This will be interesting, writing on a totally different version of Libreoffice on a different platform because I've cooked the second power supply in my main computer in under eighteen months (as I recall) and I don't have any more spare power supplies left so I'm on an old laptop now, summer in Oz isn't computer friendly unless you're using the aircon apparently.
NB: Fun factoid, UV stabilised perspex roofing panels still get brittle, it just takes a little longer in countries with strong sunlight, about fifteen years apparently. Found this out the hard way when a bad hail storm punched holes in every skylight panel in my roof so I've been up on the roof whenever it stopped raining long enough for the last week or so, trying to stop the leaks. Also lost one of the lighting circuits in my house, so I'm hoping that that counts as three and the run of bad luck will stop.
After the last few weeks I canna be arsed spending another two or three hours doing the usual final tweaking on this, so it will probably be less polished than the other chapters, sorry.
There's been about a fifty percent increase in the total Wizengamot votes referred to in The Bitch is Back because in this world the fifty or so Wizengamot members generally referred to are only the Upper Wizengamot, there are almost twice that many in the Lower Wizengamot but they can't match the voting strength of the Upper Wizengamot.
What a surprise, I've got another Underbridge Clan member sniping from the shadows without actually reading what's written as they seem more interested in complaining about non-existent harems. Oh well, I guess if they get jollies out of being a bitch, I mean bitching, it's not a total loss. ;^)
Usual disclaimer, no rights to anything from JKR's stories.
The Purebloods started to panic about a month after the Presiding Panel took over from Albus Dumbledore, because the Panel announced that they had begun a review the Wizengamot Law establishments and amendments in the past, looking at the last fifty years as the first cut, and had found that many of them had failed the Rules of the Wizengamot. While not as strict as the requirements to make amendments to the Rules of the Wizengamot themselves, there were mandatory requirements that had to be met before Wizengamot Laws could be created, amended or repealed, the most relevant one being the fact that two thirds of the possible Wizengamot votes were required for the creation, amendment or repealing of any Wizengamot Laws. Needless to say, this requirement had not been met when many laws were created or amended in the last fifty years, especially in the last twenty years, and nor had the requirements for every Wizengamot member to get the supporting documentation and justification at least two weeks prior to the vote being held on the law, as well as any clarifications on that documentation.
The Wizards Council gave in to pressure from the Non-magical King of Britain (who was in turn giving in to the pressure his Non-Magical Nobles were applying in behalf of the new Magical Nobles they were related to) at the start of the Sixteenth Century to allow the Noble Magical Houses that had not originated as Druid Families to play a role in governing Magical Britain. To do this, the seven Druid Lords of the Wizards Council were expanded to form the fifty three member Upper Wizengamot and the other thirteen Druid Houses were expanded to become the hundred and one member Lower Wizengamot.
The Druids Laws which included the original laws of magic that governed Magical Britain were being codified from the beginning of the Eleventh Century when the thirteen member Druids Council was expanded into the two part Wizards Council, and they were finalised and definitions for the hierarchy of Magical Britain were added about a decade before the Norman Invasion. The families of Druids who had made a notable contribution to Magical Britain over its history were formally recognised as Druid Families, and from those Druid Families, Druids of great vision and wisdom were elected to sit on the Druids Council which had directed Magical Britain since the first Druids appeared in Britain. The families of those Druids were identified as the Guiding Families, and when the Druid Laws began being codified at the beginning of the Eleventh Century, they became the Druid Houses. The Druid Houses who's Heads had become ennobled, also known as the Druid Lords, then became the Noble Druid Houses….. The extant Druid Families, Druid Houses and Noble Druid Houses in Magical Britain as at the time the Druid Laws began being codified were all identified as Most Ancient, to signify their role in guiding and advancing Magical Britain over its Fifteen Hundred year history.
The King of Britain hadn't appreciated being pressured by the Earls and Barons to change the traditional agreements that had been made with the Druids to keep the peace and assure their support, and he was suspicious that this was an attempt to usurp his sovereignty, so in the late Fourteen Hundreds the King secretly made the Wizards Council an offer to shore up their mutual support agreements which was accepted by the Council. The Druid Lords' titles were all elevated, the Heads of the Houses of Potter, Peverell and Black were elevated from Earls to Dukes and the thirteen Druid Barons who existed at that point were all elevated to Earls. The Heads of all forty seven extant Guiding Families were made Minor Barons and the Heads of the three hundred and seventeen extant Druid Families became Lairds….. in both instances this inferred the greater rights associated with the Scottish titles, but they were not limited to Scotland. What this meant was that while they were being forced to open the governing body of Magical Britain to the newer and more ambitious Noble Houses who were looking to use the supposedly superior number of shiny new Noble titles they had to rule Magical Britain purely for their own benefit, even with only three quarters of the Druid Houses and Families extant at that point, the King had granted the Druids three hundred and seventeen Lairds', forty seven Minor Barons', thirteen Earls' and three Dukes' titles to hold off the new Magical Nobles and retain control.
