Thanks to the reviewers, who made this update possible: bittersweet65, asbigrat, JPElles, Serpentine13, AchillesMonkey, GaleSynch, urs-v, Deftex, Slytherin66, thaumaturge1618, elgaucho, Drew86419, delenda est c and four guests.

Now, on a much more pleasant note, I'd like to state that this chapter officially ends the first arc, which covers Harry's first year. I've decided to keep the whole tale in one story instead of ending this one here and writing a sequel. So there won't be a sequel, and the Tri-Wizard Tournament will come next, on this story right here.

400th reviewer gets a oneshot written by me for them as a thank you. You can give me any prompt you want. :)

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Interlude

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Chapter Twenty-nine

As Louise entered the Ministry, she flipped through her papers, thinking.

The French Ministry of Magic was quite the sight, and served its purpose perfectly as a monument proclaiming the country's prestige. It stood on a floating, artificial island which was in permanent movement. Only Ministry workers could find and access the island. Unfortunately, that meant foreign dignitaries or normal French citizens had no way of finding the Ministry if they needed it, which could be inconvenient. Luckily, that was why the Announcement House existed.

The Announcement House had multiple purposes. When new laws were created, they were first announced at the Announcement House, hence the name. If people needed to meet with a Ministry worker, they could receive a pass at the Announcement House and use the Floo there, which was directly linked to the Ministry and only available to those with a pass. The Announcement House was also very important, be it culturally, historically or artistically.

The building was beautiful, and extremely old. It had originally been built as a cathedral by Guillaume Longue-Épée, also known as William I Longsword, and had since then been rebuilt several times, made larger and better, with rooms added to it every time, changing its structure. Thus, it had become a mix of architectural styles that somehow blended harmoniously, creating a main building with several extra wings. Some people would jest and call it a palace, and even though it wasn't truly a palace, one couldn't deny that it was just as fine as many 'official' French palaces.

One thing most people didn't always realize was that the Announcement House's location was what had been responsible for choosing Magical France's capital. A capital was where the government was, and as the Ministry was a moving island in the sea, the French people had decided that the Announcement House would be its replacement. The building was in Rouen, a city that was as far away as it could be from the Mediterranean Sea, where the Ministry floated. The length separating them was an unhappy coincidence, but as the two were connected by Floo, it hadn't caused more problems than a few grumbles here and there. Many said that France was guarded in the North, by the Announcement House, and in the South, by the Ministry itself.

Louise finally arrived in front of the right door, and she waved her at the wood. It lit up, glowing in a specific pattern, and grew dark again, having signalled the person inside the room that Louise was there.

Unfortunately, the Announcement House had been nearly entirely destroyed last summer by the cult known as the Devouts. It had been a truly staggering blow to the government, as the building had been protected by such strong and ancient spells that the mere thought of it succumbing to an attack had seemed ludicrous... until then. The Department of Foreign Affairs, like most of the Ministry, had been very involved in rebuilding it, as the building's importance when it came to relations with foreigners was too important to even think of ignoring.

Louise Capet, personal assistant to one Camille Hübsch, had been one of the people in charge of the rebuilding project. Madame Hübsch was the head of the department, and had been one of the first people to take action after the destruction of the Announcement House. Madame Hübsch was a nosy woman, with her fingers in many pies. She often worked on projects her Department had nothing to do with, but as she was obviously favoured by the Minister himself, no one refused her. As long as she did good work, she was allowed to work on whatever projects she pleased.

Still, that meant Madame Hübsch was often too busy to do all that was normally expected of her as the Head of Foreign Affairs, so she had several assistants that worked in her name to help her. They relayed her orders and were treated by Ministry workers with as much respect as Madame Hübsch herself, because in essence they were extensions of the woman herself. There were two assistants, and Madame Hübsch liked to call them her 'left and right arm'. It might've seemed cute.

It was anything but.

"Come in!" said a sweet, feminine voice from beyond the door.

Louise obeyed.

Camille Hübsch's office was large, with sparsely-distributed furniture. Her desk, as always, was covered in paperwork, and the woman herself was standing with her arms clasped behind her back, staring at the fireplace she used for travel. The door shut with an barely-audible sound, and Madame Hübsch turned around.

"Ah, Lefty!" said the woman, smiling. "Finally, I was beginning to think you'd be late."

"I'm sorry, Madame," Louise responded, "I have the reports right here."

When meeting with Madame Hübsch, one had to be at least a minute early. While the woman herself said it was because punctuality was important, Louise knew that it was because she liked making her underlings wait.

Today, Louise had arrived precisely on time, unlike usually when she'd be ten minutes early (something Madame Hübsch approved of immensely). She knew better than to waste time explaining her 'lateness', as her employer would dislike that even more. Instead, she went straight to business, and placed the files she'd been holding into Madame Hübsch's expectant hand.

Her employer went to sit down, flipping through the documents, while Louise stayed standing.

"Sit down, dear," said the green-haired woman, her eyes not leaving papers she was reading.

