Chapter 13: And the Classes Begin.
Lord Black was standing at the doors of the Great Hall, accompanied by a tall, stern-looking red-haired woman wearing a monocle and dark duelling robes in red. They were behind a Silencio bubble, apparently arguing with Dumbledore and McGonagall. Professor Flitwick seemed to hover, in agitation, until he saw Harry in the crowd of students heading in for lunch. He beckoned Harry over and Harry whispered to Neville and Luna to save him a seat, and if he didn't turn up in time, a few rolls or something.
Then Harry joined Flitwick who took down the Silencio bubble, just in time to hear Lord Black thundering at Dumbledore, "You have no right to keep my heir from meeting me, Dumbledore! The house of Black is so far above you in station you don't even have the right to dictate any terms here. Step aside now." Before Flitwick or Harry could say a single word though, Draco pushed past other students and stood before Lord Black, bowing low, "Greetings, grandfather. I'm Draco Malfoy, daughter of Narcissa. I'm most pleased to see you recovered."
Arcturus sneered coldly, and Draco practically withered where he stood. "I have no interest in the spawn of a death eater rendered squib now. I'm here to meet my heir, Hadrian Potter Black. Where is he? I don't have all day." That was Harry's cue and he stepped forward, "Pardon me, sir, it was only just discovered that my name is Hadrian Potter Black. Neither my Aunt nor I knew of any other magical relatives, sir."
Arcturus surprised everyone including Harry by embracing him tightly and then holding him at arm's length, examining him. "My sister Dorea resides in those cheekbones and that hair, although your eyes and nose are your mum's and the chin and that jawline is certainly all Potter. Come child, we will lunch in the village and learn about each other; Flitwick?" He turned towards Harry's Head of House, with an expectant look. Flitwick immediately produced a permission slip, signed pronto, and handed it to Harry. And the two set off, leaving wagging tongues, and embarrassed Malfoy and a fuming Headmaster and his Deputy behind.
Neville and Luna smiled and resumed lunch; this promised to be interesting.
The news of Harry Potter being the Black Heir was once again headlines in the newspaper for nearly an entire week. This led him to wonder if the paper was genuinely struggling for worthy news if an eleven-year-old school kid's life became interesting headlines. He spent the week fending of curious questions and a particularly offensive argument with Ron Weasley who first wanted to declare himself Harry's best friend and persuade Harry to leave the nerds and join Gryffindor, or get into fistfights with poor Draco who was only good at taunts at a safe distance.
Then there was Draco himself, spoiling for a fight, until Harry took him aside and pointed it out how this Heir-ship was news to both of them and Harry hadn't even known about magic, growing up. It would be better to take this argument up with his father who fed him false information for years, or Dumbledore who hid Harry in the muggle world for a decade, and Lord Black himself who exercised his right to choose an heir. Neither Harry nor Draco had any role in the events that led to this conclusion. They were cousins and brothers, and the only ones blame-less in the circumstance.
Harry pointed this out and recommended that they could only support each other through this situation, rather than fight. Harry considered Draco family now, as he discovered the relationship, even if it was a distant tie. He stated that having lived all his life as an orphan, he valued every single newly discovered family, no matter who it was. It was Draco's turn to become more introspective and the now deflated young lord finally offered a truce.
Harry getting along with the Slytherin ponce, as Draco was quickly becoming known as, had only served to infuriate Ron Weasley, though. It was amusing to watch Draco and Weasley's clash often, publicly and most embarrassingly, nearly every day. Most days, Professors McGonagall and Slughorn found themselves invading into the tangle of limbs between the blonde and the redhead, while an excited student body gathered around, egging them on.
It had almost become the mandatory daily entertainment around campus as the month passed by. Harry, Neville, Luna and Soojin stayed far away from the drama. The foursome had quickly established themselves as the lead students with their performance in class and assignments, their willingness to help their peers, their diligent avoidance of most conflicts and their unbiased, respectful interactions with one and all. It had soured Hermione Granger a lot that she was not the top student, Harry Potter, Neville Longbottom, and Luna Lovegood were. She was a far behind tenth in their entire year.
It confused and angered her no end; they did not quote textbooks, they did not willingly answer questions in class. Nor did they refrain from going off on a tangent about other topics, during class or homework study sessions they hosted in the lawns, the inner courtyards or the Great Hall during weekends. There seemed to be little rhyme or reason or even structure to their discussions.