As part of creating the Wizengamot, the Wizards Council clarified the Most Ancient Houses and Families as those which were extant when the Wizards Council was created and added another definition of Ancient Houses and Families for those that had been established during the period that the Wizards Council ruled Magical Britain, five hundred years between the beginnings of the Eleventh and Sixteenth Centuries (as well as adding the title of Most Noble Druid Houses for the three Dukes' Houses, defining Earls' Houses as Senior Noble Houses and Barons' as Junior Noble Houses). At that point it had been nearly a hundred years since the last new Druid Houses or Families had been created, so at the insistence of the Noble Houses (who wanted to control more votes in the Wizengamot) they had added a new classification of Minor Houses to allow wealthy common Magical families to join the Wizengamot as the Magical Gentry.
The process to do this was much the same as what was created to establish Noble Houses which hadn't originated as Druid Families. Formal proof that the family had been magical and active in Magical Britain for at least a hundred years had to be extracted from the official records of Magical Britain to get the family recognised as a Magical Family (Without evidence that they had been actively contributing to Magical Britain, they needed to go back further than a century, much further in some cases, because merely existing wasn't enough to be recognised as a Magical Family. The Nobles had argued about this requirement, but had to accept it when reminded that the criteria for being recognised as a Druid Family was to have made a notable contribution to Magical Britain.), and then the legitimate acquisition of a Baronet title by the official Head of that Magical Family to establish it as a Minor House in Magical Britain.
If the Minor House was successfully created and they were recognised by the Wizengamot, under the voting hierarchy codified into the Wizengamot Rules the Baronet's title gave them a single vote, the same as the Head of a Druid Family's Laird's title did. Any Baron or Viscount's title gave two votes, an Earl or Marquess four votes, and a Duke six votes. In addition to this, Ancient Houses and Families had their votes multiplied by a factor of two and Most Ancient Houses and Families by three, so the Heads of Ancient Druid Families and Junior Noble Houses both had two votes. A superior house held the right to vote on behalf of any sworn vassal houses or families in the Wizengamot, whether or not they held a Wizengamot seat, but proxy votes could only be voted for a current Wizengamot Member's House or Family.
Now that most of the proxies that Dumbledore had illegally claimed and the titles that the Death Eaters and other 'Traditional' Purebloods had stolen from destroyed families over the last twenty odd years had been returned and most of the extant Druid Houses and Families were sworn vassals of Harry, Sirius and the other early Druid Lords, the Druid Alliance was a force to be reckoned with in the Wizengamot. This ensured that the Wizengamot Laws that they found abhorrent didn't get ratified when they came up for a proper vote.
The Purebloods were gnashing their teeth when the Presiding Panel announced that twenty to fifty of those illicit 'Law' creations and amendments would be put to the vote in each Wizengamot session until the shortcomings of all the original votes had been corrected, and it was the responsibility of whoever had been behind the original introduction of the law or amendment to ensure that the entire Wizengamot received all the relevant documentation for the law or amendment at least two weeks prior to it being voted on, otherwise it would be voted out. It was also announced that the majority of the Upper Wizengamot and senior members of the Lower Wizengamot would be required to be in attendance for all of these sessions, because the Wizengamot Rules would have required nine hundred votes for any of these 'Law' creations and amendments to be passed. Many of the Lords of the Wizengamot were ropeable when they were advised that as this was going to be an inconvenience to all Wizengamot members, anyone controlling a significant voting block in the Wizengamot who held up this process by failing to attend or make formal arrangements to authorise others to vote on their behalf would be penalised, and these penalties would increase significantly with each successive failure to vote or authorise proxies.
The Pureblood Lords were even angrier when they realised that they'd need to buy far more votes to try and get the new or amended laws through now than they had when they originally got them passed, so they quickly started trying to weigh up which ones were worth spending the gold to try and keep. Of course, Harry and the others weren't going to let them get away with that without a fight, so they argued most of the Laws the Purebloods obviously wanted to standstill.
In the short term, their being careful about which laws they put their gold behind meant that many of the bigoted laws and amendments were scrapped without a fight when they were put up to be voted on. By the time the Quidditch World Cup Final came around at the beginning of August, most of Dumbledore's changes to the Laws of Magical Britain had been reversed or revoked. There were of course other changes lost that they would rather have kept, but they were operating on the premise that they could fight to get them reintroduced once the rest of the crap had been cleaned out.
Many of the Traditional Purebloods weren't cunning enough to hide their gloating expressions as they got closer to the Quidditch World Cup Final, so Amelia made arrangements to have Aurors and other witches and wizards ready to move in quickly if there was any trouble. They had tents scattered throughout the various camping areas with Goblin floos hidden inside, so they could send people in to deal with whatever happened.
Sirius was still a man child at heart, he was working to become what he needed to be as the Head of the Most Noble and Most Ancient Druid House of Black and a proper Godfather to James and Lily's son, but he had still been quite immature when he was thrown into Azkaban without a trial at the age of twenty two, and a decade in Azkaban had scarred him more than helped him mature. As a result, his first impulse when the date and location of the Quidditch World Cup Final was announced was to book several boxes on the top tier of the stands, and to be fair no-one complained because many people in their extended family were Quidditch mad.
Even Harry and the girls enjoyed watching Quidditch played at that level so they were attending with the rest of the family, though of course Harry was using his metamorph talent to change his appearance and the girls were using Goblin glamours to hide their identities. That basically worked up until Louis Delacour, the Head of French equivalent of the Department of International Magical Cooperation arrived in the Ministry box with his wife Apolline, who was a Veela.
