I do not own the Harry Potter series or Pokémon.
Chapter Twenty One: Malfoy Manor
Moon was well aware of the fact that everything that happened within the first twenty-four hours after accepting her invitation was done to impress her.
Part of her was very smug about the special treatment.
Part of her was screaming loudly about how annoying it was.
Being treated as a member of a high-class society was something she had hated when she started out as champion. There were many rules, codes, agreements and so on about how one was supposed to behave and dress and move and talk, and most of it was completely arbitrary. It was just stuff that was done in an attempt to separate the upper class from everyone else.
The parties and charity balls and galas started to grow on her when she viewed it as a game of seeing how well she could convince everyone of her status. She didn't fight against the established rules like May did, or blend in seamlessly like Dawn and Rosa, but slipped into a happy medium where everyone found her polite and charming. This was advantageous, as she had been able to glean more information from the guests than the other champions, and she had been far more willing to use it.
It was actually a tip she received from a small charity auction that set everything in motion. One guest had mentioned seeing a shipment arrive at the old Galactic hideout in Eterna that had the Aether logo stamped on the side. Moon couldn't resist checking it out.
'And now I'm stuck here,' she mused, leaning back in the cozy chair that stood in front of the fireplace in the guest suite.
She had spent the night packing, checking and double checking her belongings to see if she was missing anything. The morning consisted of her getting out of bed early and finding Draco at the early breakfast in the Great Hall. He had told her that everything was taken care of, that his parents knew she was attending, and that a message had been sent to Dumbledore to tell him that she was leaving.
Moon had taken a chance to glance at the table where Dumbledore would have been sitting if it was a regular meal. If the man wasn't already aware of her leaving, he was in for a surprise.
The next couple of hours were spent travelling on the carriages, and after that the Hogwarts Express. Moon's luggage was carried by Crabbe and Goyle, while Draco talked about what his family manor looked like.
"The gardens are still maintained during the winter," he said as they were entering an empty compartment. "The plants need to be checked, along with the fountains, to make sure that everything is working in the summer."
The conversation wasn't one she was overly interested in, but she made sure to take note of what the blond boy was saying. Even the smallest detail about his house could prove to be beneficial in the future. So she listened to everything, from the way he talked about the family peacocks to how he glossed over any details of the basement.
She escaped the endless conversation about two-thirds of the train ride in, when she claimed she that they should take the opportunity to change out of their school uniforms. Moon left to change in the bathroom. She crossed paths with other girls who had the same idea—most noticeably Pansy Parkinson, who was obviously livid underneath her attempt at a demure expression.
Moon changed out of her robes and into a modest outfit consisting of a tulle, tea length black skirt, a white blouse, white stockings and comfortable ankle-high boots. She pulled on her favourite jacket—a windbreaker with an inner lining of Beartic fur, one that Calem got her for Christmas—before checking to see if her hair was neat before leaving the bathroom.
She headed back towards the compartment—dodging Parkinson's attempt to bump into her—and took a seat near the window. Draco continued the conversation until the train pulled into the station.
It didn't take long for Moon to spot the Malfoy patriarch and his wife. If the superior attitude and aura didn't separate them from the crowd, the ghostly pale blond hair did. She let Draco lead her over to his parents.
"Mother, Father," Draco said, "this is the girl I wrote to you about, Moon Blakesley. Moon, these are my parents."
"It's a pleasure to meet you," Moon said.
"Believe me, Champion Blakesley," Lucius replied, "the pleasure is all ours."
There were no handshakes, nor did anyone offer to carry her luggage, and Moon could have sworn she saw a glint of weariness in Lucius Malfoy's eyes. She knew that they knew about her blood status, and that they weren't going to treat her as lavishly as they would have if she were born a pure-blood, or even if she had two magical parents. Of course, Moon had done her research on a handful of prominent figures and families, and that included the Malfoys. While they were still blood supremacists, they weren't the type of people to disregard a person completely based on status alone. Especially if said person was powerful, intelligent, or influential.
