Okay, Prissy Percy gets slapped down and then thrown a bone in this one, so one way or another I'm sure I'll upset someone. :^)
Usual disclaimers, no rights to anything from JKR's stories.
One thing that struck them about the selection process this wand maker used was that while they each had checked their compatibility with a multitude of different woods, cores and gems, for most of them it actually took far less time than it had for them to find a wand at Ollivander's. Of course once they found what components talked to them and those components had been sorted into what would work together to make two wands for each of them, the wands would actually take a couple of hours to craft. The wand maker told them that making them look as much like their current wands as possible would add to the time it took, but they all agreed that it would be a good idea to try and cover up the fact that they'd changed wands so they went with that.
He had told them to come back in two or three hours for the wands etc, so they decided to use that time shopping for the other things they needed, picking up more comprehensive and better quality potions and runes kits, telescopes, robes, clothes etc and extensive book collections for the six students there plus extra potions and runes kits, books and the like for the twins and others Harry was expecting to be joining their planned study group.
Amelia made a point of going off to browse in another shop when Harry started talking to the people in the Globus Mundi Travel Agents office about buying their ex rental flying carpets from them. When she returned, the group had moved on to another shop and Minerva was looking both amused and impressed so Amelia asked if she wanted to know what was so amusing and she laughed.
"I'd swear that boy could sell sun hats to Mermen! But as for your question, is there any law against using flying carpets as floor rugs?"
Amelia shook her head, wondering where this was going. "No, the reason flying carpets are illegal here is because they aren't being used as floor rugs."
"Then you will be glad to know that a collection of flying carpets that were in the store room of Globus Mundi will now be serving as floor rugs in the living compartments of those trunks the children are getting. While he was at it, he also convinced them to sell him forty Nimbus Two Thousands and Cleansweep Sevens they had in the store room for less than a hundred galleons each and another seventy Comet Two Sixties for a quarter of that because, to quote Harry, 'no one wants to rent old knocked about brooms'... Old knocked about brooms! The Nimbuses and Cleansweeps were the best brooms you could buy when they came out two years ago and there's nothing wrong with them that a bit of care and attention wouldn't fix!"
Amelia shook her head again and sighed. "He may have squeezed a good deal out of Globus Mundi Minerva but between that, the wands, those trunks, the potion and runes kits and everything else he's spent all of the fifteen thousand odd galleons he brought with him and over half of the extra ten thousand odd galleons he got from the Gringotts Money Exchange. I know that with what he has available to him now, twenty two thousand galleons isn't much but I have a problem with him spending so much on Susan and I."
"We were talking about that Amelia, because I and the other children were saying the same thing. Harry's position is that they all need the better quality potion and runes kits, books and the like if they are to learn the subjects properly because the prescribed books and equipment are inadequate and this is the best opportunity to get them. He also argued that he, Hermione and Luna all need to learn how to dress and act as they will be expected to in our world and they need Susan, Daphne and Neville to be able to demonstrate everything as they're teaching them, because that's one area where Voldemort's memories don't help him. He then pointed out that with Dumbledore, Snape and creatures like Ronald Weasley and some of the girls in Ravenclaw who have apparently been stealing Luna Lovegood's clothes and belongings, they really need the extra security features of those trunks he is buying….. and I need to take this up with Filius but from what I heard Miss Lovegood was apparently locked out of the Ravenclaw Tower in nothing but her nightdress on more than a few occasions last year, and I believe the poor girl was actually cast out naked at least once."
"Harry's argument is that by getting them all these trunks with living compartments, Luna will now be able to call his house elf Dobby to bring her trunk to her if she gets locked out again so that she will have both clothes and somewhere safe to sleep... and for that matter if any of them feel threatened or just need peace and quiet they will now have a safe place to sleep in their trunks. They all indicated that it is quite likely that they will be using that aspect of the trunks at some point, which I must say doesn't paint a pretty picture of how they see our world nowadays."
"He also pointed out that the benefit of the two of us getting these wands made up as well as the children is that we are better able to evaluate them against the wands we have been using for most of our lives and if these wands do indeed make better tools than the ones Garrick Ollivander supplies, then we should be steering others we trust their way so they can ready themselves to better deal with what's coming their way."
By then their shopping had taken up two and a half hours, so they headed back to the wand maker's to get their wands and everything else. The wand maker couldn't help feeling a little smug as he watched their shock when they picked up their new wands and felt the power of them because he knew that his wands were much better than Ollivander's, but thanks to Albus Dumbledore he wasn't legally allowed to make or sell wands or most of his other special items…. He had to rely on word of mouth for those items and keep the Ministry from finding out about them, which meant that he often had to deal with people he didn't particularly like or approve of and do other things to make a living.
His business was officially a hole in the wall luggage shop but he had created and furnished the multi-compartment trunks they bought as well, so this had turned into a very good night for him….. Selling sixteen of his custom wands, the twenty three disillusioned and protected wand holsters he had in the shop, over two dozen bags and pouches with Undetectable Extension Charms, and every one of his multi-compartment trunks... Having to hide what he was doing from the Ministry, he normally only sold one or two of those high end trunks a year if he was lucky, so for these people to decide to buy up all eight of the ones he had there because they could appreciate their value and features was amazing. The boy who was obviously making the decisions had asked for four trunks at first, but then he asked if he had any more after they'd looked through them. Even with the discount he gave them for such a large order this one sale would be enough to take the strain off for at least a year, and then they asked when he'd have more trunks available and whether he would mind if they directed other people his way... Oh yes, this was turning into a very good year!