Apolline Delacour was swearing under her breath about the need to accompany Louis to these types of events to keep up appearances and trying to ignore these pigs in the Ministry box that his position meant that he had to be polite to, so she was pretending to watch the crowd filling the stands with interest, but something caught her eye in another box on the top tier….. A young Veela in her late teens or early twenties under what appeared to be a Goblin glamour. That wasn't the half of it though, her senses were singing at the power leaking from the young wizard the Veela was with…. Mon Dieu! He obviously hadn't fully come into his power yet but he made Louis in his prime look rather mediocre! For that matter the Veela and the other young witch with them were showing a lot of power as well, not to mention the fact that they were all bonded to each other…. And there was also the fact that the young Veela was from no line that she recognised, and she'd thought that she knew all of the European Veela lines at least.
She signalled Louis and indicating the young Veela, told him that she needed him to find a way for her to get an introduction to that Veela who was hiding under a glamour and her companions. When Louis looked at the one she was indicating, he laughed and muttered in French. "I do not think that you are the only one who wants an introduction Cherie, that witch who's heading our way now is Britain's Head of Magical Law Enforcement, Madame Bones, I was introduced to her last year in Paris at the International meeting for Magical Law Enforcement."
Sure enough, as soon as Amelia greeted Louis and was introduced to Apolline, she said that her niece and Lord Longbottom's Heir would like to thank Louis for his assistance in setting up their protection at Beauxbatons, but their family was not exactly comfortable around many from the British Ministry. The Delacours jumped at the chance to get away from the Ministry pigs and were soon being introduced to the young Countess Bones and Baron Longbottom, Heir to the Senior Noble and Most Ancient Druid House of Longbottom, and then to most of the other people in the boxes, Duke Black was an interesting character, as was Baron Lovegood, but Apolline had to bite her tongue as they were three quarters of the way through the group before they were finally introduced to the young Veela and her two bond mates.
Apolline caught Louis' frown when the young wizard was introduced as Comte Henri Corbeau of Magical France, which told her that something didn't fit, even though she didn't see this charming and confident young Comte being silly enough to claim a title that wasn't rightfully his when he was being introduced to a distinguished French Comte and notable member of the French Ministry. The two girls were also introduced as French witches, and the young Comte's betrothed, so she had to stop a frown of her own, as she knew damned well that this girl was of no French Veela line!
A while after they sat down to chat in fluent French, the young Comte laughed softly and suddenly changed the subject. "They've finally stopped staring at us! I must apologise for the subterfuge Comte Delacour, Comtesse Delacour, but we are not officially in Britain and do not wish the British Ministry or anyone else outside of our family know that we are here. I do in fact legitimately hold the title of Comte Corbeau in Magical France and as you know Chateau Corbeau is not too far from Chateau Delacour, but I am better known as Duke Henry James Potter Peverell, or Harry Potter in Magical Britain. My betrothed are Lady Hermione Jean Dagworth-Granger and Lady Luna Pandora Lovegood-Cathbad, and yes, Comtesse Delacour, Luna is of one of the last British Veela lines, through her mother, Lady Pandora Lovegood-Cathbad. The Veela lines who remained in Britain have for the last couple of centuries bound their daughters' Veela abilities until after they have finished at Hogwarts so that they will be able to keep ordinary witches and wizards from discovering that they are Veela. This is because British witches and wizards tend to attack anything they do not understand, rather than make any attempt to learn, and killing all those wizards for making inappropriate overtures to young Veela would make entirely too much of a mess to clean up."
Louis and Apolline burst out laughing at that, because as the husband and father of Veela, Louis had been hard pressed to stop himself from making such a mess on far too many occasions, as had Apolline when supposedly adult wizards had made their intentions towards their eldest daughter disgustingly clear over the last four or five years. She had discovered that the pigs paying that sort of attention to her daughter actually enraged her far more than it had when she had had to put up with it herself at Fleur's age. She was also eager to learn more about this binding to mask the Veela abilities, because providing there were no significant side effects, she was hopeful that it may help save Gabrielle from similar attentions and therefore give her a more pleasant experience at through her teenage years.
Apolline was enjoying chatting with Luna about her experiences as a hidden British Veela when the Bulgarian national team's Veela 'Mascots' came out to perform. Most of the wizards and more than a few witches in the audience went wild when they turned up their allure, which the young Duc Potter-Peverell appeared to find as distasteful as she did, but she was shocked by the language this charming young Duc came out with when he suddenly started swearing in High Goblin?
Those on the Veela Councils had always believed that they were the only ones outside of the Goblin Nations who spoke High Goblin, but the young Duc remained in that language as he turned to bark orders to the Goblin in charge of what she suddenly registered was a squad of a High Clan Chieftain's elite House Guard, which was actually led by a High Goblin! A Clan Chieftain's House Guard and a High Goblin being out in the wizarding world was unheard of, and their taking orders from a human even more so, so Apolline almost missed the fact that the young Duc's ears had been shifted into some form of cat's ears, which had presumably allowed him to hear about this thing that was to happen after the final match was over, that they'd obviously been expecting. The young Duc went on to issue more orders to Madame Bones, which Apolline didn't hear as they were using some form of privacy charm, then turned to her and addressed her in High Goblin.