She'd be fine.
The trip through Muggle London was a comfortable ride in a ministry-issued vehicle (one with evident magical enhancements to expand the interior) out of the city. Moon watched the streets they passed with faked boredom, trying to absorb the image of the city. It had been months since she was in a city.
There was minimal conversation on the two hour trip. Aside from talking about schoolwork and the few remarks about current events, the four didn't say much. Moon wondered if that was so when they did eventually start talking about other things, the Malfoys would be able to better control the surroundings. It was the same technique that the champions used when discussing anything related to the leagues; bringing the speakers to a regally decorated conference room with all the champions on a raised platform. Intimidation at its finest. The half-silence continued as the car made its way into Wiltshire and eventually onto the manor's driveway.
Malfoy Manor was a marvel. Even if an observer disregarded the gardens entirely due to it being winter, they wouldn't be able to ignore the grandeur of the actual building. The building towered over the hedges and surrounding trees. The windows were covered in frost, making them glisten like diamonds. Light poured out from said windows, standing out from the backdrop of the night sky.
The car rolled to a stop near the front door. The driver came around and opened the door. Lucius stepped out of the vehicle first before offering a hand to his wife to help her. After Narcissa stepped out, Draco followed. The blond boy offered his own hand to Moon, who accepted the gesture. As the four approached the manor, the door swung open, even though there was no one to open it.
The manor's interior was rather dimly lit, but still elegant overall. The Slytherin influence was apparent, with the lush greens and smoky greys. Chandeliers were spaced out, burning with candles that appeared to be brand new. Moon tried not to stare at the portraits who turned their noses up as she passed by.
They entered the dining room, a large and spacious place with deep green curtains covering the many windows. The table had been recently polished and set, but there was no food. It wasn't until they had all sat down that Lucius struck the floor with his cane, and within a second dinner had materialized onto the plates.
Moon waited for her hosts to begin their meals before she started eating. The food was a lot fancier than the stuff at Hogwarts. That didn't mean she liked it better; she'd take chicken wings and dollar fries over halibut in a heartbeat.
"Champion Blakesley," Narcissa said as she was cutting her fish, "how has life at Hogwarts been, compared to what you're used to?"
"Unique, I suppose," Moon said. "I certainly am glad that I'm able to learn about magic, of course. But I am looking forward to returning to Alola."
"From the stories I've heard, you're rather high up in Alola's government," Lucius said.
Moon nodded. "Being champion is about the highest position one can achieve with the league system."
"And what exactly is the league system?"
'So he knows I'm important, but isn't sure how our government works.'
"The league system of government is based on the ideal that the perfect leader is represented in the strongest pokémon trainer. Someone who has devoted their time and energy to forming strategies, raising pokémon, and travelling across the region is said to have exemplary leadership skills. This ideology has brought prosperity to the regions that adopt it.
"In the beginning, there was no formal method of establishing who the most powerful trainer was. This led to multiple factions, each led by a powerful trainer, fighting each other. Leaders rose and fell within a matter of months. It was said that everything was chaos, and that a full-scale war could have broken out had it not been stopped.
"It was a faction of merely five that managed to end the fighting in the Kanto region. Their leader challenged the leaders of the eight remaining groups to a battle, and managed to win every single time. These five people, in complete control of the Kanto region, declared that whoever managed to beat the eight faction leaders could challenge the four members, and whoever managed to beat them could challenge the leader. If the leader was beaten, he would step down. He remained as leader of the Kanto region for nearly thirty years. In the meantime, the surrounding regions adopted the same method of leadership.
"Over time, the eight faction leaders became the eight gym leaders, the four winning members became the Elite Four, and the leader became known as the champion."
"How interesting," Lucius said, although Moon could tell he wasn't focused on the history of the system. "Tell me; how does someone as young as you become champion?"
"Through hard work and a bit of luck," she answered. She could see the man's jaw clench, even as he wore a smile. "Of course, I can imagine that seeing someone who is the same age as your son in a position equivalent to Minister for Magic is a tad strange."
