Winter Holidays (Part 2)
BANG!
Harry woke up early in the morning to the sound of a bang and shouting downstairs. Today was the day, it seemed. He made a quickly mental checklist, ensuring that he had nothing to worry about, before covering himself in the sheets pretending to sleep. If he was sleeping, maybe they would not disturb him.
The door to his bedroom slammed open. "One in here!" A man shouted in a thick Scottish accent, pointing his wand at Harry as he jumped out of the bed. "Harry Potter." He said much more softly, but still very much loud enough for the others to hear him. "Stay where you are, I am going to do a quick scan of this room and then you will proceed downstairs to join the others in the kitchen. Understand?"
Harry acted like he didn't know what was going on, he rubbed his eyes. "Who are you?"
The man lit the candles in the room, before casting various spells as he searched throughout the room. "I am an Auror, looking for dark magical items." He explained, as he searched the room. "We have been instructed to conduct a raid on this house."
Harry slowly pushed the duvet off from himself, and rolled his eyes clearly aggravated that his sleep was disturbed. He was ushered out of the room by the Auror and was watched as he made his way down the stairs to ensure he did not go elsewhere.
While he was hurrying down the steps, with a rhythmic step, he could hear a very angry Lucius.
"It's Christmas Day, Arthur!" He could hear Lucius shouting.
"We have a job to do, Lucius." Arthur rebutted, not taking any of this nonsense.
"For now." Lucius spoke smugly. He watched Harry stomping down the stairs in their direction. Lucius was standing in the Drawing Room. "Harry, my boy!"
"I can't believe they did it on Christmas Day." Harry shrugged annoyed.
Lucius places both his hands on Harry's shoulders, and they both stared down Arthur in front of them. "Well, this is the man who thought it best to do it today."
"Today is one of the last days before the newly passed legislation is coming into force." Arthur spoke matter of factly.
"And you thought that, instead of preparing for new legislation, you'd ramp up enforcement of the previous one?" Harry questioned. "That sounds stupid. Wreaks of incompetency."
"It's perfectly legal." Arthur retorted. "We have reason to believe there are dark artefacts in this very building."
"I didn't say illegal, I said incompetent." Harry rebutted. "I'll have your job for this."
"Are you aware of any dark artefacts in these walls?" He asked Harry ignoring his protestations. "Remember, it would be criminal to lie to me, Mr. Potter."
"I shall be exercising my right to remain silent." Harry said, recalling his rights. "If you actually had anything, you would arrest us."
"And in fact the Malfoy family are going to be instigating legal proceedings to challenge the raid." Lucius chimed in. He held onto Harry's shoulders tighter, like he was protecting him. Signalling that he didn't need to say anything more. "My family do not appreciate the psychological distress and publicity damage that follows such an event."
"I'm sure you and young Potter will make enough galleons from your little column." Arthur spat back. One of the senior looking Aurors approached. "Status update?"
"Nothing, sir." She spoke solemnly. She was disappointed.
"Fine." He muttered and sighed. "One last sweep of the downstairs, and then we call it a day."
"Yes sir." She said and called the team to follow her.
"Who tipped you off about the raid?" Arthur asked directly, realising that all hope was lost. "Who gave you the time to move everything out?"
"I don't know what you are talking about Weasley," Lucius spoke mockingly. "A good upstanding family such as ours would never violate the law."
"Sure." Arthur muttered sarcastically.
"When is your last day?" Lucius spoke trying to undermine him.
"End of the month." He felt something catch in his throat. "We couldn't afford presents this year, in case I don't find another job for a while."
Harry rolled his eyes at him trying to play the sympathy card. He doesn't deserve sympathy, Harry thought. None of them do. Harry felt far too detached from their world, Harry went years without presents. But he had the greatest gift of all, Tom.
"I didn't have Christmas presents for my entire childhood Weasley. And I think you know who is to blame for that," Harry barked back. "But now I have real family," he looked up to Lucius who smiled down to him.
"Be that as it may, Potter, our Ministry work is very important, and I am disappointed that you do not see it that way. But you will, in time. When you learn more about the people you associate yourself with." Arthur spoke condescendingly. "Soon you will learn that there is a wrong sort to hang about with."
