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Chapter Twenty—Court Proceedings
Narcissa let her eyebrow rise a small distance when she saw the Potter boy coming towards her down the corridor in the Ministry. Severus walked on one side of him and the new Headmistress of Hogwarts on the other.
She had not anticipated such illustrious escorts for him, but she supposed she should have. After all, he was the only person with a golden familiar now in Britain outside the Dream Labyrinth.
"Minerva, Severus," Narcissa said, nodding to them as they halted in front of the decorated ebony doors to the courtroom where custody hearings were held. "I was unaware that you had been called to appear before the Wizengamot."
Minerva gave her a single slashing glance, which was—expected, Narcissa admitted to herself. She had not expected the other woman to be so open about her opposition, however. She glanced at Severus and found him giving her a steady look.
Narcissa assigned a name to that look after a moment. Disappointment. Narcissa furrowed her brow and reached down to run her fingers through Venus's fur. "Something is wrong, Severus?"
"That you would subject him to this kind of scrutiny for the sake of your misguided politics."
"You know exactly what my politics are," Narcissa said, and was glad that she had a solid wall at her back. The reeling sensation in her head would have been embarrassing to show with her body. "I thought at one point that you shared them."
Severus turned his head and stared directly at her, his look more cutting than Minerva's for not being expected. "You thought wrong."
The chime from within the courtroom, signaling the beginning of proceedings, sounded then, and Narcissa made a graceful step back with a wave of her hand to let them proceed her. She noted that the child turned his head to keep her in his sights all the way through the doors.
Narcissa could not interpret the look in his eyes. Perhaps sorrowful? But that made it seem as if she had had a personal relationship with him that had left him disappointed. Any child with that much power should understand how things worked by the time they were eleven.
And if they did not, because they had been raised by Muggles…
Narcissa half-shrugged as she followed Potter and his entourage into the courtroom. Then they should prepare to be taken advantage of.
"Harry Potter will stand forth and speak to the Wizengamot."
Golden had already reared up next to him as if anticipating the summons. "Remember that you only need to be yourself and not break down," he said in Parseltongue.
Harry nodded and walked towards the low chair in the center of the courtroom. Of course he'd been in a place like this one before when the Dursleys were sentenced, but this one seemed bigger and more full of people. It probably was, Harry thought. Seeing Muggles sentenced for bullying someone wasn't interesting, but trying to force him into the Malfoys' custody was.
He batted away the thoughts. It seemed he had more and more like them since someone had attacked him in the middle of Hogwarts and got away with it. But right now, he had to concentrate on the Wizengamot. He sat down in the chair and looked around.
Madam Bones smiled at him, but it was a pinch-faced woman called Amabel Rosier, with a bronze butterfly on her shoulder, who asked the questions. "Why do you want to stay with Mrs. Longbottom?"
"She's been very kind to me, Madam Rosier," Harry said. He kept his words simple, because he already knew that some people would try to twist them around if they could. "She's the grandmother of one of my best friends. I like having Neville as a foster brother. And it was in my parents' wills that she should adopt me."
"But you can't deny that the Malfoys have been kind to you." Madam Rosier looked like she'd won several tournaments. "And they are also the parents of one of your best friends. Moreover, you would have more space at their house, and more wealth at your disposal, and a male figure to serve as a role model for you."
"I don't think they've been kind to me, Madam Rosier."
That caused more of a stir to go around the courtroom than Harry thought it would. He frowned a little. Were they not expecting him to argue back? Or did they want him to speak more formally? He didn't want to glance at Golden and look weak, but he did put a hand on his familiar's neck. The warmth that touched him was comforting.
"Why not?" Madam Rosier was holding one hand up as though that would make people obey her, but from the sound of things, Harry didn't think it was really working. "You have to know that the Malfoys have been kinder to the son of a Muggleborn than many in their position would be."
"I don't think they should have to be kind to me because of that, Madam," Harry said. "Just like I shouldn't have to be kind to them because they're pure-bloods. I think everyone should be kind to each other just because we're human beings."
Rosier gave him a sort of simpering smile that Harry disliked immensely. "Yes, Mr. Potter, we've heard all about your ideals. But we are trying to place you in a proper home where you can be—"
"Molded?"
There was a moment of silence. Harry saw the blank look on Mrs. Malfoy's face out of the corner of his eye. He wondered if she hadn't expected him to say that or just didn't expect him to know it.
"Guided," Madam Rosier said, with a long sigh, as if Harry was being difficult on purpose. "You must understand that there are many people who are worried about the way that you use your power, Mr. Potter."
