A/N: Ok first off a big thank you to everyone that faved, followed and reviewed this fic.
Sorry for the late posting of this chapter but work happened then I was up in Iceland over Christmas hunting the northern lights and following the Golden Circle, caught a cold the day I was to return and well that waylaid me for a while.
Still a brief note for clarity, this is neither a fix fic or bash fic, I say this now as some scenes in Chapter 5 I have written come off as that, but I am just following this stories butterfly. Harry too isn't out to change this world, far from it so don't expect him to push for a republic or democratic government.
This chapter was supposed to end with Harry returning to Tristain Academy, but since this fic is as much about the characters interacting and getting to know each other as it is plot, that went out the window, a brief scene showing what is happening in the school is near the end.
Some of this chapter might not go over well, again its about following a logical step in a larger picture that I won't paint, my bottom A/N will explain some of my reasoning but are spoilers for this chapter. Anyway enough rambling on with the story.
A/N2: Light change to a single area for 1.1, will be explained in chapter 4.
V 1.1 (12.03.16)
Disclaimer: Familiar of Zero and Harry Potter are not owned by me.
Dinner had again been a muted affair, Harry once again sitting at the very bottom of the table, he at least now knew that Louise sat opposite her sisters due to her engagement and not some family ostracisation, it would have been sad for him if that had been the case, even Harry ate at the Dursley's table after starting Hogwarts.
Having finished their meal Harry followed Karen and the Duke into a room on the second floor, the sound of the door being locked as he stood in the centre sent a mild chill down his spine.
Harry's face changed to a confused expression when Karen sat behind the room's desk with the Duke behind her, he hadn't spoken to the man yet and the term, 'who wears the trousers' came to mind.
"Now Harry, this is my husband Nicolas, you will address him as Duke De Valliere, but let's get straight to the point, what are your future plans?" Karen went straight to the heart of the matter, not surprising Harry with her bluntness in the slightest.
"To return home." Harry said without hesitation.
"I see, that's too bad." Karen spoke her tone neutral.
Silence reigned for a moment as both Karen and Harry held their stares, the air becoming uncomfortable and heavy, the woman known around the country as the 'Heavy Wind' and the one known around Britain and some of Europe as the 'Boy Who Lived' faced off.
"How so?" Harry replied after a moment a sliver of steel edging into his voice.
"Oh? You see familiars are for life, the idea you would just cut and run doesn't sit well with me." Karen replied matter of factly.
Harry crossed his arms his expression darkening at how the woman in front tried to block his way home.
"Well, I got more important problems of my own back home to deal with. Staying here isn't an option." Harry replied, each word becoming harder as his stare followed suit.
"So there is a good spine there, yesterday must have been an off day." Karen allowed a very small curve of her lips, the near frown turning into a flat look. "And what problems does someone your age need to solve?"
A genuine question on her part, she was his age when she fought battles and protected the then Princess of Tristain, his own hallowed and hollow eyes showed plenty to her, but without knowing what he had faced or was to face she would reserve judgement on him until then.
"A powerful dark Lord named Voldemort, he. Nearly brought my country to its knees over a decade ago. He was apparently killed along with his last victims, I was the only survivor being a little over a year old." Harry didn't say anything about his parents, didn't need to with the obvious implications. "Turns out he didn't truly die he survived as some shade but he was resurrected a few months ago, I need to kill him to protect my friends."
A soft grunt from Nicolas was heard as Karen nodded, her expression softening slightly at this.
"I see, I am sorry for your loss, I take it this dark Lord is powerful?" While to Karen resurrection as seemed to be the case or some form of it was definitely heretical magic, something the elves had, it seemed he had gone through much and was certainly not a child or at least not one anymore.
"Yes, as I said he nearly brought my country to its knees before. The current government is burying their heads and refusing to accept he's back out of fear of the dark days, they don't even use his name such is their fear, they call him 'he who must not be named', or 'you know who'."
Harry sighed, he could understand their fear, he too had for a while feared Dudley until the fact he was a fixture in his life had been realised, Voldemort wasn't, a boogie-man, daggers in the dark, open assaults in public places, killing any who would stand in his way, many had paid for it, no one wanted to remember the bad old days or want to go back to them, a sad pitiable reaction.
"It doesn't help that his doctrine is pure blood supremacy. Many of his followers were rich influential types, Nobles, many got off from prison sentences and the Dementors kiss using their money after the war."
A brief shift was noted from both Karen and Nicolas by Harry, the air again becoming heavy with pressure and a slight breeze in the windowless room that made Harry look around.
"I do hope you weren't suggesting my family might too be corrupt, because I will not stand for that, remember this Harry. You live on my sufferance, my daughter's faux pa notwithstanding this goes beyond just her to the rest of my family."
The pressure was intense, Harry shift slightly at the power radiated from the woman in front of him but he held his ground, it was easily on par with the more powerful magic users he knew, Dumbledore, Voldemort, McGonagall and even Snape, and it was more worrying she didn't even seem to be trying yet.
"That wasn't my intention Lady Valliere." Harry remembered her demanded title quickly, a burnt bridge wasn't going to help him return home, but he needed to make his own stance clear too. "But I will not be threatened regardless of intent, I have had enough of that for my entire life from everyone. So my own point is, even if I were to go down here it wouldn't be quietly or without a body count of its own."
Another snort from Nicolas was heard, while the pressure was no longer increasing it wasn't decreasing either, the man who had said nothing stepped forward putting a hand on Karen's shoulder.
"I like this young man, not many would stand their ground against you. Harry, what my wife has spent the last two days working on is something that will protect our family and in turn this country, to us these are important. You being summoned and bound is something that will allow certain…..elements to wither away at our powerbase and spell potential disaster for our country."
Harry listened to what the older man had to say, he couldn't find himself caring about the geopolitical problems of a nation that bound him. But what he said and what he felt were often two very different things.
"Myself and Karen, have already spoken to several of our allied nobles, we are going to offer you a chance, just one, now. No thinking it over and coming back later." Nicolas paused ensuring he had Harry's full attention. "Our offer is for you to be a vassal of our family, you will be charged with looking after a small area under our rule, a place of your own one of our smaller summer homes, a stipend for your services and you would naturally follow Louise's orders and ours, there will be no conditions from you on this."
The pressure continued to hold, Harry was impressed with her ability to keep it steady, either she was still angry with him which was a possibility or it was part of their ploy, to Harry the offer sounded too good.
His binding had him basically following Louise's orders anyway, the idea of having some form of power gave him mixed feelings, and made him suspicious. Sure they had explained it to him the why at least but did that necessarily mean they were telling the truth?
It was also the fact he would have some power, he wasn't sure how much but the way it was suggested he was most likely to be in charge of maybe a small town, had his parents lived through the war he would have most likely grown up as an heir himself learning the ropes.
