A couple of hours later, Harry woke up and staggered into bed. He put a notice-me-not charm around himself as he heard loud voices before he entered the common room. Ron and Lavender were having a huge fight after his potioned-up obsession with Romilda. Harry wanted to intervene and explain what had happened, but he was too tired. He idly wondered if he could have reached his bed unnoticed without using a spell thanks to the ensuing drama.

The next morning, Harry entered the Great Hall for breakfast only to notice the fallout from the day before. Lavender was missing a chunk of hair on her head and had nail marks on her face and was glaring at Romilda Vane, who was also nursing a black eye and had missing chunks of hair as she meekly ate her breakfast. Ron on the other hand seemed to be actively avoiding eye contact with anyone around him as Lavender seemed to smother his arm possessively. Harry instinctively searched for Hermione and her reaction to the drama, but the resident Gryffindor Bookworm was missing. Harry looked at the map after breakfast and saw her in the library.

Hermione had taken to hiding herself in the library as she meticulously went through newspaper records from the '70s and 80's trying to look for hints about Death Eater's activity and identify as many suspicious names as she could. She had also gotten hold of a list of muggle-born students from McGonagall and sent owls to them offering them sanctuary under Harry Potter's protection. This task kept her very busy and coincidentally also allowed her to avoid the sight of Lavender hanging off of Ron at every given opportunity. She had apparently missed most of the drama from yesterday until Harry filled her in. He spent half the day helping her before retiring to the common room only to find Ron struggling with an essay.

"How do you spell 'belligerent'?" said Ron, shaking his quill very hard while staring at his parchment. "It can't be B — U — M —"

"No, it isn't," said Harry, as he read the essay upside down, "And 'augury' doesn't begin O — R — G either. What kind of quill are you using?"

"It's one of Fred and George's Spell-Check ones, but I think the charm must be wearing off."

"Yes, it must," said Harry, pointing at the title of his essay, "because we were asked how we'd deal with dementors, not 'Dug-bogs', and I don't remember you changing your name to 'Roonil Wazlib' either."

"Ah no!" said Ron, staring horror-struck at the parchment. "Don't say I'll have to write the whole thing out again!"

"Probably. I don't know why you would write your essays with something Fred and George enchanted. You're just asking to be pranked."

"I wish Hermione was here. She could fix this," said Ron, sinking back in his chair, rubbing his eyes wearily.

"Don't let Lavender hear you saying that." Harry said with a smirk, "You should have thought of that before you were such an ass to Hermione."

"I won't," Ron groaned into his hands. "Or maybe I will, then she'll ditch me."

"Why don't you ditch her if you want to finish it?" asked Harry.

"You haven't ever chucked anyone, have you?" said Ron. "You and Cho just —"

"Sort of fell apart, yeah," said Harry.

"Wish that would happen with me and Lavender," said Ron gloomily. "But the more I hint I want to finish it, the tighter she holds on. It's like going out with the giant squid."

There was a pause as Harry tried not to visualize that imagery. "I really screwed things up with Hermione, didn't I?" Ron asked.

Harry resisted the temptation to ask 'You think!?' sarcastically.

"You were an ass to her. And you are incapable of making a sincere apology." Harry said instead.

"Hey, I apologize!"

"'Harry, whoever put your name in that goblet — I — I reckon they're trying to do you in!'" Harry imitated Ron's voice.

Ron glared at him as Harry smirked triumphantly. "Face it, Ron. Your apologies suck."

"I liked you when you were shorter and skinnier. You were less annoying then. Can I borrow your quill?" Ron snapped. Ron sulked for the next hour as he rewrote the entire essay. He perked up when the portrait closed behind Hermione who came and sat on a chair near Harry, completely engrossed in a book.

"Pince kick you out finally?" Ron asked. Hermione, who still refused to acknowledge his existence, did not respond. It was only when Harry repeated Ron's question word for word, did she respond.

"Yes. Library hours were over," she said without looking away from the book.

Ron suddenly whirled himself around and looked out the window and whimpered. He had spent the entire evening rewriting the essay and he had dinner with Lavender to look forward to. Harry couldn't help but smirk at his friend's misfortune. He glanced at Hermione to see a small smile flit across her face at Ron's whimper. Evidently, she also shared his joy in Ron's misery.