"I can sort the wrong sort out for myself, I have met your son." Harry snapped back. "He received a week of detention within the first week!"
Arthur stared at his face for a moment, he appeared to be oblivious to the fact and was hunting Harry's face to detect whether he was lying or not. Harry always seemed to have some sort of rebut. All while the Aurors who accompanied Arthur Weasley came back up from the dungeons with nothing in hand. They were clearly disappointed.
"Well. If you have finished harassing my family and our home, I will have to ask you to leave." Lucius indicated to the door. "I take it that the warrant has been completely executed and you will not be harassing us any further?"
"Quite right." Arthur said, before ruffling his jacket and turning around to the large group behind him. "We shall be going now. Do continue to abide by the law, Mr. Malfoy."
"Always," Lucius appeared to grin for the first time. He let go of Harry, but continue to stand in front of him, protecting him as he escorted the Aurors out of the house.
There was nothing but silence in the house after Lucius slammed the door shut. Harry followed him, looking outside the window of the drawing room as they marched out of the scope of the wards of the house and together apparated away.
"Dobby!" Lucius called and he heard a pop as the house elf appeared. "Tell the others that they are gone and they no longer need to be on stand by."
"Yes master." And with a pop he was gone.
"Stand by?" Harry asked.
"There was always a small chance that things could have gone ugly there, and I had some… friends waiting patiently if the worst came to the worst." Lucius spoke without any emotions. "When you are who we are you have to take extra precautions, we are worth capturing by the worst people. Even people acting for the Ministry. Especially people acting for the Ministry."
"I didn't think about that." Harry admitted. "Where are the others?"
"They managed to get out of the house as soon as we heard them entering, Cissy apparated Draco to the Parkinson's house, but they had already breached the first floor before I could reach you. So I stayed behind to protect you, and to overlook the situation." Lucius informed him. "We have to stick together."
"Thank you." Harry nodded his head.
There was an almost silent pop from the hallway, and then he saw Draco and Narcissa walk into the room. Narcissa looked like she had been crying.
"Oh, you are both okay!" Narcissa smiled before hugging Harry, and then her husband.
"Of course," Harry said, smiling. "Lucius looked after me."
"Family look after one another." Lucius nodded.
"Family…" Harry thought, solemnly.
"In fact," Lucius thought as he walked towards the corner of the drawing room. He made a quick swish of his wand, and a couple of pieces of wood lifted. "They didn't even do a good search. They didn't even find where I usually keep my hidden stash."
They all chuckled, and then Dobby reappeared in front of them. "All done, master."
"Good. Now move everything back from our hiding spot. Back where it was before, and the boys luggage can be moved back to their room." And again the elf disappeared. "We all better get changed and ready, the Parkinson's kindly offered to host us over Christmas. I'd rather be there than watching them clean this place. Be ready in half an hour, boys."
"Yes, sir." Harry said.
"Yes, father." Draco said in unison.
That was just weird, Tom remarked.
Why?
They found nothing, they knew they would find nothing, and they went with the search anyway. Tom thought about it in his head, and Harry could feel his thoughts and emotions swirling around in his forehead. It must have been some sort of well-being check on you.
No, do not be silly. Harry smiled to himself. Dumbledore of all people know that they would not harm me, especially with everyone aware that I am here.
True. Tom thought solemnly. There has to be something.
"Nothing, Professor Dumbledore." Arthur Weasley spoke confidently. "Yet I know for a fact that they knew we were coming. The boys did not appear to have their basic school equipment with them, are they smuggling dark artefacts in and out of this very school?"
"There is already an abundance of dark artefacts already in the school, Arthur." Dumbledore spoke thoughtfully. "Even if they were, it would be of little consequences. They probably moved most of their stuff out of the house out of an abundance of caution."
"Well, I request permission to check their dormitories." He spoke with much insistence.
"I have already ordered house elves to run check," Dumbledore sighed. "They have nothing that we need be alarmed about."
"Fine." Arthur spoke with exasperation. Tired. "Well, I better head home to see the family."
"I heard you were having some difficulty with presents this year," the Professor spoke kindly. "I ensured that Father Christmas delivered some nice presents this year."
"Thank you Professor." He smiled weakly, much grateful.
