Previously on Defiance…
"Miss Granger," Dumbledore ordered with uncharacteristic loudness, "please leave right now. I have something very important to do."
Hermione seemed to understand, despite the shock at his odd behavior, and stood up to leave the room. "Thank you, Professor." She mumbled, before walking out of the office.
"Can you arrange the meeting with your father?"
Daphne considered it. "How soon?"
"At the earliest."
"Let me see what I can do. Am I to suppose that it is related to the letter you received from the Ministry this morning?"
Harry raised his eyes. The letter that had arrived that very morning was almost, a surprise. Apparently, he was going to be held on trial around six days from now, for illegally holding a Lordship despite being underage and without legal authorization. Trust Fudge to come up with reasons as silly as this just to frame him.
"It isn't that difficult if you know what to look for. The Ministry always employs barn owls and marks them with the black lining on the wings. Easy to spot."
"I… see."
"What was it, about?"
"Something I believe I will keep to myself. I assume that you will be present during the meeting with your father?"
"If you don't want me to…" she trailed off, "otherwise, being his heir, I am in my right to be present, especially when the meeting was set up by me."
"I would rather like it if you were present."
Daphne beamed. "Careful, Potter. One might think that you have started to like my company."
"Come now, Greengrass." Harry returned jauntily, "You know me better than that."
Daphne rolled her eyes. "At least give me an idea of what to expect."
Harry lowered his voice as he neared her. "Be ready to be surprised." Daphne rolled her eyes again. Surprised- wasn't that the natural state of things when it came to Harry Potter? She simply shook her head in bemusement as she drew out her wand and took her position a few steps away from him. "Tell me Potter, have you ever considered the idea that I could teach whatever you are teaching me? Someone like Malfoy?"
Harry shrugged. "I did."
Daphne raised her eyebrows. "And you still…" she paused to reconsider her words, "are okay with it?"
Harry raised his wand and took his stance. "I believe I just have to trust you in that regard. You have worked quite hard to raise neutrality in Slytherin house, and have spent an awful lot of time in my presence, enough to know something about my true capabilities. I am sure you have a good head on your shoulders."
That was a threat if I ever heard one. Daphne mused to herself. "Of course, I wouldn't dream of sharing what you taught me, considering how many times you have hurt my butt in the process."
"Too right." Harry grinned.
Should I tell her that the obscurity charms I placed in the room prevent her from sharing anything that I do not want her to share?
Harry mused for a moment, keeping the silly grin on his face as his fingers tightened around his wand.
Nah…
"Let's begin then… Expelliarmus."
Daphne shook her head in bemusement as she simply threw her wand upwards for a moment, feeling the energy propelling the charm rush through her body. The feeling was… phenomenal. Normally, when a wizard cast a spell, it simply raised matter and then propelled it to do the job. A banishing charm for one propelled the air and used it to hurl someone away.
However, Potter- his spells were different. The energy behind his spell was simply so powerful that the energy was enough to push, and in this case, disarm someone of the weapon. She could feel the energy pulsing in waves, entering through her body and emerging out of it. The feeling… it was so different and left her wondering how powerful her dueling partner truly was.
It was one of the many techniques, which he had taught her. The disarming charm did its job- disarming. If the victim did not have a wand, the charm did absolutely nothing. Therefore, a good technique was to simply throw the wand up in the air and just as the charm passed off. At least that was the idea. She hurled the wand upwards as the disarming charm passed through her, ready to catch her wand back only to-
"Accio."
Her wand flew off, away from her towards him who caught it with the unerring skill of a Seeker. "Or-", He grinned, "the opponent could also summon your wand when it is up in the air."
Daphne gnashed her teeth. "You did that on purpose." She yelled out.
Harry grinned. "You know how I love to make you angry!"
"Give. Me. My. Wand. Harry. Potter." She replied sternly, punctuating every word for him.
Putting his wand back in the holster, he sent her wand into his secondary holster. "Try and get it." He waggled his eyebrows, challenging her. Daphne put her hands on her waist and stared him down in an interrogative manner.
"Give. Me. My. Wand. Right. Now."
