Hey everyone,
So this is a story that is actually based on the exact opposite of what happened in Order of the Phoenix, Halfblood Prince and Deathly Hallows; a peace treaty between Voldemort, Harry, the Order and those close to Harry. However, when it comes to the title of the treaty and this story, I need to make one thing clear.
I thought of this title one day when I had just turned off my computer and was getting ready for bed. I hadn't checked to see if it had any connections to anything and just thought the name was kind of fun. So the fact that the name of the treaty and story title sounds like the name of a country is just a dumb coincidence.
Okay, all clear, good,

Venquine1990

Preview #18
The Algerion Contract

14th of July 1995
Entrance gates, Hogwarts
Neville Longbottom's POV

The last three weeks have been utterly horrible. It all started with the Third and Final Task of the Tri-Wizard Tournament that was taking place at Hogwarts this year. Harry had been forced into being a fourth, unexpected Champion when there were supposed to be three and horribly enough the Task ended with only three Champions.
Viktor Krum had been Imperius Cursed to take down both Fleur Delacour and Cedric Diggory, yet Harry had helped Cedric stop Krum and had then gotten Cedric to agree that they should take the Tri-Wizard Cup together, yet while the whole crowd had been shocked to find out the Port Key inside took them, did only one return.
And Cedric's tale was one of utter horror. He had almost been killed by someone working for Voldemort, yet Harry had, while in horrible pain, used his Seeker reflexes to push the boy out of the way of an approaching Killing Curse and instead Cedric had hit his head on a gravestone and been knocked out cold.

When he came to, Harry and Voldemort were in a furious battle of wills with each other and their wands were connected through some strange form of magic. Harry had noticed that Cedric was alive and had shouted at him to get to the Cup, yet his lapse of focus had cost him the battle and Voldemort had overwhelmed him.
Harry had been knocked out himself and just when Cedric wanted to come to save Harry the way Harry had saved him, he had to dive out of the way of a folly of Killing and Cruciatus Curses and under the guise of his defensive position he had witnessed Voldemort picking up the out cold teen and ordering his followers to leave.
The whole group had then fled the scene and while Cedric had been horrified that he had failed where someone much younger than him had succeeded, had he then taken the Cup back to Hogwarts in order to gather an army of fighters as well as a search party, yet then the most horrible shock had befallen all those in the crowd.
Fudge had denied everything Cedric said, told the crowd that him hitting his head had made him hallucinate everything else and convinced the judges and crowd to just continue the Tournament and finish it all with a Ceremony. Yet when he wanted to award Fleur, Krum and Cedric in that order, they had refused to get on stage.

"You say I'm making it all up and that Voldemort didn't come back and kidnap Harry? Then where is he, Minister? Where is the Fourth Champion?" Yet when Fudge had just huffed and glared at them as if to order them to come on stage with him, had the three teenage adults turned their backs on him and walked out of the pitch.
I myself had followed them along with my gran as well as all Weasleys present, Hermione, Luna, the Gryffindor Quidditch Team and several teachers, yet when Dumbledore wanted to leave, did Fudge shout: "Dumbledore, when you're ready to stop this pretend game to give your boy more fame, I hope you will have the decency to apologize."
And since then we have tried everything to find the boy, while at the same time Fudge has been running a smear campaign against Dumbledore and Fudge, one clearly inspired by the last article Rita Skeeter published on the morning of the Third Task. Needless to say none of us took it easy on the witch when we confronted her.
Skeeter is now in St. Mungo's, yet I know that many of us are constantly checking the Hospital as well as the Infirmary at Hogwarts and several other places where we think Harry may either be hiding himself or have been hidden and the search has actually led to several of us to discover something that is quite shocking indeed.

Sirius Black, the man that apparently stole my list of passwords to get into Gryffindor Tower, is responsible for Harry surviving the First Task by providing him with the Firebolt he used to escape the Hungarian Horntail and was never responsible for any of the tasks he was send to Azkaban prison for as he was never convicted.
The man is also more worried about his godson than half the Weasley family seem to be about their friend, yet while Bill Weasley actually got the Goblins to agree that he should be transferred to the London Branch and aid in the search, does it seem as if Mrs. Molly Weasley does not believe that Sirius' concern is genuine.
I really don't know what the woman's problem is as she accepts the great care and concern the other adults – like Amelia Bones, Amos and Nella Diggory, Elaine and Douglas Delacour and Arosa and Dwayne Krum, Remus Lupin, my gran and the teachers – are showing for Harry, yet I know she is blind to Black's true feelings.
The man has even breached his own worst fears of his past to return to his family home and order his old House Elf on searching for books that could help us find Harry and while Kreacher had muttered that he was sure that the rituals would fail, had Sirius still used all of the books and information the House Elf provided him.
And most amazingly enough, the more the rituals and other forms of magic failed, the more determined the man became. He didn't lose confidence, he didn't mourn the fact that he failed, he didn't bemoan the fact that another bit of effort failed, he just took a deep breath and then delved into the next potential solution.

