyone able to speak to their dragons for centuries.
Harry was also discovered to have another talent that was possibly more of a shock, because his cousin Dora had been the first metamorphmagus recorded in centuries. It came out when Dora had been changing her appearance to amuse the younger children, and then Harry started copying her. With Dora there to coach him, Harry mastered this talent much more quickly than she had as she'd had to feel her way with no idea of how to do it.
Being a metamorphmagus seemed to help Harry gain control over the talent that they did expect him to have (seeing as his father had been one) far earlier than anyone expected, as he became an animagus at nine. There was no precedent for this, but they believed that being a metamorphmagus was the reason that Harry could transform into different animals, and this prompted Dora to try the animagus transformation as well.
Traditional beliefs had been that a metamorphmagus couldn't be an animagus, but Harry had proven that wrong, and as Sirius had become an animagus at an early age by most standards there was every reason to believe that her branch of the Black family had that talent. Dora was thrilled to find that she was an animagus as well, and that she also shared Harry's ability to take multiple forms.
While Harry and his cousins were happy, growing up together at Potter Manor, they didn't have a lot of interaction with other children, this was generally restricted to parties through the Longbottoms, Bones or Tonks. They didn't feel that they were missing out by not spending time with other children if this was what they were all like though, because the ones they met generally seemed to be boasting about silly things most of the time.
Given all of the stories and books still being written about Harry, he was always introduced as 'Cousin Henry' or 'Henry James' at these parties. One thing that they had in their favour was that everyone thought that they knew what he looked like from the illustrations on all the boy-who-lived story book covers, but that was nothing but a smaller version of James with green eyes and a lightning bolt scar on his forehead, they even had him wearing the same glasses that James had. Given that Harry took after Lily more than James, had long hair and didn't wear glasses, these pictures were nothing like him, and even before he'd completely mastered his metamorphmagus abilities, it had been a simple thing for him to change his hair and eye colour to throw people off.
The family had been shutting down businesses selling those made up stories about Harry's life since before he was five, but it was like a hydra, no sooner would they shut down one business and take every knut that they'd made off of Harry's name than another five would start up. Taking all of their money made it possible to have teams working full time on chasing them down and stamping them out though, so that job was farmed out to those teams. They were also trying to find the connection back to Dumbledore, because they were certain that he was behind this somehow, trying to sell the people of Magical Britain on the image of Harry that he wanted them to believe.
Harry rarely got through one of those parties without getting upset about how the other children and adults were sprouting off about what they knew about him, purely on the basis of the stupid stories that had been made up using his name. Angela and the others kept an eye on him, and if he got too upset they'd take him home. The others had generally had enough by then too, so most of them would leave at the same time.
It wasn't until their Hogwarts letters started arriving that they found out that Dumbledore had managed to slip a few things past them in the early days before they ensured that they were present at every Wizengamot session. As soon as they saw the notice that it was legally required for witches and wizards in Magical Britain to attend the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry after their eleventh birthday, they checked all the laws in hope of finding a loophole that they could use, but the laws that had gone through in early nineteen eight two were suspiciously solid and all inclusive,
They noted that the letter that the Tonks had gotten in nineteen eighty four didn't mention the legal requirement, even though it had already been in place, and when Minerva checked the school files, that change had only been made in ninety one, so the intention was obviously just to trap Harry.
As they couldn't get out of it, they looked at the lists of what the kids had to get for first year. None of the four should be going into first year, because they were already proficient at third year level, if not more, but checking with Minerva they were advised that Dumbledore had slipped through another rule around the same time to say that all students had to start in first year. It was Narcissa, with her Black Noble House mindset who found a few loopholes that they could make use of.
The first was that any student had the right to employ separate tutors for any subject where their family did not find the regular teacher or syllabus acceptable, the only criteria was that the tutors had to have at least an 'E' for their NEWT score for the subject, and preferably a mastery in the subject. Suitable facilities had to be provided for the students and their tutors if appropriate time allocations for the normal facilities were not available.
The second rule was that the Heads or Heirs of a Noble and Ancient or higher house had the right to demand separate quarters for themselves and their staff and retinue. Staff included household staff, tutors and guards. Hogwarts staff had no authority to interfere with, bar or expel any members of the Noble House staff.
The third rule was that the Head or Heirs of a Noble and Ancient or higher house also had the right to be accompanied by a champion and guards at all times. As these guards were part of the Noble House staff, Hogwarts staff had no authority to interfere, bar or expel them.