"Come. And. Take. It." Harry imitated her.
"You are going to rue this day, Harry Potter." She snarled as she leapt towards him. Harry grinned as he dodged her. Daphne missed him and then spun around and ran behind him. Instantly, a plush couch appeared just at her feet and she tripped over and fell again, the dust covering her face now.
"Oops." Harry muttered, staring at her dust-covered face.
"I am going to kill you, Harry Potter." Daphne snarled. "I am going to kill you slowly and painfully."
"You can try!" Harry drawled as the game of chase began all over again.
Inside the staff room at Hogwarts…
"Let us then begin with the reports of the fifth year students and how they are all faring this year, shall we?" Dumbledore began as he took to the chair. The professors were seated around a large, round table with every professor having a huge stack of papers in front of them, each paper describing the reports of the students they were dealing with. Apparently, some problems just had to be done the mundane way, magic or no magic.
"Abbott, Hannah!" Dumbledore muttered, as Pomona Sprout beamed at him. "Pomona, would you like to begin?"
Pomona nodded. "Miss Abbott has shown considerable improvement since the previous year in Herbology. I wouldn't be surprised if she cracked an Outstanding OWL on the subject, this year." She ended her statement. Dumbledore nodded, accepting her statement and moved ahead. "Minerva?"
"Miss Abbott has been an above average student in Transfiguration, so far. Her theory is strong but her practical leave much to be desired." Snape muttered something along the lines of 'Hufflepuff' and 'typical' but Minerva ignored that. "I cannot speak for everyone but for those who take a genuine interest in the education of their students, Miss Abbott has indeed shown considerable development considering her previous reports." Severus sneered at the snide comment about his professionalism but did not refute.
"Miss Abbott has been a wonderful student this year." Filius stated merrily.
"She has barely been acceptable, but she is better than the bunch of dunderheads sitting in my fifth year class." Severus sneered. Dumbledore sighed. Why he kept the man on campus was simply beyond him. Severus was an accomplished potions' master, and had many skills, but teaching was not one of them. If not for the fact that the man had his uses as a spy, he would have found himself unemployed a long time ago.
"Miss Abbott has been proper, hem hem, I mean; she hasn't been breaking any rules recently, Headmaster." Dolores remarked.
Dumbledore sighed. This was going to be one long day.
Finally, after moving through the A's all the way through M, N, and O's, and finally it was time for..
"Potter, Harry."
Dumbledore sat a little straighter. This was exactly what he was waiting for. Apparently, the other professors also held a similar opinion, especially one Dolores Umbridge.
"Mister Potter has shown remarkable improvement in his classes. Since his regular classes were obstructed because of the Triwizard, the previous year, I had to match up his performance reports with his third year, and may I say the difference is very distinct."
Dumbledore crossed his hands and supported his chin with his fingertips. "Please, expound on that, Minerva." He could see Umbridge listening very curiously to the report.
Minerva cleared her throat. 'He is usually the first to perform a spell. While he does in fact, use proper incantations, his wand movement is usually minimum, and in most cases, without any movement at all. I believe his magical intent has been developing very nicely as of late." The old Transfiguration professor looked very proud about her lion.
"Obviously, Minerva. One only hopes if this development might have been a little sooner." Dumbledore muttered, making her raise her eyebrows but he continued, "What say you, Filius?"
"I concur with Minerva. The boy has always been a good student at the practical work, and I even gave him some extra credit when he demonstrated a fully, fledged Patronus in front of me."
Snape raised his eyebrows but the real distraction came for Umbridge. "I'm sure you are exaggerating. Children do not cast a fully-fledged Patronus. Perhaps he just wove a grand tale about it to you and believed it?" She continued in her sickeningly sweet tone.
"I am sure I am able to recognize a corporeal Patronus when I see one, Dolores." Flitwick returned. His tone was still jovial but there was a current of sternness hidden beneath it.
"Pardon me if I do not take your word for it. After all, I am the Defense instructor and-"
"His previous DADA reports have been nothing short of exemplary." Minerva shot back, glaring at Umbridge for wanting to defame one of her lions.
