Rise of the Grey Lords chapter 9
Standard disclaimer; I do not own or claim any rights of ownership to the world of Harry Potter or the characters portrayed within it. I can only thank a brilliant original author J.K Rowling for allowing us to play in her world.
AN: Thank you for the reviews, I have gone back and re-edited all of the previous chapters and in some cases made quite substantial changes to them. Especially; chapters 1,4,5,6 and 7 and got rid of my old confusing notes file.
Sorry for the delay, just discharged from hospital and another bout of neutropaenic sepsis.
In addition laptop fell when the hospital bedside table broke so hubby had to buy me a new one (bye bye super business Vaio hello, very, very nice Samsung) and I had to find a compatible word processing program for Windows 7.
Need to rant here; I hate, loath and detest Office 2010 ! in fact my workplace (a 1300 bedded Major Regional Central Hospital) has refused to use 2010 at all. Its migraine inducing. Unfortunately, Office XP pro isn't compatible with Win 7, enough of rant. I have now discovered the lovely and FREE Open Office so have kicked my drug soaked brain back into gear again. Will be probably posting one a week from now on. Thanks again for reading and especially those that take the time to comment it is appreciated.
[Thoughts]
Châteaux Chambord; Monday May 16th 1250
Ari and the other boys arrived in the dinning room still laughing and teasing each other, as Ari did a quick scan of the occupants already there, he noticed that this included most of the Wizengamot adults, the only ones absent being; George Abbott, Amelia, Augusta and Marcel Delacour of course who as Head of the French DMLE would struggle to spend a lot of time at the châteaux. Most of the girls were there, in fact the only ones missing were his 3 [his three? when had he started thinking of them as his, hmf..]
Whilst most of the boys separated and sat by their respective or prospective betrothed,
Neville- Pansy and Astoria, Blaise- Hanna, Anthony- Gabrielle and Draco- Luna, although Neville and Anthony did look a little uncomfortable Ari noted. He would have to look into that, Ari having no ladies present and wanting to catch up on the outcome of the meeting, sat in the middle of the table close to Narcissa and opposite Lucius.
Ari had just begun to ask how things had gone from those adults who had returned, when Daphne, Susan and Fleur entered the room talking between themselves in a very friendly fashion.
Just as he had spotted them, the 3 girls had also spotted Ari and slightly changing the direction they had been heading, they instead walked towards him looking beautiful and he noted with some trepidation determined. However, after a general hello, they sat down; Susan beside him and Daphne and Fleur opposite. He received a pleasant smile and greeting from each of them, before they calmly starting to eat lunch and listening to the news.
When Ari heard that everything had gone to plan, with the added bonus that Dumblebore was in custody for investigation, he was ecstatic.
When the laughter at Dumbles misfortune had stopped however,Daphne frowned and looked at Lucius who had been talking, to ask ' What did the old coot mean by he is immune to prosecution?'
This caused all of the kids to look up questioningly. The response came from Richard Goldstein who sighed and said 'It appears that Fudge was even more of an idiot than we had thought and he gave Dumbledore a blanket pardon for actions defined as for the benefit of the Magical world.'
Pandemonium broke out at this and Ari abruptly stood up. He was shaking slightly as were the contents of the room and the windows, those around him could feel wave after wave of magic pulsing out from him. His face was an absolutely blank mask. He stood for a minuet breathing deeply while the room settled down and the feeling of pulsing magic stopped and sat back down.
He looked around and blushed before saying with a sheepish smile 'Sorry about that, I'm acting like a spoiled brat having a tantrum at getting its own way. I promise to behave now.' before carrying on calmly 'Oh well looks like locking him up to rot in Azkaban isn't an option now.' pausing to pick up his iced water he took a drink and said as if stating the obvious 'Oh well, I'll just have to kill him instead then'. Picking up another sandwich and starting to eat it with some enthusiasm.
The looks on the faces of the others though, ran the full gamut of expressions, from shock and uncertainty to approval. In fact, Xeno, Lucius and Narcissa looked positively gleeful. Narcissa, even going so far as to say ' You, will let me know if you need any help won't my darling?'
