Art of War
Tyene: I can't believe you haven't broken your brain trying to do this all at once.
Wanda: (typing away while listening to Icon for Hire) Did you say something? Everyone has to have a hobby!
Tyene: (rolls her eyes) Okay, if you're not going to pay attention to me, I'm going to go hunt some ice monsters. I do not own Harry Potter, and neither does she (jerks thumb at Wanda).
Chapter 7: Liar, Liar
Fudge didn't like dealing with parents. Especially because it was their votes that put him in office.
The accusations in Rita Skeeter's article had spread like wildfire in very short order. Howlers had been pouring into the Ministry for hours; the Unspeakables were still doing damage control to keep the building operational.
The worst part were the people pouring in for inheritance tests. They wanted to see if their parents were truly their parents, or if they had been duped.
Fudge had checked the reels that were mentioned in the article, and blanched. While he had known of the list's existence, he had no idea how widespread it was. However, from the looks of it, nearly a quarter of those children who were supposedly 'muggleborn' were actually bastard children of the pureblood nobility.
Now, the Minister was being faced with an unenviable choice – confess to the existence of the list and risk alienating his rich backers, who obviously did not care to acknowledge their children by muggles, or attempt to cover it up.
Covering it up would be very difficult at this point. The information had been spreading too far. The most likely thing to do, however, was to try and distort the actual number from the list. To keep it contained within his office, and hopefully keep out snoops like Skeeter.
There was one name on the list that caught his attention. Hermione Granger.
Or, more accurately, Hermione Lestrange-Granger.
When he had reached that name, the corrupt Minister of Magic had been tempted to do a little happy dance.
Fudge wanted to get back at Harry Potter for revealing this cover up. How did the brat-who-lied even discover such things? Surely no one from an upstanding pureblood family would have revealed such sensitive information to an attention-seeker like him.
But now, if everyone knew who Hermione's father really was, he would have to protect her. Perhaps he'd even drop her for daring to have a 'Death Eater' for a parent. Hah!
There were a few other names too. Sally-Anne Perks was really Sally-Anne Greengrass-Perks. Dean Thomas was really Dean Malfoy-Thomas. Lavander Brown was Lavander Black. (hey, pure blooded woman had kinks too. Plus, Narcissa's blonde hair was rather distinctive.) Colin Creevy was Colin Pritchard. The list went on.
It didn't matter what impact that would have on the women (and men) involved. According to the Ministry, they should be delighted to be given the attentions of such noble wizards, low born as they were.
"We're going to admit to something small," Fudge declared, "And open a small door for legitimization. That should do something against the tide of bad publicity. Dawlish!"
Back At Hogwarts, the Next Day
Harry was brought out of his nap by Hermione's shriek of horror.
He scrambled down into the Gryffindor common room, where Hermione had dropped that day's copy of the Daily Prophet and looked close to hyperventilating. Ginny and Neville were standing on either side of her, holding her hands and looking disgusted.
She wasn't the only one. Lavander Brown looked shell-shocked, an equally stunned Pavarti putting her hand on her shoulder and swearing that this didn't change their friendship. Colin Creevy just looked stumped.
"What is it?" Harry demanded, aghast. "What happened?"
Hermione just sobbed and sank into the chair by the fire place. Ginny, her voice temporarily lost, just handed Harry the copy of the newspaper.
Harry grabbed it and scanned the columns until he reached Fudge's address. "I do confess that there have been a few indescribable that were overlooked the last few years. It is true, there have been some children of noble houses that have been believed to be muggleborns when they entered Hogwarts. As Minister, I wish to right this wrong. All the children mentioned in the list below have been legitimizated, made true members of the Wizarding Community.
Hermione Granger, fifth year Gryffindor, is the daughter of Rabastian Lestrange.
Lavander Brown, fifth year Gryffindor, is a Black through her mother, who still wishes to remain unnamed.
Colin Creevy, fourth year Gryffindor, is the son of Drake Pritchard.
Sally Anne Perks, fifth year Hufflepuff, is the daughter of Caius Greengrass.
Lisa Turpin, fourth year Ravenclaw, is the daughter of Lucius Malfoy.
Heather Campbell, fourth year Ravenclaw, is the daughter of Amycus Carrow.
Eleanor Branstone, second year Hufflepuff, is the granddaughter of Orion Black.
Dean Thomas, fifth year Gryffindor, is the son of Lucius Malfoy.
Janos Train, third year Ravenclaw, is the grandson of Albatrax Malfoy.
