23-Gaining Control
When dinner finished, the mood had already shifted subtly. Instead of dwelling on the events of that morning, they all started thinking of the tasks ahead, how to make the magical community more egalitarian and modern, on par with the rest of the world.
Luna was the first to act, though. "I'm sure Daddy aches to print the story of how the greatest Dark Lord ever was reduced to nothingness by a group of school children." That was a slight exaggeration, as everybody knew, but it was basically the truth.
Luna collected some of the more significant pictures of the (non) battle and some of her notes and asked Kreacher to take her to Grimmauld Place, where her father was currently residing.
Dora then asked another house-elf to pop her to her home, where she had all her books and notes from her Auror training. She needed to prepare herself for her new job.
Ted and Dirk sat down with Arthur to start the biggest change in the Ministry ever. Another house-elf stood ready to bring them whatever documents they needed.
Remus, with no specific task assigned to him, went to the library, to search whatever documentation he could about the Wizengamot and its source of power, so he could help Harry change it.
Andy excused herself. She had some patients to take care of. While she hadn't yet lost anybody, she had to work quite hard for that not to change.
Shack returned to the Ministry. Even without counting the other departments, the DMLE was his first priority to prevent the magical community from slipping into chaos.
Kreacher returned after a while, but not alone. Narcissa came along. "I feel it is my duty to teach my Lord Black how to act as a Wizengamot member. There are too many seemingly insignificant aspects that if missed, the other members may dismiss you as uncouth, ignorant, or insulting. You must know how to behave there to assert your authority and your influence."
Harry welcomed her intervention, as did Hermione.
Kreacher also had a message for Dean. "Miss Luna asked if you could join her at the Rookery and help prepare tomorrow's edition of the Quibbler. She expects to stay awake all night."
Dean shrugged. "I don't think I could fall asleep without her, and I may be able to add some drawings, so... can you take me there?"
They both disappeared a moment later.
\/\/\/
After spending half the night on preparations, the Potter couple fell asleep as soon as they reached their bed. With their shortened night, they also needed to hurry in the morning, allowing no private time. Hermione made a mental note to assure themselves of that later.
They ate breakfast with only the Lupins, since the others were already busy with their own tasks. Dora then asked Harry, "Can you open the Floo for me?"
It took a few minutes and the help of Twinkle before that was done, but then she used it to reach the Ministry for her first day in her new job.
Dobby then took them to Gringotts, along with Remus, who insisted on keeping them safe. They had resumed their natural look the previous evening, with quite a bit of help from the house-elves. Harry was now sporting black hair, although it looked nicer than before. Despite a long soak and shower, he couldn't fully remove the effects of the Sleek Easy. He didn't wear any contacts but used his new glasses. He also made his blemish-free forehead visible. Hermione was once again a brunette, but her hair was smoother and easily comb-able. She hadn't tried to fight the effects of the Sleek Easy potion. In fact, she decided to use it regularly.
The goblins were eager to cooperate. With Harry controlling both Potter and Black accounts, he was probably their biggest client. Their inheritance test then added more than a few accounts, some quite significant, although not as big.
Harry was somewhat surprised and even appalled to find that he was now the apparent head-of-house of a few tens of families, by right of conquest. He was also surprised to have inherited what remained of the Malfoy fortunes. He wondered if Narcissa knew. Not all these families had seats in the Wizengamot, but he still gained more than ten. He was most surprised to find that he was now also Slytherin's heir, giving him even more rights over Hogwarts.
The goblins were quite eager to bring his additional Lord rings, so he could claim his additional seats. With fourteen votes, he was by himself one of the biggest voting blocks.
Hermione also wanted to check her ancestry, out of pure curiosity. She was surprised to find that she had some magical ancestors and there was even a modest account waiting for her, and was almost shocked when told that her ancestry gave her a vote in the Wizengamot as well.
"We have no time to have house crests added to our robes," Harry said.
"The most important for me is the Potter one, and we already have it," Hermione said. "Let's go!"
\/\/\/
The Wizengamot hall was not even nearly full. Well, more than ten seats were now assigned to Harry, but quite a few of the prominent dark families that hadn't openly associated with Voldemort didn't send their representatives, probably fearing retaliation. The current Chief Warlock was an old man who seemed to barely know what was happening around him. That was probably the reason he had been put in that position.