He shrugged at the questioning look she sent him about the language he was speaking. "Once we were introduced I recognised your name from the Veela Councils' member lists and I know that the Councils speak High Goblin when officially dealing with the people. It is a dialect that none of those pigs over there can speak, so we cannot be understood if we speak it…." She kept up the questioning look and he shook his head and continued tersely. "I have neither the time nor the inclination to play games with you here Comtesse Delacour, I speak High Goblin because the Goblin people recognise the Head of the Most Noble and Most Ancient Druid House of Potter as the Patron of the Goblin Nations. Do you personally know any of those Bulgarian Veela?"
Apolline grimaced as she glanced down at the stadium floor where the Veela had been performing and answered him in the same language. "Yes! Two of them are daughters of my second and third cousins."
"That is disappointing, but may be to our advantage. I will leave it to the Councils to address the fact that for some reason they have gone against the Councils' mandates that Veela are not to prostitute themselves, but there is a more immediate problem, as they have just been sold to the ones who will be staging a disturbance here after the match. They will be supposedly be abducted from their tent in the disturbance, but as I said they were just sold by a representative of the Bulgarian Ministry… for a shamefully low price at that so Bulgaria obviously doesn't place much value on Veela. If it were any of my business Comtesse Delacour, I would recommend that the Councils order all Veela to leave Bulgaria immediately if this is a measure if the respect Veela are held in there, but that is the Veela Councils' decision to make. I presume that you, as a member of the Veela Councils, will do what you can to prevent Veela to be sold off to pigs to be used and cast aside when they are done with them?" Apolline nodded grimly, affronted by the question but understanding that he was just stating the obvious.
"Very Well, if you visit the convenience back there, my Guard commander Ulfr will pop you down to the Veelas' tent so you can inform them what is going on and tell them what to do, then they can be removed to a safe location by Goblin Floo, once they are safely away we will organise a welcoming party there for the ones who come to take them…. I understand that you must be upset and furious at the moment Comtesse Delacour but I implore you to take care not to insult Ulfr in any way, he is the nephew and heir of Over Chieftain Gringott the Seventh, the current Leader of the Goblin Nations, so you would be insulting the Goblin Nations if you did so."
Apolline was shocked by that last admonishment, but she quickly embraced him and kissed his cheeks, then quickly and quietly explained what was happening to Louis before going to visit the convenience. On one hand, the business was handled with the speed and efficiency she'd expected of the Goblins, but even knowing about his connections it was hard to believe that the young Duc could have organised this on the fly so quickly as the Bulgarian 'mascots' were safe inside a Veela Enclave in France and she was back with the others not much more than fifteen minutes after she left. The Bulgarian team would notice of course when they weren't there to celebrate or commiserate with after the match, but the tent had been made to look like they'd left in a hurry so they were banking on the Bulgarians thinking that the Veela had just run off while everyone's attention was on the match. Harry was also banking on the fact that the Bulgarian official who'd sold the Veela would mess up the tent a little more to cover up their disappearance so he could hang onto the gold he took for them while claiming that someone else must have grabbed them when the disturbance started.
Their enjoyment of the match was rather curtailed by their aggravation about what the Ministry officials were planning, but they had a good idea of exactly when and where the so-called Death Eaters would be turning up now, so they'd have their teams ready and waiting in tents close by and at the first sign of trouble they'd run out, engage them and take them down hard. The only funny side of this was thinking about the Ministry and Purebloods' confusion about where Amelia had gotten so many Aurors and MLE Patrol Officers from, because most of the witches and wizards coming out of the tents would be wearing DMLE robes. The team who would be waiting in the Veelas' tent would be just about the only ones other than the family not putting on an act, as their job was simple, drag all of the ones who arrived to grab the Veela inside and slaughter them quickly, then burn the tent and everything in it to destroy the evidence. The family attracted a lot of attention by taking the fight to the so-called Death Eaters when everyone else was screaming and hiding. Luckily, having the Delacours there meant that 'Henri', 'Jeanne' and 'Eloise' were just accepted as part of the French contingent made up of the Delacours, Louis' assistants and their guards.
The 'Death Eater attack' was over almost as soon as it started, their people boiled out of the tents, took them down fast and hard and portkeyed them off to the DMLE's holding cells….. well most of them went to the DMLE's medical facilities first because very few of them got through the altercation intact. Nearly all of them were missing their wand arms, and most of them their other arms and legs as well. While they were in shock from the trauma of losing limbs, Amelia had them questioned under Veritaserum, but while they picked up many other small players, someone had been clever enough to ensure that they took oaths to prevent any information about the ones behind this getting out.
Of course, Fudge and the Purebloods ranted and raved and tried to claim that it was just youthful exuberance and harmless fun, even though half of them had actual Dark Marks to go with the Death Eater robes and masks, most were in their late thirties or forties…. and their wands showed dark curses being cast. Between the testimonies under Veritaserum and the wand evidence, there wasn't really any way of letting them off, and as no-one seemed to know who the Aurors and DMLE Patrol Officers were and the Wizengamot wouldn't let them go after nobles like the Dukes, Earls, Countesses, Comtes and Comtesses that made up the 'family' party coming out of Sirius' tent for their 'vicious attacks' on common Death Eaters, they were soon left with nothing but ineffectual complaints.