Yet now, we finally have something. Last night I actually got a letter from Harry, even if the letter could better be described as a note as it only had a few words on it. entrance gates, Hogwarts. 11 o'clock tomorrow. Just you. And while I know that others had been hurt at the just you part, had I got them to agree.
Or sort of agree as they are now all standing so far away that they are almost invisible, look like blurred dots from where I am standing and are definitely far enough away that they can't overhear whatever Harry wants to discuss with me and I can only hope that Dumbledore is wrong; that this won't result in my kidnap as well.
It's now 10:59 and I look down at my watch, counting down the last nine seconds and wondering if it was a mistake to leave my wand with my gran as I wanted to prove to Harry that I trust his just you part and believe that it will be a meeting between just me and him, even if it will end with him being kidnapped again or saved by chance.

"I will do what I can to save him." Goes through my mind and then I hear it: "Hey Neville, thanks for coming." And I look up from my watch, my eyes widening as I see the boy standing before me as he shows absolutely no sign that over the last three weeks he has been the victim of being kidnapped by the Darkest Lord of Magic ever.
The boy has a healthy tan, his body looks slightly more filled out than it did when he was preparing for the third task and he's wearing a standard set of black robes that look quite like regular plain robes and not like either Death Eater robes or the cloths of a prisoner and the shine in his green eyes further emphasizes this fact.
"Harry, you're okay." I say shocked and Harry mutters: "Damn, I owe him four Galleons." Shocking me into asking: "What do you mean?" And Harry laughs as he says: "I betted Lord Slytherin. He said you would say that, I said you would just grab me and try and take me to a group of Aurors or other kinds of fighters. Damn him."
I shake my head at him and he asks: "Surprised to see that I look as if I'm going to Herbology? Yeah, I would have too. Trust me, the last three weeks have been – I guess the best way to describe them would be – unusual." And just looking at how calm and healthy the boy before me looks, I think: "You don't say."

"Wait, why didn't Voldemort –.""Lord Slytherin." Harry says and I shake my head and say: "Lord Slytherin then. Why didn't he hurt, torture, rape and kill you? Why didn't he do what he's been trying since you were born?""Do you want him to do that to me?" Harry asks and I furiously shout: "OF COURSE I DON'T!"
"Then why make such a big deal of the fact that he didn't?" Harry asks and I answer: "Because it doesn't make sense." And Harry retorts: "Trust me, the last three weeks don't make much sense either." And just by the way that he looks and is looking into the far beyond, I already know that he's not exaggerating or anything.
"So, what happened?" I ask and Harry shrugs as he says: "I really don't know. I mean, Lord Slytherin, he – that strange thing with our wands connecting like that; I don't know how or why, but – it earned his respect and made him have a change of mind or something. I don't really know how or why, I was out cold when it happened.
To be honest, I've only been more or less awake for half of the last three weeks. Lord Slytherin put me in a trance-like sleep every time he and I didn't have our meetings.""Meetings about what?" I ask and Harry shocks me as he says: "The Algerion Contract; the peace treaty he wants to offer all those I accept to have it concern."

"Vol – Lord Slytherin is offering us a WHAT NOW?" Goes through my mind and then I suddenly remember something; one of the people standing in the far distance behind me is a werewolf and the next full moon was only two days ago. This realization hits me as the voice of Remus Lupin covers the grounds as he shouts: "SAY WHAT?"
And Harry turns to look up, an eyebrow raised as he says: "Wow, looks like I'll have my first group of signers right there, huh. Good work, Neville. Who's standing over there? I sense my good old godfather, Sirius – you know of him, right – and I'm sure Ron, Hermione and the Weasleys are there. Oh, and Dumbledore I see."
And the calm acceptance the boy expresses as he voices all this really shocks me as I have never seen him this calm and tranquil and Harry must be understanding my shock as he turns back to me and says: "My trance-like sleep helped me a lot. I got to think up several sections of the contract and reminisce about a lot of stuff.
You'll be surprised to find out how much you can realize and learn to accept about your own life when you spend a good 11 days sleeping and stuck between your own mind, heart and core." And while I can only imagine what that must be like, do I finally voice one thought: "I am so glad he only put you to sleep, Harry."