When Angela and Alice advised Amelia that they were resigning to go to Hogwarts to protect and tutor Harry, Neville and the others, Amelia went off the deep end. When she'd calmed down a little, she presented a counter proposal. She would keep Angela on the books as a Senior Auror who was wasn't officially active and reported only to her, and she'd also make Sirius, Remus and Severus Aurors on the same basis. In return, Alice would stay on in her normal duties with Frank, and Angela would provide half of the training for a Trainee Auror who had just signed up.
Angela smelled a rat. "Who's the Trainee and who is providing the other half of their training?"
Amelia grinned. "Nymphadora Tonks and Alistor Moody."
Angela worked out what she was after straight away and stared at her. "You want me to train my husband's favourite little cousin to be an Auror and keep her from getting into trouble with the older students! While trying and make sure that Alistor doesn't kill her by pushing her too hard….."
Amelia's grin was unrepentant. "Pretty much! Come on Angela! Who else do I have to train a prospect as promising as her? You know as well as I do that no-one can teach her what she needs to stay alive better than Alistor, she'll be more effective in a year with him than she'd be in five learning from anyone else. For the topics that Alistor's not suited to teach, well you're perfect for the job…."
"Come on Amie! You know what Siri's like, he's going to go berserk when he hears that you've talked his adorable little Dora into being an Auror!"
Amelia was getting worked up herself now. "I didn't!….." She paused to try and get herself under control. "I didn't talk her into anything Angie, she was already in the training program before I found out about it. You know as well as I do that she's just as stubborn as Siri, Andie and Cissa so there's no way she'll agree to pull out unless she's failed, and quite frankly with her scores and metamorphmagus abilities, she's too promising a prospect to justify kicking her out of the program unless she does. The way I see it, the best way to look after her is to give her the best training possible, and that's what I'm trying to do here."
Alice interjected into the awkward silence that followed. "Can I make a suggestion?"
They'd take anything here. "Of course Alice!"
"Why don't you get Dora to do the explaining? Get her and Sirius in here and let her tell him that she's joined the Aurors and why, then we can talk about the training. Frank and I can help train her too… You know, we shouldn't be surprised that she's chosen this path, look at who she has around her. There's us and Frank as Aurors, Harry and maybe Neville with You-Know-Who and Dumbledore after him, and Sirius, Remus and Severus trying to prepare the kids and themselves for what we all believe is an inevitable confrontation. When you think about it, it's only natural that Dora would make this choice."
The other women nodded thoughtfully at that, agreeing that both the suggestion and reasoning made sense. Without further ado, Amelia called Dora and Sirius in for a talk.
The talk went about as well as they expected, Dora and Sirius were screaming at each other until Alice made the same observation she'd made earlier, which stopped them as Dora responded. "Thank you Auntie Alice! I'm glad to see that someone can understand!"
After that, the talk was quieter and less heated, and they came to an agreement on what Amelia proposed, with Alice's amendment that she and Frank would assist in Dora's training as well. The story for Dumbledore and the rest of the school would be that Dora was one of the tutors who came and went, and she'd alter her appearance and go in as an older witch so no-one recognised her.
With that sorted out, they went through what they needed to get for the four. Most of the necessary supplies were on hand, and the elves would make their robes and other clothes. (Tally would be a right terror if anyone dared suggest that the young master and the others could wear inferior bought clothes.) Their books could be picked up for them, but they would need to get new wands of course, because they couldn't let anyone see them using their goblin wands. The wands were the only things that they would need to attend Diagon Alley for though, because they already had their choice of pets sorted.
The family had to laugh at the thought of what the reactions to mngwas or devil-birds would be when they transformed into their other forms. Nuni and Indu normally looked like brindled gray kneazle-cats, but they transformed into ferocious, donkey sized, magic resistant brindled panthers when provoked. They had been found as kittens in Africa after their mother was hunted down and killed for wiping out a village. A distant relation had been part of the hunting party and had found the kittens in her den, bringing them home to protect Harry after they'd heard what happened to his parents.
The devil-birds Hedwig and Aristotle normally took the form of extremely intelligent snowy and eagle owls, but they transformed into something like a small veela if provoked. Even without the veela fire they were formidable beasts when transformed. Another relative had brought them back from India as fledglings.
The devil-birds were nowhere near as rare as the mngwas, but getting them at the age where they would bond with humans was quite rare, so most people in the wizarding world just took them to be owls because they normally looked and acted like magical owls. The two cats and two birds were primarily bonded to Harry as familiars, but constant exposure to the other close family members and reading Harry's connection to them meant that they extended some form of bond to the others in the family as well. This was enough for them to protect other family members.
