TPH10

Disclaimer- Don't own HP or SS – just having fun during a heat wave here in NY.

Chapter 10

I found myself sulking at Prince Manor, awaiting Dumbledore's arrival a few days later. Narcissa was spending a lot of time at the various Black residences lately, pretending to mourn her father and uncle. She and Lucius were hoping to sniff out the location of a certain necklace / horcrux Lucius had heard about.

I absolutely did not want anyone knowing about Hawthorne Keep, so I got my grandfather and Porthos to 'obscure the truth' with Dumbledore and tell them I was staying at Prince Manor. That was what everyone assumed anyway. The ordering and delivery system for the apothecary had me sending my potions to Prince Manor and they sent them on from there, so most people assumed I was with family anyway … and it kept the fidelus intact.

Porthos was a bit depressed, lately. Voldemort had burned down the apothecary in retaliation for the whole floo-powder incident. To be expected, really, but luckily grandfather rather liked Porthos – they reminisced about 'the good old days' and played gin rummy together, so he offered to let Porthos stay at Prince Manor 'for good, if he liked'. Porthos was 'considering it'. I hoped he did, it would keep my grandfather occupied, so he wouldn't obsess over the witch I was living with.

Albus and Rufus arrived with grandfather, who had to bring them through the fidelus on the Prince Manor. Rufus looked unsure, but Albus was beaming happily at me. He'd likely forgotten that I wasn't that friendly a person.

The three of us sat and a house-elf served tea. The other occupants of the house had made themselves scarce. None of us wanted to chance Albus getting information by even a brief glance of legillimancy. I had enough occlumency walls built after a few lessons from Lucius that I felt fairly safe.

Rufus asked after my mastery and I confirmed that I had taken the mastery test the prior week. I smugly expected to be confirmed as the youngest Potions Master in over fifty years. Albus beamed happily, as if he'd anything to do with it.

"There was something you wished to discuss, Headmaster?" I finally asked – ending his dialog about the new students that had arrived to school this month. It was now the second week of September.

Dumbledore seemed bemused by my interuption, as if he didn't understand why I wouldn't want to hear all about the bloody students.

"Ah, yes. Rufus has relayed information to myself several times about death eaters, supporters of Voldemort and upcoming raids … just raids and people that the ministry could do nothing about, of course. I guessed that it was you providing us with this information when the pensieve memory involving floo-powder was made public ..." The Headmaster looked at me in bemusement. He likely wondered if it was appropriate for him to act pleased by the deaths of so many former students.

I watched the old meddler carefully. I wasn't sure what he was aiming at, and Rufus was looking unhappy. I settled for waiting patiently for the Headmaster to get to the point.

"I told Professor Scrimgeour when he started teaching that I have a group of … friends ... that assist me in fighting Voldemort. That is why he passed information you gave on to me. We try to take care of things that the Ministry is unable to take care of for one reason or another." Albus had his best, 'Leader of the Light' persona in place, not that I felt he wasn't trying to help defeat the Dark Lord, but I was a bit astounded that the Head of the Wizengamot was advocating vigilante justice.

"I am an Auror, and I work within the system – I could not in all conscience join his group, but I do recognize that sometimes citizens need to step in and help when a terrorist organization is trying to take over." Rufus frowned, obviously conflicted. "You, yourself have been a bit active, on your own, being a contact for a spy and what with the whole 'floo-powder incident'."

"The floo-powder was just an effort to survive a kidnapping." I objected. "And the spy … well you know that grew out of my efforts to get rid of the curse on the Defense position so we could keep you on as Head of House."

"Yes, and as a member of the Order you could help us defeat Voldemort that much sooner." Albus twinkled and beamed eagerly, as if I'd already agreed.

I scowled and decided to be difficult about it, though I was interested in the offer. "Order?" I asked, looking at him askance, just to get rid of the twinkle.

Albus sighed, giving me a reproachful look – like I should just agree and get details later. Didn't he remember that I was a Slytherin?

"The Order of the Phoenix." The Headmaster intoned solemnly.

I smirked. "Was the name 'Vermillion Vigilantes of Virtue' already taken, then?" I mocked.

Rufus snorted his tea, but to my surprise Dumbledore just blinked in surprise and then laughed heartily. "We do take ourselves a bit too seriously at times. However, the name began back in the '40's when we started up – we gathered together to take down Grindelwald at that time. Names tended to be more grandiose, back then."

