11.
The Grangers left just after breakfast the next morning in order to pick up some things from their house in Crawley. Harry had decided to invite them to stay for the ascension ceremony and Hermione had given him a pointed look that meant she had something she wanted to discuss when she returned that night.
Harry was only alone for a few hours, pacing the house and trying to get his bearings, when there was a knock at the front door.
Pulling it open, he was met with a team of seven wizards, all who had done their best to dress inconspicuously. The majority of them had managed it but they would have done far better had three of them not been wearing tuxedos instead of business suits.
The one in the front was a dark skinned man with scars all over his face who only just came up to Harry's shoulder. When he walked, he looked as if he was wholly uncomfortable in his body.
"Well met, Lord Potter. I am Alguf, Director Ragnok has sent me with a team of our best spell casters to place the Fidelus charm of your property."
"Oh! Yes, hello! I wasn't actually expecting wizards…come in, come in."
Alguf stared for a moment, as if he wasn't certain what to make of Harry, before stepping through the door. As soon and they were standing in the drawing room, the gobbling dropped his glamour.
"That is much better. The Director himself has handled all of the arrangements for the spell, all we need to know is who will be nominated secret keeper."
Harry had thought about it for a long time, remember the mistake that his parents had made before him.
"I'm going to do it, if that's…"
"That is perfectly acceptable. It is usually suggested that the secret reside within a resident or owner of the property for security reasons. Please hold out your hand so we make take a few drops of blood for the spell."
Harry held out the his left hand, wincing only a little as one of the wizards with Alguf used a razor sharp silver knife with a long groove down the middle of the blade to cut open his palm. The knife was carved with runes, some of which he recognised from Hermione's notes, and as soon as the cut was made, the knife seemed to pull his blood up into the grove.
When the blade left his skin, the cut healed itself.
"That's amazing…"
Alguf again regarded him with a calculating look.
"You act as if you were not accustomed with magic, Lord Potter. That knife is simply a more powerful version of something third year students are taught to create. A very simple piece of rune work."
Harry felt bashful for some reason, like he'd sabotaged his own future taking Divination instead of Ancient Runes.
"My best friend took Ancient Runes but I've never really encountered much…honestly, a lot of the things I'm starting to encounter are pretty amazing to me and I'm starting to wish I hadn't taken Divination."
"Divination is a noble art in itself but wizards lack the ability to understand it. It is not a subject that can be taught if you lack the natural talent for it. Still, you may yet learn something."
As the spell crafters got to work, Harry tried to pay attention to what they were doing but the spells they were muttering under their breaths were too complex for him to catch and the runes they were carving around the skirting boards seemed to shimmer and vanish as soon as they were done. Harry knew the spell had been a success when he felt a pronounced shiver run down his spine which wasn't missed by Alguf. The goblin reapplied his glamour and moved towards the door.
"Once we leave, Lord Potter, the charm will be completed and you will be other only one capable of revealing this address to anyone. If there is anyone who needs to find you then I suggest you write to them forthwith. Any post will be redirected to Gringotts where you can collect it until you make alternative arrangements. Good day."
As the door closed behind the team, a pulse of magic spread outwards from the door and Harry felt a tickle at the back of his mind. He ran upstairs to the room had had slept in the night before and pulled out a thin piece of parchment and a quill.
'Hermione,
The Goblins have come and done what they said they were going to do. I'll meet you at the same place as yesterday. Send Hedwig back when you're ready to leave.
Love, Harry.'
Harry stared at his signature, not entirely sure if he'd meant to sign the letter quite like that but he was sure Hermione wouldn't think anything of it. He rolled the parchment up and tied it to Hedwig's leg.
"You'll be able to find your way back girl, won't you? Even under this charm?"
The look Harry received from the owl was nothing short of withering and, rather unsettlingly, reminded him of Professor McGonagall.
The Grangers beat him to the Leaky Cauldron by only half an hour and, as they had the day before, they had lunch there before wandering into the Alley. Hermione send her parents into the magical Menagerie before dragging Harry towards Fortescue's.