He laughed at that as did a few of the others, those not shocked that is and answered 'Of course my dear Aunt, anything to make such a lovely lady happy.' before kissing her lightly on the cheek and whispering for her ears alone 'Thank you.' Ari spoke up to address the group as a whole with 'There is something very important I need to bring up for discussion and planning.'
The rest of the news was relayed quickly after that with no further glitches and when Lucius had finished and the other adults had given their news on possible allies.
It was the quiet Hanna who spoke up with 'So Fudge resigned and Daddy's the new Minister, whilst, Aunt Augusta is the temporary Chief Witch, Dumbles and Umbridge are in custody for investigation and somehow our side gained 7 votes. Is that about it? Oh I forgot, Aries has moved Dumbles to his possibly to his definitely execute list.?' She then looked around questioningly.
There was genuine laughter from everyone around the table at this, relieving the somewhat tense and serious atmosphere and Blaise put his arm around her, kissing her cheek and said 'That's my girl, concise, intelligent and very beautiful as well.' This again caused those present to laugh and Hanna to blush even harder than she had been at the kiss.
It was Malcolm Parkinson who spoke up next and said 'Aries, there are a couple of things we need to confirm with you. The first is that George wants to appoint Gruoch as his senior under-secretary. As you know, this is one of the Head of Departments seats on the Wizengamot. It would give us another seat. The other thing is a proposal of how to discredit Dumbledore so he can be permanently removed from the Chief Warlock position.'
Ari looked at Lady Gruoch Belton-Parkinson, Countess of Lincon, Baroness Belton of Grantham and said 'That would be wonderful, if you are willing Lad... I mean Aunt Gruoch' quickly correcting himself at her frown.
Gruoch laughed her light musical laugh and said 'Oh Aries, I am the political one in our family whilst Malcolm is busy trying to make me the richest woman in the world.' continuing with 'I would love to get my hands on the ministry and get rid of the incompetence. The only thing we will have to do is rearrange your timetable and I believe having seen the 'muggle zone', that all of you could pass Muggle Studies on your own, with just a couple of supervised field trips.' She grinned and said 'In fact I think we will have trouble getting you lot and some of your fathers here out of that area once you've seen it.' This caused the other ladies who had not been at the Wizengamot to laugh and nod in agreement.
They all looked up at that with questioning expressions, until Celia Greengrass said 'There are all sorts of games and videos, DVD's, Television's, music etc., well you get the idea.'
Most of the people around the table just looked bemused except Ari, Blaise and the Parkinsons. In fact Pansy's response was a huge grin and 'Cool!'.
Before anyone else could say anything Gruoch interjected with 'Your parents were genius' Ari, they apparently spent a lot of time relaxing in the muggle world and were fascinated with the technology, especially Sirius. They developed a way to convert some items to work on magic using a combination of Charms and Runes, which with a small amount of shielding will work in all magical households. The shielding' s not needed for the machines, its for the disks and things they use.' she paused as everyone looked surprised and awed at this achievement, then carried on 'Ari can you remember an American company in your portfolio called CPPB Technologies?'
Ari only needed a second to say 'Oh absolutely, its worth a fortune, based in America, Japan, India, South Africa and Switzerland and its products are illegal in Britain. I hold 80%, a company called MG Investments has the rest...Oh..CPPB...bloody he...' he tailed off with dawning comprehension at the smirks on Malcolm and Gruoch's faces. Ari groaned and bumped his head on the table.
It was Malcolm who said 'Chambord, Potter, Parkinson, Black. Yes, there were 4 of us, Sirius and Lily in development and James and I in Management, Manufacturing, Marketing, Finance etc.'
He carried on 'James was my one of my best friends from early childhood and because of that we had a lot of mutual business interests, this is just one that he invited me in on. It was the best 10,000 galleons any of us ever invested, don't you think, Ari?'
Ari laughed at that and said 'Oh absolutely, what's it worth now, G10billion was it?' Ari asked looking at Malcolm.
Whose response was a genuine wide smile and 'No closer to G12 billion now, don't worry Ari, I'll sit down with you tomorrow and we'll go through the portfolio, that is of course if you would like me to?'