"Hem, Hem," Umbridge tried to get control over the conversation, "I am the Ministry-certified Defense instructor and I think that he is not even a passable student."
"Of course, let me rephrase my statement. His Defense reports from a competent Defense instructor has been nothing short of exemplary. Of course, given the way he wiped the floor with you during one of the practice duels as I have heard; it is understandable why you would feel vindictive."
"You can be sure that this behavior will find its way into the notes from the office of the High Inquisitor, Minerva." Umbridge hissed.
Minerva stared at her as if she were a dragon and Umbridge were a tiny little insect. "Of course, after all, the only ability you have is to use your mouth and hands to write things on paper and push them up your boss's table. The proper jobs are done by those who can actually cast some magic themselves."
"Minerva-"
"Dolores!" thundered Minerva McGonagall. "Just because you are the High Inquisitor doesn't falsify the fact that you got a dreadful in all of your owls and had to leave Hogwarts to settle for a Ministry-run school to take your NEWTS."
"ENOUGH!" Dolores shrieked as she stood up. "I am going to report all of this to the Minister. He shall know about this immediately. The standards of this school are beyond repair and it won't happen until the existing staff is gone for good." She got off her chair as she rushed out of the room.
"That went well," Dumbledore muttered, exciting some chuckles from the rest of the members. "Now back to Mister Potter's report, Pomona?"
That night…
"Hey godson, everything working fine?"
"Yeah." Harry grinned, talking to his favorite godfather through the mirror. It was an untold routine between them. Every two days, Harry would call Sirius and discuss the updates. While Harry would train and report to Sirius about his training, some of his new gain of arcane knowledge, and about his new alliances with people like Greengrass; Sirius would share what he had found from his private research in the family library. The research circled around the picture of Harry's doppelganger in the ward chamber, and Sirius had been studying his grandfather's journal, trying to get some kind of link that could explain who the person was.
"Bedded any birds today?"
Harry shook his head in bemusement. Sirius seemed to be way too fixated on the idea about Harry bedding a whole harem of Hogwarts girls, one girl a day if Sirius had his way.
"No, Sirius I didn't," Harry replied bemusedly.
"What about your dueling partner? She seems to be quite interested in you." Sirius urged. Harry blushed a little, as the little wrestling session that he had had with Greengrass in the morning came to mind. "We are just dueling partners, nothing like that, old man."
"Old man? I will let you know that when I was your age, I had bedded half of the-" Sirius began to expound at length about his pursuits but Harry shoved his fingers into his ears, not wanting to lose his innocence by hearing his godfather's boasts. Sirius saw his godson's antics and stopped to smirk at him.
"What about your research?" Harry asked, changing the current topic. Instantly, Sirius's demeanor shifted to something, well, serious, as he returned, "I got a head-on from the old man's journal and from your grandfather's journal and it all sums up to one single word."
"What is that?"
"Cassandra Trelawney."
"Any relation to our Divination professor?" Harry questioned, remembering the oddball professor he had had to deal for a year. At least the tournament had given him a year off at Divination among other things.
Sirius raised his eyebrows.
"What?"
"Nothing." Sirius sighed. "Sometimes I forget that you are not all that acquainted with the wizarding world and its recent history. Harry, Cassandra Trelawney was Magical Europe's most celebrated seer in the past one hundred years."
"All right. Is she alive?"
"Cannot say. Trelawney left Magical Britain almost fifteen years ago, almost around the same time when-"
"My parents were killed by Voldemort." Harry muttered, more to himself than to Sirius.
"Yes." Sirius replied, eyeing him curiously. "It was very strange, considering how she lived in Britain despite Voldemort attacking the country, and then when he was gone, she suddenly departed for good."
"Okay."
"Maybe your divination teacher can help you regarding that. She is her descendant, after all." Sirius quipped.
"Okay." He mused, pausing for a moment. "You mentioned a link and that Cassandra Trelawney was a link between the picture and your grandfather. How is that?"