"Quite," Narcissa replied. "Why, exactly, is someone as young as yourself allowed to be in such a high profile position? No offense, of course."
"Another war, something far more recent—although that is relative," Moon said. "Every man and woman who had the ability to fight, had to fight. That left everyone under the age of eighteen to take care of themselves and their remaining family. Anyone who was over ten was considered to be old enough to do the work needed to run a shop, provide emergency services, and teach the younger children what they learnt in school. By the time the war finished, the kids who had been running the towns had become war veterans themselves. So everything changed—schools became more efficient to teach the basic material needed in the span of five years, higher education started to specialise in career paths, and the league eventually allowed anyone over the age of eleven to participate. It became more of a 'rite of passage' over time, rather than a way to become a political leader."
"And so everyone does this?" Draco asked.
"Not everyone, and not all at the same time. Practically everyone owns a pokémon, yes, but they don't necessarily challenge the gyms. There might be a handful of trainers each year that make it to the Elite Four. Most of them, naturally, are not eleven. Most aren't even under twenty. I was just incredibly lucky to have been in the right place at the right time so that I could become strong enough to become champion."
Draco didn't seem satisfied with that answer, but he kept his mouth shut after receiving a particularly harsh glare from his father.
"Is there any real benefit to travelling around with magical creatures?" Lucius asked after a moment. "Apart from being a way into the government, of course."
"There's a few… benefits, as you put it, to travelling with pokémon," Moon said. "Increased life span was one of the first advantages to be recorded, along with increased strength and speed. Depending on the type of pokémon one trains, one can undergo minute physical changes like different hair colouration to massive differences, such as being able to withstand previously unbearable temperatures."
"And, I assume, the more powerful the creature the greater the change?"
"That's what has been observed in the past, yes."
The man seemed pleased by that answer. He didn't press further on how being surrounded by pokémon changed a person. Moon was glad to let the topic go there, before she felt urged to talk about the other advantages to training pokémon. She ran her tongue over her teeth, which had become sharper when she started training Lycanroc and Kommo-o, still Rockruff and Jangmo-o back then. They felt duller than she remembered.
She sighed. It must've been her imagining things.
Dinner passed without much more discussion, and a house elf named Finny was summoned to lead Moon to the guest suite. The tiny elf led the way through the manor's corridors with his head ducked. He stopped suddenly and pulled open a door.
"Room for the young miss," the elf squeaked, his voice sounding noticeably younger than Pippi's. Moon nodded, giving Finny a small smile before she disappeared into the guest suite.
It didn't take her long to sink into the chair in front of the crackling fireplace and start musing. She knew that it would have been faster to Floo directly to the manor, but they'd come by ministry-approved car. She knew that it would have been easier to set up a small room for her, but she had been put in the guest suite. She knew that the Malfoys weren't truly interested in her lifestyle, but they had been having a pleasant conversation over dinner about that very thing.
They had been trying to impress her and pry information out of her at the same time.
In the end, it technically had worked. Even though she had known to a certain degree what the Malfoys were trying to do, she played along with it and had given them what they wanted.
But only that, and little else.
Moon stood up and stretched her arms. She walked over to where her bags had been placed and retrieved her pokémon. The six pokéballs rested in her palm, shrunken and asleep. She'd have to wait to see them again. Hopefully not the full two weeks.
She smiled. Two weeks without her pokémon was nothing compared to a month. She'd make it through the holiday without a problem.
Filler chapter is filler *throws confetti* although there isa metric ton some world building. Training pokémon for a long enough period of time results in the trainers gaining new abilities and tendencies. How else could someone survive being hit by a Thunderbolt or a Flamethrower?
I went on a writing binge over the past week. I'm very pleased to say that I've finished writing the rest of the story; all that's left is editing. Twenty one chapters down, twelve chapters and an epilogue to go *throws more confetti*
If anyone is curious as to why Moon is a countess, here's a bit of homework for you: what's the first thing to pop up when you Google Sealand?