Ari couldn't believe the offer and he looked up loosing his mask and showed a bit of the unsure teenager still buried deep inside of him, he quickly glanced around everyone to see them all smiling and with an emphatic nod of the head said 'That would be wonderful. Do um do you have time though?' and with Malcolm's emphatic of course!, he smiled and said
'OK where were we? Oh yes the North Wing 4th floor, yeah if anybody needs clarification, I'm sure Pansy and I can cover it?' He looked questioningly at Pansy and smiled when she grinned at him and said 'That'll be great fun.'
With that decided, Gruoch left to go to the ministry and take up her new post.
It was Xeno who spoke next and said 'Young lords and ladies, I believe it is time for you to continue with your recreation, whilst myself and a few others continue our discussions with young Aries here. If you wouldn't mind Pansy can you show your friends how to use their new play room and Aries will be along shortly.'
With that Ari called Jacques to show the others to the recreation room. Although Ari's girls were a little reluctant to leave, they went with the others as all of them were very excited about the promised fun.
Once they had left the adults looked to Sophia Zabini who stated calmly 'I believe before we start any more of our more visible attacks we should consolidate our hold on the press in Britain particularly, the Prophet. We need to see if we have a controlling interest or if we need to acquire more stock. The Douglass family controls 15% of the stock what about the other families?'
It transpired that no further acquisitions were needed when between the families present they had the majority of ownership; Douglass 15%, Malfoy 10%, Parkinson 10%, Abbott 10%, Greengrass 15% and finally Potter-Black 25%. With 85% ownership they could wrest control of the major source of the news and information in Britain.
Sophia's next words surprised everyone however 'My family owns the largest publishing house in both the magical and muggle worlds in western Europe. In fact it is the core of our business. ' She paused whilst most of those present got over their surprise before continuing ' Celia has a Potions Master and has indicated that she will pick up that and young Aries here pointed out yesterday that he is close to his mastery. Between them, I am not needed here on a daily basis. This means, that I can take over as executive officer and editor in chief of the Prophet, which would cover us from the public relations angle.'
It was a unanimous decision, to go with this idea and place all their stock under the simple collective banner of The Chimera Group; Sophia would be the public face and new Editor in Chief, whilst not disclosing who individual members were.
It was Jonathan Greengrass who spoke up now and said 'Ari, before we get onto what you wanted to raise with us, I want to make a serious suggestion. We all feel, that you should be concentrating on having fun and getting to know your peers and betrothed, not to mention you have a week of exams coming up next week. So, let us lot settle into our groups and start refining the individual plans. We will meet up for feedback and evaluation once a week. Hmm... I think Monday's after the Wizengamot meeting. We will all be using your home here as an operations base and most of us will be staying for periods, especially at weekends. All of our children will be here for the summer and I know that Appoline, Celia, Marilyn and Narcissa are staying here all the time, if you need to contact us. What do you think?'
The adults watched the the expressions flash across his face, concern, longing, guilt, concentration, mischief, uncertainty and finally happiness. In seconds he looked up, eyes shining and smiling and said. 'Could I do that? I would love that if everyone is fine with it?'
Lucius looked up and smiled approvingly saying 'Yes Ari, it is. It will take you a while to absorb fully, but you are not on your own any more. We are all in this together. You do have people you can come to now, who will support you, be here for you, show you affection and yes we will pull you back if we know you are in the wrong or has you said earlier acting like a brat. In fact look on us as the surrogate Aunts and Uncles we should have been when your parents weren't their.'
Ari looked around again to see that everyone agreed with what Lucius said and after a few seconds said. 'Thanks Uncle Lucius, I really would like that.'
'Right Ari' Richard Goldstein called his attention back 'What did you need to bring up before you join the others.'
