Chapter Nine: Best Laid Schemes
It was the day before they were to return home from another year at Hogwarts. Something that Elizabeth was not quite looking forward to, after all, she would have to return home to the Dursleys. She wanted to just run, but she was worried that Dumbledore would suspect that Andromeda had something to do with this and thus she would get into trouble. Elizabeth looked longingly, at all of the students at Hogwarts chatting in an excited matter, bursting with anticipating of going home with their families. She wondered what that might be like to go home to a family that cared about her. The thing with her grandmother was weighing heavy on her mind, if she could have found a way to cure her, than Elizabeth would never have to return to the Dursleys. The fact was, Elizabeth had no idea where she would have went, as she sat down at the Ravenclaw table between Lisa and Padma. Despite the fact they were friends, Elizabeth decided not to mention about Eskara being her grandmother. All Elizabeth told them was that her and Draco just barely managed to escape and the rest was a blur.
"You look depressed," said Padma with a concerned look, but it was plainly obvious the reason why.
"The year's over," answered Elizabeth with a wistful sigh, as she looked at them, they had families to go home to. She considered the Dursleys to be related to her unfortunately, but not her families.
"And you have to return to them," said Lisa with a frown as Elizabeth nodded, frustration mounting on her face.
"Only for a month, I'm going to Harry's on my birthday," said Elizabeth. "I spent ten years there, ten long years, I'm sure I can sustain a month."
"If you say so, Liz," said Lisa. "Don't give up hope that you'll find a way out of there, maybe you should contact the Wizengamot. Surely they could get your custody with the Dursleys overturned. It's got to be worth a shot."
"Dumbledore's the Chief Warlock, remember?" said Elizabeth. "Harry's mother tried to get the Ministry to look closer, but they shot her down any time. They're going to do everything Dumbledore says. I don't know why Dumbledore insists on keeping me there, he says he's keeping there for my own safety or something like that."
Elizabeth sat, seeing Dudley glare at her from the Slytherin table. The results from the exams had come in just recently and Dudley had failed everything. It was a small consolation that Dudley would not be attending Hogwarts any longer. Despite that Vernon and Petunia did not what her precious little son to be contaminated by magic, Elizabeth had the strangest feeling that she was going to get blamed for Dudley failing. The fact that she was second in her year, just slightly ahead of Hermione Granger but a bit behind Harry in the class standings was not going to help her cause when she got home at all.
"Well, one good thing, at least he won't be coming here next year," said Lisa in an attempt to cheer Elizabeth up, and this earned a slight, if strained, smile from her face.
"Yeah that's a good thing, I guess," answered Elizabeth as she looked at Dudley. That was the kind of look that he gave her right before Dudley had his gang hold Elizabeth's arms behind her back so he could pummel her, as she took a few more bites of breakfast, trying to eat up as much as she could before she returned home. "How much time do we have before the train is going to leave anyway?"
"Three and a half hours," replied Padma promptly. "That should give us enough time to make sure everything is packed and make sure all of our library books are not late at being returned."
"Yes. I don't want to go through that again," shuddered Lisa, remembering when she had neglected to do so and the book had began beating her on the head. Needless to say she vowed to never make that fatal error. The three girls got to their feet, before they made their way to their dormitory to do one last check through of items that they might have missed packing the first time through.
-
The Hogwarts Express was a long ride back to the school. Harry, Elizabeth, Lisa, and Padma all found a compartment to sit in together. After a few minutes, with Elizabeth sitting in an uncomfortable silence, a bit of a sorrowful look in her emerald green eyes, Harry looked over, leaning forward, before speaking to her.
"Lizzie, I know, you have to return, it's not what you want, but we'll get you out of there somewhere, even if I have to flood Dumbledore's office with owls every single day of the summer," said Harry, and Elizabeth gave a strained smile in spite of the situation. "He needs to see the truth, that it's not good for your health if you are staying there, but don't try and run away, it will just make everything worse."