The next day, they set off for Defense Against the Dark Arts and hurried into the candlelit classroom. Harry scowled at Snape as he flung himself into the seat beside Ron.

"Before we start, I want your dementor essays," said Snape, waving his wand carelessly, so that twenty-five scrolls of parchment soared into the air and landed in a neat pile on his desk. "And I hope for your sakes they are better than the tripe I had to endure on resisting the Imperius Curse. Now, if you will all open your books to page — what is it, Mr. Finnigan?"

"Sir," said Seamus, "I've been wondering, how does the Patronus Charm actually work? I tried finding the exact mechanics but —"

"The Patronus charm can manifest in one of two forms. Incorporeal and corporeal. One is a temporary and weak shield and one is an active defense that manifests itself in the form of an animal. Details that should have already been in your essay, Mr. Finnigan."

"Can a person's corporeal Patronus change its form?" Harry asked, thinking about Tonks and her Patronus.

"I must mark today's date in the calendar. An intelligent question coming out of a Potter. The apocalypse must be beginning." Snape said snidely. Pansy Parkinson let out a high-pitched giggle. Several other people were smirking. "Yes. A corporeal Patronus can change if the caster undergoes an event of emotional upheaval."

Harry took a deep breath and continued calmly, though his insides were boiling, "What does the energy actually comprise of? The positive emotions and magical power used to create it aside, what makes this spell so unique that Dementors and Lethifolds, arguably the foulest creatures on the planet are affected by this spell?"

For a second, Snape stood still as he pondered how to answer the question and the class collectively held their breath. Snape's voice was no longer mocking and was uncharacteristically pensive, "There are no records of who created the spell or where it came from. All cultures and languages across the world possess some variation of this charm. Traditional Arithmancy cannot explain how or why the spell works as it does. However, some spell crafters theorize that the spell contains some measure of soul magic. They believe the animal form a corporeal Patronus takes, is determined by the very soul of the caster. This is why, when a person's identity is adversely affected due to an event of emotional upheaval, the Patronus is likely to change."

There was a somber moment as the class digested the explanation.

"Now open your books to page two hundred and thirteen," said Snape, wearing his usual sneer, "and read the first two paragraphs on the Cruciatus Curse."

The rest of the class went without incidence. When the bell sounded at the end of the lesson, Lavender caught up with Ron and Harry (Hermione mysteriously melted out of sight as she approached) but this seemed to slightly irritate Ron, and he shook her off by making a detour into the boys' bathroom with Harry.

"I dunno whether it's worth me taking the test. I just can't get the hang of Apparition," said Ron, after staring into a cracked mirror for a minute or two.

"You might as well do the extra practice sessions in Hogsmeade and see where they get you," said Harry reasonably. "It'll be more interesting than trying to get into a stupid hoop anyway. Then, if you're still not — you know — as good as you'd like to be, you can postpone the test, do it with me over the summer — Myrtle, this is the boys' bathroom!"

The ghost of a girl had risen out of the toilet in a cubicle behind them and was now floating in midair, staring at them through thick, white, round glasses. "Oh," she said glumly. "It's you two."

"Who were you expecting?" said Ron, looking at her in the mirror.

"Nobody," said Myrtle, picking moodily at a spot on her chin. "He said he'd come back and see me, but then you said you'd pop in and visit me too"— she gave Harry a reproachful look — "and I haven't seen you for months and months. I've learned not to expect too much from boys."

"I thought you lived in that girls' bathroom?" said Harry, who had been careful to give the place a wide berth for some years now. "I do," she said, with a sulky little shrug, "but that doesn't mean I can't visit other places. I came and saw you in your bath once, remember?"

"Vividly," said Harry.

"But I thought he liked me," she said plaintively. "Maybe if you two left, he'd come back again. We had lots in common. I'm sure he felt it."

And she looked hopefully toward the door. "When you say you had lots in common," said Ron, sounding rather amused now, "d'you mean he lives in an S-bend too?"

"No," said Myrtle defiantly, her voice echoing loudly around the old tiled bathroom. "I mean he's sensitive, people bully him too, and he feels lonely and hasn't got anybody to talk to, and he's not afraid to show his feelings and cry!"