And the boy smiles as he says: "I am too, Neville. It was really confusing at first; to wake up in this strange, comfortable room that was all black to prove it was a completely neutral space and to have Lord Slytherin lock his own wand away under an oath whenever he entered my room and putting me to sleep when our talks were done.
But the more I was – sort of asleep – the more I got to think, the easier it was to remember without losing myself to my stronger emotions and hormones and the more I was able to pick out these aspects of my life that I knew I could improve as long as I voiced their solutions in a way it would benefit both myself and Lord Slytherin.
And you can only imagine how strange I felt the first time I realized I was trying to come up with compromises to benefit both my life and the life of the man that killed my parents. Did you know he discovered that the Hallows of the Tale of the Three Brothers and that he taught me how to summon the dead to say goodbye to them?"

"You spoke with your parents?" I ask shocked and Harry nods, his calm tranquility finally breaking and changing into a melancholy look as he says: "To say goodbye and – to ask for their approval. Lord Slytherin arranged it for me; he summoned them from the great beyond and – and they were so proud of me, so supportive.
They didn't care that it was their murderer I was agreeing with; they died so I could live and – if this would allow me to live – they just wanted me to do whatever felt right to me. They then talked with me a little more, left me a few messages for the others they left behind and then said goodbye. That – that was back on the 28th."
This shocks me as that was only three days after Harry was kidnapped and I ask: "How – how long were you out?" And Harry answers: "Three days apparently." Shocking me even more as that means that Lord Slytherin arranged for Harry to meet with his parents only a day after he woke up from being kidnapped and heard of the contract.

"What have you been through?" I wonder to myself, but then Harry asks: "So, want to hear some of the things I managed to have Lord Slytherin agree on?" And I nod, my interest for whatever Lord Slytherin could have allowed himself to give in with when it comes to his decade old enemy raised practically sky-high.
Harry then reaches into the inner pocket of his simple robe and suddenly I feel embarrassed for wearing my Gryffindor robe and while the boy pulls out a huge scroll of parchment do I throw the red-trimmed robe off my shoulders, letting it gather around my feet, Harry smiling as he sees this before he opens the scroll and reads.
"Algerion contract, written by Drewhook the Goblin, signed by Marvolo Slytherin and … - that is where you and the others set their name. Agreements: All homes/living quarters of the latter signed party will be warded by those working for Lord Slytherin against any attack arranged by those working for Lord Slytherin."
This alone shocks me and Harry says: "All those wronged by employees of Lord Slytherin will get free reign of revenge for an extended period of time after the signing of this contract.""A chance to get back at that wrench Lestrange and her disgusting family? No way Lord Slytherin would let me lose him such a powerhouse."

"Harry Potter will be allowed to choose a new person or family to the protective warding clause of this here contract as long as this person/family is known by the latter party of this contract and the choice is made by Harry Potter himself and not enforced or inspired by any outside force, whether they be friends of Harry Potter or the signer."
"Is Lord Slytherin trying to lose his chances of conquering England or something?" I mutter and then Harry says: "Employees of Lord Slytherin are only to test their skills against the wards put up for those under the protective magic, but only to the extend accepted by the protected party and only on dates agreed between both parties."
This instantly makes me understand the whole thing a little more and then Harry makes me snicker as he says: "No bad press, public humiliation or other forms of grand scale bullying will ever again befall anyone who falls under either the signing party or the protective warding clause and will be provided full protection against all this."

"Rita Skeeter, eat your heart out." I snicker to myself and then Harry says: "All signers of this and other Algerion contracts hereby accept that Magic is Magic and that only intend must be judged as either Light or Dark. They must promise to find ways to use Dark magic for Light purposes and light magic for Dark Purposes."
This shocks me, yet upon further thought do I feel myself easily accepting this clause and I think: "That one must have come from Lord Slytherin. I guess it's one of the reasons Harry accepted the contract so easily, why he's so calm and tranquil now that he gets to show his accomplishment to the world." Before Harry says:
"If an entire family signs this contract and one member shows disloyalty to either the family in question or Harry Potter, he/she will be excluded from the contract. This clause does not count for Harry Potter, Sirius Black and members of the Black-Malfoy or Black-Lestrange family due to difference of belief and opinion."

And instantly I know this clause will cause trouble for the Weasley family as Percy actually believes Fudge's smear campaign and even went so far as to demand of Ron and the twins to convince Dumbledore to give up his act, that no one was believing him and to acknowledge the greatness that is the respectable Ministry.
Needless to say that demand did not go over well and Percy needed to call in a few days sick due to the injuries his brothers and sister caused him and already I wonder and worry for how Mrs. Weasley might take this fact, let alone how Harry will take the fact that a member of the family he loves betrayed him like that.
Then Harry goes on and says: "If a Muggleborn signs said contract, Gringotts will provide them and their family a full moving/integration fund. If said family does not desire to move/integrate, the Muggleborn must choose between the Muggle world and being adopted into a Magical Family, who will then receive the fund."
This clause shocks me the most as it sounds like the absolute opposite of what Voldemort would want in regards to Muggles and Muggleborns and Harry says: "I had to concede that Muggles who do this, if the Muggleborn choses adoption, are free game for him and his employees." And I think: "That sounds more like it."

