Summary: Wizarding World is mistrudful of muggles as ever, however, it needs more alliances, and although everyone is sceptical that muggles could be of any help, Dumbledore is convinced otherwise. That's why the children of various powerful people in politics/economy are comming to Hogwarts for a year, to unify both worlds against Voldemort and to create an understanding between them.

Chapter 2

The Lord Council

'You look good enough to eat, Harry,' leered Seamus.

Harry smirked at his reflection in the mirror and twirled around. He really did look that good. He was wearing deep green formal robes that consisted of three peaces: a light silver tunic, a green robe on top of it that was a bit shorter than the tunic, showing it off, and the final peace - deep green colored sleeveless cloak with a high collar. It was done with gorgeous silver lining and embroidery and could be tied in the front with tiny silver ropes. His hair was loose and had an almost bluish tint to it when light hit it just right (he spent hours trying to get it that way, much to his annoyance… curse his Potter genes).

The best part of it - he didn't look Slytherin at all, even with its colors all over him. The attire only served to bring out his eyes even more (which no-one who saw him failed to point out).

'I'll take that as a compliment,' Harry winked at his (obviously) gay roommate. The other boy grinned at him and suggestively licked his lips. Harry laughed. He didn't consider himself gay by any means, but he was tolerant of them nonetheless.

Suddenly the door opened and Ron came in. Upon seeing Harry his eyes flashed with something akin to jealousy but it was soon covered up with a grin. Harry wasn't even sure he saw it correctly.

'Looking good, mate. Finally going to that Council meeting? Why have you dressed like you are going to meet a Slytherin royalty or something?' The redhead asked, once he had settled down on his bed. It was said surprisingly good-naturedly, given his dislike for all things Slytherin.

'Yeah, I can't wait for it actually,' Harry smiled a bit awkwardly and shrugged his shoulders lightly. 'And I think it would be best to go dressed up. I am a Lord after all, and it's not proper to go around in muggle clothes or appear at such meetings in a school uniform. It was Hermione, who recommended these robes actually. All complaints about the color to her, please' he joked with a slight smile. Harry had missed the old times, when every little matter was shared with his best friends and there were no secrets between them.

Ron nodded with a slight hesitation, and even managed to squeeze out a small smile at the last sentence, which looked far too painful to be sincere, in Harry's opinion. Well, at least he made an effort, he thought bit bitterly, but didn't say anything about it. He couldn't fault Ron for feeling insecure, especially when the redhead thought that what made him special among his family was the friendship he shared with the Boy-Who-Lived and all the adventured they experienced along with Hermione. Harry knew that Ron had such thoughts and always compared himself with him, but didn't mention it because he believed and would always believe that their friendship was sincere.

'Oh, look at the time! I better get going if I don't want to be late…' he cried with fake surprise (anything to get out of the awkward atmosphere that settled in the room) and quickly saying his goodbyes to Ron and Seamus ran out of the dorms.

The past two days were awkward for him. Hermione was always pestering him about this and that and Ron's silence made it all even more unbearable. Usually his best friend would tell Hermione to lay off a bit but now it seemed that their friendship was shaky at best and Harry had no idea what to do about it. He didn't even know how to act around them and because of that he was always snappish. He loved both of them, but sometimes they were just too much, though he knew that they wished for the best.

Therefore, it was a relief to leave the castle behind, even if for a short while. Still, he regretted how things seemed to turn out lately. With Lord Council, being the Head Boy and muggles coming soon, he hadn't had much time to socialize and drifted apart from everyone. Even Slytherins insulted him less than usual (apart from Malfoy who didn't know how to give up, especially after their encounter two days ago).

However, though muggles haven't caused many problems yet (it was possibly due to the fact that they weren't even there yet) the preparations have already begun. Just the other day Harry, along with Daphne Greengrass, who was the Head Girl, had to organize Prefects and explain the duties they would have when muggles finally arrived.

Not only would all Prefects have to show muggle kids to every class (at least for the first few weeks) but they would also have to supervise everything (show muggles around, explain magic, customs, politics, help with any kind of problems that Professors couldn't or didn't have the time to deal with and so on) and protect them from any and all harm that could befall them (for example Malfoy). It was actually quite tedious to even remember what they were supposed to do, not to mention actually doing it. And he, together with Daphne, would have to organize schedules and similar things. It wouldn't have been such a problem if there wouldn't be Quidich practices and other clubs that they would have to coordinate with. The situation was almost hopeless, for Merlin's sake! Harry was only glad that he wasn't responsible for showing muggles around in his NEWT's year. That would have been truly awful!