To keep it low key, the four children were taken in to Ollivander's separately by their mothers. (Well, Amelia took Susie and Angela took Harry.) Harry had changed his appearance before he went in, so he and Angela were shocked that it didn't fool Ollivander for a second, and he was greeted with a delighted. "Ah, Mister Potter, I was wondering when I was going to see you!" the moment he walked in the door.
Harry shared a look with Angela, and she quickly cast privacy, notice-me-not and aversion spells to prevent anyone outside from hearing what was said in the shop, or coming in. Ollivander took this in, and gave the now grim faced witch a frightened look. Harry had to say. "Mister Ollivander?" three times before he could get his attention and remind him that they were there to get him a wand.
Ollivander's nervousness was soon forgotten as he dove into the task of finding the right wand to match Harry to. It was only after nearly an hour and several dozen wands tried that they finally found the wand that Harry fitted with. Ollivander had a troubled expression on his face as he watched Harry's magic flare with the wand, and he muttered. "Curious, most curious!"
Harry was exalting in how the wand felt so right, because the others' experiences hadn't apparently been like this, but he heard the man's comment and reluctantly put the wand down on the counter to ask. "Excuse me Mister Ollivander, but what's curious?"
Ollivander shook himself as he came back to the now. "I'm sorry Mister Potter, I was just musing that it was curious that the phoenix which gave the feather that's in your wand only gave one other, and the wand that holds it was the one that made you famous."
Angela cut in at that. "Do you mean that Voldemort's wand may have some connection to Harry's?"
"Well I don't know that I'd put it like that but…. Yes, they could have a connection of some sort because their cores came from the same bird..."
Angela angrily pushed the wand back across the counter at him. "NO! Find him another wand!"
Ollivander stared at her as if she'd lost her mind. "It doesn't work like that Miss Fawley… The wand chooses the wizard and we've seen how well young Harry is matched to this wand..."
She cut him off again. "I don't care! I'm not going to let Harry have any type of connection with that monster!"
Harry was trying to get her attention. "Auntie Ang… Auntie Ang!….Mum!" That last got through and she wrapped her arms around him, in tears, muttering. "I lost Lily because of that bastard, I can't lose you too!" into his hair.
They stood there holding each other until she'd calmed down, then Harry tried to get her to see reason. "You know he's right, you saw how my magic reacted to the wand, I won't find another one that fits with me like that..."
She held him for a while longer and then she nodded, still crying. "Yes, I know, but I'm afraid, he killed Lily and James and so many other people and I can't stand the idea of him coming after you… We've only managed to find a few of those horcruxes so we know he'll be back someday…."
Harry almost whispered as he responded. "He's coming after me anyway because of that prophecy, maybe this wand will make me more equal to him… Give me a better chance?"
She nodded and kissed him on the head, wiping the tears from her face as she turned to face Ollivander. "I'm sorry Mister Ollivander, how much to we owe you for the wand?"
Ollivander smiled. "Seven galleons of course, like every other wand Miss Fawley."
Angela nodded and was getting the coins out when he said something else that stopped her. "I'll just prepare the wand for young Mister Potter, oh Albus will be so excited to hear that young Harry was chosen by the wand with Fawkes' other tailfeather…."
She cut him off. "NO! Dumbledore is not to know anything about Harry's wand!"
Ollivander faltered, but he was adamant. "But the Headmaster must know! It is imperative that he knows!"
Harry shared a look with Angela, the man was suspiciously adamant on this point, and there had been a notable shift in his vocabulary as well. Angela allowed herself a moment to give Harry a proud smile, as he'd made use of the Auror training that she, Frank and Alice had given the kids, and the more specialised training from Severus as well. Then she turned back to Ollivander and reached out to look for compulsion and memory charms.
"Mister Ollivander, why do you think you are compelled to tell Headmaster Dumbledore about Harry's wand?"
He faltered, aware that something was wrong, but not sure what. "What? What do you mean?"
Angela had seen what she was looking for when her prompt triggered the charm. "Did you know that your good friend Headmaster Dumbledore has cast Compulsion charms on you to inform him of what wand Harry was paired up with and memory charms to cover this up Mister Ollivander?"
"What? No! Albus would never do something like that to me! We have been friends for well over half a century!"
"Shall we go to Saint Mungo's and have the healers there tell you what your friend has done to you then?"
Ollivander froze at that. He had sold Miss Fawley her first wand when she was just a girl of ten and, like others who showed great promise, he had followed her illustrious path through Hogwarts and the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. She was a young lady of considerable intelligence, integrity and skill, and she would not make that suggestion unless she was certain of what the healers at St Mungo's would find.
"No! Albus would do that to me? What would make him do such a thing?"