The very thought caused him to shudder, even with his parents as they were, the chances of him turning into a Malfoy were always there. He would have to be careful if he accepted their offer, still he had a choice to make, and no real time to make it from what the Duke said, much like the school choice he knew things couldn't get any worse for him.
"I accept." Harry replied, what else did he have to lose? He was basically at their mercy anyway.
The pressure disappeared almost instantly confirming that it had been part of the ploy, or Karen had spectacular control on her emotions and power, the possibility was certainly there and he wasn't counting that one out.
"A wise choice, we will need to go to the Palace in a few days to formalise it, you will get a title for yourself, can't have you wandering around the school without such a thing, but had you chosen to refuse, we would have had to remove you from here." Karen answered her smile cold.
Harry was of no allusions of what that meant, he figured she would have beaten him, but he would have certainly taken half the mansion down in the process, it was a stance he was certain he would need to take more often.
With the threat of Voldemort looming though less so at this point and now threats from those he didn't know, enslavement and lost in another world and held at their behest, he was reaching the end of his tether, he knew he needed an outlet soon or things would take a turn for the worst.
"Now, Harry, as our vassal we need you to act like one, to be one, what has Louise been teaching you?" The Duke asked moving behind Karen and placing his hands on her chair.
"The alphabet, your written language isn't part of the translation spell." Nicolas nodded to that.
"Very good, so you are still willing to learn regardless of your plans, Louise will continue on with that. I will for the next few days after dealing with my own responsibilities teach you how to act as a member of nobility and how the system works and my wife will show you some magical combat and tactics, it would be interesting for us to see what you can do too."
Harry could only nod at this, he was still worried about how this was going to turn out, but they seemed to be helping him, though he was basically chained too, a gilded cage as it were, the apparent idea of freedom, though a gilded one was a far better thing than the cage we was in back home.
"I think that will be all for today Harry, you still need to get your school supplies no?"
"Yes, Louise and I were going to pick them up tomorrow with my new clothes."
"Forget that, I will have the servants pick them up, we are not wasting a moment that can be used, I will get the information from Louise, good night."
The last part was a clear dismissal if Harry had ever heard one, standing and bowing slightly he opened the door for the three to see Louise standing halfway down the corridor, clearly she wasn't going to get too close but had waited for him if her expression was clear.
As the door closed behind Harry Karin let out a sigh, she allowed herself to relax as she felt a pair of hands on her shoulders, the feeling of tension slowly draining as the hands slowly kneaded their way into her muscles.
"Boy has a lot on his plate, but he seems to be handling it well." Nicolas remarked. "Rare to find someone that young stand up to you, even if he doesn't know your reputation the power was real."
"Maybe, he seems to have gone through much, but he is much too close to breaking or snapping, we will have to be careful." Karen groaned a little in pleasure at the ministrations her husband had magic hands.
Hallway
Harry hadn't expected Louise to be there, while she had been rather reasonable with him he hadn't thought she would be there instead spending time with Cattleya, whatever the dream she had had, the ghosts request had been somewhat listened too.
"How did it go? I felt mother's magic from here." Louise seem genuinely relieved he was at least unharmed.
"Not sure, but I seemed to have piled more debt on myself somehow, nothing new there." He grumbled the last part bitterly.
"What? How?" Louise at least seemed shocked her expression switching between concern and annoyance. "I won't allow this, I will speak to her about removing whatever this debt is."
"No, I think she will tell everyone tomorrow or sometime this week." Harry prevented the small girl from bravely charging into the lion's den, he was starting to wonder about which house she would have ended up in at Hogwarts.
Cattleya had said she was loyal and brave, from his own short time knowing her she didn't seem cunning or at least anything like the typical pure blood, Slytherin was out that much he was certain of, a tossup of Gryffindor and Hufflepuff so far.
Louise seemed to deflate at this halting, a mixture of relief from not facing her mother in some honor bound suicidal rush and sadness that he was keeping some secret from her about her own family, to her it was like normal with the family, she was being left behind and worse so with an outsider knowing more.
"I understand." To Harry Louise seemed smaller, far more so that normal. "I am tired, I will retire for the night Harry, goodnight."
Another dismissal was heard though the tone was the complete opposite, the lack of power or pride or even will, Harry felt no small amount of guilt that he had caused this one from trying to not involve someone in his problems, someone that he was loathed to admit was as much part of them as a solution.
Seeing her dejection it was almost like his younger days at being excluded from everything around him, he had tried to not let it get to him but people were not machines they did break under stress and seeing her like this was a mirror to where he had been there many times, far too many times before.
"Wait, Louise." He didn't reach out though his voice was firm and crisp, the girl paused but didn't turn around. "Your parents offered me the option to be a vassal of your family." Harry left it out about it being no real option. "I accepted."
Louise said nothing for a moment, her face turned slightly giving Harry a view of her profile, a strangely sad smile across her face, she turned away again and walked off without a word, Harry wasn't sure what to say, it had only been three days and so much had happened, the whole thing wasn't just affecting him as Karen had said but others too, Louise most likely more than anyone other than him.
While he certainly had no rhyme or reason to care about the feeling of those he didn't know, some people were trying to aide him, sure some of them had actively caused the problems and he wanted to be selfish and ignore those that had hurt him, but it wasn't Harry.
He did hate them all though, Osmond he did, a lot for not thinking about the personal consequences, Karen to a fair degree though on personality friction and Colbert and Louise to a lesser degree for their part, but being stubborn and childish wasn't going to get him back home, it was a far better option to work with them than against them.
If he did find they weren't helping or were actively trying to hold him there, then he would act, but without his friends or those he knew around he was stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Before he started the third year was a good example of not thinking, sure the dog had been Sirius, but it had been luck and having a place he knew that had made his escape from the Dursleys that year a credible option, this time he had no such means.
Looking around at the now deserted hall he walked off towards the main entrance, it was still a little too early for him to sleep, with nothing else to do he headed off to look around the grounds.
Heading outside he wandered through the garden, the soft rustling of leaves in the gentle breeze and gurgling of water from the small stream running through the grounds mixed with the less natural sounds.
The sky was a whole different world from home, without the glaring artificial light or heavy early industrial pollution the night sky spread out, hues of blue and purple mixed with black, blue and pink of the twin moons and streams of stars that flowed across the sky, while Hogwarts had something similar the heavier light of the castle still reduced the night's majesty.
He looked for familiar constellations in the sky to no avail, the time in astronomy class proving useless, he knew nothing of where he was in the galaxy or even if he was in the same one, he could be the other side of the universe.
He briefly sat on the stone bridge edge looking into the dark waters below, so much had happened in the last few days he had little time to reflect on it, in some ways it was like his first year again, wonders abound, but he was older now more jaded, but he didn't want that either.