"Who is in the 'Order'?" I asked. "What will you be expecting of me, and do I have to make up my mind right now?" Albus hesitated to answer – obviously surprised at my questions and I continued.

"Do people really join without knowing who they'll be working with, or what is going to be expected of them?" I asked, making Albus looked at me in confusion. I rolled my eyes – of course they did – they were likely all 'eager to die in the name of the light' Gryfindors or especially gullible Hufflepuffs.

Albus cleared his throat, "Well, Lily and James have recently joined. I thought perhaps you could continue to provide information and of course there are potions we might need. I know you were... okay ... at dueling, though the Club hadn't started going to tournaments when you were at school. You could go on missions if there was one you felt you could assist with."

I shifted in my chair in irritation. Once I figured out that there would be no tournaments for my year and that Rufus was avoiding matching me against any of the marauders I didn't bother to show off my skills, keeping my hexes and curses simple and low-powered. Rufus and the other Slytherins hadn't been fooled, and the marauders had been hexed by me enough to know better, but most of the rest of the school had assumed that I was mediocre.

I know found that in spite of the advantage of being underestimated by others, I did not like being considered incompetant by the Headmaster.

"May I come to a meeting and make my final decision, then?" I asked neutrally.

Dumbledore was back to smiling and twinkling, so he likely thought that Lily, or perhaps James could talk me into joining once I was at a meeting.

I managed to get them out the floo without giving in to the urge to demonstrate my competence in several illegal dark curses to the Head of the Wizengamot – and then have to try distracting dementors for several months by reciting potions formulas to them.

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I spent some time with family that afternoon. My mother was spending alot of hours with Porthos, brushing up on potions. She'd repaired the greenhouse on the property and she'd been puttering about with various plants since she'd returned to the family. Now she seemed interested in putting the plants to good use. I half expected her to use the time with Porthos to perhaps get her own mastery.

Grandfather had chattered on at my side at the dinner table. He made broad hints about meeting 'the young lady' who was at Hawthorne Keep so much. I nodded and said they would meet her eventually and with that they had to be satisfied.

I arrived back at Hawthorne to find Lucius and Narcissa already there, talking in worried tones. Narcissa looked at me in anguish, though Lucius immediately donned his neutral mask.

I sat and ordered tea from a hovering elf. Lucius managed a tight smile. "Well, we have some good news. We cornered Regulus – he's less enthused about his Death Eater status with his father and uncle gone. He's been moved up now into the inner circle. Most of the inner circle is now youngsters in their early twenties … those that are older are morons that should still be low level 'cannon fodder'." Lucius frowned. "Narcissa and I remarked on the horcruxes to Regulus – pretended surprise that he didn't know about them. He was quite appalled, said that that was taking dark magic too far ..."

I nodded. Regulus was a snotty little pureblood who was only slightly less bigoted than his mother. He'd been a year behind Lucius in school and had never lost an opportunity to sneer at me and mutter 'filthy halfblood' whenever I would walk by. Apparantly even he had his limits when it came to dark magic and murder.

"He seemed to know about the Slytherin necklace … said that he was going to get it for us 'to deal with'." Lucius frowned. "Hope he is clever enough to do so without alerting the Dark Lord. I found out there is a ring … and Regulus said that his father once whispered to Walburga that the Dark Lord had boasted about getting his hands on Rowena Ravenclaw's diadem."

I nodded – at least we knew what we were looking for, now.

Narcissa looked ill. "Bellatrix says he's just waiting for an "auspicious" kill to turn Nagini into a Horcrux. She said at the moment he can't decide if he wants it to be Dumbledore or … or you." She looked at me in horror. I felt an icey chill in my gut, but managed to not react.

I nodded, I had known that the whole floo-powder and pensieve memory incident would place me high on his list. I was a little flattered to be equal to Dumbledore in his mind, though the accompanying danger of a horrifically tortuous death wasn't as welcome.

"With all of his setbacks and loss of followers he is becoming more and more unstable. The raids he's ordered lately have been absolutely insane. It has cost him even more followers. He's down to only four or five people in the ministry." Lucius frowned. "However he says he's obtained a few more recruits from recent Hogwarts graduates … he says he has a spy who will soon be inducted into Dumbledore's little faction 'the Order' or whatever he calls it. He boasts that it is a friend of your old pal Potter."

Lucius smirked at me. Potter was hardly a pal – a friend, I hoped, but he was more an extension of Lily in my mind. I smirked back at him, not rising to the bait.