"And the Malfoys are the right kind of people who could teach me how to use it, Madam?" Harry glanced over at Mrs. Malfoy. "Are they good at defensive magic?"
"I—" Madam Rosier turned around as if she was going to look at Mrs. Malfoy, but Harry shook his head.
"They would have put that in the report they filed to have custody of me, right?" Harry smiled at Madam Rosier, and smiled around at the other members of the Wizengamot, too. "So they would have put it in front of you if they were good at defensive magic. I need guardians who can give me that, Madam. At Hogwarts, the professors can do that, but what about Malfoy Manor? I have no idea. I don't think they can, or they would have put it in the report. They seem to be very thorough people and they thought of everything else."
"Why would you need guardians who are good at defensive magic, Mr. Potter?"
Mrs. Malfoy had an edge to her voice, but it might not be anger. Harry didn't know. It was hard to read her. He turned and smiled at her, though. "Because people are going to try to kill me for the power I hold, Mrs. Malfoy. And because I might still have political opinions of my own that people don't like even after I'm guided."
Mrs. Malfoy stood. "May I speak?"
Madam Rosier yielded the podium to her with what Harry thought was relief. He kept one hand on Golden's neck, and Golden flickered out his tongue gently to touch Harry's neck in turn.
"You need guardians who can give you everything you need," Mrs. Malfoy said, leaning towards him. Harry was reminded of a vulture familiar that one of the older students in Ravenclaw had. "And that means we will have to protect you, of course. But tutoring in defensive magic will not be required. Malfoy Manor sits behind one of the most extensive sets of wards ever created, Mr. Potter."
"That's good to know, Mrs. Malfoy. I want Draco to be safe when he returns home for the summer. What about when you're out in public?"
"Of course we would often be so." Mrs. Malfoy settled her robes by smoothing them down with one hand. "I fail to understand your concern, however, Mr. Potter, and must beg you to be clearer."
"She is the sort of person that would never beg sincerely," Golden said.
Harry would have a stern conversation with his familiar later, given that he'd nearly laughed in Mrs. Malfoy's face. "There are people who are going to attack me, though, Mrs. Malfoy. I said that. So are you good at defensive magic or not? Can you protect me if they attack me when we're in Diagon Alley or Hogsmeade or somewhere else that's public?"
"They would no longer attack you once you are a ward of the Malfoys," said Mrs. Malfoy, and her familiar moved back and forth, pacing slowly behind the podium, eyes on Golden. Harry wondered if she would speak to him.
"I don't think you can guarantee that, Mrs. Malfoy, I'm sorry," Harry said. "And if you could, then that would mean you know exactly who's attacking me and you didn't stop them." He stared at her with wide eyes. "So you're all right with someone who attacks a child as long as they're not one of your wards?"
Mrs. Malfoy's hands tightened on the edge of the podium for a second, while another murmur swept the Wizengamot. "I do not need to stand here in front of you and listen to foolish accusations when I am offering you a home, Mr. Potter."
"I'm sorry, they're not foolish accusations," Harry said. "I'm just trying to understand. And why I can't stay with Mrs. Longbottom."
"We told you the list of reasons. I must insist, Mr. Potter, that you address the notion of a male figure who can provide you with a much-needed role model. Would you really want to grow up without a father figure?"
"Can you also answer my question about whether you know defensive magic or not, Mrs. Malfoy?"
Mrs. Malfoy narrowed her eyes. "It is not our strength, Mr. Potter. Now I must insist that you answer the question about male figures."
"I don't know Mr. Malfoy," Harry said, as plainly and as calmly as he could. "He hasn't talked to me or sent me letters or offered to be my father." He glanced around the courtroom, even though he already knew what he would see. "He's not even here today. How much can he care about being my substitute father?"
There was a long swell of murmurs then, and Harry knew that he'd said the best thing. Mrs. Malfoy's jaw clenched, like her hands. Then she said, "He agreed with me that I should handle the matter in order to avoid overwhelming you with the presence of your new family all at once."
Harry stared directly into her eyes, and then sighed and shook his head. "I'm sorry, Mrs. Malfoy. I just don't believe that."
Mrs. Malfoy's mouth was a slash across her face, and her snow leopard familiar had crouched, her tail lashing behind her. "Ultimately, it matters little to me what you believe or what you want, Mr. Potter."
Harry half-gasped. He hadn't thought it would be so easy to trick her into one of the positions that Professor Snape and Julian had said he should try for. "Then…why do you want to adopt me, Mrs. Malfoy? If you don't care what I want or believe? Then you probably don't care what I need, either. And I already grew up with guardians who didn't care about that." He stared down at his hands and swallowed hard. It wouldn't take much to make tears come, but Professor Snape had said that was only a last resort, because it would make him look weak.