Harry had been using legilimency on the man to see whether he could be trusted and had seen some rather interesting and disturbing things in his memories, so he knew that he could not only be trusted, he was someone they definitely wanted on their side. He didn't have time to fill Amelia and Minerva in on what he'd discovered, so they and the others were shocked when Harry dropped the glamour he was using and told the man the truth about who he was. Harry also shocked the wand maker when he addressed him by his real name, as that was something he was sure had been forgotten since the conceited, ambitious and utterly ruthless Albus Dumbledore had destroyed him and his family name by framing him for killing his parents in a ritual that went wrong when they were at Hogwarts together at the end of the Nineteenth Century in an attempt to get rid of what he saw as the biggest obstacle to his gaining the respect and acclaim that his plans for world domination demanded. If Dumbledore had had the power to control popular opinion that he later developed back then, he would have ended up being reviled as a dark lord who had been stopped before he came to power, but as it was he was just dishonoured, cast out and forgotten, left alone with little to do other than pursue his studies in private.
The man who had gone by the name of Alfred Stowe since he took a new identity for himself in the midst of the chaos of Grindelwald's war took a good look at the boy and nodded to himself, because there could be no doubt that this was Henry and Charlus Potter's descendent, but he saw something else in him… Harry caught that look and nodded, explaining that having a soul fragment of Tom Riddle, better known as Lord Voldemort, in his head for nearly twelve years, losing a small part of his own soul to a dementor's kiss and now having access to most of the Dark Lord's memories and knowledge of the dark arts would have had to change him a little….
Alfred smiled at the young witch who'd been at the boy's side most of the time they were there as she hugged him when he said that and told him he was still Harry, he was still her Harry. He could see what the boy was talking about, but having a witch like this to anchor him would help keep him on the right path if he ever wavered.
Harry explained why he'd taken Alfred into his confidence and Baron Randolph Mordred Warg, Head of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Medrawt and Chieftain of the Most Ancient Druid Clan Warg (also known as Alfred Stowe) was quite happy to take the oaths to become a vassal of the House of Potter, accepting their protection and a retainer of two thousand galleons a month, plus an agreed payment scale to make wands and anything else they wanted and tutor Harry and his friends in the subjects that he had mastered…. as that would give him a much better life than he had at the moment, and he would be doing something worthwhile… Not to mention the fact that it would give him the chance to help strike back against Albus Bloody Dumbledore!
Alfred also gifted Harry with something that he'd never intended to sell, or part with, because it was his masterpiece, the result of over a hundred years of mastery of his art. Wargholm looked much like the other trunks on the outside normally, but the gems embedded in the corners and other key points and goblin silver frame allowed it to be warded better than most manors and it had been expanded far past what most people would have believed possible inside. The living area was the equivalent of an elegant manor house and there were even larger spaces which appeared to be massive greenhouses with the walls and ceiling enchanted like the windows throughout the living area to give outdoor scenes and gardens, pools and enough room for full sized Quidditch pitches inside, linked to it. It also had other features that were as far as Alfred knew unique, such as the trunk's wand wood shell being enchanted so that it could go out of phase with the normal world and be flown like a magic carpet from inside, but far faster and more comfortable than any carpet or broom.
Harry tried to say that he couldn't take the trunk, but they could all see how much he wanted it (how could you not want something as incredible as that?), so when Alfred caught Harry's witch Hermione's eye and signalled her to give him a nudge, she gave him a grin and had Harry gratefully accepting the trunk within ten minutes using the time honoured 'do it for me' ploy.
From Hermione's questions, Alfred could see that it wouldn't be long before he was asked to add some of the features of Wargholm to the other trunks, in particular the flight option and the ability to go out of phase and be called to the one who's magical signature it was linked to like House rings and key heirlooms (when Hermione heard about that, she immediately thought of Luna being locked out of the Ravenclaw Tower and decided that this would be a better option for her than calling for Dobby), but he didn't have a problem with that.
Before they left, Alfred activated the mirror portals he'd created in the trunks to link their trunks and his. He'd never trusted any Ministry that was under Albus Dumbledore's thumb enough to allow any Floo Network connections in his shops or flats, but he'd been building these portals into his trunks as he created them for the last half century so that he could move between the ones he used himself. They also allowed movement between the living, potions, storage and other spaces within the trunks without leaving the trunk as that used the same principle as moving between spaces in different trunks.
Alfred also induced his new Liege Lord to add seventeen of the eighteen rather special disillusioned and protected wand holsters he had to the order (these had bottomless pouches and runic portkey/communications mirrors built into them and crystal cored Goblin Silver Medrawt War Wands (which were nominally in the form of a dagger but could morph into other forms of Goblin Silver weapons as well as being used to cast offensive magic) in sheaths on the back). The high cost of these holsters was brushed aside as soon as he demonstrated what they could do, and as with the trunks, Harry was wanting to know how soon he could make more. His reminder that it would take him a while to make more of the things Harry was after because he only had one pair of hands led to him accepting a dozen House Elf helpers as the Head of Noble and Most Ancient House of Medrawt and its Associated Houses and Clans (Dumbledore had never had the power to wipe out Most Ancient or Ancient Houses or Clans, so the House of Medrawt and Clan Warg were still extant, though they had remained dormant for nearly a century), because Harry was certain that they'd be needing more soon.