"That is ill news, we don't need any traitors giving up secrets." I frowned, this could endanger Lily and Potter not to mention the Order – including me.

"There is something else … I did tell you that he's growing more unstable …" Lucius grimaced, with a pained look on his face. "He has decided that we are not breeding enough followers … that if his older followers had had more children, he would not be scrambling for soldiers now." I stared at him in fury, guessing what was coming. "He's ordered those unmarried to get suitable mates immediately and those with spouses to … procreate without delay – he expects to hear that new little Death Eaters are on the way before the end of the year."

Narcissa looked ill. I knew what this meant. If she bore Lucius a child divorce would be out of the question. I could never separate her from her child and asking Lucius to give up his heir would not be heard of. Wizard parents found it nearly impossible to share custody, they simply tended to be too bound to their children both magically as well as emotionally to be so separated. If Lucius and Narcissa had a child – there would be no divorce until, perhaps, the child was grown and married themselves.

I stood and paced – I could think better that way. I needed a plan and fast, or they would be caving to Voldemort's demands and I would soon be edged out of Nacissa's life, except as an occasional weekend lover – if I was lucky.

I reviewed my allies, doubly glad, now that I had maintained such close ties with the Harem. I tried to view the problem logically. The Dark Lord wanted pregnant wives … ah, well then, we would give him that.

I turned to them, Narcissa looking desperate and Lucius looking equally unhappy … his own lover would not welcome this any more than I. Lucius' greatest fear would be realized – he would lose her, most likely.

"I have a plan – it will work, but the two of you have to be willing." I took a deep breath. "Ronda and Samara work in the records division of the Ministry – Ronda is already a supervisor on the night shift – they work together and they would help us, I know. If we asked them to hide divorce decrees until it was safe, as well as wedding licenses they would do so, no matter how long they had to hide the paperwork."

Lucius was quick - he caught on to the plan immediately. "You mean – divorce right away and remarry – all in secrecy?"

I walked to Narcissa and took her hand. "'Cissa, would you mind divorcing Lucius and marrying me – I'm afraid I don't have a very elegant proposal for you, just the promise that you'll have to get knocked up right away to keep up appearances for the Dark Lord."

I made the proposal a bit light-hearted due to the fact that I was a bit light-headed with nervousness. We'd discussed marriage as being some time in a nebulous future 'when the time was right'. Maybe she had thought that time would never really arrive.

However, Narcissa just smiled happily and laughed, throwing her arms around me. "I would love to – it's what I've wanted for so long, now." I nearly fainted with relief.

Lucius chuckled, "Should I feel put out?" he asked, but he had a rather far-away look in his own eye. Someone else would be getting a similar proposal very quickly.

We quickly laid out plans and made out paperwork for Lucius to take to the Harem members in the ministry.

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The three of us – four, now that Lucius' lover had joined us were gathered in a few days to celebrate the Malfoy divorce. It was a little weird to have Narcissa and Marlena McKinnon sitting across from each other, sharing eager grins. I supposed it had been equally weird for Narcissa to have Lucius and I so chummy.

"I'll be glad to get this settled, my parents are pushing for me to finalize an engagement to Marvin Edgecombe." She shuddered delicately. "All he talks about is having a mob of children – he's even picked out names … Marietta, Morphin, Malvin, Mercurio, Marigold, Matilda ..." She shook her head. "I think he wants to marry me partly because my name begins with 'M' as well."

"Well, we need to put off alerting anyone to anything right away … but if they get insistent, leave a note saying you're eloping and we'll stash you with one of the Harem." I was sure that Evan and Justine would cheerfully keep her for a time, if only to thumb their noses at people.

The divorce had occurred without difficulty, Ronda had filed it at 2 AM when there was no one around and locked the papers away in a file cabinet in her office that was usually for paperwork that was 'still in progress'. It had wards and traps with curses all over it that made even Aurors pale when they noticed it.

Narcissa had tracked down a drunken sot of a minister from Italy that somehow still held a license to perform weddings and spoke very little english. He kept squinting at the papers and stumbling over words, but he had managed to get the marriages done and signed the papers. Luckily we could be each other's witnesses. The marriage certificates were certified by Samara and were now buried with the divorce decree with Ronda.

Now we just needed to keep the Dark Lord and his Death Eaters ignorant of all of this and all would be well.

Lucius flooed to Marlena's apartment after her with a smug look. I suspected he intended to try for a real heir, while Narcissa waved a bottle of fertility potion at me with a provocative look. Ah, I thought – the things I put up with for my friends, and scrambled after her.