"I understand Harry, believe me, I do," stated Elizabeth quietly, as she looked at the window, it was getting closer to Kings Cross in London, as she felt great anger towards Dumbledore. She envisioned him getting blasted through the wall, laying in a puddle of his own blood, for what he did to her. "It's just, it will be a bit boring this summer…"
"It doesn't have to be though, I'll write to you every single day, we all will," stated Harry in a firm force and Padma and Lisa both nodded in agreement, they were planning to anyway.
"Yes, don't worry, Liz, every single day, like clockwork, you're get something from us," added Lisa, as the train came to a slow stop, as the four first years, soon to be second years moved forward, lifting up their trunks, lightening charms placed on them, as they moved towards the exit of the train. Dudley brushed towards Elizabeth, anger in his eyes, as he passed her.
"You all have a nice summer," said Elizabeth and the others nodded, about ready to wish her the same thing, but catching a glimpse of her relatives at the edge of the train station had made them realize it will be a bit of wishful thinking. "Harry, maybe you should go and find…"
"No, I'd like to meet your relatives," said Harry, as he stared at Vernon and Petunia, who were glaring impatiently towards the edge of the platform where Dudley had just exited. Dudley was telling them something, that obviously was not to their pleasure. As they edged closer they heard a bit of the conversation.
"Absolutely not, Dudley, you took your first year, we did what that woman told us, we won't write to that freak place and let you stand in there another moment!" boomed Vernon in a loud voice, as he watched Dudley, who held the wand in his hand, along with a note that said that the Ministry of Magic representatives would be here to snap it the next day. "No son of my would be a freak, its bad enough we had your freakish cousin had to be forced onto us."
"But Dad…" whined Dudley, he was confident if he spent just a little bit more time, he could put his cousin in her place and expose her as the fraud she was but Vernon's purple face turned towards his son, obviously angry at him for daring to question him, wanting to be a freak of all things.
"Enough, not another word, you were supposed to go to Smeltings, a respectable institution and it's lucky I managed to call someone to get you admitted a year late, a year that you wasted at that school," replied Vernon as Dudley entered the car, with Petunia just standing there, not saying anything as Vernon slowly turned to Elizabeth. "And it's about time you showed up, you…"
"Hello, Mr. Dursley," said Harry, using Vernon's formal title with a bit of sarcasm. "I'm Elizabeth's friend Harry, from Hogwarts."
Petunia's eyes perked up at the word "Harry", giving a frown that was oblivious by both Vernon and Elizabeth, as Vernon stared at Harry, absolutely enraged that this boy had the gall to interrupt him when he was putting the little freak in her place.
"What should I care if you're her friend?" demanded Vernon, his face growing purple. "I don't care, you're not coming around my house, the neighbors could say something, so don't be thinking I'll have another one near my family. Dudley's already corrupted..."
Vernon went off on a rant, Harry would be astonished if he did not drop dead of a heart attack right before their very eyes, given how angry he seemed to be.
"Well, I can see where Lizzie doesn't get her charming personality," replied Harry and Vernon raised his fist, but withdrew it, due to the fact that there were too many witnesses. Harry wished Vernon would have hit him. Vernon striking an underage wizard would have given him perfect cannon fodder for an unfit guardian case that would be that would get Elizabeth out of there. "Just be sure, that if you do anything to make her summer miserable, you'll be sorry."
"What could you do to me?" demanded Vernon.
"Nothing but I can do plenty," said a voice and Harry looked over, to see Nymphadora standing there. Vernon seemed to be absolutely mortified at Nymphadora's shocking pink spike hair, but Petunia still appeared to be spooked by Harry's presence. Dudley looked like his usual dumbstruck self, Harry suspected that was the way he looked when he was born. "I work for the Ministry of Magic and while technically by law, we can't use magic on Muggles, they look the other way on certain circumstances. Especially when a Muggle is doing something that endangers a magical child."