Nearly four hours had passed by then, so they had to get back to Hogwarts. They said their goodbyes to Alfred and headed back to the Leaky Cauldron where Amelia Flooed back to the Ministry and the rest of them went to St Mungo's to use the dedicated Floo in the Emergency Treatment Ward to get back into the Infirmary at Hogwarts.
Minerva escorted the children to Filius, and then Pomona's offices, getting Harry to scan them for compulsions and blocks and remove any he found before explaining the situation to them and having Harry cast the secrecy charms on them to protect their secrets. Filius and Pomona were quite on board with supporting the story that Luna and Susan had been in detention with Minerva, and that Minerva had neglected to tell Filius beforehand but Pomona had forgotten that she had been told. Pomona was actually happy to promote the idea that she was an absent minded old witch if it meant that Dumbledore dismissed and ignored her after she found uot what he's been doing to them.
Filius was horrified to hear that Luna had been bullied and had her things stolen by other Ravenclaws and promised to address the matter the next morning, so when she returned to the Ravenclaw Tower, the girls bullying her couldn't work out why she just smiled and ignored them when they were taunting her, as if she knew something they didn't.
Once the other children were returned to their dorms, Minerva escorted Daphne to Snape's office and made a perfunctory apology for forgetting to advise him beforehand that she'd given Miss Greengrass detention that night for misbehaving in class. Harry had cast the same secrecy charms over Daphne so Snape didn't get anything from her when he tried to scan her thoughts, but like many of the old Noble families she was trained in occlumency so he didn't expect to get much from her. When she returned to the dorms, she pulled her little sister Astoria aside and keyed the portkey/communications mirror wand holster and ward/locator rune crystals Harry had bought for her to her magical signature, then showed her how to use them. Astoria would be getting new wands, trunk etc when 'Uncle Alfred' had the time to make more, but for now being able to secure her bed space and portkey into Daphne's trunk would make her a lot safer.
The girls in her dorm room were surprised when Luna replaced her trunk with another one that looked much like it, but they didn't say anything because they didn't actually dislike her, they were just too afraid of the older girls to stand up for her. They were secretly pleased when the girl who tried to get into Luna's trunk to steal her things the next morning ended up in the Infirmary, covered in boils… even more so when it was proven that it had only happened because she was trying to break into Luna's trunk because Professor Flitwick decreed that Luna had every right to have protective charms cast on her trunk to stop any more of her things being stolen, and then read the riot act to the entire house about no-one doing anything to stop members of their house being bullied.
The Ravenclaw prefects were horrified when they all lost their prefect badges and were told that the reason they had permanently lost their status as prefects would be included in their official records. Most of the house thought that he'd gone too far when Ravenclaw's best hope for a seeker, Cho Chang, was permanently banned from playing on the house team because she was identified as one of the ringleaders of the ones who were bullying Luna and stealing her things, but when the captain of the team tried to tell Filius he couldn't do that, he was permanently banned as well. They got a glimpse of the wizard who'd been the European duelling champion several times then as he angrily told them that if anyone said another word about their Quidditch team's prospects he'd ban everyone in Ravenclaw from Second Year up from ever playing on the Ravenclaw Quidditch team, as they obviously needed to take the time to re-evaluate their priorities and get a better understanding of honour and acceptable behaviour if they couldn't understand why the current behaviour of so many members of Ravenclaw was unacceptable.
He pointed at Chang and said. "I will never let thieves and bullies like Miss Chang, or anyone else who agrees with her, represent Ravenclaw!"
That was enough to make everyone shut up, but he could see that some of them at least were beginning to think about what he said.
Ron Weasley had of course forgotten that their friendship had ended back at lunchtime and demanded to know where Harry and Hermione had been when they arrived in the common room. Harry had already passed his shrunken trunk to Neville so that he could slip away and swap his old trunk for the new one in their dorm room while everyone's attention was on the argument in the common room. So to make it easier for Neville, Harry hammed it up downstairs.
"Maybe you should have gotten Madam Pomfrey to check your head when she tried to fix your nose and teeth Weasley, because in case you've forgotten, I got detention with Professor McGonagall for trying to teach you how to behave at lunch….. And not that it's any of your business, but Hermione and Neville also got detention for trying to stick up for me and say that that wasn't fair."
He could see out of the corner of his eye that the Twins were lapping this up, but Percy was puffing himself up to assert his authority…. And there it was!
"Potter! How dare you talk to your betters like that? You obviously need to be taught your place, so you will serve a week of detention… With Professor Snape!"
Harry turned to face the smarmy git who was gloating about the odious punishment he had just dealt out.
"My betters? Oh some of you Weasleys do have tickets on yourselves, don't you?"
He grinned at the Twins. "Not you two, you're our favourite mischief makers."
The Twins beamed at him and leapt to their feet, bowing low and pretending to wipe tears away.
"Why thank you kind sir, I think that's the nicest thing anyone ever said to us!"