"If you are unable to find a job early next year, of course you are more than welcome to come and work at the school, but there is something out there for everyone." The Headmaster assured him. "No need to worry, things have a way of working themselves out in the end."
"Is that your plan with Potter?" Arthur spoke diligently. He knew he was walking on egg shells with that. "I met him, Professor, I… would not agree with that analysis. Lucius has wrapped his claws tightly around that one."
"Ah, but those claws need to be careful not to strangle the boy." Dumbledore remarked inquisitively. "Eagles carry their prey alive, snakes, such as Lucius, are often too quick to strangle. If the boy is as paranoid as you might think he is, then he will soon find himself suffocating and run from them. The prophecy is very clear."
"Prophecies are predictions, Dumbledore. You of all people know that." Arthur reminded him. "People have to set them in motion."
"The subjects have to set them in motion." Dumbledore reminded him. "The Dark Lord has. When he returns, as we will continue to try to prevent as Harry develops in a young, strong, wizard, and builds up his own alliances and networks, I have little doubt that the boy will be forced to defend himself, and the truth will come out. If I see a big threat that things might differ according to my grand design, then I will step in. He is young and inquisitive, and all of his professors speak highly of him — even Severus."
"Fine." Arthur nodded. "But it was never meant to be like this."
"I know." Dumbledore spoke humbly. "But we have to adapt. I do not like that we are delving into Dark Magic, but I realised quickly that the amount of support they are building for this bill was going to be difficult to surmount. We just have to be smarter than they are. Plus, if we are too aggressively against Harry we risk him falling into their arms. This is why I was so against the raid today."
"I tried to stop it, but as I had already set the paperwork in motion it had to be executed." Arthur responded apologetically, realising his mistake. "But I refuse to sit on the sidelines idly by while they take over the Ministry and implement their ideal way of life. If we do not put up a fight then over time they will get to implement their horrible agenda."
"Yes, which is why we are trying to be smart. We pick our fights wisely." Dumbledore acknowledged before dismissing the man and returning to his own thoughts.
"Draco! Harry!" Pansy shouted from the top of the stairs once she heard pop and saw them in the hallway.
She rushed down the stairs as quickly as she could, almost falling over on one of the steps at one stage. She was in a green and black dress, and flat shoes.
"Pansy!" They smile in unison, and she hugs them both individually when she makes it to the bottom. "I am so glad you are here for Christmas dinner."
"As our we!" Harry beamed with joy. "It would have been dreadful if we were not to see you for the entire break."
The rest of the family could not help but overhear the commotion in the hallway. A dark haired man, with a short stubble waltzed in from a door at the end of the Hallway.
"Lucius." He spoke warmly, shaking his hand.
"Peter." Lucius spoke warmly too.
"Narcissa, Draco. Lovely to see you" Then his eyes turned to Harry, they were sharply observing him. Reading him. But his arm stretched out quickly to him too. "This must be the Harry Potter that my daughter has spoken so much of for the last couple of weeks."
Harry shook his hand with strength. "Yes, Mr. Parkinson. Pleasure to meet you, thank you for having me today."
"Please, let us not hang about here, come into my gracious drawing room." Her pointed his hand into the room beside him, and Harry followed everyone else who seemed to know where they were going.
It was a large room, with a huge roaring fireplace. It was much brighter and well lit than the Malfoy's home, and it felt more homely, but the ceiling was not quite as high. It was not nearly as big. Parkinson sat in the velvet armchair closest to the sofa that Harry was sitting on with Pansy and Draco.
"So, Harry, how have the Malfoy family been treating you?" Mr Parkinson laughed. "Blink twice if they are holding you against your will."
Harry blinked three times.
"Three times, what does that mean?" He continued to laugh.
"It means he is having a good time there, but he would rather be here with me." Pansy quipped quickly.
This made the entire room laugh, including Harry. "They could not be more welcoming, sir."
"And I have it under good authority that you are doing some fine work in your studies." He continued. "Great job that you and Lucius managed to sort that school out, now we have proper magic on the curriculum from January. We can proudly have our heritage on display."
"Exactly, I can't wait to develop our knowledge and understanding of the dark arts." Harry nodded. "But I am afraid that Dumbledore might try to dilute some of the content, as the muggleborn students might find it more difficult."