The idea of the young boy that just accepted Hagrid's 'you're a wizard Harry' comment, sure he had bent a gun, gave him a cake (sort of) and stuck Dudley with a pigs tail, but the last one could have been smoke and mirror magic, but maybe that was him? Someone that deep down wanted something new.
A safe haven away from the pain, somewhere to belong. Hogwarts had been that from the Dursleys, was this place that from Hogwarts? If so what of whatever happened here? Was that his lot, to run from the deeper problems?
Getting off the bridge he realised somewhat why he wasn't thinking on things, it was too depressive and his early summer had seen enough of that.
He wasn't sure if he was supposed to walk on the grass in the garden but couldn't care enough as he made his way further afield, the lack of sounds was also a bit disconcerting, the periodic neigh of a horse and rustling of branches but the few and far between noises made the silence more noticeable.
He allowed himself to get vaguely lost, the maze of hedges and trees that bordered the west of the manor, encircling the lake and leading to the area he had only yesterday fired his first gun at.
The woods were more alive with sounds, living sounds, rustling of leaves and the skittering of small creatures around the ground, the odd nocturnal bird most likely some owl or something that would pass as an owl in this world hooting high in the branches.
Stopping close to a large copse he brought his wand out, the feeling of knowledge and power ran through him, he felt his emotions flood to the forefront of his head, swinging his wand out he yelled.
"Bombarda!" The incantation's words cut through the natural sounds causing wildlife to scatter.
The spell hit the aimed at tree exploding it in a shower of bark and sap like it was hit with an explosive, the groan of the tree as it collapsed added to the unusual sounds.
He aimed another spell at the trees Diffindo, the severing charm his runes however showed him the next level.
"Lacerabis!" The cutting spell less wand movement and more powerful, a white light over green fired almost like a wave of energy two trees dropped like they were felled by a lumberjack.
"Reductio!" Another helpless tree fell before Harry's wand.
Harry aimed his wand a fourth time, another tree in his sights as the end of his focus began glowing the ambience increasing as he fed more power into the spell, like drawing back an elastic band, the wind slowly increasing as magicks flowed from the very air itself.
"Bombarda!" The pained anger flooded forth as Harry fired another Bombarda at another target, the explosion dwarfed the first removing most of the trees centre and sending splintered wood everywhere, a small amount of pain was felt on his cheek told him he had been hit with debris.
Touching his face slowly he felt a small piece of wood dug into his face like an enlarged splinter, remove it he felt the blood trickle down his face, he rubbed at the blood with his palm to prevent it staining his clothes before looking for another object to hit, another tree or a rock would be fine.
"Impressive, I guess it's a good way to blow off some anger, but please be mindful, this is still our property." The calm male voice spoke from behind him causing him to jump, turn and aim in one movement. "Oh? Some good reflexes too, or is that something to do with the binding?"
Nicolas stepped out of the shadows into the newly cleared area, a slight grin on his face, Harry lowered his wand to a relaxed position but said nothing.
"My wife is impressed with you, it's not too often you find that happens, I should know." An almost wry grin formed on the older man's face, the impression of nobility no longer coming from the man. "But I would be careful around her, she is not one to be trifled with, she let it slide on your ignorance, but that won't be the case for long."
Harry paused before he could reply, he could run his mouth easily enough, but the Duke was clearly trying to be friendly, manners were important aspect of life and he had had them almost beaten into him in his youth.
"I will remember that." Harry's own flat tone replied, the same one used when dealing with those he didn't know enough to truly be himself around properly.
"Good." Nicolas nodded. "Now, I would like to see those spells again, a good gauge of your power and skill."
Harry had no reason to refuse, though no reason to accept either, but he still needed to burn off some stress, turning around he felt the man move off to the side but still behind him, a ways to view both his movements and the target without ending up in the firing line.
"Bombarda." A more muted casting this time, the spell impacted the tree, the impact point exploded violently causing the top of the tree to fall this time towards them.
"Looks like Louise's spell, all of them." Nicolas commented. "Maybe you can throw around one of your other spells in school first then that…Bombarda? My daughter yelling that might give the impression it's meant to happen."
Harry wasn't sure if the man was joking or not, certainly Louise had told him that magically she could only make explosions, certainly something that could pass as a real spell made sense, though why she couldn't cast anything else was a big question.
"Would that work?" Harry finally asked.
"Maybe, I would try anything unless the legality issues that rose would cause more damage than good for my family Harry, not all of us show it, but we do care for each other." Nicolas replied after a short pause. "But I have a question for you regarding family, you didn't say it but seemed to imply that your parents were killed at the end, what about other family members? Do you not have anyone else?"
Harry tensed, before casting a look of both annoyance and sadness at Nicolas, the man was certainly blunt, Louise must have gotten that from him.
"I would rather not answer that." Harry knew it was his own fault for even saying anything.
"Okay." Nicolas nodded. "I'm sure what you told us must have hurt, but I am curious about the idea you lived."
Harry deflated, he was still pushing just in a roundabout way, but the whole title wouldn't leave him alone even in another world.
"I am called, 'the boy who lived', a title given to me for surviving a spell that leaves no survivors." He said with exhaustion it was rare to have to explain the title with the magical community he came from knowing more about his 'life' than he did, but it still brought up long faded memories and a bad taste in his mouth.
Nicolas piqued up at this, a title was interesting anyway, though it did leave something to be desired, a title that basically to him painted a target on his back, but a spell that left no survivors was also a curiosity, many attack spells killed, what made this one any different?
"Could you show me that spell?" Nicolas winced himself at that, the chance to see a different form of magic had tripped his tongue.
Harry stared at the man incredulously at his blunt and heartless comment, the Avada Kedavra curse sure he knew the spell, Barty Jr had taught them all. He knew the mechanics behind it, he knew the mechanics behind all the unforgivables, but he hadn't used them.
It was however easy to understand, a killing curse, or the killing curse, focus and intent, well he had enough anger to want something dead at the moment, if his target was the tree, he could use it once.
"Fine." Harry had no doubt the request would come through again. "But this will be the only time I use it."
He stood facing a tree away from the man and one as far as he could reasonably be while still being certain he could hit it, he took a deep breath, focusing, he could feel the runes powering him as he focused on the spell, he opened his eyes in horror, it was far too easy to cast, he didn't even need to feel the emotions required to cast it, it would overpower the spell.
The idea of somehow overpowering a one hit spell was confusing and worrying, he felt his concentration waver before regaining himself, focusing again he ensured his target was in his sights, behind him Nicolas said nothing watching intently.
"Avada Kedavra!" Harry spat out the foul words.
The green light and rushing sound filled the forest, the bolt of energy slammed into the targeted tree causing a small explosion, similar to the Bombarda but less collaterally damaging.
"Flashy, but doesn't seem to be that impressive sadly."