Angela reached out and drew Harry to her. "I'm afraid, Mister Ollivander, that we have discovered over the past decade that Dumbledore is quite capable of and willing to do anything that he believes would further whatever plans he has for his future, especially when it comes to my little Harry here."
Ollivander was shocked and horrified by her words, but he can sense the truth in them. "Can, can you remove these charms from me? Please?"
Angela nodded sadly, because he was obviously devastated by the betrayal. "If you wish, of course."
He said. "Yes, please." and Angela cast the spells to prevent anyone coming in before she started working on clearing the compulsions and memory blocks from his mind. With his permission, she looked further than the compulsions keyed to Harry and found others that had been keyed to Nev, Susie and Draco, along with a number of other children of people who opposed Dumbledore. Along with telling him about their wands, she discovered other commands to place tracking, blocking and confounding charms on the wands so that Dumbledore could monitor where they were and hinder their performance as well.
Ollivander hadn't done anything to Harry's wand as yet, but the other three had already been tampered with, so Angela used the Marauders' communications mirror to call Sirius and get Tally to bring them to the shop so that Ollivander could remove the charms, and the charms for tracking underage magic that had been made mandatory as of a few years ago as well. It was a rather disillusioned Ollivander who offered to put those tracking charms on the wands of staunch Pureblood's children to throw Dumbledore off track.
Angela thanked him for that, and suggested an minor amendment to the underage magic charms for the ones he'd been compelled to sabotage and the Muggleborn and Half-blood children's wands especially which would turn them into one-shot spells. Like most Aurors, she'd often been sent to arrest children after their second offence of performing underage magic, but she had never been sent to arrest any Pureblood children, so this was obviously a tool of the Pureblood bigots to try and force Muggleborns and Half-bloods out of their world. While they had Ollivander on their side, it was the perfect opportunity to strike back against the practice.
After they'd paid for Harry's wand and thanked Ollivander, they headed back to Potter Manor to discuss the latest offences of Albus Bloody Dumbledore. Harry was so angry that he was almost setting off Nuni's transformation when she curled up in his lap to let him scratch her behind the ear, so Angela had to settle him down, not that she was much better herself. Luckily they'd decided to get everything out of the way early so that they had plenty of time to prepare, which meant that Ollivander would have plenty of opportunities to put those tracking charms onto Pureblood's wands, and hopefully this year's crop of new Muggleborn and Half-blood students would be getting the one-shot modification to the underage magic charm to protect them a little.
When they were researching the options that they'd be requiring at Hogwarts, they had been fascinated to find that the Noble House quarters and separate classrooms were magically created by Hogwarts as soon as the conditions were met.
Sirius, Remus, Angela and Dora spent August getting their mastery exams out of the way so that Dumbledore and the Ministry couldn't question their qualifications as tutors, because Severus was the only one who already had all of his key masteries. Dora just squeaked through with her Transfiguration and Defence masteries, but she got them, and they had to laugh about the fact that every one of their 'tutors' had a Defence mastery.
As part of the framework that they were laying for this, Angela had officially been named as Champion for the House of Bones, Sirius for the House of Black, Remus for the House of Potter and Severus for the House of Longbottom, as this meant that at least one of them could be with each of the students at all times. Given that Angela would be at Hogwarts most of the time, they named Andie as Steward for the House of Potter so that she could cast the Potter votes in the Wizengamot, laughing about the fact that anyone who thought they'd have an easier time because they didn't have to deal with Angela in the Wizengamot would quickly change their minds when they discovered what a force of nature the Black sisters were when they worked together.
As well as the core group, Gringott had allocated a squad of elite goblin warriors to the goblin guard who would be accompanying them to Hogwarts, and the documentation naming everyone in the party, claiming their right to separate quarters and listing the subjects that they would initially be employing private tutors for had been submitted through the required process. This was another advantage of their close association with the Goblin Nation, because it was a good bet that no human remembered the processes that hadn't been used in over two hundred years, whereas the goblins still had everything in place.
The Hogwarts Charter had been ratified in the Charter for Magical Britain, and again when the Ministry of Magic was created, where it had been officially accepted that the rights conveyed by the Hogwarts Charter were inalienable, and could not be amended. While additional rules and regulations had been written for Hogwarts by the Ministry of Magic, they had had to confirm that the original charter would and did overrule any addendums that were added. The family was using the original charter here, so their rights could not be challenged.
They were quite looking forward to Dumbledore trying to challenge them actually, because the Hogwarts Charter had been written in the days when the original Magical Noble Houses had absolute power, and Hogwarts herself had accepted the charter, so she would not allow anyone to work against it. The fact that the Houses of Potter and Black had been a part of the creation of Hogwarts as a school only added to their influence within her walls, while the current Headmaster had been trying to force her to change things from what she knew to be right from the time that he arrived, so Albus Dumbledore was not viewed favourably by Hogwarts and she gave him no more control than she was forced to as the Headmaster.