"Well, both your and my grandfather's journals state a single meeting between them and Trelawney around fifty years ago. And," he paused, unsure how to continue, "Apparently, neither of them met the seer ever again."
"Some kind of disagreement?" Harry mused.
"I don't know. I will start looking some more into the family records. Perhaps there might be something worth finding out about the meeting with Trelawney. My best bet is that if Trelawney is alive, perhaps she could grant us a more proper record of the events."
"How is this related to the picture?"
Sirius looked thoughtful for a moment. "My grandfather… well, he took up the Black lordship some fifty years ago. That painting, the writing on the edge… It was my grandfather's handwriting, and since it is in the wardstone chamber I think-"
"That it was your grandfather who put it there." Harry caught up.
"Very astute, godson."
Harry nodded. "So there might be some link between the seer's visit and the picture on the wall."
"Yes, that is what I think too." Sirius pronounced.
"Any news on the Prophecy?"
Sirius hmm'd and haww'd a bit before finally admitting that he was still trying to influence Mundungus to reveal the location of the Order guard. Being a fugitive, it wasn't possible for him to follow an Order member, not that the presence of Molly Weasley in the house helped matters either. "Any news from Dumbledore, yet?"
"No. The Old man has been off from sight, lately. I do not understand why, though. It's not like the hag is being any better." Harry replied bitterly. "The hag has been using something known as a blood quill on students, or at that was what I could fathom from the injuries."
Instantly, Sirius went feral. "A blood quill? Those are illegal to have, and what do you mean she is using them on students?"
"As far as I know, she is making them write lines." Sirius hissed in fury at that. "Harry, that woman is a monster. She has to be stopped. I know you said that you wanted nothing to do with the war and the Ministry but this, this is beyond acceptable."
Harry nodded. "I will see what I can do. Besides, the plan has been working successfully so far."
"The meeting?"
"Arranged."
Sirius thought for a minute. "Very well. Inform me when you get the date and time."
"I will." Harry nodded, turning off the mirror. He pocketed the mirror as he gazed thoughtfully, holding his wand with his other hand. "Now how do I stop the hag without attracting any attention?"
"Why would you want to know about my great aunt, Harry Potter?" Sybil Trelawney looked at him through her ancient, round glasses. The way she was staring at him with her raised face, and he magnified eyes, boring deep into him, felt downright creepy.
Harry was standing at the door that led to the divination classroom in the tower, speaking to the strange professor. "I, well, it's family business really. She had had some business with my grandfather some fifty years ago, something that I am failing to understand. That is why I need to meet her in person and ask her about it." Harry explained.
"Oh." That was the only thing she had to say.
"Well," Harry urged, getting impatient, "do you know where she lives?"
The divination teacher seemed to consider his request. "Come; let's have a cup of tea." Knowing that he had no option but to concede, he agreed to her request.
"Sugar and milk?"
"Two spoons and yes." Harry answered automatically. Sybil prepared the tea while Harry wandered into the empty divination classroom. It had been ages since he had stepped there. The Triwizard tournament had given him a carte blanche to skip classes and Divination along with History of Magic had been his first choices.
"I miss having you in my class, Harry. You were never much of a seer, but you were a fascinating object."
Of course, one who's impeding death was the first thing you had predicted on the very first class. Harry thought bitterly. He sat over a table while Sybil forwarded his cup of tea towards him.
"Let's have a cup of tea first." She repeated, almost mechanically.
Harry took his first sip as he felt the strangeness of the situation get to him. Here he was, sitting with the creepy divination professor, alone with her in her office, sipping tea. A month earlier, he would have laughed if anyone had told him about it. However, the oddball professor was his best pathway to Cassandra Trelawney. If that involved a cup of tea with a crazy woman, so be it.
Wanting to cut off the silence, he tried to make conversation. "So Professor, how is Madam Cassandra Trelawney like? I mean, was she also a-"
"Seer like me? Yes and No."
Harry raised his eyebrows at the swift and casual way in which Professor Trelawney had replied to him. It was so unlike her. Usually, she would talk in riddles, confusing the hell out of him. He took another sip, waiting for her to explain.