Natalie MacDonald, second year Gryffindor, is the daughter of Regulus Black.
Megan Jones, fifth year Hufflepuff, is the granddaughter of Orion Black.
All these children have been recognized as part of a noble house, entitled to allowance and a higher standing then their previous lives suggested. It is heavily suggested that these children take on their family names, so the shrinking houses may continue and they suffer no more abuse for being 'lesser wizards and witches'.
Harry stared down at the list for several minutes, not quite comprehending it. Finally, he tore his eyes away from the missive, the words 'lesser witches and wizards' burning in his ears, to face his distraught friend.
"Hermione," He began, at loss for words.
"He raped my mother, Harry." Hermione sobbed. "He raped her and made her forget. Now they want me to take his name."
Ginny squeezed her hand. "You don't have to, Hermione. And if they twist your arm, you can keep your real surname over it. He's not your real father. Daniel Granger is your real father."
"There are probably a lot more names then that," Neville said grimly. "Fudge is releasing just enough to do damage control...and to try and hurt us while he's at it."
Harry shook his head. "This calls for a meeting."
In the Room of Requirement
"He. Is. Not. My. Grandfather." If Megan Jones could spit fire, Harry's hand would be nothing but ash. A look of pure hatred had overcome her face. "I will die before I acknowledge a raping pureblood bastard as my family!"
"If I meet Rabastian Lestrange, I will kill him with my bare hands!" Hermione said, still slightly teary but now full of righteous rage once again.
"As horrifying as this is," Lisa Turpin said thoughtfully, "I'm going to love forcing Draco Malfoy to call me 'sister'."
Nervous laughter rippled through the crowd. Harry let out a nervous breath he hadn't realized he had been holding. He had expected the response to this news to be more violent, but thankfully no one seemed prepared to attack Hermione or the other students who's blood parents were the vicious death eaters they had sworn to take down.
Colin had walked over and sat next to Graham and Maya Pritchard. While there was a certain awkwardness between them, Graham seemed almost receptive of having another family member.
"I can't believe this," Lavander Brown said. Upon this realization, she had followed Hermione to the Room and sworn herself in as a Wolverine, along with her loyal friend Pavarti. "My blood mother's last name is here, and she still doesn't have the guts to acknowledge me? What a bitch. My real mother is Aggie Brown."
"I'm willing to bet ten galleons that your blood mother is Narcissa Black," Graham said. When Lavander gave him a look of horrified disgust, he elaborated, "Punishments for 'indiscretions'" He puts the words in quotation marks, "Are much more severe for the woman than the man. Bellatrix is in Azkaban as of now and I sincerely doubt Andromeda Black, who ran away and married a muggle, is responsible. So that leaves Narcissa, who won't be keen on her husband discovering this."
"Oh, thanks," Lavander muttered. "Before I was just partially tempted to throw up...now I'm sure I'm going to throw up."
"It isn't just you," Lisa said, her eyes showing that despite the levity she was treating the situation with, she was just as angry as anyone else.
"There's definitely more who aren't mentioned on the list," Daphne Greengrass said. "My father makes little secret of how he abuses Imperio and Obliviate, since my mother has gone barren after Astoria's birth." Her younger sister clenched her fist at the reminder.
Daphne then gestured for Sally to come and join her. The Hufflepuff looked uncertain at first, but then walked over. "We're sisters," The Slytherin Ice Queen told the other girl, to the amazement of those who knew her by reputation. "And sisters look out for one another."
Eleanor and Natalie exchanged nervous looks. As granddaughters of one of the most infamous pureblood families, their lives were about to change quite drastically.
"It can't be helped," Flora said grimly. "This information is now out in the open. The question is, how do we adapt to it, and – if possible – how could we use it to our advantage?"
"We don't mean by getting in any way close to those responsible," Hermione added quickly when Megan opened her mouth to let out a scathing rant, "But we all know that those who belong to 'pure-blood' houses tend to get a lot of privileges that others don't. Now that some of us have been 'acknowledged'" She made a face at the words, "We may, despite being half muggle, be made privy to some of these privileges."
"There's a reason that Fudge decided to cut his losses and have some of you declared legitimate," Hestia continued. "A lot of the vaunted 'pure blood houses' have grown smaller over the last few years. Clearly he hopes to expand the roster by acknowledging those who have this ancestry. Particularly the Blacks, since only Sirius Black remains a pure, direct descendant of Orion Black."