"There's been a boy in here crying?" said Harry curiously. "A young boy?"

"Never you mind!" said Myrtle, her small, leaky eyes fixed on Ron, who was now definitely grinning. "I promised I wouldn't tell anyone, and I'll take his secret to the —"

"— not the grave, surely?" said Ron with a snort. "The sewers, maybe." Myrtle gave a howl of rage and dived back into the toilet, causing water to slop over the sides and onto the floor.

Goading Myrtle seemed to have put fresh heart into Ron. "You're right," he said, swinging his schoolbag back over his shoulder, "I'll do the practice sessions in Hogsmeade before I decide about taking the test."

And so, the following weekend, Ron joined Hermione and the rest of the sixth years who would turn seventeen in time to take the test in a fortnight. Harry felt rather jealous watching them all get ready to go into the village; he missed making trips there, and it was a particularly fine spring day, one of the first clear skies they had seen in a long time. However, he decided to use the time to talk to Slughorn and hear more stories about his mother. He wished Ron and Hermione both luck as they lined up to get past Filch and his Secrecy Sensor, then turned and climbed down the marble staircase towards Slughorn's office. He spent the entire morning listening to stories about his mother and found Ron and Hermione in the Great Hall, already halfway through an early lunch.

"I did it — well, kind of!" Ron told Harry enthusiastically when he caught sight of him. "I was supposed to be Apparating to outside Madam Puddifoots Tea Shop and I overshot it a bit, ended up near Scrivenshafts, but at least I moved!"

"Good one," said Harry. "How'd you do, Hermione?"

"Oh, she was perfect, obviously," said Ron, before Hermione could answer. "Perfect deliberation, divination, and desperation or whatever the hell it is — we all went for a quick drink in the Three Broomsticks after and you should've heard Twycross going on about her — I'll be surprised if he doesn't pop the question soon —"

"And what about you?" asked Hermione, ignoring Ron. "Have you been talking to Slughorn all this time?"

"Yep," said Harry. "He was telling me about how he and Flitwick had almost gotten into a fight over who would offer my mother an apprenticeship."

"Really?" repeated Ron and Hermione together, looking surprised.

"Yeah, when she found out she almost hexed them both before choosing to apprentice with Flitwick because she heard Snape was also being offered an apprenticeship in Potions."

"If you ask me," said Ron once Harry had finished describing the story, "your mother sounds like someone I wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of. Some women are too dangerous to get on the wrong side of."

"Something you continue to do on the daily," Harry muttered.

"I doubt you'd find a woman who sulked for half an hour because Madam Rosmerta didn't laugh at their joke about the hag, the Healer, and the Mimbulus mimbletonia," said Hermione.

Ron scowled. Neville suddenly seemed to appear behind Ron and whispered to Harry, "We may have a problem."

Harry quickly stood up and left the Great Hall with Neville hot on his heels. They entered an empty classroom nearby before throwing their usual wards at the doors.
"What's the problem?"

"You remember the offer of assistance you offered Parkinson? She wants to use it but for someone else," Neville said seriously.

"Who?"

"Daphne Greengrass. She and her sister Astoria are asking for refuge. Their father is part of the Neutral Faction and he is being pressed to join V-Voldemort's cause. They want him to sign marriage contracts for both of his daughters to marry Death Eater spawn. Parkinson thinks one of the sisters will be contracted to Malfoy and that endangers her position as the future Lady Malfoy so she wants them gone."

"What about the sisters? How do they feel?"

"I spoke to the elder Greengrass. She is very protective of her sister. She will do anything to protect Astoria. I can organize a safe house for them but they want to meet you."

"Why?"

"An assurance of protection. They want to know you'll win."

"Fine. Let's set up a meeting this weekend. Tell Daphne to bring Astoria but only her. There's a classroom in the abandoned corridor on the third floor next to the statue of the bearded giant. We'll meet there," Harry said. Neville nodded and left. Harry rubbed the bridge of his nose as his headache made a return. His nosebleeds had not returned but the throbbing seemed to have reduced.