Luckily, by the time the Potters arrived, everybody had already seen the newspapers. Evidently, the Prophet had somehow learned of the events at Hogwarts from second sources and concocted a story that was quite close to the truth. The quibbler had the full real story, of course, accompanied by moving photos and some supporting drawings.
That reminded Harry of the ward breakers. They were all put in a room after their capture and left there. Harry was sure that the house-elves made sure they got all the necessities, but they needed to be interrogated and their fate decided. He would pass that task to Shack.
Nobody protested the Potters' presence nor challenged their rights to vote for all their seats. The-Man-Who-Conquered was not one to be taken lightly. Harry and Hermione took their places, with Remus and Narcissa accompanying them, as advisors. Nobody commented on Remus's status as a werewolf, although Harry noticed some grimaces.
The first item in their meeting was the election of an interim Minister. Several names were mentioned, including Mr. Weasley and Mr. Diggory. Although Harry considered both to be good men, both were purebloods with no knowledge nor understanding of anything muggle. He suggested Dirk Cresswell. As a muggle-born, he was quite knowledgeable of both worlds; he was a good organizer, as Harry could see a glimpse of that the previous evening; he also had very good relations with the goblins, which might become important when rebuilding society from scratch.
Not unexpectedly, Dirk was elected.
The next item to discuss was the budget. The previous administration didn't have any budget in place, making the regular functioning of the various departments impossible. Harry decided to speak on this matter.
"We may need to use the budget before the Dark Lord took over as a guideline. As you all know, we are currently in a fluid situation, so we need to first pay attention to essentials: safety, education and the rebuilding of our society. As such, the most important aspects of the Ministry are the MLE, the education department and the maintenance of the Floo system, to allow communication and travel. We also need to keep our international affairs in order and reassure our muggle government that we have stopped the illegal uprising and have everything under control. Some of you may not know, but the muggles number at least a hundred times more than the magicals and they have devastating weapons that our magic has no chance to counter. As long as we cause them no concerns, we're safe, but Voldemort's actions brought us very close to becoming a real problem for the muggles. Had they retaliated, the magical community in Britain would have been completely destroyed. Our new Minister, as one who knows well both worlds, can do a great service to us all by reassuring the muggle government."
He didn't want to finish with that sombre note, so he added, "Therefore I suggest we raise the budgets for the DMLE, the education board, the foreign affairs and the muggle liaison. It wouldn't hurt our future to have less regulation about cauldron bottom thickness or similar subjects, but we'll be all in danger if our safety or the education of our children is lacking."
The debate took much longer, of course, but the DMLE got a twenty per cent raise and the other crucial departments had a ten or fifteen per cent raise. The rest of the departments had to cut down the budget to compensate for that.
By the time the meeting ended, Harry was exhausted from listening to so many people whose opinions were unimportant and fools who considered themselves smart. He managed to introduce all the changes he needed, some just as emergency measures, but that was a beginning.
He also knew that he needed to delegate his representation to somebody else while at school. He couldn't afford to waste days on useless debates. That brought Narcissa back into his mind. Her bits of advice had been spot-on and her help made this whole ordeal much more supportable for Hermione and for him. He even had the impression that Narcissa was enjoying the situation. Could she be his representative whenever he couldn't or wouldn't like to be present himself?
Hermione had no doubt about it. "She's grown as a Black, fully aware of all this political hassle. She then married Lucius, who was deeply immersed in internal politics. Their policies and methods may not be to our tastes, but she surely knows how to navigate in that environment. Given appropriate instruction, she may be able to achieve much better results than we can."
"I'll talk to her. We may only need her services after the New Year. Those old men don't want to be bothered during the holidays, that was quite evident."
She shrugged. "It's fine with me. It looks like we also need these holiday to come back to normal…" At his raised eyebrow, she added, "…or as close to normal as it can be for Harry Potter."
"Don't you prefer Valerie and Peter Gordon?" he asked teasingly.
"We may invite them during vacations," she said, just as teasingly.
Harry turned serious. "I think I should let Professor McGonagall take control of the wards. I need to meet her for that. Will you join me?"