"It only does that when hitting targets without souls." Harry spoke coolly. "If that hit a living person, they die, it's called the killing curse, in hundreds of years of using it, it just does, no injuries, no marks, nothing." Harry lift his fringe again showing the healing over scar. "Except this and whatever the hell was inside it."
Nicolas nodded upwardly, so that was why, he could see the Bombarda spell capable of killing or maiming, but if that spell just killed regardless of where it hit, then it was certainly well named, and very dangerous.
"I am sorry Harry, that couldn't have been easy." Harry's huff in response told him all. "Though what do you mean by whatever was in the scar?"
"I don't know, it has never healed since I got it, but hurt when Voldemort was near. You would have to speak to Louise on what came out of it, I was unconscious."
"I will do that, the very idea of a pure killing spell leaving a mark makes no sense." Nicolas mused and Harry completely agreed with, he had had it for so long however that it wasn't much point worrying about it to him. "But back to that spell, if as you say, and I will take your word for it that the spell only kills, then I forbid you to use that without my express permission."
Harry looked shocked and appalled at the comment, the man wanted him to use it? He was almost temped to use it again now, against him.
"You are to be a vassal of ours Harry, vassals protect, forget about the magic binding for a moment, we are taking you in." Another spluttered noise. "While we will support you as we can, you are our front shield and sword, my youngest daughter's most of all, should she be put in extreme danger, then you will use it against those that want to harm her."
Harry almost accepted that reasoning but he never wanted to use the damn spell, using it to show it as an example was bad enough, the far too easy to use spell made him fearful of what he could become in using it, he had a far larger repertoire of spells that could do the same job without resorting to that one again.
"I will never use that spell again Duke De Valliere."
"I see. Very well I will honor your wish on that, get some rest but if you do need to vent try to limit the damage to my forest. I will speak to you tomorrow when you have your first lesson." With those words the man walked into the shadows and headed back to the manor, the sounds of feet on twigs and leaves sounded for a few moments before disappearing.
With no one around he turned back to the area of destruction, he could at least listen to him and limit the deforestation he was causing by taking out the fallen trees.
For what may have been another two hours flashes of light and explosions reigned in the area before an exhausted Harry returned to the manor and passed out on his bed.
Louise Room – Next Morning
The night had been fitful for her, as with the last few nights the dream had returned, not with the same clarity or seeming interactivity of the first night but still there, the horrid flashes of green light impacting the boy then him slumping dead, the cold silent graveyard where an unholy ritual was to take place, the followers of a monster and the duel that very much was to the death.
She had awoken in a sweat, at one point it seemed the green magic was aiming at her, it left her tired as she remained awake to not see it again, it was a dream at least in a sense to her, Harry had lived it and moved on, and yet they still hadn't talked about the meaning behind the message, at least not in depth.
But then she wasn't sure how to broach such a clearly sensitive subject when he had seen someone that was she thought at least a friend of his die, tact wasn't her forte but she would try, she needed to know how did it come to that? Who was the other boy? What of the ratty man?
Questions had filled her head and even without the desire to not sleep she doubted she would, it was like the study sessions that ran late, so much knowledge that went into review mode she found the first rays of pre-dawn light appear before she would fall asleep.
She did manage to sleep some a dreamless one then woke again only an hour later feeling worse than before, she rubbed her eyes tiredly before shuffling out of the covers and heading to get herself ready.
Sitting at her vanity she looked at her sallow skin, she had work to do before making an appearance, she wasn't one for make up outside of a rare special occasion like a ball but needed something to hide the clearly sleepless night.
It took far longer than expected to deal with the damage, her hair in knots needed more than the usual amount of brushing and light touch up on her eyes and around her cheeks, she nodded to herself satisfied she would at least pass a brief glancing.
Today she and Harry would pick up his clothing and get his school supplies and uniform, he needed something different for the school one, many changed their uniforms to denote themselves, she stopped at this thought, did he want to stand out? She was under the impression he didn't but at the same time it was unlikely he would have the luxury of not, maybe she would explain this and maybe something flashy would work, in the end the classes would generally ignore it.
She smiled somewhat in that she would in essence have him to herself for the day, a chance to talk about things in a calm environment and maybe understand the dream and maybe he could help her with her magic too.
She paused, he wanted to return home, it was a lot of effort to expend on someone that wasn't staying and he too was expending much for the same reason, it was a little sad for her, it wasn't about the money or anything tangible, it just seemed to her like he was someone that could understand her better than many others did.
It didn't help that he had accepted the vassal status whatever that meant for him, while she could see the situation and understand it a part of her felt hurt, it was like he was freeing himself from her. While she held no illusions to the binding of him being wrong as she knew it was wrong, in the end he was a person with his own life.
The idea that things could be reversed, an image entered her mind of her wearing a dirty soiled sack top and chained to a wall by her wrists, no freedom and rights, she shook her head to clear the depressive thoughts, the dream was bad enough to provoke her imagination.
It was that idea that made her wonder briefly about the creatures they bound too, while she harboured no true expectations on creatures such as birds and frogs and such it added a saddening concept to ones like dogs having their own packs and families that they would now never see, much like when Cattleya took in a puppy left alone after its mother got run over by a carriage, how many animals had lost one that was important to their own survival?
But here was Harry a person, bound under ancient tenants to serve her, as had been the case for thousands of years of using the ritual, and yet he was to be given a twisted sort of out, she didn't like it, and she didn't like the part of her that seemed to want to keep him bound either.
Exiting her room to avoid going in circles it didn't take long to find him wandering the halls, it was still early enough not to head to breakfast, the pair staring at each other, no overt noticeable expressions until Louise frowned, unless Harry was too using make up he looked fine, almost refreshed, or at least not as haggard and wary as he had been.
It pissed her off, she was worrying about important philosophical stuff and he was going with it, her eye twitched causing a small amount of pain around her eyes, she wanted to yell but restrained herself, fatigue was causing her already short fuse to burn quicker.
"G-good morning Harry." Her smile strained a little.
"Morning." He replied raising a hand in greeting. The restraint broke.
"Damn it, greet properly not like some low brow peasant." She pointed at him. "Say Good morning Lady Louise."
Harry smiled bemusedly, it was funny, she looked awful clearly sleep deprived, and he knew Aunt Petunia well enough to see the same signs in Louise, though why she was sleep deprived was something he wasn't going to ask her, there were some things you just didn't ask a girl.
A thought occurred at this since he was addressing both her parents by titles he guessed he could humour her, but only for his own amusement, he needed to find and use anything he could to keep himself happy and it would to him be a real laugh anyway.
"Certainly." He bowed in an overly exaggerated manner, his accent taking on the posh British butler flavour. "Good morning Lady Louise, it's rather spiffy today isn't it? Quite."
Louise spluttered her face turning crimson, what the hell was that? Now she knew he was poking fun at her, her foot tamping on the carpet quickly as she tried to reign in her rapidly deteriorating control.