The following weekend, Harry and Neville waited in the abandoned classroom. He watched the map as the dots labeled Daphne and Astoria Greengrass left the Slytherin dorms and made their way to the classroom. Harry was almost disappointed to see their lack of paranoia until he saw a dot labeled Tracy Davis follow them. The dots made their way near the classroom where Tracy's dot seemed to be following them like she was stalking the sisters.

The two girls entered the room to see Harry Potter standing in front of the teacher's chair with folded arms with his wand on the table just out of his arms reach and a blank parchment next to it. Neville was under the Invisibility cloak standing in the other corner of the room with his wand out.

"Good evening, ladies. Neville told me you wished to have a word?" Harry said pleasantly.

"Potter. We want help."

"Does that 'we' include Miss Davis standing outside the door listening in? Because I was led to believe it was just the two of you that needed help."

The two sisters were visibly startled at that. They did not know how Harry knew Tracy was standing outside the classroom or the fact that Tracy had followed them out of the common room in the first place. "Come in, Tracy. You've been made." Harry called out. The door opened and the brown-haired girl entered the room sheepishly.

"I told you to stay," Daphne said heatedly.

"There is no way I'm letting you both roam free in the middle of the night with Nott and Malfoy roaming around," Tracey replied defiantly with her nose turned up.

"Why can't you just mind your ow—"

"I'm sure you can continue this discussion later when I'm gone." Harry interrupted the duo.

The two girls seemed to swallow their retorts as Daphne composed herself. "As we mentioned to Heir Longbottom, I would like to request sanctuary for myself and my sister Astoria under your Aegis."

Harry sighed, "Neville, I'm going to need your help on this one."

Neville took off the cloak and walked over to Harry. The girls were understandably surprised and angry.

"Forgive me, ladies. I had no discourteous actions planned. I just take my security very seriously," Harry said placatingly.

Neville asked, "Your request of Sanctuary comes under certain conditions, yes?"

"Correct. We want an assurance that Harry Potter will defeat the Dark Lord. We want assurances that you will kill the Dark Lord before Astoria reaches her age of majority," Daphne said imperiously.

Neville opened his mouth in outrage and was about to yell at them for how impractical their demands were, but Harry placed a hand on his shoulder and calmly said, "No"

The word seemed to shock Daphne as she did not expect the Gryffindor Golden Boy to refuse her demands. She thought he would get outraged and spill something confirming the Prophet's rumors about him being the chosen one. "What do you mean, no?"

"No means, I refuse to give you a definitive answer for either of your conditions. What I plan to do about snake face, is my business. I can offer you a safe haven to live your lives peacefully, but that's about it. How I fight this war and how long I fight it, is entirely under my control. You came here asking for sanctuary. You don't get to make demands off me."

Harry let his words hang in the air. Astoria had a scared expression as she looked between Harry and Daphne with a panicked expression. Finally, Daphne seemed to crumble and looked at the floor with tears in her eyes, "Please Potter. We need help."

"And I will grant it to you. But on my terms. What do you want?" Harry said with a less confrontational tone.

"A safe house for me and my sister so we won't get married off without our consent."

"I can grant you a Fidelus warded property owned by the Blacks near the coast of Dover. You, Astoria, and your parents can comfortably live there along with any house-elves you have."

Daphne's expression seemed to be frozen before melting into gratitude. Astoria jumped into her arms and the two sisters hugged. Harry turned to Tracy and said, "I can extend the same offer to you and your parents with a Black property a few miles north of Exeter."

Before Tracy could accept, Daphne asked, "How do you have so many Black properties?"

"Sirius Black died last summer. He willed the house to me. I was under the impression it was only one property but it was the entire Black estate," Harry said with a smirk.

"No. Draco Malfoy was supposed to inherit the Lordship through his mother. He is the next adult male. He has been claiming he will become Lord Black when he comes of age," Daphne said confused.

"I guess we will have to see what happens when Malfoy becomes an adult. But in case he does, we can move you into a Longbottom property. But in that case, you will be just one of many families residing in a building with bare minimum luxuries to speak of," Harry said with a dismissive wave of his hand.

"You and your families will be safe. We can guarantee that much," Neville added.

The three girls seemed to huddle up and whispered for a few minutes before Daphne said, "We agree to your conditions. When can we move in?"

