"What the bloody hell lead you to that conclusion?" Harry exclaimed, leaning back from the table. "Dear Merln, no!"
"Are you sure?" Asked Lord Greengrass. "Because from Daphne's letters..."
"I am most certainly positive that I am not gay for my brother!" He nearly shouted.
He almost wanted to laugh at the obsurd direction that his super important meeting had went.
"Well, it is possible that he may have those feelings towards you?" Asked Lord Nott. "Because-"
"No, no, No, NO, and HELL NO." Harry groaned. "Can we please get back on topic?!"
"I don't know," replied Lucius, "I rather like this topic." Several other Lords and Ladies in the room nodded and chuckled.
"Lord Malfoy, you are not helping me!"
From the main hallway, they heard a door open.
"Hey, Harry!" called Quirrel, peeking into the room. "Hello others!"
"Hello." Most of them said politely.
"What's the topic of conversation right now?"
"How Harry's apparently not gay for Tom."
"Oh, wait, what?"
Harry slammed his head into the table.
It would be a long night.
XxXxX
To back up now would be silly.
Harry had sent out the invitations early in December to all of the dark and gray families, requesting a meeting between all of them. The meeting, of course, was masked with a masquerade ball to go with it. He had signed the letters with 'Lord Riddle', and, as everyone knows, there is no such Lord, which drew the curiosity of any respectable witch or wizard. So, they all came.
At eight in the night not long after dinner, he requested that all of the lords of the families to make their way into the side meeting hall. Their families were allowed to stay and mingle if they wanted.
Needless to say, many of them were surprised when Harry Potter himself was their host.
They were even more surprised when he approached them, asking for their help with overthrowing Dumbledore.
The gray families were, at first, skeptical of siding with this. The dark families were willing immediately, for they had been trying to do so for decades, but it was the neutrals that needed convincing. They had spent centuries, generations of careful construction in order to keep their position neutral. To knock their tower over one way or another now would be silly.
They were hesitant until Harry brought out his evidence. Nearly every Lord in the room had a son or daughter at Hogwarts. To learn that they had spent an entire year at Hogwarts alongside a Cerberus and they hadn't told their parents was absurd.
Furthermore, learning that the Cerberus was not the only dangerous thing there and that it was hidden behind charms that even a first year could get past - he hadn't told them that he wasn't the one to go past them - it was incomprehensable.
Another step with the Philosopher's Stone was ready to make them snap.
It was at this time that Harry mentioned Tom Riddle and his connection to Voldemort in not-so-vague terms. He mentioned that Voldemort's soul was shredded into pieces and seperated, and he mentioned that he and Tom had begun to gather them up again.
It was at this point that his... ahem... relation to his surrogate brother had arisen.
"Where is the young Riddle, anyways?" asked one of the neutrals.
"See, that's the problem," Harry said, lifting his head off of the table. "Dumbledore has somehow acquired a very, very strong loyalty potion and -"
"-he used it on Tom." Lord Greengrass completed, sitting back in his revelation. "I understand that he's the Dark Lord and all, but I hadn't thought -"
"No, I don't think any of us did." Lucius said. "For years and years, the dark side has been trying to get some sort of dirt on that man to overthrow him, and he's stayed clean for this long."
"But he's not so clean now," continued Lord Nott with a wicked smile. "We have eeeee- wait a minute. Evidence. In order to take this up to court, we need Evidence."
Harry noded. "I had thought about this beforehand and I procured one," Harry paused here to fish up one vial of dark red liquid on a chain hooked around his neck. "One vial of Tom Marvolo Riddle's blood," At the looks of some of the others, he continued. "I warded it with runes so that only I can remove it, and it cannot be broken. Believe me, I probably know better than you guys do what a vial of blood can do." He slid it back under his dress robe shirt. It would do well to not mention how he had acquired it.
Lucius nodded, leaning forward. "There are enough of us here to severely put a dent into his case, but we can't actually get any sort of trial until later next year, not to mention the time that it would take to get the goblins to agree to access to one of their blood analysis papers. I wish that, with this sort of evidence, we could get a trial immediately, but even with our numbers, we're stuck with putting in a case. If we hadn't tried to many times in the past to get this up, they might be more likely to push the case forward. Not to mention the goblins. Ugh." Lucius sighed. "Sorry, Harry."
"No, that's fine. Just..." he sighed and leaned back. "I just want my brother back, ya know?" Some of the others smiled sadly. "Thank you for hearing me out, guys."
The others left the room, leaving Harry to wallow.
XxXxX
Fortunately, that day was December 22nd, meaning that the next day, Harry went over to the Malfoy's. He didn't have too much time to be upset about it, for the whole family spent time making sure that Harry was occupied.
He loved how the decorations looked for the party. What he did not like was how long it took them to put them up.
On the 23rd, family by family, people trickled in to celebrate the holidays. Hermione had arrived before the party started due to the fact that Harry had to go and get her.
"I hope my dress is appropriate," Hermione had said when Harry arrived. He gave her a look-over and he nodded in acceptance. While most of the Wizarding World hated muggles, the women did not hate their sense of fashion. Many witches had adopted the muggles' dress styles and so Hermione's muggle dress would not be out of place. It was a soft green dress with silver trim and, while it was a little childish, it did look very nice on her.
Not that Harry would notice something like that.
Romance is stupid and I can't write it anyways. Shut up, Harmony shippers. (DramioneFTW)
Anyways, Harry held out his arm all gentlemanly for her and when she grabbed his arm, they apparated to the manor.
The Christmas Party itself was not what Harry would call 'fun', though it was much, much better than his trainwreck of a masquerade. Given that the actual ball part of his party was set up nicely, he was too worried about how the following meeting would go to truly enjoy it.
With the news about Tom out of mind, Harry allowed himself to relax a little bit for the Malfoy's Christmas Party.
XxXxX
Miles away, but not too many, Tom Riddle sighed as he turned over in his bed.
Why does he feel so... melancholy? Why does everything feel so wrong?