"Thank you, Madame," said Louise gratefully.

After that, a silence came as Madame Hübsch continued to read the reports. Louise relaxed, and waited.

It didn't take overly long for her employer to finish reading it, as she'd mostly skimmed and read the most important things. Louise had carefully underlined all the essentials so that Madame Hübsch would know where the most important facts were. It was Louise's job to fill in the blanks for her employer, as Madame Hübsch rarely had the time to properly read everything given to her.

"The situation is worsening," said Louise. "The public is frightened, and demands for something to be done. Shall I order another search?"

"No," answered Madame Hübsch. She picked up a cup of tea and sipped at it slowly. "The Devouts are stupid. They are growing bolder, yes, but they will never achieve their goals. Terrorism is not a good way to force a nation to change its beliefs. Honestly, Angelism is a bigger threat than whatever backwards faith that cult has." She set her cup down, her gaze distant. "The problem is the fear their actions causes. Without a way to stop them or even just track them, we have no way to remedy the situation. We've been conducting searches through the country to appease the people, but finding a select group of people in such a large country is impossible, especially when we don't know what they look like. We need to find a way to reassure them, without starting another useless 'search'."

Louise's notebook was out, and her quill was moving by itself, writing down what her employer was saying. Her quill, a Plume Memoria, was extremely useful and she never left her home without it. It wrote down the most important things said out loud, instead of copying down everything word for word. While it wrote, Louise could think and interact with people without being limited by the need to take notes.

"I can speak with the Public Relations Department, if you wish?"

"That won't be necessary, " said Madame Hübsch. "After this, have my Right Hand look into it. You'll be working on something much more important."

Louise was not the kind of young woman to sigh, yet at that moment, she felt a burning desire to do so anyway. Madame Hübsch had two assistants; Jakob Wiesler and herself, Louise Capet. While Jakob was the Right Hand, taking care of everything within Camille's Department, Louise was the Left Hand, in charge of helping her employer with her extracurricular work in things that were outside her Department (meaning, Louise had to help Madame Hübsch while she was nosing around).

The Devouts were a bit of a gray area. Before the destruction of the Announcement House, the Devouts had been something Louise helped with. Madame Hübsch would butt in on the authorities' work and commander the the investigation. Normally she would never be allowed to go where she didn't belong, but as the Minister favoured her, her trespassing was accepted. After what had happened to the Announcement House, the Department had been allowed to help in the rebuilding project and through that, Madame Hübsch had been granted further access into the Departmement des Boucliers, the Shields' Department (the Shields being, of course, the name of the authorities in France).

Nowadays, Jakob took over the work on the Devouts whenever Madame Hübsch had something more important in store for Louise. The 'more important' things were always interesting, but more often than not, they meant more work for Louise, on top of what she already had to do.

Well, it was her job, and she'd always known working for the Ministry would be a challenge.

"What would you have me do?" asked Louise, her voice a soft murmur.

Instead of an answer, Madame Hübsch opened a drawer and brought out a thick file. She opened it, and retrieved four pictures. She places each of them on the desk, on top of some reports about new regulations for the Quidditch World Cup. Each picture showed a different child, and there were names written underneath.

Martin Moreau

Quentin Schneider

Alexandre Solovyov

Harry Potter

Louise's eyes widened and she picked up the last picture, staring at the smiling boy in black and white, his lips moving as if he'd been speaking when the picture had been taken.

"Is this-?"

"Yes," was Madame Hübsch's response. "Harry Potter. Surely you've read the newspaper?"

Louise frowned. She didn't live under a rock, thank you very much. Harry Potter was special, because he was the only project Madame Hübsch was involved in that neither Louise nor Jakob had been allowed to help with. Madame Hübsch had refused to share whatever plans she had in mind, but Louise hadn't let the lack of trust hurt her, as she'd never come to expect her employer to share everything with her. She was just an assistant, after all.

"Yes, Madame. He just finished his first year at our institute, did he not?"

"We've studied him," said the green-haired woman, ignoring Louise's words. "The Science Department was very interested, when they first heard he'd signed an invitation to our school. He survived magic that rips the soul from its body. Of course they wanted to replicate that feat. They were the reason why we insisted on keeping the boy. It has made us some enemies, but that was to be expected, as we've poached the child rather blatantly."

"You wish for me to help mend relations with the British?" Louise asked, making a wild guess.

"No, no." Madame Hübsch waved, dismissing that. "I need you to prepare transfer papers. Right now he's staying with a couple here in France, but he will need to return to his relatives in England within the week, and I need you to prepare the papers so that there is no way the British can stop him from coming back for his second year at Beauxbâtons."

"Why not simply keep him here with the couple you mentioned?"

Madame Hübsch shook her head. "It is not that simple. As I've said, we've studied the boy, and the Science Department was rather disappointed to find that it wasn't some innate ability that made the boy survive."

Madame Hübsch stopped talking and Louise waited a little, indulging the woman's sense of dramatics, before asking:

"So how did he do it?"

"Blood Magic."