They were also interested to see that Hogwarts hadn't notified Dumbledore that the ancient rights from the Hogwarts Charter had been enacted. Minerva had received the official notification as part of the paperwork she handled as the Deputy Headmistress, but the courtesy notification to the Headmaster hadn't occured.
When the day finally arrived for them to go to Hogwarts, they met up with two other first years at Kings Cross Station. The first was Hermione Granger, a Muggleborn girl who had quite impressed Minerva when she went to her home to do the meet and greet for her. All of the adults were wide eyed when Minerva told them that this girl would surpass Lily. While Harry had heard stories about his Mum he hadn't experienced the brilliance that was Lily Evans, but those who had knew what a high mark Minerva had set for this girl.
The other girl was Luna Lovegood. Her mother Pandora, who had died a year before when an experiment she was working on went wrong, had been a friend of Angela, Alice and the others at Hogwarts, so they had taken Luna under their wing when her father Xeno fell apart after Pandora's death. Luna was a very bright girl, and she took to their lessons quite well, so they'd worked with Minerva to use a little known loophole in the blanket rule that said that students had to have turned eleven before the start of the school year to get Luna admitted, even though she wouldn't turn eleven for another two and a half months.
Angela and Sirius met the Grangers on the Muggle side of the barrier and escorted Hermione through to the platform, while Frank and Alice collected Luna from her house, because Xeno couldn't be trusted to remember what day she had to be there. None of them were happy with crowds, so the six of them settled into the compartment that they'd claimed when they arrived and talked.
Watching the two girls with Nuni and Indu, Harry suddenly made a decision and looking into her eyes, he commanded Nuni to stay with Hermione and protect her, giving Indu the same order for Luna. While delighted by the idea of Nuni staying with her, Hermione laughed at the idea that these adorable cats could protect them. Luna's sight was telling her that the cats were more than they seemed though, so she asked. "Harry, what are Nuni and Indu?" Harry went to cast privacy wards around the compartment, but Nev was already doing it. When Nev nodded to say that it was done, he answered her. "They're ming-wahs Luna."
Luna's eyes went wide and she asked. "Are they really?" When Harry nodded, she looked delighted and hugged Indu. Hermione was looking from Harry to Luna, knowing that she was missing something here and not liking it one little bit because she thought they were laughing at her. "Well, is someone going to explain what a ming-wah is?"
Harry went to explain but Luna beat him to it. "Hermione, do you know about the classifications for magical creatures?"
Hermione looked confused. "Yes, but…."
"Ming-wahs are rated as four X creatures, some argued that they should be five X creatures but part of the definition for those is that they can't be domesticated which, as you can see, doesn't apply to these guys."
Hermione couldn't see how these cats could rated as that dangerous and started to say something, but Harry sighed and reached over to gently take Nuni from her, looking into her eyes and asking her to change for them, when he had Nuni's agreement he said. "OK, we'll need to get our feet off the floor to give her room to change." They all hastened to do so, with Luna looking eager as she hugged Indu, then Harry kissed Nuni's head and placed her on the floor. Hermione didn't have time to say more than. "What…." before there was a ferocious looking, donkey sized brindled cat with prodigious teeth and claws taking up all of the space between the seats. Nuni turned her head to lick the frozen Hermione's hand as if to say 'See, this is real!', and then she changed back into her normal form.
Harry picked her up again and was stroking her as he asked Hermione. "Now do you understand why they are rated as four X creatures?" She stuttered as she answered. "Y.. Yes, I can…."
Hermione hesitantly reached out for Nuni, and was obviously surprised when she readily came to her. They could see the tears in her eyes as Hermione hugged her and apologised for doubting her, but Nuni had obviously already forgiven her as she was rubbing her head against her face.
After a while, she looked up with a question in her eye. "Harry…..You obviously have Nuni and Indu for protection, why are you leaving them with us?"
Harry smiled at that. "Because for now you will need protection more than we do. We'll be going into our own tower and will have guards with us at all times, but you two will be going into the regular dorms, at first anyway, so I'll be happier knowing that these two will be there to protect you."
That got him a confused look. "How are you going into your own tower?"
Susie snorted at that. "Yeah, Duke Potter, how are we going into our own tower?"
Harry's look said she'd be paying for that later, and Hermione looked almost as shocked as she had been when Nuni transformed, so Susie thought she should straighten this out.