'Oh, sorry, the core-connection from Riddles mark. I think while Dumbledark is in custody I should do the ritual to deny him that avenue when he gets desperate. I need to cast 2 sets, the first is through Uncle Lucius to reverse the connection from those who were coerced into taking it. This is in Parsel-tongue and would be like Riddle himself had done it without any side effects. The second one some of you may not approve of. Essentially, I need a faithful Death Eater, preferably Snape because its going to hurt like hell when I channel through his mark to the others. This will rip the core-connection away, it'll hurt all of them when it goes and will leave a breach in their core which will leak magic very quickly. In other words they will be either muggles or dead. There is no in between.'
He stopped talking then and watched the adults talk, for a short time before getting up with a general nod and going to stand on the terrace.
He was surprised a few minutes later when Xeno came out and stood next to him after watching the river for a minute or so he turned to Ari and said 'Do you mind if I ask you a question Ari?' at his negative head shake, Xeno continued 'After you perform the second ritual how will you feel?'
Ari knew what he was asking, which was how would it affect him and could he live with himself if he did it. He'd already thought about this, in reality he'd had nearly 2 years to consider it. So he answered truthfully 'I will feel relieved that Dumbledore cannot use them to start the next war, I will be happy that they cannot carry on with their hobby of killing muggle-borns children, I will be happy that they will finally pay for murdering, raping and torturing all beings they could get their hands on for their own sick pleasure, I will be happy that their many victims will get justice, I will be angry that it had to be me who executes them and I will be sad that they had to be executed. I will not feel guilty and I will not consider myself a murdered.' He stopped took a deep breath and looked Xeno straight in the eye before saying 'Does that answer the question.?'
Xeno smiled and said 'That it does lad, that it does.' Before, taking him in a one armed hug and leading him back inside.
Narcissa looked at him closely after he sat back down and asked 'Are you all right with doing the second ritual Ari?'
He answered calmly 'Yes, I've had a lot of time to think deeply about this and while I'm unhappy and sad that It's me performing the ritual, there is no other way. The positives far outweigh any negatives there may be. Do any of you have a problem with my proposed course of action?'
Before anyone could say anything however, Xeno emphatically stated 'Having spoken to Aries I fully support him in doing what he has proposed.'
At this all of the men at the table nodded, slowly followed by Celia, Appoline and Narcissa, though the latter nodded hesitatingly and was wearing a rather sad expression.
Marilyn Abbott looked at him for some time and finally, said 'Ari, my only concern is for your well-being. I do not want you to be scarred by cleaning up the previous generations' messes.'
Ari looked at her and gave a slight smile, then he did something that none of them had seen him do yet. He walked over to Marilyn sat down beside her and took her hand in a gentle hold, before putting his other are lightly around her and said softly 'I could not live with myself if I sat back and didn't do everything, that I possibly could to rid our world of these abominations who are infecting our world like a malignant disease. Unfortunately, just like any other malignancy it has to be excised before it spreads and kills the host.'
Marilyn looked up at him and smiled and put both her arms around him hugging him tightly and said 'Your parents would be very, very proud of you Ari, I think you have found the perfect analogy and every healer sometimes has to do unpleasant procedures for the general health of the patient. So yes we will talk about the logistics and prepare a plan.' She gave him another quick hug before releasing him and smiling at him said 'Now go have fun with the others and leave the rest to us.' he grinned at her then and with a last general nod
said 'Right, my Lords, Ladies I'm off to see what games we've got Super Mario All Stars' With that and a very cheeky grin, he transformed into his panther and ran out of the room.
The adults left behind just starred after him before Appoline started to giggle, quickly followed by Celia and then the others, until all 9 adults were convulsed with laughter.
The tension had gone from the room at Ari's antics and Lucius gasped out 'Oh Merlin help us he's just like Padfoot and Prongs!..Tigger would kill him!' still a bit breathless.
Appoline who was smiling brightly just had to ask what a Padfoot, Prongs and Tigger was.
Malcolm who was still chunking answered 'His parents' animagus names, James was Prongs a stag, Lily was Tigger a Tiger and Sirius was Padfoot a Wolfhound/Grim cross in other words a mutt.'
They all smiled at that and Xeno informed them that Luna had named Ari last night after her favourite fictional character. When asked what it was he answered 'The only name he could have, Bagheera of course, it came from me reading Kippling to her when she was small.'