"Endangers? Listen here you pink haired weirdo, we gave her food, board, and clothing, when we could have left her on the street, where she would have had to be a w…" said Vernon but his throat appeared to not working, as Nymphadora pointed her wand towards it, standing there, with a frown. Harry had a feeling that he would have been the youngest person ever sent to Azkaban if Vernon was allowed to finish his sentence.
"Listen up, we'd like nothing better than for Elizabeth to never enter your house again, but Dumbledore is tying of everyone's hands hands," said Nymphadora in an irritated voice, as she held her wand. Vernon's face purpled and he opened his mouth wide, with no sound coming out. "You can make this easy on yourself or you can make this hard on your self. Treat her with respect or we will be having this conversation again, but next time it will be more painful."
"And Lizzie, if they give you any trouble, don't hesitate to write straight away," said Harry and Elizabeth nodded, as Vernon looked enraged.
'I don't think there will be much of a problem," said Petunia finding her voice, fearful of what the neighbors would think more of anything, but still the matter of Harry was still bothering her. Perhaps she was being paranoid, after all, Harry was a rather common name, but still Dumbledore had basically forced the girl on her, saying that her twin was dead. Could she put it past him to fake a death. "We'll just interact with each other as less as humanly possible and we'll get through the summer, won't we Vernon?"
Vernon just shot his wife a disgusted look but nodded fearfully, when he saw the narrowed eyes to Petunia gave him. It was obvious who wore the pants in that household from that exchange. Nymphadora cancelled to spell, before turning to Elizabeth.
"Good bye, Elizabeth, we'll come and get you as soon as the month is up," replied Nymphadora and Elizabeth nodded.
"Okay, thanks Dora, bye Harry, have a nice summer!" called Elizabeth, as she looked forward, as Vernon just grumbled as he walked around, looking over his shoulder.
"See you soon enough, I'll write even sooner," said Harry, as Vernon entered the car and hit the gas pedal, barreling out of there. He did not want to be in the presence of freaks any longer than he had to. Nymphadora and Harry had both watch him go, driving out of sight.
"Think he got our message?" asked Nymphadora as she watched Vernon drive recklessly off and out of sight.
"Hope so, Elizabeth doesn't deserve anymore, but the minute we can get her out, we will," said Harry, once again, a hatred of Dumbledore in his mind.
"Mum wrote again to the Wizengamot, to try and get the issue of her custody open, we'll see if it works for the hundredth time," said Nymphadora, as she looked over, where they saw Andromeda looking at them with a sigh. "There she is, we better go and meet her.
Harry nodded, he had apparently missed Ginny, but since she visited his house along with Luna almost every day during the summer, they would be seeing each other soon enough. They walked over to Andromeda.
"What were you two up to anyway?" asked Andromeda calmly.
"Oh you know, just making sure that Elizabeth's relatives treated her with the proper respect when she went there for her month there," said Nymphadora casually, as her mother just placed her hands on her hips.
"Yes, I can see that, but please tell me you didn't threaten them too badly," said Andromeda.
"Us never," stated Harry as Nymphadora laughed at the innocent look on Harry's face. It was so over the top and fake that it caused her to laugh so loudly, that several people were looking at them like they were strange. It took Nymphadora about a minute to regain her composure, before she could look at her mother with a mostly straight face.
"Yeah we'd never do that," replied Nymphadora with a grin as Andromeda sighed, wondering what she was going to do with those two.
"Well, not that I'm saying that I don't agree with what you're doing, but still…" said Andromeda before she trailed off. As their mother, she felt she kind of had to reprimand them, even if Nymphadora was not underage anymore, but when considering the situation with Elizabeth being placed at the Dursleys, her heart truthfully was not in it. Standing for a few seconds, she turned to both of them, before they made sure no one was coming and walked forward to take the Floo and head on home.