"We're all part of Noble families Hermione. Harry is Duke Potter because his parents were killed ten years ago and he's the last of the Most Noble and Most Ancient House of Potter, and the Heir to the titles of Duke Black and Head of the Most Noble and Most Ancient House of Black as well. Neville is the Heir to the titles of Earl Longbottom and Head of the Noble and Ancient House of Longbottom, I'm the Heiress to the titles of Countess Bones and Head of the Noble and Ancient House of Bones, and Draco is next in line to inherit Duke Black and Head of the House of Black after Harry. We're all Harry's cousins, too."
She glanced at Harry, but he was looking less pissed off, so she continued. "Some people slipped laws through to make sure that we, or more to the point Harry, had to go to Hogwarts when we turned eleven, so the family started looking into ways to make that safer once they'd confirmed that we couldn't get out of it. We found in the original charter for Hogwarts, which pre-dated Magical Britain by three and a half centuries and the Ministry of Magic by seven, that the Heads and Heirs of what are now known as the Noble and Ancient Houses and above have the right to claim separate quarters for themselves, and their retinues and staff, so that's what we've done. They also have the right to be protected at all times, so we have Auntie Angie, Uncle Siri, Uncle Remus and Uncle Sev, who are all Aurors, and a squad of goblin warriors staying here with us, and our cousin Dora will be here half the time as well, so we'll be well protected."
"We also found that students have the right to engage private tutors for subjects where their families don't believe that the regular classes meet their needs, so we're starting with Potions, History of Magic, Astronomy and Defence Against the Dark Arts, but we're expecting to expand that to include the other classes because we've already been studying for years." She stopped and looked at Harry.
"What I believe Harry was getting at before was that he thinks he should be able to get you two moved into our tower and classes with us?….." When Harry nodded she turned back to Hermione.
"So I expect that we'll start working on that once we get there."
Hermione looked a little confused. "But won't we need to get permission to do that?"
"Yes, but my understanding is that Auntie Minnie is the magical guardian for both of you….." Hermione looked even more confused so she said. "Professor McGonagall?"
Both girls nodded so she went on. "So she can sign the forms to let you change over, and then we'll be one big happy family!"
Hermione looked dubious but hopeful at the prospect of that, while Luna just looked serenely happy as she cuddled Indu.
Nev took the privacy wards down before they drew attention, so after the train left Kings Cross, for a while they were being interrupted quite often by people looking for Harry Potter. Most left quickly when it was obvious that Harry Potter wasn't there (they didn't look twice at the blonde blue eyed boy without glasses or a scar), but some decided that the pretty girls might be fun to play with, and others tried to have fun by ridiculing the ones they recognised so they had to be discouraged.
The worst was a red headed boy, he burst in, interrupting their discussion and pretty much demanded that they tell him where Harry Potter was. When Hermione told him how rude he was being, he spat. "Shut it Mudblood, no-one was talking to you!"
Only then did he notice Luna sitting next to Hermione and proceeded to change feet. "Looney Lovegood? What are you doing here? You've got no right to be here, you're only Ginny's age!" The girls were getting so upset that Nuni and Indu were starting to growl.
Harry went to tell him to piss off, but Draco beat him to it. "Get out of here Weasley! You've got no right to talk to them like that!"
That made him turn on Draco and after a marked delay for the wheels to start turning he spat out. "Malfoy! Don't you dare try and tell me what to do you filthy snake!"
Harry had had enough by then and stood up to throw him out of the compartment. "Seeing as my cousin has been a Black for most of his life, that's a stupid thing to say! Get out!"
The red head went to attack Harry for daring to talk to him like that, but just then he caught sight of Susie's chest over his shoulder (she was much more developed than most girls her age) and just stood there with his mouth open, staring. Susie saw him staring at her chest and hurriedly pulled her jacket closed, but he just kept staring at her.
Harry didn't need to look at Susie to know how uncomfortable this was making her, because he could feel it. So, as the prat wasn't going to stop staring on his own, Harry made him, slapping his face hard enough to make his head spin. When he tried to bring his fists up, Harry grabbed him by the front of his shirt and forcibly pushed him out of the compartment, slamming him into the window frame on the other side of the corridor. "You've already insulted two of my cousins and two of my friends, if you don't get the hell away from here and leave us alone I'll make sure that you regret it!"
The idiot was trying to bluster, probably not realising that the rapidly spreading wet patch on the front of his pants was making it quite obvious that he'd wet himself when another voice piped up. "What's going on here? What are you doing to my brother?"