They had to concede that the Ministry and the Purebloods had played one aspect of this well though, because they were so tied up trying to make sure they didn't let any of the ones who attacked the World Cup off that they didn't catch Dumbledore's game at Hogwarts until the last minute. Of course the fact that he only told Minerva about the Triwizard Tournament ten minutes before the Welcoming Feast began was a big part of that. Luckily that was enough time for the family members who held nine of the thirteen Hogwarts Board seats to assemble outside the doors of the Great Hall, so when Dumbledore drew himself up to announce. "The Quidditch Cup is cancelled this school year, because Magical Britain has managed to do what no one else has in two hundred years, we have managed to bring back the legendary Triwizard Tournament… Right here at Hogwarts!..."
The doors crashed open and they strode in, with Sirius shouting. "That in the Seven Hells do you think you're doing Dumbledore? Are you so feeble minded that you've forgotten that nothing can be hosted at Hogwarts without the approval of the Hogwarts Board?"
Once again, the old fool thought he could outmanoeuvre them. "I do not know what you are talking about Black. I can assure you that our actions were authorised by the Hogwarts Board, which you no longer have any reason to be involved with since Potter left!"
Sirius sneered an "Oh?" at him and asked the other eight Board Members in the Great Hall whether any of them had authorised this. One he had received emphatic negatives from all of them he turned back to Dumbledore. "I will be demanding either an honour duel or compensation of my choice for the disrespect you have shown to me, Duke Sirius Orion Black and my Godson, Duke Henry James Potter-Peverell Dumbledore, but we will address that later….. Given the fact that you misappropriated the Potter seat when my Godson was illegally banished into an abusive Muggle environment for ten years at your instigation, you are well aware of the fact that the heads of the senior families or their representatives always have the right to claim their seats on the Hogwarts Board in order to direct the education of the future of Magical Britain so that they can properly prepare them for what they will face when they grow up, you're obviously trying to mislead the people here in the Great Hall yet again with that shite."
"There's also the fact that you are knowingly lying about having the Approval of the Hogwarts Board, because you know full well that getting agreement from any of those four idiots we didn't bother removing from the Board yet because they only represent about ten percent of the votes on the Board means nothing! No, I must correct myself, it means that they do need to be removed as a matter of priority because they have yet again placed supporting you and your games above the safety of the children at Hogwarts, who are Magical Britain's future…. You seem to forget old man that the fact that you confounded the Hogwarts Board fifty years ago to get that rider placed on your contract saying that it requires a unanimous vote of the Hogwarts Board to dismiss you does not mean that we do not have other ways to get rid of you. That act you had passed giving yourself and Minister Bagnold immunity from prosecution so long as you remain in your positions as Chief Warlock and Minister for Magic has been repealed, and you are no longer Chief Warlock anyway, so there's nothing stopping us having you tried for your many crimes and thrown in Azkaban or through the Veil of Death. If you were as smart as you keep telling everyone you are Dumbledore, you wouldn't keep reminding us that we really need to get rid of you, for The Greater Good."
As Sirius had planned, Dumbledore started sweating at that, and after he'd given him a couple of minutes to stew he went on. "This Triwizard Tournament will not be hosted at Hogwarts, and the Hogwarts Board will not allow Hogwarts to be a part of it unless we see proof that it has been changed from a senseless deathtrap of the past to an actual test of skill and magical ability, as it was meant to be….." Amelia caught his eye and signalled to the students, so he nodded, turning to face them.
"I doubt that your esteemed" The sarcasm was dripping from that word. "Headmaster planned to tell you this, but the reason this Triwizard Tournament was banned two hundred years ago was that they finally accepted that it was stupid to keep allowing the best and brightest of Magical Europe to be slaughtered in a meaningless competition. Over the five centuries it was run every five years or so, with Hogwarts, Beauxbatons and Durmstrang alternating as the school hosting it, more and more of the competitors were killed in the Tournament, not to mention judges and spectators. The last time it was run, here at Hogwarts in Seventeen Ninety Two, all three of the competitors were killed so there was no winner. That finally made the people supporting this thing step back and admit that it was nothing but a deathtrap where the supposed winner was usually the one who had been lucky enough to survive. That is why the Triwizard Tournament was cancelled two hundred years ago, and the Hogwarts Board..." He indicated those with him. "Has no intention of allowing Hogwarts to be involved with anything like that again."
Dumbledore still thought that he could win with this. "You can't pull Hogwarts out of the Triwizard Tournament! The governments of Magical Britain, Magical France and the Nordic Magical Confederation have all signed unbreakable magical contracts for it to be held again!"
Sirius and Amelia looked at each other and swore to themselves as they realised that this must have been why Louis Delacour had been in Britain for the Quidditch World Cup Final, he must have been here for the final contract signings, but Sirius wasn't going to let it go at that.
"That is unfortunate for whatever fool it was who signed to commit Hogwarts to participating in the tournament without getting the Hogwarts Board's proper authorisation, but our responsibility is to safety and advancement of the students of Hogwarts, not some Ministry flunky who didn't give a thought to the safety of the ones who would be made to risk life and limb for some senseless spectacle!"