But everyone loved them, it seemed. Even the obnoxious Weasley was courting their attention. Or at least Harry's. Harry's willingness to make a truce with Draco, his friendliness with other Slytherins and Gryffindors as well as Hufflepuffs had opened the floodgates to inter-house friendships, no matter how much it soured the headmaster. But there were many things that continued to irritate the headmaster, none of which could be helped. Arcturus, Lord Black continued to visit his Heir on the weekends, spending the day in Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley in the pretext of getting to know each other.
By the third week, Gran Longbottom, and Algie Croaker had begun to join the outings, and dragging Neville and Luna into the group. Xeno and Dora remained distant and hidden but joined them occasionally in the Three Broomsticks private parlour under glamours. Discovering that this was very much allowed according to the school charter, many parents began to drop by on weekends; this had the headmaster's dander up. He could no longer hide or sweep many dubious incidents under the rug.
A Hufflepuff third year getting attacked and nearly molested in the corridors, followed by a retaliation attempt made at Daphne, when Harry talked about it to his Gran and Grandfather, had provoked a lot of parents into demanding stricter security measures from the now thoroughly irate headmaster. He was seriously regretting allowing Arcturus Black and now, his blackmailing sister Cassiopeia. That obnoxious witch had never missed a chance to poke at the skeletons he had spent decades carefully burying deep in his closet.
Harry, Neville and Luna had quickly taken up the mantle of the lead students, quickly followed by Daphne, Soo Jin, Draco, Susan, Hannah, Justin and Hermione Granger. Granger seemed dreadfully unhappy at her school-wide year ranking of tenth place but she couldn't complain that it was pureblood bias because Harry and Susan were half-bloods, and Soo Jin and Justin were muggle-born like her. So, in the first month, the ranking had proven to have very little if anything to do with the social biases and discrimination prevalent everywhere.
Sprout had already embraced the idea of Neville as the next Herbology Prodigy and Luna was the all-rounder with a creative streak mile wide. Harry shone in DADA, Transfiguration, Charms and Potions, much to Slughorn's delight. As it was, Slughorn had encouraged his alterations, as taught by his mum's portrait, in place of the text - prescribed recipes and called his brewing style intuitive, and carrying the great potential to evolve into a potions master.
Following the prescribed recipes to a T, Draco and Hermione had been infuriated in the beginning. Where Draco had begun to think and process and gradually imitate his style, as had Daphne, Hermione stubbornly stuck to the prescribed recipes and got good results; not just excellence that Slughorn sought and appreciated in Harry's work table. And Hermione Granger's anger continued to build.
Professor Flitwick, despite being their Head of House, remained a delightful teacher with impartiality towards all students, irrespective of their capabilities or house affiliations. Unlike McGonagall, he wasn't short with weaker or temperamental students; only more patient and engaging.
And his classes were all about fun. And all the questions that had initially occurred to Harry in his very first class, in Transfiguration Basics, about the nature and science of magic, was often addressed very subtly by the diminutive professor. The discussions were brilliant and lively, as were the fun-filled practicals.
The Trio found the Astronomy class rather sub-par. The teacher wasn't very up-to-date regarding the progress made by muggles regarding outer space or study of stars, plans and the universe in general. Even the prescribed telescope was extremely outdated by at least a hundred years. The personal ones the three owned, from their muggle education, had been at least twenty times more powerful.
Then there was History of Magic. And the ghostly professor who taught History of Magic was the worst offender, in Luna's opinion. Harry and Neville agreed. Apparently, the man delivered exactly one lecture all year long, for all classes and houses. The chapter on Goblin Rebellions in history. He rarely noticed students simply walking in and out of classes, talking to each other, sleeping, playing games or reading or just about anything.
He simply droned on and on in a monotonous voice that was both literally and figuratively dead. Most students usually opted to self-study, with the odd exceptions like Granger who would diligently take notes, even if she didn't realize she was taking notes on the exact same lecture all year long. Even the amiable Neville had a tough time keeping a straight face when Luna pointed it out to Hermione. Even then the girl never stopped.
As the days flew by, between Charms, DADA, Potions, History, Herbology, Transfiguration classes all week and Astronomy classes once a week, the students were kept busy and engaged. And thoroughly entertained by the almost religiously sustained spats between Draco Malfoy and Ronald Weasley. An occasional rant from Hermione Granger added flavour to the dull days.
Weasley twins continued to wreak havoc, mayhem and confusion like twin avatars of Loki himself. Their frequent target was the Headmaster himself, much to the elder wizard's woe. He couldn't protest either, having encouraged them until now, and frequently dismissed any and all complaints against them.