With a final round of light hearted banter they got down to planning the preparation and logistics, for carrying out the plan. Particularly, the second part.
Hogwarts School: Great Hall 1245, Monday May 16th 1994
At around the same time Aries Potter-Black was finishing his ruminations about his 3 betrothed and the adults were arriving back from the Wizengamot, Hermione Dagworth-Granger-Dumbledore or Bushy for short, was finishing off her lunch. Next to her was sat Ronald Bilius Weasley aka the Weasel, with Ginevra Molly Weasley or Gin-Gin on her other side.
The headmaster had been called away this morning to an Emergency meeting at the Wizengamot and one of the trio, namely, Hermione was looking nervously between the main doors and the head table, awaiting his return. In fact, she was waiting for any news on the current situation.
What situation you may ask if you were new to the school, why the disappearance of one irritating, difficult teen. Who you might query was that, well Harry James bloody Potter that's who. Wasn't it always about him at this stage of term?
In between her nervous glances, however, Hermione was thinking about the events of the last 2 day, leading up to now.
They had been searching the whole school since Saturday lunch time to find a missing Harry Potter. They had last seen at around 10am that day, when he had been rather profane and threatening towards them, before running off somewhere to sulk.
They had had no luck finding him though, despite searching the whole of the castle and its grounds all that day and most of the next. They had just finish reporting their lack of success to the Headmaster before dinner on Sunday, he had told them not to worry about their search and said that he would send Fawkes his Phoenix to bring him out of hiding after dinner.
Unfortunately, just 30 minutes later, as she was starting on her pudding, she noticed that all of the teachers were agitated and seemed to be arguing amongst themselves.
Then the headmaster and Professors McGonagall, Sprout, Flitwick and Snape left the hall by the staff door to the side of the head table.
Wondering what was going on everybody started talking and individual houses were noticing that they had some members missing. It was then that Professor Sinistra had ordered the prefects to escort everyone back to their houses and stated that they were not to leave for any reason. The castle was in lock down.
It was an hour later that McGonagall returned and called a house meeting in the common room. She had confirmed the rumours that there were 10 students missing from Hogwarts and that an investigated was taking place.
It was then that the she had proceeded to the 3rd year boys dorm and inspected Harry Potters trunk more closely. That's when the number of confirmed missing students rose to eleven.
She found that some things that he had been fond of, like his broom and photo album were actually transfigured replicas and the originals were missing.
With this the level of panic went up a few notches. Questions were now being asked, very difficult questions.
Like how long had Harry really been missing? He had last been seen on Saturday morning and he had been confirmed as definitely gone Sunday night, 36 hours later. Together with 2 Hufflepuffs, 2 Ravenclaws, 5 Slytherins and unfortunately one Neville Franklin Longbottom of Griffindor.
It wasn't as if Harry was friends with the others who were missing was it? well Neville was a sort of friend. They hadn't quite managed to prevent that and Susan Bones was always trying to talk to him. No matter how they tried to block her or failing that insult her.
But come on Hanna Abbott, Anthony Goldstein, Luna or Looney Lovgood as Ron and Ginny called her, wasn't even in their year and they knew Harry had never spoken to her. How could he? he was never out of their or the Headmasters' sight.
But it got really improbable that they were all together when you considered who the others 5 missing students were, I mean Harry Potter and Slytherins! pft never going to happen; Daphne Greengrass the bloody Ice Queen herself, her little sister Astoria, Blaise Zabini, Pansy the pug Parkinson and of all people the git himself Malfoy.
There was no way Harry Potter would leave school with Draco Malfoy they were enemy's, she and Ron had made sure of that.
So where the hell was Potter? She needed to start making up with him soon, it was only three weeks before the end of term and him going back for more a dose of intense 'Dursley conditioning'. She just had to get him to think she was sympathetic so he would be receptive to her after his rescue, she wasn't worried about him forgiving her, he always did. She'd even been practising the apology in front of the mirror and the spell to cause tears really worked well.
Mmm, may be talk to Grandfather about some mild potions before then. Yes, that might help that would get him thinking about her and absence did make the heart grow fonder didn't it?