"I didn't mean—" Mrs. Malfoy looked less regal when she was fumbling for an answer. "Of course I do care about your needs, Mr. Potter, as they relate to your placement, but—I cannot bow to the wishes of a child."
"My wishes were ignored my whole childhood," Harry said sadly, and looked down at Golden. Golden's head bobbed a little, and Harry stroked the scales down his back as he continued. "I only had one companion, and that companion made me feel safe and strange at the same time, because Muggles couldn't see him. I hoped that when I got to Hogwarts, I would be seen for who I was and accepted. But instead, people gape at me. And the Headmaster tried to control me. I should have been able to depend on him because he has a golden familiar, too. He should have mentored me. He didn't."
The courtroom was silent. Harry looked up at Mrs. Malfoy, and it didn't take much effort to make his bottom lip tremble. "And now—I thought I could depend on you because you're the mum of one of my best friends and you offered me etiquette lessons, Mrs. Malfoy. But you're just trying to control me like Headmaster Dumbledore and the Muggles did, aren't you? You just want to—"
He turned away and pretended he was on the verge of breaking down in tears, and honestly, it might not have been a pretense.
Madam Bones said sharply, "Well, Narcissa, I do hope that you're proud of yourself. You said that you wouldn't bow to a child's wishes. Does that include forcing this child to live with you against his will? Will you take his choices from him the way his first guardians did? Only for a few months has he been able to live with someone where he could feel safe, and now you are threatening to upend his life again."
"Mrs. Longbottom would not be able to offer him what we could!"
"You said that your husband was offering to mentor the boy and act as a father to him," said Mrs. Longbottom's sharp voice, while Harry fought back his tears and looked up. Golden's head was resting on his wrist. Mrs. Longbottom was on her feet, with Signora, her eagle, standing on her shoulder with wings spread. "And yet he couldn't be here to even see the boy. It's you versus me, madam. Will you look me in the eye and tell me that Harry will be better off in your cold stone house than with me and my Neville? With you, who can't even call him by name?"
Harry could see people nodding around the courtroom. He held back a sigh as he wondered why this trial, or hearing, had even been necessary in the first place if they were just going to agree with the first person who sounded righteous. Why couldn't they have dismissed the Malfoys' petition to take custody of him without this?
Golden squeezed him a little, and Harry remembered. Because there were a lot of stupid people in the world. Because Mrs. Malfoy had a silver familiar and people thought they just had to respect her, and that was part of what they were fighting to change.
Mrs. Malfoy looked Mrs. Longbottom in the eye with such disdain that Harry winced a little. He was suddenly kind of glad that Neville wasn't here to see the disrespect to his grandmother. "I will say that you will not tutor him in the proper ways someone of such power should be learned, Madam Longbottom."
"Oh, yes, such a proper kind of way." Signora leaned forwards and focused her eyes on Venus, even though Harry knew a leopard would probably kill an eagle. "When your husband has the Mark of the wizard Harry destroyed on his arm."
Mrs. Malfoy stared with shock draped all over her face, and took a moment to rally. "My husband was declared innocent. He was under the Imperius—"
"But he still has that Mark," Mrs. Longbottom said, and curled her lip in a way that Harry immediately wanted to learn how to do. It would make people who were bothering him go away, he was sure. "And that means that he might be put under the Imperius again if You-Know-Who comes back. No, the danger to the boy is too great. He needs to stay in the house of people who will safeguard him."
That was the argument that swayed the Wizengamot, Harry decided, even though Mrs. Malfoy and Mrs. Longbottom both said a few other things. In the end, the Malfoy petition was denied, and Madam Bones made a long speech about how she was certain that everyone would be glad that Harry was staying in Longbottom Manor.
Harry got up and reached out to shake Mrs. Longbottom's hand as she came over to him, and saw Mrs. Malfoy over her shoulder. Mrs. Malfoy's eyes were bright and hard, and her familiar coiled around her feet like she was a snake instead of a leopard.
Harry took a deep breath, wondering for a second if Mrs. Malfoy was behind the attack on him at the school. But he didn't think so. That had been all about artificial familiars, and the Malfoys had real ones.
But it did mean that he was going to have to watch his back two ways, and that Draco might be upset with Harry for arguing with his parents and not wanting to come live with him.
Harry sighed a little. Fantastic. I have all kinds of enemies.
But the attack had made him see that he had to fight them, that he couldn't get along with everybody. And if he had to fight back by saying hard things in a courtroom and maybe making one of his best friends angry…
That was what he was going to do.