"Tell your parents to arrange a visit with my grandmother the weekend after the next at Longbottom Manor. She will help them disappear. You two will join them a couple of hours before the train reaches Kings Cross after the term ends," Neville said.

Suddenly an oppressive aura settled into the room as the air seemed to become thick with magic. A smell of ozone spread as Harry's eyes glowed like the Killing Curse in the candle-lit room. "And remember, if you betray me, or any of my allies, and I will make you pay," he said with a heavy ominous voice. Suddenly the oppressive aura disappeared just as quickly as it came and Harry went back to the simple unassuming classmate as he leaned on the table.

The three girls had extremely wide eyes as they felt the amount of magical energy charged in the room. At that moment, their doubts about Harry being able to take on the Dark Lord vanished. The three quickly agreed and left the room. Neville and Harry made their way back to the common room when Neville asked, "Are you planning on taking up the Black Lordship?"

"Yes. I plan on using the Black Estate to wage economic warfare."

"How?"

"Well, the Black Estate has investments in many businesses across the country. I am going to selectively buy shares from other shareholders at slightly above market price and then offer to sell them to Death Eater families and offer them all the shares along with controlling interest at below market price. Now, everyone thinks the Malfoys will inherit the Black Lordship because that is what Lucius has been claiming for the last decade. So, they will assume it's them making the offer and since it will be below market price, they will jump on the offer. The Purebloods will inevitably fire all those they deem unfit and their competitors will be able to grab them up quickly. Normally I'd have bought shares of those companies with whatever gold I had on hand, but fuck it. Losing a huge chunk of manpower and talent will hamper these businesses, while simultaneously allowing their competitors to absorb all that talent and expand their business without having to train their new employees. Given some time, and even if it were peacetime, the Pureblood ideology would lead all those companies to ruin. I have seen the books for the Black family and I'm sure Sirius would love to use that gold to prank the pretentious morons."

Neville hummed at that. He had been trained in running an estate since he was thirteen and if Harry made him the same offer, he was going to make to the Death Eater families; every lesson Neville had been taught would compel him to jump on the offer. New lords often shuffled up the estates and other lords were often on the prowl for such opportunities. Since every lord was focused on building their estate, nobody could even imagine a tactic like Harry's where a lord would voluntarily kamikaze his own estate in order to ruin another's. He carefully thought over his lessons and decided that even if Harry's gambit worked half as well as he expected, the Longbottom Estate could use this opportunity to profit.

"Harry, I hate to say this, but you may be thinking a bit small."

"How so?"

"You also have the Longbottom estate at your disposal. And if you explain this to Susan and Hannah, possibly even the Bones and Abbott estates. Make a good sales pitch and perhaps the Greengrasses could be brought on board. If we can arrange a meeting with Ernie's cousin, that could also bring the Macmillan's on board. We could bulldoze our way into many companies if we pool our investments. With you using the Black Estate like you are, perhaps we could also blunt some of the damage to your estate with all the others offsetting your losses. Maybe you could also expand and hit more businesses like that," Neville said a little hesitantly.

Harry's jaw dropped open at that. His mind raced as he thought about the possibilities, "That would also make it look like the Malfoys were throwing their own gold into the mix. Fuck me. This could be beautiful."

"But Harry, we will effectively be creating monopolies. That can grant us huge returns in the short term, but it can cause stagnation long term."

"You have a point. But we'll need them to run the country while we rebuild after the war. How about we put in clauses that break the monopolistic hold over markets after a set period of time. We will be giving a lot of control to a very small group of people. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely," Harry said thoughtfully.

"Well, when we bring them on board, we will all be allies, but after the war, I expect the Greengrasses will try to leverage their position to keep the monopolistic hold. But by then you, me, Susan, and Hannah will still hold the majority against the Macmillans and Greengrasses."

"You're assuming they will not bring someone else on board before that. We will need to keep this controlled. I really don't want to fight an economic war after an actual war," Harry said apprehensively.

"Oh, Harry. Politics is just a continuation of war by other means. And you are going to be the de facto ruler of this country for quite some time. This economic war is just something you will deal with on a daily basis," Neville said with a grin.

"Why does fighting an actual war feel easier than planning to live through one?" Harry whined. Neville laughed out loud at that.