"It is not just the Director of the Department of International Magical Cooperation who is at risk here, it is Magical Britain itself! The penalty if we were to try and pull out of the contract would be that we would cease to be a separate country and Magical France and the Nordic Magical Confederation would split us up between them!"
They weren't swearing under their breaths this time, they were calling the old fool every name in the book. "This level of stupidity has you written all over it old man! You are so determined to force us to go along with your stupid plan that you are willing to destroy our country to do it, and you obviously used the old Dumbledore Mind Magics to compel Fudge and those other idiots to go along with it!" He turned to Griselda, Bathilda, Augusta and Tiberius. "My Lady Chief Witches, My Lord Chief Warlock, we need to schedule an immediate emergency Wizengamot session to determine how to address this threat to Magical Britain and prevent our destruction!" The three Chief Witches and Chief Wizard nodded and ran out of the Great Hall as Sirius turned back to Dumbledore.
"Tell us who else is involved with the Triwizard Tournament right now, because we'll be getting you, Fudge and the rest of those idiots into the Wizengamot Chamber with those signed contracts and every other agreement and piece of documentation, now!"
"You cannot order me or the Minister for Magic about like this….."
"What part of now don't you understand you fucking old fool? You may well have destroyed Magical Britain with your hubris and pride, so we need to do what we can to try and protect the future of Magical Britain and the children of the Magical World from what you've done immediately! What are you waiting for? Give me the names of everyone involved in this and don't leave anyone out! We're getting you, Fudge and the rest of the jackals into the Wizengamot Chamber for an immediate Wizengamot session!"
Most of the students were just staring at Sirius in shock, but some were already running out of the Great Hall because they understood the importance of what had been said, so they were running to send word to their parents that Dumbledore, Fudge and their associates had quite possibly doomed their country.
As the sensible cousin, Andi stepped aside and called Louis Delacour on the communications mirror they'd given him at the Quidditch World Cup Final. It was no great surprise to hear that he hadn't been given any real opportunity to review the Triwizard Tournament contracts he'd signed on behalf of Magical France, so he knew nothing about the incredible penalty clauses that had been written into them. He agreed to make himself ready to attend the Wizengamot session and come through the Goblin Floo when they required his presence.
Fudge and the others from the British Ministry of Magic tried to bluster when they were dragged in front of the Emergency Wizengamot Session (literally in some cases, as Amelia had to send DMLE Patrol Officers to their homes to collect them when they didn't appear), but they soon shut up when they saw well over three quarters of the Wizengamot were present on an hour's notice, and most of them looked as though they'd quite happily have anyone involved in this mess kissed by the Dementors.
Amelia and Louis contacted Amelia's equivalent in Magical France and arranged for any French representatives on the Triwizard Committee to be quietly rounded up and delivered to the Wizengamot session, and they did something similar with the Nordic Magical Confederation, as well as bringing in a senior panel of the International Confederation of Wizards' judiciary to render judgement on those elements that Magical Britain's Wizengamot could not rule on. Those who had the sense to see what had been accomplished were astounded that an international court of this magnitude could have been convened in the space of an hour, but very few of those who were facing judgement were that bright, so they were still sure that they would get out of this.
Full copies of the Triwizard Tournament Contracts and all attachments were supplied to every Wizengamot member and the ICW judges and other parties brought in to deal with this, and wards soon had to be thrown up around the ones there to answer to the charges as they found more and more hidden penalties buried in the fine print and attachments, like the ruling that any eligible schoolchildren of senior government officials of the participating countries must be entered into the Tournament or their houses would have everything stripped from them and their children put under the control of the respective Ministry, it was not missed that Comte Delacour was the only senior government official that this seemed to apply to.
What it came down to was that the Triwizard Tournament Contracts and the incredible penalties they included were magically binding, and Dumbledore had covered his arse by having it written into the contracts that Magical Britain had to participate, with Hogwarts as the hosting school and him as its Headmaster. While they had to go along with that though, they weren't going to allow those bastards to do what they wanted, so they forced changes to the Triwizard Tournament Committee. Louis replaced the French Ministry representative he killed in an honour duel for setting his family up like that, and he added Madame Maxime (as she was the only school head not on the committee) and other trusted associates too, replacing the existing French Ministry representatives where possible to reduce their power in the committee. They did similar things with the Nordic Magical Confederation to try and nobble the ones who were part of this nefarious scheme, but in Magical Britain the ones behind the scheme had locked themselves in, so the only way they could offset that was to add the thirteen Governors on the Hogwarts Board to the Triwizard Committee, and give them overriding authority on everything that happened at Hogwarts, which meant that they had the final say on what happened in the tasks (by the time the inquest was finished the last four 'traditional' pureblood members had been replaced with other Senior Noble and Ancient House representatives who could be trusted to place the students' safety and interests first).
Dumbledore's cronies, who thought that they had this locked in, tried to argue that the Triwizard Committee couldn't be changed once the contracts were signed but the ICW judges laughed at them, saying that the only ones who couldn't be changed were the ones who were explicitly named or identified in the contracts, so the rest of them could be tried, dealt with and replaced. Fudge and his French equivalent lost their positions and most of what they owned, as did many of their key people. Unfortunately most of the ones who were bright enough to be dangerous had had themselves written into the contracts so they were protected. The President of the Nordic Magical Confederation hadn't been involved at all, the NMC representation in this turned out to be mainly Grindelwald supporters who were still hoping to make his dream come about, but they only managed to clean out about half of them, as the others were identified in the Triwizard contracts.