His amusement disappeared as he turned back to Percy. "I challenge your contention that you and your brother are my 'betters' in any way Mister Weasley, and I also challenge your right to assign detention or any other punishment to me without cause. I demand that this matter be adjudged by Professor McGonagall, as Gryffindor's House Mistress and the Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts!"
Percy tried to bluster that he couldn't do that but one of the other prefects spoke up. "Shut up Weasley! Potter most assuredly does have the right to appeal any unjust treatment and punishments, and Professor McGonagall obviously needs to know that you believe that being Head Boy gives you the right to bully students over minor disagreements with one of your family members which had nothing to do with you!"
They sent one of the other students to fetch Professor McGonagall and Percy was still trying to argue that there was no need to disturb Professor McGonagall when Minerva arrived.
"Quiet Mister Weasley! Now will someone please explain why I have been called to the common room at this time of the night?"
That kicked off half an hour of shouting and argument while Harry and Hermione just stood back and watched with big smiles on their faces. The highlight for Harry was when Percy complained that he had insulted his brothers by calling them trouble makers and Minerva stared at him, incredulous that anyone would ever try to argue that point, then turned to the Twins.
"Is this correct Messers Weasley?"
"Well ..."
"As far as Harry calling us mischief makers…."
"Yes, but that was no insult..."
"It was an insightful observation….
"That meant the world to us..."
"Because it shows that he recognises us as we truly are…."
"And he called us his favourite mischief makers, which just makes us feel so special"
Minerva held her hand up to stop the twin-pong and made an effort to wipe the smile off her face before she turned back to Percy.
"It would appear that your brothers do not feel insulted at all Mister Weasley, in fact if I understood the nearly unintelligible jumble that they make of speech correctly, they felt honoured by the appellation Mister Potter gave them. Did you bother consulting your brothers about this before you made that accusation on their behalf, or is this just another instance of you making an unfounded attack on Mister Potter over something that had absolutely nothing to do with you?"
"As the other prefects have reminded you, you do not have the right to use your Head Boy's position to bully students and you do not have to right to arbitrarily assign detentions to other students without good reason to do so Mister Weasley.… Mister Potter will not be serving any detentions with Professor Snape on your say so, and while I have no doubt that the Headmaster will do what he can to veto you being removed as the Head Boy, I can correct the mistake I made two years ago when I gave in to the Headmaster's contention that you were the best choice for Gryffindor prefect…"
She looked around the room and stopped when she spied Oliver Wood. "Mister Wood! While I must admit to having what has been called an obsession with keeping the Quidditch Cup away from Slytherin, your obsession is I believe even worse than mine, so to help you put things in proper perspective, you will be taking over from Mister Weasley as Gryffindor's male Seventh Year Prefect. Mister Weasley, kindly hand your prefect's badge to Mister Wood…."
When he just looked at her mulishly, she snapped. "Now. Mister Weasley…. Or you will be making history as the first Head Boy in I don't know how long to have his position stripped from him…. Actually, don't bother, I will convene a meeting with the other House Heads and have it voted in first thing in the morning. Even Professor Snape won't fight me on this if it means that he gets to see the Head Boy's position being stripped from a Gryffindor."
Percy actually tore his robes in his hurry to get the prefect's badge off and hand it to Minerva.
He withered under her stern gaze as she growled at him. "Do not challenge me again Mister Weasley! If I hear of another incident of you attempting to abuse your authority to attack any student out of pique or a grudge, I will be convening a meeting of the House Heads, and if that happens we won't just be removing you as Head Boy, we will be expelling you from Hogwarts for abusing you authority. I am sufficiently disgusted with your behaviour to take the matter to the Hogwarts Board of Governors if the Headmaster tries to veto that….. Do you understand me Mister Weasley?"
He gulped, losing his position of Head Boy and being expelled would destroy every chance he had of getting what he'd been working for. His voice cracked and he squeaked as he urgently assured her. "Yes Professor McGonagall! I understand and I assure you that this will never happen again! I'm sorry, I don't know what came over me!"
"It isn't me you should be apologising to Mister Weasley."
Percy turned to Harry, and Harry thought he was going to get on his knees for a moment. "I'm so sorry Mister Potter, I really don't know what came over me..."
Harry tuned out for a minute as something occurred to him, he glanced at Hermione and she frowned as she got what he was thinking, then he looked at Minerva, who frowned when she caught onto what he was thinking too. Percy Weasley had always behaved unlike both his older and younger brothers, was he just a prat, or was he a victim of manipulation too?
Minerva spoke up. "Actually Mister Weasley, I think this discussion would be better continued in private, so I will see you and Mister Potter in my office… now."
Fifteen minutes later, Percy was mystified when Professor McGonagall didn't punish Potter, or at least wash his mouth out with soap, when he spat out "That coniving old bastard!"
Percy was looking from one to the other, wanting someone to tell him what was going on, and the Professor waved to Harry.
"Do you want the good news, or the bad news first Percy?"
"What are you talking about Potter… Harry?"
"The good news is that you aren't a complete and utter prat..."
"What…."
"The bad news is that you've been interfered with by the same old bastard as myself, Professor McGonagall and several other people."
"What?"
Harry looked at Minerva. "I think he would take this better if it came from you Professor."
Minerva nodded. "Mister Weasley, are you aware that Mister Potter was actually kissed by that dementor on the Hogwarts Express?"
"People said that, but I assumed it was just stories."