"My Grand-aunt, she was one of the most powerful seers to ever exist since the time of Morgana Le Fay and Circe. You see Harry, there are two kinds of seers—those who can see the future, and those who can divine it. True seers like her, have the ability to see past the confluences of time and fate and see incidents before they happen. They cannot predict anything, cannot prophesize subconsciously. Their inner eye is voluntary and whenever they want, they can peek into the past and future, and sometimes in both. Fates chosen and unchosen, lives created and discarded, and ways and choices left by remnants of time travelers who try to mess with Time, only to fall into dust every single time they do."
Harry was hanging on to her every word.
"Me, on the other hand, I can prophesize, I can use the tools available to those who study the arts of divination to divine the foreseeable future and try to shift it and get the best results out of it." She reached out to his palm and held it. "Like yours, Harry. Your fate is at a confluence, not unlike a single rock being tossed by the waves of an angry ocean. Where the rock will float to, depends upon your choices. After all, not everyone gets the touch of death twice and rides the horse of-"
Harry shook his hand out of hers, shocked at her words.
"I'm sorry!" Sybil looked confused, "Did I say anything wrong?"
"No! No!" Harry looked half-anxious and half-frightened. "Please go on..."
"Oh." Sybil looked confused. "Oh look, you have almost finished your tea. Let us finish it all and I will give you a reading. What do you say?"
Harry nodded anxiously and drunk up the entire contents of the cup in front of him, leaving the leaves behind. Sybil all but snatched the cup away and peeked into it. "Aaaah" she shrieked as she threw the cup away, which smashed into pieces as it fell on the floor.
"Is it the Grim again?" He questioned, wishing that it were.
"Grim? No, no my boy. It was something worse. Three turns and a cross, a horse of death. A horse of death! Death, rebirth and death again. I am sorry, my boy, so very sorry!"
Harry raised his eyebrow. "A horse of death?"
"Don't you see those totems of death? Can't you see them who are visible only to the dead?" Trelawney spoke in a rather harsh, calamitous tone.
"Thestrals? Yes, I can. Why my friend Luna can also-"
"The seer child, yes. A true seer, one so alike my grand aunt. Did you know she was a true seer, Harry? She could see past the confluences of time and fate and see incidents before they happen. Fates chosen and unchosen, lives created and discarded, and ways and choices left by remnants of time travelers who try to mess with Time, only to fall-," she droned on in an imperious tone.
"Professor Trelawney?" Harry yelled.
Sybil blanched. "Yes?"
"You were telling me about Cassandra Trelawney. Where she lived and all-? -"
"Of course. My grand aunt." Sybil answered. By this time, Harry was confused whether she was more than a little touched in the head or simply a divination genius.
"You will find that the two descriptions aren't too different from each other, Harry Potter." Sybil returned suddenly, making him blanch. His Occlumency was holding, and there was no way the professor had plucked the question out of his mind at that instant.
"My grand aunt left Britain to live in our family home in the outskirts of Bulgaria. However, her home is under some type of concealment charm and I do not know the place. Why do you want to meet her?"
"It's for some family business, anyway thank you for your time. I will figure out the rest myself. Thank you." He nodded briskly, as Trelawney returned with vigor, "I miss having you in my classes, Harry. You were never a seer but you were a wonderful object, one marked by death and yet protected by it, and destined to die so many times in the future and in the-cough—cough- what was I saying?"
"Nothing." Harry returned, now blanched and pale at the revelation he had just received, "thank you, thank you Professor. Good night."
"Good night Harry." The oddball professor turned back imperiously as Harry darted off from the divination tower.
The next evening…
The portkey had carried Harry and Sirius directly to the lush green gardens of Greengrass manor. Walking across the tall abundance of wild grasses, the two marauders reached the doorstep and rang the bell. The door opened and a tiny little elf welcomed them home.
"Who may I say is asking?" The elf spoke in a highly cultured tone, completely unlike a certain excitable elf Harry could remember. Unlike Dobby and Kreacher, the elf was properly dressed in pristine robes and looked like a proper working staff of a family. Wondering if he should contact Dobby and make the elf learn some protocol like this one, Harry addressed the elf.