Harry continued to evade courting attention from public but made lots of genuine friends in all houses. Neville and Luna continued to shield him from the gold-diggers and gossip-mongers. The threat of Arcturus Black unleashed, kept the worst of them away. Moira continued to pamper her wizard and Soo Jin had become a fixture in their morning routines.
The four grew stronger, magically, physically and mentally. They had begun to teach the basics of Occlumency to Soo Jin so she could share their secrets too. But until she could keep Dumbledore out, or at least detect his scans, she lingered in the periphery of their triad.
Harry returned from the second-weekend outing with his Grandfather sporting the Potter Lordship ring, the Black Heir Primus ring and an Heir monitor that would instantly portkey him past the most secure wards directly to their personal Healer's office in . And that had kicked off a trend among nearly every single female student demanding the same, in the light of the recent scandals.
It had also resulted in the previously unforeseen concern among the muggle raised witches and wizards about their prospects in the magical world. Someone (cough, cough) had produced a self-updating copy of all the laws passed by the Wizards Council, then later the Wizengamot as well, and all the laws that were considered current, valid and functional, in the Ravenclaw common room library. No amount of magic would take the book away; it always returned back, much to Dumbledore's frustration.
Harry, Neville and Luna had made a great show of discovering the book in the shelf and then initiating a discussion on the fairness, relevance and reason-ability of the listed Laws. The rest of the Ravenclaws had initially laughed when Neville had imitated the serious and sombre mannerisms of an elderly wizard to read out a law about the number of sheep one could grow on a set acreage of land. But the laughter had died away, replaced by shock, when the punishment for exceeding the set limit was read out; no one had realized why such a law wasn't repealed.
Learning that Pure-bloods accused of a crime could not be forced to give a veritaserum testimony was another shocker; half-bloods, half-breeds, other races and creatures, and muggle-borns would not be offered the same courtesy. The Lordships and inherited seats voted on the Gamot and sat on the Judgement panels. The only exceptions to this fixed blood status were half-bloods who inherited by primogeniture like Harry and Susan.
Also, blood-irrelevant admissions to the Wizengamot were the awardees to Order of Merlin First Class, who won 3 votes, Order of Merlin, the second class who won 2 votes, and Order of Merlin third class who had a single vote. It was non-inheritable, though. That was how Dumbledore was appointed chief Warlock. Dumbledore Clan wasn't of the Most Ancient and Most Noble category like the Potters, Blacks, Longbottoms, or Bones.
Those select Houses had not just voting privileges, but also many other concessions. Their ancestral homes were all placed directly over the conjunctures of ancient magical Ley-Lines, steeped in ancient magical powers. It was a symbiotic relationship between ancient houses and the magic of the elements.
Hogwarts, if the elves were to be believed, was known to be the seat of either Slytherin or Gryffindor house; when they built the school on their family seat of residence, their families lost their powers, protections and securities and died out over time. None of the elves presently living could accurately testify whose residence it was, though.
Ancient houses also had shopping privileges in every part of the Magical World, and special access to the restricted sections of the Magical Library of Alexandria through their Lordship and Heir's rings. That nugget of information, circulating amongst the students along with the discussions on laws of their land, had infuriated Hermione Granger.
She had come, ears nearly smoking with her ire, marching over to the Ravenclaw table as soon as she heard, and loudly demanding answers. Harry had been shocked in the face of her unreasonable anger and loudness. And Luna had mercilessly slapped her down.
Her warning to the angry Gryfindor girl was simple and to the point; Hermione could have been beheaded where she stood for her impertinence and over-familiarity with Lord Potter, Heir Black. Luna's protuberant blue eyes depicting a rarely seen glint of focus, she angrily warned the annoying witch to attack Harry again, verbally, physically or magically at her personal peril. Harry Potter was a kind young boy, Lord Arcturus had a reputation that was anything but.
Hermione, having discovered the social class divisions and privileges that would not be open to her unless she married into nobility, had taken to glaring at Harry, and Neville at every opportunity. But the Ravenclaw Quartet had become adept at ignoring any and all unpleasantness. Besides, everything about Harry seemed to irk the girl anyway. Ignoring seemed to do nothing to subdue her ire.
Finally irked beyond endurance, Harry had approached her in the Library and advised her to approach Gringotts and try out an inheritance test to see if she had any magical ancestry. Maybe she could research and prove that there were no such things as muggle-born? That somewhat subdued her animosity as the girl began to scheme on dragging as many muggle-born children as she could into the Gringotts' testing. Harry wondered if she would have been in Slytherin, the amount of scheming and ambitions she seemed to project.
September turned to October and the leaves in the trees turned a burnished gold.