"Harry, don't get me wrong – I'm delighted that you invited my parents to be at your Ascension but I'm wondering if you haven't quite thought it through. I don't think a muggle has ever set foot in the Ministry, never mind in any of the Wizengamot proceedings…I'm not actually certain if they'll be able to access the Ministry without magic."
They both ordered small ice creams and moved to sit outside.
"It's okay, Hermione…I've been thinking it through this morning and yeah, I kind of over looked that but there's nothing to specify that I have to have the ceremony in the Ministry, just that it has to be in front of the Wizengamot so that I can nominate my proxies. As far as I can tell from the things Ragnok sent me, I could hold it in the middle of a forest if I wanted to and they'd be obliged to show up. There's only about sixty of them at most that need to be there and, if I even say we add our friends then we have a maximum party of about 100. I was starting to wonder if I shouldn't make a statement with it."
Realisation dawned across Hermione's face.
"Because we both heard Fudge after…well…after the third task, he's bound to start a desperate campaign against you and Dumbledore to stop everyone from panicking. If you were to pack a room with supporters, it might stop him from being so outspoken about it…I think we need Neville's help with this though."
Harry was quick to agree, he'd been planning on running the idea past Ragnok before owling Neville right away.
"The problem is…I'm also expected to have a ball after it or some kind of party at least and the only experience I have is the Yule Ball…I've never…well…"
Hermione smiled sweetly and Harry caught himself thinking once more about the conversation he'd overheard.
"I remember mum telling me she used to help plan weddings and social events on the side when she was a student…I think between her and Neville we might be able to do something."
"We? Don't you have homework to do?"
She knew he was only teasing, though it was true she had started making notes of her holiday homework on the train 'whilst she was still in the school mind-set'.
"There are three full months between now and going back to school…and an eight hour train ride if I really fall that far behind. I know how long it'll take me and I think this might be a little more important to get right."
Harry feigned shock.
"Hermione Granger…finding something more important that homework? What will everyone say!"
She tapped him playfully on the nose with the back of her spoon.
"That's quite enough of that. If you keep it up I'll convince mum to put you in the most unflattering dress robes I can find and you'd be too polite to say no."
Visions of what Ron was forced to wear to the Yule Ball sprung to mind and Harry bit back a laugh.
"Whatever you say, 'Mione. Whatever you say."
Mrs Granger was more than delighted to help plan such a massive party and, once they were all sitting comfortably back in Harry's house, he also began to explain his half-formed plan.
"Our world is a little corrupt…it's not even like the politicians themselves are malicious, they're just stupid and easily lead by those with the right money. I want to try and make it impossible for them to publically humiliate me like Skeeter tried to do last year…"
He was also in the middle of writing a letter to Neville, but was trying to figure out a way to ensure his address wouldn't fall into the wrong hands. Hermione, as he should have expected, was the one who solved his problem.
"I remember reading something about delayed charms, I'll go and find the book and you should be able to make the parchment burn up ones it's been read."
The spell, as it turned out, was simple enough though it was buried in the midst of her massive Ancient Runes textbook. He just had to write out the correct runes at the top of the page and then charge them with the spell he wanted.
"I'm really starting to regret not taking Runes now…this is just…"
"It's alright. If you'd like I can teach you some of the basics before we go back, my third year textbook is much smaller than this…a lot of wizards don't bother with it at all unless they're going into spell crafting or law."
Once Hedwig was sent off with the letter for Neville, Harry laid out the property portfolio that Ragnok had given him at their first meeting. He had initially chosen Potter Manor because of its apparent size but he wasn't sure if it was really the best place for it. Including the small manor house they were currently sitting in, Harry had five properties in Britain that he could choose from.
Potter Manor, in Wiltshire, was where his father had grown up and was where the majority of the previous Lord Potters had made their home since it was built by one of his ancestors in the early Nineteenth Century as a gift for his sickly wife. It looked like it was near to several other manors and estates owned by powerful wizarding families like the Malfoys, the Bones and even the Minister for Magic himself.