He raised his eyebrows at that remark. "Yes, quite true, and if you were to ask me what other changes I might like to see at the school I would have almost certainly said faculty."
"Well," Harry looked to Lucius. "Dumbledore might be too big of a target, but I would very much like to get rid of Hagrid. Did you know he killed a young girl fifty years ago, and yet can be allowed to roam freely."
"Indeed." He acknowledged. "In fact we know Tobias Nott. The father of Theodore Nott. He was at school at the time. He might be joining us for dinner later."
"Is it not too soon?" Narcissa asked.
"It must be done." Lucius spoke decidedly.
"What be done?" Draco asked, unnerved.
"The Potters will be added to the list of 28 pureblood families, to become 29." Lucius announced.
"But Harry… is not…" Pansy wondered, before quickly turning to Harry and touching his arm. "Not that there is anything wrong with you."
"He must be. There is no other explanation. We cannot find a linkage, but the facts speak for the themselves. Harry must be a descendant of Salazar Slytherin." Lucius spoke excitedly. "His family was always terribly secretive, even for a pureblood family. He is a parseltongue."
WHY DOES HE FEEL THE NEED TO TELL EVERYONE? WHO ELSE HAS HE TOLD?
"That is private, Mr Malfoy." Harry protested.
"These are friends of our family, we can trust them."
"You are a parselmouth and you never told me!" Pansy exclaimed. "Speak some of it now!"
"It is hard when there is not a snake around, it is hard to describe. It feels like I am speaking English." Harry admitted. He then proceeded to lie, a little. "When I demonstrated it to my family I did not even realise I was doing it."
Lucius, although not visible in his face, took keen note to the fact that he was calling the Malfoy's his family. This was certainly a good sign, now he could stop using the word so frequently — as he had been doing on purpose. Word association.
"Fascinating." Mr Parkinson remarked. "Truly fascinating."
"Salazar Slytherin would never allow his blood to be tainted, his blood is most pure." Lucius continued insightfully. "Tobias is bringing a snake, and with that evidence he will publish the revised list anonymously. You are all to tell no one of this."
"But I don't want people finding out about my ability." Harry continued to protest.
"It is not just an ability. It is a gift. An honour." Mr Parkinson retorted.
"Alas, that will not be a problem." Lucius advised. "The list does not require a reason. The mystery itself is the fun."
Harry smiled weakly. Not fully impressed, but satisfied enough to stop his protestations. He would comply.
"If this turns out to be a waste of my time, Lucius…" Grumbled an old man. One would get the impression that the walls were thin, but in fact it was because the man made no effort to keep his voice low. "Right. Right. Of course. Yes. Well, show me the boy."
Harry sat up straight quite quickly, as he returned to pretending to pay attention to the conversation that Pansy and Draco were having.
"Everyone," Lucius spoke with jubilee. "The Nott family have arrived!"
"Theo!" Harry smiled as he walked in, and Pansy jumped up to hug him.
"Harry, Draco, Pansy!" Theo joined them on the sofa, while his father stomped through. He was a very tall man, with a rusty looking beard. He did not look very interested at all, his mind was on other matters.
"This is Potter, yes?" He said, towering over the boy.
"Yes, sir." Harry put out his hand, and the man ignored him.
"Follow us into the study, we have something to discuss."
"Can we not hear—" Pansy began before her father silenced her.
Harry politely got up from his seat, and followed the much older man up the stairs and into a large room. It had a light brown desk at the end, with a window behind it. Bookshelves on either side, and an assortment of quills, also another door on the right hand side behind the desk, with a lock on it.
On the table was a box of some description, that had a blanket covering it. Harry quickly deduced what was under the blanket.
"I am informed you are looking to join the Sacred 28, and bring your family name to glory." He was pacing, before he settled on the chair of the desk. Both Lucius and Peter were standing by the door. "Potter was excluded from my Father's list because he thought it too muggle-like. It was on mere speculation that there was some distant muggle blood. However, given these potential circumstances I would definitely put forward a revised list if you proved your abilities. We would remove the name Ollivander, and add Potter."
"It would be an honour, sir." Harry indicated great enthusiasm.
Nott flicked his wand and the blanket swept off the cage. He opened the cage door, and the snake quickly popped out. It looked threatening.