No sharp reply came from her however as footsteps entered their hearing range followed by a greeting.
"Good morning Harry, Louise, so nice to see you both up and getting along." The voice that could only belong to Cattleya broke the weird one sided stand off, looking at the lovely woman he replied his own greeting before noticing the small parade of pets following her and the cat resting on her shoulder.
A wild mixture, dogs, cats, birds….snake, he paused at that one, the creature was lazily wrapped around her arm clearly basking in her body heat.
$Ah! So warm.$ It hissed merrily before fully looking at Harry. $Is there something on my face human?$
$No mister snake.$ Harry hissed involuntarily as he often did when conversing with snakes.
Both girls seemed shocked by the odd sound emanating from the boy though he didn't notice having virtually gone into tunnel vision.
$Mistress calls me Pyth, but a speaker of my language? Interesting, could you please tell my mistress I wish for twice my usual meal today, I will be shedding tomorrow and don't wish to be around anyone.$
Harry nodded, he knew enough about snakes to know shedding usually resulted in the snake becoming more aggressive, it spoke volumes about the woman and strangely the snake that it didn't want to inadvertently hurt its mistress.
Losing his focus on the reptile for a moment and coming back to full reality, the curious stares from both women making him realise he was doing 'it' again.
"Sorry. Happens a lot, so uh, Pyth asked for twice his usual, he's shedding tomorrow."
For a moment Cattleya said nothing stunned into silence before smiling brightly and giggling, her voice crisp and clear even as she began petting the creature to its content.
"My, Sir Harry you continue to surprise me, at least I will know now where he will be, you have my thanks, but that is an interesting ability."
Harry blushed again, the beautiful woman was again sending him into his own stupid hormonal territory, the hissing laughter of Pyth didn't help at all.
"Still I will take my pets for their food and meet you both in the dining room."
Silence filled the hallway outside of a single set of human footsteps and the myriad amount of padded footfalls, Harry watched the bizarre situation round a corner before looking at Louise, the girl staring at him with a look of uncomprehending shock.
He snapped his fingers in front of her quickly gaining her attention, though her facial expression was one of annoyance at the way he did it.
"What's with the zoo?" Harry wasn't sure if they had zoo's but it was worth a shot.
"My sister has something of an obsession with taming animals, anything really, even predators."
Harry wondered how well the woman would get along with Hagrid in that capacity, the large half giant with the very friendly demeanour and the seemingly gentle woman both with a great love of animals of all kinds.
"Come, I still need to teach you the founders prayer, we got some time let's go to the study." Louise commanded. "And you can tell me how you can understand snakes, sounds heretical."
Harry followed Louise to the study/library he didn't really care to learn it, the whole thing he hoped would just be pointless, he would go back to the academy and find Colbert had already found a way back for him, the whole week nothing but a semi relaxing/ highly stressful mixture away from his forced isolation, something he could tell his friends about and laugh at in the future.
All the money and time everyone had spent on him would be a waste but he wasn't finding himself truly caring about that, sure he kind of liked the girl he was following, abrasive and rude though she was, but she was honest and genuinely trying to help, and to Harry that did count for something.
The next thirty minutes had him reciting the prayer it was basically their version of Lord's Prayer from Junior school in a nut shell, pretty simple to learn and nothing he saw as a reason to worry about or get bent out of shape with, he had enough issues without piling more on himself, he really needed to work through his problems, at least those he could solve himself.
He had briefly explained during a small break the notion of Parseltongue, avoiding the more unsavoury aspects associated with it, a lesser form of the dragon language was how he eventually passed if off as, he wasn't sure if they had linked snakes and dragons as similar, not that they really were but she wouldn't know that, he hoped.
With his early lesson at an end breakfast was again the same as the day before and the day before that, one minor change being Karen asking if he knew the prayer now, he made sure to repeat it loud enough for her to hear, while he wasn't too pleased with his actions it was again preventing problems and dealing with them over making more.
When the meal ended Eleonore and Cattleya departed leaving the two adults, himself and Louise in the room something he noted as clearly intentional.
"Now Harry." Karen spoke first. "First off, please try not to destroy too much of our land, we got woodsmen for trees." Her expression seemed at least a little to hold some amusement, at least Harry hoped so. "Still My husband and I have a few early duties to attend to, Louise will continue to teach you our language, after dinner my husband will give you his lessons and then after supper I will teach you."
Harry suppressed a shudder at the almost gleeful expression the woman had at the end, she was looking forward to something Harry would rather not think about, sure he could figure from Nicolas the night before that Karen was clearly not to truly be trifled with, it wouldn't mean he would back down at least willingly, but she was powerful, more so than himself, that he had no doubt about.
"Right." Harry replied trying to maintain eye contact, her eyes narrowed slightly. "Yes, Lady Valliere." A small smile the kind given by someone to a pet when they learned a new trick, a bit patronising, but he let it go.
"Louise, you don't have to worry about picking up Harry's clothing either, I will have our servants doing that later." Karin turned to address her youngest daughter.
"Yes mother." Louise replied her eyes not maintaining contact with the woman.
With that the pair left to do whatever nobles did, Harry and Louise looking at each other before too heading off, to Harry it was almost becoming a routine, he felt the notion was itself almost terrifying, like some way to keep him occupied and not leaving, it was the uncomfortable parallels he was drawing.
The few hours studying had been broken up with short breaks, there was only so much of the semi legible text Harry could look at before his head hurt, he was glad Louise was at least being patient with him, that wouldn't stop him from hexing her if she started some bossy attitude.
The second she drew a whip or ruler he was casting, slug or bat bogey were admittedly the worse he would cast on the girl he still remembered the look on her face when he cast 'Incendio' towards her, the look of fear and horror made him feel guilty about it.
He had eventually gotten up the courage to apologise for it, it was one thing to apologise for a wrongdoing, and it was another for a reactive self-defence action that took place over half a week ago, he had apologised enough in his childhood for things he had never done courtesy of Dudley and had tried to make it a rule to not apologise on reflex.
Still she had brushed it off as nothing to worry about, he did note however she seemed more at ease afterwards telling him he had clearly hurt her more from the spell than initially thought.
The notion of a week was another question he had during the session, how long was a week here? Were the hours the same? Surely two moons caused more drag than one unless they were created later, maybe that was why they were closer? Didn't they cover that in both science and history? He wasn't sure Dudley often shot paper wads at him though his bic pen.
Louise had been helpful in those answers, eight day weeks, four week months and twelve month years, the time of day was thankfully similar to Earth, at least they had clocks of 12 hours and they seemed to move about right.
Strangely enough it felt like some good news, everything was potentially an issue, while longer weeks and naturally years were not a great thing, overall he wouldn't need to worry about a change to his sleep patterns.
The meal at dinner finished with little fanfare, Cattleya and Eleonore taking Louise off somewhere while Nicolas confronted him before escorting him off.