Dumbledore was ropeable when he was informed that he was now Headmaster of Hogwarts in name only, because Minerva McGonagall was taking over all his official duties as Acting Headmistress, and Pomona Sprout would be the Acting Deputy Headmistress until the end of the school year, when their positions would be made formal. Dumbledore was made to swap offices with Minerva and his duties had become teaching the first four years of Transfiguration and Defence Against the Dark Arts classes. Rolanda Hooch became the Gryffindor House Mistress and taught the first four years of Charms, while they and they hired Gethsemane Prickle away from the Ministry to take over as the Hufflepuff House Mistress and teach the first four years of Herbology. The point of this was to prevent the Headmistress, Deputy Headmistress, House Mistresses and House Master from being overloaded, so that they could give proper attention to both their teaching and administrative duties. It also took control of Hogwarts' wards away from Dumbledore and prevented him having any access to Hogwarts funds. Strangely enough, without Dumbledore being able to skim from the Hogwarts vaults and accounts any more, there was plenty of gold to cover the pay adjustments and extra teacher's salary. This meant that he had had been demoted to a junior teacher of two subjects (with a suitable pay reduction) who had no longer had any authority to do anything untoward. They also got rid of Argus Filch, as he was incapable of doing the tasks associated with the caretaker's role. The Hogwarts elves did most of the cleaning and repair functions associated with the role and Minerva and Pomona divvied up the other tasks between them.
Dumbledore and the Ministry hacks who were locked into the Triwizard Committee tried to insist that the Hogwarts student body all stand out in the sleet and snow waiting for when the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang contingents arrived the day before Halloween, and they were very pissed off when the response they got from most of the students and staff was basically. 'Shove off you old wanker!'
They were even more pissed off when the majority of the students and staff came out of the castle just before Beauxbatons' cottage sized flying coach came into sight. It kept getting worse for them, because the first one to alight from the coach was a very dapper looking Rubeus Hagrid. Hagrid handed Madame Maxime out of the coach, leaving the male students to do the honours for the young ladies of the Beauxbatons delegation, then they moved gracefully as a group to where Minerva and Pomona was waiting, all except for the French Ministry flunky walking straight past Dumbledore and the Ministry flunky as if they didn't exist. Once greetings had been exchanged, Minerva led everyone but Dumbledore, the Ministry flunkies and the sons and daughters of the Traditional Purebloods back inside out of the cold and sleet. The wards alerted Minerva that the Durmstrang ship had arrived in Black Lake, but after a brief discussion with Pomona and Filius, she decided to let Dumbledore greet the ex-Death Eater and whatever he decided to bring with him. The contracts for this damned tournament had forced them to keep the old bastard here with the nominal title of Headmaster, so he could deal with the vermin that it brought to Hogwarts.
The arrogant old fool actually had the gall to try to remonstrate her for failing to officially welcome the Durmstrang delegation to Hogwarts, but she'd had enough of pandering to him. "Shut up ye daft old git! Everyone here, even that Death Eater coward that you've sullied our school with, knows the truth. The ONLY reason ye get to call yeself headmaster is the fact that ye wrote it into the contracts for this deathtrap and made sure that we couldna cancel it without destroying Magical Britain. We should make you compete in this damned thing ye've brought down on us, but of course being a coward like the Death Eater you have made sure that we canna. In case ye've forgotten, ye have no say in what Hogwarts' staff or students do any more Dumbledore, ye are nothing but a junior teacher teaching classes to the younger students because we dinna trust ye to teach the older students, remember ye place old man. The only thing ye are here for is this damned tournament and if ye try to interfere with anything else I will step on you…. Or I'll ask Madame Maxime's permission to get Professor Hagrid to do it for me."
Karkaroff drew himself up to rant at her about how she was referring to him but she cut him off. "Shut up Karkaroff! This abomination of a tournament and the fact that you've been written into the contracts as well are the only reason something like you would ever be allowed to set foot in Hogwarts! I was hoping that the wards might have still rejected you because of the Dark Mark your master branded you with, but there hasn't been any magic in it since he was killed, so the wards created to destroy any dark objects that cross them didn't have anything to work with…."
Minerva suddenly cocked her head to one side and gave an evil laugh. "It appears that you had some rather nasty dark objects on your ship though Death Eater, because the wards have just notified me that they managed to set off the ship's power stones when they were destroyed. That breached the ship's hull and it's sinking! Fool! Did you think that we wouldna stop you bringing dark objects into Hogwarts?"
That caused a mass exodus out of the doors, and sure enough, the Durmstrang ship was rolling away from the shore as it settled onto the bottom which sharply fell away to deep waters in that part of the lake. Dumbledore, Karkaroff, the Ministry representatives forced on them and the Durmstrang contingent were screaming in frustration as they ran towards the ship, madly casting spells to try to stop it turning turtle and disappearing under the waters of Black lake. Just about everyone else was laughing their heads off as they watched the show, but when Dumbledore and the others were standing on the shore, morosely looking at where the ship had disappeared under the water, Minerva called a horn to her and offered it to Hagrid.