The was a small holiday home, called The Lake House, hidden somewhere in the midst of the Lake District that Harry had discounted as far too small for any kind of part but that seemed to have a large plot of land surrounding it that had been specifically warded of the owners could entertain all year round. He had managed to find a photo from the album that Hagrid had gifted him of his father and Sirius at what looked like a Christmas party, on a wide patio that looked like it matched the description of The Lake House.
The second smallest property he owned sounded fascinating and he resolved to investigate it as soon as he had the time. It was a small manor called the Rookery on the Isle of Skye that was described as being comprised entirely of crooked towers that looked as if they had been bundled together, mostly with magic. In Harry's mind, he was imagining several stone Burrows piled together and holding each other up. The Rookery had only really been used by one Lord Potter as a private escape for his family and it was reportedly full of ravens and had been taken over by the greenhouses surrounding it.
The most interesting property, however, was situated only ten miles from Hogwarts and sat directly beside the main railway line to Hogsmeade. Its original name had been lost in time and was documents simply as The Castle. It was a large fortification that had originally been built in the early Eleventh Century and seemed to be the main inheritance the Potters had from the Gryffindor line. Over the centuries it had been expanded and improved upon until it was certain that it could withstand both muggle and magical sieges for up to two years without experiencing any difficulties. Within the boundaries of the castle was a small, secluded village called Castleinnis-on-Loch-Mor that seemed to be similar to Hogsmeade in construction though, unlike its counterpart beside Hogwarts, Castleinnis was a mixed village with magical and muggle families living side by side in relative peace.
"Harry…you own a castle. This is starting to get a little bit surreal."
"Hermione… I own a castle that I could live in, right under Dumbledore's nose and he'd never find me. I think this had long since passed surreal."
The Castle was discarded right away as a venue for Harry's ascension because they all decided it would make for a good hiding place once Dobby had checked it out. The Rookery was never going to be an option and Harry was keen to keep the secret on the Kensington Palace Gardens address between as small a number as possible.
That left them with The Lake House or Potter Manor and Harry was inclined to think he'd been right with his original choice.
It turned out that Hermione absolutely got her ferocity from her mother because, once Emma got started, she was a forced to be reckoned with as she doodle out ideas of scraps of parchment and Harry found himself answering the kind of questions about the Wizarding world that he'd never even considered before.
"Now, with all your potions and magical fixes…are allergies a problem when it comes to food? Because I don't know about what kinds of fancy etiquette you'll need to follow but I can tell you it's probably frowned upon to kill your guests."
"I really…I really don't know…I've never heard of allergies being a problem for anyone at Hogwarts. We won't be able to have silver plates or cutlery though! One of the people I'm hoping will come…"
"This is the werewolf, yes? Your magical guardian?"
Harry nodded, just glad that he'd at least remembered how badly werewolves could react to silver.
Once Emma was happy with her basic ideas, she had Harry and Hermione sit down and write a guest list whilst she and Dan went out to pick up Chinese takeout for all of them. Dobby had been more than happy to cook but Harry had ordered him to get some rest because he was going to be needed when it came to ferrying messages back and forth across the country when the planning really got underway.
A/N: I am honestly shocked with myself that I managed to get this one up so quickly because I only started it 3 hours ago. Don't start expecting regular updates but I will go straight into writing the next chapter and just see what I get done. I'll be working for the rest of the week though so if it isn't finished tonight, it will be a while before it's posted.
As a side note, to my mind Hogwarts should be placed somewhere in the region of Lochindorb (which is what I personally use as a reference point for the Black Lake). I got this purely from the idea that Hogwarts is obviously in Scotland and, in the films, it's mentioned as being 'not far' from Dufftown and Lochindorb is only an hour's drive away. Thinking of the various wards around Hogwarts, especially the one that makes it look like a mouldering ruin to muggles, Lochindorb is also home to the ruins of a castle out on a small island.
The Castle, owned by Harry, is situated just inside the Cairngorms National Park and Castleinnis is a completely fictional village with nothing much special about it at all.