For Harry it was a lesson in learning to act like a noble, it was a far more informal type lesson than what he was expecting from Karin's upcoming combat spells or Louise library bound lessons, sitting in the waiting room the man held a glass of brandy as he stared at him.
"Now, we are going to teach you the finer points of nobility, to stand alongside those that have close ties to royalty and deal with those that wield magic you need to be able to integrate with them." Harry nodded though he didn't like the sound of where this was going. "Now, what can you do? Let's see what foundation I have to work with."
Harry thought about what he knew of nobility, he had plenty of history on dealing with purebloods in Slytherin and the opposite end Weasley's, the selection pool for him to draw from however wasn't the greatest since those he did interact with that weren't Ron all acted the same, but regardless of that it should be easy on that context.
"Okay, uh." He coughed his face morphing into a sneer. "You there peasant, how dare you think you are my equal, to even be in my presence is an honor."
There was a stony silence, Harry felt a tumble weed would pass by in the room, he face fully flushed red, channelling Malfoy wasn't a good idea, he now felt that no amount of washing would ever make himself clean.
He vowed that when he returned home he would hex Malfoy's arse to the point he couldn't sit down for the remainder of his school life and a good time into his adult life for ever being someone he knew.
"Harry." The voice held what would only be described as disappointment. "Who taught you that?"
"No one, I was trying to act like someone in my school, he's a bit of, no, he's a total git but is from one of the most rich and influential families in Britain."
Nicolas nodded in understanding, a few inferable ideas on the name of his country and the idea of how their upper class acted, while there certainly was no lack of nobles that acted that way, it wasn't a good way to start.
"I think you misunderstand something about nobles Harry, yes, there are some, far too many for my liking that act like that, but a true noble is simply a person that leads by example, our magic helps all the people, we use for example Earth magic to farm the ground for minerals and foods, build houses, Water magic to bring water to drought ridden areas and heal the injured."
It sounded good to Harry, a little too good, but maybe he was seeing phantoms where there were none, it still wouldn't stop him asking, it felt in a way like how nobility appeared in his world, how a person or clan got hold of some artefact like a gem or staff made from the bones of a large kill and used that as a sign of their power, to these people it seemed magic was that artefact.
"Do the muggles or commoners have their own labour pools and inventors?"
The question caught the man flat footed his expression tell Harry to continue.
"Well you said farming, what about crop rotation?" An important aspect of agriculture to his world, it was something he had to ask.
"Crop rotation?" Nicolas queried.
"Yes, say a large field divided into four almost equal squares, one field has wheat, one corn and another beans while a fourth is left bare."
"Ah, I see yes, we do something similar, since Earth mages are often employed to construction aspects we discovered that a few centuries ago some crops grew better after something else had been planted the season before." Nicolas smiled, he was impressed the young man clearly had an education well above the norm for his age or station. "Usually when Earth mages work they do create minerals in the ground themselves so this wasn't a requirement in those cases but it is known."
Harry felt himself blush slightly, he was trying to thrust his own world and opinion onto another culture, he knew this wasn't a morally correct action, more so when he clearly knew almost nothing about the world he was living in except what he could draw from his own worlds history and with public magic that was less so than normal.
"We will have to speak more on this later, I am curious about how your world does things like travel and healing, it sounds like you have some differences to ours, but let's continue with the idea of a noble."
Harry listened at least intently to Nicolas's explanation of nobility from his own perspective, he was of two minds on it, the one hand it did sound good, certainly a far cry from Malfoy's pure blood doctrine and supremacy, on the other hand it did sound almost propagandaous, spun in a good light, though Nicolas had cleared up one thing he was confused about, the servants were just that, employed with contracts they were paid and given time off, not slaves a practice that itself had long been abandoned.
While he seemed to be the exception to the rule, it did in fact make him feel somewhat better, something no one had foreseen to happen, and the De la Valliere family was mostly accommodating and trying to lessen the apparent shackles with some power of his own, though they had spelled out why.
Family, the one thing he only had a small taste of, again it reminded Harry not to take things at face value something he should have learned at latest in his second year, he was willing to give the De Valliere family the benefit of the doubt based on what he knew of them, but that didn't mean they weren't hiding something, maybe the Malfoys were nice behind closed doors to each other, he stopped that train of thought be he found himself laughing at that.
But between a myriad of defence professors that weren't what they appeared and rampant paranoia he was now realising he should work harder at reading people, and Nicolas's lesson on the subtleties of noble gatherings was part of that.
In the end the lesson hadn't been what he expected, images of learning to walk properly, speak with posh inflections and give imperious looks were off the table to dignity, honor and courage and reading an atmosphere, it was almost Gryffindor in some ways.
Plains
Having finished supper Harry had been led by a servant to the area he had done weapons testing at, the flat terrain serving as a good battlefield though the lack of cover was also a problem, he was early by the lack of anyone else or Karen late, he wasn't sure.
Pulling his wand out he allowed the runes to empower him, he was slowly figuring out their abilities, the runes gave him almost masterful skills with anything that was a weapon, that said he realised it didn't work on cutlery unless he willed it, intent, the runes worked on that too, a simple dinner knife activated the runes only if he had intent to use it to fight.
The wand too, while itself not a weapon unless poking counted, it was a conduit for attacking, much like a gun was for the bullets, aside from increasing his skills and power by a fair factor he found concentrating on a particular spell brought all the knowledge to the forefront and variations of the spell were made known as such different skills came about.
Like when wielding a long sword, his skills matched the weapon, a different one handed blade like a bastard sword or rapier changed his skills, he cycled through his spells, nothing too dangerous, Protego charm, Locomotor Wibbly, Expelliarmus, Patronus and Petrificus Totalus.
New applications for each entered his head, the brief free time was better for planning, Ron was a better tactician than him, sure Hermione came up with them more often, but Ron usually poked holes in them, giving them alternatives, Harry was nowhere near eithers level there, but he couldn't burden them by relying on them all the time.
It was this that Harry realised was a good thing and bad thing, he was forever trying to avoid burdening others with problems that he was over his head in, yes solving his problems was something he should try and do himself and also grow as a person, but he also should learn to trust his friends to help more too, a complex issue to him of six of one half a dozen of another.
He spotted Karen heading his way with the rest of the family as his reasoning came crashing to an odd conclusion, the woman now in battle armour, a chest plate, arm guards and shin guards, the armour giving the impression of weight.
He knew it was a lie, his history teacher had made that very clear during their middle ages lessons in junior school, armoured knights were just as mobile as anyone on the battlefield, capable of somersaulting onto a horse if they could do that themselves without problem, the few films of armoured knights lumbering around the field slowly was wrong.
"Now Harry." Karen's voice held a hardness he had come to associate with combat, it had the same feeling as Padfoot and Remus had when confronting Wormtail or Voldemort did facing him, it was subtle but it was there. "Nothing fatal, I have heard your spell arsenal has some dangerous attacks so none of those. We will start off first with your casting, let's see your power against me."