"No, it wasn't. The only thing that saved Mister Potter was the fact that he also had the soul fragment of someone else, the one commonly known as Lord Voldemort, in his head and it was mostly that which the dementor sucked out before Professor Lupin got around to chasing it off with a patronus charm. The dementor did suck out a very small piece of Mister Potter's soul, and that appeared to break loose some of the compulsions and memory blocks that had been placed on him. This gave Mister Potter the impetus to trick Madam Pomfrey into getting him taken to Saint Mungo's, where the healers removed the rest of the bindings, memory and willpower blocks, compulsion and confundus charms from him and flushed the potions out of his system, and then did the same for Madam Pomfrey. Mister Potter had asked Miss Granger to get Susan Bones to contact her Aunt about the illegal tampering that he'd discovered and they spent the rest of the morning sorting out the issues…." she stopped and looked at Harry.
"Do you still want to convince Ronald Weasley that his rat was killed by the owls Mister Potter?"
Harry shook his head. "No, I can't be bothered now, at the moment I'd be quite happy to let him find out that he's been sleeping with a creepy…" He suddenly stopped and looked at Percy, muttering "Shite!"
Percy could tell something else was going on here. "What's this about Scabbers?"
Minerva tried to think of a delicate way to explain, but gave up. "Mister Weasley, when the rat Scabbers was your pet… Were you as close to it as your brother seemed to be? Did you have it sleeping in your bed and with you when you were undressing or bathing?"
"Of course not Professor, that would have been inappropriate!"
Harry gave a sigh of relief. "That's good, because Scabbers was actually the animagus form of a wizard by the name of Peter Pettigrew, who was captured this morning and is going to be tried for all the crimes he framed Sirius Black for, with help from Albus Dumbledore."
"What? That's ridiculous! Professor Dumbledore wouldn…."
Harry chuckled when a whispered 'petrificus totalus' locked Percy up so tight that he couldn't even move his eyes. "These new wands are going to take some getting used to Professor."
"Yes, but Mister Weasley does not appear to be breathing Harry, so I suggest that you remove whatever has been put on him and release him before he suffocates."
"Oops, sorry. Okay…. Let's see."
About forty seconds later, Harry released Percy and apologised, but Percy had to get his swearing about old bastards out of his system before he was ready to take part in further discussion.
They wound the discussion up and Harry put the same secrecy charms on Percy as he had everyone else involved before they headed back to the Gryffindor common room.
Ron's face fell when Percy and Potter walked in together civilly as he was sure that Percy would have managed to turn things around and get Potter in trouble.
Percy went straight over to Oliver and quietly told him that Professor McGonagall wanted to talk to the two of them first thing in the morning, because he had straightened things out with Harry and at Harry's suggestion Professor McGonagall was willing to give him his prefect's badge back if Oliver didn't want it. Oliver was all for that idea, because he wanted to concentrate on Quidditch to give himself the best possible chance to get into a professional team when he left Hogwarts, but their conversation was disturbed by Ron shouting at the prefect who had stopped him going over to confront Harry, Hermione and Neville about what they were laughing about in the corner.
Percy asked Oliver to come with him when he headed over to break up the altercation, and Oliver and the prefect didn't bother covering up their grins at Ron's outrage when Percy suggested, asking Oliver his opinion, that the other prefect come to Professor McGonagall with them in the morning and they get the Professor to assign suitable punishment to Ron once she heard what had happened. Oliver pretended to consider the point and agreed, then told Ron to go to bed and not make any more trouble unless he wanted his punishment doubled.
After they watched Ron stomp upstairs, Oliver turned to Percy. "Don't take this wrong Percy, but I like you a hell of a lot more without that massive stick up your arse. What happened to cause this sudden change?"
Percy looked around and saw that they had attracted a lot of attention. "Professor McGonagall opened my eyes to a lot of things when she was giving me a dressing down Oliver, but I don't think this is the place to discuss it. Perhaps it would be better if you asked Professor McGonagall about it when we see her in the morning."
Oliver nodded, but he obviously thought there was more to this than Percy was saying.
By the time Harry and Neville went to bed, Ron was asleep and snoring loud enough to wake the dead, so they decided to close the curtains on their beds, activate the wards and try out the living quarters in Harry's new trunk (Neville snored too, but he was nowhere near as loud as Ron and the rooms in the trunk space were silenced). They both had the best night sleep they'd ever had in the dorm and the best part was that the other three in their room had no idea of where they'd slept.
In the morning, Percy got his prefect's badge back and Oliver was told the new rules about how often he was allowed to make the team practice this year, given how many of them would be sitting their OWLs or NEWTs and Harry would be working hard to make up for slacking off for the previous two years. Oliver's disappointment about the limitations being placed on practice was mitigated to a degree by Minerva telling him that an anonymous benefactor had agreed to loan Nimbus 2000s or Cleansweep 7s to anyone on the school teams who didn't have decent brooms though, as that would go a long way to negating the advantage those Nimbus 2001s gave the Slytherin team.
Minerva was furious when she heard about Ron Weasley's latest act, so she doubled his detentions with Argus Filch. She was sorely tempted to make it a month, but knew that Molly Weasley would be whining to Dumbledore about her son being unfairly punished and it would be hard to justify a month's detentions without admitting that she knew what else he'd done. She had no doubt that Dumbledore would try and argue that he didn't deserve the original week's detention because he didn't mean what he'd said about Hermione…
She gave a most unladylike snort… Leader of the Light my arse! She never would have seen this if they hadn't removed his manipulations but the old bastard was just as much of a blood supremacist as the so-called Dark families, even though his own mother was what people like him was called a Mudblood.