Ever since his encounter with Malfoy things seemed tense between them (at least tenser then usual). Malfoy acted normal: insulted, called him names and had been generally nasty when they passed each other in the hallways. However, Harry knew his rival for quite a while (six years was a long time, after all) and could detect slightly tenser then normal posture, vary eyes and tightening corner of his mouth whenever the Slytherin caught a sight of him. It was actually quite annoying, since even Ron began to suspect something, especially when Harry himself acted slightly differently then normal, though, like Malfoy, he tried to hide it, not very successfully, mind you, because even first years seemed to notice subtle smirks and silently mouthed words 'daddy's boy' or 'pervert'. Well, he was a Gryffindor for a reason. He never claimed that 'Subtley' was his second name, or anything similar, for that matter. Actually, it was quite the opposite. His parents should have named him 'Harry Blunt Potter' just for the hell of it (and it wouldn't even make for a bad name… seriously!).

Suddenly Harry's thoughts came to a halt. He was already outside of the Hogwart's Gate! That sure was quick… There were two possibilities as to how he got there so fast: a) he was just that fast (maybe after the years spent 'playing' Harry Hunting swiftness just came naturally), or b) he hadn't paid attention to his surroundings. Again! Ever since he got that letter he could hardly concentrate on his surroundings because his mind was occupied with thoughts of politics, Dumbledore, Ron and Hermione, Death Eaters and Voldemort. Truthfully, it was clear that the second option was correct, but then again…

He decided to ponder his absentmindedness at a later date because it was almost time for his long awaited meeting.

And with a soft crack Harry apparated to the designated location.

- Visitors -

Harry stumbled when he appeared in a spacious and beautifully decorated hallway but cached himself in time and even managed to look like nothing so undignified had ever happened to him. Huh, looks like he was already starting to act like a pompous git. Better watch out, unless he wanted to become like Malfoy, which he definitely did not want. The only person he wanted to become less like was Voldemort and it was only because he was so ugly (at least with his snake face and all). However, he didn't mind becoming insane because, c'mon, being insane was fun. Just look at dear Bella! Every time he saw her she was cackling at absolutely nothing. What would happen if something really funny occurred? Would she die of laughing so hard? Hmm… that thought was worth consideration. He should research some epic jokes and tell them to Bellatrix the next time he saw her… It wouldn't really be intentional murder, would it?

'Ah, Lord Potter! What a pleasure to finally meet you in person,' cried someone from behind him. Harry quickly turned around but managed to restrain himself from jumping and drawing out his wand.

'Good day, and you are?' He quickly pulled himself together and smiled at the person before him, who vaguely reminded Harry of someone. It was a tall man with pale skin and dark locks falling into his eyes, which were dark grey and twinkled at him mischievously.

'Oh, excuse my manners, I am Lord Goldstein, I believe my nephew is in the same year as you, only in a different House - Ravenclaw,' the man grinned. If only all purebloods were like that… Oh well, you can't have everything…

Harry nodded dumbly, not quite sure how to respond to the much too cheerful man. Though, now that he thought about Anthony Goldstein, he could see some similarities between them.

'Well, I think the meeting is about to start, so why don't we head down?' Lord Goldstein suggested and promptly started walking in the direction of huge, nicely decorated doors. Harry obediently followed him.

If he thought that the hallway he was previously in was beautiful, then there were no words to describe how the Council room looked like. It was gorgeous, decorated in light blues and whites, which gave the room light and almost dreamy feeling. The room was round with large windows surrounding the occupants of the place, who were seated in half circle. It almost looked like Parliament (at least how Harry imagined it would look like) with light brown desks going down and facing the large one in the center. It was where the Lord Council's elected Head sat.

The Head's elections were done once a year and the conception of the Council's workings was surprisingly democratic. There could be no cheatings, manipulations or other similar things because of the spells. And if those spells detected sabotage attempts, the family Lord was thrown out, no questions asked. Even if said Lord had done the deed against his will (he was imperio'd or otherwise controlled) it just showed that his will wasn't strong enough to be in the highly esteemed Council. However, if there was such case, the Council allowed said family to reelect another Lord (it wasn't actually family's fault that their Lord was a dunderhead, as Snape would surely say).

'Be seated,' a clear voice rang out, amplified by Sonorus spell.

Lord Goldstein indicated with his hand Harry's seat and moved to sit beside him.