For all that the older boy with the prefect's badge was a good foot and a half taller than Harry, he stepped back when he saw the look in Harry's eye. Harry was going to ignore him, but then he changed his mind and answered. "I'm stopping him from insulting and bothering my family and friends! My cousin and I both told him to leave after he barged in and started insulting us, but he just stood there, staring at my other cousin's chest, so I pushed him out of the compartment to stop him upsetting her! If he's your family, keep him away from us!"
With that, he turned and went back into the compartment, all but slamming the door. Nev was waiting to cast the spells to secure the compartment and privacy wards again, so they could hardly hear the knocking on the door that started just after the windows were blanked. When he sat down, Luna held Indu out to him and he took him with a grateful smile. The cat's purring in his ear as he cuddled him quickly settled him, and Susie leaned into him as he sat back so he put his arm around her.
After a while, Nev lowered the privacy wards and they could see that another prefect, who looked more reasonable than the git's brother, was waiting out in the corridor, so they unsealed the door and asked what he was waiting for. He said that he was wanting to get their side of the story, to see how much of it matched the Weasleys' story, so they invited him in and closed the door. They were small enough that Harry and the three girls fit comfortably on one seat while Draco, Nev and the prefect were on the other.
The prefect took notes as they were talking, frowning when they repeated the 'Mudblood' insult and about calling Luna 'Looney' and telling her that she had no right to be there. He snorted when Harry pointed out how stupid it was to be calling Draco 'Malfoy' when he'd been a Black since he was five, and frowning again at the 'filthy snake' comment. He couldn't resist glancing at Susie when they were telling him about the way the younger Weasley had been staring at her chest, but they could pretty much read the thoughts going through his head. 'Yes, it's impressive but staring at a girl's chest is just plain rude'. He was shaking his head about the difference between what Harry told him was said in the corridor and what the Weasleys claimed had been said.
He also warned them that Percy Weasley was trying to get them charged with underage use of magic because of the privacy wards they they'd put up to keep him out. He was taken aback when Nev piped up and asked him if he could do the prior incantum spell, telling him that his parents were Aurors and offering to show him how to do it when he said 'No'. After Nev showed him how to do it, he tested their wands and got proof that they hadn't been used to cast any wards, so he was prepared to accept Nev's explanation that he'd just wanted the prats to leave them alone and his magic must have locked them out, because he couldn't conceive an eleven year old being able to do something like that wandlessly.
By the time he'd left, the closest thing to a lie they'd told him was that Harry's name was Henry James. They locked the door again after he left, and they weren't too surprised when the door was being rattled and bashed on fifteen minutes later. Peeking behind the blind showed that it was Percy Weasley, so they just ignored him.
Angela, Sirius and Remus were waiting for them when the train reached Hogsmeade and the looks they turned on Percy Weasley when he was strutting towards the kids self importantly was enough to make him do an abrupt about face and scurry away.
No-one noticed that the blue eyed blond boy had changed into a green eyed boy with long black hair by the time they reached the boats. The girls and Draco went into one boat, so Nev and Harry went into another boat with a couple of other girls.
As they were being led into the Great Hall, Harry smiled fondly back at Hermione when he heard her excitedly talking about the enchanted ceiling of the hall. Neville and Harry shook their heads at each other when the sorting hat was brought out, because Uncle Gringott had loved to tell them the story of the biggest lie in the legends of Hogwarts as they were growing up. After Salazar Slytherin had split with the other Founders and departed, there was a great deal of uncertainty and unease around Hogwarts, as people were doubting the Founders. To bolster people's confidence in the Founders, everyone was told that Godric Gryffindor had performed a great feat of magic and enchanted his hat to make sentient and it took over the task of sorting students into the appropriate houses.
The hat was actually over four centuries older than that, because it had been Merlin's hat and Merlin had enchanted it and imbued it with his spirit, much like the later magical portraits, back in the sixth century to serve as an advisor to those who followed him. Now, over fourteen centuries after it had been created, it was reduced to doing nothing more than picking the new students' houses each year, because the Headmasters of Hogwarts had been refusing to take advice from a hat for over half a millennium.
Draco was the first of them to be sorted, and he was thrilled to go into Slytherin, the same house as his mother. Susie was next and she also followed most of her family into Hufflepuff. It took them a while to get to the end of the 'G's but then it was Hermione's turn, and they weren't surprised when she was sorted into Ravenclaw. A while later Neville was sorted into Gryffindor, like his father, then Luna followed her mother into Ravenclaw.