'Alfred Stowe' had certainly opened her eyes the night before, with his information about the truth of Albus Dumbledore's background. The fact that he and his parents were all Slytherins, rather than Gryffindors as the records showed now was quite interesting, and the way he had framed 'Alfred' for his parents' deaths and got him thrown out of Hogwarts in disgrace purely because Alfred was a superior wizard who wouldn't go along with his plans was disturbing, but it made it easier to understand the callous way he had set the Potters up to be killed.
Seeing the amazing things that Alfred had created, she could quite easily believe that he was a far more accomplished wizard than Albus Dumbledore, and the parallels between Alfred and Harry were also quite interesting, in that both of them had lost their parents and been banished to a harsh life through Dumbledore's machinations.
The fact that 'Alfred' had come to know and respect both Harry's Great Grandfather and Grandfather in the time before he took advantage of the turmoil of Grindelwald's war to disappear and create a completely new identity for himself was something else to their advantage, because Alfred could see his forebears in Harry and so had been pre-inclined to agree when Harry had proposed that he come under the protection and employment of the House of Potter.
They were trying to work out the best place for Alfred to move to once he'd wound up his affairs and closed his business off Knockturn Alley. It was a given that it wouldn't safe for him to remain where he was as people knew about him and his…. sidelines, and he would be found soon enough if he moved to another location anywhere near Diagon Alley, but the question was what other wizarding community would be big enough for him to blend in if he moved there.
The most obvious choice was Hogsmeade, but being so close to Hogwarts and Albus Dumbledore could present a problem, especially with Dumbledore's brother Aberforth owning and running the Hogshead Pub there. Minerva had to admit that she found Alfred's idea of using the evidence he had which proved that it had been Albus who had committed the crimes with the goats that Aberforth had been sentenced to serve time in Azkaban for to recruit him to their cause titillating. Aberforth was a rough egg, but he was no fool and he'd understand that they had no chance of ever getting Albus convicted of the crime, but while it would not be enough to get him justice, she agreed with Alfred that Aberforth would be likely to cherish the proof of his innocence.
Harry's secrecy charm should suffice to protect their secrets for a while, and given a bit of time Aberforth should have no trouble getting his Occlumency skills up to scratch with a bit of encouragement and coaching from Harry (whose knowledge in that field from Voldemort was frightening) because the Dumbledores had a natural affinity with the mind arts, from what they were discovering now that was how Albus achieved what he had to date. With Aberforth on their side, it should be safe enough for Alfred to move into Hogsmeade if they used the story that he was an old wizard retiring to a cottage in Hogsmeade so that he could live out the rest of his life in peace. Alfred could live quite comfortably on the retainer and payments that Harry had agreed with him last night, so he didn't need to work and she had seen from his enthusiasm last night that he would be as happy as a clam if all he ever made was the 'speciality items' that Harry wanted him to create for them.
On top of that, while he could never work in the field again after being convicted of unnatural acts with animals, Aberforth had gained his mastery in Magical Creatures nearly a century ago and was extremely accomplished. In fact Newton Scamander had learned what he needed to know to get his own mastery in the field from Aberforth, and having someone with those skills in their camp could be quite useful down the track…. The more she thought about it, the more sense Alfred's proposal made.
The howler Molly Weasley sent Ron at breakfast proved that she wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed, because between screeching like a banshee at him for disgracing the family she told the whole world… or everyone in the Great Hall at least…. About their plans for Ginny to be matched up with Harry, the fact that the Headmaster was relying on him to stay close enough to Harry to tell him what Harry was doing, and that she was as much of a blood bigot as her youngest son because she dropped the term 'Mudblood' more than once in her rant.
Up at the High Table Dumbledore looked like he'd found a shit flavoured bean in a box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, Hagrid looked shocked, Lupin looked surprised, Minerva, Pomona and Filius looked enraged and Snape just looked amused that the wife of the most famous Muggle lover in Magical Britain would drop the 'M' word more than once when describing what was supposed to be one of her son's best friends, even if that son was in trouble for using the same word.
Harry laughed as Dumbledore rushed out of the Great Hall, obviously planning on telling off the silly cow for exposing their plans so publicly. Feeling a bit devilish, he called out down the table.
"Hey Gred, Forge, what's the magical equivalent of cooking sherry?"
"Strangely enough young Harry, the magical equivalent of cooking sherry is cooking sherry, why do you ask?"
"Because from the way someone just ran out of here, I'm betting that Ron there will be receiving another howler from your Mum tomorrow, explaining that she didn't mean any of those things she said and blaming it on getting into the cooking sherry."
Ron almost blew up at the implied insult to his mother, but he caught McGonagall watching him just in time. He could tell that she was just waiting for a chance to give him more detentions so he swallowed what he was about to say with a great deal of difficulty.
Fred and George ovbiously thought what Harry said was hilarious, but Percy looked angry and disappointed, because he was willing to bet that Harry was spot on about what was happening at the moment and what would be arriving tomorrow morning.