Once Harry was finally seated he turned his attention to the speaker. It was a tall blond man with honey colored eyes and skin so pale, that Harry almost convinced himself that he was a vampire. The man commanded attention naturally, like Snape or McGonagall in their classes. Harry considered the man carefully. He was in his thirties, maybe forties, but got elected despite his relatively young age (for wizards). That spoke of him more than his appearance did. To be elected meant that more than half of the Lords currently in the room considered him if not superior to them, then at least worth their respect. He wondered about that. Most Lords were pureblood and a lot of them openly sided with Voldemort or at least supported him. Was he a dark wizard then? Then again, Harry didn't care for that all that much. A year ago, when studying about Wizarding world's culture, he learned that thousands years ago dark magic was considered more 'natural', coming directly from earth, thus, more powerful too. Because of that it wasn't a secret that a lot of pureblood families were dark wizards, even if they were forced to keep it under the wraps because of the laws that were installed when the number of muggleborns coming to Hogwarts increased. In the 1715 it was discovered that muggleborns generally couldn't do dark magic, because it cost them too much power. Their cores just weren't attuned to it.

Given that, Harry concluded that a lot of purebloods joined Voldemort because they wanted to freely practice the wilder branch of magic, not that it excused their actions. Harry just couldn't excuse killing, torture and other violent actions that were done for the sake of the cause. Although, he could finally understand, why purebloods hated muggleborns, though he wouldn't ever tell this Hermione; she would chew him out for sure.

Harry snapped to attention when the Head asked if there were any matters that the Lords wanted to bring up.

An old man, possibly as old as Dumbledore, stood up from his seat, which was a few rows bellow Harry's and to his left, and said in an attention demanding tone: 'There are a few matters I wanted to bring up. First of all, we haven't finished our discussion about muggles becoming aware of magic the previous time and haven't reached a decision. The Wizengamot is still waiting for our opinion, which we have been holding in since the time all these talks started. It has been almost two months since the decision to let muggles in to Hogwarts has been reached without our approval. Will we do nothing? Will we let Dumbledore and Fudge control us?'

It was a passionate speech. Harry couldn't see the man's face from his seat but he was almost certain that it was twisted with anger and hate. He looked around the place and saw that everyone who was there had their features schooled into perfect masks. Even Lord Goldstein, who appeared so cheerful previously, looked as if nothing could ever surprise him. Suddenly, Harry clearly saw his position. Sitting there, surrounded by the most powerful political figures in Magical Britain, thinking that he could understand all of them, keep his emotions and expressions in check, keeping up with these people… Right now it was impossible. He could only sit back and watch, because he was only an amateur in these adult games. A total noob, as a muggle would probably say…

'They didn't ask us what we think,' finally said someone after a long silence. 'They just assumed. Most of us are purebloods, our standing is clear in their minds. They don't understand neither the reasons for our opposition, nor the consequences they'll have to face in the end, because they think they know better. Dumbledore is a fool if he thinks he will be able to control the muggles. They are far smarter then most wizards give them credit for. Our politicians are susceptible to money, fame and other material things. They don't use their brains. At all. Given the right tools, given the right to make decisions, not just suggest them, we could lead the Britain's Wizarding World into a new age, but as we are now, we can't.'

'Amberight, we know your standings in this matter,' replied the Head. 'The question is: what should we do? There's no time to prevent muggles from arriving, they already know of us, everything is prepared. We have to somehow get their help, if that's even possible, and prevent them from doing any harm on their stay and after that.'

It was reasonable, all of it was perfectly reasonable, and that was strange. He hadn't wondered before about Ron's rants that all Slytherins were evil, he hadn't even thought about purebloods' standings in any matters before. To him, those who had status, connections and money in the Wizarding World, were prejudiced, controlling, unfair. Now he realized that he was probably the one with the wrong beliefs (if there even could be absolutely correct ones). However, the question was: why? Why were they against muggles helping with the war, why were they afraid? What they were afraid of? And, finally, why wasn't he aware of any of it?

- Visitors -

Harry returned from the session bothered, with a lot of things on his mind.

While nothing of importance has been decided (only a few new laws reviewed and a few suggested), it was clear that it wouldn't remain so for long. Harry didn't have a lot of time to come to a decision - who to support. When he first came to the Wizarding World, he learned to believe that more liberal and diplomatic approach on the matters was the correct one, especially when all his friends thought the same. Now, though, when he heard the other side, the more reasonable than Voldemort's side, his values took a hit. Obviously, purebloods were correct when they protested against the degradation of magic (meaning, the ban against dark magic). Their cores would grow smaller and weaker and after a few centuries all magic would be lost. Harry didn't want that, but he also thought that discrimination against muggleborns was unfair; it wasn't their fault that they could use only the light magic… Then there was also the matter with muggles…

Harry sighted and rubbed his eyes tiredly. He thought he could just crash into his bed and never wake up… like lions in the winter… or was it bears? Damn, he seriously needed to get some rest and leave contemplations and politics for tomorrow… or the day after… or…

With these thoughts his eyes finally closed and he drifted into a deep sleep.