A wave of murmurs spread through the crowd. While Harry was yet to reveal the complete details yet (due to lack of Pettigrew for proof) he had spread some doubt regarding Sirius's supposed betrayal of his parents. He wondered if Sirius had gotten the prophet, and knew that he had a niece and two grand-nieces he had never met.
"...I'm not going to have to live with Malfoy, am I?" Janos looked understandably unnerved at the concept.
Heather Campbell made a production of gagging. "If I had to live in the same house as that boy for a week," She said, "Either I will murder him or he will murder me. I guarantee I'd be trying first. Thank god at least my pure blood siblings are sane."
Hestia smiled brightly in return for Heather's friendly look.
Ron let out a short laugh. "And I doubt he'd want that either. What this seems to entail is stuff like money and possibly land or house titles."
Natalie's eyes widened. "Hey! If some of us have inherited houses, we could turn those into bases outside of school!"
For a second, Harry was stuck dumb. Then he laughed and said, "You're right, Natalie! Do any of you know what you've been entitled to yet?"
"It doesn't say in the newspaper," Hermione said with a frown.
"They don't publish that kind of information," Flora explained. "You'll likely be summoned to Gringotts either later today or tomorrow, given keys to vaults and such. They may be the most vicious, ponderous bastards ever suffered to walk to earth, but many are fabulously wealthy and have multiple homes. Likely Fudge is arguing with your so called 'blood families' into parting with a few things in an effort to quiet things down."
"As much as I'm sure you guys would hate to acknowledge them," Harry told the crowd, "Both money and houses would be invaluable to our efforts."
Lisa, Lavander, Natalie, Eleanor, Dean, Colin and the rest looked contemplative at this. Megan still looked furious and unlikely to consent. Harry didn't blame her, but he couldn't deny this could be potentially useful.
"We'd have to make sure that none of our 'parents' would be able to access them," Lisa said, "I'm sure there's magic for that, in case they can."
"Anti-Floo and Apparation wards." Blaise said. "I'm fairly familiar with them – I could help set them up under such circumstances."
"That sounds good," Harry said. "Now, we'd better head down for lunch. I imagine it will be an interesting meal."
Genuine laughter rippled through the Wolverines. Lisa looked like she was searching for a camera.
At Lunch
All it took was a casual glance down the Slytherin table to see how well Draco and his fellow blood purists were taking this revelation.
Draco looked like he wanted to scream. Harry had cautioned Dean, Janos and Lisa to watch their backs around him – undoubtedly Draco would not be interested in either acknowledging them or shaking anything he thought was rightfully his.
Eleanor and Natalie had gone to sit with Megan, reasoning that despite their mutual hatred of their new heritage, that blood made them family. Hermione had been concerned that Megan would snap at them, but thankfully the bitterly angry girl had welcomed them with little comment.
Harry was pre-occupied helping Hermione through the revelation. Once they were relatively alone, Hermione had started crying and apologizing to Neville about his parents. Neville had gently but firmly said that what happened to them was not her fault, she hadn't even been old enough to walk then. It was Bellatrix and her husband's fault, no one elses.
Harry was also aware that if or when Bellatrix escaped Azkaban, she was not going to take Hermione's presence quietly. Mentally he made a plan to kick up weapons and magic training, as well as trying to create some portable portkeys so Hermione would be able to escape should such a thing come to pass.
He had written a letter to Sirius earlier. He thought that, though he hated his family, he wouldn't mind acknowledging the girls or helping them. After all, they were just kids, and what better revenge against his purist parents then to give sanctuary to their half blood children?
Sure enough, owls carrying official letters fluttered throughout the hall just as Daphne had predicted. One was a letter for Hermione, who opened it and read aloud so her friends could hear.
"Seeing as the Lestranges have been put in jail and have no legal rights to their property, you are now the soul inheritor of their estate, including the Mansion and the vaults," Hermione said, shock filling her voice at the last bit, "It is requested that you and the other new heirs travel to Gringotts this afternoon in order to sort out the finances."
Turning towards Harry, she said, "A mansion and vaults! They might as well paint a target on my back and strap a sign to me saying, 'I'm a threat and upstart halfblood, please kill me!'"
"I know Hermione. But to be honest, you're already a threat. This just makes us more public." Harry said semi-comfortingly. "I think you should go, too."
"This isn't gonna go away," Ron agreed. Hermione sighed and smiled weakly at her two best friends, before nodding and tucking the letter back into its envelope and leaving the table.