There were quite a few thoughtful looks in the Great Hall at Dumbledore's Golden Boy making a crack like that about the Headmaster though, and several students rushed out to Owl their parents with the latest piece of juicy Hogwarts gossip.
As Harry, Hermione and Neville were leaving the Great Hall, Lupin stopped Harry and asked to have a word with him. Harry just looked at him and asked. "Is this about my dead parents or Uncles Professor? Because I already told you that I don't like talking about those subjects."
"No Harry, it's not about that."
Harry almost spat out that there was no connection between them to allow that type of familiarity, but he let it ride to see where Lupin was going with this. "Very well Professor, what do you want to talk about."
Lupin looked at Hermione and Neville. "This isn't the sort of thing to discuss in public Harry."
"Hermione and Neville are my closest friends Professor, anything you want to say to me can be said in front of them."
"I really must insist on speaking to you in private Harry…."
Harry had had enough of this. "Oh you must, must you? Hermione, can you get Professor McGonagall for me please? I'm sorry to ask you but I think I may need Neville here as a witness who will be accepted by the Pureblood Houses."
Hermione nodded. "Of course Harry, I won't be long." With that she gave his hand a squeeze and dashed back into the Great Hall, returning almost at a run with a stern looking Minerva McGonagall.
"What appears to be the issue Mister Potter?"
"Well we can start with that Professor McGonagall. I have no familial or other connection with Professor Lupin, but he insists on using an overly familiar form of address whenever he speaks to me, even though I have not observed him using such a familiar form of address with any other student."
"Then there is the fact that this is the second time in less than twenty hours that he has attempted to get me alone to talk to me. If this were the non magical world, a male teacher who is overly familiar with an underage student and keeps trying to get them alone would be suspended and thoroughly investigated because that is stereotypical behaviour for a sexual predator who is grooming children for sexual favours…."
"What are you saying Harry? It's nothing like that! I just wanted to get to know you again because I was one of your parents' closest friends, your Uncle Moony!"
"Once again, you are attempting to imply a link between us by using an overly familiar form of address and claiming familial ties, but why don't we look at your claims? Where were you on the Thirteenth of August Nineteen Eighty Professor Lupin?"
"What's that got to do with anything?"
"I believe it will indicate how close a friend of my parents you actually were. Where were you Professor Lupin?"
"I had just arrived in Germany I think, I was supposed to be talking to groups of people around the Black Forest."
"That basically matches my understanding of where you were, though your 'groups of people' were in fact a rather specific group… Would you like to know where my parents' true friends were that day Professor Lupin?"
Lupin was beginning to see where this was going and growled. "Where?"
"All my parents' true friends were at Gringotts in London performing formal Godfather and Godmother rituals with me, plus Neville and Daphne Greengrass because our parents became each other's godparents that day… and Luna Lovegood's mother became my Godmother and my parents became Luna's Godparents while she was in the womb because everyone present agreed that the ritual was still valid that way and the dangerous times made it all the more important to perform it."
"I will concede that that was one specific day and even though others with half as much lead time as yourself, such as Neville's parents, were able to make the necessary arrangements to get out of work and other commitments and ensure that they were present to perform what were regarded as extremely important rituals to commit themselves to assume responsibility to care for Neville, Luna and myself if anything were to happen to our parents, there may have been circumstances beyond your control which forced you to go to Germany, even though my parents did not believe that there were…. For the sake of argument, where were you from the First of November Nineteen Eight One to the First of September Nineteen Ninety Three Professor Lupin? Or if that is too general a question, if you were such a good friend of my parents, why didn't you attempt to locate me and check whether I was okay even once in the nearly twelve years between when I was dumped on my Muggle Aunt's doorstep in the middle of the night in November Nineteen Eighty One and when you appeared on the Hogwarts Express on the First of September this year…. On your way to start a new job, working for the very one who dumped me on that doorstep in Nineteen Eighty One to be used and abused by my relatives until I turn seventeen? For that matter, why were you the only teacher I've ever seen riding on the Hogwarts Express? Were you supposed to begin grooming me on the train but got stymied by my going into a magical coma after that dementor tried to kiss me?"
Harry's voice had been getting louder and louder as he got caught up in his rant, so by the time he finished they had attracted quite a crowd, who were all listening avidly. Some of the ones listening had managed to connect the dots and started whispering about the fact that Dumbledore had left Potter on a Muggle doorstep to be abused until he reached his majority, and Lupin was apparently working with him. Even more students were running for the owlery now, because the earlier gossip had nothing on this!
Lupin had been getting paler and paler as Harry was shouting this at him, and when Harry finished he just turned and walked away without a word.
No-one said anything when Hermione wrapped herself around Harry, because Malfoy was still up in the owlery trying to word the letter to his father about what Potter said in the Great Hall perfectly and most of the others who would have tried to make mileage out of it were already on their way to the owlery to send their own letters.
Minerva wasn't sure that Remus had really deserved to be savaged like that in public, but she had to concede that Harry hadn't said anything untrue and Remus had supposedly been hired to teach, not harangue Harry about personal matters and try and push Albus Bloody Dumbledore's agenda down his throat. The fact that Harry had managed to control himself enough to finish his delivery before he broke down, not that he'd really broken down at all, was a bit of a worry though, because a normal thirteen year old boy who'd been through what he had had to endure wouldn't have been that controlled. She unconsciously mirrored Alfred's thoughts from the night before, that it was a good thing that Harry had someone like Hermione to anchor him.