Harry inclined his head apologetically to the prefect when he was called as 'Duke Henry James Potter', but the prefect nodded his understanding for the necessity of the ruse, and the glamour that had changed his appearance. After that, Harry had an interesting chat in his head with Merlin, and Merlin was quite appreciative of the fact that for the first time in centuries, not one but four students had been polite and respectful to him. He was quite impressed that they actually knew the true story of the hat's origins and commiserated with him that it wasn't being given the role of advisor that it had been created for. Eventually, Merlin reluctantly had to cut their chat short because more and more people were muttering about a hatstall.
Merlin told him that he could fit into any of the houses well, and asked his preference, so Harry requested Ravenclaw, both for their focus on studies, and to spread their core group across all of the houses. Once the hat cried out. "It must be Ravenclaw!", Auntie Minnie took it off his head. Harry looked up and mouthed 'Sorry' to her, but she smiled and squeezed his shoulder to say that she wasn't upset that he wasn't in her house.
There were a few comments when Hermione and Luna made a space between them for him at the Ravenclaw table and they both hugged him when he sat down. There were even more comments when the Gray Lady, the Ravenclaw House Ghost, went to Harry and had a discussion that only the three of them could hear, because the Gray Lady never spoke to anyone. It wasn't quite as unusual when Sir Nicholas, the Gryffindor House Ghost, went to Professor McGonagall at the High Table and had a discussion with her.
This discussion wasn't as quiet though, because the Headmaster heard what was said and was outraged, shouting. "What do you mean that Hogwarts has created quarters for Duke Potter and the Heirs to the Houses of Longbottom, Bones and Black and their staff? I have not approved this and will not allow it! I will not allow anyone inside of Hogwarts except the students and the Hogwarts staff!"
Professor McGonagall leant in to say something to him quietly, but he started shouting again. "Do not try to tell me what I can and can't do woman, this is my school and my orders will be obeyed! Get those people out of my school, send those students to the house dorms where they belong and then report to my office! You better have a damned good reason for trying to subvert my authority in my school!"
Now he'd raised her ire so she threw a pile of parchments at him and spat back at him in a far thicker brogue than normal. "Well perhaps it ye'd paid attention to ye duties ye'd ken the rules! It's all there in the original charter! Any head or heir of a Noble and Ancient or higher House has the right to demand private quarters for themselves and their people! Ye canna deny any of their people access either because they have the right to be attended by their own people! Hogwarts kens the rules and has created Corvus Tower for the Duke and his people and given his staff access! Why don' ye go out there and try and throw the Duke's goblin guards out? I'd be sore glad ta see ye cut down to size by the little wee men!"
Dumbledore jumped up and stormed out of the Great Hall and Harry, Nev, Susan, Draco and Professors McGonagall and Flitwick were on his heels. They could hear him screeching like a fishwife in the hall. "Get this filthy werewolf, Death Eater and goblins out of my school!" and most of the students were at the door, watching the show.
The others had to cover their laughter when Dumbledore was pulled up short by a surprisingly commanding eleven year old voice. "Headmaster! I would advise you to be very careful about what you say before we are forced to exact punishment on you!"
He turned to the Professor and proceeded in a more polite and respectful tone. "Professor McGonagall. We were under the impression that all the requisite authorities and reference materials had been received and acknowledged by Hogwarts prior to our arrival? The Hogwarts Charter is quite clear on what we may require for our attendance here, why is the Headmaster making these outrageous claims?"
She tried to control herself, but the glint in her eye said that she wanted to do damage to Albus Bloody Dumbledore. "I must apologise Duke Potter, you are quite correct, we have perused all the documentation provided and confirmed that your people have supplied everything required under the Charter. Hogwarts herself has obviously accepted this as well, given that she has created Corvus Tower and given access to your staff. I'm afraid that I was working under the mistaken impression that I was merely doing the administrative portion of this and the Headmaster was performing his duties as the Headmaster, but it appears that I was incorrect in that."
Harry inclined his head to her and then turned to frown at Dumbledore. "Headmaster, you have obviously failed to make yourself aware of the rules that govern Hogwarts, I would suggest that you do so post haste! For now, I will summarise them for you. The original Hogwarts Charter is incontrovertible and overrules any subsequent addendums created. Under this charter, the head or heir of any noble and ancient house or above has the right to require secure, private quarters for themselves, their retinue and staff. They also have the right to maintain suitable security around them at all times and no-one has the authority to question, deny or attempt to expel any member of the retinue or staff of the noble house. Quite aside from the noble house rights, any student may employ private tutors and study separately for any subjects that the student's family believes are not presented in the manner that they require, we are employing this option for four subjects initially and reserve the right to expand this to include other subjects as required. Now I tire of this and wish to retire… Regent, could you lead the way to our tower please?"
Angela smiled and took Harry's arm to lead the group off to their tower. Dumbledore just stood there with his mouth open.