"Harry Potter and his guest, waiting for an audience with Lord Greengrass. We were expected."
"Of course, Master Potter. Lord Greengrass is waiting for you. Please come in."
Following the rather well-spoken elf into the house, Harry could not help but notice the specific way in which the Manor was decorated. The Greengrasses paid a special attention to beauty, or more precisely, natural beauty, it seemed. The garden and its various products were wonderfully used to decorate the entire manor, giving it a very aesthetic ambience. For an almost dark family as the Greengrasses were believed to be, the aroma and ambience was way too Light-oriented.
"Please wait in this room, Master Potter and visitor. Lord Greengrass will accompany you soon." The elf instantly popped away, leaving Harry and Sirius to look at each other, staring all around the room.
It was a rather circular room, with a large circular table and plentiful number of chairs drawn all around it in a rather formal fashion. Harry and Sirius sat on two adjacent chairs, as they saw a rather intimidating man enter the room, followed by his daughter.
"Lord Greengrass," Harry stood up, as did Sirius, before he nodded subtly towards his daughter. "Miss Greengrass?"
Daphne nodded in return. Cyrus took a seat as Daphne took the one next to him, seating just beside Harry. "Lord Potter, I must say that I have been greatly fascinated and interested in this meeting that you have wanted to set up all this while."
"May I introduce my godfather, Sirius Orion Black to you? He is the main reason why I asked for an oath of silence over this meeting. As you well know, my godfather has been wrongly accused and has had to spend the prime of his life in Azkaban unjustly."
"It seems like a rather large miscarriage of justice has taken place, recently."
"Yes." Harry nodded, glancing at Daphne. She nodded subtly. "
"Lord Greengrass, I assume that you know that Harry here hold the lordships of Potter and Black families?" Sirius took charge of the conversation, just as they had discussed. Harry recognized that while he had the power to pack his spells with, the guile that came with growing up with the Blacks was missing in him. Hence, Sirius was a better option for dealing with Lord Greengrass.
Cyrus raised an eyebrow. "I was told, yes."
"As you would very well know, the main strength behind Malfoy's political power is the idea that Draco will become the next Lord Black. When it becomes public that it isn't so, it will hit his base hard."
"I am listening."
"The Black seat has got five votes, the same as the Potter seat. Ten votes." Sirius continued.
"A significant amount." Cyrus agreed, taking a sip of water from a glass.
"Which would do well if it joined the neutral faction." Sirius ended, keeping a straight face.
Cyrus lost control and splurged the water all over the table. "Excuse me?"
Harry almost chuckled. Almost. He darted a glance towards Daphne, only to find said girl glaring daggers at him and Sirius for what she understood as a prank played by the two upon her father.
"If you are doing this for amusement-" Cyrus began, but Harry cut him off. "We are completely serious about this." He ignored the pun and continued, "We wish to join the neutral faction, and shift the polarity of the Wizengamot."
"Hmmm." Cyrus mused, "That is an interesting offer, I must say. However, what is the catch?"
"There isn't one." Sirius claimed.
"There is always a catch." Cyrus defended.
Harry cleared his throat. The two men looked at him. Harry stared at Daphne for a moment before he continued. "I have been called to a trial two days from now. The moron of a Minister and his hag believe that I have illegally usurped what is Draco's birthright and have been holding it to myself illegally since I am underage. I would like some support from your side, if I need it. In addition, I intend to use the opportunity to try to get Sirius free from his life as a fugitive. Do it and you will have the ancient and noble Houses of Black and Potter standing beside you."
Daphne widened her eyes. Suddenly it all began to make sense. "That was why you insulted Umbridge openly right after you showed the Black ring to Draco, isn't it? You were setting her up to put you on trial."
Harry smirked.
Daphne beamed at him. "Very Slytherin."
"What can I say? Salazar was a Black, after all." Harry returned.
"What is this about?" Cyrus asked, his eyes sparkling with interest.
"Long story." Harry grinned, "Perhaps we can share it over a meal sometime after the session is done for?"
"Agreed."