"All you have to do is tame this aggressive python." He smiled.
The python jumped out of the cage and started moving directly into Harry's direction.
Kill, kill, kill. The snake hissed.
"Stop." Harry spoke authoritatively, standing his ground. Unwavering.
He speaks! The snake stopped in its tracks and straightened out. When a snake is about to attack, their tail is in an S shape. Dear speaker, I have not talked to a speaker before.
Nott's eyes were bulging from his eye sockets, and he had a small grin on his face. Yes, this was good.
"Yes, I am a speaker. Would you like to accompany me?" Harry asked politely stretching out his hand.
The snake did not need to speak further, for it pushed itself up Harry's arm. On the outside of his clothing, visible to all, it took a non-threatening position around him. Staying clear from his neck, but sticking to him.
"Fantastic, Harry. I think you have a new friend." Lucius clapped. He was confident in Harry's abilities, and never doubted for a moment. Maybe his confidence was too high.
Harry turned around and Peter was shocked too. He did not doubt Lucius' word, but seeing it for himself was something else. He had seen the Dark Lord speaking the language of the snakes, but it always felt threatening. It was always in a dangerous environment, in anger. Whereas this was in a peaceful setting. It was almost beautiful.
"I think it is time for you to go back to your cage, for now." Harry smiled down to the snake, as it rolled up his leg and back onto the table, straight into his cage. Nott closed it, but left the blanket off.
"That was truly fantastic, Mr. Potter." He nodded approvingly. "I guess we have our answer then. There must be pureblood in you. And you said you tried looking for his mother's ancestry?"
"Yes." Lucius replied. "As did my father, absolutely nothing did we find. But, again, his descendants were terribly quiet. Perhaps she was then adopted by muggles, it is impossible to say."
"Fascinating, truly fascinating dear boy." Nott sat back in his chair. "Tell me, what do you think of muggles?"
"They, and their spawn, have no place in our society." Harry spoke bluntly. "You should see how they treated me."
"That girl Granger, my son has been talking about her. What do you think of her?" He continued his questioning.
"Thing is, I do not blame the girl." Harry spoke with great honesty, which he thought would be appreciated. "It is hard to look at her and think of her poorly, she is a strong academic student. But it is her family that are the problem, and her strong connection to them. And the blood, I can see how greatly muggles hate us, and no doubt they hold some of that inside of them."
"But the muggles who raised you, are they not a concern?"
"I took care of that problem a long time ago…" Harry smirked. "But I am not here to talk about my past, I am here to secure my future."
"Suffice to say, I am convinced." Nott stood up from his chair and nodded to the men, who opened the door. "Your gift is spectacular, and rather refreshing. You will make a fine addition to our list."
"If only we could remove the Weasleys," Harry joked.
"Perhaps…" He took the joke a little seriously. He thought, before he stopped at the top of the stairs, as Harry continued downwards. "Harry, go downstairs and see the others. We have something else to discuss."
They watched as Harry headed down the stairs, before heading back into the study they were previously in and cast a charm to ensure that their voices would not be overheard.
"His eyes, Lucius, his eyes. He has seen death, pain, and misery. They tell a sad tale." Nott spoke hurriedly.
"Yes. He witnessed his parents get killed by our Lord." Lucius reminded him.
"There is something more, but that is besides the fact…" Nott pondered. "What if the Dark Lord found us conspiring with this boy, he would murder us."
"But our Lord has not returned." Peter Parkinson reminded him.
"And, if he ever were to return, and we sought it optimal to continue, well… we have the trust of his enemy." Lucius spoke smugly. "At our whim he would come running and we would be rewarded."
"Interesting." Nott spoke pensively. "This is a dangerous game."
"There is something about the boy, I can't put my finger on it." Lucius admitted. "At first it was just good politics to have him on our good side, but he is shaping to be one of us. Truly. He has as much disdain for muggles as we do, and better that he has much more experience of them. He is a great influence."
"But unpredictable." Peter rebutted.
"Yes. But he trusts me. He considers himself my family. He has all but lent me his voting power." Lucius spoke smoothly. "I am close. But I have grown fond of the boy, I must admit. I am the closest thing he has to a Father."
A/N: I know where I am going with this one, I just don't know how to get there. Expect plenty of twists along the way!