A goblin had appeared not long after the letters were received. All the 'new' half blood students walked over to join him, while Draco seethed in his seat. Clearly he was planning to rant at Snape or his father the moment he could.
Hermione tried to look encouraging at the younger kids when they were lead out and taken through the floo. The goblin, Griphook, didn't say much until they reached Gringotts.
At Gringotts
"These are your keys," Griphook drawled, handing a brass key to each student. "Your new money and property have been separated from the family vaults. While you are legitimate, you are children of different fathers and mothers so the families have refused to claim you directly. Instead they settled on parting with fractions of their fortunes, as agreed on by both the Ministry and Gringotts."
"I hadn't realized Gringotts had different standards from the Ministry." Heather said in surprise.
Griphook gave Heather a toothy smile. "It is a disgusting sin, to abandon a child, Heather Campbell-Carrow. In the goblin kingdom, you either claim your children, or loose your wealth and standing. It is our law."
Janos looked impressed. Juding by Sally and Dean's expressions, this was not common knowledge. Hermione knew about it thanks to in-depth studying, but it warmed her to hear it all the same. In many ways, the goblins were kinder and better people then the purebloods like Malfoy.
"Janos Train-Malfoy, Lisa Turpin-Malfoy, Dean Thomas-Malfoy, Bearclaw shall take you down to your vaults." Griphook said as two other goblins approached. Bearclaw indicated for them to follow, which they did somewhat nervously.
"Megan Jones-Black" Megan visibly glowered at being called that, "Natalie MacDonald-Black, Eleanor Branstone-Black, you are with Dragontooth. The rest of you...follow me."
Hermione obligingly followed Griphook down to the carts, where the rickety train ride pulled them deep down underground. They passed by a dragon, sleeping in a corridor.
They really did have dragons guarding Gringotts, Hermione thought with shock. They slipped past him.
"Granger first," Griphook said, buisness-like, pointing a clawed hand at one of three closed vaults. Taking a breath, Hermione walked over to it and opened it with her new key. She gasped when she saw the heaps of gold inside.
"The other two vaults have to be inspected before you can remove anything," Griphook said from somewhere behind her. "Given the nature of the previous owners. Now, all of this is yours."
Sally swore she saw the goblin grin at this.
Later that Day, Room of Requirement
"I have never seen that much gold in one place. Even in the movies," Hermione confined in Harry when the next meeting started in earnest. "Also, I have the deed to their Mansion. It would make a good base outside of school – it's very spacious, plenty of warding to keep out intruders. With a little extra protection, like a Feildus or blood ward, it would be perfect for hiding refugees."
"Natalie and Eleanor got houses to," Flora reported. "The lady black was a spiteful bitch when it came to Sirius – only Grimmauld place was given to him, and that's because he was the last living heir. She would rather let her family's assets be liquidated then give them to him because he befriended James Potter in his youth."
Harry expelled an angry breath. He'd gotten a good idea of what a mad bitch Walburga had been thanks to her portrait, but realizing that Sirius had a childhood not all that dissimilar from his was a depressing thought. Had anything good ever happened to Sirius, besides meeting my father and Professor Lupin?
"The rest of us got mainly money and magic trinkets." Lisa Turpin said. "I'm pretty sure Malfoy would have rather died then given us a place to live. If we need more supplies at any point, we're pretty much set."
Harry nodded, before leaning back in his chair. "Well, now that we have places outside of school, we should think of leaving...permanently. At least, some of us."
"Do you have a new attack plan?" Flora asked, intrigued.
"A two-pronged variant." Harry said. "First, we're going to set of a number of controlled explosions within both Gryffindor and Slytherin dorms. The second part is to throw off suspicion as much as possible, while the other one will give some of us an excuse to pull out of school thanks to 'danger'."
"Secondly," Megan Jones said, eyes narrowed in delight. "We're going to attack the Ministry. Not a siege or attempted take over – we go in, blast and blow some things up, then portkey out of there – with the prophecy, and perhaps the rest of that list that Fudge was so afraid of."
"So I need enough portkeys for a thirty-man party," Harry explained. Hands all over shot up immediately. "Those involved should be good with disillusionment charms as well, to conceal their identities. Before we portkey away, we're going to leave a message. A statement."
His eyes narrowed. "Voldemort and The Ministry won't have their way for much longer. A revolution is on the horizon, and we're going to destroy everything they've ever built."
End Chapter
Next comes the attacks and the reveal! If Fudge thought he was in trouble now, wait until Voldemort hears that he's not so invincible after all.
Read and Review please!