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Barely a week had gone by and the four of us were gathered around a table, trying to track down the ring and figure where Voldemort had likely hidden the diadem. We were interupted by a tearfully incoherent house-elf.

He made straight for Narcissa, blubbering that his precious Master Regulus was dead because of the nasty Dark Lord … and then started banging his head repeatedly on the floor for bad-mouthing a wizard. He waved a necklace at her, wailing that he couldn't figure out how to destroy it … - more head-banging. Finally he ended his diatribe with a plea for Mistress Narcissa to take over the job as the poor sainted brat Regulus had said she was to be trusted with this.

Lucius and I leaped to prevent her being touched by the necklace. She was trying to get pregnant, after all. We didn't need a Horcrux, of all things, to touch her.

The necklace was carefully hovered to the vault by the ancient fireplace to reside with the diary and the cup. Just the diadem and the ring, then – as long as the snake remained non-horcruxed.

"I still think one is in Hogwarts – right under Dumbledore's nose, which would appeal to the Dark Lord. Not to mention the place has more hiding places than anyone can imagine, which would make it ideal." Lucius asserted.

"Still – it's also full of hundreds of curious wizarding children to go out of their way to seek out those hidden spots … would he really risk one of them finding it?" I asked, uncertainly.

"He's arrogant like that – he would risk one of several horcruxes just to be able to have one right there at Hogwarts to taunt the Headmaster about, later, after his 'victory'." Narcissa nodded her head.

Marlena frowned, "How are we going to destroy them after we get them all?"

Lucius and I exchanged glances. We had Rufus researching ways they could be gotten rid of, but we had our own, favorite plan we would implement if he didn't find a better way.

"We'll have that worked out by the time the last two are found." Lucius answered smoothly.

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The hunt resumed and in October and I risked a quick visit to James and Lily. Sirius sulked silently in the background while James and Lily updated me on their lives. James and Sirius were, predictably, deep in Auror training. They were now trying to decide which direction in the corp they wished to go - the corp had started being split up into various groups a few years prior.

There was still a need for 'investigators' of the wizarding world – the usual, non-violent things – making sure vendors weren't selling flying carpets illegally or marketing cauldrons with too-thin bottoms. The was also the more common 'police' for run-of the-mills crimes as well as stronger wizards for violents offenders. With the war escalating over the past few years, there was now a need for 'war-wizards' – soldiers.

True, with Voldemort's rapidly diminishing power base the Aurors were taking fewer losses, but while the Dark Lords latest recruits were fewer and seemed less competent, but they made up for it in suicidal fervor.

To my surprise, James was even friendlier toward me that before his honeymoon with Lily. Partly, I suspected, because Lily was now officially 'his' and any lingering fears about me were gone. But, he was also full of admiration for the floo-powder madness.

James told me that he felt it had been the very best prank ever and he let me know he had laughed until he passed out when he had viewed the pensieve memory at the ministry.

I mockingly said that making marauders go unconscious was indeed a worthy goal and I hoped I could kill more death eaters in as amusing a way in the future – all in the hopes of knocking marauders out.

James laughed even harder at that remark, of course and Sirius grimaced sourly. Lily just rolled her eyes.

"I'm hoping to ask a potions – related favor of you, Severus." Lily asked as she saw me to the floo, once my visit was done. James hovered behind her, suddenly looking uneasy. "I want to get pregant the first part of November. Having a baby the end of July works out best in my plans – with my projects and getting my Charms mastery. If you can fix a potion so it will happen as planned. The potion I need is a delicate one … I'd rather you did it."

James actually blushed a little at my raised eyebrow. It seemed everyone was planning to expand their families.

"I know that waiting for the war to end would be wisest, but if we wait for 'the perfect time' it might not ever happen." James said.

"They seem to be pushing James and Sirius into going into the war-wizard corp ..." Lily looked a bit frightened. This made sense, then. She was afraid he would be killed, and so she wanted a child – something of him – in case the worst happened. Not an unusual request, then.

I smirked – and I had just made up a good sized batch of the potion recently for personal use and I was sure there were some doses left.

"I believe I can send the potion over to you with little delay." I said, making the two of them smile in relief.

As I was about to through down the floo-powder Lily whispered that Alice Longbottom wanted a dose as well, if I didn't mind.

I was creating a damn baby boom, I thought.

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A/N – A bit of a transitional chapter, but the finale will soon be in sight.