Louise stared at her employer, incredulous. "How could a baby have performed Blood Magic?!"

Rolling her eyes, Madame Hübsch straightened in her seat. "Not the child, you fool. The mother. Either the witch was desperate, or she was hiding a darker nature from the public. She performed a Blood Ritual to place a protection on her son, which was what saved him from Britain's latest Dark Lord. It must've been what killed the man, too."

"And the Blood Magic..." began Louise, the pieces slowly coming together, "is still working! It must need proximity to close blood relatives to work. And the boy was already attacked by a rogue Eater of Death, or whatever those men are called, and he and your son were abducted by Antonio Quintas, were they not? So if that can happen while the blood protection is in place... then if the magic fails, the attacks will only worsen, as his best protection will be gone!"

Madame Hübsch nodded. "We've managed to pry some more details out of Albus Dumbledore, who was responsible for keeping the boy hidden from enemies, but that is what it comes down to, yes. As long as Harry sees his family and their house as his home, the place where he's supposed to come back to, the place where he lives, the Blood Magic will continue working. He must also see his family fairly regularly. Once a year is stretching it, but it's still enough."

Louise inhaled, her chest swelling with a mix of pride and fulfilment. She lived for these moments, when her employer would put faith in her.

"I shall have the papers drafted for you, Madame."

"Good, now..."

At that moment, Louise caught sight of the name on one of the pictures the green-haired woman had shown to her earlier, and recognition flickered in her eyes.

"Him," she said, interrupting Madame Hübsch. She pointed at the picture. "He is one of Harry Potter's roommates, is he not? How could they have chosen a Solovyov?"

Madame Hübsch looked bored, as if the question had been asked before. Many times, even. "The decision came from higher up. There was nothing I could do."

Higher up? thought Louise. She blurted out the first name that came to her.

"The Supreme Court decided who Harry Potter's roommates should be?"

"Lefty, cease your useless blabbering. It only serves to bring your lack of knowledge to light. It was the Minister who made the decision to put Solovyov and Potter together. The Supreme Court would never lower itself to do something like this. I tried to appeal to the Minister, but the man was set on his decision, and now it's permanent. I just can't understand why Castellane would put our investment at risk like that, allowing the boy to hear whatever Solovyov has to say, unfiltered."

Camille Hübsch had a certain interest in the Solovyov family. Back when Magical France had still been a monarchy, six years ago, the Solovyov's had been particularly close to the royal family. They'd been staunch supporters of the monarchy, and well-known Angelists. With the death of the king and his family, as well as the abolition of the monarchy, the Solovyovs had been scrutinized afterwards, as most had believed they would refuse to convert to the old faith and accept the death of the king. For the past two years, Madame Hübsch had been out for any excuse she could use to compromise the Solovyovs. There'd been none.

Of course, Louise had helped. She'd been the one to first report that the son's stone, used in Gemmology, was an angelite. She'd been the one who'd pretended to be a teacher one afternoon, to replace a sick teacher, in order to get close to the child and try to find something. The father was trickier, so the child had been the one she'd focused one. Unfortunately, there'd been nothing. The boy's stone wasn't enough proof - it could have just been a coincidence, that his personality worked best with an angelite.

At least the mother was dead. The woman had been from a branch of the Borodina dynasty (or rather, the Borodin dynasty), and had held quite the amount of political clout. It would've been harder for Louise, had the woman still been alive.

"Perhaps Castellane means for Potter to be some sort of bait?" proposed Louise, unsure. "For the Solovyovs to reveal themselves?"

Madame Hübsch's red lips turned downwards at the corners. "I had thought of that, but the risk is greater than the possible gain is worth. We're gambling too much for too little."

"The Solovyov line isn't 'too little', Madame."

Madame Hübsch rose from her seat, and placed her hands on the desk, leaning forwards to look at Louise in the eyes.

"The Minister's intentions are murky, as always. I'd hoped that waiting a year would help unveil his thoughts, but that didn't happen."

Louise stood as well, feeling uncomfortable sitting when her superior was standing.

"Shall I take care of it, then?"

"The son, Jules Castellane," said the green-haired woman. "He is a teenager. You might be older than him, but you are still a fresh graduate. See if you can approach him at the charity gala next week. Get him interested, and have him supply us with answers."

Fidgeting, Louise had to stop herself from reaching up an fiddling with her hair. It had been done in a neat bun, and it wouldn't do to ruin the effort she'd put in to doing her hair in the first place.

"He might not know anything, though."

"Probably not, but it wouldn't hurt to try, now would it?"

From Madame Hübsch's tone, Louise could tell she was dismissed.

"No, it wouldn't, Madame," she answered, moving towards the door.

She was already thinking of where to go to find Jakob when she heard the exclamation:

"Oh!"

She turned.

"Anything else, Madame?"

Camille Hübsch smiled.

"Would you be a dear, Lefty, and get those papers for Harry's return to his family done for tomorrow afternoon?"

Louise Capet inclined her head politely.

"Certainly."