Hagrid took the horn with a nod and Minerva and the others followed him down to the shore. He used the horn to call the giant squid and after a chat that no-one else could really understand the Squid disappeared. A few minutes later, something appeared in the depths of the lake, growing larger until the hull of the Durmstrang ship broke the surface and it was pushed half up on the shore. Hagrid called out something to the squid and then he, Olympe, Minerva and the other Hogwarts professors quickly patched up the holes in the ship's bottom while the squid held it there. When they were satisfied that they had all the holes they could see closed up, Hagrid called to the squid again and it pulled the ship back into the water. Minerva and the others conjured ropes to secure it to the shore and levitated the gangway back onto the ship while Hagrid thanked the squid for its help.
While some of the Durmstrang students called out their thanks as the Hogwarts and Beauxbatons staff and students turned to walk away, none missed the fact that neither Dumbledore nor Karkaroff made any effort to do so.
Dumbledore and the Durmstrang delegation boarded the now non-magical ship and tried to dry out and repair what they could in the cabins, before they got cleaned up themselves and trudged back up to the castle for the feast. Dumbledore, Karkaroff and the Ministry flunky were less than impressed to find that a separate table had been set up off to the side of the High Table dais for the everyone who was there for the Triwizard Tournament because they'd been locked in by the contracts they wrote. The only ones who were there for the Tournament who were sitting at the High Table were Madame Maxime and Hagrid.
Karkaroff stomped up to the High Table and made sure that everyone heard as he told Minerva that Hogwarts would be paying to get the damage its malicious wards did to Durmstrang's ship repaired, but a subtle sonorous charm ensured that everyone heard Minerva's laughter and response.
"Are you mad Karkaroff? You try to bring in dark objects that were powerful enough to set off your ship's power stones when the wards created to protect the children at Hogwarts destroyed them, and you think that we will accept responsibility for the damage your actions caused? Get out of my sight you idiot! I had been inclined to let the matter of you bringing that class of Dark Objects into Magical Britain go, but for you to have the gall to try and demand that we pay for you actions, no!…. Professor Sprout, could you contact the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, the Department of Mysteries and the Goblin Nation please, we need to get their experts to identify what level of Dark Objects would have been required to set off the power stones in Durmstrang's ship like that, so that they can determine what fines must be applied to Durmstrang, or Karkaroff himself if the school tries to separate themselves from any responsibility for illegally bringing dangerous Dark Objects into Magical Britain."
Pomona's eyes were dancing with mirth as she pointed out that they actually had the heads of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and Department of Mysteries here, as the Hogwarts Board members were present to try and ensure that nothing else untoward happened in regards to this Tournament. Minerva smiled. "Oh yes. Silly me. Madam Bones, Lord Croaker, would you agree that we have a case to fine Durmstrang for bringing powerful Dark Objects into Magical Britain?"
Amelia was trying to keep a straight face as she responded. "I do indeed Professor McGonagall, as you said, they would have had to be powerful Dark Objects to set off the power stones when they were destroyed, so in my mind there is no question that it's a chargeable offence, Lord Croaker, can you organise your Unspeakables to come in and do the testing on the residue of the Dark Objects?"
"Of course Madam Bones, I will have my Unspeakables bring the relevant people from the Goblin Nation with them, as they often work together on these matters, they should be able to get some ICW observers to come with them as well."
Karkaroff, Dumbledore and the Ministry flunkies were trying to argue that they couldn't do that as the Durmstrang ship was classified as sovereign soil of the NMC but Amelia just dismissed their arguments, telling them that due to the excessive involvement of criminal elements in the planning for the tournament, the DMLE had authorisation from all the current heads of state and the Hogwarts Board to access whatever they deemed necessary to protect the students at Hogwarts for the tournament.
What Dumbledore and the others didn't realise was that the Directors of the DMLE and Department of Mysteries didn't need to leave the High Table to call in the Aurors, Unspeakables, Goblins and ICW observers to investigate the Dark Objects that had been responsible for the Durmstrang ship sinking. In fact the experts were crawling all over the ship and collecting any remnants that had been thrown out when the exploding power stones blew holes in the bottom of the ship while they were at the welcoming feast, telling themselves that they'd be able to get orders to stop any inspections before the British authorities managed to get anything organised.
The fact that nothing could detract from Dumbledore's need to grandstand helped them because everyone had to listen to him rabbiting on about the 'eternal glory' that supposedly came with with winning this thing for well over half an hour, though the Hogwarts Board forced him to tell everyone the news that it was restricted to students who had already reached their majority. They also forced him to make it clear to the students that once their entries were accepted by the Goblet of Fire, they must compete if their names came out of the Goblet, so they needed to be absolutely certain that they wanted to compete in this thing before they put their names in.
Luckily for them, while clever and having complete access to the disturbingly effective Dumbledore Mind Magics, Dumbledore no longer had the Elder Wand to amplify his abilities and he was by no means the Machiavellian genius he thought himself to be. He had the intelligence and ability to be dangerous, but not the unstoppable force he told himself he was. Even better, his ego was inflated enough to stop him seeing that fact, which made him much easier to deal with.