Where, was her Grandfather, what was going on, it was killing her here putting up with Weasley and she wanted some playtime with Ginny before curfew. Hmf … where was he, this was so frustrating, she really needed to know everything that was happening. They had to get this plan started she was definitely not going to loose out on all that Potter power, Oh and hadn't grandfather mentioned that Harry was Blacks heir as well. Mmm yes that would work; Lady Hermione Dumbledore-Potter-Black, that had a good ring to it.
Now, where was grandfather they needed to get the Legacy plan back on track and make that little shit do what he was supposed to.
Having finished her ruminations for the moment Hermione tuned herself back into what was going on around her. The house tables were all whispering amongst themselves she noticed. She dropped her wand into her hand under the cover of the table and Cast the eavesdropper spell carefully, so no one saw her, she listened in to the conversation at the next table, Hufflepuff were always good for gossip.
She was listening in to Finch-Fletchly when she heard something that almost made her scream as she caught the tail end of what Diggory was saying to Summers. Wizengamot, they had selected a new Minister, oh yes she forgot Fudge resigned yesterday. Yes it was George Abbott, wait a minute he was Hanna Abbott's father. Oh that might explain why she was missing too. Then the shoe hit her and she strangled the scream just as it was about to be released, at overhearing 'Yeah, but I can't believe Professor Dumbledore was arrested for stealing and from Potter of all people...makes one wonder what else he's done, doesn't it. I mean who would be so low as to steal from the an orphan and the one who destroyed you-know-who, at that.'
Listening avidly now she heard Summers ask 'How much did he steal, I mean, its not as if Potter worth much is it... I mean just look at how he dresses and those specs he wears, he's almost a beggar.'
Cedric's response didn't surprise the eavesdropper at all, when she heard 'Oh come on Summers, surely you've read the supplementary History book?... oh shit mate your a 6th year you should know, Potter is probably the richest wizard in Europe, in fact probably the whole northern hemisphere' he looked at the uncomprehending expression on his mates face and said 'Ancient and Noble families mate or in this case, the Ancient and Most Noble Houses of Potter and Peverall and from what dad said Black as well. Oh Merlin mate you really have to read those books. Potter is the sole heir of the first two and the named primary heir of the last one. In other words he's a Lord, an Earl I believe of 3 of the 13 founding houses. He's filthy, stinking rich and dad said the money was only from his trust vault, its tens of millions of Gs in a bloody school trust vault!'
'Oh' the ill informed hufflepuff responded followed by 'Did Dumbledore do anything else?'
'Yes apparently, illegal imprisonment of a Lord, attempted line theft and what was it... um oh yeah illegal disregarding of a magically bound Last Will and wrongful seizing of guardianship of a minor. Don't know what will happen now if its true and to be honest dads not sure either. Apparently Potter exercised his right to be an emancipated minor as the Head of an Ancient and Noble family and found some things out, there could even be more. Gonna, be interesting for sure. Oh and he has formally withdrawn from Hogwarts and is being home tutored.' Cedric finished.
Hermione was stunned and panicking. She looked around and saw that a lot of students were clustered around house mates who she knew had family members in the Wizengamot, at all the tables including McLaggen, Sloper and Coote of Griffindor.
Hermione looked at her companions and saw that Ronald as usual was oblivious to everything while stuffing his face. Her little Gin-Gin though, was looking at her with rising panic. So catching her eye she nodded towards the door. She had a lot of evidence to hide or destroy just in case they investigated the dorms too closely. After all if anything happened to her Grandfather it was down to her to carry out their plans for augmenting and cementing the Dumbledore Family Legacy.
Getting up and rushing out of the hall with her pet following her. She pushed down her panic and strengthened her resolve. Yes everything would be fine Potter would be returned and she would make sure he and his families power would be hers before the end of summer. She was a the sole Dagwoth-Dumbledore heir and she always got what she went after and no stupid half-blood brat was going to stop her .
…...
AN. More bonding and a bit of action next chapter.
Thanks for reading and the comments are really appreciated, I take all of them and any suggestions into considereation.