Karen pulled her wand-sword out and cast a spell creating something that to him was almost certainly a wind based barrier, he still thought it was stupid to allow someone to throw spells at you, but he would oblige, only because it should have been more satisfying to fire at a person over a tree.
Readying his wand he focused on the stunner spell, with a shout of begin he fired, the red beam of light burst forward far faster than expected, he knew it would be more powerful but knowing and seeing were different things.
The attack hit the barrier dissipating the spell, it was however not the end, he broke the rule of duelling, never fire the same spell twice in a row, it was a bad tactical move, it was why variation was key, keep your opponent off balance.
Multiple rapid shots of the Stupefy spell were launched, it was flashy, certainly not anywhere near as impressive as Karen's barrier, but the impacts showed the attacks had weight, the barrier however still held.
"Okay enough." Karen spoke through the wind. "Better than I expected, I will admit, but still poor."
Harry felt annoyed at that, he was considered to be a fairly good duellist, he wasn't sure exactly what she expected so it was better to expect the worst than big himself up.
"First off, you stayed still, move around more, a moving target is a much harder target to deal with, and use your surroundings."
He wasn't sure why she expected him to move, she wasn't and what surroundings? The flat terrain, unless she wanted him up earthing the ground around them in what was merely showing his power.
Her own lack of mobility to brought up a question, why? It left him one of two possibilities, either she was staying put because it was easier to gauge him, or the spell only worked when static, while it could be either and most likely the former, it wouldn't hurt in a test to assume the later and try a few things out.
"Begin again." Karen's voice called out.
Harry exploded forward, the same stunner again before switching to another spell, Bombarda, the spell fired at the ground on the wind shields borders, the barrier now kicking up large clods of earth.
Karen jumped back the shield breaking, Harry fired another Stupefy and the jelly leg jinx, neither hit but both were close, the shield back up, he pressed again, darting forward and to the left, another Bombarda, a repeat of the same.
He had a plan, whatever magic Karen used seemed slower to cast than his own, not much but it was noticeable to him, he went for the same play, Bombarda, Stupefy, another retreat he changed it up this time, firing another Bombarda at where he expected her to jump too, a jelly leg jinx behind the attack.
It worked, sort of, Karen disabled the shield, dodged the red beam and jumped back, the later spell caught her by surprise, she jumped again only for the spell behind it to hit her legs, her crumpling to a heap on the floor, is what didn't happen however.
She hovered in the air, her own wand waving, a large funnel of wind lanced out like a mini tornado he brought up his Protego charm, the wind slamming into it, the spell held for a few moments before succumbing to the raw power of the wind spell impacting him in the process, the air in his lungs escaped him as he was thrown back like being hit with a bludger.
He coughed, he looked up to see her trying to deal with the effects of his hit, the grass between them was carved up, a trench of dirt with furrows, a new path had been made.
"Interesting spell, so you can think, but remember not to waste too much time testing, you opponent will too be planning." She slowly lowered herself but her expression showed the spell was still in effect. "Can this be undone?"
"Finite." He coughed again as he waved his wand at her, her spell had hurt, he knew now that her spell wasn't that strong, at least compared to what he believed she could do, it wasn't something he hated to admit that she completely outclassed him, such a difference was obvious, he had so far been nothing but lucky, typical Potter luck.
"Still I will give you your dues, while that shield spell is one of the weakest, I see you figured out its weaknesses too yours however was impressive, I can say the time teaching you over the remainder of this week at least won't be a waste for me."
That at least made Harry happy, few people ever really gave him praise or taught him, Remus taught him, Crouch Jr/Moody did too, it was odd, it was almost enough to completely forgive her, almost, and it did at least lessen his anger against her comments.
"I have seen enough today, rest up, tomorrow we will do this for real." With that she turned and continued floating off, behind her, her husband followed.
While he hadn't taken too much damage Eleonore had healed him, it was something of a surprise that she had done so, water magic if he remembered how Nicolas had mentioned it, it was certainly better than Skel grow and the myriad of other potions he ended up downing.
His return to the manor had seen several parcels waiting in his room, his room, Karen had left a message, for as long as he was there, that former guest room was now his, he opened the parcels, three sets of new clothing, two in red and one in green, a separate parcel containing several uniforms and a trunk containing a few books and other materials.
He snorted in amusement even as he felt a few tears, it was a mixture of emotions, but they too were making him feel welcome, sure he got presents from others, his friends and their families gave him stuff, and even if he knew why he got it, he still felt happy.
That night he had a truly peaceful dream, for Harry it was something he could use to power his Patronus should he need it.
The next day was a flurry of activity, Cattleya had apparently fallen sick, while he had learned she was dealing with some form of illness anyway, it didn't stop the family worrying about her.
Nicolas had even asked him if he knew any healing spells, he knew some but knew that without knowing what he was dealing with the chances of him causing worse problems for the woman were high, he didn't want that at all, not when it could potentially kill her if her condition didn't like his magic.
Since the family too knew little of what truly affected her Harry knew nothing he said would help, he was in all intents and against everything he faced a child, he had no medical background, little healing ability outside of physical damage and nothing that without knowing what was wrong could help, he was certain to a high extent that they had employed the best healers they could telling him he was unlikely to make a difference there.
With nothing to do and Louise fussing over Cattleya and Karen and Nicolas off to get the healer Harry headed back to the armoury, he was to try out some weapons again and kill time.
"Where are you going Harry?" He turned to find Eleonore standing there with a frown.
"Practice?" He spoke. "Weapons practice."
"Forget that, instead you are coming with me."
Harry didn't get a chance to reply as the woman marched off, seeing the path of least resistance as the one that gave him less of a headache he shrugged his shoulders and followed the blonde, into the library.
"I must say, I am impressed, I have never seen spells like yours before, but don't think you could beat mother with them." Eleonore spoke sitting down, to Harry she gave off the sexy librarian look, something Dean and Shamus were always on about sexy something, but to them as long as they had a 'cracking arse' or 'cracking tits' they seemed happy.
While to Harry he doubted Eleonore would get classed with cracking tits he would admit but only under veritaserum that she had a nice arse.
"Since little Louise will be staying with Cattleya for most of the day, it has fallen to me to continue your training, so I expect you to listen." Eleonore continued. "Now, where are your current progress notes?"
"Accio Harry's language notes." Harry pulled his wand back out and waved them around, a flurry of paper rustling sounds filled the quiet room and several books flew through the air and landed on the table.
There was silence as the books landed, Eleonore looked at Harry with a calculating expression, she picked up one of the leather bound books turning it over and putting it down, picking it up she tried again.
"So, what was that?"
"Summoning spell, pulls objects to the caster based on what is called for."
"Can it summon people?"