Then Harry wants to go on, but I snicker and say: "Harry, just stop. That – that contract – it sounds amazing. I would love to sign it and I'm sure the others would too.""Then you are hereby arrested for treason, Mr. Longbottom." Another voice suddenly says and I get shocked as several dozen pops of Apparation sound.
Several Aurors, Fudge, Umbridge and Percy all appear behind Harry, yet the boy just raises his eyebrow at him and asks: "Surely seeing the ongoing feud between yourself and Dumbledore you're not expecting me to believe that Dumbledore called you here, do you?" And Fudge bristles angrily as Percy says:
"Of course Dumbledore doesn't want to admit that he's been aiding you in your –.""How are your uncles?" Harry suddenly asks and instantly I know what the boy is planning, yet Percy doesn't realize the same as he looks startled before he growls and asks: "Have you lost your mind alongside your decency? They're dead, Potter!"
"I don't believe you." Harry states calmly and this makes me work hard to hold back a smirk as Percy snarls: "You WHAT?" And Harry retorts: "Well, you don't believe Cedric when it comes to my parents' murderer, so why should I believe you on your uncles' killer?" And I mutter to myself: "He shoots, he scores."

And while Fudge and Percy seem at a loss for words, does a smooth voice say: "I really couldn't have said it better myself." And a man with flowing brown hair, brown eyes that could potentially look red in the wrong light and who has a scarily dark aura flowing around his well-muscled form appears besides the Aurors.
Marvolo Slytherin, the man that has held my friend captive for the past three weeks, yet who looks nothing like the snakelike monster Cedric saw when he woke from being knocked out cold stands on the other side of the Entrance gates, looking calm yet his whole physique proves he can become a threat at a moment's notice.
And the underlying you will pay tone that sounds through his voice as he speaks further proves this as he asks: "So, who's the little … traitor that thought it right to have the Ministry interfere on a meeting between friends? And who was the … wise guy who thought they could even think of calling Harry Potter guilty of treason?
Get your facts together, everyone. Without facts, no one can rule a country." And while normally I would have considered this a hidden threat, is it the nonchalant way that the man speaks that makes my eyes widen as I realize that Lord Slytherin has really changed. He doesn't want to rule; he wants his men to have fun while working.
This makes me once more look at the large roll in Harry's hands and I think: "And like any true Slytherin, he knows exactly what battles to fight, at what points to concede and how to play the field in order to achieve his goals. He's a more worthy heir of Slytherin now than he ever was before." Which really impresses me.

You said it, Neville.
Well, that's it for this preview. Just so you know, there are quite a few more clauses to the Algerion contract. I actually have a total of 16 clauses written down and plan to have another four, five – ten, if I can get it – clauses added, but that will only happen if and when this preview gets enough votes to become its own tale.
So after this I have four more treats to share with you all; two that will start at the summer between Goblet and Order, one that starts at the end of Prisoner and one that starts somewhere during Order. These are also ideas that have been in my mind for some time, I just didn't have the drive to turn them into preview stories.
Have fun all,

Venquine1990

Further story parts:

More and more clauses get revealed to help Harry convince those close to him to sign the Algerion contract

Dumbledore and Molly will be the two people in the group overlooking the meeting who will try and object to signing the Algerion contract

Everyone else in the group either ignores Molly and Dumbledore and just signs the contract or prove the two that they are a minority in who does or doesn't want to sign the contract

Even though Sirius and Remus promised not to be killers, do they still make use of the Revenge Clause once Marvolo hands them Pettigrew as a gift for signing the contract

Slytherin admits that, those of his that die by the Revenge Clause, will have their magic extracted to strengthen the wards of the Protective Clause and the magical power of those that train against the wards of the protective clause

Fudge will admit that it was Snape who alerted them to Harry's meeting with Neville and Marvolo will consider this an act of treason against his employment, making him punish Snape by putting double the power behind the so-called "broken" life debt Snape owes the Potters

Harry continues casting the trance-like sleep spell on himself as he feels he can be a better person if he helps himself keep his emotions under control and organized while in the trance-like state and Poppy admits that this spell improves his health instead of hampering it

No one at Hogwarts believes Fudge on either Harry or Dumbledore as they know Cedric would never lie about someone being kidnapped and because the scene of the Champions and others leaving the stadium has stayed with them all through summer