-
Lucius Malfoy sat in his manor house at the end of the table. His wife was out, purchasing a new set of dress robes for the Ministry ball that they were to be attending within the next week. His son was upstairs, supposed to be completely his school work. After his dismal fourth place finish in the Hogwarts class standing, Lucius expected better from his heir. This gave Lucius some time alone to sit back and reflect of what happened. The last year had not gone precisely as Lucius had planned but overall it did turn out nicely.
The vampire fiasco, Eskara had led Lucius to believe that she was going to eliminate the Girl-Who-Lived. As it turned out, what Lucius managed to get out of Draco, she had claimed to be the girl's grandmother. It took Lucius a moment to realize that Eskara was a very familiar name to him. The surname of a pureblood who had polluted her family line by marrying a Muggle. Lucius had long since forgotten the Muggle's name, it did not matter, but the fact was that Rosaline Eskara was a blood traitor. One day, Lucius, MacNair, Rosier, and another couple of Death Eaters who were unimportant to Lucius's recollection ability had a few drinks and decided to take it upon themselves to cleanse some blood traitors on behalf of the Dark Lord. Eskara and her family was one of their targets on that night. As far as Lucius remembered, the Muggle was killed and he had thought the blood traitor was killed as well. Briefly, he wondered how she could have survived and more importantly, risen to be considered a vampire queen, with so many devoted followers. Further questions for another day, but Lucius had a small amount of satisfaction knowing she was weakened or perhaps destroyed, unable to pose a threat to him any longer.
Despite Elizabeth Potter not dying, Lucius did feel that the events of that day benefitted him greatly. For one, he had been painted as a hero for saving the Girl-Who-Lived from a horrible fate, getting an Order of Merlin first class. He gained even more trust and perhaps a bit more leeway for his activities from Minister Fudge. Most importantly, Dumbledore's reputation took a bit of a hit for the incident. Many were questioning his ability to run a school, when he could not keep vampires out. While he was at a meeting with the Minister, many were not in the mood to here excuses, but rather to hear action. The more Dumbledore's reputation fell, the more Lucius's could rise beyond what it was at this point. The Malfoy name commanded a lot of respect but Lucius wanted to make it one that was untouchable.
Still there was his responsibility regarding the Girl-Who-Lived. It was a hope that her magic hating relatives would have did his job for him, but no such luck. The fact remained that Andromeda Black continued to remain persistent in trying to remove the girl from that home but so far thanks to a combination of Lucius's influence, along with Dumbledore's standard meddling, she remained at the Dursleys. It was for the best, as she would not be able to practice magic due to being in a Muggle home for two months. If she was in a magical home, then she would be able to practice magic without warning, as the Ministry could not strictly monitor the person who did the magic, just the magic itself.
Lucius found the irony that both him and Dumbledore had the same goal to keep Potter at her Muggle relatives in mind rather amusing. Sure, it was for entirely different reasons, but still that one bit of interesting information gave Lucius a bit of amusement.
Lucius stepped back as his fireplace came to life. This particular fireplace was not connected to the Ministry Floo Network, but rather a separate Floo Network that the Dark Lord set up to ensure secure communication between his followers. Looking up, he saw a folded up piece of parchment shoot from the green flames. Walking over, Lucius bent at the knees, unfolding the parchment, looking at it carefully. In truth, he should have expected this to come sooner.
Lucius:
Meeting is being held at the usual place in an hour's time about your lack of progress on a certain matter.
Us.
Lucius folded up the piece of parchment, tapping his wand with it, causing it to burst into flames. Stepping forward, Lucius walked over, retrieving his walking stick from right beside the fire place, before he turned slightly to the side.
"Dobby!" shouted Lucius in a rough voice and at the little crazed house elf appeared, bowing before his master.
"Master Lucius wanted to see Dobby?" asked the house elf, as it rocked back and forth on the heels of its feet, staring at Lucius with widened eyes.