Harry paused, he would say no, but he hadn't really thought on the spell, he held his wand as he brought the knowledge of the Accio spell forward, there were applications, but in regards to it, there were limitations on using it on humans.
In a way it could be used like the Carpe Retractum spell but without the rope, in those cases Accio couldn't be dodged or deflected, but it couldn't be used to say summon someone's heart out of their body, careful application of the spell could be useful with other spells in tandem.
"From a short distance yes, about 10m at most." Harry replied. "Most creatures and objects from a much larger range, naming the item even further."
Eleonore nodded in understanding, that was a useful spell for finding items she lost, she appraised the boy in front of her, were he not almost half her age she would have suggested an engagement, she frowned which caused him to lean backwards, the last one had been disastrous and it annoyed her how he had broken it off.
"Um, do you not like your older sister?" Harry asked before realising what he had said. "I mean."
"Older sister?" Eleonore's face changed, while still a scowl it was now more aimed at him though mixed in with confusion. "I have no older sister, Cattleya is younger than me if that is who you were talking about, and no I don't hate her, but I will not speak on this matter."
Harry nodded at this while he refiled the information, he had believed the bustier woman had been the oldest and since he had never asked no one had cleared it up, his eyes tracked her as covertly as possible, it was not covertly enough as she frowned more.
"So you assumed because I am not as...endowed as her that I was younger, such foolishness, you really are a child and a boy, I have nothing to be ashamed of in my body."
She crossed her arms and turned slightly away in a huff, her voice tinged with annoyance and maybe hurt, while Harry to felt some at being labelled a child he had caused the issue though he realised that both Louise and Eleonore had some similar personality architypes.
Both seemed to say one thing but mean another, he was certain a term applied to both but couldn't remember what it was.
"Sorry." He decided to act the bigger man and apologise for it hoping it would fix the atmosphere that was descending over the room.
Eleonore looked at him for a long moment, her stare coming from behind her angular glasses met his own her scrutinising gaze broke as she sighed deeply.
"You really are socially inept, and I though little Louise was bad."
Harry went to retort, he wasn't that bad was he? Sure the Yule ball he wasn't exactly a shining example of charisma and social skills but they were girls, packs of girls at that and he was only just recovering from the stigma of being a cheat and glory hound.
He just wasn't great around those he didn't know and with so many brash and eccentric personalities he was having trouble finding common ground. More so when he wasn't from the world and had little to go on from a cultural perspective at least with his magical world he had a better understanding on that.
"Your silence answers that then Harry." He blinked realising he had not answered back. "But enough of that, mother wants you literate before the end of the week, open the book and lets start."
Tristain Academy – Headmasters Office
Osmond sighed as he placed down another letter that had been intercepted from the student body regarding the summoning of Harry, without the usual wax seals on the letters it had been easy to read through and check their content before sending certain letters through, but only those not relating to the incident at large.
Fifteen had been destroyed based on various students sending missives to their families some of them from students in the first and third year an even worse idea with them only getting hearsay and some of them outright stating the De Valliere family was attempting to enslave everyone and needed to be dealt with.
Osmond shuddered at the idea of a student saying that but there were sadly and always a few rotten apples in the bunch, ensuring the letter was in the small dish he quickly cast another flame spell incinerating the paper.
He couldn't confront the students about it, to do so would inform them they were being monitored and they would find ways to circumvent his control over the information, they were quite inventive when they wanted to be.
For the most part the last few days had been relatively quiet outside of this and a few altercations with the Gramont heir and the usual problems with Zerbst and her poor scheduling skills, three students had been admitted to the infirmary over fighting over the girl again.
Colbert too had found nothing else in the library relating to the summons but he had been told that he was to priorities teaching his students, as much as Osmond felt for the young Harry he wasn't about to risk the education of the students over one boy regardless of intent or blame.
That didn't mean he wasn't going to keep an ear to the ground and his eyes open, he did have the idea of asking about the man that had saved his life several decades ago against the dragon and show him the staff, leads like that could help.
With a self-affirmed nod he closed his eyes pretending to sleep as he enjoyed the view of his secretary that his own familiar was seeing from a new hiding place, yes sometimes being old dropped others guard.
Bedroom – De Valliere Manor
Harry slumped onto the bed, exhausted from both the long hours under the stern tutelage of Eleonore and the magic training from Karen. With Nicolas away dealing with the healer for Cattleya the battle training had happened later since Karen had finished her husband's duties for the country and as such he had missed the more relaxing cultural discussion.
As such his day had followed with hard hitting of text books and writing practice, Eleonore was without a doubt a complete sadist in relation to what she expected of him, even the slightest letter too long or slanted was redone until perfect.
To him it was like writing lines something he hadn't done outside of Primary school and the odd Snape detention when he wasn't scrubbing cauldrons for the man, it made his wish to return home all the stronger as nothing could compare to this writing torture.
She did however slightly offset the problem when he did well, a few light smiles and tending to the strained hand, though when he thought about it Harry was beginning to think this was to prolong the torture, he was almost wishing for Voldemort to appear, almost.
Karen had for her lesson started with explanation of the elemental trait system used by the continents mages, a more theoretical start. Harry found that using their magic was impossible during training, he did however get a sliver of an idea from the rune that he would visit later on that would allow him to use it.
With the discussion done Karen had again gone with a light spar with him as she stated, light in the essence of several gouged sections of the ground and more bruises, Karen healing them and the subsequent bath had eased the pain he was in after the adrenalin had died down.
As his mind shut down for the night under the warm covers of the bed he wondered if he would survive the last 4 days of the week.
A/N: So Harry as a vassal, I have already got his rank sorted after much thinking, it makes sense based on the problems that are abound in this story, in a world where hereditary titles and nepotism are rife I couldn't see a reason not to take this path.
It will be important throughout the story and as seen in the fifth book, Harry does have some good leadership potential so it should work well.
Karen's battle, while I myself have no doubts to Karen smearing Harry across the country she was going very easy on him, I would say that unless a HP wizard or witch got the drop on her she would win easily.
To answer the questions from reviews that others might want to know too, I will explain below:
Q: Will Harry become friends with Guiche later?
A: Unlikely, while I myself like Guiche as a character, he is a second year to Harry's first year making interaction difficult, second, the lack of Guiche battle scene has already upset the canon apple cart, planning is for Chapter 5 for Tristain to again feature predominantly (though this chapter hints at something) so you will have to wait until then to see what that did.
Q: What about Derf?
A: Again this is a matter of canon avoidance, yes like Guiche I like Derf, but now that Harry is a noble, why would anyone give him a rusty sword? I can't force that without it going towards everything I hate about the FOZ fandom and against the reason behind this fic.
That said since issues behind Derf are broken between what is said in series and what happened in series, I am going to state Authors prerogative and say he will appear, but not until after the Fouquet arc.