Most of the students had enough sense to steer clear of Harry and Hermione after the events of the morning. Even Ron backed off when he saw the look in Harry's eye, because after seeing Harry laying into Professor Lupin, he was beginning to realise that Harry had changed since that thing on the Express, and that there was a good chance that he'd actually meant what he'd said yesterday about crossing him or his friends. Having his nose broken and his teeth smashed in like that had hurt, and he didn't want to find out what this new Harry Potter might do if he upset him again.
Of course, Draco Malfoy, or rather Draco No-Name, but he didn't know about that yet, didn't have enough sense to back off, but the teachers made him sit down or sent him out of the room when he started in on Harry because they were worried about further incidents like the one with Weasley yesterday and they didn't want to be held responsible by Lucius Malfoy for anything happening to the Malfoy scion.
It only took a day for the Death Eaters to start finding out that their vaults had been cleaned out except for a note saying that the Dark Lord was displeased that they had abandoned and betrayed him like that. Voldemort's memories had given Harry everything he needed to convince the Death Eaters that the notes left in their vaults had indeed come from their master so most of them began desperately looking for a way to escape an angry Dark Lord. The fact that those who were members of the House of Black or married to members of the House of Black were also discovering that they'd lost property and other assets that weren't in their vaults only served to confuse and frighten them more.
Lucius Malfoy had managed to get the other Death Eaters to accept him as their leader after their master's fall and he had used his gold and power to run roughshod over Magical Britain for the last twelve years, but by the second day after Harry Potter woke up he and his wife were hiding in an old farmhouse that they had no apparent ties to... Because in the midst of all the notes thanking him for the party he threw each year to celebrate getting the brats out from underfoot by sending them back to Hogwarts and agreeing with Narcissa's whining that the hangover potions weren't working the previous day he had received a letter which, according to everything he thought he knew, was a message from the dead. That letter had included the proper identifiers to authenticate it as being from his master, and it was demanding that the diary his master had left in his safekeeping be delivered to him immediately, but the last he'd seen of that diary was when Harry Potter used it to trick him into releasing his house elf three and a half months ago and from the state of it then, whatever special properties it had had obviously been destroyed!
His problems didn't end there though, because when he rushed to Gringotts to clean out his vault in preparation for collecting Draco and running away, the only thing left in their vault was another message from his master saying that the contents of his vault were merely the first thing he would be forfeiting for abandoning his master they way he had, as well as reiterating that his master wanted his diary returned immediately. That was why he and Narcissa were currently hiding in that squalid farmhouse while they desperately tried to scrape together enough gold to escape.
However that wasn't going very well either, because nearly every time he contacted someone and told them that they had to repay the gold he'd lent them immediately, the response that came back was that they'd gone to Gringotts to get the gold but their vaults had been emptied (by the Dark Lord! was usually included in the notes and not many of them had had enough sense to put that in code). Eventually he and Narcissa decided that the only way for them to get the gold they needed to escape before the master came to get his diary and killed them…. eventually…. Lucius was under no misapprehensions about the possibility of his master giving him a merciful death, he would be made to suffer through what would seem like a lifetime of agony before he was allowed to die…. Would be to get Sirius Black tried and convicted so that they could finally claim the Black fortune.
Narcissa's cousin Sirius Black was supposed to have died in Azkaban, but he not only somehow survived the dementors' attentions for twelve years, he'd managed to escape! This would have been so much simpler if Bagnold had just given Black the sham trial she was supposed to with the evidence they set up back in Eighty One, because that would have removed him from the line of succession leaving Draco, as the only surviving male Heir to the House of Black, to inherit the Black titles and fortune when the old man finally died in Ninety One. But no, Crouch or Dumbledore (they said it was Dumbledore, but that didn't make any sense) had decided that putting Black on trial would complicate things too much, so they and Bagnold signed an executive order to have him sent directly to Azkaban. There was currently a kiss on sight order out for Black, but it had been over a month now and no-one had seen him, and with the Dark Lord becoming active Lucius couldn't afford to wait any longer so he'd have to get Fudge to force Black's trial through immediately so they could get him sentenced on the basis of the 'evidence' that Fudge and his team had recorded at the time and Draco could inherit. Fudge would of course try to play him along for a while to get more gold, but he couldn't pay any serious bribes at the moment, so the best way to handle the useless little Flobberworm would be to spin him a line about having very little time to secure the deal of a lifetime but he needed more gold than he could pull in from his normal sources in time (the number of his associates visiting Gringotts in the last day or so would support that story), then promise him ten times what he would ask for if Black's sentencing was pushed through in a hurry so they could use the Black gold to seal the deal before it was too late.
With the decision made, Lucius got himself cleaned up and Flooed to the Ministry, slipping in via a back office so that he wouldn't be seen because if anyone told the master he was there he'd probably be grabbed and dragged before the Dark Lord before he could say Boy Bits. Luckily Fudge's secretary knew that Lord Malfoy was to be shown straight in as soon as he arrived so Lucius was in and out in less than twenty minutes with the promise that Sirius Black would be tried and convicted that week. He left Fudge dribbling on his robes as he dreamed about everything he could buy with the massive pile of gold this would get him.