"Indeed, now if Narcissa returns before I do, tell her that I am at a meeting with the Minister of Magic," said Lucius and Dobby bowed before looking at Lucius. "Very well, leave me, before I decide to punish you."
Dobby quickly departed with a second pop, as Lucius turned on his feet, as he prepared to leave, quickly coming up with an explanation that pacify those people. If anything else, Lucius was good at spinning a story so it could benefit him.
With his facts straight in his head, Lucius disapparated quickly, ready to face to whatever they had to throw at him. He was better connected than any of them, but together, they might pose a problem and Lucius did not want his well placed plans thrown off balance.
-
Stepping down a long dark winding corridor, with mold growing to the walls and the floors dusty, it was easy to see that this was not a place that had been cleaned in many years. It was the last place that anyone would expect a group of pureblood nobles to meet, so it was perfect for a meeting. Lucius walked forward, wearing robes that while not his best, were better than what must could afford, as he held his walking stick in his hand. He stepped forward, the door knob was rusty and could barely turned to open the door. That's what magic was for as Lucius raised his wand, pointing it towards the keyhole.
"Alohomora," whispered Lucius as it clicked open, causing the door to swing open, creaking on the hinges. Quickly he moved forward, where there were several moth worn chairs. Conjuring a cloth, Lucius placed it over the chair, before he sat down, as many more wizards filed in. At that point, Yaxley stepped up to the podium and cleared his throat.
"This emergency meeting of the Council of Blood Purity has come to order," stated Yaxley as they all muttered. "I am pleased to see you could make it here in short notice, as this meeting is grave, of an issue that threats to stabilize the structure of the magical social status."
The members nodded dully, before Lucius stood to his feet, clearing his throat, as all of their eyes were on him.
"My friends, the issue of our resident hero, Elizabeth Potter is one that had plagued us for some time, she is a status symbol for Mudbloods, half bloods, and blood traitors a like," narrated Lucius. "She is a symbol of hope that they can be something beyond what they should be in our society but I do not feel that she poses as much of a threat as you think. She is just a mere child and a sheltered one of that, we made sure that she remained at her Muggle relations, with the inadvertent help of Dumbledore I might add, despite many attempts for others to gain custody of her."
"Lucius, it's not as cut and dry as you make it out to be," said Avery smoothly, as he stared at Lucius. "We had assumed the girl would be sorted into Gryffindor, but much alarm was raised when she was sorted into Ravenclaw as well. She could forge some connections in that house, considering it is a neutral ground. Some of our most prominent pureblood minds could be led astray by her radical views."
"What radical views might those be?" asked Lucius even though he knew thanks to the information he managed to get from his son. Still, it was best to not let on that he knew as much as he did around this crowd.
"Lucius, do not plead ignorance, it might work with most of the politicians at the Ministry, but with us we are wise to your games," said Nott with a slight glare through narrowed eyes. "We are of course referring to the fact that the girl has a tendency to question the way magic is supposed to work, making changes, improvements, if others follow her work, they could make changes and then it could lead to a dangerous precedent. If they question the way magic works, perhaps then other things about our society will be questioned."
"Yes, something that can't be done," said a man with dark hair that had the slightest hints of grey along with a scowl on his face.
"And what would you suggest that would be done, Montague?" asked Lucius smoothly, throwing the ball back into the court of someone else.
"It is your responsibility to deal with her Lucius, this deal that you made with vampires was a foolish error on your part, vampires could care less about humanity as a hole, it was obvious that you were being used for a pawn," said Montague swiftly. "You best think of a way to eliminate the girl quickly or the Malfoy name will be worth even less than having the last name Weasley."
"Need you forget that I am the Minister of Magic's personal advisor," said Lucius in a bored drawl, not rattled by the comments of his fellow council members.