"Do you even need to ask?" she teased.
Winky took them directly to the corridor in front of McGonagall's office. Harry knocked on the door and waited to be let in.
He wasn't ready for the tight embrace he got as soon as the door opened, one to rival Hermione's. "Thank you, Mr. Potter, for ridding us of that madman."
She then took a step back and noticed there were only two people at the door. "I thought Mr. Weasley was with you two."
"You mean Ron, don't you?" Harry said, gaining an approving nod. "He left us about a month ago. We then decided to no longer hide in the wilderness and hide in plain sight among muggles. That seemed to speed everything up."
"Are you implying that he was keeping you back?" She didn't sound surprised but wanted to be sure she understood it.
Hermione explained. "He wasn't holding us back deliberately, but you already know how he is. With him, we couldn't hide among muggles, since he wouldn't fit in, and he was the one complaining most about the conditions we had. After he left, we moved among muggles, slept well and ate well and stayed clean and warm. That helped solve the puzzle much faster and start fighting back."
McGonagall was smart enough to understand. "Then you're the ones who rid us of some of the filth during the last few weeks! Dumbledore would have never approved of such actions. He believed that everybody could be redeemed, despite all the evidence to the contrary." She stopped for a second. "You did very well. I'm proud of you."
They smiled self-consciously.
"I've talked with some eye-witnesses and read the newspapers and I still don't understand how you vanquished the Dark Lord and all his minions. Care to explain?"
Harry smiled. "For this, we need to go to your new office, as our headmistress."
"But I'm only…"
"His deputy, I know. But since the assigned headmaster is no longer available, the deputy is expected to become the acting headmaster or headmistress, as the case may be. With two Heirs supporting you, your position is assured, I believe."
She looked at Hermione with some confusion. "Two Heirs?"
Harry smiled. "I'm Gryffindor's heir by blood and Slytherin's by conquest. I even have the rings to prove it. That's why I could take control of the wards and use them to protect the school and get rid of the enemy. I believe I should pass the control to you now. As a student, I'm not supposed to have such control of the school."
McGonagall snorted lightly, knowing that such rules had never stopped Harry or his ancestors.
It didn't take long for Harry to pass control and to explain how to use the wards in unusual ways, as Snape found out and as enhanced by Hermione and the twins.
"Now, would you like to join us for Christmas at our home?" he asked.
"I thought…" she started, and then Harry touched her hand, making her memories revive. "Oh, you're at Potter Manor, I see. I'd be honoured to join your Christmas celebration."
"I'll make sure to open the Floo for you," he promised.
\/\/\/
Checking on the ward breakers, Harry found that they were really given comfortable accommodation but were locked in until further notice. They seemed to be glad to see him. "It's so good you won! We can finally return to our lives without the threat of swift death if we don't agree to serve him."
Harry accepted their words with a nod. "I hope you don't mind staying here a bit longer. Since I'm just a student, I'll let the restructured DMLE interrogate you before releasing you. I assume you may have some information that could help prevent another Dark Lord or stop one on his tracks."
"That's fine with us. Can you just inform our families that we're fine? They must be quite worried."
"I'll ask the house-elves to pass the message."
\/\/\/
Hermione was pensive when they returned home. "What's bothering you, dear?" he asked.
She sighed. "I was thinking about my parents. I'd like to have them back, but…"
"But what?"
"I don't think I can find them before school resumes."
"You mean, WE can find them, don't you?"
She smiled thankfully. "Of course. I'm just not used to thinking that way. Then, I'm not sure how safe it would be for them to come back so soon. Some unmarked supporters may seek revenge, and we haven't yet started to look for them. Not we personally, but the DMLE and the rest of the magical community, you know."
Harry nodded. It was an understandable talk confusion. He hoped it wouldn't need to last. As much as he didn't like it, it was becoming evident that he was looked upon as the unofficial leader. Even the Wizengamot treated him this way.
"We may then need to postpone that to the summer vacation. By then, the situation should be mostly under control and we shall have more time to spend," he suggested.
Hermione seemed content. "Yes, that's probably the best we can do. Now, we didn't have much time for ourselves the last few days. Care to handle that?"
Harry found that he was quite eager to do just that.