"Ah yes, Lucius about that, Ministers come and Ministers go, so all we have to do is pull a few strings and Fudge might find himself on the wrong end of a scandal," remarked another member of the council in a bored voice, and Lucius knew that his back was against the wall. While he had more resources and contacts within the Ministry than any member of the Council, if they had all joined to ruin him, there was little he could do.
"The point is seen to and conceded, Goldstein," said Lucius who had knew exactly when to fight his battles, but vowed to get together his supporters on the Council, knowing that if he could divide and conquer, he would regain control. "Disposing of the girl might be a problem, I fear that Dumbledore is keeping a close watch on me after the incidents of the previous year."
"That is your problem Lucius," said Montague as he put his hands together and looked forward. "Time and time again, this Council has been very patience with you. Fail us further, and we will vote to expel you from our meetings. You will be forever branded a blood traitor. Do not take this matter lightly, Lucius."
"Don't worry, I won't," said Lucius, carefully making the Council believe that he conceded his point of contention. He never expected Elizabeth Potter to be the magnitude of the problem she was becoming in her first year. The Dursleys should have mentally beaten her down, to the point where she would just go to school with an underachieving ambition, getting her sorted into Gryffindor. Instead, her trials at the Dursleys had made her want to rebel against all authority and that was the last thing Lucius needed right now. "Now, any further matters that we need to discuss."
"No, Lucius," said Yaxley in a bored tone of voice. "Just remember what we said, we wish to see something more thoroughly and remember, eliminate her in a way that can no way tie her death back to us."
Lucius nodded, while envisioning several of the council members, bloodied and battered, begging for his mercy, as he stood over them triumphant, a mad glint in his eyes. In his minds eye, they looked at him, he was more feared that the Dark Lord at the height of his powers. Lucius gave a small shadow of a smirk that he hid. They might have had the upper hand in this matter, for the moment, but that would change. Lucius made his way to a standing position.
"Believe me, I sympathize with everything, we can ill afford to allow those of less pure blood think they can get away with changing our world," said Lucius as he leaned on his walking stick, careful not to turn his back on the members of the council. They were devious as he was, he would not put it best them to attack him while his back was turned, if they could make it fatal. He was of course an obstacle to many of them and with him out of the picture, their status could rise. "I may be seeing all of you soon, at the upcoming funeral with the Girl-Who-Lived."
"For your sake, Lucius, let us hope that your prediction of our next encounter is an accurate one," said Yaxley as the other members got to their feet, all looking around, none trusting to their backs. They all nodded, in farewell, before departing the musty, filthy building.
-
Lucius returned home, making his way straight to the Drawing Room. Stepping forward, Lucius grabbed a hold of the handsomely crafted bust of himself on the mantle, before pulling it open, revealing a switch of sorts. Raising his wand, Lucius placed it inside the switch, while pushing back a rug with his foot, causing it light up and a trap door to reveal itself before it cracked open. Quickly, Lucius closed his bust, before he descended down into the trapdoor, walking down a winding staircase until he entered his secret chamber.
Inside the chamber, laid many artifacts that Lucius had collected over the years, questionable to be certain. He had many more in his private vault at Gringotts, but these were among those that he did not trust to be left in the hands of those money grubbing goblins. Stepping forward, Lucius open a small chest right on the edge of a table.
"Ah, here it is," muttered Lucius to himself, as he removed a small black book from inside the box, examining it closely. It was the only item that did not appear to be dusty or dirty in any way. Lucius could feel the power cycling onto his finger tips as he held the book. He had intended to use this artifact to discredit Arthur Weasley, but it would do fine enough considering his problem regarding the Girl-Who-Lived. Looking around, Lucius tucked the item into his pocket, before he made his way up the stairs. Lucius exited the trapdoor, before opening the bust once again, cancelling the charm. The trap door disappeared, leaving nothing but the floor below it. Lucius walked off, a calculating expression on his eyes.
From the darkness, a pair of little eyes stared forward, sensing both the power of the dangerous item in his master's pocket and sensing his master's intentions.
